Most of west texas has been used for cattle for decades now. All the old growth has been destroyed. The grasslands have been destroyed. And most native species have been destroyed. Cattle are far worse to the environment than wind turbines.

That's ridiculous. Have you ever been to west Texas? Have you visited the wind farms already there and seen for yourself the impact they have? Not to mention the prairies being destroyed in Kansas and other states.

But hey, you have no solutions, so why not condemn everyone else's!

I guess you missed the "natural gas power station" part of my comment while you were showing your hypocritical nature by accusing me of being a Foxitic Limboid (I love that phrase!), which I am not. I don't watch Fox news, nor listen to Rush Limbaugh -- but I'm glad that YOU obviously do since you seem to know what they say.

And the hypocrisy is the point -- the remote, uninhabited arctic wasteland is off limits to development, but west Texas and other prairie lands are all available for destruction because it's for "green" energy.

Texas has a LOT of land that's not particularly good for animals, humans or plants over about 3 feet tall, and is perfect for wind farms.

Well, that's easy for you to say. Do you share the same opinions about the landscape of the arctic wildlife preserves?

Those wind farms really scar the countryside, and the maintenance roads that link them further destroys the ecosystems you so readily condemn. Don't forget about the intra-farm transmission lines and support structures. These things destroy hundreds of square miles to produce the power of one natural gas power station. Of course, it's on somebody else's land, though, isn't it? I guess there's no price some people are not willing for someone else to pay.

And funny that coal was mentioned, because it is the most favored fuel under the new "green energy" bill passed by the US House of Representatives. It is going to be massively subsidized for decades to come, while the cleanest fuel (natural gas) is the most punished -- both in power generation and industry. But, hey, who cares if "green energy" as portrayed in the popular press works or not... it's _GREEN_, and these wind farms go to ELEVEN!

You're one to talk when you don't even know the different between the metric system and the imperial system.

The term "English System" is commonly used to refer to the Imperial System.

So, try again, bureaucrat.

NASA was gutted, both of funds and personnel. They were LAST in line to get any money.

Maybe they were "gutted" because they were so fucking stupid they couldn't be trusted to do things like SAVING THE ORIGINAL TAPES!!!

Holy Cow. I've read through this whole thread and see people trying to rationalize how NASA could have done something so monumentally stupid. Let's just all save some time and recognize the real reason --

THEY WERE STUPID, INCOMPETENT MOTHERFUCKERS.

NASA has betrayed an entire generation that entrusted them to safeguard the legacy of the tremendous efforts of a nation to push the frontiers of mankind to another world. NASA FUCKED IT UP and robbed future generations of humanity of their heritage. There is no excuse WHATSOEVER for that, and the significance of this utter disgrace should not be glossed over or diminished with bureaucratic understatement. NASA has also spit on the legacy of John F. Kendedy, proving that the only thing important to them about landing on the moon was the money they could get.

To be quite honest, NASA should be gutted again. They've got to use Russian built rockets to get the European and Canadian parts up to the space station, they don't know the difference between the metric system and the english system, they kill astronauts by the half-dozen, and interplanetary projects are handled at JPL. And if that's not enough, realize that the guy they put in charge of finding the tapes is the SAME SOB THAT LOST THEM.

"Houston, we've got a problem...And it's us."

I hope the shuttle gets back safe.

Strange, when an object is too close to you in space, it appears bigger than same size object at a distance. But when it is very close to you in time, we don't think it is any big deal. Only later we realize how big whatever that thing was.

That's good. Makes me want to add more documentation of, and comments to, my source code.

"If we could send a man to the moon, why can't we send a man to the moon?"

It's much harder to do in today's environment of politically correct science and point-and-click engineering.

This guy sounds like a holdover from individuals hired by the previous administration to refute the rest of the scientific community.

The guy is a 38 year veteran of the EPA. That refutes your ignorant statement.

The guy had a physics degree, and an economics degree. Neither which fully qualifies him to report on Global Warming.

What does Al Gore have a degree in?

ACTA will mandate software patents, criminalization of copyright infringements, censorship lists, data retention.

You don't really think Big Media supports Obama for free, now do you?

As a software engineer, I have to account for the effects of cosmic rays when designing systems.

Ah. So that's how Steve Jobs projects his reality distortion field!

Software Engineering is trying to become a rigorous engineering discipline. It's not quite there yet. I am not convinced that it ever will be.

After watching the ISO debacle approving microsoft's OOXML, I must agree with you.