I actually live in Tartu, Estonia. I believe this statue used to stand in the city center, in front of what was the main building of the Agricultural University. Now this building is the NATO Baltic Defence College, and Lenins are long stranded in scrapyards, melted down or used in contemporary art projects (see the one in Pärnu, Estonia). It's weird how in Russia Lenin statues are still held in honor and have disappeared nowhere from public city squares (I guess it's consistent with Russia becoming more and more Neo-USSR, but I'll restrain myself from getting into politics here)

Anyway, Neatorama is great, you seem to have a substantial readership in Estonia. Keep it up!

The paragraph about H.C. Andersen reminds me when I was about 12 or so ... I had a bunk bed and slept on the top; one time I just jumped out of bed in my sleep and incredibly landed on feet. Sadly, not on my toes, but on heels, and it hurt so bad that I almost had to go to a hospital. Quite a rude awakening, literally.

This article made me want to have a smoke. I'll probably sue Neatorama once I get lung cancer.

Incredible, I actually wrote a game with a similar objective (drill around underground and collect valuable metals) in QBasic a long time ago, in my early teens. But that was no Flash, but DOS 80x25 text-mode. I always thought it was a pretty lame idea in the end. My game didn't have enemies or extra gadgets / inventory; but it did have fluctuating economy (yawn).

Hahaha. That was great.

Ahh, do we really need to whore around that much? It's incredibly nice to have a stable partner whom you trust and like a lot and just use the pill. Well, have her use the pill ... I wouldn't mind similar male contraceptives though. Condoms or spraying on latex, I find it horrendously disruptive for the moods and emotions involved.

Well, I'm sceptic about this spray for the reasons already mentioned above. The reservoir thing came to mind first, but I don't think circumcision should make any difference here (Why do you think so, Jose?)

yup, zero ping sounds nice

Is this for real? Sounds like a hoax; but if it's true then it means that instantaneous communication is possible - think interplanetary web and such.

Rob: What's wrong with you americans? (of course, not everybody in the US is a dumbass, but you don't see this happening *anywhere* in Europe) Intelligent design? Why don't you teach a theory about humans decending from the alien race Kryx of galaxy Fwzyrg 82-X in science class? Are you going to fight the theory of relativity next and claim that Newtonian physics is the real thing?

Many people seem do have the impression that uranium or other radioactive materials actually glow green like that in natural light (I think the Simpsons title sequence is to blame here). You don't mention that the stuff only glows when ultraviolet light is cast on it in dark. Wikipedia actually describes the appearance of uranium as "silvery gray metallic" i.e. like any generic metal.

Well, kids are a lot lighter too, so the gravitational force on them is smaller. You know, F = m*g where g = 9.8 m/s^2

Oliver Heaviside was actually so bonkers that he had negative age and lived from 1950 to 1925! Wow!

Big screen aside, I reckon it must be a rather boring job to monitor a stupid nuclear reactor day to day.

NO.

Lab exercise? Maybe, but I'd be pretty proud if I created a small star in my basement.

Yes, it's definitely fusion. I believe one teen created a fission reactor too, IIRC in Michigan, this resulted in government officials in protective suits disassembling the thing and generally lots of trouble for the kid. Fusion is not radioactive, so this shouldn't be a problem for anyone. And that you can't accidentally blow up your city is an added bonus.