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As long as this funding gives me a more interesting Storm Chasers Season, then I'm sold.

Although I wish the show would focus a little more on the science rather than which team member this week is pissed off at Dr. Wurman.

As long as this funding gives me a more interesting Storm Chasers Season, then I'm sold.

Although I wish the show would focus a little more on the science rather than which team member this week is pissed off at Dr. Wurman.

NASA's miniature nuclear reactor for the moon would be more practical. It's about the size of a trash can.

Adam and Jamie announcing season 7. http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-raw/ and on an unrelated note, Kari is pregnant. http://celebrity-babies.com/2009/02/26/mythbusters-kari-byron-expecting-first-child/

Scottie Chapman Apparently she left due to personal reasons in season 3, but has made a couple appearances since then. She probably got a better opportunity somewhere..

Personally, I am not sure what would be a better job than being a MythBuster!

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/07/13/darwinfinch_ani.html

It is an article about finches on the Galapagos Islands that went through rapid evolution because of a drought. Of course this just shows that evolution works on a small scale (the whole micro vs. macro evolution argument).

I really don't care about the whole evolution thing though. I'm more interested in gene splicing and the creating of chimeras. I keep trying to make this half pony half monkey monster but it never turns out right. I think I'm using to many monkeys.

> There are about 30 device claims drawn to an e-book reader. Bilksi has absolutely no bearing on those; an e-book reader is definitely patentable subject matter, despite what IDontBelieve wants to believe.

For one, while it seems to have left the question of general purpose computers not being a 'particular machine' open, it also cast doubt upon it. I suppose that may have been dicta instead of holding, but it was encouraging. (And I've seen plenty of lawyers with diverging opinions, so I'm of the opinion that nobody really knows yet. You can easily guess what I hope will be the case.)

Next, I never said that the hardware wasn't patentable subject matter, only that all the software/DRM claims were questionable after Bilski. But the complaint isn't very clear at all. It just says "we think they infringe upon this patent... somehow." You're probably right that it's a terrible patent to bust. I honestly expect them to settle.

Even though hardware is patentable, have you seen their descriptions of it? I'm reading the complaint, and apparently computers are composed of little blocks like "LCD" and "power module" that aren't very specific. Other than the fact that it contains a DRM module (which are pretty common in lots of devices), they look like a pretty standard block diagram that's nearly equivalent to any number of things, including a general purpose laptop or desktop computer (seriously, other than the secure DRM chip, there's nothing in there that's not in a general computer, though God knows, that DRM chip may be enough to make it a 'particular machine') ...

But the hardware parts weren't really the focus of my submission (in fact, they weren't discussed), so I don't get where you came up with the idea that I don't think hardware can be patented. Give me some credit, okay?

Even so, did you look closely at those 'hardware' diagrams? You can see all this 'hardware' in the complaint (PDF). The block diagrams are, shall we say, far less than novel to anyone who knows what's inside a monitor or general purpose computer. Does it become a 'particular machine' just because I come out with a diagram that could describe just about any computer or game console? I hope we'll get some clarity soon on what (isn't) a 'particular machine'. Frankly, if they want a real circuit diagram, I need to see some specific devices (i.e. a '2N222', not a 'CPU' or 'data stripper').

About the only original things I see are the menus for the ebook service (they're bland and the sort of thing anyone might come up with, but I can reasonably believe they're original). Not having a Kindle, I have no idea if it might infringe upon those.

- I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property

My non-scientific conclusion was human babies need more love.

I wonder if badness of chimps has to do with lack of proper parental guidance. They learn similar to humans, are they taught 'morals' in the wild? (Or at least, if I get all bad, someone more bad will bust face)

You have the right idea, morgan_greywolf. However, the "consensus" may have the wrong model, after all. Global Warming: On Hold? http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/03/02/global-warming-pause.html

Radiation is solvable with current technology, even for a deep space mission like a mars or moon base, where the Earth's protective field is absent. There are several approaches to this problem, from heavy shielding to burrowing into the soil. One particularly elegant solution IMO is recrerating the Earth's magnetic field abord the spacecraft.

