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Comment Re:Proof? (Score 1) 822

by Kris Thalamus (#51955717) Attached to: Utah Governor: 'Porn Is a Public Health Crisis'

You don't think people would want to watch videos of people having sex? I used to masturbate while looking at underwear catalogs. The problem with the plan is that 'degrading porn' is a red herring. Why don't we ban non-erotic media that are violent or degrading? I have a hunch that many of the anti-porn crusaders just don't like it when people masturbate.

Comment Re:Proof? (Score 1) 822

by Kris Thalamus (#51948009) Attached to: Utah Governor: 'Porn Is a Public Health Crisis'

That is an interesting assumption on your part. On the other hand, from people I know who work at schools, there is an increasing problem of boys who don't seem to realize that girlfriends don't like being treated like porn starts and girls who think it's normal for sex to be all about the man's sexual gratification and not the woman's.

At the very least, we have a problem with porn being the only sexual education some of these kids are getting.

Doesn't that suggest that we should produce ideal porn that sends the messages that we want to send? Perhaps there could be government sponsered healthy porn.

Comment Re:Cue the whining about modern society... (Score 1) 240

by Kris Thalamus (#38121890) Attached to: DNA Test To Determine Kids' Sports Futures

So what you're saying is that it's better to play genetic roulette than it is to intervene or direct? Do we dare to disturb the universe in its natural state? That argument could be used against any endeavour. If humanity's hubris is so risky and/or counterproductive, then shouldn't we abandon the discipline of engineering and medicine as well? (Cf. Caveman Science Fiction)
Science

Submission + - When geeks meet - do they have autistic kids? (nature.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen thinks scientists and engineers could be more likely to have a child with autism, an idea that is fairly common currency in silicon valley. But many reseachers say the proof isn't there yet.
America Online

Submission + - AOL discontinues LISTSERV (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Ending a service it has offered for well over a decade, AOL is shutting down its free LISTSERV-based mailing-list hosting operations, the company has told mailing list administrators. "If your list is still actively used, please make arrangements to find another service prior to the shutdown date and notify your list members of the transition details," an email notice sent out by AOL stated. "If you are no longer actively using this service then no other action is required." At the peak of the service's popularity in the late 1990s, AOL was the third-largest provider of mailing lists, serving more than a million users.
Hardware

Submission + - OLPC Project to air-drop laptops (liliputing.com)

Submitted by sl4shd0rk
sl4shd0rk writes: Nicholas Negroponte and the OLPC project are still going and have a new plan in the works. A laptop air-drop to help facilitate "self-education" in areas with large poor populations. “In the first year we’ll go in and meet with tribal elders and aid organizations, people not involved with education, but then we let the kids learn,” Negroponte said. All of this work by Negroponte and others was essential, he explained, because market forces were leaving the poor of the world behind. Meanwhile, the largest countries had adopted strategies that offer little for the developing world.
Hardware

Submission + - Gecko-Inspired Robot Rolls Up Walls (discovery.com)

Submitted by
RedEaredSlider
RedEaredSlider writes: "We all love climbing robots. A group of researchers in Canada has decided to combine the mechanism geckos use to stick to walls with the simplicity of a tank tread. The result is a 'bot that can roll up smooth (and some not so smooth) surfaces. Such robots are easier to control than those that try to simulate walking directly."
Image

Today's Children Are Officially Potty Mouths 449

Posted by samzenpus from the kids-say-the-#@^*est-things dept.
tetrahedrassface writes "When the Sociolinguistics Symposium met earlier this month swearing scholar Timothy Jay revealed that an increase in child swearing is directly related to an increase in adult swearing. It seems that vulgarity is increasing as pop culture continues to popularize vulgarities. The blame lies with media, public figures, politicians, but mostly ourselves. From the article: 'Children as young as two are now dropping f-bombs, with researchers reporting that more kids are using profanity — and at earlier ages — than has been recorded in at least three decades.'"
Biotech

How a Key Enzyme Repairs Sun-Damaged DNA 97

Posted by kdawson from the one-proton-and-one-electron dept.
BraveHeart writes "Researchers have long known that mammals, including humans, lack a key enzyme — one possessed by most of the animal kingdom and even plants — that reverses severe sun damage. For the first time, researchers have witnessed how this enzyme works at the atomic level to repair sun-damaged DNA. 'Normal sunscreen lotions convert UV light to heat, or reflect it away from our skin. A sunscreen containing photolyase could potentially heal some of the damage from UV rays that get through.'"
Businesses

Apple, RIM, Google All Bid On Palm 117

Posted by timothy from the face-palm-apple dept.
imamac writes "It seems HP was only one of many bidders for the struggling Palm. The others included Apple, RIM and even Google. You may now commence speculation on why the various companies wanted Palm."
Image

Snails On Methamphetamine 93

Posted by samzenpus from the escargot-on-ice dept.
sciencehabit writes "Science answers the question: What happens when you put a snail on speed? From the article: 'The results suggest that meth improves memory, something that has been previously observed in creatures with large, complex brains like rats and humans. But since the snails store their memories in a simple, three-neuron network, the team hopes that studying the meth effect in these gastropods will help pinpoint how the drug's memory magnification powers work.'"
Businesses

Facebook Mafiosi Go To the Mattresses vs. Zynga 102

Posted by Soulskill from the concrete-galoshes dept.
sympleko writes "Zynga has the lion's share of traffic in Facebook applications, and Mafia Wars is one of their most popular social games. Collapsing under the weight of over 26 million users, Zynga has been scrambling to thwart hard-core gamers who reverse-engineer URLs or script the game to optimize their enjoyment. Many of the workarounds have annoyed users who were accustomed to various game features, and even worse, the hastily-deployed changes have resulted in many players losing access to the game, in-game prizes, or statistics. Fed up with a software company seemingly bent on discouraging people from enjoying their product, a number of tagged players have organized a boycott of all Zynga games. The first 24-hour boycott on Sunday 12/13 resulted in an 11% decline in Daily Active Users, and an emergency thread on Zynga's forums (from which most of the flames were deleted). The current boycott, extending Wednesday through Sunday is being supported by a 428K strong Facebook group. At issue is the social contract between software companies and their devoted user base, as well as the nefarious tactics Zynga has used to raise cash."

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