and we decided he will not look at a TV/PC/phone screen before he is two years old as a minimum. We instead try to spend as much as time possible with him doing activities appropriate for a 9 months old baby. Maybe this is the reason why he is so active and curious about what happens around him.... And no, I am not a tech luddite (I am a physicist).

Human history is full of headless commanders-in-chief, who will ever care about a headless mule ?!?

I would suggest to design and build a log periodic antenna. You probably need bandwidth, and some gain. Log periodic antenna patterns can be printed on a PCB, and will last longer than a Pringles can. A search on google will show up to you several antenna examples and antenna calculators.

You could also embed it into the toilet paper roll...

The etherkiller. It will fix all your troubles. Forever.

we need better sausages! Use the knowledge about pig DNA to improve the flavour of bratwurst...

I would prefer to have a Daytime Savings Light: can somebody invent it, please ?!?

Meet people in front of [beer | coffee | BBQ]

FTW :)

> So worrying about stuff falling into lakes in Switzerland, is probably a good idea.

This probably applies to non-swiss lakes as well.

Italian physicist here...
Your claims about Berlusconi government are not correct. Unfortunately all the italian governments did their best to marginalize science and research, with the possible exception of those acting during the 1946-1975 interval, when there was the need to develop the italian nuclear industry. After the politicians had their nuclear toy, they threw it away a few years later, without worrying about the need of a new national research program to replace nuclear energy with something different. I got my degree in 1987, and I decided it was better to work for the industry.

Our country just celebrated the 150th anniversary, but I heard no words from a single politician recognizing the fact that one of the things that glued together the country from the very beginning was science. When our country was founded in 1961, it wasn't ever clear which official language to use, but scientists from different parts of Italy were closely working together from the very beginning. Draw your own conclusions...

I checked for my work profile (I am a physicist), and as far as I know data reported by Glassdoor seem quite accurate. I wonder if I should apply for a position at SLAC: I would earn about 20% more, and probably pay less taxes (41% here, VAT 21% and raising, etc..).

If they were really concerned about climate change, they would be using an adiabatic computer for their simulations.

A very good introductory book on computer networks for children has been previously discussed on slashdot some time ago.

A steerable antenna close to my ear ? Call me old fashioned (and it won't be the first time) but I'll take a dipole, thank you.