Several comments have questioned the single point of failure. I am sure that it will be a key question for the NTSB to examine when it looks into this incident. However, I would point out that the system is designed to fail to backups, but it appears that Mr. Howard who was "worked for an FAA contractor at the Aurora facility for about eight years, handling communications there" knew what to destroy so as to prevent such back-up systems from functioning. The report mentions "The (radio) frequency failed" which would lead me to speculate that he severed the connections to the physical transmitters before torching the communications system. The comment about "a floor panel had been pulled up, exposing telecommunications cables and other wires" seems to say that Mr. Howard who should have know the system he maintained well, was able to damage a particularly sensitive set of equipment and or connections.

My biggest question is, what is so bad about a transfer to Hawaii? I'm sure there were personal reasons to stay, but I still cannot help thinking that if I gout the chance to leave Chicago for Hawaii I'd jump at it.

Press reports are still very sketchy, but it seems like the suspect was in charge of maintaining the very systems that allow such transfers of control and that he intentionally destroyed key connections between radar and radio installations and the Air Traffic Control system. Why this building contained single points of failure is something I'm sure the NTSB report will focus heavily on, but at some point a connection has to exist between the physical hardware that track aircraft and transmits radio instructions and the network routes that information. The report that he had "ripped up carpet and cut cables" reads to me like someone who knew where to find one of these critical single points of failure.

Yes, in 1999 (when I last toured the plant) the SCRAM time was 3.5 seconds with control rods fully placed in 0.5 seconds if the emergency circuit is tripped. This happens automatically in the event of a 6.0 or stronger quake. An emergency SCRAM requires 30 to 120 days to restart the reactor. Also like all reactors, it requires time to cool. Because DCNP is located on the ocean it does not require active cooling to safely cool the reactor core after a crash. flooding the core with sea water will probably be the end of that reactor, but it will not loose containment. The plant was originally designed to be operational after a 7.0 quake and to not loose containment in the event of a 9.5. After the discovery of the Hsgri fault the design was modified to withstand a 10.8 quake. Analysis after the 2004 6.2 quake in Paso Rubles suggests that the engineering was "very conservative" and that the plant may well be able to survive an 8.0 in operational condition.

On the other hand, the temporary on site storage of spent fuel was not part of the original plan, In the event of a major seismic event, it is the spent fuel casks that scare me.

No, for two primary reasons. First, the objections to the NV site other then from the residents of that fine state come from people not wanting to ship nuclear waist past their city. Moving nuclear waist is just as challenging as finding a home for it. Second, The forces that caused a site to be shut down do not want to grow the fuel storage problem they already have. The high cost to close out a nuclear facility is not a secret, it is much cheaper to recondition or even completely rebuild the reactor then to decommission it. Sites are shut down for environmental and political reasons, and those who worked to shut them down don't want to take other people's waist.

There was a time when Slashdot was my home page -- first thing I read when I turned on the internet. That time has long passed. I'm not sure whether I grew up or Slashdot grew down. In the end I think RSS feeds and the proliferation and maturation of other tech sites with original content like Ars Technica filled some of what Slashdot used to do for me. Much of the news here is 12 hours behind the top of my feed.

I still come back often. It's not for the news like it was in the 90's but for the comments. When I want to know what's happening, I hit Google or Hacker News or Ars, but when I want to know what other people like me think about something, I wait for it to hit Slashdot's front page.

To me it feels like DICE thinks the articles are the content. They're not. The content comes below the articles which are only there (IMHO) to spark a discussion. So my feedback: Take a few months and learn about the community that makes Slashdot work. It seems clear that you have not. Then work the redesign to fit the ethos of that community. You can mess up the front page all you want to try to get new audience, but take a second or third look at everything below the article when you try this again in Fall of 2014.

Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that matters

I know that God is not popular on Slashdot, but even from a rational humanist perspective these charities are very effective. The administrative costs are usually born by regular tithing so any funds given to the charity can be spent 100% on the core mission of the charity. Especially, in the area of disaster relief, these charities also have strong connections with the local congregations who can quickly put resources to use where it is most needed. This in contrast to groups like the Red Cross usually have to spend time "getting in" to places.

I know there will be some objections voiced that the money will be used to evangelize victims rather then aid them. I cannot speak for other sectors of the religious sphere, but charities associated with Mainline Protestant Christian churches operate in perpetual fear of this accusation and copiously avoid any activity that might be mistaken for proselytizing.

I will end by plugging the charity of my own Episcopal Church: Episcopal Relief and Development.

How else would you do it? It's really hard to wipe the running OS. This is what boot CDs are for.

I would be one of those Ubuntu hits. But I'm running the last LTS and very ready to upgrade at this point. So much so that I had serious thoughts about using 11.10. Then I saw Unity. Now I'm thinking that Mint 12 might be my upgrade path. It's not how may you have it is all about where they will (or won't) go next.

Thank you for giving President Obama credit for the most dramatic overhaul in the nation's history. When Obamacare becomes as popular as Medicare and Social Security, it will be nice to know people will remember who was responsible for it.

A number of years ago you participated in an Ask Slashdot discussion. To spite some excellent questions from your fans, your answer were short and trite. Why did you treat your fans like this and will you do so again?

UC Davis Med Center in Sacramento, CA: typical wait time 9-14 hours. During one exceptionally hot week in July of '07 when I worked there at least one person waited 26 hours to have a dislocated shoulder looked at. It's not better here, it's much, much worse.

http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-bin/rates.cgi?LETTER=Y&LIST=COUNTY

Look at the link above for Yolo County California, and in particular the Davis, CA entry. Now lets consider 3 addresses:

617 2nd Street, Davis, CA 95616

1 Shield Avenue, Davis, CA 95616

1204 Landra Avenue, Davis, CA 95616

If you are Amazon.com what sales tax do you charge to send to each of these addresses? Well, the first is the address of one of Amazon.com's competitors, The Avid Reader. It charges 7.75% sending 7.25% to the state and 0.50% to the city of Davis. The Avid reader need only know about the tax laws in the location it has a store. The second location is in the city limits, but is the address for the residents halls at UC Davis. As you will note in the link, the University of California is exempt from local sales tax. The same book bought at the campus bookstore, or shipped to the residents halls should be charged 7.25% tax. The campus book store knows this but does an online retailer? Then there is the final address. It is in the same Zip Code as the city of Davis, and in fact uses the Davis post office, but it also should be charged 7.25% because it is actually just outside the city limits in unincorporated Yolo County.

This is a City listing at one point in time. On October 1 tax rate will change in some places and there are literally 1000s of different sales tax zones. A brick and mortar store need only know about one but an online retailer would have to keep up with all of them, in every state!. As you can see in the example above, you cannot go by city or Zip Code. Each address needs to be tagged with its correct zone.

As anyone can see, to compare a 7-11 to a major on-line retailer is just absurd.

Yes, take 3 hydrogen atoms and bond them to a carbon atom. Better yet take 8 and bond them to a string of 3 carbon atoms. There are extensive networks to transport both these substances.

I bet your one of those who answered "D) Slavery" when asked what caused the American Revolution.