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Comment Re:Can you say... (Score 1) 266

If you think that the medical industry exists only to make money, then the drug companies are rational.
All of your anger at the government is really anger at companies who have corrupted government. In the US, government works for corporations and rich people and has been completely corrupted (some people call this fascism).
The government created patents to help companies, not people.
Get rid of patents... problem solved... no more evil drug companies.

Comment Re:I suppose this is a good thing... (Score 4, Interesting) 87

Most hydrogen comes from natural gas (with lousy conversion efficiency. If you get your hydrogen from electricity, it has even worse efficiency. It uses about four times the electricity to make hydrogen and then convert it back to electricity in your "fool cell" vehicle as just putting the electricity in your vehicle and bypassing the whole hydrogen part.
Plus, electricity is everywhere, literally everywhere. Anyone can just plug in at home and work, etc. With hydrogen, you have only ten places to refuel in California... not going very far.

Comment Bring back the 60s (Score 1) 68

Looks like they are using hand me down software from the US from the 1960s written in a language called Jovial.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...
"Prof Thomas said the NAS system was written using a now defunct computer language called Jovial, meaning Nats has to train programmers in Jovial just to maintain the antiquated software."

Submission + - Darwin Awards study says men are far more idiotic than women (cnet.com)

mspohr writes: In a study published in the British Medical Journal (http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7094) and reported by CNet (and others): "Scientists analyze the past 10 years of silly, avoidable deaths and find that almost 90 percent of the "protagonists" in these scenarios were male." "According to “male idiot theory” (MIT) many of the differences in risk seeking behaviour, emergency department admissions, and mortality may be explained by the observation that men are idiots and idiots do stupid things." The BMJ Abstract: "Sex differences in risk seeking behaviour, emergency hospital admissions, and mortality are well documented. However, little is known about sex differences in idiotic risk taking behaviour. This paper reviews the data on winners of the Darwin Award over a 20 year period (1995-2014). Winners of the Darwin Award must eliminate themselves from the gene pool in such an idiotic manner that their action ensures one less idiot will survive. This paper reports a marked sex difference in Darwin Award winners: males are significantly more likely to receive the award than females (P0.0001). We discuss some of the reasons for this difference." Yes, please discuss...

Submission + - Fury at Airbus after it hints the A380 may be mothballed (independent.co.uk) 1

schwit1 writes: Airbus plunged deeper into crisis yesterday as customers reacted with fury to its suggestion that it may stop producing the fabled A380 super-jumbo in 2018 because of poor sales. The prospect of the European plane-maker, which employs thousands of workers in the UK, mothballing the giant passenger airliner sent shockwaves through the aviation industry yesterday and triggered a major fall in the company’s share price.

Sales of the A380 have been sluggish because of a limit to the number of routes where a 500-seater is needed. No airline has ordered A380s at all this year, while in July, the Japanese carrier Skymark Airlines cancelled the six it had ordered.

Chief financial officer Harald Wilhelm started the speculation frenzy when reports emerged that he had told investors Airbus might have to discontinue the plane unless it can invest in improvements to make it more attractive to customers. Although analysts and rivals have suggested it for some time, it was the first time the manufacturer had talked publicly about the humiliating possibility.

He said the A380 manufacturing programme would break even next year but not into 2018 without new engine types. That decision on the engine has to be made soon, because it would normally take about four years – and $2bn – to develop.

Comment Re:Unlicensed taxi broker (Score 1) 280

"If four members of Seal team 6 decide to save a few bucks, risking the chance that the driver is going to attack the four of them, then they should have that choice."
"Even those four members of Seal team 6 are exposed for the taximan to give them the "tourist sightseeing" which makes a 20 buck trip into a 200 one."

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This is what usually happens to me when I take a "well-regulated" taxi (in many cities in many parts of the world... I can follow the route on Google maps and calculate just how badly I am being screwed.)

Comment Re:Republican business as usual... (Score 3, Informative) 116

The complete paragraph is:
"But a 2011 audit of the project’s proposed construction budget stalled three times when, according to the independent Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), NEON’s accounting proved so poor that the review could not be completed. Eventually, DCAA issued an adverse ruling, concluding that nearly 36% of NEON’s budget proposal was questionable or undocumented."

They had poor accounting. They have not been given a chance to explain or improve their accounting. This is a lot different than fraud. My cognitive bias is against the Republican climate deniers. If the worst thing they can come up with is coffee and t-shirts, this is just theater.

Comment Republican business as usual... (Score 5, Insightful) 116

This is just the usual Republican FUD trying to kill something that might give us some actual numbers about climate change.
Among the bombshells:
- $11,000 for coffee for a $433 Million project... OMG!
- $3,000 for t-shirts... oh, the corruption! what is the world coming to???

Really... is this the best they can come up with???

After the hearing, DCAA director Bales said she was not impressed by the scale of the alleged misconduct. “In the contract world, we do a lot of reports that disallow this kind of thing. So, you know, people do it,” she said. “But then we identify it.”

Also significant was that the project managers were not invited to the hearing, thus insuring that this would be a true kangaroo court.

Comment Re:Are they really that scared? (Score 1) 461

You are right that electric cars (and solar electricity) are a big market opportunity for electric companies since they could charge more for managing the grid.
However, this would require a change in their thinking and business model and you have to remember that these companies are fat, lethargic entrenched monopolies who just want to collect money and do not want to have to think too hard or change anything so their first reaction is to try to ignore and obstruct any change. They are afraid of change. It's just like the taxi companies and Uber or the music business and mp3s.
So yes, they are awful, evil power monopolies and they are afraid... I like the smell of disruption in the morning.

Comment Re:Are they really that scared? (Score 1) 461

I know it's a big mental strain, but you could try reading TFA and if you did you would find these quotes:
“Electric vehicles can be the best thing to ever happen to our industry or the worst thing to ever happen to our industry,” said James Avery, a senior vice president at San Diego Gas & Electric."

Last year, Pinnacle West Capital Corp.’s Arizona Public Service raised the ire of its customers and the solar industry by tacking on a monthly fee of about $5 for residents with solar systems. Adding fixed connection charges or additional fees to such customers may cause more of them to defect, said Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

“The mortal threat that ever cheaper on-site renewables pose” comes from systems that include storage, said Amory Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Snowmass, Colorado-based energy consultant. “That is an unregulated product you can buy at Home Depot that leaves the old business model with no place to hide.”

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