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  1. Re:I predict... on NOAA: Arctic Likely Free Of Summer Ice By 2050 — Possibly Much Sooner · · Score: 2

    The reason African countries import food from the US is because it's so heavily subsidized that local farmers can't compete. The massive drop in US farm output that will result from desertification/global warming is the best thing that will ever happen to African countries. They will finally have jobs (in farming) and not have to sell their resources cheap to import food.

  2. Re:I thought this was over and done already? on NOAA: Arctic Likely Free Of Summer Ice By 2050 — Possibly Much Sooner · · Score: 2

    They predict flight paths years ahead with rockets/probes. I believe the biggest problem with weather predictions is you need massive resolution to accurately model the planet, and getting sub meter accuracy on a global scale just isn't financially possible yet.

  3. Re:Not unexpected on Navy To Deploy Lasers On Ship In 2014 · · Score: 1

    Not quite. North Korea can easily smuggle a bomb into the USA in a shipping container. You're still vulnerable, you just don't know it.

  4. Re:I love working with PV cells on Bosch Finds Solar Business Unprofitable, Exits · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter how good the prison defenses are if nobody is guarding the place. The reason you don't like your country is because most Americans can't be bothered to protect/guard it.

  5. Re:I love working with PV cells on Bosch Finds Solar Business Unprofitable, Exits · · Score: 1

    The highway system. You either pay for it by subsidy (taxes) or by toll booths.

  6. Re:Just cause... on Want to Keep Messages From the Feds? Use iMessage · · Score: 2

    True. Alcohol is a deadly drug. Or were you referring to all the other drugs, that cause less harm (in total) than Alcohol?

  7. Re:Is there an app bubble? on Ask Slashdot: Preparing For the 'App Bubble' To Pop? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1-New economies grow quickly, especially when they are replacing something else (like desktops). The mobile space (phones, pads) is new so it's growing. once the market matures it will slow down. 2-Never put your backup plan in the same basket as your primary one. If something is easy to switch to from apps then everyone will do it, and you'' be swamped with competition.

  8. Re:Pointing out the truth can not be bigotry... on Creationist Bets $10k In Proposed Literal Interpretation of Genesis Debate · · Score: 1

    no, good and evil are moral concepts. Religion likes to borrow morality to wear like a coat, but there is nothing inherently moral about believing in imaginary creatures.

  9. Re:Correct on France Demands Skype Register As a Telco · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would very much like to see the internet regulated like the phone system. The rule about no tapping phones without a court order sounds wonderful.

  10. Re:Correct on France Demands Skype Register As a Telco · · Score: 1

    sure you can do that, and France telecom can then charge you long distance for all the calls made into their country. There are two issues here: you are avoiding the anointed long distance carriers (who pay off/into the government/taxes), and regulating an industry that is essential to life in most of the world (emergency calls).

  11. You must be thinking 20MT bombs. According to Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nuclear_explosions the blast radius of small bombs is less than 5 miles diameter. also nuclear bombs/missiles tend to target military targets not cities. It would be fallout and nuclear winter and loss of infrastructure that kill the most not the blast.

  12. Re:As intended. on Recession, Tech Kill Middle-Class Jobs · · Score: 1

    The poor don't have time or education to do creative stuff, the rich don't want to rock the economic boat. It is the middle class who have time/education and the will to come up with new and exciting ideas.

  13. Re:Chicken Littles on Recession, Tech Kill Middle-Class Jobs · · Score: 1

    if a computer AI has the same capacity as a human, it will have the same desires as a human. It will want to vote and get paid. Getting paid means we get to compete for jobs with machines that are faster and more accurate than us (we get the worst jobs, but at least we get something). Getting to vote means a trillion sentient calculators rule.

  14. Re:What would Morgan Freeman say? on Scientist Seeks 'Adventurous Human Woman' For Neanderthal Baby · · Score: 1

    That's how monsanto does it. They shoot dna into a plant and check it for useful characteristics.

  15. dolphins on Scientist Seeks 'Adventurous Human Woman' For Neanderthal Baby · · Score: 1

    This would result in legal changes, as they are not "legally" human. Next you'd have other species getting legal recognition as "people".

  16. Sex not required. on Scientist Seeks 'Adventurous Human Woman' For Neanderthal Baby · · Score: 1

    Genetic transfer doesn't require interbreeding. Many virus's can take genes from the host when they mutate, and pass them on to others.

  17. Re:How do we stop them? on Australian Spy Agency Seeks Permission To Hack Third-Party Computers · · Score: 1

    you would have no way to tell it was legal.

  18. We know this road on How Verizon's 'Six Strikes' Plan Works · · Score: 1

    The secret to a police state is keeping it out of the public eye. If you make it unpleasant for them they will go around you. End to end peer encryption sounds like a viable solution. And when they block that then we move to spread spectrum frequency hopping radio internet. They are better off monitoring us than blocking us.

  19. Re:Inexpensive way to send up inert objects on The Science Behind Building a Space Gun · · Score: 3, Informative

    Reusable rockets must be fully overhauled after every single flight and must be more rugged to survive repeated use, they therefore cost more than a disposable rocket. The Saturn 5 was much cheaper than the space shuttle. Using chemical fuels means 95% of the rocket must be fuel. To get usable launch weights you have to use every trick in the book to save weight. All those weight savings make rockets fragile, they wear out quickly and need everything rebuilt after each flight. The only way to make space cheap is by having the power source separate from the rocket/payload (gun, mass driver, loop, skyhook, tractor beam).

  20. only hackers on The Tiny Console Killers Taking On the PS4 and Xbox 720 · · Score: 1

    only hackers buy a console for the hardware. Everyone else buys them for the games.

  21. Re:What about this. on Congressman Introduces Bill To Ban Minting of Trillion-Dollar Coin · · Score: 1

    We are currently in the information revolution (it followed the industrial revolution), and we can't see very well where it is heading because we are in the middle of it. The biggest change likely to come is we don't need cities anymore, we can get everything delivered to our cabin in the woods including the best library in the world.

  22. Re:What about this. on Congressman Introduces Bill To Ban Minting of Trillion-Dollar Coin · · Score: 0

    Buggy whip makers lost out. The economy shifts, and you get winners and losers. If you believe in capitalism then you have to let it, you can't go on with communist central planning forever. We don't keep the world safe from the Germans by the strength of our army, it isn't needed anymore. Stop living in yesteryear and let the world evolve.

  23. Re:How can you copyright on The Copyright Battle Over Custom-Built Batmobiles · · Score: 1

    Disney has plenty of copyrights they don't sell. They sell for a while, then they stop selling for years at a time.

  24. Re:If this intellectual property is like your hous on What Could Have Been In the Public Domain Today, But Isn't · · Score: 1

    You set the value of your work, and it can go up or down as you like. But damage awards for copyright infringement are limited to that value. Don't allow others to take your work, that's not fair. Have a higher tax rate for works that are not available for purchase. Require a copy of the work be submitted to a central library for storage so it never gets lost.

  25. Re:Fiscal cliff on The U.S. Careens Over the Fiscal Cliff, Reaching Only Half of a Deal · · Score: 1

    This is what you get in a country with no leadership.