When my car had a bad thermostat the mileage (and power) of the car dropped significantly. This was during the winter. After replacing the thermostat, efficiency and power were back up!

Of course I'm not in the UK (even if I was wouldn't i be concerned with km/litre instead of m/g?) Anyhoo I drive a 2003 VW Jetta Wagon TDI (manual transmission) and according to fueleconomy.gov (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=18793), the car gets 35 mpg city 45 mpg (avg 39) highway. From my experience it never gets less than 50mpg on highways (close to 60 driving between CT and NH), but now that I live in the city, with traffic jams, waiting several light changes in queues to make a turn, etc, I'm consistently stuck in the 40s.

This is different than fueleconomy's original rating of my car 42 city/50 (avg 45) hwy. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg...

Based on feedback from a small number drivers my car gets an average 48.3 mpg (with some reporting as high as 62mpg). So I have no clue why new EPA estimates are considered "more realistic" although they claim make their claims here: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg...
My suspicion is that it's just a way to make newer cars (which aren't as good in terms of economy), look better relative to old cars which are more affordable.

you will spend $0 and while some of the VHS players you get won't be work well, you are bound to get a decent one. A VHS head cleaner tape is not a bad idea though. http://www.amazon.com/CleanDr-...

Interesting chart-slideshow, but I don't see how it's relevant. I don't mean any disrespect, but that is completely unrelated to my question. What I was asking is more specific, "how are handguns primarily defensive weapons?". There seems to be an attempt to classify rifles as offensive and handguns as defensive.

Clearly bulletproof vests/bulletproof glass/etc are defensive technologies. Firearms are offensive techologies.

I actually don't understand this at all. Concealed handguns are not used. If they are used, they are no longer concealed handguns (or else your clothes and body would likely be damaged.

I don't really have bandwidth to fact-check this. There are a lot of trends and correlation is not necessarily causation. Mass shootings are defintiely on the rise in this country as are metal detectors in high schools. Also a lot of professional criminals are moving from physical to virtual crimes which may involve less gun violence.

Can you explain how a handgun is a defensive weapon? Does it prevent you from being shot like bullet proof vest??

In my opinion (and I guess I agree with at least some others), guns are offensive weapons: http://www.theblaze.com/storie...

From a practical perspective, I don't thiink a handgun or a rifle will do you very much good against the KGB. Oppressive regimes tend to have military dominance and unless private citizens own tanks and missile launchers (a recipe for disaster), nonviolent social change will have to be the avenue of reform at a citizen level.

So I'm not a police officer or a weapons expert. However it seems to me handguns are not a defensive technology. Their primary purpose is to kill someone. A bulletproof vest I would agree is a defensive technology. But I guess as a culture we have gotten used to doublespeak with terms such as "peacekeeper missile" so your use of the language is not unusual.

As far as I know, police officers carry handguns as an offensive technology to attack dangerous criminals. They use bullet proof vests to protect against bullet attacks.
http://www.merriam-webster.com...

Officially, sure - but I'm sure NRA leaders go on "hunting retreats" in moutain resorts funded by industry leaders and get all kinds of unofficial bribes. "Where is the proof?", you ask. I respond to this by adding an extra layer of foil to my hat.

Exoskeletons no, because the arms would be bearing you and we don't have the right to be borne by arms. Cybernetic arms (as in upper torso appendages) yes, but not legs or feet unless you walk on your hands.

Does your state have a ballot iniative process? Put forward an initiative that the people vote on instead of the politicians!

Once idea would be to try to pass legislation that limited the salaries of politicians (including the income that they could recieve as gifts) and their family members too (definitely spouses) for time during office and for the next 10 years. You want to be a politcian? Fine, but you have to live like a grad student or a Peace Corps worker to do it.

This is part of a nutritional myth that was widely believed in the 60's. It is true that you need to get 8 essential amino acids (not 9), but in the 60's people believed you had to get 8 amino acids in every meal, so "protein complementarity" was a big deal with vegetarians in the West (not so much in ancient vegetarian cultures). What we now know is that while it's true you need to get your protein from different sources to get the amino acid coverage (other than some complete plant-based proteins like soy), it is not necessary to balance them in each meal. So if you have whole wheat toast (without peanut butter) for breakfast, and peanut butter on apples for lunch, that's a complete protein. Or if you eat red beans for dinner Tuesday and rice noodles for dinner Wednesday, that's also a complete protein. In the 60s you might have been taught that the peanut butter and bread had to be paired into a delicious sandwich or that the rice and beans had to be eaten together or you would risk catastrophic health consequences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
Unless you are a spreadsheet addict, it is a waste of time to study protein complementarity. It turns out if you eat a plant based diet of varied sources (ie not only eating 1 thing all of the time), there is no protein problem whatsoever. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Sorry just replying to undo bad moderation. Didn't mean to "bug" you :)

I love plain tofu. Cut uncooked tofu into bitsize bits for chopsticking, dip in a little toasted sesame oil and soy sauce and bam! Flavor explosion with absolutely zero work :)

Also oven bake in canola oil and soy sauce until firm and win :)

I'm all for fanciful tofu cooking too, but it's really not needed or something I have time for.

It's usually injected salt water: http://nutritionfacts.org/vide...

You must be one of the 5% with a masters of analytics!

Japan is stable and developed and not majority white. Also has very good gun control and very few gun deaths. I must be a racist!