Ironically, NASA has almost certainly killed more people with the space shuttle than have died due to ignition switches.

I haven't the slightest idea why they're going to NASA of all places for an engineering audit, whenever there's a shuttle accident it's always transpired that NASA has intractable compliance and engineering culture problems, and lack the capacity to properly validate a tricycle for safety, let alone a mass-produced motor vehicle. Their incompetence has literally cost the US a manned spaceflight program.

They may be taking a page from Jack in the Box, when JITB hired NASA to completely overhaul their procedures after the salmonella deaths. Given NASA's record it's a miracle JITB burgers didn't all subsequently carry Ebola.

She was the provost of Stanford University, she's got a huge rolodex in government and SillyCon Valley. She's also obviously got a big background in IR and particularly working with Russia and Africa, which are both huge growth markets for Internet companies.

Her biggest crime was not asking all the right questions, and didn't have to swag necessary to challenge Cheney or Rumsfeld, not that she was particularly motivated. She's proven to be a pretty bad administrator and manager, but she's going on the Board, not into management.

7.1 million sign ups out of over 300 million people for a "mandatory" participation program is truly pathetic regardless whether it is above or below what was expected.

Are you sure that's the right comparison? There are over 300 million people in the US, but you only have to apply for "Obamacare" if you don't have employer-provided health care, you aren't covered by your parents, you aren't qualified to draw on Medicare or Medicaid, and your obligation is waived for religious or moral reasons. This remainder only comes out to about 20-30 million.

Bullshit. Tesla has stated that the computer that controls the 17" and panel LCDs are completely separated from the important stuff in the car.

Hrm. The Tesla touchscreen give your instrumentation and feedback on powerplant performance, and it allows you to control the headlamps, doors, regenerative braking and hydraulics. I'm not clear on what kind of "complete separation" were talking about. If an attacker got into the touchscreen they probably wouldn't be able to brick the whole car, but if you lost the touchscreen while moving on the road you could be in a lot of trouble.

Hate to tell you, but touch screens have been a staple for fighter jets for a few days now,

Hate to tell you, but fighter pilots are trained professionals who spend years learning how to use their equipment in an efficient way that doesn't interfere with their flying of the plane.

Also, the obvious complexity of flying a supersonic $10e9 machine designed to blow stuff up notwithstanding, the problem domain of flying a fighter jet does not involve such things as traffic and obstacles, which is why we've had automatic pilots 60 years ago, but we're only barely beginning to have auto-driving cars.

I bet you're one of those people that doesn't like how computers constantly beep in movies too :) I personally created all the computer beeps for 2012 and White House Down. This is just an issue of convention, tires squeal in proportion to the hurry the characters are in.

It sticks out nearly as much as the Wilhelm scream.

I'm known as an anti-Wilhelm person, the guys from Lucasfilm love it, they still think it's an inside joke or something -- Lucasfilm maintains its sterling reputation for being 1986's state-of-the-art in all things. I think it's obnoxious, however I'm presently working on 22 Jump Street and the director's themselves personally requested I use it in one scene. Yuck.

Every professional editor in the world would add engine noise to a shot of an operating automobile. It's one of those things that you do without even thinking about, because generally you will receive footage (especially if it's b-roll) that has poor audio quality.

I am a motion picture sound designer, my credits include Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker and Men in Black 3.

I would not add fucking internal combustion engine noise to footage of a Tesla S. I might add something-- an electric motor, or recording of a prius, something designed special; I'd definitely add tire skids and suspension sounds over bumps. But I'd be laughed off the dubbing stage if I added V-8 revs to and electric car.

Sound design is one of the few aspects of television news where reporters and editors are allowed to straight-up lie, because they have a mentality that all they're required to do is (1) not modify the image, and (2) not say anything false. All other manipulations are considered merely style.

Eh, I've driven a Tesla S, the interior is broadly comparable to a BMW 5 series, and your get much more oomph on the pedal. The handling wasn't as good as a 528 or a Porsche Panamera, IMHO, and of course the range is a joke -- you're paying a price for the nice acceleration. The people Tesla was going for with the S was the people who were looking at BMW 5s and Mercedes E-class sedans, not the old farts buying 750s and S550s.

Have you actually driven a Mercedes S-class? It's not just about the interior...

If I didn't use the word "enlightened", it was not an accidental omission.

That's extremely disingenuous; you characterized the whisky rebels as manifesting superior and contrary values to celebrity-obsessed moderns. If you aren't saying they were fighting for the true values of the revolution, which we should all say were enlightened, then what are you saying?

Look deeply at the situation and you will find within yourself a subconscious (you see and understand that word "subconscious", right?) need to display your cleverness and to appear "right" in the eyes of others, i.e. what is commonly called insecurity. It leads to all sorts of absurd behavior like this.

I think what's going on is you're one of those people that constructs an argument so abstruse and subtle, so obfuscated by insinuations, and so muddled by generalization, that it fails to say anything, and for every 100 words of positive argument you spend 1000 words telling people they're interpreting you wrong.

The point (that you had to work to miss) was: in a supposedly representative republic that supposedly carries out the will of The People, extremely unpopular laws were impossible (and downright dangerous) to enforce.

Well, except for the fact that Washington won, with broad public approval (western Pennsylvania notwithstanding), and the law stayed on the books until Jefferson repealed it.

They didn't tax whisky because it was an opiate, they taxed it because it was being used as a commodity currency.

I'm well aware of the whisky rebellion, the people involved were really concerned about being able to make and market whisky, their resistance was little more than illegal brigandage. So yeah, they weren't concerned about "singers or actors," they were too busy beating people up for trying to enforce a law. The average whisky rebel's motivations would be easily recognizable to the average confederate soldier.

Is the Whisky Rebellion really your sine qua non of an enlightened citizenry defending its rights? Sit-Down Strike much? Or Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion? These are people that were fighting for real rights, their livelihoods, their liberty and their lives, as opposed to mouthing empty-headed platitudes in order to get out of paying a tariff.