Thanks to the early adopters who upgraded to the newer dual-motor models, there's now a significant supply of 2ndhand Model S with only ~5000 - 20000 miles available and with more to come, the prices will fall even more.
I suspect quite a few will sell their Model S to buy a Model X. The Model 3 is still a ways off but the GM Bolt is only a year away - a car that is intended to beat the Model 3 to the punch.

Between that, the Gigafactory, the Powerwall and the SolarCity / Silevo expansion, the consumer appetite for affordable EVs that have "enough" range is being whetted almost entirely by Telsa and everyone else is merely trying to capitalize on that pent-up demand.

Who bailed out Joe Homeowner? The crisis wasn't 100% his fault either but he and millions of his neighbors got foreclosed.

Exactly!

"Mass market appeal" - he's already achieved that with the Model S. It may be too expensive for most but they sure as hell want it. And he's gotten lots of competitors talking smack about making a "Tesla-killer" which is something I've never heard them say about the Volt or the Leaf.

"can't even compete in their niche without goverment subsidies" - then you must be PISSED about the government bailing out established auto companies.

http://useconomy.about.com/od/...

"Stable Middle East" - How did the Iraq invasion help that goal? Since the '73 oil embargo, how much has it cost the USA in lives & dollars to "stabilize" the Middle East?

I take your point and I have a hard time considering anyone making $70 thousand/yr as being anywhere close to the poverty line.
But what if its not a case of him choosing to live somewhere expensive but rather refusing to be forced OUT?
Lots of people have lived for generations in poor-to-middle-class neighborhoods and then been effectively evicted through gentrification.

The hottest decade on record is the last one and significantly warmer than the '80s & 90s.
Try reading article next time - depletion happens more quickly in COLDER winters.

Whether you calculate using ESAL or load spectra, the damage factor is still at least hundreds of times what a passenger car will do under any circumstance.
Peterbilt & Kenworth tractors, without trailers, weigh 18,000 - 21,000 lbs

And in addition to trucks, there are also buses which tend to have fewer axles & wheels. Those can be much worse that your average tractor-trailer.

If they're not taxing trucks by weight, they're doing it wrong. The wear by heavy trucks is exponentially greater than a number of smaller vehicles of total similar weight.
For example, the wear & damage caused by a single tractor-trailer of 80,000 lbs is several thousand times greater than that of 20 2-ton passenger cars.

If you follow the science, the case for "alarmism" is stronger than ever.

Unfortunately, it's not just West Antarctica. There are areas on the eastern side that are of great concern, the rate of ice loss is up over 70% in 10 yrs and then there's Greenland and the overwhelming majority of land-based glaciers that are also melting.

Yes, it'll all take time but with every passing decade it seems to be speeding up.

I have no doubt that a lot of people falsely claim police brutality - but there are PLENTY of cops who resort to UNNECESSARY violence at the SLIGHTEST provocation even when they KNOW they're being recorded.
That kind of arrogance is incredible; imagine a thief who walks up to a surveillance camera, holds up his loot, give his name & address and says "come get me, bitches".

One recent incident involved a kid on a motorbike who rolled through a stop sign and then tried to evade a cop in a cruiser. The officer shot at the kid several times, hitting him at least once in the leg, forcing him to pull over and you can see him raise his hand, turn off the bike and begin to dismount.
Before he's halfway, Officer Wannabe Texas Ranger comes running at him and executes a flying side kick that knocks both kid & motorbike ass over teakettle??
WTF??

"especially since Rodney King, which made it en vogue"
En vogue?
Rodney King did not make a fucking fashion statement; he got the shit beaten out of him like I'd never seen before by several officers, who punched, kicked, and Tasered him with several dozen baton blows thrown in for good measure.

A couple years back, I requested a root cause analysis for an 8 hour outage of my company's main fiberoptic link.
The headline of the terse report I got back was "Squirrel Chew"

I don't know for certain. What I can tell you is that the smart inverters that have been a requirement for rooftop solar in Germany for the past few years are supposed to start adjusting reactive power when the output of their panels exceeds 50%.

I believe that utility-scale solar plants are already doing this in some countries.