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User: HangingChad

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  1. How is this any different than thermal imaging? on Doppler Radar Used By Police To Determine Home Occupancy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cops used to peek into houses with thermal imaging until the courts told them they needed a warrant for that. This doesn't seem any different other than it radiates.

    For an institution sworn to uphold the law they sure do bend it a lot when it's convenient for them.

  2. Re:How about ignoring it? on Colorado Sued By Neighboring States Over Legal Pot · · Score: 1

    I can't believe anyone can be stupid enough to think cannabis is dangerous enough to merit criminalization.

    Not only that but to then turn around and whine about the neighboring state, which adopted a smarter policy, making your life difficult. That's not just being stupid, it's being stupid and a big whiny cry baby

  3. Re:Established science CANNOT BE QUESTIONED! on Skeptics Would Like Media To Stop Calling Science Deniers 'Skeptics' · · Score: 1

    Are you still questioning gravity?

  4. Re:The lesson on Taxi Medallion Prices Plummet Under Pressure From Uber · · Score: 0

    Don't invest in and artificially scarce commodity.

    You mean like Bitcoin?

  5. Even 10% is a big number on Complex Life May Be Possible In Only 10% of All Galaxies · · Score: 1

    Of the estimated 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, only one in 10 can support complex life like that on Earth

    10 percent of 100 billion is still 10 billion galaxies. That's a lot of real estate. Even if you apply all the other characteristics that give rocky planets in the habitable zone of their star billions of years to evolve life. There are features like having a Jupiter in a circular orbit instead of an elliptical orbit or a moon that creates tide pools. That's a lot of habitable planets and a lot of potential for intelligent life.

    Netflix has a really interesting series narrated by Laird Close called Life In Our Universe that covers the topic in great detail.

  6. That's not going to work economically on In a Self-Driving Future, We May Not Even Want To Own Cars · · Score: 1

    "There may be times when they want the cars to drive them, but they won't be buying autonomous-only cars."

    A future where people can opt out of buying an autonomous car sounds great but it's not feasible economically. Traffic lights and traffic signs are all things needed for cars being piloted by humans, autonomous cars don't need them. At some point we'll be spending billions maintaining human-readable infrastructure and road rules when there are fewer and fewer actual humans driving.

    It's just like the Sunpass you use out on the tollway in Florida. There are fewer and fewer options for driving on the tollway when you don't have a sticker. It won't be long before it's mandatory. It's the same with autonomous cars. Once cars start to take over the day will dawn when we don't want to collectively maintain the signage, traffic lights and human readable infrastructure.

  7. He's not just speculating on Elon Musk Talks "X-Wing" Fins For Reusable Rockets, Seafaring Spaceport Drones · · Score: 0

    Elon Musk isn't just daydreaming, those are product announcements. It would have taken NASA 15 years and billions in contracts to create a reusable booster, it would have crashed more often than Musk's prototype and ended up costing more on a per-launch basis than one-shot boosters. NASA is why we can't make big steps into space.

    The proof of that statement will be when Musk comes sailing in with a reclaimed booster in tow.

  8. Re:I got a better idea... on The Downside to Low Gas Prices · · Score: 1

    The top 1% of American income earners pay 24% of Federal taxes per the Congressional Budget Office.

    If you look at the actual CBO report, it shows that the top 1% of income earners are paying less tax now than they did in 1995, even calculating the new higher 2013 rates.

    Nice try Koch brothers.

  9. I lived in Titusville for two years covering the end of the space shuttle program and the private space industry is not going to save that area. Most of T'ville's problems are self-inflicted and, even as businesses continue to close and young people can't move away fast enough, government leaders are not investing the kind of money in the type of projects it would take to attract new businesses.

    For decades T'ville was anti-growth and most of the policies still cling to the dying relic of the area, which is a study in decay and abandonment. Titusville is a craphole and there's little to recommend the area. It's ironic they're still looking for space-industry solutions to save them.

    Titusville is not yet Detroit, a city verging on complete decay.

    The author obviously didn't spend much time there because that whole area is decaying. The restaurant he was talking about is called Dixie Crossroads down on Garden and it's not a place locals frequent, not that there are a lot of options.

    And I'm still not convinced that NASA is the right organization to define the future of space travel, but that's a different discussion.

  10. I remember on Berlin's Digital Exiles: Where Tech Activists Go To Escape the NSA · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember when the US was the country people would come to when they wanted to get away from oppressive regimes.

  11. That's funny on Scotland Builds Power Farms of the Future Under the Sea · · Score: 1

    a common objection to wind turbines being how unsightly they are to human eyes.

    The only people I remember complaining were the rich folks who live along the coast. As far as I'm concerned they can just STFU.

  12. OS Missing on Hacking Team Manuals: Sobering Reminder That Privacy is Elusive · · Score: 2

    I didn't see Ubuntu or *nix flavors listed in their target operating systems. All the more reason to support open source.

  13. In other words on Rosetta Probe Reveals What a Comet Smells Like · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you like the smell of rotten eggs, horse urine, formaldehyde, bitter almonds, alcohol, vinegar with a hint of sweet ether,

    In other words, a comet smells like a college frat house.

