When trying to decide between the iPhone and the Galaxy, those were deciding factors. Now, there is nothing really. Now if the battery length and changing time is accurate, then the replaceable battery may not be an issue. However we all know that they all lie about those sorts of things. So while the battery life in my current Galaxy sucks (really my only gripe), it was largely mitigated by the fact that I can just buy a cheap battery and changer and always have a backup that I can quickly pop in if I really need to...
No SD slot? Lame. Not everyone used it, but for those that did (and I did) it was a selling feature. If you are going to use a more powerful processor, what is the point if you have no capacity (mine has a bit of an issue loading my large 64GB SD when full of a lot of files). Seems Samsung is pandering to the whole Apple mantra of upselling services like iCloud, or whatever service that the Samsung will use. Which will eat your bandwidth, etc... Along with using the silly pricing model of changing more for cheap memory.
Anyway disappointing. I'll probably wait and see what else is out there...
1) Oracle is one of the largest, most effective, powerful, and most used database systems on the planet.
The decision process went probably something like this: "We're trying to build the largest health care database system on the planet, and we're using Oracle database technology, seems it might be a good idea to have them actually build then thing rather than some random contractors". Which was probably just lazy on the part of management, or an ass saving move, as the intention was always to throw Oracle under the bus should things go sideways. Also lets be clear, with these uber larger projects, success rate is not so great, just ask how that all worked out for the UK and their NHS health care database... or NY and their payment system, or Ontario and their Healthcare system, or.... (all of which were done using private contractors).
Anyway as someone who has sat in on design meetings for proposed systems by the Oracle development arm, I can tell you that it would be an expensive and bad idea. They are a software company. They sell software. They want to sell you as much software as they can. They have bought a number of other companies technology, and "integrated" them (shoehorned), and would like to use everything they have to solve problems you don't know you have.
Religion is largely based on the idea of an afterlife (generally a nicer place). However AI is likely for all intents and purposes immortal and as such likely unconcerned about such things.
Seems like if it is a constant, that it would increase linearly as the blackhole grows in size, allowing more surface area (is that even a correct term to use in such a case?) to gobble up additional stuff. Of course that could become exponential if the growth rate is such.
1) Anyone that uses synthetic benchmarks like Cinebench deserve whatever they get. These things have been rigged since the ATI VS nVIDIA days, and ATI doesn't even exist anymore. Not to mention they don't really prove anything.
2) Using real world software tests, particularly in gaming, Intel has been blowing AMD out of the water since just after the Athelon64 days. The only places that AMD has has success commercially or in performance has been in A) The server market, and B) the very low end market, the later you wouldn't bother or care about benchmarks anyway. Yes it could be that a lot of software is optimized for Intel, but then again, if one is faster than the other because of the lack of optimization then it is a moot point anyway. AMD is better in some unique situations than Intel, but out of say 20 software tests, it might excel at 2 of them, so it is pretty specific software.
So stop drinking your own fan boy coolaid. I for one would welcome a more competitive AMD CPU, as Intel has been driving prices up due to a lack of real competition. The buying of ATI by AMD was supposed to re-invent AMD and harold in a level of integration of video and cpu. The only thing that has really happened is that integrated video has gotten slightly better. and AMD has a video card division now...
All the stuff above aside, the basic fact is that the Conservatives united the right (Alliance/Reform, PC), and moved towards center (or at least perceived to by some people). The center left is shared by two other parties that basically just cannibalize each others votes... So baring some crazy thing, it is no surprise that the Conservatives have a distinct advantage and won, simple numbers. The PQ is not a federal party. Their only significant impact recently was loosing so badly and catapulting the NDP to prominence for the first time ever really.
Of course anytime the topic of "coalition" was mentioned, all three were quick to throw it down, like being called a communist in the US. The Conservatives hate the idea because they would lose. The Liberals hate the idea because they want all the power. The NDP hate the idea because their party would likely be absorbed and a bunch of politicians would be out of a job...
