Thorium fission.

Awesome potential. No research to speak of (compared to the 'other' nuclear fission).
That one will need a lot-lot-lot of research to become economically viable. Yes, we all know the articles that pop up from time to time and the fact that it was researched in the past and all 'forgotten' because it couldn't make Pu. And that everywhere around the world there are small cells of underfunded, understaffed, under-appreciated researchers still working on it.
Personally I'd very much like the tech being available and ready for use. But it isn't. And as long as there is no corporate America or scientific Europe or 'communist' China willing to sink some major time+money in it, it won't happen. India seems to work on something in that direction but even then, how many decades do you think it'll take before that is going somewhere and is your country willing to import an Indian reactor model? And when it does... there will be certification which will take more time+money. And when we have that certification for a particular set-up, we'll need to convince all those NIMBYs it really isn't all that bad.
When the first Thorium reactor opens at last we probably have ITER already breaking the net-energy barrier and all of us who are having this discussion here, retired and chasing kids off our lawns. That is ... unless someone starts a Manhattan style project for Thorium fission about ... now.
There is much more research going on in improving efficiency of solar and wind and even in nuclear fusion than there is on Thorium. The way I see it currently, the world will have efficient renewables covering most of the energy production (certainly for domestic use) first, then a break-through in fusion and the first solely-built-for-commerce fusion plant one decade later. The second generation fusion plants in another decade will make energy so abundant we no longer want to pump oil but rather generate the fuel from thin air... And then somewhere in half a century a dusty old tech museum, only we granpas tend go to, opens an exhibition about the energy source that never happened. The exhibition is called 'The Thorium Cycle'. The youths we just chased off our lawns just won't care... or if they have an interest in antiquated tech will take the full immersion virtual tour from their couch.

I tend to disagree. I did read Snow Crash and found it a rather enjoyable (and not too long of a) story. To compare it to 'Ron' I'd consider quite a low, even for an AC. As I remember it didn't really have math in there and maybe that did put you off if you were looking for it in there specifically...

(spoilers)
. ... but the fallen internet-samurai turned pizza deliverer possessing hardware way above his current standards due to his past exploits, jacking in again to the virtual world to ('further', it's already quite dystopian at the start of the story) prevent its and the real worlds melt-down due to a mixed virtual/real primordial language/idea based virus/drug makes for quite a good story.
.
(end spoilers)

Well ... that one line synopsis really did as much justice to the work as the shavings on a snow-cone do the the north pole :P
If Cryptonomicon is as good as almost everyone here claims it is I should get me a copy :) I'm not a massive SF reader, preferring high fantasy more but I've read and enjoyed quite some books more or less SF.

Here in the Netherlands we increasingly need to... Various government taxes already can only, be handled online. Currently the taxes that can only be handled online are those for all (small and large) businesses. And if those businesses refuse they are put out of business. Individuals can still get a paper form for their income tax but it's already strongly discouraged. More and more parts of the government are going an online-mostly or only route, not only for additional stuff but the essentials.

Many businesses stopped sending bills through 'snail' mail. Most communication businesses (telephone, cable and internet providers) were the first to do so. Banks are decreasing their number of offices throughout the country rapidly. Most of the time only the major cities still have one (1) office where you can do your banking business. (Such an office would have to serve ten of thousands of customers if not a majority was doing his/ber banking online.) For the rest they only offer online services. The least expensive health-insurers (with the basic package) only offer you service if they can send bills electronically and medicine can only be ordered through an internet-apothecary (after you get a prescription by a certified GP or specialist of course).

With other things, not interacting online causes a hefty financial penalty. Getting your receipts through mail is a value-added option, not included in the basic packages for those businesses still offering it that don't have to send you the actual goods by mail (like shops... which are cheaper most of the time, by the way, if you order the goods online). The best deals on contracts for electricity, cooking gas, all insurances, savings accounts, mortgages and other financial products, communication products, etc. are found online.
If you want to access the educational system, you have to be online, if only it was to sign up for an actual school or university (for college education or equivalents or better).

A person in the Netherlands which doesn't have access to the internet has either a very poor standard of living or a very high one (because he can afford to opt-out).

