The real problem is batteries. If utilities had liquid metal battery banks scattered around, they could supply wind and solar power, or absorb any generated power.

Gort.

Remember Leviathan by Hobbes? The idea is that peace only comes when somebody has overwhelming power, enough to shut down small wars between 'vassal' states. Now, I want to be 'in charge' too, but that probably won't happen, and the next best thing is for whomever IS in charge to be able to kick the shit out of anybody who tries to hurt me.

So, despite his handicap (beliving in the paranormal) he was elected president, and remembered by most Republicans as "The Greatest President".

I also have pancreatic cancer. When I was diagnosed, I thought of doing videos for my kids, but decided that it would be far too Hari Seldon, and I didn't have anything really useful to say.

Death is frightening, and one of the worst parts is the lack of ability to affect the future. In my opinion, the important thing is for her to have good memories of you. Tapes won't help with that. Videos of you two at the tech museum, or at the makers faire would be far more useful.

However, if you have something to say to her that is not age appropriate, a recording might be one way to do it. Otherwise, talk to her NOW.

Good luck.

Driving while only looking in the rear view mirror. It occasionally works...

Doctors don't need the education they get now to dispense pills. The educational hurdles are purely economic, enabling higher costs and more lavish lifestyles for doctors.

<p>I spent a year 'modularizing' a big chunk of the cisco router source base. It was driven by the CTO, who wanted more modularity and code ownership, dammit! It was a terrible idea, caused lots of bugs, and made the code harder to understand and maintain. I did win a prize for the effort, though.
<p>In my opinion, code cleanup on legacy code is rarely going to pay for itself. Even rewrites from scratch usually fail miserably. Legacy software is the way it is for a reason. If you screw with it, you are increasing the system's entropy, which is almost always bad.

Inhofe doesn't agree with you. (not goatse)

If an AI suddenly woke up, killing us would kill it too. It needs power, which we supply. It may need Internet, which we also supply. Spare parts. A cold room. Inputs. Outputs. A reason to live. Meaning. Purpose. Intentionality. All of these come from us now, and in the foreseeable future. I would venture a guess that we will transform ourselves into machines well before we create artificially sentient life.

Actually, terrorists do far less damage than falls in bathtubs, or falling off ladders. They have the potential to do far more damage, but only if they get access to nuclear or biological weapons. That probably won't happen, given the current controls. So, controlling speech does almost nothing for most people, and hurts them by limiting knowledge.

Listening in on people has the potential to help prevent terrorist attacks, but hasn't really done anything yet. Given the multi billion dollar investment the NSA has already made in it, it seems more like a way to sell equipment and services by vendors than a national security strategy.

We are scared of our shadows. That is the harm that terrorism does. The terrorists have already won.

The ONLY reason any country may attack another, under international law, is to prevent an imminent threat of attack. There was no such threat against the U.S., despite lies by the Bush administration about nuclear programs, which were actively being denied by UN inspectors at the time. Their lies were the justification for attack. Since those statements have been proven to be lies, and the people making those statements have been shown to know, at the time, that they were false, they should be in jail. Their attack on Iraq was a trillion dollar war crime.

The chemical weapons found were supplied by the US during the Iran Iraq war. Only a dimwit would confuse the ability to create these weapons with finding a small number of expired weapons. Even Bush wasn't that stupid. If Bush thought they would exonerate his crime (invading a sovereign country before any aggressive move on the part of the invaded, against all international law), he would have quickly publicized any weapons found.

Much of the oil we are burning was created in a time after trees evolved, but before bacteria evolved to eat them. They were buried, taking their carbon with them. That allowed the partial pressure of oxygen to build up to much higher levels.

True. When he tried, the Republicans beat him to a pulp. He learned that the assholes were not going to meet him halfway, or at all, really. Not even when he was hawking the same health care plan they had been hawking only months before. Not even when the financial stability of the country was at stake. Not even when he was giving them what they said they wanted for the "grand bargain'. They just stood proudly, with their chests puffed out, and went back on their word.

Now, the idiots will find out what it feels like. Obama doesn't care, he can smoke their agenda with the bully pulpit. Harry Reid just wants revenge, so he will enact the" McConnell Defense" and block every bit of legislation he can. The next election is slanted left. They have screwed themselves.

The House of Representatives is 17% percent female. The Senate is also 17% female. There are 5.2% female CEOs among the fortune 500 companies. Since there are MORE females than males, these statistics are even more of a poke in the eye. I wouldn't start worrying about maintaining your undeserved elevated status for a few more years.