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Comment Re:Military personnel have a different attitude... (Score 1) 299

And that isn't specifically just the military background, although the military culture has a way of incubating a "just follow orders" mindset. There are others who are clever and intelligent and actually mission-oriented enough to make the conversation go like this:

"But that request is insane."
"Not my call."
"It'll do the opposite of what's intended"
"That decision is above my paygrade. So let's come up with Plan B and save management from themselves."

Sad fact of life: management is sometimes too stupid to make the right decision, and the right decision will not be made against their explicit direction. Period. Unless you're the kind of guy who's willing to go to jail to prevent those unworthy bean-counters from sullying your network.

So the best service you can render, if you care about getting the mission done rather than buffing your ego or getting the hell out of Dodge, is prepare damage control.

Comment Re:April Fools? (Score 1) 137

Right. It's April 1st Old Style*.

They recoilled away from Soviet Communism so hard they overshot back into Tsarist Imperial Russia.

*No, not really. Don't be whoosed by a feeble calendar joke. The bit about 21st Century Tsarist Russia, though, that was serious.

Comment Re:It's trolls all the way down! (Score 5, Funny) 590

It's approaching troll event horizon, with trolls trolling trolls who troll trolls trolling other trolls. Ridiculous.

On one hand, I'd welcome empirical evidence that black holes actually exist, even if it requires every troll on Earth to do it. OTOH, 4chan has spewed forth many notable elements of on-line culture, so its loss would be lamentable. Sorta.

I'm conflicted.

Robotics

Octopus-Inspired Robot Matches Real Octopus For Speed 71

KentuckyFC writes: Underwater vehicles have never matched the extraordinary agility of marine creatures. While many types of fish can travel at speeds of up to 10 body lengths per second, a nuclear sub can manage a less than half a body length per second. Now a team of researchers has copied a trick used by octopuses to build an underwater robot capable of matching the agility of marine creatures. This trick is the way an octopus expands the size of its head as it fills with water and then squirts it out to generate propulsion. The team copied this by building a robot with a flexible membrane that also expands as it fills with water.

The fluid then squirts out through a rear-facing nozzle as the membrane contracts. To the team's surprise, the robot reached speeds of 10 body lengths per second with a peak acceleration of 14 body lengths per second squared. That's unprecedented in an underwater vehicle of this kind. What's more, the peak force experienced by the robot was 30 per cent greater than the thrust generated by the jet. The team think they know why and say the new technique could be used to design bigger subs capable of even more impressive octopus-like feats.

Comment Re:BS (Score 5, Informative) 280

Probably. Funerary practices in that part of the world are very home-centered, generally administered by the grieving family. That's a major current transmission route, and its emotional and traditional base gives it resistance to quarantine pressures. No one is just going to pile corpses outside waiting for the body cart, if they've spent weeks locked away caring for their dying loved one.

Dealing with the dead is a big part of epidemic management, and "doing it right" (to minimize infectiousness) is expensive, as well as insensitive to the survivors. So yeah, the dead will continue to infect the living, until it burns itself out, or until someone imposes draconian responses.

Comment Re:Credit cards? (Score 1) 80

Harvest their organs for the long organ donor list and they'll have contributed to society for once in their now terminated life.

Certain intelligent people have already explored where that idea ends up.

Executive summary: you better never get caught jaywalking, because there are dozens of people who think they have a claim on your vital organs thay you do.

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