Agreed. Wouldn't it be much better & cheaper to create a global space agency. Use the best technology from all the member countries.
We are one people and its about time we started acting like it.
That's a cute notion, but it'll never happen. An international space agency would be so full of politics that it'd be more likely to use the worst technology from each country than the best. We can't even get a long well enough inside the US to properly fund and direct NASA, and you want to throw international politics into the mix?
Still, I'll give credit where credit is due, its a good dream. Though I think for the significant future it will remain a dream.
Waste disposal is a solved problem. Reprocessing the spent fuel can remove all the extremely radioactively hot material which can then be fissioned in the reactor again. That'll break it down into much cooler material. The rest of the material has a half-life of only a few decades and is much lower level to begin with. You can even remove a small amount of precious metals from the spent fuel, stuff like silver, gold and platinum.
Storage for the stuff you can't fission again isn't a big issue. The material can be melted down into a glass and stored in a very small amount of space. We aren't talking a lot of material here, all spent fuel in the US since the first reactor came online could be stored in a football field sized hole about 15 feet deep.
All the engineering problems have been solved, most nuclear energy problems are created politically.
I for one thought it was a very interesting article. I encourage you all to actually read it.
I particularly liked the part about Google's separation of data. Its an interesting look at the way that company, who's efforts are all funded by our personal data, is run. Nice peek inside a world I wouldn't get to see otherwise.
Actually a random thought just occurred to me, if everyone was as concerned about privacy as slashdotters, would Google still have been successful enough to launch Android? Without personal data Google doesn't have a source of income. Without money, no R&D dollars for things not strictly related to their core business.
The full article doesn't even have the word "Democrat" in it.
HB220 would require schools to teach students that the U.S. is a compound constitutional republic and about other forms of government such as pure democracy, monarchy and oligarchy along with political philosophies and economic systems such as socialism, individualism and free-market capitalism. The Senate passed the bill with no dissenting votes Monday.
This is something that should be a part of every child's education anyway. The submitter has taken a completely non-controversial bill and managed to troll slashdot with it.
I would suggest that anybody who wishes to discuss this scandal, or global warming in general, watch this video of Dr. Richard Muller discussing the current state of global warming science. Its about an hour long but well worth it.
Updating her Facebook status instead of dialling 911 is a mite cold. But is it illegal?
FTFA: Veloz had exited his vehicle after getting into a minor accident with another motorist at around 7:30 AM. He was standing near the other driver’s vehicle exchanging information when he was struck by Beas. His right leg was partially severed, and he lost too much blood. Veloz was pronounced dead at around 9:30 AM in a nearby hospital.
Two accidents took place here. Veloz had a fender bender with another driver, then Beas hit him with her car. So, before you condemn actions that didn't take place perhaps you should read the full article. Just a thought, feel free to ignore it, just like you did the article.
I see no part of the paper that addresses the inherent problems with wind power. The wind doesn't always blow, and until we have grid storage capabilities wind power is essentially a gimmick, it has to be backed up with nuclear or fossil fuel generated power.
Take Texas for example, we have more wind generating capacity than any other state by a long shot. Only a few weeks ago we were forced into rolling blackouts. Because it got cold energy demand spiked, however we weren't able to use our 9,500MW of wind power because it just so happens that when it gets cold down here the wind doesn't blow as hard, at least in the regions that house our wind power production. So we had high demand and no help from the wind generation. A pipe froze and burst at a coal plant, which forced it off the grid and suddenly we don't have enough generating capacity to meet demand and ERCOT forces rolling blackouts on the state. See this for more details.
I'm all for renewable energy, but the way I see it an 100% renewable energy grid needs a few technologies we don't have yet.
Inexpensive, large capacity storage. This would make wind a much more attractive option, though I'd still rather build a Thorium reactor for the land area, but some places have more space than others.
A more efficient, smart gird. We need to be able to ship solar power from sunny California to cloudy NE Ohio without much, or any, loss. I used to live there, we got about 25% of the available sunlight year round.
Some sort of new energy storage technology. I'm thinking automotive use here. I don't see how large, heavy, rare-earth metal filled lithium ion battery packs are sustainable. As far as I am aware hydrogen fuel cells also have issues. Last I knew they'd have to be under extreme, and I'd say unsafe, pressure to pack in enough hydrogen to have a range of 400 miles. My info could be outdated so feel free to correct me.
So yeah, seems like a Puff paper to me. I'd like to see more work done on make those three things I listed above achievable and less on PR.
