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User: RCC42

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  1. Uhm... so... on Northeast Passage Becomes Viable Trade Route · · Score: 1

    Good? :(

  2. Re:Black people happier? on The Genetics of Happiness · · Score: 1

    Due to anecdotal reasons I have to agree with the parent.

    SSRIs make 'bad' situations seem 'fine' so there's no drive to get out of them. Whether that be a bad relationship, bad living arrangements, bad job, etc. Sadness and dissatisfaction can be powerful motivators to improve your life. Of course they can also become crippling when people are unable or unwilling to make changes and end up stuck in that unhappy place for too long. SSRIs make that unhappy place a normal place... so why change?

    Kind of sad. But SSRIs are very useful for helping people out of depression... though proper support from friends and family would probably do the same thing if done properly.

  3. The speed of light on Can Relativity Explain Faster Than Light Particles? · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

  4. It stood up on Boston Dynamics Unveils AlphaDog Quadruped Robot · · Score: 1

    Did you guys see that? When it rolled over and stood up? Man it kind of freaked me out a little how good it was at that, considering how godamn heavy it must be.

  5. Beat me to it on Indie Devs Upload Their Own Game To The Pirate Bay · · Score: 1

    I'm still in development of my own one man indie thing (no link cause you deserve better) and I was going to do the same thing. Well, the more the merrier!

  6. Take a look at the FOIA doc on DHS Tries To Hide Mobile Scanner Details · · Score: 2

    http://epic.org/foia_notes/foia_doc_20_snap.PDF

    Apparently "(5)(b)" is the only thing we're allowed to know about this project. What the hell?

  7. Re:But where does that leave our immune systems? on New Drug Could Cure Nearly Any Viral Infection · · Score: 1

    I suspect that there would be enough viral debris and intact viruses that an immune system would be able to at least notice something was happening.

    DRACO doesn't kill the virus, it kills the cells that are incubating the virus. So there would be 'free floating' and live viruses that your immune system would deal with.

    The main reason viruses screw with us is because our immune system can't see them inside our own cells, those cells make a bunch of viruses and then release them to infect others. Our immune systems only have a small window of time to catch the viruses before they find a new cell and hide again.

    AFAIK the only way the body can cure a virus once it goes totally rampant inside of your cells is to overheat to the point that it doesn't kill you but it kills the virus (Fever) since your immune system can't contain the viral load anymore and are simply outnumbered. The reason vaccines work and how you can catch, recover and then be immune to a virus is because the virus never gets to the 'rampant' stage, it's noticed and killed immediately by the immune system while your immune system outnumbers it millions to one.

    So to answer your original question: This can only be an incredibly good thing if it works as advertised.

    p.s. Many vaccines work by injecting DEAD viruses into you. Your immune system sees them and does its thing, pumping out antibodies as if it were a real threat - once that's done you're effectively immune until the antibodies die out but even then, afaik, there's still some lingering defence.

  8. Philosophical Theory: Not to be taken literally on First Observational Test of the "Multiverse" · · Score: 1

    Philosophical Theory: Not to be taken literally

  9. Isaac Isamov did it first on Marooned Off Vesta · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just in case anyone wanted to know 'Marooned off Vesta' was the title of Isaac Isamov's first published (short) story. As I remember it was fairly good.

  10. Hostile Act or Act of War? on Military Drone Attacks Are Not 'Hostile' · · Score: 1

    So dropping a physical bomb from a physical drone flying above a group of physical people who get turned into smaller physical components when the bomb lands is not a hostile act against the nation that it happens in YET hacking into or damaging a computer network in a nation is an act of war?

    So it would be legal for terrorists to use drones to drop bombs on americans but an act of war for the US to release Stuxnet against Iran.

    Woohoo?

    I mean, I'm just a jobless IT professional in Vancouver, Canada and I figured these 'loopholes' out, how the fuck could the people making these kinds of declarations not realize the potential flaws here?

  11. Re:He still doesn't get it on Lack of Technology Puts Star Wars Series On Hold · · Score: 1

    Most of the new Battlestar Galactica was just actors in starkly lit metal boxes talking fiercely at each other with a few minutes per episode of (relatively inexpensive looking but still workable) cgi and almost bad-looking cgi cylons (the metal ones I mean, not the meatbag ones)

    Yet everyone loved that series until the lolfinal episode.

  12. Anonymous or not? on NATO Report Threatens To 'Persecute' Anonymous · · Score: 1

    I thought the PBS hack group was distinct and separate from Anonymous? I mean, obviously the lines are a little muddy, but didn't the hackers basically say "We're not the Anonymous you're thinking of." when they did the hack? It would be like everyone blaming Al-Qaeda for a terrorist attack that Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out just because they're both interested in calling themselves islamo-terrorists and have ideas and goals that at a glance seem similar with outward appearances that might be confusing for an uninformed observer.

    I can imagine a southerner saying "Them thar' terr'rsts" in one breath and "That them anonamouse" in the other.

  13. Re:Nuclear power requires honest governments on Swiss To End Use of Nuclear Power · · Score: 2

    Okay so a revolution can stop an out of control government.

    What stops an out of control corporation?

