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User: Banichi

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Comments · 66

  1. How did it come to this? on As NASA Seeks Next Mission, Russia Holds the Trump Card · · Score: 0

    Same way it did every other time NASA failed in a major way.
    Corruption, Incompetence, and Bureaucracy.

  2. My Standard on Yahoo Stops Honoring 'Do-Not-Track' Settings · · Score: 5, Interesting

    >'we have yet to see a single standard emerge that is effective, easy to use and has been adopted by the broader tech industry.'

    Here is my 'standard'; NoScript and AdBlock Plus.

  3. Just say "No" on Obama To Ask For $1 Billion Climate Change Fund · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just say No to this.
    The U.S. is doing fairly well on pollution, It's the third world up-and-comers with a massive increase in their oil budgets and no, or suppressed, or wholly state-owned, watchdogs who are polluting the world.

    A pork fund by any other name is still a pork fund.

  4. Re:Old news...very old on Why Birds Fly In a V Formation · · Score: 1

    >The vortex is behind the vehicle, not beside it.
    >you're far better off following semi's.

    Relative mass, speed and volume of air shoved aside are all considerations. A semi driving in the near lane almost took me off the sidewalk and into oncoming traffic when I was bicycling down a local hill, once upon a time.

  5. Nature is the best innovator over time, bar none. on First Gear Mechanism Discovered In Nature · · Score: 5, Informative

    There exists a Weevil with a screw as a leg joint.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonopterus_oblongus

    Nature is absolutely awesome.

  6. Oh, really? on Researchers Explain Why Flu Comes In the Winter · · Score: 1

    Where does Madagascar fit in that theory?

  7. MI - Went at 7:30, got out at around 9. on U.S. Election Day In Progress: What's Been Your Experience? · · Score: 1

    Three precincts voting in a small 1 basketball court sized gym. Three lines, one precinct each.
    The "greeter" who let the people in line outside know what was what and how the lines inside worked was amazing. Answered everyone's questions and did a fantastic job, really knew his stuff.
    Lines for my precinct were crazy long, they stopped letting people in periodically, since there wasn't anywhere for the line to lengthen to.
    An hour or so in line.
    Except for one incident (mine of course) with the Ballot distributor table, everything was very professional.
    They mis-numbered the ballot before mine as my number, so there was a 10 minute holdup while that got sorted out.
    Other than that, everything went swimmingly.

    Though the two white-collar-shirt layabouts in the back (one male, one female), not doing anything but chatting and sipping coffee for the entire time I was there was a bit off-putting. They could have been a big help straightening out lines and actually doing something other than watching. Maybe they were observers? I'd like to know what poll's they were at, see if mine was one of them.

  8. Re:As soon as you have anything to take on Ask Slashdot: When Is It a Good Idea To Incorporate? · · Score: 2

    Good Lawyer is the emphasis.

    An acquaintance of mine is currently talking to the IRS/State/Local tax revenuers due to the notices they had sent going to the lawyer who set up the LLC, instead of her. The lawyer didn't notify anyone that the LLC was dissolved after two years of non-payment to the revenuers, 10+ years ago.

    The lawyer saw my acquaintance just about every month since, so no "out of sight, out of mind" accident claims. This was a massive screw up on his part.

    Long story short, fuck lawyers. Do the heavy lifting yourself.
    Oh, the law is so obtuse you can't get a foothold?
    Welcome to America, here's your accordion.

  9. Let's cheer for No-bid contracts on State Dept. Cancels $16.5M Kindle Contract · · Score: 2

    Is a Raytheon tablet in the works?

  10. Re:I don't see this happening in the US. on Meat the Food of the Future · · Score: 1

    Um, no.
    The cattle and bison species are different enough that they require different management methods. Bison, the way you appear to want to use them, are closer to deer.

    Letting 33 Million cows go free-range will result in a lot of dead cows. The current crop of cows is stuffed to the gills with anti-biotics. Letting the non-disease resistant cattle go free will result in a lot of dead diseased cattle.

    Switching to a mutton based meat harvest would keep us all in red meat, reduce the feed/ton, the acreage/ton, and the waste/ton that is created by cattle vs sheep. Unfortunately, Texans would have to put up with a lot more animal-fucker jokes, so kiss that idea goodbye.

  11. Applicability to other media? on Embedding of Copyright Infringing Video Not (Necessarily) a Crime · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >By listing plays and giving the name and address of the theaters where they are being performed, the New Yorker is not performing them. It is not 'transmitting or communicating' them.

    Now, if we can only get the Judge to see the same about torrents.

  12. Re:Serious question: on ADA May Force Netflix To Provide Closed Captioning On Content · · Score: 1

    The disabled are not being forbidden to experience these media, they simply lack the ability to do so to the fullest.

    Deaf people have a right to listen to whatever they can hear, but not the ability.
    Hungry people have a right to eat, but not the ability.

    This is why the end result of this will be the case being appealed into oblivion or thrown out.
    Mind, it may bankrupt Netflix in the process.

  13. Roku Box on Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Watch TV In 2012? · · Score: 2

    The Roku Box fills all of my TV watching needs.

  14. Re:Are open-source desktops losing? on Are Open-Source Desktops Losing Competitiveness? · · Score: 1

    Funny you should mention that.
    I installed Mint and Kubuntu in succession over the weekend. I liked them both at first, and then liked Kubuntu better, and wound up keeping it in a dual boot setup with Windows 7.

    Figuring out how to mess with the bootloader to change which OS booted first was nervewracking, but ultimately both simple and empowering. I wound up renaming exactly two files, and didn't need to reformat or reinstall anything. The fact that I can now see and copy files from Windows to Kubuntu is just Icing on the cake. That wasn't possible the last time I tried a Linux distro.

