"The day war was declared, a rain of telephones fell clattering to the cobblestones from the skies above Novy Petrograd". - Charles Stross, Singularity Sky

Well, that's really more a case of a genocidal maniac starting a war, and other nations being forced to fight back.

We just need the Relativity equivalent of timezones. From now on, the rate at which time passes in Greenwich, England, is the standard reference frame, and clocks subject to stronger or weaker gravity fields, or placed on spaceships traveling near the speed of light, have to be set to run fast, or slow, to match up to…

This is a fun headline to take out of context. :P "We were going to build an ideal society, but something's come up! Utopia is cancelled! Go home, everyone!"

You could say it's a "conservative estimate" then. Which... really just helps emphasize MIT's overall point. :(

That was my favourite episode! I always thought it was brilliant and ahead of its time in its theme of crossing virtual reality with the real world.

Bejabbers!

I believe something like ablative laser propulsion was described in the 1985 novel Footfall. I feel kind of "blah" about that particular sci-fi classic, but it had some fun ideas about space travel.

I'm not sure if you're trolling now, or serious. On the one hand your last statement is outrageous enough to scream "troll," but on the other hand you seem to be trying to discuss the issue seriously.

To me, they're best known for taking a bunch of abandonware games that I used to be able to get for free from Home of the Underdogs, and finding a way to make money off of them again by strapping DOSBox to each one. That, and selling Star Control II when there's an excellent — and fully legal — free version of it…

Because his function was not to be an armed, armoured soldier, but to be a ceremonial guard in accordance with old traditions? Traditions can be good or bad, and there's plenty of bad ones in our culture to be sure, but guards who play a purely ceremonial role do not seem in any way an inherent wrong to me. Do you…

When did I say this wasn't a "military" target? You are responding to points I have not made. I am saying it's a stretch to call an unarmed soldier serving as an honour guard a "legitimate target" that somehow, in any way, makes this attack less bad.

He shot an unarmed soldier serving as an honour guard, and seems to have been trying to shoot up a building full of elected civilian politicians. I'm not in favour of any crazy new security procedures excused by this attack, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to claim that this person was attacking "legitimate"…

If by definition "lone wolf" terrorists work alone and without support, then how on Earth can intelligence gathering help stop them? There's no network to infiltrate, no e-mail or phone conversations to spy on, no plans to foil. Just one person who goes crazy and decides to do something violent on their own, quite…

If we assume that the first logician would not give clue #3 unless he knew that the second logician needed it to solve the puzzle, and if we assume that the second logician would realize this, and would assume that the first logician would not give un-needed or useless clues, then it's still enough information even…

This is really sweet, and I love Burns' last paragraph there. :)

It turns out to be an important hint. It's important to note that the second logician needs all three clues to find a solution.

The second clue actually does give you the apartment number — just in a round-about way. The important information to note here is that the second logician still can't solve the puzzle, even after being given the second clue.

Clue #2 is useful if you assume that the second logician himself knows the apartment number. I.e. you know that he knows the sum of the three ages once clue #2 is given. Edit: Whoops, I'm wrong about this. You don't need to make this assumption at all, actually! The result would be the same even if the second logician…

A pumpkin so orange, light cannot escape its surface!