Posts by Charles 9

Each one has pros and cons.

While planting trees sounds easy, each area has its own ecosystem that adds externalities and complications. Get it wrong and you end up worse off.

Research into iron fertilization is still ongoing with, as expected, unanticipated side effects such as algal blooms and increasing deep-ocean acidification.

As for kelp, most of it grows in coastal waters, meaning potential farming sites are limited (especially in areas where coastal waters are already in use for other purposes). Not to mention many countries already cultivate kelp (especially places like Japan, who have a taste for kombu and wakame among other types).

But, when it comes to nuclear-powered nonmilitary vessels, they DO have more experience than anyone else (being the first IINM to produce a nuclear-powered icebreaker ship to keep their north coast clear for shipping).

In general, I do echo the wonder why container ships and other huge haulers don't use reactors (as most are diesel-electric anyway so wouldn't need to significantly alter their drivetrains). From what I've read, there are multiple things in the way (though not it seems nuclear proliferation, as there are shipborne reactors that can operate on ~5% enrichment which is within reason). Most are cost-related: insurance liabilities and increased decommissioning costs.

So there's hope. The numbers just need to line up better.

Re: Hydrogen

"Cement is carbon-positive in manufacture, but is carbon-negative in use - the very process of it curing is re-absorbing the carbon expelled from it."

Nope. The process of making portland cement turns calcium carbonate into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide: in about a 2-to-1 ratio. Although the curing process reverses this, it never does it at a comparable rate (think the stuff deep inside which becomes nigh-gas-tight). About the only way to reduce this is to swap out calcium carbonate for wollastonite, which isn't nearly as abundant: certainly not enough to feed current cement demand (current research into dealing with this still requires specialized equipment--not practical for say underwater applications--remember one key advantage of concrete: it hardens even underwater). Not to mention the process of making portland cement requires using kilns (read: very hot ovens) that require fuel. Last I checked, there isn't really a carbon-neutral way to heat something, especially to high temperatures (you either direct combust fuel which pretty much always has carbon in it or use electricity which just moves the problem elsewhere).

Then you have the steel, which as we know is an allow of iron and carbon. There's no way to avoid using carbon in making steel because of both its necessary composition and the fact you need forges to produce it which, again, require heat sources which are nigh-inevitably carbon-positive. And unlike cement, carbon that goes into steel stays in steel if you want them to maintain their structural integrity.

Re: Hydrogen

Except most will tell you your average nuclear plant has a high carbon footprint in its construction due to the large amounts of concrete and steel involved (both hopelessly carbon positive--Portland cement is carbon-positive and you can't make steel without carbon).

Which is no good if you're already going through a VPN, as Android doesn't support VPN chaining.

Re: How do you tell their age?

I thought the most dangerous ones are the hopelessly IT-illiterate who also happen to be over IT's head. They're the type who can say, "Who hired this clown?" and get his way.

Re: How do you tell their age?

Because, more often than not, their trust has been betrayed. Worse, the betrayal tends to happen in positions not conducive to forceful termination (Meaning, what do you do when it's the people up top that demand the insecurity?).

Re: TL;DR - The Constitution is working as intended ...

I'm waiting for someone to just up and say ink on a page and ignore the whole thing and have the power to actually back it up. If Trump's radical base decides enough is enough and pick up their guns, we could be seeing a new Civil War here.

Re: nothing can eclipse the constitution. Nothing.

Ask the Korean storekeepers in the LA Riots. And they couldn't count on the police then because they were the targets of the rioters.

Re: "could lead to biased decision-making"

Same here, and there are no substitutes (mail and phone service unreliable where they live), and the family system means they won't take no for an answer.

Re: @lglethal -- Guns or the people using them?

"Start small, and set examples. Encourage and educate as best you can, and encourage others to do the same."

Problem is if the people in power WANT the status quo AND has few if any scruples. Just look at who's running the show right now..AND he was ELECTED.

Re: Guns or the people using them?

And who's going to have the power to actually make that happen? Probably not the huddled masses. These kinds of "changes of administration" usually come from those of an autocratic (and sociopathic) bent.

Re: inspired by 8chan

And still MORE were run over. Name me one other time in American history where so many Americans were killed in a single incident.

Re: @Charles. So, since 1961 ...

Where I'm REALLY afraid is that you CAN'T write off the USA as a lost cause because that risks writing off THE WORLD as a lost cause, given all the military firepower the US possesses (basically, they're a Giant in the Playground: possessing of enough destructive power to ruin the world single-handedly and just waiting for the wrong person to come along).

Re: @Kiwi ... "You can [..] draw a conclusion that bad actors are going to [..] do bad things."

But what about Stupid WITH enough nukes to turn the whole world radioactive green? This isn't something you can just ignore since there's always the risk of someone willing to go M.A.D. there.

Re: "Rational Gun Control"

"Is your piddly little pea-shooter going to keep you alive against the US army, or the air force, or the navy or the navy's air force?"

