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Comment Re:I wonder how the Gen Con people would feel (Score 0) 886

by Crashmarik (#49338789) Attached to: Gen Con Threatens To Leave Indianapolis Over Religious Freedom Bill

Bullshit.Seeing as you don't even know the meaning of the word

http://www.merriam-webster.com...

: the state or condition of people who are able to act and speak freely

: the power to do or choose what you want to

: a political right

You want to tell me how forcing anyone to provide service is compatible with that ?

When you say freedom and liberty, you mean certain people have a license to force people to participate in activities they find repulsive.

Comment Re:And now why this can not be done in the USofA (Score 1) 317

What everyone needs to come to grips with is that there is no energy source without environmental impact.

Fixed that for you

I harken back to a simpler time in a class with a respected teacher. I recall when a valued tutorial correction occurred just like this, and I was forever grateful to that esteemed educator for the lifelong lesson.

On that selfsame scale, I find myself nanoseconds in your debt.

Well apparently that is at least twice you only managed to get half the point. Perhaps as time goes on you may yet understand the purpose of thinking before you speak.

Comment Read the Damn Articles (Score 2) 126

by Crashmarik (#49323275) Attached to: Boeing Patents <em>Star Wars</em> Style Force Field Technology

This isn't a force field it's a point defense system.

The system can sense when a shock wave generating explosion occurs near a target. An arc generator then determines the small area where protection is needed from the shock waves.It then springs into action by by emitting laser pulses that ionize the air, providing a laser-induced plasma field of protection from the shock waves.

Comment Re:This is interesting.... (Score 1) 573

by Crashmarik (#49310899) Attached to: Greenpeace Co-Founder Declares Himself a Climate Change Skeptic

Evolution is *predictive*? Really?

Yes Really
http://ncse.com/rncse/17/4/pre...

And Newtonian mechanics falls apart with more than two bodies!

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs7...

Really, Earth, Moon, Apollo 11 that sounds like more than 2

For the general 3 body problem

http://news.sciencemag.org/phy...

Is Ignorance your bliss ?

Submission + - Mars One Delayed 2 Years, CEO releases video in response to criticism (astrowatch.net)

Submitted by CryoKeen
CryoKeen writes: Its interesting how different news sites spin #marsgate first the Yahoo News
The private colonization project Mars One has pushed its
planned launch of the first humans toward the Red Planet
back by two years, to 2026.
The delay was necessitated by a lack of investment funding,
which has slowed work on a robotic precursor mission that
Mars One had wanted to send toward the Red Planet in
2018, Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a new video
posted today... "We had a very successful investment round in 2013 that
has financed all the things that we have done up to now.
And we have actually come to an agreement with a
consortium of investors late last year for a much bigger
round of investments. Unfortunately, the paperwork of that
deal is taking much longer than we expected," Lansdorp Lansdorp said in the video.

This Astrowatch article is a lot more scathing and to the point " Mars One, the Dutch company planning to send people on a
one-way trip to Mars, that recently selected a group of 100
hopefuls, struggles with criticism. In a Medium story this
week, Mars One finalist Joseph Roche presented multiple
reasons as to why he believed the entire operation is a
complete scam. In response, the company published a
video Thursday in which Bas Lansdorp, CEO and Co-
founder of Mars One, replies to recent criticism concerning
the feasibility of Mars One's human trip to Mars. He also
revealed that the mission will be delayed for two years.
Roche said that the “only way” to get selected for the next
round of the Mars One candidacy process was to donate
money. “My nightmare about it is that people continue to
support it and give it money and attention, and it then gets
to the point where it inevitably falls on its face,” Roche told
Elmo Keep for Medium."

Submission + - How 'Virtual Water' Can Help Ease California's Drought

Submitted by HughPickens.com
HughPickens.com writes: Bill Davidow And Michael S. Malone write in the WSJ that recent rains have barely made a dent in California's enduring drought, now in its fourth year so it's time to solve the state’s water problem with radical solutions, and they can begin with “virtual water.” This concept describes water that is used to produce food or other commodities, such as cotton. According to Davidow and Malone, when those commodities are shipped out of state, virtual water is exported. Today California exports about six trillion gallons of virtual water, or about 500 gallons per resident a day. How can this happen amid drought? The problem is mispricing. If water were priced properly, it is a safe bet that farmers would waste far less of it, and the effects of California’s drought—its worst in recorded history—would not be so severe. "A free market would raise the price of water, reflecting its scarcity, and lead to a reduction in the export of virtual water," say Davidow and Malone. "A long history of local politics, complicated regulation and seemingly arbitrary controls on distribution have led to gross inefficiency."

For example, producing almonds is highly profitable when water is cheap but almond trees are thirsty, and almond production uses about 10% of California’s total water supply. The thing is, nuts use a whole lot of water: it takes about a gallon of water to grow one almond, and nearly five gallons to produce a walnut. "Suppose an almond farmer could sell real water to any buyer, regardless of county boundaries, at market prices—many hundreds of dollars per acre-foot—if he agreed to cut his usage in half, say, by drawing only two acre-feet, instead of four, from his wells," say the authors. "He might have to curtail all or part of his almond orchard and grow more water-efficient crops. But he also might make enough money selling his water to make that decision worthwhile." Using a similar strategy across its agricultural industry, California might be able to reverse the economic logic that has driven farmers to plant more water-intensive crops. "This would take creative thinking, something California is known for, and trust in the power of free markets," conclude the authors adding that "almost anything would be better, and fairer, than the current contradictory and self-defeating regulations."

Submission + - Hundreds arrested for cheating

Submitted by Etherwalk
Etherwalk writes: Sources conflict, but it looks like as many as 300 people have been arrested for cheating in the Indian state of Bidar after the Hindustan Times published images of dozens of men climbing the walls of a test center to pass answers inside. 500-700+ students were expelled and police had been bribed to look the other way. Xinhau's version of the story omits any reference to police bribery, while The ABC's omits the fact that police fired guns into the air.

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