The time scale for the Sun expanding after the core hydrogen runs out is about 2 billion years, most of that will occur in the last 100 million years or so. Any people (or whatever) living on each of the inner planets will have plenty of time to see the Sun coming to get them.

No, we are not.

Most driving is not fun. It is tedious and frustrating. How many people can honestly say that they enjoy their daily commute or look forward to driving Jr to and from hockey practice? If all driving was like traveling the Sea to Sky Highway on a light traffic day then self-driving cars would be removing something fun from life. But, in the real world, self-driving cars will alleviate one of the most boring tasks that many people face.

Shutting down a route temporarily to change all the buses that are running along that route, then starting up the route again will cause tremendous disruption, not to mention the loss of business while the route is not operating. The (very) few transit systems that do this use live vehicle swaps. That is, they replace one vehicle with another at an end point of the route. This avoids the need to shut down the route,a and means that passengers do not have to transfer from one bus to another.

This depends where you are. In many cities buses run full regardless of the time of day. Even when ridership does decrease the reason that bus companies do not switch to minivans is that the most expensive part of operating a bus is the driver. Switching to smaller vehicles does not save a transit authority enough money to justify the logistical nightmare involved in changing vehicles while a route is in operation.

No, the US and the Saudis are trying to put ISIL out of business. Most of ISIL's income comes from illegal oil sales. Flooding the market with cheap crude has pulled the rug out from under them.

Of course the Japanese did not bomb Pearl Harbour. Teddy Roosevelt did it, after FDR released him from cryosleep.

Grow up Florida.

It takes a lot of energy to change the weather. Some of it must have leaked.

Aliens.

Only a violent and deranged mind would participate in the fraud perpetuated upon the world by the people who pretend that the Moon landings did not happen.

Military launches are where the money is. It would not surprise me if SpaceX's long-term goal has always been do business into the US department of defence with the talk of manned missions being primarily a way of getting media attention. Even if Elon Musk really does want to send people to Mars military launches are a good way to raise the funds to do so.

NASA does not have the funds to build instruments, or to run them once they have been launched. One of the telescopes is being used for the WFIRST mission (http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/). The other is waiting for money.