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  1. Safety on New Study Confirms Safety of GM Crops · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you take DNA from peanuts (safe) and mix it with wheat (safe) odds are you get a safe hybrid. Except if you are allergic to peanuts. Nobody expects to die from a peanut allergy when eating bread. Without labeling GM ingredients you can't know what you are eating.

  2. Why recession tax cuts fail on Democratic Super PAC Buys Newtgingrich.com · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In good times when you cut taxes on business they expand and hire more people, that's basic right wing (Republican) mantra and history mostly supports it. Unfortunately the rules change during a recession. In bad times when you give a corporation more money they put it in the bank. (just like you would.) Why? In good times they expand production so they can sell more. In bad times they have piles of unsold merchandise, and hiring more people to make more (unsold) merchandise is just throwing money away.

  3. Need a warrant on Domestic Surveillance Drones Could Spur Tougher Privacy Laws · · Score: 2

    It's nice to talk about laws protecting us from the government, but in truth the only thing holding them back is fear of us.

  4. Re:A Little Help Please? on Carrier IQ Responds To FBI Drama, EFF Wants More Information · · Score: 1

    If it's a troubleshooting tool then it would benefit from remote activation. If it's a spy tool then it needs remote activation. Removing the software isn't the same as not having it (currently) running.

  5. Re:This is being whitewashed from the white house on LightSquared Disrupts 75% of GPS Connections In Government Test · · Score: 3, Informative

    A notch filter on your IF stage (after the pre-amp) doesn't affect receive sensitivity. The front end filter is just there to block IF and outband frequencies that would add/subtract to get IF.

  6. Re:Pipe dream on Microsoft and GE Partner On Healthcare · · Score: 1

    in the U.S. you've got insurance bureaucrats making the call. From the horror stories I hear that's not better.

  7. legal basics on New US Government Project To Monitor Electronic Communication · · Score: 1

    In most modern countries you get a trial before you get punished for stuff. You get to face your accuser in court, with lawyers and a judge. The government should not have the power to punish you without going through that. I believe the U.S. constitution even mentions due process.

  8. On the same road on Bank Accounts Vulnerable For Victims of ZeuS Trojan Variant 'Gameover' · · Score: 1

    The foreign crooks are doing exactly what our local crooks did, just further back on the timeline. First they got a lot of money from prohibition, then they broke into the big time money of politics. The key point is you can't take short cuts on the road to evil wealth and power, you've got to achieve all the sub-quests along the way before you get to fight the final boss. You don't get to bribe the federal gov without large bags of money and knowing the right people to pay off.

  9. Re:Yeah, we know; what's next? on Does Open Source Software Cost Jobs? · · Score: 1

    All cost (wealth) is derived from human labour. That's why sand is cheap but pearls are not. If you eliminate all human labour then nothing has value, the cost of living drops to zero. At that point people create art and literature (and science) and sell that.

  10. Re:So let me get this straight. on AT&T/T-Mobile Merger 'Not In the Public Interest' · · Score: 1

    Using time division multiplexing over large (single digit miles) distances is a solved problem. The military does it (DAMA) with geo (thousands of miles) satellites. There is no reason to choose between range and penetration, you can have two frequencies (short and long) or build more towers (easy and cheap if they are compatible across carriers). Bottom line: building 2 incompatible networks costs twice as much as one compatible one. With peering it's much cheaper.

  11. Re:So let me get this straight. on AT&T/T-Mobile Merger 'Not In the Public Interest' · · Score: 2

    Europe has a single standard. You can switch carriers and take your phone with you. You can tether without paying extra. Plans are cheaper. Minutes are cheaper. I think we got taken with that free market bs.

  12. Re:Mori? on Small OSS Library Project Battles US Corporation · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple is a common word, in the USA. Apparently you CAN trademark common words.

  13. cost on CarrierIQ Tries To Silence Security Researcher · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They are inflicting a financial cost (bandwidth charge) upon you without consent. It's like buying a car and having them keep a set of keys so they can take it for joyrides (using your gas).

  14. Re:Our solar system ... on Human Survival Depends On Space Exploration, Says Hawking · · Score: 2

    Garbage disposal in transit is a problem, stuff you throw out the airlock follows you to your destination. Fission is better than fusion because it has a higher power to weight ratio (power density) unless you run your ship off a hydrogen scoop (stored power vs unlimited but low density)

  15. Re:Easy! on Ask Slashdot: Inexpensive Anti-Theft Vehicle Tracking System? · · Score: 1

    Those aren't design flaws, they're designed to fail so you have to buy parts/more cars. That's what happens when big money calls the shots. It's the reason America is spiraling down the toilet drain.

  16. Minor issues on Full Disk Encryption Hard For Law Enforcement To Crack · · Score: 2

    what about: power failure, UPS failure, hardware failure. Losing all your data sucks. This method would block keyloggers though, if they didn't know. Except modern drive recovery can restore the blanked out sector.

  17. Re:I've got a solution! on Full Disk Encryption Hard For Law Enforcement To Crack · · Score: 1

    The NSA monitors/records all phone traffic so they already have the biometric, or they could send someone to visit him/her and get the pic. I think the only way to protect your data is a thermite charge on the hdd, triggered by tamper sensor, self destruct login, or no valid login within 7 days.

  18. What? on France To Tax the Internet To Pay For Music · · Score: 3

    Why would the french ISP's pay taxes on behalf of the music industry?

  19. Re:Looks neat but get it for the right reasons. on StreetScooter: The $7000 Open-Source Modular Electric Vehicle · · Score: 1

    1-Even if it produces more pollution than gas at least you/your kids don't breath it. 2-It's easier to put pollution scrubbers on a stationary plant. 3-Power plants don't idle, they either run at full or are turned off. 4-You can switch that coal to solar/tidal/wind/nuclear without needing a new car.

  20. Bigger issue on The Software Patent Debate Is Incorrectly Framed · · Score: 2

    This ignores the bigger issue, that software patents rarely include sufficient detail to allow others to duplicate the work. The whole point of patents is to give the tech to others.

  21. School on DNA Sequenced of Woman Who Lived To 115 · · Score: 1

    We currently have this with our schools. You don't get to the top if you didn't go to the "right" school.

  22. Standard security practice for high reliability systems is they don't get on the internet, and you lock them down so the operators can't install software. So how could a glorified arcade machine get infected? Oh that's because the men running it like to play games (that aren't installed) so they bring them in on usb sticks and badger the admins to unlock the machines so they can install them. Or the network admins are incompetent.

  23. Re:and people still vote for Democrats or Republic on NYTimes Sues US Gov't To Know How It Interprets the PATRIOT Act · · Score: 1

    Or YOU could start an alternative party (or take over an existing one), build it up to national level then take over and fix the problems. We like to make excuses for all the bad horrible things the government does but the truth is most people just don't care.

  24. efficiency on Looking Beyond Detroit For Engine Innovation · · Score: 1

    Internal combustion- 25%, steam engine- 75%, electric motor- 90%. We've already got most of the possible efficiency from the old IC engine design, it's time we switched. Given modern tech and engineering we should be able to build gas/oil powered steam engine from about 5-10 years R&D, or we could put power rails into our highways and let our electric cars recharge their (smaller/cheaper) batteries that only need to get them onto/off of the highways (at low speeds).

  25. not turbines on Looking Beyond Detroit For Engine Innovation · · Score: 1

    Turbines are simple/cheap/reliable but get terrible fuel economy.