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Comment Re:This threat isn't from banks this time (Score 1) 932

With respect... the Democratic party held control of Congress from Jan 2007 - Jan 2011. Obama was president from Jan 2009 - current. During the overlap period, the Democratic Congress did not pass a single budget.

The Tea Party may make a fine demagogue, but please get your facts in a row. They are hardly to blame for our current situation.

Comment Re:The kill switch would be the biggest threat (Score 1) 339

by zemkai (#35154468) Attached to: Is an Internet Kill Switch Feasible In the US?
You have a LOT more faith in people than I do. Most talk the talk, but when the time comes are afraid to actually resist, it's "Yeah, I could do it, but I don't want to get in trouble."

The truth is that most people just want to get through their day without being harassed. If it isn't their own door getting kicked down, very few people will do anything at all to rock the boat.
Sci-Fi

Large, Slow Airships Could Move Buildings 184

Posted by Soulskill from the buncha-hot-air dept.
Algorithmnast writes "The Economist has a short article on using big, slow-moving airships to move large objects without the need to dismantle them. The company mentioned, Skylifter, refers to the lifting ship as an 'aerial crane,' not a Thor weapon. It could easily help move research labs to new parts of the Antarctic, or allow a Solar Tower to be inserted into an area that's difficult to drive to, such as a mesa in New Mexico."
Image

Selling Incandescent Light Bulbs As Heating Devices 557

Posted by samzenpus from the a-bulb-by-any-othe-name dept.
Csiko writes "The European Union has banned by law trading of incandescent light bulbs due to their bad efficiency/ecology (most of the energy is transformed into heat). A company is now trying to bypass this restriction by offering their incandescent light bulb products as a heating device (article in German) instead of a light device. Still, their 'heat balls' give light as well as heating. So — every law can be bypassed if you have some creativity!"
Space

Pope's Astronomer Would Love To Baptize an Alien 308

Posted by samzenpus from the where-do-you-keep-the-head-on-this-thing? dept.
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The Guardian reports that Guy Consolmagno, curator of the pope's meteorite collection and a trained astronomer and planetary scientist, says he would be 'delighted' if intelligent life was found among the stars. 'But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it — when you add them up it's probably not a practical question.' Consolmagno adds that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. 'Any entity — no matter how many tentacles it has — has a soul.' Would he baptize an alien? 'Only if they asked.' Consolmagno dismisses the ideas of intelligent design as a pseudo-scientific version of creationism. 'The word has been hijacked by a narrow group of creationist fundamentalists in America to mean something it didn't originally mean at all. It's another form of the God of the gaps. It's bad theology in that it turns God once again into the pagan god of thunder and lightning.'"

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