Comment Re: Japanese, your Lord ! (Score 1) 123
None of the companies mentioned are owned wholly by international banks. Each of them are publicly traded companies. Anyone can own them.
Comment Re:It's the whole "getting stranded" thing (Score 1) 810
So when you run out of hydrogen, driving around looking for a non-existent hydrogen fuel station, you're somehow not going to have to pay that $300 for a tow?
A fuel cell is just a different type of battery.
A fuel cell is just a different type of battery.
Comment Re:dirty and not affordable (Score 1) 810
Give me coal any day, what have you got against the hillbillies working their butts off in Appalachia? You insensitive clod!
Comment Re:2 Words (Score 1) 810
It can't be that far off, they've already got an EV that's similar size, luxury, features and price to a full size luxury car.
Comment Re:Up next: "Zero Emissions" claim (Score 1) 284
You foolish mortal. Properly formatted tags are invisible.
Comment Re:so green (Score 1) 282
I'd done the research myself already. Wood is way more expensive than natural gas unless you grow your own... and Trees take a lot of space and time to grow. And thats an awful lot of work to plant them and then harvest them.
I've seen systems that use pellets made from the sawdust swept up from sawmills. That is a lot more cost effective than cut wood.
Comment Re:Outright bans (Score 1) 376
The problem with DDT was that it was too safe. Since it was "safe" people thought they could bathe entire cities in the stuff so thick it looked like the inside of a fumigation tent. Then the cancers started happening.
If used like a normal pesticide, ie just where its needed in small doses, that the average joe realizes is unsafe to squirt up ones nose, DDT is actually safer that the stuff you buy at Wal-Mart.
If used like a normal pesticide, ie just where its needed in small doses, that the average joe realizes is unsafe to squirt up ones nose, DDT is actually safer that the stuff you buy at Wal-Mart.
Comment So What Did You Do Today? (Score 1) 154
So what did you do today?
Oh nothing, just flew 1000 MPH completely blind.
Oh nothing, just flew 1000 MPH completely blind.
How Big Data Is Destroying the US Healthcare System 507
KindMind writes "Robert Cringely writes on the idea that technological advances have changed the health care system, and not for the better. The idea is that companies now rate individuals instead of groups, and so move to a mode of simply avoiding policies that might lose money, instead of the traditional way that insurance costs were spread over a group. From the article: 'Then in the 1990s something happened: the cost of computing came down to the point where it was cost-effective to calculate likely health outcomes on an individual basis. This moved the health insurance business from being based on setting rates to denying coverage. In the U.S. the health insurance business model switched from covering as many people as possible to covering as few people as possible — selling insurance only to healthy people who didn't much need the healthcare system.'"
Comment Re:Favorite color (Score 1) 346
740 million if you count non-native speakers.
Now, do you suppose people taking English classes in Asia learn American English or British English?
Comment Out of Date Info (Score 1) 418
His information is a bit out of date. He said 4K Blu-Ray was still in development. However, you can already buy 4K Blu-Ray players. You can also buy a very limited selection of 4K Blu-Ray discs like Ghost Busters. That being said, the prices for all the equipment required is still going to be overpriced for at least a couple more years and there still won't be a whole lot of content available for a couple more years. So wait a couple years before buying into 4K.
'Half' of 2012's Extreme Weather Impacted By Climate Change 417
sciencehabit writes "2012 was a year of extreme weather: Superstorm Sandy, drought and heat waves in the United States; record rainfall in the United Kingdom; unusually heavy rains in Kenya, Somalia, Japan, and Australia; drought in Spain; floods in China. One of the first questions asked in the wake of such extreme weather is: 'Could this due to climate change?' In a report (huge PDF) published online today, NOAA scientists tackled this question head-on. The overall message of the report: It varies. 'About half of the events reveal compelling evidence that human-caused change was a [contributing] factor,' said NOAA National Climatic Data Center Director Thomas Karl. In addition, climate scientist Peter Stott of the U.K. Met Office noted that these studies show that in many cases, human influence on climate has increased the risks associated with extreme events."
Comment Not Subsidies but Close (Score 1) 687
Obviously there are subsidies to encourage buying solar panels. However, whats really burning the utilities is how the pricing is worked out in Germany. The utilities have to pay top tier price for small scale solar power (ie if you have solar panels on your roof, generating an excess). The way the ends up working is that each kilowatt hour your neighbors put into the grid, the more you have to pay to pull power from the grid. More solar power drives the price up.
I don't see how this can last long term. California has a much more common sense approach - equal pricing. The utilities have to pay you back equal to what you would pay.
Most other US states, the utilities can pay you back less than they charge you.
I don't see how this can last long term. California has a much more common sense approach - equal pricing. The utilities have to pay you back equal to what you would pay.
Most other US states, the utilities can pay you back less than they charge you.
Canadian City Uses Drone To Chase Off Geese 196
LeadSongDog writes "The Ottawa Citizen reports on an enterprising private contractor who has been hired by a city government in Canada to drive geese off its island beaches using a small, remote-controlled drone. 'It’s proving amazingly effective, said Orléans Coun. Bob Monette. The place used to be haunted by as many as 140 geese, which can eat several pounds of grass in a day and poop out nearly as much in waste. “Now we’re down to anywhere from 15 to 20 on a daily basis,” Monette said. The weapon the city’s deployed is a “hexcopter,” a remote-controlled chopper with rotors that can hover, soar, circle and — most importantly — scoot along just above the ground, scaring the bejesus out of dozing geese. It’s operated by contractor Steve Wambolt, a former IT worker who launched his own business after one too many layoffs. “When he takes it out, they put their backs up straight and they’re watching,” Monette said. “When he starts it and it goes up off the ground, they sort of walk into a formation, and as soon as it starts moving, they all take off and they don’t come back until the next day.”'"
Comment Re:Keeping XP For Legacy Games? (Score 1) 520
I used to spend a LOT of time tweaking settings in Win 98 to get ancient DOS games working right, getting the sound working, getting strange types of DOS era "virtual memory" setup. Even for a lot of Win 95 era games, you'd have to change your Win 98 colors back down to 256 or things like animations wouldn't work.
DOSbox has made things so much easier.
