"Get out of your chair, go sit in your hummer, and without leaving your garage, turn it on and listen to Mike Savage until you fall into a deep, permanent sleep.

On the other hand, I've found that building a chair with a child (I'm fond of this hiking staff I found on instructables that converts into a tripod chair... Cost me $6 to make and gets tons of usage....) , showing them how your engine works (The diesel Humvee isn't all that wasteful a car... The mileage is about par to a "normal" car... Horrid by diesel standards, but not too bad. That and once you put the two tank system on it to run WVO that you salvage from the dumpster of a Chinese food restaurant, pretty good all around...), go inside and watch Adam Savage and crew bring science to the masses (Even Mr. Wizard blew things up from time to time.... Gets little boys and girls open their eyes wide like fireworks, then bombard with questions of "how that happened...), then do some 5BX as a family and go to bed...

For each horrid, lazy, sociopathic member of society, I think the growing "Maker" movement are teaching themselves, and their children, what they missed in our generation of cuts and protection. And if that is the case, over time these better rounded groups will rise in society... Or at least in the comfort of their own lives....

Some say all his posts on slashdot are marked +5 insightful, before he submits, and that his teeth are so white snow around him melts.

All I know is he is called The Stig....

Well, the sport in question needs to decide one of either of these simple diagnostic criteria in segregating their sport:

Either you go by genetic screening, in which case "Y makes the guy". They could have an extra chromosome or two, or even be missing one, but so long as they do not have a "y", they are female.
"or"
Its done by respective genitalia, having been born that way, or surgically altered. Basically where do you want transvestites to compete? It's almost purely a PC issue, but the lack of testies is a bit of a handicap in some cases. Though then what about testicular cancer survivors? Brings up a slew of arguments. Maybe the creation of a third catagory is needed in some cases. Though then would it have the player density to be interesting to watch, and would it bring a stigma to those in that catagory? Heck, I know of some female golfers that t off with the men at their t, play with normal clubs, and use pink ladies... (as are the men... Though this reference is a bit dated...) and if they were pro, would preffer to compete in the mens leugue, as they feel it would be more challenging and bring more respect.

Two options, one with a third ammendment that could be chosen as well. Personally? I would go with genetics. I think it's more fair. And only for sex chromosomes. I could care less about any other genetic condition that could give them an edge. If athletes that lack the ability to feel lactic acid, or have a slew of other enhancements, then cool. It might kill the sport for those without those genes, but then more and more will have these genes in competition. Or not. Who knows what the future holds? Though if you start screening on genes asside from sex, then you drive out these "super athletes". The you get a question for if "they" should have their own league? And if others without these enhancements bred onto them can compete for greater glory? And soon all these complications add together to really make ones head hurt, and detract from the sports in question.

Then again, I only watch curling, play a little golf, and generally ignore the rest.... So I might not be the best opinion on the matter...

Reading glasses: $2 at Northern Tool. Regular prescription glasses: $40 from internet (china). Total cost: $42.
VS.
Trufocals: $895.
Next topic!

Cost of an electrical computer in 1954 : $400,000, not including the power cost for operation, the cost of either a new building to house it or several structural modifications, etc. And then there is highering a couple computers to check the equations going in, technicians to keep it operational, a supply of new tubes as they burn out... Why, you could be spending a million dollars there.. In your first year alone.

Cost of hiring 40 computers to solve any problem that computer can, and far more, and in some cases faster? $165,500. And you didn't even have to pay to power them, food them, house them in any way except the office building you have anyways? And in the end these computers will pay taxes, raise families, and support the economy.

With an argument like that, why would you even want the cost of an electrical computer? Costs more, does not have a long-term savings of labor saved, and just takes away from honest hard-working labors - as said, without saving money- that sounds down-right unpatriotic...

Better than the lessons I learned playing Diplomacy... How to lie, cheat, and swindle your best friends to their face, then band with my enemy to crush them and take their lands... So I might be that much stronger when I go for my true enemies...

Though the lessons one learns LARPing also throws in how to tread softly, gain confidence and outtalk your enemies, to make friends, how to fix 'Anything' with duct tape, that you are not paranoid if everyone really is out to get you, and adds a good amount of running around in fresh air... Really, if you love D&D, look for your local NERO chapter (nerolarp.com/) and give being an NPC a shot, a free way to experience the game... (Yes, there are other LARPs out there, but its a good starting point...)

