You're all ignoring the possibility that these guys are less scientists than businessmen. Just because nuclear physics has traditionally be a field dominated by pure science doesn't mean that these guys haven't stumbled on something they can make money with and they don't care about the tradition of sharing and proving the knowledge within the scientific community. It's possible, in theory anyway... That said, I don't believe it for a minute. I just felt the need to bring out the possibility.

I'm sure this is no more real than a lot of these hoaxes that have been floated. Hell, maybe they're investing in the nickel market and selling copper short just because some trader out there will believe this silliness and invest accordingly. I've never met a business puke that didn't think perception was reality. Even worked for a CIO that would say that emphatically (company went under, imagine that....).

trying to fix my karma here folks. How 'bout a nice 5!

"They're even more "cost effective" if you don't ignore the externalities, like damage to the environment.

And they last longer than incandescent bulbs too, usually 10x as long."

Total bullshit. I've had incandescent bulbs last years. I've never had a CF last more than 6 months. I'll bet you've never used one in your life. Typical lib. Too good for your own rhetoric.

"We've passed peak oil, so the price will go up in the long term, no matter what anybody does. Climate change or environmental science has nothing to do with it.

Moving away from oil is a good idea for that reason alone, even if you don't care about the future of the planet's environment."

The only environment you care about is the one between your ears. Oil is cheap, plentiful and extremely clean given modern processes. We've spent 100 years making EXTREMELY clean and efficient internal combustion engines. The only reason the price is as high as it is is because the US has a President that's blowing the Saudi's every time they lift their little skirts. There's enough oil to last us, even given the current rate of increase, 100's of years and some think much more due to improved extraction technologies. You could make a lot more convincing arguments if you had any facts. (admittedly tough when you're full of shit though...)

"Huge pieces of foam falling off have been happening for a long time, it was a known engineering problem caused by a faulty design that compromised too much strength to reduce weight, and had nothing to do with 'saving the environment'."

Again, WRONG! Small pieces have been falling for a long time. The HUGE pieces started with the new material. It killed our astronauts. Save the whales kill the people. Typical eco freak.

You love the environment so much? Go live in it! But I'll bet you're in the middle of a big city aren't you? Nice duplex condo in Century City with a hot tub and a pool. Delude yourself into thinking that the little hikes in the woods you take on the weekends makes you a lover of nature. Yeah, I know your kind. You'll be a nature lover one day when one of those "endangered" mountain lions that are now taking over Southern California rips your damn throat open. Get over yourself. Try putting people first. You want to be green, got to Africa. See how they love living off the land. You'll have a tough time finding someone that wouldn't trade places with you in the big ugly city in a heartbeat. It's not oppression from greenies it's fascism. They've killed more people than war and people need to realize it and start fighting back.

The image I saw was a piece of foam from the external tank (not the SRB's, my mistake) striking the leading edge of a wing. Tests showed, beyond question, that this would have caused a hole in the protective tiles on that leading edge that would have caused the failure that occured. The tank coating was changed to satisfy some misplaced need to please environ"mental"ist nuts and the "size" of the pieces of foam breaking free increased dramatically from the prior coating. NASA was aware of it but not of the danger it presented to the shuttle.

If you study the history of environmentalism you will find it's killed more humans than all the wars combined. The 50,000,000 deaths caused by the banning of DDT should, all by itself, convince people that those that present themselves as defenders of the environment should be treated with EXTREME SUSPICION!

Yeah, and nobody's pushing those CF bulbs (to the point of outlawing the cheaper alternative) with a plethora of dangerous chemicals and shorter lifespans and order of magnitude higher price than incandescents. Nobody is working to run the price of oil up. Nobody forced NASA to use an inferior (but Greener, just ask 'em) material on the (6, count 'em, 6) SRB's of the Columbia leading to a failure that caused the loss of that shuttle and crew.

Yeah, nobody's doing anything bad in the name of environmentalism right? "These aren't the droids we're looking for. Move on"....

You're right. There is no debate. No legitimate scientist believes in global warming as a condition caused by human activity and there's very little evidence of warming at all (in fact there's a lot of historical evidence that we're entering a cooling period). The fact that people blame oil companies for this type of thing would be funny if it weren't so stupid.

