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Comment Re:Energy density. (Score 5, Insightful) 734

I don't understand this kind of argument. What would have happened when automobiles were first invented if someone said:

Show me a car that can reproduce by itself, and only needs to be fuelled with grass that I grow on my own fields for free, and then maybe we'll talk.

An electric car does not need to match all of the performance specifications of a gasoline-powered car. All it has to do is meet the needs of the consumers. And if you sat down and thought about it, you probably don't _need_ the things you listed. Those are specifications derived from your actual requirements, under the assumption that a car is gasoline-powered.

Comment Re:Humans are ignorant. Critical thinking IS king! (Score 1) 770

Abiogenesis is the proper term for the beginnings of life. The scientific theory of evolution does not apply there at all. Abiogenesis is a completely different field of study than evolution.

As far a species to species evolution (what I would call "speciation", rather than "macro-evolution") _has_ been observed in laboratory conditions and in the field. And even more than that, the scientific theory of evolution predicts that it would happen.

What's that, you say? A scientific theory made a prediction, and that prediction was found to be true? Damn.

And not only does the theory of evolution make predictions about future speciation events, it makes predictions about those that happened in the past as well. There has not been a single case of transitional fossils found that contradicts the theory of evolution.

Please take your tired, ad-hominem rhetoric home.

Comment Re:Humans are ignorant. Critical thinking IS king! (Score 4, Insightful) 770

Scientific Theory: Something that describes the current state of the world in a way that makes testable predictions about the future. Useful in furthering our knowledge. Should be taught in science classes.

Colloquial "Theory": Any explanation that potentially describes the current state of the world. Not testable. Makes no predictions about the future. Potentially useful in exploring moral or ethical quandaries. Should be taught in philosophy classes.

Please learn the difference. Teach creationism if you want, I don't give a rat's ass. But don't teach it in a science classroom. It is not science. It never will be science.

Comment . . . in Social and Biological Sciences (Score 1) 312

That's what he concludes at the bottom of the article. He starts the article by saying that standard deviation should only be used by physicists, mathematicians, and mathematical statisticians. If I'm not mistaken, "physics" and "math" covers a whole lot of different fields, including most of the STEM fields that (largely) define the users of this site.

I know in my particular field (physics based), standard deviation is a hell of a lot more useful than mean average deviation. And easier to use.

Bah. I call poor summary.

Comment Bah, I say (Score 3, Interesting) 299

The Ampere was only chosen as an SI fundamental unit because it was easier to measure than a Coulomb. To me, an Ampere will always be 1 Coulomb per second.

And since the electric charge is 1.602E-19 Coulombs, we can just invert that number to find the number of electric charges (ie, electrons) in a Coulomb.

Comment Available on eBay (Score 2) 124

Really, this guy didn't need a "slit-scan" camera. Any linescan camera would work. They're not rare. They're used everywhere for industrial inspection. You can find them on eBay for under a hundred dollars. Yes, you'll need to put a lens on it as well, but most are compatible with normal camera lenses. You'll just need a mount adapter.

Heck, you could even do this in post-processing using a normal 2-D camera that's capturing a movie. Just snag a single column from successive frames and stack them into a single picture. Sure, your frame rate will be limited, but it's technically feasible, especially if the 2-D sensors allow for windowing to increase frame rate.

Comment It depends . . . (Score 1) 187

on what you consider to be "my" media.

If "my" media is the stuff that I legally own, then 100%. If it's stuff that I own both legally and illegally, then also 100%.

If, however, you're talking about media that I consume, then then answer is in the 0-20% bracket. Almost everything I watch comes from Netflix. Music I play comes from streaming radio. Even the log fireplace with xmas carols is a 3-hour-long Youtube video.

I would consider this media to be "stored" because it remains available to me, and I can go back and consume it again with less effort than putting one of my DVDs on to play. This is in comparison to cable or OTA transmissions, which are ephemeral and cannot be watched again, unless they are recorded somehow.

Of course, I could be ultra-pedantic (who doesn't like pedants?) and say 100%. Even the stuff that is not stored locally on non-volatile storage media is at least loaded into RAM before it's displayed/output. And technically, that's short-term local storage.

Comment 50% less intrusive in normal social situations (Score 2, Informative) 495

And honestly, I wish it was everyone else's cell phone that had this feature, rather than mine.

You should not be taking a social phone call while eating dinner with friends. I don't want to hear how your grandmother has really bad hemorrhoids while I'm riding the bus. And I damn well don't want to be blinded in the theatre because you're sitting in front of me playing Candy Crush Saga during a horror movie.

Full disclosure - I don't have a cell phone.

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