(via M. Simon)"...got some really interesting news about five minutes ago, straight from the man himself. Dr. Robert Bussard, of whom you may have heard, says that because of the publicity around his November 9th talk at Google and his International Academy of Science Outstanding Technology of the Year Award, the Navy has sent him a contract extension to continue his fusion research. It's two orders of magnitude below the $200 million Dr. Bussard says he needs to produce a full-scale 100mw system, but it's a start.
If you're interested in helping out, see emc2fusion.org for more.
More details may be found in The Advent of Clean Nuclear Fusion: Superperformance Space Power and Propulsion, Dr. Bussard's contribution to the 57th International Astronautical Congress.
This doesn't meant that good writing will be any less appreciated. While I understand where you are coming from, look at photography as an example -- for the most part becoming a "photographer" is entirely trivial with digital, high-quality camera available at reasonable prices. Whereas even 10 years ago it was tough to casually become a photographer because of what was necessary to develop and print your own work.
This doesn't mean people don't value good photography any less. And the same will apply to writing, or any other creative/skill based artform -- ubiquity doesn't mean the death of taste or value, IMO.
Pascal is not a high-level language. -- Steven Feiner