every sun.

It would be in a small bunker built to withstand all manner of hilarity. Smaller = tougher.

Buldings in my home town will be standing after a 9.0 earthquake and/or a 100+ mph storm.

Your cliche is out of date.

We're now all getting separated or divorced.

That's probably the best place, your backyard.

Everyone's backyard.

Put a small reactor in each neighbourhood. Scale down the energy required, scale down everything, reduce the transmission costs to nearly nothing, and use smaller pebblebed style systems.

Just like your mom, I don't always start with the biggest things first.

Which isn't much different from everyone ever, really.

We've all got to go sometime.

I would go for the engineering challenge.

I would fully understand the risk... the certainty that I would never again see my home. I'd never go scuba diving again. I'd never watch the sunrise in a forest. Shit, I'd even miss going to the gym! I'd never see my kids (they're 6 and 8) or any of their kids ever again. I'd never be able to pop down to the store and pick up a McGuffin or widget or a burger.

I'd never get another FP on Slashdot.

But I'd be on Mars. We'd be living with the leading edge of human technology, all alone, with no supplies ever coming by. Yes, I would die on Mars. Maybe within hours of landing. I've got somewhere between 60 and 70 years left on Earth, max. I'd get less than that on Mars, almost certainly. What I've learned, and learned the hard way, is that how long you live isn't as important as how WELL you've lived. Did you push your life to the limits? Did you live up to your potential? What do you regret not doing? Do it. Tomorrow never comes.

Think of what the species would learn from a mission to Mars. That's well worth my life and gladly traded.

And I'd do it for free. Just give me the use of the company vehicle for a few months, then room and board afterwards.

You've got to die sometime.

You're going to die on Earth. At some point, someone is going to die in space or out on Mars or on the Moon or on some other planet.

But we're all going to die. Rather than die of old age with a perfectly preserved body, why not take the chance at a life on Mars? It might be short, it might be painful. It might take six months to get there. Hell, it took that long to get to the New World back in the 1600s. (Admittedly, there was air everywhere)

You might choke on a bagel tomorrow. A drunk driver might plow right into you on New Year's Eve.

I'm recovering from decompression sickness, you insensitive clod!

That's an electrocardiogram.

I had an echocardiogram.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=bing

This.

I didn't get a cell until I got separated. That's how people talk and arrange parties, dates, etc.

Criminals too. Why wouldn't you just use a prepaid, cash-paid phone, use it for your illegal stuff, then throw it in the ocean?

Happened in my home town, a hit man used a one-time-use-only cell phone to set up the target, murdered her, and has gotten away with it for 5 years now. (We have 1-2 murders a year on a bad year.)

I've been in the Canadian, American, and Belizian medical systems this year.

In Belize, they'll do what they can. They can't get their hands on pretty much any supplies. Even gloves and syringes are impossible to get.

I've had to get some tests done at home. It took about 2 months to see a dive specialist and then another month for a follow-up. It took eight months to get an echocardiogram. I do require an MRI to check for nerve damage in my spine but I'm waiting to see the doctor who can refer me to the machine. OTOH, my friend got a CT scan in 30 minutes when they thought he was having a stroke.

In the US, you get in right away, any tests that you'd like. You just have to pay for it. There was a clinic in Belize run by a company in Texas, they wanted my CC first and then I could get treated.

I've considered -- seriously considered -- going to the US and paying out of pocket to get the tests sooner than Canada can get around to it. I mean, there's a simple fix, just add a law to prevent any elected official in Canada from having secondary health coverage.

Wouldn't it be faster to cut off the finger and keep the ring?

I mean, if they're going to be sociopaths to us...