Over the years I have experienced many major spills on electronics, various liquids. The most success I had was with Carbon Tet (toxic! use outside with gloves!) with an almost-100% recovery rate (unless of course components were damaged before power was removed), but a flush with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol can work given enough drying time.

None of my keyboards have ever lasted long enough to wear out, and in the last decade the recovery rate has gone down. I don't know whether it's pin spacing, decreased circuit margins or stuff trapped in tiny spaces, but many a 'pristine' cleaned keyboard was a goner with several keys inoperable or 'latched'.

The Logitech 310 ends all that. It is certainly not the best key action I've had (Cherry!)... but the tradeoff is all the spills (coffee, soda, water) thus far have been easy to clean, it remains operational, no disassembly required. With a spare in the closet, I know I have a keyboard that will keep going indefinitely, or until it wears out.

Yea, you can purchase waterproof keyboards for a pretty penny. Fact is, most keyboards are engineered to suck in liquids like a wick and stop working. This one is reasonably priced. Weather or not you 'like' this keyboard, I encourage everyone to purchase a K310 to at least keep in the closet to use as an emergency spare, and thus reward Logitech for this simple design innovation that battles 'willful' planned obsolescence.

I wonder if Wyden really knows this... and realizes where it may lead. If political ambition is his goal he could take it to the top some day. In 2015 Americans view 'the government' as the No. 1 Problem to solve. Unfortunately the issues they are most upset with -- such as healthcare -- are extremely partisan.

Domestic NSA surveillance is NOT a partisan issue. Who will chair the first Church Committee of the 21st Century? Senator Frank Church warned us waay back in 1975,

"Now, that is necessary and important to the United States as we look abroad at enemies or potential enemies. We must know, at the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left such is the capability to monitor everythingâ"telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide.

"If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Such is the capability of this technology.

"I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."

As Snowden has revealed, we are at the edge of the abyss. As I have repeatedly warned in these forums, this furor over so-called phone call metadata is a limited hang-out, a diversion from the clear and present danger of full content backbone taps at interconnects. And here in Wyden's remarks we get a glimpse that there is more to the story. A 21st Century Church Committee is needed.

Here's what Wyden needs to do:

1. Call a press conference to announce that there is enough cause in the publicly available Snowden leaks, as well as certain other details he is privy to and cannot disclose, to form a 21st century bi-partisan 'Church Committee'. He would need to give a quick recap of those 1975 proceedings for those who are historically challenged... but it would make for a very interesting and well televised event.

2. Call another press conference the very next day. This one to publicly announce and air out any personal dirty laundry he may have. Extra-marital affairs, investments with conflicts of interest. Unless there is murder in there not only will he get a free pass, but people would take notice if he states that he is 'clearing the field' and proactively mitigating any attempt to leak this information as a distraction. He can also point out that whether or not they would take such action, they may be in possession of this information, and that is what the Committee hopes to address.

3. Get the ball rolling.

It's time to pull the chain and flush the NSA. I call for the death penalty -- that is complete defunding (including black budget), complete dismantling of domestic tap apparatus, clear the offices and auction the damned furniture. Sell Fort Meade to Disney. Then, its reformation under its original mission, and a little petty cash to buy a few desks and chairs.

Spoken like a dinosaur perched directly on the KT Boundary some 66 million years ago. They had a really thriving green community going. CO2 ~ten times what it is now but creatures of the Mesozoic were chilll about it. Those creatures are now part of that curious layer of ash. It's good stuff, plants love it!

Will someone some day be fertilizing the garden with us?

Space travel and habitation is really our only hope for long term survival. I realize that NASA is re-tooling to weather an era of robotic exploration and many think we can just sling a bunch of missiles anywhere, but sit down and watch Deep Impact again. Pay attention to Morgan Freeman as he says, "Our missiles have failed." Read his lips. Yes, it is possible that missiles could fail, or some Earthly shot-wad interception effort would miss the target or run short on megatons or time.

Therefore, the greatest assurance of continuance for Earth would be the presence of many humans, ships and capability already out there in space, who could quickly launch a coordinated effort to divert an asteroid's course, with enough time to keep trying.

Parent modded Troll, flamebait? Once again childish moderators are gainsaying one another, as if moderation is some way to one-click express your own opinion. Amazon patent pending. Parent post is deftly written and is a valid point of view, though bitter. Read it again, this time asking yourself --- if even some of this is true, wouldn't its author have the right to express bitterness?

If you simply disagree with it, ignore it or at least use your words. Don't try to make it disappear. Of course, once you speak up you will undo the mods. What a better world this would be if that happened.

