And how do you think they extract electricity from nuclear fission plants?

Fission -> Heat -> Steam -> Turbines -> Electricity

This solar setup does the same thing, except replaces the heat source with sun / molten salt.

And the US is in a position to be talking about "fundamental freedoms"?

Wow- an online estimated price in a bad recession is off and the size of a house as stated in county records is wrong.

Therefore Zillow willingly and knowingly lies and markets to scum bags? I suppose two data points (one of them a computer generated estimate) out of billions is enough to draw a valid conclusions.

I lived in London during that timeframe as well. Having eaten at McDonalds doesn't make you ineligible. Simply being in the UK for a prolonged time during the BSE outbreak will cause you to be turned down for blood donations.

The forms for blood donations don't even mention McDonalds, but they do ask if you were in the UK over certain dates. If so, you're ineligible to give blood, even if you're a vegan.

The question is... if these countries had the budget (err... were willing to put themselves into huge amounts of debt), would they eventually create the same programs as the US? In other words, are the freedoms a result of the will of the people or from more limited resources?

If you're a developer / company with an existing BB app, and you see that your product is about to be EOL'd because there's an new OS coming out, then it be prudent to port your app to the new version. Presumably at least some existing apps make money on RIM devices. I have no idea what's involved in the port - whether it's a refactoring of codebase or complete re-write, but 15,000 apps that want to keep pulling money in the door sounds relatively low compared to the total number in iOS or driod stores...

Obviously, the answer is "no"...

It's not that solar provides a fraction of "needed" power. The issue is that Americans (myself included) use far more than they really "need". People considering solar should look at lowering their energy usage and increasing their home's efficiency as a first step, and then looking at solar after all other improvements have been made.

I wonder what kind of car Stallman drives. Seriously. Does he update the firmware controlling the engine timing and fuel injectors?

What's that? The car manufacturers have digitally handcuffed him so that he can't go mucking around with things? Oh - it must be a safety issue. OK, well, surely he can update the firmware for other things in his car, such as the radio display?

People aren't hearded in to giving up their freedoms. There are certain freedoms that those people just don't *need* to begin with. My mother, who has an iPhone, isn't handcuffed - if anything, the device liberates her into using technology that she wouldn't otherwise use in in the modern world.

There are products across the spectrum that address the balance between usable and the freedom to do whatever you'd like. Just because manufacturers lock down their devices doesn't mean there's not a suitable audience that doesn't benefit...

I have as much disdain for the TSA as anyone else on here, but after watching the video, I tend to agree with TSA's action. They stated that the watch had "wires, switches, and fuses" on it, and somewhere mentioned that they were toggle switches.

Now, I have no idea what it actually looked like, but there's only so many ways to attach toggle switches and fuses to a watch. It's going to look highly suspicious. Couple that with some odd shoewear, and I actually think the TSA is justified in taking precautions on this one.

However, continuing to detain him after the bomb squad cleared him is blatantly wrong..

Only two comments, both in this post, talking about how great Microsoft is.

Can we have a "Shill" negative rating?

Not even Hubble can resolve that from LEO: http://hubblesite.org/reference_desk/faq/answer.php?id=77&cat=topten

"I have altered the deal. Pray that I do not alter it further"

I have to admit it, I got caught up in the hype and I bought a computer. The novelty wore off after a couple of days. Since then, it has sat on my desk, almost completely unused. In fact, it's one of the worst purchases I've ever made.

Computers in general are rather pointless devices. They're far bulkier than my pencil and paper, so they're not very good on the go. They're much less comfortable to use than my clipboard, especially when I have to do a lot of writing. They require so much power relative to even a battery powered book light that they're not usable for anything for when I just want to take notes. My pencil and paper has infinite resolution, and thus is a much better medium for reading and writing.

I learned the hard way that the usefulness of computers is purely a marketing creation. They look like they have potential, but in practice they're just the combination of the worst of every other type of new fangled technology that has come out in the past 20 years.

Every tool is only as good as how you implement it.