Alex

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• Commented on New Catholic video game promises to brings family closer to heaven
  As someone brought up Catholic, I smell fake. Aside from the general absurdity, two big tipoffs: 1) Every Catholic church I've seen has Mass daily. 2) The kids do the sign of the cross backwards. Far shoulder first. They aren't...
• Commented on Viacom's top lawyer thinks lawsuits were "terrorism" - but he's learned nothing from the experience
  @46 Anonymous: Sounds like the business model from Snow Crash....
• Commented on Viacom's top lawyer thinks lawsuits were "terrorism" - but he's learned nothing from the experience
  Perhaps your computer and XBox were trying to protect you, and faking bad DRM was the only way they knew how. Your dad's DVD player, unfortunately, had no such taste....
• Commented on Arrr, This be pleasin' to me uterus
  Facebook has a Pirate English option???! Sweet!...
• Commented on Is There Really A Water Crisis?
  @2 Anonymous: I don't see how the article is heartless. He's saying exactly what you're saying....
• Commented on Apple patents anti-user attention-complianceware
  Would be an awesome way to get rid of an unwanted call. "Please hold while the recipient of your call watches an advertisement. Thank you for continuing to hold. The recipient has failed to indicate proper viewing of the advertisement....
• Commented on Apple patents anti-user attention-complianceware
  @stop banning...: Hardware-based volume control after it leaves the computer FTW!!...
• Commented on Apple patents anti-user attention-complianceware
  In order to pass this (cinematic / advertisement), you must press (L2 / Up) RIGHT NOW because if you don't, (you'll get hit by a boulder and have to rewatch the cinematic, including its 40 seconds of awkward dialogue /...
• Commented on Do you understand my first-grade child's homework?
  @Catsidhe: Then wait 10 years, and repeat the process in Spanish class. How spending two hours at home by yourself writing an interaction between a waiter and customer, to present to people who also don't know the language, often taught...
• Commented on Do you understand my first-grade child's homework?
  Speaking of people assuming kids can't handle certain concepts, I just remembered a game we used to play (well, I used to play it, but I think I remember playing it with other kids). I don't know where we picked...
• Commented on Do you understand my first-grade child's homework?
  @Laslo Paniflex I think that's a considerable stretch. Showing work for the sake of showing work because something some time in the future may require work to be shown, I find extremely bogus. You can justify any amount of mindless...
• Commented on Do you understand my first-grade child's homework?
  Anonymous wrote: "the funny thing to me is that I used all those shortcuts to break down problems and do them in my head in elementary school and would get in trouble for not showing my work on paper. I...
• Commented on Do you understand my first-grade child's homework?
  @2 AirPillo: I earned an awesome new word today. Thanks! @40 Laslo Paniflex: I don't think that way for adding numbers. 8+3 is an instant 11 in my head. I don't know how it ended up that way, but whenever...
• Commented on Sleep: more important than you think (Psychology Today)
  It's my first semester of grad school after 3 years out in the world, and at the start of the semester I decided that I was going to wake up naturally and not stay up too late. The not staying...
• Commented on Hitler: football coach?
  @25 Next month's headline, "Schoolchildren forced to undergo joyless WW2 courses put on by Scottish charity with poor understanding of survey psychology."...
• Commented on Farewell, Captain Lou Albano
  Betcha didn't know??? The whole reason I know who Captain Lou Albano is is BECAUSE of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Wikipedia says 52 episodes. There was a great "Captain Lou Albano" flash animation/song floating around the tubes about...
• Commented on Airlines that charge fees lost more money than airlines that didn't
  We don't need statistics and talk of correlation or causation to figure this one out. The additional fees are just the latest in a chain of customer-hostile actions from airlines. Jet Blue is one of the few airlines that gets...
• Commented on Vintage playground climbers
  !!! There used to be a Giganta at a park near my Grandma's house. It was the most awesome thing ever... a big thing with TWO SLIDES!! I would always beg to go to what I deemed "Two Slides Park"....
• Commented on Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture
  Then there's the very curious case of products that are cheaper and far superior, but a bit less convenient. I've been going to farmers' markets for the past 6 months for fruits and veggies. All are locally grown, and delicious....
• Commented on World War II poster "Use it up - Wear it out - Make it do!"
  I don't think that's a very safe way to use a lawnmower. Ouch!...
• Commented on Kids lose their summer break due to impenetrable bureaucratic mess
  @55: Indeed! Taking responsibility would entail shelling out $7 million or driving to Sacramento and not sleeping until things have been fixed....
• Commented on Kids lose their summer break due to impenetrable bureaucratic mess
  Summer Learning Loss my ass. Three months off in the summer is NOT a significant reason kids don't retain what they've learned. The sheer amount of time wasted in the classroom in my K-12 was mind-boggling, and coupled with ineffective...
• Commented on Prop Hate
  I don't see why government should have any say at all as to what "married" is. Just treat everyone as an individual by default. Individuals can then enter into contracts with each other to share finances, custody, etc. as they...
• Commented on AIG has insured $1.6 trillion in derivatives
  Which is why insurance is only good for medium-size things. Little things, like dental insurance? Useless (you pay in as much as you get out). Big things, like a hurricane that takes out a city? Useless (insurance co folds or...
• Commented on Public elementary schools that integrate dance, music, and art
  @20 Pyota: I think part of the problem is that the people going into elementary education are by and large humanities people. Get some more mathematicians and scientists teaching, and I think you'll find more students liking math and science....
• Commented on Public elementary schools that integrate dance, music, and art
  @16 Helsbelle, and the thread in general I'm all about the value in overcoming a challenge, but much of the time something is challenging for no good reason. I'd much rather spend countless hours struggling to do something that is...
• Commented on UAE plans ban on negative economic reporting
  In other news, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf was spotted getting out of a limousine at a Dubai television station....
• Commented on Al Gore addresses US Senate: don't let economic crisis get in the way of addressing global warming.
  @#2 Samsam Gore has been both romanticized and caricatured, both by himself and others, to the point that nobody actually listens to a thing he says with an open mind. People either hang off his every word, accepting it as...
• Commented on Comments system knackered
  BBC America shows episodes that were aired many months ago on SciFi, and before that even in Britain. Also, BBC America doesn't broadcast high def in my area unlike SciFi... so I might pass on the suggestion. Great show, though....
• Commented on Another London photographer arrested for "terrorism" (i.e. "taking a picture of a public building")
  @12: Indeed. Perhaps it's a dialectical problem. The difference in pronunciation between "tourist" and "terrorist" can be very minor in some local variants. Could be some local authority misinterpreted it to say "Anti-Tourism Act"...