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Comment Re:How they know... (Score 1) 175

by Original Replica (#38297430) Attached to: Earth's Core Made In Miniature

I believe the physical model will experience gravity in one direction, whereas the simulated model doesn't have to?

Does not the Earth also experience gravity in primarily one direction? I hope they built the model so that gravity pulls at 57.5 degrees off the spinning axis.
Google

Submission + - Google integrates Social messages & comments i (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
TheNextCorner
TheNextCorner writes: "Today Google Aanalytics team announced to roll out a new feature in Google Analytics coming next year: Social Analytics.
From the announcement:

Every day, millions of people share and engage with content online. But most sharing doesn’t happen on the site where it was published, it happens throughout the social web. Marketers and publishers are looking for a comprehensive view of all interactions with their content — on and off their site — and so we’re working hard to make this happen.

To enable our customers to discover who’s sharing, voting and bookmarking their content on the social web, cross-network measurement needs to become easier. So today we’re inviting social networks and platforms to integrate their activity streams with Google Analytics. Through these integrations, marketers and publishers will be able to discover off-site engagement, optimize their engagement within each social community, and measure the impact of each social channel and its associated digital investment."

Submission + - "Shut up! You don't get a lawyer." (businessinsider.com)

Submitted by Original Replica
Original Replica writes: The National Defense Authorization Act, basically codifies "1984" into US law.

The NDAA contains a ludicrously un-American and anti-democratic section allowing the US military to detain, torture/interrogate, and even kill American citizens without providing access to a trial or attorney. All that required is the accusation of being a terrorist.

"I'm very, very, concerned about having U.S. citizens sent to Guantanamo Bay for indefinite detention," said Sen. Rand Paul R-Ky

"Congress is essentially authorizing the indefinite imprisonment of American citizens, without charge," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein D-Calif

Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, said it would be “crazy” to exempt Qaeda suspects who are Americans and are arrested inside the country from battlefield-style detention. He argued that, to stop other attacks, they must be interrogated without the protections of the civilian criminal justice system. Citizens who are suspected of joining Al Qaeda are opening themselves up “to imprisonment and death,” Mr. Graham said, adding, “And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them: ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.

This is a problem for everyone.

Comment Re:Better idea (Score 2) 341

by Original Replica (#38000646) Attached to: Scott Adams Proposes a Fourth Branch of Government
"political donations of any type are a form of corruption".

Donations should only be allowed to candidates that the donor is legally allowed to vote for. Corporations, unions, and lobbies could not give any money. Also multi-millionaires could not give outside of their state or district. All donations should be fed through a "Voter Contribution Department" that sends donations to the intended candidate, but anonimizes the donors, not only removing the names, but issuing the moneys daily to the campaign on a rolling one month average. Advertising "paid for by The Friends of CandidateX" should then be illegal and all contributors to "Friends of CandidateX" should be prosecuted for tampering with the election process. People may only place advertisements on land they own, and speak support from the mouth (and online identities) that they own.

Comment To poor to matter (Score 1) 3

by Original Replica (#37950918) Attached to: 'Dump Your Bank Day' appears to catch on
The problem with the "Dump your Bank" idea is that the bottom 80% have only 20% of the wealth, and most of that is tied up in their home and car. One successful hedge fund manager has more liquid assets then one million underemployed Americans. If we don't have enough money to have a voice, then we are rendered effectively silent until we make a noise in a way that isn't dependent on wealth.
Media

Submission + - Can social media and face-to-face politicking over (garyjohnson2012.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Gary Johnson is a two-term governor of New Mexico and a Republican candidate for president. His qualifications for office are as solid as any of the candidates you've seen in the debates so far: elected and re-elected as a Republican governor in a state that's two-to-one Democrat, took the state budget from a deficit to a billion dollar surplus, presided over the best job growth of any state in that time period, and cut the cost of Medicare in New Mexico without cutting services. But still, in almost every debate the organizers seem to decide on criteria that just barely excludes him from their debate.

Johnson's campaign has used social media like Google Hangouts and an online townhall via Yowie to try to reach a wider audience. Meanwhile, Johnson has been practicing face-to-face politics in New Hampshire, including a 500-mile bike ride across the state.

