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Submission + - Fracking is Draining Water from Areas in US Suffering Major Shortages 1

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: RT reports that some of the most drought-ravaged areas of the US are also heavily targeted for oil and gas development using hydraulic fracturing — a practice that exacerbates water shortages with half of the oil and gas wells fracked across America since 2011 located in places suffering through drought. Taken together, all the wells surveyed from January 2011 to May 2013 consumed 97 billion gallons of water, pumped under high pressure to crack rocks containing oil or natural gas. Up to 10 million gallons can go into a single well. "Hydraulic fracturing is increasing competitive pressures for water in some of the country's most water-stressed and drought-ridden regions," says Mindy Lubber. "Barring stiffer water-use regulations and improved on-the-ground practices, the industry's water needs in many regions are on a collision course with other water users, especially agriculture and municipal water use." Nearly half (47%) of oil and gas wells recently hydraulically fractured in the U.S. and Canada are in regions with high or extremely high water stress. Amanda Brock, head of a water-treatment firm in Houston, says oil companies in California are already exploring ways to frack using the briny, undrinkable water found in the state's oil fields. While fracking consumes far less water than agriculture or residential uses, the impact can be huge on particular communities and is "exacerbating already existing water problems," says Monika Freyman. Hydraulic fracking is the "latest party to come to the table," says Freyman. The demands for the water are "taking regions by surprise," she says. More work needs to be done to better manage water use, given competing demand.

Submission + - Once Slashdot beta has been foisted upon me, what site should I use instead? 2

somenickname writes: As a long time Slashdot reader, I'm wondering what website to transition to once the beta goes live. The new beta interface seems very well suited to tablets/phones but, it ignores the fact that the user base is, as one would expect, nerds sitting in front of very large LCD monitors and wasting their employers time. It's entirely possible that the browser ID information gathered by the site has indicated that they get far more hits on mobile devices where the new interface is reasonable but, I feel that no one has analyzed the browser ID (and screen resolution) against comments modded +5. I think you will find that most +5 comments are coming from devices (real fucking computers) that the new interface does not support well. Without an interface that invites the kind of users that post +5 comments, Slashdot is just a ho-hum news aggregation site that allows comments. So, my question is, once the beta is the default, where should Slashdot users go to?

Submission + - Slashdot beta sucks 9

An anonymous reader writes: Maybe some of the slashdot team should start listening to its users, most of which hate the new user interface. Thanks for ruining something that wasn't broken.

Comment Re:Strategy? (Score 1) 463

Thanks, this is what I was looking for when I clicked into this discussion.

EVE wasn't the game for me, but I am truly fascinated by it abstractly. One of the first thoughts through my mind after reading the headline was to wonder how it felt to manage logistics and strategy at that scale. I appreciate that you shared a glimpse into that aspect.

Comment Re:Massively overblown issue? (Score 1) 135

Or they should require the user to re-enter the credentials during the restoration.

Technically, that's what happens. Safari doesn't store any credentials itself, they're stored in the system keychain and Safari asks the keychain whenever it needs a key. The keychain itself has a master password and its contents are encrypted.

On the other hand, by default the keychain password is set to the login password and is automatically unlocked when the user logs in. Further, most users choose to have their computers automatically log in at boot - so there is no effective protection if someone gets ahold of their computer.

You can change those defaults to be more secure. Apple chose not to make that the default as most people simply don't care.

Personally, my keychain password is different, my computer doesn't automatically log me in, and the keychain locks itself after 15 minutes or system sleep. This is annoying as I have to authenticate myself every time an application needs something from the keychain - something a regular user wouldn't put up with.

Comment Re:Fireworks in 3...2...1... (Score 1) 1251

This is horrible, I'll agree, but wouldn't this situation have been easily averted by simply having a will in place? I understand that for many younger people they might not have one as they don't think they're going to die in an accident anytime soon, but a couple that's been together for 30 years (making them probably over 50) really should have thought of that, I'd think. You don't need legalized gay marriage to write a will giving everything to your partner if you die. I'm not saying gay marriage shouldn't be legal (I believe in equality for all; I also believe in legalized plural marriages between consenting adults), but this doesn't seem to be a very good example to me.

