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Comment Re:Also, the beginning of the end for Iridium flar (Score 1) 28

Someone who doesn't know the difference could certainly mistake the two, but Iridium flares are MUCH slower. They last on the order of (5s-20s), and the brightness profile is a smooth fade-in, peak, fade-out rather than a meteor's quick rise and slower fade.

This site will give you a prediction for your location of when you can see them.

Comment Re:Gorsuch is doing exactly what SCOTUS should do (Score 1) 343

The proper role of the Supreme Court is to determine whether laws passsed are in line with the Constitution and general human rights.

The Supreme Court (as does any court) also has the authority to determine whether a certain law is applicable to a particular situation. It seems that many people forget this aspect.

Comment Re:Easiest, Cheapest, Most Sure, Least Suffering i (Score 1) 646

Loss of consciousness is caused by the sudden drop in blood pressure in the brain.

Blood brings oxygen to the brain, and oxygen is what allows the brain to maintain consciousness, so the loss of blood pressure leads to oxygen deprivation. You're talking about one step farther up the chain than GP is.

Comment Re:AI/Networking/Security/Law (Score 1) 214

Getting a full-time firefighting job is harder than you might think.

My brother-in-law was in the military, was deployed in a combat zone, and upon discharge (honorable and with multiple letters of recommendation) spent ~5 years trying to get into a decent firefighting academy. He went up and down the east coast and despite being in the top 10% of the test-takers, both academic and physical, he was frequently turned away because of the rampant nepotism and one person just "not liking him" (the ones who DID like him there told him he could appeal the decision or sue, but it was basically the same person who ran the appeals board and he'd just be wasting his time - but would he like another letter of recommendation?).

He did end up with his dream job as a firefighter and is happy and secure now, but the competition is fierce and not even close to fair.

Comment Re:The NRA is overstepping its bounds. (Score 1) 563

Why not start a "Sane Rifles of America" / SRA then? In general, I'm not opposed to all guns, though guns like the AR-15 with extended mags do cause me heartburn. But if there's people who want to support gun rights without being absolute idiots about it, why can't you start your own group?

Why don't I start such an organization? A few reasons:
- I didn't think of it.
- I'm not much of a leader and I have no desire to venture into politics.
- The NRA is already out there defending the 2nd amendment, which would make me/my organization simultaneously redundant, and a target (no pun intended) of the criticism of an increasingly polarized populace.
- I'm too busy, and it would be a big job.
- I don't care enough (this one requires a few words of explanation). I hold conservative views on some topics and liberal views on others, but I'm somewhere in the middle on most; gun rights is one of those topics where I'm somewhat middle-of-the-road. There are other, more pressing, topics that I might be inclined to act on first.
- It would involve legalized bribery (lobbying) and I won't be a part of it. To hell with the "it's just how things work" argument.

It's not a bad idea though, for someone who has the right motivation. Are you that person?

Why do you feel there needs to be an "us / NRA" or "them / everyone else"?

You misunderstand. I very much DON'T think there needs to be an "us/them". Quite the opposite actually, which is why I chose to disassociate myself from the NRA.

Comment The NRA is overstepping its bounds. (Score 4, Interesting) 563

I shot competitively for a few years and I was a member of the NRA to keep track of my progress. I didn't agree with them 100%, but I supported their defense of the 2nd amendment in principle - and on a number of their talking points - so I was fine with paying for membership. Then they started going in the direction of being a mouthpiece for the far right with shit like this.

There are many moderates and even *gasp* liberals who like guns! If my experience is an indication of the rest of the country's gun-owning-but-not-far-right population, the NRA is going to continue losing membership and support. I may consider renewing my membership if they ever go back to what they used to be, but in the meanwhile I'll direct my money and energies elsewhere.

Comment Re:Thanks for a different perspective (Score 1) 152

You're technically true on all points, but you're missing some details:

The peering provider had upgraded to switch toward comcast with a higher bandwidth network card and asked comcast to do the same to their switch.

This, by itself, was not newsworthy because this is what they had done in the past. What was different was that Comcast refused (source 1, source 2).

Also of note is that Netflix tried to get ISPs to join their Open Connect program, where Netflix would install servers within Comcast's own network (at no cost to Comcast) so the switches wouldn't need to handle the traffic, but Comcast refused (source 1, source 2).

Netflix was trying to deal with its growing data usage as inexpensively as possible. Without the above details, though, it looks like they were trying to do so at Comcast's expense. IMO Comcast was in the wrong here because Comcast's customers were the ones paying for the network/data, but again, that's just my opinion.

Comment Re:Lava lamps are VERY deterministic! (Score 1) 110

Even sampling at 1kHz (the actual rate that Cloudflare uses), the predictive errors propagate rather quickly.

For just one lamp, you would need impractically accurate information of the lamp at a known time to feed into an impractically accurate model of the thermal and fluid dynamics of the lamp to predict its state. Then you'd need to frequently update said impractically accurate information to correct for the drift over time due to other factors that affect the state of the lamp (outside heating/cooling, vibrations, power source fluctuations, etc) or else you'd need to be able to factor those variables into your model.

Good luck with that.

Comment Re: Helicopter crashed into Drone (Score 1) 270

Sorry, but no. From the link:

Helicopter operations may be conducted below the minimum altitudes set for fixed-wing aircraft. The reason? The helicopter's unique operating characteristics, the most important of which is its ability to execute pinpoint emergency landings during power failure. Further, the helicopter's increased use by law enforcement and emergency medical service agencies requires added flexibility in the application of many FAA provisions.

Comment Re:The fuck did you expect... (Score 1) 81

You seem to think that "everyone knows" about corporate legalese half-truths, and you seem upset that it is posted as news. Well, the reason that "everyone knows" is because of these kind of news stories. Slashdot has a long history of posting this type of article, so of course old-timers like you and me know about it. At some point in the past though, you didn't know; so let others learn instead of berating the teacher for repeating a lesson you've heard before.

There's even a relevant XKCD about this phenomenon, but I'm willing to bet you already knew about it.

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