Yeah, that ship sailed along time ago - in other words - to be Unconstitutional may have more to do with being unprecedented, than inconsistent with the black letter articles of the document.

If one were to track the arc of what is and isn't Constitutional, one finds the Supreme Court is largely on a reasonable track; on many issues it has set a high bar and a low bar - that is, it has heard two cases with different facts and found the one to be acceptable and the other a bridge to far, in such cases, we get the clearest picture.

Yeah, looking back is not a terribly attractive option.
It is far more important that future versions are easy for existing users to understand. It is the User base, and not the software base that matters most; sure one leads the other, but after a critical point, the network of interconnected users is more valuable than the technology (facebook for example)

We should support Teachers; however, My 8 year old student should also have the benefit of a Union.

LOL. Thanks

I'm working with an international firm on Scada - we use a VPN to provide a secure private network.

I saw an ad that says - in a menacing voice - "and now they for for us - and I thought, Isn't that exactly what is supposed to happen? The Chinese have been collecting dollars and not contributing to demand - exactly what is needed is for China to spend and put US companies to work, Well, here it is: US working for them, Intel and nvidia making some coin, paying some employees who pay some taxes, in a virtuous circle.

We should never have promised one dime of my Daughters taxes for the benefit of Iran - the only country to get a net boon from this offensive action. The instinct to withdraw is based on our experience in North Korea and Vietnam - which in neither case reflect poorly on the US. North Korea is responsible for its own atrocities, but in this case, the US is a silent co-conspirator in the religious hellhole, the "deep south" of Asia.

Really? is heat conduction by means of conductive materials and convection by moving liquids patentable? I've got this round thing that reduces friction!

It's a fair question, after consideration, I'm thinking that the difference between the two might be in the mass required to launch a steam-based device rather than a combustible device. Given that stream acceleration is quite small relative to combustion; one would need to process a great deal more of the available ice/matter as steam for the same thrust.

I believe Nuclear is the clear winner of this debate.

Wouldn't it be cool to hear her explain that?
(actually I think you're half right). I would expect to find that certain code bits of HIV for example quite presumably did pre-exist in latent numbers; however, I would also expect to find that true success as in virus almost depends on evolving at a faster rate than your host. This is probably why sexual reproduction is a requirement for any organism complex enough to be a viral host; sexual reproduction allows for recombinant "evolution"; whilst the virus depends (does it not) on fairly random copying errors. So while both sides are digging in a toolchest for the wrench that best fits the nut at hand, the sexual organism has the advantage of combining the experience of two parents while the virus has the advantage of high frequency reproduction.

Perhaps; my point wasn't to agree or disagree on the justification of //increasing// our risks, but rather on the proportionality of the risk. I suggest it is numerically nonexistent given, the massive amount of natural experimentation which pervades the planet.

Generally yes; but being there allows for combustion - one might have to bring part of a combustible mix. Are ice asteroids a threat - given the tendency to burn up in atmosphere?
With lasers, we can only hope to throw off some mass with the energy of sublimation; this I fear may be minimal.
If we are facing a death star, we should employ the best means at our disposal (include lasers), but intercept and combust should be considered - including nuclear' this BS about ew, it will enter our atmos is tripe - we've had many nuclear events in our atmosphere, and while radiation is never pretty, we get by every day on a stiff dose from mother sol; and you might remember we depend on radiation for a little rejiggering of the DNA from time to time. :)

Well,I see your point, but I'm afraid you've missed mine - when one shakes hands, or plays tag, or collects test papers for the teacher, or turns a door knob, rides the bus, or raises chickens, fish, cats, mushrooms, or gerbils, or fails to bathe in alcohol on an hourly basis; one is certainly culturing bacteria and virii of all kinds; the human genome experimentation is only occurring at the millions per year rate, while bacteria are experimenting (with and without human involvement) at rates exponentially higher.

I like it - based no doubt on adding a glowing gene to toejam bacteria!

(bonus feature - glow in the dark Limburger.)