This response always comes out from the more rational people who are hesitant to engage in a legislative solution to equality. Essentially, it boils down to "they have the same legal recourse via different routes, so why change anything".

And yes, upon initial glance same sex couples do seem to have the same rights. But when you dig into the details, you see that things aren't the same at all. Taxes don't work quite right. Insurance and medical rights are different. Extra effort has to be made in order to accomplish things that are automatic to heterosexual couples.

Considering most of those situations tend to come up at traumatic and unexpected points in a person's life, anyone who hasn't been playing the game of "look out for the unexpected edge case" perfectly can be blind sided. It's not equality if different people have different requirements to fulfill in order to have the same rights.

Personally I find it to be similar to telling African Americans in the 50's that they had plenty of equal access to their own special water fountains.

Comment Re:someday soon the crazy anthrax people (Score 1) 189

are going to throw a party all over this country. once drones are the accepted process, anyone with a radio and a look alike amazombie will be able to deposit malicious packages just about anywhere, fly it into a river, and be out of there before something blows up. I will feel slightly better receiving a package that i know was at least exposed to one other person before me.

How is this any different than throwing on some brown shorts and shirt, grabbing a clipboard and doing it yourself?

Taking something mundane and adding "... with a drone" doesn't automatically make it novel.

Comment Re:End of the Epidemic (Score 1) 163

This is known as Genre Blindness. I would say that Zombieland did a good job of inverting this trope; the characters (especially Columbus) seem painfully aware of the fact that they are living in The Zombie Apocalypse.

Well then - maybe I shouldn't have skipped that one. Thanks for the suggestion!

Comment Re:The "news for nerds" on this.... (Score 1) 961

This right here is the reason I still come to Slashdot despite watching the overall quality decline.

I could get the same news anywhere else - and have it better delivered. But there's no other place where it will be followed up by insightful elocution on the physics behind suspension tuning in the comments section*. I just love that I can get a technical take on just about any subject out there delivered by someone who spends their life being passionate about that subject.

Thanks for teaching me something today, Scootin159.

*Oh man, I almost exploded just thinking about 'comments section', 'other sites' and 'insightful' at the same time.

Comment Re:End of the Epidemic (Score 1) 163

You are also assuming that everyone knows exactly what is going on and how to 'kill' the zombies.

What has always struck me the most about any zombie movie I've seen is the fact that they all take place in an alternate universe that has never created any zombie movies.

Never once in one of these movies has anyone ever said "Oh shit! It's a zombie outbreak! Well, this should be pretty straightforward." No, it's always "Oh God, what's going on?! Let's spend the first act figuring it out!"

Comment Re:Good advertising? (Score 3, Informative) 324

Lately, I've found that Amazon usually meets or beats Newegg's pricing for most things I buy, with free 2 day shipping (for Prime members).

This was when I stopped using Newegg as well - the moment my wife signed us up for prime. We actually did it for the video and kindle, but once you experience free shipping like that it's pretty hard to accept anything else.

Add in that they allow me to pay using my Discover card rewards right at checkout and it's a dangerous combo.

Well played, Amazon.

Comment Re:Its a black ugly box. (Score 1) 310

Better a nice black box, than something that looks like a toy, or is trying too hard. Most audio-visual equipment is just black boxes..

That's not really all that true any more. Even the 'normal' A/V equipment these days comes in slightly varying form factors, forcing you to play Tetris trying to get everything to fit in the console.

I don't have a ton under the TV, but the only thing that's 'standard' sized is the old receiver I bought 10+ years ago. The cable box is close, but deeper. The Bluray is some idiotic wide but shallow size (wtf, why? You're mostly air! Be a better shape!). The 360 is somewhat close to the cable box, but again, different. The Wii? The Roku? Just shove those little things into whatever voids you can find.

Give me square, standard sized boxes I can stack (with vent space, naturally). None of this 'ha ha, try finding a place for this Wii under there' bullshit. Manufacturers can stand out by making a solid product. I don't need the 'branding' that the shape of your product brings to my living room.

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