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can we expect to have fusion power in the next 20 years?

You can have fusion power even now, if you want (if you call 1991 "now") - but it either produces less energy than it consumes, or is unstable, or usually both.

Making it easier to spend money doesn't require you to spend that money

Maybe for you it doesn't. For other people it does. It's all psychology; it's too easy to buy stuff if you don't have to pay cash (which you might as well not have.) Millions of people are in debt. The last thing they need is easier methods to spend money. If the payment takes more effort or time they have a chance to reconsider the purchase. I don't say it's a good solution, but it helps. Look at this advice, for example:

Put all your credit cards in a bowl of water and freeze them. When the time comes you wish to make a purchase, you'll have plenty of time to reconsider how badly you "need" the item while the cards are thawing out.

(I just found it on the Web, I don't claim invention of it, or anything :-)

You're way off-base here. The engines in question have throttle-by-wire. GM's Northstar powerplant has been using throttle-by-wire for quite some time without many problems. They only use it in high-end vehicles because it's expensive.

Prop glass is made from sugar, and is quite edible (like rock candy). Next?

The cost of treating doughy impotent old men for heart attacks caused by Viagra Im sure outweighs this. Its not exactly safe:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5687205_viagra-risk-factors.html

If anything, its legal as a script because of the intense demand. I wonder if something thats targeted at old men that also drops heart pressure and causes heart attacks would be tolerated as even sellable if it wasnt for the overwhelming demand to get Mr Pokey up one last time. Pot is safer.

Very easy to fake a print using the bottle cap technique. Surgical alteration seems a bit overkill to me.

This doesn't seem "cherry-picked."

Somebody shook the tree and some nuts fell out.

So ya, go ahead tax the man with no money out of existence.

You must be joking.

I always thought one had to register a trademark for it to be valid. I thought the the (tm) mark was for pending trademarks. It looks like I was wrong.

I think the whole fighting over the "go" name is stupid. Seriously, what kind of idiot would think no one used such a commonly used word, especially since most people would equate a programming language with an action. (Yeah, and someone actually used the word "Action!" as the name of their programming language.)

Straw man. I didn't say swine flu was worse.

I do claim that you apparently have no idea how a flu vaccine works.

Here, read this.

Once the vaccine is inside you, it stimulates your immune system into thinking it's been infected by the flu recently. Therefore, your immune system produces antibodies against the virus. These antibodies bind to the virus and target it for destruction. Then, when you actually do come in contact with the real live virus, your body is armed and ready to fight off the illness before it even starts.

So there you go. I'll let you fill in the blanks on why your original post was potent dumb.

And as for your straw man:

You want to prove to me that swine flu is worse than regular flu?

All that says is that you didn't RTFA. Hell, you didn't even read TFS:

Forty-three children have died from swine flu since August 30 — about the same number that usually die in an entire flu season.' These are very sobering statistics,' says Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

For Christ's sake! It's the second fucking sentence of the summary.

>>>4Gig seemed unimaginable

For some of us it still is, you insensitive clod! (crawls off to sulk over his 1/10th gig laptop). ;-) I remember when 32-bit 68000 Macs were only had 0.000128 gigabytes of memory, and they worked just fine for writing book reports and making the printer go "zzzzz kachunk" "zzzzz kachunk". It was especially fun to run-off these dot-matrix banners:

http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/5065096/2379282369908fb9e03em_Full.jpg (Anyone know how I can make these banners on modern printers? I don't think it can even be done today.)

The performance is not the same as the music, in copyright law.
http://www.ehow.com/video_2384677_register-copyright-music.html

You seem to be insinuating that somehow "big government" gave birth to the corporate aristocracy. No. Most of what laissez-faire types call "big government" is just an attempt to put some control on the aristocracy.

No big government didn't give birth to the corporate aristocracy but it did give them power. And it's usually big businesses who create regulations that are supposed to control them. Instead however regulations usually drive up costs to reduce or keep out competition. Want to start a lawn care business? Some states require a license as do some counties and cities. Heck in elementary school I was mowing neighbors' grass for spending money. The only reason to have a regulation requiring me to have a license or be certified is to prevent me from doing lawn care.

Falcon

Windows has had the ability to have 4 desktops since WinXP thanks to MSFT's free powertoys, but you are right that a good 90% of Windows users do NOT want, at least from talking to my customers.

