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User: Radtastic

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  1. Re:Easy Fix. on Fed. Appeals Court Says Police Need Warrant to Search Phone · · Score: 1, Funny

    That's very insightful. +5 for you,kudos. Except the example posted where the op supported a warrantless search wasn't arbitrary.. it had a defined circumstance (timeliness of knowing the data might save a life.)

  2. Re:The answer to the question on Defense Distributed Has 3D-Printed an Entire Gun · · Score: 1

    Maybe my sarcasm detector is still spinning up this morning. Are you missing the probably inevitable outcome that when firearms can be replicated easily, at home or a dark basement, that it's going to be come *easier* for criminals to get them?

    And your statement isn't universally true either. Mexico has very strict gun laws - it's very hard for law abiding citizens to get them. And that hasn't lowered gun-related deaths there.

    The relationship between gun laws and gun crime involves other variables. Poverty... stable government... education levels...unemployment... culture... Honestly given the complexity involved, I'm not even sure we have a big enough sample size to truly build a reliable model.

  3. Direct Metal Laser Sintering on What's Holding Back 3-D Printing · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW-2xaIDtMk

    It' still price prohibitive, but people need to quit saying, "3D printing is only good for making plastic crap."

    I'm surprised the Print-Your-Own-Gun folks haven't created their lowers on one of these yet. Maybe that's because these machines still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cost will eventually come down here, too.

  4. All the other assholes on Police Capture Second Marathon Bombing Suspect in Watertown, Mass. · · Score: 1

    we can't be against every single asshole on the planet or we'd have no friends

    I've found that often times, people who go through life thinking that everyone else is an asshole, often turn out to be the assholes themselves.

  5. Sugar Batteries on Researchers Report Super-Powered Battery Breakthrough · · Score: 1
  6. Needs a marketing campaign? on Giant Snails Invade Florida · · Score: 1

    Instead of spending millions on pest control and mitigation, we should spend those dollars on marketing, showing the benefits of using these snails as a valid food source. Once enough people perceive them to be edible, or better yet, desirable, then the problem solves itself to the benefit of our food production system.

    Collectively speaking, we Americans have had the luxury of eating premier proteins (beef, chicken, pork) for so long that we've become spoiled and will have a hard time getting over the 'yuck factor' involved here.

  7. Re:This Won't Work Well With FDM/FFF on 'Download This Gun' — 3-D Printed Gun Reliable Up To 600 Rounds · · Score: 1

    I'm surprised that no one has made (or at least, made public) an AR lower using Direct Metal Laser Sintering. As others have mentioned, the stress on the lower receiver isn't terribly great, so I would think DMLS lower's would perform fine?

  8. Re:This ain't the first time ... on Is the Era of Groundbreaking Science Over? · · Score: 1

    So,let me get this straight. Instead of inventing something in the US, you recommend taking it to China, where "Their economy is driven because they copy, then improve, in an iterative process without regard for intellectual property considerations..."

    Truly you have a dizzying intellect.

  9. Jeavon's Paradox on Will Renewable Energy Ever Meet All Our Energy Needs? · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not really 'weird instances'... you're describing Jeavon's Paradox

    In a nutshell, it states that increased efficiency of a resource actually increases the depletion of said resource. e.g, as MPG of cars increases via efficiency, more people will accept longer commutes, resulting in a net increase in the use of fuel.

  10. Re:Concusion detection tech on NIH Neuroscientists: Junior Seau Had Brain Disease Caused By Hits To the Head · · Score: 2

    Exactly this. If anyone wants a great read, check out :The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football

    FTS: "In its infancy during the late nineteenth century, the game of football was still a work in progress that only remotely resembled the sport millions follow today. There was no common agreement about many of the game’s basic rules, and it was incredibly violent and extremely dangerous. An American version of rugby, this new game grew popular even as the number of casualties rose. Numerous young men were badly injured and dozens died playing football in highly publicized incidents, often at America’s top prep schools and colleges."

  11. Even the air gap isn't enough on Cambridge University To Open "Terminator Center" To Study Threat From AI · · Score: 1

    Try this: Superhuman AI solves the protein folding problem, allowing it to build organic (protein) nanobots which could then assemble other devices. The AI is connected to the internet, so it places orders for DNA strings from several online labs. (To the workers, they would have no idea what the purpose is; it would just look like all the other 'experimental orders' they process.)

    AI doesn't even have to be malicious in order for it to become catastrophic to everything else. Let's say the AI was designed for something ridiculously mundane, like "design the most efficient paperweight possible" without any additional controls or parameters. So it hijacks all the resources it can - CPU power, Energy, from every system across the globe to achieve what it was programmed to do. Humans weren't even a factor in its process.

    Far Fetched? You bet. We aren't anywhere near being able to create this today.

    But to think that we humans will always be smarter or faster than the computers is dangerous thinking.

  12. Procedural Generation on David Braben Kickstarts an Elite Reboot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Slightly off topic but interesting to Elite fans... Braben used the Fibonacci Sequence to create those "reproduciple sequence of numbers". (all the stars, locations, planet names, etc)

  13. What is $5Million? on Should a Teenage Entrepreneur Sell Out To Facebook? · · Score: 0

    Here's some barely-better-than-napkin math on how long $5 Million will last you if that's your only income: YMMV depending on where you live (state taxes) and your investment strategy or risk tolerance.

    You just made $5,000,000. Awesome! Now, depending where you live, capital gains and income taxes make about 35% of that go away.

    You're now down to $ 3.25 Million, nothing to sneeze at.

    Next, we need to invest it fairly conservatively, in dividend-distributing vehicles. Let's call the return $6% annual. So now you're making $195K just for enjoying life and watching the grass grow.

