That's why they call it the Fermi Paradox

Re: Predating May 7 2008 :

http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2006/02/05/in-cell-charting/ https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7603152763857688635&postID=4147846911463078558&pli=1 Note especially comments by Bob Phillips and jon Peltier, in addition to the post by Fabrice on starting in 2005.

Plus, I'm not sure why you emphasize open source implementations that predate it. Did you really mean to imply that if I had a closed source implementation that predated it, it would not be prior art ?

Cooling. A lot of work done to expend the waste heat. Remember that powerful LASERS are only single digit efficient.

"Until lasers or other beam weapons can deliver enough energy in a short enough amount of time (10 thousandths of a second) similar to a bullet or supersonic missile, they simply will not make good weapons" How about using lasers to deliver 4 MJ of energy in a few picoseconds, resulting in 500 TW of power?. That's expected to be enough to cause fusion. Of course, this plan will deliver it to a stationary capsule instead of a missile, but surely that's engineering ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_ignition_facility

Except that Martian dust was expected to cover the solar panels. No one predicted the existence of Martian winds and dust devils that would lift the dust off. Not to mention the dice game with surviving the Martian winter, and any number of associated design (wheels, motors etc) targeted at 90 day plus

1. "if your air stuff is awesome enough, you don't need guys on the ground. That's at least as old as ... " Douhet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Douhet), 1921 with theories and advocacy going back before World War 1 Of course some of Douhet's theories on Total War in 'breaking the will of the people" and the 'bomber will always get through - flying over the defense" did not translate well to most* air battles, but currently do translate well to ICBMs. 2. cf: The US having air superiority over every nation. The US does not have air superiority over every nation. That's why it does not currently routinely overfly those nations (at least since Gary Powers). Part of getting air superiority is being able to project force *over there* and much of US hardware is *elsewhere*. i.e. Quantity*quality at target vs opponent quantity*quality. The US has got the best capability of getting air superiority over there with carriers, forward bases and air refueling, but any major moves towards this would be met by counter-threats of the missile (nuclear bombs can take out carrier groups)

If he had foreseen the commercial impact, he would have used $$ instead of // Though as a Brit working in Euroland, he could have supported other protocols such as ££ or €€

Someone in Finland hold up a router and proclaim to the *IAAA alliance and those pushing 3 strikes laws "you can have my internet connection when you can pry it from my cold dead hands"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Core_(story)

why would they bother ....[reviving you and optionally curing ...anti-aging etc]

The best option would be to found a cult which would revive you. Religions and cults do go back thousands of years. Heck, do you doubt that someone wouldn't try and bring back Jesus (if there was any sample tissue) ? and since this is slashdot, obligatory tip to 'cult of the cobol programmer'

And if nothing else, being revived gives me the ability to make that decision for myself.

Given that all technologies go through a learning curve, and given that revival is a particularly hard set of problems with multiple failure modes, I'd be interested in your opinions and information on this.

I would assume some of the failure modes may be gruesome or at least open up unintended consequences. For example, revival as an imbecile, without the ability to take that decision (to kill yourself). Revival as a completely different person, perhaps with access to some memories. Multiple partially successful tries at revival.

What's your attitude towards being on this learning curve ? Would you prefer to be one of the early ones (revived when chance of less than complete success is high) ? Would you want to ensure that you are only revived when the technology is mature (if everyone had that attitude, then you could write of that technology) ? Do you actually take contractual steps to ensure that you are only revived when the technology is mature and not in its infancy ? What options does your patient care trust provide in this regard ? What are their contractual obligations and positions towards getting it *fully right* *once*. Since you have taken steps, no doubt you must have dealt with these issues. Really interested in hearing back.

, Showing that something contains carcinogens is not the same as showing that it causes cancer ,/i> By definition, carcinogens cause cancer.

the idea of being cremated, put into some container, and then .... just going to waste ObBookQuote: "Grandpa's ashes go into that hourglasses on the mantelpiece over there.... Grandpa must work.. all we germans must work.. Always thought that was cool.

There have been persistent reports in the Indian press over the last 3 days that Nasa's Moon Minerology Mapper on board India's Chandrayaan-1 had found water, and that the Thursday press conference would reveal it. Glad to have the embargo lifted early. http://www.examiner.com/x-21670-Houston-Space-News-Examiner~y2009m9d22-Did-Chandrayaan1-confirm-ice-on-the-Moon http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Node=B1&Id=1074265

By getting sick people with a variety of germs to come out of the house and mix with others at the hospital (and by opening up their guts etc), they are actually inviting the germs in make things worse. The hospitals need all that disinfection just to avoid having made things worse from a bacteriological perspective. and even then they fail. There is some research that earlier practices involving midwives attending pregnant women at birth is better than having them come to the hospital. OTOH, bubonic plague spread less when it killed all the people in the village. Give me your sick, your germs yearning to break free ....