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User: Ralph+Spoilsport

Ralph+Spoilsport's activity in the archive.

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  1. Re:you had me at jejune on FCC Indecency Ruling Struck Down · · Score: 1
    You're whining because you make jejune entertainment, per your link

    Your "movie" looks stupid. With all the real disasters in this world, you're making a crappy vampire movie. Brilliant use of your time.

    If you had the analytical skills of a pigeon, you would have sussed out that while I find "entertainment" a pathetic waste of time, I think it is up to individuals to monitor and regulate their media intake and what their children are viewing. If they can't get their tiny brains around that, then they can't complain about it. Calling me a fundamentalist is an absurdity. I don't *care* what's on "TV" because it's mostly crap and I don't bother watching it. THAT is NOT the attitude of a fundamentalist. But since you tripped over a common word like jejune, I wouldn't expect you to figure out that the word "fundamentalist" isn't the most appropriate, but then your vocabulary is so obviously deficient, this comes as no surprise.

    Please, next time, think twice, although in your case, once would be an improvement.

    RS

  2. A Worthless Shill for the Fascists did speak: on FCC Indecency Ruling Struck Down · · Score: 3, Informative
    "hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that 'sh*t' and 'f@ck' are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience ... If we can't restrict the use (of the two obscenities) during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want,"

    And since this is a "free country" you will have every right and opportunity to NOT WATCH the television. You and your children can do something like READ A BOOK, or GO FOR A WALK, or LEARN TO PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, or any number of perfectly useful activities that do not include glotzing some retarded screen full of disinformation and jejune entertainment that reinforces a false consciousness that convinces people to act and live in a way that fosters the parasitic tapeworm economy.

    Feh.

    RS

  3. Mmmmm....fresh BRANES.... on The Big Bang Vs. the Big Rumble · · Score: 1
    (shuffle like a zombie and repeat:)

    Must have BRANES... Must have FRESH BRANES.... Feed me BRANES... FRESH BRANES!!!

    RS

  4. so: I see a market for a program... on Apple Hides Account Info in DRM-Free Music · · Score: 1
    That strips out that info and re-saves the file. It wouldn't fall under the DMCA because you're not messing with the Digital Rights Management itself - you're messing with Apple's addition of your personal info, which I don't believe is their property to use in that regard, or, if it is, you certainly have the right to manipulate it on your own machine.

    Afterall, you're not trading the file to anyone - you're just manipulating data on your own PERSONAL computer.

    RS

  5. Required Post: ER/EI on Driving on Starch · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    It doesn't freakin matter - the ER/EI (energy return over energy invested) for hydrogen always is and always will be NEGATIVE.

    I don't know why these idiots bother. When are they going to get a clue and abandon this pipe dream of the Hydrogen society? It'd pathetic.

    RS

  6. Re:But how can the universe NOT collapse after tim on A Snapshot of the Universe 3 Trillion Years From Now · · Score: 1
    because from recent calculations, not only is the universe expanding, its rate of expansion is increasing.

    I posted earlier about the Big Rip. From what I have been able to gather, it has not been refuted, and the evidence is still the same. The conclusion is that the universal expansion rate will go vertical in about 20 billion years. At that point the light cone will be smaller than the Planck distance - the universe then simply disappears. It will hit the universe everywhere at the same time. No big crunch. No "coming back". No "eternal return". Just this, now. Forever.

    RS

  7. Re:3 trillion years? Ummm, no. (SECOND TRY) on A Snapshot of the Universe 3 Trillion Years From Now · · Score: 3, Informative
    Ooops -I forgot about the html limitations here on slashdot. Sorry...

    I repeat in greater detail...

    As far as I know, the universe is expanding and the rate of expansion is increasing. IIRC, this will result in a situation with a shrinking event horizon, where the universe basically ceases to exist as space-time tears itself apart, and once the event horzon is less than the Planck Length, the universe itself ceases to exist. According to one study which, IIRC, has not been refuted, this will happen in some 20 billion years time. It's called the Big Rip.

