This is why Biodiesel is a great option. It's very hoardable. I drive away with 40 gallons every time I visit Houston Biodiesel, which is only once per month. A little table, plus a Sierra Tools Liquid Transfer Pump and it's not any hassle at all to transfer fuel from my carboys to the tank.

One problem, though, since Biodiesel is compatible with any diesel engine, is that the price has to trail the price of regular diesel by 40 to 60 cents, or else all the biodiesel will be bought up by petro-diesel bargain hunters. (Last time I was in line, there was a guy with a tank on the back of a trailer in front of me, filling from two hoses at once!) Time for me to start home brewing.

I am not affiated with Houston Biodiesel in any way. I'm just a regular customer (once a month).

I'm waiting for MovedToMontanaGrowMyOwnRabbitsAndVegetablesLinux

See Economist Bjorn Lomborg's TED talk on priorities. It turns out that doing a lot of good in some cases is pretty darn cheap. (Like fighting diseases and providing clean drinking water. Tremendous bang for the buck and pretty darn cheap in comparison.)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8730688320934276492

A Hexayurt is also "flat-pack." It can be constructed in a few hours with just a cutting knife. Materials cost just $200. Yet they are about as well insulated as a modern house.

Late 2009 - Neal Stephenson's Anathem breaks out of the Sci-Fi ghetto and sparks a mainstream social movement. Upper middle-class suburban mothers, concerned for the intellectual development of their children, band together to fight the unfiltered distractions of the information age. Circling their mini-vans, they take their cue from Neal Stephenson's new novel and join forces to create special schools where their children learn in cloister-like conditions.

These are the so-called Anathe-Moms.

That's not the real museum of fake art. That's a cleverly designed facsimile whose purpose is to fool you into thinking it's the museum of fake art. Those aren't real fakes. They're fake fakes. Which means they're real. Those guys are loaded!

All MMOs are like casinos. They all use variable schedule of reward to addict you. Just about anyone I know who plays MMOs gets pulled into doing repetitive actions that occasionally results in gaining a valuable item. Also like casinos, they are very artificial environments that consist mainly of glitzy/pretty surfaces with little intellectually interesting content - apart from various games which are meticulously rigged by the owners. (In MMOs, they call this "balanced.")

I know how to cure the MMO. In order to get some of the really interesting complexity of the real world, you need to use the same mechanisms that drive complexity in the real world. Everything in the game needs to be Emergent. Everything has to be designable/playable/scriptable by the users, or it must evolve using genetic algorithms. I am currently writing this game.

VTOL is not insurmountable. They did it back in the 60's with the XC-142. Technically, this tilt wing was very successful. They actually did the control mixing with analog mechanical components!

(Yes, something like roll has two different meanings between VTOL and conventional modes, and there was continuous mixing between the two, all done with gears, cams, and levers. And it *worked*!)

The remaining problems: noise. A larger number of smaller rotors is harder to quiet than one larger one. Also, auto-rotation is not yet a viable backup option for tilt wings, though the conventional gliding mode is available to tilt wing designs like the XC-142, but not to the V-22 Osprey.

The Sangean H201 is water resistant, handsome, and gets great reception. I've had it for over 7 months, and the battery indicator is still 100%. I think the sound is decent enough for the shower (where the sound of the running water makes it hard to listen anyways) and it's 1/6th the price.

http://www.amazon.com/Am-fm-Digital-Shower-Radio/dp/B000I3F91O/ref=sr_1_1/104-6428419-4595116?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1194642064&sr=1-1