Also, did they avert that? It seems like this is, in fact, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Perhaps they averted it being the worst nuclear disaster ever, including Chernobyl, but it would have needed to be a lot less disastrous to not be the worst since. So...unless something worse than this but not as bad as Chernobyl comes along, I suspect we'll keep using it for this event for a long time...but there's a good chance the next disaster will be the "worst nuclear disaster since Fukushima" instead...at least, here's hoping....

Thanks. :) *I* was confused for a second when I saw that reply, "Surely there's no way all that science-babble was derived from Futurama episode!?"

Another vote for Design with the Mind in Mind. Well written, relatively up-to-date, practical advice.

huh??

The speed of light is constant across all frames of reference. Frames of reference that are moving relative to each other will perceive light generated by the other frame of reference as having a different "clock" (i.e., frequency), but the speed of the red/blue shifted light will be the same in both frames of reference. The speed of light itself does vary across mediums (say, water vs glass vs air vs vacuum), but that doesn't come into play here. Also, they weren't measuring, directly, the speed of the neutrinos. They were comparing the time of the neutrinos' arrival at different sites and they found a difference that was unexpected. However, that measurement depends very much on the clocks being in sync, and this is what TFA is discussing.

The bending of light in a refractive medium is completely unrelated to the bending in a gravitational field, and your conclusion that the latter involves the speed of the light being altered is false.

How does thermodynamics come into play? If the earth were a closed system, that would be one thing, but we have this convenient star that periodically gives us some extra energy....

As far as being "green" as pointed out elsewhere, this would, ideally, be "carbon neutral", although in practice it would at best be merely less carbon intensive than fossil fuels. So, it's "green" as in "not as bad as some alternatives".

What it really comes down to is using the biomass as a convenient storage and transport mechanism for solar energy. In the end, that's what we want to use, one way or another, for pretty much every energy technology except nuclear fission/fusion. The trick is just finding the way to use solar energy which maximizes convenience and minimizes the bad side-effects.

I think a more interesting solution for gassification would involve picking the fuel source for maximum efficiency...off the top of my head, it'd be very interesting to see what sort of efficiency could be gotten if they grew algae, say, and created dehydrated pellets from it to use as fuel. Perhaps someone has tried that?

Perhaps they are just really, really old...and British.

Which shoes are those? Shoes usually have lots of foam rubber / air / gel cushions to absorb impact (energy), not propel you skyward. And then there's all the many dress shoes for both men and women which don't do much absorbing or springing.

theoretical ponies that can crap lightning and power a city.

For the site, the community, and infusing both of them with your energy.

I'd bet any mention of HDMI would run afoul of the trademark. However, they could probably say something like "compatible with most HD TVs" and I'd imagine they'd be safe, at least language wise.

It's cost effective to mine our refuse already.

Presumably they are not obligated to do upgrades; however, I would imagine that if they choose to do so that they can build that into the "cost based rate", just so long as the cost is amortized across all the customers, not just the 3rd party's customers.

There are *non* fanboi's who own 'em?

It's got to be the most valuable and sought-after certification I can think of.

3 students, a couple of all-nighters, and a case of mountain dew do not land you good deals with publishers. That requires time and wooing and people that the publishers will find credible (i.e., someone fairly senior with experience in the publishing industry). It'd be lovely if the world would always just bow down for a good idea, but that's just not how it works. So if you figure that they probably had to invest on servers and demo hardware, some credible publishing relations team (figure 2 or 3 people at ~100-150k per year) and probably some other management (lawyer, accounting/finance), etc., office space, travel to publishers and/or book fairs...you start to see where the money goes. I don't know anything about their specific company, but I was in another company doing work in the electronic library space another life ago, so I would not be surprised if the money went towards exactly the sorts of things I mention. And it's not even being spent wantonly, it's just sometimes it takes money to make money.