Energy efficiency vs energy shortage is analogous. And when these ultimately short term methods of energy production are exhausted, the poor will die in droves.

That's why we're having this discussion: Unlike the current majority of energy sources, fusion is a potentially limitless source - or as limitless as the water in our oceans. Limitless energy also makes it a little easier to grow more food. For example, given cheap energy, it becomes simple to desalinate seawater.

Fusion is difficult, REALLY difficult. But once it gets working, it will provide abundantly cheap energy with relatively few side effects. The availability of fusion will trigger a revolution similar to the beginning of the industrial age. Cheap, clean energy with no dependence on hateful towel-heads - what's not to like?

Fusion is a long-term project, so whoever funds it risks not seeing the rewards. So all those who could be funding research are holding back in hopes that someone else will do the work for them. Shareholders demand consistent and predictable profits, so the standard capitalist model of venture capitalization no longer works for powering "ventures" in the original sense of the word.

Wouldn't it be funny if they got it working in China, say, or Japan, and they'd end up collecting lifetimes of royalties from the US?

I would love to see this (both the expensive high-power stuff and the cheap off-chance research) funded much more heavily by the governments of the world.

I get the feeling some of you folks are hopelessly off the page. Most of the Slashdot crowd are familiar with the 3 Abrahamic religions and think that other religions are vastly different or diverse. Not so; while the details differ, here is the basis of every religion:

Every religion is based on faith, which is a belief which must be accepted without evidence. This central premise is the scaffold on which all other trimmings of a religion are hung, including

• worship and other rituals
• a set of rules for "good living"
• social group cohesion

The "item of faith" is almost always a supernatural being, one or more supernatural events, or both. Examples:

• There is an omnipotent being who created the world.
• You will be re-incarnated. (even in the absence of the omnipotent being above, e.g. in Buddhism)
• Some people have supernatural powers to (e.g.) heal disease, read minds, cause infertility, levitate objects or curse your family.

None of these supernatural claims are provable. Faith is belief in the absence of proof, and that's exactly what's underneath all religions. Anyone who fails to believe the unbelievable supernatural claims drops out of the religion.

Now, was that so complicated? Or do you have any good arguments or examples to the contrary?

onyxruby, I get the impression you don't understand what Wikileaks is about, and are setting up an army of straw men to wage war on.

wikileaks are no more parasites of the technology world than any other site on the Internet. Rather, they serve a useful function: It is not the purpose of wikileaks to expose the personal information of "normal" individuals, nor stuff like credit card data. They release information, where it becomes known, of wrongdoings of corporate and/or government institutions and/or employees/agents, the disclosure of which is in the public interest because these wrongdoings would otherwise remain secret and cause damage to individuals or society. wikileaks is essentially a safe outlet for whistleblowers.

Reading the rest of your post, it looks to me like "I fail to see" is the overall theme. I feel you should have at least tried to inform yourself before starting to rant.

He's looking for someone to do a relatively simple DB-related job. He's asking a few questions that should be dead simple for anyone who's only so much as worked through tutorials in a few related subjects. It ain't rocket science.

You talk about "foreign formats," about not expecting academics to have practical experience, you talk about "tailored toward job postings"... but those are all hand-waving and pretty feeble excuses for not having a clue of basic concepts of the job they're applying for. No employer should be obligated to hire morons unless it's to do with Affirmative Action. If they can't handle this kind of stuff they should submit their application to MacDonalds.

I find it hard to believe it's so hard to get a hold of people with such basic skills. But if it's true, the educational system is deeply flawed and we need fixes, not excuses.

I agree completely with Tom. von der Leyen is an idiot who has been hitched to the cart of Big Music. She's also known for her pro-Christian nutjob tendencies.

Nobody would mind if she ended up being sacrificed. The music industry, who had been among the first to congratulate her on this move, are giddy with glee about the fact that the kiddie porn wedge has deflated the formerly simple argument about Internet surveillance and blocking being too expensive. Now that the apparatus is in place, it's available to anyone willing to bribe the right people.

Oops... I'm very sorry about the inaccuracy above. Of course what I fiddled with was not AdBlockPlus but NoScript.

Hi Unitron, and thanks for the helpful info!

I had the same problem as AC, where I didn't have those menu buttons up top.

I think that (at least for me) that weirdness is a side effect of AdBlockPlus. It's not enough to allow slashdot.org, you also have to allow fsdn.com . That's what I did and the funny effects went away.

No, I was and still am hoping to see Libby, Rove and Cheney in three separate nooses, please. I'm sure that even in times of financial crisis, the US of A should have enough money to buy each high traitor to the country a rope of his own.

Although, on second thought, I'd be OK with having them hung serially with the same rope.

SmallFurryCreature, I disagree with your statements about how (summarized) this IP ban is a step on a slippery slope toward arbitrary censorship. Your handwringing is emotional but not cleanly argued. Here are my responses:

Your statement that the CoS is being shut out of Wikipedia is false, and you have received a number of responses pointing this out. In effect, Wikipedia is merely making it more inconvenient for CoS to vandalize their content. Vandalize? Yes, see the next point:

Wikipedia has instituted a process for submitting information (including changes thereto) and for keeping content as factually correct as possible, given the circumstances. The CoS has knowingly broken the rules. Stopping CoS, at least in part, from subverting the proven effective process, is not just Wikipedia's right but their obligation. Most users operate on the assumption that Wikipedia's content is factual, provable and unbiased. Their process has been shown to be effective, on the whole, thus so as not to disappoint their user's expectations, they are applying said process.

Wikipedia represents "the knowledge of the world." Unless and until they manage to "clear the planet," the world is bigger than Scientology. What they're doing is interfering with the rest of mankind documenting the current state of their knowledge. If CoS wants documentation of their own view of things, then they're welcome to set it down in a less global venue.

The fact that CoS willingly, knowingly and repeatedly break the rules must make the rest of us question their ethics. In fact, Scientology ethics do perceive Scientology to be above the laws of the rest of the world, based on the notion that the CoS is more capable of making informed decisions on behalf of the rest of humanity. It is precisely because of this self-righteousness, which extends logically to demand the overthrowal and replacement of currently acting governments, that the CoS has been declared illegal/unconstitutional in a number of enlightened countries, of which the USA is unfortunately not one.

On the other hand, the past tense of "own" is indeed "owned."

Well done, The Warlock!

I love how slashdot posts these creationism stories to stir up the flamewars and mock the religious.

I feel that mocking the religious is one of the most noble enterprises that people with working brains can engage in.

IMHO, religion is at the root of many of the world's troubles and stands solidly in the way of mankind's progression to a state of greater understanding, wisdom and gentleness.

That, and Creationism and its many sub-stories are so ludicrous that no additional mockery is required.

I agree with the parent too.

To the C# aficionados out there: Something to take into consideration is that the OP is on the eastern side of the Atlantic. VB and C# rule in the US, Java is stronger in Europe.

C++ is good if you want to be hardcore. C is underneath lots of stuff but not so much modern commercial development. And as a former professional FORTRAN programmer, I don't recommend specializing in FORTRAN any more.

Although I agree with your sentiment, I deplore your use of the phrase "they could care less".

Realize it or not, the fact that Government is screwing the people is related to the fact that people accept lies as truth. "Could care less" means caring a lot, which is exactly the opposite of what you mean to say. It's the same kind of thing as instituting a program called the PATRIOT act to screw the citizens, or saying "we do not torture" but vetoing a ban on waterboarding. Democracy is damaged when the truth is; and truth is shaped by language. Call me crazy for taking this seriously, but I do.