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Comment Not buying it, Copper wire is exspensive (V*A=W) (Score 4, Interesting) 597

I'm not buying it. Voltage x Amperage = Wattage. So long as Wattage stays the same (think 1,800W hair dryers here), your Amperage must proportionately increase if the Voltage drops... This can only be accomplished by using LARGER wires to deliver the Amps... This is why wires on your car battery or golf cart are so large... Imaging the COST of wiring a home with large (lower Voltage) conductors like that... Ask yourself why Europe uses a ~230V/240V electricity in homes and how much cost savings there must be by delivering all the wattage at half the conductor size compared to the North American 120V household standard... Smarter people than us have all thought this stuff through many decades ago... Tesla is trying to push battery tech and if it were affordable and better than a $500 gas generator, we'd already have it installed. Cool technology, way too expensive and I'm not rewiring my house.

Comment "Agreement" has NO Teeth, is one sided for Iran... (Score 1, Insightful) 383

The "agreement" is still fuzzy and not at all concrete in any way (despite claims to the contrary which only the Obama Admin claims things are agreed to, while Iran claims nothing is agreed to as the Obama Admin is in fact lying in its 'facts sheet' on the "deal" et al...)

So...

Iran gets to keep its full ICBM program, now defacto sanctioned OK because nothing in the "deal" mentioned it, period.

Iran gets to keep its nuclear reactors intact and also now sanctioned to operate.

Iran gets to keep ALL known and unknown weapons manufacturing and nuclear weapons facilities.

Iran get to keep upgrading its uranium to "weapons grade".

Iran does not have to move outside of the country into third-party hands existing weapons grade nuclear materials...

Iran does not have to have any snap weapons inspections (the existing "deal" requires prior notice well in advance of any inspections)

Iran gets off the US/international Terrorist List (despite still funding terrorism worldwide)

Iran does not have to admit that the United States and Israel are not its enemies and they do not have to agree to any consequences for attacking either country.

Iran gets it seized billions of dollars returned to it internationally.

Iran gets all banking and trade embargoes (including arms dealing) lifted.

Iran gets to sell its crude oil on the world market (then expect oil to quickly drop into the $20/barrel range as they flood the market with their 2 million bpd)

Iran has zero requirement to abide by any deal as there are no precisely defined consequences to when they break whatever the Obama Admin claims the "deal" is...

Iran can abruptly cancel and reverse anything it allegedly agreed to with the Obama Admin and it will STILL have all sanctions removed and the Obama Admin cannot put them back even if it wanted to do so.

Iran gets to legitimize all of its weapons programs and keep all of its WMD programs it had before plus get its economy back fully operational.

Iran does not have to remove from its charter the destruction of the United States and Isreal.

So, the US basically gets nothing it wanted, and Iran gets all it wanted and more... and the media will spin doctor the Obama Admin into the greatest diplomatic team with the highest achievable pinnacle in US diplomacy history.... Its almost as if the Obama Admin had an Iranian Adviser guiding the decisions of the president... (Valerie Jarrett)

Bibi was exactly right, this is an awful, terrible, horrendous deal. Changing nothing and canceling any and all deals on the table would be the best possible deal for US National Security... (Sometimes "the only willing move is not to play")

An Iran with nuclear weapons means that the other moslem counties (who can afford them) will all want their own nuclear weapons... and this is deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize how exactly? Welcome to M.A.D. middle-east style...

Comment Why no RTG, RITEG or Pu/Nuclear Battery? (Score 0) 337

SO, with the mission cost being over 1.6 billion for this mission, why did it not have a RTG, RITEG and/or other Pu/Nuclear Battery? I realize solar and other chic renewable rechargeable green technologies are all the rage these days, but when reliable electrical power for critical mission status is required, accept no substitutes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
Media

Low-Level Format For a USB Flash Drive? 252

Luyseyal writes "I unwittingly bought one of these terrible flash cards at Fry's and have managed to nuke two of them, successively. I have a USB flash card reader that will read/write the current one at USB 1.0 speed, but it locks up every Ubuntu and XP machine I've come across in high-speed access mode. I have read that if I low-level format it that it could be fixed, though my current one doesn't support it. My Google-fu must be weak because I cannot seem to find a USB flash reader that specifies that it will do low-level formatting." Can anyone offer advice for resurrecting such drives?

