There are many smaller cell service providers besides the big 4. They buy time on the major networks in bulk and resell it at discounted prices. A list of the alternatives for A&TT includes Airvoice, Black Wireless, Fuzion Mobile, H20 Wireless, Straight Talk ( list from the Mr. Money Moustache blog). With my phone unlocked I can get the same service from the same towers for $40 from Airvoice that A&TT charges me $87/month. I am at the end of my ATT contract and I am seriously considering buying an unlocked iPhone 5s and switching to Airvoice. The extra $449 will be paid off in 10 months of cheaper payments (just in time for me to waste more money on an unlocked iPhone 6!)

I'm imagining the graphical programming language used to feed it instructions....

A quick GPS history lesson: GPS signals are spread-spectrum in order to make them harder to jam from a distance. The military goal was not to make it un-jammable, merely to force a functioning jammer to be so large that it could be found and (ahem) stopped. So GPS was built upon the assumption of radiation-seeking missiles to protect it. To deter jamming, they spread the main signal SO widely that it was hard for them to even acquire themselves (back in the day). For acquisition they built a less spread "finder" signal. This is spread over only about a MHz and can be easily acquired. It gives some accuracy, but also gives a timing code to find the second code which is spread over more bandwidth around the same frequency. As an afterthought, they released the first stage (the narrow one) to the public. This first stage is what we all use and love.

Of course the episodic bursts of methane came form the global surveyor that surveyed the planet: as every middle schooler knows, "whoever smelt it dealt it".

Heh, heh, heh:

Stupid old people!

AGW/anti-AGW debate? I thought we were just exchanging travel photos from our vacations. If dated photos of glaciers is what you want, I have a picture of Everest from Feb 1981 that looks much less snowy than either of these.

http://piczasso.com/s.php?s=f4n0wcs.JPG (taken from the small hill past the glacier in the lower center of Hillary's photo, I kid you not.)

On the other hand, I also have a picture of the remaining sliver of glacier on Kilimanjaro last August (which also stars my beautiful Fiancé).

http://piczasso.com/i/v84a31k.JPG

As my photos clearly show, Everest had less snow 29 years ago, Killamanjaro is almost melted away, and I am a very lucky man to be marrying that woman. I dare you to show that my photos are less scientific than the comparison in TFA.

Don't be such a skeptic. If you don't believe that 19 correct guesses proves a pattern, just come ask my favorite octopus. Now that he is retired from world-cup football he's free to predict the next mass-extinction for you.

You don't have to look so far ahead: you can use it to unfold solar panels on satellites. It would make it much easier to deploy (and change the angle of) large solar panels on small simple satellites. they have to be launched in a very compact state and deploy (obviously) without help.

It's not always the cheater's fault. Why, lots of the times I cheated it was totally the woman's fault... oh, wait, this isn't going out on the internet is it?

Please disregard.

Each implant still requires the skeletal remains of someone else's organ. Where do they plan to get all these organs? I love the idea that every recipient needs to leave behind their old organ to form the basis of for the next guy's

It's the ultimate in recycling!.

Life, Shmife! We are not focusing on the most important aspect of this report. The key is that there is sizable amounts water available in (relatively) nearby orbits outside of any significant gravity well. If the water can be used to refuel ships on their way to outer orbits, this could be incredibly useful for deep space exploration. I would personally prefer to see a space station on 24 Themis than on the moon, and it is less work to get there. Ok, more time but less work.

Facebook should cater more to their "made" clientele: Along with relationship status, there should be a "legal status" pulldown menu:

- Totally legit
- On the lamb
- Locked up
- It's complicated