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Comment Re:A Simple Solution (Score 1) 548

Try reading your water or electric bill sometime. If you are a typical residential user about 70% of your water bill is fixed costs for access to the tubes (and yes we are talking about tubes here). You pay only a marginal amount for increased volume of water. With internet traffic the costs are even more imbalanced because there is no tangible good such as water or electricity. The costs for increasing volume are negligible in comparison to the costs for installing and maintaining the base connection. The problem here is the aging local internet infrastructure in the same way that cities are incurring skyrocketing costs for maintenance of failing sewers, water lines and power lines. It is not "Bandwidth Hogs" (thank you for falling prey to industry propaganda) it is the failure of local ISPs to invest and maintain their own infrastructure as they saw demand changing.

Comment Re:Citation request? (Score 1) 589

You are talking about taxes and the original poster is discussing subsidies. They are two sides of the equation. Furthermore, the article you cite is discussing how companies such as Exxon have structured their finances in such a way as to avoid the payment of taxes in the US. This would seem to run counter to the thrust of your argument. Tax shelters allowed by the US tax code are just one form of subsidy...

Getting a trustworthy citation on this issue is almost impossible. Climate groups put the number in the trillions by claiming unpaid environmental damages due to greenhouse gas emissions as a subsidy. I don't believe you should include data you can't quantify.http://www.progress.org/2003/energy22.htm [progress.org]

Conservative groups claim that the amount is only a couple of billion per year. http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/26559.html [taxfoundation.org]

The proposed budget by the president attempts to cut subsidies by 36.5 billion. Since it is unlikely that this is an attempt to end all petroleum subsidies (every industry from aircraft manufacture to rice farming receives some subsidies) the number is probably somewhere between 40 and 100 billion per year. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6103RM20100201 [reuters.com]

Comment Re:Ohio University Press Release is Misleading (Score 1) 97

As an alternative to a pernicious media attempting to mislead you, perhaps the problem can be explained by your lack of attention to detail. "Humans do possess some enzymes that can undo damage with less efficiency. But we become sunburned when our DNA is too damaged for those enzymes to repair, and our skin cells die. Scientists have linked chronic sun damage to DNA mutations that lead to diseases such as skin cancer." The article is not about those other enzymes it is about discovering the mechanism by which photolysase works....

Comment Retina Display vs. Retinal Display (Score 1) 476

I was momentarily excited when I heard that the iPhone 4 would have a retinal display and then not exactly surprised when it was just hype about the screen resolution. To me, a retinal display implies a device using either LED or Lasers to paint an image on the back of the retina bypassing the lens of your eyes. I have heard that companies are developing the technology for use in cell phones but this... not so impressive.

Comment Re:Bad argument (Score 1) 497

That is an incorrect argument made by somebody who knows nothing about statistics.

First, if the time taken to crack a password is two months, and you change your passwords every two months, then there's a 50% chance of cracking the password in the first attempt, and a 100% chance of cracking the password the second attempt. So your example doesn't work.

.

The fact that you complain about the previous poster's understanding of statistics is laughable. Statistical probability is not additive and the mythical hacker above will have the same chance to break the password in the second month as the first.

Comment Slow Down (Score 2, Insightful) 385

Before we talk about nailing the company to the wall perhaps we should look into the reporting requirements a little closer. The linked article itself states, "The NRC is investigating why it took Entergy five years to report the leak, but for it to have been reportable, it has to meet certain off site dose limits. It is also investigating how Entergy responded to the problem." So we don't even know if the leak met reporting requirements. Also, there is much hay made over Entergy lying about the existence of the pipes. The company apparently did not deny the existence of underground pipes but some company representative stated before a public service commission that he/she was unaware of any underground pipes carrying radioactive particles. I don't know the context of the original statement but a close reading would seem to imply the steam pipe in question was not intended to carry radioactive particles and only the failure of several check valves allowed the particles to get into the pipe. I would guess that the steam leak was found because of the trace radiation.
Games

