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Also bear in mind that, for the IT field, California has additional laws about who's overtime-exempt and who's not based on, among other things, salary and effective hourly rate. Relevant law is California Labor Code section 515.5. As of 2007 the effective hourly rate needed to qualify as overtime-exempt was $49.77/hour. SB 929 changed that effective 1/1/2008 to $36/hour, or not quite $75K/year in salary. Anyone in the IT field not being paid at least that amount is not exempt from overtime in California regardless of other qualifications (the exemption requires that all conditions hold).

Anyone taking old IT junk for free or without charging significantly for its disposal is almost certainly dumping.

That's probably the case in most places, but thankfully California's Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 offsets the costs for recyclers here. Initially I was part of the "Oh noes more taxes!" club, but it's definitely having a positive impact. Many of the local landfills allow you to drop off e-waste and some businesses, like TV stations, organize big e-waste drives as PR campaigns.

Charging a little extra at point-of-sale to guarantee safe recycling might turn out to be a very good idea, just nobody tell the CFL folks about it...

The original article has since been updated with a picture, a map, and even a video. But the 800 degree temperature still lacks a -°-F designation IMO. Here was my original submission:

Ground temperatures exceeding 800 degrees (C? F? HOT!) are being recorded at the Los Padres Forest in Ventura County, California. Geologists are uncertain why, but a popular theory is that hydrocarbons in some form (petroleum, gas, coal) are being exposed to air through cracks formed in dry ground. (Fuel + Oxygen + Heat = Fire Triangle) The last thing California needs are forest fires from below, after so recently fighting off forest fires from lightning above, so fire fighters are closely monitoring the area.

You can find a list of vacancies in the california state government at the State Personnel Board.

The vacancies don't have any reference codes or pay spine acronyms. It really looks like every employment position will be paid according to a keyword match with the job title.

Since you still refuse to publish a URL of your supposed YEARS of fighting the voting machine.

We'll start you off nice and slow this morning.

Your homework consists simply reading several articles. Then removing your foot from your mouth.

Hunt for the (backdoor)kill switch in microchips.

US reveals plans to hit back at cyber threats (note the part about CHIPS)

Investigating Machine Identification Code Technology in Color Laser Printers (if you can do this you can do anything)

The Hunt for the Kill Switch (This is the best of the articles in my opinion)

So your idea of "computerized tabulation" will work only if the public John Doe/ Jane Doe/ You/ Me/ Slashdot Readers/ "We The People" and anyone else is allowed to destructively reverse engineer every electronic voting machine component under an electron microscope looking for backdoor logic (Which is NOT allowed), and any network, hub, switch, vault, radio transmitter, Radio receiver, or memory device that might have been used in conjunction with the election (Again the public is NOT allowed to, not to mention it would be physically impossible and too costly at the expense of bringing down the entire communications infrastructure.), and monitor the whole spectrum 24/7 at all geographic locations during an election. (ain't going to happen) And monitor the power supply for rogue signals, or frequency or voltage anomalies.

So really what your saying is it's okay for someone to walk in on election day, reach into their pocket, activate their hidden transmitter, and flip the vote, by a plethora of methods.

And that's just the HARDWARE.

Shall we wait until you digest all that before we talk about the SOFTWARE and WHAT'S ALREADY BEEN FOUND?

hint #1
Top To Bottom Review

hint #2
Federal Vote-Counting Accuracy Mandate Is Ignored
Violations abound, but no federal action is taken

And again I remind you that 100% hand counts of ballots that have 100% chain of custody (even that is broken) with 100% public oversight (currently the public is denied access and ballots have been illegally destroyed) have never been compared to the 100% machine tabulation.

Furthermore your continued publicizing of the myth that "hand counted paper ballots are unrealistic due to population." Is just that. A MYTH!

If your ideas are so open source, show them right here right now. Quit saying you don't know where to take these ideas, I'm telling you right now.

Publish it! Publish it right here, right now.

Get a free frigging yahoo/geocities account, and publish it. Make a god damned blog and publish it. Rar the shit up and upload it to Rapidshare. Create an account at sourceforge and PUBLISH IT!

>>While there is measurable impairment at a .08 BAC, most drunk driving accidents are caused by recidivist alcoholics with a much higher BAC. .08??

Here in California, for a 20 year old like the guy in the article, the cutoff is .01. According to the DMV, a 280 pound 20 year old who drinks a single beer and waits four hours for it to wear off is "definitely unlawful":
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/pgs72duichart.htm

And it's not necessarily illegal for 20 year olds to drink, either... with parental consent it's actually legal.

While I think 0.08 has definitely impairment (four drinks in one hour... most people will feel it), the one drink in four hours law is just unbelievable.

