Need to do the LED mod for the front panel blinkenlights. The tiny incandescent bulbs are getting harder and harder to find.

The problem isn't science. The problem is science reporting. A study making come claim makes for a catchy headline. Problem is, it's just one study, usually calling for more studies with guidance at the end. That's the bit that's usually left out.

A few years ago a European health organization did a huge study of cell phone safety. Thousands of trials across dozens of countries over the course of a decade. Of the thousands of trials - ONE showed a *possible* correlation between one form of cancer and cell phone usage. What was the headline? Study shows that cell phones cause cancer! What was the official conclusion of the study? Cell phones probably don't cause cancer, but the one trial should probably be re-run just to make sure.

I always thought Heathkit was more futuristic than Radio Shack. In the late 80's the one by me had multiple Hero robots roaming around the store greeting people, all those weird H-80 machines hooked up to stacks of packet radio gear (connect to other computers wirelessly!) Home automation equipment. And, in the early 90's when they started carrying Apple gear, they had a fully decked-out Mac II with every peripherial you could buy for the thing - external hard drives, tape drive, CD-ROM, stereo speakers, color screen, graphics tablet, LaserWriter AND Imagewriter on a network. Probably $20,000 worth of gear back then.

There are loads of independent parts stores around me, but I live in job-shop-land (small companies that do short production runs of industrial control panels / tools / etc...) There's a store, still in business, where I grew up that still has a tube-tester. They're more like the REALLY old-school Radio Shack. There's one on the other side of the city that carries nearly every component you could want.

The store by me turned into a "clearance" center, which means they are closing I guess. Got an Arduino Yun + LCD touch shield for close to 50% off. Gonna go back for more...

Ephemeris table or it didn't happen.

The manufacturer of that phone buys parts by the millions. They probably have a blanket order for them. You get a pretty steep discount at those volumes. The R.P.F. probably buys a few tens of thousands at a time - maybe.

I enjoyed watching TNG but the script quality was extremely variable. X-Files had some bad episodes, but overall the quality of writing was much, much better. Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" is one of my favorite episodes of any TV show.
Mulder - "What did you do with Scully!!?!?!"
Jesse Ventura - "Oh, ahhhh... she went to get some ice..."

There is, as according to the census bureau, there are roughly 860,000 other places to work in California alone, including a few dozen other amusement parks. You can also work for yourself. Crazy concept, I know, but you can make up your own conditions for employment.

You're right - all those researchers are like "I'm not going to run this experiment with this deadly bacteria in a hermetically sealed safety chamber because I'll make so much more money if I don't use one..."

I work with companies that do these sorts of experiments - every last one of them is PARANOID about safety.

"Life found a way."

Well that sounds science-y enough to be plausible!

I take this position as well. I like AC's suggestion above. If you are unvaccinated and infect others, you can be held liable for the cost of their health care and your own. Maybe health insurance rates could be adjusted accordingly.

Absolutely it is. Your have freedom to live your life as you choose. If you are forcing others to accommodate your choices, now you're infringing on THEIR rights.

Ooooh, obscure web reference for the win :)

The Borg is authoritarian. Starfleet is, ostensibly, Democractic. Both are communist. It works well because there are unlimited, cheap resources, so everyone gets everything. Of course it's science fiction :)