That would be the advantage of a radar-freq cloak. It should wrap ambient rf around itself, so no "hole". Judging by the pics, it shouldn't even create that classic sci-fi background distortion.

(Judging by the text, otoh, it can't be used for anything like that. As other posters have pointed out, this will be a cool technical tool that lives inside clever devices, but can't ever become an actual cloak or paint-job.)

Um no, dude, you don't really get it. If Yellowstone blows, there is no volcano eruption in human history that even remotely comes close. Mt. St. Helens would look like a fart standing next to Chernobyl. Areas 400 miles away would get covered in a foot of ash. There is just nothing like it.

Here is a nice, graphical link for you to look at:

link

The number of deaths could be staggering. That foot of ash, even 400 miles away in Denver, would collapse most roofs, and any with people in them would get severely injured or die. It would be the end of the U.S. as a global superpower, and there would be wars. You are naive.

"Moral values" generally go out the window when you think you won't get caught.

statistically, only 13% of burglaries are ever solved. This has been spoken on the news and various prime-time crime shows for ages.

Robbery has not gone through the roof since this statistic started floating around.

Actually there's another argument. First off, Neanderthals had larger brains than us...just because they died out didn't mean they were stupid. There's even proof that they could have used a form of spoken language. There could be a lot of things, weather, disease, famine, etc. They were also stronger. Neanderthals generally hunted in enclosed, wooded areas where they would attack prey in close proximity. The lack of spears or other tools may be explained by the area they hunted. You can't throw a spear in a heavy woods. Or their build may not be suited to throw something like a spear accurately.

Then there's the theory that they didn't totally die off, but interbred with early modern man. And there's been no evidence I've seen that says their DNA was incompatible with ours or they would have produced a "mule."

And where did you get the idea that their body was "designed for the ice age." They had no better protection from the cold that we do. Here's one theory that where it's believed they couldn't adapt their clothing to something that would help them survive the cold.

I think it will come down to a multiple of problems, no one thing wiped out the Neanderthal and I'm one who does believe there are some who are carrying a few of their genes. And although I'd really love to see theories laid to rest, IMO, he shouldn't be cloned like some animal. I believe he is at least a cousin and doesn't deserve to be turned into a lab rat or exhibit.

Actually there's another argument. First off, Neanderthals had larger brains than us...just because they died out didn't mean they were stupid. There's even proof that they could have used a form of spoken language. There could be a lot of things, weather, disease, famine, etc. They were also stronger. Neanderthals generally hunted in enclosed, wooded areas where they would attack prey in close proximity. The lack of spears or other tools may be explained by the area they hunted. You can't throw a spear in a heavy woods. Or their build may not be suited to throw something like a spear accurately.

Then there's the theory that they didn't totally die off, but interbred with early modern man. And there's been no evidence I've seen that says their DNA was incompatible with ours or they would have produced a "mule."

And where did you get the idea that their body was "designed for the ice age." They had no better protection from the cold that we do. Here's one theory that where it's believed they couldn't adapt their clothing to something that would help them survive the cold.

I think it will come down to a multiple of problems, no one thing wiped out the Neanderthal and I'm one who does believe there are some who are carrying a few of their genes. And although I'd really love to see theories laid to rest, IMO, he shouldn't be cloned like some animal. I believe he is at least a cousin and doesn't deserve to be turned into a lab rat or exhibit.

Actually there's another argument. First off, Neanderthals had larger brains than us...just because they died out didn't mean they were stupid. There's even proof that they could have used a form of spoken language. There could be a lot of things, weather, disease, famine, etc. They were also stronger. Neanderthals generally hunted in enclosed, wooded areas where they would attack prey in close proximity. The lack of spears or other tools may be explained by the area they hunted. You can't throw a spear in a heavy woods. Or their build may not be suited to throw something like a spear accurately.