My customers say it is "confusing" and they don't like having their stuff spread across multiple desktops. In fact one of the first tweaks they usually ask me for in XP is to turn off the "group tasks" feature in the taskbar, as they want everything to have its own separate slot. Considering how little the average Joe multitasks this doesn't phase them. I'm personally dreading the reatil release of Win7, as even though I bought Windows 7 HP to play with, I'm sure I'm gonna be getting a bunch of "can you make it act more like XP?" and from my business clients "Can you make it go back to the standard Windows Grey?".

Is there even a way in Windows 7 to make it look like XP or the old Win2K? I haven't bothered to play with it yet as WinXP X64 has been running beautifully for me and probably will just triple boot with Xp32 for really old programs, but since it looks like Windows 7 might actually become popular, as opposed to Vista where my clients only question was "Can you get rid of this crap and put XP on it?", so I'm sure I'm gonna get a lot of requests for the "can you make it look normal?" with normal being either XP or Win2K.

The innate ability mentioned is just the pigeons ability to return to it's home ('nest'). But these pigeons need to be domesticated so that they allow people to actually catch them and stuff the data card/ letters into the sheath/container that they carry. Training these is not a easy task or an overnight task!! (Training pigeons (ehow)

All a business can do is offer you a product. They cannot force you to buy it.

Read up on the history of company towns.

Read up on how to move to another town

Why can't I just create my own ring tones for free, like I could with my ancient Palm Treo 650.

You can:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2160460_custom-iphone-ringtones-free.html

This is just for people willing to pay a nominal fee for the convenience of simply ordering a ringtone

That little magic strip on your Debit or Credit Card doesn't always work. They can wear out or the debit/credit machine can crap out. Imagine filling your car up, going in and finding the machine doesn't work and there is no ATM around... Don't like that analogy? How about a restaurant? You can't pre-pay at a restaurant and as you are eating the machine breaks. You and whoever you are with do not have cash. You are SOL now, aren't you?

No, they (the gas station or restaurant) are SOL if their electronic card reader goes down and they're too stupid to have one of these as a backup. It's not my fault that they can't accept my good-faith attempt at payment! They agreed (via displaying the "VISA" (or whatever) logo sticker) that they would accept payment via credit card; if they want to change their mind then it's their responsibility to quit displaying the sign and/or ensure that people are prepared to pay using some other method before they deliver the product (e.g. seating the restaurant-goers or turning on the gas pump).

Going a bit off topic: I agree with that last part...that's some horribly scary stuff. I'm sure there is a commercial (read: lobbying) aspect to it, but the larger issue is control.

I read a blog post recently (I think it might have been a photog with the same name as me, which was how I found him, or possibly a friend of his linked from his site) who was harassed and almost arrested for taking pictures in a train station--after the TSA or whomever runs the show had publicly stated that it was OK to do so.

It's all about control. Bureaucrats create shadowbox controls to keep people too scared to "cause trouble" and possibly scare their donors, and the police/security forces hired to back up said vague policies take it too far, because it's what they get paid to do.

Example du jour: the jackasses who want to take public schools and hospitals off of Google Maps/Earth. Because if Osama Bin Laden can count the number of air conditioners on top of my kids' schoolhouse, the terrorists have already won.

I'm sure you've seen this, but it curls my toes: http://www.ehow.com/how_2048594_inappropriate-pictures-landmarks.html

Yes, the terms do say that the copyrights are absconded with. See part 9. It says that if a third party uses your pictures commercially---even without your authorization---you are required to give your copyright to Burning Man so that they can sue the third party. That means that not only does it prevent you from authorizing commercial use of those photos, it also means that your copyright can be taken at any time without notice even if you did nothing wrong. That's an agreement to assign copyright, pure and simple, and according to Title 17, such an assignment requires a signature.

There are a lot of other things dubious about these terms and conditions, too. For instance, this is in effect a perpetual option to acquire (for no compensation) a copyright. Normally, such agreements would only be valid for a certain period of time. At least in business contract law, if a contract does not specify an expiration date, it is considered to only be valid for a reasonable period of time. The definition of reasonable is open to interpretation, of course. In any case, the contract term is nowhere near as clear cut when interpreted according to the legal framework. I've never seen a copyright assignment option that was open ended like that. That is highly nonstandard and should raise a lot of red flags.

