And our ancestors, bless them, learned how to make whiskey without knowing a thing about protons and electrons.

I have mixed feelings on the subject of the article. I learned a lot about chemistry in high school and a little bit in the freshman chemistry class I took in college, but I couldn't remember a thing to help my kid when she took it last year. All I could remember was that my high school chemistry teacher was in her first year out of college and that she had been a Bengal Babe at Clemson University. This helped me pay attention in class and influenced my college choice. So it was a complete waste of time.

On the other hand, taking chemistry was useful in helping build my character, just like being in the Boy Scouts and the marching band. It kind of reminds me of Robert Benchley's quote on dog ownership:

Eliminating roadside stops would be a bad idea. I'm pretty sure that spending 15-20 minutes on the side of the road when one is in a hurry is yet another disincentive for speeding. Sure, a hundred bucks for the ticket and an increase in insurance are disincentives, too, but there are plenty of people out there who would blow these things off but be incensed by a delay.

Minimum speed limits that I have been aware of have principally been on interstates and other limited-access highways. Most streets and highways in the states I have experience with (SC, NC, VA, MD, DE, PA, & VT) have no minimum speed. Horses and buggies are regularly used on highways by Amish and Mennonites in parts of PA, MD, DE, and VA, and farm equipment is allowed on normal highways/roads/streets in all of these. You may as well accept that you're going to encounter people who are going slower than you. It would be a lot less stressful.

I ride my bicycle to work and for light shopping as well as for pleasure, and in the D.C. area, approximately 1% of commuters get to their jobs by bike. It's just a sliver, of course, but every little bit helps reduce congestion and improve air quality. There seems to be a fallacy in your reasoning, though, in that you seem to suggest that my purpose for being on a road matters.

With respect to building bicycle lanes -- I don't believe we need dedicated bike lanes on all roads. If the road carries enough traffic that bicycles represent an impediment, then build the curb lane wide enough to allow trucks to safely pass bicycles, or include a smooth paved shoulder in the design. In addition to facilitating traffic flow, it will also make the road safer, in case a driver should stray off the road. Either way, it's a small amount of pavement compared to the entire project. And if the amount of traffic doesn't justify such a width, then there's no need to build it; overtaking vehicles can slow down and wait a few seconds until they can safely pass.

It's reasonably safe to share the road when everyone exercises a little respect for others. I've only had one minor motor vehicle collision in 36 years of adult cycling -- one that would have happened even if I had been riding in a crosswalk from a bike path. When I've tallied up the experience of people I know in my bike club, bike-car accidents have been much rarer than bike-bike or single bike accidents; I think it's something like three fatalities among 2,000 people over the course of 30 years. I can live with odds like that.

Cyclists don't ride on the interstate because it's not allowed, but they would be plenty safe there. Interstates have wide lanes and decent shoulders, and there aren't distractions like driveways, side streets, and unnecessary signage. That other roads weren't designed to accomodate motor vehicles and cyclists is a failure of policy. Legally, cyclists have a right to be there, as does a guy with a horse and buggy or someone driving a backhoe or tractor. And if everyone involved exercises some responsibility and due care, the road can be shared just fine by everyone.

I agree with you, there are jerks on bikes, and I won't attempt to excuse their behavior. It's interesting to see, though, that cyclists are just doing the same thing that motorists do. I keep in my Blackberry a copy of an AT&T Worldnet poll from 10 years ago that asked "What motor vehicle violation do you commit most often without being caught?" Five percent of the people admitted to "rolling stop at stop signs", and 57% admitted to "speeding 1-10 mph over the limit". I'd say that both motorists and cyclists make no bones about what they regard as insignificant violations of the law; they figure they're not likely to hurt anyone. And one more thing from that poll was that only 11% of respondents selected "None".

One more thing that may be useful for you to know is that in some cases, it is safest for a bicyclist to ride in the center of the lane. If the lane isn't wide enough for motor vehicles to safely pass the bicycle, the cyclist should "take the lane" for his own safety. This maneuver is expressly allowed under Code of Virginia section 46.2-905. So please don't begrudge the cyclist his place on the road -- direct your complaints to the legislators who don't build the road wide enough for the traffic it's intended to support.

