The TPP is horrible in a number of ways. It creates so-called free trade between the countries in a number of areas, including automobiles. Unfortunately, if you know anything about the markets you know that even while the Japanese may not place tariffs on automotive products from the US, their market is absolutely closed to US product through a number of other legal but fairly immoral actions.

To top it off, the Japanese are even WORSE at currency manipulations than Americans. As of this second, Japan enjoys an $8000 imbalance between autos made over there versus what we can make them over here, specifically because of their intervention in the currency market.

Free trade doesn't work when countries can play games, dumping products and using massive government subsidies to drive people out of the market. The Automotive industry is virtually the last bastion of American manufacturing, and supports a huge proportion of what remains of the American middle class.

This is a BAD partnership. Oppose it.

You information about collisions is correct, however it is in NO way dependent on Tesla to make first responders aware. There are many hybrid vehicles now on the market that have large capacity batteries installed. Pretty much every car maker has one, if not many models. Responders need to be trained, but that isn't a responsibility you can realistically lay at Tesla's feet.

Schools are meant to teach educational subjects, not moral ones. Sex education, climate change, and now piracy are all issues that should be taught at home, not at school. It's a parent's job to teach right and wrong. Not a school. Unfortunately, too many parents are pursuing careers and should have never been 'parents' in the first place. Sending your kid to school, then to football, then letting him play videos games, eat dinner, and go to bed is NOT being a parent. In fact, you're not doing any parenting at all. Is it any wonder they're not learning morality and ethics?

I'm not a developer, but I'm pretty savvy with computers. So the first time I got that message, I went and updated Java. Fixed it, right? Nope. So I clicked around, and finally accidentally clicked on the little red icon up in the menu bar. Success! Now it gave me an option to run it. Which popped up another window asking for permission. Dear Firefox: You have a small portion of the browser market. Making yourself a nuisance by breaking big pieces of the web is not intelligent. It just drives people to chrome, or IE. Especially everyday users who don't want to screw around and just want things to work.

I wasn't aware that our current headphones had any problems that would be addressed with nanotubes. We have small phones that fit in the ear, big phones that look stupid on peopel, and everything in between. In all my years of using earbuds, it's always the cord that fails. Not the buds themselves. Now if they can fix THAT problem, that'd be worth something.

Your comment will probably get a lot of responses, just because of the hatred and misinformation that it contains. I'm not fan of the far left (nor the far right), but let's for a minute remember who created the department of homeland security. George W. Bush. Let's also take a look at who created the TSA. George W. Bush. Who signed the Patriot Act into law? George W. Bush. I don't know about you, but I don't think any of the people listed above are part of the 'Extreme Left'. Yet somehow the people I listed above have done a fabulous job restricting freedom. I'm not really interested in left or right. I just find it sad that people like you can't distinguish the forest through the trees: ALL our politicians have contributed to this problem. The sad fact remains: Russia is right. We are becoming a police state, especially with regards to extradition and our borders where we claim our laws don't apply.

You know, just the other day I was at the water cooler with my Google Glasses on. Janet's description showed that she was three months pregnant. She's unmarried and spends a lot of time with Bob.

Bob's description suggests he was tested for an STD just a couple months ago. I wonder if he told Janet.

Oops. Just got a popup that I can pay google $10 a month to keep my medical records from showing up on google glasses. What a steal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-4GWVEvc5A/

http://www.fightingpi.org/

I'd love to return to standard dash configurations too. However, that doesn't have a lot to do with why manufacturers put certain components in cars. The fact of the matter is that unless most people WANT that particular feature, it's not even going to get a passing glance by a car manufacturer. In addition, 10 gigs is still enough for 99% of the consuming public to fit their entire mp3 collection on. To other posters: The first thing you need to do before having this conversation is set some reasonable goals. 10gb harddrive? Covers just about everyone. USB port for charging? Sure. Audio in / ipod integration? Why not. Bluetooth? Easy. And all those items cost the manufacturer very little to include. It's a win/win. Swappable and upgradeable components? Why? To satisfy the .05% of computer geeks who want to customize their infotainment system? Not a chance in hell. These companies don't 'cheap out'. Saying that is like asking why every laptop on the market isn't coming with a pre-installed SSD drive for you operating system and a 3 terabyte drive for storage. It's because, for the average consumer, that makes NO sense. Allowing end-user upgradeability is the bane of all companies, because they don't want to deal with all the people invitably blaming them for problems that weren't caused by the OEM. There's a reason that car manufacturers don't warranty your car if you've swapped out your ECM, or your motor, or etc etc.

FIRST is an amazing opportunity for students to work alongside professionals and learn. One of the key points of the competition is that professionals can build the robots - there is no limitation placed on the engineers. As a result, you get professionally engineered robots that the students have a ton of input into, and they get to see how to make it all into a real product. The great part is that it works for TV broadcasts too. The Michigan State Competition was broadcast: http://www.dptv.org/programs/robotics/index.shtml?cmpgn=hphl

All these DRM schemes are future-failures. More specifically, at some point in the future, you will be denied the game you purchased because of the DRM. Get a new console? Now you have to (somehow) reset your card so you can run it on the new console. Want to take it to a friends house? Pack up your console! Company goes out of business, or stops supporting it because it's obsolete? Say goodbye. In the future, old games won't be worth more because of rarity. They'll be worth more if you still have some way to make them work after their DRM scheme fails. Of course, it will be cracked. Quickly. Which is a GOOD thing.

I spent my first two years of calculus lectures sleeping in. I scored near perfect in both classes. WHY do people have to be at lectures they don't need, again? It's the university's stupid rules that don't allow me to just test out of the classes: they've got to have their money. But why would they want me sitting in a lecture distracting other people while I surf youtube?

Of course, there's no problem with relying on third parties to provide access to games that you've purchased. I mean, STEAM will be around forever to allow us to play all those games that phone home. Right?

It's a faulty assumption that lack of technology caused high dropout rates in during the correspondence craze of the 20's. The real issue is that a low entry cost coupled with a lack of requiring people to attend a physical room or building means that walking away doesn't involve any walking. You simply don't watch anymore. It's as easy as changing the channel on the TV. Essentially you're commoditizing education. Without a requiring a large investment of cash, all but the most serious students students feel no remorse about walking away.

News for nerds? Stuff that matters? Taking a press release off a website that already copied it from another website is now 'news that matters'? It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so obviously biased either. We're going to ignore the 100 mile all electric Ford Focus coming in late 2011, right? The Fiesta? Hell, how about mention of the Volt in there too, and the upcoming Tesla Sedan? But don't worry. We already know that only the Japanese can build and make cars.