You're absolutely right; but, people who buy Wal-mart bikes either aren't bike people; or, know they're getting a throw-away and live with it. A $79 bike will be heavy, poorly built, uncomfortable (because one size fits all, right?), the cheap derailleurs will not work reliably, the free hub and cassette will fail fairly early on. To add another price-point, you can pick up a low end bike from a local bike shop for about $450.

I'm not forgetting China. In fact, I believe China and Russia are negotiating an agreement to cooperate on future space ventures. This should put the U.S. on notice that it's about to be outdone; but, I fear Congress is not capable of looking more than 2 to 4 years into the future and is concentrating too much on local politics.

I'm sure the Russians will take your suggestion under advisement. As it stands now, they're more likely to be building a next generation space station than the U.S. is. Look at recent analysis of the U.S. Space Program. Insufficient funding and no realistic goals, I believe was the short summary. If the U.S. manages to build a space station with a rotating hab, it will be a commercial venture, like Bigelow's proposed "hotel" in space.

No.... Won't have an appreciable effect. Now, if you're looking for something useful to do with that bunch of asteroids you've got, if you're really clever you could use them to impact Venus and blow the atmosphere off. without the thick atmosphere, it might cool off in a few hundred thousand years to something approaching desert in the summer temperatures.

the stock has potential to be profitable. Wait for the IPO excitement to wane and the stock to crash. Then, and the timing is critical here, buy a big chunk when the price is really low. When the inevitable occurs, and the new management team comes on board, the stock will begin to rise and ... Profit!

I'm glad the National Research Council has published this... maybe now it will get some traction. Having said that, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that the program is underfunded and will not be able to meet any of its goals. Frankly, this is true of not just NASA, but science in general. Too many in Congress talk about the importance of STEM; but, when push comes to shove are unwilling to fund R&D and large scale engineering programs.

We're Doomed. Dooooomed.

my yacht is bigger than your yacht...

Sure, it would be cheaper to build a new planet than to travel 100 light years. Only take a couple million years for it to cool down and become stable. But why go to all the trouble? There's a perfectly good one right here they can have for a slight premium, right now.

No... If they come, it won't be for resources, unless that resource is slaves. Really, if they come, it will be for the planet itself -- because it's here and they want it.

"Sir, we have incoming fire."

"Shield Up!"

"???"

"Ensign, what are they firing at us?"

"Lasers sir"

"Lasers? But that won't even penetrate our navigation shields."

"No sir."

"Looks like they're hailing us sir"

"OK, let's humor them and see what they want..."

Neither. NSA and NASA, as U.S. government agencies, do not fund SETI research.

Maybe they just want our planet. period. Maybe they need a new vacation spot. Maybe they just like salty oceans and sandy beaches. Those darn apes are in the way, so they'll have to remove them first. They're funny. The apes think they're intelligent (they have built a few small structures); so, we'll have some fun with them first.....

But, in that case, why interact with the real world. You can just stay in the virtual world and do whatever makes your brain happy.

Nope. I would like an e-book reader with a large display (10") and a decent pen input so I can scribble notes. I would like said display to be color, please (when I'm reading documents with charts, I would prefer not to have to distinguish between close shades of grey, if you don't mind). And on that note, it has to have a good PDF engine --- one that works, allows resizing, and correctly displays documents with embedded images and charts.