A tricorder's nice and all, but you wanna see real technological innovation? Here, I got your technological innovation right here:

https://vine.co/v/O7jjJMi5wTa

I like how you think. I'm OK with this thread turning into ideas for ways to turn the ebola zombie apocalypse to our advantage.

On the down side, I'm leading my fantasy football league by almost thirty points. Just my luck the world comes to an end in week five.

I don't think you'll have to use Nukes. Once Texans figure out that there's Ebola running loose around their state, they'll get out their shooting irons and go full survivalist. If the guy who's the first ebola case turns out to be a black man, I've got a feeling there are going a whole lot of people of color heading for Oklahoma and New Mexico tonight.

By the end of the week, Texas will look like an episode of Walking Dead. In other words, nobody in the rest of the country will notice.

Is the end of humanity due to the Ebola virus an acceptable excuse for adultery?

Asking for a friend.

I've been reading up about that story, and the city officials didn't really mention anything about the fact that it was a connected domicile. If their rationale was based, as the officials said, on the International Building Code, there's no mention of connected vs standalone domiciles in the IBC. So I really don't know what this was about.

It seems like they were looking for a reason to cite this homeowner, who has had other run-ins with housing before, mostly for capping off her sewers.

Take away the government subsidies on solar purchase & installation and this problem doesn't even exist. Our government has backed an expensive and inefficient renewable energy tech - that's the only reason we're even having this conversation.

Sure, we can do that... as long as we also stop letting expensive and inefficient fossil fuel energy externalize their costs!

Or a slide! Or a fireman pole! We could make going to the airport fun again!

Machines, on the other hand, could be employed to do the same job more effectively and reliably. It doesn't even need to be particularly high-tech: a simple one-way turnstile (perhaps augmented with a video camera to sound an alarm if the turnstile is tampered with or somehow bypassed) would do a more reliable job, and as a side benefit would not need to be paid a salary.

No kidding. I've seen neighborhood swimming pools* with better security than this airport!

(* I'm not even exaggerating: the pool in question had a 6-foot-high turnstile with multiple bars to thwart jumping.)

I said that because of the implication that Africa and Australia are not "inhabitable" now, and/or that destroying the US would improve their habitability. I realize it was most likely unintentional, but I was amused so I decided to call it out anyway.

Can you point me at an example of this verbiage somewhere?

I found this pretty quickly. It seems like local officials are using overbroad interpretations of codes to keep people from disconnecting from the grid. I don't know how widespread it is.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/02...

Pardon my linking to Reason Magazine. I don't like to use them as a news source because they're kind of unhinged over there. But they have the most thorough coverage of this story that I've found. If you want a more balanced source, the same story is covered by Al Jazeera and several local Florida sources.

OK, I get it. I agree. There are some externalities that are obvious, like the downstream pollution caused by certain types of mining or drilling.

But there has to be proof when you try to put a number on it, whether it's a $5 solar surcharge or a 20% tax on solar cells. Like you say, "prove it". Unfortunately, it seems like the only proof they need is a fat bundle of bills in a lobbyist's hands.

I don't know if you've been following this story, but the efforts of the energy companies to thwart any development in renewables has gone a heck of a lot further than a $5 monthly surcharge.

In Oklahoma, Wisconsin and other states, they are requesting special taxes on solar panels. They don't even care if the money goes to them, they just want solar users penalized. Yes, this is about more than just the economics of energy. There is malicious intent.

First there will need to be a minor revolt against codes requiring electrical service as a condition of human occupancy.

I'm convinced we will see houses with electrical service that are not attached to the grid. In our lifetime.

That's like saying, "Anyone can say anything, so that means everything is BS except what I say".

I can't tell. Do you not believe that there can be costs in a product or service that are not reflected in its price because they are passed along to others? Or were you just offering us all a Zen koan?