we're building more aircraft carriers because they have to be replaced. Enterprise was just retired after 50 years and is being decommissioned. The Kitty Hawk class are all retired now. Nimitz is 42 years old -- yes, its keel was laid in 1968 and it entered service in 1972. It takes 4-5 years to build one of these floating cities. There may be 10 of them (not counting Enterprise and Ford); but, one is usually in the yard being refit (15 year overhaul cycle -- Lincoln is currently in the yard) and there are several in port at any time. It takes 10-12 of them to support Naval operations worldwide. The rest of the world has basically stopped using aircraft carriers, because they're expensive. The U.S. uses them for force projection and as a platform for operations of all types, including disaster relief. Oh, and aircraft carriers run on renewable energy -- they have a pair of nuclear reactors in the hull.

They do have scrubbers on the output. May not meet the new EPA requirements but it's good enough that they're closing the coal plants on site but leaving this one operational.

This just in: LEGO are made from refined petroleum products. OMFG NO. The horror.

This, with artificial implantation and genetic engineering, brings us one step closer to asexual reproduction. It won't be long before science is able to pair DNA from two women to create a new offspring. Artificial wombs will follow. Soon women won't need men any more. Then the male geeks will go from having had a limited chance, to having zero hope of ever meeting a woman and having sex.

There is a 800MW plant in my region that burns heavy oil (bunker oil). It's used for peaking and as backup capacity for when one of the two nuclear plants goes offline.

I know VASIMR isn't a nuclear rocket (although at some field densities with the right fuels and energy input, the math shows there is the potential for limited amounts of fusion). VASIMR engines of that size will require a nuclear plant to power them. -- and I'm not talking about RTG's here. Frankly, this is territory we've not explored really, beyond a few early ground tests and small scale (10kW) fission reactors launched in the '60's and '70's (SNAP, RORSATs, Topaz) which mostly used thermoelectric conversion. That's not going to work for a 10MWe plant,

I was politely trying to say that it was written by the company Ad Astra Rocket Company and they have an interest in promoting VASIMR. Yes the math is straight forward and I believe the technology works. However, I have seen (and worked for) companies that will write white papers that put everything in the most favorable light, even if the result is optimistic, and frankly not realistic. Overstating efficiencies, for example, by using the best case numbers observed in the R&D lab, and not the real-world numbers obtained from field trials. So, yes, such "groups" really exist.

A tour for a sub crew is typically 70-90 days.

Study I read said it could be done in 39 days using a 10MW VASIMR engine. Now, that was written by the group pushing the technology, and may have been a bit optimistic; but, we can do better than 4 months.

You're just lacking in imagination is all. Of course, Earth's big advantage is having this stuff called "air", which contains this stuff called "oxygen". Otherwise, (besides Mars being smaller and colder and having no magnetic field) they're pretty similar.

I'm sorry, Mr. Holder, this kind of statement, combined with previous stories about government agencies hacking personal computers en mass and pushing spyware to personal computers belonging to U.S. Citizens, just makes me want to go out of my way to encrypt my data and communications to the highest level possible. It's not that I have anything to hide, it's that you've forgotten your place and government is overreaching.

You know, I hear it's kind of warm in there...

Oil's over-rated. We'll concentrate on extracting methane. Methane is the universally available fuel.

Well, we're going to take Mars, the moons of Jupiter and the moons of Saturn. (and during that period of expansion and exploitation, we'll mine the crap out of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter). We might even try to terraform and exploit Venus. Once we're done with that, we'll move on and find more planets around the nearby stars. Have no fear, we will spread...

Hey, what version is the current Apple OS?

10.9

What version are we shipping, here at Microsoft?

Windows 8.1

CRAP! We're behind. Way behind.

I know... We can call the next version Windows 11!

No, that's too obvious. It'll lead to the inevitable "Turn it up to 11" jokes.

What's Apple's next version?

10.10

Really? Well, then, We'll call it Windows 10. That way we don't look like losers back in 8 point something land.

That's a Great Idea! We'll call it Windows 10 and tell everyone our version 10 is way better than their version 10. We'll do demos and promos and PR tours. It's perfect.