Can a combination of old-fashioned face-to-face meetings, and the latest social media, overcome the huge impact of not being in televised debates? Or, does television still rule our awareness?

And if you were in Johnson's shoes, what would you do to increase your name recognition?
DRM

Submission + - DRM graveyard: A brief history of digital rights m (opensource.com)

Submitted by
antdude
antdude writes: "Linux Today shares an Opensource.com article on "The digital rights management graveyard: A brief history of digital rights management in music. There are more than a few reasons digital rights management (DRM) has been largely unsuccessful. But the easiest way to explain to a consumer why DRM doesn't work is to put it in terms he understands: 'What happens to the music you paid for if that company changes its mind?' It was one thing when it was a theoretical question. Now it's a historical one...""

Comment Re:Zero G (Score 1) 201

by Original Replica (#37950578) Attached to: Simulated Mars Mission 'Returns' After 520 Days
Why on why would they ever send out a Mars mission without spinning the living quarters on a long tether? Counter weight the tether with computers/sensors/batteries and put the weight variable items like fuel at the axis. 2000' tether at 1/2 rpm will give a reasonable gravity and have minimal nausea producing effects. If ISS did any real experiments, instead of shoebox tests designed by high school classes, centrifugal gravity for space would have most of the kinks worked out by now.
United States

Submission + - 'Dump Your Bank Day' appears to catch on (cnn.com) 3

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Customers are dumping their banks in droves ahead of the nationwide "Move Your Money" and "Bank Transfer Day" movements this Saturday. Given the recent spotlight on attempts — and ultimate failures — by some of the nation's biggest banks to tack on new debit card fees, thousands of disgruntled consumers have already either left or pledged to leave their current bank for a community bank or credit union, which are known for having fewer and/or lower bank account fees.

At least 650,000 consumers have already joined credit unions since Sept. 29, the day Bank of America announced plans to impose its controversial $5 debit card fee, according to a nationwide survey of credit unions by the Credit Union National Association. And while Bank of America and other banks have since backpedaled on imposing the fees, consumers are making it clear they are still fed up. More than 4 in every 5 credit unions said new customers cited days like "Bank Transfer Day" and new fees imposed by their banks as reasons for opening accounts.

CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/03/pf/move_your_money_day/index.htm
Power

Submission + - Cheap, ink-based solar cells become a reality (extremetech.com) 1

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "After more than 20 years of continued research, electrochemist Michael Gratzel of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has cracked it: He has created a cheap photovoltaic cell that uses an organic, printed dye to absorb sunlight. This builds on his initial, dye-based photovoltaic discovery way back in 1991 which required ruthenium, an incredibly rare and expensive element. These new dye-sensitized nanocrystal cells (DSCs) are basically slabs of ceramic titanium dioxide (titania) — the same, very cheap material that makes up the pigment in white paint. The organic dye, which is simply printed onto the titania, is a molecule with three distinct characteristics: It has a group of atoms that readily gains electrons, a group that loses electrons, and a light-absorbing bridge that’s similar to the chlorophyll found in plant cells. Basically, sunlight hits the dye, which then fires electrons into the titania, where electrodes pick them up to create a current."

Comment Re:but but (Score 1) 390

by Original Replica (#36084858) Attached to: High-Tech Gas Drilling Is Fouling Drinking Water
Is there, or is there not a strong geographic and temporal correlation between fracking sites and flammable well water?

We do not know what the incidence of methane in the water was in those wells before the gas companies started fracking.

What is the probability that people previously failed to notice flammable water?

Comment Re:Its not called gas but its called... (Score 1) 320

by Original Replica (#35445204) Attached to: Researchers Develop Biofuel Alternative To Ethanol

Well, I sure hope all this takes place LONG after I'm old and dead. I happen to love driving my cars and motorcycles. Firing it up, cranking on the tunes and putting the hammer down on the road.

Cayenne you are too intelligent not to realize that lowering the demand for petroleum will only serve to make hig HP low efficiency engines less expensive to operate.

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