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You mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_graphi cal_user_interface, not http://www.answers.com/topic/history-of-the-graphi cal-user-interface, right?

Microsoft had seen the windowing idea at Xerox PARC. The idea came from there.

Nice attempt at historical revisionism, but no. Try looking here or here for a quick history lesson.

only a small part of the Windows TCP/IP stack was taken from BSD.

I'm confused...are you arguing with me or corroborating my statements? Come back when you've made up your mind.

His article seems to focus entirely on content providers and proprietary softeware vendors. These aren't the only players in the industry, and in many markets including those most critical to the internet (ISP's), they aren't nearly as powerful today as FOSS.

Sure, under a Trusted Network Connect setup, you'll still be able to use software that has been distributed as free software, but you'll only be able to connect to the Internet using binary builds that your ISP has approved. Or you might be under the situation where a machine behind a T1 ($$$) can operate with un-"trusted" software, but both the local telco and the local cable company require TNC on all client machines behind a residential connection.

There is too much invested in FOSS from governments to big companies (many of which dwarf Microsoft) to make this happen.

Big companies have the clout to get ISPs to "trust" their builds. Residential users don't.

FOSS has become a force to be reconned with

Assuming that by "performed reconnaissance" you really mean "reckoned", the publishers of proprietary software and other proprietary works of authorship have even more dollars to lobby with than the publishers of free software. This lobbying doesn't have to be to governments; it can also be to ISPs.

1. cease driving an internal combustion vehicle.

Up until I had a bad accident my primary transportation was a bike.

2. shutting off power to your residence.

Not needed if you generate the power you use. Going Off the grid is being done more and more.

4. growing your own food and processing it.

Yeap, I love to garden and I like to can and otherwise preserve what I grow.

6. avoiding the use of anything that is made with plastic.

Again not needed. Plastics were originally made from plant material. Cellophane was made from the cellulose of plants. Hemp, aka marijuana and probably the most industrially versatile plant is a good plant source. On his Iron Mountain estate Henry Ford not only built an automobile using hemp for some of the material but was also powered by fuel made from hemp. Rudulph Diesel designed his diesel engine to run on most any oil made from plants. Both alcohol and biodiesel are carbon neutral and both can be made from hemp. Actually the reason hemp was made "illegal" via the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was because it posed a serious threat to some rich and powerful people. When congress was "debating" the act Dr James Woodward who was both a doctor and an attorney testified on behalf of the AMA. He said all of the testimony in support of the act was nothing more than tabloid sensationalism and that it could potentionally be a powerful medicine. During WWII hemp was so important the US government made the movie Hemp for Victory in 1942 in an effort to get farmers to grow it.

The Interstate Commerce Commission begs to differ.

Murder is defined as
The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice.

Abortion is not unlawful.

Just because Roe Vs. Wade is nonsense in your opinion does not make it true. You are basically saying that since your opinions and views are so wonderful and pure that it's fact and no one should dare questioning you. You could not possibly be less objective.
http://www.answers.com/holier-than-thou&r=67

There's a *huge* difference between a 75 Caddy & an 85 Caddy.

Except that I had a 1980 Fleetwood. Only five years difference. Mine didn't have fancy computer, either. Just finiky control circuits and TONS of wiring. :-/

I have a 79 Coupe DeVille, and there's no airshock suspension

Really? I thought that it became standard on all Caddies during the 70's. In fact, this article suggests that air suspension was used in the Cadillac Eldardo in the late '50s! (Though this link suggests that they abandoned it at the time.) Oh well, guess you learn something new every day. :-)

Using the word 'reasonable' to justify an argument is an act of futility.

While we're at it, please give me your definition of "religion" since it differs from the one in the dictionary.

Certainly!

"A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion."
Source: http://www.answers.com/religion

This is from the textbook definition, and found on answers.com. Atheism is not a deistic "religion", but it is a "religion" nonetheless. Some "denominations" even have members that meet on a regular basis as a "congregation".

