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  1. It does not fairly represent the voters on Slashdot Asks: Should The US Abolish The Electoral College? · · Score: 4, Informative

    California has approx 574,000 voters per electoral vote. Contrast that to Wyoming with 142,000 voters per electoral vote. (This is because each state gets a minimum number of electoral votes.)

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/map_of_the_week/2012/11/presidential_election_a_map_showing_the_vote_power_of_all_50_states.html

    How in the world is that fair? Are we not giving voters in some states more power to elect the President than others?

  2. Close, but it goes deeper. on Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers? · · Score: 1

    True, Intellectuals tend to be depressed because they spend most of their time in their heads, absorbed in thought. Thinking is a great thing, but it's only a simulation created by your brain. You simulate some other place, some other time, some other reality, etc. These simulations can be valuable, but they also take you out of present-day reality.

    Using your example : You think you'll be screwed at some point in the future. There's a possibility that simulation could actually happen, but it's not happening right now. Sadly, if you believe these thoughts, then your body reacts to the the simulation as if you really are screwed right now. From that reaction springs things like fear, anxiety and depression.

    The key is to learn to step back a bit and not get so absorbed your thoughts, because they really are just simulations.

    (former depressed intellectual who learned to meditate)

  3. Re:Navy's answer to Chinese Anti-Carrier Missile on Warships May Get Lasers For Close-In Defense · · Score: 1

    Why would the Chinese even bother invade us with an army? They've already invaded us with cheap plastic crap, iPods and toxic dog food. In doing that, they're slowly taking ownership of this country.

  4. Re:Priorities on Warships May Get Lasers For Close-In Defense · · Score: 1

    Not too many ships have even been attacked in the past 50 years. The last successful one that I can recall was the Cole, which was successfully attacked by two guys in a rubber boat.

    Do we really need lasers to defend ourselves against that?

  5. What's the energy density? on Nanotech Ink Turns Paper Into a Low-Cost Battery · · Score: 1

    I hope I don't have to carry around a copy of "War and Peace" just to power my phone.

  6. Re:The summary reeks of an agenda on $529M Gov't Loan To Develop $89,000 Hybrid Sports Car · · Score: 0, Troll

    Actually, a few hundred million is chump change. Republicans already gave themselves several trillion dollars.

    It's called George Bush's Iraq War and his administration's bailout of Wall Street late last year.

    Money spent on saving the planet is money well spent.

  7. You're right. on $529M Gov't Loan To Develop $89,000 Hybrid Sports Car · · Score: 4, Informative

    Development of the $89,000 sports car is already complete. That car ships in a few months.

    The DOE loan is for a $39K family car that will be built here.

    http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/fisker-39k-plug-in-hybrid-electric-car-2012-ray-lane.php

  8. Re:Very misleading on $529M Gov't Loan To Develop $89,000 Hybrid Sports Car · · Score: 1

    Why does Rupert Murdoch hate Al Gore so much?

    Here's a link to a description of the $39,000 sports car they're developing, which will also be made in the USA, and deserves the DOE loan as much as any other company building electric/hybrid cars domestically

    http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/fisker-39k-plug-in-hybrid-electric-car-2012-ray-lane.php

  9. Re:Professional Trolls on $529M Gov't Loan To Develop $89,000 Hybrid Sports Car · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Exactly. Fox will distory any news story it can find just to slam Al Gore in an attempt to dilute his credibility.

    The Fisker sports car is actually a sports sedan. It has already been developed and will ship early next year. The loan in question is for Fisker to develop a family car that will be less than half the price of the sedan.

    Here's a link:
    http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/fisker-doe-loan-528-million-karma-plug-in-electric-car.php

  10. I remember being inside a Sage on Big, Beautiful Boxes From Computer History · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I was in high school, my computer class did a field trip to one of the sites. It was a two story building, with each floor the size of a department store and filled with aisles and aisle of racks filled with vacuum tube processing modules. The had disk had a drum the size of a small trash can. Even at the time (late 70's) the guy giving the tour said the computer could be replaced by one the size of a phone booth. These days, a few hundred of them could fit into something the size of a phone.

