Except they didn't change the model (not theory, that's the wrong term entirely). They changed the inputs from their estimates to the real figures and found that their predictions went from being close, to even more accurate. That CONFIRMS that the model is accurate--if you put in real inputs, you get real outputs.

The THEORY is basic radiative hydrodynamics (conservation of mass, momentum, and energy) with a REALLY complicated equation of state. A computer model of radiative hydrodynamics is as accurate as 1) Its boundary conditions, 2) its initial conditions, 3) its equation of state, and 4) the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy Only numbers 3 and 4 are part of the THEORY. Numbers 1,3, and 4 implemented as a computer program make up the model. 4 is (barring some nobel-prize worthy revolution in physics) completely, perfectly, undebateably accurate. 3 is well understood in basic theory (it's just a stochastic extrapolation from QM), but really, really hard to model in practice for a system like the earth. They changed number 2 which is not part of the theory or the model (it's the data).

Yes. Lots of things trump lives. Welcome to the real world.

Since when does home insurance payout for deaths?

Do life insurance companies not ask this question? Or do they just not bother because they can pull the records themselves?

Not to be nitpicky, or anything, but I'm pretty sure there's 27 amendments (more if we want to count Constitutionally binding USSC decisions as Amendments), not eight or ten.

That's also public information, FYI. Pretty much any campaign/interest group can get the registration rolls (which include name, address, affiliation, and how many of the last 5 elections you voted in, in LA County's case at least) for canvassing purposes.

In some cases, it is (anything with substantial quarantine rules).

If the gun is registered to a Grandmother in Florida, but is used to commit a crime by a 21 year-old in Portland, the registration does not help you find the 21 year-old (unless you can tie him to initial theft--hence the steal & sell plan, not steal & use).

It's not, but equal protection should include not discriminating against adults by age--if the age of legal adulthood is 18, then the legal drinking age should be 18 (of course, whether 18 year-olds should be considered adults is another question).

He wasn't talking about the law against drunk driving; he was talking about the tying of federal road money to having a state drinking age of 21 (a bizarre dodge around the constitutional issue of not being able to pass such a law federally in the first place).

Depends on the play. Most plays take place on the stage, remote from the audience. A few take place across the theater, including in the rows (mostly comedies, but also works well for horror). The former is not a substantial difference from a 2D movie; the latter is a HUGE difference, with huge potential for telling stories in different ways.

1) Amazon has a special license from the publisher to distribute.
2)Amazon doesn't buy anything from the publishers--books are sold essentially on consignment.

Yes, if only warm objects hard some way of radiating energy into a vacuum...some kind of thermally produced radiation that a black body like the death star could radiate...too bad there's no solution to this problem.

You can't read can you?

More violence != more gun violence.

It means more beatings and knifings.

Well, coke, whores, and the market crash some years back.

You didn't scroll far enough down: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woman_masturbating_with_improvised_vibrator.jpg (NSFW, obviously)

Many photo editing tasks can be done faster without a gui.

Resizing, cropping, converting, compressing, etc.