The Vietnamese and Somalis seemed to be able to hold their own despite all the firepower we could've brought to bear. Perhaps home turf advantage means something...

Re: "Rational Gun Control"

But what about lower death, QUESTION MARK, not just from guns? Remember, not one gun death in Oklahoma City OR 9/11.

Re: But that means you don't trust ANYONE and you're essentially an anarchist.

But because they're digital, they can just counter, "You're faking it, you edited it, and you faked the signature because you have the key somehow." Plus what if the device in question crashes or gets hacked. Thus why anything important I keep hard copies. It's a LOT harder to hack paper (you basically can only resort to arson at that point). And it's easier for me to record a landline call thanks to the answering machine, which thanks to it being offline, can't be countered with the hacking excuse.

Re: Use Mozilla 1.0

Until you apply for benefits or such and learn you MUST use a modern browser and Java script to even try. And there's no alternative to a GOVERNMENT website.

Re: In a paper titled, "All Your Clicks Belong to Me: Investigating Click Interception on the Web,"

"...to US."

But seriously, if you want to stop this, there are two complementary ways to do it. Thing is, both require a way of thinking contradictory to today's business practices.

First, strip down HTML rather than add onto it. It should only contain tags and functions pertinent to itself as a page. CSS can be permitted as long as the rules and so on remain local. Which goes to the second point.

Second, Web content needs to be strictly hierarchical. Content can only be served relatively: from the same directory or from a subdirectory. This would have the added benefit of making the content containerizable: easier to archive AND to assign legal liability.

Re: Can someone explain:

I wonder if ISPs will be forced to go full encrypted proxy as a counter...

I thought they just hijacked port 53 so that ANYTHING going to that port gets handled by the ISP. DoT specifically won't stop this because it still uses a dedicated port which can be hijacked wholesale.

Re: Mozilla are only partly right

I'm saying what's to stop Quad 9's records being altered without your knowledge. It's not like you have any truly reliable way to check on the fly.

Re: The right to repair isn't enough

They'll probably counter by patenting a new battery technology and hiding behind it. Didn't they try that for screws?

They'll just claim (and have his buddies the blue line back him up) that they all suffered accidents, plus since they know about the cameras, they'll know ways to destroy them and make them look like accidents.

"This country really needs some kind of agency or organization set up for the sole purpose of providing oversight of our law enforcement system..."

But that just moves the goalpists. How do you ensure the oversight bureau doesn't become corrupt. Or to turn the old question, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

"It was only when the C128 came out that they finally relented."

No, what happened was that the C64's hardware shared aspects with the VIC-20, its less-powerful predecessor. When the C128 came out (I used to own one), they could both fix and upgrade the hardware (thus the double-sided 1571 disk drive that was introduced alongside).

Re: This is hilarious.

"Why blame the users, for the utter shitshow that is internet security."

Why blame the drivers for the utter shitshow that is the typical national road network?

As the song goes, "That's just the way it is. Some things will never change."

Plainly put, humans suck when it comes to large groups. We're built for tribal/clan organizations, really. Plus security and ease of use can be at odds (classic example being your front door), creating dilemmas for people looking for rock-hard turnkey solutions (aka looking for an idiot-proof Internet your Grandma can just pick up and use--Good F'N Luck).

Re: An issue of Google's own making ...

Actually, it does help security because it prevents a malware injection in the transport (a la Chinese Cannon). The world of the Internet today pretty much necessitates 100% encrypted transport because you can't be sure ANY unencrypted transport won't be usurped and turned into an attack vector.

Re: I still wait for Let's Authenticate...

"In the sense that you know you are talking to the owner of that cert it will always be safer."

Not necessarily. What if the cert was stolen...or made using a stolen identity? Sure, the cert says it was issued to X, but how can you be sure X is X, just as how can you be sure Bob is really Bob and not Eve, Mallory, or Gene who took on Bob's identity?

Re: Sure there are potential exploits against paper

"the voting districts inside the Beltway and in the Tidewater area, all heavily urbanized and the first areas one would expect to report. . . .never do."

And, therefore, having the most people in them, which in turn means they have the most votes to count as well as the most logistics to negotiate. I know of this firsthand as I happen to BE an urban Virginian.

You may be interested to know that HR and NorVA don't always see eye to eye, but since NorVA has more people and is right next door to the nation's capital, they tend to have more clout. The only reason HR can maintain some say is because it's a military nexus (they house Naval Station Norfolk, THE biggest military base in the US). Neither can directly influence the capital of Richmond, as it happens to be plumb in between them (two hours northwest of HR, three-plus hours south of NorVA). Also, eastern Virgina tends to have very different views from that of the more-rural western Virginia (especially in such matters as transportation, where the two sides' priorities vastly differ though for logical reasons), so seeing a sudden pullaway when the most populous, most divergent parts of the Commonwealth get counted is expected.