So it's perfectly OK to "hide the decline." After all, it doesn't really matter if tree ring data shows a decline in temperature in modern times when the temperature is obviously rising as shown by accurate thermometers. We'll just use the tree ring data as a proxy for past temperatures anyway. And when we discover the "anomaly" we'll just neglect to extend that graph line because it would be awkward to explain just why that green line is headed down, down, down while everything else is headed up.

After all, we're only coming off the "Little Ice Age" and are in an inter-glacial period. We can explain the "Medieval Warming Period" and the "Roman Warming Period" They're just "local variations," you know.

And so what if Al Gore got his CO2 readings and his temperature readings backwards, thus claiming CO2 caused temperature rises when the rises came first? It makes a very scary looking graph.

And what about the ice core samples from Greenland that show the "Hockey Stick" is such a minor glitch it can't be seen? Don't worry. We can change the scale to make it look bad and besides, no matter what input we use, as long as it's "red noise" (like stock prices) we get a hockey stick anyway! So no matter what we do, we can show how alarming it is!

Oh, and did we put some of our temperature gauges in asphalt parking lots in the south? Don't worry, we've "adjusted" those readings artificially.

After all, we're SCIENTISTS and we can explain everything. Move along. There's nothing to see here.

Chemtrails are real, too....

How many gasoline cars catch on fire every year? Thousands.

How many Teslas have caught on fire ever? Two

Conclusion: Teslas catch on fire.

Using a key is so 19th century. Pushing a button? 20th century. Embedded RFID is where it's at. Get in the car; it turns on. End of story.

4 million people was the figure quoted. 4 million people "disagreed." I assumed that was the population of Detroit. Obviously that was wrong, It's the "Metro area of Detroit" that is 4 million, so you get off on a technicality, but it does NOT CHANGE THE FACT that Detroit's murder rate of 48 per 100,000 is FAR higher than more civilized parts of the country, including San Jose at 4.1 per 100,000.

Add to that the fact that the city is bankrupt through decades of mismanagement, it's houses are being bulldozed. The only thing that keeps the city going is gambling. It's police force is brutal, as is its extremes of climate. And its economy sucks.

Other than that, I'm sure it's a great place to live. Pardon if the rest of the country doesn't flock to live there, Meanwhile the city proper (since you insist on those numbers) has witnessed a decline in population from over a million in 1990 to 713,000 today. In other words, people are leaving as fast as they can.

Of course you have to make it through the day without getting murdered. Detroit is exceeded only by New Orleans for murder capital of America (48 per 100,000 in 2011). Compare Silicon Valley (San Jose) at 4.6 per 100,000 in 2012. So by this time next year a couple thousand of those 4 million will be dead.

There's a lot more to avoid in Detroit than the snow. I guess that makes me a wuss.

Homeowners' Associations are like little Nazi dictatorships enforcing a bland conformity on everyone. "Think of my neighbors"? How about they worry about their own shit instead of the color of my deck railing?

It is by design. The "original" retirement age of 65 was set there because that was the average life expectancy. The idea was that if you managed to beat the odds, then a small pension would pay for your food and incidentals while your family was expected to provide the rest until you managed to do the right thing and kick off.

Today, of course, "retirement" has become an entitlement and you expect the government to keep you in the style you have grown to expect with a sufficient pension to maintain your independence.

But it was legal because his cars were never more than 6 months old.

The idea that 3D printing won't take off because people are not well-versed in designing their own 3D products with expensive CAD software is like saying printers won't take off because people aren't really good writers and can't afford a word processor. How many people use their printers for printing off their own words from a word processor? How many people use their printers for printing off PDF files, manuals, brochures, etc. from the Net?

Why won't 3D printers take off again?

Computers will never be all that affordable. Mass production is too much cheaper than one-off designs. Computers will continue to be for big business and hobbyists, not mainstream.

Only if the store has it in stock. And why do I need them as an intermediary anyway? Point, click, file, print is a lot easier than driving to the mall only to find out they don't have it.

I had Lifelock when the Stratfor hack went down. Stratfor told us all Christmas Eve IIRC though the hack happened in early December. I and thousands of others verified our cards were in the wild, took action, cancelled cards, etc. Finally, in mid-January, Lifelock informed me that my card had been compromised with a single e-mail, long after I already had my new card.

Totally useless.

So go elsewhere.

WHY do you have to climb to 45,000 feet to depressurize the cabin? a normal Flight Level of 35,000 feet doesn't have enough oxygen either. There's no need to climb if that's what you intend to do.

Climbing costs fuel. Descending to 20,000 some odd feet ALSO requires fuel because it costs more fuel to fly at lower elevations. And tHAT lessens the range.

The phones weren't "ringing." the ring tone the relatives heard was supplied by Central Office Equipment to give the illusion that the phones were "ringing." That's what happens when someone picks up the phone and you say, "But it hadn't started ringing yet." Yes, it had. It's just that your simulation-ring hadn't reached you yet--two different tones. Think about it. There is only a single cable pair that hooks up a typical phone. How could you possibly "hear it ring"?

The cell network mimics the POTS network. It's just part of the "aural interface" phones have used for over a hundred years.