Slashdot Mirror


User: cusco

cusco's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
4,959
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 4,959

  1. Re:How history changes on Study Suggests Weather and Not Hunting Killed Off Wooly Mammoths · · Score: 1

    You're replying to bluefoxlucid, he won't understand.

  2. Re:How history changes on Study Suggests Weather and Not Hunting Killed Off Wooly Mammoths · · Score: 1

    The experiment is to examine mammoth remains from diverse areas, to inspect the remains of the ecosystem, to look at the changes in isotopic take-up (a way to measure long-term temperature change) of organisms. If the findings are consistent across multiple you have your repeatable experiment. Just because something can't be done in a test tube doesn't mean it's not an experiment.

  3. Re:How history changes on Study Suggests Weather and Not Hunting Killed Off Wooly Mammoths · · Score: 1

    It's not the change that's worrisome, it's the RATE of change that is. Change happens, always has. Climate takes millenia to change, it took thousands of years for the glaciers to retreat, for example. We're changing it measurably in decades, and noticeably in centuries. That's what's unprecedented.

  4. Re:CO2 on Space Food From Space Farms · · Score: 1

    They already try to maintain the CO2 balance fairly close to Earth-normal. They tried high-oxygen/low CO2/low air pressure environments early in the space program but the risk of fire was too high.

  5. Re:Food in Space on Space Food From Space Farms · · Score: 1

    Wet rock wool makes a happy home for fungi and bacteria (speaking as one who has pulled it out of leaking attics). If pre-seeded with the correct varieties this could be a good thing I suppose, but it could be very dangerous if the wrong varieties take over.

  6. Re:oxigen on Space Food From Space Farms · · Score: 1

    Problem with basil is that it also excretes its scent 24x7, especially if anything brushes against it. It wouldn't take long before everyone got really, really tired of smelling it and ripped it out.

  7. Re:Fertilizer... on Space Food From Space Farms · · Score: 1

    Fish seem to be pretty good at breaking down human waste into something that is easier for plants and bacteria to deal with, talapia and fresh water anchovies in particular IIRC.

  8. Re:Fertilizer... Pigs in Space! on Space Food From Space Farms · · Score: 1

    Guinea pigs are probably a better choice. Reproduce faster, less fat, need less space, and the pellet-type manure is easier to deal with. They thrive on kitchen waste and weeds, and are dumber than pigs so less likely to cause trouble. They're also MUCH less aggressive than a sow in heat (or a boar any time), and the males don't need to be castrated to make the meat eatable. The only disadvantage is that they won't eat meat or fish offal like a pig would, but there are plenty of fish that will do that.

  9. Re:Walkthru (Spoilers!) on Bomb Defuse Simulator 2013: a Head-Tracking Tech Demo · · Score: 1

    No, alarm systems do NOT work that way. I work on them for a living. There are only two wires, but in a good installation the circuit will be "supervised" with two 1k resistor packs. The system sees 1k of resistance and knows that the switch at the other end is open. 2k of resistance says the switch is closed. 0k resistance is an 'open line fault' and says the wire has been tampered with.

  10. Re:This is a "Free Market" on How Car Dealership Lobbyists Successfully Banned Tesla Motors From Texas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Exxon is going to have the privileges of a person I'd be perfectly willing to let Exxon vote. One vote. The other side of the deal would be that they would also have to accept the responsibilities of a person. Including the death penalty for their many acts of premeditated murder.

  11. Re:Free Market? LoL on How Car Dealership Lobbyists Successfully Banned Tesla Motors From Texas · · Score: 2

    the invisible hand of the free market determines who gets what resources? Doesn't the free market have the ability to direct resources to where they can most efficiently be used? I'm not saying the conservatives are right in these assumptions; but I am saying that our broken campaign finance system makes a mockery of them.

    Good. They deserve to be mocked.

  12. Re:TV? You mean, single-use device? on Is It Time to Replace Your First HDTV? (Video) · · Score: 1

    It's a big, honking monitor that displays whatever input it receives. In case you didn't notice, your laptop or desktop PC almost certainly have an HDMI output to match the TV's HDMI input. Even a lot of tablets do. You don't need an antenna or cable or satellite connection, any device which can output HDMI (or depending on the unit, DVI, S-Video, etc.) signal will do. Personally I find it uncomfortable to watch movies on a laptop screen or tablet, especially if I'm not the only one watching.

  13. Re:even old/cheap tvs are great on Is It Time to Replace Your First HDTV? (Video) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We have a fairly large CRT that's at least a dozen years old which works fine for us. If I were to sit with my nose a foot or two from the screen I might consider coughing up for an HDTV, but my eyesight isn't good enough to notice the difference from across the living room. Why bother? It's the same reason that I drive an 11 year-old truck; it's good enough for my needs.

  14. Re:FUDposters never learn on Cadillac SRX Converted Into Self-Driving Car · · Score: 1

    Keep in mind the percentage of those companies that the Mafia owns, and it could get interesting.

  15. Re:Fond memories of Threads on British TV Show 'Blackout' Triggers Online LOLs · · Score: 1

    While researching "Germs" the authors found the largest abandoned ex-Soviet bio-warfare site secured with a rusty bicycle lock, guarded by one untrained part-time guy who hadn't been paid in six months. The 'tip' they gave him for letting them wander around the site was larger than his normal paycheck would have been.

