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User: Mark+of+THE+CITY

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Comments · 526

  1. Carbohydrates and tooth formation on Army Develops New Chewing Gum · · Score: 1

    That may explain my having a bunch of molar cavities in the 'pit' of the bite surface, around age 22. The dentist said it was a failure of that area to 'fuse' properly, but now I wonder of this was aggrivated by sugar consumption.

  2. more detail for parent on Stereo View of the Sun · · Score: 2, Informative

    Iris size reacts to how bright something is in the visible spectrum, but don't react to the amount of UV, which does the damage. That's why good sunglasses have UV filtration.

  3. Re:Some people already do this! on Army Develops New Chewing Gum · · Score: 4, Informative

    Trident's ad pitch the virtues of sugarless gum. Dentyne uses, or used, the slogan "Brush your breath with Dentyne."

  4. Re:It's not venusian on Venus Express Blasts Off · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Arthur C. Clarke, in a footnote his 1968 book "The Conquest of Space," said venusian sounded good but was wrong, venerian raised false hopes, and cytherian was correct but only classics scholars knew what it meant.

  5. How? on No More Science on the ISS Until Further Notice · · Score: 1

    The Saturn V used liquid-fuelled rocket engines, which took hours to fuel. Beginning with Polaris and Minuteman I, all military rockets were solid fuelled, for ease of storage and fast launch time. The technologies almost could not be more divergent. So, how is one a cover for the other?

  6. IBM, slowing light down? Not what I heard... on IBM Slows the Speed of Light · · Score: 1

    From comp.parallel FAQ:

    "Some vice presidents of IBM assert that the speed of light goes just
    a little bit faster in Armonk." --An IBM Vice President [yes, it's humor]

  7. Halon demo on Fire Destroys Southampton Fibre-Optics Center · · Score: 1

    Back when (around 1980, maybe earlier?), I saw an ad for Halon on TV. A man on a high chair was surrounded by a liquid, which was then ignited. After a few seconds, the Halon was activated and the fire was out in about 1 second. He could still breathe. He tried to light a match, to relight the still-present liquid, but the match went out instantly.

    Of course, few were thinking about ozone depletion. I was just amazed this stuff was so fastand so long-lasting.

  8. Re:Hybrid subsidy on Company Incentives for Going Green? · · Score: 1

    Maybe Google and this other one. Who has 3com's showplace building near Route 237? I think it was them.

  9. Hybrid subsidy on Company Incentives for Going Green? · · Score: 1

    One of the S.V. companies was offering $5K towards a hybrid, sometime in the last year. Not sure now, maybe 3com.

  10. Re:In other words... on Gates Donates $15M to Preserve Computing History · · Score: 1

    Should be good. I read "Johnstown Flood" in my teens and "Truman" when it came out and enjoyed both.

  11. Re:In other words... on Gates Donates $15M to Preserve Computing History · · Score: 1

    I did notice that the Post Office got more pleasant after they lost parcel business to UPS, Fedex, and others, and letter busines to fax and email.

    1776: "Wealth of Nations?"

  12. Re:In other words... on Gates Donates $15M to Preserve Computing History · · Score: 1

    Different models. Bookstores have more copies of current books, while libraries have more titles. Maybe your library should network with others; in San Diego County, California, with a mix of city and county libraries federated as the "Serra Library System," this is effective.

  13. Use hierarchy to your advantage on How Can a Programmer Make Everyone Happy? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Insist the "higher-ups" go through your direct boss. Not every boss will protect you this way, but unless it's a really small startup, they should, IMO.

  14. Re:In other words... on Gates Donates $15M to Preserve Computing History · · Score: 1

    I read this as saying, government is unresponsive. Have you considered organizing politically to get what you want? Maybe fundraising to buy your own poliicians? Barring structural reforms in the Amercian political system, that is how things get done. Whining about government being bought is naive, and using it to promote a pro-corporate agenda is antidemocratic (see Kevin Phillips 2002 book "Wealth and Democracy." You can find it in your government-run public library :) .

  15. Re:Piracy hurts the small guy on Universal to Offer its Movies Online · · Score: 1

    Every day I ask myself why this is happening.

    It was one of those boutique record stores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one listens to, not even the people that buy them.


    I think you answered your own question.

  16. Maybe not so bleak on Happy 60th Birthday IBM Research · · Score: 1

    University CS departments have always done OS and language research (I'm thinking specifically of Bertrand Meyer and Eiffel), so something like Unix or C would likely evolved. Remember AT&T was under a consent decree not to sell computer software, so they essentially gave Unix away to universities for the trivial cost of duplicating some mag tapes and manuals.

    In general, though, I agree that the current competetive environment is anti-research. If you want to cut costs, those line items that are risky and have a long timeline are vulnerable.

  17. Re:Think about it on ESA Cryosat Launch Reported Failure · · Score: 1

    My point, and I do have one*, was that old missile-launching boosters may have compromised quality to cost, more so than launchers for fancy (costly) satellites or human spaceflight.

  18. Think about it on ESA Cryosat Launch Reported Failure · · Score: 1

    The launcher was built to deliver an H-bomb to a target, not orbit a satellite or a person. If you build it (relatively) cheap, it's less likely to accomplish its mission. But you can build more cheap launcher/bomb pairs, allowing (a) a successful mission if you have to, and (b) deter opponents with all those missiles.

    It kept the peace during the Cold War, but peace by potlatch is REALLY COSTLY.

  19. Re:awesome potential on Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded · · Score: 1

    Yeah, now. :)

  20. Re:awesome potential on Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded · · Score: 1

    weird cyclopropene

    Doesn't that ring have a lot of strain on it? No wonder the overall reaction was low-yield. Were you using some sort of host-guest approach?

  21. Re:Embedded on Top 5 Software Development Magazines? · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    At least they aren't chemical engineers cross-trained in coding. I saw that in my first post-collegiate government job, during the recession of 1981-2. It was a bad scene: dedicated people who couldn't get work in their chosen field, paddling as fast as they could.

  22. Embedded on Top 5 Software Development Magazines? · · Score: 5, Informative

    Embedded Systems Design is a magazine and a web site that covers that field. Realizing that many embedded s/w engineers are really dual-hatted EEs, they have had some "basics" articles over the last few years.

  23. Fashion vs. Science on Nobel Prize Awarded for Stomach Ulcer Discovery · · Score: 1

    In hindsight, the original theory sounds decidedly suspicious.

    I've heard that, after Hans Selye's work on stress, there was a period of sloppily using "stress" as a default "diagnosis" to explain away the unknown disease processes, such as gastric ulcer.

    I remember discussing this with my graduate advisor in chemistry around 1992; he was glad to see someone persist in the face of criticism to understand what was really going on.

  24. But screenshots won't help on Sharp LCD Display with 1,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    unless your monitor has equal or better contrast.

  25. Re:Unjamming the Jammer? Failsafes? on U.S. Deploys Orbital Communications Jammer · · Score: 1

    More realistic last 2 lines:

    Soldier: By country X's jamming satellite, sir.

    General" Grrr!