"A name or designation, especially for a class or group."
Source: http://www.answers.com/denominations

"A body of assembled people or things; a gathering."
Source: http://www.answers.com/congregation

It's all in which definition you use. You have to keep in mind that the majority of atheists are atheists solely because they despise Christianity and love to meet in groups to talk about how to piss off Christians. There are some, however, like my roommate, that just hate religion and think it's worthless. They don't belong to any atheist forums or other ridiculous things, because they simply don't feel a need to spread their "gospel".

"Something, such as an idea or principle, accepted as unquestionably true: My parents' rules were gospel."
Source: http://www.answers.com/gospel

Or, God does not exist.

Is there someone wrong with someone's beliefs?

Freedom of religion != Freedom from religion.

I won't even address the rest of what you stated, because it doesn't even come close to arguing the point I made. Flamingos and grebes, two species that don't share the same feathers, color, features like long neck and long legs, or anything, are more closely related genetically than the flamingo is to any other bird, oh, like a swan for instance.

Genetics itself disproves evolution. Refute the point.

While we're at it, please give me your definition of "religion" since it differs from the one in the dictionary.

Certainly!

"A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion."
Source: http://www.answers.com/religion

This is from the textbook definition, and found on answers.com. Atheism is not a deistic "religion", but it is a "religion" nonetheless. Some "denominations" even have members that meet on a regular basis as a "congregation".

"A name or designation, especially for a class or group."
Source: http://www.answers.com/denominations

"A body of assembled people or things; a gathering."
Source: http://www.answers.com/congregation

It's all in which definition you use. You have to keep in mind that the majority of atheists are atheists solely because they despise Christianity and love to meet in groups to talk about how to piss off Christians. There are some, however, like my roommate, that just hate religion and think it's worthless. They don't belong to any atheist forums or other ridiculous things, because they simply don't feel a need to spread their "gospel".

"Something, such as an idea or principle, accepted as unquestionably true: My parents' rules were gospel."
Source: http://www.answers.com/gospel

Or, God does not exist.

Is there someone wrong with someone's beliefs?

Freedom of religion != Freedom from religion.

I won't even address the rest of what you stated, because it doesn't even come close to arguing the point I made. Flamingos and grebes, two species that don't share the same feathers, color, features like long neck and long legs, or anything, are more closely related genetically than the flamingo is to any other bird, oh, like a swan for instance.

Genetics itself disproves evolution. Refute the point.

While we're at it, please give me your definition of "religion" since it differs from the one in the dictionary.

Certainly!

"A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion."
Source: http://www.answers.com/religion

This is from the textbook definition, and found on answers.com. Atheism is not a deistic "religion", but it is a "religion" nonetheless. Some "denominations" even have members that meet on a regular basis as a "congregation".

"A name or designation, especially for a class or group."
Source: http://www.answers.com/denominations

"A body of assembled people or things; a gathering."
Source: http://www.answers.com/congregation

It's all in which definition you use. You have to keep in mind that the majority of atheists are atheists solely because they despise Christianity and love to meet in groups to talk about how to piss off Christians. There are some, however, like my roommate, that just hate religion and think it's worthless. They don't belong to any atheist forums or other ridiculous things, because they simply don't feel a need to spread their "gospel".

"Something, such as an idea or principle, accepted as unquestionably true: My parents' rules were gospel."
Source: http://www.answers.com/gospel

Or, God does not exist.

Is there someone wrong with someone's beliefs?

Freedom of religion != Freedom from religion.

I won't even address the rest of what you stated, because it doesn't even come close to arguing the point I made. Flamingos and grebes, two species that don't share the same feathers, color, features like long neck and long legs, or anything, are more closely related genetically than the flamingo is to any other bird, oh, like a swan for instance.

Genetics itself disproves evolution. Refute the point.

While we're at it, please give me your definition of "religion" since it differs from the one in the dictionary.

Certainly!

