Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Changing jobs in Idaho? (Score 1) 167

Actually we Idahoans tell jokes about Montana sheep herders.
Seriously, Idaho's competitive status is quite good.
You will have to look long and hard to find better onion field labor.
And lookit the money we've saved by educating our workforce accordingly.
Them education cuts have allowed some handsome tax incentives for our rich folks.
After all why should we allow our stoop labor to take all their trade secrets to the San Juaquin valley?

Comment Re:Urgent Issue (Score 1) 366

And if by some miracle we develop a low cost energy source that converts toxic waste to usable electricity with zero pollution and 100% efficiency rest assured that most of humanity will immediately turn up the heat or air conditioning and open all the windows to let in fresh air.
Homo: yes; sapiens: not.

Comment Turntable (Score 1) 316

Bought a inexpensive 2016 version of a turntable for digitizing my collection of hissy, scratchy, 60's & 70's albums. Teeny Bopper daughters wore out our Sears portable record player & half wore out my Rock'n'Roll and Folk albums 5 decades ago. All those LPs on something smaller than a finger. Computers that looked so futuristic on StarTrek (TOS) now look hopelessly quaint. Our imaginations just couldn't outguess Moore's Law.

Comment Re:The dour truth of the matter is (Score 3, Insightful) 120

Historically Idaho IS where the preppers, sagebrush rebels, neonazis, and northwest tea party types form their enclaves.
But if you want anything done, just contact someone connected to the sitting Butch Otter governorship.
'Gladiator School' prisons and defrauding Idaho taxpayers? Done!
Illegal ISP contracts issued to connected overpriced bidders? Done!
Somehow DOE has missed the boat so far. NOT done -- YET.
It would just be one more confrontational issue between tea party and traditional corporate Republicans.
Idaho's last Republican caucus was an abortion, dead on arrival as each contingent took its half of the fetal corpse home rather than reach accord.
It was a less civil precursor of this year's feuds in the U.S. House of Representatives.
As one of the reddest of red states, don't worry that Democrats will be allowed to intercede on behalf of average citizens.

Comment Sidenote (Score 5, Interesting) 136

Graphics in linked articles show the effluent of Indian wastewater treatment plants. Few public wastewater facilities can, or were designed to, remove antibiotics from our waste. They are designed for household waste, not industrial waste. Most antibiotics and other drugs pass straight through a typical wastewater plant unharmed. In the USA, Industrial PreTreatment is required for businesses that would otherwise discharge toxic or damaging substances to a public treatment plant. Usually the offending business builds, runs, and pays for pretreatment. Unless, of course, the "good ol' boy" system can unload the cost onto local residents.
America and India have the same problem; India just has more metric tons of it and far less regulation.
FYI: licensed wastewater operator (retired).

Comment Optional? -- or -- Default? (Score 1) 301

I suspect early Autonomous Vehicle systems will be 'optional', or 'on demand', like an advanced version of Cruise Control.
A regular Driver's License would be appropriate for this implementation.
As capability and reliability evolve the systems may become 100% Autonomous; no PASSENGER intervention required or allowed.
Even then a prominent red [Emergency Stop] panic button may be mandated.
This implementation would probably not require any special license or qualification.
Think public transit, buses, light rail, & the aforementioned Johnny-Cabs.

Comment Re:Thanks Jenny (Score 1) 747

As long as she stays on Faux News it's all for the better.
Those viewers will "go with their gut", avoid vaccinations like the plague, and eventually eliminate themselves from the gene pool.
Future candidates for the Darwin Awards.
Surviving humanity will continue to advance and the world will be a better place.

Comment Re:Why was he there? (Score 1) 233

Violence shouldn't be the only determinant of punishment.
True: Armed Robbery, Assault, Rape, & other violent crimes are a priority for removing people from society.
But they are not the only crimes that can ruin people's lives, sometimes lethally.
Ask anyone who has been devastated by fraud committed by a bank, wall street, or some corporation.

If the non-violent offenders are willing to provide complete restitution to their victims then Club Fed prisons are in order.
If they don't do complete restitution to the victims & society then give them hard time with a violent offender as cellmate.
That's not likely to ever happen considering which segment of our population finances our politicians and calls the regulatory shots.
Several commenters mentioned that Federal Prisons are more capable and professionally managed than State Institutions.
Maybe that's a hint to Federally finance our election campaigns too, in order to level the playing field & minimize buying of elections.

Idle

Physicists Discover Universal "Wet-Dog Shake" Rule 97

Dog owners can sleep easy tonight because physicists have discovered how rapidly a wet dog should oscillate its body to dry its fur. Presumably, dogs already know. From the article: "Today we have an answer thanks to the pioneering work of Andrew Dickerson at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and a few buddies. But more than that, their work generates an interesting new conundrum about the nature of shaken fur dynamics. Dickerson and co filmed a number of dogs shaking their fur and used the images to measure the period of oscillation of the dogs' skin. For a labrador retriever, this turns out to be 4.3 Hz."

Slashdot Top Deals

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

Working...