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Comment Re:Acid Rain? (Score 1) 27

Maybe. Acid rain originates mostly from sulfates that come from burning coal (which contains sulfur as a contaminant.) But a large portion of the Delhi air pollution comes from burning the crop residue in fields to prepare the land for the next planting. This most likely doesn't produce sulfates.

True, but bear in mind that coal contains sulfur because it is fossilized plant matter that contained sulfur while it was alive. The residual organic matter from the crops most definitely contains sulfur. It can be more concentrated in coal, but the actual ratio between carbon and sulfur is going to be in the same general area.

not even close. Coal averages 2.5% sulfur. Plant matter averages about 0.25%.

Comment What cold winters? Iceland's not cold. (Score 1) 37

They cite "cold winters" as why mosquitos aren't found in Iceland, but... Iceland doesn't have cold winters. In Reykjavik, their lowest mean daily minimum temperature is -2 C in January. Here in Montreal, it's -14 C, so much colder, and there have always been mosquitos in Montreal.

I would imagine that Iceland's cold *summers* is probably more responsible. It never gets very warm, with a highest mean daily maximum of 15 C in July, versus Montreal at 27 C.

Comment Really? As if! (Score 1) 98

...and a free subscription to the dating service Raya...

Sure - because people who work 12 hours per day 6 days a week have time for relationships. Hell, they don't even have time for sex beyond a quick rub-one-out before falling asleep.

The better bet would be on paid sex workers in the workplace. But for them, a 996 schedule - even it it was mostly 69 work - would wear 'em out pretty fast. OTOH, at least the sex workers would have a benefits package beyond the friends-with-benefits angle...

Comment Lessons were learned in 2021 Re:Horseshit (Score 2) 80

The Texas grid came very close to collapsing* in the winter storm of 2021. It hasn't had a widespread, long-lasting failure since.

* in this case, collapsing means either a grid-wide outage requiring a "black start" or the grid suffering major physical damage that results in weeks-long outages or rolling blackouts. Texas's was able to survive without serioius physical damage or having to do a grid-wide "black start" by heavy load shedding. Much of the load shedding was planned/announced hours in advance, but some was unannounced or lasted much longer than planned (days instead of hours). Once the weather cleared up and fuel was able to get to the plants that were fuel-starved, the major parts of the grid came back up in a controlled and orderly fashion. There were no doubt some longer-lasting local outages but those were local issues, not grid-scale ones. Since then, the state has made its grid more resilient, so it should be able to withstand a similar situtation now.

Comment When I was 25, it was about 45 hours/week (Score 2) 98

Lower if I was writing new code that stretched my abilities, higher if I was doing code-monkey stuff that I dould do blindfolded with two hands tied behind my back.

I could "stretch" it if I had "breaks" like so: 160 hours one month, 200 the next, then back to 160 and so on, with weekends off all the way around.

My peak efficiency is lower now "because age."

Comment Re:Before you dunk all over this van... (Score 1) 93

You made a rather huge leap there, and I'm not sure why you committed to doing so.

I've never heard of this van. I work in several metropolitan areas on a regular basis and I've never seen one anywhere. I fully acknowledge they exist, but I've never seen one. I could well be unique in having never seen one, but if they aren't in any of the markets where I frequently drive then there are likely a lot of other people who have never seen them in the wild either.

The point I was after is that there are a lot of people who love to dunk on the automotive industry - particularly the American Big Three - any time they can. The Big Three are far from blameless. However, ripping to shreds a discontinued vehicle that you've never seen isn't exactly a fair thing to do.

Comment Re: China (Score 1) 109

I do think disappearing people is wrong, obviously, although I'm not sure that's exactly what happened to Ma. Keeping in mind the damage it would have done to him to be publicly arrested or rebuked, and the fact that later the Chinese premier convinced him to move back to China, and then he attended various events including one with Xi... Well, it's not quite how it was portrayed in the Western media. Not good, but we don't really know what happened.

There has to be a balance somewhere between that and the EU's not-quite-strong-enough regulation of tech companies.

Submission + - Student handcuffed by police after AI 'mistakes bag of Doritos for gun' (independent.co.uk)

Bruce66423 writes: 'Taki Allen was approached by armed officers at Kenwood High School following football practice, who ordered him to the ground and cuffed him before realising he had no weapon.

'The school's Omnilert AI gun detection system, which uses cameras to identify potential weapons, generated an alert that was then forwarded to the school resource officer and police.

'While the student's family and local officials have expressed concern and called for a review of the system, the school superintendent defended its operation, stating it "did what it was supposed to do".

'This incident follows a previous failure of the Omnilert system in January, where it did not detect a gun used in a fatal shooting at a Nashville high school due to camera proximity issues.'

A false positive follows a catastrophic false negative. The price we pay for safety? How big a price should we pay?

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