The dimensions of that cozy aren't very ergonomical. Anyway, I would call it a sheath for it's more like a sword than a kettle.

How did the Japanese fail in killing 8 year old girls, man?!?! Would have thought they would have been cannon fodder. Loved the rest of the film by the way. :-)

"Joss said, "Hey, we should make a horror movie." Then I said, "Okay."". How much would I have to pay to have Joss say, let's make another Firefly/Serenity film??!??!?!

I'd love to be able to send IM to my prostate.

I would have loved to make comments at that conference sharing the future with them. The looks on their faces would be priceless. I have pondered the scenario where Einstein never existed. I came to the conclusion that special relativity would not have been delayed by too much—Lorentz was so close. Same with solving…

What? That reference just went completely over my head.

I think it's more a matter of how great Google maps already is. They already have a very handy pseudo-3D view and it can be combined with Google Earth. Of course, Apple's attempt is bold. They are trying to catch up (with some external help) to Google's decade long efforts. I'm all for competition because hopefully at…

Oh my god. That was the first thing that came to my mind. You are like... my soul mate? I would have loved to have been there. Want to know a funny story about that? Marie Curie, who is sitting two to the right of Einstein, was the wife of Pierre Curie. Pierre Curie was also the doctorate supervisor to Paul Langevin,…

Do you think it can be modified to have more nerve endings? Not just on the head, but alll down the shaft. Yes, rubbing in my pants over time will cause these to desensitize like for circumcised men but maybe we can get special sheath to wear all day to protect my man sword.

So the rabbit was able to use the grown penis for reproduction. But this is pretty much the WORST use of a penis. :-P How much physical pleasure did the rabbit have? Are all the nerves intact? Hell, could we even ADD more nerves on the penis? I'd much rather have a standard-sized penis and have a great, physically…

"Top minds" only work on it because people want it. If we, as society, do not want it and won't pay for it, then "top minds" won't work on it. Simple as that. Don't mix up cause and effect.

How did you find out??

While I agree that it is molecular diffusion through a material, I think the absolute pressure difference has SOME influence too, i.e., it is not JUST the partial pressure difference. That comes from my hands-on experience, and a brief look into the osmosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis), which is a similar…

Thanks. Do you work in the field? The paper seems to be a theoretical study. (I don't have journal subscription access at the moment, though). Has there been an experiment observation of this effect? If not, I think neutron scattering could be a good technique. Is the field popular?

Probably. I personally wouldn't use vacuum unless I had to. There's why an atmosphere of helium is pretty good. I would consider a hard drive filled with superfluid helium though. Amazing heat transfer properties without friction. Of course, probably over-kill for this decade (or forever).

(damn new comment system)

"never keep out gas". How do you think vacuum chambers are made? It's pretty easy to do. It depends on the leak and outgasing rate, which, as I calculated earlier, is not a major problem for a few years.

Good point. But where is the heat you mention coming from? The electronics for the servo can be placed outside the vacuum and connected via feedthroughs. Ceramic ball bearings have been developed for turbomolecular pumps where a (much heavier) "platter" spins at >60,000rpm all in vacuum without oil for lubrication. Of…

I don't think "superheated" means what you think it means. In physics, it is a very specific term referring to liquid that has been heated to a temperature above the boiling point but does not change to a gas. This can happen when heating (filtered) water in a microwave (see video).

A lot of questions about helium leak rates, shortage of helium, and whether it's better using vacuum. I'll try to answer some.