So let me get this straight: you feel that because it was caused by arson, all of the CO2 is human generated?

Let me get this right, because I ask of the fire was started by humans that means I believe all fires are started by humans?

No, I do not believe all fires are started by humans. I do know though that recent fires were made as bad as they were due to the Forest Service's Smokey Bear campaign to stop all fires. Fires are a natural part of the ecology and they help prevent the buildup up of fuel. Because there was an active campaign to put out all forest fires fuel was allowed to build up, which when it did catch on fire created infernos.

Falcon

This is in fact a dangerous technology -- but only economically and politically. There are squads of high powered contractors and ambitious politicians lining up to promote the next generation of the same old stuff, light water reactors. They are not going to be pleased to see their attempts to extract buckets of wealth by building risk laden plants to generate expensive electricity emasculated by a simple, relatively safe and inexpensive machine. Eric Lerner and his team know what they are doing. They have taken a giant leap into the future, but if we want to take advantage of their discoveries, we will have to fight for it.

What I find most telling about these stories, is that in just about 2 years since Apple has entered the smartphone market, they have become the product to beat, the benchmark against which all others are measured. How did it happen that sophisticated, tech savvy and powerful companies like Microsoft, Nokia, Sony and RIM have such a hard time coming up with an answer, and only Google seems to be going somewhere?

I don't have all the answers, but one thing that seems clear is that Apple totally focusses on the user experience. I once made the error in 2000 to buy a PocketPC instead of a Palm based on the hardware specs. I learned then that a 16Mhz machine can be a better choice then a 200 Mhz one, if the first has been properly designed.

I've been using Nokia phones in the past, as they seem to understand the same lesson, I'm a little puzzled why they and the other established forces in the market have such a hard time formulating an answer to the iPhone. But then the seem thing seems to be happening in the MP3 player market.

What does Apple do that makes them so dominant in these markets so quickly, that the other players seem to fail to do? Even I've been converted recently, having bought a Macbook a year ago, and an iPhone last week, after having had a good experience with my iPod for years. Somehow other products in the same price range just don't measure up. (I did quite an extensive comparison with my alternative OS being Linux).

How does Apple become the measuring stick and the product to beat so quicky, even Microsoft usually needs half a decade and Billions and often they don't really succeed if it's outside the direct Windows sphere of control. (WinCE/Mobile/Phone, Xbox?)

So, let's first make mars and then the whole solar system our dumpster of overconsumption, right?

I agree with the GP's thinking, in that moderating the lifestyle on earth to sustainable levels, and developing renewable energy sources from sun and nature should be humanity's priorities over showing national muscles in the space.

I think you're in the wrong community. Find some DirectX boards/chatrooms, those are the guys making video games. OpenGL engineers are either writing boring CAD programs, or going after PhDs.

Also, your life in general would be easier if you picked a language that did garbage collection. There are many of those fast-enough for video games now. (Of course, shaders are still a royal PITA-- nothing you can do about that, sadly.)

Software gets its deep appeal to the intellectual class of people because of its inherent contradiction: The ability to change the operation of physical machinery by manipulating symbols.

    Sure the more technical you are, the more you can understand the rationity behind this seemingly divine contradiction. Ones and zeros controlling electrical voltage levels channeled through thousands of transistors, etc...

    But the ability to change physicality by manipulating symbols has been an art reserved to magicians, shamans, and high priests. This ability to stand in the shadow of divinity has always appealed to men, because it is an analog or approximation of a divine absolute power.
This is the subconscious appeal of software programming.

    It also explains why software is primarily a masculine field of interest and employment. Women get the 'shadow of the divinity' power and feeling not by controlling physical nature through the manipulation of symbols, but by actually creating life inside themselves. This is something that men can and will never be able to do.

Um, I don't know where you are getting this notion that HD-DVD does not do 1080p, but this link proves that wrong: http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/hddvd_products/product.asp?model=hd-a30