Here's a better example: Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, has a daytime temperature of 800+ degrees Fahrenheit (420+ C), and a night time temperature as cold as minus 270 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 170+ C).

Venus on the other hand, due to its blanket of CO2, is around 860 degrees Fahrenheit (460 degrees C), day or night, at the poles or at the equator.

Venus is nearly twice the distance from the sun as Mercury and receives only 25% of Mercury's solar irradiance. If the sun truly was the only main determinant of a planet's temperature, then the surface temperature of Venus shouldn't be hotter than Mercury's, nor should Venus's nighttime temperature be as high as its daytime temperature.

So... is the NSA applying this data-mining to our representatives and public officials? If not, why aren't they? Imagine being able to know who has been lobbying whom. Imagine knowing who their paramours are. Imaging knowing what their shopping habits and travel patterns are.

Just imagine if we appointed an enlightened, benign head of the NSA. We would finally have a functional government. Granted it would be a tad autocratic, but hey, pros and cons.

if you can build autonomous cars, you can build cars autonomously. Meaning, cheaper cars, one that "everyone" can afford. Plus, the reduced driver skill requirements will also increase the market.

Also, due to the stringent testing requirements, reliability and robustness are almost guaranteed, and the long testing cycle means that there will be few models to choose from, so factories will benefit from focus and specialization.

Is the database of married couples in Minneapolis also public...?

Nutrition labels on processed and fast food read like science fiction and have pretty depressing effects given what they do to a human body. That people continue to eat such "food" as their primary source of calories is just gravy.

I've always wanted to know what establishments and homes that my local officials, politicians, lobbyists, and CEOs travel to and from...

How long until someone tapes a "Wi-Fi Direct-enabled smartphone" to someone's car and the app is set to go off randomly? Or just puts a transmitter in the middle of the street and sets it to go off randomly?

How long until the RIAA jumps on the words "peer to peer" and that "music files or contact information could also be securely transferred from the home computer to a vehicle’s infotainment or navigation system" via Wi-Fi Direct devices?

How long until a deranged geek realizes that anyone running a Wi-Fi Direct app can be triangulated, tracked, and shot with a weapon hooked up to an automated targeting system?

How long until SETI is ported to Wi-fi Direct apps? Granted, there would need be some hacking needed on the car's CPU/OS as well.

It's not overly clear, but you'll want to click on the "Show Topic List" in the upper right corner.

If you want to jump directly to conventional space weapons: http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/spacewarintro.php

IBM buying SCO would be a win for SCO's backers. They would point at the purchase and say, "How nefarious! IBM had to buy SCO to cover up IBM's perfidy and malfeasance! Linux really does infringe and contains tainted code! Open Source is Teh Evil!"

Seriously, can you really patent the idea of taking metrics in order to evaluate performance? Even with the idea of software patents, that seems overly broad.

New resources in Canada are being exposed (i.e. thawing out.) Canada can make a claim on Arctic resources which are now in a "land rush" due to also being exposed and explored. Canada is the largest country in the world in terms of landmass and is positioned to potentially have a milder climate to grow crops in when global warming/climate change severely disrupts the climate and weather of the US farming industry.

So we might as well make the "annexation" easier via cultural means instead of doing so via a crude, overt coup or invasion.

P.S. I'm not sure if I'm being funny or serious.

I can think of a few reasons that drug cartels would want to end prohibition:

• If the drug cartels were consolidated or whittled down to a few, then direct confrontation between a few very large cartels would probably be too bloody and costly, so it would make more sense to reach an "agreement" and maintain a monopoly. Think OPEC.
• The money and the customers aren't in Mexico. Legalizing drugs in Mexico doesn't make them legal in the U.S., so the price stays high, while production costs go down, and profit increases.
• Being legitimate makes a Drug Lord's life a little less stressful, turns them from thugs into powerful respectable gentlemen, and gives them an opportunity to establish a legacy for their family and children. Being the next Morgan or Rockefeller might be pretty tempting

Plus, going legit could also mean a shadow government to avoid directly antagonizing the U.S. Who's in charge of Russia right now? The elected President or Mr. Putin, the unofficial actual leader of Russia?

Given the levels of organization, sophistication, business savvy, and ruthlessness needed to run a modern day, world wide drug organization, why haven't they gone legit and taken over Mexico's politics? Seriously, at some point it just be easier to influence the Mexican government into passing laws that legalize drugs and turn Mexico into a legitimate drug clearing house for the world.

I leave it up to an economist/historian to point to relevant examples in History where the only way to increase the profit of an illegal market was to legalize the market.

So not only did a civilian institution create a MWD, it has *civilian* security guarding it...? Does this worry anyone else?