Wow..that is so smart :) everything is by the numbers, wonder why even rest of the world hasn't figured that economics is so simple as either X* Y or X*(Y-1)...

Have you ever been to India, it is great when so many people here point out Illiteracy & safe water? Even if you have schools, uhm how many poor people are going to send their kids to school. Oh wait, forget the the poor people, how many of those who are bit better off are going to send their kids to higher education when the attitude is, what am I going to do with education, there is nothing I can do, all the government does is make schools and dig wells. Oh wait the wells they've been digging aren't so great either. For some strange reason only way Indians can get safe water (when they really need it) is when its got ton of chemicals etc. in it to kill all the unsafe things...and for some reason unsafe water peaks during monsoons(ironic you have fresh water falling from sky, yet all the water is unsafe)...oh did I mention that most Indians (even poor ones) typically boil/purify the drinking water. Oh maybe cause they've been doing that for ages, keeping drinking water separate from regular/daily use water. Then again I am sure you probably know that International firms are probably the biggest water/land polluters now.

Safe water, Universal Education, Safe Roads, Access to utilities are great things if you have money for that, but the reality is quite different. Building the lab will cost money, mostly tax payer money and maybe some donations etc. but it will be far better utilized than those socialist projects. A good sort of example of wastage would be Bridge/Road to nowhere in Alaska(I am sure you have heard of it)...whereas in India an example of waste would be a road that perhaps links bunch of villages together..but the fact is there is no trade between those villages, people's primary mode of travel is Walk/Cycle and/or Oxen/Horse carts. Some better off villagers might have Scooters or 100cc bikes. There are countless schools in India that don't have students, because the kids or their parent think they have better things to do than get educated. You cannot change that thought process, the kids should want to study, parents should want to send their kids to school, and trust me Indian government doesn't have that kind of money...so what will motivate the kids, when they see educated people get jobs, when educated population can afford better living. Right now one of the biggest problems facing the educated population is lack of good jobs.

Only reason lately India has been doing well is because of strange politics, the way Congress, BJP have been locked in horns, its has been in the best interest of past and present coalition government to be *not corrupt* and invest in good long term projects. There have been more smart long term projects & long term policies in India in past 10 years than ever before. During those past 10 year it has been mostly coalition government. Remember this is the same government that made a Nuclear deal with US & rest of the world despite the fact its not a signatory to non-proliferation treaty. Despite all that, its a fact the politicians in India are one of the most corrupt ones you will find in the world if not the worst.

Politicians are bribed to the hilt, so they turn a blind eye. A project like this which will constantly be in public eye and constantly be scrutinized by people like you, will have less money siphoned off than the "School & Well" project. Oh btw, did I mention India has already done countless School & Well projects but never the neutrino lab.

I am not saying that more schools & more wells(or bores for hands pumps atleast) won't help but right now, some thing like this lab would help way more than you think, All those kids that went through School/College/Uni, doctorates and stuff...they can appreciate having a job for a change. I have lived in India, Government policies like Free Electricity & free *safe water* for poor have been around for a long time...these socialist policies are exactly the reason why so many are poor & illiterate as some would say it. Lately the biggest issue was...the poor people keep all electrical devices & water water running constantly without even bothering to conserve etc. cause after all its free, meanwhile anyone who can afford to have a real house or bit more pay exuberant amount of money for both electricity and water(in other words they are paying for wastage by poor people). Its an on going cycle, the politicians dare not start charging poor people cause they need the votes and since poor people outnumber middle class right now...they have more votes.

I honestly don't think you have seen corruption..corruption to the level where it might endanger lives...realistically projects that make advances in science, communications etc. have been more beneficial to Indian lately. Moreover think about it you argument about waste...one of the first things they are going to need for this lab is going to be power. Power is something that they already don't have, so to build that lab, they will in turn will have to make power plants..that in itself is one of the biggest benefits that the immediate locality is going to see.

Let me tell you, I kid you not, India right now needs more of these projects than your Keynesian multiplier analysis.

There...I have vented...

I'm screwed

You got it as wrong as possible when it comes to nuclear bombs. Uranium (or any other nuclear material being used for the bomb) is the only hard part to get. Assembling a nuclear bomb provided you have the enriched nuclear material is supposedly easy/straightforward. Why do you think US & allies are up in arms about Iran's Enrichment Program.

I've got two apple xserve servers, one old dual G4 with regular 4 ATA drives, and the new one with 3 SATA drives. I bought them both with smallest/cheapest drives, and then replaced the drives with off the shelf bigger drives. Absolutely no difference in reliability/performance. I can say that cause older Xserve drives were still running good for 5 years when I replaced them with bigger drives, and new xserve is still running good. Drives modules is no different every manufacturer has their own custom drive trays, which fit their servers only, Apple is doing nothing different here. Even our Mac's have had drives and other hardware replaced with off the shelf parts, and they work just as good, drives ironically were replaced from some Mac's cause original Apple ones failed.

I don't quite understand what this is being potrayed the way it is in the media. Especially here at slashdot where I thought it was fair assumption that most of its readers are bit more educated than average bunch that can discern fact from, "fluff". Hence are couple of things for everyone to know: India's first nuclear test was on May 18, 1974, hence a fair assumption it has had a nuclear weapon ever since. India also has a nuclear capable missile atleast since 1988.(lookup Prithvi) This nuclear deal is for fuel for Power plants Part of the deal is an agreement that India will open up its civilian nuclear facilities for inspection (Before this, it was 0 access) India also has approx 25% reserves of Thorium (nuclear fuel of future), so it'd make sense to let it in for current, "Uranium" fuel to somehow guarantee, "Thorium" supply in future. Indian government itself is taking a beating at home because its being seen as a way to suppress India's nuclear ambitions by west. Power(electricity) is one the major problems in current India, and having more of it can only be beneficial to the society at large. On the other hand, only exception I see to all this is that India's Military/Defense/Weapons Nuclear sites are still off-limits to inspections, and this deal can possibly free up more spent nuclear material for India to experiment with. That should have been accounted for in a bit more responsible manner.