"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play on the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?" - John Milton
You want to fight loonies like Glen Beck? This is how you do it, with truth. Prove him wrong, respectfully, and people will listen. Show that you are more concerned about seeking truth than proving one person wrong and people will respect your opinion. That's how Glen Beck has sucked in his crowd, he appears to have done his homework. You need to do yours and then show the work! That will set you apart from him.
This process is best done on a personal basis. Its much easier to convey that you only care about seeking and finding the truth, and not attacking the man, in person than it is on a blog or some other form of media. Blogs still have their place, but the biggest opportunity is when someone you know mentions something he says and you can refute it right there on the spot.
I have some family on both sides of the spectrum that believe some crazy things. I have found that the only time people listen is when you attack falsehood directly. Touch their hero of choice and they don't listen, touch what he/she says and they just might.
I read the story title and thought it said "Portal III, Source Engine Still Coming to Linux". I was so full of happiness and joy! A triple hit! Another Portal game, Source and Linux IN THE SAME STORY. Perhaps, once Portal was on Linux valve would port Counterstrike Source and I could forever abandon Windows! I saw a vision of a broken window, and through it poured fresh, pine scented air and butterflies and hypo-allergenic puppies. It was the happiest moment of my life.
We still practice segregation in America. Its called public restrooms, would you like to get rid of those too?
Segregation is perfectly fine in some situations. When it isn't being forced on people unwillingly and enforced by the government. If a group wants to self-segregate you have no business crying foul.
I don't make distinctions between the two parties anymore. Sure Democrats are cool with abortion and Republicans usually aren't. Sure Republicans usually favor gun rights whereas Democrats usually want to restrict them. But honestly, on the stuff that really matters the parties both do the same thing. Tax and spend, cut the budget by X billions and pat themselves on the back, meanwhile we have a deficit measured in TRILLIONS.
The parties differ on petty social issues, but they behave rather unified when it comes to destroying the constitution and violating our rights. How does net neutrality or an internet kill switch matter when the government has unconstitutionally seized power it wasn't granted and then used that power to imprison citizens without a trial? The social issues have become a distraction, we get all caught up over abortion while government hordes more and more power. Heck, we give the government more power to legislate our opinions into law!
At this point I vote for people, regardless of their party, based on two things. 1) Gun rights - our last line of defense against a government run amok. 2) Smaller Government - If the candidate has ever created a new government department he/she is out. If he/she has a record of cutting government size and spending, I'll give my vote. Though I must admit I often chose the "lesser of two evils."
Wait, what? Shooting another person is murdering*! Sure in both cases shooting a gun took place, but the term murder can definitely be applied to the human shooting and not to the beer can shooting. Calling a shooting of another person a murder is not misleading at all, if anything its more accurate than calling it a shooting as its more specific.
Methinks you need to find another example to prove your point.
*At least if the victim dies, not all shootings are fatal, thank God.
I think our democracies only grow stronger through a little unrest and political replacement every once in a while. What do you think?
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson
While I hope we can fix the problems in our government without bloodshed, I believe the general sentiment of Jefferson's comment applies. We do need some political replacement. As crazy as the Tea Party can be, I like the idea of voting for people with no previous political background and so I hope we get a significant minority of Tea Party candidates elected. Not enough to push something really stupid, but enough to challenge and expose the political rot at the heart of Washington.
This summary is ridiculous. Can we get a little more fact and a little less whining please?
Yes the rich are different, they went and did something to earn their money instead of sitting and pouting about how the little man can't get ahead! In America, 80% of millionaires are first-generation rich. They are people from every walk of life who behaved rich instead of acting rich.
Its not taxes keeping the little man down, its attitude. Get up, leave the cave, find something and kill it! There is limitless opportunity, even in a bad economy.
Before any of you accuse me of being Bill Gates in disguise, I'm actually just a recent college graduate who's almost 50k in debt. I'm not gonna be here forever though, and I don't blame other people for my lack of wealth! I just can't stand the politics of envy.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. Wouldn't it be much better & cheaper to create a global space agency. Use the best technology from all the member countries. We are one people and its about time we started acting like it.
That's a cute notion, but it'll never happen. An international space agency would be so full of politics that it'd be more likely to use the worst technology from each country than the best. We can't even get a long well enough inside the US to properly fund and direct NASA, and you want to throw international politics into the mix?
Still, I'll give credit where credit is due, its a good dream. Though I think for the significant future it will remain a dream.
