I think the authors of the paper have overlooked something. It has been discovered that if we pump water into the ground along a fault line, we can literally lubricate the fault and help the plates slide past each other. (Side note: sounds like a good way to prevent major earthquakes, but nobody wants to be responsible for causing the initial quakes associated with unlocking long-locked plates. The problem with that attitude is, those quakes are eventually going to happen anyway, except they will be bigger and more catastrophic then, than if deliberately caused now.)

Anyway, on Earth we have lots of water, including water deep underground, presumably doing SOME assisting of tectonic plate motion. Meanwhile, on Venus it has always been too hot for much water to percolate deep underground....

"on the seabed" means it becomes vulnerable to earthquakes. A handy adage to keep in mind is, "If it is sitting on the floor, it can't fall and break --but it will get kicked." MIT definitely needs to address the "storm" issue --the "Ocean Ranger" was claimed to be "unsinkable" (much like the "Titanic"), and look where it is now. Perhaps the place to put it is NEAR the sea-bottom, so waves and storms can pass harmlessly above it, and quakes can pass harmlessly below it. Then the only thing to worry about are sinking ships hitting it, and big meteors hitting it, and so on. Relatively rare!

I thought the entire ring system was inside Roche's Limit, and as a result it should be impossible for a moon to form there.

Yes, so long as you have sufficient energy available, you most certainly can do the "net effect" of making hydrocarbon combustion run backward. It simply takes MORE energy to do that than you got from the original hydrocarbon combustion, because of inevitable inefficiencies in the system. So, if you have the energy to waste, and have no easier supply of hydrocarbons available, this certainly is Cool. Just not very practical for everyday use, worldwide....

For any scammer who pretends to install an XP patch, but actually installs malware.

In his book "Stranger in a Strange Land", a human raised by Martians finds himself trying to understand the ways of Earthly humans. One day he groks the concept of "money". Good stuff!

"No" to what, exactly? XP is probably OK as part of an "intranet", especially if that intranet is isolated from the Internet.

When they can offer equal EVIDENCE, then they might be deserving of equal time. So far, though, all they have is hearsay --worthless in a courtroom, and worthless in science.

There is always a way. Consider dumping the phone into liquid helium, before applying the Dremel. Batteries don't work so well at cold temperatures. Software, including self-erasing software, can't run without a power source....

"Superiority" by Arthur C. Clarke
"The Power of Progression" by Isaac Asimov
"Time For The Stars" by Robert A. Heinlein, with particular attention to the "Long Range Foundation"

I've always liked the idea of space elevators, but I've also been bothered by a problem that I've never seen addressed, "micrometeoroid erosion". Sure, you can build one. But how long is it going to last, with nothing to protect the main cable/strands/shaft/whatever-you-want-to-call-it from a near-endless --though admittedly low-rate-- series of impacts by speedy dust particles?

Even if the proposal became a Standard, that doesn't mean EITHER web-server developers, or browser developers, must actually implement it.

I'm expecting a report any time now regarding hydrogen-fueled vehicles, and leaks of hydrogen. See, ozone and hydrogen are hypergolic; they react on contact, so each ozone molecule that reacts is no longer there. Net result, because hydrogen naturally rises to the stratosphere where the Earth's ozone layer is, hydrogen leaks could lead to a bigger ozone hole than the chlorocarbons made....

Perhaps the solution is to re-think the need to manage any engineer good enough to qualify as a leader. And I'll disagree with an earlier post about "managing the resources", because that task falls under "logistics", and any good engineer understands logistics.

So, concluding from the above, companies should hire good engineers and not hire managers.

"Shouldn't they be looking at a different solution here?"

OK. Laser light qualifies as polarized light. So, if the pilots wear polarized glasses (with rotatable lenses), then they can block the light almost as easily as it can be shined at them.