Comment Re:Downvotes (Score 0) 467
Off-topic: why do you misidentify Chelsea Manning in your sig while thanking her?
Comment Re:Dangerous Denial Of Brutality (Score 1) 295
Well put, girlintraining. Use a camera, and put the officer's face and actions in front of people who can personally shame him (or her) into remorse.
My small vow: The next time I see someone stopped by numerous police cars, I am going to stop and take a few pictures. The police try to keep us from seeing their actions, on the street, but we can look. Be the mindful observer.
WEIRD FACT ABOUT PICTURES: I have often seen, in a picture or video, brutality that was happening right under my nose...because it's often quick and quiet. TAKE A PICTURE. It will show more than the eye can see.
Comment Dangerous Denial Of Brutality (Score 5, Insightful) 295
Police are supposed to be trained officers. They are being provoked by taunts? Throw those goddamn police out of their jobs, with a black mark on their records. What you say is (trolling?) bullshit. I have seen numerous videos of peaceful people blindsided by police with pepper spray and bludgeons. Overwhelming force, yet the police are provoked by taunts? You live in a world of hypocrisy and denial, previous poster.
Comment If you don't like Google, walk your feet to Blekko (Score 4, Interesting) 321
If you want a "user experience" with someone second-guessing you and tossing extra keywords into every search, pfft, google it.
I occasionally try new search engines ( Google remained my favorite ) yet recently switched, due to proof that one is better... for me. I'm a scientist. I was convinced by the results of the game, Three Engine Monte, over at http://blekko.com/
" search term
I was impressed by how often I picked the Blekko search results link. Most often, the more relevant listing was unearthed by Blekko. I found better information with Blekko. I was mightily impressed, and switched. Unless you want local listings every search on a movie title, (which still seems intrusive to me), in which case stick with the big brother who gives you priority paid listings.
Grasshopper, if you are not trying new search engines, regularly, you are <strike>eating search results pablum</strike> missing out on some awesome information.
Homeless Student Is Intel Talent Search Semifinalist 464
An anonymous reader writes "Samantha Garvey, a senior at Brentwood High School, has managed to become one of the remaining 300 semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search this year. Her research focused on mussels and on her discovery that they change the thickness of their shells if a predator such as crabs are introduced. Why is Garvey's achievement so impressive? Because she and her entire family are homeless, and rely on a local homeless shelter. Such a situation would stop many students from being able to focus on studying, let alone a research project, but Garvey has instead used her situation as motivation."
Submission + - The New Transparency of War and Lethality of Hatre
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Robert Wright writes that if you had asked him a few days ago, before news broke that American soldiers had urinated on Taliban corpses if such a thing were possible he would have said "probably." After all if you send "young people into combat, people whose job is to kill the enemy and who watch as their friends are killed and maimed by the enemy, [.] the chances are that signs of disrespect for the enemy will surface — and that every once in a while those signs will assume grotesque form." War, presumably, has always been like that but something has changed that amounts to a powerful new argument against starting wars in the first place. First, there's the new transparency of war as battlefield details get recorded, and everyone has the tools to broadcast these details so "it's just a matter of time before some outrageous image goes viral — pictures from Abu Ghraib, video from Afghanistan" that will make you and your soldiers more hated by the enemy than ever. The second big change is that hatred is now a more dangerous thing. "New information technologies make it easier for people who share a hatred to organize around it," writes Wright. "And once hateful groups are organized, they stand a better chance than a few decades ago of getting their hands on massively lethal technologies." It used to be that national security consisted of making sure all foreign governments either liked you or feared you; now it requires that as few people as possible hate you. "I think we should reflect on that before we start another war.""
Comment Focus On Finances Troubling (Score 1) 289
Amazing paid travel and meeting of fine minds, the freedom to know first hand the world Dr. Hawking lives in, the ability to say whatever you think to whoever you want -- ZOUNDS! all this and money, too?
Focus on finances
I would take this job in a heartbeat, and figure out the wires, hardware, and software interface as I go. It's obviously custom, and I m able to pickup where the former person left off. Credentials--Scientist who is comfortable setting up complicated lab equiment, learning to run and troubleshoot HPLC and PCR (piece of cake) and microarras, surf along the growing information network, as new replaces old. Experienced coder on-the-fly Perl and Java Python concatanations.
Better question is this, "Sir: Is there a person leaving who will train me?"
Forget about the money. Take the job.
Progressive Era Hacker Griefed Marconi Demonstration 147
nbauman writes "In June 1903, Gugliemo Marconi and his partner Ambrose Flemming were about to give the first demonstration of long-range wireless communication at the Royal Institution in London, which, Marconi said, could be sent in complete confidentiality with no fear of the messages being hijacked. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a huge mysterious wireless pulse strong enough to take over the carbon-arc projector and make it sputter messages in Morse Code. First, it repeated the word 'Rats' over and over again (abusive at that time). Then it tapped out, 'There was a young fellow of Italy, who diddled the public quite prettily.' Further rude epithets followed. It was Nevil Maskelyne, a stage musician and inventor who was annoyed because Marconi's patents prevented him from using wireless. It was the first hacking, to demonstrate an insecure system."
