Well, the Russians during the 1962 "Project K" nuclear tests studied what kind of protection necessary to mitigate the effects of an EMP, the closest thing man-made to a large-scale CME strike on the Earth's atmosphere.

The results were not promising: a 300 kT nuclear warhead detonated at an altitude of 290 km (180 miles) generated an EMP that blew out all the protection systems and even started a fire at a power-generating station along with shutting down a 1,000 km (621 mile) long underground power line. In short, what could have happened in 2012--even if the power transmission lines were disconnected just before the CME hit--would have serious damaged the electrical grid worldwide anyway.

After reading Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," the innumerable health problems with "bathtub gin" during the Prohibition era, and that kind of scary situation with Paraquat spraying of cannabis plants in Mexico in the early 1980's, that's why I made the comment originally. Indeed, the level of alcohol in an alcoholic beverage is pretty tightly controlled--usually around 5% for beer and around 75% in hard liquor for sale in all 50 states.

Besides, with USDA and FDA standards, it means that cannabis you can buy (eventually) legally won't cause health problems for all the wrong reasons.

I would except the recreational drugs have to meet the same USDA and FDA standards for purity and safety for foodstuffs, legal drugs, and alcoholic beverages. In short, the cannabis you can buy legally must NOT have any potentially dangerous additives and THC levels per gram of cannabis have to be standardized. In short, welcome to the real world if you want to grow legal cannabis.

I think the FCC may end up postponing the change in net neutrality because it could have a tremendous effect on the upcoming 2014 Congressional elections if they go against the overwhelming wishes of the people commenting on its proposal.

I think thanks to more recent research by geologists, we now know that most volcanic eruptions occur after a series of very specific types of earthquakes around the volcano. This is why seismic sensors are placed all over many Japanese volcanic mountains, for example Mt. Aso and Sakurajima on Kyushu and both Mt. Fuji and Mt. Asama (since both mountains if there is any major eruption could seriously affect the Tokyo metropolitan region).

Hence my support for the molten-salt reactor fueled by thorium-232, which generates a tiny fraction of the waste you get from a uranium-fueled nuclear reactor. And the waste only has a radioactive half-life of 300 years, which means really cheap nuclear waste disposal if the nuclear medicine industry doesn't grab it first!

Actually, two countries--India and China--are pouring a LOT of money into make the molten-salt reactor (a nuclear reactor fueled by thorium-232 dissolved in molten fluoride salts) commercially viable. If they succeed, it could fulfill the promise of nuclear power minus the many downsides of uranium-fueled nuclear power plants.

I think the primary investment will the solar power (in parts of the world where the weather and enough long sunlight days make it economically practical like the southwestern USA, the Mediterranean region, much of the Middle East, Australia and western South America) and a new, safer form of nuclear reactor called the molten-salt reactor that uses commonly-found thorium-232 dissolved in molten fluoride salts as fuel.

The thing that always bothered me about Swartz is why didn't rich benefactors in the tech industry help him not only with his legal issues, but also with his known issues with clinical depression. A strong, vigorous defense team provided by the EFF and getting Swartz psychiatric help could have saved his life.

Especially in the southwestern USA, where solar power is very viable because there are enough sunny days to make them practical. At where I live currently, I have enough sunlight during the summer for the unit to generate full power from just after 6:00 am all the way to past 7:00 pm.

You are correct. There were fears that the New York City law could have begun the slippery slope on the path to the government deciding on things like taxation based on portion sizes or just outright bans on certain foods being eaten.

When Samsung rolled out the Galaxy S III in the spring of 2012, that phone once and for all showed Android phones could be _better_ than the iPhone of the day. 4.8" display, 2 GB RAM (on most models), replaceable battery and Micro SD card memory expansion was something iPhone users wished they had.

Today, the Google (LG) Nexus 5 and the Motorola Moto X shows just how good "plain" Android can be now. Apple is just finally catching up with the rumored larger screen iPhone models due this fall.

If they can make the molten salt reactor (MSR) that Alvin Weinberg worked on in the 1960's work on a commercial scale, it could not only eliminate the depleted uranium-235 fuel rod waste disposal issue, it could also be used to get rid of the plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons, too. And there is a lot of leftover plutonium in both the USA and Russia due to the retirement of many nuclear weapons due to the START treaty.

Actually, composite materials built with hemp fiber as almost as strong as carbon fiber composites and definitely way more biodegradable. I would not be surprised that the major auto manufacturers are looking at going with hemp fiber composites for body panels within the next ten years in an effort to lower the weight of an automobile without the expense of making the lightweight body panels out of carbon fiber.

While the de Havilland Comet was a major technological leap forward, in retrospect the plane not only had structural design flaws, but its payload and range was not really sufficient in the early models. The Comet 4 addressed the issues with too short range and carrying capacity, but by the time the plane entered service it was already obsolete against the Boeing 707, especially the 707-320 model which became available from 1960 on.