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Comment: Re:Corporate bureacracy (Score 3, Informative) 310

by Walterk (#46440011) Attached to: Daylight Saving Time ...

In the UK, it's Scottish farmers who want the early day light. There have been some experiments here with regards to either abolishing it or doing a "double day light savings" (essentially changing to CET).



Submitted by unitron




Comment: Robert Peel called.. (Score 2) 133

by Walterk (#46162705) Attached to: Britain's GCHQ Attacked Anonymous Supporters With DDoS
and he mentioned something about ethics of policing*.

*: I did try and warn him about the future but he said he had to rush off to do some shopping..

Comment: Re:"probably" much higher? (Score 1) 196

by Walterk (#46148957) Attached to: EU Commission: Corruption Across EU Costs &euro;120 Billion

It seems fairly easy to figure that out. Take the total health expenditure per capita, which for the US according to the OECD was $8508. The second in the list is Norway, with $5669. Norway isn't exactly an ill country, so that leaves $2839 per head (33.38%) unaccounted for.

If you'd compare it to a purely tax sponsored public system like Britain's NHS, that takes 3405 per capita, which would leave $5103 (or 60%) unaccounted for, somehow soaked up by the insurance industry.

Enjoy your free market!

Comment: Eschew drugs (Score 1) 351

by Walterk (#46035117) Attached to: Fighting the Flu May Hurt Those Around You

As much as I like the occasional aspirin or paracetamol, when I have a cold or similar, I try to make a concious effort to raise my body temperature as much as possible to aid in the virus fighting efforts of my body. Seems to work well whenever I do it, even if it is uncomfortable at times. I try to use drugs only as a last resort.

On the other hand, if the weather gets hot, I've been known to pop an aspirin purely to lower my body temperature so I can be somewhat useful and cope.

Comment: Re:Creativity often equates to "Different" (Score 5, Insightful) 377

by Walterk (#45639927) Attached to: Study: People Are Biased Against Creative Thinking

Replying instead of moderating..

Things like the medieval opinion that the world is flat

They never did think that, it's a modern invention, introduced as late as 1828 after Washington Irving's publication of A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. The ancient Greeks could show that the Earth was round already. In fact, if in the medieval ages they thought that the Earth was flat, why would Columbus (and his contemporaries) even bother sailing west in order to reach India?

You have some points but please do not perpetuate this myth.

Comment: Re:Statistics (Score 1) 308

by Walterk (#45455437) Attached to: Google and Microsoft To Block Child-Abuse Search Terms

You are right, it doesn't. But it that relevant? There is a 90% chance that the child being abused knows it's victim. So why is everybody seemingly going after the 10% stranger danger?

For that 90%, it is debatable whether having accessibility to child pornography has any effect has any impact as they have direct access to the child. What do you think would attract a paedophile to a child? Pictures of a child or being in the presence of a child?

Comment: Statistics (Score 2) 308

by Walterk (#45454471) Attached to: Google and Microsoft To Block Child-Abuse Search Terms

This is likely to be hugely ineffectual, as the actual numbers point to a rather different typical abuser:

In the United States, approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children.[33][34][35][36][37] Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, mothers, uncles or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances such as friends of the family, babysitters, or neighbours; strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases.[33] In over one-third of cases, the perpetrator is also a minor.[38]

From: Wikipedia

So what is this actually supposed to accomplish apart from censorship? What sort of "unsavoury" things are in this list of 100k search terms that are not even illegal? Snowden perhaps?
