iNow

Since you asked so very nicely, I'm going to go ahead and say no to both.

Viva la revolution! (pssst... I hope they weren't listening when I typed that). How far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without? ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. ~ James Madison

Keeping positive wasn't helping Obama. He was pure positive, and when McCain went negative, McCain picked up huge points. Obama stayed positive, and he kept losing ground. McCain kept negative, and kept gaining ground. You don't need to have a PhD in hyperbolic topology to understand the math on this. The moment Obama struck back in kind his numbers started shooting back upward. Now, I'm not saying I support the approach, nor that I think negative ads are good, but I am saying that you gotta do what you gotta do to get elected, otherwise, all of the hope and good will and intentions in the universe won't mean diddly squat. Also, what's trivial about McCain being disconnected from the daily struggles of the populace and having an absent understanding of the economy?

The company I work for is a business with a series of specializations. We manufacture what our customers need, and we have also stepped into a major new market based on demand. That's neither here nor there, though. We as a culture need to look past just economics. My point is that it will matter little how much money we have if we can't feed or hydrate ourselves, or if we continue in our irresponsible actions. What good is having a dollar if there is no where left to spend it? Further, a change of the magnitude which is required will actually open more markets than it closes, so it's important to keep some perspective and look past the fact that some things we desperately need are going to be more expensive today (that should not stop us from moving where we know we need to go).

Same tone, but you're right... they all look the same to me.

Oh, that's right. The name I was trying to remember was Eric 5.

Right on. Thanks for the clarification guys.

Why are people still discussing this issue only in terms of money and economics? There is FAR more at stake here other than just the bottom line.

Thanks for the link, but I do this for a living.

Stop trolling.

I appreciate the correction on the 200K. Did you see the vid? I actually was reminded of a few of your posts while watching.

About 60 seconds ago, I saw the same thing on Nightline about Biden and the secret service dispatch, and also how he teaches a class on Saturday mornings which has been told to "expect a substitute." line[/hr] http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/bidens-stock-ri.html ABC News' Ed O'Keefe reports: Sen. Barack Obama still isn't saying who he's picked as his vice presidential running mate, but speculation surrounding Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., has increased as the Democratic ticket's unveiling in Springfield on Saturday nears. On his blog, Marc Ambinder first reported on an in-bounded private charter from Chicago Midway (KMDW) to New Castle, Del. (KILG). The flight -- EJA863 -- took off at 6:05 p.m. ET and arrived one hour and 28 minutes later at 7:36 p.m. Just as the Raytheon Hawker 800 took to the sky, ABC News has confirmed that Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Gov. Tim Kaine, D-Va., had both been told by Obama that they were not going to join the Democratic ticket.

Because it's not size that matters, but how you use what you've got. If size were all that mattered, the blue whale would be the smartest animal (unless you do size as a percentage of body, then I think it's a squid of some sort, but I cannot recall exactly). Speaking of birds, have you seen this:

Yeah... you're still not winning me over.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here, north (despite the fact that I vehemently disagree). Do you have any support for your assertions, or are you expecting everyone to simply take your (relatively incoherent) word for it?

You remind of Fred, or maybe Graviphoton. Even if you're not them, you're walking down the same path they chose to follow.

Humility? Also, unicorns. Can't forget the unicorns.

That's a tough one. Since the concept of "time" itself came into existence at the Big Bang (spacetime itself was created), then the idea of "before" is not only a challenge, but actually undefined. The idea of "before" doesn't make sense since time didn't exist before then (according to the BB model).

Hi LostLabyrinths, First, welcome to SFN. I'm glad you've joined and decided to share your interest and excitement with everyone else. Your question is a hard one, though. We can barely say with any confidence what humanity will be like 100 or 200 years from now, let alone millions or billions of years. We just don't know. As far as I know, humans have only existed for roughly 70,000 years, so we're just a short blip on the time line of all life since the birth of the Earth 4.6 billion years ago. If you think of the timeline of Earth as a calendar, then all life really didn't begin until November, and humans only on the that final day of December 31... Like this: http://www.enviro-explorers.com/rocksandroads_122302/unit1/unit1a.htm January 1 to November 19 represents the geologic time before the Paleozoic Era. November 19 to December 13 represents the Paleozoic Era. December 13 to December 27 represents the Mesozoic Era. December 27 to December 31 represents the Cenozoic Era. The portion of the calendar year representing when humans appeared on the Earth is equal to the last minute of the day. The above was specific to Earth time, but you can also see more on that here at wiki's link on the Cosmic Calendar in terms of the whole universe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Calendar ...and here: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/universe/itsawesome/cosmiccalendar/page2.html Imagine that the history of the universe is compressed into one year—with the big bang occurring in the first seconds of New Year’s Day, and all our known history occurring in the final seconds before midnight on December 31. Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years. Here’s a closer look at when important events would occur when we imagine the universe in one year. DECEMBER As to what we'll become? I don't know. However, earlier this evening I watched a really interesting talk by an archaeologist named Louise Leakey. I enjoyed it, and you may too. Here is the link: Again, welcome. Enjoy yourself.

You know, I actually had a similar response to Bascule, but just re-read your quote and realized that you were saying it was not 9/11 which prevented those things from being resolved. That is, however, a rather difficult position to support (as is the other side of the issue).

Why did you say "status quo" when you could have said "presently accepted way of doing things?" Why did you say "consensus" when you could have said the "general overall acceptance by the population being considered?"

Do you really think they make tiny little processors one at a time, or perhaps do they feed 200 and 300 and 400mm wafers into a machine 6 at time creating the chips en masse then cutting them up? I'll give you a hint. The machines my company sells does the second. For solar, the machines I've seen are huge and feed through glass panels roughly the size of a king sized mattress. They will follow a very similar approach to microprocessors since the technology is so very similar. You set up a fab to run through the panels and at the other end you have people truck them to a farm and link them together. It's not hard. Really. I wouldn't lie to you. There's thin film, crystalline silicone, and countless other new technologies out there, so to be perfectly frank, I'm having a hard time buying your blanket dismissals since you're facts are so one sided and skewed. I know how the manufacturing side works, and that's exactly what you're arguing against. Prices are dropping, and will continue to do so as demand and competition increase. Additionally, said competition will bring greater R&D, hence increasing efficiencies and decreasing cycle times. The times they are a changin'. Either lend a helping hand or get the hell out of the way. The train is coming down the tracks and these silly myopic economic concerns you've been expressing aren't going to stop it.

Uhhmmm... we also make computers using silicone. They're pretty cheap now.

In honor of DH, I suggest "Congresscritterdom."

Out of curiosity, I know that certain "poisons" build up in the water used in reactors... Does heavy water have a greater resistance to poison build up?