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Comment Not possible until now? (Score 1) 82

I think a reason why AMPAS could do this is because in most of the developed world, over 100 megabits/second download speeds are now easily available over cable TV lines (DOCSIS 3.1 and later), fiber optic line to the home, and now Starlink satellites. As such, everyone can enjoy watching the Oscar ceremonies with at least 720p/1080i resolution with no stuttering nowadays.. Besides, YouTube is ubiquitous almost everywhere, and given Google's server resources, can easily handle all the traffic.

Comment Re: Demented. (Score 1) 72

The demographic that helped put Trump into office was actually Hispanics. Do you think they cared if his opponent was black or not? Or the fact that his opponent came off as a clown that only cared about abortion as the single greatest issue facing the nation?? Or that "new arrivals" were taking the very jobs that they work at?

I'm pretty sure there's a list of reasons where race was not a primary factor. Not to mention that Obama, a black person, was elected president.

When everyone cops out and single mindedly puts their scapegoat excuses front and center, 'demented' people who actually vote will continue to vote for the 'wrong' person.

:

Comment Re: Demented. (Score -1, Troll) 72

The dementia reaches across party lines. The GOP is insufferable in some areas, but the question needs to be asked "exactly how did they get elected?" The reason is a person who was really suffering from dementia wrongly decided they could run and win the presidency a second time.

So just keep that in mind when you throw the "demented" word around. Spoken as a political infependent.

Comment Re:Hydroelectric dams (Score 2) 23

Cute, but I think reality would like a few words:

Planning permission. Especially so in Europe, maybe not such a problem with Trump, apart from the fact he *hates* anything "green".
Geology. Not all ground is suitable for building a heavy structure like a dam, or retaining the water it would hold back, reducing the number of glaciers this could apply to somewhat, and a proper survey can take a lot of time. You definitely do not want to build a dam on unsuitable ground.
Geography. You'd need to be able to get construction materials to the dam, and multiple glaciers may run off into the same valley, reducing the number of potential locations for hydro even further. Also, in the kinds of places where you find a lot of glaciers (mountainous regions, duh!), the valleys tend to be heavily used for things like habitation and agriculture, which would need relocating first.
The clock is ticking. Once the glaciers are gone, your dams are only going to be dealing with runoff from precipitation. Which isn't what it used to be where the glaciers are or the glaciers wouldn't be shrinking in the first place.

So, even with a viable location, you've got to get planning permission, relocate anything in the way, build the dam & turbines, connect it to the grid, and generate as much electricity as you can before... Oh, wait, wasn't there a glacier up there when we started?

Comment Re:Related tidbit (Score 4, Interesting) 71

Which would mean its casing is currently being (or already has been) abraded by the bedrock and all the bits and pieces of gravel and larger detritus that typically lies at the bottom of a glacier and get churned around as the glacier slowly flows downslope. From there, it'll be seeping into the glacial runoff water and, as TFS notes, eventually make its way into the River Ganges.

Of course, if you've actually seen (or smelled) the Ganges once it gets deeper into India, combined with what other purposes the locals use it for, including raw sewage and cremation residue disposal, you'll be well aware that it's far from the most pristine water in the world to start with. Adding a little Pu-239 over a number of years into that soup probably isn't going to make all that much of a difference in the larger scheme of things.

Comment Re:Good (Score 1) 112

Most of those coal-fired power plants are so old that it's cheaper to dismantle them than upgrade them to meet current EPA emissions standards. The likely exception are power plants that use cleaner-burning Powder River Basin coal, and most of those are in central states in the country (Texas is a major consumer of this coal).

With modern fracking technology, most powerplants are now burning compressed natural gas instead of coal, natural gas from multiple sites all over the USA.

Comment "War Is a Racket" (Score 1) 118

> "War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope." -- General Smedley D. Butler

Equipping both sides is totally normal. The US does this all the time. So do other nations. It has been going on in the mid-east for ages.

If you have not heard the Bob Dylan song "Masters of War" in a while, you should listen to it again.

Comment Datacenters are for specific regions (Score 1) 43

The problem is that due to the power needs and the need to cool all that computing equipment, there is actually not that many places where putting in a large AI datacenter is viable.

I can only think of two places: Iceland with its plentiful untapped geothermal power and Norway with its plentiful hydropower and water supply. Indeed, several companies have already started to build large data centers in these two countries.

Comment Re:Proving a Nagative (Score 1) 270

Isn't that the point with things like this? Since I don't have any Facebook/X/etc. accounts, that, and all the other similar online forum sites, is *exactly* what they would get were I ever to visit the US (which is not likely given they seem to be competing with social media to see who can rape the most of my personal data). I also have a wildcarded email domain with different addresses for different companies and a whole bunch of mailing lists that have been around for decades, so they can have a copy of my aliases table too. If whichever poor bastards get to look at it don't need therapy after trawling through all the AC-posted crap and inane flamewars in all that, then I'll be amazed. And as for finding anything I've overlooked and proving it was deliberate concealment... Yeah. Good luck with that!

I would need to see if if you can submit a GDPR request to a federal agency but, if so, then following up with one of those asking for a copy of everything they have on file after getting back home (assuming they approved my visit in the first place after yanking their chain with the above) could be entertaining too. Probably ensure an instant blackball on any future visits, but still - ROFLMFAO! In fact, come to think of it, I might just plan a short trip somewhere in the US just for the Lulz if this ever comes to pass.

Comment Re:Meh. We find life on Mars so what. (Score 1) 99

Yeah, that too. :) However, in practical terms, I'd assume that given enough time, willpower, and a LOT of $$$ we would both solve the environmental challenges and develop a "spacebus" to enable more efficient colonization, so the gene pool would become sufficiently diverse before it becomes a major problem. If not, we already know how that might work out from all of the historic in-breeding of the European royal families, in particular the Hapsburgs, although YMMV on what physical attributes, or personality traits for that matter, will be more likely to be "enhanced" in the Mars colony scenario.

Comment Re:Meh. We find life on Mars so what. (Score 1) 99

Good luck with that. Birth rate might be declining in many countries, but we're still spawning around 100m new humans every year. That's an awful lot of human freight just to break even, and while prioritising shipping those of breeding age to transfer the newborns off-world (with all the physical development complications that likely entails) might help a bit, the reality is there are only two ways we get to point where more humans live offworld:

1. We take a long, long, long, time doing it.
2. A massive die off of those left on Earth.

Either way, the Earth-bound serfs are screwed.

Comment Re:18 Inch Tsunami? (Score 1) 28

I mean, it depends on exactly how fast the water is moving (as well as how deep it is; both things matter). If we're talking normal river current (say, 1 foot per second), most adults can stand in eighteen inches and be fine, if it doesn't catch them off guard. If the current is faster, then it doesn't have to be as deep to have essentially the same effect, or if it's deeper, it doesn't have to be as fast.

There are of course some caveats to the above. One is, once you get past about 4-5 feet deep (depending on the person), you're floating or swimming anyway, so additional depth doesn't matter very much at that point; but additional velocity still makes a difference.

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