I've had one of my single player worlds disappear on me when the game crashed. I went to load up my world and it was just gone from the menu, though I could still see it in my saves folder. I assume it crashed during a save and Notch performs saves in some unsafe/lazy way, thus it corrupts the...
I had to downloaded the old version from a torrent, so I don't have to deal with the grey screen of death in the latest version (or login issues). pirates save the day again!
Yes, but it's block-physics. You can craft a bucket out of a V shape of iron bars to move water/lava. If you have irrigation your crops will grow faster.
Here is my house. It opens to a mineshaft in the mountain behind it, which leads to a massive cave system.
(I'm using the Painterly textures: http://painterlypack.net/index.html)
Well, I'm addicted to survival mode now.
I quickly learned to use storage chests after several encounters with the creeper.
Also, Notch is back from vacation so we should be seeing an update soon!