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Comment Re:Seattle too (Score 2) 203

The problem is that any accident has a pretty good chance of harming/killing someone who did not do anything wrong. That senile person doing a left turn might run into a minivan with two kids on board. That kid riding their bike in traffic might cause someone to swerve into the opposite lane and collide with someone else. It's not that easy to say "eh, those are acceptable".

Comment Re:Obligatory reading (Score 2) 419

I'm not opposed to nuclear. I think it needs to be a viable option if we are to stop producing CO2, but I won't pretend that it's harmless, either. Even if we get to a 100% safety record, there's still the matter of storage, and transporting that waste to the storage areas. How many TEPCOs do we need to realize many of these companies entrusted with the task can be very incompetent and borderline criminal in ignoring safety lapses pointed out by inspectors.

You're not opposed to nuclear, but you still fall prey to the severe lack of knowledge most people have regarding nuclear power generation. It's really simple: if the waste is so dangerous as to need storage that can last centuries, as is currently the case, it's because it's overwhelmingly still fuel. It's been "poisoned" in the reaction process, but can be reprocessed into usable fuel. However, the US has stopped all reprocessing activities, which means that the fuel is immediately disposed as soon as its efficiency dips too much. While studies say that reprocessing is more expensive than just getting new fuel, this wouldn't hold if we refocused on nuclear power, making recycling an obvious choice. Further, certain designs of reactors can straight up use the poisoned fuel anyway, lasting dramatically longer and producing far less dangerous waste, since more of its energy has been extracted. That's discounting thorium reactors, which don't even use uranium and produce up to 100 times less waste than uranium-based reactors.

In essence, the waste issue has by and large already been solved (or at the very least dramatically diminished) by scientists. It's just politicians getting in the way.

Comment Re:Not shared by everyone (Score 2) 637

It's actually funny because you've noticed the issue but can't seem to understand it.

Let's try and think: if a data set shows as noise, it means one of two things. One, it could be that the data is noise. Two, it could mean that the trend requires a much larger amount of data to determine. Bingo! If your uncertainty is significantly higher than any possible trend, it's pointless to use the data. Instead, you look for more data, and lo and behold, you find that when you include the full range of data all the way back to 1980, you get a nice upward slope. 15 years isn't enough, for a system as complicated as our planet, to plot a trend from. Even 35 years isn't enough, really, which is why you generally try to get other data sources going back farther (which is what climate scientists do, go figure).

Comment Re:Are these the Germans... (Score 0) 189

In general, this is true, but this is targeted. If the Germans were running Linux instead, they would've been attacked anyway, just through a different vector. For casting wide nets in the hope of fooling common folk or stealing sensitive information, aiming for Windows is the logical choice due to the size of its user base alone. For targeted attacks, though, any platform is vulnerable.

Comment Re:WTF (Score 2) 152

Quebec never signed the constitution when it was patriated in 1982 (all other province PMs signed it in secret and the law was passed). Nobody's wanted to touch the thing ever since, it'd be like opening Pandora's Box. This does mean that whether Supreme Court decisions are binding in Quebec is rather unclear, as well as whether laws from the province can affect the rest of Canada and vice-versa. By and large, Supreme Court decisions are respected, but on the flip side the court and the federal government avoid touching some laws which could cause a ruckus and have no negative effect on the rest of Canada.

Comment Re:Is this Google's fault? (Score 1) 434

Windows Phone also has fragmentation issues, and iOS has as well, though generally for older phones comparatively. The only way to get timely updates in the mobile space is to vertically integrate hardware and software. OEMs will never turn mobiles into PC-like open platforms, so you may as well stop dreaming with that part.

Comment Re:Concorde MKII (Score 1) 179

I wouldn't even say it's about killing machines or rockets. Republicans hate big government, but they love pork. They know they can say pretty much anything to the people who vote for them, so long as they also pork them up a bit they'll get reelected. As it turns out, military equipment and space equipment are two of the best means of pork.

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