Also change is hard. The reason we still have a stupid voting system and ridings is that it give advantage to the Cons/Libs, which most people vote for, so there is very little impetus for change (i.e. why would I want to change a system that elects the party I like?), which breeds apathy, which means less people vote... etc...
You can die from drinking (not breathing) too much water. It is called hyponatremia and can lead to "water intoxication", and it can kill you in extreme cases.
There was an example a few years ago where a radio station had a contest among a few contestants on who could drink the most water, and the winner would get an Xbox I believe. A woman died as a result.
Anyway, it wouldn't be millions however, and Alcohol is certainly more dangerous. Anyway they don't call it in"toxic"ation for nothing...
"...the waste heat from the generator would cause the liquids around it to boil..."
Because there is nothing like studying marine life by boiling it... My only question is will they equip the submersible with a garlic butter sauce or not, because without it, I don't see it being a worthwhile endeavor.
700$ Million was to fight solar patents in court. 100$ Million was to eventually Licence the technology from Samsung. 50$ Million was the actual cost of construction.
In fact, as anyone that lives in the country that has owned cats might tell you, the shoe is sometimes on the other foot in that cats are just as likely to get eaten by a predator bird...
LOL! I have heard this argument before. The Cats killing more birds statistic is an urban one, i.e. most of the birds they are killing are of the urban variety, like pigeons (rats of the sky), and other "pest" birds. Those big solar towers are not located in urban areas, but rather the countryside. What birds they may or may not be killing are of the more important variety...
Not that I say that it is significant, or that I am against this sort of power generation (personally I think it is fascinating), only that the cats kill more birds than solar towers, while "technically" true in volume, is a bit misleading and BS insofar as an accurate comparison goes... The same goes for window strikes really, that is an urban issue, and the type of birds are not going to be the same.
I use VLC when I have to, because even with all the tweaking and technical magic I do, I cannot get Windows MP to reliably play all video formats, and/or reliably display all subs. I have gotten to the point that I can get MP to handle 90% of things, but there are still 10% of things that I have to boot up VLC.
Why use MP? Only one reason: Media Center uses MP. That's it. If I had a media center, and here's the important part, that I could use with a standard windows remote, that wasn't Windows and was't MP, I would do it in a heartbeat. While I have to do all sorts of trickery to get MP to work with anything, VLC just works, without a lot of fooling around.
So the ONE feature they could have added to VLC that would made a huge difference (and I am sure for a lot of others) it would be to add a Media Center interface and remote support. I have tried a number of third party VLC addons and skins that pretend to do the same, but unfortunately they all suck, and they all seem to be half done. Currently I can use my remote a little bit with VLC, but it is limited to play/stop and volume, that is it. I can't browse my library of videos, I have to physically walk over to my computer and click with a mouse to start the thing.
Anyway if they are looking to take over market share, that would be the way to do it. Frankly I am amazed they haven't yet.
I'm a big fan of wind power. However wind power cannot go it alone, and alternate renewable are NOT enough to take up the slack. One is a periodic generator, which if there was infinite (or at least sufficient) storage we would not be having this conversation. However storage is even harder than generation. Nuclear is a base generator. I think it can do better, but the difficulty is that the money and resources have not been going into R&D for many years now, partly because of popularity (or lack of it), and partly because non-renewable is cheap and easy so why bother.
That said, wind weirdly enough has seemingly just as many detractors to it's construction. They take up a large foot print of land. They get tons of resistance from "environmentalists", for killing bats, birds, looking ugly on the landscape, and perhaps more importantly, affect the real estate values of those people that can afford to be green and generally live in the country or on the waterfront.
Anyway, in a perfect world, we would have a lot of wind power, and just enough small scale closed loop advanced nuclear options to cover off when the wind isn't blowing.
