Does anybody know a good realtor in Ballarat, CA?

...as in Iraqu and Quatar. But those are Arabic words, not English.

I think that would be better stated as "the odds of being dead are 94%," which makes me feel lucky to be alive. Dodged that bullet...

I get the impression you're not talking about cars, batteries and charging stations...

What's the deductible? In California, it's about 1/6th the value of the house.

I was interested in this story until I checked out the page at stopthesecrecy.net. Centering blocks of text removed any credibility bestowed by a Slashdot reference. (I know I need a made-up html tag for that last sentence...maybe "/snark"?)

How about this: The government compels blood samples to be eligible for some health-related government subsidy, but instead of just taking blood, a vaccine is also given.

So, to summarize, you have put forward a nuanced position to clarify that you don't favor the extreme position. You have then been charged with favoring a different extreme position. Now you are challenging the AC to support his own straw man.

As an aside, is there a sub-classification of the straw man fallacy that deals specifically with oversimplifying toward one extreme or another? I'm a big fan of labeling logical fallacies within the discussions where they occur.

Imagine if Lex Luthor controlled a construction company that did major projects around the Los Angeles area. With each project carefully selected by location, he builds, over the years, a lens that will focus earthquake energy onto a specific building to be specified later, perhaps with a tie-in to current events, destroying it completely.

I should note that I haven't really kept up with Lex Luthor's aspirations since the 1978 film.

If he could come up with a good way to trigger the earthquake, the film could be a remake of Black Sunday. Or at least use a similar target.

Nice use of ad hominum attack to pre-emptively silence dissent.

Others have described this as suitable for 'fixies' (fixed-gear) only. In that design, the only torque supplied to the wheel comes from the chain, as there are no brakes. Braking action comes from applying pressure to the pedals on the 'other' side of the stroke. Whatever motor is inside this wheel would then become a generator, providing regenerative braking.

How do you do a double-blind study on screens?

"You will be looking at either a back-lit screen or a book--we won't tell you which until after the study--and then we will ask you questions and examine your eyes to determine the effects."

There's a lot of talk about 'the environment' when plastic bags are discussed. Where is that, exactly? Seagulls choking on plastic bags is a pretty clear example of 'bad for the environment,' I'll admit, but 'plastic bags buried in a landfill' doesn't sound so bad to me. The landfill has bigger problems, environmentally speaking. That's why we have landfills--to confine the problem.

Plastic bags that degrade in UV light would seem to mitigate the danger to wildlife (for surface-dwelling animals), which is where they cause the most damage. If it ends up being buried and lasting for 1000 years, so what? Archaeologists will be thrilled.

I've bought bags before--not necessarily the reusable grocery type--only to be asked at checkout "would you like that in a bag?" To which I replied, "it is a bag." It might just take a little nudge to break out of the 'put everything in a bag' habit.

Furthermore, I could read Slashdot for two hours and not come close to consuming the amount of data on a DVD. I suppose the uncompressed video signal to the monitor might have that much data, but I don't examine the font closely enough when I read to count that as consumption.