Comment What about my old internet money? (Score 2) 490
Can anyone help me get bitcoin for my left over flooz?
Comment The Next Step? (Score 1) 294
Sharks that can carry those frikkin lasers.
Submission + - Acoustic cloak hides objects from sonar (zdnet.com)
Lord Agni writes: Now, researchers have used the same types of metamaterials to create an acoustic cloak, a technology that renders underwater objects invisible to sonar and other ultrasound waves.
Comment Re:real science (Score 1) 672
There is no real debate. The people who actually know the science are largely in agreement about the conclusions. The "debate" being spoke of is faux debate stirred up by people from think tanks funded by oil companies. It's about as meaningful as fundy wackos going on about how there is large debate over the legitimacy over the theory of evolution.
I've known this was bullshit for 20+ years, back when I read an article that predicted sea level rises up to 2 feet, +/- 2 feet. In other words, it may be sooooo bad, the we wouldn't even be able to tell that it's happening! The real problem is anthropogenic continental drift, anyways.
Comment I always thought Google was the real Maas/Neotek (Score 2, Insightful) 251
And now they're going to build an arcology.
Comment Re:Serious Question: Why do Germans outperform? (Score 1) 461
Maybe you should actually read the book, instead of taking someone else's word on it's contents, then commenting on those comments.
The thesis is not that universal military superiority of Western culture, but that a culture is reflected in how a civilization or nation wages war.
Western culture does not guarantee success in any endeavor, but in war, gives a larger margin for error than many others.
Really, read the book, your local library probably carries it. Hanson is no mere darling of the right, as someone describes him in this thread, but a well-informed classicist and a good writer.
Comment Re:Serious Question: Why do Germans outperform? (Score 4, Interesting) 461
Thomas Sowell wrote "Ethnic America", exploring why different ethnic groups do better or worse than others in the American milieu, but he also discusses different ethnic groups and cultures around the world. For instance, Jews tended to be more successful in urban-type jobs (clerks, lawyers, educators, etc.) than rural, e.g. farming. Jews newly immigrating to the US and still living in tenements tended to have the same rates of public library use as native-born middle class Americans. They were in the slums, but the slums were not in them. Chinese, Arabs, Persians, and Indians who emigrate tend to be in merchant or small businessman class wherever they end up, even if they were not merchants back home. Could have to do with the temperament of someone who is willing to leave hearth,home and the familiar and take on the responsibilities of a new, different society.
Germany was long known as the "land of poets and philosophers", until the rise of Nazism and it was done in by its poets and philosophers.
Comment Re:Serious Question: Why do Germans outperform? (Score 2, Informative) 461
Then read "Carnage and Culture" by Victor Hanson, to find out why Diamond is full of it.
Comment The real technology will be in designing... (Score 1) 263
a screen door that can be used both submerged and airborne.
Submission + - Possible security exploit in Excel (microsoft.com)
Lord Agni writes: "Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Service Pack 2, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2002, Microsoft Office Excel 2000, and Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac."
But don't worry:
"Additionally, as the issue has not been publicly disclosed broadly, we believe the risk at this time to be limited."
But don't worry:
"Additionally, as the issue has not been publicly disclosed broadly, we believe the risk at this time to be limited."
