Who may tell the motives that lead Marx to his theories, be it reading too much Hegel, the appalling conditions of industrial workers, middle class quilt, or the liaison he had with one of his father's household maidservants. Be it as it may, I feel it is immaterial, we should look at Marxism as a set of living preferences, such as (very good)education for all, the use of machine to free man from menial labor, leisure time for the pursuit of artistic drives(however broad you want to make 'artistic' e.g. hacking :) ), the eradication of cities in favor of urbanized and industrialized rural living, all of which I believe sounds appealing to the most of geekdom. Marx was no reformer, and there is no need to apologize for it, certainly better men were reformers, for certainly conditions have changed.

Haha, I very much hope you're kidding, higher profit margin than oil? What are the cost of royalties, pumping and delivering middle eastern oil? Perhaps 5%, at most 10%? I very much doubt a 2nd generation fusion reactor would have higher profit margins than oil. Deep sea oil could be pumped at perhaps 30 dollars a barrel, injecting massive amounts of money in industry and research, nearly 100% safe from eventualities, and yet... they are not willing, because a 60% profit margin is an insult to their "abilities". These people don't sell energy, they sell magic, because if they sold something as ordinary as energy, prices would eventually and continuously drop. Even after the green/nuclear/collapse revolution, it is likely fossil fuels will still account for at least 10% of global energy consumption for a couple hundreds of years.

Biofuels without subsidies are entirely possible, look at Brazil's sugar cane industries.

But that's not really the issue, the issue is "food production". Fertile soil is hardly the most abundant thing around, and the fertilizing of soil certainly not an engineering feat that warrants the words "easy" nor "cheap".

Perhaps the scientific community should start minding the business opportunities they make possible...

The only difference is the impact each one has on sun light trapping, carbon dioxide being one that affects it the least on the list of gases we would rather weren't on the atmosphere. Methane for example is 20 time worse than CO2, and has a much longer cycle if I'm not mistaking, some gases can be even 200 times worse than CO2.

So each gas impacts global warming, each affects it in different exponential factors, and each has its own cycle(2 years, 5 years, 20 years). I just can't see how we would be better off not burning syngas, and if it can be made lucrative, all its issues could be theoretically easily solved. I for one welcome our acid rain overlords, if we can avert melted ice caps and global crop failure, and spike in cooling/heating consumption(order independent).

May not one generalize in peace anymore? Well, with such stupid trains of thought by the audience, perhaps it should be discouraged altogether, I apologize. Are you perhaps a Reverend's heir?

(the following comment is wholly based on the musings of a deranged mind, and should in no way be used by the defense team)

Of course the kid is a sociopath, he's a Reverend's son in f'ing Ohio, we all have a vague idea of what's expected from a Reverend's son(Nietzsche comes to mind), and more importantly a Reverend's DAUGHTER(you know what I am talking about...), so either by inherently twisted conditions, or self fulfilling prophecies, not a pretty picture.

Now, Halo 3 was released in September 25,2007, and copy was confiscated in October 2007, I for one marvel at the stupidity of interrupting someone in the middle of "Halo fever" and would personally like to privy to the logic that lead to Master Chief's imprisonment. Moreover I would like to know the father's/mother's preference on how the boy should spend his time, their individual commitment level in order to make their wishes observed, and who actually paid for the Xbox360, the Halo 3 copy, and (perhaps) Xbox Live subscription.

To those wondering, I'm not trying to justify the crime(at least not consciously), and here I take the tangential high road, but the "glorious" economic imperative of trying to make leaders out of children despite all costs, is wholly depriving said children of the love for semantics, and logic, moreover of aesthetics, knowledge, metaphysics(ie: the certain level of religiosity/spirituality most would be willing to have if they weren't force-fed the dried crap of old) and ethics. I feel the begetting of heirs for its own sake is wholly outmoded, and should be throughly reevaluated.

The numbers for solar cells are, if I remember correctly, around 1000watts per mÂ(meters squared). Now what matters is efficiency, (in relation of those 1000 watts per m of possible production), durability, production decay(along the years of the cell's life), and price. The process sounds simple enough, glass plates are cheap, durable, environment friendly enough, but the relevant is unfortunately information is missing...