How does that feel?

The Mars Trilogy does not dwell and it does not ramble. There is a larger portion of casual dialogue and thought than most other authors use, save Niven perhaps. The books span some 200 years' events, and some one or something is always on the move. There is very little useless dialogue, though the topic does wander at times. In sheer density of material covered these books are formidable. The ratio of human drama to hard science is pretty much equal to actual life, even among scientists. (Side read: Madam Curie tarnishes the reputation of her deceased husband! )

The weight and page-span of books being what it is from the moment you first pick them up... there seems to be the sentiment that there's some tipping point at which a criticism of total word-count becomes valid, even to where it is the only criticism offered.

I just do not understand this.

It seems to be borrowed from movies, where an arduous and perilous series of edits achieves the hour-and-a-half movie formula with maybe 5-15 minutes of throwaway cuts, so TV can stuff in more commercials. A three hour movie without intermission can be an arduous ordeal, as the aisles filled with people taking unsynchronized bathroom breaks and the expense of pop€orn and $oda approaches the down payment on a car. But these are social outings within time-slots. Books live in the personal elastic moment. The time we give them is the time it takes.

Perhaps there is a certain sense that at its ending, a book has 'wasted' [a tangible percentage of] your time. Its central theme undoubtedly kept your interest, but at a price. Perhaps it ends badly or dangly, the author's style changes abruptly (seen in works where the writer had set it aside and the publisher gives them a time ultimatum). Perhaps there are things or persons in it you just don't give a hoot about. This is natural.

As a young child I devoured the Hobbit and started into the Ring Trilogy and found myself enthralled with Frodo's quest, but started skimming it to sprint past the minutiae of politics and war. I felt a measure of guilt to do this, but I just wanted to wander in this new land, take in the sights and vistas, and be chased across Middle Earth. Then in my teens I spotted Tolkien on the shelf and experienced a dismissive sense of, "been there done read that". And another voice, the one that had supplied that wordless guilt years before, whispered, "actually... you haven't really" Upon which I dove into the four books again, this time the entire thing, and was left with a sense of wonder and discovery.

This been there done that seen that too long too boring too talky too thinky too rambly thing so often reflects the level of personal distraction, phase of life or judgmental sentiment of the moment. We change, and by re-reading familiar works over time, especially those we felt lukewarm about, we can gain a sense of how much we have changed. The stories set into books are like sundials of the mind --- as fixed and unvarying as stone. As our shadow drifts with the season, so do we glimpse our evolutions of thought and the added insight (and hopefully concentration and patience) that years may bring.

So books we have finished that were 'too long'...? Maybe we're just not mature or attentive enough to grasp them wholly. They deserve a second reading, some day. But not if they suck. Some books do suck.

Mars Trilogy does not suck.

Just what goes through my mind whenever I hear some one say, "that book went on too long". It takes awhile to go through all this, it's why people think I spend half my life just staring at the wall.

Do. An aversion to the death penalty is a twisted concept because it leads to so-called 'life' sentences.

A 'life without parole' sentence is the most horrible torture ever devised. A 'comfortable' life in prison (without institutionalized slavery, malnourishment or brutality) is a modern invention of energy-wealthy society in which a moment's mortal agony is stretched out over many pointless years. Confinement, a dreary existence far from one's desired path, a great and ultimately worthless expense to society. Any sane person placed in this condition will harbor a degree of growing resentment that cannot be channeled away. You would think the only hope they could muster is that society may change its mind someday. And for some, this needs to happen .

Abandoning execution for the worst crimes also leads us inexorably in the direction of a 'revolutionary' new medical procedure that will render a bad person into brand new good person. They can return home to their families in varying states of sentience and independence, they know their name, they are as cuddly as ever, no vulgar scars on the forehead. There is a warranty. The procedure is so successful (and financially lucrative!) that it is naturally 'improved' and 'refined' so it can be applied to smaller gentler degree and under various brand names, to many judicial and civil markets. As told in our latest prospectus, a particularly fertile R&D effort may make 'problem teens' and 'repeat offenders' a thing of the past. To ease barriers of parental consent, a multi-faceted campaign has been launched in news and social media. Our secured trademark has been injected as a clever and cute internet meme, so even Grumpy Cat is promoting our product though he does not know it yet. Contacts in the AMA and DOJ have assured us that there is even a useable legal framework in which judges may order the procedure done, in the same way that a vaccine may be involuntarily given. We have a saying, the customer *is* the cure.

