Straw bale building is becoming more and more common these days. A properly built straw bale house is damn near fire-proof--much more so than a frame home.

I'm planning on building one of these myself in the next couple of years. Of course, I'm outside the city limits, so I don't have to deal with any codes at all. One could build a mansion for the price of a small to medium single family home, provided one puts in the labor themselves.

I heard the government was going to subsidize digital tuner boxes for those who don't want to get new TV's. I think with the subsidy they will be something like $20.

Are those solar panels on the buildings in the upper left?

I think this is a great idea. Every major city should do this, if only to cut down on the medical costs of homeless people.

48%. It's a tossup. Generally, I would only eat them if they died of natural causes first, or if I killed them in self defense (ie they tried to kill and eat me).

Being the only one with significant fat, I'd outlast them.

The problem is that we measure time independently of any other variable, that is, time is relative to time only. Probably a better way of explaining it would be to say that the speed of light is slowing down (this is an issue of the permitivity of space). Another possibility is that photons themselves slow as they go through space, but this slowdown is perceptible only over intergalactic distances.

There's still a lot to learn.

I'm still on the lookout for the flying pigs before I get my hopes up on Iraq.

One month after they come out you will, anyways.

It is well known that Diebold's machines can be easily hacked in about ten minutes, so anyone who had access to them for that amount of time (perhaps in the factory) could have decided the results months ago.

The totals from the hand-counted counties were VERY different from those that used machines, in many cases off by 7%, which is more than enough to give second-tier candidate the win.

There needs to be a real discussion in this country about this, but most people just dismiss the very concept of a rigged election as tinfoil hat conspiracy talk. All the while our freedoms are taken from us one by one by one.

Upon hearing of this wondrous new invention, xzibit was heard saying "Yo dawg, I herd you like using your computer while driving, so we wrapped it around a light pole".

By that same logic, he should revoke custody of all children under his jurisdiction, because ALL parents influence their children's choices, religious or otherwise.

In my opinion, this judge should be disbarred immediately. He is obviously not fit to pass judgement over anyone if he lets his personal prejudices determine his rulings like that.

Looked to me like he has a tube in his left sleeve that was shooting out water. Notice that that hand goes behind him, and that his forearm forms a near-perfect arc along with the stream of water. If it were from his stomach, I would think that it would have more of a color to it, and it would taste like vomit, so he wouldn't be able to drink it again.

It's a Tachikoma v1.0!

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

It's cool and all, but can you open and close the door manually, ie without power? If so, then I would go for it, if not, I, for one, don't want to be trapped inside, or stuck with an uncloseble door.

Keep in mind that this is a translation, so you should be a little forgiving of the prose. Translating from Japanese is very difficult.

For another good short, read his short story, "The Central Pillar". It's a great allegory on the stress placed on the breadwinner by Japanese society.

All of Ito's work that I know of has been listed here except for Tomie, which is about an immortal girl that is repeatedly killed by men she has driven insane.

It would have been addictive, except that the 7th level is so hard that I could never get more than one round in.

An addictive game takes longer to get boring.