Then there's the theory that they didn't totally die off, but interbred with early modern man. And there's been no evidence I've seen that says their DNA was incompatible with ours or they would have produced a "mule."

And where did you get the idea that their body was "designed for the ice age." They had no better protection from the cold that we do. Here's one theory that where it's believed they couldn't adapt their clothing to something that would help them survive the cold.

I think it will come down to a multiple of problems, no one thing wiped out the Neanderthal and I'm one who does believe there are some who are carrying a few of their genes. And although I'd really love to see theories laid to rest, IMO, he shouldn't be cloned like some animal. I believe he is at least a cousin and doesn't deserve to be turned into a lab rat or exhibit.

That would be the most valid excuse I have heard so far. At least the conspiracy theorists could then have a unified goal.

Look at these reasons though:

July 2008 - http://blogs.discovery.com/cosmic_ray/2008/07/the-top-reasons.html

6. Direct Observational Evidence
The six lunar lander descent stages left on the moon are about 15 feet across. Even the eagle-eyed Hubble Space Telescope can only see down to the width of a football field.

[just a comment from a poster, but still good info] - http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4279691.html

"As was mentioned below, you would need a telescope with a 100m mirror just to get 1m resolution on the moon."

The Hubble doesn't have a 100m mirror, and can get greater than 1m resolution? strange.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Moon_Landing_hoax_accusations#Large_telescopes_and_the_Moon_hoax

Large telescopes and the Moon hoax

Another component of the moon hoax theory is based on the argument that professional observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope should be able to take pictures of the lunar landing sites. The argument runs that if telescopes can "see to the edge of the universe" then they ought to be able to take pictures of the lunar landing sites. This implies that the world's major observatories (as well as the Hubble Program) are complicit in the moon landing hoax by refusing to take pictures of the landing sites.

        * However, to see the 1.2 meter long flag left on the Moon, an Earth-based telescope would have to be 200 meters wide, whereas the largest telescope on Earth is only about 10 meters across. Furthermore, such a telescope would have to mitigate against the effects of seeing, beyond what is currently possible with adaptive optics. The Hubble Space Telescope can only see objects on the Moon as small as 60 meters across.[89][90]

So, 60m doesn't quite put the angular resolution of the Hubble quite good enough to capture a planet "3 to 5 times the mass of Jupiter" 26 light years away, does it?

I do like your explanation - but why hasn't it been offered before?

I know when I was growing up I had a chemistry set from the discovery channel store. It was a fold out set with pipets, a small beaker, some non-toxic chemicals for the included experiment manual, and some other stuff. This appears to be close to what I had, but sans fold-out case: http://shopping.discovery.com/product-60266.html?endecaSID=11D909851918

Another thing I had for a while was a magic kit. It was a large box with assorted tricks. My parents got it from Costco. While I'm not sure if your son likes magic, Costco/Sams Club/BJ's Warehouse has a bunch of seasonal toys that may be up his alley.

The tricky part is that the my cubical wouldn't actually move; space itself would move underneath the stationary cubical. A beam of light next to me would still zoom away, same as it always does, but a beam of light far from me would be left behind. warp drive

Feb. 15, 2007 -- Ponds and swamps are becoming eerily silent. The familiar melody of ribbits, croaks and chirps is disappearing as a mysterious killer fungus wipes out frog populations around the globe, a phenomenon likened to the extinction of dinosaurs.

Yeah, we're the cause, that's the blanket statement these days, but as usual is global warming lies from the evo religious cult.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/15/amphibianarc_ani.html - Even in this article they can't resist having a quick jab at the global warming scaremongering even though they've already mentioned it's the fungus..

SWORDS, and Gladiator.

One is already in the field, the other will be coming in 2009.