"A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion."
Source: http://www.answers.com/religion

This is from the textbook definition, and found on answers.com. Atheism is not a deistic "religion", but it is a "religion" nonetheless. Some "denominations" even have members that meet on a regular basis as a "congregation".

"A name or designation, especially for a class or group."
Source: http://www.answers.com/denominations

"A body of assembled people or things; a gathering."
Source: http://www.answers.com/congregation

It's all in which definition you use. You have to keep in mind that the majority of atheists are atheists solely because they despise Christianity and love to meet in groups to talk about how to piss off Christians. There are some, however, like my roommate, that just hate religion and think it's worthless. They don't belong to any atheist forums or other ridiculous things, because they simply don't feel a need to spread their "gospel".

"Something, such as an idea or principle, accepted as unquestionably true: My parents' rules were gospel."
Source: http://www.answers.com/gospel

Or, God does not exist.

Is there someone wrong with someone's beliefs?

Freedom of religion != Freedom from religion.

I won't even address the rest of what you stated, because it doesn't even come close to arguing the point I made. Flamingos and grebes, two species that don't share the same feathers, color, features like long neck and long legs, or anything, are more closely related genetically than the flamingo is to any other bird, oh, like a swan for instance.

Genetics itself disproves evolution. Refute the point.

Bullshit. It's EMULATING a winapi interface on a Linux kernel and accompaning libraries accessable to X.

according to http://www.answers.com/emulate&r=67

Computer Science. To imitate the function of (another system), as by modifications to hardware or software that allow the imitating system to accept the same data, execute the same programs, and achieve the same results as the imitated system.

There's nothing about "doing binary machine language translation" or things like that.

Your 'everything is nature' idea is quite indicative of your thought process. Let me give you a hand here.
In the English language, we differentiate between ideas using words, many of which have multiple meanings. The intended meaning can be determined by usage and context. For instance, your statement "Even if we lay scorched earth and caused the extinction, it's still a process of nature. Because...we ARE a part of nature." is demonstrably untrue due to it's logical failure on the basis of context.
The meaning of nature in the original context is number 4 listed below. You attempted to disprove a statement (that you in fact authored) by criticizing its veracity on the basis that it does not conform to another definition of the word.

For your perusal:

nature (n'chr) pronunciation
n.

1. The material world and its phenomena.
2. The forces and processes that produce and control all the phenomena of the material world: the laws of nature.
3. The world of living things and the outdoors: the beauties of nature.
4. A primitive state of existence, untouched and uninfluenced by civilization or artificiality: couldn't tolerate city life anymore and went back to nature.
5. Theology. Humankind's natural state as distinguished from the state of grace.
6. A kind or sort: confidences of a personal nature.
7. The essential characteristics and qualities of a person or thing: "She was only strong and sweet and in her nature when she was really deep in trouble" (Gertrude Stein).
8. The fundamental character or disposition of a person; temperament: "Strange natures made a brotherhood of ill" (Percy Bysshe Shelley).
9. The natural or real aspect of a person, place, or thing. See synonyms at disposition.
10. The processes and functions of the body.

[Middle English, essential properties of a thing, from Old French, from Latin ntra, from ntus, past participle of nsc, to be born.]

A different time? Have you never heard of PT Barnum, pyramid schemes, snake oil, and patent medicine? Or on this matter specifically: "This type of scam takes different forms of disguises and dates back to 1588 where it was known as the 'Spanish Prisoner' scam." From http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/amazing_offers /frauds_hid.asp or see: http://www.answers.com/topic/spanish-prisoner While I know there are some old timers out there, I don't think any were around before the 16th century.

Well, the original post was wrong. Telegraph Park isn't the smallest park. But, neither is Salem's Waldo Park. Portland's Mill Ends Park is. At a whopping 452 square inches, it is too small to even hold a tree.

(I was going to have a link to the Guiness World Records page on it, but their site is a little wonky right now, and their search seems to be borked. So Answers.com will have to suffice in its place.)

And about Portland being so .org. . . I'm part of that, as my own personal domain is a .org! As is my business, for that matter. (All right, so my company is really a .com, but I happen to also own the .org. . .)

