Wrong. Genetic stories on this site constantly have comments that would be answered with a quick year or two in medical school (or some Google for you auto-didacts). Even if we assume that "average slashdotter" knows more than "average person" it has been my experience that a doctor will still know more.

What do you think is at the top of the bore? They're sampling the lake but at the top is just a hose that sprays whatever they find into the environment? It takes a long string of implausibly (impossibly?) disastrous outcomes to cause any concern whatsoever.

Well, er, me. The carbon-based part is the complicated fun bit.

There are a variety of genetic factors that contribute to autism spectrum disorder, but none of them are sufficient to explain all cases of the disease yet, nor why it is so variable. Possible explanations include environmental factors, still-unknown genetic factors, or the broad definition for what actually constitutes autism.

Eureka is surprisingly fun, if that question wasn't rhetorical.

Would you mind elaborating on that? It sounds like you're saying that Facebook hasn't changed much, which would be ridiculous. What's this whole internets thing anyway? I could buy things before that, couldn't I? And talk to people remotely, and send letters. Yeah it's not the same as saying the internet hasn't changed anything, but it's only because Facebook is part of the internet. Go to any college campus, anywhere, and find someone with a laptop. 999 times out of 1000, that person has Facebook open. If that isn't changing things, what is?

It's not the "same thing," despite what Glenn Beck may have told you.

Depending on the severity of the attacks it might be the technical equivalent of blockading the building's door for an indeterminate amount of time. Also, since you don't have to physically have people there to protest, your "technical" protest can be a lot more effective with a lot less participation. Equivalent, I'd say not.

It's probably in the PATRIOT Act somewhere...

If you're using your sperm, the offspring won't be genetically identical to you since the production of sperm has already shuffled your genes around. So technically all the child's genetic material would be a subset of yours, but would not be identical. The easiest example of this is that you could create a female using two sperm from the same father, provided you get two sperm carrying X chromosomes (neither Y); both X chromosomes would be identical to each other - and to every X chromosome in your cells - but the offspring would be female, not a clone of the father. If you've had some basic biology you may recall good old Punnett Squares. If so, the combination of sperm from a single father to create offspring is the same as doing a self cross in plants.