    I'm going to be doing a lot of testing to see what Wine can do for me, in preparation for abandoning Windows as my main OS.

  15. Re:Crazy advice on Ask Slashdot: Best Science-Fiction/Fantasy For Kids? · · Score: 1

    >"I read him some of the short stories in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. He liked these, but I could tell he was having a hard time keeping up."

    Letting him finish reading anything on his own might take the unstated threat/insult of "you aren't good enough for the books your father reads" entirely out of the equation.

    Again, if he doesn't like books, stop making him feel guilty for not wanting to read them.

    The problem the OP has is his problem for having unrealistic expectations, namely that his son wants all the same things, and wants to do them the exact same way his father does.

    Stop giving your kids neuroses, Slashdot.

  16. Stop trying to dumb it down for your kid. on Ask Slashdot: Best Science-Fiction/Fantasy For Kids? · · Score: 2

    Give him a copy of Accelerando or Cyteen and let him sink or swim.

    If it ends up dust covered on a shelf, repeat after me: "It's perfectly OK for my kid not to like what I like, He's my son and I love him anyway.".

  17. Inadvertant proof of concept? on Pioneer Anomaly Solved · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does this discovery have a relationship (however distant or inefficient) to Nuclear Lightbulb or Nuclear Photonic propulsion? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_lightbulb

  18. Hypersonic shaped Paper Airplane on Ask Slashdot: The Very Best Paper Airplane? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The very best distance paper airplane I have ever encountered was shown to me by a fellow church-going Virginian when I was about 5 years old.
    You fold the paper into a very narrow dart looking shape, a wingspan of maybe an inch or so at most, a length of almost the entire sheet. Throwing this paper airplane, you can get incredible distances.
    I've never seen anyone else use that design, not that I've looked especially hard.

  19. Found a list I made some time ago. on Ask Slashdot: Good, Forgotten Fantasy & Science Fiction Novels? · · Score: 1

    Fantasy:
    The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
    Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.
    Anita Blake books up to Obsidian Butterfly, depending on your personal "Squick" factor.
    Dark Jewels series by Anne Bishop.
    Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman.
    Taltos series by Steven Brust.
    Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce.
    Pit Dragon trilogy by Jane Yolen.
    The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick.
    Light and Shadows series by Janny Wurts.
    The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny.
    Vampire$ by John Steakley.
    Young Wizards series by Diane Duane.
    A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin.
    I am Legend by Richard Matheson.

    Science Fiction:
    A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge.
    Downbelow Station and Cyteen, especially, of the Company Wars series by C.J. Cherryh.
    Foreigner series by C.J. Cherryh.
    Xenogenesis Series by Octavia E. Butler.
    Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein.
    Old Man's War series by John Scalzi.
    The Gap Into Conflict series by Stephen Donaldson.
    War Against the Chtorr series by David Gerrold.
    Draka! series by S.M. Stirling.
    Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, The Big U, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
    The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
    Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold.
    World War Z by Max Brooks.
    Culture Series by Iain M. Banks.
    Uplift series by David Brin.
    Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. This became a movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120004/
    Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith.
    Crystal Singer series by Anne McCaffrey.
    Accelerando, The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross.
    Vang series by Christopher Rowley.

  20. Re:Teens do a lot of dumb stuff. on Teens Share Passwords As a Form of Intimacy · · Score: 1

    IANAL. Your record isn't necessarily automatically sealed. You may need to contact an attorney to have it done.

  21. Glasses? on UK Police Test 'Temporarily Blinding' LASER · · Score: 2

    Is there any sort of eye protection for laser weapons like this that can be made inexpensively, for use by protesters and the like?

    Something less unwieldy than welding glass, perhaps tuned to the laser's spectrum?

  22. Gerard K. O'Neill and Space Exploitation on Ask The Bad Astronomer · · Score: 1

    Was his plan for the Human Colonization and Exploitation of Space https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_High_Frontier:_Human_Colonies_in_Space a realistic one, given the new things we've learned in various fields of research over the last 50 years?

    Has anyone come up with a better long term plan for either Colonization or Exploitation?

  23. Evidence? on Scientists Plan "Artificial Volcano" Climate Experiment · · Score: 0

    I still haven't seen any overwhelming evidence that global warming is real. Just a lot of hot air from talking heads and religious pseudo-science "true-believers".

    Any actual proof that isn't bought-and-paid-for or biased by one side of the debate or the other?

  24. Re:Fully Informed Jury Association on Jury Acquits Citizens of Illegally Filming Police · · Score: 1

    "The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy."
    -John Jay, 1st Chief Justice U.S. Supreme Court 1789

    A small Pamphlet called "Citizens Rule Book, A Palladium of Liberty, Bill of Rights, Jury Handbook" Has the rights and responsibilities of a juror all laid out. I suggest everyone find a copy.

  25. No. on Have We Reached Maximum Sustainable Population Size? · · Score: 1

    The U.S.A. and several other first world nations (to my knowledge) have policies in place preventing crops from being grown at maximum production rates/acreage.

    I'm under the impression that first world nations (U.S.A., Britain, Japan, etc) have a near flat population growth curve. It is the up-and-coming third world nations that encourage massive overpopulation (China, Africa, India, etc).

    If these nations cannot produce enough food to feed their own populations, let them starve and their societies collapse. Problem solved. Darwinism at it's finest, and it keeps the first world nations in a social/cultural position of preeminence.

    As an alternative, repeal the policies keeping first world farms from producing the wanted crops and selling them to anyone who wants to buy. However, that would require Politicians to admit there was something they or their predecessors screwed up. Good Luck!

    As a side note, China doesn't need too much help reaching a Malthusian solution. Check the male to female ratio in China. http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/03/14/sex-selection-china-india.html
    People this irresponsible frighten me.