NASA isn't blameless, certainly. But it's hard to create rational programs that span decades and cost billions of dollars when you get your funding jacked around constantly. Not to mention the specific bits of mismanagement that Congress loves to tack on to funding bills.

It's a wonderfully dysfunctional system.

I hear all sorts of thing like countries legalizing homosexual marriages, which is jolly good by me. But what's the bloody point in legalizing asexual marriages?!

...it takes away the things that make you unhappy.

Didn't he really mean analogous environment, as in 'our desert terrain and texture is analogous to the surface of the moon'. Or did he mean the moon isn't really digital after all?

"Schrodinger's Emperor!"

His clothes are either there or not there, to be known only if you look for them.

I thought albedo modification was the way forward? It doesn't have to be expensive either:

1. Make sure new/repaired roads get a more reflective/whiter surface.
2. Make sure all new buildings get a reflective/whiter roofing.
3. Retrofit roofs with either paint or new roofing.

That would transform urban areas from heat-traps to energy-bouncers. And cut airconditioning usage too!

That sentence was the biggest gaffe in American politics since one Dan Quayle's "potatoe" incident.

BTW: the sentence in question means "I took the initiative in creating the internet."

And it's still funny now. The sad thing is it was simply a mistake in selecting words.

I've not heard a valid example of the US violating it. Remember, the Geneva conventions are primarily concerned with the treatment of uniformed members of national military forces (and includes definitions of such).

It also is only in force when engaged in war with another state that is also bound by the convention. Legally, at least; morally/politically is a different game, of course.

Yes, that grated on my ears too. National Geographic should present a higher standard of accuracy than this article, full of stock footage (the chip being wired etc.). And the businessman saying the Osborne 1 was the first portable computer. Maybe for him, but the IBM 5100 pre-dated this by a number of years.

Yes, insects figured it out. Here it was done with Argentine ants: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2008/04/03/2207179.htm

I'm fairly certain that the fusion reaction in a Tokamak occurs inside the hole of the donut, not within ring of the donut. Here is a 2-D side view: ____ ____ ( ) (Reaction Here) ( ) ____ ____

No, Fusion power isn't unlocked until 2050.

OLD SUBMARINE SOFTWARE:

declare @minimumSilentCruiseDepth int
set @minimumSilentCruiseDepth = (select max(hulldraft) from USNavy.dbo.FleetStatistics)

URGENT PATCH TO ALL COMMANDERS. TO BE INSTALLED IMMEDIATELY:
set @minimumSilentCruiseDepth = (select max(hulldraft) from USNavy.dbo.FleetStatistics) + @FUDGEFACTOR

...in this video. If these are touted as tools for learning, why did we only have a fraction of the demonstration showing them being used by children?

Perhaps that illustrates the concepts are too complicated for children of the age whereby blocks are a learning toy. Parent is right, putting essentially what is a little TV (with dinky sound) on a child's block does not necessarily make it a better block, nor does it imbue the qualities of children's blocks into a bunch of tiny computers. Children learn to touch, hold, stack, align, sort, drop, throw and taste simple wooden blocks - isn't that educating-by-playing experience magical enough? We should be aiming to keep the electronics out of early childhood, so they concentrate on what's important - hand/eye/brain co-ordination. What we have here is a small piece of electronics and possibly toxic battery that I'd worry some kid would shove in their mouth the second a parent isn't looking.