I don't know how much this thing is projected to cost (didn't RTFA of course) but it definitely needs to carry much more than 200 pounds. I'm in the military, in the Infantry no less, and I'm having a hard time seeing why this is better than a pallet and a forklift. This thing, http://www.defense.gov/DODCMSShare/NewsStoryPhoto/2005-01/2005011205a.jpg , can lift a pretty considerable load, maybe some AF guy can clue in, but I'm guessing you could probably buy 10 of those things vs. one set of this exoskeleton thing, easy. As far as combat applications, I can't see what this thing can offer, given the cost, potential maintenance issues, and a person to operate. 200 pounds is a .50 cal with spare barrel, and 3 cans of ammo (300 rounds). Or, a Mk 19 and 2 of the big cans of ammo (96 rounds). An up-armored humvee will carry this, plus a whole lot more ammo, plus my (and everyone's) stuff, plus give me a ride. It might be able to go places the humvee can't go, but what it brings isn't worth it vs. the cost. It would give the gundham crowd boners though.

..phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range

No, but where I live, there aren't any places to charge other than my home, which in case you aren't following, means that I have to charge at my home. A quick check of my electric bill, and using the numbers others have put up here, each charge of this car is going to cost me about $75. Given the distance I drive to work, and need to drive for other essential things, it will add $375 to my electric bill each month. This is much more than my gasoline bill. Even if you limited a small percentage of people to using this type of recharging, it's going to be huge problems for the grid, since most people will be charging at roughly the same time. So, have some kind of capacitor/battery/phlebotinum device to spread the load throughout the day? That's not going to be cheap. Didn't RTFA, but usually these electric vehicle pressers don't mention price, due to them typically being significantly higher than a comparably performing gasoline vehicle. The additional costs for the whole package are very significant compared to what we already have. I'm not saying the whole endeavor is fruitless or a waste of time. But like so many of these green projects, the 'green' qualities only means the pollution generating portion gets pushed from the end user higher up the line. Great for your conscious/pretentiousness I suppose, but the net result is status quo.

The Battle for Endor is a masterpiece compared to the prequels.

I agree with most of the changes/omissions in the LoTR films. Why people can't grasp that the manner in which you process and enjoy books vs. films is beyond me. Enormous portions of the entire LoTR book series were spent on poems, songs, and verbose descriptions of the flora, fauna, and culture of Middle Earth. Engrossing while reading , but none of these things really translate at all to a movie. I think the Barrow Downs could have been included without disrupting the flow of Fellowship, plus it would explain why the sword could kill the Witch King, despite his boast of "No man can kill me". Jackson would probably still have Eowyn kill him though. Long before I saw the movies (Jackson's or Bakshi's) I thought the scouring of the shire felt odd and out of place. It was interesting for sure, but didn't really fit the flow for an epilogue. In the movies, it would have been 20 minutes + of another ending. I laughed when I saw them as people continuously got up and then sat back down. As an aside, I was pleased with Zack Snyder's complete revision of the ending of The Watchmen. Even as a young lad of 13 reading the book, I thought it's ending was simplistic and quite frankly, stupid.

May I pass along my congratulations for your great inter-dimensional breakthrough. I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined.

Suspension of disbelief is a real problem for you. You must be first on the list for movie invitations.

I was disappointed, too. Looking at the title, I thought it was an Engineer in the sense of the guy who drives a train. I was excited about an article that was saying an Engineer avoided a wreck with his train by wrecking his train. (so he could avoid a wreck while wrecking in his train)

Pretty funny. Already commented on this article so you miss a 5 for funny.

While I'm not saying the high fructose this and partially hydrogenated that isn't a component...people are less active now than they were in years past, especially kids. The portions of food sold are larger, and more economic if you buy in bulk. Coke originally came in 8 oz. bottles, then the primary seller became 12 oz cans, now it's a 20 oz or 600ml bottles. This is purely anecdotal, but as a kid (I'm over 30) it was pretty much a treat to eat out, even fast food. Now, people eat regularly at fast food restaurants. Bottom line: people now stuff their face with much more food, and are much less active. Net result is a lot of fat people.

I can't look at the numbers. I'm at a friends house, and he only has one pair of glasses. He refused to buy a set for his family, since it would have cost him more than a new BluRay player and a half dozen movies.

I agree. Just with the sheer number of planets that exist, there's got to be life out there. And odds are there are a few intelligent species as well. What are the odds they'd find us, even if they could get here? Coming for resources is stupid, there's plenty out there, undoubtedly much closer to wherever they would be. And if you had the resources and means to cover gazillions of light years, wtf are the resources on Earth going to do for you? Coming to disable nukes or some other altruistic endeavor? That's equally ridiculous as coming to steal our water/women/Christmas. There really is only one reason they would come, as Charles Pellegrino outlined in "The Killing Star", a sort of postulation on sentient alien life (I blatantly stole this from a review. I couldn't remember the lines verbatim, and can't be arsed to flip through my copy to find it): 1. Any species will place its own survival before that of a different species. 2. Any species that has made it to the top on its planet of origin will be intelligent, alert, aggressive, and ruthless when necessary. 3. They will assume that the first two rules apply to us. Get them before they get you.

I know that thanks to cell phones storing all my contacts by name, I no longer remember anyone's phone number.

It's "NEWQ YOU LERRR". Get it right or I'll worsh your mouth out.

A card that contains a digital copy of large amount of personal and private information? Given to every person? What's the worst that could happen?