SWORDS apparently isn't autonomous at all, so maybe it doesn't count (depends on your definition of "robot"). Gladiator is. Of course, neither will fire unless instructed to do so (a Marine pushes the big red button).

But that still breaks law one and is the only exception to law two.

Personally, I don't think the three laws will ever be widely accepted. Robots are seen as tools, and tools are expected to do as commanded, not say "no, that violates the first law."

Then again, maybe you won't be physically human by 3rd quarter 2009?

SWORDS, and Gladiator.

One is already in the field, the other will be coming in 2009.

SWORDS apparently isn't autonomous at all, so maybe it doesn't count (depends on your definition of "robot"). Gladiator is. Of course, neither will fire unless instructed to do so (a Marine pushes the big red button).

But that still breaks law one and is the only exception to law two.

Personally, I don't think the three laws will ever be widely accepted. Robots are seen as tools, and tools are expected to do as commanded, not say "no, that violates the first law."

Then again, maybe you won't be physically human by 3rd quarter 2009?

The Science Channel has a very good example of how they replicate the gecko adhesiveness. http://science.discovery.com/video/weird-connections.html?playerId=1803212346&titleId=1805366122

I can tag it "latex," or "latency" but not "late," despite typing late into the box and making sure that was all that was there when I hit enter. I was stupid enough to try the experimental index system and now I can't go back. Woe is me.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/17/fungi-spore-speed.html

On Cable they the Discover Channel had a show in HD where they build a CO2 scrubber almost identical to the ones describe in the papers from the University of Calgary's David Keith that the article was about.

Discover Channel
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/project-earth/explores/carbon.html

David Keith Home page
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~keith/CO2%20Capture%20and%20Storage.html

I don't know about the whole caustic soda CO2 sequestration seems complex. David Keith papers have the whole chemistry capture and extracting the CO2 from the working fluid to reuse them.

The whole thing is like a glorified swamp cooler, and if they were smart, they could just retrofit existing cooling towers and swamp coolers to serve dual purpose of evaporation cooling and CO2 extraction.

I had an interesting though here, which is this is the first steps of terraforming.
We could store CO2 underground when it's too hot, and expel CO2 if we start to get an ice age.

Anyhow I think at this time, methane hydrates warming up on the sea floor and releasing methane in to the atmosphere is starting to occur. Or at least we are just beginning to notice anyhow.
This could end up becoming a much larger problem then CO2 soon.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/hundreds-of-methane-plumes-discovered-941456.html

I thought that immediately as well. Look for the "Fixing Carbon" episode of "Project Earth". As for what to do with the CO2, it was implied that sequestering into spent oil fields would be most optimal.

All the blah-blah and nobody addressed the question of filters.
Are they magically-electrical or something?

No... They are caustic soda.
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/project-earth/explores/carbon.html

The key ingredient in the experiment is caustic soda, which absorbs CO2 in the air. It is added at the top of the machine. About 20 gallons of the chemical were used during the test.

Team members check data results throughout the 20-hour experiment. The scrubber needs to remove more CO2 than it creates (about 20 lbs.) during the test.

Hold on...
Does that mean that the device uses 20 gallons of caustic soda, for 20 hours to create or to remove 20 lbs of CO2?

Either way... it ain't JUST 100kW of electricity.

There is a way to build and program parallel computers that does not involve the use of threads or CPUs.

Agreed about threads, but CPUs? Are you going to run your calculations on a bacteria?

UPDATE: It's back up.

Well, there is that show Project Earth coming to Discovery Channel.

Complete with such concepts as wrapping glaciers in blankets, dropping tree seedlings from helicopters, changing the size of water droplets in clouds, an orbital sunshade and carbon dioxide scrubbers.

Yeah, agreed, silicon is the pricey bit, and theres something of a shortage worldwide as well.

