Not anymore. I just got a letter from austin energy informing me they are cutting the payback(12c/kwh to 10) because apparently the value of electricity fell. Funny I don't recall them annoucing a rate cut since the value of energy fell. Now I will be paying them for energy I produce and consume. I am seriously tempted to disconnect the solar meter and fool them back into just plain net metering, which is what I had originally, which I always thought was the most fair. Austin energy has gone from the best utility I used (even before I got panels) to a frickin nightmare. They did a deal with IBM to do billing and I cannot imagine a worse system. In the decade plus I had a dumb meter/non-IBM accounting I never had a misread/error. Since the smart meter/IBM system I've had 2. And because they have so many misreads, getting a person to talk to to fix it is almost impossible. A friend of mine has apartments and he spends an inordinate amount of time hassling with them where previously it was clockwork. The entire management team at austin energy should be fired.

I'm confused, how is buying a car out of state to avoid CA emissions (and needing to drive 7500 miles before trying to register) any different than buying a Tesla online in ohio, registering it in some other state, and then bringing it into ohio and re-registering? The only difference I see is that I only need to drive it from the state I registered it in for the ohio case. In both cases I think the catch is that what state is going to let you register a car without being a resident?

No you cannot. CA bans cars that do not meet CA requirements unless the car was registered out of state for some miles. From the smogtips.com website "Any type of smog station can inspect and certify your out of state vehicle (regular smog check & repair center, smog test only center, or Gold Shield smog station) so long as it's a used vehicle with at least 7,500 miles. New vehicles can not be registered in California unless they are 50-State Emissions certified. "

Good comment, wish I had mod points

According to a fairly old NHTSA study in the 90's, roughly 3% of gas cars catch fire in an accident, with a lower incidence in non injury events. Now, next question, how many tesla's have been in an accident? http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/807675.pdf

Umm, ok he went running off to china (HK), then transited thru russia. There fixed that for you.

I actually think the guy got exactly what he wanted, he is famous, so no I don't think he sacrificed anything. People do strange things to get famous.

Not everyone gets xrays every time they visit the dentist. I get them about every 4 years. Few cavities in my life, so less xrays.

Agreed, Mitt Romney is the poster child for how the super rich can avoid AMT.

So where was iron man musk's space-x to the rescue ship????

At least in my industry, copyright has worked well to litigate real thefts. Lately my industry has done like all the others and used patents to protect their turf from newcomers. Sad really, and it is slowing innovation. Startups get clobbered before they get traction. Even copyright can get misused though, see the berkeley design automation case with cadence.

A quick review of cities in the US at or around sea level where 20M rise would be a disaster include...
LA, SF, SD, SJ, Portland, Seattle, Honolulu, Houston, Miami, Jacksonville, DC, Baltimore, Phili, Newark, Boston. That is probably about 1/2 the US population. Insurance even if you have it will not be useful, the companies will default. Insurance is for sharing risk. If 50% of your policy owners experience disaster, the company will not have the resources to pay it out. Life will certainly adapt, but probably in a Mad Max kind of way. Although I am not sure I buy the 20M number by 2100. That implies close to 6in/year and we are running closer to 1in/year. Obviously the faster the rise the more difficult to adapt. Although faster might cause us to abandon places like New Orleans instead of moating it like the netherlands does.

Is there a cheaper plan with just audio? My dog doesn't pay any attention to the images, but if he hears a dog bark on the show, he cocks his head to figure out where it is coming from. In reality I would never buy a channel specifically for him. I think it is far better to actually walk him once or twice a day getting both of us some exercise and let him wander the yard whenever he wants. For him and I imagine many other canines, its almost all about smell. He can smell a rat in a tree at night, smell. At first when he would be barking at 10 at night, I'd be thinking, what. Then I get a flashlight and sure enough a pair of beady eyes would look back at me 10 feet up in the tree. Its nothing short of amazing.

I am wondering if the batteries fail from constant pressure changes. Its not like laptops or phones get pressure cycled like an airplane would. The LiIon batteries passengers carry are usually in the pressurized cabin. Are there any Li-Ion applications that do pressure cycle like a plane?

if they wanted to see how bad interest rates can be for high risk borrowers. Or a title loan on your car's title. Both semi secured debt and I think these run 25 to 30% interest rate. Yeah, cry me a river AIG.