I'm as big a fan of Overkill as the next guy, but just think for a second how big your breaker panel would have to be if you had ONE breaker per outlet.

Seconded. And the more I learn about politics, the worse it becomes.

Anyone have a link to the affected sites... :

Meh. I expected the same, but went to a "3D" movie that I wanted to see anyway. I have to say, it was pretty cool. The movie avoided the typical cheezy in your face shots, so I'm sure that helped. Big Thumbs Up for "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" if you're into silly kids movies.

Often, they do when installing new lines. A lot of this stuff is REALLY old, and nobody want to touch it because if it breaks, you have to spend a LOT of money to update the entire thing.
Also, it is often cheaper to just get the circuit from the phone company.

I don't get this line of arguement. I don't ask insurance to feed and maintaine myself or my car. The only time I contact either is a "Uh-oh" situation. My few medical run-ins have resulted in horrendous bills that require months or years to repay. Calling the current system "competetive" is laughable, everyone I know (Doctors included) hates it, but nobody knows how to make it better.
That being said, my faith in the government to fix things is shaky at best.

"I rely on me to provide for me."

O rly? You produce all the oxygen you inhale, all the water you drink, all the protein you ingest, and all the thermal input your body needs to maintain its optimum temperature? You travelled back in time, conceived yourself in a test tube from a loop of pure DNA, and built singlehandedly a robot butler to train your younger self in the ways of Bat-Fu while you build a secret underwater city? In business, you are a heroic self-creator, never requiring so much as a single customer, supplier, manager, assistant, trainer, mentor, regulator, or partner, while you design perpetual electrostatic motors powered by raw condensed inspiration? If the entire world around you were to vanish, you'd exist in a bubble of anti-temporal stasis through the sheer energy of your indomitable will?

It's possible!

Or, it's also possible that you exist as one person among many in a healthy social ecosystem who share resources, do things for the good of all, and support each other with compassionate aid when times get hard, but haven't yet realised this.

RT another FA:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/03/wind_power_needs_dirty_pricey_gas_backup_report/

(or download the full report - but that is payware).

Historical analysis shows regular five-day long calm periods across the whole of europe - ten day long calms every couple of decades. Oh, and typically in winter - so high demand time. That is across an area much more than "a few hundred clicks".

"Clean" peak load tech, like pumped storage hydro, simply doesn't have the capacity to cover that kind of gap.

The report also makes the point that nice clean gas gen capacity is too expensive (if only to be used occaisionally) and not necessarily good at being turned on and off regularly. The likely (only economic) backup for wind will be cheap and dirty fossil fuel kit - making the overall solution a lot dirtier.

Either that, or the lights start to go off on a regular basis. There are plenty of (reasonably welel developed) places in the world where that happens now, so we know what happens then - local backup through thousands upon thousands of small (cheap & dirty) diesel generators...

Wind simply isn't reliable enough for base load. Until someone solves the "storing electricity" problem. Somewhat ironically, I reckon the best hope for that will turn out to be creating artificial long chain hydrocarbons (from atmospheric CO2). Liquid hydrocarbons are very very energy dense, and we already have lots of knowledge and infrastructure for storing and transporting them efficiently.

Not just diet - also exercise. Unused muscle tends to not taste very good. If it were just diet, farmers would simply change the diet of the animal for the last couple of weeks to change the taste.

Points 3 and 4 would happen even if he weren't employed at Google.

Don't tell him or Google that... I'm sure he prefers to eat in-between maintaining Linux.

Computer malware could screw badly your REAL life. It should be a real example to show to people that aren't concerned about security, uses insecure practices/browsers/operating systems/whatever.

Probably is the most convincing scenario until a computer virus manage to infect and kill real people.

Seriously, you gotta be a real ass to do something like this to someone.

It's this sort of thing that will give governments an excuse to try and control the net even more and give companies a reason to close up their hardware and in the end most people end up with less freedom.

The net was nice before every tard was on it waiting to be exploited.

I'll be at work, thank you very much. How about a nod to us 24/7 operations guys! My costume will be "Business Casual"

I have to ask: Is your quote for real? I had a good friend, Bruce Clark, who was a Jehova's witness, who I'd not put it past him to have said that sort of thing... Blew my mind when I read it.

Obligatory XCKD http://xkcd.com/538/