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User: Reziac

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  1. Re:History says they have it backwards. on NASA: Increasing Carbon Emissions Risk Megadroughts · · Score: 1

    Definitely. And I'd guess the effect would continue to parts of the Middle East, another huge benefit. Remember that area wasn't always a desert. -- In Roman times, North Africa was the breadbasket of Europe.

  2. History says they have it backwards. on NASA: Increasing Carbon Emissions Risk Megadroughts · · Score: 1

    How about we look at what happened last time the earth 'suffered' increased insolation? The Sahara was green. Offhand I can't find the research article I wanted, but turns out the Sahara greened up during every warm period. Anyway, a couple links as a starter kit:

    http://knowledge.allianz.com/e...

    http://news.nationalgeographic...

  3. Re:Or maybe... on Smoking Is Even Deadlier Than Previously Thought · · Score: 2

    But potentially true. An imbalance in the endocrine system, perhaps, that leads to seeking what nicotine gives you. This would hardly be unknown (eg. seeking sugar in preference to other food can be caused by low thyroid; a midlife shift to vegetarianism is associated with low estrogen in women). Likely doesn't initiate smoking, but may well be why some people just can't quit.

    Also, there are parasites that cause behavior changes in their hosts, tho that's an unlikely cause in humans.

  4. Re:skynet on Should We Really Try To Teach Everyone To Code? · · Score: 1

    I can think of all sorts of people I wouldn't want writing code, even if only themselves had to use it. Just like I know lots of people who I wouldn't want to see driving an 18-wheeler. Not everyone needs to have every skillset. Specialization is what made civilization, the idea that when you need it done right and you can't do it very well, you find someone who can rather than just muddling through.

  5. Device for seniors on Ask Slashdot: Panic Button a Very Young Child Can Use · · Score: 1

    How about one of those devices designed for seniors ("fell and can't get up" call device) -- I gather some connect directly to 911, others to a preset phone number. They're designed for a person possibly incapacitated who only has enough remaining steam to push a button. Basically they're single-function cell phones.

  6. Re:So, why do we still have stars and stuff? on Quantum Equation Suggests Universe Had No Beginning · · Score: 1

    Create =new= hydrogen, or just blast the existing elements down to naked particles, which then coalesce as hydrogen...??

    And who's to say *our* Bang is the only one??

  7. Re:But... on Quantum Equation Suggests Universe Had No Beginning · · Score: 1

    If it oscillates like that -- what triggers the contraction? Is it elastic (explain why?) or does it reach a boundary (of what? and what's on the other side??) If neither is true -- where does it get the energy to rush back in the other direction? and why reverse? Why not go in some random direction? (in which case it would never become a point, but I think if this had ever happened, we'd see what amount to cosmic compression fractures.)

    I suspect the truth is we've read too much into what amounts to local movement (the part of the universe we can see, which if it's infinite, is a very small slice) and that coupled with man's desire to pigeonhole everything has produced theories like the Big Bang.

    'Course, could be we're just debris being flushed down some megacosmic toilet.

  8. Re:We the Government on Big Telecoms Strangling Municipal Broadband, FCC Intervention May Provide Relief · · Score: 1

    One problem with fixed wireless is that a mere 1.5Mbit is more costly than midrange DSL, and 5.7Mbit is downright upscale. Seems to me that market could use more competition, as I've yet to see more than one provider covering a given area. (Here I have a choice of one, and it's $70/mo. for 4Mbit. Or I can have DSL at barely-1.5Mbit for $30/mo.) How far can fixed wireless speed be improved? Cuz it certainly avoids that 'last mile investment' problem.

    Tho seems to me that if co-ops can handle electric service (in fact locally most electric service comes from a co-op), they could just as well handle the much-less-costly fixed wireless internet service... when they finally get done fighting over who pays what. But if you're just renting space on an existing cell tower (which was what my old provider did), how is that so terribly expensive??

    Incidentally, he told me the bandwidth he bought from AT&T cost him zilch for downloads, and 5 cents per GB for uploads.

  9. How to stop surveillance overnight on Ask Slashdot: What Will It Take To End Mass Surveillance? · · Score: 2

    All it takes is surveillance of the Mighty. Congress, President, every police department and enforcement agency, and don't forget the IRS.