  14. Libertarian talking point goes down in flames on Automation Coming To Restaurants, But Not Because of Minimum Wage Hikes · · Score: 1

    So the idea that a higher minimum wage would drive automation is bullshit, as we suspected all along. Companies would automate jobs if they were being paid $2/hour. Humans get sick, they have a bad day and require training. Humans need managers, machines just need maintenance.

    It was always a bullshit talking point. How many companies have a receptionist these days? Or a switchboard operator? A higher minimum wage never explained ATMs and online banking.

    Maybe it was just Koch brothers brand bullshit all along.

  15. Turn your wifi off on Austin Airport Tracks Cell Phones To Measure Security Line Wait · · Score: 1

    Okay, so turn your WiFi off before you walk into the airport. Super secret line monitoring DEFEATED! The TSA will never know where you are in line! You'll be like the Spanish Inquisition.

  16. Excuse me but on Internet Broadband Through High-altitude Drones · · Score: 1

    Skynet

    Could we maybe pick a different name?

  17. Gadget enforcement never works on Speed Cameras In Chicago Earn $50M Less Than Expected · · Score: 1

    Furthermore, the city has not presented data on whether or not those areas have become safer.

    That's because they haven't, otherwise the city would be taking a victory lap. That's because gadget enforcement can't change human nature.

    We won't see any real safety improvements until we take human nature out of driving and turn it over to machines.

  18. And there we have it on NASA's HI-SEAS Project Results Suggests a Women-Only Mars Crew · · Score: 1

    The plot for Amazon Women From Mars II.

  19. As if we weren't ignoring them before on Flight Attendants Want Stricter Gadget Rules Reinstated · · Score: 5, Funny

    We were ignoring seat belt puppet show long before the FAA loosened restrictions on gadgets. Besides, if there ever actually was an accident, the chances of needing any of that safety equipment is pretty negligible. I don't think the little oxygen mask is going to be any match for blunt force trauma. At normal airliner speeds, the little mask would be wearing you for protection.

  20. Just the kind of thing you'd expect from the feds on FBI Says It Will Hire No One Who Lies About Illegal Downloading · · Score: 1

    What a dumb as shit policy. That's almost as bad as the days they wouldn't hire anyone who smoked pot. When you fix those kinds of absolutes you start selecting for a specific personality type that's not always going to make the best agent.

    It's so backwards it defies logic.

  21. Too much oxygen? on MIT Study Finds Fault With Mars One Colony Concept · · Score: 3, Insightful

    “If crops grown on Mars are the only food source, they will ‘produce unsafe oxygen levels in the habitat’ resulting in the first crew fatality after about 68 days due to ‘suffocation from too low an oxygen partial pressure within the environment,’ the consequence of a complex series of events stemming from overproduction of oxygen by the plants.

    It seems like an over-production of oxygen on a planet with an abundance of atmospheric CO2 would be a solvable problem. Hasn't this been faced by every grow experiment ever performed in space?

    One of the criticisms of the astronauts in the mood landing program was that we quit just as we were getting good at it. Right now we're not even working at developing long-duration space missions. We're not going to solve the problems until we start putting experiments and people up there to start working the bugs out.

  22. Re:uhh on Elon Musk: We Must Put a Million People On Mars To Safeguard Humanity · · Score: 2, Interesting

    He advances mankind more in a day than you'll accomplish in your whole useless life. What kind of arrogance leads the simple-minded to throw rocks at people actually succeeding at changing the world?

  23. He's right but Mars isn't far enough on Elon Musk: We Must Put a Million People On Mars To Safeguard Humanity · · Score: 1

    He's right that we need to get populations of humans off this rock if the species is going to survive. Mars might be a good first step, but we need to think about more distance, Mars is too close. The gamma ray burst that kills off life on earth would just as easily kill everyone on Mars. If the problem was a wandering neutron star it's going to savage everything in its path.

    We need to think about sending generational ships into space. Maybe we can't do it right now, but we should be working toward that goal. Perhaps Musk is thinking that generational ships are too big of a step with current technology and that we need to get comfortable spending longer times in space before aiming higher.

  24. Re:Should we? on Could We Abort a Manned Mission To Mars? · · Score: 1

    I will never understand the quasi-religious fervor some people have about space.

    If we, as a species, don't get off the earth, and fairly soon in terms of our evolutionary history, we're going to die. That's a fact. If it's not a gamma ray burst, a meteor or comet fragment the size of Texas, or a wandering neutron star, something is going to come along and kill everything on this planet, including us.

    What I will never understand is short-sighted people who only care if the planet lasts long enough for them to get theirs and piss on future generations.

  25. Re:That's not what she's saying on Physicist Claims Black Holes Mathematically Don't Exist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    just that they never collapse further than the state that gravity can overcome the speed of light.

    It sounds like a new term like "black star" rather than "black hole" might be in order. Because the stars at the center of our universe are orbiting around something really heavy that doesn't emit any visible light.

    If I'm reading this right there's something really big and heavy there, we just can't see it.