On the cynical side, not sure what the big deal is here, TFA doesn't give the efficiency numbers, but I'm guessing since she's using an etching method she can't get to the level of effiency the labs do through nanodeposition and 3d fractal crap, so she's probably in the 10-15% range.

In which case the cells are in the range of gratzel cells, which have been printable and low cost for years: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/04/13/solarcells_tec.html

Hell, you can even buy kits to build them at home, http://www.solaronix.com/technology/assembly/ and they use a hot air blower for the sintering, The raw materials are cheaper too

So if the point of this is to let people build their own cells at home, it's obsolete, as gratzel cells are a better, simpler option.

When I first read the 20,000 RPM my first thought was that when these disks fail they'll bring new meaning to the phrase "catastrophic failure."

CD-ROM Shattering - MythBusters Wiki: Discovery Channel:
http://mythbusters-wiki.discovery.com/page/CD-ROM+Shattering?t=anon

It isn't the same thing, of course, but I wonder what the required RPM would be to make platters shatter.

Imagine if you will a man who works for his family pulling in what is a very decent wage for the economy of the region he lives in. he is sent off to work hard manual labour for 3 weeks on (every day, generally 12-15 hour days) and gets one week off. They live in shared dorms, have their meals in a cafeteria. Their family is not allowed to come visit. Conjugal visits are a definate no-no. in fact Men and women are kept in separate dorms and one "infraction" (aka you get caught) you're fired.

Sounds like the guys on "Deadliest Catch".

Ok that's funny, but it got me to thinking. Why bother with artificial intelligence when we can just wire cat brains into machinery? I mean, cats are free, right? Seems like it'd save a lot of time and expense.

How about a rat brain instead?

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041018/brain.html

Mythbusters used the wrong kind of airframe for testing. It does make a big difference. The flimsy little unpressurized airplane they used was going to break no matter what they fired at it. They did a re-do of that test and concluded frozen was worse.

Part-23 aircraft (little airplanes) have to withstand a 2-lb bird hitting the windscreen at max flap speed. Part-25 aircraft (airliners) have to withstand an 8-lb bird hitting the empennage at cruse speed and a 4-lb bird hitting anywhere else including the wind screen at cruise speed. There is a whole aviation sub-industry devoted to testing and designing for bird impact.

In real life using a frozen chicken is a mistake nobody would ever make. I say this because in the bird impact business it is well known that bird density, a more subtle effect than frozen/thawed, is important. Chickens are more dense than flying birds and create higher peak impact transients. Chicken guns don't fire chickens any more, they fire freshly killed ducks or geese.

This has already been done by Beretta, as well. It was featured on Discovery Channel's "Future Weapons with Mack." It's called the Beretta LTLX7000 Kinetic Energy Weapon. Here are some links: Video: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/futureweapons-beretta-ltlx7000/404260523 Still Photo: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/future-weapons/weapons/zone3/slideshow/slideshow.html (slide #5)

I wonder if that galaxy is as neurotic as Kate Gosselin is? Do I lose my geek card for loving that show?

So they do exist then?

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/06/11/unicorn-deer-italy.html

The fallacy here is that the assumption that the government or science has any firm idea of how to force somebody else or even one's self to not be fat. There's just that fascist impulse to raise the hammer of punishment and expect the overweight to find a way.

Here's a set of links on various ties between obesity and infection, to get the pot boiling.

• TCS Daily - Eating Some Crow on Fat
• Discovery Channel :: News - Health :: Study: Gut Bacteria Determine Fat or Thin
• Lipid metabolic changes in experimentally induced ...[Indian J Exp Biol. 2001] - PubMed Result
• Obesity Virus?
• BBC NEWS | Health | Obesity 'may be linked to virus'
• Bacterial-Modulated Signaling Pathways in Gut Homeostasis -- Lee 1 (21): pe24 -- Science Signaling
• An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increase...[Nature. 2006] - PubMed Result
• Obesity alters gut microbial ecology. [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005] - PubMed Result
• Gut microbiota and its possible relationship with ...[Mayo Clin Proc. 2008] - PubMed Result
• Biology News: Fat people harbour 'fat' microbes
• Discovery Channel :: News - Health :: Study: Gut Bacteria Determine Fat or Thin
• Symposium: Emerging Role of Pathogens in Chronic Diseases ... Uses the term 'Infectobesity'.

