It's also worth noting that you're talking about nuclear weapons. It can be used to make "dirty" bombs, however.

Virgin sturgeon, at that.

Really? Lucas isn't greedy? He musters the entire weight of his fortune, business and legal team against little guys selling bits of plastic; this is neither the first nor the only example of such behavior, as there is the beginnings of a clear pattern dating back to 1984 when he sued FASA Games over the use of the word "droid", leading to their game "BattleDroids" being renamed "BattleTech". I appreciate your sentiment, and would agree that Lucas' ex-wife probably had a lot to do with his earlier films being any good (since none of his films since then haven't been), but regardless of his lifestyle, he's still a greedy, arrogant schmuck.

Your presumption rings, well, ignorant. Short of writing a long essay, I chose to distill my post to what was relevant, not a life's story; I've done quite well for myself since then, thank you. I didn't need busy-work to learn, and I felt that if I was going to be in school, I should be learning, not regurgitating information I'd known for years in science, history, the arts, etc., all while being ignored as I fell steadily behind in math because it wasn't worth the teachers effort to concentrate on just one student. At a private school, I got instruction from people who realize each student is an individual with unique needs, skills and predilections, and I was able to flourish in that environment - it was also not, I should mention, one of the more traditional boarding schools, but rather much closer to a one-room school-house type of environment.

If I lack the inclination or patience for the dull, dreary, and repetitive, I'd say that speaks less about my character or qualities as a person than does your need to lash out at others by derailing a discussion of education on to the substance of my own person instead of cogently addressing the actual topic. I'm perfectly content with the fact that I score in the top 99% in everything I do and have a tendency to be a statistical outlier; what's your problem?

Who is using the strawman here? A breakdown by hours? You can really assert sociocultural and economic importance on the number of hours a person occupies a given space? Is it not more likely better education would reduce crime, thus reducing the overall societal burden? Even forgoing that possibility, you're going to tell me we shouldn't put more care and effort into raising our children than we do caring for our criminals? There are a great number of children who aren't criminals that could seriously use $7k per year towards their health, education and general care, outside schooling, and they still exist 24 hours a day, regardless of whether they're on school property; are you really suggesting we should use a persons willingness to break the law and the minimum cost of their daily care as a yardstick to decide how much money should be devoted to educating and caring for our children?

I never said didn't want, I said "couldn't be bothered with". As in, no time to slow down for a student who struggles at math: just fail them. Student too smart for other classes, too bored to be bothered spending hours doing homework for material they mastered years before? Fail them! (I should note though the opposite idea of eliminating competition or grades so students don't get their little feelings hurt is too extreme a polar reaction for my liking and fails with similar substance, if in different ways.)

No, my point was public schools have become cookie cutter diploma factories reminiscent of the industrial revolution-era Britain from whence the current model came, and are not capable of working outside very specific - if coarse - molds. The assembly line technique has proven itself, in this instance, insufficient to the task, as that methodology relies implicitly on all source materials being more or less identical and to a certain standard, and deviation isn't acceptable. Like it or not, humans cannot be generalized in any useful way in large numbers without the presence of statistical outliers, and systems that rely specifically on order and precision will always fail a notable percentage. In manufacturing, we can just reject parts that don't fit and recycle them, but that's a naive and inhuman way to treat children.

This is an excellent illustration at a much larger scale of exactly the education problems we face in the U.S., where we spend more on prisoners than students.

Speaking for myself, I have... let's call it an "above average" character in terms of education and intellect, and yet public schools couldn't be bothered with me. Had it not been for the fact that my parents had worked hard enough to be able to afford very expensive private schooling, I would never have graduated from High School.

The answer is NOT for those who can afford such things to be taxed into giving up those funds to educate everyone else's children. The "answer" is not even something I can feasibly address with any sanity or brevity in a forum like this one (ok, I can in three words: "One room schoolhouse"), but it should be rather clearer now what a failure our current model is, where students are graduating from High School less educated than their parents - on average - for the first time in our nations history over the last several years, and that we need to completely re-address our schools, teaching methods, and sociocultural emphasis (or lack thereof) on education.

Agreed with previous posters, having electricity stored in such a way throughout a vehicle - regardless of volts or amps - doesn't seem like such a hot idea (pun intended). It would certainly be a no-go on any vehicle with any sort of secondary, fueled motor, be it gas, hydrogen, etc., and the potential for other accident based on age, faulty manufacture, simple atmospheric conditions (how well will these fare when exposed to salt air in coastal areas) and too many other things to list here is simply enormous. There is danger enough in basic battery systems during a car accident, especially a major one that might involve another I.C.E. vehicle on fire... I don't relish the idea of trying to an injured person out a car that might kill me for touching the wrong exposed part of a wrecked frame.

Please mod parent as troll. And PLEASE stop using the word fascist in context to every government you don't like or understand.

The sound of 500 million marching soldiers becomes the sounds of 500 million men on a boat becomes the sound of 500 million men either vaporized, drowning or otherwise dying of radiation poisoning as the invasion fleet they were being shipped in is summarily nuked. Game over, thanks for playing. The Office of Health and Human Services along with the DEA would also like to remind you that only users lose drugs. We now return you to your regularly scheduled saber rattling and insanity from communist Asia.