Actually, they did cover that in one of the movies... The universal translator does translate language perfectly, but it leaves an audible "twang" (or mild offset of speech, or something) of translation. As seen when the crew is breaking out a Klingon dictionary so they can speak actual Klingon, without detection of being forgers.

And with a very nationalistic, and prideful people such as the Klingons, and given the difficulty some of them have with the human language/s, it could be that many forgo the translator and attack translation with brute skill... Or as with the occasional speaking of French, it could be simply that all 'can' hear a difference in all languages, so those that do take the time to learn the original, and as thus not need their translators to work on those phrases (if they can alter the base programing), or simply can recognize the phrase and realize the significance.

We ostensibly invaded Iraq to liberate its people and bring them democracy. By applying anything short of our own standards of justice, we betrayed both these purported goals and showed our true colors.

But you see, that is a problem in itself. We invaded under the pretense of bringing "Democracy", when our own founding fathers cringed at the thought of it. America is not a democracy. We are, and should strive to be, a Republic.

A democracy is popular demand. Which sounds great, but if there is a large group of people that think it would be better without your small group of people, bad things happen. A republic is a government of the people, for the people, and from the people.

We Should of gone into that nation on the pretext (If at all) of bringing in Our System. One of checks and balances. And a written constitution protecting all of the citizens, regardless of religion, race, sex, or views. And we should of remained a protectorate of that nation until its people grew to accept that this Law is above the Law preached in their places of worship, or the Law of the angry mob in the street... About, what, thirty years after we establish a board of education system to endoctorate the youth that this system is right, and just, and all of mankind are equal...

I brew, LARP, enjoy my model rocketry, tan leather, have taken up shoemaking, knit, dabble with my electronics, blow glass, and am working on a forge to take up blacksmithing, and quite a few others...

Now, I use it as a gauge. For every ten people that mock that, I find one that find one of the things above interesting and want to find out more. If more people were willing to take a few ribs, then we would slowly be more mainstream. Hell, I refer to LARPing as "my silly little game in the woods", and my co-workers have not only stopped looking at me with blank stairs, but because of my self assured nature over it being a good time, and light-hearted joviality over the subject, I've actually been able to rope quite a few into the hobby.

Don't be defensive about your hobbies; flaunt them. There are plenty of people like you, but in the closet on the issue. Help bring them out. If you brew, hand out a few bottles. If you like rockets, always offer with a smile to come out to a launch.

Embrace your hobbies, embrace yourself, and be tired of fitting in the crowd. Its not high-school any more. You are not going to be beaten to a pulp in the hallway. You might be laughed at, but if someone is so bent on laughing on you for being, well, you, are they even worth knowing?

To a pre-2.0 state.

All the applications developed by the underground iphone community, well 99% of them, were broken and abandoned when 2.0 came out.

Why would I want these older applications when there is now an apple store to provide most of the functionality of these applications? I loved having a chat client that would run in the background. I loved having my iradio, my wedict, my ebook reader (and a ton of ebook sources for easy install on the go.) my video recorder, my ssh client, my voice recorder with easy import, my NES emulator and ROMS (legal... I own each one of those, I swear...) and other games. I miss installing a free ringtone of a song I already own. And I miss said ringtone being full length

When people start porting their apps to 2.0 for installer or cygia, then I will move forward again.

The iphone can be a very open platform, and a good one at that. It just needs people to move from the official SDK and create ones own; to forgo the rules imposed. To make whatever one wants...

Okay, so we're going to grow trees to make "lignin plastic" and then the stuff is going into landfills where it will biodegrade and will release CO2. How is this better?

This is better because in this case the product is "Carbon Neutral", as in it is releasing CO2 that the plants had used to grow. When we use petroleum products, the CO2 released is from carbon that was taken out of the cycle and buried deep underground... Now eventually it would even out in a few millennia... The Earth had handled this carbon before... But the Earth would not be the climate that we as humans are used to... The ecosystem using that much carbon had far more plant growth... As such much, much more Oxygen in the air. Which in turn can support much larger animals. Especially insects.... A warmer, oxygen-rich, swampy environment.