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Comment Re:Atheists Unite... as a religion (Score 1) 845

Atheism is a religion. Atheism has everything in common with other religions. Set beliefs, morality, purpose in life, etc. Agnosticism is not a religion because it has no definite beliefs, morality or purpose. Atheism does.

No, the key difference is that religions appeal to the supernatural or some true essence to explain the universe, while atheism appeals only to the natural world. Atheism does not require some Daddy figure (or figures) nor does it need some essentialist background. It rejects those. Its beliefs are based on logic, something religions can't claim (except coincidentally).

Comment Re:Ugh. (Score 1) 309

If you read the article, you'd realize it was a very significant wake up call. Death was narrowly avoided because the reactor containment vessel was over-engineered compared to the typical design.

Are you talking about the reactor vessel or the containment? These are different things. The containment is designed to keep fission fragments from being released to the public following a design basis accident. It is typically a hemispherical shell made of about a 5 ft thickness of reinforced concrete attached to a concrete base mat and lined with a stainless steel shell. The reactor vessel simply houses the core, forms part of the primary coolant pressure boundary, has a flange for connection to the vessel head, and contains connections for the hot legs, cold legs, and safety injection system. The reactor vessel is typically carbon steel with a stainless steel liner that is heat treated to reduce any stress at weld points. The reactor vessel is one of many things that fits within a containment.

Comment Re:CO2 causes Global Warming? (Score 5, Informative) 397

I guess that you fail to consider that the "shitload" of CO2 (from all sources, including man-made) account for a tiny fraction of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. So if 0.5% constitutes a "shitload", what would you call the other 99.5%?

And since you brought up observations of Mars and Venus, perhaps you can explain how the recent warming trend has also been detected on Mars? That would lead the cause of warming to be something the planets have in common - the Sun. Empirical measurements show solar output higher, so wouldn't you think that the most likely explanation would be the most logical one, rather than simple-minded "explanations" of processes that we don't nearly understand?

First, the Earth's atmosphere consists of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, and trace other gases (including water of about 0.5% and CO2 of about 0.05%). Nitrogen is not a greenhouse gas, oxygen is not a greenhouse gas, and argon is not a greenhouse gas. Thus, of the 32 K greenhouse effect, CO2 plays a very important role. Water is the dominant greenhouse gas, but it primarily serves to amplify the effect of other greenhouse gases since warmer air can hold more water. Additionally, water isn't as significant as it may appear (having a tenfold higher concentration than CO2) because it will precipitate out at colder elevations. Thus, CO2 and methane are the primary greenhouse gases that are really driving the greenhouse effect (with their effect amplified by the water vapour).

Second, the possible effects of a slight increase in solar intensity have been noted. They are too small to account for the increase in atmospheric temperature if they exist. And even the largest potential effect could only account for about a quarter of the warming that has been observed.

Comment Re:CO2 causes Global Warming? (Score 5, Interesting) 397

Climate change isn't the theory. It is the effect. The theory is that greenhouse gases raise the temperature of the atmosphere of a planet. This has been well tested with small scale experiments and large scale observations (such as observing the atmospheric composition and temperatures of Mars and Venus). There are a lot of details that go into climate change, but the general idea is very common sense:

Step 1: Shine some light in the visible spectrum on an object through a gas that doesn't absorb a huge amount of energy at most of those wavelengths (for example, from any random object that you might see that has a 5780 K blackbody temperature).
Step 2: Choose an appropriate gas (like CO2 or methane) that will absorb a lot of energy from the blackbody emissions of that object (Stefan's Law).
Step 3: Watch the temperature of that gas rise.

Do you get the gist? It isn't rocket science. If you add a shitload of CO2 to the atmosphere, the temperature of the surface of the planet is going to rise.

Comment Re:It's a space salesman race! (Score 5, Interesting) 82

If the Ares I design is to be replaced, it would be by the Delta IV Heavy, not the Falcon 9 Heavy. The Delta IV Heavy is already flying, its payload fairing size is an almost perfect fit for the Orion spacecraft, and it uses the RS-68s that are planned to be used on the Ares V. NASA would also be extremely skeptical of the Falcon 9 Heavy because it would be using a total of 27 Merlin engines in its first stage! The failures of the N1 rocket (with 30 engines) would make any high engine rocket a tough sell. The Falcon 9 may work, but I'd be very surprised if the Falcon 9 Heavy is ever built. Man-rating a rocket like that would be well-nigh impossible.

