Comment Gold? (Score 0) 262
Pretty much all of those advantages used to tout BTC are better achieved through a specie currency like gold.
Comment Alternative chat rooms (Score 1) 250
I've been using a skype text conference as an invite-only chat room for some of my online friends. Why not IRC? Because skype keeps track of all history and logs so you don't have to idle in the room 24/7 to see what people said when you were away. I have found nothing as convenient and suitable to our purposes. Now, I'm starting to worry about the future. Does anyone have a suggestion for a different system?
Comment China to lose even more money on high-speed rail? (Score 4, Insightful) 387
Their existing high speed rail lines are racking up serious debt. This plan to expand it is difficult to believe.
Comment You got trolled (Score 5, Interesting) 417
Googling the researcher's name and his institution only brings up this story. Looks like you someone successfully trolled slashdot.
Comment Mt Erebus? (Score 1) 363
One thing that I never got was how an volcano in Antartica actively emitting hydrogen chlorine cannot contribute to stratospheric chlorine. Anywhere else, HCl would just stick to a water droplet and rain down, but we are talking about the most arid continent on earth, with very little precipitation.
Comment Re:The TSA's math is real wrong. (Score 2) 199
Wrong. The specific technology in question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray
Blade Runner Sequels and Prequels Happening 334
bowman9991 writes "The iconic science fiction film Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's book and directed by Ridley Scott, will be followed up with sequels and prequels soon. Alcon Entertainment is in final discussions to secure film, TV and franchise rights. They are in the early stages of sorting out how to proceed and were not sure if Ridley Scott would be involved."
Alaska Must Release Palin E-mails By May 211
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from msnbc.com:
"The state of Alaska has until May 31 to release about 25,000 pages of e-mails from former Gov. Sarah Palin and senior members of her administration, the state attorney general declared Wednesday. ... the delays in dealing with public records from the Palin administration will have stretched out longer than the Palin administration itself. She was governor for 966 days. By May 31, the request from msnbc.com for the official records will be 986 days old. State regulations usually require records to be made available within 10 days, but state officials said they were overwhelmed by the volume of the e-mails."
J.J. Abrams Promises 'Fringe' Will Die Fighting 392
An anonymous reader writes "Fringe creator J.J. Abrams has said of the show's much-maligned move to Friday nights, 'Fringe deserves to live beyond season 3. If we're going to fail, let's go down doing the most bad ***, weirdest, interesting, sophisticated version of a series that we could possibly do.' Previous announcements about the move were more defensive, claiming that Fringe's shift to Fridays was an attempt to draw younger viewers back to the 'dead zone' of Friday nights. But season three has been confused enough in tone and approach that it's no surprise to hear yet another contradictory statement about its future..." Good episodes of Fringe have been great TV. I've really enjoyed the first half of the season and am looking forward to seeing what they do with it. A lot of mediocre SciFi has been shut down recently (Caprica? SGU?) and a lot of bad SciFi continues (V?) but Fringe flirts with greatness with regularity. I hope it makes it... even though on Friday it's not likely.
Comment Climate Change (Score 0) 453
Climate change?
Comment Re:"Automatic" doesn't mean what you think it mean (Score 1) 309
The cartridge is called .45 ACP, Automatic Colt Pistol. It is understood by gun people that an automatic pistol is not full, but semi-automatic.
Comment Asimov's Profession (Score 2, Interesting) 133
Sounds like the first step towards Asimov's future of being educated by tape, because some people's brain patterns are suited to different professions.
Comment Bing (Score 5, Interesting) 124
They had to pay people to use their search engine?
Comment Light gas space cannon? (Score 1) 190
Could someone tell me if there is anything wrong with using a light gas cannon as the first two stages of a rocket as John Hunter proposes? Is the amount of propellant needed to fire the gun more than would be required by a traditional kerosene/LOX motor? It sounds to me like a space cannon would be an inexpensive way to launch non-living cargo mass. Has nobody invested in this sort of project because the space gun people all went to work for Saddam Hussein?
