This may be true for the Thruway, but is not the case for NYC. Revenue generated from tolls on NYC bridges (at least the ones owned by the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, a division of the MTA) is used to fund a significant portion of the operating costs of public transit. Without tolls from, for example, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the subway fare would be much higher than $2.50.

Here in NYC they don't even bother offering "I voted!" stickers. The smug satisfaction is just presumed on everyone's part.

I highly recommend both A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin, and Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman.

Madman is about Turing and Godel's lives (and the parallels between them) during the time of their most profound work, with a decent discussion of the philosophy and logic behind their discoveries. Dreams is a fun romp through Einstein's imagination as he toys with various theories of time while daydreaming at his job in the patent office.

Both are excellent reads and a great deal of fun.

risen, or sunk...?

Clearly, the /. crowd is far more concerned with rewards in this mere physical plane

Sci-fi author Alistair Reynolds explored the concept of emergency euthanasia as a medical procedure in his novel "Pushing Ice". For deep space missions, casualties beyond the facilities of the ship to manage would be suffused with H2S to displace the oxygen before it could start damaging tissues.

Granted; in the story there was unspecified nano-based medicine to facilitate the revival, but the basic idea is there.

850,000lbf (lbf = pounds force) is a relatively small load. It is easy to forget exactly how strong steel is in tension: using standard 50ksi steel (typical structural steel), only about 18 sq-in would be required to hold the rocket down (albeit with no factor of safety).

For comparison, the main cables in the George Washington suspension bridge in New York each carry ~260,000,000lbf, and are designed to resist almost 3 times that load. While the amount of thrust developed by the Falcon 9 is seriously impressive for a lift vehicle, it is trivial from a ground-based engineering standpoint.

There is a reason structural engineers work in kips not pounds (1 kip = 1000lb), and yes IAASE.

1) Introduce entire copyrighted catalog of RIAA as material evidence
2) Request public records of proceedings
3) ????
4) Profit!

sheer elegance in its simplicity!