I'd also add that it's easier if the city runs them to shut them down in the event that it becomes necessary "for public safety."

Maybe if you pointed the laser into some sort of optical cable...

Yeah, it's not like there aren't any Toyota dealerships in America where they could put in some kind of fueling station...

I suppose this is an advantage to having a dealership network...

Personally, all else being fairly equal, I would prefer a train.

Why would people rather travel by airplane? Because it's faster. And I don't blame them one bit. I'd rather fly across the country in five hours than take a train for five days. Who wouldn't?

But trains have a number of advantages. There isn't necessarily the case for "let's see how many people we can jam into a given space." Cars can be added or removed based on demand. Luggage is another example--want to travel with a bicycle, wheelchair, or something kind of large? You're going to paying a heck of a lot more and it's going to be really inconvenient.

Consider California's High-Speed Rail project--or at least the concept (we can argue over the implementation, but that's not the point I'm making). This would have trains that would go between LA and San Francisco in three hours. It takes about an hour to fly between LA and San Francisco--where I'm jammed into a tiny seat and have to pay extra just to bring along more than an overnight bag. Compare that to a three hour train ride where I have actual leg-room and could bring along clothes for a week stay without paying extra. Heck, I might even be able to bring a bicycle without packing it up!

I know which I'd prefer.

Now, I could sort-of take a regular train from LA to San Francisco (it actually ends up in Oakland). It takes about 12--count 'em--12 hours! Yeah, given a choice between an hour of misery or 12 hours of comfort, I think I'd put up with the hour.

While I'm not sure how many football fans are here on Slashdot, there are always plenty of Monday morning quarterbacks.

But, in return, when they jump through all these hoops, their iPhone will run 50% faster and they'll be able to make money just by surfing the web.

Oh, it's certainly happening. As you point out, in 2011, 234 companies left California.

What's entertaining is about 132,000 new businesses were started--tied with Texas. And California leads the nation in job creation, which is why these other states are trying to steal businesses from California.

Well, I looked for a location for the company and it said Dania Beach, which is along the Atlantic Ocean side probably about 20 miles north of Miami. While Florida may be "red" state, the Miami area is pretty "blue."

That said, a company I used to work for got bought and we all ended up moving down to Miami. I was in my mid-20s and Miami was a pretty fun place. Lots of fun bars in Coconut Grove and South Beach (which stay open until 4AM!). You have a warm ocean, so you don't need to put on wetsuit if you're spending more than 10 minutes in the water.

The heat and humidity? Yeah, it can be bad. Make sure you live someplace with a pool. That solved the problem for me. Also, it's one of those cases where pretty much every place you live has central A/C. If they don't, you don't want to live there.

About the only issue I had was that after a year or so in Miami, I felt like I'd been everywhere and done everything. And once you get out of Miami/Dade, you're in The South which definitely was grating.

It has been thought of. The issue here is "How do you look for something as general as 'life'?"

Consider the various probes we have launched to Mars that are looking for signs of life currently or formerly existing. When we say that, though, we're looking for signs of life kind of like what we know on Earth. Which is great. But if we don't find any, it's tough to say definitively that life doesn't exist on Mars because what if it's a different form of life that we don't understand?

No.

On the other hand, if I then said, "So-and-so supports a position that I am opposed to, so I think I'll shoot So-and-so," then yes.

Yes, frankly. Welcome to the human race.

I'm old enough to remember when TVs had dials on them to change the channel and it was only the invalid who had remotes for the TV. Show a person a TV with a remote and the first thing they'd say is, "I'm not so lazy that I can't get up and change the channel." A remote for the TV was an indulgence. Nowadays? It's a requirement.

So, yeah, first priority for me would be convenience. But much of that convenience would be in the realm of saving energy--which could be considered "environmentally friendly" if I'm using less electricity and gas in my house. Imagine the house that turns off the lights when I leave a room. That adjusts the air conditioning/heating in the room based upon occupancy history. I don't need the living room to be a comfortable temperature when I'm sleeping at night. It's certainly more efficient to heat/cool just one room of the house at night than the whole thing. But I'm not going to run around the house and open and close vents before bed.

As long as nothing goes wrong.

I'm not a Scottish or European person. Perhaps the average coal plant in Europe is around 1000 megawatts.

You mean you're the one who stole my bike!? You bastard! :^D

This sort of depends. I've yet to have a bike stolen, but I tend to ride to places where I know my bike will be safe. If I'm going somewhere where I don't know that my bike will be safe (like to the local mall), I'll ride my cheap bike.

The nice thing about something like this is that since it's pretty much self-contained, you can take it with you. So I could attach this $800 wheel to my $150 Huffy and ride 30 miles or so. When I get to my destination, I'd detach the $800 wheel and take it with me and use a simple lock on the Huffy. If somebody really wants my Huffy, they can have it (though they'll need to get a new wheel).

I always think that, too, but it's Law Enforcement Officers.

Of course, I was wondering why Leos would be able to force you, but Capricorns or Virgos wouldn't be able to.