  14. Re:Nuclear power requires honest governments on Swiss To End Use of Nuclear Power · · Score: 2

    Better untrustworthy governments than irresponsible and rapacious corporations.

  15. Actually... on Norwegian Police, Seeking Info On 2 Bloggers, Take Data From 7,000 Accounts · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What can you say except welcome to Socialism at work? Trust us, we're the government, we know what's best.

    Actually it sounds like fascism to me.

    One of socialism's (purported) goals is to reduce levels of government and government power overall in place of individual or collective power.

  16. Re:OK, so I don't know the whole story... on Pot Grower's Privacy Challenged · · Score: 2

    But let's compare to some other businesses. Banks, for instance, are businesses that are often targeted by criminals. They - OH MY GOD - list their addresses publically! I feel the bank's right to privacy has been violated here. Not only that, but how can the banks survive now that the criminals know where they are?! OMG!

    Seriously, people. If you legalize the growing of marijuana, it's just like any other product now. You want to run a respectable business, then do it. If you are concerned about security, do what any other company concerned about security would do, put down the pipe, and GET SOME SECURITY.

    It's funny that the submitter chose the words "risk of armed robbery by criminals" to describe the dangers posed to grow warehouses since, by law, Federal agents are allowed to and frequently do raid Medical Marijuana stores and warehouses in states where it's legal.

    Since the Feds usually kick the doors down, wave their guns around and take all the weed it seems to me that if you described the situation to someone and didn't mention that the aggressors had DEA written on their hats then the person you described it to would probably agree that it sounded like an armed robbery by criminals.

  17. But... but..! on NASA Strikes Gold and Water On the Moon · · Score: 1

    No diamonds?

  18. Atlanta? on Ringleader of RBS WorldPay Heist Faces Charges in US · · Score: 1

    They shipped him from Estonia to Atlanta? Poor guy. No crime is worth going to Atlanta.

  19. Re:Alternative Interpretation on A New Take On the Fermi Paradox · · Score: 1

    I don't know if that was sarcastic or not so allow me to clarify. I'm not suggesting that earth or anything goes through cycles of life that are identical but go faster each time.

    What I am talking about is for example how all life on earth was for a time anaerobic until the release of oxygen by aerobic creatures killed them off and other similar dieoffs including the Great Dying 250 million years ago and then that whole incident with the end of the dinosaurs.

    More importantly however, and despite my efforts I can't remember the details, there have been die-offs at varying levels of life development that may be unique to our planet, or at least uncommon.

  20. Re:Alternative Interpretation on A New Take On the Fermi Paradox · · Score: 1

    Here's an alternative: Perhaps we are the First. Perhaps humanity is the first culture to rise to the point of being able to leave their home planet, even for a short while.

    Well as I understand it earth has gone through a number of catastrophic die-offs that killed most of the life on the planet like... 7 times? According to what I read, life on earth accelerated it's evolution and development after each cataclysm and progressed faster and faster. I never see THIS being taken into account for these sorts of calculations. We assume that the time it took for life on earth to go from primordial goo to space-flight capable humans is roughly the norm. What if our evolution is slightly or massively accelerated because of these die-offs and rebirths? What if some other planet had only 5 die-offs and is lagging behind us? We may not be the first (though we could be because of the aforementioned) but we could possibly be one of the early birds despite the youth of our star.

  21. Amazing what we get for news these days. on Researchers Create 4nm Transistor With Seven Atoms · · Score: 1

    Seven atom transistors, quantum cryptography, nuclear and weather modeling applications and journals called "Nature Nanotechnology"...

    Ladies and gentlemen, if this isn't the future then what is?

  22. Re:Please get your facts right in TED talks! on The Fashion Industry As a Model For IP Reform · · Score: 2

    My instinct tells me you're being sarcastic, but if not... holy crap on a cracker you need to get out more!

  23. Public interest affect? on Shuttle Reentry Over the Continental US · · Score: 1

    If geography allowed it and it made orbital sense to fly over a populated area during every landing, do you think the general population might be more aware and interested in space travel?

    If I had an orbital vehicle streaking across the sky every month or so, I would certainly be very aware of the pace of space travel and keep it in my head for longer then I do now.

  24. MK-ULTRA all over again! on Military Asserts Right To Respond To Cyberattacks · · Score: 1

    Does the general reaction by the US government (and world governments) remind everyone of the bizarre tactics and theories thrown around about communist psychics threatening US interests?

    "We don't understand the danger exactly, or if there even is one, but we must be sure to have a counter to it!"

  25. Re:Come on Slashdot on ISS To Get Man Cave · · Score: 1

    I can understand that a mainstream (non-tech) news website would focus on a cutesy term like "man cave" to describe this new module, but would it have killed the Slashdot editors to include something about what the module is actually going to be used for?

    (turns out it'll be used as a storeroom. It doesn't have enough radiation shielding to allow it to be used as crew quarters).

    No, it's not a "man cave", and no, the R2 robot will not be used to serve drinks. It'll be used to investigate the potential of robots to perform EVA duties.

    If there isn't much in the way of radiation shielding for this new module why would the astronauts want to use it at all, let alone as a frequent place for R&R?