Actually most of the copper was probably laid by "The Post Master General" it's that old and decrepit.

That was one of the first sites I thought of when I saw this post.
It looks like you can set your own block list up. So I'm going to be happy never to see Experts Exchange again.

How would I pull this off?
Buy a lot of them then sell the duds to some dimwit at 50% off.

Because it's the Sagan Scale, and I think you missed the joke.

Yes but who will own the P.O.S.? And who's going to take responsibility for fueling it?
I dont think we have an ice belt in this system either.

"certifiable MCSE", there fixed that for you. No longer a tautology.

The Mayans have no idea of scale, pah! cycles of only 3000 odd years!
The Abrahamic religions with their piddling 6-8000 year timescales are also damn narrow thinkers.

Now, according to the Hindu teachers we're in Kali Yuga. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga
This is the last of 4 cycles, the one of dissolution and degeneration. (They've got the mood of the time right.)
Hurry and get your things in order! There's only some 427000 years or so left!

I admire a belief system that has a long view of history...still nowhere near geological timescales though.

In reply to your points,

1) On CFLs. You have this one right. It's a ery obvious case of greenwash.

2) Getting plastic bags out of our waste would be a very good thing. I've seen how many end up in the ocean and affect sea life. I agree though that the
supermarkets cynical approach is to sell us plastic bags that should be cheaper to make. Today I bought a 'biodegradeable' bag made from corn starch or some such thing for 15c. I can't see how cornstarch is more expensive than using oil to make plastic. Someone is profiteering, supermarkets or bag makers?

3) I don't see your point with solar hot water systems. My parents had one since the mid 1960's. It was replaced once and has given them hot water for four decades. They don't take much in the way of materials to make. Its only a metal and glass panel on the roof and a tank. The booster uses much less energy since on a cool day it's only usually having to heat the water from 30 or 40 degrees C. Most of the time the problem was that the water would come out TOO hot.

4) Water scarcity. You obviously don't live in marginal land. The current round of drought in Australia is getting critical. I do agree though that de-salination is not the way to go. Here in Australia we should be pouring less water into cattle, cotton and rice and growing more water efficient crops. Also it's mostly a distribution problem.

Your conclusion is spot on. Exponential growth in a finite world will lead to catastrophe. As far as I can see there's not a politician on the planet other than the Chinese communist government that have made any attempt to really address that issue.

(Pun intended in title)

I've driven forklifts, knuckle-booms, scissor lifts and loaders all with various forms of joystick control.
Joystick controlled forklifts are the best!

Still, I'm not sure it's right for a car. All the vehicles above go slowly and need to manouver (sp?)
in tight spots. Joysticks would not seem so good for fast travel, though aircraft use them.

It might be good to have a joystick as an auxilliary control for parking and doing donuts...

In my part of the world at least, you need a lot of power to cool a bus from +40C to something more reasonable.

Perhaps I could export the heat from my buses to your buses.