or very small values of 5

435 seats in the House : 218 is the simple majority 100 seats in the Senate: 51 is the simple majority, but you really need 60 to get anything to a vote and approved.

I agree. The 100 and 200 levels of core sciences dont change rapidly enough to justify the textbook mess we have today. I enjoyed the way my chem 101 materials were structured. The entire corse was a pre punched 8.5x11 printed package; a few hundred pages; that was available at the book store for $20 or so. That plus a binder means you now have all the material, nicely printed, easy to carry, with a nice wide margins for note taking. No reason a freshman should have to plop down $100+ on a new chem book.

I'm sending that idea to my congressperson. An asshole tax might be enough to plug the federal deficit.

(music trivia) Pink Anderson of course!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Anderson

I'm a fan of the piedmont blues. If you've never heard of Pink, look up the song "Travlin' Man". Roy Book Binder does a good version (which he learned from Pink) that you can probably find on youtube.

I live in a pretty rural area; and i've had a few encounters with my antlered neighbors.

From the numbers that get hit by tractor trailers down to motorcycles, I think they're all deaf to start with and no amount of road noise would cut it down. http://www.skinnymoose.com/deerchart.pdf has some accident stats if anyone is interesting. I like the part at the bottom where you can see that the IRS is still more likely to get you than a deer.

My comment was as a followup to yours, not against yours.

Both the bikers and the hippy are in the wrong in that situation. The hippy in the original case doesn't actually have the right to chain himself and basically shout "fire", even though he can. And in reverse, just because someone has the right, doesn't mean they always should.

Back to the original pedistrain issues I agree with you fully; even if i have the right a way in an intersection, i'd be foolish not to take every percaution possible when entering it.

And the the hippy chained to the wall could also be charged with trespassing and inciting violence. After having their spleen repaired, of course.

Sounds like market growth/expansion to me as well. I doubt gamers are switching from portables to phones; but rather more non-gamers are playing games on their new phone. However, that's still something for the handheld makers to keep in mind in developing new products. There's a new market segment that they could choose to go after as well.

For the most part, I've never had issues with ups, fedex or usps when it comes to packages The worst was dealing with UPS my mother shipped a hand made, wooden rocking horse from NC to California for my neices birthday. Issue 1: It arrived 2 days late. Which we only found out by finally tracking the package down to the local depot, where the claimed it was too large for delivery. That's after it had traveled from NC to California just fine, and UPS had said nothing about it being too large at any point in the process. The entire time the tracking said "out for delivery" Issue 2: Package was finally delivered after arguing with the depot. Open the package to find splinters of a crushed horses head and neck. And this wasn't a fragile horse. It was made from 8/4 lumber. Issue 3: Called UPS (furious) to make an insurance claim. Easy enough on the insurance and shipping refund, but they refused to refund the packaging. Except the packaging was done by a local UPS store (which charged $50 for the service). UPS refused to pay, the local UPS store refused. Finally got them to pay out for that as well. The package was in UPS hands from the time it was packaged to the time it was delivered, and they failed round trip. Pretty upsetting to see that after flying cross country to be there for her birthday. The replacement was sent fedex, and arrived without a single scratch or issue.

There' s a few things to get around, but why not? They've been used for years in electric forklifts and pallet jacks in warehouse operations. Battery runs low, its swapped for another battery that's been charging in a central station and has the equipment to load and unload the batteries. You'd have to have some standard sizes determined, but I don't see why something like a giant AA battery wouldn't work (using multiples in parallel or series as needed). Seems to solve the problem of range (swap as needed), mass production (using a standard design), issues related to distribution infrastruture (if you need new power infrastructure for charging, it can be done in central locations, rather than at the home), and current draw (swappable means you can trickle charge, rather than try to dump a Mw of power in 6 minutes). Standards and integration are the remaining hurdles.

I'm a fan of Zubrin's Mars Direct plan. Regardless of the technology used for the fuel, it seems like a good idea to send your return vehicle in advance, and know its fueled and ready before you leave earth. I've read his Case for Mars book, and was able to meet and speak with him after hearing him speak at NC State in 2002.