Waste disposal is a solved problem. Reprocessing the spent fuel can remove all the extremely radioactively hot material which can then be fissioned in the reactor again. That'll break it down into much cooler material. The rest of the material has a half-life of only a few decades and is much lower level to begin with. You can even remove a small amount of precious metals from the spent fuel, stuff like silver, gold and platinum.
Storage for the stuff you can't fission again isn't a big issue. The material can be melted down into a glass and stored in a very small amount of space. We aren't talking a lot of material here, all spent fuel in the US since the first reactor came online could be stored in a football field sized hole about 15 feet deep.
All the engineering problems have been solved, most nuclear energy problems are created politically.
I for one thought it was a very interesting article. I encourage you all to actually read it.
I particularly liked the part about Google's separation of data. Its an interesting look at the way that company, who's efforts are all funded by our personal data, is run. Nice peek inside a world I wouldn't get to see otherwise.
Actually a random thought just occurred to me, if everyone was as concerned about privacy as slashdotters, would Google still have been successful enough to launch Android? Without personal data Google doesn't have a source of income. Without money, no R&D dollars for things not strictly related to their core business.
Turner Whitted An improved illumination model for shaded display Communications of the ACM, v.23 n.6, p.343-349, June 1980
I was unaware Whitted worked for Intel. </sarcasm>
The full article doesn't even have the word "Democrat" in it.
HB220 would require schools to teach students that the U.S. is a compound constitutional republic and about other forms of government such as pure democracy, monarchy and oligarchy along with political philosophies and economic systems such as socialism, individualism and free-market capitalism. The Senate passed the bill with no dissenting votes Monday.
This is something that should be a part of every child's education anyway. The submitter has taken a completely non-controversial bill and managed to troll slashdot with it.
Curse you and your Karma bonus! I post the same thing at the same time, but yours will get all the attention.
Time to go cry in the corner like the newbie I am.
That's no moon! Its a space station!
Also, here is his website if you are interested: http://berkeleyearth.org/
I would suggest that anybody who wishes to discuss this scandal, or global warming in general, watch this video of Dr. Richard Muller discussing the current state of global warming science. Its about an hour long but well worth it.
Updating her Facebook status instead of dialling 911 is a mite cold. But is it illegal?
FTFA: Veloz had exited his vehicle after getting into a minor accident with another motorist at around 7:30 AM. He was standing near the other driver’s vehicle exchanging information when he was struck by Beas. His right leg was partially severed, and he lost too much blood. Veloz was pronounced dead at around 9:30 AM in a nearby hospital.
Two accidents took place here. Veloz had a fender bender with another driver, then Beas hit him with her car. So, before you condemn actions that didn't take place perhaps you should read the full article. Just a thought, feel free to ignore it, just like you did the article.
I see no part of the paper that addresses the inherent problems with wind power. The wind doesn't always blow, and until we have grid storage capabilities wind power is essentially a gimmick, it has to be backed up with nuclear or fossil fuel generated power.
Take Texas for example, we have more wind generating capacity than any other state by a long shot. Only a few weeks ago we were forced into rolling blackouts. Because it got cold energy demand spiked, however we weren't able to use our 9,500MW of wind power because it just so happens that when it gets cold down here the wind doesn't blow as hard, at least in the regions that house our wind power production. So we had high demand and no help from the wind generation. A pipe froze and burst at a coal plant, which forced it off the grid and suddenly we don't have enough generating capacity to meet demand and ERCOT forces rolling blackouts on the state. See this for more details.
I'm all for renewable energy, but the way I see it an 100% renewable energy grid needs a few technologies we don't have yet.
Inexpensive, large capacity storage. This would make wind a much more attractive option, though I'd still rather build a Thorium reactor for the land area, but some places have more space than others.
A more efficient, smart gird. We need to be able to ship solar power from sunny California to cloudy NE Ohio without much, or any, loss. I used to live there, we got about 25% of the available sunlight year round.
Some sort of new energy storage technology. I'm thinking automotive use here. I don't see how large, heavy, rare-earth metal filled lithium ion battery packs are sustainable. As far as I am aware hydrogen fuel cells also have issues. Last I knew they'd have to be under extreme, and I'd say unsafe, pressure to pack in enough hydrogen to have a range of 400 miles. My info could be outdated so feel free to correct me.
So yeah, seems like a Puff paper to me. I'd like to see more work done on make those three things I listed above achievable and less on PR.