A definition of invasion of privacy is as follows: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/inva sion+of+privacy

And http://www.answers.com/topic/invasion-of-privacy

invasion of privacy The tort of unjustifiably intruding upon another's right to privacy by appropriating his or her name or likeness, by unreasonably interfering with his or her seclusion, by publicizing information about his or her private affairs that a reasonable person would find objectionable and in which there is no legitimate public interest, or by publicizing information that unreasonably places him or her in a false light see also privacy compare right of privacy zone of privacy

There is also the element that if you are in the public eye, then there is the public interest. Let's say I was a stock holder, would I want the details posted in the CNet article? Sure.

For a comparison let's look at Enron. Let's say that I was a stock holder. Would I have wanted to know how much the then CEO was spending on parties and umbrella holders? Damm right! Maybe if the public had known we would not have had the mess that resulted.

For Google to take such action is very dangerous indeed as it has become a pissing contest. In effect Eric Schmidt has said, "Because you published information about me, Google the corporation will not talk to you?" A smarter approach would have been, "Sorry, I do not like your style, *I* will not talk to you, but if my other Google executives can talk to you if they so choose."

Frankly, this is a Google blunder... Wonder if this is the first of something...

What may come as a surprise is that most Creationists and IDists agree that there is speciation and adaptation. It's evident that animals adapt. What is more the crux of conflict is whether species can adapt to become an entirely new and different specie.

Speciation - The evolutionary formation of new biological species, usually by the division of a single species into two or more genetically distinct ones.

inanimate carbon rod: Simpsons episode in which Homer Simpson used an inanimate carbon rod to close the door of a space shuttle during the return to Earth. The rod earned a parade and was pictured on the front of Time Magazine "In Rod We Trust". More here. As for the song reference, I don't know.

Did you notice that the article didn't specify what kind of dollars the figure was given in? The Rand is a very specific currency used in south africa.

This is the definition of a dollar:

    A basic unit of currency in Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brunei, Canada, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kiribai, Liberia, Nauru, New Zealand, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, United States, and Zimbabwe.

reference: http://www.answers.com/topic/dollar

premium:

adj.
Of superior quality or value: premium gasoline.

Actually, it's called a stabilizer chute. Previous tests with dummies have shown that without the stabilizer chute, you can enter a spin of around 200rpm that will be deadly.

BTW the highest parachute jump is from 30km. So you've got some thinking to do before you jump from 100km.

Just to nitpick - freeness (look right at the bottom of the first 'free' entry) is a word. (Also here and here.)

Later versions of PDF seem to support transparency and translucency... sounds like hard work though. There's a couple of notes about clipping paths in PS too. http://www.answers.com/topic/transparency-in-graph ic-files

Cursor! I need a jet!
Automan

The reason for DC isn switching power supplies is to get the frequency from 50-60Hz of the power line, to 10-20 KHz. You do this by standard oscillators built out of high voltage transistors. Then you do the voltage/ampere conversion via a transformer, at this high frequency. The reason for this frequency shift is to reduce the size of the transformer. If you look inside any 500W switching power supply, you'll note what a tiny piece of transformer it has - try getting the same wattage out of it at the low frequency, it just can't handle it. There is a magnetic saturation limit for any coil/ferrite core inductor. While you reach this magnetic saturation limit, you get to jerk around, say, 10 electrons based on the laws of induction. Amperes are coulombs/second, basically electrons/second. If you get to jerk more 10 electron bunches around each second, because of higher frequency, and you rectify this alternating current through a diode bridge, you get more amps, more power. Of course the rule is still power in = power out, ratio of voltages is the ratio of turns, ratio of amps is the ratio of turns, but what you do is you increase the maximum capacity limit due to magnetic saturation, so your power in can increase (the cosine phase angle thing comes into play here.) As far as skin effect goes, I wonder if that's such a big deal at 50-60 Hz, I think the whole conductor is fully used, with the middle carrying say 1% less current density than the skin. But that 1% can add up over miles. Another big effect is the dielectric constant effects - basically your power lines are heating the ionized water droplets hanging onto them in a rain, just like a microwave heats your food. While your microwave operates at 3 billion Hz, your 60Hz should be minuscule to it, but still, it can add up very much over miles and miles. The other thing is induced ground currents, in a wet soil. All these things add up compared to DC. Back in the days of Edison, the biggest gripe with DC was that you could not conduct it at high voltages, and by the time it reached the customer, the voltage drop was excessive, and the amperes melted the wire. (The voltage drop is always a function of amps, dV=IR, R the resistance of the wire - so if you conduct a 120V DC current, and it drops 100 V to 20 V's by the time it reaches the customer, had you conducted it at 50kV's, it would still be 50,000-100 V at your customer, and actually less, because the I would be 500 times smaller.) That was in a day when there was no technology to easily change DC voltages, but these days, as you point out, there is. However I wonder what the cost of power transistors converting 50 kV's DC to DC is, compared to plain old copper transformers.