I seriously doubt any nuclear option slows the progress of wind power. The biggest thing that slows wind power are land owners who don't want wind power in their neighborhood. So basically NIMBY. Unfortunately like a lot of renewable energy, wind is also pretty geographically dependent. It just so happens that those areas also usually have the highest land values, which have the people with the biggest lobby (i.e. wealthy people).
This actually makes a lot of sense, not sure why more countries including my own don't do it. Probably because even the poor here are energy hogs. Anyway not only is it a good way to help those at the bottom of the earning power allowing them to spend on other things, without promoting electricity waste (because it is effectively capped). It also great from the standpoint of the energy companies. At a certain point, all that billing and collection and accounts is a waste of time for them due to the values involved. Not to mention, but lets face it, a lot of poor default on their bills for obvious reasons, then going after debts, collection services, forgiving debt, admin overhead etc... I am pretty sure they would LOVE the government to cover that, as it is secured money, and they know they will always get paid...
Of course this is Greece we are talking about so maybe not!:) Badda Boom Boom! Try the veal!
LOL yes exactly this. I also work in GIS, and specifically in this particular field.
I'll add to everything you just said, plus anyone who has ever used Google Maps, should know that some of their stuff is out of date, some of it very out of date. Parcel data changes all the time. I am willing to bet that whatever Google maps uses is significantly out of date. The data also tends to be pretty expensive also to acquire as its maintenance is also. So anyone that uses this as anything other than to get a general idea is fooling themselves. The world of land registry and titles is improving, but much of it is stuck in an archaic system, Some of which is due to the simple vastness of the legacy records out there, and also due to some specific legal requirements that exist. I have access to systems and data that the public doesn't, and even then, to get a definitive answer, you need go through a more manual process.
As you say, EVEN going through the manual process can be a challenge (if doing it for legal purposes), and a bit of a historical lesson. Depending on when and where the land was surveyed different methods may have been used. I recall my Dad who was a lawyer looked into some land my grandfather owned, which ended up being some of the first land given out by the King. It pretty much pre-dated any kind of survey method, and was mostly based on features that may or may not exist anymore or that may have changed. All hand written, in an ancient book. I also recall an example when I took a course on land registry about a property dispute, where the description included a river, which of course changed its course to give more land to one land owner, and less to another, then trying to prove the old track of the river... etc... In some instances more art than science unfortunately.
Anyway it is still pretty cool that the software is free, and it does include some of this information. Though I do see it causing headaches when people in the public using it, assume it is accurate, take it as gospel, then make decisions or engage lawyers/land registry/government into it... Hopefully there is a big disclaimer on the data (not that anyone will read or pay any attention to metadata in my experience).
Haven't read the decision, but such was my concern.
Usually it involves some determination of "Competency" which can be somewhat hard to define. In many cases legally this may be influenced by undue "Duress". Which in many of the cases due to the nature of the issue, both are at risk. As the injury or affliction may rob someone of their faculties, and being in a lot of pain could certainly be called duress. If so, the number of incidents this would actually cover might actually be quite small.
It may sound selfish, but I know I would not want to have to make such a decision for a loved family member, and if it isn't an option, then that decision is taken out of your hands. I know the only two examples of this I can recall (because they were in the media), were parents of a mentally challenged girl, and an older woman suffering from dementia, neither of which would likely pass the competency test anyway.
Then the difficulty becomes in diagnosis. About the only time this might apply is someone that gets early diagnosis of something really bad, and decides that they do not want to live through the experience. That said, just like the argument against capitol punishment, judges and the court system are not infallible, and neither are doctors or our medical system. Though presumably, one would proceed though the initial stages prior to any decision of this magnitude being made, however given the limits, if you wait too long... may no longer be allowable.
It's definitely right of centre, but is hardly Fox News. It is right of centre for Canada for sure, but that of course isn't the same thing as down in the US.
