Slashdot, at its most gentle, is like a bulldozer being driven by a toddler.

Just read TFA and it looks like the project's goal is not to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but to find out how to use sunlight as an energy source to synthesize molecules.

Over here, across the pond, we've got a team of Yanks already working on the other side of the carbon equation: Artificial leaves to capture CO2 from the air. And, in typical Yank fashion, its being done by private enterprise.

They were featured recently on Nova ScienceNow.

The reason NEMA 5-15 uses blades is to easily differentiate it from NEMA 5-20. Most NEMA 5-20 sockets are designed to accept either NEMA 5-15 or NEMA 5-20 plugs. But you can NOT plug a NEMA 5-20 plug into a NEMA 5-15 receptacle. And they're still backwards-compatible with older devices using the non-polarized non-grounded plugs.

Their bendability can sometimes be an asset. I'll bend my blades out a bit if I want a connection that is more difficult to pull apart.

NEMA has a huge range of plug specs for different applications. Just take a look at this . The system works well enough so that lesser devices can often be connected to higher rated circuits but not vice-versa.

It is still possible to touch exposed live blades with NEMA 5-15, but until people start killing themselves while plugging in devices there will never be any political will to change.

I'm not a NEMA fanboy or anything. My vote is for IEC C13.

I'm surprised IEC C13 isn't getting more attention. No matter what country you live in, every slashdotter probably has at least a dozen cords with this connector in their closet. I have one for every power supply and every monitor I've ever bought (and a UPS and a few other random devices too).

I think maybe you were looking for the touchpad patent article instead?

Your average slashdotter probably has enough old hardware lying around to build a file server that's good enough, or knows where to scrounge up the hardware for nil. The only thing to buy would be the hard drives. You can find a 500 GB EIDE hard drive for around $60. Put 4 of those in and you've got plenty of storage. Or if you want SATA, I've seen SATA cards for under $10.

Sort of like this?

Why don't you just focus the bandwidth using some dilithium crystals? You can order some at very good prices direct from Rura Penthe. They've got very little overhead, you see. Very cheap labor. But shipping costs can be a little much.

Both.

All those CRTs? Its Earth Day, man! Think of the polar bears!

I, for one, welcome our new pint-sized fusion-powered, bionic, laser-wielding, kevlar-armored overlords...

So that you can fill in forms that don't let you save what you type.

Wow, your computer must be REALLY old. After all, wasn't it the great BG who commandeth: "640K ought to be enough for anybody."