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Comment A million for... (Score 4, Insightful) 131

Now they notice that its a million comments for Net Neutrality and a few hundred for and then screw us over by:

Giving us a watered down version of Net Neutrality "regulations" that the ISPs and Carriers can drive huge trucks through

or

They just let the mask slip and enable the fast and slow lanes exactly like the ISPs and Carriers want.

This truly will make me sick. I have no hope that the Internet will be regulated as common carrier like it should be. No hope at all.

Comment Re:Not enough STEM workers, obviously (Score 2) 348

You are joking, but really, how does the "Grant money for science is drying up" exist in the same country where we continually get "there are not enough people going into science" ?

There is a cognitive disconnect here. It even exists in private industry, where much much less funding is going into research as well.

Comment Re:Meanwhile in the real world... (Score 1) 427

Sure the estimate of what could happen if it warms 4C by 2100 is a large number.

However, we are currently looking at increases in the historical record being around 0.14-0.18 degrees C per decade. Considering there are 8.5 decades left until 2100, the math says we could expect about 1.19-1.53 degrees warming by then if the decadal increase remains constant (ie. the "pause" in increases). These numbers are not 4.

To have an increase in temperature of 4 degrees C by 2100 a positive forcing feedback must take a dominant position it the climate. We have not yet found this forcing to exist. That of course doesn't mean that it doesn't but the models are predicting it and the actuals are not (as yet) showing it.

The thing with CO2 is that increases in temperature are related to doubling of the concentration in the atmosphere. That is to say that as CO2 increases, it takes more CO2 to continue to add on more increases in temperature as concentration goes up.

In the end it all relates to forcing. Is feedback positive and large or do negative feedback loops exist that respond to increasing CO2 in the atmosphere (increased albedo of clouds for example)? There's lots of science and studies we need to do here. What we know now is not correct (the models aren't accurate) that means we need to search for more measures to include in them.

Comment Re: So long as it is consential (Score 4, Interesting) 363

Yes, but the corporations don't come and shoot you if you don't choose to give them your money.

Progressives always argue against BIG corporations and they always argue FOR the largest and most powerful organization on the planet being given MORE power. Their blind faith in the state is terrifying.

Comment Re:Thing is, we know what we have to do (Score 1) 140

When you put it that way it sounds much more sensible, and tint as simple.

I do not disagree that technological advances will save us. I do disagree that carbon taxes and regulations will.

When these things you advocate outperform the old fossil fuel based variants, they will take over completely. Oh and those subsidies won't eventually matter. The new industries will get some of their own, and, this it the key part, if they outcompte fossil fuels on efficiency, there will be no way, subsidy or not, fossil fuels will win.

This just takes patience. Time will march on and in 30 years there will be no more gas automobiles. That process will not be simple, though. It will be a complicated evolution of both the technologies and the marketplaces they operate in.

Comment Re:Thing is, we know what we have to do (Score 1) 140

Your "simple" plan cuts transportation by a huge margin, say hello to large price increases for anything transported further than a trivial distance. The food you eat is not just transported, but planted, and harvested using the energy whose price you massively increased. Increase food prices even more. Your plan for coal breaks the power grid. Brownouts, blackouts and mandatory rationing will be necessary. Oh and the impact on food refrigeration will help increase food costs even more again.

Your "simple" solution would cause massive chaos, social unrest, riots and death. I suppose if thats your simple goal, then you're fine.

Comment Re: Lodsys has been very quiet of late (Score 2) 63

Whenever patent trolls get talked about, it always comes down to how much impact this is having on small businesses and entrepreneurs.

I think the patent trolls naturally tell us that this is "no big deal".

However, I can't shake the feeling that utterly abysmal rate of new small businesses being started these days is directly related to these fucking evil trolls.

I think any estimation of how much economic activity is being stifled by these trolls is quite possibly orders of magnitude off.

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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