I think this is setting your sights too low. Having a computer "go south" after a year (or even two or three years) isn't acceptable. Never mind the cost of the actual hardware: the cost of losing some or all of your data, and/or the use of your computer at what could be a crucial time, simply isn't worth it. Better to pay a bit more up front and get something sturdy and reliable, and save yourself a lot of stress and heartache.

Shouldn't a computer running MacOS/X count as a *nix machine? It's running a variant of BSD after all...

Of course then you are no longer 'on ice' so much as 'on tree'.

I'm not sure that's going to pan out. Solar panels generate power from light, not heat. (adding heat actually reduces the amount of power they can generate)

True, but you could keep the old plants mostly idle on sunny days, and save fuel and/or reduce pollution that way.

I agree that in the long run we need a efficient energy-storage solution, though.

Believe me, women get just as much criticism for "doing it wrong" as men, if not more. Body-weight and mothering style alone are the topic of enough daily public criticism to drive any woman mad, let alone "rules of appropriate sexual behavior", which many people seem to think is the public's business more than the woman's.

We just don't notice because (a) articles like mostly that appear in women's forums, less so on Slashdot, and (b) when they do appear, you (and I) tend not to pay much attention to them, since it isn't us they are criticizing.

So can you, you just have to lower your standards to levels you're not willing to do. Just like them.

The difference is, you think your standards are appropriate (because your frame of reference is your own standards) and theirs are insane (because their standards exclude you). The reality is, it's the same everywhere: People have a hard time finding others who meet their standards, particularly because for most people, if it's easy, your standards rise.

Unless we find intelligent life living on Saturn, they're going to be a very long ways away. Far enough to be extremely useful in the "stop being solar-centric, stop thinking some magical God invented man, everyone grow the fuck up" kind of way. But so far there's no plausible possibility of external risk at all. I'd be more worried about the religious zealots (of all denominations) and how they're going to react to having their minds forcefully opened to a bigger world.

The three scenarios you listed have essentially zero possibility of happening. Science rules the universe, not science fiction.

That may be because "all be it" isn't the root of albeit.

Not to nit, but 98% is unheard of in Vegas. CT requires close to that, in aggregate, but Vegas is WAY less than that. (Its been a while since I looked, but IIRC it was in the 70%'s.)