If you are curious about this medical procedure and wish to research it further, see this essay I wrote in 2006 in which you will learn its medical name. I will not disclose the trademark-meme at this time, you will have to wait for product launch. If you think this is a good idea then get the fuck away from me and my family.

But back to the prisons. For those guilty of heinous crimes and disposed to violence, what they're actually hoping is that the society around them collapses, the grid goes down, or some violent insurrection or hostile invasion occurs in which prisons are opened as a war tactic. Some would seek only escape and obscurity, some directed revenge at any cost. Who is to say what most would do? We cannot know. To us, a lifer prison is an undiscovered country. What would the guards do if some apocalyptic disaster ensues, that no help or food will arrive? They begin to leave, one by one to be with their families. Will the last one open the gates?

Few would consider storing gasoline-soaked rags near an open flame in the boiler room a good idea. But when you oppose the death penalty for the most horrid monsters of our age... you bring into existence the possibility you or someone you know might meet them in person some day under conditions in which you'd rather not. This may be more likely than being hit by a tornado. I see you have a storm shelter.

Some may see life imprisonment as a sort of societal insurance policy against injustice. File 'em all away for good, and if some new miracle of technology proves their innocence we can get 'em back and fix it, make it right. The most celebrated cases of this are those who were released after DNA analysis proved their innocence.

I believe that the death penalty is warranted in certain cases. It should be carried out by a robotic firing squad, all aiming at the head. There is no 'undo'. The accused will never even hear the shot. It is as instantaneous as the judge's gavel. It should be televised. Every funeral is a closed-casket funeral. Family and friends would no longer be able to gather around a cosmetically crafted face of peace and innocence, to engage in the cruel emotive denial that arises when one is looking down on one who may be asleep. The head will be simply missing.

Batteries not included.

To consign those convicted of the most heinous crimes to death -- all things considered -- may be the only mercy society can afford. The drugs don't work for everyone, and the use of faux-medical procedure for execution, with their clean white coats, is a clear and direct insult to doctors everywhere.

We should not fear death, or its use in applying justice.
We should fear cowards who hesitate to use it, placing a burden and danger upon us all.

"I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their job."
~~Samuel Goldwyn

Check out Negative Results are Disappearing from Most Disciplines and Countries [2011] from master lexicographer Daniele Fanelli, whose other 2009 work on scientific misconduct was covered on Slashdot. He finds "the proportion of papers that, having declared to have tested a hypothesis, reported a full or partial support has grown by more than 20% between 1990 and 2007." One thing that jumped at me in Fanelli's paper [Fig 3, p7] was the smoothness of this progression for the US authors, as compared with other countries.

Richard Feynman noted "The thing that doesn't fit is the thing that's most interesting." Are we seeking those things? Newton was almost right. Bereft of rigorous testing to invalidate popular hypotheses, would we be likely to notice "negative results" such as the disparities that revolutionized quantum mechanics? Or would they be swept under the rug of selective funding and implied consensus? "Of the hypothesized problems, perhaps the most worrying is a worsening of positive-outcome bias. A system that disfavours negative results not only distorts the scientific literature directly, but might also discourage high-risk projects and pressure scientists to fabricate and falsify their data." Say it isn't so!

What is being claimed here is a progressive shortage of applied effort to discredit popular hypotheses. We may be great guessers, but it is not always a waste of time and effort to back-check, to reproduce. Does it come down to money?

Or are people letting themselves become a teeny bit religious about science?
Isn't this what Carl Sagan warned us about?

Inspired by this cry wolfy article by Illuminati seer Dave Hodges, I devised a simple psychological test for paranoid perception of current events, and it was so popular in my own mind I decided to share it.

________

1. Major area of Northern Arizona recently experienced a complete outage of Internet, land-line phone and some cell phones. The fault was traced to a field where someone had dug up a cable and cut partway through it. Why?

A: An idiot with a hacksaw intending to steal copper
B: Covert beta test for implementation of Martial Law

________

2. A call is received by the Fire Department for a cat in tree. They arrive at the correct address and there is a tree but no cat. What has happened?

A: The cat has gathered its courage and climbed down the tree
B: Covert beta test for implementation of Martial Law

________

3. On an evening of gentle breezes, dogs in the neighborhood have begun howling, but there is no moon, siren or train. What is the most likely cause?

A: Female dog in heat
B: Covert beta test for implementation of Martial Law

________

Note on answers and scoring: Congratulations, you did really well!

FREON indeed.
How about X12? It is only an XML exchange standard, an experimental superhuman and adjustable bed.