Game Difficulty As a Virtue 204

The Wii and various mobile gaming platforms have done wonders for the trend toward casual or "easy" games. But the success of a few recent titles, despite their difficulty, has caused some to wonder whether the pendulum has swung too far; whether a little frustration can be seen as a good thing. Quoting: "The evidence is subtle but compelling. For one example, look to major consumer website GameSpot's Game of the Year for 2009: Atlus' PS3 RPG Demon's Souls, which received widespread critical acclaim – none of which failed to include a mention of the game's steep challenge. GameSpot called it 'ruthlessly, unforgivingly difficult.' Demon's Souls was a sleeper hit, an anomaly in the era of accessibility. One would think the deck was stacked against a game that demanded such vicious persistence, such precise attention – and yet a surge of praise from critics and developers alike praised the game for reintroducing the experience of meaningful challenge, of a game that demanded something from its players rather than looked for ways to hand them things. It wasn't just Demon's Souls that recently flipped the proverbial bird to the 'gaming for everyone' trend. In many ways, the independent development scene can be viewed on the macro level as a harbinger of trends to come, and over the past year and into 2010, many indies have decided to be brutal to their players."
Image

Political Affiliation Can Be Differentiated By Appearance Screenshot-sm 262

quaith writes "It's not the way they dress, but the appearance of their face. A study published in PLoS One by Nicholas O. Rule and Nalini Ambady of Tufts University used closely cropped greyscale photos of people's faces, standardized for size. Undergrads were asked to categorize each person as either a Democrat or Republican. In the first study, students were able to differentiate Republican from Democrat senate candidates. In the second, students were able to differentiate the political affiliation of other college students. Accuracy in both studies was about 60% — not perfect, but way better than chance."
Space

A Hyper-Velocity Impact In the Asteroid Belt? 114

astroengine writes "Astronomers have spotted something rather odd in the asteroid belt. It looks like a comet, but it's got a circular orbit, similar to an asteroid. Whether it's an asteroid or a comet, it has a long, comet-like tail, suggesting something is being vented into space. Some experts think it could be a very rare comet/asteroid hybrid being heated by the sun, but there's an even more exciting possibility: It could be the first ever observation of two asteroids colliding in the asteroid belt."
Space

Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242

likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."
Games

The Struggle For Private Game Servers 125

A story at the BBC takes a look at the use of private game servers for games that tend not to allow them. While most gamers are happy to let companies like Blizzard and NCSoft administer the servers that host their MMORPGs, others want different rules, a cheaper way to play, or the technical challenge of setting up their own. A South African player called Hendrick put up his own WoW server because the game "wasn't available in the country at the time." A 21-year-old Swede created a server called Epilogue, which "had strict codes of conduct and rules, as well as a high degree of customized content (such as new currency, methods of earning experience, the ability to construct buildings and hire non-player characters, plus 'permanent' player death) unavailable in the retail version of the game." The game companies make an effort to quash these servers when they can, though it's frequently more trouble that it's worth. An NCSoft representative referenced the "growing menace" of IP theft, and a Blizzard spokesperson said,"We also have a responsibility to our players to ensure the integrity and reliability of their World of Warcraft gaming experience and that responsibility compels us to protect our rights."
Input Devices

Brain-Control Gaming Headset Launching Dec. 21 112

An anonymous reader writes "Controlling computers with our minds may sound like science fiction, but one Australian company claims to be able to let you do just that. The Emotiv device has been garnering attention at trade shows and conferences for several years, and now the company says it is set to launch the Emotiv EPOC headset on December 21. PC Authority spoke to co-founder Nam Do about the Emotiv technology and its potential as a mainstream gaming interface." One wonders what kind of adoption they expect with a $299 price tag.

Comment Re:No contacts, please (Score 1) 152

The contact lenses designed for athletes are not designed to reduce the brightness but filter our UV rays and increase contrast unlike the polarizing sunglasses you most likely had. The goal is to reduce retinal damage but maintain the tone of the muscles which control the iris.

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