Cadmium, indium, gallium, lead, and selenium are all used in solar panel production.

Silane gas is used in the production of Si wafers. There are several silane leaks reported each year in the US during the production of silicon wafers. Silane can spontaneously explode.Manufacturing of silane and trichlorosilane results in waste silicon tetrachloride, which is nasty stuff.

Sulfur hexafluoride is used in cleaning the reaction chambers that silicone is produced in. It's a very potent green house gas. In fact, it's 25,000 times more potent than CO2.

sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are used on the cut edges of silicone wafers. Hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid and hydrogen fluoride are used to clean the silicone wafers during production. Phosphine or arsine gas is used in the doping of the semiconductor. Phosphorous oxychloride, phosphorous trichloride, boron bromide and boron trichloride are also used during the doping process.

Do I really need to go on? Or is there any point as you obviously choose to ignore reality.

I'd like an engineer to take a look at his plans. Claiming it is "feasible", and that it "should" be easier than a skyscraper does not exactly instill confidence.

This guy is also a physicist. It would be nice to know what a geologist would think adding a man made mountain, or three, would do to the bedrock in the mid-west.

Has he consulted with a climatologist? I suspect it would affect the local weather patterns at the very least. It would probably drastically change the weather pasterns on the east coat as well.

What about migratory birds and such?

My mistake. That's what I meant, but when I think of travel I generally think of the TSA regarding all things bad. CBP has always been courteous and professional with me. However they should not be allowed to do this.

While I agree with you. "Clean" energy production is very important. I also feel that solar is not the all benevolent perfect energy source we want it to be. It is closer to what nuclear was in the 1950's/1960's. Solar panel production is very messy and creates tons of extremely toxic waste. With China trying to corner the market on solar panel production, do you really believe that they are taking great care in clean up?

It's also not been around in any meaningful way until recently. We don't know what the hell we will do with millions of tons of EOL panels. We won't know until 25 years later. Except unlike nuclear, solar panels are not limited to just a few companies.

Obviously nuclear plants can experience catastrophic failures the likes of which we should never see with solar. But unlike the disposal of fissile material, solar panel disposal is not nearly as regulated. After 25 years of use, your neighbor in West Virginia, or Nebraska may simply bury them in their back yard. Or just toss them in their field. Then it may take another 25 years or more until the heavy metals make their way into the water table. I expect they will be treated in much the same way that the old 2 meter C-band satellite dishes are. Simply left in place to rot, or cut off of their mounts and tossed on the ground to decay.

The TSA? Can they still require you to give them passwords? Or copy data from your phone?

What's to stop the police from searching a phone once in their possession in a different room once a person has been arrested? Granted, they will need a warrant to make anything they find admissible, but a warrant can be requested later once they decide it's worth the trouble.

Does this also apply to the monitoring programs that the US marshals have coached local law enforcement to lie about to judges?

I'm usually fine when I fly to the east. Going from the east coast to the EU I sleep as much as I can on the flight. Then arrive in the morning. If I can take a 2 hour nap once I get to the hotel and then go to bed around 8 that evening, I'm adjusted the next day. Coming home is usually harder to adjust for me. Especially if I've been gone for more than 2 weeks. Going to the west coast isn't really that bad. But if I fly farther west than that, it's a lot harder for me to adjust.

"pushing the Higgs field over the energy hill and deep into the neighboring valleyâ(TM)s precipice!"

After several decades I've decided it's better to work at something you enjoy. Every time I've done something I loved for a living, someone found a way to make me hate it.

YMMV.

It's difficult to explain as it's a fuzzy thin line. ;-)

Did the timeframe for the tournament coincide with Ballmer's time at the helm?

The state of the education system in the US has become pathetic. I've seen it for years in the primary education system. I'm a little shocked that it is now at the university level too. Especially with the prices of tuition these days. It's even more surprising when you read stories like this

I didn't RTFA, but this is /. so that's a given. As I recall, plastic is the leftover waste from refining oil. That was one of the reasons it was so revolutionary to begin with. No one knew what to do with all of those tons of leftover sludge created by the refining process. If this process can convert plastic into some kind of useful fuel, I would think it would be more efficient to do so prior to creating the plastic to begin with.

That's what you would think. However as I stated in my original post, people are so afraid of this one word that they will not say it even when it is appropriate and not being used in a derogatory manner. Such as quoting someone.

I hope your are speaking figuratively and not literally claiming that I I own a "pointy white hat" thus inferring that I am a member of the KKK.

Way to make assumptions. While I'm part "Anglo", I'll certainly never be welcomed by the KKK you so kindly mentioned earlier. Additionally, I'm not whining that I can't call someone a derogatory name. I simply wish we as a people wold stop trying to segregate ourselves from each other. Either a term is OK for everyone to use, or it's not. I worked 50 hours a week on the night shift to support myself during my last two years of high school, and did the same through college and worked my ass of in the summers to pay for it. I knew so little about "the system" that I didn't even know about scholarships and grants until after I graduated. NOTHING was handed to me. And certainly nothing I've done was due to "unearned privileges". Being on your own at 15 also has issue of not having the greatest of judgement at times. So I had my fair share of run ins with the law as well in my youth.

But please, feel free to keep making assumptions of how superior you are.

I completely agree. However it becomes murkier when it's a white, or say a Chinese guy referring to their friend as "nigga" I've had many friends who were black over the years. And have been referred to as "nigga" by a few of them. Not as a derogatory statement, but in a friendly manner. However I would never call anyone that. Being friendly or otherwise. And for what it's worth, there is a difference between "nigger" and "nigga". Even so, I find it insane how even news reporters will not quote someone directly when it comes to this term. Out of fear of getting in some kind of trouble I suppose. But if it's not being used in a derogatory manner, why does anyone care? Instead they sound like a kindergartener, "ahhh he said the N-word!". It's childish.

I've also been called a "cracka" and years ago a "honkey". As well as "kike" and a whole slew of other slurs. Frankly I've found it humorous more than anything.

I realize that irony and humor often times does not translate well in text. But I figured most on /. would be smart enough to pick up on that.