    Their laundry is a lot dirtier than ours.

  10. Re:Doubtful on Woman Suffers Significant Weight Gain After Fecal Transplant · · Score: 1

    I imagine the bowel could be stripped and repopulated, tho -- use some of the same stuff they make you drink for colonoscopies to get it as empty as possible, then load well with the 'good' bacteria before the 'bad' can significantly regrow.

  11. Re:Lock Out All The Thingz!!!111 on Farmers Struggling With High-Tech Farm Equipment · · Score: 1

    Farming isn't entirely Big Business. Most farms, even large ones, are family-owned (tho most now sell their products to Big Business, because the smaller local markets couldn't make it anymore and are long gone). They may be thousands of acres, but that's because anywhere with a less than ag-friendly climate, it takes thousands of acres just to make a living wage. A lot of farmers have seasonal "town jobs" to make up the shortfall.

    But yeah, farming isn't a business where you can tolerate a lot of downtime. Crops typically have to be harvested in a very short window, and you can't be sitting there with that $300,000 tractor or combine unable to work, nor can you afford to buy a bunch of spares. Farmers need access to their equipment's guts and a reasonable ability to repair it on the spot, whether the problem is mechanical or electronic or even software. Otherwise crops are lost, farmers lose money, and the price of food goes up. And maybe John Deere goes out of business when farmers find a more user-friendly alternative.

  12. Bad roads? Here's what they used to be like on DOT Warns of Dystopian Future For Transportation · · Score: 1

    http://www.desertusa.com/sandh...

    So stop complaining!

  13. Re:Here's a great idea... on DOT Warns of Dystopian Future For Transportation · · Score: 1

    You may think that was a joke, but... how much of the cost is actually wasted? Probably a lot.

    I'm reminded of the big floods of a few years back and the millions of dollars (mostly in federal funds) most small cities required to handle cleanup.

    Meanwhile, Grand Forks ND (harder hit than most) had their cleanup job done by a local contractor for $65,000.

  14. Re:Didn't happen that way, not even *close*. on RadioShack Near Deal To Sell Half of Its Stores, Close the Rest · · Score: 1

    That's what I thought too -- so I was astonished to find (so far) two of 'em here in Montana.

  15. Re:Didn't happen that way, not even *close*. on RadioShack Near Deal To Sell Half of Its Stores, Close the Rest · · Score: 1

    Then there was always the question as to whether Tandy was using it as a money laundry...

    The main reason I seldom shopped there back when RS stores were everywhere, was that the prices were so high on stuff I could get elsewhere for a lot less, even locally. Now they're lower priced on some stuff, but it's too late to attract back that business.

    BTW the local RS dude assures me that he owns his business... what happens to those guys when RS goes tits-up??

  16. Re:shame on RadioShack Near Deal To Sell Half of Its Stores, Close the Rest · · Score: 1

    Alibaba is like a swapmeet, they aren't the vendor, just the aggregator. I've bought stuff from Alibaba vendors (one I already knew from ebay), and probably will again. If I have to buy cheap Chinese crap, I might as well pay cheap Chinese prices for it. I see no reason to pay some importer's astounding markup (which even at the wholesale level can exceed 500%) when I can get it straight from the manufacturer at the factory price.

  17. Re:We the Government on Big Telecoms Strangling Municipal Broadband, FCC Intervention May Provide Relief · · Score: 1

    My former fixed-wireless provider (which was a one-man band) bought bandwidth bulk direct from AT&T, and resold it however he liked. Why can't a fiber co-op do the same?

    (Seriously, if there's a reason, enlighten me.)

  18. Re:We the Government on Big Telecoms Strangling Municipal Broadband, FCC Intervention May Provide Relief · · Score: 1

    Maybe that initial $lotsofmoney lump should be prorated on a per-user basis per-month, so if you had benefit from the beginning, you pay from the beginning of service. And if someone leaves and another user takes their slot, why should they pay what the previous person already paid, when they didn't get benefit of it til they arrived.

    This is basically how road improvement taxes work (at least here) -- the cost is apportioned among all parcels served (ie. all users) and continues for N-many years per parcel (per user slot) regardless of who owns each parcel.

