Wikipedia cites an 86% efficiency for inductive charging. I would bet that efficiency is hurt as this scales up from a cell phone to a car. Other than helping to improve EV adoption by making it more convenient, why would we want such a system?

Given the current costs of an EV, plus the length of time it already takes to charge, it seems there are other areas of research that would be better focused on. This technology only makes an EV more expensive to own and would probably take longer to charge with. People seem to do just fine connecting a short, thick, clunky hose to their cars now.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_charging#Disadvantages)

Amazon has recently been involved in disputes with much larger and more legitimate entities attempting to increase their costs and in all cases they didn't bend like a wet noodle. I'm referring to the multitude of states attempting to force Amazon to collect sales tax, therefore, I say they fight it. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_tax

As a supporter of the Fair Tax, I completely agree, however I think there are two reasons why it won't happen:
1) Entrenched interested in the current system (Accountants, the IRS, politicians, etc) who wouldn't want to see income tax and the complicated system go away
2) The fear that people will really see how much of their money goes to taxes.

#1 prevents a national tax because people don't want to have a new tax, they want a replacement tax. It will be very hard to eliminate income tax in my opinion.
#2 is a real concern because under the current system, no one knows how much of the cost of an item goes towards taxes. If you asked me what percentage of my income went towards taxes, I couldn't tell you. Between matching taxes my employer pays, deductions that I take, taxes that are built in to the price of all the goods I by, etc, there's no way to know. A lot of people will be pissed when they see a 23% VAT (30% sales tax) on everything they buy because for the first time, people will really know that a quarter of all their money goes to taxes.

For those not familiar with the topic, the Wikipedia article is an exceptionally good read in this area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_tax

Let them charge as much as they want! All the better for companies like MetroPCS and the pay-as-you-go shops. Walmart has a $45 30day unlimited everything plan: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-Talk-Unlimited-Text-Talk-and-Web-Access-30-Day-Service-Card-Email-Delivery/15443344 This isn't discrimination against "the poor and oppressed" like the summary implies, it's more like a stupid tax for someone who can't find a better deal.

Me too... that's how my grandfather died and it certainly beats how all of the passengers in his car died.

You laugh, but in college, I worked a pizza joint and saw people go through this thought process, just the other way around. They needed to feed more people, so they had the pizzas cut into 10 slices instead of 8. Apparently, these people thought we had Jesus working in the back to feed more people with the same number of pizzas.

Nor should having a silver spoon, or lots of money, or famous parents, or a successful Hollywood career, yet those pass as qualifications all the time.

I think you are underestimating his accomplishments as well as underestimating what it takes to run a government agency.

I know we all like to laugh at MS for not shipping a product on time, but as a web-developer, I am not happy (nor surprised). Anything that delays the average web-surfer from having a more standards compliant browser is not a good thing. While I'm sure IE8 won't be as compliant as it should be, it's still a step in the right direction.

I'll never get back the hours and days I've wasted on browser differences and bugs, but the mirage that one day I won't have to waste that time is enough to keep me wandering through the desert with a little bit of hope.

Not really on topic, but there is a shuttle launch that is scheduled for tonight at 7:55pm EST, weather permitting. It should be especially neat because it is a night time launch. I live in north Florida and if the sky is clear enough, it's an awesome sight to see! I hate to think of the possibility that my generation could see the end of the space program, while my parents' generation saw the start of it. Make sure to check out some of the amazing picture of the shuttle at night: http://images.google.com/images?sa=N&tab=ni&q=night%20time%20shuttle%20launch