Good on the suit however. It wouldn't be the first of last time journalists have gotten science wrong from any news service left or right, though the right does seem to play a bit looser with the truth with "opinion" pieces. Much of it can be attributed to laziness and poor research or lack of understanding than any sort of malice. Or at least the willingness to be lazy and stupid because it supports whatever opinion you want to write about. 50,000$ isn't a lot of money for the National Post, but it is more symbolic than anything else, as it goes against whatever credibility they might have if any... There is a certain amount of trust required for any news service, and once you lose that, it is not long for this world.
The trade off, is to achieve the power required for these lasers and railguns to be effective the ship would require a nuclear power plant.
I'm not sure the hitting of a nuclear power plant would be any less disastrous than hitting a power magazine.
Naval armor hasn't been useful in a long time. So you are down to either A) Counter Measures, B) Maneuverability to not getting hit, C) Detection
A) might work for missiles, however the new ones everyone is trying to build are super fast, making them pretty hard to shoot down. B) likely isn't going to help much unless you are just at the edge of someone range envelope. C) You are either talking about Submarines, or like modern air fighters, you have a longer detection range, and the ability to hit from that range, so you are never in any danger.
Lasers might be able to be used as defense for the defense of the faster missiles, however at that point it is probably as much about detection and target acquisition and tracking than it is about how powerful the laser is. Also you'll probably be playing cat and mouse with stealth missiles, heat resistant coatings, etc...
A railgun however should be able to hit over the horizon, which is what you would need for first detection and strike. However again, half the battle will be as much detection and targeting. However they are likely much more of an offensive weapon than lasers. That said, like old battleships, it has been shown that air is what wins so there is that. Perhaps lasers of sufficient power might serve also as air deterrent. That would be the big change, which might bring back the era of big battleships again...
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Agreed.
When trying to decide between the iPhone and the Galaxy, those were deciding factors. Now, there is nothing really. Now if the battery length and changing time is accurate, then the replaceable battery may not be an issue. However we all know that they all lie about those sorts of things. So while the battery life in my current Galaxy sucks (really my only gripe), it was largely mitigated by the fact that I can just buy a cheap battery and changer and always have a backup that I can quickly pop in if I really need to...
No SD slot? Lame. Not everyone used it, but for those that did (and I did) it was a selling feature. If you are going to use a more powerful processor, what is the point if you have no capacity (mine has a bit of an issue loading my large 64GB SD when full of a lot of files). Seems Samsung is pandering to the whole Apple mantra of upselling services like iCloud, or whatever service that the Samsung will use. Which will eat your bandwidth, etc... Along with using the silly pricing model of changing more for cheap memory.
Anyway disappointing. I'll probably wait and see what else is out there...
Seems like a pretty easy case to make.
1) Oracle is one of the largest, most effective, powerful, and most used database systems on the planet.
The decision process went probably something like this: "We're trying to build the largest health care database system on the planet, and we're using Oracle database technology, seems it might be a good idea to have them actually build then thing rather than some random contractors". Which was probably just lazy on the part of management, or an ass saving move, as the intention was always to throw Oracle under the bus should things go sideways. Also lets be clear, with these uber larger projects, success rate is not so great, just ask how that all worked out for the UK and their NHS health care database... or NY and their payment system, or Ontario and their Healthcare system, or.... (all of which were done using private contractors).
Anyway as someone who has sat in on design meetings for proposed systems by the Oracle development arm, I can tell you that it would be an expensive and bad idea. They are a software company. They sell software. They want to sell you as much software as they can. They have bought a number of other companies technology, and "integrated" them (shoehorned), and would like to use everything they have to solve problems you don't know you have.
Anyway I doubt either side is blameless really.
Religion is largely based on the idea of an afterlife (generally a nicer place). However AI is likely for all intents and purposes immortal and as such likely unconcerned about such things.
Seems like if it is a constant, that it would increase linearly as the blackhole grows in size, allowing more surface area (is that even a correct term to use in such a case?) to gobble up additional stuff. Of course that could become exponential if the growth rate is such.
1) Anyone that uses synthetic benchmarks like Cinebench deserve whatever they get. These things have been rigged since the ATI VS nVIDIA days, and ATI doesn't even exist anymore. Not to mention they don't really prove anything.