  19. Re:Rabid on New Jersey Gov. Christie: Parents Should Have Choice In Vaccinations · · Score: 1

    Rabies vaccination is not for the sake of the dog -- that's just a positive side effect.

    The real reason rabies vacc is mandatory in much of the developed world is for protection of humans, because rabies is so readily transmissible, and is (with single-digit exceptions) 100% fatal. Annually there are about 55,000 human deaths from rabies, worldwide.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Incidentally, there have been a few cases of 'rescue' dogs imported from third-world countries, arriving with active rabies infections.

    http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/previe...

  20. Re:Institutionalized Prejudice on WA Bill Takes Aim at Boys' Dominance In Computer Classes · · Score: 1

    My observation even back when I was last in school, over 4 decades ago, was that teachers went out of their way to recruit girls for everything math/science-related -- and that has been going on at least since the late 1960s.

    But you can't 'engage' anyone (of any group, for any subject) if they aren't interested. And no amount of 'demonstrating effort' will change that.

  21. Well, the solution is obvious. Park somewhere else and walk in, or hitch a ride with some lesser unfortunate.

  22. Re:mold? on The "Cool Brick" Can Cool Off an Entire Room Using Nothing But Water · · Score: 1

    There are materials that discourage bacterial and fungal growth. But seems to me an occasional spritz of bleach would do for most of it, and otherwise, let it dry out at night (daytime temps are not going to sterilize it anyway).

    And without light, very little will grow in a clay pot.

    I have a 5 gallon plastic jug that I filled from a friend's well (from an outdoor faucet so hardly sterile) back in 1984, and kept for an emergency water supply. As of a couple years ago I'd used about half of it and both water and jug were still pristine.

  23. Re:Hot, dry climates such as deserts, on The "Cool Brick" Can Cool Off an Entire Room Using Nothing But Water · · Score: 1

    Actually, ordinary swamp cooler design doesn't use a huge amount of water, since it recycles whatever flows through the pads without evaporating. Probably maxes around 10 gallons evaporated per day in extremely hot dry weather, but that's enough to cool a medium-sized house by a good 40 degrees (and keep your eyeballs from turning to raisins).

    The fact that the little pump can move up to 20 gallons an hour doesn't mean that water just gets flushed out and lost -- rather, it dribbles down the pads to the base of the unit and is pumped back up. With a heat exchanger, the water system could be closed and could have little or no loss.

  24. Re:Nice in principle but fails at higher temperatu on The "Cool Brick" Can Cool Off an Entire Room Using Nothing But Water · · Score: 1

    Actually, a good swamp cooler will lower air temps by as much as 40 degrees, as I can attest from long experience in the desert (where our peak temp was +122F, but my house would stay under 80F despite a lack of insulation). The big tricks are to not move the air too fast -- you want to give it time to cool down before sending it to the target room -- and to keep the amount of water held in the pads fairly high (pads too clean or too dirty will both impair that).

    And our natural humidity was so low that the air desperately needed all it could get.

    But the concept of a heat exchanger sounds good to me, as swamp coolers are very inexpensive to run (the powered parts being just a tiny pump and a squirrel-cage fan). Whether a swamp cooler with heat exchanger would be more economical than a heat pump?

    Dunno, swamp coolers are very low tech -- anyone can construct a passive swamp cooler using dripping water, moving air, and some burlap or other absorbant-but-porous material. (In fact I've done so as a temporary measure.)

  25. Re:Nice in principle but fails at higher temperatu on The "Cool Brick" Can Cool Off an Entire Room Using Nothing But Water · · Score: 1

    I was gonna say, looks like they basically reinvented the swamp cooler, tho this version is more versatile in terms of where you can locate it, and being amenable to more-portable units.

    But as to monsoons, those don't affect all (or even most) deserts.

    Having lived in the SoCal desert for 28 years, I can attest that monsoons there are a non-issue... we might get a little rain 10-15 days a year (some years we didn't hit 1 inch =total= precip), and our idea of 'humid' was 10%.

    Tucson is another matter, they get the late-summer monsoons with full humidity.