The square wheels almost worked too - how fun is that!

And let's keep in mind that the asteroid that exploded with a 3.8KT air-burst was the size of a minivan. Anything worth mining will be, what - 1000 times larger? 100,000 times larger? Nothing to mess around with - and by no means safe. A 100 megaton blast, and a ground impact to boot, will do more that blow peoples hair back.

No, water did not set everything on fire. Jet fuel was on fire, oil and water do NOT mix, and the water SPREAD the burning jet fuel to every area of the building, to set all the contents on fire, along with the fuel.

Instead, you actually think it was deliberate, with paint. How many thousands of gallons of paint do you think they applied up there? 'Cause they know how many thousands of gallons of jet fuel there were in the planes.

The "purpose and character of the use" is supporting documentation to a patent application. Which is intended to make money, therefor the use of the copyrighted material is commercial in nature. That's what I would assume to be the 'traction' as you call it. IANAL however, so that's just my own guess.

People donate money for charity work to be done - some in very large amounts. That gets used ONCE, for one 'round' of benefits for the charitable purpose.

If, instead, the people who understand business and how they work had the option to 'invest' in a charitable purposed company - why wouldn't they? Their gift can contribute basically forever, instead of once.

Sounds like a win-win to me. The incentive is there - I used 'invest' with quotes as the donors are not expecting a return - not a tangible one at least.

There are similar priced schools in my area. My wife and I took on a ton of debt to put our daughter through private high school (a really good one - we are really pleased with how she did there) - basically bringing her into the discussion and laying it out:
      We can pay for school now, or college later, but we CANNOT do both - just isn't possible. So we all decided to pay for school now. So far she's been paying for college herself (landed an ROTC scholarship, and really likes the ROTC program - but if not that, then she'd have had a ton of loans) - and so far is working out really well.
      Not saying it's something you should do, but it's an option, and has worked for us.

      Good luck!

"This will just add further bloat.You want applications to start instantly, but you want them to load even more information at startup and save even more at every shutdown. Just ask the user if they want to continue later, or remind them that they need to save. Should my media player really need to automatically remember that I closed every episode of my favorite tv show just before the credits began?"

      Actually, yes. It isn't that hard - my TiVo does it automatically. And is smart enough that if I stop it during the last 5% or less of an episode, it will start it again from the beginning. Single piece of meta-data - What was I doing when shut down? Single piece of meta-data per item - Where did I leave off when last asked to show this / play this?

So..... it's like the bet at the beginning of "Trading Places"? So there is a spiritual $1 bill riding on the eternal struggle of Good vs. Evil?

Simple - the idea being that if you use both your hands you may complete an electrical circuit *between* your two hands. Hands are attached to arms, arms to chest, and in between your two arms. in your chest, is your heart. Run a sizable (or even not very sizable) current through there and you may stop your heart. Just like a defibrillator does (TV notwithstanding). So using one hand only you will likely complete a circuit through one of your legs instead - and the current would pass by your heart and not through it.

This is just a guess, but may be related to the myth they tested about avoiding gunfire by going underwater. They found that even .50 cal sniper rifle fire could not penetrate more than 3 feet of water. I'm hoping someone wrote in to see if this were scaled up - can water defeat bigger guns / artillery? Only way I can think firing a cannon at water makes any sense.

Huh? They shot a CANNON BALL through a minivan! There is no question of guilt (if by guilt you mean responsibility) - no one sane would hold a question in their minds for two seconds. It wasn't intentional, by any means, but that DOES NOT matter. Man up, immediately. Apologize and try to make it right, immediately. That is their only good option. Lawyering-up will only make it worse. The only reason anyone would have for suing is if you didn't try to make it right, immediately.

You mean, getting Keri pregnant so she can go apologize - as "no one can be mad at a pregnant woman"? Sounds like a plan.

That was also my first, reflexive, response in regards to SSA being in trouble - knock out the cap and do not adjust benefits to match (keep those at the cap). First thing. I don't make that much (it seems, others may disagree) and I hit the cap every year. Just a little extra from me and the thousands like me may push out the 'crisis' by 5-10 years. I have absolutely ZERO idea why this hasn't been done already.

Good luck with the CS degree - good to hear about someone moving INTO the field instead of out of it. Experience will be a real problem for you - I would suggest looking at a bunch of open source projects, find one that looks interesting, and help out (as much as possible, in every way you can). That can go a long way to bridging the gap and having something really cool to talk about in an interview. Implementing a feature, fixing bugs, rewriting the users manual, fixing or adding things to the web site for it - whatever it is, that is GOLD in an interview. Shows you are motivated, like doing it, can jump in and solve problems - all great things smart people look for in employees. Be prepared to talk about it, explain why you did it the way you did, be able to defend your decision, and be able to accept valid criticism.

-99% of drivers have no idea how an ICE works (or what that stands for, or even that they have one in their car) -95%+ of drivers don't now anything about oil (and many new cars now have an idiot light to tell you to get it changed) -Only one of the nozzles at the gas pump (gas or diesel) will fit in your car. They needed that for a reason. -95% of drivers have never changed a flat, or know how - There is an idiot light "I need service" on the dash

So by your accounting 95%+ of drivers should not be driving. Yeah, that will happen.