The question is not only if the climate is changing, but if it's directly related to CO2. Robert Essenhigh's point is quite interesting. http://bit.ly/11IsUri

If I travel from the West Coast (my home) to the East Coast (where many of my customers work) each week for a month, I'm toast. If I travel to Europe, I'm toast for three days afterwards. If I travel to Asia, I'm toast for four days.

If I travel to the East Coast once, I'm tired the next day.

Economic burdens too. Natural gas is much cheaper than before (about half from 2008), and as it was the most expensive fuel for the major generating stations, its cost basically controlled the minimum profit obtainable (the plants are relatively cheap to build on a per megawatt basis compared to coal, nuclear, wind).

The grid is a conduit from the generating station to the customer, and is effectively a capital expense that is most likely paid for already. The grid operating costs are very small compared to the generation costs, and there wouldn't be a revenue source for a grid company if they were forced to separate (if there were it would be artificial and in unregulated markets they would eventually zero this value out). Note that because storage isn't really practical yet, any time there is a change in electricity demand, the generating station needs to follow the load by increasing/decreasing the fuel that is consumed and reducing the generator load. This would have to happen regardless of who ran the grid, and the same operating challenges would be present, it wouldn't help solar adoption. The best way for solar to be adopted more readily is to make the solar panels cheaper.

Let's say they start datamining and storing whether or not a child has received mental health care. Then what? Kids and their parents will prevent their children from getting the needed health care in order to prevent their child from being classified as 'aberrant' by what is well-known to be an inconsistent psychological practices.

Even worse. It will hurt redemption stories. In my own experience, I probably had too much fun when I was a kid. My grades were good but my friends were a varied lot, and some of them were not well-regarded by The Powers That Be (note I was in a small town, nails that stick out get hammered down). But I got wise, worked hard and smart on my education, and I'm doing well for myself. Would this have been possible if I were tracked during high school and automatically relegated to 'one of those ruffians?'

The parents are right to complain about this, much more harm than good comes from it.

There will be a million negative posts (maybe not here) about practicality, weight, viability in weather etc., but they have a plane that flies using solar power, which is a much better performance than all of the naysayers expected from them before yesterday.

Good for them, I'm impressed.

I'd help clarify that comment by recommending Peter F. Hamilton's book Pandora's Star (search Amazon)...he envisioned an implanted HUD display where people could access the Internet analog and do other comp sci stuff. Pretty cool ideas there.

I like J.J.'s work (minus lens flares), and I'm willing to support it. A nitpick, the definition of 'Star Wars canon' will be argued here,

My view (and apparently George Lucas' at one time or another) is that the movies are canonical, the rest is fanboy fan fiction. Some of it is very well written fan fiction, and it brings you back to that special place in your head where you enjoyed the Death Star blowing up, but they are still not what Lucas made.

I agree 1, 2, and 3, were not to the story quality of 4, 5, and 6, and I also agree that J. J. is not George Lucas so even these new ones won't technically be a Lucasfilm, but George signed off on it and he's a consulting producer, so that's canon enough for me. Here's hoping the force is with them.

I've attended hundreds of hours of classes, and I've taught graduate courses in engineering. If your lecture has an introduction, preferably with a motivational topic, followed by an outline, a thorough discussion that includes examples for each concept, and then a summary, your students will learn more than if they did not show up and just read the notes.

Of course you need to engage them, ask them questions (I find ways to get them to contribute by offering homework points (capped) for interaction), but that's part of preparing a good lecture. I think most of the lectures that are criticized are those prepared by teachers that would rather do something else.

It seems to me if you add coding to math curriculum, it would enhance both. In my high school during the '80's, boolean logic was not discussed at all, nor were principles like recursion, numerical approximation, and general algorithms. If those were added to algebra, geometry, and shown how computers help solve normally unsolvable problems (e.g. the simple pendulum without the law of sines approximation), the students understanding of both math and computer science would synergistically increase.

Okay, if I make the following (probably erroneous) logical information lifecycle assumptions:

1. Assume the theory that we have short term memories feeding long term memories,

2. We have five senses that effectively record terabytes of information with near analog frequency (for example, you feel sensations, or no sensations, from the entire surface area of your skin as well as any internal nerves, and that can be recorded).

3. The short term pushes the most pronounced sensory data into long-term memory, and that long term memory is persistent..

4. Long term memory is persistent, but may not be completely accessible.

5. Memories of accessing those long term memories are persistent, and can be accessed, effectively creating copies.

6. Multiple access/copy loops in short periods of time are more likely to persist that memory copy more accurately, and fewer accesses increases likeliehood of loss/alteration.

7. The incredibly large vector of sensory data, for which no two humans will have identical experiences, coupled with differences in memory storage capacity, physiological differences, chemical exposure differences, and plain luck lead to effectively a chaotic system that cannot be computed because you're dealing with n>1e8 vectors expanding factorially over time leads to this still incredibly difficult to define concept of 'consciousness,'

So I guess I agree with the thesis that we can't compute consciousness, it's a chaotic system, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could be copied.

Not sure about the legality of the transaction, but the execution of the transaction will be tough.

Just how are you going to get paid before you give up the spot? The seeker will have to double park (illegal) before paying, unless Monkey does the transaction by credit card transfer. Even still, when you're auctioning a spot, others will want it too, leading to nightmare traffic in the area.

For those that don't know the city, there are a lot of parking garages and the prices vary from 10-15 dollars an hour, so that'll be the limit. Also note that most houses don't have enough parking for the tenants so street parking is very common. New buildings for certain have good parking garages, but many of the city buildings and houses won't be scraped for years. Also, drilling a parking garage into the side of a hill of a seismically active area has it's own engineering/city construction code challenges.

The app may work, I don't know if it's illegal, but I don't like it, and it will increase the aggravation factor by an order of 10 on busy days.

That's my quarter.

Depends if you limit yourself to the United States. During a business trip in Korea, I watched not one, but two channels of Starcraft competitions and those players were simply rock stars, and they made serious bank. If the gaming companies find viable ways to set up sponsored competitions, then sure, the best players could live comfortably, and as you would expect, the average players would get nothing.

I bet with the right marketing there could there be more players than the 1600 professional football players. Maybe they could get Pete Townshend to write a song about it.

I don't think it needs to be a life-long career, if they peak for three years and make seed money for college or something else, it's time well spent. Gaming isn't exactly productive, but in most cases it's not a big time loss, and millions of people spend equivalent time watching TV, knitting, or listening to music, all of which have almost zero potential marketability.

Slightly off topic, regarding the violence of the games in the article, I remember a game where people were watching a guy writhe in pain with his arm broken in half. Wait a minute, that was my arm, when I was playing American football. And that doctor's bill was huge.

Current nuclear sub designs are not refueled. The cores are designed to last the 30 year life of the sub.

The Goods:
1. Say what you want, but J.J. can make actors act to their potential, puts emotions into scenes, and by all accounts is a fan of the Star Wars franchise.
2. At least some attempt at a continuity will be welcome.
3. I've never liked the EU books, so I'm not turned off.

The Bads:
1. Watch out for that LENS FLARE!
2. I went to Disneyland last week with my girls and I saw Mickey Mouse swinging a light saber. How many hidden Mickey's will be in the film, and those that aren't so hidden? The script notes from the executives may kill the chance at a good story.

I'm looking forward to it, fanboys will always complain, but I'll give the creator of LOST his shot.