The fact that there is no additional compensation for photos confiscated under this clause likely invalidates the contract. By law, a contract requires mutual consideration or else it isn't a contract.

The terms also prohibit descriptive use of their trademarks. I suspect that's a legally dubious contract term, as again it is an open-ended term that binds you forever. IIRC, such perpetually binding terms are generally not permitted in contracts between businesses and individuals.

In any case, read http://www.ehow.com/about_5120969_business-contract-laws.html and http://www.expertlaw.com/library/business/contract_law.html for a better understanding of why this contract likely isn't worth the bits it is written with.

It seems easy enough that even a parent can do it: http://www.ehow.com/how_4527941_iphone-tips-parental-controls-restrictions.html

What version of Word ever put the format commands under "File"??

You're either "mis-remembering", or you're making it up.

I haven't read anything in this thread (sorry!) and I don't have time to come up with a proper link, but The Motley Fool says that real estate has only recently provided a decent return. If you average all the way back to 1890, the rate of return has mirrored the inflation rate. In other words, you're doing better than if you stuck your money in the mattress (which would underperform a house by exactly the inflation rate) but you're way behind stocks which (if I recall correctly) have a 9% APY if you choose an index mutual fund. Assuming an average inflation rate of 4%, this means your money grows 5% faster in this kind of fund rather than in real estate. That's significant-- remember that Einstein called compound interest the most powerful force in the universe!

Incidentally, I'd recommend a Vanguard Target Retirement fund (I use the 2045 fund) because it's highly diversified, rebalances every year or so, and slowly shifts your asset allocation to a more conservative mix (fewer stocks, more bonds) based on how close you are to retirement. That's why each fund has a different year, and why "2045" tells the world exactly how old I am. Fidelity and other large companies have similar investments, but be sure to check the asset allocation, expense ratio (important!) and the fees/minimum balances. (Note: Aside from having an account with Vanguard, I'm not connected to them and am not a representative of this company in any manner.)

And a person who rents (like myself) is able to put the extra money saved by renting (this depends on your area, but for me it's significantly cheaper to rent a 1br apt) directly into this account, which can be your "Roth IRA" account so it's tax deferred (or delayed, or whatever) and grows much faster on average than real estate. Plus, you're only actually building equity with the portion of your mortgage check that doesn't go towards interest, and in the early years this means that you're still "pissing away" 90% of your payments.

That doesn't mean that buying a house is stupid. My sister bought a house because she has kids, and if you have a zoo of dogs and cats it's probably better to avoid worrying about the security deposits and noise complaints. But it's not an investment any more than buying comic books is an investment. You might be able to find someone at the height of a boom who wants to buy your house for more than you could have gotten on the stock market, but that's gambling. It's not too surprising, either... stocks represent investments in new technologies, which should make profits year after year. A house just... sits there. In fact, it slowly decays...

That AC comment wasn't by me. I think you know me well enough that I would just say it in regular posts if I wanted to say it.

However, I am sort of inclined to agree with him.

I have pointed to where your sources say the things they do, yet you are attempting to take the collection and bring them to your preconceived conclusion. The problem with this isn't what your doing as a practice in general, That's how science works, you interpret the evidence to the best possible explanation. But what is wrong is that you are dead set on claiming nothing could ever be different and are now misinterpreting the evidence to say more then it actually does. We have discussed this on three different threads, one of which you pointed to a talk origins article and that is the one I Specifically pointed it out on.

Now, it is highly likely that ring species given enough time, could speciate. But all the reasons stopping them from interbreeding is either Mechanical, preferential, of geographically blocked. And to that point, all of those barriers to interbreeding can be manipulated out within the same breeds and the incapability disappears. In your Chihuahua example, the breed classification says 9 pounds but people have found purebred Chihuahuas to not only exceed that, they have lost the miniature status too. Of course they are no longer considered Chihuahuas even though their linage is pure Chihuahua.