The fallacy here is that the assumption that the government or science has any firm idea of how to force somebody else or even one's self to not be fat. There's just that fascist impulse to raise the hammer of punishment and expect the overweight to find a way.

Here's a set of links on various ties between obesity and infection, to get the pot boiling.

• TCS Daily - Eating Some Crow on Fat
• Discovery Channel :: News - Health :: Study: Gut Bacteria Determine Fat or Thin
• Lipid metabolic changes in experimentally induced ...[Indian J Exp Biol. 2001] - PubMed Result
• Obesity Virus?
• BBC NEWS | Health | Obesity 'may be linked to virus'
• Bacterial-Modulated Signaling Pathways in Gut Homeostasis -- Lee 1 (21): pe24 -- Science Signaling
• An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increase...[Nature. 2006] - PubMed Result
• Obesity alters gut microbial ecology. [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005] - PubMed Result
• Gut microbiota and its possible relationship with ...[Mayo Clin Proc. 2008] - PubMed Result
• Biology News: Fat people harbour 'fat' microbes
• Discovery Channel :: News - Health :: Study: Gut Bacteria Determine Fat or Thin
• Symposium: Emerging Role of Pathogens in Chronic Diseases ... Uses the term 'Infectobesity'.

My Feeds: Select: All 95 subscriptions, None, Unassigned A to Z Kids Stuff children http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/atoz.xml ABC News: Top Stories news http://my.abcnews.go.com/rsspublic/fp_rss20.xml About Computing Center technology http://z.about.com/6/g/pcworld/b/rss2.xml About.com Archaeology Archaeology http://z.about.com/6/g/archaeology/b/rss2.xml All Things Digital technology http://feeds.allthingsd.com/atd-feed/ Archaeology News Archaeology news http://www.topix.net/rss/science/archaeology.xml Ars Technica tech news http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/BAaf ArsTechnica: Security Content Security technology http://feeds.feedburner.com/arstechnica/security BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition U.K. http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/front_page/rss.xml BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition Science/Nature http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/science/nature/rss.xml Boing Boing odd http://feeds.boingboing.net/boingboing/iBag Breaking News: CBSNews.com news http://www.cbsnews.com/feeds/rss/main.rss Breitbart.tv varied news topics http://www.breitbart.com/xml/recentvideo.xml ChannelWeb Complete Feed Computer news http://www.crn.com/cwb/globalcontent/cweball/index.xml;jsessionid=L0I1HBDQISHBCQSNDLQSKH0CJUNN2JVN Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories news http://www.csmonitor.com/rss/top.rss CNN.com - Offbeat odd http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_offbeat.rss CNN.com - Politics politics http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_allpolitics.rss CNN.com - U.S. U.S. news http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_us.rss Computerworld Breaking News technology http://feeds.computerworld.com/Computerworld/News Cool Tools technology http://feeds.feedburner.com/CoolTools Courant.com - Connecticut News Ct. news http://feeds.courant.com/Courant/ConnecticutNews Defense Tech U.S. defense news http://www.defensetech.org/index.rdf Discovery News - Technology technology http://dsc.discovery.com/news/subjects/technology/xdb/topstories.xml Drudge Report news http://feeds.feedburner.com/FeedPalooza/lwDu Dvorak Uncensored news http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?feed=rss2 Engadget robots & gadgets http://www.engadget.com/rss.xml Extremetech technology http://rssnewsapps.ziffdavis.com/extreme.xml Fark.com news http://www.pluck.com/rss/fark.rss FileForum software http://fileforum.b

A friend of mine who is an editor on the 'reality' TV show, 'The Deadliest Catch,' told me it's actually a documentary on the search for the Russian sub that sank in 2003 while it was being towed to the scrapyard. Most of the work he has to do is replace the unmanned search subs with CGI crab pots in every shot.

