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Comment Re:For all of you USA haters out there: (Score 5, Interesting) 378

Never mind the antiquated banking system, lack of metric or the crippling health-care system - explain why pennies are still in circulation in the US!
There is a fundamental conservatism in the US that makes it exceptionally difficult to change anything at the national level.
It is something of a paradox, since at the local level, Americans are so adaptable and innovative.

Comment Re:The Great Filter (Score 1) 333

Of course, humanity has grown up with a culture where 99% of fictional alien encounters end incredibly badly...

This is based on solid experience. Name one single example of a primitive race benefiting from contacting a more advanced race.

If we discover evidence of a remote civilisation (e.g. SETI), I will be happy as you say. But in the far more unlikely event of meeting aliens here, I will be extremely fearful.

Comment Re:^^Winner (Score 1) 216

I don't know a lot about the US. But of course it has always been ruled by the elite - the founding fathers were from the 1%, and the "revolution" was just a change of management that did nothing to benefit the common man. But while fearful of mob rule, they felt a greater duty to the commoners than today's politicians seem to. (or at least the white commoners)

  The recent development I think is the power of the corporations, rather than just wealthy individuals. The corporations seem to have less collective conscience.

Comment Re:^^Winner (Score 1) 216

Yeah, democracy in the Western sense, where you only have two parties

No, thats just the US, and other countries with first-past the-post voting system.

they are both stooges to the corporations and have no real power.

Talking about the US again? Though that is only a relatively recent development.

Comment Re:^^Winner (Score 1) 216

They might even get away with a C-

For what? Voting in a dictator counts as a democracy, does it? The Russians dabbled in democracy, and then rejected it.
In the context of an English-language forum, modern democracy means a multi-party parliamentary system with rule of law, as invented by the British. Without an effective opposition, the parliament becomes a rubber stamp for the executive, and politicians stop caring about votes. In some countries this can work better than a multi-party system, but it functions very differently from a democracy in the Western sense.

Comment Re:There Is A Better Solution (Score 1) 83

Nature evolved legs for dealing with rough terrain. NASA needs to start using walking rovers, not rolling rovers.

Ah, but when man first invented the wheel (long after metallurgy and shipping) there was a great thunderclap from the heavens as God slapped his forehead and said "Why didn't I think of that?".

We can look to nature for inspiration, but have you ever seen the old film of the early plane with flapping wings?

Comment Re: Lift? (Score 1) 83

No, a balloon is not so easy. With 1% the atmosphere, you need a 100X bigger balloon than on earth. And mind those winds.

But an aerofoil / rotor has advantages - first it only needs 40% of the lift (lower gravity) .
More significantly, while lift is linear to air density, lower pressure also means reduced drag on the rotor, allowing faster rotation and/or bigger rotors (lift proportional to area).

Drag formula is similar to lift, so with the same power, you can spin the rotor 10x faster to get the same drag and lift as on earth. (force = density x velocity squared ... )
In practice, you make the rotors bigger and slower, but you get the idea . Aerofoils work better than balloons in low pressure.

(IANAAE)

Comment Re:Hold your horses (Score 4, Informative) 211

FTA, it takes around 1 nanoampere to ring the bell once. It rings around around 2 Hz. Thus it takes 2 nanoampere a second, which works out to 7200 nanoampere-hours.

Ouch! Your bad maths is making my head hurt. Amp is a measure of current, not energy or charge.
  A nA is one nano-couloumb per second. WTF does "nanoampere a second" even mean? Current acceleration?
  One nano-Amp for an hour is precisely one nano-Amp hour, duh!
Better known as 3.6 microcoulombs. At 2kV, it is 7.2 milli-joules of energy.
For that idiocy you get a +5? Mods need to stay in school.

The better AAs produce 3 amp-hour of power. That is 3000000000 nanoamperes.

FFS! First you equate amp-hours with power, and then you equate it with amps. Where did the time unit go?
Your 3AHr battery at one nano-Amp will last 3 x 10 to the 9 hours, or 342,000 years. (neglecting internal leakage :-)
Of course you will need a few of them in series to equal the 2kV of the Oxford Bell.
What has happened to /.?

(disclaimer: After that rant, I'm almost certain to have made an error myself.)

Comment Re:Again, why? (Score 4, Informative) 169

If you have a Chromebook, Google has already made ChromeOS support anything that the Chromebook will have to do.

Oh, no they have not.

A macbook can install 3rd party apps out of the box. It is not locked down.
But if you want Skype, Minecraft, or Steam for example, on a Chromebook, you need to unlock it (developer mode, unsupported) and install a full Linux environment first.

But yes, no need to replace ChromeOS, just supplement it.

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