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Comment Breakthroughs everywhere (Score 1) 184

With this momentous scientific breakthrough I expect the year of Linux Desktop dominance is surly right around the corner right after my flying car delivers itself to my driveway. Kidding aside, it is nice they are making progress with fusion, but the news needs to calm down about world changing implications. The real change will only come after someone builds a working prototype power plant that actually outputs working electricity.

Submission + - Blackbird, the controversial "directly down wind" land yacht is up for auction

neil.cutcliffe writes: Blackbird spawned a huge controversy by traveling directly downwind, faster than the wind, using only the power of the wind. Once again, it is up for auction.

Blackbird was build in 2010 by Rick Cavallaro and John Borton. It has no motor, no battery and no flywheel. The propeller is connected to the rear axel by a bicycle chain. It proved the counterintuitive, that it's possible to go directly downwind, faster than the wind, using only the power of the wind.

The North American Land Sailing Association (NALSA) supervised test runs where Blackbird sailed 27.7mph directly downwind in 10 mph winds: almost three times the speed of the wind. "Blackbird (wind-powered vehicle)" Wikipedia, Wikimedia

Blackbird subsequently set a world record traveling upwind at 2.1 times the speed of the wind. "Blackbird (Fastest upwind speed in a propeller-powered land yacht)" Guinness World Records

Several YouTube videos explain the theory. Veritasium featured it in Risking My Life To Settle A Physics Debate

And still not everybody is convinced it works: A Physics Prof Bet Me $10,000 I'm Wrong

This is your chance to own this historical controversial cart. Would you drive it to confirm it works? Would you go for a new speed record? Or put it in a museum? Let the bidding begin

Submission + - Boeing's last 747 is rolling out of the factory after a more than 50-year produc (cnbc.com)

schwit1 writes: Boeing has made the last 747 as it transitions to all two-engine wide-body jetliners.
Airlines are seeking new models that are cheaper to operate than the iconic hump-backed jet.
Cargo airline Atlas Air will take delivery of the last one, #1574, early next year.

Thank you to Joe Sutter and the entire 747 team.

Comment Re:Trump 2020! (Score 1) 379

Oh look another Slashdot comment that blindly blames a politician for a companies decisions that have much more to do with the intricacies of the industry involved than the flailing of the current administration. Trump actually has little to do with GM and Ford's decision to stop production of sedans. (That is what is going on here, they are stopping production or sedans.) You want to blame Drump's tariffs with china but more steel goes into a Chevy Silvarado or Tahoe than an Impala or Cruze. The bear truth is that the North American market has spoken with it's collective wallet that sedans are not worth buying when I can fit more burgers in my large SUV. GM decided that if those cars were not going to sell well they would have to ax them so that they could reinvest in electric cars.

GM CEO Mary Barra said the company is "still hiring people with expertise in software and electric and autonomous vehicles, and many of those who will lose their jobs are now working on conventional cars with internal combustion engines," reports Dallas News. "Barra said the industry is changing rapidly and moving toward electric propulsion, autonomous vehicles and ride-sharing, and GM must adjust with it."

Those car plants will probably be retooled over the span of a year or two and start producing Electric and Autonomous vehicles and the jobs that they couldn't automate will come back. The real losers here will be all the mechanical engineers that will be replaced with electrical engineers because those jobs are not coming back once the transition to electric cars is complete. This sucks but such is the cost of progress.

Comment Ban Private Cars from Manhattan (Score 2) 456

Seriously, they should just ban private cars from the Island of Manhattan all together. I recently visited NY and having lived in Chicago for years all I have to say is that NYC is not really setup for cars. The buildings are too close together and there is way to much traffic. They are dependent on their mass transit system to function because of this and frankly it sucks. I mean Chicago's CTA system is no spring chicken but the MTA made it look amazing by comparison. If Chicago can get basic maintenance done and keep its system running what is the problem with NYC. It sounds to me like it is mostly corruption which coming from Chicago makes me feel like I'm throwing stones in a glass house but yeah.... But honestly NYC needs to encourage more usage of the public transport system by the upper class. Then they will have skin in the game and maybe the system will actually get the capital it needs to be fixed. Banning cars from Manhattan would do that. It could be sold as an environmental thing (Because it is). Maybe link into that the idea that taxi's that operate in Manhattan must be electric to ease the sell and allow trucks to still be allowed but only with a new licensing fee that helps subsidize the mass transit system.

