I use shapeways stainless steel 3D printing to make parts for physics experiments. It's only useful when the parts are small and can have sloppy tolerances. But in these cases it saves a fortune. I recently had a dozen small parts made for $200 that would have cost $1000 made by conventional machining. You can make screw threads (1/4 - 20 and larger; 10-24 might work) by printing the thread and then chasing the printed thread with a die or tap before use.

I'm not surprised. Probably because we killed all the wolves.

We killed just about all of the bison in North America in the 1870's. We killed them for their skins, and the cows that replace them taste good. We are poorer for it- the great plains are boring and nobody goes there for a safari. It will be an even greater loss if the same happens in Africa, because they still have the top predators that were lost in North America tens of thousands of years ago.

But hey, fuck it, I want a burger.

"...relevant excerpts from powerful TedTalks..."

I threw up a bit in my mouth when I read that.

Um, no. There are many kinds of lawyers out there. Companies of this size either have in-house or outsourced lawyers specifically for the purpose of writing contracts clearly so that things don't end up in litigation when something goes wrong. A lawyer that produces an unambiguous contract, which anticipates how things might go wrong, is a great asset.

I disagree.

Yes, there will always be some chance of a successful attack, but I think it is wise to expend effort to make attacks very difficult. I don't want my president's decisions to be guided by fears for his personal safety. Similarly, I don't want people to avoid becoming president for that reason. Otherwise, those who would threaten the president's safety influence policy. It is hard to conceive of a worse way to make policy, and I am glad that John Wilkes Booth and those who followed him have not had (so far as we know) much influence on policy before their assassinations.

I'm all for taking a step back and reducing policies that make people want to kill Americans. But I don't want that policy decision to be made under threat.

Figuring out anti-drone measures sounds very reasonable to me since the recent advances in drone technology are also applicable to making flying bombs.

Assuming they were motivated by the recent epidemic, they created this marketable test in ~ 6 months. Bravo.

Actually we have lots of control. We are the people buying so much of the plastic stuff made in China; we can make those purchases conditional on how the plastic is made.

What we don't have in the US is the political will to flex that muscle, because it might disrupt someone's profit. So we only flex it to solve little problems, like Pakistani children sewing soccer balls.

Doesn't that mean that if one is counting calories, one should only eat the shit of fat people? ;)

You can. In the case of nested disks with the same focal spot, this is called a zone plate.

Mod parent up.

Most prosecutors have the common sense not to press chid-porn possession charges against minors who photograph themselves. They know a change in the law here is long overdue, and is difficult for legislators because no politician wants to be seen as softening punishments for child pornographers.

We'll see if any prosecutors have the sack to go after cops who spread these photos.

Rolodex 1753, Smith-Corona Super12, roll of stamps.

If misery is the only thing that can stop a population from growing, then that population will grow until it is miserable.

The originals were probably made of naval brass, which has a little tin added to prevent dezincification. Or they might have been cupronickel.

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If misery is the only thing that prevents a population from growing, then a population will grow until it is miserable.