2) Using real world software tests, particularly in gaming, Intel has been blowing AMD out of the water since just after the Athelon64 days. The only places that AMD has has success commercially or in performance has been in A) The server market, and B) the very low end market, the later you wouldn't bother or care about benchmarks anyway. Yes it could be that a lot of software is optimized for Intel, but then again, if one is faster than the other because of the lack of optimization then it is a moot point anyway. AMD is better in some unique situations than Intel, but out of say 20 software tests, it might excel at 2 of them, so it is pretty specific software.
So stop drinking your own fan boy coolaid. I for one would welcome a more competitive AMD CPU, as Intel has been driving prices up due to a lack of real competition. The buying of ATI by AMD was supposed to re-invent AMD and harold in a level of integration of video and cpu. The only thing that has really happened is that integrated video has gotten slightly better. and AMD has a video card division now...
You forgot politics and politicians...
All the stuff above aside, the basic fact is that the Conservatives united the right (Alliance/Reform, PC), and moved towards center (or at least perceived to by some people). The center left is shared by two other parties that basically just cannibalize each others votes... So baring some crazy thing, it is no surprise that the Conservatives have a distinct advantage and won, simple numbers. The PQ is not a federal party. Their only significant impact recently was loosing so badly and catapulting the NDP to prominence for the first time ever really.
Of course anytime the topic of "coalition" was mentioned, all three were quick to throw it down, like being called a communist in the US.
The Conservatives hate the idea because they would lose.
The Liberals hate the idea because they want all the power.
The NDP hate the idea because their party would likely be absorbed and a bunch of politicians would be out of a job...
Also change is hard. The reason we still have a stupid voting system and ridings is that it give advantage to the Cons/Libs, which most people vote for, so there is very little impetus for change (i.e. why would I want to change a system that elects the party I like?), which breeds apathy, which means less people vote... etc...
"...size of coastal population and national plastic production. According to the estimate..."
Sounds like a pretty mickey mouse statistic to come up with an "estimate". More like a wild guess that is barely based on anything relevant...
You can die from drinking (not breathing) too much water. It is called hyponatremia and can lead to "water intoxication", and it can kill you in extreme cases.
There was an example a few years ago where a radio station had a contest among a few contestants on who could drink the most water, and the winner would get an Xbox I believe. A woman died as a result.
Anyway, it wouldn't be millions however, and Alcohol is certainly more dangerous. Anyway they don't call it in"toxic"ation for nothing...
It's a balance however, there is that narrow band of where if you go beyond it, your "effectiveness" may start to diminish...
"...the waste heat from the generator would cause the liquids around it to boil..."
Because there is nothing like studying marine life by boiling it... My only question is will they equip the submersible with a garlic butter sauce or not, because without it, I don't see it being a worthwhile endeavor.
700$ Million was to fight solar patents in court. 100$ Million was to eventually Licence the technology from Samsung. 50$ Million was the actual cost of construction.
In fact, as anyone that lives in the country that has owned cats might tell you, the shoe is sometimes on the other foot in that cats are just as likely to get eaten by a predator bird...
LOL! I have heard this argument before. The Cats killing more birds statistic is an urban one, i.e. most of the birds they are killing are of the urban variety, like pigeons (rats of the sky), and other "pest" birds. Those big solar towers are not located in urban areas, but rather the countryside. What birds they may or may not be killing are of the more important variety...
Not that I say that it is significant, or that I am against this sort of power generation (personally I think it is fascinating), only that the cats kill more birds than solar towers, while "technically" true in volume, is a bit misleading and BS insofar as an accurate comparison goes... The same goes for window strikes really, that is an urban issue, and the type of birds are not going to be the same.
I use VLC when I have to, because even with all the tweaking and technical magic I do, I cannot get Windows MP to reliably play all video formats, and/or reliably display all subs. I have gotten to the point that I can get MP to handle 90% of things, but there are still 10% of things that I have to boot up VLC.
