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User: Evil+Pete

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  1. Re:Too little time... on Life Could Have Evolved 15 Million Years After the Big Bang, Says Cosmologist · · Score: 1

    Uh ... you do understand that the expanding universe does not affect condensed matter like stars and planets don't you? Supergiant stars could form even at this stage, and burning through their fuel at a luminosity depending on something like the fourth power of the mass then it wont take long, a million years say before bang .. supuernova and a lot of heavy elements. Try to keep up with real physics not comic books.

  2. Too little time... on Life Could Have Evolved 15 Million Years After the Big Bang, Says Cosmologist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This (a goldilocks era) is a really interesting idea which seems obvious now that someone has brought it up. But it would be brief. Think of it this way, for millions of years the cosmic glow would be hot, too hot. Planets form, create magma oceans ... still too hot. Finally, the big bang glow cools to around 300K, but the Earth is likely still a magma ocean, or is still hot from trying to be in equilibrium with a hot universe plus internal heat from all those radioactives. Life aronse on Earth fairly rapidly, but it is unlikely that it took just a few million years. Even if it did arise on one of these worlds, it took billions for multicellularity to arise on Earth. After the brief goldilocks era what then? The sky would continue cooling, the worlds that were desirable places for new life would freeze, the ones that were too hot might now be suitable for life. In the end there would be little benefit. But there would still be planets around where life could start, though it might be complicated and very dangerous at this time.

  3. Misread as ... on NY Police Get Tall SUVs To Combat Texting While Driving · · Score: 1

    "Sexting While Driving" ... got my hopes up. After that the actual story was a bitter disappointment.

  4. Re:And thus invoking the . . . on Britain's Conservatives Scrub Speeches from the Internet · · Score: 2

    OTOH, this means that whenever reference is made to one of their speeches people can just insert scandalous bits. Objections by the Tories would be countered by pointing out that because they removed all copies from the Internet then anything they publish has been modified and is therefore not to be trusted. It should be easy to cultivate an aura of mistrust in anything that they say after that. Well, that is what I would do if I was Machiavelli. Or true to my username. :)

  5. Re:It tried to follow the plot on Critics Reassess Starship Troopers As a Misunderstood Masterpiece · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I first saw it my brain was a bit fried from an intense work day. I wanted a dumb as crap movie that I could tune out to. Fellow devs at the time said, "it's just mindless action." OK, good enough for me. But when I watched it it was a deep critique of society as a nascent fascist state. I actually liked it, a lot. If you have ever seen the propaganda movies of WW2, and enough footage from the Third Reich then "Starship Troopers" is a brilliant movie. Not much to do with the book though. I liked how you were suckered into thinking you were on the good side until it slowly became obvious that you were on the wrong, very wrong, side. The intelligence guy, whats-is-name, dressed like a gestapo officer, executing prisoners, conducting experiments on prisoners. Even the uniforms, nice versions of German WW2 military uniforms.

    Most frightening part was that most people I knew who saw it didn't even realise that it was about a fascist state. Oh crap that was creepy. Not one of the great movies, but underrated I think.

  6. Hallelujah! on Linux 3.12 Released, Linus Proposes Bug Fix-Only 4.0 · · Score: 2

    Now it's not that I bump up against many bugs but this is a very smart move. So many times you see feature upon feature added, maybe crash a bit blah blah. But sometimes you just have to stop, take a deep breath and just fix what is there rather than pile on new stuff. A brave decision but essential for the OS itself which must be rock solid above all else.

  7. Yes. My first reaction to seeing that Maverick was free was to ask myself why, and why make a song and dance about it? I haven't updated my macbook pro with this yet because I had this uncomfortable feeling. Now I read that they are giving an amnesty to pirated software but will in future require all software to come through the App Store. Well that rings a bell. That was the strategy MS took with Windows, first they let people pirate it then when everyone was dependent on it they used the activation strategy to suddenly make those people pay for the next release. I am feeling really uncomfortable with the whole walled-garden of Apple, now it seems they are putting razor wire and broken glass around the top of the walls of the garden. I think in future I'll just go back to Linux and maybe Windows.

  8. Re:Old news on The Fascinating Science Behind Beer Foam · · Score: 1

    Part of me keeps thinking that this sounds like a phenomenon that must have some industrially useful application but I can't think of it.

  9. Re:Scrivener on Ask Slashdot: Do You Use Markdown and Pandoc? · · Score: 1

    Seconded. A wonderful tool.

  10. This would suggest ... on How Science Goes Wrong · · Score: 1

    That there is a name to be made in debunking landmark studies in the biosciences because they cannot be reproduced. That should be part of the scientific process.

  11. Re:Cookies on No, Oreos Aren't As Addictive As Cocaine · · Score: 1

    I find Oreos uninspiring. I really don't understand what the fuss is about. American chocolate I have tasted was terrible, it was complete crap. Maybe I have just got used to the higher levels of sugar and real cream in the local varieties. Although, 'local' seems more and more to mean anything not from the US. Hershey bars were particularly disappointing. On the other hand I hear that their ice cream is really something amazing.

  12. Short answer 'NO'... on Gravity: Can Film Ever Get the Science Right? · · Score: 1

    Slightly longer answer: people want stories, not dry factual events. I have yet to read a science fiction story that didn't stretch the truth, but the critical thing was that if most of the science was still good then it was okay. 'Gravity' stretched the truth: orbits weren't right, the debris field wouldn't have been like that. "Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story" (to quote Mr Chopper Read). If it was factual it would be less dramatic, more cerebral, if they lost all their oxygen or suffered damage to heat shield on the shuttle etc etc, then what would the story be? Slowly dieing of oxygen starvation? Sacrifice someone? Still wouldn't solve anything. Okay in a short story like "The Cold Equations" but in a movie? Nah, bollocks. I liked 'Gravity', everyone should just take a few deep breaths and settle down.

