If your vehicle has electronic fuel injection, like most modern gasoline powered cars do, then your car wouldn't work anyway if an EMP goes off.

You don't even need the original key in order to get a copy made. Just show up with the VIN number, which can be read through the windshield,and they can do if for you.

What if the battery is completely dead and you want to roll start it? I'm for keyless cars; I'm just playing devils advocate.

Mechanical linkages fail as well. I once started a car in the cold (disclaimer: I was 16 and going to be late for school and the temperature outside was -20 F) and when I was backing out of the driveway the throttle stuck open. I had ice buildup on the spring used to provide resistance to the gas pedal, so my throttle never released from the bit of gas it took to break the ice under the tires. Thankfully I was going slow enough I had time to react and so I shut the car off so I could stop without damaging the transmission.

If you have an automatic transmission you don't need a clutch. It operates by stopping sets of gears in a planetary gear type system. I say planetary gear type because most transmissions are more complicated than that.

Source: Engineering Student

Agreed. I remember an article on slashdot before outlining the process of parallel construction and how it was used against U.S. residents/civilians. They may be mining the data for an investigation and then not using it in court which is illegal, and if it isn't it should be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

The power will be transmitted as microwaves, which aren't scattered by the atmosphere as easily as visible light.

Exactly. The only problem is we only have access to one habitable planet to toy with. I think it makes more sense to just adapt to the changes that will happen rather than try to manipulate a system we don't understand and can't afford to completely destroy.

I agree that nuclear is part of the solution to our current problems, but we have to get over the social issue first. Nuclear is safe the public just associates everything to do with radiation and nukes with death.

I personally think that nuclear fission plants should be used until we can get fusion working for energy production or we can make space based solar reasonably effective.

The climate and global weather systems aren't some homogenous entity. Local climate and weather is not only coupled to transient effects from the sun and random fluctuations, but also geography. Some places will get hotter, some colder. Others will have more precipitation and others less.

Also, FYI warm air can carry more moisture. So a warmer upper atmosphere == more possible snowfall.

I'd be leary of either overcorrecting for climate change or having massive unpredicted effects. I'm all for trying to fix the problem. I just don't think our climate modelling is yet good enough.

Agreed. I'm an engineering student and I'm the head of one of my student competitions which happens to involve building a high powered rocket. I had to travel on the day of an important meeting for the competition and was forced to leave the task to a rather junior member of the team. I couldn't check in on one of team members when I was in either airport because I was afraid of being labeled as a terrorist and end up in an interrogation room because I was discussing basic rocketry with a team member.

3D modelling is way easier than producing good technical drawings, and you don't need the drawings for 3D printed components. The only time you would need them is if you had to submit them to another company or for checking the part for tolerances.

Kind of. I'm saying still have the battery. Just use the small engine for range extension on long trips exactly how the volt does it. Locomotives do it because the losses from transmission from mechanical->electricity->mechanical is a lot less than the losses for the insane gearing system that would be needed otherwise and you get max power at a stop all the way through max speed on the rails.

Are you at University of Washington or University of Wisconsin?