It's going to be colder than normal in the eastern US this week
global warming LOL!

or, continued to run after I shut the damn thing off...

Sounds like something that could be developed into a nasty DDOS tool
//ham and egger, don't know if that is actually possible or not...

Cars don't have to be as fast as they are today, but thats what people, driven by the automotive press, have decided they want. Today's toyota camry and honda accord both can be bought with engines that approach 300HP and have sub 6 second 0 to 60 times.

40 years ago, that was the realm of sports cars. Now we have that with dime-a-dozen, bake-potato-on-wheels flagship sedans

build a sedan with a 10 second 0 to 60, which used to be quite common, and your car will be universally lambasted as "sluggish".

even the new kia sedona minivan has a 0 to 60 of 7.4 seconds and a quarter mile just over 15 seconds..

It's also slow, pollutes more than cars made in the 21st century, and a veritable deathtrap, but hey...

The natural gas version of the civic is available, right now, goes about 250 miles on a tank, enough for all but the most insane of commuters, and costs less than 30k.

A massive natural gas delivery infrastructure is already there, we just need a commitment, via tax credits or outright subsidies, for existing gas stations to add CNG pumps.

Switching a good portion of the auto fleet over to CNG would lower CO2 emissions and a lot of the nastyer emissions that create ground level smog
Is it as good as electric vehicles powered from a clean grid? No, but it's a great bridge technology.

Sigh

Nobody is saying that there can't be franchised dealerships. If that is the way a company wants to organize its distribution chain, fine..
The issue is that car dealers, slimebags that they are, are trying to use the legal system to force all businesses, whether they want to organize that way or not, to follow that model.

The reason for this is quite clear (at least to me it is), and it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with any altruistic purpose (keeping costs down, protecting the customer, or some such bullshit). Its all about using the force of government to protect their racket. They realize, quite accurately, that Tesla's model would threaten to remove a lot of the zero-value-add profit that gets extracted by the dealer from the consumer.

It's not a hard point to understand, unless you are determined not to understand it.

I recently moved from a Comcast only area to a U-verse only area (monopolies yay!!!)
I figured the new, smaller u-verse box would be better on power, but the damn thing is quite warm to the touch, even when its "powered off" from the front panel when no one is watching TV.
I don't have the exact figure, but that heat is not getting created for free (especially in the summer when it has to be pumped outside by the AC).

I have taken to switching the power off at the power strip when I'm not watching. The only downside to that is there is a bit of a lag in my trip into the land of mindnumbing entertainment as the box has to boot up and figure out who it is each time.

If the A-10 ever flies in a combat mission with an enemy well supplied with the latest generation MANPADS (greatly enhanced warheads that can easily penetrate its armor, counter-countermeasures, etc) it is Toast.
the Airforce knows this, even if its fanboys do not
A faster, stealthier design at least has a fighting chance.

The F35 is not ground-attack-only. I don't know why this keeps getting parroted.
This is not a comment on the issues surrounding its development/procurement process, it certainly has had its share, but if/when the platform reaches a mature state, it will be able to perform air-to-air missions just fine

Also the super-hornet is not "just as good"... no.. it is isn't...

Eventually... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03...

I have a new Chrysler and a newer toyota and they both have 3.5mm jacks. Odd that the Beemer doesn't

I wonder if this is a "this hotel is so nice, they make you pay for the internet" type of situation

More liberal propaganda to justify our loss of lightbulb freedom

re-engining is completely doable, you can do a google search and you'll find some examples of B52s being used as testbeds for alternate engines. Because a B52 is a high wing design, ground clearance is not an issue.

Jet engines have come along way in the last 60 years. If the AF spent the time and money to actually do this (and yes, it would lots of both), they'd have a plane that's safer (even going down to 4 engines, the MTBF is so much greater in a modern engine it more than makes up for it), much more efficient (the B52s immense range would be that much longer, or alternatively leave more weight for bombs), and cleaner if you are a touch-feely environmental type.

Still, all these benefits aside, a combination of the serious up-front costs, and an Air Force who would rather spend their money elsewhere means it will probably not happen.

There actually has been talk of replacing the 8 50's era engines of the B52 with 4 modern engines (the same that Boeing puts on the 767)
Such an upgrade would give the B52 more thrust, better range, and a much more robust supply chain for spares.

As far as I know it has never gotten out of the proposal stage.