it is,

type in your google-search bar:
'triple X human trisomy'

which will lead to the following link:

Answers.com/topic/triple-x-syndrom

Except that when "suffer" is used as a transitive verb (which is to say, when it takes an object), it means primarily "to undergo or sustain." Similarly, the primary definition of the noun "success" is "The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted." Evidently, the Debian team was attempting to make this the largest DebConf ever.

Except that when "suffer" is used as a transitive verb (which is to say, when it takes an object), it means primarily "to undergo or sustain." Similarly, the primary definition of the noun "success" is "The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted." Evidently, the Debian team was attempting to make this the largest DebConf ever.

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid= 2222&dekey=McKinney+v.+University+of+Guelph&gwp=8& curtab=2222_1&linktext=McKinney%20v.%20University% 20of%20Guelph
this wikipedia entry discusses cases saying the canadian free speech clause limits government, not private parties.

Planet Of The Apes was based a French book -

http://www.answers.com/topic/planet-of-the-apes-1

How you "slip" social commentary into a film that alreay contained it in the source material?

Spielberg specifically said War Of The Worlds had nothing to do with 9/11 nor did any of those events inspire his directoral vision - he's been wanting to make it ever since Close Encounters.

Its some scarry stuff! eh?

>While its true, its misleading to count the
>manufacturers as "aiding" Iraq. In the same fashion
>I could claim Ford was aiding gansgters when they
>kill someone in drive-by-shooting.

Supose that Ford and Chrystler sell some gangsters 500 machine guns, knowing that they are gangsters, and are involved in a gang war.

Supose General Motors sells the same gangsters 3 six shooters and a couple of baseball bats.

Now, you may think that all these companys are wrong for selling the gangsters arms.

Or, you may think they are right, for perhaps the gangsters enemeys are worse, or more dangerous, and perhaps selling arms to the gangsters is a good strategy.

Or, maybe you don't see selling arms to the gangsters as "aiding" them, or don't care.

But what if General Motors is repeatedly villified, again and again without respite, for selling the gangsters arms...while Ford and Chrystler are not criticized at all?

Is it not fair to point out that Ford and Chrystler did far more to support the gangsters than GM?

This is analagous to the situation at hand. The left has repeatedly attacked the US for selling arms to Saddam, while totally ignoring the fact that it was the Soviet Union and Europe who sold him the vast majority of his arms, dwarfing the US sales to insignificance.

When someone simply tried to point out the facts, they were attacked and modded down. I am troubled by this and have been trying to set the record straight.

Sadly, some people's views are so twisted by their hatred for America that they are unable to see anything America does as anything but wrong.

In some contexts, slug is a synonym for "bullet".;)

For those who think this device's use will somehow be limited to rioters, I want you to look up Victoria Snelgrove

She was killed by non-lethal technology (second hand shot from a pepperball gun to the temple) less than one year ago.

Technology always gets used for things other than what it was intended for. From people scratching on turntables, to aircraft, to video game music, to internet over cable, etc.