I would say, here in the Netherlands the ability to have an internet connection capable of doing all this described above is a right. Of course that does not imply you should get a connection for free. You should still pay a proper (but also limited) fee for your connection if you decide to use the services of a provider that provides you with said internet connection. The providers however are (and increasingly so) regulated, for example, by means of laws for things like net-neutrality and the anti-telecoms-monopoly agency OPTA. And there are also government subsidies for providers willing to implement connections to places less profitable. Which is all fair, considering you can't really live in the Netherlands without having an internet connection of some sorts.

*Sprays drink through nose upon keyboard

Why isn't there a route with a ferry through the Bering strait nowadays? The wonderful, carbon-dioxide induced temperatures should make that one easy to pull off, you'd think ;)

I didn't know 1 euro converts to $2.48 these days.

Because in the Netherlands (fourth cheapest on the chart) the retail price, including VAT and alcohol taxes at one of the more expensive supermarkets of 500ml premium beer (Grolsch in this instance; also one of the more expensive 'normal' beers) is about € 1. That should be somewhere around $1.20-1.30... No way beer is on average twice that amount for half a liter!

Link to webshop of supermarket: http://webwinkel.ah.nl/process?search_parameter=grolsh&catacodestyle=AH&action=albert_noscript.modules.build

Minimum wage before state insurances and income tax in the Netherlands for everyone 23 and older is €1,456.20 on basis of a 40 hours week. This is about €1,230 after taxes.

http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/minimumloon/vraag-en-antwoord/hoe-hoog-is-het-minimumloon.html

40 hours = 2400 minutes. 1,230/2400 = 51.25 €cents / minute. Which would make a Dutch person on minimum wage work 1 minute and 57 seconds for his beer.

With 'public' I meant a government working for its citizens.. at least, in a country where government functions, has also the interest of the public in mind and gets evaluated by its citizens, for example through a system of elections. It's true that 'public' works with $$$ as well but it doesn't work with $$$ for $$$ sake as most $$$ based groups do (call them corporations, if you want). There lies the difference. A country with not too much of a debt can be independently wealthy. It's got resources, an infrastructure and a tax paying population. That governments now have a problem extracting & spending enough $$$ isn't because there isn't enough $$$. I would even say there is too much of it. It's partly because of bad government, partly because certain $$$ groups preyed on the 'public', partly external circumstances. Amongst others, the rising prices of finite resources because we're going through them at an alarming rate.

There is still something called 'law', where you come from, I hope? You know, that which, amongst other things, can put limits on the things you and everybody else can do with $$$. That stuff that's made and updated by politicians, applied by the DOJ and other governmental bodies and examined and judged for fairness by judges and lawyers. $$$ shouldn't be a primary motivation with this 'law' thing. It should also look at things like morals, fairness, basic human freedoms. If $$$ was a primary motivation with this 'law' thing, I would call that corruption.

In extent, if 'public' would equate primarily to $$$ I would call that corruption too.

That depends on your political and economic points of view. I'm actually more in favour of a 'Rhineland model' economy myself and have a slightly socialist political bias. In the U.S. that would translate as 'communist', probably. Here it would be 'liberal socialist'.

Interesting to note here is that the German government is considering German fossil fuel power plant holders to forbid to shut down their plants. Those plant holders of course are now asking that same government for MORE subsidies (they are already subsidized) to comply or threaten to close anyway.
They can't compete any more with the low energy prices in summer because that's when renewables generate 'too much' power. However, the plants are still needed for a stable power supply and also for enough power in winter.

German news article: http://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2012-09/kraftwerk-abschalten-regierung
Dutch news article: http://www.nu.nl/economie/2910227/duitsland-overweegt-uitschakelverbod-kolencentrales.html
Unfortunately I couldn't find an English language article about this.

Amongst other things, questions are now raised seriously if liberalizing the energy market in Germany wasn't actually a bad thing in hindsight. If plants were still under government control, it would be a government issue. Now government has to ask business 'pretty, pretty please?'.
Everyone speaks $$$ now because we made ourselves dependent on $$$. I'm leaving it up to discussion what's better done by $$$ and what's better off in 'public' hands but things can change ... quickly, if they have to.
An accelerated sea-level rise would be such a thing because it would threaten half my nation with flooding (I am a Dutch citizen if you're wondering, living near the German border).