    So, from what I can gather, any speculation beyond 20 billion years is a waste of time.

    RS

  8. 3 trillion years? Ummm, no. on A Snapshot of the Universe 3 Trillion Years From Now · · Score: 1
    As far as I know, the universe is expanding and the rate of expansion is increasing. IIRC, this will result in a situation with a shrinking event horizon, where the universe basically ceases to exist as space-time tears itself apart, and once the event horzon Big Rip.

    So, from what I can gather, any speculation beyond 20 billion years is a waste of time.

    RS

  9. Bullshit. on High Paying Jobs in Math and Science? · · Score: 1
    When you can live off of your investments, you can change jobs, contracts, and careers at will. Otherwise, you will be filling out TPS reports, all-the-while chained to your current job for the ability to feed yourself and afford medical care.

    Well, I live in a country with universal health care. Secondly, I now work as an academic, and I Really Enjoy My Job, and have ZERO interest in retiring, as I am having way too much fun teaching. I. Am. Free. You are not. I am not filling out TPS reports. The closest I get to that is a monthly faculty meeting and occasional committee work. However, I am on committees that are actually engaged in something interesting, so they are not a burden - they are another fun thing to do.

    So, I make enough to keep a roof over my head, and my kids can go to college for free. I have zero interest in retiring - I will work until I die, because I am doing interesting and valuable work and research.

    So, no, you are wrong. You don't have to be a money whore to be free - you just have to love what you do. Your notion of freedom is caprice.

    RS

  10. Re:Still ONLY an energy STORAGE (nukes??? not) on Aluminum Alloy Releases Hydrogen From Water · · Score: 1
    The centralisation of distribution and the very notion of mass production is based on a high-energy economy, which, hitherto, has meant petroleum. Petroleum is good as gone - it won't disappear, but it will get to be too expensive to use it as fuel.

    Look at all the things around you that are made out of plastic or demand fossil fuels in their production. Sure - you can take the gas out of the gas tank, but peak oil means peak asphalt. That said, I don't think Walmart et al will close up shop overnight- shipping things by Giant Boat is extremely efficient, and that isn't going to change anytime soon. But it's the goods being shipped that will tend to vanish. The keyboard I'm typing on is made of plastic: petroleum. Every calorie you stuff in your face requires 10 calories of petroleum to get to you (in the form of fertiliser, fuel for farm gear, energy to make the farm gear, shipping it from farm to grainary/storage, shipping it to processor/store, the energy to build the grainary and storage and processors, and then finally you getting into your car to go get and the energy required to build the car itself.

    All of that is energy expended or embodied, and right now, that energy is Petroleum. Centralised systems are extremely efficient, but only when subsidised by energy, in this case, petroleum, and to the tune of many many terawatts of power.

    You can say "centralisation GOOD! Self reliance BAD!!!" all you want, but the fact is, the kind of massive centralisation of distribution we have, coupled wit the massive decentralisation we see of the population atomised into the suburbs, adds up to a very frail system that is hyper dependent on petroleum. Hence: "self reliance BAD!!!" comes under the "tough shit kid - get over it" department.

    Truly - do yourself a favour: grow your own. Start with herbs - they're easy and fun and they make cooking such a pleasure. Then get into simple vegetables. you'll see - it's easier than you think - more complex than you might imagine - but NOT rocket science.

    RS

  11. Re:Still ONLY an energy STORAGE (nukes??? not) on Aluminum Alloy Releases Hydrogen From Water · · Score: 1
    since you're the only one to put a name in, I'll reply to you, and thank you for using your account name - I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards.