"Makes you think twice about storing data on SSDs — once you put it on, getting it off isn't so easy."
My 12 gauge begs to differ. Pull!
Fair enough, but you could point out the technique and how it is rather underhanded.
"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play on the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?" - John Milton
You want to fight loonies like Glen Beck? This is how you do it, with truth. Prove him wrong, respectfully, and people will listen. Show that you are more concerned about seeking truth than proving one person wrong and people will respect your opinion. That's how Glen Beck has sucked in his crowd, he appears to have done his homework. You need to do yours and then show the work! That will set you apart from him.
This process is best done on a personal basis. Its much easier to convey that you only care about seeking and finding the truth, and not attacking the man, in person than it is on a blog or some other form of media. Blogs still have their place, but the biggest opportunity is when someone you know mentions something he says and you can refute it right there on the spot.
I have some family on both sides of the spectrum that believe some crazy things. I have found that the only time people listen is when you attack falsehood directly. Touch their hero of choice and they don't listen, touch what he/she says and they just might.
Let Truth and Falsehood grapple.
I read the story title and thought it said "Portal III, Source Engine Still Coming to Linux". I was so full of happiness and joy! A triple hit! Another Portal game, Source and Linux IN THE SAME STORY. Perhaps, once Portal was on Linux valve would port Counterstrike Source and I could forever abandon Windows! I saw a vision of a broken window, and through it poured fresh, pine scented air and butterflies and hypo-allergenic puppies. It was the happiest moment of my life.
Then I read the title again and I cried.
Commenting to undo unintentional mod.
We still practice segregation in America. Its called public restrooms, would you like to get rid of those too?
Segregation is perfectly fine in some situations. When it isn't being forced on people unwillingly and enforced by the government. If a group wants to self-segregate you have no business crying foul.
I don't make distinctions between the two parties anymore. Sure Democrats are cool with abortion and Republicans usually aren't. Sure Republicans usually favor gun rights whereas Democrats usually want to restrict them. But honestly, on the stuff that really matters the parties both do the same thing. Tax and spend, cut the budget by X billions and pat themselves on the back, meanwhile we have a deficit measured in TRILLIONS.
The parties differ on petty social issues, but they behave rather unified when it comes to destroying the constitution and violating our rights. How does net neutrality or an internet kill switch matter when the government has unconstitutionally seized power it wasn't granted and then used that power to imprison citizens without a trial? The social issues have become a distraction, we get all caught up over abortion while government hordes more and more power. Heck, we give the government more power to legislate our opinions into law!
At this point I vote for people, regardless of their party, based on two things. 1) Gun rights - our last line of defense against a government run amok. 2) Smaller Government - If the candidate has ever created a new government department he/she is out. If he/she has a record of cutting government size and spending, I'll give my vote. Though I must admit I often chose the "lesser of two evils."
Wait, what? Shooting another person is murdering*! Sure in both cases shooting a gun took place, but the term murder can definitely be applied to the human shooting and not to the beer can shooting. Calling a shooting of another person a murder is not misleading at all, if anything its more accurate than calling it a shooting as its more specific.
Methinks you need to find another example to prove your point.
*At least if the victim dies, not all shootings are fatal, thank God.
http://xkcd.com/504/
I think our democracies only grow stronger through a little unrest and political replacement every once in a while. What do you think?
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson
While I hope we can fix the problems in our government without bloodshed, I believe the general sentiment of Jefferson's comment applies. We do need some political replacement. As crazy as the Tea Party can be, I like the idea of voting for people with no previous political background and so I hope we get a significant minority of Tea Party candidates elected. Not enough to push something really stupid, but enough to challenge and expose the political rot at the heart of Washington.
Wait a few hundred years and they'll be using cruise missiles!
Too white and too ugly... I agree.
You mean like most /.ers?
This summary is ridiculous. Can we get a little more fact and a little less whining please?
Yes the rich are different, they went and did something to earn their money instead of sitting and pouting about how the little man can't get ahead! In America, 80% of millionaires are first-generation rich. They are people from every walk of life who behaved rich instead of acting rich.
Its not taxes keeping the little man down, its attitude. Get up, leave the cave, find something and kill it! There is limitless opportunity, even in a bad economy.
Before any of you accuse me of being Bill Gates in disguise, I'm actually just a recent college graduate who's almost 50k in debt. I'm not gonna be here forever though, and I don't blame other people for my lack of wealth! I just can't stand the politics of envy.