Those who suggested the emergence of "acceptable casualty rates" have the most foresight. That being said, this thing is pretty powerful. I wouldn't cry chicken little about it yet. The government doesn't get that scary that quickly. However, this is the kind of thing where we really ought to recognize that we can create any kind of technology we want to. Is this "heat ray" what we really want? What if we could instead, say, transport prepared food in minutes between here and other countries? You could feast on different food every night from around the world!

Probably one of the scarier things about this is it looks easy to build. Just a high-powered oscillator and Fresnel antenna (look closely at the pics). Now that the US has put the idea out there, I can imagine all kinds of people making their own...and forgetting to ask people to take off their glasses and remove their keys and pocket change and turn it off after five seconds.

And for those who might say 65 GHz oscillators are difficult, I thought they were too, until I just looked them up and found parts.

Remember, it feels like heat, because it IS heat.

And finally: "After her death , Boston Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon said he would have traded back Game 7 Of The 2004 ALCS to have her back."

I look forward to the day when tits and guns are both so prevalent that art is, once again, art.

"It's no use, captain; I canna' reach the control panel!"[http://www.answers.com/topic/references-to -star-trek-in-the-simpsons%5D

Seems silly to argue, but, no it isn't.

I looked for a more official source, but those are the best I could come up with.

Is there any scientific relevance to the layout of this chart whatsoever.

But as for the galaxy graphics, well, he's just trying to make it pretty (read: this is why people are buying it. It's pretty.) And as for the spiral shape, well, all it does is put Ne next to Na, Ar next to K, Kr next to RB, etc. Which does make sense, as they differ by only one electron and one proton. (We'll ignore neutrons for now.)

But beyond that, it's just a novelty, and I don't see it replacing the traditional period chart of the elements.

And as for neutronium, yes, it gives a convenient place for it, but I'm not sure it even belongs there. I wouldn't call it an atom because it doesn't meet definition 3a, so I wouldn't call it an element at all. So I wouldn't put it on the periodic chart of the elements ...

We understand balance in a personal sense as we understand stereo scopic site. We attempt to duplicate these abilities in robots in part because these abilities are how we relate to the world. Mapping this to the machine is easier because we use these tools ourselves. But we also have the Uncanny Valley where the more human like the robot the more uncomfortablewe are.

(I know that blonde Cylon certainly has that effect on me.)

This little swede robo, though, is incredible. Makes me think of Puppet Master. Creepy, sort of.

How can sex be more offensive than violence?

Food that has little or no nutritional value. For example, Snacking on beer and potato chips makes for a lot of empty calories.

Yeah, and the only project I know that turned into a GPL project because of a GPL library is the "widely known and used" (*) CLISP implementation of Common Lisp (read about the imbroglio here).

Now some would consider that real evidence that the GPL stimulates people to merge their code because of contagion, wouldn't they, as opposed to something like BSD sockets. Right?

(*) It is widely used, but just by lispers ;-)

Well, there are tons a great things that came out of the program to create nuclear weapons:

