I'm not sure what country you're from, but I have two children who recently spent 10 years at a state university and trust me there's plenty of booze, partying, sex regardless of what kind of school it is.

What if we've been looking at it all wrong. We tend to view this gravity well as the repository of a mass. What if instead it was these super massive black holes are really remnants of the universe's primordial gravitational field immediately prior to/at the time of inflation. Think about it topographically. We live on an inflation driven membrane of space-time, driven outward by inflation yet pinned to the universe through the gravitational field at our galaxy's center. Nothing fell in, we fell out.

Maybe if one brave soul lights a candle, we'll be able to see that the sky will not fall if we share a piece of copyrighted material with a friend. Hopefully other interests will follow suit.

We've been wallowing in distraction, divisiveness, and self-pity for the last 20 years. The only thing we've accomplished is slipping into 2nd place against many of our competitors. If we don't get it together, SOON, we're lost.

They still send you a 25 page full color merchandise brochure 3 times a year.

Chess Life (and Review in an earlier version). Been reading them every month for 40 years. Still have most of them. Donation to some college chess club.

I sleep about 3 hours a night and take 2-3 five-minute cat naps during the day. I've been sleeping like this for the better part of 40 years. When I lay down to sleep, I fall asleep almost instantaneously and don't wake up until my alarm goes off (Usually wake up just before). I'll usually have 1 night a week where I feel tired enough to get 4.5 hours in. I try to keep my sleep to multiples of 90-min (based in something I read on rem cycles). I'm 58 and have what I believe is respectable recall for someone my age. Don't know about the study subjects, but I think the quality of the sleep is more important than the amount.

Or fattened on genetically modified corn.

How about the screens on our phones and tablets. Straight out of the show. I'm a believer in StarTrek and what mankind is capable of. After all its out dream

Neither the legality of the contract nor the morality of a shrewd businessman required that all parties have perfect knowledge. Most of us have bought a used bike, record, car from a person knowing that we could turn around and sell it to another person wants to buy it, while making a profit in the transaction. What's wrong with that! Imperfect information is a cornerstone of American capitalism. The most obvious example is the futures market. Would the original seller be responsible for losses incurred by the ultimate buyer, No! It's all legal. ethical. As for its morality, falls right in with $5.00 a gallon gas.

Almost every sci-fi novel I've read in the last 20 years is a story about the exploits of some form/aspect of "private enterprise" (unless it's an "escape the end of the world story - like they could save us). While sci-fi isn't real life, tax dollars aren't going to get us out there. Three important points: 1.) There are bound to be spin-offs in materials/engineering/computing/ during the development 2.) Going to space requires money and these people some they're willing to risk. 3.) NASA is ripe for a hostile takeover. Good Luck to 'em!

Let me begin by saying "I'm a PC". Wouldn't buy a MAC, MAC Book, or iMAC on a bet. 15 months ago, my contract was up with ATT and I started looking for a new phone. I wanted to move to a competitor because of more reliable service. Heck, the company I work for even dropped ATT and moved to a competitor because of dropouts and deadspots. The other requirement I had was that I wanted a phone with a better internet browser than the scrap pile that ran on my RAZOR. But when I looked at the available phones, none had an interface that worked as well as the iPhone's. There wasn't even one remotely close. So I ponied up my $199, swallowed my reluctance to buy an Apple product, and bought an iPhone. Of course, that means I'm still stuck with lousy service, but I now have features like pinch and expand (priceless for an older person with somwhat aging sight). My employer bought HTCs for all of their supervisors and managers, thats several hundred people. They hate the interface (its not intuitive at all) and the need to use the stylus. Several have even turned in their HTC and gone out and purchased iPhones on their own. Well its 9 months from contract time again, and I've looked at all the smart phones on the market. The iPhone 4 is going to be my choice. There's 3 parts to the smart phone puzzle. Features, ease of use, and quality of phone service. The first two are the reasons most people choose a particular smartphone. I'm thinking that 4 years from now when I'm ready to replace my desktop PC (haven't bought a laptop because most of the things that I want to do on a computer when I'm away from home I can now do on my phone), I'll probably buy the iPhone6 because it'll have matured into the palmtop that does it all.

Not sure, but that's probably enough to pay for business cards, a pallet of letterhead, and the salaries for the G-20 and the three G-14s that are gonna run the operation. In government that's enough.

one name, Alastair Reynolds. Current and cutting edge.

We've argued that our space program needs a purpose which justifies the expense. I'm in the camp of getting a sufficient number of people off this planet to ensure the survival of the species. The thing I don't understand is why would we expend all this effort to get out of one gravity well only to crawl into another. The short and mid-term goal of our space program should be to establish a permanant colony in space that is prepared to ensure man's survival. The earth is still going to be the best place for humans to live. The purpose of any colony we build should be re-colonize earth in the event of major catastrophe. It would support seed and gene banks, an exportable technolgy base, and a sufficient population armed with a plan and the resources to jumpstart civilization once the dust settles. I'm not saying the moon can't play a vital role in the process, but any serious exploitation of the moon for resources is going to require heav lift capabilities on the moon that may be centuries away. That leaves us with exploration, and to the exteny possible, development of the asteroid belt as a resource base for building a "permanent" habitat in space and equiping it for its mission. As much as I'd like to see us go to Mars, resources will too valuable for a sight-seeing junket. Use the resources we have to grab the low hanging fruit if its our there. Half a dozen exploratory trips to the asteroids should be the short term objective.