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User: nietsch

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  1. get your priorities right. on Another Crumbling Reactor Springs a Tritium Leak · · Score: 1

    Cars cause orders of magnitude more death than Nuclear power plants. Coal fed power plants need coal that is mined. Coal mining kills dozens of miners each year, many more than uranium mines (you need much more coal then uranium ore). Thus coal power plants kill many more people than nuclear power plants. Next factor in modern reactor designs that use reprocessed fuel, breeder reactors or Thorium based reactors, and that count goes down even further. As for waste: as widely cited, coal releases more radioactive waste, on top of the global warming agent CO2. You could capture these ashes and gasses, but most plants don't yet. Just as the waste problem for nuclear power plants has not been solved yet. An increase in nuclear waste requires just some land area, the CO2 problem from coal power warms up the whole world.

  2. Re:Oh great, another subdized vehicle... on Chevrolet Volt In a Gasoline-Only Scenario · · Score: 1

    Yes borrowing money is something most governments do. Most of the time, that does not lead to big problems. There is this graph doing the rounds that suggests that most republicans governments spend their way into debt, while the deficit is reduced on a democrat watch.

  3. Re:An iPod? on iPhone-Controlled Helicopter With AR Games · · Score: 1

    that is quite long actually. Discharge rates of 10 or 20C are not uncommon. That leaves you 6 or 3 minutes of fun. These kind of batteries are pretty cheap, so you can just put in a fresh battery and go fly again. But that leaves of something important: most of the video is an obvious fake animation, not the real thing flying. Adding all this stuff like wifi and a camera is feasible, but not for a toy. Maybe they have a real product, but I want to see some real footage from the cam while flying. In the video where they show something real interacting with humans, the pilot has to look at the craft, not at his screen.

  4. Malthus on Bono Hopes Content Tracking Will Help Media Moguls · · Score: 1

    You failed to mention Malthus or cycles of growth & famine. To every biosystem there is a maximum of people it can sustain. It is likely that the villages you talk about have grown until that limit was reached. What happens next is a you described: one resource runs out. But digging deeper wells will only help until those run out too.
    What did not happen is that the villagers have adapted to the new situation, or hat they have a brighter future. In the west less then 1% is active in farming, but you forced another generation into farming, which does not have a very bright future without modern practices.
    You brought in manpower, which Africa has more then enough of. When you were done, the knowledge your engineers had is leaving the country again. Your African co-workers might have learned something too, but they will want to cash in on that and will likely move into the city.
    Foreign aid needs to improve all aspects of life, not just digging a well and call it a day.

  5. Re:They will NEVER adapt to the new world on UK Consumers To Pay For Online Piracy · · Score: 1

    you need serious lightning, for serious money.

    The first part may be true, the second part does not follow (if serious == a lot). There is no law that states that more money equals better quality. It is human perception that makes you assume that. If the most talented director sells his services for 10$/hour, does that make his work worse? Or if some crook charges 500$/hour, does that make him more talented?
    The amount of effort/knowledge you have to put into lighting with digital is a lot less, because you can get direct feedback from what is being recorded. And with more sensitive recording equipment, you need less light in an absolute sense, so you need less expensive lights too.
    But in the end it is not the equipment that makes the film interesting, that is only a diversion for us geeks with less then stellar soft skills. The acting and the script contribute a lot more then the equipment.

  6. Re:a game that tells the truth about religion on Religion in Video Games · · Score: 1

    of course, it is not violence when it is a proper and deserved punishment. The problem is your 'god' that was disobeyed and 'punished' them, was in fact not their god. How would you feel if your god condemned you to death? Others, you can maybe accept, but yourself, that is not your god and not 'true'.What you are doing is trying to cleanse yourself from some atrocities in your holy book. You could ask yourself, if you have to make such illogical excursions to justify the place you give your holy book, is it really your holy book?
    Not that it matters much, no discussion on the internet will sway you from your beliefs, you just love to reiterate and reconfirm them, otherwise you would not be discussing it.

  7. Re:Drugs on The First Robot To Cross the Atlantic Ocean Underwater · · Score: 1

    But just because some technology is becoming available does not mean that it already must be being used for smuggling. Drugs cartels are limited in numbers and employ a limited number of people. Somebody up high in the hierarchy must make a decision first, and to make a positive decision for it, he has to know about it and be able to find the right people for it that can make the concept a reality. Even then, it has to compete with other methods, like attaching external cargo to the underside of containerships. Even smuggling is a business.

  8. $0.02 on Where Are the Cheap Thin Clients? · · Score: 1

    That 2 cents must be in elbonian zlotys or such, as you advocate a straight windows solution on Slashdot. You could at least try to put some OpenGL over ip on Ubuntu servers and clients in the mix. D-

  9. Re:people use PHP? on The Environmental Impact of PHP Compared To C++ On Facebook · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    dear AC. I am amazed by your insights, you truly must be one of those hyper productive programmers that is some order of magnitude more productive than his peers. How else can you do yourself what you advise other here? So you come here visiting with your own built webbrowser. Firefox just did not have some features you needed and putting them in an extension would be heresy. Better to built your own. Same goes for your house, your car, or your language. I pity the fools that do not understand you because they choose to ignore your superior language. What do you mean they had different requirements and built their own? Akkadjoembah!

  10. Re:That's a very US-centric view on Broadband Rights & the Killer App of 1900 · · Score: 1

    Size does not matter in this case, as the costs are proportional to the area you want to connect. Larger countries also have more money to spend. The central infrastructure be it water, gas, electricity or broadband is not the bottleneck, the last mile to the (private) customers is. Most previous networks (for water, gas or electricity) have been built by public entities in Europe, so it is a proven concept that works. The alternative (capitalist private companies build the network) also have a known outcome, as that is what the situation with broadband in the states is now.

