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spingsprong

Re:Designing a URL structure for BBC programmes on Friday September 26, 2014 @04:08AM (#8371803)
Have you ever had personal experience of working for some time at a commercial station?
Re:Poll: Do you use an ad-blocker? on Wednesday September 17, 2014 @12:44PM (#8330902)
Not specifically, but noScript + flashblock ends up blocking many adverts.
Re:Perceptions haven't caught up to decline in crime on Wednesday September 17, 2014 @02:05AM (#8328769)
No, it really isn't. It's about getting viewers, selling newspapers, and getting clicks. And the best way to achieve that is by using strong emotion, usually negative. Fear, hatred, disgust, anger.

I'm not sure how a democracy is supposed to work, when the people voting are being given bad information on such a massive scale.

There are so many important areas when what people believe and what is true are miles apart.

Re:Volumetric Particle Flow on Friday September 12, 2014 @11:41PM (#8311580)
It crashes my browser
There's a lot more to an earthquake than its magnitude on the Richter scale.

Their destructiveness can be increased by many factors, such as the type of ground that buildings are on and the depth of the earthquake.

Re:Inside the world of legalised prostitution in Germany on Sunday August 24, 2014 @02:44AM (#8217903)
With any new industry there's bound to be bugs in the system. Most other industries have laws regulating them going back decades or even over a century. You're not gonna get it perfect from day 1.
Re:Obama orders review of US police use of military hardware on Saturday August 23, 2014 @10:26PM (#8217471)
Politicians often don't have a clue about many subjects, but that's not necessarily too bad a thing.

Politicians should be generalists not specialists. What they should do is surround themselves with experts is specific fields, and consider the advice they give.

Unfortunately, in many nations the politicians more frequently listen to the distorted scare and panic the media has created that week and base their policies on that instead.

Re:WWII Atomic Bomb Project Had More Than 1,500 "Leaks" on Thursday August 21, 2014 @11:20PM (#8210750)
And this is why we landed on the moon.

Seriously. The Manhattan project involved 130,000 people at its peak and lasted four years, and it leaked.

The Apollo program involved 400,000 people at its peak and lasted eleven years.

The Japanese by contrast never developed truly effective airborne radar during WW2, so actually did select the pilots with the best night vision to fly their night fighters.
Re:Solar energy that doesn't block the view on Thursday August 21, 2014 @12:23AM (#8205927)
That percentage will probably be even worse than that, since windows aren't at the best angle or position for solar panels.
Re:Metal Exoskeleton To Be Tested By US Navy on Wednesday August 20, 2014 @08:15AM (#8201993)
I've often wondered how fail safe these things are. If you're lifting 200kg and the system fails, is that 200kg load suddenly being put onto your body?
Re:The Anti-Facebook on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @02:56AM (#8196257)
What happens if somebody wants to join, but the Leads refuse?

If a small minority of Leads can prevent people they don't like from joining, it seems like it risks reinforcing bigotry and intolerance.

Re:Imgur, please don't be the next TinyPic or ImageShack on Sunday August 17, 2014 @02:22PM (#8189996)
I've been more annoyed by websites removing features than adding them.
Re:Questions about Nasa's space drive answered on Thursday August 07, 2014 @09:02AM (#8147453)
"They're claiming to see a force one thousandth as big as the Chinese - probably because they are doing the experiment one thousand times more accurately. And still, some people are excited about this. "

I think he's slipping from skepticism to cynicism here.

Re:Questions about Nasa's space drive answered on Thursday August 07, 2014 @08:06AM (#8147240)
Please be true, please be true!

How big is a two megawatt nuclear power source anyway? A quick search showed nuclear power plants are in the hundreds to low thousands of megawatt range, and RTGs are in the tens to hundreds of watt range. I have no idea what something that lies between those two would be.

Re:If all the ice melted on Sunday August 03, 2014 @04:05AM (#8127412)
One factor that makes Methane not quite as bad as it could be, is it has an atmospheric half-life around 10% of CO2's

So if a lot of Methane does get released into the atmosphere, in a couple of decades most of it will have broken down and disappeared.

Re:Microsoft ordered to hand over emails on Dublin server on Saturday August 02, 2014 @03:17AM (#8124305)
Out of interest, what if Ireland says they must not hand over the info, and the US says they must?
I find that downvote really funny.
I didn't make any argument
Chinese censorship exists to protect the state. EU right to be forgotten protects the individual.

That's a pretty huge difference.

Re:Storing data in Europe won't secure it against US on Friday August 01, 2014 @03:27AM (#8118718)
Just out of interest, what would happen if US courts say they must hand over information, and European courts say they must not?
Re:UK to allow driverless cars on public roads in January on Thursday July 31, 2014 @05:25AM (#8113175)
Couldn't you just as easily reverse that and say, bots have 360 degree vision, superior concentration and reaction times, I hope they're not going to waive that for the humans, even if they do have the ability to recognise potential hazards at a very early point.

Surely the point is to not kill people?

So which is more important, recognising potential hazards early, or unwavering attention and superior concentration? Because although I'm pretty sure it's the humans who're ahead at the moment, but I'm not sure it'll always stay that way. Bots may never match humans at a hazard perception test, but if bot reaction, vision and AI gets good enough, they may not need to.

Re:A Nuclear Probe to Explore Earth’s Interior on Wednesday July 30, 2014 @01:58AM (#8106640)
Would this produce a new volcano?

Or would the magma just freeze as it travels through the relatively cool hole?

A couple of photos of what a smokescreen covering a city looks like http://449th.org/ploesti.php

It's for a German city, but it is the same idea.

Iron Dome calculates the probable impact point of rockets fired at Israel, and only intercepts rockets that are going towards inhabited areas.
Because thorium reactors don't exist?

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