    That said, I'd like to point out the link the AC posted which had the farcical notion of pulling uranium out of seawater. The energy required to do that, and then refine it into fuel, is ludicrous. Also, the scale it would have to be performed at would seriously fuck up areas of the ocean, which is already wildly overstressed and fucked up. Not a smart idea. The actual fact is: Uranium is a limited resource that is complex, dangerous, and energy intensive to develop. It is not optimal, and it is a limited resource. Thorium is more common, but it takes a very different kind of reactor to be useful (such as an IFR) and those are still very experimental and not likely to come on line.

    re: Fusion aka ITER, Fusion was just 20 years away 50 years ago. I would hope that ITER succeeds, but the track record for Fusion research in general is poor, so I'm not holding my breath.

    Your point re: politics moving aside with energy starvation is well taken, and one that I trend to agree with, but when you combine massive overpopulation beyond carrying capacity in some godforsaken central asian hellhole, and give them a nuke, the potential for ugly blowback approaches 1.

    I agree that the sustainable options (wind/solar) are not optimal, and this leads me to conclude that industrial civilisation itself is in for a massive re-adjustment.

    I would humbly suggest a re-definition of industrialism is in order - one characterised by greater localisation of fundamental resources (food, clothing, shelter) and greater self-reliance on the provision of such. An abandonment of some of the signifiers of "wealth" such as air travel, and a greater focus on media/cultural exchange, greater emphasis on community building, depaving the suburbs, reinventing our cities, depopulating the human experiment to a level of natural carrying capacity, and not relying on an energy faerie to pull us out of the hole we're in.

    Just as you said :

    political reality in the end cannot override energy needs

    So too, wishful thinking cannot replace actual energy resources. We can WANT fusion all we want, but that doesn't make it real or actual. It would be nice, but I think there are a variety of compelling reasons why it's not a true solution. Right now, today, the world needs to come up with 13 terawatts. By 2025, the demand is projected to be around 20 terawatts. I don't see anywhere NEAR enough nukes coming on line i nte next 20 years, fusion or otherwise. Hence: for your own safety and welfare, I would recommend "making other plans".

    RS

  12. Re:Still ONLY an energy STORAGE (nukes??? not) on Aluminum Alloy Releases Hydrogen From Water · · Score: 1
    kmac06, aka clueless troll, wrote:

    Yes we do. Nuclear energy is cheap, clean, and plentiful.

    Yes, and based on another limited and expensive resource about to peak and go into depletion: Uranium.

    And if you bark about "breeder reactors make their own fuel", then you're ignoring the relationship between the necessity of universality in sustainable development and political realities. That equation is fulfilled with North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, and any number of smaller and unstable regimes scattered around the planet who will need electricity as much as anyone else.

    Where nuclear energy comes into feasibility is with the IFR, but no one's been able to build one to work long enough to matter, make the liquid sodium safe enough, and when combined with the political will (absent), and the time (WAY too late - as we would have to put a 1 megawatt nuke plant on line every other day for 50 years to even vaguelly match the energy requirements of TODAY - which is 13 terawatts and climbing) it is clear that nuclear power, while it has some few advantages, is simply not going to come to the rescue.

    And if you take breeders off the table, you're back to the problem of a limited and depleting resource: uranium.

    Now, go home and do some puch ups.

    RS

  13. Idiots. on Blogger Threatened For Publishing JS Hack · · Score: 1
    Soooo, lemme get this straight - some stupid radio station in Georgia is freaked out about some kid in Romania piddling with their javascript... And, I am sure the state of Georgia has all kinds of reciprocity agreements for local civil suits with the nation of Romania. Me thinks the icon for this article shouldn't be the black barred censorship guy, but the Monty Python Foot, as this suit is, at best, comical and pathetic. IDIOTS!

    [wainwright}
    I'm so tired of America...
    [/wainwright]

    RS

  14. Cars in 2020? Not like today... on Toyota Going 100% Hybrid By 2020 · · Score: 0
    We're looking at $4 gal gas this summer. All the major producers are peaking in production, and are now in a short lived plateau before it all cascades down in the 2010s and 2020s. Mexico's Cantarell is so shot, Mexico probably won't export oil by 2012. Kuwait's biggest field, and the world's second largest,Burgan, has peaked. Iran peaked decades ago, and the USA has been in decline since 1971.

