I use vim for almost 100% of all editing. My main programming language is C++

Actually we know that big tech companies are evil (they are motivated by profit for shareholders and little else). What is catching everyone's eye, and fitting well with our collective understanding of India's economy and politcs, is how fast that thievery was "solved". At least in the EU or US the owed taxes would have taken a few months to work their way through the courts. In India it is solved in days. The first thing I thought, and many others did too, is that somewhere there are some Indian officials with some fresh money in their pockets, and the Indian public has been robbed once again.

It isn't just sea turtles and waterfowl. On my way to work yesterday I looked into a field and saw a cow munching on a plastic bag that had blown into its pasture. We should eliminate plastic bags. I've already stopped accepting them at stores -- I always carry a messenger bag with me where I put all of my purchases (think globally, act locally).

RTFA

This is false. Science does indeed stand in opposition to Religion. At least, to anything that Religion says is "true".

Science is the pursuit of truth using the scientific method, which relies on reason, logic, and proof by experimentation and examination of evidence. Meanwhile religion is faith in traditional "truths" that typically lack supporting evidence, or fly in the face of the evidence. Therefore the false "truths" of religion will constantly be under attack by the advancement of science and any true "truths" that religion happens to have will ultimately be supported.

Unfortunately, the history of science's triumphs over religious doctine informs us that religion is mostly myth and superstition and contains very few true "truths".

Maybe the DOE should bid on that supercomputer being liquidated by the US state of New Mexico.

The science fiction novel called Diaspora by Greg Egan had some interesting mathy sections. It wasn't rigorous, as I recall, but it certainly went into more "depth" than your average sci-fi story.

It's an international reverse psychology gambit to fool the US population into electing Romney.

As many have mentioned already, such an air-to-petrol might be viable in the middle of the Sahara where sunshine is plenty and access is poor. Anywhere where plants grow well, and can be dried, there a more efficient way...

(1) Grow plants to create biomass
(2) Let the biomass dry
(3) Put the biomass into a sealed container
(4) Add heat to evaporate the biomass
(5) Pump the air out of the container through a condensor

What you end up with is a mix of hydrocarbon oils that can be refined into petrol and many other things. The collection of the CO2 is done for you by vegitation in the sun. You can use waste biomass (stems and leaves) from a crop that actually produces something useful besides biomass.

Here is another idea... the UK is experimenting with storing energy as liquified air (1), which can be heated later to propel turbines just like steam. One of the byproducts of freezing air (at 77K or lower) is solid CO2 which freezes at 174K. The dry ice is a concentrated source of CO2 that can be liquified at pressures above 5 atmospheres and chemically combined with hydrogen to produce hydrocarbon oils.

Of course, such a system would require more energy input than it would produce, but this is about energy storage and the production of clean hydrocarbon oils rather than energy efficiency. There are a few locales that will be able to produce more clean energy than needed and might have difficulty selling/exporting it -- such places might eventually be able to produce their own hydrocarbon fuels for more self sufficiency.

(1) http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/3819

I'm a Californian who just bought an electric bicycle conversion kit: 350W hub motor, 36V + 12Ah lithium battery. I'm hoping I can use it for my commute which is 40 km each way. This bike's range should be about 50 km, but I'll be able to recharge it at work.

I already have one electric bicycle but it is not a good solution for a long commute. It has a big motor (1.9kW) and 48V of lead acid batteries --> It can go plenty fast (60 km/hr) but it is rather heavy (45 kg) and doesn't have the range (25 km).

Several months ago I met someone from the Internet Archive (archive.org) who told a similar story. The weren't expanding their storage at the same pace as Backblaze, but they were also resorting to shucking external drives to build their rack mounted servers.

Personal computers (since 1997): Redhat -> Debian -> Knoppix -> Ubuntu -> Kubuntu -> Xubuntu -> Debian -> LinuxMint

Work servers (since 2000): Debian