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Comment Re:Well (Score 1) 191

Detectable in a SETI sense, that is detactable from 10s or 100s of lightyears away.

Good luck picking up a satellite-TV or DAB radio transmission 100 light years away.
Communication is moving away from high effect broadcast to point-to-point.

Comment Re:Well (Score 1) 191

We've more or less stopped using detectable radio signals ourselves. Most communication is now carried in fiber optics, and the radio we use is either satellite or many small low power transmitters transmitting encrypted traffic.

Give it another 20-30 years, and we would not be transmitting anything by radio that could be picked outside our solar system.

Comment Re:This is the future (Score 2) 182

You see, it's because if you want a standard platform for gaming, there's one above the rest - Windows. Like it or not, that's the truth.

What Valve understood, but you fail to understand is that this is the way it WAS. It's no longer true with Windows 8, 8.1 and Microsofts plans and new limitations.

Comment Re:Sugar (Score 1) 926

HFCS and regular sugar are similar, but there's still a difference in how the body responds.
Tests on animals have shown significant damage from intake of HFCS not present in animals consuming the same amount of regular sugar.
Why? Don't think they know yet.

Regular sugar contains fructose and glucose in the form of sucrose. HFCS contains free fructose and glucose and also contains various traces from the starch -> sugar conversion.

Does the hydrolysis in the body that breaks up sucrose also trigger something else that reduces the effect of fructose in the liver?
Does sucrase regulate hydrolysis of sucrose and thereby reduces the amount of glucose and fructose available to the body compared to HFCS?
Does HFCS somehow disturb sucrase production?

Is is possible that the HFCS still contains enough trace amounts of the amino acids used to break down the starch to create a similar reaction in the food consumed together with the HFCS?
Are the proteins present after the HFCS process harmful?

Comment Re:Weasely "interpretation" of Constitution (Score 1) 658

Western agents posed a much more real threat to the USSR and the USSR way of life than terrorists pose the US and the american way of life.

Evil has taken root in your government, and you must speak out now before doing so will be outlawed and you find yourself shipped off to your version of the gulag.

Make no mistake, the current abuses of power in the US is just as bad as anything that happened in post Stalin USSR.

Comment Re:So much for... (Score 2) 743

Oh -- and about seatbelts: There's no question that they make folks who are belted in safer. However, it's also well-established that they make people who aren't belted in -- such as pedestrians -- less safe: Drivers behave more recklessly when they feel secure, and seat belts and anti-lock brakes provide such security.

But the overall reduction in fatalities is still reduced significantly.
Where I live the fatalities pr transported km have been reduced by a factor of 20 for children since before seat belt and child safety seats where required by law. For adults the reduction due to improved cars, airbags etc. is a factor of 4 in the same period.

We have ~200-250 car related fatalities a year, of which ~20 are pedestrians.
Of the ~150 car related ones ~50% did not wear a seat belt. 1-2% of the population does not wear seat belts.

Comment Re:HTML is a container (Score 1) 224

CSS, images and javascript (if the code itself is not derived from the platform source) is no more a derivative work than a photo frame is a derivative work of a (specific) photo.
Both can change the look of another work without changing the original work - both can, with minor adjustments, be used with other works.

I don't like what they are doing, but I don't understand how any sane interpretation of copyright laws could find this to be considered infringement.
If this somehow creates a derivative work, then all browser-plugins that change the way any webpage looks or behaves is also infringing.
Adblock -> gone
In browser spellcheck -> gone
Screen reader for the blind -> gone
Firebug -> gone
Selector gadget -> gone

Comment Re:Creepy libertarianism (Score 1) 80

It's not a chicken-and-egg problem, it's a delusion and cluelessness problem.

Several of the worlds most successful businessmen are investing in this.
Take a look at the list of advisers and investors: http://www.planetaryresources.com/team/
Clueless would not be the first word that comes to mind as characteristic for that group.

With plans for permanent lunar installations, probably within the next 10-20 years (China, India and Japan all have plans for permanent facilities on the moon - the US might also enter the race) the market will be there by the time the asteroid capture and mining is up and running. Add the possibility of Mars mission(s) (American, Chinese or private) before 2040 and the mining business looks good.

Any new space station (ISS replacement, moon logistics station at L1 or low moon orbit, mars staging station at Moon L2) would benefit tremendously from having materials available without having to pay the gravity tax.

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