From what I've seen, bike helmet laws aren't ever enforced, anyway. Virginia has a law allowing localities to enact helmet laws for sub-16-year-olds, and my county has one, but I see more kids without helmets than with them. Unfortunately, the state law also says that failure to wear a helmet can't be treated as contributory negligence, so if I hit one of these kids, my liability may go up because of the parents' failure to police their kids. It basically boils down to statutory parental advice, which is a waste, in my opinion. They could devote an entire section of the Code of Virginia to parental advice and still be incomplete.

As a long-time cycling enthusiast, I'm mostly convinced that helmets are worthwhile, since in addition to reducing head injury in severe crashes, they can also prevent a minor fall from resulting in an expensive emergency room visit. On the other hand, I'll also say that you're right, driving a bicycle correctly is the bigger factor. I seem to end up on the pavement every couple of years or so, but it's been stuff that had nothing to do with other vehicles (apart from the time I overlapped my daughter's bike wheel). My first collision with a motor vehicle was last year, after more than 60,000 miles of riding. I attribute this to following the rules of the road -- on the road -- and people I know who use sidepaths have a much worse record. Whether one wears a helmet or not, acting like the rest of the vehicles on the road does the most to promote survival. It's called responsibility.

This is what they told us when we looked at the Leaf a year or two ago. Considering that most preventive maintenance consists of oil changes and replacing various filters, it seems credible. FWIW, my previous two motor vehicles got along fine over the course of 13 years and 120,000 miles each without replacing brake fluid, and one of them, a Ford minivan, got its first replacement set of brake pads at something like 80,000 miles. I believe also that my first new car, bought in 1982, lasted me 8 years and 100,000 miles without replacing the brake fluid. Replacement brake pads, by the way, have never shown up as a maintenance item in any owner's manual I've ever seen; they've been lumped in with other unscheduled repairs like mufflers, radiators, etc.

The thing I look forward to about an electric car, when we get around to it, is not having to deal with oil changes, mufflers, and radiators.

If you Google for "anti-semitic elmo new york", you'll find that his first "arrest" was being taken for a mental evaluation, and the recent one was for disorderly conduct. You may also find that he is probably not the kind of guy you want walking around hugging kids, which he seems to do when he isn't going off on Jews: Beneath a Ranting Elmo’s Mask, a Man With a Disturbing Past

In the U.S., we put up with a lot. Life of Brian evoked lots of protests from Christians when it opened in theaters 30+ years ago, but it was still available to be seen in theaters even in the Bible Belt. The court allowed Nazis to parade in Skokie, IL, a city with a high population of Jews. (I am Jewish, but I support that court decision.)

From time to time, you'll see incidents in which someone suffers some kind of oppression for expressing unpopular views related to religion, but nearly always, if the oppressor is an agent of the government and the matter goes to court, freedom of speech prevails. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Today's plug-in hybrids are crap. The plug-in Prius goes about 15 miles before it has to use the engine, and the Volt does about the same. I'm not sure I'd want to deal with the hassle of storing the power cable each morning just to save half-gallon of gas (assuming I had a conventional car that gets 30 mpg). I believe that both vehicles are designed to sell plug-in capability as a sort of environmental gloss, the way ethanol/gasoline vehicles were built a few years ago with tiny ethanol tanks so people could have "flex-fuel" vehicles back when ethanol was believed to be a good, environment-friendly fuel source.

Current all-electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi MiEV make ideal second cars for a two-car household like mine. Plenty of people drive less than 60 miles in a typical day, and both vehicles fill the bill. They do this without the extra complexity introduced by having a gasoline engine and an electric motor. (Maintenance on the Leaf consists of rotating the tires periodically and changing the brake fluid at 100,000 miles.) One major problem is that their expense front-loads the cost, and one doesn't see any cost savings until the vehicle is near the end of its life. The last time I checked, neither manufacturer was providing a price for replacement batteries, which are needed to turn the cars into real money-savers.

Same here. Many of my books will eventually be donated to the library book sale, but some are more valuable than that, and many have sentimental value. My favorite is the "first edition" book by Vonnegut that my father bought me. It was a pirated edition from Taiwan, and Dad believed he had gotten me the genuine article. I always wanted to take it to a Vonnegut book signing, but I guess I'll have to just get a forged signature instead -- which would somehow be more appropriate. And, of course, I'll never get rid of my unnoteworthy edition of K&R's The C Programming Language, which helped me nail one of the best programming jobs I've ever had.