  11. Re:Academic elitists insulting our children on Dogs As Intelligent As Average Two-Year-Old Children · · Score: 1

    You had me until 'dystopian'

    That word is in my dog's 200 word vocabulary, but not Sarah Palin's.

  12. Re:These places should do what others do on Portables Without Cameras? · · Score: 1

    You may get the pictures out of the building, but if the tamper seal is broken, you won't get yourself out of the building without being questioned or perhaps even arrested.

  13. Not this author... on "Authors Guild" Skims Half of Google Book-Rights Settlement · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been a published author of computer books for almost 15 years, writing 12 books for several major publishers. All of my books have been scanned and put online by Google without my consent.

    The first I heard of the Author's Guild was when Google sent me a notice about this matter and offered me practically nothing for the 'right' to steal my books. I do not have a contract with the Authors Guild and did not give the Author's Guild any right to speak for me. I'd imagine most authors didn't authorize them, either.

  14. One sixth, not six times on Feds To Offer Cash For Your Clunker · · Score: 5, Informative

    The average is in the range of 10-15%, which is about one sixth the lifetime emissions of the vehicle. Perhaps you got your numbers mixed up.

    Here's a good Google Answers article with lots of references:

    http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=433981

  15. Fragile, needing help, seeming vulnerable... on The Neurological Basis of Con Games · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Con men ply their trade by appearing fragile or needing help, by seeming vulnerable...

    Sounds like a few women I've dated. Sometimes, love and romance is also a con game, now isn't it?

  16. Re:Getting in on the ground floor on Success Not Just a Matter of Talent · · Score: 1

    The big money is never in selling/installing existing technology, it's about creating new/better/cheaper technology.

    Plenty of room for improvement in the areas of battery/storage technology, solar power, wind power, tidal power, power distribution, etc... etc...

    It will be the next boom and it will happen a LOT sooner than you expect.

  17. Oh boy, another way to burn fossil fuels. on Pentagon Clears Flying-Car Project For Takeoff · · Score: 1

    Why exactly do we need to spend government money on flying cars that will most likely burn a lot more fuel than our current gas guzzlers? Because some dork in the defense department thinks the 1950's are still cool?

    Put the money into something more practical for this century - like developing an electric car that's affordable and doesn't suck.

  18. Re:Take advantage of aerodynamics on Fuel Efficiency and Slow Driving? · · Score: 5, Informative

    You actually don't suck efficiency from the car in front of you. That car actually gets a slight boost in efficiency because a second car following close reduces drag-inducing turbulence off the back of the lead car.

  19. If the solar cells aren't ready in 30 minutes... on Solar Cells — Made In a Pizza Oven · · Score: 1

    ...are they free?

  20. Next trademark attempt - Clod Computing on Dell Loses Bid To Trademark "Cloud Computing" · · Score: 4, Funny

    i.e. - Computing for idiots.

  21. Unmanned = Sexist on First All-Drone USAF Air Wing · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Unwomanned would be as well.

    Unhumanned.

  22. Look for him in Russia on Spam King Escapes From Federal Prison · · Score: 1

    Where else would a 'spam king' find asylum?

  23. Hey, I'm fast at this.... on Google Creates Tour de France Video Maps · · Score: 1

    I can click through stage 1 faster than Alexander Valverde can ride it.

  24. Join the Army on Scholarships From FOSS Organizations? · · Score: 3, Funny

    They'll pay your tuition... then they'll send you someplace where people shoot at you.

    Hmmmmm... maybe join the Canadian Army instead.

  25. Not to mention cell phones can cause car crashes. on Cell Phone Use Study Sees Increased Cancer Risk · · Score: 1

    Put the phone down and drive, please.