China is big. Saying China is prone to earthquakes is akin to saying the USA is prone to earthquakes.

As much left in peace as a drug addict who injects everyone they meet with a bit of their crap.

I don't care about the damage a smoker does to themselves. I care about the crap they dump in the air I need to breathe.
Smoking at home is no problem. Smoking in your own car is no problem. Smoking in the train is a problem. Smoking in a restaurant is a problem.

Since there are reports of missiles exploding above people's heads and missile shrapnel dropping in target areas (a lot better than a functional warhead) I would assume that Iron Dome works after the booster phase. If it worked in the booster phase the shrapnel would fall short of the target area.
To defend against missiles in the boost phase they would have to react incredibly fast. That may be possible with future advances like THEL or similar laser based missile defenses. Laser is fast. missiles are relatively slow.

Well, seing as how qassam rockets are build exploding by themselves may account for some of them.

How many things are blown up by rockets doesn't mean much if you don't know how many rockets were send. It only tells you it's not 100%.

Yeah, well, that single wok was about three times as expensive as the rest of my pots and pans. But it is just sooo awesome.

"There weren't many dog turds in the food"
"The rats were really nice"
"I won't post an extensive review because that would mean getting sued or lying"

If a bank lets you use ONLY a password to access your accounts it is clear that they do not care much about theft. The rest of their security will be similarly crappy. I would trust them with my mortgage. Not my savings or payment accounts.

My bank requires me to log in with a unique single use code. That code is generated by a "random reader". To generate a code I need to put my PIN card in that reader and enter the PIN.
After I have logged in I still need to sign my transactions. Also with a single use code generated by my random reader. This signing code requires me to enter a single use code that is generated by the bank and displayed on the signing page. Each signing event needs a different code, each code generates a different signing code to enter on the signing page (to prevent some man in the middle attacks.). Next I need to enter the total amount on my random reader (to prevent large problems in other man in the middle attacks).
For large amounts I also need to enter the bank account number in my random reader (to prevent large problems in other man in the middle attacks).

The app is slightly less secure once activated, but you need to sign (with the process described above) to activate your account number on that phone. If you never do that there are no phones that can access your account via the app. You can only pay to known bank accounts with the app. Only those you have already paid to (with the extensive signing procedure).

I like my bank. They have actually spend time to secure transactions. They have found ways to secure it without much hassle (the random reader is easy).
Maybe that is because they are on the hook if they can not prove that I authorized the transaction myself.

It was a joke that got out of hand.

For that number to be correct the amount of heat an incandescent produces is irrelevant.
Each watt of heat the bulb produces must be removed by the AC. Typically an AC needs 1.5 times the energy it removes to remove that energy.
To get the complete losses we need to add the direct losses of the bulb (a factor 1) to the indirect losses of the additional AC work (a factor 1.5). 1+1.5=2.5.
A calculation example:
An 100 W incandescent bulb with 10% efficiency (this is a good bulb) produces 90W heat. To remove that 90W the AC must spend 90*1.5=135W
Total loss = the energy the bulb dumps + the energy the AC needs to remove that energy = 90+135=225 W.
If we replace that with a 20W powersaving bulb with 20% efficiency then that bulb produces 16W of heat for the same light.
This 16W must also be removed by the AC, which spends 24W doing that. Total energy cost for the waste heat: 40W
Total saved energy: 225-40=185W.
The directly saved energy is only 100-20=80W
That's a factor 2.3 over the direct energy savings alone.
Ok, my factor 2.5 was too simple. It does allow for quick calculations.

I didn't mean that. I was trying to show that his light could very well be the biggest energy user in his house. Not that it is so in every house.
However, a class A refrigerator with approximately the same volume uses 318 kWh a year. My comparison site doesn't have worse than class A refrigerators at that size. With Kieskeurig (warning, Dutch) that means they are hard to get here in the Netherlands. The class A is only EUR 488 delivered, while the A+++ is EUR 599 delivered. Not outrageously more expensive.
Top of the line, yes, but mainly due to it's size. Not it's energy efficiency.

Up to a few years ago paying far more tax than required was done often here in the Netherlands. Not out of niceness, but because it was a good way to make more of it.

You see, when you had to pay, say E1000, and "accidentally" paid E10,000 the remaining 9000 would be paid back approximately a year later. For a time the interest the tax collecting agency had to pay over that was fixed at 7% (Don't pin me on the number. It was far higher than on savings accounts).
They fixed that to a flexible market conform interest a few years back because too many people were abusing it. It was really cutting into national tax income.

Hardly. If a company, based in Russia, gets a subpoena for their US department they can do what they want to prevent access. Stuff like revoking access for all US based employees is not illegal for them. The US government may not like it, but that matters not to the Russian company.
The US based employee has to take positive action to comply. Since (s)he can't do anything that is quite limited. Requesting restored access about it.
I would not like to be the US based employee in that case. The best that happens is that you get fired. The worst is fired, from a cannon, into the sun.

Now when the company in question is British (for example) stuff changes. In that case the US will send a request for the equivalent of a subpoena to GB and they will comply (since they are the US's lapdogs). Then the British company will have a demand they are legally obliged to fulfill.

Imagine the power usage for that cluster!

There is lies, damned lies, statistics and marketing.

Nuclear and solar are useful. However, you can't control them with the speed required to keep the net stable.
Natural gas ramps up in minutes.
Solar is unpredictable. You can't ramp it up.
Nuclear is slow. A controlled shutdown takes days.
If we want to fully switch to those resources we need large scale electricity storage. For example 20% of daily use in storage. The US used 4,095 x 10e9 kWh in 2012 according to wikipedia. That's on average 11.2 x 10e9 kwh a day. Assuming that my 20% figure is sufficient, that would mean that 2.24 x 10e9 kwh of storage is required.
If we use Li-Po batteries with 265 Wh/kg that is approximately 8.5 million tons of Li-Po batteries.
Ergo, currently such energy storage is unfeasible.

I agree with you on the coal. I don't know any reason why we should continue using that, apart from price. It is not as slow as nuclear but not fast enough to fix fluctuations in electricity usage. Not by a long shot.