Hover (www.hover.com) is great. No bait and switch tactics, spamming you on your way to checkout, sleazy superbowl ads or other gimmicks. And you get private listings included in the base price. They aren't the cheapest, but they are competitive. They will even switch you over for free.

Thorium is far more abundant than uranium, it can't be used for weapons production and a Thorium reactor would produce almost no waste. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LeM-Dyuk6g

Yeah, not smart. You're right.

You're right. Dumb mistake on my part.

You are of course right and I am, of course and idiot. :)

When he was 1 second old he was in his first year and his first decade. Exactly 10 years later he was nine years old and in his second decade. 70 years after that he was: 1.) 79 years old. 2.) in his 80th year 3.) In his 9th decade. It has to be so because he had been alive 8 decades and one second.

To further belabor the point: A second after his birth, he was in his first year. 10 years later he was simultaneously: 1. Nine years old. 2. In his 10th year 3. In his 2nd decade.

Not to belabor the point, but he actually was "in his 9th decade" the second after he turned 79 years old, for the same reason that you are "in your first year" a second after you are born.

I agree that we should push forward on all fronts with renewable energy. But Thorium-based LFTR reactors solve most of the problems with nuclear energy, including the two biggest bug bears of them all: nuclear waste and safety. There is practically no waste in LFTR and the fuel is fantastically plentiful compared to Uranium. There are huge Thorium deposits right now. And LFTR reactors are virtually melt-down proof from the get-go. Where uranium reactors "want" to blow up by default, LFTR reactors are amazingly safe. Watch the link and the other Google Tech Day presentations. LFTR reactors have already been tested and they WORK. The military is responsible for taking us down the dead end of using Uranium for power just because it can be used in weapons. LFTR is better technology and can't be used to make bombs. Thorium CAN be the solution for our total energy needs for the foreseeable future, and will be a great adjunct to renewable energy when something like solar finally emerges. You can build lots of solar cells with safe, cheap, clean LFTR power, and then who cares if solar isn't quite as efficient. It can be used in locations that need it most right away.

...and leave a legacy that will improve life in smaller countries, he should champion the development of cheap, abundant, safe nuclear power in the form of the Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor (LFTR). Thorium is far more abundant than Uranium and the plants are potentially much smaller and cheaper.

You're right about my misuse of the term Spaghetti Western. Thanks for pointing that out.

Obviously, dueling with pistols in the 18th and 19th centuries is well known. My point is that the quick drawing hired gun pulled his gun, shot his victim and the whole thing was over in 20 milliseconds. You could have a loaded gun pointed right at him with your finger on the trigger and still lose by a wide margin. Watch the video. Especially that last one.

The truth is that the duel at "high noon" is a myth perpetuated by spaghetti Westerns. An actual quick draw expert can shoot you several times and re-holster his weapon before you even have time to blink. It only takes about 20 milliseconds for them to get a shot off, while human reflex time is typically about 150-300 milliseconds. A real gun slinger could kill you even if you had already drawn your weapon and had your finger on the trigger. With such a person facing off on main street would be laughable.

Well, diversity is our strength with this approach, grasshopper, because no component is excluded merely because microcontrollers are included. Sing Cumbayà with me because it's actually a good thing that we don't have whip out our 20-year-old copy of CMOS Cookbook anymore to make something useful happen.

Want to interface with a $5 surplus LCD display? No problem with an Arduino. Try that with a 555 timer. Want to interface with a cheap GPS module? No problem with an Arduino. Let's see you do that with discrete components.

Learning electronics is about having fun, and with microcontrollers you can have lots of fun fast. And you don't have to give up making spaceship sounds with a 555 timer, either. You can just add the sounds to your spokePOV and really impress your neighbors (and your kids). :-)