I had thought that the argument of nuclear power plants becoming military targets was a purely hypothetical one because nobody with a little bit of rationality left inside his brain would attack a nuclear power plant next to their own country. Until yesterday...

APIs have different complexities. There are simple APIs that shouldn't be eligible for copyright because they don't meet the minimum standards of originality (from the viewpoint of an experienced programmer). They only serve as a technical construct needed for interoperability of modules. But Java is not one of them. It has a huge library with many interacting classes and class member functions. Typically, in object-oriented languages, the interface code is a large part of the total amount of code. I think it needs to be decided on a case-by-case basis whether an API can get copyright. The really stupid decision by Google was to use a proprietary language like Java for Android and not an open-source language.

Are these numbers right? 5.6g gold per TV sounds too high. That is about 1/5oz, which would be worth about 250$.

This ruling was made by the German Federal Court of Justice, which is the highest court unless questions of constitutionality are involved. The plaintiff claimed that this is the case and announced that they will now go to the German Federal Constitutional Court. So the ruling could still be overthrown.

http://ixsoft.de/ is a Linux shop in Germany that offers netbooks with all kinds of Linux distros preinstalled, so I assume the netbooks they use are compatible. One model they offer is the Acer Travelmate B117M, which Acer targeted at the educational sector. It is robust, has a non-glare display and a replacable battery.

Solar thermal collectors that can boil water have existed for decades. You don't need concentration for that, simply use a black absorber plate with pipes under a glass plate and put a vacuum between the absorber and the glass. Selective absorbers or glasses will improve the efficiency.

There are two problems with it: The generated steam will have a low temperature not much above boiling water. Most industrial applications need process steam of a much higher temperature (although there are some exceptions).

There are also problems with the two-phase flow of the steam-water mixture in the pipes, which is generally unstable and difficult to control. Technically it is much easier to concentrate sunlight, use an oil with a high boiling point as the carrier liquid and use it to generate the steam in a seperate unit.

The CSU is no longer opposition. Since the election in 2014, Munich is governed by a coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD) and the conservatives (CSU). Linux was introduced when a coalition of the SPD and the Green Party held the government with Christian Ude (SPD) as mayor. Ude fully supported the migration. The new mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) is more critical and did not object in an interview to being characterized as a "Microsoft fan". He was involved in the negotiations about Microsoft moving its HQ into the city. The new deputy mayor Schmid (CSU) also critized Linux shortly after the election.

Trans-fat does not only occur in margarine or other hydrogenated vegetable oils, but also in butter, which contains up to 4% trans-fat (of the total fat content). While this is less than in most (but not all) margarines, it is not insignificant.

Doxygen doesn't cost anything and is very useful for exploring an unknown C++ code. You should configure it to include private functions and the source code browser. Then you can navigate through the source/reference with a simple web browser, and it will allow you to dive deeper into the details when necessary and easily backtrack after it.

It might be true that the ovens need to be run with different parameters or even built differently, but taking the wet garden and kitchen waste out of the mix is a good thing. Obviously some energy goes into drying the wet components before they can burn. Also, if the burning plant is used for electricity generation (and many plants in Europe are hybrid, i.e. they produce both electricity and heat), then burning at a hotter temperature produces more electricity out of the same amount of trash (see Carnot's law of thermodynamics).

Crowdfunding works only together with reputation. If you simply give money to any unknown person who starts a project, then it's your own fault if they run away with it. Reputation means that creators seeking funding need to do their first few projects for free until there are enough fans who believe that the creator will really deliver and who like the quality of the previous products.

If you have a user account at Wikipedia, you can disable the fundraiser ads in My Preferences -> Gadgets -> Suppress display of the fundraiser banner.

Great pilot episode. I will definitely continue watching. I just wish they had a Flattr button. I like to set myself a limit on my monthly donations to free culture projects. I would donate to them this way.