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User: Anna+Merikin

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  1. Combined Audience on Facebook Founder Presents Vision For The New Republic, Many Resign In Protest · · Score: 1

    You cannot add figures up like that in radio statistics; if 5-million people listened to ten shows a week each, the "cumulative total" would be 50 million per week, etc.

  2. Re:Corporations are not People on Negative Online Reviews Are Not Defamation (At Least In Canada) · · Score: 1

    I wish I had mod points to give you. Au point and ROFLMAO

  3. Whaaa? Where Does TFA Say That? on Negative Online Reviews Are Not Defamation (At Least In Canada) · · Score: 2

    As I read the judge's ruling, he throws out the case because no evidence of damage was shown, because the lawyer himself was not defamed (the website, a corporation the lawyer worked for, was), and that except for the use of the word "cheated" there was no tort (right of lien). IANAL but I find it hard not to see that the judge might well have ruled the other way had the plaintiff been the website corporation.

    Where is the expansion of the right to publish bad reviews here? I don't see it.

  4. The Only Hope on The Driverless Future: Buses, Not Taxis · · Score: 1

    A large proportion of people will not willingly share their commute space with others. Since people who "vote with their feet" seem to prefer to drive their own cars in privacy to sharing a vehicle, route and schedule with other people the rider may not like, it will take more than engineering to get the intended result. It will mean, eventually, either outlawing ownership of private cars in certain places or making permissions prohibitively expensive.

    I see a big, expensive failure in this. Nevertheless, it will get funded by groups who are obviously against union labor: the Koch brothers, government planners, et al. Retailers like Wal-Mart, on the other hand, will be against, as they have few stores within cities, and it's hard to lug their stuff home on a minibus. Amazon and other internet sellers will see the same cost-without-benefit scenario.

    The winners? Media outlets who will see an increase in revenues of "for-and-against" political ads.

  5. Bad PR on Sony Pictures Computer Sytems Shut Down After Ransomware Hack · · Score: 1

    Even though I had no computer vulnerable, and I did not buy one of Sony's malware-laden Music CDs, I remember the event so clearly and strongly I still refuse to consider buying any Sony product whatsoever, including their cameras. Is there some malware hidden within those proprietary, compressed RAW image files?

    So I am of two minds. I don't like the use of ransomware. And I don't like Sony. This reminds me of the old joke where the guy sees his mother-in-law drive off a cliff in his new Bentley.

  6. Photo Editing on Eizo Debuts Monitor With 1:1 Aspect Ratio · · Score: 1

    Yes! Vertical (portrait format) photos would get equal screen area as horizontal compositions.

    This reminds me of the old (name forgotten) rotatable displays. Or are they still around?

  7. Re:My house of cards, taller than your house of ca on Physicists Identify Possible New Particle Behind Dark Matter · · Score: 1

    Yes, yes and yes. That's exactly why I concentrated on "funding": The politics of it are critical. Lots of hypotheses exist, but few get to be funded and none without extensive peer review by proven fundraisers.

    It's a bit like The Movies in that there are lots of screenplays around, but only the ones producers think will turn a profit or an Oscar get produced.

    I tried to be non-cynical in my post.

  8. Re:My house of cards, taller than your house of ca on Physicists Identify Possible New Particle Behind Dark Matter · · Score: 2

    While everything you write is true, you leave out the actual importance of funding this: If SIMPS can be found, examination of their behavior in interactions would tend to prove or disprove fundamental ideas of the standard model.

    That's my take on this all, anyway.

    NB: I have been wrong before.

  9. Re:Why Overstated? on Fuel Efficiency Numbers Overstate MPG More For Cars With Small Engines · · Score: 1

    Thanks! I must apologize for being so US-centric.
    Europe has traditionally penalized through taxation large-displacement vehicles. The US had not.

  10. Why Overstated? on Fuel Efficiency Numbers Overstate MPG More For Cars With Small Engines · · Score: 1

    1. Carmarketers like good gas mileage figures; they're good for sales.

    2. The specifications for the test are gamed to provide a bigger benefit for underpowered cars which tend to get better mileage anyway. The test include acceleration at a rate *that depends on the car's power* (percent of full-throttle). which has the big-engine (more powerful) cars zipping around the virtual course at higher speeds.

    Remember, lobbyists write or co-write most of our laws and regulations.

  11. Addendum on Researchers Report Largest DNA Origami To Date · · Score: 0

    A better link -- http://montagnier.org/IMG/pdf/...

    Satisfied?

  12. Re:"Self-Assembling?" on Researchers Report Largest DNA Origami To Date · · Score: 0

    I don't usually respond to ACs but cause you're dead wrong and call me a liar, here's both barrels..

    From the first link

    We found that extracellular fields induced ephaptically mediated changes in the somatic membrane potential that were less than 0.5 mV under subthreshold conditions. Despite their small size, these fields could strongly entrain action potentials, particularly for slow (~8 Hz) fluctuations of the extracellular field. Finally, we simultaneously measured from up to four patched neurons located proximally to each other. Our findings indicate that endogenous brain activity can causally affect neural function through field effects under physiological conditions.

