It is not racketeering when the government does it. By definition! Now if the racketeers corrupt the government to do their bidding it is still not racketeering, it's bribery corruption etc. by racketeers.

They use Edison Nickelâ"iron batteries. Easily a 50 year life but can work for a 100 years. Depends upon the load how long they run without power - but they are cheap as hell to maintain and you can't run them to death like lead acid; they take abuse and keep going.

How does one steal these cars? Is anybody even trying and succeeding at stealing them yet?

Ok, so you take the quite likely insured car... How do you get away? Drive like mad for... 300 miles then wait for many many hours to recharge? (NO, instant battery swap requires ID, quickcharger stations talk to the computer probably ID the car too, slow charging is the probably the only secure way and that takes TIME.) Naturally all this is after you rip out wherever their cell modem's antennae is.

They don't need much service, Tesla does it cheap if you do. The parts are custom to the car and not really usable outside Tesla, so what market is there for parting it out from a chop shop?

The cars are loaded with tracking and IDs that all need to be removed. securely. How would you sell a hot Tesla? Do they even have used Tesla being sold at dealerships? oh, yeah, the dealerships HATE Tesla and are working to ban them state by state. How do you sell it? Some ignorant pawn shop owner?

How about running the battery DEAD remotely and damage the car? Oh, Tesla gets informed and a tech stops bye and saves the car for you... which has been reported as happening already (not from a hacker but from it getting too close to dead.)

When you are LUCKY enough to have a great leader who remains honest despite the pressures of the office and successfully navigates the inevitable compromising positions, you should KEEP them as long as possible! Get them body guards to protect against "accidents" too!

IT IS RARE TO FIND HONEST LEADERS; you can't replace them. More games of musical chairs played by crooks does not produce better results. Therefore, I am against term limits. I'm still for assuming politicians are guilty until proven innocent but I would rather not implement that precept with a zero-tolerance policy like term limits. think about it. term limits are zero tolerance thoughtlessness. I'm fine with changing the legal process so they are guilty until proven innocent (since that precept is the basis for term limits, separation of powers, etc.) but a rigid zero thought rule without any process for thinking; nope. Think about it, if they must prove their innocents-- maybe they'll put a webcam on their head 24/7 to protect themselves... and if anybody needs to lose ALL privacy it's the politicians... It's not like the NSA isn't blackmailing them already (notice how nobody will ever really touch the NSA.)

Neutron bombs make other materials become radioactive and the bomb itself is supposed to have a dirty result in a much smaller area.

It's relatively clean compared to one of the worst things invented but it is not really clean. We will know for sure when all this positive hype gets somebody to use it and then the real world results will slowly come out (whether or not the gov knows in detail about it does not matter, they'll claim ignorance for anything bad that results and rationalize justifications.)

Many magic tricks work based upon how predictably easy it is to distract humans.

Passengers are also paying some attention and CAN more than compensate for the distraction they create. (NOTE: I used the word "can.")

It only takes an instant of looking at the wrong place to miss the magic trick. Same with driving except the result is not enjoyable.

Many of the stereo systems I've seen are a disaster, you could die just trying to change the station and when new they have too much of a learning curve - plus all those blinking lights designed to SELL it like a bait for a fish.

I've missed many accidents over the years and I had a mix of Cell phone, Brats, and airhead teenage boys almost get me. The phone being the only one where it's 100% the user's fault for putting others at risk. They should be punished for reckless endangerment because that is exactly what it is! brats need driving around and teen boys can't help themselves but a cell user could WAIT like everybody used to do not that long ago.

Split all the fairs evenly to all drivers - since fairs are decided by millage anyway it shouldn't be a big deal... unless they figure it out and realize fewer miles are being driven with a efficient system. If they don't charge for the distance to the pick up, then that factor would be a lower overhead cost and save them money.

Tips. Well, that is not actually randomly distributed so I could see complaints about not getting more time around certain areas at certain times. They won't ever agree to pool tips.

How about you just save up as a company and replace all the humans with robots in a decade.

You nailed it. Nice to have at least a coward who gets it!

Carter ALMOST had the extremely popular Medicare expanded to cover ALL children to college students. So only the middle would have to suffer. Can you imagine after a generation or two how many people would HATE what we had (or now have?)

