It sounds to me like it's pretty much a state by state issue. Here, I am able to get gas without ethanol, but only in the lowest octane rating (87 usually). Mid-grade and premium fuels are required to have ethanol, which is currently mixed at 10%.

As for identifying which fuels contain ethanol, state law here requires labels on the pump indicating if ethanol is mixed in and in what percentage, so what you're getting is very clear.

You should check again, all the rules requiring the telcos to share lines are gone now. Pretty much for no other reason than they complained that they weren't making enough money.

This is a true story from my college days. I was taking a business class (intro to economics, I think) to satisfy one of my credit requirements for my engineering degree. At one point in the class, the professor started explaining the characteristics of a line in what I found to be a really roundabout way. I remember trying to follow along, getting frustrated, and actually writing in my notes, "Why the hell wouldn't we use y=mx+b?"

I was so bothered by this that I approached the professor after class, and asked him why he wasn't just teaching the class y=mx+b. He immediately asked me if I was an engineer (this university had a large engineering program) and I replied that I was. He then said, "The business students can't really understand y=mx+b, it's too hard for them."

I was floored. I actually thought he was joking at first, but as we talked it slowly sank in that he really was serious. I had joked along with a lot of other engineers about how easy business classes must be, but I never thought that they would actually turn out to be worse than our jokes!

This is the next generation of managers. People that really are too stupid to understand the simplest of algebra. Next time you find yourself wondering why a corporation is doing something that is absolutely idiotic, just remember that an accredited university probably vouched for the person involved, even though they can't understand something as simple as y=mx+b.

As someone who works with audio professionally, I can say that statement is pure marketing bullshit. A 96 kbps WMA file may have sounded better than a 96 kbps MP3 file, but both of them still sound like crap compared to a higher bitrate file. An MP3 with almost double the bitrate certainly will win in sound quality.

That statement about WMA having better low bitrate performance than ANY other codec is pretty ridiculous considering the many years of advancements made since then. AAC is probably the only codec that I actually consider usable at 96 kbps, and its performance at even lower bitrates is far, far above that of WMA.

Probably nothing. He didn't say what type of show he was watching, and your 16 minute time is probably based off of a DVD where episodes are 44 minutes long. (There are a fair amount of shows slipping under that number recently)

What you're missing is that the end credits can often run for a full minute on DVD but on TV will be crammed into a tiny box and/or sped up while they play ads on the rest of the screen. Up to 17 already. What about shortened title sequences? Depending on the show you could gain close to 30 seconds there. Then there's the really big one, syndication. Syndicated shows often are edited for time, specifically so they can show more commercials. Combine all those and 20 minutes turns into a low estimate of commercial time.

Maybe the judge just thinks the lawyer that righthaven sent is an asshole, and he wants him to do as much work as possible. Judges basically get to do whatever they want in their own courtroom anyway. NPR had a story I heard yesterday where the judge refused to accept a motion to dismiss a case... from the prosecution. I didn't even know such a thing would be possible, but apparently judges really do have almost unlimited power in their little domains.

This seems to be a pretty popular opinion, but it's completely unjustified. Your hardware is going to determine your noise level, regardless of being inside or outside the case.

I used to work for a radio network that fed more than 20 stations. We had literally dozens of pro level sound cards, and every single one of them was internal. Some of them were being fed analog signals running through almost 200 feet of cable to get to the server the card was in. Noise levels on all these cards were absolutely rock bottom. As in below -120db. That's low enough that it can't even be represented in 16 bit audio.

Of course, we paid several thousand apiece for those cards, but that's because we needed multiple inputs and outputs on many of them. There are some great 2 channel stereo cards available for under $500 that have about that level of performance. In the end, if you really need great performance from your audio hardware, be prepared to pay for it. And that goes for everything in your audio chain.

I really hope his dream rig has something a little nicer than an audigy. At least one of the cheaper stereo cards from Digigram would be about the minimum I'd want to do any serious recording. Sure, they're a bit more expensive, but if you want truly rock bottom noise levels you need a professional solution (with balanced inputs).

I take it you're not from the midwest. Tornadoes can spring up even in relatively good conditions. For example, I was at a college football game when a tornado touched down only a few miles south of the stadium.

However, that event is a great example of why the GP is full of crap. Tornado sirens went off, and 30,000+ people managed to calmly move to shelter in the nearby basketball facility. Nobody was so much as scratched. There was some concern later when reports came in that spectators weren't sure what to do, but personally I thought it was handled fine. I also thought it was hilarious that when the all clear was given later, everybody just went back and the game continued.

That really should never have happened. As I recall the EAS insert is supposed to be the last device in the chain before the transmitter, thus the satellite feed should have been split off before the EAS signal made it into the feed. This also keeps remote sites from doubling up on EAS messages as all the local cable systems should have their own EAS equipment.

How about if we just leave them the fuck alone? Would people be okay with that?

They already have this, it's called a charter flight. Available at any local airport near you.

Humidity controls in a Liebert unit add humidity, to prevent extremely dry air.

In class G and E airspace (Damn near all airspace from the surface to 18,000 feet, except immediately surrounding major airports) the required separation for aircraft is "Don't hit anything else." Seriously.

Those separation requirements you refer to apply to aircraft flying in class A,B,and C airspace. Class D has some requirements regarding use of the runway, but not anything specific for the airspace. Aircraft on IFR flight plans may come with some additional requirements.

Considering that the rules say that the majority of the atmosphere close to the surface is open for aircraft to be stacked up like wood I'd say your "not enough space in our atmosphere" hypothesis is pretty solidly false.

(Yes, I acknowledge that actually flying aircraft by the thousands with wingtips barely touching is probably somewhat impractical.)