Comment Re:Cap & Trade = Energy Rationing (Score 4, Insightful) 874

Having studied Chemistry with experience in the oil industry, I must say that there is much FUD with the Global Warming hype.
Oil/Gas ALREADY contains the desirable energy content when collected and processed. Processing is minimal when compared to Nuclear fuel.
EVERYTHING ELSE (fuel) must have the energy added as part of its production and that is very Expensive.
"Renewables" must be planted, fertilized, watered, harvested/collected, processed, and then are usable. ALL renewable alcohols (except perhaps iosbutanol) are inferior to 100% gasoline in energy content per gallon. Taxes are based on per gallon. (Duh! renewables = more demand in terms of gallons required to do the same amount of work and MORE taxes collected for the additional gallons purchased... of course politicians are for renewables) But it is a sham. Petroleum is superior fuel from an efficiency per gallon standpoint and burns very cleanly in modern vehicles.
The only way to have ANY fuel compete with petroleum is to legislate an unfair and non-level playing field against petroleum. It is just math and thermodynamics and chemistry.
Politicians are especially bad at math and thermodynamics and chemistry.

People crying the sky is falling and who blame alleged 'Global Warming' (AKA 'Climate Change') on CO2 levels as a proven fact is insanely irresponsible and unscientific. True, CO2 can contribute to retaining heat close to the surface of the planet, but much is wholly unknown about the CO2 cycle.
Ever hold a sea shell or coral? Ever drive on concrete or gravel? Chances are that those substances were almost completely composed of Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3). Yes, that is the product of the OCEANS, the ultimate CO2 sink is in Carbonate rocks.
These rocks rain down on the the floors of the oceans and become sea floor and eventually limestone (CaCO3). That is the ultimate fate of much of the CO2.
This process has happened for the history of the earth and has nothing to do with the minuscule amounts of CO2 we have added to the atmosphere.

This is a BLANKET TAX INCREASE and it will FAIL to solve any of the energy issues because the premise of what the problem is claimed to be is false.

Deforestation of parts of Africa, Europe, and South America effect global weather patterns much more profoundly than CO2 increases.
Meteorologists have trouble predicting the weather past 7 days into the future, I find it VERY improbable that the supercomputer models have it right 50-100 years out.

But if it gets politicians short-term funding, they will pass Cap & Tax and we will lose the rest of our industrial manufacturing and become a service-jobs-only based country.
Let's face it people, Oil and Gas are NATURALLY OCCURRING SUBSTANCES, and our environment is very well equipped to absorb the reintroduced CO2 released in the combustion of these fuels back into out planetary CO2 cycle.
CO2 is not like Mercury, Chlordane, or DDT. It is one of our body's own natural byproducts! To declare it a pollutant under EPA control is very ignorant of scientific facts and is irresponsible and dangerous.
The Cart is now trying to push the horse, and Petroleum is the Horse that built this country.
Intel

Intel Threatens To Revoke AMD's x86 License 476

theraindog writes "AMD's former manufacturing division opened for business last week as GlobalFoundries, but the spin-off may run afoul of AMD's 2001 cross-licensing agreement with Intel. Indeed, Intel has formally accused AMD of violating the agreement, and threatened to terminate the company's licenses in 60 days if a resolution is not found. Intel contends that GlobalFoundries is not a subsidiary of AMD, and thus is not covered by the licensing agreement. AMD has fired back, insisting that it has done nothing wrong, and that Intel's threat constitutes a violation of the deal. At stake is not only AMD's ability to build processors that use Intel's x86 technology, but also Intel's ability to use AMD's x86-64 tech in its CPUs."
Math

Data Mining Moves To Human Resources 262

theodp writes "Just when you thought annual reviews couldn't get worse, BusinessWeek reports that HR departments at companies like Microsoft and IBM are starting to use mathematical analysis to determine the value of each employee. At an undisclosed Internet company, analysis of (non-verbal) communications was used to produce a circle to represent each employee — those determined to generate or pass along valuable info were portrayed as large and dark-colored circles ('thought leaders' and 'networked curators'), while those with small and pale circles were written off as not adding a hell of a lot. 'You have to bring the same rigor you bring to operations and finance to the analysis of people,' explains Microsoft's Rupert Bader. Hey, who could argue with what Quants did for finance?"
Education

Women Skip Math/Science Careers To Have Families 616

hessian notes a Cornell survey, published in the Psychological Bulletin, of 35 years of sociological studies that concludes that women tend to choose non-math-intensive fields for their careers not because they lack mathematical ability, but because they want flexibility to raise children or prefer less math-intensive fields of science. "'A major reason explaining why women are underrepresented not only in math-intensive fields but also in senior leadership positions in most fields is that many women choose to have children, and the timing of child rearing coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted,' said lead author Stephen J. Ceci... The authors concluded that hormonal, brain, and other biological sex differences were not primary factors in explaining why women were underrepresented in science careers, and that studies on social and cultural effects were inconsistent and inconclusive. They also reported that although 'institutional barriers and discrimination exist, these influences still cannot explain why women are not entering or staying in STEM careers,' said Ceci."

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