The correct figure of speech is "free rain." Nobody alive remembers when rain fell freely where I'm living, so this has corrupted over the years into horses and monarchs and whatnot.

Coffee Mate and other non dairy creamers are made of trans fats. I prefer black coffee unless it is burned, in which case I resort to half and half. Many restaurants and stores and workplaces only carry nondairy creamer and burned coffee so I welcome this FDA decision.

There are some good cordless vacuum cleaners and hair dryers. No problem recharging their batteries over 12VDC.

Yikes, frostbite is awful. I hope you don't have pain from it! I'm a big fan of dry weather. Colorado's climate is so easy for me - the cold isn't as bad as humid sea level cold and the heat isn't as bad as humid sea level heat. I think the thinner air and generally low humidity make everything easier to take.

In Phoenix when it is hot the RH is rarely much above 20%, at which levels the impact on human body is neutral. 110F @ 30% RH means it "feels" like 122, and I have heard of India having much higher RH than even that. 35% feels like 129F and it gets seriously crazy above that.

You don't know what the big deal is because you've probably never experienced humid heat. 90F is extremely dangerous at 100%RH and people die from it all the time.

Are you certain of that? Glancing at unemployment rates CA has been lowering their rate much faster than TX over the last 5 years. The gap is less than half what it was in 2010

If anything can be deduced from unemployment rates, CA is doing better than TX lately. I bet energy prices are going to cause some drag in the next couple years, too.

Love that program. No lines at the testing centers. Think of all the saved time, gas, traffic. Another example of some excellent governance from Colorado.

You're overlooking a few key facts. Most people have a caloric surplus which results in weight gain unless they go to some effort to expend energy. Many people join a gym or find some leisure activity that they typically drive to.

Biking to work eliminates the caloric surplus in many cases, and reduces the need for gym or other leisure activity. The math isn't as clear as you think. Bikers aren't always turning new calories into travel, they are often turning calories otherwise destined to turn into fat or be spent at a gym into travel.

In many cases replacing a car commute with a bike commute eliminates several energy uses for a much lower carbon footprint.

Land is so valuable in Silicon Valley you can count on levees being built. We will hire some experts from the netherlands and spend the billions necessary. I expect even Alviso will be saved.

If you have a dinner party and want to make coffee for everybody, please don't put pod after pod into the keurig. It is very wasteful and takes a long time.

Instead, drive to the local store, buy some bulk coffee and a drip coffeemaker, drive home and make a pot or two. Then throw the coffeemaker and leftover coffee into the garbage. It is faster, cheaper, and less wasteful than those damn pods. Plus, it will taste better unless you buy farmer bros.

People have different tastes. I enjoy espresso occasionally, but the gritty particulate is something I have to be in the mood for. My normal cup is heavily filtered, I prefer the clean taste of nice thick Chemex filters. To me, the best tasting coffee is made from water boiled in glass, poured through a thick filter into glass, and drank from ceramic. I'd love to have a vacuum extractor to speed the process, but something can be said for making a time consuming ritual of something so enjoyable.

An interesting counterexample is the Colorado cannabis industry. No bank will do business with them so they are forced to operate on a cash basis. They largely accept only cash, pay for all expenses in cash, and have been such an explosive growth industry it has created thousands of good jobs and rich business owners.

I sell on ebay, I don't have time to deal with meeting people in person. The few thousand is total sales, I usually give the money to whoever minus a bit for fees and shipping. I don't really seek business, but my friends keep upgrading their phones and telling their friends so there is a steady stream coming in, a few phones a month on average.

It is surprising how much they hold their value. Old blackberries, iphones, android phones typically go for $50 and up, even dumb phones sell. I like helping divert some of the river of waste back into productive use.

Set an alarm or install an app.

I was surprised there wasn't an option for selling them. I make a few thousand dollars a year selling old phones for friends and coworkers.