However briefly, I think it's worth pointing out that the Star Trek: Enterprise series made a sincere effort to capture the optimism and pioneering character of TOS. When I heard that a prequel series was in the works, I had great hopes, but they were conditioned by the dismal DS9 and Voyager shows. I was completely blown away by the shows opening segment, where they give a visual history of the space program from its earliest beginnings, and then splice in new, imaginary spaceships and events to take it into the future. Imagine what this show would have been like if they had taken that same level of creativity into the plot lines! They could easily have, on a continuing basis, sprinkled in cameo appearances who are the grandparents of people in TOS. Instead of repeating plots that were nearly identical to those in TOS and TNG, they could have shown events that would ultimately create the circumstances that lead to those later shows. They could have made awesome shows laying the groundwork for everything that happened in TOS, and they blew it. Crikes, how they blew it! After 9/11 happened, they chose to fling aside everything that was interesting about the show and pursue a tissue-paper thin war propaganda mission that followed almost verbatim everything that I hated about what was going on in the real world back then.

Consider installing a metallic foil shield that lines the interior surface of your roof. Sound farfetched? It isn't. Its called a Radiant Barrier, and it serves a very practical purpose. It substantially reduces your air conditioning bills in the hot months. That's not going to help protect your privacy through your walls though. Perhaps it's time for the wall mounted mirror tiles and foil-based wallpapers of the 1970's to make a comeback...

During the 1980s, the tobacco companies frequently cited the fact that no case of cancer had ever been demonstrably proven to be caused by cigarette smoking. I had a close relative with a severe addiction who repeated this whenever nonsmokers (like me) complained. This highlights the dichotomy of statistical evidence versus absolute proof. In order to prove that a cancer victim inhaling burning tobacco caused their cancer, you would have to track the specific molecules of the smoke's chemicals that damaged the initial cancer cell's DNA. You'd need to observe the cell dividing out of control, and verify that that particular tumor was the one that lead to the diagnosis. Apparently, the fact that something is incredibly hard to prove can be used as evidence that it can't possibly be happening. Fortunately, most open minded people are willing to accept a vast amount of statistical evidence as proof.

Tofurkey, c'est vous plait!

When you own the air conditioner and the bills that arrive as a result, you have a different perspective. You gingerly tap the down button on the thermostat until you hear the sound of icebergs calving off Antarctica, then back up until it feels like there might be some money left for a craft beer over the weekend.

You are most certainly barking mad, or a shill for the wasteful wing of the appliance industry. Please cite where this advice occurs anywhere on consumerreports.org. How do you save energy with an appliance that runs for two or three hours? Our Energy Star washer and dryer get clothes washed faster than our old inefficient ones did. A front loading washer spins the snot out of them, so that they are most of the way towards being dry before they go in the dryer. I recommend that people get the facts for themselves.