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Submission + - Patents that kill (economist.com)

Submitted by wabrandsma
wabrandsma writes: The Economist:
The patent system, which was developed independently in 15th century Venice and then in 17th century England, gave entrepreneurs a monopoly to sell their inventions for a number of years. Yet by the 1860s the patent system came under attack, including from The Economist. Patents, critics argued, stifled future creativity by allowing inventors to rest on their laurels. Recent economic research backs this up.

Comment WTF? (Score 1) 1

by Megane (#47621675) Attached to: Breitbart California slams SpaceX decision to build space port in Texas

California was never in the running to be a launch site. Is this Brietbart guy just under the effect of second-hand weed smoke or something? Yes, SpaceX got moneys from California. Their HQ is still there, they have a factory there that is still there.

California has NO sites that can do what Boca Chica and eastern Florida can do (orbital lauches going east), and anyone who thinks that money from a state is somehow a guarantee of loyalty even beyond the laws of physics Is. An. Idiot.

Vandenberg is for polar orbital launches, since they have open sea to the SOUTH, and shall continue to be the polar orbit launch site for SpaceX. But you simply can't launch GEO sats from California, and SpaceX never said they could.

tl;dr: Brietbart guy is a total fucking idiot who doesn't understand the first thing about how space launches work.

Comment Re:Nerd Blackface (Score 1) 442

by Megane (#47610199) Attached to: Big Bang Actors To Earn $1M Per Episode

Not only are the new CBS episodes available by this new high-tech wizardry known as an "antenna", reruns are probably available via syndication in your area at least 5 days a week. I'm sorry if having to wait for the time slot is offensive to young whippersnappers like yourself, but it's worked just fine for decades now.

And if you set a DVR to record them, you can watch them any time you want. I don't even try to set my DVR for the daily ones because at 2.5GB each it would just fill up before I could watch them, and I've seen most of the earlier syndicated episodes already. I had to marathon a bunch of them a few weeks ago so I could clear up some space.

Comment Re:Nerd Blackface (Score 1) 442

by Megane (#47610149) Attached to: Big Bang Actors To Earn $1M Per Episode

Well, CBS is the network that airs the show, so that makes some sense. Apparently he knows of a store they have, perhaps an online store. Disney tries to have merch stores in a mall in every big city they can, so CBS ought to have at least one store somewhere.

The "a" article in front indicates that it should be followed by a consonant sound, and as "ell" starts with a vowel, maybe AudioEfex is just one of those slobs who doesn't attempt to proofread his posts, and he meant to type CBS.

Submission + - Microsoft's Xbox One Is Failing 1

Submitted by Monkey
Monkey writes: Even with the price cut after Microsoft un-bundled the Kinect from the Xbox One, the console is still struggling to gain market share from Sony's Playstation 4. From the article:
"Prior to the Kinect-less version of the Xbox One, the console was averaging around 40,000 units per week. This rose about 50% to 60,000 per week after the lower price was introduced, but that's still roughly half of the weekly sales of Sony's PlayStation 4."

Submission + - Fixing a 7,000-Ton Drill (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: At the end of last year, we discussed Bertha, the world's largest tunnel boring machine. During an effort to drill a viaduct beneath downtown Seattle, the machine — clocking in at 7,000 tons, 57.5 feet in diameter, and 326 feet long — got hamstrung by an 8-inch-diameter steel pipe. The complexity and scope of the repair plan rivals that of the project itself. "The rescue operation (workers call it “the intervention”) began in late spring with construction on the shaft to reach Bertha. Workers have been sinking pilings in a ring to prevent the shaft from collapsing, using 24,000 cubic yards of concrete — enough for a medium-size office building. Once that ring is complete, digging on the shaft will start. When the shaft is ready, Bertha, which is damaged but still operational, will be turned back on so she can chew through the concrete pilings to reach the center of the shaft. There, the machine will rest on a cradle where workers can detach the front end and hoist it out." The repair bill is estimated at about $125 million.

Comment Re:Vaccine is coming (Score 1) 409

Even if that's completely true, a vaccine typically isn't much use after you are already infected, so I don't know what that has to do with flying these two people into the US.

The point of a vaccine is to teach your immune system what the bad thing "looks" like before you get infected, so that it will be ready when the infection starts.

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