Don't worry, it's supposed to get a lot closer before it takes off for Ceres.

Or you could just land a fission reactor on the surface and let it go into meltdown. Not as fun to watch, but you wouldn't be able to see much anyway.

This is the counter argument to terraforming that pops up on Slashdot in just about every story that has popped up about Mars. Yes, solar winds will gently blow the atmosphere off into space. The thing is, depending on how thick the atmosphere is, this could take tens of thousands of years, maybe even millions of years. In other words, we could replenish the atmosphere (by melting dry ice, diverting and burning up comets in the atmosphere, etc) as needed.

Do they also ban R rated movies with bloodspray and limb dismemberment? No? I guess they don't understand that, like art, books, music, television and movies, video game companies cater to different demographics.

Not really surprising though: The more I hear about Australia the more it reminds me of rural Kansas.

In other words, they get to approve all comments made on not only their facebook page, but any of their local franchises, or the local users of those franchises. So if I go to my local McDonalds and get crappy service and decided to later post that on the local McDonalds facebook page, the corporate office AND the local franchise would have to approve my message before it was displayed for others to see.

I think you mean "if" we re-enter manned space exploration. The U.S.A. has completely lost it's technological edge when it comes to space flight. Sure, the military probably has something up it's sleeve, but NASA has, um, nothing that can get a human into orbit after Endeavour's final flight in late April. Sure, they're talking about making another man-rated heavy lift launcher, but they've been doing that for the last 3 decades with nothing to show for it.

I'll be shocked if we have a new heavy launch vehicle actually produced by NASA in the remainder of my lifetime. More likely; a private company will have a heavy launch vehicle that can be man-rated, but never will be due to the lack of cash the U.S.A. has to spend on such things.

Sorry to be a buzz kill, but the glory days of manned U.S. space exploration are over.

PETA has had a 1 million dollar reward for lab grown meat for quite a few years.

OK, now try looking to other countries, for example, Brazil. Upwards of 70% of the deforestation in Brazil is to make room for grazing lands, and we're talking about hundreds of thousands of square kilometers in the last 40 years. Seems like if someone can come up with lab grown meat, they might be able to ease up on their torching the rain forest.

Starvation is a production issue! When people can't produce enough food to feed themselves they are forced to import it from those who produce more than they use.

Yes, yes, feeling good about yourself is nice! But frankly I'd be more interested in kosher/halal pork products. What do you suppose the Jewish/Muslim take on lab-grown pork products would be?

The problem isn't that it's not dumbed down enough; the problem is that it's created by and written for people who don't understand what science fiction is. In other words, it's for dumb people.

I read that script. Instead of the Queen -> Egg -> Facehugger -> Chestburster -> Alien cycle that was introduced and explained in Aliens, the author decided that was lame, so he turned the Aliens into a virus. It's no wonder why it got dropped.