But potentially true. An imbalance in the endocrine system, perhaps, that leads to seeking what nicotine gives you. This would hardly be unknown (eg. seeking sugar in preference to other food can be caused by low thyroid; a midlife shift to vegetarianism is associated with low estrogen in women). Likely doesn't initiate smoking, but may well be why some people just can't quit.

Also, there are parasites that cause behavior changes in their hosts, tho that's an unlikely cause in humans.

I can think of all sorts of people I wouldn't want writing code, even if only themselves had to use it. Just like I know lots of people who I wouldn't want to see driving an 18-wheeler. Not everyone needs to have every skillset. Specialization is what made civilization, the idea that when you need it done right and you can't do it very well, you find someone who can rather than just muddling through.

How about one of those devices designed for seniors ("fell and can't get up" call device) -- I gather some connect directly to 911, others to a preset phone number. They're designed for a person possibly incapacitated who only has enough remaining steam to push a button. Basically they're single-function cell phones.

Create =new= hydrogen, or just blast the existing elements down to naked particles, which then coalesce as hydrogen...??

And who's to say *our* Bang is the only one??

If it oscillates like that -- what triggers the contraction? Is it elastic (explain why?) or does it reach a boundary (of what? and what's on the other side??) If neither is true -- where does it get the energy to rush back in the other direction? and why reverse? Why not go in some random direction? (in which case it would never become a point, but I think if this had ever happened, we'd see what amount to cosmic compression fractures.)

I suspect the truth is we've read too much into what amounts to local movement (the part of the universe we can see, which if it's infinite, is a very small slice) and that coupled with man's desire to pigeonhole everything has produced theories like the Big Bang.

'Course, could be we're just debris being flushed down some megacosmic toilet.

One problem with fixed wireless is that a mere 1.5Mbit is more costly than midrange DSL, and 5.7Mbit is downright upscale. Seems to me that market could use more competition, as I've yet to see more than one provider covering a given area. (Here I have a choice of one, and it's $70/mo. for 4Mbit. Or I can have DSL at barely-1.5Mbit for $30/mo.) How far can fixed wireless speed be improved? Cuz it certainly avoids that 'last mile investment' problem.

Tho seems to me that if co-ops can handle electric service (in fact locally most electric service comes from a co-op), they could just as well handle the much-less-costly fixed wireless internet service... when they finally get done fighting over who pays what. But if you're just renting space on an existing cell tower (which was what my old provider did), how is that so terribly expensive??

Incidentally, he told me the bandwidth he bought from AT&T cost him zilch for downloads, and 5 cents per GB for uploads.

All it takes is surveillance of the Mighty. Congress, President, every police department and enforcement agency, and don't forget the IRS.

Their laundry is a lot dirtier than ours.

I imagine the bowel could be stripped and repopulated, tho -- use some of the same stuff they make you drink for colonoscopies to get it as empty as possible, then load well with the 'good' bacteria before the 'bad' can significantly regrow.

Farming isn't entirely Big Business. Most farms, even large ones, are family-owned (tho most now sell their products to Big Business, because the smaller local markets couldn't make it anymore and are long gone). They may be thousands of acres, but that's because anywhere with a less than ag-friendly climate, it takes thousands of acres just to make a living wage. A lot of farmers have seasonal "town jobs" to make up the shortfall.

But yeah, farming isn't a business where you can tolerate a lot of downtime. Crops typically have to be harvested in a very short window, and you can't be sitting there with that $300,000 tractor or combine unable to work, nor can you afford to buy a bunch of spares. Farmers need access to their equipment's guts and a reasonable ability to repair it on the spot, whether the problem is mechanical or electronic or even software. Otherwise crops are lost, farmers lose money, and the price of food goes up. And maybe John Deere goes out of business when farmers find a more user-friendly alternative.

http://www.desertusa.com/sandh...

So stop complaining!

You may think that was a joke, but... how much of the cost is actually wasted? Probably a lot.

I'm reminded of the big floods of a few years back and the millions of dollars (mostly in federal funds) most small cities required to handle cleanup.

Meanwhile, Grand Forks ND (harder hit than most) had their cleanup job done by a local contractor for $65,000.

That's what I thought too -- so I was astonished to find (so far) two of 'em here in Montana.

Then there was always the question as to whether Tandy was using it as a money laundry...

The main reason I seldom shopped there back when RS stores were everywhere, was that the prices were so high on stuff I could get elsewhere for a lot less, even locally. Now they're lower priced on some stuff, but it's too late to attract back that business.

BTW the local RS dude assures me that he owns his business... what happens to those guys when RS goes tits-up??

Alibaba is like a swapmeet, they aren't the vendor, just the aggregator. I've bought stuff from Alibaba vendors (one I already knew from ebay), and probably will again. If I have to buy cheap Chinese crap, I might as well pay cheap Chinese prices for it. I see no reason to pay some importer's astounding markup (which even at the wholesale level can exceed 500%) when I can get it straight from the manufacturer at the factory price.

My former fixed-wireless provider (which was a one-man band) bought bandwidth bulk direct from AT&T, and resold it however he liked. Why can't a fiber co-op do the same?

(Seriously, if there's a reason, enlighten me.)