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User: gorgonite

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  1. Some physics, please on Flat Earther Now Wants to Launch His Homemade Rocket Into Space (phillyvoice.com) · · Score: 1

    The coloration of the sunset is because the scattering crossection of air molecules depends on the frequency of the scattered light. Blue light is scattered more then red light. On sunset, the distance the sunlight has to travel through the atmosphere is longer, hence the effect is stronger. This also explains why the sky is blue and not black. It also explains why some animals can orient themselves by looking at the sky. Interestingly, this explanation will fail spectacularly in a classical model, so as a free bonus you get some quantum theory by understanding this effect.

  2. Re:Consider voting third party on Ask Slashdot: Which Candidates For Geek Issues? · · Score: 1

    I'm not from the US, but part of the "free world" elsewhere. So, I might overlook something important. However, I claim that the bipolarity of the US political system is major contributor to the present political blockade. Where I come from new parties pop up and others vanish all the time. This is not possible in the US.

    Just consider our latest addition: the "Pirate Party" (yes, this is the name). They come straight out of the nerd culture and now they are finding out how that culture and its technology can be applied to politics, even in the parliament of a big city-state (Berlin). I am confident that this experiment will have an interesting outcome.

    I'm afraid that this is no practical answer to the original question, but I would really like to suggest to put more flexibility into the US political system.

    Gorgonite

  3. Re:1st Rule... on Authors' Guild Goes After University Book Digitization Projects · · Score: 1

    3rd Rule for the Digital Age: If you don't digitize it it will turn to dust.

  4. One more thing on The Coming Energy Turnaround In Germany · · Score: 1

    That's so obvious that it slipped past me: The new coal power plants are not built because of Fukushima. They have been planned long before Fukushima because the management of the companies that planned these power plants believed that they would be economical because they use cheap Australian coal. Planning a power plant takes years.
    Gorgonite

  5. Re:Gah on The Coming Energy Turnaround In Germany · · Score: 2
    That's a really dumb remark. Germany has shut down the oldest, most Fukushima-like reactors. They cannot be magically remodelled into fancy new reactors.
    From there, there are options:
    • build reactors according to present designs, unsafe, expensive, prabably you would call that dumb, too
    • wait for the next nuclear generation. That's not even dumb if you need power now
    • build fossil power stations. If they use natural gas, that can be sensible
    • develop renewables

    From a german point of view the last option is more attractive than from an US point of view, because Germany has lots of experience with renewable energy.
    Gorgonite

  6. Re:What does it have to do with Japan... on German Parliament Backs Nuclear Exit By 2022 · · Score: 1

    I was referring to the electricity sources for the city of Munich. Numbers fo other places will differ.
    This has nothing to do with hatred, by the way.

  7. Re:Moving on on German Parliament Backs Nuclear Exit By 2022 · · Score: 1

    How would you know that Germany is going back to coal? Do you read german publications? Do you know what AFP means? Agence France Presse. Please consider that.

  8. Re:I couldn't care less... on German Parliament Backs Nuclear Exit By 2022 · · Score: 1

    3) Germany will switch to renewables. please read TFA. 4) Germany will no longer rely on Uranium import.

  9. Re:I couldn't care less... on German Parliament Backs Nuclear Exit By 2022 · · Score: 1

    10 of the remaining 11 do not even know what we are doing here in Germany. Gorgonite

  10. Re:What does it have to do with Japan... on German Parliament Backs Nuclear Exit By 2022 · · Score: 1

    You are right. Nuclear plants are not perfect. I'm german, and I support the exit from nuclear. The city where I live is Munich, with 1.3 Mio inhabitants and lots of industry, including BMW, including big BMW production facilities. Our electricity sources will be 100% renewables by 2025.
    So, with the exit from nuclear at 2022 (not now, by the way) we will simply implement that as planned. Lots of work, but 11 years is a long time. There will be use of natural gas before we are fully based on renewables, but that will be less than at places where nuclear is still active but efficient use of energy has been forgotten.
    I invite you to check back in 2022 and 2025 hand see how we are doing. Gorgonite

  11. Re:So when are... on German Parliament Backs Nuclear Exit By 2022 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every nuclear accident has its own beauty. The next will be as unexpected as the tsunami.

  12. Re:They will make a fortune on France To Invest One Billion Euros In Nuclear Power · · Score: 1

    Nope

  13. Re:They will make a fortune on France To Invest One Billion Euros In Nuclear Power · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except that reprocessing does not solve the waste disposal problem. You need to dispoese the waste from your reprocessing facility. You may spend lots of money (one billion won't be enough) to solve this too, but then some other problem with show up. Even worse, given the probabilities that we see right now then France is due for a big accident sooner or later. That accident will be a surprise to everyone, this seems to me like the only constant in nuclear energy.

