Incandescent bulbs keep looking better and better. I was using CFL's before congress basically mandated them because they last a long time, but hate the fact that they create mini superfund sites every time you break one. The polymer described does sound like it has the potential to be toxic as hell if it burns.

New technology is great but it would be even better if congress would stop shoving this stuff down our throats.

No more worry about cracked screens would be great. However there is a limit on utility that defines the form factor - we WANT big screens but it can't be too big or it's clumsy. I don't need a phone that rolls up - the new ones are flat enough to be unobtrusive.

Thinner and lighter are always nice, but damage resistance and battery life are bigger concerns.

Especially when all it really needs is bluetooth. Then they could develop an app so you can use your phone to control the features in your car, but that would make too much sense.

WFT. Idiots love to assume that the US had the power to somehow create a better regime than the shah's when in reality our choice was bad or worse. We chose bad, what we have now is worse.

The photochop is just a way for them to control the news of the day. Any day that doesn't include stories about their nuclear program is a good one for them.

And solar radiation is directly responsible for more cancer deaths than any other radiation source. BAN SOLAR FOR THE CHLDRNZZZZ!!!!!

The irony is that the greens spent so much time in the '80's and 90's demonizing nuclear energy and we are just now reaping what they sowed. Nuclear plants could be designed to be basically accident proof, yet they are saddled with such regulatory burden that it is basically not possible to build new ones in the US.

Hence we are stuck with a national energy policy that is based on wishes, rainbows and unicorn farts. And, like it or not, coal.

If you want to look a the future of an internationalized internet, just look to the UN where recently we had the human rights commission (or some such body) being controlled by a majority of dictatorships famous for suppressing human rights. The world was stood on it's head.

Face it, the US has done a great job of "managing the internet". The biggest non-US player is CHINA. Do we really want the world's largest non-democracy to be given control of the world's telecommunications infrastructure? The recent Google blackout during their presidential transition (no elections required over there) is just a small taste of things to come.

Why do people so easily forget that real, actual freedom isn't free and does not result from people whining on the internet?

When the partisan political aspect of an issue is already included in the original post.

Bettter to shut down discussions about AGW before they start! It's settled science!

It's sad how people confuse fantasy with reality, isn't it?

I get tired of hearing people drool over how great guys like Jobs and Musk are supposed to be. The ones who make the world go around are the entrepreneurs who run the small businesses that comprise the bulk of the economy.

Exactly. It's pure arrogance on their part to assume that the expertise at John Deere will be simple to match. Those folks know what they're doing because they've been doing it for generations. Institutional knowledge is a precious thing.

  The other arrogance is to assume that somehow not making a profit will make it all better. A profit is simply an indicator that you are efficiently supplying people with goods and services that they actually want. A tractor that is 70% as good as a Deere won't sell on an open and competitive market where people vote with their dollars.

"Lack of revenue" is NEVER a business model.

NFC strikes me as a dumb idea, too. The bastard child of RFID and bluetooth. Apple will patent it's own alternative then foist it off on the fanbois to drool over. Neither will become the standard and apple's garden will remain solidly walled.

The only way NFC could become truly useful would be for you to surrender your last vestiges of privacy and control to your phone. Who really wants to convert to e-currency with all the tracking that implies?

Feel free to start your own country where there is no taxation. And good luck with that.

Here in the real world, we recognize that there are essential services that must be paid for, that people are not always rational and ethical and that we must agree on a system to deal with these sad facts.

The pirate party getting a mayor elected might be interesting, but it's not like they can simply impose their entire agenda.

Additionally, if you admit that intellectual property issues are real owing to the fact that real people must do real work producing them, the entire "pirate" thing falls apart. Sure, it's good to have an opposing viewpoint to the draconian IP laws being pushed by big media, but don't expect IP ownership issues to go away. If they did, nobody could ever make a living creating, well, anything.

...and lose the one real advantage the US system has: competition. That's the one factor obamacare completely ignored and the one thing that could have actually increased efficiency and lowered costs.

Yet despite the fact that basically every big government social program is bankrupt, liberals continue to insist that we pour ever more money into them. The definition of insanity is when you repeat the same actions expecting different results.

Cell phones are becoming less about communications and more about tracking and identification. Pretty soon big brother isn't going to let you leave home without it.

1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual.

Yep. First, take control of the skies. Carriers are very handy for that. Next, cover the area with attack copters. Finally, move in with frigates and destroyers. Nothing will be able to move without attracting a hellfire or SM-3. SEALs can mop up any fortified oil platforms, just like the last time the iranians got uppity.

The iranian tactic of swarming with large numbers of small craft will merely create a target rich environment. Sure, they might get lucky and sink a ship but their entire coastline on the strait will look like the surface of the moon.

Clean up the mines then it's back to business as usual.