Why use MP? Only one reason: Media Center uses MP. That's it. If I had a media center, and here's the important part, that I could use with a standard windows remote, that wasn't Windows and was't MP, I would do it in a heartbeat. While I have to do all sorts of trickery to get MP to work with anything, VLC just works, without a lot of fooling around.
So the ONE feature they could have added to VLC that would made a huge difference (and I am sure for a lot of others) it would be to add a Media Center interface and remote support. I have tried a number of third party VLC addons and skins that pretend to do the same, but unfortunately they all suck, and they all seem to be half done. Currently I can use my remote a little bit with VLC, but it is limited to play/stop and volume, that is it. I can't browse my library of videos, I have to physically walk over to my computer and click with a mouse to start the thing.
Anyway if they are looking to take over market share, that would be the way to do it. Frankly I am amazed they haven't yet.
Let's not be hasty now...
And if your that wealthy you can throw lawyers at debating the issue in court until it eventually goes away.
I'm a big fan of wind power. However wind power cannot go it alone, and alternate renewable are NOT enough to take up the slack. One is a periodic generator, which if there was infinite (or at least sufficient) storage we would not be having this conversation. However storage is even harder than generation. Nuclear is a base generator. I think it can do better, but the difficulty is that the money and resources have not been going into R&D for many years now, partly because of popularity (or lack of it), and partly because non-renewable is cheap and easy so why bother.
That said, wind weirdly enough has seemingly just as many detractors to it's construction. They take up a large foot print of land. They get tons of resistance from "environmentalists", for killing bats, birds, looking ugly on the landscape, and perhaps more importantly, affect the real estate values of those people that can afford to be green and generally live in the country or on the waterfront.
Anyway, in a perfect world, we would have a lot of wind power, and just enough small scale closed loop advanced nuclear options to cover off when the wind isn't blowing.
I seriously doubt any nuclear option slows the progress of wind power. The biggest thing that slows wind power are land owners who don't want wind power in their neighborhood. So basically NIMBY. Unfortunately like a lot of renewable energy, wind is also pretty geographically dependent. It just so happens that those areas also usually have the highest land values, which have the people with the biggest lobby (i.e. wealthy people).
Yes but once you get the power...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00...
I see what these geeks are thinking about now...
This actually makes a lot of sense, not sure why more countries including my own don't do it. Probably because even the poor here are energy hogs. Anyway not only is it a good way to help those at the bottom of the earning power allowing them to spend on other things, without promoting electricity waste (because it is effectively capped). It also great from the standpoint of the energy companies. At a certain point, all that billing and collection and accounts is a waste of time for them due to the values involved. Not to mention, but lets face it, a lot of poor default on their bills for obvious reasons, then going after debts, collection services, forgiving debt, admin overhead etc... I am pretty sure they would LOVE the government to cover that, as it is secured money, and they know they will always get paid...
Of course this is Greece we are talking about so maybe not! :) Badda Boom Boom! Try the veal!
LOL yes exactly this. I also work in GIS, and specifically in this particular field.
I'll add to everything you just said, plus anyone who has ever used Google Maps, should know that some of their stuff is out of date, some of it very out of date. Parcel data changes all the time. I am willing to bet that whatever Google maps uses is significantly out of date. The data also tends to be pretty expensive also to acquire as its maintenance is also. So anyone that uses this as anything other than to get a general idea is fooling themselves. The world of land registry and titles is improving, but much of it is stuck in an archaic system, Some of which is due to the simple vastness of the legacy records out there, and also due to some specific legal requirements that exist. I have access to systems and data that the public doesn't, and even then, to get a definitive answer, you need go through a more manual process.