    Petroleum is a one time gift, and we are squandering it on a bunch of obese retards driving SUVs three blocks to go pick up a pack of smokes and a six pack of the piss they call beer. Every gallon of oil blown on an Escalade is a gallon that won't go to heat their grandkid's house in 30 years. Stupid myopic self-centered idiots.

    Hybrid cars in 2020? What we need is NO CARS in 2020.

    RS

  15. looks OK. one question bothers me... on SHPEGS — DIY Solar/Geothermal Electricity · · Score: 1
    how can it separate the ammonia from the water without drastically reducing its ER/EI?

    RS

  16. TFA presumes huge per capita energy resources... on The Shape of the Future · · Score: 2, Informative
    ...which in reality are shrinking. Per capita energy use peaked in the early 1980s. Building self-driving cars and the infrastructure to support such, building lifelogs and the infrastructure to support it, etc. and so on, is going to require HUGE amounts of energy, for EVERYBODY, and frankly, it just isn't there.

    People can have their own opinions about this, but not their own facts. all of the ramping up of capacity, speed, and ability of the past 100 years is directly attributable to high density transportable energy, in the form of petroleum. The remaining energy in that petroleum reserve would bet be served developing the technologies to prevent the starvation and privation of the 9 some odd billion people we're expecting to share the planet with in 50 years. Self driving cars? Perhaps, but not interesting, especially when people (mostly the poor, hungry, and dispossessed) are tearing up suburban McMansions for timber to keep warm during the ever milder winters, and the cities are gradually abandoned from the rising oceans.

    And all of THAT will require enormous amounts of energy. The kind of cybernetic totalism that TFA exhibits is one that is(sadly) all too pervasive in forums such as slashdot, ars technica, etc. And this is a tragedy, as we need the best and brightest to solve the problems of the future before they get here, not jerry-rig some bandaid solution on a disaster when it happens.

    To have even the VAGUEST glimmer of hope for an industrial civilisation, we need to get electricity in massive amounts, and figure out how to NOT use it in massive amounts. Suburbia will be abandoned - self driving cars won't save it. We will need to remove the burbs so we can reclaim it as farm land....

    I'm not being alarmist - I'm not a "doomer" by any stretch, but I am extremely skeptical of any predictions that do not directly address energy and resource consumption as central to any technology.

    RS

  17. Re:So, now we can't count? on AOL's Embarassing Password Woes · · Score: 1
    no, you're the idiot.

    The quote:

    This means that a user who uses "password123" or any other obvious eight-character password

    note that there is no reference to a section THAT COUNTS, the entire password "password123" was in QUOTES, as in "password123", and therefore, as it is the SECTION IN QUOTES that was emphasized by the author, indicates that the password in question is "password123" not "password". And it doesn't take a degree in math to note that "password123" is 11 characters long.

    Think twice before you post. Once would be an improvement.

    RS

  18. So, now we can't count? on AOL's Embarassing Password Woes · · Score: -1, Redundant
    This means that a user who uses "password123" or any other obvious eight-character password

    Any OTHER 8 char password? "password123" is an 11 char password. Duh. How did this get past the editors? Oh, never mind.

    RS

  19. If we let this in, how about Archimedes Plutonium? on Astronomers Again Baffled by Solar Observations · · Score: 3, Interesting
    For those too young to remember, Archi was the bane of early newsgroups with his endless rants about how the universe is a giant Plutonium Atom. His ideas are as useful as the "Electric Universe". So if we're going to let the Electric Universe cranks have objective status, then we should invite Archimedes Plutonium to come and bark at us. I should not have had to type this - this story never should have seen the light of day - it should have been filtered by our fearless Slashdot Editorial staff. Undoubtedly, they were out in the parking lot doing bong hits when they should have been reading the submissions...