Comment Re:Sounds like aluminum refining (Score 1) 121

This is assuming that the electricity being produced isn't from fossil fuels. It would be interesting to see what is more efficient, this new process with a coal fired power plant vs just burning coke to make the steel directly. However, I can see how this process could be extremely useful if we ever get something like a moon base up and running. You could setup a large solar array or nuclear reactor and then use this process to produce oxygen to breath and steel to continue expanding the moon base. If that panned out you could start building space ship parts on the moon which would greatly increase the size of ships that could be built given the smaller launch costs.

Comment Breakdown of Stats (Score 3, Interesting) 188

I would be really interesting to see some sort of demographic break down on those TV numbers regarding things like income level, geographical location, employment, etc. I have a gut feeling that TV viewing has gone up in some demographics and down in others. Honestly I don't even know many people who watch more than 4.5 hours of TV a week much less a day. But most of my friends play video games instead of watch tv so it's not like we have any stones to throw about sitting on the couch to much.

Comment Re:By your logic the Nazis were pro Communist (Score 2) 305

You are aware, I trust, that you are describing a very small group of men that made up some of the Nazi leadership. The overwhelming majority of Nazis were Catholics and Lutherans.

You are aware that the majority of Germans were Catholics and Lutherans in 1938 right?

It only makes sense that a political party in a certain country would be made up of people who believe in the two most represented religions in that country. So maybe, just maybe this is correlation not causation. Just saying.

Submission + - Gabe Newell Understands Half-Life Fans, Not Promising Any Sequels

jones_supa writes: Half-Life 3 is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games in history. While Valve transitioned from the revolutionary series that brought the company most of its original success, to online games like Team Fortress, Dota and Left 4 Dead, people still desperately want to believe that there is more coming for Half-Life.

In a recent podcast interview he had with Geoff Keighley, Valve CEO Gabe Newell opens up the current situation a bit more: "I'm a fan of TV shows, I'm a fan of writers, I'm a fan of movies, I'm a fan of games and I certainly understand why people are like, you know, hey I remember this awesome experience and I'm starting to get worried that I'm never going to have it again. I am a fan of Terry Pratchett and he has Alzheimer's, it's like, Oh my god, I may never get another great Discworld novel. [...] We aren't going to go all retro because there are too many interesting things that have been learned. The only reason we would go back and do a 'super classic' kind of product is if a whole bunch of people internally at Valve said they wanted to do it, and had a reasonable explanation for why it was."

Comment Re:bicycles are too dangerous (Score 1) 304

With the way that some bicyclists ride around here in Chicago such as running reds, riding between lanes instead of in the bike lane, blowing past cars with right turn signals on at a light on the right side. I am not surprised that riding a Motorcycle is safer. At least motorcyclists get ticketed for driving like jackasses. Though I have had my fair share of scary mishaps with cabbies while riding my motorcycle. (Seriously who turns right from the left turn lane across 4 lanes of traffic. Fucking Cabs.)

Comment Re:Think of the children. (Score 2) 369

Doubtful. The Catholic church bans all contraceptive methods based on an edict from the Pope Paul VI.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI issued his landmark encyclical letter Humanae Vitae (Latin, "Human Life"), which reemphasized the Church’s constant teaching that it is always intrinsically wrong to use contraception to prevent new human beings from coming into existence. Contraception is "any action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act [sexual intercourse], or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" (Humanae Vitae 14). This includes sterilization, condoms and other barrier methods, spermicides, coitus interruptus (withdrawal method), the Pill, and all other such methods.

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