As you say, EVEN going through the manual process can be a challenge (if doing it for legal purposes), and a bit of a historical lesson. Depending on when and where the land was surveyed different methods may have been used. I recall my Dad who was a lawyer looked into some land my grandfather owned, which ended up being some of the first land given out by the King. It pretty much pre-dated any kind of survey method, and was mostly based on features that may or may not exist anymore or that may have changed. All hand written, in an ancient book. I also recall an example when I took a course on land registry about a property dispute, where the description included a river, which of course changed its course to give more land to one land owner, and less to another, then trying to prove the old track of the river... etc... In some instances more art than science unfortunately.
Anyway it is still pretty cool that the software is free, and it does include some of this information. Though I do see it causing headaches when people in the public using it, assume it is accurate, take it as gospel, then make decisions or engage lawyers/land registry/government into it... Hopefully there is a big disclaimer on the data (not that anyone will read or pay any attention to metadata in my experience).
Haven't read the decision, but such was my concern.
Usually it involves some determination of "Competency" which can be somewhat hard to define. In many cases legally this may be influenced by undue "Duress". Which in many of the cases due to the nature of the issue, both are at risk. As the injury or affliction may rob someone of their faculties, and being in a lot of pain could certainly be called duress. If so, the number of incidents this would actually cover might actually be quite small.
It may sound selfish, but I know I would not want to have to make such a decision for a loved family member, and if it isn't an option, then that decision is taken out of your hands. I know the only two examples of this I can recall (because they were in the media), were parents of a mentally challenged girl, and an older woman suffering from dementia, neither of which would likely pass the competency test anyway.
Then the difficulty becomes in diagnosis. About the only time this might apply is someone that gets early diagnosis of something really bad, and decides that they do not want to live through the experience. That said, just like the argument against capitol punishment, judges and the court system are not infallible, and neither are doctors or our medical system. Though presumably, one would proceed though the initial stages prior to any decision of this magnitude being made, however given the limits, if you wait too long... may no longer be allowable.
LOL! I keep thinking of that zombie fungus that some insects get that tells them to go drown themselves....
Perhaps your stomach does have some influence over your food craving...
"I dunno, but my gut tells me that I need to eat those donuts!" :)
It's definitely right of centre, but is hardly Fox News. It is right of centre for Canada for sure, but that of course isn't the same thing as down in the US.
Good on the suit however. It wouldn't be the first of last time journalists have gotten science wrong from any news service left or right, though the right does seem to play a bit looser with the truth with "opinion" pieces. Much of it can be attributed to laziness and poor research or lack of understanding than any sort of malice. Or at least the willingness to be lazy and stupid because it supports whatever opinion you want to write about. 50,000$ isn't a lot of money for the National Post, but it is more symbolic than anything else, as it goes against whatever credibility they might have if any... There is a certain amount of trust required for any news service, and once you lose that, it is not long for this world.
The trade off, is to achieve the power required for these lasers and railguns to be effective the ship would require a nuclear power plant.
I'm not sure the hitting of a nuclear power plant would be any less disastrous than hitting a power magazine.
Naval armor hasn't been useful in a long time. So you are down to either A) Counter Measures, B) Maneuverability to not getting hit, C) Detection
A) might work for missiles, however the new ones everyone is trying to build are super fast, making them pretty hard to shoot down. B) likely isn't going to help much unless you are just at the edge of someone range envelope. C) You are either talking about Submarines, or like modern air fighters, you have a longer detection range, and the ability to hit from that range, so you are never in any danger.
Lasers might be able to be used as defense for the defense of the faster missiles, however at that point it is probably as much about detection and target acquisition and tracking than it is about how powerful the laser is. Also you'll probably be playing cat and mouse with stealth missiles, heat resistant coatings, etc...
A railgun however should be able to hit over the horizon, which is what you would need for first detection and strike. However again, half the battle will be as much detection and targeting. However they are likely much more of an offensive weapon than lasers. That said, like old battleships, it has been shown that air is what wins so there is that. Perhaps lasers of sufficient power might serve also as air deterrent. That would be the big change, which might bring back the era of big battleships again...
...have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rainwater, and only pure-grain alcohol?