  14. Re:Posted by 'mdsolar' on Swiss To End Use of Nuclear Power · · Score: 1

    Regarding the japanese evacuees, your comment sounds cynical, doesn't it? But then again, it's slashdot...

  15. Re:Have you noticed the Swiss have mountains? on Swiss To End Use of Nuclear Power · · Score: 1

    Baseline power is a pro-nuke myth. If a country has reservoirs, and the swiss have many, they will even buy cheap electricity in the night and sell it at peak load prizes. It's a non-issue.

  16. Re:"Death Panels" on Congresswoman and Staff Gunned Down · · Score: 4, Informative

    Palin's crosshairs picture was disgusting before this happened. You don't have to wait for actual execution to find such a thing disgusting.

  17. Re:Why is this about DRM? on VLC Developer Takes a Stand Against DRM Enforcement · · Score: 1

    This is not true. If you pay $100 you can compile and run whatever you want. You might be unhappy about these $100, and indeed, Apple is rich enough to provide this service for free. Also, they could easily make their Appstore GPLv2 compliant by requiring sources for GPLv2 apps and offering them for download. They are even entitled to these sources. All they need to do is add a little extra function to the Appstore. However, it seems that they are not so interested in GPLed software: It's easier to pull apps as needed.

  18. Re:No more Flash/Java? Gee, wonder why. on Want Flash Player On a MacBook Air? Download It Yourself · · Score: 1

    You might still be allowed to include your interpreter in your bundle. This is commonly used for Python applications. Sounds wasteful, though.

  19. Linux-like repository instead of Mac appstore? on Gosling Reacts To Apple's Java Deprecation · · Score: 1

    This would be a non-issue if the new Mac Appstore could distribute low-level software, libraries, third party software and frameworks just like linux distributions. In particular, if Apple isn't interested in Java anymore, but someone else would maintain it, everybody would be fine.

  20. Re:Large Cities on Should Cities Install Moving Sidewalks? · · Score: 1

    Well, 30mph is a challenge (do really need that), but if you make a small concession on the speed you can do it easily with a bicycle, this is cheap and even somewhat heallthy. I do that everx day and I wonder really do wonder why people actually discuss problems like still instead of getting a bicycle. Also please note that a moving belt of 30 mph would require at least three levels (Asimov style) and thus be quite expensive. If you use one level you never get more than 10mph and I beat that easily with my bike.
    P.S. thanks, I'm still alive, traffic has been domesticated here long time ago. I'm living in Europe.

  21. Re:$20,000 per home? on Obama Awards Nearly $2 Billion For Solar Power · · Score: 1

    This is not correct. Thermal solar power can store heat for the night. Probably you should learn a little before mistreating small helpless screen pixels like that.

  22. Re:$20,000 per home? on Obama Awards Nearly $2 Billion For Solar Power · · Score: 2, Informative

    yes, and at an interest rate of 3% (lets just assume that, we have a low risk loan here) that's $50 per month and home. That's still a large number, but if you add the other positive effects like job creation and technology build-up this not a "drunken sailor" invest. Just as a remainder: Iraq and Guantanamo for example, these are drunken sailor activities.

  23. Re:Great. :( on Steve Jobs To Keynote WWDC iPhone Announcement · · Score: 1

    Well, if you are willing to shell out 100$ for the developer license you *can* develop whatever you want and you can even install it on 100 iPhones. You can even distribute the source code. You can't distribute the binary through the appstore, unless they are accepted by those censors. However, I'm not sure that RMS' favourite freedom is about distributing binaries.

  24. Re:When did progress... on Conservative Textbook Curriculum Passes Final Vote In Texas · · Score: 1

    It seems that you do not know too much about fascism. If you want to something against fascist tendencies, why don't you look after human rights in Guantanamo Bay, Baghran and other places humans are imprisoned without due process and, yes, tortured?

  25. Re:Falsibility. on New Research Forecasts Global 6C Increase By End of Century · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you look at the temperature from outer sky you might measure the heat emission from earth to outer space. The higher the temperature, the higher the heat emission. If a greenhouse effect is effective, it reduces the heat emission and thus the temperature. In this scenario there would be a lower temperature in the upper atmospheric region as long as until a new equilibrium is reached, with higher temperatures at the surface of the earth.