You need to do a little reading outside of the NY or LA Times son...

The fact is the debate would be too boring for anyone to care. If there is a warming trend or a cooling trend (and there's no clear evidence either way, face it...) we're talking about a temperature change so small no one not using this as an excuse to get more funding for something or get (re-)elected cares. That's why it's so insane. Those that want to embrace the whole "Climate change" insanity couldn't care less about the climate (Hello Al....) they just want power over others and money to do as they please.

THIS HAS NEVER BEEN ABOUT SCIENCE OR CLIMATE (any more than traffic tickets are about public safety)!! WAKE THE HELL UP!

Or a Slashdot poster imagining that anyone cares about their opinion... Oh, yeah, damn....

You're missing something, though, You fail to realize that a lot of what he's talking about are extremely subjective things anyway. There was a time when using the word nigger to refer to a black person was simply a label. The plight of blacks as slaves made word derogatory and upsetting to blacks. The fanatical movements of the 70's and 80's have made it a rallying call that actually underscores the implicit racism that is now completely accepted in blacks and criminalized (hate crimes for heavens sake!!) in whites. There's a white news reporter going to court right now because he was fired for using the word nigger in the same conversation two black reporters used the same language in. This is how crazy it gets when we allow government to recognize "SPECIAL" groups for "SPECIAL" treatment (good and bad). It's how we got slavery and it's how we get the racism we have today. Both were/are unrecognised/acceptable in their time which is why what the gentleman that started this thread is proposing is ridiculous. It would not only be undesirable (unless you hate history, culture and truth) but impossible in any case.

Where to start, where to start. First off just let me say ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FRIGG'IN MIND!! I hate to do the label thing but liberalism is truly a mental disease.

More insidious is the fact that it seems fine with you to destroy heritage and culture in the name of "making everyone comfortable" (which is, of course, impossible on it's face). Surely (maybe not but I gotta give you the benefit of the doubt) you realize that what's acceptable today is often totally unacceptable tomorrow so are you just going to re-write everything continuously to meet some fanatical nuts idea of what's "correct". I hate the term "my bad" so I'll just be offended by it and see that it gets removed from all media past and future. Now get to work!

I'm having trouble believing anyone could be so wrong minded as to think that what you're proposing would be anything but a disaster for knowledge and truth. Truly the "1984" vision of a fanatical State that re-writes history to fit the model the little people are required to live up to. Do you really know what you're asking at all I wonder?

The cavalier attitude the current generation has about history and truth and reality scares the hell out of me and your comment really underscores why. Unbelievable!!

Is there no end to the level of control this government thinks it should impose on people of this country? The fact that this seems to be taken with humour rather than concern says a lot about the mentality of this audience. Wise up kiddies, Government's natural desire to intrude (gain power) combined with the monitoring and control capability that can be achieved with today's technology should scare the hell out of everyone. I would think the people that read a site like this would appreciate that more than most. Laugh stuff like this off and you can look forward to a future where you can't take a breath without the government having control over it.

People are leaving the field of Computer Science. Why would you spend 4 to 6 (or 7 for those of you who are slow...) years getting a BS or MS in CiS to sit in a cube like a damn secretary? In the same time you can get a degree in law, psychology, psychiatry many interesting fields that don't change every 3 to 6 months and throw you out the door when you make more than $100K or get over 45 years old. In fact some of those professions actually pay you more and you're even more sought after when you're older and wiser! CS eats it's elders!! CS is dying in the US and this is another reason why. Who wants a job that's no more respected than the 20 year old admin that's blowing the boss every afternoon.

I've been at this for 20 years and I make great money and sit in a nice office but I'm the exception not the rule. I tell anyone out there seeking career advice, stay out of Computer Science, It's a sucky career for the majority of people and as far as a career you can retire from? Forget about it! Don't believe me? How many 63 year old programmers work for your company? How many 63 year old accounts? Get it...

Ahahahahahahaha!! LMAO!! He cut 122 billion and added 3 Trillion! In my book adding 3 Trillion and cutting 122 billion still equals adding 2.78 Trillion...

Com'on! Name calling aside you Obamite's really need to pay more attention. By your logic it's ok to steal your Range Rover if I give you a Big Wheel back...