According to this California FAQ list about aftermarket auto parts, you can indeed replace an engine with another engine which is not the same, but it has to meet additional guidelines if it's not the identical replacement part.

Specifically:

Engine changes are legal as long as the following requirements are met to ensure that the change does not increase pollution from the vehicle:

        * The engine must be the same year or newer than the vehicle.

        * The engine must be from the same type of vehicle (passenger car, light-duty truck, heavy-duty truck, etc.) based on gross vehicle weight.

        * If the vehicle is a California certified vehicle then the engine must also be a California certified engine.

        * All emissions control equipment must remain on the installed engine.

After an engine change, vehicles must first be inspected by a state referee station. The vehicle will be inspected to ensure that all the equipment required is in place, and vehicle will be emissions tested subject to the specifications of the installed engine.

That would be California.

A massive country wide nuclear power plant building spree would need to take place. Right now we have over 100 nuke plants that supply 20% of our electricity

Nuclear power isn't needed. By 2050 solar power could provide 69% of the US's electrical needs. Wind can also supply a lot, I read where the Rocky Mountains alone contain enough potential wind power to supply the lower 48 states but I didn't find a reference. Then a lot of waste heat goes up smokestacks daily. Here's a quote from TFA: "Here's a Maxwell House coffee roaster in Duval County. They're roasting beans, so all that heat has to go somewhere. About twelve megawatts' worth of potential electricity is going up the stack." In Hawaii about 30% of the big Island's, Puna, is from geothermal power. Geothermal sources produced about 13,000 gigawatt hours in California in 2007, with more available.

Add all these together and every coal fired plant should be able to be closed without any more nuclear power plants being built and still have plenty of electricity.

Falcon

University of California policy is if one of your non-exempt employees replies to emails you sent them out of work hours you're supposed to reprimand them, for exactly this issue - if someone sues the university for unpaid overtime and can show a string of timestamps on emails to their supervisor of record outside normal work hours, this demonstrates a) they were doing uncompensated overtime, and, more importantly, b) their supervisor knew about it and did not stop it, which counts as approval in the eyes of courts.

I assume this counts for all employees in California at least. So if you're a non-exempt employee in California and have had it with creeping expectations about when and how you work, dig through the last two years of your outbox & give the CA dept. of industrial relations a call: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageCLaim.htm

If you're not sure if you're 'non-exempt', the DIR is the body responsible for deciding if your occupation is exempt or no exempt (and their webpage has a handy link on the front page about software workers..) http://www.dir.ca.gov/IWC/IWC.html

Enjoy : )

University of California policy is if one of your non-exempt employees replies to emails you sent them out of work hours you're supposed to reprimand them, for exactly this issue - if someone sues the university for unpaid overtime and can show a string of timestamps on emails to their supervisor of record outside normal work hours, this demonstrates a) they were doing uncompensated overtime, and, more importantly, b) their supervisor knew about it and did not stop it, which counts as approval in the eyes of courts.

I assume this counts for all employees in California at least. So if you're a non-exempt employee in California and have had it with creeping expectations about when and how you work, dig through the last two years of your outbox & give the CA dept. of industrial relations a call: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageCLaim.htm

If you're not sure if you're 'non-exempt', the DIR is the body responsible for deciding if your occupation is exempt or no exempt (and their webpage has a handy link on the front page about software workers..) http://www.dir.ca.gov/IWC/IWC.html

Enjoy : )

Good point. But, you also have to consider that, instead of building new power plants every time we get a newer and better way to generate electricity (which will happen anyways), you have to modify factories to build the new engine, modify all the fuel stations to accommodate the new fuel, and then wait for the cars to get out on the road. Note that California's own air resources board notes that it takes 16 years for 50% of the passenger cars produced in that year to be off the road. That jumps up to 18 years for light duty trucks. Unless we find a catalyst for carbon fixing in a cheap and usable form, I think that electric is probably the better way to go.

Not only is it a false dichotomy, but the GP writes off "A once a year, thousand times spike in a trace amount chemical" as a non-event without providing a shred of evidence to back up the assertion.

The State of California sets 6 micrograms/liter as the max allowable limit
and according to TFA, the amount of perchlorate spikes to 44.204 micrograms/liter.
 
/And no, the "but I'm not in California" line of logic does not apply

From the FAQ

# Completed a course in barbering from a school approved by the board (1,500 hours).

how about a license to practise computer repair, or something?

Already required in California (where I live).

