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Comment Re:Give Bill a break... (Score 1) 220

And now he's one of the biggest advocates for science and technology in the country (CEO of the Planetary Society), of which there are far too few. Remember people, you are not born a scientist, actor or comedian. These are things learned over time. Plenty of people switch jobs when they find something more enjoyable. Bill Nye happens to be in a position where he supports science and has influence because of his past roles.

I, for one, applaud his effort to bring science to the masses. One doesn't have to be doing science research to make a difference.

Comment Re:The US is broke for these kinds of projects (Score 3, Informative) 216

This is like taking a vacation to the big ball of twine vs Disney Land because you can't afford it.

That is a terrible analogy. By comparing space exploration to vacation you are suggesting that the science has no value other than to satisfy someone's curiosity, which is simply not true.

A better analogy: Going to Europa is like a manufacturing company investing in a robotic production machine. It costs a lot and takes a considerable amount of skill to setup and use, but once it's going the payoff is enormous.

We should be taking money from other things and putting them into the space program. We need these investments. See: http://www.investopedia.com/fi...

Comment Re:Could we be so lucky? (Score 1) 235

I think you misunderstand what QoS is...
QoS isn't throttling, it's packet prioritization. It means that this VoIP packet get's out first and the HTTP packet get's bumped it's place in line; but it still get's delivered and it has to happen within the TTL (time to live). QoS does NOT mean "this Torrent packet might get delivered".

Throttling, on the other hand, means the amount of packets which are coming from Netflix servers are limited to X per second. Throttling is what we're talking about here, not QoS.

Comment Re:Car analogy (Score 2) 430

On the car analogy... Imagine that same road system requires a specific type of car to drive on it.

Actually, many toll roads are privately owned (For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I... and to a lesser extent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... ).
What's funny about the I-185 toll road is how absolutely bad things are:
1) There is almost no mileage/time savings vs the primary highways
2) The tolls have skyrocketed over the past few years because it's basically a useless road (It now costs $6 cash to go end-to-end to save no time and no miles)
3) They chose their own transponder system, not compatible with EZPass, so pretty much the only people who buy the passes are people who live right off the exits

Private roads at their finest.

Comment Re:Full retard (Score 2) 723

That's true, but there's something else at play here.

Many people in the Atlanta area get 3-season tires (aka Summer tires, not to be confused with Ultra High Performance Summer tires) because they tend to be FAR better in the rain than all-seasons.

See:http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/products/know-your-tires-all-season-vs-summer-9647443
http://www.tirereview.com/arti...
http://www.edmunds.com/car-rev...

So, here's the decision: Buy all-seasons to be safe for the 3 days every 3 years you need them, or buy summer tires to be safe for the 345 days every 3 years you need them. (Source: http://www.sercc.com/climatein...)

Comment Re:And I Will Stop Buying... (Score 1) 521

Fuel economy and price aren't the only concerns here. You may like the fact that your old Ford has tank armor for body panels when you lean against them, but you wouldn't want them in a crash. Those era vehicles, all the way until the mid 90's, where death-on-wheels. Now a days to meet crash specs a vehicle needs to be soft, lots of crumple zones. And body panels contribute to that.

What's funny is that modern sports cars use the same design theory and are generally considered to be better than ever. Sure, they weigh more and a larger, but the chassis are the stiffest they've ever been allowing for incredible consistency. Put a roll cage in an older car (70's, 80's, 90's) and you'll see how much flex there is in the chassis. Put a roll cage in a new car and your jaw will drop, there is so little flex in the new cars....all while being safer than ever.

All that being said, this has got to be a boon for people in the rust belt...

Comment Re:When you have a bad driver ... (Score 5, Insightful) 961

I clock a lot of time on track in my basic mid-80's RWD sports car and I'll tell you what, I'll take electronic driver aides on the road. I bought a new car a few years ago with stability control and thought "why do all new cars have this?" All it took was one night when I was driving and the water on the road froze into black ice WHILE I was driving. I was in a warm driver seat and had left my house a few hours earlier in 50 degree weather. Stability control reacts much faster than a human can and do many things a human can't do (like braking individual wheels).

That being said, the Carrera GT was manufactured in 2004, when car electronics where simply not that good. I completely understand why it wasn't included. On new cars, it should really only be an option. But if it was an option, I would select it every time on a road car. You simply cannot predict what will happen when you're driving home on a cold night and maybe a little tired.

Comment Re:what? (Score 1) 258

To continue your thought...

It actually makes sense for an entity like the postal service to be losing money. While not a guarantee, it does at least help to make sure that the money coming in is going to the right places and is not spent on extraneous expenditures. Remember, the management folks are really good at finding uses for any excess money in the budget.

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