"Billions and billions and billions...and BILLIONS and Billions....and... and...billions...'

Someone needs to watch the back of them antimatter-collecting scientists, we don't need no pope wannabe's trying to blow up The Vatican.
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Recently enjoyed the "Angels and Demons" movie. It had some rocket-takeoff-countdown-esq video sequences of the supposed(realistic???) powerup of CERN. Interesting q&a on antimatter at: http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/Spotlight/SpotlightAandD-en.html

Don't laugh.

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This is serous. I feel like I'm baring my soul here... Please don't laugh.
. My laptop is a (ne)state-of-the-art Gateway Solo, original price $6500.00 with a 14.4" monitor, video/aux, and dual batteries long dead. It boots fast to either Windows 98, OS/2 Warp, or Linux. It is about 12 years old now. Its main limiting factor is the relatively slow speed of my typing and it's lack of battery power.
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My home desktop is a Dell P4 running XP at 2.66GhZ, 1G ram, $800 from the outlet store, only 7 or 8 years years old. It's main limiting factor is the relatively slow speed of it's cable internet connection. Its relatively small (low GiGage) hard drive 30G, and 17" CRT are Screaming to be replaced and for the cost to replace them all, might as well replace the whole ball and get Windows 7.
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My work desktop, about a year old, with dual CPU's, often responds slower than both my Ancient Ones. Its main limiting factor is virus scanners and other enterprise required molassesware.
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My work laptop is a screaming fast Dell whose main limitation is me having to log into it with about 3 passwords and a fingerscan. Reminds me of all the walls in the old Get Smart series. Oh yeah, If I don't type on it for a minute, I get to reauthenticate fingerscan and 3 password challenges.
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If I were to pick an upgrade that would improve my experience the most hardware-wise it would 1st be more resolution plus bigger monitors and faster input devices as yet un-invented or un-unveiled.
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I think my next PC will be either a Mac or some kind of as yet un-unveiled super phone.... Soon as my Gateway Solo dies or I hit the lottery!

I think of a time when I can leave the room, flick a switch, come back, and sweep up the dead bugs and feed them to my fish.

The problem as I see it is that the Earth is going around the sun carrying a bunch of space junk with it. This space junk make it miserable for people who want to shoot more stuff into space. Therefore, all we have to do is get all our buddies together ( the moon and other satellites we want to keep), then just stop orbitting the sun for about 4 hours (distance to the moon/helocentric velocity). Then we should be in a nice clean portion of the orbit. Usually, it is heck of alot easier to litter and walk away than it is to pick it up and put it in the trash bin. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=distance+to+moon+%2F+speed+of+earth+orbit

Did you consider a smarter rat might learn some ratonal hygiene and stop carrying deseases? Rats would write more ratonal software.

Yet if it were infantessimally small Achilles could not outrun the tortoise. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno's_paradoxes

Here's the design: set off an H-bomb in a container with a valve on it. Whenever you want to go somewhere just open the valve! Okay, now for the implementation phase...

I see non-functioning fully intact big screen tv's on the side of the road all the time and think to myself 'if only I was an EE...'.

Now if we can get these lights to emit coherent low-divergence beams and infect sharks' heads...

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

The reason's I am picking these is because: 1) They are easy reads. 2) They are thought provoking. 3) They are different from each other.

1) George Orwell - 1984 The discussions resulting from this book should be rather lively as Orwell pretty much nailed our present. ++Good.

2) Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy After reading Orwell, reading this will be rejuvinating. You can discuss the questions of life, the universe, and everything.

3) Greg Bear - Eon http://books.google.com/books?id=7yHURwnbFvAC&lpg=PP1&ots=H8tcoydu_h&dq=eon&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false The many ideas in this book are awesome. You could assign your class an essay 'You go 1000km and dig a whole and find a new universe, write about it'.

4) William Gibson - Neuromancer Neuromancer is kind of like a Moby Dick of Science fiction. The words used flow in a way that make you feel the world. It is probably the most difficult read on my list.

5) Arthur Clark / Ken Baxter - The Light of Other Days The discussion of Privacy is likely to be lively.

I could recommend many more...

Sit mens sana in corpore sano

A sound body is the best way to support a sound mind. Athletics should be required in school along with the 'hard' subjects. All students should be able to learn physical and mental dicipline. Those that don't want to learn one or the other should not be required to do so but should not be permitted to get in the way of those who do. There is nothing to prevent an athlete from being a scholar or a scholar from being an athlete except perhaps...distractions.. and this leads back to the teaching of dicipline.

http://www.chess4ever.com/thoughtsonchess/research/sportofchess/part1a.html = The importance of physical conditioning in chess was recognized long ago by the Russians.

Enterprise licenses will be priced via Engine Value Unit pricing. 50 EVU's will be defined as the performance of a standard engine from a manufacturer. This practice provides the licensing granularity customers need while offering them the flexibility to configure their systems to best support business objectives.

Reminds me of the "Smile you son-of-a..." scene from Jaws