Just curious. Given the age of Russia's nuclear arsenal, the fact that they were practically operating a barter economy for a decade and the chaos in government leadership, have the Russians maintained these weapons so that any of them can actually be fired?

Actually, Hawking's premise has little to do with evolution. He's discussing the human contribution to accumulated knowledge and DNA design.
From the article -
"But we are now entering a new phase, of what Hawking calls "self designed evolution," in which we will be able to change and improve our DNA."

"Designed evolution" is an oxymoron.

Here is an example of a Ponzi scheme with one participant -

Repeat annually until A cashes out:
Person A gives Person B $100.
Person B gives Person A a phony balance sheet showing $120.

As long as B has enough cash on hand to meet any cash demands of A, the Ponzi scheme continues. When you say, "by definition" I think you are referring to a pyramid scheme not a ponzi scheme.

Bernie Madoff's strategy limited the number of participants in order to make each "member" feel like they were part of something special. Thereby engendering greater trust and larger investments. It was the stock market slide that did him in because he could no longer cover the cash demands of frightened clients.

Bernie needs to write a book on how he did it and give the proceeds to the people he ripped off.

What's fascinating is that every Ponzi scheme operator seems to have some level of success until they get absurdly greedy. The moral of the story -
      phase 1 - Ponzi
      phase 2 - I'm not sure
      phase 3 - profit

The personal cost of public transportation cannot be compared directly to private transportation costs. Political decisions, along with federal, state and local tax subsidies determine the cost of public transportation. For some people public transportation is free (e.g. NYC school children). For those who can't use public transportation but are taxed for it, the cost per mile is infinite.

In 2002 federal transit subsidies were over $7.3 billion dollars. This works out to a subsidy of about 12 cents a mile for every passenger. In NYC, Washington DC, Chicago and Boston the amounts are much higher. On the other hand, the net federal subsidy to highway passenger transportation was negative as a result of gas taxes and tolls.

"Would it really be that bad if two billion people died?"

Well, the doctor interrupted me just about then,
Sayin, "Hey I've been havin' the same old dreams,
But mine was a little different you see.
I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me.
I didn't see you around."

Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody's having them dreams.
Everybody sees themselves walkin' around with no one else.
Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
Some of the people can be all right part of the time.
But all the people can't be all right all the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.
"I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours,"
I said that.

Bob Dylan

The $23 trillion debt estimate does not include the unfunded liability for social security, medicare and medicaid. In two years, 8000 people a day will become eligible for social security. It is already too late.

Yes, they are incompetent. And congress would like to apply this same standard of expertise to our medical records.

The $3K tax rebate may increase hiring but only at the low end of the wage scale. The employer's contribution to social security, medicare, and unemployment taxes means that an employee making more than $30K a year will cost the employer more than $3K/year in taxes.

Ironically, eliminating state and federal unemployment taxes would allow employers to increase employment by about 3% even if the new hires did nothing.