Does bombing funerals count? It doesn't happen often, but I remember it happening every so often during the first couple years of occupancy in Iraq (where one sect would hit a funeral and then when all those people would have a funeral there'd be a counter strike by the other sect). That's pretty mocking...

Or is all fair in war?

Will 3D printers help move open-source hardware circuit design to the next level? I know that they have great potential in helping the open-source ecology project (http://opensourceecology.org/), but that is mostly in the reprinting of complex parts for repair or initial construction of larger pieces. If more EEs / home enthusiasts could print out complete modules along with printing out testing nodes - little snap-off diodes whose sole purpose in the print is to prove some inner working of module, would circuit design explode? Just curious about what you thought.

But what if the cost to fix the failure is deemed to high? It is an acceptable engineering practice to just plan on something going wrong x% of the time. Now if 1/9 is the maximum failure rate, and you can still get to orbit (meaning you design in the possibility of an engine exploding - can you imagine!), and the probability of 2/9 is astronomical, is something that is "forseen" have to be mitigated? Now granted, I hope the engine failure is truly something anomalous, given that even the smallest fracture can cause problems, and you have to test the engine at least once before use...

Will space travel ever enter the "good enough" phase of manufacturing? Being an A.E. I applaud the design of the falcon engine system. Just like most large aircraft can land with 1 out of 4 engines being functional, a system that can take a full system failure on one of its parts and still perform is quality engineering.

Ok, I respect old people, but I don't trust them - not one bit. This lady is 80 - how is she qualified to be a judge on a case that involves technology? The RIAA must have convinced her that "downloading" somehow stole their copy and they had to get them back... Anyways, I'd be curious to see the list of songs - just to see where those songs are in the charts / profit margins.

Someone else mentioned that it would be nice if apps gave justifications for their various access rights - like "full internet access" - this would be a perfectly good reason, and it would be pretty cool if all apps would tell you, when you are installing - "this app uses internet access to send which functions get used, if it is uninstalled, and the ability to rate the app - no personal information sent."

Of course a baked in analytics service for all apps, that could be disabled, would be pretty cool too... Maybe an android level API?

http://www.watchismo.com/mutewatch.aspx

Fun little watch I saw the other day.

"The Mutewatch is designed to be simple and intuitive. Just tap the flat surface and the touch screen lights up, then swipe through the functions clock, alarm and timer. "

much like Douglas Adams' ruler of the universe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_characters#The_Ruler_of_the_Universe

According to Notch, the creator of Minecraft, they aren't on Steam for a completely different reason, not because MS forced their hand.

Why No steam notch

I subscribe to the Game Informer magazine (http://gameinformer.com/) and the number of titles that are being produced is staggering. I like all genre's of games from Plants vs Zombies to Bioshock to LotR online and find each different style of game to have unique advantages. MMORPs offer a social aspect, while an intense FPS immerses you in storyline more completely, while the simple logic and strategy involved in some games keeps the mind fresh.

My own personal favorites include Batman: Arkum Asylum - the story line and game play is first rate. BioShock, another very immersing FPS. Bioshock II was "give me some more of that" and also highly recommended (if you enjoy sometimes being kind of terrified). LotR online and D&D online are both free to play (so you can jump on for a couple days every 6 months and not feel like you are being screwed by the man because you payed 6 months subscription). World of goo is very nice as is Plants vs Zombies and even kingdom for keflings is a hoot for a builder game.

Now to the question of whether you have lost your mojo... it is easy to see the game for the math that it is - a simple counter (if I click in the right place enough times, "I win" - whatever that means in a virtual game). Once you understand a game, sometimes the senselessness can make even the idea of the playing seem rather like a waste of time and so you project that feeling onto other games thinking you have been there, done that. But it's not true. Batman is completely different from any other game I've played - and completely changed what I thought was possible. With the new input devices (I'm thinking kinect here) and new display capabilities (3-D is pretty wicked on games that program for it), I think there are games coming out that will make even that pale in comparison.

That is very insightful. You belong to groups - family, friends, co-workers, people at community organizations (church, clubs, HOAs), school (from your kid's grade school to your alma mater), state, and nation. In health care, people (especially the health nuts) like to group into "those that deserve good health for living the lifestyle they do, and those that don't". Those that deserve to pay more because of smoking or for not wearing a seat belt.

Unfortunately that relies on knowledge that we do not have. We can't figure out that the health nut for the 20 years lived in a mining community as a child. Everything you've done and not done plays a critical role in determining your overall health - and not only have we barely scratched the surface of understanding, our understanding sometimes stands at odds (took them 30 years to figure out which part of the egg does what for our bodies). And some eastern beliefs and practices are wholly ignored because of disbelief or pharmaceutical interests.

So we need to stop drawing that line around our yard, or around our workplace, or around smokers and just have universal health care. I know this bill doesn't do that, but it is at least a step, and maybe in another 20 we can take another.

I have experienced the Uncanny Valley but not necessarily in a bad way. At the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum the artist, Ron Mueck, for the first set of the sculptures here: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/mind-blowing-hyperrealistic-sculptures/ was on display and it was mind blowing. The woman in the bed made you feel 4 years old again because of the size - she's huge - like 10x normal - but perfect in detail. The skin has individual hair follicles, the eyes are moist looking, fingernails are slightly translucent - amazing detail. The two old woman are also perfect - but at 1/2 size normal I couldn't help be stare, up close my sense of perception was skewed and I started to imagine them moving, like you do with dead people (my families catholic, so I've got to stare at all kinds of dead ppl)
Highly recommended if you can catch up to one of his shows.

Not sure of the parent poster's university, but at the University of Kansas there is a small nuclear reactor. It is dormant now and was used by the physicists and nuclear engineers 20 years ago. However, it could be refueled and reactivated pretty quickly if needed.

Agree completely. No script is perhaps the finest add on ever. If a page doesn't load properly, then I don't go to that site. There are some sites that have upwards of 30 scripts from all over running - to this, even google is a problem - how many sites are running googleanalytics or googlesyndication, or the 10 other weird little google scripts?

Time, space, and the extremely tiny:

"The smallness of Planck's constant - which governs the strength of quantum effects - and the intrinsic weakness of the gravitational force team up to yield a result called the Planck length, which is small beyond imagination: 10-33 cm... To get a sense of scale, if we were to magnify an atom to the size of the known universe, the Planck length would barely expand to the height of an average tree.", The Elegant Universe

When I start imagining extremely large / small numbers my brain kind of does this weird flutter feeling. My imagination captures it, but at some point the magnitude loses true meaning.

Sounds like you had a really bad experience with the cops lately.