    RS

  20. Re:Magma in Mercury... on Mercury May Have Molten Hot Magma at its Core · · Score: 1
    hahaha - I wondered how long it would take form someone to sneak in a poop joke. Aaaah. Slashdot at its... typical...

    RS

  21. Re:I'd like to say...(is pure flamebait) on Digg.com Attempts To Suppress HD-DVD Revolt · · Score: 1
    I looked at your suggestions. I think the non-anonymous moderation would go a LONG way to fix the moderation system. I agree with you - it is often punitive and poorly administered, if not often simply unfair.

    best,

    RS

  22. Re:I'd like to say...(is pure flamebait) on Digg.com Attempts To Suppress HD-DVD Revolt · · Score: 4, Insightful
    how the parent achieved +5 insightful is beyond me.

    Don't like gay PDA? Well, imagine how some gays feel about hetero PDA. (I'm straight, for the record). Don't like Pro-420 articles? Well, simple fact is pot never killed anyone - you pass out before you can overdose. But every years thousands of people die from ingesting perfectly legal liquor. Don't like people tweaking the corporate plutocracy by posting crypto keys? Well, then just roll over and let the corporations tel you what to think. Lord knows it's easier than doing it yourself. You're a Troll. A Class A Troll, and I am appalled that you've been modded so well. And when you get your knickers all bunched up, please think twice before posting like that - although, once would be a grand improvement.

    RS

  23. Before Tap : Lemmings on Spinal Tap to Reunite for Live Earth · · Score: 1
    If you dig Spinal Tap / The Folksmen / etc., I would urge you to acquire the record "LEMMINGS" by National Lampoon. It featured: John Belushi, Christopher Guest, Alice Playten, Chevy Chase (with LONG hair!!!), Paul Jacobs, and others. What was it? Well, it's a live recording, and in the voice of John Belushi pretending to be Wavy Gravy:

    Hey everybody! Welcome to the Woodchuck Festival of Peace Love AND DEATH! Now the idea is for everyone here, a million of us, to off ourselves by the end of the show! Now if your buddy's too stoned to off himself, just roll him up in a sleeping bag and leave him in the north 40 where the tractors can run him over. And remember - there isn't enough food. There just isn't enough food - so remember - the man next to you is your dinner! Now, we're going to hear from a great band - this is the first and last time they've ever played together - so let's give them a big welcome - FREUD, MARX, ENGELS, and JUNG!!!

    One of my favourite parts is when Chevy Chase pretends to be a member of the Weather Underground:

    You know - you don't need a weather man to tell which way the wind blows... ALRIGHT! Every single one of you out there - YOU'RE AN OPPRESSOR - PIG! You owe it to the third world to Off Yourself! Everytime you shit or piss you dump uraeic acid on the mother earth, and then you wipe your ass with the guts of a TREE! You're not worth the life of the cow that went in to making your BELT you RUNNING DOG JACKAL! If you're not a black homosexual working class woman - you're an OPRESSOR! PIG! you deserve to DIE! NOW - as we all know, the bourgeoisie own all the means of self-extermination, like ropes, razorblades, and bullets. So if you want to do something really meaningful, you'll beat yourself to death in a four foot hole of organic compost. For the rest, we have TNT suppositories. Power To The Correct People!

    One of the funniest Records EVER. EVER!

    RS

  24. So: how long will it take HIV to evolve ... on Human Blood May Contain A Cure For AIDS · · Score: 1
    so that this is no longer a threat to HIV?

    It's out to reproduce, that's its job.

    RS

  25. living proof that QA matters... on RIM Releases Reason for Blackberry Outage · · Score: 2, Insightful
    If the product had been properly tested (and face it - outside of medical and military applications, how much of ANYTHING is properly tested?) they'd have found, reported, and fixed the bug weeks earlier.

    You can't expect programmers to do perfect work, even with unit testing and all the other basic amenities of software development. It requires QA, and that is something sorely lacking in contemprary software product. From the smallest OSX widget to MS Vista,Testing Matters.

    RS