I too love it when the "Standard Model" gets broken. It is held together by duct tape and Gorilla Glue as it is. Too many particles with no explanation why they should have this mass or spin, or whatever. No predictions, just observations. Like M-Theory better, but understand it is weak these days as well. That being said, I hope the physicists eventually DO come up with a new theory of Everything. BTW ... LOVE your sig!

U should b getting an upgrade for funny or even creativity.

Dirty ethanol at that. Perhaps it will get some badly-needed funds for KY.

You should get upgraded to at least TWO for FUNNY!

True enough.

In response: 1. True, it IS possible for some idiot like Bush Jr to hijack the govt and do bad, stupid things. 2. The Wikileaks cable leak only reveals what was always true - no one trusts anyone, least of all supposed allies. Every nation acts in their own interests, always, no matter what they say diplomatically. 3. Share the technology? What's to share? It has been around for years. Just electromagnets and metal. Anyone who wants to can duplicate it. The railgun is bulky and hard to deploy. As a SPACE-BASED weapon it would be effective as an effective anti-missle defense, but space-based weaponry is, rightly, banned.

I agree with child porn being a crime. It is NOT victimless. The children are victims. As for murder, theft and rape, child abuse: they are illegal because the harm others - they have victims. Maybe some moral issues ARE legislated. Doesn't mean they should be.

There is one thing that would be a "stop gap", at least for transportation. That is Natural Gas or methane. Same as from the algae, but already existing and much cheaper. The USA has trillions of cubic feet of this gas. Even though the CO2 emissions are still there, they are MUCH less. And a conventional automobile engine can be converted easily to run on gas. The main problem - infrastructure. In my hometown the local gas company runs its entire fleet of trucks on methane. But the filling station there is about the only one in the state. With some time, money and effort, that could change. Even methane plants are better than coal. Less emissions. The other "up side" is less dependence on rogue governments for out oil.

In fact, the one failure resulted in the situation being no worse than it was. As for the "powers that be", they know many voters would have issue with it. For all the wrong reasons. But there is no reason to tell anybody until it is tried. The results would only be seen by people with a few miles of the site. A big upwelling of water, like the old depth charges of WWII only MUCH bigger. During the 1960's the USA and other nations conducted underwater tests with HUGE bombs, to no ill effects. The radiation is absorbed.

In the earlier discussion on Slashdot a couple of weeks back the MOAB option was discussed (and dismissed) for very simple reason. The MOAB if a fuel bomb, and as such needs oxygen to work.