Role Playing (Games)

10 Years of Baldur's Gate 63

RPGVault is running an article commemorating the 10th anniversary of acclaimed RPG Baldur's Gate. They sat down with members of the Dragon Age: Origins team, some of whom worked on Baldur's Gate, to talk about their experiences with the game and what made it so popular. "The other thing I was responsible for was balance testing. It was a constant fight between me and the Interplay testers; they were always trying to make it easier, and I was always pushing back to make it harder. At one point, I got so frustrated with the final battle with Sarevok that I created a 7th level Minsc, gave him some weapons and armor, and then began to spawn in Sarevok's — mowing through them like a hot knife through butter. After I'd killed six or seven of them, I spawned in a final one and took a screenshot, with the fresh one standing among all his slaughtered predecessors. I edited it and put a bubble above Minsc's head that read 'Sigh... another one of those pesky Sarevoks' and then e-mailed it out to the company. Growing up playing D&D with James Ohlen (the Lead Designer on BG, and now on our new MMO), I knew that would piss him off to no end, and suffice to say he was much tougher when I tried to fight him the next day."
Science

Another Way the LHC Could Self-Destruct 367

KentuckyFC writes "Just when you thought it was safe to switch on the LHC (though it won't be for a while yet), another nightmare scenario has emerged that some critics worry could cause the particle accelerator to explode. The culprit this time is not an Earth-swallowing black hole but a 'Bose supernova' in the accelerator's superfluid helium bath. Physicists have been playing with Bose Einstein Condensate (BECs) for over 10 years now. But in 2001, one group discovered that placing them in a powerful magnetic field could cause the attractive forces between atoms to become repulsive. That caused their BEC to explode in a Bose supernova — which they called a 'Bosenova,' a name that fortunately did not catch on. This was little more than a curiosity when only a microscopic blob of cold matter was involved. But superfluid liquid helium is also BEC. And physicists have suddenly remembered that the LHC is swimming in 700,000 liters of the stuff while being zapped by some of the most powerful magnetic fields on the planet. So is the LHC a Bose supernova waiting to go off? Not according to the CERN theory division, which has published its calculations that show the LHC is safe (abstract). They also point out that no other superfluid helium handling facility has mysteriously blown itself to pieces."
The Internet

Submission + - IEEE Spectrum: The Slashdot Supremacy

frdmfghtr writes: Our very own CmdrTaco has made the cover of November's IEEE Spectrum magazine. The article talks about the evolution of Slashdot, the Slashdot Effect, and even takes a light jab at Digg ("People on Digg "have the feeling that they are the ones determining what goes on the main page, and administrators on the site are all too happy to let that delusion persist," he says. "[But] stories randomly disappear. Obviously there are higher powers at work.""). It's a good read, although it makes a somewhat disturbing revelation: " It's midmorning at Slashdot as Malda bounds into his office. There's a doll of Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail on his desk and a lamp filled with marbles. Anime posters cover the wall. When his cellphone rings with the presumably ironic ringtone of Britney Spears's "Baby One More Time," Malda taps the mute button. He has work to do."
Robotics

Submission + - 3 Bots Win Pentagon's Robotic Rally (wired.com)

An anonymous reader writes: We've got a winner in the Pentagon's $3.5 million all-robot street rally, the Urban Challenge. Three, actually. WIRED reports that 'bots from Stanford, Virginia Tech, and Carnegie Mellon all completed the course within the six-hour time limit. The robo-cars had to complete different missions taking varying times, so the flesh-and-blood judges will take a day to figure out who takes home first prize.
Robotics

Submission + - Robot goats save planet Earth from distruction (techtarget.com)

HRHsoleil writes: "Each year New Yorkers throw out over 180 million of those blue, Greek "We are happy to serve you paper coffee cups. Now where would you rather throw yours out? In a big boxy trash compactor that looks suspiciously like a mailbox, or by feeding a robot goat? I think the folks in Tokyo are on to something. Screw those big plastic cows. Make them robotic and let them do something useful like clean up the planet."
Biotech

Submission + - 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology (nobelprize.org)

Anonymous Coward writes: "The 2007 prizes for medicine and physiology were anounced and the winners are: Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans and Oliver Smithies. It is amazing that these people finally won a Nobel Prize! Knock out mice are an indespensible tool for modern mammalian researchers. "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells""
Books

Submission + - RIP Robert Jordan

Jurph writes: Wikipedia is reporting that Robert Jordan has died of amyloidosis. He had not completed the twelfth and final book in his Wheel of Time series but did leave detailed notes. The decision regarding who will finish his work has been left to his wife and publisher. The official Robert Jordan blog, Dragonmount, is down under heavy traffic.
Books

Submission + - Robert Jorden Passes Away (dragonmount.com) 1

OS24Ever writes: "From the site (having server issues already): It is with great sadness that I tell you that the Dragon is gone. RJ left us today at 2:45 PM. He fought a valiant fight against this most horrid disease. In the end, he left peacefully and in no pain.

Robert Jordan had amyloidosis, a disease characterized by extracellular accumulation of amyloid in various organs and tissues of the body"

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