Seems like most of the inventions were actually refinements of existing technologies. That's certainly fine to improve something, but it would be nice if they discovered something truly new - like a new force akin to magnetism that would allow for long distance transmission of wireless communications and energy, or a…

@barrywoods: I assume that the radar picks up all the transponder information from the planes that do send it, and if it sees a moving object that is plane like and NOT sending a transponder signal, it pinpoints that and marks it for the radar operator.

@acidrain69: The windmills could be programmed into the radar data so it's a known entity. Other radar installations could provide the 'image' of what's behind the windfarm if they would actually upgrade them to communicate with each other. Quite honestly, I think they could develop an algorythm that could mask the…

@Antubis: You're correct. Seems to me, they just need to link up the radar systems so they can triangulate the objects, thus if one radar can't see past the particular wind farm, the other one will provide the details of what's there and vice verse.

@vel0city: Agreed, but in theory, they could start using green energy to run thier servers as Google does in some places. It would seem to me that having a close by energy source would be the perfect solution for a server center. Of course, any operation would have to be on the grid to get energy during peak hours…

I picked up an old rotary bakelite phone from a garage sale that had the 4-prong jack of years gone. Interestingly enough, I have one jack in my bedroom that hasn't been converted over to the new jack style, so that's where the phone went. Love the little ring sound the phone makes when turning the dial, and the…

@ninjamurf: Here here. This would be the perfect keyboard if they offered it in a split configuration and also had a true click feel to the keypress. Too bad, because split keyboards really are better for the wrists and I can type much faster on them than a normal keyboard....

I moved to using Picasa after I upgraded my Google storage to 250 gigs so I could store all my pictures online. The only issue I have is that it doesn't support shared databases out of the box (a workaround exists though for those that need it), and the face name tags that you apply to people in the client version…

@MrPages: You actually can do this and it's not too difficult, but it does take some command line usage from the dos prompt. I did this so my wife and I can share the same database between our profiles on the computer. You create a symbolic link in your computer and then have Picasa point to the symbolic linked…

@sirmeili: Cool - I'll have to give that a try. Do you have a shortcut key mapped to it, or do you have to type it out each time? One of the reasons I use the pipe character is it's ease of use on the keyboard, yet truly limited use by others.

@sirmeili: I use the pipe character in all my coding to join text string, because I've never seen it used by anyone other than me. Funny how such a character that is in such a great position on the keyboard and really seems to be perfect as a delimiter is hardly ever used.

@lvlln: I use Silent Toggle Widget form Droidmania in the market. It's free and does just that - toggles your vibrate on/off... Free and it works great.

@Canon7D-Fanboy: My understanding of the events is the bombs were really dropped to show Russia that we had the nukes, since we knew they were going to be our next adversary. The war was over. Japan was going to surrender any day since they were just hanging on anyway. We had sea and air superiority and the…

@mrdobo: As would DaVinci and Michelangelo, as long as they were dead of course before you dismantled them...

@Eric Tollison: I'd love to get one sometime. How long does it take to get up to the proper temperatures for steak/chicken/veggies? I have a feeling it takes much too long which is why I stick with the much more convenient, but certainly not as good gas grill...

@rootyb: Probably much too high a temperature for it to matter. These are probably safe, though it's probably advisable that the food doesn't touch the sides. I'd still probably go with an unglazed pot though.

@moetop: True - the glazes are more likely to have lead in them (and probably do) than the pottery. That being said, these are probably made in Mexico and they certainly don't care what materials go into them as they are supposedly only being used to hold plants. Use at your own risk of course, but I'd rather build…

@tselby: I've got some kids toys from China you can chew on that I'm sure are just safe... oh wait, no they're made of lead and have lead paint. I guess you'll be ok, 'cause the gov't said it's ok.

I would be nervous that the mud that goes into making those pots might have nasties that would leech out with high heat, including lead, mercury and other toxins. Might want to be careful with that - there isn't any FDA requirements of course for flower pots, while there are for commercial smokers. Companies will use…

I suppose this is one way to weed nerds out of the human race. You think it's bad getting a date playing WOW inside, wait till you go out in public wearing this.