Imagine if Lex Luthor controlled a construction company that did major projects around the Los Angeles area. With each project carefully selected by location, he builds, over the years, a lens that will focus earthquake energy onto a specific building to be specified later, perhaps with a tie-in to current events, destroying it completely.

I should note that I haven't really kept up with Lex Luthor's aspirations since the 1978 film.

If he could come up with a good way to trigger the earthquake, the film could be a remake of Black Sunday. Or at least use a similar target.

Nice use of ad hominum attack to pre-emptively silence dissent.

Others have described this as suitable for 'fixies' (fixed-gear) only. In that design, the only torque supplied to the wheel comes from the chain, as there are no brakes. Braking action comes from applying pressure to the pedals on the 'other' side of the stroke. Whatever motor is inside this wheel would then become a generator, providing regenerative braking.

How do you do a double-blind study on screens?

"You will be looking at either a back-lit screen or a book--we won't tell you which until after the study--and then we will ask you questions and examine your eyes to determine the effects."

There's a lot of talk about 'the environment' when plastic bags are discussed. Where is that, exactly? Seagulls choking on plastic bags is a pretty clear example of 'bad for the environment,' I'll admit, but 'plastic bags buried in a landfill' doesn't sound so bad to me. The landfill has bigger problems, environmentally speaking. That's why we have landfills--to confine the problem.

Plastic bags that degrade in UV light would seem to mitigate the danger to wildlife (for surface-dwelling animals), which is where they cause the most damage. If it ends up being buried and lasting for 1000 years, so what? Archaeologists will be thrilled.

I've bought bags before--not necessarily the reusable grocery type--only to be asked at checkout "would you like that in a bag?" To which I replied, "it is a bag." It might just take a little nudge to break out of the 'put everything in a bag' habit.

Furthermore, I could read Slashdot for two hours and not come close to consuming the amount of data on a DVD. I suppose the uncompressed video signal to the monitor might have that much data, but I don't examine the font closely enough when I read to count that as consumption.

Some older aircraft feature through-canopy ejection systems. See the part about non-standard egress systems.

Also note that many aircraft canopies have multiple parts (e.g., EA-6B), where the windscreen can be thicker than the overhead portion of the canopy. The birds won't hit from above where the ejection seat pierces the canopy.

The EA-6B has one of those through-the-canopy ejection systems. Note in the photos the presence of a structural aluminum beam along the centerline of the canopy. Aircrew are well advised to keep their body parts clear of that should they need to eject.

Maybe a Nikon?

It's convenient that your sig applies so neatly to your argument. ("For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956))

In this case, the problem of the federal government is the 'complex problem', and the inevitability of a facsist police state is the simple solution. We know how to prepare for tyranny, so let's go ahead and do that. Dealing with the status quo is hard, so we should wait until it gets worse.

And more recently, for the iPhone. Nobody needed one until Apple announced them.

My T-Mobile phone got the alert eight times, starting about 6:30pm August 5th, but I am in the same county and I didn't turn off my alerts after the first one.

The alert sound was similar to a televised weather warning, three long tones. (At least until I was able to silence the phone...)

I can see where it may be helpful to crowd-source settings at certain locations. Maybe the noise profile at a pub responds best to a certain setup for most people, but you don't want to twiddle with your hearing aid until you figure it out. A statistical analysis of others' settings, along with some rating of satisfaction with them, could help adjust a hearing aid more quickly.

I'm sure Apple could come up with an easy interface on the iPhone to quickly adjust, rate and share settings. Maybe even store some info about each person's hearing loss profile to better match people with settings...

Of course, I haven't read the article yet, so this could be redundant.

...and with a slow internet connection, they can be on your hard drive the next day.

Try to think of cooling in terms of watts.

I realize this is a joke, but the possibility (very real generally, but hopefully less likely on Slashdot) that somebody could misapprehend the phrase '30x more cooling' so egregiously tramples the intended humor.