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Comment Re:Don't bother. (Score 2) 509

We have another group at a little less than half that are so worn out with work, the 3 kids society said they should have, the junk they spend their money on, etc.. etc.. that they don't have the time to pay attention.

Oh, we pay attention. But there is no one to vote for who will fix the problem since all of the parties collude to keep themselves in power.

What do you expect us to do? What are you doing other than complaining on /.?

Are all the childless people really making more of a difference? I didn't know that clubbing, going to the movies, and trying to get laid really was that effective at motivating political reform!

Comment Re:Politcs vs. Science (Score 3, Insightful) 291

This. NASA is not a political body and should not act like one.

You're joking right?

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is a government organization that has to appeal to the president and Congress every year for funding and scope. Their employees are considered federal employees on the GS (general schedule) pay scale. NASA has both "national" and "administration" in the title. It doesn't get any more political than that.

How are they NOT a political body?

Comment Re:Not practical as contact lenses (Score 1) 99

Infrared essentially blocks out normal vision. While this may be useful as wearable computing, it wouldn't be useful if you had to poke around in your eye every time you needed to switch back to normal vision.

You are missing the point. (And must not need bifocals!)

It would be useful if I could put one IR-capable contact lens in one eye, while having a regular lens in the other eye. This would be fantastic for driving at night, or hunting those pesky pack rats that live in my backyard.

Many people who need bifocals use a different lens in each eye for distance and reading. Some also get laser-corrected to this state. Most peoples' brains are able to successfully merge the different images, but some are not. (So it is better to try it with contacts before lasik!!!)

Comment Re:Other quakes today (Score 1) 114

As someone who has lived in California for a very long time (probably longer than those seismologists have been alive) and has been through many quakes, my experience tells me that they are indeed mistaken. A 5.1 quake like that is a good thing, because it's small enough that is doesn't cause much damage, but powerful enough that tectonic pressures are released. We might get a few, weaker aftershocks but there is no way that this is leading to a bigger quake.

Look up "geologic timescale" and compare those times that to the lifespan of anyone that you know.

Then think about if human recollection is useful in any way for anticipating earthquakes.

Comment Re:'Murica! (Score 1) 230

> Jokes aside, I never understood why people live in KNOWN dangerous places.

Because it's only one factor. Farmers value the fertile land where floods deposit soil, and it's rarely feasible to live very far from the farm. Traders value the shipping made easier by river or ocean traffic near river heads, but those are likely flood areas. Damming and irrigation and dikes can actually _change_ the shape of the flood plain, making formerly safe areas profoundly more dangerous. Industries rely on the river water or hydro-electric power, and long commutes to work are a subtle tax on every worker's time every day.

Would you pay double the price of your current home, or apartment, to live in a safer place further from your work? Could you afford it?

I'd be more likely to afford it if the alternative was being buried alive under 40 feet of mud.

Comment Re:Space travel (Score 1) 357

This sounds more like science fiction than anything else to me. But if it works and the technique becomes viable to handle patient with heavy injurie - and assuming the patients can be kept suspended for long periods of time without creating further damages, I wonder if the technique could be adapted for space travel. It would solve a lot of problems related to long-duration interplanetary travel.

The idea is not new. I just wonder if this could be the first step in this direction.

If you RTFA you'd know that they were only slowing down the cell's metabolic reactions by a factor of 10 or so. They aren't stopping the reactions which, under normal conditions, would result in brain damage after 5 minutes. Thus, for deep space travel (say 1 year of time), you'd need to slow the reactions down by a factor of 10^5. Thus, it is unlikely that this technology would be adaptable to meet that need.

You'd have more luck working out how to freeze the body without tissue damage from water expansion (for example, by replacing the water with a compatible chemical surrogate that did not expand when it froze). At that point, you could deep freeze the body and effectively stop most molecular transport.

Comment Re:Hack it to add American names like "John Smith" (Score 1) 286

No-fly lists simply shouldn't exist, regardless of whether or not they can work. The idea that you can be considered too dangerous (Without a trial!) to fly and yet not dangerous enough to arrest is absurd. As others have said, this is just used for oppression.

Don't worry!

The government is likely working to remove that pesky probable cause standard required to arrest someone.

Their operating standards will soon all be consistent!

Comment Re:In The Grande Scheme of Things... (Score 1) 38

We have the ability as a sentient race to capture and view an image 353 million miles from our friggin' planet.... and as a people, we're still fascinated with tribalism and the Kardashians.

Though we be a race capable of marvelous achievement, we have not yet come to terms with our inner retard.

The "inner retard" is a result of our educational system and societal values. We train people poorly and then create a lot of menial jobs that further blunt their scientific acumen.

Thus, most exciting space objects are sufficiently complex that most people without geophysics or fluids PhD's cannot grasp the significant of them.

Also, for most cases, a rock in space is not much more exciting than a rock on earth. Even with the present comet images massaged and stretched to their limit, we can't even see the core. Instead, we are shown two jets and told that scientists will now be able to measure the rotation axis and rate of the nucleus.

Why is this important? How will it help our understanding of anything other than this particular comet? The only short explanation given:

"This is critical information that we need to determine whether, and to what degree, dust grains in the coma of the comet will impact Mars and spacecraft in the vicinity of Mars"

is both unclear to the layman and also quite boring!

Also, at night you can go outside, look up and see lots of objects further than 353 million miles away. So it really isn't that unique a capability. (I know you left some qualifying details out of your comment, but since you are insulting the general population, I thought that I would point that out!)

Comment Re:No. You do not get to pull this bullshit. (Score 1) 275

The TSA is operated by some of the most incompetent people the USA has to offer. They are the problem, not the hardware or software. I fail to see why they should get a "free pass" here on account of a bad database entry. Heads should be hung over this, especially considering the justifications thrown around for the continued existence of the TSA.

Yeah, and they will spin this concept to argue that they need more money so that they can hire:
1. better quality staff,
2. more training for the staff they have,
3. advanced software,
etc...

Comment Jesse should put his money where his mouth is. (Score 1) 397

Companies only see green. They don't care about any other color, unless it equates to more green.

Rather than force the companies to hire people who they don't think are qualified, why not sponsor some minorities for 7+ years to them interested in CS and get them a good degree in CS.

Or better yet, Jesse should shut his mouth, go get a technical degree himself, and then do some real work. IMO, he talks a good game, but he doesn't back it up with his lavish lifestyle.

Comment We are talking about four bright pixels here... (Score 4, Interesting) 73

Just to be clear for those who didn't read the article, this entire study is based on four brighter than expected pixels.

Four pixels in the images are brighter than one might expect from reflecting sunlight, Barnes reported at the conference. He concluded that they must represent something particularly rough on the surface — a wave or set of waves.

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