  11. Re:Best practices only go so far... on Defining Useful Coding Practices? · · Score: 1

    So true. Because contractors are expensive, money people think that less is better. To get something done on time, little or no time will be spent on testing/review. Ugly hacks will always continue to 'work' which is what the client pays for.

  12. Re:Not Here! on Defining Useful Coding Practices? · · Score: 1

    Quality of advice is not measured by the worst piece, but but the quality of the advice you take to heart. So who cares that someone recommended java for kernel programming? If only the best is good enough, you get nowhere fast. accepting different opinions and using your own head gives you better ideas, because you can discard the bad ones. The OP came here for good ideas...

  13. Re:It could be big... on Brazilian Breaks Secrecy of Brazil's E-Voting Machines With Van Eck Phreaking · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You just overlooked one small issue: voter turnout is already a problem in most democracies, as it is somewhat boring to vote for things your are not that interested in. If there were more elections, you would have to vote each week. Nobody is going to keep doing that, as most people do not see it as their job, and it is a process with very little positive feedback. So only the zealots and paid shills will remain, thus making your country run by big money and zealots with a nutty agenda. Not unlike the US is run now, actually.

  14. Yup it was a saudi on Laser Weapon Shoots Down Airplanes In Test · · Score: 1

    Osama Bin-Laden is a Saudi. From a high class Saudi family apparently. Iraq/Saddam Hoessein never supported al-qaida.

  15. Re:Its a sounding rocket on New Zealand To Launch First Private Space Rocket · · Score: 1

    Indeed it is. They had to make up some exotic conditions to claim their first. They probably think it is better because it is from New Zealand. Nationalism is an illnes everyone can succumb to, it seems.

  16. Re:Freedom of Speech on German Killers Sue Wikipedia To Remove Their Names · · Score: 1

    (In the US those reasons generally involve money, while in Germany they involve blood; this should come as a surprise to nobody.)

    *Citation needed. (In other words, nice way to let you bigotry shine through boy)

  17. Re:Bubby? Is that you? on German Killers Sue Wikipedia To Remove Their Names · · Score: 1

    On a smaller scale, something embarrassing like erectile dysfunction is a simple fact too. But if you happened to have it, you would still not appreciate it very much if someone posted that fact to wikipedia.

  18. Re:Bubby? Is that you? on German Killers Sue Wikipedia To Remove Their Names · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Their sentence was handed out by a German judge and did not include being haunted for the rest of their lives. They are convicted murderers, but they also are human beings. If you think that last fact means nothing for you, then you are saying you have no respect for human beings.
    It is easy to respect the rights of someone you agree with. You show your civility in how you respect the rights of those you disagree with.

  19. Where did you leave your critical thinking today? on Toyota Develops New Flower Species To Reduce Pollution · · Score: 1

    Dubious claims that sound scientific, but not made in a scientific journal, not peer reviewed and making 1st grade biology errors in the title, and you still think there is some truth in that article?
    'Species' is a fundamental term in biology. For instance evolution depends on the definition of a species. If they would have truly created a new species of plant (utilising a different nice and unable to interbreed) then that would be news. Making a cultivar and planting that on a factory grounds is just not that.

  20. Number one in what exactly? on Ares 1-X Ready On Pad, Launch Set For 1200 GMT · · Score: 4, Informative

    This 'new' rocket is basically a solid booster from the space shuttle, that needs to be extended with a 5th segment, but it now flies with a 5th dummy segment. On top of that is more dummy weight. This is just a test of an existing and older booster. Now why do you think there is some kind of competition in rocketry that the US can be number one in? Or are you just happy you or your parents paid taxes for this upcoming show?
    Or am I a 'hater' because I a a little sceptic about this project of NASA because you cannot understand discourse? Personally, I am much more impressed with SpaceX and Armadillo, who seem to come up with nice projects for much less money. Wasn't there a new SpaceX big rocket on the launchpad soon?

  21. ah, you could read the sparkfun blog. on Sparc Sends SparkFun Electronics C&D Letter · · Score: 1

    Yes that same remark tickled my funny bone too. Too bad you needed the karma that bad to repost/plagiarize it.

  22. and while you are at it... on Sparc Sends SparkFun Electronics C&D Letter · · Score: 1

    sudo make me a sandwich.
    tips hat to XKCD...

  23. Re:And to add to the misery... on Sparc Sends SparkFun Electronics C&D Letter · · Score: 1

    I had no problem reading their post about this, nor did I have any problem firing off an angry mail to K&L.

    to: christine.redfield@klgates.com, sparcinfo@sparc.org
    cc: spark@sparkfun.com

    hi Christine,

    your mailbox will probably be clogged, but please lay off you frivolous
    trademark claims towards Sparkfun, representing Sparc International. You are
    insulting both their customer base suggesting they would confuse one with the
    other. My advise to Sun/Sparc Inc is to cancel your contract, as you
    obviously have nothing better to do than generating bad publicity.

  24. Re:Bonk bonk on the head on Virus-Like Particles May Mean Speedier Flu Vaccines · · Score: 1

    The lining of the nose (and the upper airways) is where the flu can only reproduce anyway, so that statement is not very comforting. 'Contains no virus' is much safer than contains attenuated virus.

  25. Sure! on Virus-Like Particles May Mean Speedier Flu Vaccines · · Score: 1

    You will off course have those 'good rna' sequences ready and are willing to be the first test subject? Why not?
    BTW: those empty particle may very well not contain the actual proteins needed for infection, as only the H&N proteins offer enough protection. So any rna inside the particle will never be injected.