The question excluded cell phone service charges. An unlocked G1 can be had for about $400 with no contract or service charges, and it can be used as a wifi device without a sim card (I just tested this on mine). I can browse the web, use email, download apps from the market, download music, use maps, skype I'm assuming.

It's a bit high in the price range at $400, but the size and keyboard are nice and the app library is great and growing. G1 is usually $180 with a contract (min. $55/mo for 2 years)

This is why we have different categories of planets.

Earth is the only Class M planet in the solar system.

Of course, with terraforming, Mars might join us in that someday.

Looking through: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_M_planet

It seems like pluto should be a class K, or possibly a class D.

I recently had my first physics class as a college sophomore, calculus-based mechanics. It was very fun and useful, as a computer programmer. This was my first lab class since high school and I was certainly inspired by each of the ~3 hour labs. The most fun was using a spring cannon to shoot a rubber ball through a ring, using kinematics equations my group of 3 was able to launch the ball precisely through the ring on the first attempt (we were scored by number of attempts).

We spent a total of about 30 hours on 10 labs throughout the semester. I found these to be a good length for keeping our attention and teaching each concept. It was nice to have access to a fairly new lab with laptops which we used to record and analyze sensor data. This all takes place in a very affordable California community college.

I know I haven't answered the question yet, just providing info on my experience for whatever it's worth.

Other interesting labs were: landing a ball in a small cup after rolling off a slope on top of a table. using a car with a fan attached to measure acceleration and velocity. colliding cars of different masses to measure impulse. calculating mass by measuring the velocity of a car being pulled by a mass on a string which was pulled down by gravity.

This class covered only mechanics. I imagine that labs in the fields of electromagnetism, waves and optics must be exciting in different ways. This first physics class left me wanting more, but those will have to wait, as they aren't required in my computer game design major.

One experiment could involve some rockets and landing a delicate payload safely. It has obvious applications. Other useful applications of physics should be sources of inspiration. A student should feel inspired by doing something useful with physics, something that they would use as a professional physicist, something to form the basis for novel applications of physics.

Something involving optics like capturing images of comets using a handmade telescope could be fun.

With the green energy revolution upon us, there could be some home made wind, tidal, and solar energy capture and storage systems to build.

It sounds cool to do all these space missions and build giant solar arrays to beam power to Earth, but I think it's more practical and cheaper just to throw some solar panels on rooftops and windmills by houses and across the midwest.

Home based power is reliable and available now, with no transmission losses. With the right loans, marketing, and government investment, people could just swap their electric bill for the loan on their personal power plant and voila, clean power to the people at virtually no cost. It would also create jobs as solar and wind plants spring up to fill the demand.

Stop building dirty coal and oil plants and start investing in solar and wind.

well if they had some space age, heat resistant pipes to shove down there into the magma, then run some liquid through the pipes to transmit the heat to a steamer, we'd have delicious vegetables in no time. i mean geothermal power. large scale geothermal.

it'd be pricey to make the first one, but it could be a big player in renewable energy. and unlike solar panels and wind mills which are like socialized energy because everyone controls the production, this could be a major central project for a greedy corporation.

then before you know it they drill to deep and there's a balrog running the streets.

Similarly, Logo can be a great way to educate programming skills, as well as artistic and problem solving skills. Logo can make spirograph-type art, and puzzles such as mazes can be navigated. I'm not sure if Logo has been developed as far as having AI, but it seems possible.

Logo may be more appropriate for younger audiences. Something with a similar artistic/programming approach for teens would be interesting. Maybe sodaplay or processing, although these maybe a bit too difficult.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)

Well here's a bit of information that most people try to avoid. That is, cholesterol not only clogs your heart, it clogs the blood flow into your brain. There was a study that showed lower rates of alzheimers/dementia among people taking cholesterol reducing drugs (statins). Of course, rather than depending on drugs, you could always lower your cholesterol intake and reap the longevity benefits of a plant based diet.

Link to article about study