• Nuclear power - The nuclear power industry has benefited greatly from the development of nuclear weapons. Much of the research was directly applicable, because keeping N-plants from exploding is a key start to building safe and affordable power.
• Conventional weapons systems - Nuclear powered aircraft carriers and subs grew from bomb research. The first polar crossing under the ice was accomplished by the nuclear powered sub Nautilus.
• Nuclear pulse propulsion - Although never built, there are designs for spacecraft driven by atomic bombs capable of lifting upwards of 8 million tons (or about 2,300 fully loaded, fully fueled Space Shuttles.) This isn't sci-fi, but real systems that could not receive political approval. Imaging getting material into orbit at 32 cents per pound. (Shipping costs to orbit for the entire ISS would be about $320,000, or the cost of a moderate one-family home.) My hope is that some day we lose our fear of nuclear power and build devices like this.
• Deep space research - Deep space would be unreachable without RTGs. (Ok, you could get there, but couldn't do anything useful.) Like the other forms of nuclear power, research include nuclear weapons helped initiate peaceful uses of nuclear energy like RTGs.
• Numerous lives saved - Estimates are that 1,000,000 or more men and women would have been killed in a Japanese invasion. Tragically, somewhere around 250,000 people died directly and indirectly in the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The net result, however, was around 3/4 million people who didn't die if conventional methods had been pursued to end the war. Personally, I would have loved to have seen a peaceful, negotiated end to the War in the Pacific, but the Japanese military would never have let that happen.
• World stability - I saved this one for last because it's probably the most controversial, but I'd argue that since the development of the atomic bomb, the world has been a more stable place. At age 42, I clearly remember the concerns of the 60's, 70's, and much of the 80's when we were worried about a Soviet nuclear attack. (I didn't include the 50's in my list above because I wasn't alive then.) Regardless of the fact that we worried a lot about a nuclear exchange, the real fact of the matter is that nuclear war never came about. This wasn't accidental, but rather because world leaders (or in some cases, those around them) realized that a widescale nuclear exchange would have been disastrous not only for the defender but also the offender.

  Not only did nuclear weapons keep a cap on nuclear warfare, but on conventional warfare as well. The Soviet Union was on a mission to spread Communism throughout the world, and with a foothold in Eastern Europe it wouldn't have taken much to use those ambitions to move westward throughout post-War Western Europe. Without the threat of another widescale world war (often referred to as "World War III"), the Soviets may have been tempted to use their large conventional forces to completely change the political landscape throughout the European continent.

I hope that I've answered your question on how nuclear weapons research can be used for good. Whether or not the scientists were thinking about this when they built their weapons doesn't really matter. If it did, then everyone who ever created a technology that is used in any way for an evil purpose must be held directly accountable for its use.

http://www.answers.com/layoff&r=67

The verb lay off has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: put an end to a state or an activity
Synonyms: discontinue, stop, cease, give up, quit

Meaning #2: dismiss, usually for economic reasons
Synonym: furlough

That's right. Because everyone in the entire world knows all about the ins-and-outs of the United States Constitution.

Forget the fact that, according to answers.com, it could also refer to "A declaration of certain rights of subjects, enacted by the English Parliament in 1689."

So there.

I've found it somewhat difficult to find exact costs for European projects in general, and Netherlands projects in specific, but one example, pieced together from a few sources, follows.

In August 2004, sums totalling about 230 million euros were committe for construction of the eastern section of the RijnGouweLijn line. The line is "planned to connect Katwijk with Leiden and beyond" (Source), a distance of only about six miles. At that rate, presuming that the money is spent on only that section, the costs for light rail are about 60% below that of the Centerline project.

If you have additional information, I'd appreciate the ability to research it.

Australia's been banning books for years. Some friends got some nastygrams from Customs or similar when they tried to get some drug related book shipped in to the country. The timing fits in with this:

http://www.ecstasy.org/books/australia.html

I think the book in question in the case of my friends was TiHKAL, as noted here:

http://www.answers.com/topic/censorship-in-austral ia

It was pretty random as to whether your copy would slip through customs.

Not just these days. Remember the McDonald's coffee case? What bothers me more, however, is that this US sueing culture seems to be winning ground here in Europe as well...

When the they designed the lunar lander, they had to have something that would work 100% to get off the moon, and they used... a solid fuel rocket.

Look here for a cutaway diagram where you can see both the fuel and oxidizer tanks on the LEM.

More about both fuel and oxidizer here

Nitrogen tetroxide became the storable liquid propellant of choice from the late 1950's. Nitrogen tetroxide consists principally of the tetroxide in equilibrium with a small amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
....
Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine ((CH3)2NNH2) became the storable liquid fuel of choice by the mid-1950's. Development of UDMH in the Soviet Union began in 1949. It is used in virtually all storable liquid rocket engines except for some orbital manoeuvring engines in the United States, where MMH has been preferred due to a slightly higher density and performance.