I don't think the idea of block chain is inherently slow. Design choices that BTC have made and stuck to have kept it so. I had a very little bit of bit coin, and trying to spend it was not easy. You are also right that BTC is no longer being marketed as a currency, but as an investment. The currency side of things has been sidelined and forgotten.

Sure, Murdoch owns the "sky" in Skype, but you're not reporting on the fact that Stelios Haji-Ioannou and his "we sue over any use of the word 'easy'" wanna-be Virgin operation have laid claim to the "e" in Skype. That just leaves the "p", which, obviously, already belongs to Sean "P Diddy" Combs. But not to worry, the former Skype will be able to Trademark the null set, which is an extraordinarily powerful identity...

So he's "Emeritus Professor of Spanish at Utah State University" - in other words, this study was done by Senior Chang Sr.!

As an architect, I can say that you are thinking about this problem exactly how architects and engineers do, and you've identified most of the critical problems. Along with the fact that "falling stuff inside the building" (e.g. filing cabinets and light fixtures) kill building occupants, fire also kills many people in earthquakes. This "more stretchy" steel won't necessarily help with either of these. Most of our systems for limiting the spread of fire (like drywall, spray-on-fireproofing and concrete block interior walls) are very much "not stretchy" and will crack/crumble when the building frame deforms, leaving them useless for limiting the spread of smoke and fire when the shaking stops. This stuff may turn out to be great, but it won't make much of a difference any time soon, and it doesn't sound like it would be particularly "revolutionary."

My father-in-law has a HeartmateII. In planning a family vacation after his recovery, we called the airline we were flying to review the issues with his having the implanted device. Someone took a bunch of notes and forwarded them to some sort of engineering staff at the airline. The response was "It's no problem. He just needs to turn off the device at takeoff and landing." Bwahahahahhah! (In the end, everything went fine, and, no, he didn't shut off his pump at takeoff or landing!)

Hi! It looks like you're trying to speak English. I'm Clippy for English Language the! Help can I how?

Sorry to be Captain Safety, but I just want to point out the obvious: 1. Be very careful when using a generator - they produce lots of carbon monoxide and kill several people a year. Don't run them in an attached garage - even with the door open. 2. Only a qualified electrician should make the kind of wiring changes that are required to add a generator to a house electrical system. The building code requirements are complex, but more importantly, the potential for a fire that would burn down your house is very real. Personally, I'd rather go without electricity for a few days than either die from carbon monoxide poisoning or have my house burn down. Enough with the doom and gloom - adding a generator to a house electrical system is done frequently and generally isn't exceptionally complicated. It's worth it to hire an experienced, licensed, insured electrical contractor to do it right.

Well, this is now "yesterday's news", but Hey, might as well chuck in my two cents.

I was burglarized a few years ago, and I actually got back some of my stuff! The dolt who robbed me, robbed some other guy who had an 'idiosycratic' CD collection and a database of the discs. The cops didn't do much, so this guy faxed copies of his disc database to every used CD shop in the city, and bingo, a shop called him back with a match. The bonehead burglar had even used his real ID while selling CDs and pawning stuff. I got back two cameras (but not my CDs, laptop, nice video camera, etc., etc.) which he had pawned with his real ID.

I'm not a big fan of recording IDs or waiting periods, but there are real world situations where these can actually make a difference in catching theives and recovering property.

C. Montgomery Burns: "I've always felt that there's far too much hysteria these days about so-called cheating. If you can take advantage of a situation in some way, it's your duty as an American to do it. Why should the race always be to the swift or the jumble to the quick-witted? Should they be allowed to win merely because of the gifts God gave them? Well, I say cheating is the gift man gives himself!"

Simpsons Episode: Mountain of Madness.

I wouldn't know. Stopped using hotmail as soon as they started trying and hotmail stopped working.