    As to the 8 Hz magnetic resonance, see http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4..., which is the most nearly objective overview of this subject I can find right now. Wikipedia also has an article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  13. "Self-Assembling?" on Researchers Report Largest DNA Origami To Date · · Score: 0

    DNA is magnetoresponsive. Magnetism itself is self-assembling, and since DNA has been shown to be magnetoresponsive http://www.nature.com/neuro/jo... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., it would be interesting to see if this origami folding can take place outside of the earth's magnetosphere, which has a magnetic harmonic at the same frequency as the resonance demonstrated by DNA.

    Does anyone know anything about other self-assembling substances?

  14. Glad to Hear It on Sci-Fi Authors and Scientists Predict an Optimistic Future · · Score: 1

    The Consensus of Experts wins the day again!
    Hooray for the the future! The more we try change nature, the better life will be!

  15. definition of "customer" on German Court: Google Must Stop Ignoring Customer E-mails · · Score: 1

    In many states in the US, all that's required for a "contract" to exist is agreement on actions AND compensation. That compensation does not have to be money; it may be anything of value, including one's attention (as to ads.) Other states do not limit contracts to need compensation at all. I dunno about other nations....

  16. Re:Or, Apple could be fearful of comoditization on Microsoft Paid NFL $400 Million To Use Surface, But Announcers Call Them iPads · · Score: 1

    I agree. What's more, Apple might have to press hard on the common use of the term "iPad" to refer to tablets in general. Bayer long ago lost the exclusive rights to the word aspirin by not enforcing its exclusivity. 3M took great pains in the 70s to make clear "Scotch" did not become another word for "transparent", as in tape; Coke, McDonal's, et al. have enforced such. Now it may be Apple's turn.
    Oh, and as for MS :"What goes around, comes around." Whatever that means....

  17. Why Not? on GSOC Project Works To Emulate Systemd For OpenBSD · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Mebbe this will motivate some distro to do a similar; I, for one, would go for a distro without systemd nor Gnome, which I never use. Gnome is expendible. For those who like Gnome, why not do it this way?

  18. Re:They always told me I was so smart... on It's Dumb To Tell Kids They're Smart · · Score: 2

    I didn't need anyone to tell me I was smart. I figured it out myself. As you say, I was "smart" at the subjects I loved and not so much at others. Now, as an "elder", I tell those coming up If you want to be rich and-or famous, develop your talents. But if you want to be happy, work on your weaknesses: Become round.

    BTW, If someone had told me life could be so good at 71 years, I'd have had more courage in my youth.

  19. Re:Well, at last on Cause of Global Warming 'Hiatus' Found Deep In the Atlantic · · Score: 1

    I have seen about 440 BTU/hr/ft^2. in solar reflector design manuals. This is close to your figure for solar radiation. I have no idea about ocean vent heating, as the *data is not yet available.* This is the point of the article -- that the data is only now being gathered. One data point: The part of the vulcanism measured in the North Atlantic produces one cubic kilometer of new rock every year. What is the heat equivalent of that? I don't know. What part of the earth's total undersea heating does this constitute? I have no idea. How does this affect surface currents, if at all? I dunno. How do surface currents impact weather/climate patterns? No one is sure. Not even you. But, we may soon know these things.

  20. Well, at last on Cause of Global Warming 'Hiatus' Found Deep In the Atlantic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not only does this explain a lot of the recent data, but it also directs attention to an ignored part of climatology: the vulcanism under the oceans and the warm currents they cause at very deep levels.

    Good going, guys and guyettes!

  21. Draw Your Own Conclusion on Critics To FTC: Why Do You Hate In-App Purchasing Freedom? · · Score: 0

    "Fascism is the marriage of government and business."
                                                                                  --Benito Mussolini

  22. Company say it's Been Proved on New Map Fingers Future Hot Spots For U.S. Earthquakes · · Score: 1

    Cuadrilla drilling company in UK has admitted publicly the link between fracking and earthquakes. The said this in 2011

    "It is highly probable that the hydraulic fracturing of Cuadrilla's Preese Hall-1 well did trigger a number of minor seismic events

    This, according to a Reuters report here: http://www.reuters.com/article...

    Other articles have reported various studies connecting fracking in Oklahoma with the new earthquakes flurries there and elsewhere in the US. Like Ohio: .http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/11/ohio-earthquakes-fracking_n_5136110.html

    And here http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

  23. Congrats! on Slashdot Asks: Do You Want a Smart Watch? · · Score: 1

    You get it. Any modern quartz-controlled watch that costs more than $10 is a status symbol and nothing more. Some watches may rise to a level of art, but still, a symbol of alphaness.

    When James Bond wears a smart watch, then popularity will follow.

  24. It nearly always does on Consciousness On-Off Switch Discovered Deep In Brain · · Score: 1

    it's as if the survival instinct overrode the unconsciousness

    Whenever survival is at stake, consciousness is among the first wasters of valuable resources (energy) to be turned off, or at least substantially modified.. This is a principle, AFAIK.

  25. Wow! Will we need... on Nathan Myhrvold's Recipe For a Better Oven · · Score: 1

    Photoshop to cook our food?
    We could use the device to preview the finished dish, too.
    Of course, he is theoretically correct, but, as we know, theory and practice are different things.