Most of what you are claiming is semantics anyways. If a Chihuahua that is capable of overcoming the mechanical limitations and capable of breeding with a great dane is no longer considered a Chihuahua because it exceeds the breed specification even though it's blood line is pure Chihuahua, then your point is only made at the exclusion of evidence. The Deer Chihuahua which is not an AKC recognized breed but is pure chihuahua is evidence of this in which is is completely capable of interbreeding with a great dane. The deer Chihuahua is the actual breed that the miniature dogs were created from. They chose a runt to runt breeding practice to encourage the smaller dog size of the same breed. The Chihuahua can get up to 40lbs in size which is much larger then the typical runt to runt bred Chihuahuas.

Now the same things go for all the other ring species, they can be manipulated within the breed beyond any of the limitations to breeding. You can't show one single example where this isn't possible. the limits are not biological.

It appears to be different strains of flu virus crossing species and undergoing genetic reassortment. Where their is no direct infection route between species 'an intermediate host may be needed for genetic reassortment of human and avian viruses. Pigs are considered a logical candidate for this role because they can be infected by either avian or human viruses'.

As to how it jumps species in the first place, one way is to drink raw avian blood as in Tit Canh. Then infect some tourist who gets on a plane and who coughs infected droplets into air that is recycled for a number of hours.

I don't know where you read that article, but it's total bullshit (if it even exists).

Quick searching online reveals tons of info on getting a work visa in both China and India, as well as success stories. I personally know people who have traveled to and worked in China teaching English (commercially).

China's program is called a Z-Visa: http://www.ehow.com/how_2365046_get-work-visa-china.html

India's Employment Visa: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/597004.html

define:affidavit

How to Write an Affidavit

Write out the situation like you explained it to us, but use formal language.

Keep it under one page. Have it notarized. Attach a copy with every resume.

Any other issues we can help you with? Are you brushing your teeth enough? :-)

Well, I'm nothing if not boring then. But I do feel the pain of others, so I said to myself, "EarlyMon, how could you teach others to be less boring?" Now, this seemed like a pretty good question, in light of the fact that the commandment to not take oneself too seriously is lost these days, so imagine my surprise at the answer that went, "Well, EarlyMon, that's a good question! Why not try Google? They mirror the collective knowledge of all things!" Well, you can't argue with that logic, so I googled for "not boring" and lo and behold, here's what I found (at http://www.ehow.com/how_2136052_not-be-boring.html which is full of ads, not surprisingly including a lot for people that have machines to make holes in the ground, so I'm copying the full information section of the page):

Step 1 - Figure out what it is that makes you boring. Is it your life? Is it your friends? Is it your family?
Step 2 - Figure out different things to make yourself not boring, or your life not boring.
Step 3 - Enforce it. Don't just go back to slacking and being boring again.
Step 4 - Watch as you become popular!!

I don't mind admitting that at that, I said to myself, "You know, EarlyMon, that sure sounds a lot like Homer Simpson running around telling people to Safen Up!" "Yeah, you're right on that, EarlyMon. What do you think?" "Well, I was going to say that that makes it all baloney, but you know, EarlyMon, I just realized that there's really nothing boring at all about the Simpsons."

Well, if you're like me, you're just as surprised as I was at the truth of that argument, because it proves by extension that the steps listed above must be right. But then, I had to question whether I wanted to live in a world with MORE Homer Simpsons or FEWER Homer Simpsons, and I had to admit that that was a pretty good question, too.

But I was even more surprised that I was able to process all of that and share it without ever once having the word cromulent creep into my thoughts, otherwise it would have made it into this reply, which it didn't.

So I've got that going for me, which is, you know, nice.

Use your car! What do you mean you're not driving a Prius?

Leash? That's more of a choke chain! Though there is a silver lining in the link article: as long as its used sparingly.

And there's a cool thing you can do with that 12-volt battery in the trunk that makes your prius into an emergency generator. Alternate instructions here. Warning, it might void your warranty. My Prius is 4 years old, so my warranty isn't terribly valuable anymore...

It doesn't sound to me like his pronunciation is intended as some covert dig. In fact, it's not far from how many people pronounce it (though not technically correct). For example, on a guide on how to pronounce the name Wasilla, it mentions the Wasilly pronunciation specifically as a common mispronunciation.

Second, he's not ignoring her gubernatorial experience; the question was specifically about her mayoral experience compared to his senate experience. He directly addresses the question posed to him which did not talk about gubernatorial experience. He points out that her mayoral experience compared to his campaign experience leans in his favor. He's got a substantially larger staff, and he's got a substantially larger budget than she had while as mayor. That was the question, and I think he addressed it directly and adequately.

