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Comment Re:Not good enough (Score 2) 452

1. Is a warmer planet bad?

Yes. Examples: 1) The most severe drought that Syria has ever seen, providing the catalyst for the Arab Spring. 2) The bleaching of the Barrier Reef. 3) The loss of coastal cities and infrastructure.

2. Can government do something without destroying the economy

Destroying the economy? There's obviously a lot that we can do without obliterating all financial institutions and currencies in the world. I think the question you're trying to ask is:

Can we do something without impacting the economy?

To which the answer is no. However we have to ask ourselves, what strategy from this point will have the least impact on the economy? Losing coastal cities, and even entire nations (Kiribati) is surely going to impact the economy more than curbing emissions ahead of time.

Comment Re:Has anyone tried sitting on the floor? (Score 2) 340

This is spot on. I took the legs off of my home office desk and supported it ~12" off of the floor with bricks, so that I could sit in a more natural posture. As AC points out, sitting on the floor with a keyboard and mouse tends to "lock" you into one position. This got too uncomfortable for me and I re-attached the legs to my home-office desk.

My work was generous enough to provide a motorized standing desk. I think it would be nice to get back on the floor for short stints but I'm not sure if it can be practically done.

Comment Re:Visualisation tools? (Score 1) 310

Well, I need to emphasize that this is only visualization of a single NASA model run of year 2006. I don't know how this model's parameters were initialized, so I can't make any claims about how chemtrails attributed to the results. The only variables I've seen in this dataset are "tasmax" (max daily surface temperature), "tasmin" (min daily surface temp) and "precipitation". No discrete "chemtrail" data is logged.

What I will say is that if NASA is going to distribute their data to the general public, then it's also important for this data to be publicly interpreted. This is what I was hoping to address with my referral to the visualization software I mentioned in my previous post.

I think that a visualization tool was what the OP was asking for, and I know that VAPOR fits this use case; especially because it's free, cross-platform, and NetCDF compliant.

Comment Re:Visualisation tools? (Score 3, Informative) 310

I've visualized the resultant data from NASA's 2006 CESM model runs here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I'm currently downloading the remaining years through 2100, which I'll upload and link to tomorrow.

If you guys are interested in doing this yourself, I can give instructions. VAPOR (the visualization tool used here) is open source and cross platform (Windows, OSX, Linux). What sets it apart from other visualization tools is its ability to handle large data sets, which is useful here unless you're on a supercomputer.

Comment Compute Hours? (Score 2) 135

"The model uses physics at the one-millimeter rock grain scale to explain how the whole planet behaves."

A 3,000 x 3,000 x 3,000 grid is considered very large for modern scientific models. Assuming they are working on a cartesian grid, and an earth diameter of 12,000 km, their model would be 12,000,000 x 12,000,000 x 12,000,000; twelve orders of magnitude larger than the biggest physical model I've ever heard of.

This cannot be the case.

Comment Re:Ubuntu? Fedora? (Score 2) 101

Giving previously discarded windows machines to students? There's no way a school's sysadmin would be able to support anything that's not homogeneous.

These things are a good option because the hardware is decent and dirt cheap. The school district can also install any OS they want to on them, not just ChromeOS. If you can find where to get an x86 processor (that's Haswell no-less), 2GB ram, and 32GB SSD on a laptop for cheaper than $200, I would agree with you. I haven't been able to find anything that beats the Acer C720 at its price point.

Comment Sit on the ground. (Score 1) 405

I've recently shifted my desk down so that I can sit on the floor and do work, game, and lounge. I've found that it has several benefits. I can stretch my legs. I can shift positions: squat, sit, kneel, as well as many variations between those positions. I have a back support that I can lean on that's designed to be used on the ground.

I suffer from scoliosis, and I decided that this is a better option than sitting in the exact same position all day, every day; which will lead to faster disc degeneration for me. I want to change my position and maintain flexibility instead of slouching in a chair. We evolved sitting on the earth. Chairs have very recently been introduced to our lifestyles, and I believe that they have negative side effects that haven't been scrutinized enough.

Sitting on the ground would also eliminate the cost of chairs, however custom desks would need to be made. But I don't think it would be that hard to make those.

Comment Re:Tell that to Buddhist Monks! (Score 0) 341

They're not sitting in office chairs while they do it. Their muscles are engaged in their posture, as opposed to slouching (like what I'm doing right now).

I've been considering taking my desk to a table saw and removing about two feet from its base. This way I would be sitting on the floor instead of my office chair. I think that this would be more healthy because it is more natural, allowing me to squat, sit, lie on my side, and kneel; as opposed to the limited options I have in my office chair.

Think about it. Humans didn't evolve into office chairs. Our resting position has always been on the ground until recently.

Comment Re:False (Score 1) 366

I use an HTC EVO that I bought outright, along with PagePlus for service. Pageplus is an MVNO that uses Verizon's network. It's considerably cheaper, as I spent $450 on the evo, and $30/mo for 1200txt+1200min+50mb.

I use wireless networks for web access (I'm pretty much always either at school, work, or home), and when I'm in a pinch, the 50mb is there when I really need it.

Comment Not Just Desktops (Score 2, Interesting) 484

They've been selling faulty laptops as well.

Granted, the issue with several of their laptop models lies with the Nvidia GPU die packaging; Dell still refuses to extend extend warranties on some of the laptops that suffer from this issue.

For example, the XPS M1210 has this exact problem, and suffers from the die package over heading even more than other models because it's the smallest form factor (which means it's harder to keep cool).

I had a personal vendetta with Dell a few years ago because they refused to provide warranty extensions for the M1210. I had spent ~30+ hours on the phone, being handed off to one customer service department after the other like a game of hot potato.

Eventually I found somebody online who managed to somehow get the right tech support at the right time, and had their mobo replaced under warranty extension. I used his case # as a reference, and Dell finally gave in.

I then made a post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/361004-how-get-your-dead-xps-m1210-fixed.html#post4611553 [notebookreview.com]

This is a listing of M1210's that have been fixed under warranty, and their case numbers. So if anybody here has this problem, reference these numbers and Dell will honor their fuck up.

Comment Re:reasons this may not catch on in the US (Score 1) 533

No, this is not the concept I'm referring to. There is no such thing as a 4-way yield intersection. Yield means that you have to merge with traffic that has right of way.

There are only two circumstances I can think of when people need to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. 1)while waiting for your turn. If the intersection is congested, then yes, people need to stop and take turns. 2) If you cannot adequately anticipate oncomming traffic without halting.

If there are only two cars across from each other in a 4-way-stop, and they both want to go straight, then what is the point of coming to a full stop? They will both go by without hinderance. Yes, they need to slow down to a crawl like I said earlier, so they can react to anything unexpected.

Do you guys really come to a full stop when it's clear that there's nobody around?

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