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User: Turksarama

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Comments · 16

  1. Now it'll get research on Thorium Fuel Has Proliferation Risk · · Score: 2

    Uranium reactors were originally developed over Thorium at least partially BECAUSE you could make bombs with the technology. The nuclear arms race is 'over' in the west but I'm interested to see if this revelation makes Thorium reactor research suddenly interesting to world powers.

  2. Re:On the oil/steam separator... on HydroICE Project Developing a Solar-Powered Combustion Engine · · Score: 2

    If you use a small amount of oil to flash a relatively large amount of water you would get better efficiency, but you'd need to heat the oil to higher temperatures which brings its own problems. Also separating oil and water is easy, seeing as they don't actually mix.

  3. Re:Why bother with the oil? on HydroICE Project Developing a Solar-Powered Combustion Engine · · Score: 1

    It's the flash heating of the water into steam in the cylinder which creates the pressure to drive the piston. Using oil as the heat carrier is simply how they've chosen to concentrate as much heat as possible into a small volume with high surface area as a liquid. The only other way to achieve this would be to heat the edges of the cylinder to much higher temperatures (as they're solid and have low surface area so they don't transfer heat as well) which would likely damage them and reduce efficiency.

  4. Re:Teaching not testing on With NCLB Waiver, Virginia Sorts Kids' Scores By Race · · Score: 1

    In that case it seems like there should be special classes with dedicated teachers for catching up immigrants rather than teaching to the set curriculum.

  5. Robots don't regenerate on Artificial Muscles Pack a Mean Punch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On top of the power efficiency I'm also wondering how many times a muscle can be used before it gets too damaged.

  6. Teaching not testing on With NCLB Waiver, Virginia Sorts Kids' Scores By Race · · Score: 1

    wouldn't it make more sense to give extra attention to students with a background disadvantage rather than moving the bar? Letting kids pass with a lower score doesn't actually make them more educated.

  7. Re:Done right, fracking is harmless on Pennsylvania Fracking Law Opens Up Drilling On College Campuses · · Score: 1

    Even if fracking IS harmless, and fossil fuel extraction has a history of going wrong, it still isn't any sort of "golden chance for energy independence". The need for energy is increasing exponentially and fracking will in the end be a blip on the radar in terms of energy supply. It is merely prolonging the time spent burning carbon and will only be harmful in the long run as it puts off real long term (the definition of sustainable, as so many people seem to forget) solutions.

  8. Re:Can I Fund Unity a Negative Amount? on Ubuntu Asks Users To Pay What They Want · · Score: 1

    Has it occurred to you that Ubuntu is the most used linux distro BECAUSE it has an immature GUI? Most users are not power users.

  9. Re:Good news for the enviornment! on OSU's Microbial Fuel Cell Could Make Waste Treatment an Energy Source · · Score: 1

    Ideally, option A. It's like having extra tax money to spend on nice things that the idiots who don't realize tax = services won't complain about!

  10. Re:Good news for the enviornment! on OSU's Microbial Fuel Cell Could Make Waste Treatment an Energy Source · · Score: 2

    If waste treatment plants are privately owned then they're already being run for profit and are having 'margins' trimmed to the extent they can inside the law. If waste treatment plants are publicly owned then you don't suddenly need to privatize them if they start making energy and they won't be run for profit. It's just one more part of existing infrastructure, I don't see how it could suddenly lead to waste leaking everywhere.

  11. Re:Ugh, not this again. on Some Players Want Day-1 DLC, Says BioWare · · Score: 1

    You missed the point someone made earlier about how day 1 dlc is content you need to pay for, whereas if the only reason it wasn't on the disc was because it was too late then it could have been released as a free patch.

  12. Re:No, it'll just be an OPTION on Will Speed Limits Inhibit Autonomous Car Adoption? · · Score: 2

    It's like you've never been in a city before. If a car went around a block to avoid a pedestrian then it would probably have to pass 3 extra crossings which also all have pedestrians wanting to cross.

  13. Re:Power it from above on Laser Powers Lockheed Martin's Stalker Drone For 48 Hours · · Score: 1

    The difference in the distance is kinda staggering though, it's much harder to hit a small moving target from space on an also moving satellite, not to mention that even a laser beam diverges.

  14. Re:this is illegal on Patch Makes Certain Skin Cancers Disappear · · Score: 2

    From what little I can find on the UK law at least, it is only illegal if you do not have "sufficient" scientific proof to back up your claim which to me at least seems perfectly reasonable. This law was put in place to stop people from doing things like selling magnets and colloidal silver claiming that it can cure or decrease risk of cancer.

  15. Re:Proof of concept on Patch Makes Certain Skin Cancers Disappear · · Score: 2

    If you can think of a worse scenario than another cancer forming I'd like to know what it is. You also talk as if people who've looked into this more than either of us weren't already using beta radiation to treat cancers. The only difference between this and other radiation therapies is that the radiation is more precisely targeted. If you can make a convincing case that this is somehow more dangerous than current treatments I will gladly concede the point.

  16. Re:Proof of concept on Patch Makes Certain Skin Cancers Disappear · · Score: 3, Insightful

    5mm may be fairly deep, but remember that the amount of radiation drops of exponentially AND radiation is much better at killing cancerous cells than it is at converting healthy cells into cancerous ones. Worst case scenario is you get a new cancer where the old one already was, which you are probably watching very closely so it'll be picked up early.