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Comment Re:Batsur (Score 2) 55

I still think we should be looking very close at Bats for how to build the ultimate response to viruses. Bats are not immune to viruses, but they just don't seem to be hurt by them, almost *any* virus. As best we can tell this has to do with a lack of inflammatory response. Likely an evolutionary compromise where evolution said "Ok, we wont stop viruses, but we will stop reacting to them", as a sickly bat is a bat thats unable to survive. Now, I suspect that just doing that to humans wont be very useful, as we actually do need that strong response to viruses as

Not disagreeing with you, but I seem to remember a paper once that talked about the fact that the human immune system appears to "over react" to many benign things and that this immune behavior may have been due to some evolutionary event in our history. One of the disadvantages of this strong response appears to be things like allergies that suddenly crop up for no apparent reason.

Comment This Sounds Stupid (Score 3, Insightful) 377

I read the article. Basically, this article has two narratives (people have range anxiety and people also have stuffed garages) that they try to link in one sentence. Very poorly written. The "fears and concerns about charging" are NOT about charging in the family home, it's about when the person owning the electric car takes a trip and is concerned about "can I get a charge for my car along the trip". Now admittedly, that concern is less now but it's still a fear. If your taking a trip along a main highway, you'll most likely find a charging station. If, on the other hand, you take a trip along the back roads of many states, you might find your charging options severely limited. Last year, I took a trip from California to Arkansas to see the Solar Eclipse. On the way back, I had to take a HUGE amount of back roads to a hole in the wall Oklahoma area to see a relative. I never saw one Electric recharging station on that section but saw 10's of gasoline stations.

The Article then goes into multi-family homes that can't easily run a line to a 240 VAC charger. That's not an "Anxiety" about charging, that's a hard limitation. So please stop trying to connect the two.

Comment Re:I'm conflicted (Score 1) 159

Forgot to add: They tell us that this July was about average... for the life of me I just cannot believe that to be true.

It could very well be true. Climate change does not affect every area equally. Some geographical areas will actually get better temperatures/climate than beforehand. San Diego (where I live) is a case in point. Our average temperature has actually stayed mostly the same. We've had lower than normal temperatures the last two months. However, our incidents of higher humidity has increased. From what I have read, our normal weather environment shifted northward.

Comment What Happens if It hits the Moon? (Score 0) 22

We are going to have a freaking AWESOME light show!! The Greatest since Comet Hale-Bopp hit Jupiter. We will have "Hit on Something" bar drinking parties, massive migrations to Star Parties, massive telescope sales, self proclaimed "End of Days" Prophets claiming that the moon will split apart and destroy the Earth, and lots of people just meeting in the back yards with fellow enthusiasts to watch the event. THAT'S what will happen.

Comment I Noticed this in San Diego (Score 1) 69

When I first moved into my San Diego house in 2003, the front porch light would be covered with flying insects at night. We had a huge thriving Bird population. Now I hardly see insects and birds are much less in number (except for the pigeons, who feed off of the humans). Along with one of the prior Slashdot stories talking about how people are cloning animals and lessening genetic diversity thereby making them much more susceptible to diseases/pathogens, It's a bit scary how much humanity is messing up the ecosystems.

Comment Re:Prof here (Score 1) 160

...and the answer is: only the students who would struggle or fail anyway. It's not hard to catch them, at least, in technical courses.

Of course, (1) you have to want to catch them, and (2) the administration has to have your back.

Yep, agreed totally. When I was doing my Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Degree, we had two exchange students from Greece. They would always ask for help with assignments/problems and copy stuff from other students but would never contribute back. I found out that that basically cheating was a standard practice for Greek students and actually doing the work was bizarrely frowned upon. They got caught cheating on a math exam but the administration did not have the back fully of the prof teaching it. I wish I could know what projects those two worked on so that I could stay away from anything they worked on. I know that it would probably fail.

Comment Re:who cares (Score 1) 160

We're living at a time in history when anyone who says, hey, maybe slaughtering everyone in Gaza is morally wrong, or did you know that collective punishment is illegal under international law is accused of being an anti-semite (despite the fact that the jews in israel including most of the prime ministers are European migrants, and hence, not semites at all). If you're going to make an argument against the wikipedia the fact that the preferred jewish narrative has one tiny chink in it is not going to raise my sympathies very much.

Could you possibly talk about any of the other genocides that don't get any attention? E.g., the Armenians, the Rwandans, the Cambodians etc? Then I might possibly give a shit.

"You cannot negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you." - Golda Meir . Until Hamas/Palestinians drop their stated goal for the destruction of Israel, there can never be any peace. Because Hamas has stated that. And until people like you realize that and FORCE Hamas to state, unequivocally, the Israel has a right to exist, there will always be a state of war state the two. And this is not a "well, that's a nice thing to do". It's fundamental. Do I agree with everything that Israel has done? No, I don't. But when the other side wants your destruction and won't budge from that stated goal, then they deserve to be killed. And keep being killed until they either 1) Don't exist anymore or 2) Realize that maybe getting along is in their best interest. I don't like that philosophy or saying that. I wish people could just get along together. But some people don't want to do that. And the sad fact of life is that society is better off without them. Now you can continue to live in your fantasy world of "if we just hug everyone will get along" or you can realize that Israel got attacked and lost 1,195 people. And they are sick and tired of it. And they are going to keep Killing Hamas people until they are no longer a danger. And that killing can be stopped at ANY time if Hamas would release all of their hostages and negotiate a long term peace where Israel has a right to exist. The fact that they have not, even with all of the deaths of their "people", show that they are not worthy of respect and should be killed to eliminate them. The Palestinian people are far better off in the long term without Hamas.

Comment Re:Hit and Miss (Score 1) 61

It did not. For Your Eyes Only is one of the best Bond films if, for no other reason, it offered the most realistic plot. A Royal Navy encryption device is stolen and Bond has to track it down. You know, do some actual detective/anti-espionage work, instead of having to kill some lunatic threatening nuclear blackmail for the nth time.

Agreed totally. It had one of the best "James Bond" kills when Bond takes care of Locque. Rodger Moore hated it, but it was absolutely the best scene he ever did as Bond. Link to scene here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Comment Re:And (Score 1) 23

Actually, we do care under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, that week was the epitome of "non normal" circumstances. So this event, which I normally would have most enthusiastically followed, got interrupted by the greatest two day drop in Stock Market History and the gnawing knowledge that we have a madman in charge of our country who is giving power to another madman (Musk).

I used to defend Musk and his eccentricities. No more. I cannot support him and any of his companies now, even though I am a huge supporter of space travel.

Comment Not Surprising at All. That is Britain. (Score 1) 11

From everything I have read, Britain, more than most countries, puts in charge non-technical people who are totally unqualified for either leadership or their positions. I suspect this has something to do with their "Lords/peasants" society/history, but there are probably people who frequent this Website that could enlighten us for the reasons much better than me. I'll just relate what happened to Reginald Victor (known as R.V.) Jones. He became the head of British MI6 Scientific Intelligence/Investigation during WWII, making major contributions that directly helped Britain in their effort to win the war. After the war ended, his organization was "re-organized" such that he no longer headed it, he was part of a 14 person directional committee. Only one other person in the committee was in any ways qualified. He left soon after.

And yes, I'm very aware that the US is now headed down that unqualified leader pathway with our current administration. Being unqualified seems to be a specific trait that they are looking for to get you a job.

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