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Comment Which surprises you most? (Score 4, Insightful) 110

Which surprises you most?

1. That GPG developers and users have ignored the well-known problem (in security circles) of the Birthday Paradox?
  - or -
2. That there are > ~45k GPG users such that this even is more likely than not to occur. ;)

Seriously though, a 1 in 65536 chance of a collision doesn't seem acceptable to me.

Comment Surprise! Business model problems... (Score 4, Insightful) 710

According to this (see the section called "Fuel cycle concerns"), because there is no need to refine the Thorium fuel, which is the stage where the nuclear power companies currently make their money, they would need to change their business model to cope. We all know how much companies like to do that.

So, you combine the politicians' lack of desire to risk being associated with nuclear power, and the entrenched industry's lack of interest in the business model, and it's suddenly easy to explain.

Comment Advantages vs. traditional rotating wing? (Score 4, Interesting) 128

To any familiar with this company or this line of research in general:

What are the advantages of the ornithopter design over a traditional helicopter design? Why is DARPA interested?

Yes, I did read the article... and I understand what DARPA is interested in getting out of a small UAV that can hover. What I don't understand is why a normal helicopter design couldn't suit all of these needs better and cheaper.

Regardless of the answer, it's a very cool project. Obviously very worthwhile just from the point-of-view of the scientific and engineering advances.

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