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Comment Re:How DARE you propose NOT to allow this? (Score 1, Insightful) 146

I find it incredibly offensive to say that women should be forced to condemn their children to suffer from a preventable disease,

Then don't have kids. It's still an elective choice.

or be prevented from bearing genetically-related children, simply because some people think the cure is "unnatural".

By its very definition of how it's done is unnatural and the long term consequences to the gene pool unknown.

How about you don't have kids? We don't need any more AC trolls in the world.

We started messing with the "gene pool" when we started giving people things like glasses, surgery, antibiotics, and immunizations to enhance their lives.

Most people will have children regardless. Your stance is effectively condemning those children to a diseased life.

My elective choice would be to take all the people like you, ship them to an island that was devoid of any modern medicine, and let you "evolve" naturally. Enjoy dying at 35!

Comment Re:However.. (Score 4, Interesting) 247

And here is where IMHO, the wrong decision was made. They elected to not take images to see the damage. If they did, and saw the damage, instead of trying to rush Atlantis back into orbit, could they not have...

The wrong decision was made decades earlier when the US chose to rest on their laurels and not improve the shuttle design by increasing the safety margin or the turnaround time:

-The turnaround time between shuttle launches should not exceed the crew's air supply.

-The cockpit should have been contained in a module that could be ejected during reentry.

There are no technical hurdles to meeting either of those goals... NASA did not design the original shuttles to accommodate these factors due to cost. They could have redesigned the shuttles to be safer after 20 years of technology development and flight experience, but that also was deemed to cost too much.

This is the reason the astronauts died. Their lives were not worth the cost of incorporating full redundancy into the shuttle systems.

Comment Re:Way to go moon! (Score 1) 69

Thanks for taking one for the team.

I actually did a science fair project once testing whether the moon's gravity led to Earth getting hit with fewer asteroids. The effect was statistically insignificant.

Was it peer reviewed? Because then this would be interesting... especially if you posted a link to the details.

Comment Re:The Army actually built this island from scratc (Score 1) 121

Not sure what your point is: The island was still built by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Navy base idea came after Pearl Harbor, when the Navy needed an area to stage its ships before sending them out to war. They requested that San Francisco submit a purchase price. After San Francisco decided that the island was not for sale, the Navy seized it. They then traded Mills Field for the island. (Mills Field eventually became the San Francisco International Airport, which probably would not have fit under the Bay Bridge anyway!)

The city still got to hold its exposition, which is why the island was built. They then got land elsewhere for their airport. It's not like they got screwed, especially since most of the island creation and subsequent development cost was funded by New Deal funds (Works Public Administration and Public Works Administration). The rest was supported by exhibition funds and the local governments.

And keep in mind, that this was during WWII. The priorities were a little bit different then.

Comment The Army actually built this island from scratch.. (Score 3, Interesting) 121

... now the corporate sector is getting impatient that they can't profit off of it! Ridiculous.

The most cost efficient solution would be to just remove the highway exit leading to the island.

Build a new island if you want to build high-priced condos to continue to overpopulate San Francisco. Or let the corporations that will profit off of the condos actually pay to cleanup the island.

Comment The police should be happy about this... (Score 1) 457

People flashing headlights make other drivers slow down. In fact, flashing lights make more people slow down than a cop giving out a few tickets.

Any cop living up to the motto "To serve and protect" should be happy about this.

Personally, I would rather see less ticketing for speeding and more ticketing for left-lane cloggers who refuse to move over and let faster traffic by.

Comment Re:Here's how it compares to 4 nuclear plants... (Score 1) 253

While this solar farm is idle at night and unreliable by day, the transmission infrastructure must be built to handle the full capacity of the equivalent four nuclear plants, and it will sit idle most of the time. The solar option makes no economic sense, when instead they could purchase two actual 1GWe nuclear plants, and have 15 TW-hours/year of reliable power for more than twice as long.

That's not really a fair assessment, even if your numbers were correct.

It makes economic sense to diversify ones energy portfolio and to invest in developing technology if you want to become a world leader. It's called a long term investment. India is clearly trying to head this direction.

Also, I would argue that not taking advantage of free energy that is incident on the Earth's surface for most of the day makes no economic sense. Once the infrastructure is in place, they can always find other ways to utilize it.

Comment Re:I always thought... (Score 1) 118

The problem with that is that black holes need the mass they suck in to exist.

The mass cannot both be in the black hole and shot out the other side into a new universe.

So unless you can come up with a theory that has black holes creating mass out of nothing, that is simply impossible.

You make it seem so black and white, but you're logic is flawed:

Black holes just need a minimum (critical) amount of mass to exist. Anything over that limit is mass that can be lost.

Take binary stars as an analogy. They also need mass to exist, yet trade mass back and forth all the time.

Comment Re:and the TSA exists because... (Score 1) 393

The TSA exists because Americans tolerate it.

It's that simple.

We hold the purse strings AND the votes. Either one alone is enough to eliminate the TSA. But we have said, en-mass, that the TSA is acceptable in our society. So it will continue.

Brave words from an anonymous coward!

Please tell me who I can vote for to eliminate the TSA?

Comment Re:What are the questions? (Score 1) 313

All 100 of the E4s know that they need points to get rank and if they plan to make the military a career they all do the same things. They all go to airborne school, air assault school, work to shoot well and do well on their PT tests. It's little things like these BS tests and ass kissing that get the next rank and let a person continue at their desired career.

Bullshit. The US has been involved in overseas combat/security operations for the past 10+ years. If you wanted a fast track method to distinguish yourself, you can get yourself deployed.

These guys aren't assigned to the nuclear missile wing, they apply because it is a highly competitive military position that requires good academic background AND ensures a physically comfortable work environment if you can handle being isolated underground with another person for days at a time. Your chance of being shot at is zero percent.

It's clearly an avenue towards the more policy based side of the military as opposed to the operational side. And that is why it is particularly egregious that they are slacking on their studies. Since they aren't involved in combat ops, their studies are their only asset. Serving in the US armed forces is about having strong personal honor and ethics, even in the face of adversity; these guys should be court-marshalled immediately and dishonorably discharged.

Comment Easy to see? (Score 2) 125

It's currently already brighter than magnitude 12, and may get to mag 8, easy to see in small telescopes.

That's a pretty optimistic statement given the rampant state of light pollution around the world!

The naked eye limit is Mag. 3 for most of us who live near any streetlights. Magnitude 8 objects require a 6-8" telescope, preferably with tracking if you want to find the Mag. 8 galaxy.

I don't think of telescopes above 4" as "small."

I type this not to be annoying, but because a lot of people are going to waste a lot of time at night trying to see this thing when it is likely beyond their equipment (or patience) limit.

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