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I'm not so worried about the ingestion part of GM crops but the troubling part for me is seeing Megacorp take down small time farmers for "copyright infringement"[0][1] due to crops cross-pollinating via the wind, bees, whatever. It's ridiculous. It's basically a legal argument to eradicate any form of alternative food source other than Monsanto's monopoly.

Thing is, GM crops are the foothold for food copyright. If you need any indication where that could end up have a look at RIAA proceedings for the past 10 years or even Microsoft's (et al) Seed Vault[2].

[0] - http://www.nelsonfarm.net/issue.htm
[1] - http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/monsanto-wins-lawsuit-against-indiana-soybean-farmer
[2] - http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23503

That may be a benefit specific to men

Initially, they just hooked up a streaming pump and wondered why the body wasn't working or surviving under that condition. Well, turns out that the body NEEDS the pumping and gushing style of blood circulation because as the blood is pushed, it still needs those moments of pause to absorb and distribute oxygen and other stuff like that.

No, it doesn't. By the time the blood gets to your capillaries, there's little pulse left. They're working on artificial hearts right now that'll leave patients with no pulse at all:

http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/new-artificial-heart-keeps-you-alive-without-a-pulse

The solution to this is simple. In fact, people have been doing it for thousands of years: selective breeding. Take your landfill bacteria sample. Break it up into groups, and give each group some toxins to nosh on. The group that performs best gets cultured and split up again. All others get culled. Repeat. This technique was already proven in a 16 year old's science project.

Yes, that would be the standard operating procedure for an organism with a rapid generation time (20 minutes for e. coli) and culturable in a lab (so you can control the nutrient conditions and do your selective breeding). I can't find any information on the generation time of Xenophyophores, in fact it may not be known, but I would be shocked if it was quicker than months to years per generation. And something that only lives on the sea floor is probably the hardest conditions I can think of (until aliens are discovered) to try and replicate in a lab. So double icksnay on the selective breeding.

It would be easier to sequence its genome and try to reverse engineer the biochemical pathway that is responsible for sequestering the radioactive substances. If it were a small, standalone pathway with just a handful of genes that are not hopelessly interwoven with weird deep-sea biological processes we have no clue about, you might have a shot transplanting it into something that is easier to manipulate like algae or tobacco plants.

Now, when I say easier, I mean "free trip to Stockholm" easier, not "high school science project" easier. Remember the early 90's when photoshop came out and everyone thought it was sooo clever to cut out someone's head and put it on a supermodel's body? That's about how sophisticated genetic engineering is right now.

The solution to this is simple. In fact, people have been doing it for thousands of years: selective breeding. Take your landfill bacteria sample. Break it up into groups, and give each group some toxins to nosh on. The group that performs best gets cultured and split up again. All others get culled. Repeat. This technique was already proven in a 16 year old's science project.

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/how-much-co2-does-one-solar-panel-create

"Yes, it's true that making solar panels creates carbon dioxide, but over the life of a solar installation it produces on average of 30x less CO2 than coal power."

I don't need a pollution-free way of producing solar panels to make them a better idea than coil and oil. They're already better for the environment with current production techniques. A pollution-free production method would just be icing on the cake.

If we could actually have a clam (sic) and reasoned discussion

Not in this lifetime.

Aug 29, 2011: Al Gore compares climate deniers (sic) to racists

If you're going to advocate policies that condemn the prosperity and liberty of people born to both you are going to face some acrimony. If that make you uncomfortable then get back to your WoW account and leave the fight to those of us with the fortitude to face it for you.

I honestly don't care how much energy Sergey and Larry use: we'd get a thousand times farther if we reduced the energy footprint of the average American by a tenth of a percent than we will bitching at Google founders until they implement every green technology known to man. Just accept that they're flawed, self-righteous, and hypocritical and move on.

Individual USians use 39% of power consumption compared to commercial and industrial users. The "average" American probably already uses less energy than upper middle class and the rich. That's for a different study.

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/how-much-energy-do-individuals-actually-use

It's counterproductive to design a research sub with the capability to dive past about 6500 meters (which the Shinkai 6500 can do). That's deep enough to reach about 98% of the ocean's floor. Anything significantly beyond that and you're adding excess weight and strength which will only be useful if you've visiting a few trenches. For studying the rest of the ocean, it's just useless baggage. You're better off designing one general-purpose DSV for research in the majority of the ocean, and another one specially-made to be stronger for researching trenches.

