User: Redneck Flyboy

$.02 Kill Obamacare, use money to fund fusion

On: MIT Fusion Researchers Answer Your Questions

During the Obamacare debate, all kinds of financial tricks were used to limit the cost to roughly $1T over ten years. I argue, kill this divert the funding to fusion research. We would benefit more from solving our energy problem for the foreseeable future than we "benefit" from the mess that is Obamacare.

Re:Energy Independence

On: National Ignition Facility Fires 192-Beam Pulse

I'm pretty sure your pump it down to a sub / oil-rig / etc. idea to do RO is on par with a perpetual motion machine.

Re:time for 2-factor

On: Tigger.A Trojan Quietly Steals Stock Traders' Data

E*Trade does at least for account holders with sufficient assets.

Re:More likely it will punch a hole in the

On: LHC Flips On Tomorrow

Get with the times the term is VPILF. ;-)

Re:Dual Frequency

On: Ionospheric Interference With GPS Signals

The other thing is WAAS. FAA wanted a way to compensate for GPS signal degradation, so they had WAAS put in, which broadcasts correction data... from the GPS satellite! (That's why most modern GPS receivers can pick up WAAS easily - the satellite is already transmitting the information, so picking up the WAAS information is trivial). Of course, if you degrate the main GPS signal and don't degrade WAAS, the whole exercise is pointless.

The WAAS satellites are not GPS satellites. First off the WAAS sats are commercial not military and are multi-purpose, the FAA / DOT just leases bandwidth on these birds. Second the WAAS sats are geosynchronous (but the GPS sats are not). Note: None of this invalidates your basic argument that WAAS is "free" as compared to traditional DGPS.

Sources are many but these will do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Area_Augmentation_System

Re:First indicator

On: How To Spot E-Vote Tampering?

I should point out the parties in power have such low approval ratings. Last I checked the Democrat controlled congress has a much lower approval rating (~18%) than president Bush does (~29%). http://www.gallup.com/poll/107242/Congress-Approval-Rating-Ties-Lowest-Gallup-Records.aspx

Re:We won't always be so lucky

On: Further Details From Soyuz Mishap

Doh! Beat me to it (I guess I should have scrolled down).

Re:We won't always be so lucky

On: Further Details From Soyuz Mishap

And everyone with a brain will point out that more americans have died in american shuttle mishaps than have died in russian shuttle mishaps.

I would hope so given that it only flew once (unmaned). ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)/