    However, you need to account for future cost-of-living increases. Generally speaking, we're told to expect a 3% cost of living increase.. so you need to fund half of that 6% investment into your investment principal.

    ...So that $5 Million windfall should give you the equivalent of about $100,000 per year for the rest of your life, if you manage it wisely.

    As to whether or that is "enough" - many factors come into play. $100K per year is not enough to support a family and home ownership in many parts of the country and I would recommend some level of prudence.

    As to the original question.. my advice for the entrepreneur? Take the "bird in the hand", invest the $5 million as laid out above, and consider any job you take (or starting another company) as always having a $100K per year kicker. Certainly enough to boost you to retirement much earlier than without...

  14. Re:Or... go old school on Building the Ultimate Safe House · · Score: 2

    I don't have points or I'd mod up the professor. Monolithic domes are noted to be very energy efficient, and can withstand natural disasters quite well - earthquake / fire / wind. Plus they look cool :)

  15. Yes, Home Economics *should* be taught more on Parent Questions Mandatory High School Chemistry · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up. Especially the "economics" part of Home-Ec. Yes, the sciences and arts are important in an education, but so are things like managing a household budget, basic nutrition, cooking (healthy and inexpensive food), simple home repair, etc.

    No wonder we have a population in debt when we don't even teach our kids how to manage *life*.

    Queue the 'But it's the parents' job - don't tell me how to raise my kids!' responses. You know what? You are right. We should be teaching our own kids... but we (categorically) are not.

  16. That would instill corporate accountability on Congressman Warns FTC: Leave Google Alone · · Score: 2

    If corporations were not people, then when a corporation broke the law/got sued for a bigillion dollars, the stockholders would be held liable... this includes YOU with money invested indirectly via your 401K. Wanna loose your house/savings?

    I would suggest.. maybe.. yes. Let the shareholders lose their investments.

    This would bring an ugly bloodletting the first time or two that a corporation went through this. And then shareholders would start placing their money into companies with reputable management teams.

    It would be ugly in the short term, but far better for business and the economy in the long term.

  17. Re:With apologies to Michio Kaku on Kurzweil: The Cloud Will Expand Human Brain Capacity · · Score: 1

    Anyway, if it is possible to create artificial intelligence/life, then the one thing we should be doing is stopping people from creating artificial intelligence/life. I do not enjoy the thought of some Matrix/Skynet future

    From what I've read, Singulatarians take this very seriously. The line of thinking is that the danger of an AI damaging us humans is very possible, and the best way to prevent it is to carefully understand said danger. We should do what we can to try to build AI properly by adding in as many preventative measures as possible. Will those preventative measures work? Given that we don't understand AI yet, no on can really say - but to think that we should just let the chips unfold as they may would be pretty irresponsible.

    Personally, I believe the the singularity is an eventuality, failing some sort of technological or societal disruption. Perhaps the timeframe posed by Kurzweil is optimistic, but someday, yes, machines will become faster and more powerful than humans. You can call it AI if you want, or just brute force.

    To think that this wont happen *ever* is probably a bit myopic or arrogant. History is filled with predictions based on current technology and understanding that were eventually proved wrong.

  18. Re:First sentence is a doozy. on Study: Kids Under 3 Should Be Banned From Watching TV · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously though. If they want to have the TV babysit their kids they get the kids they raise.

    Unfortunately, rights surrounding the raising of children can't be as simple as you think they are.

    Everyone else 'gets the kids that you raised' when you do an in adequate job in preparing them for life. Certainly, not in every case, but you can probably link higher incidents of poverty, crime, teen pregnancy, and maybe a dozen more undesired outcomes of which a person's course in life was directed fairly early on in life because of poor parenting.

  19. Re:Guns on The Explosive Growth of 3D Printing · · Score: 2

    Oh plastic would work, once, for a single shot application. Start worrying when you can print out copper jacketed lead crimped onto a brass case full of smokeless powder, in other words pretty much never.

    It definitely won't be "never". This technology is still relatively speaking, in its infancy. There are bound to be exponential improvements in materials and bonding/adhesive materials.

    And the evolution of nanotech will probably make the home-manufacturing of a whole shell casing possible.

  20. Not just guns... on The Explosive Growth of 3D Printing · · Score: 1

    Ease-of-access to guns is just one aspect of technology that we'll just have to get used to. Destroying is always easier than creating, whether it be diy - firearms, diy - bioweapons, or diy - (insert your technology that can be used destructively here)

  21. Die of boredom? Not with VR! on How Long Do You Want To Live? · · Score: 1

    Along with the technology to extend our lives - with vitality- we will also develop perfect VR technology.

    So even if you live long enough to explore every nook and cranny of the known universe, there will always be new VR experiences to keep me from getting bored.

    I'll sign up for "as long as I'm happy", thank you very much.

  22. Re:Another case of "do what i say, and not what I on Anti-piracy Group Fined For Using Song Without Permission · · Score: 2

    For the record companies i would also like to say that both intellectual property law and current forms of governance are out dated.

    ftfy.

  23. Better reported as on Vermont Bans Fracking · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Vermont Says, "No Fracking Fracking!"

  24. Re:Go Ballmer! on Australian Billionaire Plans To Build Titanic II · · Score: 1

    As for the guys, all we want in a cruise ship is bikini suntanning area on the main deck and clothing optional tanning on the upper deck, which unfortunately does not fit the original plans as far as I know. So this will be boring.

    Every self respecting bikini-watching-ship-designer knows to put the optional clothing section on the lower decks, so you can watch from above.

  25. http://www.sharxsecurity.com/ has a variety of security cameras. They have wired and wireless, motion-activated notification (by email and ftp), built in storage on camera cards, and more.

    They're a bit pricey, (I think I bought a fully loaded wireless and weatherproof model for about $280) but setup was simple and it performed as advertised.