Oh, anecdotal evidence! You're so silly.

And criminology is still in the dark ages, and we use leeches and blood letting as the main sources of medical treatment today.

Don't sell them short. The FDA cleared them for medical use seven years ago...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5319129/ns/health-health_care/t/fda-approves-leeches-medical-devices/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/leeches.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-07-07-leeches-maggots_x.htm
http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/videos/leeches-regain-hold-in-medicine

Too small indeed; I agree with you completely. Small cars are more dangerous. They found this out during studies of the effects of the CAFE standards:

More shockingly, increased CAFÉ standards also increase fatalities in automobile accidents. This is because automobile companies meet the new fuel standards by building smaller cars and trucks built of lighter but more fragile material, which protects motorists less during automobile accidents. Source

People can find more sources for that information if they want. There's a ton of them.

Additionally, light cars might be fine for those who putz around warm weather climates, but I live up in the snow belt of America. The high winds can blow lighter cars all over the place, including right off the road. I have to drop sand bags in my car during the winter months because my 2005 Focus, a 4-door car, is too light for safe driving in certain conditions.

And, I do not believe that the government should be handing out subsidies. Let a private investor carry that cost. Why should the nation pay for someone who can afford a $30,000 car in the first place? If a company wants to take a large loan to subsidize the cost of the first batches of vehicles, that's fine. That's their business. There's a good chance that it will work, because otherwise someone wouldn't have put up the money.

Make an electric car that I can afford and suits my needs and I will buy one. Right now they're just not viable. One million of them in the next few years? Yeah right. They can't even sell 500 units of the Leaf and Volt COMBINED in one month:

It’s official, there are now mass-produced all-electric vehicles on the streets of America thanks to Nissan North America. Yesterday, automakers posted their final December 2010 sales figures and for the first time, the Nissan Leaf appeared on this list. During the month, the company sold 19 Nissan Leaf models to customers in select cities including Olivier Chalouhi. Chalouhi, who lives in Redwood City, California, was the first Nissan Leaf owner in the United States.

The other much-anticipated vehicle release of late 2010, the Chevy Volt, fared better in sales than the Nissan Leaf despite its higher price tag. During December 2010, Chevy sold 326 Volt models. Determining the owner of the first Chevy Volt is a bit more difficult than figuring out who owned the first Nissan Leaf. Source

Why aren't people interested in the Leaf?

Maybe it has to do with the 100-mile range (and that's with a new battery). Maybe it's the 16-18 hours needed to fully recharge time at home, with the $2,000+ charging station that you need to buy in addition to the car. Oh, but the commercial charging stations are faster, don't worry. They only take 30 minutes. Want to turn on the heater because it's cold outside? I hope you don't have to go far, because the heater is electric too.

That doesn't sound like a car I want.

I'm not trying to poo-poo the concept of the electric vehicle. I think they are definitely the future of the car once we have the proper technology. The technology simply isn't here yet, and the government trying to force it down everyone's throats isn't going to help. Maybe in ten years. Maybe in twenty. But not now.

Side rant: It is unsurprising, but still disgusting, that politicians go on and on about how the upper class doesn't "pay their fair share" and how the poor are exploited and blah blah blah, and then they want to subsidize people to buy expensive cars... ...Cars that only wealthy people can afford in the first place.

if your buying them condoms don't forget the bananas:
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/health/stories/bananas-prevent-hiv-infection

It is a bit hard to search for since the Google results for any logical set of search terms are packed with people advising drivers to shift into neutral, but I found one here.

As for the "sticking" problem, two reports near the end of this article. Both are cases where a sticking pedal wouldn't explain the situation.

Well... the problem with plastics is that they arn't bio degradable, so they are just accumulating in the biosphere.

Plastic is biodegradable. Plastic was originally made from plants. The cellulose in plants is what the plastic cellophane was made from. Kodak [pdf warning] used to make film from it as well.

They will however be weathered down into tiny particles over time, and animals will get them into their systems with yet unknown consequences

Yea, that's one problem with petroleum based plastics. They make up a lot of the garbage in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Falcon