We may have 25% less radioactive elements in our planet's interior than some of these other planets, but we have a large moon that is causing a significant amount of tidal friction. That should help close the internal heat gap a bit...and as a bonus it keeps our axis fairly stable.

There are many different types of homes out there. Some just have better floor heating than Earth. I rather like our bright heat lamp in the sky...so do the plants in my yard.

A good discovery nonetheless. I'm excited that life may have more places where it can exist, and perhaps even thrive like it has done here on Earth.

We've seen a lot of news recently on slashdot about software being released before it is ready. This is just a glimpse into the inner-workings of a very large development team making a tough, but correct, call.

Thanks Linux & Co! Keep up the good work!

Since we are talking future science here it would make sense to harness the incoming blast way and convert it back to energy that can be used for the next flight. The problem is building the infrastructure to do this at the destination, but if they can figure out how to go faster than light I'm sure they can find a way to make this a reality too.

It's a UNIX system! I know this!

From the article:
"The best measurements of global air temperatures come from American weather satellites, and they show wobbles but no overall change since 1999."

Ice in a glass of water will cause the water to stabilize right around the freezing point. Even if you slowly heat it, the temperature will remain around freezing...that is until the last of the ice melts.

It's logical to think that the same is happening in the oceans. The ice is helping keep the oceans at a fairly constant temperature and the oceans are absorbing the extra heat from the atmosphere.

The problem is that it looks like the oceans' ice is melting at an alarming rate.