So until electric or combination electric-ICE vehicles meet 101% of the needs of 100.0% of the population of the US - including the very small minority who live in isolated rural areas - they should not be popular (or even sold!) anywhere in the US including the metro areas where 85% of the population lives and commutes. Got it.

sPh

Can you point to any statistics showing that the out-of-warranty replacement frequency for a battery pack on a Prius, Volt, Leaf, or Tesla is any higher than the out-of-warranty blown engine frequency on ICE vehicles? Anecdotally I haven't heard anything about it being so and most Prius owners I know have exceeded the mfgr's estimated battery life by a factor of two. But perhaps that is just anecdata and there are statistics showing otherwise?

It does seem that electric vehicles must jump through all kinds of hoops to be considered "successful" that ICE cars do not meet themselves.

sPh

= = = That, and plenty of folks live 50 or more miles out of the nearest urban center, = = =

That's one of those cherished American myths that turns out not to be the case. US population went from below 50% urban to above 50% urban around 1895 (between the 1880 and 1890 censuses) and today around 85% of all USians live and work within urban/suburban/exurban agglomerations. Not dense central cities but sufficiently dense and interlocked that they aren't really tooling through the countryside they way they believe.

sPh

= = = until charging stations are ubiquitous, the convenience factor for using a gas-powered car will weigh heavily on consumers's minds. = = =

What baffles me is why the Chevy Volt hasn't sold better. It is electric for 95% of all metro area needs (and 85% of US people live in a metro area), plus 275 miles gas tank range for trips out of town. Easily 90% reduction in gasoline usage for 99% of all owners. Not expensive compared to other vehicles I see people commuting in solo, esp with a tax credit.

Yet not even close to a success.

75% of the right-click open-in-new-windows actions in Firefox 38 result in a bare window with no menu, controls, or scrollbars. Tried a few config setting which resulted in 5x5 pixel windows. Really useful.

sPh

= = = which allows them to choose when to patch, presumably after the plebs have beta-tested them. = = =

Besides ordinary business concerns about stability and continuity, if you are running in a regulated environment (e.g. biotech) you are prohibited by law from installing those patches until your validation group has tested them.

sPh

Teachers' unions have been under brutal attack for over 30 years now and there are today very few teachers with "strong" union protection left. Cf Wisconsin. Some - although not a large percentage - of K-12 school districts have a concept called 'tenure' which is often confused with elite university tenure but in the K-12 world generally means "can't be fired without the firing party following HR procedures and going through an appeal process". Which doesn't mean much in the end either.

sPh

= = = [Nation V] does not have jurisdiction over the spy agencies of foreign countries, which means that they can't charge [nation S's intelligence agency] with a crime.

Quite a few spies who have been jailed and/or executed will be surprised to learn that.

Nation S will undoubtedly refuse to honor extradition agreements with Nation V for prosecution of S's spies, even if V is an ally, but V is certainly entitled to arrest, prosecute, and punish spies of all nations caught within its borders (and if the theories of John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales are accepted, V is entitled to abduct or just murder S's agents anywhere in the world outside V's own borders).

Somewhat.

sPh

The optical sight / analog computer fire control system on the Iowa class battleships was reputed to be very effective against aircraft.

sPh

NASA's current plan it to cover a sufficient amount of the object with a different colored cloth (white or black as the case may be) and let the solar sail effect do the work. So a 30% off coupon to Bed Bath & Beyond would do the trick; even with the discount the manager and staff should get a nice bonus for selling 250,000 white sheets in one day.

sPh

The entire world isn't the US/Japan/EU. While most airlines outside that region who operate 787s run tight operations (Ethiopian for example is often mentioned as very well-run with a strong safety culture), there are a few who do not.

That said, in the few instances where less organized airlines have managed to acquired 787s they are probably being shut down 2-3 times/week much less every 9 months.

sPh

The first time I was on a new plane where the pilots did that at the gate to "fix a computer glitch" (~1998) I was utterly terrified.

sPh

= = = Massachusetts is particularly diligent to make sure they get a cut when cash changes hands.= = =

There's a term for that. Wait a minute, ... got it. The term is "the law".

sPH

Re the Upton Sinclair quote: I'm pretty sure (don't have time to dig through the library at the moment) that earthquakes from well injection were known in California in the 1920s (when Sinclair had a small interest in the oil boom there, hence Oil! [later "There Will Be Blood"]).

sPh