"upfront costs"

That's how you killed it.

That and carbon are the two power sources stored in the Earth's crust.

Choose one.

Nice try. There might be young people here, so I'm going to out you on this one:

You don't see them because you have been politically successful for the past 50-odd years, and forbid them from being built.

Fine.

We got all the nuclear fuel we need sitting around in pools of water.

Never thought I would see anyone 'FOR' nuclear waste, but the times they are a changin'. ;)

Best use of excess thorium generated electricity: Scrubbing the atmosphere of CO2, to be made into usable oil.

What 'damage'? You got Chernobyl. Which was done on purpose.

People like to point at Japan, but not to point out the futility of a 15 foot seawall against a 20 foot tsunami. And so far the 'damage' in Japan is noisy geiger counters. (There were 2 old men overexposed trying to fix generators - I haven't seen what happened to them.)

There are so many people that think something bad actually happened at Three Mile Island. When I remind them that nobody died or even got sick; well they don't believe me. And then they don't even hear you when you say that nobody is suggesting that we build TMI-style plants.

No, my TV won't care.

But my 1000 mile range electric car will.

And I imagine my Amana brand kitchen replicator will use more power than that.

You used the right word when you said 'need'. There are only two forms of power stored in the Earth's crust, carbon and nuclear.

We eventually will have no choice in the matter, but today we can choose to delay advancement of the human condition as long as possible...

You're right about the thousands of tons of nuclear 'waste' sitting all over the country with no plan on how to get rid of it.

Most here are science types, and realize there is only one thing that can be done with it. Burn it up.

The reality on the ground today is, if you are against nuclear power, then you are for nuclear waste. (It would be nice to see a Greenpeace-type marcher carry that sign in a fit of honesty.)

"Souls are a myth from prescientific times."

So sez the scientist... Do you see the irony?

But that does get at why we will never see AI from digital computers; machines full of levers and switches that simply execute programs. Your program may become so complex that it is unpredictable, but that doesn't make it intelligent.

Didn't even make a big explosion that I saw. Just pieces flying apart.

At first I thought all that vapor coming off was atmospheric.

Apparently it was not.

So really, they are doing him a favor by ignoring him.

If they acknowledge it, they have to kill his account and possibly report him to the authorities.

Dammit, we had an unbroken thread running down the stupid people. And now you go and point out a plausible explanation.

How am I supposed to pretend to know everything if you bring your open mind to the forum?

I thought I knew the difference between a bakery and a church. Except maybe when the church does a bake sale...

So, the pastor can abstain from doing business with a paying customer due to his religion, but the baker cannot abstain from the same due to his religion. Seems like an arbitrary distinction to me.

Here's a real question:

What if your mosque was selling pencils?

"shoot outs on planes over control is more secure than screening people"

He never said that. You really are a politician.

So the pastor gets an out, but the baker doesn't?

What's your logic there?