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User: actionbastard

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Comments · 464

  1. Re:$5? that's nothing on The Specter of Gasoline At $5 a Gallon · · Score: 1

    Most of the price of your fuel is in taxes. The US Federal tax on gasoline -which goes to pay for maintenance on the the Interstate highways- is somewhere around eighteen cents a gallon and hasn't changed in thirty-something years. States also have individual sales taxes that are a fixed amount or a fixed percentage of the sale price -with Florida being the highest (with a sliding scale) the last time I bothered to look.

    The root cause of the increase in the price of oil and gasoline is speculation by large banks, brokerage firms and commodities traders. Most of these 'traders' never take actual delivery of the product. If the Obama administration would get off its ass and re-regulate the commodities markets to prevent all the 'paper trading' of commodities, then the price of oil and gasoline would drop by fifty percent and we wouldn't be talking about this.

  2. Re:Really? on Ask Slashdot: Tech Manufacturers With Better Labor Practices? · · Score: 5, Informative

    It goes a lot deeper than just the components. It goes down to the minerals and metals that make up those components:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan#Ethics_of_Coltan_mining_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_Congo

    http://sitemaker.umich.edu/section002group3/coltan_mining_in_democratic_republic_of_the_congo

    Apple gets the spotlight thrown on it because of its popular following. But every company that makes anything electronic or that contains electronic components is just as culpable.

  3. Re:What could possibly go wrong on Water Droplets In Orbit On the International Space Station · · Score: 2

    They should have used an inanimate carbon rod.

  4. Gordon Gecko... on Facebook Orders Banks To Stop Leaking IPO Details · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.

  5. Burning question on Scientists Create World's First Atomic X-Ray Laser · · Score: 1

    Where are the atomic-level sharks with atomic-level lasers attached to their heads?

  6. Not only Lamar on SOPA Creator In TV/Film/Music Industry's Pocket · · Score: 5, Informative
  7. Technically... on On December 10, the Last Lunar Eclipse Until 2014 · · Score: 1

    There is a lunar eclipse every 29.53059 days (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.8 seconds). It's just not always visible from the Earth's surface. The complete calendar for the next decade is here:
    http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEdecade/LEdecade2011.html
    so you may plan ahead.

  8. They'd better do something on Obama Orders Federal Agencies To Digitize All Records · · Score: 4, Informative
  9. If you want to be taken seriously on Comet May Have Missed Earth By a Few hundred Kilometers · · Score: 4, Funny

    As a scientist, don't author your paper with the font set to Comic Sans.

  10. Two Words on Apple Too Big For the Dow Jones Industrial Average · · Score: 1

    Stock Split

  11. My Preference on What You Eat Affects Your Genes · · Score: 1

    Glagnar's Human Rinds. Now with flavor.

  12. Re:Protesters on Developing Nuclear Power Plant Tech For the Moon and Mars · · Score: 1

    The Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover) is powered by a RTEG. No reason we couldn't design a new, more efficient, version for use on the Moon.

  13. Bitcoin? on Bitcoin Price Crashes · · Score: 1

    Bilderburgers laugh derisively at your attempts to undermine the World Bank, IMF, ECB, and the 'Almighty Dollar' with your pathetic 'currency'. However...Bernie Madoff is intrigued by your ideas and wishes to subscribe to your newsletter.

  14. Steve said this years ago on Could Apple Kill Off Mac OS X? · · Score: 1

    In a 1997 interview with Ric Ford of the Macintouch website, Steve Jobs said that he would; "milk the Macintosh for all it's worth and then kill it." A citation would be nice if someone would like to search for it in the wayback machine. I came up blank on this so this is just from memory...

  15. Re:No surprise on Wardrivers Target Seattle Businesses · · Score: 1

    That's the funniest comment I've seen here in month's. Brah, seriously; I LOLed.

  16. It's only... on Why Russian Space Images Look Different From NASA's · · Score: 1

    a model.

  17. It's already been done on Help Map Global Light Pollution, By Starlight · · Score: 1
  18. Poor Cavor... on Chandrayaan-1 Spots Giant Underground Chamber On the Moon · · Score: 1
  19. Re:Bold prediction: on House Fails To Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers · · Score: 2

    ...ever since the Patriot Act made wiretapping of un important people ubiquitous.

    There. Fixed that for you.

  20. Skwisgaar Skwigelf on A Guitar Robot That Can Really Shred · · Score: 1

    Is not impressed.

  21. Re:fail on String Theory Tested, Fails Black Hole Predictions · · Score: 1

    Currently there are only 1730 known parallel universes.

  22. Any of these guys on Sciencey Heroes For Young Children? · · Score: 1

    1. Neil Armstrong
    2. Buzz Aldrin
    3. Pete Conrad
    4. Alan Bean
    5. Alan Shepard
    6. Edgar Mitchell
    7. David Scott
    8. James Irwin
    9. John W. Young
    10. Charles Duke
    11. Eugene Cernan
    12. Harrison Schmit

  23. Link to the actual report... on Humans Will Need Two Earths By 2030 · · Score: 2, Informative

    is here. Contains lots of nice, big, hard to interpret charts and stuff.

  24. Re:And those who onlyTHINK they would be superhero on Study Finds Most Would Become Supervillians If Given Powers · · Score: 1

    The problem is the other damage, and resisting the temptation of all the Lois Lane types throwing their bodies at you. You would have super babies all over the planet.

    Actually, if you were Superman, having sex with Lois Lane would be a very bad experience for her.

  25. Re:News For Nerds on Alaska To Export Billions of Gallons of Water · · Score: 1

    Generally, it's under $1 US per cubic meter. That's 1000 liters, ~250 gallons.

    You know something, that's less than what many municipal water districts in Southern California charge their customers for water.