If you see other people shoplifting, then you should shoplift, too. Why? Because it's all a game to them, and that's all it should be to you.

If you see other people falsifying their CV to get their jobs, then you should falsify your CV, too. Why? Because it's all a game to them, and that's all it should be to you.

If you see other people cheating on their spouse, then you should cheat on your spouse, too. Why? Because it's all a game to them, and that's all it should be to you.

There's this little thing called morality--a sense of doing what's right and avoiding doing what's wrong--that is severely lacking in our modern society. There's something we used to call a sense of honor--a feeling that we shouldn't allow two kids to beat up one kid in the school yard, or a larger kid pick on a smaller kid.

Although we (in the U.S.A.) have never had a purely fair and just society, nonetheless there used to be more of a sense of honor and good behavior and fair play that formed a basis for the trust that is prerequisite to every relationship--business or personal. Men used to shake hands on a deal, and were expected to stick to their word, or else take the consequences.

Today, people want to get away with instant gratification with no consequences. Hence, enjoy living in your own house, then just abandon the contract when you're tired of it or can't afford it anymore, and blame the whole thing on the lenders who "misled" you or "have no loyalty" or whatever. Just as people who shoplift justify it because "they rip you off anyway" or whatever.

This is purely decadence and dishonesty, not some kind of greater moral behavior, so don't go pretending you're good and ethical while you steal from your neighbor.

And what goes around, comes around--the entire country is going bankrupt, thanks to this kind of attitude.

Some day, photovoltaic panels will be dirt cheap and will be perfect for these rural villages, but right now they're too expensive even for most Americans.

When I was a teenager, I build a solar stove out of cardboard, plywood, and aluminum foil, based on a design in a book I read. I probably could have made it totally out of cardboard; I wasn't much of an engineer/architect :)

Anyway, the thing worked amazingly well. I demonstrated frying a hamburger (not something you would want to show the Hindu villagers, by the way) and my family was blown away. However, it had three disadvantages. First, it was extremely bright. To stand more or less in front of it to turn the food was a blinding experience.

Second, you needed a black-bottomed pan, which we didn't have, so I painted an aluminum pie pan black on the bottom.

Third, like the article says, it only works in full sunlight. You don't really want to cook the meat and veggies at 3pm, you want to get them started around 5:30 or 6 in most households. It's likely that the villagers are working in the fields or small workshops all day and don't get around to supper until 7pm or later.

At least, it should be quite possible with a reflector cooker to make large pots of rice during the day, which they probably do anyway since it takes relatively long. Solar reflector cookers are perfect for that application because rice mostly wants to simmer at a lower temperature.

Rural Indian villagers probably would prefer to bake flatbreads (nan, puri, etc.), which can be made in a pan or perhaps a clay cooker. As krlynch points out, these foods were prepared long before modern appliances came about. Making rice seems like a good application for a solar cooker, too. After bringing it to an initial boil, you want the rice to just simmer for a while, perfect for the relatively low temp solar gizmos. And they probably do want to cook rice during the day, late afternoon at best, since it takes so long. Meat and veggies, maybe not so much.

Fortunately, GWT will be around for a while, and is not competing in some way with dart, which is intended to be a javascript replacement.

http://googlewebtoolkit.blogspot.com/2011/11/gwt-and-dart.html

They said that the GWT team is working on dart, which doesn't seem like a contradiction or a condemnation of GWT (although it might take time away from improving GWT). But since GWT's been around since at least 2008, there's starting to be some aftermarket widgets and improvements floating around out there.

I'm using GWT now and I find it to be a vast improvement over perl/CGI/javascript which is how I prototyped a recent Ajax app. The perl version is fast and simple, to be sure, but I'm in a Java shop, so GWT is a better fit, and deploys nicely to Weblogic as well.

Chrome also has a pretty good javascript console. I don't know how it compares to FF's, but for me it was a lifesaver.

You mean, less wisely?

I still care about Firefox--it was the first real challenger to Internet Explorer since Netscape was dethroned, and it's such a nice browser... but Chrome just feels faster and more modern.

I guess considering that Google funds the Mozilla Foundation, the two browsers are not exactly competitors, and yet they are. Well, if Firefox slimmed down enough, I might switch back, since browsers are so functionally interchangeable these days, but for now I'm happy where I am. Sorry, Firefox team!

