Because if they've managed to make their way all to way to us, they must be organized and unified to a large degree, and that doesn't happen if there is still someone around who wants to wage war. They'd be busy fighting each other for (relatively, as in planetbound) small rewards, like we are. Also, sending an invasion fleet with all the necessary weapons, armour and equipment across the stars would break the back of any planet's economy. Since even a peaceful interstellar expedition would be incredibly expensive, they'll be looking to to recoup some of the costs.

What, you don't agree that the town needs a new chemical weapons dumping site?

Back then it wasn't close to the capital. It was rural farmland and houses weren't built there until the nineties, according to the article.

That and the fact that a large part of the internet lists their birthday as being January 1st, some year that makes them older than eighteen. Personally I find that a single twirl on the scroll wheel of my mouse generally makes me be born somewhere in the late seventies or early eighties these days.

Goodness me, I would have thought that the trade between France and Germany was significantly reduced after France declared war in 1939. Or maybe, you know, after Germany invaded France in 1940. If you had said before 1939 you would have been correct, remember that the USA arrived late for the party that was WWII.

Thank you for the tip, I checked out The Non-Designer's Design Book and promptly ordered it!

Well, at the moment the article is slashdotted, so all we can do is speculate wildly based on the introduction. Which, if you think about it, is what we do best anyway.

That is a good idea, but on the other hand it might not be so cheery for the average Facebooker to have to answer questions when registering about what to do when they (inevitably) die... The logic is obvious, people's reaction to something that might be called morbid is a lot harder to gauge.

The article states that the memorializing function is in part to prevent exactly that from happening.

Your job blocks a PC magazine but not slashdot? As far as time spent/wasted goes, I would have thought this was the site to block.

That depends entirely on where you live, my friend. Here in Norway, some schoolchildren will happily walk to school in -20C on a daily basis during the winter, where I currently live -10C is pretty cold but yet quite normal and certainly doesn't inhibit daily life. And don't even get me started on these wimpy "snow days" that seem to play such a large part of American children's hopes of getting off school.

Sadly, that happens more often then one would think.

The movie Space Cowboys had a similar device, a satellite that would launch a bunch of warheads at the USA when it lost contact with the Motherland (or was approached by other spacecraft). Obviously it started failing, which also would trigger the launch, and the only ones old enough to know how to fix it were Clint Eastwood and his gang! One helluva movie.

But I dare say that military perspective is not on saving fuel costs. After all, why save money by putting in a smaller fuel tank when you can keep it the same size and use the fuel savings to fly further/faster?