Aliens wouldn't work. After a couple minutes, they'd realize they fit in here, and we'd buy them a beer and rent them a room.

In Portland, we'd need special Portland disasters (in order of least to most disastrous):
+ A toxic patchouli cloud (poisoning residents)
+ A mob of angry zoobombers on giant bicycles (scaring the populace)
+ Busses, turning left (killing pedestrians)
+ A soy- / gluten- / tree nut- / wheat- / dairy-free and vegan food shortage (starving the citizens)
+ 1/4" of snow (1000s of traffic accidents)

And worst of all:
+ A local brewery shutdown (all out pandemonium)

I usually keep the sticky notes on the bottom of the mouse.

I'm sure there's some Bush-era-Gestapo-law that the FCC could use to lock up all iPhone users in an undisclosed location. But seriously, do you think AT&T's going to sue this guy for inciting network usage? Think of all the reporters who have iPhones. They would have a field day with that lawsuit.

These things cost 30 rupees ($0.65 per 3000 liters), after which time you apparently have to replace the filter. The article doesn't list the up-front cost of the unit.

Compare that with a biosand filter, which "with minimal maintenance a Biosand filter can work effectively for over 20 years and can be manufactured, delivered and installed for about $40 US." (http://www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org/). That, and they're open source.

I'm pretty sure that open source trumps nano tech.

Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, ...

Go ahead. Stop using any Google services for 24 hours. On a work day.

See? You're already a google-junkie. Just wait, any time now you'll attach that Google neural-cloud-adword-gmail-access thingy to your brain-stem (Google Think(tm) Beta). It will sound like a good idea at the time too.

Am I a Windows user because I run XP in Parallels on my Mac, or wine in ubuntu? Am I a linux user or a Mac user because I run andLinux and PearPC on my XP laptop??? I'm so confused.

All you hear are the horrifying screams of the pedestrians being mowed down at 3 mph.

I totally agree .. stupid idea. And what happens when they miss? I mean, it's not like they can use GPS guided missiles to find it. Hitting something that's way up there, extremely cold, and running away from you at 30,000 kph is not exactly a trivial operation. It's also going to be a real bummer when the missile slams back into Earth after 300 years.