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Comment Re:I see both sides of this (Score 1) 224

It sickens me that some of the most fertile land in the country, if not the world, is being covered by solar panels.

If a shortage of corn becomes a problem in the future, the panels can be removed. In the meantime, if the extra electricity speeds the adoption of EVs, then we can *burn* less of our food in ICE cars. We're currently dedicating more than a third of all those cornfields just for that. There's no plausible scenario where a third of all the cornfields would be converted to solar arrays anyway.

Yeah, we don't actually need more feed corn.

Plus why not let the landowners decide what they want to do. Shocking idea, I know.

You know this POS would support an imminent domain takeover of the same farmer's land... to build a datacenter or an oil field.

Comment "small government" (Score 3, Insightful) 224

Because of course the party of "small government" doesn't want land owners to have an autonomy to do what they want with their land.

This is so fu#king stupid. Wind in particular has very little footprint impacting a field's productivity and is generally liked by farmers for the extra, reliable income stream. The wind industry boom in the midwest (building and installing) has really helped out those states (especially Iowa and Nebraska).

But of course, they will bow to anything dear leader (and the petro-conglomerates) demand.

Comment Milorganite (Score 1) 34

Milorganite has been around for decades and is a human wastewater solids fertilizer product that is very popular for turf fertilization. "Smells like success", after you apply and it gets a little wet, as the lawn community would say.

This seems like an obvious progression to not let this material go to "waste".

Comment The ThinkPad commercials were SO on point (Score 1) 40

I remember loving the IBM Think Pad commercials back then. Mainstream TV ads for laptops. Love it.

My fav was the one where they were at a lunch counter and talking about the laptop tracking for impact if dropped. Guy throws one on the floor: "That's not my laptop..." Other guy... "check please". Gold.

Comment Re:I don't think so (Score 1) 47

hearing aids aren't oral medication. And Apple is chasing after Medicare money. That's worth a little bit of work.

Medicare doesn't pay anything for hearing exams, hearing aid fittings, or hearing aids. Just FYI. So you're wrong in that sense.

But, it is a huge market.

OTC hearing aids have really brought the price down and forced prescription models to become more price competitive.

Still, a proper hearing test and fitting of a few different models to see what you like best is worth the cash if you have it. Plus follow up appointments to get everything dialed in.

But, this could prove a stepping stone for people curious if a proper hearing aid would benefit them.

Comment Re:I'm curious, so I looked it up. (Score 2) 328

In the life/biological sciences at a major US research university, our graduate students are making between $27-$32k (this depends on their particular program). That also receive full tuition coverage and health insurance. $18.7k is crazy low. We could not retail or recruit any students with stipends that low.

Submission + - Slashdot Alum Samzenpus's Fractured Veil Hits Kickstarter

CmdrTaco writes: Long time Slashdot readers remember Samzenpus,who posted over 17,000 stories here, sadly crushing my record in the process! What you might NOT know is that he was frequently the Dungeon Master for D&D campaigns played by the original Slashdot crew, and for the last few years he has been applying these skills with fellow Slashdot editorial alum Chris DiBona to a Survival game called Fractured Veil. It's set in a post apocalyptic Hawaii with a huge world based on real map data to explore, as well as careful balance between PVP & PVE. I figured a lot of our old friends would love to help them meet their kickstarter goal and then help us build bases and murder monsters! The game is turning into something pretty great and I'm excited to see it in the wild!

Comment Re:There is plenty of trafficking (Score 1) 139

I don't know about the FBI, but ICE busts people all the time for this. A lot of the time, they're also minors. Go look up their own press releases. Plenty of examples of ICE agents taking people down for these crimes.

I just heard a story about this. When they bust people for prostitution if the prostitute turns out out to be a minor, it is labeled sex trafficking, because a minor can't legally concent. Actual cases of sex trafficking are extremely rare in the US. This is why "A lot of time, they're minors". Pretty much all the time. They also tend to do press releases about multiple arrests without making it clear they are all independent cases. This leads people to falsely believe there are sex trafficking rings, like Qanon says. Sorry, I can't find a link. Some guy talking about his book on NPR.

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