Ilverin

How can you call yourself a "techie" when you authored the Research Works Act?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Works_Act

Your bill is almost universally opposed by research scientists, and runs counter to the open-source principles that make the Internet possible.

(To other redditors: The bill is basically dead now, the scientists won)

Statement by Issa/Maloney: http://maloney.house.gov/press-release/issa-maloney-statement-research-works-act

"The American people deserve to have access to research for which they have paid. This conversation needs to continue and we have come to the conclusion that the Research Works Act has exhausted the useful role it can play in the debate."

Many people are aware of "sugar substitutes" in their food (some choose to watch to avoid them), but less people may perhaps be aware of "fat substitutes", such as olestra.

Are fat substitutes as prevalent as sugar substitutes in food in general, and are fat substitutes or sugar substitutes more likely to come in "under the radar" to your average consumer? (consumer doesn't know they're eating any substitute).

Is single-payer or social security more "Totalitarian"?

If you had to pick one or the other, which is the lesser of 2 "evils"?

As far as I know, Iceland is the only country which can actually sustain itself without nuclear or fossil fuels. This is because geothermal energy is relatively constant (wind and solar are not at all constant).

It's not possible with current battery technologies to meet a country's energy needs on just wind and solar, you need geothermal, nuclear, or fossil fuels to pick up the slack.

Note that Australia does not have enough reachable geothermal energy sources (it has some but not enough) to pick up this slack.

(Regarding tidal, it's currently 10x the price of solar per watt, and is also not constant, twice a day there's no tidal energy at all).