Initially, the star would have been very metal*-poor (only a little lithium left over from the big bang.)

Given that star went supernova only 630My post-big bang, it is reasonable to assume it had a minimum mass of 3-4 Msun, and a maximum of probably 10-15 Msun. Those numbers suggest that it did fuse right to nickel.

The interesting thing (what the parent was probably refering to) is not really the final metallicity (which is merely a function of the star's mass) but the initial metalliticy, which cannot.

*To an astronomer, anything heavier than helium is a metal

Because Verizon (nee Bell Atlantic) is so much less of a big telco then the current AT&T (nee Southwest Bell)? Both are spinoffs of Ma Bell who gobbled up as many of their smaller siblings as the could.

That said, competition is a Good Thing.

I worked for NASA, more or less, on an instrument data processing system. My company was a sub-contractor to a company that was contracted to provide a solution when the original contract fell through in providing the system. My company was acquired by another company that was acquired by another company.

Over the three years on that project, the PM changed twice.

Much of the source code was ported from F77 to F90 to C. It was then ported from whatever hardware it started in to IRIX then Linux. Very few people understood what it did, only that it "worked".

Every other day there was a meeting to discuss something, either at the other building, or at the remote office.

We used clearcase instead of something sane, like cvs.

Individually, any one of those would not be too bad, but put them all together and you have a mess that doesn't really work.

In all seriousness, 12.7 MW seems rather small for a $6 billion price tag.

I think having the ad for the device on a page that generates negative press for the item would almost certainly generate more click-through traffic than a random ad would on the same page.

Even if it didn't result in a sale of the advertised item, it is still traffic to the seller where the result might be sale of a different item.

e.g. Kindle sucks, but I go to read Amazon's kindle spiel, since I see the ad right there, but then decide to buy the latest Star Wars/Harry Potter/whatever book since I was going to anyway and now I just happen to be on Amazon. Win for Amazon (as seller), win for Google (as referer).

Sorry, Washington has to be in that mix.

US Constitution, Article I, section 10:
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.