So... I could be wrong, but this is not the first total artificial heart, and not the first to work without a pulse. And at 1 month, it is not setting any records. I suppose if they managed to do it without an external power source it would be interesting, but that x-ray image does not seem to imply that.

Until recently I was in New York and did not even have a car. Now I am in San Diego, and I find it nearly indispensable. SoCal definitely has a car-centric city planning thing going on.

Might be a tie between my car and my computer. Both are very important to my ability to make money and carry out other important bits of life. I would love to say my bike instead of car, but I occasionally need more heavy lifting or rapid transit than my bike can provide.

Yeah, I have a MBP that does not support audio over mini-DisplayPort, but I was under the impression that the newer systems do.

Technically there is, but it often goes overlooked. To me, the problem is mostly with an overworked and understaffed patent agency. They just don't have the time to do the kind of investigation necessary. There have been a lot of suggestions to fix the problem, but I think it would take a large reimagining of the…

It was based off the Spanish Dollar at the time. Not sure before that; Wikipedia gives an interesting etymology starting in Bohemia in the 1520s.

I am well acquainted with the patent system. There are some patents that are not vague, and they hav e a strong case when taken to court. I was voicing my opinion that this is not one of them.

Sorry. I do understand the network protocol end of the system, I was mostly basing my statement off the articles claim of 80% profit.

In middle school I had a biology teacher with a large collection of animals in jars of formaldehyde. One of her best was a cyclopian chicken. It was quite young, of course, but it had apparently fully developed and hatched. For some reason I can still see it in my head...

I just went and looked at the patent (kind of ignored it the first time around) and it is ridiculously vague. You could apply it to all manner of network interactions. It seems to be a patent on exchanging just about anything between two devices.

Just checked mine, it is already empty. Which is good, because the last thing I want is yet another place to look for useless cache files to clean.

Luckily, I am on a family plan with my sister. She uses so many texts that even though we have a $30 unlimited texting plan, I feel like my family is sticking it to the man. The profit per text on our account has to be pretty low.

Yeah. Now if they did it with 20 AA batteries instead...

I would say it is perfectly suited to the CIA or FBI... It's kind of what they do (track people down and arrest them). It is definitely not a job for the military, but if the US finds an internal military threat you can bet the FBI will be looking into it.

NATO is a US supported organization. They would not, of course, operate on US soil without US approval, but if the US wanted them too... Besides, a threat against NATO is technically a military threat against the US government (they are a military alliance in which the US is a major player).

The article totally misses the point. Even if fallout shelters only save a fraction of the people that bothered to build them, every life is important for a nation facing nuclear war and post-war rebuilding. To suggest that fallout shelters are useless because they won't save people from bombs is to ignore the fact…

That sounds wonderful, if you don't need to eat. I am currently unemployed, and I am doing all sorts of things for free. I am also searching for a job, however. As soon as I am offered a decent one, I will take it. Hopefully I will not stop working for free at that point, but I will also need to pay the bills, as it…

Have you seen the RepRap project? They aim to create a 3D printer primarily out of parts that can be 3D printed. Of course, they are a long way away (there are some things that still can't really be printed) but it is intriguing, and they are making progress.

I consider it tons of fun, but only when I am not carrying anything and have nowhere to be ;) It is kind of like urban adventure riding. I tend to avoid it when I am trying to actually do useful things with my life.

Kind of strange really. They definitely have the industrial complex to build their own carrier, and the economy to pay for it, why use outdated Soviet tech? I'm sure the innards are relatively modern, but it still seems like they could have done better.