@chauncy that billups: The IPCC is hardly "lockstep groupthink", almost everything in their 4th assessment report summary gives a range of predictions and is full of qualifiers and probabilities. Please name what you think they got wrong, with citations.

@SkipErnst: You're confusing the debate about what to do about global warming with the science of global warming. The science is ably laid out in a few paragraphs on Wikipedia, NASA, NOAA, etc. The impressive scientific consensus isn't a matter of politics, (well, since Bush appointees gave up trying to censor…

@xsbs: Of course sea levels have risen. There are satellite altimeters that measure these things.

@wpiman2: The Federal Flood Insurance Program ensures low-cost coverage of your seafront property, hindering "the market" from assessing the risks properly.

@tymiles: You should cite YOUR alleged facts, as Wikipedia mostly does, instead of referencing someone else's quote of a jokey tweet.

@BeerFartsSeatCushion: Trashing tar balls on the Gulf: Is there a better way than dumping it?

@Courtney Malone: As I said elsewhere, Google's Dalvik virtual machine ISN'T Java, doesn't even run Java bytecode, and Google has never claimed it's Java. In all three ways it's different from "Microsoft Java Virtual Machine", and this lawsuit is on a completely different basis.

@Kenny Powers: You're being sloppy with language to the point of making no sense. A programming language isn't property; Google doesn't have to get anything from someone in order to "emulate" their business (whatever that means); I don't think Google ever got warm and cozy with Sun, they merely like the Java…

@andrelix: Exactly how much money has Google picked from your pocket? In my case, $0.00¢. Maybe you're doing teh Interwub wrong.

@BLToday: I don't think your b) is accurate.

@tymiles: This is very very different from Microsoft vs. Sun. MS called their Java implementation the "Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, but it was subtly and deliberately incompatible. An MS memo said "Kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market."

@38thsignal: I think that's Franco Sbarro's Osmos. He also made a few hubless motorcycle prototypes. I think crazy-ass designer Luigi Colani also had some hubless designs powered by trumpet-shaped axles, but they were never manufactured.

@talkingstove: I think that American Beauty scene was about noticing beauty rather than engineering it. Neither's better.

@S_Mazza: Well, don't forget you have to produce, *spill*, refine, and transport the TONS of gasoline a conventional car uses over its lifetime!

@Pessimippopotamus: Close. "Tesla's carbon fiber body panels are made in France by French supplier Sotira. The panels are sent to England, where Tesla contracts with Lotus to build a unique chassis in Hethel, U.K"

According to the Internet Archive's Wayback machine, the first MIT Media Lab "wearables" page went up in 1998. The future progresses, slowly.

@Animos: The Singularity dream is once you can simulate a Macaque brain, either the next week (if it's a software issue) or in 6 months with the next chip generation (if it's hardware) the simulator levels up. The thinking machine evolves faster, and once it takes part in designing the next version, then humans are…

@stpierreluke: Your "wondering" is misinformed. Scientists have been studying brain function at the neuron level for years.

@HiroPro42: NoviiRemote for Palm (and Pocket PC and Nokia Symbian phones) handles all those devices. It can learn any IR remote, comes with lots of predefined layouts, you can edit your own with the deluxe version, and people share their customized layouts on the forum. It's $25 but excellent software.

@uncle_jojo: "You are the best, Buy"