Then you have the Gold Standard and Vietnam mess dumped into his lap - With OPEC having us by the balls thanks to Nixon's move to the Oil Standard. Which is what any expert knew would happen. Gold doesn't matter, but Oil does so you prop up the dollar by making everybody buy Oil with dollars and then you become the middle man for the new gold. The dollar standard propped up by the reality based oil standard. That is why the Saudis have so much power over the USA and why we must invade those who undermine the dollar. It would also be a great motive and need to foobar the EU with our banking crisis as they started to undermine the oil dollar; when you think about it...

Any sane parent will make sure all the children get a minimum amount before the others can try to have 2nds and 3rds. I'm not sure I'm for minimum wage if we simply provide every human being some sort of MRE, basic shelter, and basic healthcare (free sterilization.) Anything after that can be for those who are willing to work for it; but the workers must subsidize the minimum support system. Now if too many people have children then the burden will become too massive and the evenly distributed portions will shrink as well. Communist? No. It's merely a replacement for the minimum wage which REQUIRES enough jobs when the population rises and the job market shrinks.

You won't have trouble finding people to work in the support system and it'll get more automated making it cheaper and cheaper.

THE JETSONS. almost nobody needs to work. the jobs are largely excuses to employ people (and actually exist as a story device because it would be pretty dull if everybody just did whatever they wished in a futuristic utopia for children. Brave New World... more realistic but not for a children's cartoon.)

Minimum wage has nothing to do with computer/robot automation. The connection is so weak it is not worth discussing. It's a gimmick to provoke a discussion of which there will only be one paragraph of the two topics intersecting.

There are not enough jobs and not enough resources to even theoretically support the jobs required to cover everybody. Robots only intersect as far as the increasing shortage of jobs.

Minimum wage needs to be linked to inflation so this isn't a never ending waste of debate time. History has decided upon minimum wage. Not raising it is to ignore a settled matter.

Carter knows how the system works (or more like how it doesn't work) he isn't going to go too far out on a limb when he doesn't know the details of the situation. Plus despite his age and lower activity he knows he can't afford to cause himself too much trouble - he has said for decades that he had to avoid stepping on toes because of the repercussions.

In addition, his philosophy is you change things within a system; which means dealing with the broken process and trying to fix it along the way. He does not have an insurgent mindset where one goes around the system on the assumption that it is useless and unrepairable. So it is a rather big deal that he backs Snowden's circumvention as much as he does. His thinking would be along the lines of a whistle blower protection process so one wouldn't need to circumvent the system. You simply don't succeed in the Military and then become US President without at least a little authoritarian bias.

Carter was the last actual president on the USA. Afterwards they were all vetted so they will not mess with the establishment. It just goes to show, the president doesn't have much power; just like a puppet dictator, the only power is that which is sanctioned by those who are actually in control.

They are seriously not that big of a deal the technology is decades old but somehow now it is a craze because some media outlets covered it. While the expensive models are slightly improved over what could be done long ago it's not serious or useful tech outside of prototypes and toys. I would find a personal CNC machine more practical.

If somebody would sell a cheap one that printed WAX I might consider it (wax for sacrificial metal casting.) If they added a CNC pen for the plotter it might also make it useful; especially with the layered imperfections of many of them. The plastic parts that everything has which break and are hard to replace are stronger than what these printers can do (plus you have to get a model of the part) it is better to make the replacement part stronger-- in which case, metal casting is far more useful - glue the plastic part together just long enough to make a casting of it. Then put your old Al cans to good use.

All that being said, if I have the time and inclination someday I'll just make my own. I've thought about doing that over a decade already; it's not difficult to out perform these bought models for less money. One doesn't have to buy expensive stepper motors and sensors.... proper design using tension and dynamic feedback loops can give you incredible precision with poor quality construction.

Two wrongs means both sides are full of shit.

I frankly feel insulted when these new readers and lousy reporters call themselves "journalists." Bloggers don't know better so I don't hold it against them. One should be required to have a degree to earn the title Journalist. Just as a garbage handler should not be allowed to degrade Engineers by calling themselves sanitation engineers.

There has to be a rather large group of the population where they had this happen to them a lot; probably starting with their parents and continuing on up. They end up thinking this is how it is done. I've had some play stupid simply because they had learned it was easier to filibuster the process instead of actually thinking it out for themselves. It wastes so much time while they try to wear you down so you give them the answer. It's like a child pulling some trick they learned; but it is an adult playing the same game (so they can be more clever, making it harder for them to learn the error of their ways.)