Cussin', drinkin' and (seasonally) gold minin' or dog mushin' are full time jobs in Nome. The welcome sign at the Nome airport greets visitors visitors "Welcome to fucking Nome, you cocksuckers".

The only reason you've not had an accident is you've managed to be lucky. Speed is the number one cause of accidents, more so when the roadway is icy/snowy. That you don't reduce your speed *enough* in poor conditions is what created the "unavoidable conditions". What you really mean is you were going too fast, an icy spot caught you unaware and you lost control. A car that handles poorly in snow is a tire issue, a car that loses control is a driver issue. If you won't fix your driving issues, buy some good winter tires and drive like you still have shitty tires. Eventually, your luck is going to run out and someone's going to get hurt.

"Carding" everyone is not (completely) about ensuring everyone in the bar is of drinking age. It's about identifying people of any age with a court ordered ban on alcohol consumption. Typically due to multiple drunk driving or domestic violence convictions. In Alaska, driver's license and state ID card indicate in bold red letters if there's an alcohol restriction in effect. Other states are likely similar.

Actually, the USG not liking someone is exactly why that person might end up in Gitmo. Circumventing the legal system is what makes Gitmo useful to the government.

Did you go to YouCut? Someone is simply putting up their own list of things they'd like to cut. You can "vote" on one of those items -- meaning you can pick one item from their list each week to cut. Vote for or against? No, just a simple vote against. Dialog appears to not be an option -- I couldn't find a "Contact Us" box on YouCut or the parent page. This is pure pandering to the lowest common denominator, complete with YouTube soundbite video from our "leaders". Will farm subsidies, military spending or any of the other very expensive programs show up on any of these weekly lists? Not likely. Frankly, I'm beyond disgusted.

Vatican City is a country - the world's smallest. I've no idea if this is the case, but it could be the Vatican does not recognize copyrights of other countries.

Huh? Sitka is on Baranof Island, none of which is in Canada. All water on Baranof Island is rainwater runoff, 100% of which runs into the the Gulf of Alaska and other Alaskan waters. I'm all for Canadian rights (see Yukon River king fisheries) but don't see how US-Canadian treaties can possibly apply to a rainwater fed island that is independent of Canadian territory.

Driving the housing market even lower.

Maybe in wet, heavy snow that's a problem. Otherwise, the snow either compacts underneath or gets pushed out to the side. I routinely bust deep snow with my minivan.

As for tires? The van with Blizzaks drives past 4x4 pickups spinning their wheels at stop signs/lights all the time. Stopping distances aren't much different from summer driving. You'll hardly notice icy roads with the right set of tires.

More important than the code submitted, regardless of its quality, are the ideas and algorithms expressed in the code. Excellent ideas and algorithms, poorly implemented, can be professionally re-implemented by unimaginative code monkeys.

Why bother with email? A civil fine can be automatically withdrawn directly from a bank account, credit or debit card. Much more convenient for everyone this way.

IIRC, the explosions were used to blow out the fires. After the fire was out, crews could come in and bring the wellhead under control. The wells weren't sealed shut by the explosions.

If altruism is so important to you, buy their patent and release it to the public domain. Or get off your ass and develop a better alternative.

I'm probably more liberal than most, but I don't get why some people think inventions helping poor or deprived people should simply be given away by the developer/inventor. Developers and inventors have to eat, too.

With modern materials and the speed the kite travels, these can probably go quite a while without a surface cleaning.
I'd design this so the entire kite/turbine/generator/cable assembly could be easily disconnnected from the base and replaced with a spare. Send the dirties to a Chinese laundry.

But twice a month, the tides are extra high (and extra low). One of the extra high tides is higher than the other, this is when the sun and moon are on the same side of the earth. The not-quite-so-extra-high is when sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth.