@Sunwind: yeah man, it's a cool interview and a cool radio show in general.

@Sunwind: Science Friday is a radio broadcast on NPR. You're going to have to listen to it. The blurb is just an introduction to the topic and who the guest is, so you can decide what you want to listen to more efficiently. One of the interesting useful properties I hadn't considered was the benefit of the tidal…

@FrankN.Stein: I agree with your first statement directly.

I've been following this particular Goldilocks planet that scientists have been really excited about called Gliese 581g. It has some extremely interesting properties which are conducive to life. Steven S. Vogt (astronomer/astrophysicist) this SciFri interview says in this interview that it his his "personal opinion"…

Wait, there are women who willingly go on nerd dates?

@bug: I think what is observed with directors like Eastwood where they seem to have a really strong following and outside that they look "meh" to people is sort of a function of their unique personalities.

@fughedaboudit: yeah man, the Pixel looks really nice. If a dual mode screen tablet that I could actually do what I want with came out tomorrow I'd be in line for it immediately. For the time being the nook is the closest thing (and i am thoroughly enjoying it)

So young Alan Alda is not just a doctor and funnyman, but also an aerospace engineer and hero?

If you just push on the center of the top of the can with your thumb as you open it, the flip tab will rise giving you some purchase on it.

@bug: AHHHH yes, the number of available states. That is a distinction I had ignored.

@NaraVara:

@bug: Interesting thoughts.

@NaraVara: To rate something "objectively" requires first a choice in target "objectives". We select which objectives are important to us based on our values.

@NaraVara:

I agree.

This could be used as an intensity-invariant indicator for measuring surface roughness or something like that since the hue should be independent of the intensity variations of the environment. Normal compounds would not work for this because there would be ambiguity in intensity changes due to environment and…

This is a pretty great article in many ways.

That is quite possibly the ugliest modern phone I have ever seen.

I am thoroughly impressed at the degree of simultaneity which he accomplished in setting those off. Also the failure rate seemed to be quite low!

@NaraVara: