The satellites were launched by a Minotaur IV rocket from Alaska.
These rockets are derived from converted old Minuteman/Peacekeeper ICBMs.
Despite that, the launch costs of such a rocket can still be $40-50 million
So, unless you can score a free ride for your doohickey, it ain't so cheap.

The major drawback to DC power is in the wiring. Direct current requires larger gauge wiring than AC power, which increases material costs considerably. In general, DC power is economical only if the wiring between the computers and the DC source is less than 35 feet in length. More than that, AC power becomes more economical.

The news agency used a stock photo. The actual photo (clickable) is here.

To be sure, it isn't the battery that is "bad".
It is the same Li-ion rechargeable battery used in prior systems.
It even has more capacity: 1300 mAh. This is about 50% more than the 850 mAh battery used in DSi and 30% more than the 1000mAh batteries used in DsiXL and DSLite.

The problem, as the Republicans in the US often say, is spending. With the brighter screens necessary for 3D, wi-fi and better video and sound support, the thing will suck juice like a mutha.
The other option for Nintendo would have been to tack on a laptop style battery which wouldn't work for a portable game system.

In case you are wondering what kind of 'twittering' banks engage in, here is a sample from some banks in the USA.

Agree with the author completely. In order to eliminate the vulnerabilities arising out of the human factor, we have instituted the following password guidelines:

Password Security Guidelines V2.2b

Due to new security policies, the following guidelines have been issued to assist in choosing new passwords. Please follow them closely.

Passwords must conform to at least 12 of the following attributes.
1. Minimum length 12 characters.
2. Must contain both upper and lower case characters as well as at least 2 numbers.
3. Not in any dictionary.
4. No word or phrase bearing any connection to the holder.
5. Containing no characters in the ASCII character set.
6. Must be quantum theoretically secure, i.e. must automatically change if observed (to protect against net sniffing).
7. Binary representation must not contain any of the sequences 00 01 10 11, commonly known about in hacker circles.
8. Changed prior to every use.
9. Contain tissue samples of at least 3 vital organs.
10. Undecodable by virtue of application of 0-way hash function.
11. Contain non-linear random S-boxes (without a backdoor).

It works! We haven't had any login attempts into our systems - legitimate or otherwise.

As an engineer by training, I find this to be very cool.

I myself suffer from a physical... ahem.. shortcoming.
So, just like this engineer, I designed and constructed a solution using a banana and some duct tape.
My wife loves it!
After reading this article, I am thinking I will go ahead and publicize my invention.
Another yay for engineers!

This reporter, Mark Whittington, is a Republican/Conservative reporter. Read any of his news reports on any issue such as the Gitmo prison, WikiLeaks, the financial regulations, the Ground Zero Islamic Center or the health care reform. He will start off bthis report by factually quoting a few people on either side of a given issue but will always slip in his opinion or editorial that is always pro-conservative and anti-Obama. You can check yourself by reading any of his reports. They are available by clicking on his name in the linked web page.

Even on this issue, notice the last paragraph written by him "The decision of the Obama administration to abandon the moon and apparent Chinese ambitions toward that celestial body has grave implications for the balance of power on Earth later this century." Oooooohh. Be very afraid.... Yeah, right! He is just like many other RepubliCons who hang out at the Weekly Standard or the National Review. They will will pick anything to bash the Obama administration.

I was skeptical as well but according to the reviewers:

"What is novel in the experiment presented here is that bees learned colour and pattern cues in a spatially complex scene composed of two-coloured local and global patterns. Coloured patterns at small and large spatial scales have been little studied, and hence our knowledge of how colourful patterns and scenes are perceived by insects is still scarce."

I am assuming that the above statements are true and the paper is novel. There are citations in the reviewers' comments indicating that the reviewers referred previous work in this area but still found the kids' research to be novel. Finally, even though the reviewers appreciate dthe fact that the paper was written by children and lacked advanced analysis, they didn't seem too biased. All this has made me less skeptical now.

If it came from advertising dollars, that money would ultimately be reflected in a increase in the cost of products.....the total cost for you, out of pocket, will be much higher than if you just send Wikipedia money

You forget that advertising costs are distributed over millions of widgets that a company may make and sell. A single individual will never pay more out of pocket. Millions depend on wikipedia. These same millions will see the ad and pay just a fraction of a cent more in the product cost. To me, this is fair. Some non-intrusive advertising will actually be a very good model for wikipedia as long as it doesn't influence the content.

From the linked article:

Only one tier 1 provider – a wholesaler to other ISPs – carries more Internet traffic on its backbone network than Google does (Arbor declined to identify the provider)

Arbor may decline to identify the largest provider but this is Slashdot, damn it. You know you will find the answer here.

And, the answer is... Level 3 Communications

Inflatable life buoy launcher gun
Inflatable and recoverable lifesaving projectile apparatus

The above don't use foam though.

Why do we need to go away when we still have to colonize about 80% of our planet?

Answer: Click here

Looks like just as porn drives the advances in computer technology, alcohol will drive the advances in renewable sources technology.
Of course, now when someone says "this beer tastes like piss", you can tell them, it actually is piss. They then have the choice of running out and screaming "The booze is piss, people!"