One would think the company who runs the most popular Internet search engine would understand the hard-ass difficulty of finding relevant search results on specific topics about redundantly named things, especially deep results in discussion forums. Freon is discussed in automotive, ecological and chemistry contexts, there are tons of government and UN docuiments. Graphic software projects should be uniquely named. This is because in every written discipline people say, "Graphics 2 and 3 show sales for......" so for example, "freon graphics" still would yield irrelevant results.

And then it gets worse, as if software suites are some kind of goofy themed Senior Prom. You will see plugins and offshoots of Freon software called Condenser, Compressor, Ozone and Fanbelt, Squeaking, Vent Solenoid and Thermostat, Sunburn, Cancer and Death.

Google has come to praise knowledge, not to bury it.

You're right... but China aims to change that. China is cool with the delays in AP1000 construction... why? Because Westinghouse is refining the pump design.

China is much more than a happy customer experiencing some delays in delivery and construction. They have a plan in place to build the CAP1400, their own proprietary version of the Westinghouse AP1000.

If you're a flag-waving American who believes that we're still in the race to help develop and industrialize the world, this August 2014 slide show from China's SNPTC (State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation) is worth a look. "China has basically established the 3rd generation nuclear power industrial system, built up the complete equipment supplied chain, completed the standard design of localized AP1000, and prepared for mass construction of the localized AP1000."

And that is merely to ensure its entry into the market as a supplier of AP1000-compatible reactors in the short term. Their CAP1400 project promises to build on the AP1000 concept while scaling up the output by half (to 1530MWe). They are also suggesting an actual four-year construction cycle.

So if Westinghouse (majority owner: Toshiba) wishes to delay construction today in order to improve the design of coolant pumps --- I'm sure China is amenable. They will note the improvements and incorporate them.

While the United States feeds Africa for a day and attempts to impose unworkable energy solutions, Japan and China will build its coal plants today and become its infrastructure partners. Then with the same steadfast determination with which the USA built out railroads, the Chinese will lay high speed rail, energize itself and New Africa with grids and mature PWR nuclear energy tomorrow. And on the third day, Thorium reactors using liquid fuel. Ultimately a quadrillion dollars of infrastructure... financed and built without the US dollar, perhaps.

So if China supplies nuclear reactors to the world --- and ultimately also the United States for a hefty price, when natural gas declines and we shake ourselves awake from this renewables nightmare, what a pity. We could have done it first and we could have done it better.
___
"Oh dear! We're late!" Down the nuclear rabbit hole we go.

Since you mention DC I guess this is a reply to this message and this one.

Sometimes one can come to the conclusion that we can only accomplish a goal one way when one is presented with a clear winner and a bunch of sorry-ass alternatives, such as... nuclear versus 'solutions' that require imaginary infrastructure and imaginary storage technology that (nevertheless) will shut down in cold or cloudy weather. Despite anything I may have believed once upon a time, or just not thought about, I am now being drawn kicking and screaming to advocate nuclear energy. Because the alternatives suck because extinction sucks. And about the DC thing.

Eh. Actually my first post was a short essay inspired by the Clock of the Long Now.

In fact... I'M SOOO CLEVER I even wrote your comment too! Bwaa-haa-haaa!

Thank you. Feel free to sample our other fine products.

I like the way you think... it's a beautiful dream and I'm right there with you, except for the 'doable' part. See this great Megastructures documentary, Bridging The Bering Strait. So many great things to accomplish. If more than ~19.6% of engineers receiving a Bachelors in engineering were women I think we would be much better off. (Not what you said, just thinking that because my daughter is choosing a major.)

There is such an expanse between things that are good ideas and those that are practical --- that is, practical in the sense that you can imagine them happening in your own lifetime or would bet on them. As opposed to merely being able to imagine them. Unless mankind blows a stinky one and goes tits-up, a global power grid is desirable, inevitable and necessary. But when? And what first?

Presently deployed technology principally uses resonant AC generated mechanically.
A inter-continental or global grid MUST be spanned with high voltage direct current.
The converters that render DC to properly synchronized AC (and back) are not perfected and are expensive.
A series of overlapping HVDC loops within a continent is a good start.
Presently North America utilizes three grids with no appreciable energy connection between.
This is ridiculous. A country should be able to pool electrical energy as necessary coast to coast.
We did it with railroads and then highways.
Sometimes positive change requires reasons beyond corporate interests.
The US was once spanned by crappy roads.
The Interstate Highway System was Eisenhower's way to insure that the US could move troops quickly if invaded.
From awful scenarios and bad times, good things may arise.
Likewise with nuclear energy.