They will use WiFi triangulation to be location aware instead? :P

It seems it's the GPS clock signals they want to use here. When those are dropped I guess they'll fall back on their own atomic clocks. It might be a little less accurate 'though.

From T*A:

Nothing in there about GPS being essential. Just needs 'multiple modern clock references'.

Partly, yes.
I'm a programmer (mostly... but also software designer, code maintainer... and sysadmin and support etc. Small company, must be flexable). When I'm working on new algorithms or squashing bugs that 'go deep into the system' affecting multiple different parts of the code, I'm sometimes at work staring at a problem I can't seem to solve (sometimes for a whole day) or I have the feeling I solved it badly (for example when my solution introduces a lot of extra overhead). Then I go home, make dinner, have some off-time hours, go to sleep and wake up. In that time period, I am unconsciously processing the problems in alternative ways and more often than not new angles pop into my head making the problem lots easier or make it solvable in a way that is more consistent of has less drawbacks than my previous work. Then the next day of work I can use those ideas for new code and solve the problem (in a better way).

Call it a cushy job if you want, but sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to sleep it over a night and then begin with fresh insight.

Ow, I work a 4 day week (and get paid proportionately less of course) but I find it fit my life-style and keep me productive those hours I am available. (By the way, typing this in my lunch-break.)

Oh, bother. Why did I think my previous contribution was lost in the interwebbial void and forgot to check if I had all comments loaded. Sorry about that everyone....

Actually... no. Atomic clocks work through measuring the frequency of photons created through electron transitions in an atom. This is an electromagnetic process and much the same as the process which make lasers work (and lasers do not use radioactive decay either, except in rare instances where it's used as a pumping source).
Modern atomic clocks use Cesium or Rubidium atoms for this process. The clocks are shielded and the atoms are cooled to near absolute zero and be made to move in predictable ways so the photons they emit are all of the same frequency.

There is already suggested that fluctuations in emitted Neutrinos might cause the variation in decay which they measure. This is quite plausible because as far as I know, Neutrino radiation is the only radiation from the sun which can reach anything on Earth (including the samples) relatively unharmed, goes through matter (including all that other fusing or non-fusing Hydrogen and Helium gas in the sun) with very little interaction and is therefor first to arrive at Earth and does its interaction, if it does interact (almost entirely) through the Weak Nuclear Force. The force which also plays a significant role in radioactive decay. So -if- a solar flare is accompanied by a change in Neutrino radiation (or maybe even caused by it?), that will probably be the first thing we could notice about an upcoming solar flare.

However, Neutrinos do (almost ... there are some theories it might do a very tiny bit) not interact with matter through the electromagnetic force. Because that's the force used in the 'Atomic clock process', Neutrinos do not measurably impact atomic clocks.

Ehm ... no. Atomic clocks do not work by means of radioactive decay. They work by measuring specific electron transitions in atoms through the photon radiation this phenomenon emits. That process is actually quite akin to what happens in lasers (and lasers do not use radioactive decay, except in some very specific cases as a pumping power source). Atoms used for this process are for example Rubidium and Cesium. The 'art' here is to create electron transition produced photons of such precision that their frequencies differ only minutely and be able to precisely measure that frequency of course. Things that make the measurements not as reliable as could be and thus are tried to be avoided are, amongst other things, uncontrolled movement of the atoms (resulting in doppler shift) due to too high a sample temperature (which makes the atoms move quicker and give an increased chance of collisions) and external radiation (which would include almost any type of solar radiation and certainly any type that could be of influence). So modern atomic clocks are shielded, cooled to near absolute zero and their atoms used are tried to be made to move in a very predictable way.

I'm not a scientist in the field of natural physics. Only interested in it. (Full disclosure: I did study the subject for a year but was not quick enough with the math involved and too much interested in computers)
It is very possible the oscillations in radioactive decay measured by the scientists is due to fluctuations in Neutrino emissions caused by or which also cause the solar flare. I wouldn't know any other type of solar radiation which could give an 'advanced' warning (because it is the 'first to arrive' due to going through almost everything with ease) and could influence radioactive decay even of (relatively) shielded samples.

Neutrino emissions do not (measurably) influence atomic clocks because the forces involved in the 'atomic clock process' are electromagnetic. Neutrinos only interact with atoms through the weak nuclear force which do play a role in radioactive decay.