You pretty much summed it up. I fear that Facebook is a one-trick pony. "And now, for our next act... uh... hm... where's that card..." What more can they realistically do, other than poach internet services from competitors like Google?

Facebook messaging is encroaching on email turf, but I doubt it will ever replace an independent email service; no one trusts them, and it's unrealistic to force all your email recipients to join Facebook; this was AOL's downfall as well.

The comparisons with AOL are accurate and portend future trouble for Facebook. The broader, out-of-control Internet has a way of bypassing closed systems with ever more flexible and innovative alternatives.

Sooner or later, someone will think of something even easier and more convenient to use than FB, and FB will begin to lose its relevance. I have no idea what; it could be some sort of mobile-to-mobile chat and messaging paradigm that bypasses the website-based interfaces like FB's, or maybe a return to basics because of social network fatigue.

Personally, I've grown tired of FB after using it somewhat extensively for a year or two. It's been a great way to get back in touch with old classmates and the like, but the novelty's worn off and I now find it tiresome to sit down at a computer, bring up facebook.com, and read some oh-so-clever status messages from people who should be working or reading or (God forbid) exercising :)

Most estimates are 5x the Saudi reserves (1.5 trillion bbls vs 300 billion bbls).

The modern water injection (fracking) process has made the exploitation of shale oil/gas much more economical, more or less on a par with foreign oil, so production is ramping up.

I don't know about 100 years from now--who does?--but in about 10-15 years, the U.S. is expected to be an energy exporting giant. Already, this past year, the U.S. became a net exporter of "energy products".

The other major energy reserve in the U.S., coal, remains to be fully exploited. There are estimated to be centuries (plural) of energy in U.S. coal, at current use rates.

All this doesn't mean we should be burning this stuff. The U.S. still wastes massive amounts of energy. Just painting all the government office building rooftops white in California would have prevented the rolling blackouts a few summers ago. Then there's the 18 mpg vehicles most people drive, when we could be driving 40-50 mpg vehicles.

Ethanol is cheaper than gasoline in Brasil, which is the world's top producer. They use sugar cane rather than corn sugar, and sugar cane is a much cheaper and higher yield source of ethanol. Recent discoveries of alternative sources such as switch grass may save ethanol yet. Switch grass is almost maintenance free, doesn't distort food prices, and in a few years is expected to be competitive or cheaper than oil.

In my opinion, car makers should make their E85 vehicle gas tanks a couple of gallons larger, to make up for the less dense energy content of ethanol. Of course, I'd like a few more gallons anyway; why is my Corolla only 11 gallons to begin with?

Regarding the whole energy subsidy controversy, keep in mind that there is a hidden cost to oil--the trillions of dollars we have spent and continue to spend securing foreign oil supplies. There's also a few thousand lives of soldiers sacrificed. No way would we have gone into Iraq in '91 or again in 2003, if it were not a huge oil producer threatening other huge oil producers. Frankly, if we were an energy exporter, we should be delighted to see Iran and Iraq duking it out, or Iraq invading Saudi or Kuwait and jacking up the cost of petroleum. Instead, we have to worry about every little political change in the Persian Gulf as a potential catastrophe for our economy.

Buses are safer to ride in than cars. So if you add in the value of your life, a bus is a tremendous bargain. For $2.50 a ride, you're buying much greater chances of getting there alive, albeit more slowly and inconveniently.

What's more, buses are in fact vastly more economical modes of transport than are cars. If you commute, say, 10 miles to work every day, you're probably burning about a gallon a day, maybe less, maybe more depending on your vehicle and stop-and-go patterns. So you're spending about $3.40/day versus $5/day for two bus tickets.

But your car also requires thousands of dollars a year of insurance, maintenance, and excise taxes. Probably maintenance will be minimal in the first year or so, but averaged over 8-10 years you'll be spending between $500 and $1000 a year to fix stuff, and plus all that collision insurance which is much higher at first, and mandatory injury coverage. When you spend $20 to replace your wipers, that's several bus rides right there.

Then there's the stress factor. In a car, you have to concentrate every second, and you can't realistically multi-task. Even talking to a passenger is a risk factor for a driver. Whereas, as a bus passenger, you can read, surf over 3G, or sleep, and thus maximize your productivity during a time that would otherwise be completely shot. I can tell you, during periods of my life when I took the bus and subway to get to work, it was so relaxing and easy (except when they were late/broken down/stuck).