hehe. The cheap bulbs that I bought from Lowes are the only ones that have lasted for me. The GE bulbs i bought all quit within a year. My experience with Cree and Philips bulbs has been similar to yours.

The lighting showroom is a darn good idea, and I think I'll swing by soon. I still have a few CFLs that will probably stop working any day now.

That's some pretty lousy trolling. I think you can do better. Try again.

Taken in isolation, your statement presumes that the police are only a weapon and have no agency. I agree that the caller should face more severe charges than filing a false report, but it's quite dangerous to think of the police as little more than a tool to be wielded.

It was a charge. I doubt that, even in Florida, she was convicted: https://nypost.com/2017/11/03/...

It gets worse, though: http://www.newsminer.com/junea...

I see what you mean, but it seems to me that written language follows, rather than leads, spoken language. Speak what you wrote with and without the contractions, and you'll find that (some of) the contractions flow better than the longer form. (I did, though the fourth and fifth sentences were pretty awkward.

Here's an example:

I cannot argue with your assessment that they do not save any significant time, and in the case of "you're" and "it's" are a source of significant confusion.

I can't argue with your assessment that they don't save any significant time, and in the case of "you're" and "it's" are a source of significant confusion.

You remind me of a novel by Janet Kagan called "Hellspark" that I read about 30 years ago. In it, the protagonist alternates her pronunciation of her home planet as "Hellspark" and "Hell's Park." It's a touch I've always liked about her writing, and one that lead me to take notice of contractions.

huh. I also live in snow country, and don't have any power train problems to speak of on either of my cars (a '99 and a '97) beyond normal maintenance and a water pump. Oh yes, I have a minor oil leak on each car that needs to be addressed. Interestingly, I've just finished repairs on the front end to one of the cars, and will buy parts tonight to completely rebuild the front end of the other. Also, power antennae suck.

It's funny to me that our experiences have been so different.

Yes, it was directed at Zuckerberg, not you. I didn't make plain that I was agreeing with you. I don't understand the second half of your reply, though. Was that directed at me, or the world at large? I didn't intend to discuss ethnicity, only the absurdity of Zuckerberg's comparison.

Comparing the permanent fund to a UBI, is contrived, at best. The Alaska permanent fund is nothing more and nothing less that a dividend based on investment profit. There is no intent provide a basic income, as it's never been larger than about $2,000, other than the year that the-governor-we-all-want-to-forget (Sarah Palin) spearheaded an additional payout because of ridiculous oil prices.

The permanent fund is managed by a state-controlled corporation. A certain amount of the income from oil production is paid into the fund each year, and the corporation is required to invest the fund. The fund pays out a dividend each year that's based on a rolling five year average of the profits that the fund has earned. The principal of the fund is constitutionally protected, and barring mismanagement or a massive change in political views around the fund, will always exist. Last year the permanent fund earned about $1.37 billion on a fund of about $55 billion.

Your general point is correct, but this detail is lacking, as it's substantially more complex. Speed limits are generally regulatory, and the road is designed with the regulatory speed in mind. Engineering judgment, backed by a speed study, can be used to set the regulatory speed, of course. The regulatory speed can also be modified by driver behaviour and politics. A few years ago, the speed limit on parts of the Rich and the Glenn was increased because of driver behaviour, even though many of the curves, both horizontal and vertical, were designed for 55 MPH.

Sort of. Many standards are set by local municipalities. Anchorage, Valdez, Fairbanks and Juneau all have different requirements for design snow loads, for example. The State has adopted the 2014 NEC for electrical design, but municipalities can modify it at need. The DOT sets the design standards for roads and highways, as allowed by statute. The board can recommend, but it's much more concerned with behaviour, ethics and competency than it is about the design standards.

No, but laws and local conditions do vary.

Not quite. If you have license to practice in Oregon, that's the only state in which you can practice engineering. If you're registered in one state, you may be able to transfer your license through comity between the states, but that's not assured. For example, in Alaska, you also have to pass a class in Arctic Engineering to obtain the PE here, even if you're registered in Oregon. Washington requires that you work for longer under the supervision of another engineer than most other states. California requires that civil engineers pass additional exams covering seismic principles and engineering surveying.

The NCEES maintains, if you wish them to, a record of your licensure, including college transcripts, exam results, work experience, et c. that can make registering in multiple states easier.

The two exams that you have to take are the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering), and the PE (Professional Engineering) exams.

Is this due to the extensions you're using, perhaps? I'm fairly certain that Firefox hasn't been shut down or restarted since the last time it was updated. The only think that ever bothers me is its complete unresponsiveness when it's loading a large PDF. I'm pretty sure that my trouble started when I started using the decentraleyes extension, so I choose to live with and wait out Firefox's pauses.

Alas, your joke went live a few hours before the first of April where I am, so I was quite confused for a moment. Other than the colors, I really like the front page, though. :-)