Public Service Announcement: Obeying the Second Law of Thermodynamics is Not Optional

So, I subscribe to a mailing list about peak oil. Sometimes the people on there annoy me. Most of the time these days I just ignore that. But recently people on there were arguing about entropy and the second law of thermodynamics and how that plays out in the context of biological systems, which seem to go against the Law. However, no one there really seemed to know what they were talking about, and I find a lot of people generally have misunderstandings where this is concerned. But as a molecular biologist and as a human it's something I think about a lot. It's foundational to how the universe operates. For your edification, I present my involvement (thus far) in the conversation. ( Face your imminent heat death! )