  13. Re:Java won't die. on If Java Is Dying, It Sure Looks Awfully Healthy · · Score: 1

    I was involved in a large ecommerce site. $30 million. All in java, when it was finished we had started using the latest Java 1.1.5. By the time Java 1.2 came out java was very, very popular ... there was a lot of hype about it, but not much in the universities. That changed rapidly but the popularity of Java came first. Everyone knew that at the time. Now think about this image. This is post-hype, it was already waning by the time of the new millennium, but still dominant. That is before the popularity in the universities and colleges.

  14. I'd be disappointed if ... on Voyager 1 May Be Caught Inside an Interstellar Flux Transfer Event · · Score: 1

    ... I still cared about the status of Voyager 1. Perhaps it still hasn't left the nest, probably all set up in the basement playing GTA V.

    Personally, I am delighted at the name of this phenomenon, whoever made up that phrase was clearly watching too much science fiction that week, or more likely not enough. "Interstellar flux transfer event" ... can you not see that in a future SF script? "Captain, we are caught in an interstellar flux transfer event, if we don't break free we will [go back in time | be transferred to a remote part of the universe | be transferred to another universe | nothing]"

  15. Re:Better games came along right after? on Myst Was Supposed To Change the Face of Gaming. What Is Its Legacy? · · Score: 2

    To me the revolutionary thing about Myst was that the artwork looked like Art. It was beautiful. Haunting. Not quite immersive, but gee 20 years ago, what would you expect? The music wasn't bad either.

  16. Re:Sour grapes on Popular Science Is Getting Rid of Comments · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here's a perfect example. Yesterday I was reading an article in the News section of Nature online. There were three comments: one was about how the item confirmed Billy Meier's contactee reports with his meeting with the Pleidians; another was (if I remember correctly) arguing against AGW; the last one was a guy touting his own theory of everything on his website. This is one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world. The comments were just embarrassing. They should just ban comments in the news section.

    After that, this action from Popular Science looks positively enlightened.

  17. Re:old, really old, news on USAF Almost Nuked North Carolina In 1961 – Declassified Document · · Score: 2

    A ground-level detonation, as would have happened in Goldsboro, is far less destructive than an air burst

    You have got to be kidding. A ground burst is the worst case scenario, it would produce a horrendously radioactive plume that would spread far beyond the affected area of an air burst.

  18. Re:Whyd do we need to send humans? on Join the Efforts of a Manned Mission To Jovian Moon Europa · · Score: 2

    The problem with sending people to Europa. Well problemS. In random order

    • 1. This is Jupiter space. Heavy radiation levels, therefore heavy shielding on everything. Complicates everything.
    • 2. How thick is the ice on Europa? 3 km, 5 km, 10 km? Good luck getting a submersible through that and back out again.
    • 3. Two years there. Two years back. What is the likelihood of failure of components?

    It is just so dodgy. I would love for humans to go to Europa, it would be amazing. But you have to be realistic. This not like a trip to the local shops to buy a litre of milk. It is across a good chunk of the solar system, a long way from help, in an environment that is totally inhospitable. No explorers before have had to face an environment as harsh as space. If a canoe split a leak, you could float to an island or whatever, live off the wildlife, catch fish. Not going to happen out there. A tiny crack in the hull and you are dead if it is not patched.

    Verdict: scam.

  19. By coincidence this reminds me of ... on Yahoo CEO Says It Would Be Treason To Decline To Cooperate With the NSA · · Score: 2

    ... a video I was watching recently. A youtube vid of one of the story arcs of Babylon5, the Earth Civil War. Something about this statement just brought this to mind. Not stating that this as serious but well it does have dark overtones.

  20. Re:Huh? What? on The Greatest Keyboard Shortcut Ever · · Score: 1

    ctrl-shift-t or on macs command-shift-t will re-open the last closed tab. Interesting but hardly revolutionary. I think someone must have been hyperventilating.

  21. Grammar in heading? on Experiences and Realities of an Homesourced IT Worker · · Score: 1

    Come on editors, that should be "a Homesourced IT Worker". There should be an "a" before a consonant sound and an "an" before a vowel sound. Just google it, here's an example.

  22. Re:Recent events on Why Weather Control Conspiracy Theories Are Scientifically Ludicrous · · Score: 1

    Wish I had mod points. :)

  23. Re:How big are the cups? on Excess Coffee May Be Linked To Early Death · · Score: 1

    Yeah. I'm also 61. I used to drink about (translation: over) a dozen cups of coffee a day via our work coffee maker machine about 10 years ago. Potent cups. Except after a while I found they no longer affected me. I was not exercising enough, getting overweight, ridiculous working hours, stress ... and the coffee didn't work anymore. Eventually cut down, but still all those risk factors caused a bit of damage. Much better now but only occasionally touch coffee, my body simply rejects it.

    However, I think the parent was just exercising his sarcasm rights.

  24. Re:Wouldn't it be ironic... on Campaign To Kill CAPTCHA Kicks Off · · Score: 1

    This is GENIUS! This is one of those ideas that must be implemented.

  25. Re:xkcd is overrated on Creator of xkcd Reveals Secret Back-story of His Epic, 3,099-Panel 'Time' Comic · · Score: 1

    So, a script which lasted for 3500 years, stopped being used, and is undecipherable because it did not survive is the basis for arguing that written languages have survived longer than 5,000 years? Show me a written language that is/was still in use 5,000 years after its creation.