BUT.
Grid rebuilding does not 'create' new energy.
The politics of spanning the globe with cable are insurmountable.
Because an idiot with a hacksaw just cut off Northern Arizona.
There are a lot of idiots out there with hacksaws and explosives.
Therefore, any single globe-spanning initiative is actually a single point of failure.
In engineering, despite the beauty of this planet-spanning solar dream, it is a bad idea.
I don't like it, you don't like it, but could we bet our future, our childrens' future, that it would never happen?

SO.
What is the next step?
Some form of wealth creation.
Energy is wealth, so let's create energy.
Something that requires a few hundred somethings, not tens of thousands or millions of something.
A few hundred somethings that are weatherproof, self-contained concrete fortresses that just output energy.
Something we can build, not just (for example) borrow money to have the Chinese build for us.
We can defend hundreds of things located in our back yard. We must.

DO IT! Let's Get Off Our Buts.

"Read the rest of this comment..." link appears sometimes even when there is no rest of comment (or is invisible whitespace?)
Not related to recent changes, has been happening for awhile

On this page
search for 49153131
does not happen when individual message page is shown, only on static discussion page.

what it looks like

Just a peeve.
The Prev and Older buttons are back. Yay!
Thanks and keep up the good work, putting up with us whiny malcontents.

My that's a lot of crap in one sentence. You see the word 'Atomic' on a web page and you think you're listening to someone from the nuclear power industry? And you think THEY are deep-pocket funding some 'faux-science' scam? You've got it so backwards.

First, the nuclear power industry, for all its glory and base load contribution, is not wealthy at all. Their construction costs are high due to a combination of deliberate over-engineering and a degree of government oversight unprecedented in history. They have historically competed with coal and held their own. They are presently competing with a rising glut of natural gas power generation on the grid, a glut that will level off and decline in a few years. Carbon-neutral, reliable nuclear plants are being shut by corporate 'cents per kWh' fuck-it let's decommission it vandalism and a type of malfeasance that arises from eco-radiophobes. And when gas does decline, a whole bunch of corporate fucks will wake up and ask, "Gee, where do we put our stupid money now?" Why, coal --- of course.

So no, the nuclear power industry did not 'fund' a global warming scam. In fact, they have been taken in by its urgency along with so many people. They have been SCREWED by it because they honestly thought that a nigh-well limitless source of carbon-neutral energy would be embraced by a world in desperate need to solve the 'problem'. Well I guess it wasn't that much of a problem, or the world is not so desperate to solve it after all. Or perhaps the people who happen to be most convinced of runaway warming scenarios are the same people who (irrationally) fear nuclear energy?

(yes I know you were not the original poster) The last sentence of the linked article.

Considering that there have been over 2000 nuclear tests, it's a miracle that we have stopped at two bombs. And not gone on to do THIS
or THIS
or THIS
or THIS
or THIS
or THIS.

So, where did all this caterwauling about 2 verses 2000 come from? I really had to think about it for a minute... WHY would anyone question that 'stopped at 2 bomb' figure...? Then it hit me.

Testing of nuclear bombs is being conflated here with their actual use in war. These things do not conflate, people. I'd recommend you go on to consider that doing so is kind of sick. It is as if the original intent of these weapons, to kill millions of people and devastate their lands, is being marginalized in favor of some point of view where nuclear explosions are 'eco-unfriendly'. Not as some regrettable side-effect but as a primary talking point. That is really an ugly type of thinking in my opinion. It anthropomorphizes the Earth at the expense of humanity.

With all due respect, a certain casual misanthropy has been creeping into the culture, and it is most often heard these days from people passionate about climate change. It is an unproductive, poisonous evolutionary dead end. I don't mean to offend anyone but this is a difficult subject to discuss because people don't realize they are doing it.

Atomic energy is being conflated with atomic warfare, as if the mere existence of one implies the other. These things do not conflate, people. It is not just pointless, it is ridiculous. It is as if the existence of medical research labs seals the inevitability of biological warfare and they must be stopped. It is as if the manufacture of kerosene lamps should have been banned long before the electric light came along, because of the Great Chicago fire.

Nuclear energy is just a type of fire we have not finished taming yet. It is not some evil dragon that could never be contained safely. It is a challenge to invention and engineering. We should be excited to pursue it, because science tells us that the payoff is a factor of a MILLION, as in "one million times the energy density of a carbon-hydrogen bond".

Those fifty thousand wind turbines and solar everything farms feeding lithium batteries the size of skyscrapers just will not happen. What's plan B?