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User: Relic+of+the+Future

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  1. Re:No Modern Whig? on Third Party Debates Moderated by Larry King: Discuss · · Score: 3, Informative

    By the way, here's the most-complete list of who's on the ballot (or registered as a write-in) where. Note: no Whigs. http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G12/President-Details.phtml

  2. Re:No Modern Whig? on Third Party Debates Moderated by Larry King: Discuss · · Score: 2

    Probably because they're on the ballot in ZERO states, putting them behind at least FORTY other groups. (The four in this debate are on the ballot in enough states to theoretically get over 200 electoral votes each (they'll get zero, but the Whigs, from all appearances, didn't even try.)

  3. Re:Why bother without IRV on Third Party Debates Moderated by Larry King: Discuss · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Not the only way, or even the best way. IRV still has spoilers, and so still tends toward two-party domination (just ask Australia.) If you want a system where more than two parties can actually compete, better to go with approval voting or score voting.

    http://www.electology.org/approval-voting

  4. Re:forward endcoding on Increasing Wireless Network Speed By 1000% By Replacing Packets With Algebra · · Score: 1

    Every environment is noisy now.

  5. Re:Flatland on Ask Slashdot: What Books Have Had a Significant Impact On Your Life? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why read the wikipedia page, when you can read the whole book?

  6. Re:Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Bra on Ask Slashdot: What Books Have Had a Significant Impact On Your Life? · · Score: 1

    If you like it, be sure to check out the "sequel", I Am a Strange Loop; it summarizes his earlier work in GEB in about two chapters, and the exploration from there is illuminating.

  7. The Day the Universe Changed on Ask Slashdot: What Books Have Had a Significant Impact On Your Life? · · Score: 2
    First, let me second some earlier suggestions: Flatland, and Godel, Escher, Bach (or the much more concise semi-sequel, I Am a Strange Loop.)

    But one I'd suggest, which I pretty much never see anyone else mention, is The Day the Universe Changed (companion to the BBC miniseries, now available on YouTube.) It's sort of about the history of science, but more so it's about how our discoveries about the world changed (and continue to change) our perception of it.

  8. Re:...of a sample... on Half-Life of DNA is 521 Years, Jurassic Park Impossible After All · · Score: 1

    No, that's my entire point: after 521 years, half the DNA in sample A is gone, and half the DNA in sample B is gone, but some of those halves will be different; 25% of each link of DNA will be intact in both samples, 25% will be intact only in sample A, 25% will be intact only in sample B, and 25% will not be intact in either sample.

  9. ...of a sample... on Half-Life of DNA is 521 Years, Jurassic Park Impossible After All · · Score: 1
    "after 521 years, half of the bonds between nucleotides in the backbone of a sample would have broken"

    Okay, but there were how many billion copies of the sample when the creature died? If there were two, after 521 years I still have (on average) at least one copy of 3/4 of the data, extending the half-life to (check my math here) 737 years. With 15 billion copies or so, the half-life gets up to, hey!, about 65 million years, and there are trillions of cells (and so trillions of copies of DNA) in a human-sized body.

  10. Re:Units on New Study Shows Universe Still Expanding On Schedule · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In the vein of xkcd-what-if #11, I wonder about the physical meaning of kilometers per second per megaparsec. Kilometer and megaparsec are both lengths, so you can divide them out by the conversion factor (1 megaparsec = 3.08567758 × 10^19 kilometers) and then you are left with "per second", i.e., a frequency. A frequency of about 240 billion gigahertz. What, if anything, does that mean?

  11. Re:Even Jesus Said on Space Vs. Poverty Debate In India · · Score: 2

    Jesus also said the meek will inherit the earth.... because the AWESOME are going to fly away in ROCKET SHIPS! (Although Jesus may not have explicitly said that second bit.)

  12. Title is Wrong (or at least misleading) on Apple Denies FBI Had Access To UDIDs · · Score: 1

    "We didn't give it to them" is not the same as "They couldn't have gotten it." 3rd parties were able to collect UDIDs for a long time, and it's quite easy to believe the FBI could get them from there.

  13. Not what he meant by virtual: on Why Mars Is Not the Limit For Human Space Flight · · Score: 4, Interesting
    To the geniuses helpfully reminding this guy of the speed of light:

    When he says "virtual explorers", he doesn't mean you'll be sitting in New York while playing on Alpha Centauri I via VR. He means uploading your mind to the probe before launching it.

    tl;dr: rtfa.

  14. Re:Uranium on Improving Uranium Extraction From Seawater, Inspired by Shrimp · · Score: 1

    No, the density of uranium declines as you dig in to the mantle. Uranium tends to collect in the crust. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibility_(geochemistry)

  15. Chess less relavent than politics on Kasparov Arrested By Russian Police · · Score: 5, Informative

    His former chess level is less-relevant than the fact that he's a leader in the political movement opposing Putin.

  16. Re:Sounds reasonable. on Police Don't Need a Warrant To Track Your Disposable Cellphone · · Score: 2

    It's illegal for the cops to use an IR camera to observe your house, without a search warrant. "But your body is an infrared transmitter, dammit! When you walk around spraying ir in all directions the people it is bouncing off of have a right to absorb some of it and do with it as they wish! That includes the cops." No, no they do not.

  17. Re:Disposable phones on Police Don't Need a Warrant To Track Your Disposable Cellphone · · Score: 2

    Two phones. Don't call mom with the burner. (Come on people, at least watch Breaking Bad!)

  18. Re:Reality... on Police Don't Need a Warrant To Track Your Disposable Cellphone · · Score: 2

    "Can a SWAT team kick in your door in the middle of the night? Yes. Therefore it will be done. Stop complaining about the reality."

  19. Re:Example please on Police Don't Need a Warrant To Track Your Disposable Cellphone · · Score: 1

    25% of cellphones in use in this country are of the "disposable" (pre-paid) kind, and yes, you can buy them, with cash, in brick-and-mortar stores.

  20. Re:Not Eureka on Advance Warning System For Solar Flares Hinges On Surprising Hypothesis · · Score: 1

    Ah, thank you. I couldn't remember from whom I'd heard it (and he apparently said "funny", not "odd".)

  21. Not Eureka on Advance Warning System For Solar Flares Hinges On Surprising Hypothesis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The greatest discoveries don't come from a "Eureka!", but from a "Huh, that's odd..." (Be careful though, the young earthers are already jumping on this to try and disprove carbon dating.)

  22. Re:Well then on Would You Trust an 80-Year-Old Nuclear Reactor? · · Score: 1
    I needed a laugh. Thanks!

    Oh, were you serious? Tesla did a lot of great work, but his tower was not a power plant (it was intended to transmit power, not create it, and it didn't even do that especially well) and wave power is interesting, but not a slam-dunk solution by any stretch.

  23. Re:If only there were another solution... on Would You Trust an 80-Year-Old Nuclear Reactor? · · Score: 1

    Fukushima is/was 40 year old designs.

  24. Re:What is there to turst? on Would You Trust an 80-Year-Old Nuclear Reactor? · · Score: 1

    Where did you hear it would take 1000s of years? 10s definitely, maybe 100s, but not 1000s. Also, at the height both nuclear attacks detonated, almost all the reaction byproducts were swept up in to the stratosphere and dispersed over a much larger radius than, for instance, Chernobyl.

  25. Re:If only there were another solution... on Would You Trust an 80-Year-Old Nuclear Reactor? · · Score: 1

    GP was being sarcastic.