Comment Personality profile written by an IT manager? Con (Score 1) 1
The author of the original article had "once overseen an IT department as a former dean of the College of Psychology and Human Services."
Right there at the top of the linked article is the reason IT is perceived as having a personality problem. IT is managed by people incompetent to manage IT. Being aloof is the only way to fend off uneducated management.
I worked in the industry, as She who understood enough IT to talk respectfully to IT. You should not tell them what to do You describe a problem-and listen to solutions brainstorming. Unfortunately, it is an inevitable case of management not-knowing-what-they-don't-know, and perceiving the perfectly reasonable behavior of IT as these ridiculous (I'm sorry, but they are) ridiculous personality profiles.
IT gentlemen and ladies are fun-loving, overworked, camaraderie-driven people. They are not ! aloof (perhaps a trace shy, or apt to speak Jargon) except when aloof is needed to prevent management from not-knowing all over the place.
Personality profile written by an IT manager? Conflict. Bias.
Submission + - How Doctors Die 6
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Dr. Ken Murray, a Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at USC, writes that doctors don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about doctors is not how much treatment they get when faced with death themselves, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves because they know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. "Almost all medical professionals have seen what we call “futile care” being performed on people," writes Murray. "What it buys is misery we would not inflict on a terrorist. I cannot count the number of times fellow physicians have told me, in words that vary only slightly, 'Promise me if you find me like this that you’ll kill me.'" Feeding into the problem are unrealistic expectations of what doctors can accomplish. Many people think of CPR as a reliable lifesaver when, in fact, the results are usually poor. If a patient suffers from severe illness, old age, or a terminal disease, the odds of a good outcome from CPR are infinitesimal, while the odds of suffering are overwhelming. "If there is a state of the art of end-of-life care, it is this: death with dignity. As for me, my physician has my choices," says Murray. "They were easy to make, as they are for most physicians. There will be no heroics, and I will go gentle into that good night.""
Submission + - Apocalypse tourism: Where to celebrate doomsday? (cnngo.com)
PolygamousRanchKid writes: December 21, 2012 marks the end of the current cycle of the Mayan "Long Count" calendar. And while this has had some fearful types preparing for the end of the world, others have been preparing to travel. The Mexican government is expecting 52 million tourists to visit the five regions — Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche, over the next 12 months, says the Latin American Herald Tribune. So, if you're wondering where to spend the last tourist dollars you'll have as a breathing human being or just want to see the looks on those faces when December 21 comes and goes uneventfully, here are a couple ideas in and out of Mexico that are worth checking out.
Tapachula, Mexico — This homely border town between Mexico and Guatemala has installed a large digital clock in the city to count down the days until December 21, 2012, according to The Daily Mail.
Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Mexico — The board also recommends to "Plan your trip to these archeological sites in advance so that you have a spot in a memorable celebration that won't take place for another 5,125 years!"
Tapachula, Mexico — This homely border town between Mexico and Guatemala has installed a large digital clock in the city to count down the days until December 21, 2012, according to The Daily Mail.
Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Mexico — The board also recommends to "Plan your trip to these archeological sites in advance so that you have a spot in a memorable celebration that won't take place for another 5,125 years!"
Submission + - IT managers are aloof, insular, says psychologist (computerworld.com) 1
dcblogs writes: IT managers see themselves as "reigning supreme," in an organization, and are seen by non-IT workers as difficult to get along with, says organizational psychologist Billie Blair. If IT managers changed their ways, they could have a major impact in an organization. “So much of their life is hidden under a bushel because they don't discuss things, they don't divulge what they know, and the innovation that comes from that process doesn't happen, therefore, in the organization,” says Blair.
Comment Wasting Long Chain Hydrocarbons, s/he says. (Score 1) 272
I never thought of that! MightyMartian has a valid point that valuable, difficult-to-manufacture long chain hydrocarbons are being squandered to produce combustion.
That's the same way I feel about sequestering gold. This non-tarnish metal is an extremely valuable manufacturing commodity. And diamonds, the hardest substance known to man, are another stupidly sequestered resource.
Homo sapiens are dingbat dumb.
Comment Inspiration. The suicide of one's online self. (Score 0) 89
This baffling story is raw inspiration. The suicide of one's online self is a serious event. Do you suppose, if Mark began again, he would create another space of vision and beauty? Of course. A new vision.
He was (?) singularly poised at a wrinkle-in-time to become Our Voice. Yet, our wins are our losses. We lose the ability to hear the muse. Sometimes one cannot even see the new task, when there is clamor (hands vibrate and wave) loud eddies that distract from the quiet voice of curiosity.
Mark will find the muse again, find his new task, and may each of us ( me least of all ) seek a location where we can hear the muse most clearly.
Love, attention, bliss.
Quiet.
Comment "good job kids" -Darwin (Score 1) 38
Transporting a telescope that big is a Darwin Award waiting to happen, so this means: No longer a winning incident in the making. "good job kids" - Charles R. Darwin
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