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Comment Re:Wrong focus for your anger (Score 1) 194

GP never stated that he or she eat meat.
You are making an assumption on an individual based on how the majority is.

True. I should not have made it personal.
Regardless, I still think that since Sea World is a relatively insignificant issue (in the big picture), it receives way too much attention. It would be better if those who criticise it focus their anger on a larger issue than this.

Comment Wrong focus for your anger (Score 2, Interesting) 194

You say that keeping a whale in captivity for education and entertainment is wrong, because it dies sooner than in the wild (which btw is not proven by this single grandmother killer whale). But I am just curious: the beef and pork you eat is also 'grown' in cages. We over eat purely for entertainment (you cannot convince me we need a 400g steak, that is entertainment), and since kids have to learn how to prepare food, it will be used for education too. So how is that different?

Yes, humans are the dominant species on the planet. And yes, we abuse animals sometimes. I do not think there is a problem with Sea World. I think the major problem is that we harrass animals also in the wild. Whales are affected by the noise of ship engines, and all marine life is affected by the pollution we produce. Stop complaining about Sea World, and just try to make this world cleaner. Then you make a real impact.

Comment Re:Pipe Dream I suspect (Score 1) 193

I very much agree with you. You should put solar panels where they can catch most sunlight. These tiles are a funny gadget for some architects to make a small-scale project (a driveway somewhere, or maybe the entrance for a theme park). But as a large scale energy source, this is hopeless.

1. The efficiency of the solar panels is reduced because of lots of dirt, and because of the very thick glass protection on top of it.
--> As a result of the lower efficiency, the solar panels will not be an interesting investment for energy.
2. The tiles are way more expensive than ordinary asphalt or bricks.
--> As a result of the higher costs, the tiles will not be an interesting investment for a road surface.

If we would really be running out of space, this may be efficient. But as the OP said, we still have lots of roofs, and plenty of other empty spaces. Use that first.

Comment Re:I will be totally outraged for a few days ... (Score 1) 218

Where you said "week", I say "month".

But I agree that sometimes change is not bad, but only takes some getting used to. However, there are cases where change is indeed quite bad: the new Google Maps is a step back compared to the previous version, and our beloved slashdot beta would be a step back too.

Looking at the screenshot, I would want some features (logout, preferences) near the top-right corner, like on each and every other website on this planet. Also, I want to access sent mail in 1 click. All other stuff is free for the marketing gurus to play with.

The main question I have is: does it improve anything for me? (And also, since this is a prototype, I wonder how much this will be watered down until I get it on my screen).

Comment Re:Belgians and Congo... (Score 1) 453

Eehm... based on your own analysis, I would think that the aliens are in deep trouble, not us.

There is no foundation for the assumption that aliens would treat us like Europeans did in Africa and America. However, here is plenty of support for the assumption that Europeans (or humans in general) would make that same mistake again and exploit the aliens. After all, we're still exploiting each other right now.

Comment Stay on the grid (Score 1) 165

Glad to read that they at least suggest that this thing gets connected to the main electicity grid (so they also deliver electricity when the car isn't charging, which is most of the time). Also, I guess you should just charge the car from the grid as well. Many people will tend to drive in the day, and charge at night, so, off the grid really seems silly. A rough estimate tells me that the panels could deliver as much as 10 kW (if you're lucky), so size-wise this is not enough to charge the car quickly. Another reason to stay on the grid.

So, using a flat surface of the carport roof for solar panels? Good idea. But it's just not really relevant to involve the car in this story, as you'll be charging it from the grid, like everyone else with an electric car.

Comment Re:First.... (Score 1) 288

For many years, people said that nuclear power is very cheap. This was its major selling point. No need to buy large quantities of fuel. Now, it turns out that the costs of the energy are paid by the generations living when the power plant is already shut down.

Sure, we can then move the goal posts of this old discussion to talk about CO2 emissions and other pollution, but it would only be fair to compare nuclear to sustainable sources such as wind/solar. On a CO2 emission, they may be comparable, but since nuclear is apparently a little more costly than we previously thought, perhaps wind and solar energy are becoming more attractive?

Comment If it's not portable, why make it so small? (Score 1) 83

Too much miniaturization is dumb, unless you want a portable device.

I agree. If it was never meant to be carried around, why make it so small? Sounds like it needed a slightly larger cooling system to make it work properly.

Cooling capabilities of any device are proportional to the outside surface area of the device (where it can get rid of the heat), and this thing has too little outside surface area. Sometimes the marketing guys really should listen to the engineers.

Comment Why disappointed? (Score 5, Interesting) 44

Only the mad conspiracy hatters will be disappointed, because they already know that planet X is on a collision course with us. But then, they don't care about new findings,unless they support their theory. Amateur astronomers however will be just as excited when a planet is found much further away.

It's actually a very exciting and interesting article... it means that in the near future, we won't be searching for a needle in a haystack. We know pretty much where to find the needle, if there is any. To me, that is even more reason to search, which hopefully opens up some funding for the scientists who produce these awesome results.
For me personally, the really exciting thing is that there is so much out there. Perhaps no earth-sized planet, many more dwarf planet than I had ever dreamed...

Comment Re:Won't work (Score 1) 342

There's basically 3 types of information for traders:
1. Official public information from the company itself (press releases, annual report, etc).
2. Analysis by external parties
3. Unofficial (non-public) information from within the company - trading using this is called insider trading, and this is already against the law.

So, when companies release information (category 1), everybody can trade. I do realize now that large companies have press releases on a daily basis. So, maybe the timespan of a week/month was a little long. But at least something that reflects the timespan between press releases (hours? at least not milliseconds) would still be a good idea.

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