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Comment Re:Why limit the conversation? (Score 1) 204

How big is your house. I can not image a situation where it would be so hot that it required $250 a month to cool your house but your pool was still to cold to use without a heater. Still I think you were missing my point. Do you have an air conditioner that is equip to be liquid cooled? What do you think it will cost to get one, or retro fit your existing one. How about pipe the water from the pool to your condenser? Once you are all done your air conditioner isn't going to be able to raise the temp of your pool much at all. What are you going to use to supplement.? Lets put these costs in perspective. A 2008-2010 Energy Star refrigerator uses around 500kWh's per year. That's $75 a year at 15 cents a kWh. So lets say you have a unit that can use the outside air when its cold. What percentage of the year is it cold enough to do so. Lets say that between the refrigerator and freezer its cold enough on average 50% of the year. That's a savings of around $37.50 a year. Until they get mainstream its going to most likely take over 10 years for that system to pay for itself if ever.

Comment Re:Why limit the conversation? (Score 1) 204

The problem with a lot of these questions is analogous to "Why don't you stop your car to pick up a penny when you drive by one." Its a tremendous amount of work for very little pay out. It doesn't make any sense to try an get the heat produced by your air conditioner to your pool heater when a very cheap solar heater will give you a much greater payout for much less.

Comment Re:Internet promotes Christianity (Score 1) 585

Catholics are encouraged to read the Bible NOW. This was far from always true. To me, going to church is like letting someone watch your kids that was in the past a pedophile. Basically what you are saying is that we should all look at the Church today and not hold its past atrocities against it. Well I see plenty wrong with the modern Catholic Church so I guess it's past doesn't really matter to me.

Comment Re:Fashion accessory (Score 1) 480

Just because you don't see the point doesn't mean there isn't one. We have a few Ipads at the office and I can tell you they are great for meetings. We have our agenda's on google docs, so I can pull up the agenda and follow along, check my mail, send mail. I think tablets are what laptops were suppose to be. A portable computer. Sure its not as nice as my desktop but it gets the job done when I am not near mine. I honestly think laptops are a fad. I have a desktop at home and another at work. What I need is a smartphone with a bigger screen and better specs. I was just over at the in laws. Mother in law had a netbook, I had a netbook, sister and law had an ipad (yeah we don't talk much over there). I had to plug my netbook in when my battery died, and I was looking at the ipad with envy the whole time. If I had brought the family laptop I still would have been starring at the ipad with envy, its lighter, and the form factor is better for use in the recliner.

Comment Re:Any time you need to ask the question... (Score 1) 826

Sure if you want to be intentionally obtuse about it. The point of "Any time you need to ask the question.....then the answer is no" is to emphasize a very important concept. Most of us have a pretty good idea of what is ethical and what is not. Of course some people don't have this ability and some things may seem ethically wrong when upon closure inspection there is no problem. These are the exceptions to the rule. "As long as you don't question it, it's ethical" Again with the being obtuse. Clearly whether or not you question something has nothing to do with how ethical it is. We people come up with crap like this I imagine I am having a conversation with a genie. You wish for a million dollar's do you, I kill your parents. Don't ever want to work again, put you in a coma, want to be able to fly, turn you into a fly. Whenever you have a debate its incumbent on both parties to respect each other and accept their comments in good faith. Making sarcastic reductio ad absurdum statements can sometimes be a flash way to point out an error in logic but it can't be your golden hammer without losing you a lot of credibility in my book.

Comment Re:Holy shit? (Score 1) 950

Comments like this reveal just how little most people know about libertarians. Libertarians would say I am not buying a heart monitor for my kid because its not necessary. The school should not buy a heart monitor for my kid because thats not necessary and since I pay school taxes its the same as me buying the monitor. If the insurance companies want the data they can offer to pay me for the data and I may or may not have my kid wear the device. Also in a libertarian society people who do not want to give up there data to big business are the norm not the exception. If insurance companies wanted to discount insurance for giving that data thats fine and yes refusal would be fine too but you have to take your scenario to its logical conclusion. If there are a bunch of people being refused insurance then I am going to make a killing offering them insurance. Chances are they won't use it much because they are the paranoid type to begin with.

Comment Re:So it's a fnacy nmae (Score 1) 1345

Don't you mean "if whoever was helping with the extracurricular activities knew more about everything than the child being taught. Sure its hard to be an expert at everything but its not hard for an above average person to be better than your average school teacher. I would be very confident that I could educate my child through middle school. Then for highschool a combination of traditional classes for a dose of "normal", and college courses for some real learning.

Comment Re:what? (Score 1) 539

Like say....10 YEARS. Look at what we have learned to do in the last 10 years and then remember that we are learning exponentially so imagine 10 years from now having made 10 times the advancements we have made in the past 10 years. Its really not that far fetched. If you would have told me when I was 20 that when I turned 30 I would carry around a computer more powerful than my computer at 20 and it would have a 5 mega pixel camera and the ability to record video and have wireless internet, a GPS, and oh yeah make phone calls and all of that would cost less than half of what I paid for my computer. Well I probably would have said yeah that sounds about right.

Comment Re:Seems ethically dodgy... (Score 1) 539

How sure are you? Tell you what StripedCow, let me throw it back at you. Lets say your going to die in 24 hours, or......I can replace your brain by a small supercomputer. I guarantee that the observable you will not change. Will you do it then. Ok lets say you won't, are you sure no one would, what if 100 people have done it and they seam fine, still not onboard? What if spouse wants to do it to stave of death? What if its your child. I am sure you would never have your heart replaced by a dead guys either.

Comment Re:what? (Score 1) 539

Yeah and if we can take another picture right after then we have two MRI pics and if we do this enough times and fast enough its a moving picture, lets call it a movie. So know we know what it looks like and we get to see it work. Thats pretty much all we have ever needed to make a copy of anything. Just because its biological doesn't make it magic.
Earth

Ancient Ecosystem Found In Ice Pocket 49

ApharmdB writes "Beneath a glacier in Antarctica, scientists have discovered a community of microbes growing in frigid pools of salty water. It's a particularly tough environment, with no light, no oxygen, and extremely cold temperatures. But the microbes appear to live — and thrive — off a combination of iron and sulfur, according to a new study. The result of that strange metabolism is a brilliant red streak of cascading ice called Blood Falls."

Comment Re:forget it (Score 1) 655

The guy looking to buy a computer is not IT savy at all. The problem is that the customer has not told the IT Pro what he wants. He told the IT Pro what he thinks will solve his problem. Most people understand the concept I am talking about better when it comes to health care. You don't go to your doctor and say I want Lipitor. If you do, your doctor is not just going prescribe you your drug of choice. You tell your doctor your problem and what you want for an outcome. Then the doctor helps you decide. A client asking for a computer that lasts 15 years is equal wrong. The answer is always going to be, that's impossible, what are your concerns, what is the problem you are trying to solve. Now lets think of a solution that comes as close to that mark as possible. If your client wants a computer that will last 15 years and you give them a computer that could last 15 years you are not doing your job. If you have a computer that will last 15 years then your client can not afford it. I can easily give a client a computer that will last a long long time and be really easy to fix should something go wrong.

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