The producers are financing the search for the nuclear sub by selling it to the Discovery Channel as a fishing show. Once they find the submarine, then they're going to remove all the CGI and do a little more editing and re-sell the same footage back to the Discovery Channel as a submarine salvage show.

Still no word on what the producers are planning to do with the nuclear kit they're hunting for.

Seth

The Science Channel will have live coverage Sunday night between 7 & 9 PM ET.

Big Bang Sample Clip

Mr. Wizard, and 3 2 1 Contact are fantastic programs. They should be still on TV in syndication now, but sadly they are not. I would also recommend Cosmos w/ Carl Sagan. The Science Cannel has been re broadcasting that series. Hands down the best introductory science documentary series.
Mr. Wizard
3-2-1 Contact!
Cosmos on the Science Channel

It Takes a Thief

You really need to watch that show.

Common mistakes:
1) My dog will deter intruders, guard the house.
No. You likely have a doggy door that the thief will use, and the (most times, happy) dog will not bother the burglar.

2) Not locking all the doors and windows.
Duh.

3) Not having an alarm system (or one that isn't monitored).
Your neighbor isn't your security system. Burglars pass up houses with security signs. And if a burglar breaks a window and tries to get in, the alarm will go off and the burglar will scurry away.

4) Not having a safe. Or it's unlocked. Or the key is in the dresser drawer. Or it's not bolted down.

5) Leaving keys all over the place for a burglar to quickly grab.
Use a key holder box that locks with a combination.

Of all these things, a modern, monitored alarm system is the most important. The show infrequently installs camera systems. And from my own personal experience, cameras are easily defeated. Also, take this into account: if there isn't an alarm, and the burglar cleans your house, why wouldn't he just take your recording equipment too?

For autos, boats, and motorcycles, I've seen the show install GPS trackers with kill switches that alarm (and send a signal) if the vehicle is moved more than 30 feet.

Start with the basics, then worry about security cameras.

Finally, if you live someplace where you're not allowed to install an alarm system, move.

Hello

Having children in that age range, and having looked to some degree I haven't found any GPL educational games that really got my kids interest (Tux paint held the 6 year olds attention for an afternoon).

What has held my children's interest are games on the following websites:
http://www.pbskids.org/
http://funschool.kaboose.com/
http://www.starfall.com/
http://kids.discovery.com/

I'm giving up modding to point this out, but perhaps you might want to consider that many systems in nature tend to be a kind of check-and-balance. There are effects in the system which dampen the issue, things which remove carbon from the air and bind it. If we continue to increase the CO2 levels, we will overwhelm those checks and then all hell will break loose.*

The other thing I'd like to mention is that there really are more things to consider than just CO2 levels in terms of global warming. I don't think that human carbon dioxide emissions will be the end of us, but it could trigger the chain of events that leaves our planet much less hospitable to us. Have you heard of the methane hydrates in the cold sea bed?** It's possible that a small shift caused by our increasing carbon dioxide emissions - even if they have to increase by another 30% or maybe more - will push the temperature over a critical threshold and trigger a cascade which will again cause all hell to break loose.

So in a way, you are right. Except in climates which are around a sensitive temperature (e.g. Those areas where the temperature hovers near 0 degrees C) there is very little change right now. That could be that CO2 emissions are having a very minimal effect on the temperature, or more likely IMO, that's just that we haven't quite overwhelmed the checks that are in place. /rant

* (IANA Environmental Scientist, so there may be a margin of error in the direness of my predictions)
** http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/26/methane-global-warming.html

I'd hate to see how the Aussies handle a platypus. :(