  16. Re:Fond memories of Threads on British TV Show 'Blackout' Triggers Online LOLs · · Score: 0

    Not sure if it would be more horrifying than 'The Day After', released the year before 'Threads'. Remember that we had Ronnie Raygun, who had to be argued out of invading Cuba by the Joint Chiefs, for president at that point. I'm very surprised that civilization survived the 1980s.

  17. Re:We trust the American people... on German Federal Police Helicopter Circles US Consulate · · Score: 1

    I live in the US, and can tell you in all honesty your trust is sadly misplaced.

  18. Re:Hell hath no fury .. on Indiana Man Gets 8 Months For Teaching How To Beat Polygraph Tests · · Score: 1

    which they are evaluating right now in Afghanistan

    Oh, great. Now we're torturing and killing people based on a system known to be inaccurate, "can be as good as the experts" who come up with 10-20 percent false positive rates. Damn. One more reason to loathe the Pentagon, like I needed any more.

  19. Re:must we endure.. on Aeroscraft Begins Flight Testing Following FAA Certification · · Score: 1

    The Andes are pretty much out of the question, even in those areas where helicopters can't operate adequately because of the altitude. Winds are utterly unpredictable and frequently outrageous (especially in August). I've seen a 'vientarron' rip a chunk of corrugated roofing off a house, toss it a couple hundred feet in the air, and drop it half a mile away. There is no way that an airship of any type could survive something like that, especially in an area where valleys are often only a kilometer or less wide at their bottom (where the resources generally are). It might work in the open Amazon jungle, but not anywhere higher than Quillabamba (and that's a stretch).

  20. Re:FUDposters never learn on Cadillac SRX Converted Into Self-Driving Car · · Score: 1

    Garbage trucks are likely to be one of the first fully-autonomous vehicles. It's an absolutely brainless job that everyone hates, and pays pretty well because you have to shovel the money at people to get them to take it. Already most of the truck's operations are automated already, with the exception of the driver. This would also allow 24x7 operation of the truck, which are currently limited to one or two shifts per day. One truck doing the work of three, saving the salary of three drivers, and you could charge half a million extra for a single truck and the buyer would be happy.

  21. Re:The main challenge on Cadillac SRX Converted Into Self-Driving Car · · Score: 1

    I can drive, and would really rather not. My wife can drive, but insists on making me do it if we're both going somewhere. I figured out why old men drive slow, it's because they have their wife in the car. I would be pleased as punch to just sit back and let her yell at the autopilot when the driver 1/4 kilometer ahead changes lanes without signalling.

  22. Re:this is why on Cadillac SRX Converted Into Self-Driving Car · · Score: 1

    As long as it's better than the car full of Asian kids that I saw stop in the middle lane of the freeway during rush hour a few days ago, back up, then cut across two lanes of traffic because they were going to miss their off ramp. Made me really glad I was riding the bus.

  23. Re:V2V on Cadillac SRX Converted Into Self-Driving Car · · Score: 1

    Not sure about elsewhere, but here in the Seattle/Bellevue/Tacoma/Everett area the move has been to centralize traffic control to alleviate the rapidly degenerating traffic situation (population growth has greatly outstripped the area's ability to upgrade the road infrastructure.) Dept. of Transportation in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties can alter timing of lights, give preference to traffic moving in one direction over the other, stop all traffic in case of an emergency, grant/remove precedence to pedestrians near entertainment venues, and a number of other options. The days of the stand-alone dumb timer is passing, at least at important intersections.

  24. Re:communications system? on Cadillac SRX Converted Into Self-Driving Car · · Score: 1

    the aging population that wants to stay mobile

    I used to work for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program in northern Michigan. Probably 1/3 of my job was to find transportation for people who could no longer drive. The typical scenario was that someone in Detroit or Grand Rapids or Chicago would reach 65, retire, and decide to move to northern Michigan where they've spent most of their summer vacations. They buy a place on Spider Lake (if they have money) or in Bingham (if they don't), and enjoy the first few years there. Then their eyesight fails, they get sick and get put on medication that doesn't let them drive, or because of their slowed reaction time they get in an accident that scares them enough to stop driving. Now their friends and relatives are all far away, they live 30 miles out of the closest thing to a city, there is no public transport to speak of, they have weekly doctor appointments, need to go grocery shopping, and just need to get out of the house and see another human face from time to time. A self-driving car would be a god-send for those folks.

  25. Re:Basic Statistics Deception on Arctic Ice Cap Rebounds From 2012 — But Does That Matter? · · Score: 1

    I've been disgusted with Gore since he managed to get the Pentabong to pay mercenaries $100 million/year to guard Occidental's pipeline in Colombia while he was VP. (His family's been heavily invested in Occidental for decades.)

    No one actually wants Gore as a spokescritter for, well, anything. He nominated himself, and since he still has good relations with the court stenographers at the WP and NYT (since he still feeds them DNC talking points they mistake for news) they took him up on it. While not as stupid as Quail or as thoroughly vile as Cheney, Gore is certainly one of the more annoying ex-VPs of the last half-century.