Nothing absolutely special about the two, but definitely special in combination.
Let's say that water and rocks are very good ingredients on their own, assuming we're interested in variations of 'chemically based' life:

- water has interesting physical properties (you mentioned most of them), but one of them is its dielectric constant, very important for facilitating catalytic conditions (self-replicating molecules?)

- these physical properties allows it to solubilize minerals and a fair range of organic molecules at the same time, useful for catalyzing chemical reactions.

- it is somehow reactive either in reversible ways (hydrogen bonds) or by directly participating in chemical reactions (i.e. oxydation of energetic molecules = generating chemical energy)

- rocks could catalyze the spontaneous formation of chemical precursors or building blocks of life...well, as we know it? yes, but it means it happened at least once.


Now, the important key is obviously the catalysis, i.e. making chemical reactions easier and quicker. Doing that in a low-energy context (i.e. the temperatures found on modern or archaic Earth), makes it much easier for randomly created molecules to survive long enough to have a chance to self replicate.

Can't wait for having to remember to recharge my watch every night (instead of every couple of years, as I do now)

pretty much everything he wants/like.
'Nuff said...

No, actually, Obligatory XKCD Citation(TM)

When I read this I thought about a bunch of friends of mine that are going to watch whatever they'll release.
They're smart & educated (in the trivial, scientific meaning), but when another movie will be out, they'll take out their wallets so fast that the friction with their trousers will set them on fire.

These are the same people that feel happy when Amazon is so kind to make them a personal, tailored[*], just-'cause-it's-you offer for buying all the Star Trek movies in blueray for just something-ninetynine.

Any speculation about the quality of the movies, the subject and so on is futile, to some extent: there's so much inertia behind the franchise that we are debating about that +/- 3% of fluctuation around the monolitic huge number of people that will watch it.

No matter what.


[*] ...on their movie history on Amazon Instant

...or approximations of it. For this kind of simulations, there are are tools that are better, where "better" means more accurate, reliable and reproducible. Finite elements, for example, is one of them. Everything else is just horse manure covered with M&M's.

Not sure about the "anecdotal" excuse.
It doesn't mean (necessarily) a preference over shooting darker skin tones, but at least they seem to spend much, much more time looking at them, at least in NY.
I mean, even accounting for some +/-% of uncertainty, 87% is a freaking big chunk.

Please tell us why you deleted your account: "Google Reader, that's why".

I'm not convinced, and re-compiling the kernel seems like an extreme example to me.
The point would be that users who don't know how the FFT works shouldn't be able to use Instagram (oh, boy, if I wish so...).
The reality is that people use tons of complex algorithms every day without knowing it not because they are easy, but because they've been made easy for them and/or implemented in a transparent manner. Pretty much none of Gmail users even know what HTTPS stands for, but everybody started using it when Google decided it was going to be on by default.
My point is that even if PGP is more complex of HTTPS, it could be made easier and much more transparent than it is now.

I forgot to mention an interesting aspect: I have enough spare power to watch Netflix using XP in a VirtualBox machine

I still feel a bit of sore, so I'll chip in the discussion.
Few months ago I read several good reviews about the Zboxes as HTPC, so I bought one, together with 4Gb of RAM and a 160Gb SSD. The GPU was a ION and no, there were no chances to have a decent XBMC experience nor playing 720i videos (1080p? don't even think about it) without having very unpleasant "hiccups" here and there in the playback. Forget about any online streaming with more than 360p resolution (average YouTube videos were enough to put the thing on its knees). No, desktop effects were not on the way (i.e. barebone XFCE). It shouldn't have been a surprise, since it was sporting a crappy Atom D525 processor 1.8GHz, and I blame myself for having bought the positive reviews despite the terrible hardware specs.
After two frustrating weeks of tweaking trying to squeeze more juice out of it (Xorg.conf, VDPAU, Nvidia drivers...), I've sent it back and with pretty much the same amount of money, I've tried one of the cheap solutions I've found on the XBCM forum.
I got a i3@3.1GHz machine that's able to run smoothly Black Mesa, SteelStorm and TF2.
The box slashvertized here has a Celeron 847 instead of the Atom, but CPU performances are equally poor, so don't even think about games (or at least nothing more complex than Gchess).

The rather trivial moral of the story is that if you want a powerful machine you should buy one, and not waste your time with toy computers.
Be wise with your money and never look back.

Wait, do this means that instead of inefficient gigantic companies, you are suggesting that in US it would be better to have smaller ones that are able to: 1) cover a smaller area but provide better products, 2) and do some real competition and not the fake one that's in place now?

By the way, I like the implicit humor in the "Europeans don't know geography" punchline.

I can tell you that in several of places here in SD, the cameras went "bananas" a long time ago.
There's an infamous one right next to where I work that is flashing almost at random even with green lights. If you are unluckily driving there at night or dusk, you get the flash facing you that goes medieval with your retina... you just have to remember where the wheel was turned and Don't Panic(C).
An engineer friend said these cameras had problems and needed to be re-calibrated very often due to their lack of adaptation to light and weather changes... you know, 'cause of the crazy and unpredictable the weather of SoCal, you know?

Do we get a discount if we use the SLSHDT code wien purchasing the product?

The student compiles the following lists:
List of all achievements accomplished by US companies, universities, etc..
List of achievements obtained under direction, with direct involvement, or based on ideas of 'foreign' scientists/technicians.

The student calculates the intersection between these two lists and discuss the result. Extra points will be given for detailed analysis of contributions of foreigners (i.e. von Brown, Einstein, Fermi) to the outcome of WWII and the following US scientific program.

Bonus: the student provides the link to the discussion on Slashdot about the consistent reduction of patents filled in US during the strict immigration policies of the Bush administration.

1. Martinovich I., Perito, D., et al.
2. House, P., Greger, B.

Notes:
- these are only two papers that made it into the public media in recent times
- it is a very conservative estimation to assume that each one of them involved the work of tens of peoples
- it is also safe to assume that there are many others that are still "pushing the boundaries of Knowledge" on the matter but are not enough "media-chewable" so they never reach the notoriously sloppy AC's attention