TLA spyware is probably baked right into the hardware these days. Their hardware will probably run better and they won't generally detect it. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

My karma is good, so I think I need to off burn some excess. Mod me as you will.

What the TSA and every other TLA agency can't protect against: a previously law-abiding person who decides that they must act against America. Their first criminal act may be the one that kills. The 9/11 hijackers did nothing illegal until well after the cabin doors of their aircraft closed.

The TSA can't do shit against someone who has a brain and patience. Not. a. fucking. thing.

There are some really cool areas to bike in NYC, but they are not well interconnected. The High Line is beautiful, but is only 1.5 miles long. A nice walk, but not really worth breaking out a bike. Brooklyn Bridge, same deal. Central Park is bike-able, mostly, as is a lot of the shore front, but it is all scattered in short stretches which are more suited to walking. If you have the courage to mix it up on street level, rock on, there are a lot of painted bike lanes, but you run a heavy risk of sudden crushing death by a taxi helmed by someone from Durka-durkastan. At best, you're going to be weaving in and out of stopped cars for miles and miles, breathing the heady fumes of stopped taxies and buses.

Failures due to lack of inspection because the inspection activity is a PITA is a hard nut for engineers to crack. Big aircraft have hard-to-reach spots that require ladders and man-lifts to access. It just takes one lazy technician to skip an inspection to miss a flaw that leads to a failure.

This could be a good idea if it facilitates inspection of parts of the aircraft that are normally difficult to access (e.g. boroscopes for engine inspections is a similar idea). The top of a T-tail aircraft that would require a man-lift and some time to inspect something that is quickly and plainly visible once you are in position - this would be a perfect application of a quadcopter with a camera (fuck off with the "drone" meme, please. It's an RC copter with a GoPro).

If it makes it easier (and maybe fun) to do the right thing, cool. It sounds childish, but if you can make a critical job easy and fun, you increase the chances that the job gets done enormously. Some (not many) engineers think to design things in this way.

Very good point. 3D printing basically lets you remotely manufacture a part if the raw manufacturing materials are present on site . And it does jack shit to fuel your equipment.

One of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. military in the Iraq war was to be a driver in a convoy - the folks that had to haul fuel, water, and supplies through unfriendly country. I worry that some asshat in the Pentagon is going to read this article (written by asshats) and think that 3D printing magically makes supply lines invisible ("in the cloud, derp!"). The only result will be that the folks hauling fuel, water, supplies, and multicolored 3D printer filament spools will die in the next war.

I'm not sure what they are fishing for. The authors are with the Center for Climate and Security (http://climateandsecurity.org/staff/), but don't have any obvious reasons to be 3D printing shills (which is possibly why the article reads like crap). The Center for Climate and Security has a lot of generals and admirals on its board of trustees. I'm wondering if this isn't some wild backdoor appropriations move. I'm actually interested to see if any of them are holding a lot of stock in 3D printing development firms. There is money at the bottom of this somewhere.

3D printing! It slices, it dices, it cures erectile dysfunction (even yours!), it fucking prints money! It. will. save. the. world.

Whoa Sparky...slow down. Breathe.

3D printing may be useful, great, but kill the hyperbole. It is a technology, and all technologies have a niche. Be a 3D printing fanbois all you want, but you cannot jam 3D printing into places where it is not wanted or is not useful. The users will know the difference and 3D printing will settle into its niche naturally.

The water used in the boilers is desalinated and extremely pure (not just in the nuclear navy, but in any boiler). The steam used for the propulsion turbines is used in a nearly closed loop system, with minimal top ups needed. Using superheated steam to shoot aircraft off the carrier is very inefficient energy-wise. Every shot is like dumping 1400 lbs of steam overboard (it's a lot of energy, far more than the kinetic energy imparted to the aircraft). It is far more efficient to run an electrical generator and charge a capacitor bank to deliver the load, and it is a lot easier to maintain than the steam service piping to the catapults.

That is a strangely satisfying thing to see, launching a car off the deck like that. A bus loaded with politicians would have been better, but they probably can't do that.

The 13-year-old me in my brain says there is a lot of play potential in this. "Gee, I wonder if it can launch $THIS off the deck? Let's do it!". Something like the Red Bull Flugtag

How are we supposed to know what add-ons you use?

This was a test flight on a shoestring budget. This thing was never going to sail anywhere. The whole idea was to see if the power management and sail deployment could be accomplished in a CubeSat footprint. Re-entry was planned to occur soon after sail deployment and it's not a surprise or a disappointment. Not bad for a Kickstarter.

Welcome to Slashdot, where even the submitters don't bother to RTFA!

Umm...no. Fukushima Daiichi was a station that had multiple reactors (six). Reactor units 1-3 suffered individual meltdowns, and unit 4 suffered a fire due to cooling water loss in the storage pond. Units 5 and 6 were damaged but were already in cold shutdown when the tsunami occurred.

And Apple gets your money no matter how much you bitch about the service. They care about your money, not you.

Apparently that is what you want, or you wouldn't plunk down money for this service. Apple isn't holding a gun to your head forcing you to comply with their business model.

If you want it, pay for it. If you don't want it, don't pay for it. Paying for something you don't want and then bitching about it is useless and stupid.