You're talking about people who think flying a plane full of people into a target is a good idea. They're not playing with a full deck. In this case, Osama Bin Laden had a particular beef with US banks in general and those housed in the Trade Center in particular. He'd already made one attempt on those towers, with a bomb in the basement. I find the choice of the Towers makes it more credible Osama Bin Laden paid for it, not less. He didn't give a rat's ass about a statue. He hated US banks, who have been using the US federal government to project power worldwide for over a century.

Maybe they weren't crazy. Maybe they correctly identified their true enemy.

And solar panels are covered in tempered glass that can stand up to hailstones the size of golf balls, driven by wind themselves.

Sorry, Virginia. Got distracted by the California vs Florida argument further down the page.

I would bet any amount you care to name that you can rent a gasoline generator in Florida. And those rental companies are not treated as public utilities, no matter how long you use it.

That's an interesting theory. At the moment, we don't really have means to extract additional energy from waste heat, so it ultimately radiates off as infrared. But if we're seriously considering building a Dyson sphere, one supposes we've already exhausted every possible efficiency we can come up with, including reducing infrared wavelength all the way down to microwave wavelength, squeezing every last possible watt out of it.

It doesn't seem likely. Black body radiation at room temperature and cooler is almost entirely in the infrared. It's the part of the spectrum to which heat converts most readily at lower temperatures. Efforts to convert that infrared back into something useful have been covered on Slashdot. It's apparently possible. But the result is still infrared, coming off the back of the converter. Just less of it. One supposes it has something to do with the fundamental nature of macroscopic matter.

Is there a physicist in the house?

It's fine if they don't, and can't. They still need to try to learn, for several reasons.

The most important reason the masses should take at least one programming class is to learn what a computer is capable of. Most people wouldn't know a for loop if it bit them. If they took a programming class, they would at least learn that computers are good at doing repetitious things, and this is how it's done. They may not ever be able to write a coherent program, but at least they can see what's possible. Most people view computers as the magic talking box with a screen you can touch to make it do stuff. (As opposed to the past several generations who viewed televisions as the magic talking box with knobs you could touch to make it do stuff.) A programming class, even a bonehead programming class, would give people an inkling of what's happening inside the magic box, and maybe, just maybe, get them to ask a programmer for help with automating tasks.

The second reason is to make people find out, by experience, that programming is hard. Right now there's a pervasive belief that programming must be easy. After all, my cousin's sister's kid does it. How hard can it be? That boy used to shove peas up his nose. Unless people actually try to write a program, they haven't the faintest inkling how difficult it is. Maybe if they try, they'll finally figure out why programmers cost more than MBAs. Or should.

I wish they had sued. They would have lost as a matter of law, without risk of a jury trial.

I can just see the hearing now.

"Your honor, I'd like to enter into evidence Exhibit A: a solar powered calculator from Dollar General.
"Your honor, I'd like to enter into evidence Exhibit B: a solar powered yard light from Home Depot.
"Your honor, I'd like to enter into evidence Exhibit C: a gasoline generator from Harbor Freight.
"These products are legal in the state of Virginia, are they not? And they all generate electricity? So we're agreed that my client purchased equipment, and not electricity?"

"Yeah, case dismissed, with prejudice. Plaintiff to pay defendant's court costs and attorneys fees."

Spambots don't even bother to speak SMTP correctly, which is why greylisting is so effective. Do you think they're going to start signing their spam? I doubt it. It becomes more grist for the Bayesian mill: no encryption, spam probability goes up.

I'm just quoting SpaceX's own statements. One supposes it's pretty cheap to just fall downrange, when you're that high and going that fast. I suspect they've done the math. I suspect you haven't.

I've been waiting for "home automation" for years, and by that I mean digital control of my electrical outlets. I even have some X10 equipment that I've been using every day for more than a decade. I only have it because I got it during their $10 for a four-pack promotion, around the turn of the millenium. I've never bought any at the regular price.

Having just now looked at their web site for the first time in 6 or 8 years, I see they finally got a web designer who wasn't an SEO spam specialists crossed with the design sensibilities of a used car salesman. That's a step up. They now have a module integrated into an outlet, which is a another step up, but it's still overpriced and undoubtedly is even flakier than the big boxy modules I have (and which they still sell, identical to the modules I have). Still, the protocol lacks any security whatsoever, so in this day and age, it probably isn't wise to use it at all.

Let's not forget that SpaceX intends to reuse their first stage. While the Falcon 9 is being built to be able to return to its own launch pad, the fuel reserve necessarily reduces payload capacity. Launching from south Texas allows for an alternative. Instead of returning to its own pad, the first stage could land at Canaveral. This has been the general idea for some time now. It recovers some of the lost payload capacity by allowing an easier landing. Being at nearly the same latitude makes the process that much easier.

The downside is still being vulnerable to the vagaries of scheduling at Canaveral. One supposes it's worth the hassle to avoid building yet another booster and nine more engines.

Ok, the LEGO set is independent of this prototype. But it's available this month. Here is the original proposal on Lego Ideas. Buy your own minifig exosuit! You know you want to.

I was going to keep quiet in this thread, but I couldn't let this pass.

No, they don't. They really really REALLY don't. This has been empirically proven. They vote for the guy with the best hair. They vote for the guy with the best smile. They vote for the guy with the best handshake. They vote for the guy with the "right" tag after his name. They vote for the guy who says all the correct trigger phrases they've been conditioned to respond to. The very LAST thing they do is vote for the person they believe will best represent their interests. That literally isn't a criteria. And yes, I included the "they believe" phrase on purpose. Anybody who can do arithmetic can prove that the vast majority of the country has been voting for people who do not actually represent their interests. It's worse than that. They don't even vote for people they (erroneously) believe will represent their interests. The hair and the smile and the square jaw get the vote, and if asked why, the answer is, "Because I just liked him. He seemed nice. Trustworthy."

More often than not, they don't really understand what would be in their own interests. Most of them have been continuously exposed to a giant propaganda machine literally since birth (young adults vote in line with their parents, almost universally). Most of them are unable to see through the most basic levels of the propaganda machine, the parts that say, "Do this because if you do, you will be a good person." Only a few of them have to be convinced by the more sophisticated modes of the propaganda machine, the parts that get all tricky and use reverse psychology. (That would be the mode that works on Slashdot. You rebels you.) Interests? Interests run in last place in terms of what people vote for. People vote for image and for their hot button single issues and that's all.

The only one that manufacturers capacitors worth a damn?

Wait, what? Snopes severely overstated that one.

Bra burning was quite real. Perhaps the origin is mythological, but if that's the case, life imitated art in a hurry, and kept at it for quite some time. My mother has personal memories of protests where bras were burned at the University of Chicago, and two different family friends the same age have similar memories from other places. It was quite real. It made the nightly news. Video exists. Yes some of that video is Hollywood depictions of fictional feminists, but not all of it. Not by a long shot.