A few weeks later I received another letter from the DVLA this time threatening to fine me £83 for not licensing my vehicle or they were going to take me to court.

Seriously, what do you mean? Have you registered your car? If so, what are they fining you for?

Use a standard deck of playing cards. Each suit represents an exercise, and each value represents the number of repetitions.

Shuffle and enjoy.

An example: http://www.ehow.com/how_2100794_cardio-circuit-workout-deck-cards.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_2156113_import-ivory-legally.html

Long story short, importation is possible in many cases, and it DOES matter when it was (over 100 yrs is ok) and when it was legally purchased.

The statement "They strip it out of pianos that are imported into the US. It doesn't matter when it was made, they'll still destroy it." is just factually incorrect.

I don't know if this is a good omen. My journal post about service pack one made the front page, and I'm planning to put it on my system tomorrow. I'm probably going to look like the world's biggest fecal outlet if it corrupt my system tomorrow and I forget to backup. Then again my plan to back up is just rar'ing my documents and splitting it across several DVD's. I guess I'm going to have to pick up DVD's today. eHow I plan to do the install

For those who need to actually do things.

Google on coiling rope ropes

http://www.ehow.com/how_2126422_coil-rope-line.html

I reiterate that there isn't always a clear distinction between correctness and vandalism. You could probably use automated tools to find likely blatant vandalism and either disallow it for anonymous users or immediately alert someone. Is that kind of blatant vandalism ("jason sux") a big problem on Wikipedia? If so, tools may need to be improved to prevent it. I was under the impression that subtle vandalism and disagreement on correctness and scope were bigger problems. Also, you must accept that the "everything on the entire site is just a web page that anyone can edit" mentality is what a wiki is. To change that would be to make a non-wiki, so it wouldn't make sense for Wikipedia. There are plenty of non-wiki sites that have user-generated content, such as eHow and YouTube. Maybe an encyclopedia that accepted user-written articles that were screened or edited by the site operator would be a good idea.

2935.041 Detention, arrest of shoplifters; protection of library, museum and archival institution property.

(A) A merchant, or his employee or agent, who has probable cause to believe that items offered for sale by a mercantile establishment have been unlawfully taken by a person, may, for the purposes set forth in division (C) of this section, detain the person in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time within the mercantile establishment or its immediate vicinity.

Again, you haven't provided the link. You say it's there then post it. I can post several links that back up my argument about the necessary components to shopkeeper's priveledge.

1. http://www.crimedoctor.com/shoplifting2.htm
2. http://www.ehow.com/how_2040070_legally-detain-sho plifter.html

Can you even post one to support yours. You've made up falsehoods about the articel throughout this thread. Back it up with something. I'm at least reading the article and not making up crap about getaway cars and rushing out of the store. You've been spewing BS about this all day and not one iota of it has been fact. Post the link.

Here's a simple guide to what a merchant can/should do, and a link it gives to the NASP for specific details. In the US, laws on this matter differ by state.

However, I could whack YOU with the (tennis) racket...

WHERE'S THE LOVE?!?

At least I can still sell my mighty swimmers!

A kneeboard is a board you ride with your knees while being pulled behind a boat. Some helpfull instructions.

Back before the dawn of time, when we didn't have dirt yet, we "cut rubies" (used Exacto knives and straightedges to cut Rubylith). People still use Rubylith to do fabric silkscreening and such. No colored tape on paper, not dimensionally stable and not enough contrast for camera-reduction.

-Jay-

I think you mean that they wrap their thumb with their other fingrs...your thumb is actually supposed to be under your fingers positionally.

Make a fist Says a karate fist, but that's the same fist you use in boxing as well.

You gotta remember to shake the thermometer before sticking it back into the gas... it could be Ferris put hot water on it to fake a sick day.

Don't bother.

patrolled articles...

So, I've developed a way to extract limitless amounts of energy from potatos: http://www.ehow.com/how_18637_make-potato-clock.ht ml. It appears to follow broadly similar principles to these people 'tree energy'. Where's my venture capital money?

Yeah, it sounds like he just invented a new form of the Potato Clock.