It depends where you live. Here in San Jose, the weather reports for the last four months have been 100% accurate. Every day they predicted "warm and sunny", and they were right. We don't look at the weather report to decide if we need an umbrella. We look at the calendar.

The media hated Bush, and he got elected. Twice.

Please explain why you consider either Gary Johnson or Jill Stein to be "scumbags". Both seem to me to be people of high integrity. Gary got my vote last year, and Jill got my respect. If neither of them got your vote, maybe you should consider that people like you are the root of the problem.

Since we are being pedantic about language, it is jetsam , not flotsam , that is clogging the pipe. Flotsam is floating debris. If the debris is drifting below the surface, it is jetsam. Since nuke intake pipes are always well below the surface, they cannot be clogged by flotsam.

No it isn't. There is no logical difference between taking a risk to win $20, and taking a risk to avoid the loss of $20. Either way, you net $20. Old people are not taking more risk or less risk, they are just taking dumb, illogical risks.

The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35. This wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago.

Not quite. The study found that geezers are less willing to take a risk to win, but more willing to take risks to avoid a loss. In many cases they were avoiding good risks and taking bad risks. Overall, they were making worse decisions than younger people when either accepting or declining risks.

Civilian GPS is not "low precision" at high altitude/speed, it stops working completely. If you are above 60,000 feet OR going faster than 999 knots, then it is supposed to completely shutdown.

Yes. There is little evidence that they lead to better health outcomes for patients, especially if you consider the alternatives. Heart disease is our number one killer, but the most effective remedy is not fancy technology that can build a 3D model of the arteries, but low dose aspirin at a cost of $4 per year. But there is no profit in that, so we get the fancy technology instead.

It would effect far more than just the insurance industry. The medical industry is 18% of the American economy. In other OECD countries it is as low as 6%, despite the fact that healthcare outcomes in those countries is actually better. So if we decoupled healthcare from employment, and instituted sensible policies instead, 12% of the American economy would disappear. That would require some major adjustments, and there are a lot of powerful special interests that would fight it every inch of the way.

What makes the B-1 such an unpleasant plane to fly? I know it usually flies low, where there is a lot of turbulence. I have flown on C-130s many times, but as a grunt, I wasn't crew, I was cargo.

Many rodents have an innate fear of the smell of cats. So cat urine should work well unless the critter is infected with toxoplasmosis.

So your argument is that since we can't be ready for everything, therefore we should prepare for nothing?

Like I said, my primary concern is a major earthquake. That would probably disrupt supplies for only a few weeks. A major disease pandemic, like a "super-flu", might last longer, but no more than a few months. A major global crop failure cause by a volcano or asteroid, would be a bigger problem, but humanity has survived these several times in the past. The worst was probably the famine of 1315-1317, which may have killed 25% of Europe's population. But back then Europe relied on crops, such as wheat, that needed warmth, sunshine, and dry weather to harvest. Today, we have crops, such as potatoes, that can thrive in cold, wet, and hazy conditions. Supposedly people survived that famine by going into the woods and digging up earthworms to eat. Those people were your ancestors. You probably wouldn't be here if they had the same attitude towards survival that you do.

Not a chance. Here is the algorithm that divorce courts use to determine custody:

bool
getsCustody(parent)
{
        return parent.hasPenis() ? NO : YES;
}

Sorry, I was unaware of the distinction. So I own an "assault weapon" that is a rifle, but not an "assault rifle". Got it.