What? The labor associated with AL fabrication is generally less than steel for production runs. Generally a machine shop that can work steel can and will work aluminum. It machines much quicker and is easier on tooling. Welding can take a bit longer than steel, but generally only when done by hand -- and I imagine they're reducing the number of welds to as few as possible. On a project like that you'd cast most of your complex parts or do fastened assemblies rather than welding. That said aluminum material costs more lb per lb than steel, and you'll need more AL material to match a functionally identical steel part. You'll also probably spend more engineering time on aluminum, but that's more of a 1-time fixed cost anyways.

So they're being dishonest. You sell me a car that you say drives at 150 mph, I expect the car can go to 150 mph. I understand that it won't run at 150 mph every second I'm driving, but there are a lot of people that never see the speeds advertised.

Bullshit. Looking at the past five years of financial data, I see that the big cable companies' value and returns have increased in leaps and bounds.

I bet that same TOS also states that FitBit has the right to change the TOS at any time.

Git completion here: https://github.com/git/git/blo...

Whoa, whoa. Don't you put words in my mouth; I never said anything of the sort. Full stop.

All I did was re-print some fatality statistics that showed the numbers argument is worthless when justifying the war on terror. I didn't think my brevity would be taken to mean so much more.

Honestly, you can blast the shit out of [actual] terrorists and I'll cheer, go get em & godspeed. But to state that the reaction to 9/11 and other terrorist attacks is proportionate to the amount of lives and money lost is just not true. If it were, at least some of the other more significant causes of fatalities and monetary loss would have more of a reaction than 9/11. Its not about the numbers, it is about the reaction to being violated. Its about revenge, and making the disproportionate response known... the cost of such future attacks outweigh any benefit.

And the putz thing was a bit too much. My apologies, I'm sure you're not a penis.

I can't let this go.

Estimated US deaths due to alcohol: 80,000... per year. The estimated economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption (in 2006) were $223.5 billion

Lets look at some other numbers from the CDC on deaths in 2010...
Heart disease: 597,689
Cancer: 574,743
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 138,080
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 129,476
Alzheimer's disease: 83,494
Diabetes: 69,071
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,476
Influenza and Pneumonia: 50,097
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 38,364

Homicide: 16,259.
Motor Vehicular-related: 32,885

So don't go on about how the Afghanistan campaign is proportionate. You look like a putz.

Really look at the wheels; they are actually a very well designed machine component. The main design strengths are graceful degradation (inherently long working life), and an excellent balance of material conservation/functionality . A breakdown follows:

1. The center ribs of the wheel are the first structural element, transmitting the forces exerted on the wheel to the hub.

2. The treads are thicker material that provide several functions: provide traction, transmit the forces from the wheels' skin to the center ribs, and lend structure to the center ribs.

3. The skin of the wheel looks to be slightly cambered. Bending the skin of the wheel in such a manner actually creates a suprisingly stable structure that is also slighly flexible. That slight flex means the wheel will survive impacts better a very rigid arrangement. The thin skin also reduces weight. As the wheel skin is dented and punctured, it actually will provide better traction as time goes on. Even when the skin finally begins "fall apart" the arrangement of the tread ribs and center ribs will continue to work as a fully functional "wheel".

These wheels would work even if there weren't any skin on them, they just wouldn't work as long.

Just remember that everything you really need... they'll value-engineer out.