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Comment Re:Small potatoes (Score 1) 78

You can technically do your taxes for free by manually filling out the forms yourself.

I can't think of any business or other government function that still makes me fill out any paper forms. At one recent employer I did not fill out a single paper or PDF-style form, HR or otherwise, in the entire experience from the day I applied until the day I resigned.

Nobody uses paper forms any more. Everything is online. Taxes should be no different, and there should be no 3rd party middlemen collecting tolls for the "privilege" of doing something online the way everything else is done.

Comment I'm working on my analog home (Score 4, Funny) 155

I bought a whole bunch of op-amps and rheostats, but I'm having a hard time trying to get them to implement all of my lighting "scenes". The voltages often won't converge to a stable solution, and it's really hard to analyze all the differential equations with just my slide rule.

Comment Re:Nope (Score 5, Informative) 47

If it glows, it's not dark.

That's fairly easy to understand.

According to TFA, the dark matter isn't glowing. Instead, it is annihilating when it collides with another dark matter particle, which turns it into normal electrons and positrons, which then ionize normal gas and create the glow.

It's a long sequence of events, but in case it pans out, at least it might be able to address the unwillingness of most people to accept that something could possibly exist unless it somehow interacts with the electromagnetic field.

Comment Re:Never mind the fish... (Score 4, Interesting) 68

I think that the theory is that mercury in the environment is converted to methylmercury by microbial activity, then it bioaccumulates in fish. Presumably, anything that is leaching from fillings is metallic mercury, which is far less toxic than methylmercury.

I've seen claims that the mercury is so firmly bound in the amalgam with silver that your exposure is negligible, but I'm not sure how much I believe that. I've had quite a few worn out mercury fillings replaced over the years, and I always wondered how much of the ground up fillings ends up getting ingested in that process.

Of course, the newer fillings are largely some kind of UV-activated epoxy resin, probably a different exact brew of chemicals for each one. I wouldn't be surprised if someone eventually figures out that some of those chemicals pose risks as well.

What can you do? Not getting your mouth fixed is known to be risky as well. Bacteria cause inflammation that causes your own body to release highly toxic chemicals.

Comment Re:What warms the ocean more? (Score 4, Informative) 33

What warms the ocean more? Greenhouse gasses from power generation for cooling, or just using the ocean directly as a heat sink.

Greenhouse gasses, by orders of magnitude.

The gasses leverage the vast energy available from the sun over a span of decades. The server heat is one and done.

Undoubtedly, the greenhouse gasses released from powering these servers will warm the oceans far more than the servers themselves will.

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