johnfatz - Slashdot User

Comment Proportional Representation (Score 1) 416

by johnfatz on Monday January 31, 2011 @02:19AM (#35053934) Attached to: New Hampshire Bill Could Lead To Adoption of Approval Voting

Why not just go with Proportional Representation? It accurately reflects the wishes of the people. Generic 'liking' does not take into consideration people's preferences of one candidate over another.

China's Influence Widens Nobel Peace Prize Boycott 360

Posted by timothy on Tuesday December 07, 2010 @10:55PM from the friends-of-un-friends dept.

c0lo writes "Not only did China decline to attend the upcoming Nobel peace prize ceremony, but urged diplomats in Oslo to stay away from the event warning of 'consequences' if they go. Possibly as a result of this (or on their own decisions), 18 other countries turned down the invitation: Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco. Reuters seems to think the 'consequences' are of an economic nature, pointing out that half of the countries with economies that gained global influence during recent times are boycotting the ceremony (with Brazil and India still attending)."

Comment Kate (Score 5, Interesting) 1131

by johnfatz on Sunday February 01, 2009 @01:53AM (#26682305) Attached to: Favorite text editor?

I use gnome but am a big fan of Kate. Simple and to the point and includes a konsole. Handy when quickly bashing things together in a rush.

Stephen Hawking Unveils "Time Eater" Clock 198

Posted by timothy on Saturday September 20, 2008 @05:41PM from the brief-history-of-eating dept.

gyrogeerloose writes "Stephen Hawking unveiled an unsettling clock in Cambridge on Friday. Designed by John Taylor — a British horologist and inventor whose thermostatic switch is incorporated in millions of electric appliances worldwide — the clock was conceived as a tribute to another British inventor, John Harrison. Harrison invented the grasshopper escapement in the early 18th Century, which resulted in extremely accurate mechanical time keeping and was instrumental in solving the Longitude Problem. Taylor's clock, which in entirely mechanical in operation but has no hands, uses a fearsome-looking 'demon grasshopper' as its escapement. 'I... wanted to depict that time is a destroyer — once a minute is gone you can't get it back' Taylor said. 'That's why my grasshopper is not a Disney character. He is a ferocious beast that over the seconds has his tongue lolling out, his jaws opening, then on the 59th second he gulps down time.' It also (purposely) only tells correct time once every five minutes. An excellent video of the clock in action, with an explanation of its workings by its inventor, is available on YouTube."

Comment Re:Stronger sense of morality there (Score 1) 509

by johnfatz on Monday October 16, 2006 @04:58AM (#16450345) Attached to: Adult .IE Domain Names Banned As Immoral

I just thought those two sentences needed to be viewed next to each other. Fair point - I'll give you that! Perhaps I should have said "please refrain from "uninformed" sweeping statements like above" - I travel to the USA often and converse daily over the fone and the internet with people there so my obervation IMHO has some basis. I feel the original poster's comment was without substance however. But again fair point on what I wrote before.

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