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Comment Re:Just like Nuclear Fusion (Score 1) 256

It's worth a thought experiment. A submarine fuel facility has the advantage of not being affected much by the surface seas. Perhaps it wouldn't go deep, but instead remain about 60 feet or so underwater. A float mechanism could be used to hoist the hoses to the surface, and then the hoses could be connected for fueling. This would keep the fueling platform itself stable and reduce the risks involved in a collision. It would probably require a significant re-engineering of the coupling mechanism, and I'm not sure how refueling underway would be accomplished, but maybe someone else has an idea.

Comment Re: Great Headline (Score 1) 103

Wreckage of AF447 (including bodies) was found within the first couple of days, so they knew for certain there was a water impact and approximately where. It took time to find the main wreckage, but it was located, and in fact new analysis of sonar data collected by a French sub within the first week after the crash was critical in finding it. The sonar had heard the FDR pings, but it was below the equipment's identification threshold at the time.

Here, a water impact is presumed but not certain. Aside from the engine pings, there's very little to go on, and even the satellite images and the civilian sighting of a pallet and belts the other day may be nothing more than shipping equipment that fell overboard.

Comment Re:We need a US base in the Ukraine (Score 1) 623

China and India may become friendlier and work together on more issues, but will probably not become allies in the short term. Their interests do not intersect well enough, the Himalayas prevent significant cross-training or war games to allow their militaries to interoperate, and both are interested in expanding their influence over fellow Asian states. China's belligerence over claimed oceanic territory and their growing navy threatens Indian trade. India's growing population seeks food supplies that China may need for its own population.

They're unlikely to become very close. Fortunately, the same Himalayas that help prevent them from becoming close also make a war between them unlikely because neither side could actually hold territory. There is a risk of nuclear exchange, but the rest of the world has strong reason to keep that from becoming likely.

Comment Re:We need a US base in the Ukraine (Score 1) 623

Calling the Warsaw Pact "allies" is perhaps a bit of a misnomer. Even within the governments that nominally looked to Moscow for guidance and direction, there was often a great deal of quiet grumbling. When Czechoslovakia was invaded by Soviet troops, many of the Eastern European countries protested privately to Moscow but were either ignored or threatened into submission. They did so, knowing that the West wasn't about to get involved in their affairs because the risk of war was too high.

The same thing is happening now. As much as the West would like to see Ukraine become closer, it's not about to risk outright war with Russia over it. This is going to be played out over years or decades.

Comment Re:Sour grapes (Score 1) 381

That's an artifact of how movie accounting is done. The studios tack on so many fees and have access to so much of the gross that the subsidiary companies (almost always used when filming movies, with one created per movie) almost never show a net profit. The studios show a profit, of course, due to the "fees" they charge. So a movie production may rarely make a profit, but an individual movie, when factored through the entire revenue stream, often does (though many are spectacular failures and the studio loses money on them, too).

Submission + - Woman attacked in San Francisco bar for wearing Google Glass

Martin Blank writes: Sarah Slocum, an early adopter of Google Glass, was bar hopping with friends in San Francisco when a few people in the bar took issue with the eyewear when she was demonstrating it to another patron even though she wasn't recording. When she felt threatened, she informed them that she would start recording. Two of them approached her, yelling and throwing a bar rag at her, and ultimately ripping the Glass from her face and running from the bar with it. She gave chase and eventually got the Glass back, but her purse was gone when she returned to the bar. This physical level of hostility is unusual, but discomfort with Glass is common, especially among those who don't understand how it works. Given that much more hidden spy cameras are available for far less than the $1500 cost of Glass, what will it take for general acceptance to finally take hold?

Comment Re:Time to end the military industrial complex (Score 1) 506

A stall is not "plummet to the ground." Any pilot competent with his plane should in most cases be able to recover from a stall with minimal loss of altitude. This varies by the aircraft, but it's not an automatic lethal event. The primary risk that a U-2 carries in stalling while at maximum altitude is dipping down into radar or SAM range and/or losing what little maneuverability the plane does have, plus possibly additional airframe wear.

Comment Re:Drone Occupation (Score 1) 506

Actually I've heard the PTSD can be even worse - the human brain is apparently not that well suited to killing people 8-to-5 and then going home to the wife and kids who can't relate at all.

The wife and kids probably couldn't even try to relate if they wanted to. In general, the spouse doesn't hold the same security clearance, and the kids definitely don't get clearance. That means a lot of details get left out beyond just having a bad day at work.

Comment Re:*Puts on tinfoil hat* (Score 3, Insightful) 289

That site appears to have it backwards. Davy settled on "aluminum" by the time he published Elements of Chemical Philosophy in 1812 (the year your link claims was when he settled on an ending of -ium. Wikipedia includes a quote from the book.

"This substance appears to contain a peculiar metal, but as yet Aluminum has not been obtained in a perfectly free state, though alloys of it with other metalline substances have been procured sufficiently distinct to indicate the probable nature of alumina."

The quote is visible from a scanned copy at this link

Comment Re:Are you a creepy guy who wants to video tape pp (Score 1) 421

muggers can be anywhere, especially with the economy still in such a bad state.

They can be anywhere when the economy is not in such a bad state. But the funny thing is that violent crime has generally been down almost every year since peaking in 1992. There were little bumps up in 2001 (about 1%, not including 9/11), 2005 (about 2%), 2006 (about 3%), and 2012 (less than 1%); you might remember the middle two as times when the economy was considered to be in a pretty good state. The final numbers for 2013 won't be available until much later in the year, but there seems to have been a relatively sharp drop in crime for at least the first half.

There's a lot of debate about why. Improved education, more resources available for the downtrodden, more career criminals in prison, the removal of lead from gasoline showing unanticipated effects... Pick your favorite. Whatever it is, we have 37% fewer overall crimes being committed despite 23% more population. That's basically half the crime rate we had in 1992.

If you're going to try to get someone not to use Glass, scaring them with warnings of random crime isn't really that effective.

Comment Re:Yes. (Score 5, Interesting) 421

There are lots of applications for Google Glass technology that have nothing to do with voyeurism.

And yet you fail to even list a single one.

--GPS without having to take your eyes off the road. (Or GPS while you're walking in a crowded area where using a phone means you bump into people, like much of NYC.)
--Finding out when the buses run by looking at a bus stop sign and having Glass cross-reference the appropriate schedules.
--Referencing a manual when you're in a position that makes it difficult to read printed material (like under a car, or even just twisted under a dashboard to pull a component)
--Taking notes when you're in that awkward position
--Pilots pulling up a checklist without having to fish around for the actual checklist (especially useful in emergency situations)
--Conferring with colleagues on the best course of action during the job without having to bring them on-site (already happening during surgeries)
--Walking people through first-aid procedures while help is still on the way
--Emergency alert notifications such as for tornadoes, floods, or evacuation that might only trip a notification on your phone.

Those are just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are plenty of others that would never occur to me if someone else didn't come up with them first.

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