"There is an initiative in the works that could end up on the November ballot that allows for marijuana to be sold to anyone, and anywhere that already sells alcohol. Its being called The Inalienable Rights Enforcement Initiative. From the full text of the measure:
This initiative will amend the Constitution of California to defend and safeguard the inalienable rights of the People against infringement by governments and corporations, providing for the lawful growth, sale, and possession of marijuana. Marijuana will be taxed through a system of stamps and licenses--a $5 stamp will be required for the sale of an eighth ounce of marijuana and a $50 annual license will be required for the growth of one marijuana plant. To protect participants and encourage participation in the system, such licenses and stamps will be available anonymously in stores where marijuana is sold.

So instead of getting some quack doctor to give you a prescription for $100 because of your supposed "anxiety" or alleged "insomnia", you will just pay an extra tax each time you buy yourself another 8th.

Aside from allowing all willing adults to be able to buy weed easily, this initiative will start to generate revenue for California, and stimulate our struggling economy. More weed stores means more jobs for Californians, more taxes to be collected, and more people enjoying better weed. And finally marijuana will be put into the same file as Alcohol and Cigarettes where it belongs, instead of it being equated with crack-cocaine and heroine.

The initiative goes on to say why they believe this to be a necessary measure:
We also hold these truths to be self-evident-That, as an intoxicant, marijuana is far less harmful to the health and safety of the People than alcohol--That, as a smoking substance, marijuana is far less addictive or harmful to the health of the People than tobacco--That, even though alcohol is harmful to the health and safety of the People, the prohibition of alcohol from 1920 to 1933 only increased the harms associated with alcohol use: criminals seized control of the alcohol market, crime and violence increased greatly, and poverty, unemployment, and corruption flourished, while otherwise lawful alcohol drinkers were treated as "criminals" subject to detention, arrest, and incarceration, even though they had not harmed the rights of anyone--That, as with alcohol prohibition, the prohibition of marijuana has only increased the harms associated with the use of marijuana: criminals control a multi-billion dollar market, crime and violence have increased greatly, and poverty, unemployment, and corruption flourish, while otherwise law-abiding marijuana smokers are treated as "criminals" subject to detention, arrest, and incarceration, even though they have not harmed the rights of anyone-That the history of marijuana prohibition is a history of repeated injuries and infringements upon the inalienable rights, powers, and best interests of the People.

Fuck Yes! Preach on, brothers! They go on to point out that alcohol, tobacco, and big-pharma lobbyists have the politicians that are supposed to represent the People in their back-pockets and serving the interests of the alcohol, tobacco, and big-pharma industries.
Despite the harms of marijuana prohibition, politicians persist in imposing and upholding marijuana prohibition, because these politicians are not working for the People--they are working for the corporate executives who financed their campaigns, such as corporate executives in the alcohol industry who want to protect their monopoly on intoxication, corporate executives in the tobacco industry who want to protect their monopoly on smoking, corporate executives in the pharmaceutical industry who want to protect their monopoly on expensive medicines, and corporate executives in the many industries threatened by competition with hemp. These corporate exe

In that case, Californians tempted to Google and drive can breathe a big sigh of relief: The new laws don't proscribe use of computers or the Web, except for drivers under 18 years old. There is a different law on the books preventing the use of television screens or video screens farther forward than the rear of the front seats, but it's unclear whether that measure applies to computers browsing the Internet.

I've read that law, and it didn't seem unclear to me. Video screens that aren't completely dedicated to vehicle status and/or navigation aren't allowed forward of the back or the front seat. Seems to me it applies to laptops, PDAs, and most cell phones.

A person may not drive a motor vehicle if a ... video screen ... displaying a ... video signal that produces entertainment or business applications, is operating and is located in the motor vehicle at any point forward of the back of the driver's seat, or is operating and visible to the driver while driving the motor vehicle.

There are specific exemptions for GPS and other nav systems, as well as police car terminals, etc.

As an Alaskan myself, I can't understand why any Alaskan would want to drill ANWR right now. If you had an investment that had been doing this for the past three years, and you had every reason to believe that it would continue to do so, you would have to be out of your mind to sell now. Environment or not.

What precisely do you think it will cost to lay out fiber to everyone? 200M won't even do a major city. Just what sort of return do you expect to see on that?

Sorry I mistyped, which if you had read TFA I linked to you should have noticed it. I meant $200 Billion not $200 Million. And that was just a low estimate of how much businesses got in subsidies. For instance "California schools and libraries have received $1.6 billion"[pdf] from the federal E-Rate program. The state of California has it's own program, California Teleconnect Fund which gives subsidies as well. Other states, and local governments, also give subsidies.

What percentage of WoW players even know its running a p2p distribution network? What percentage know that means or how to turn it off?

I don't know how many, I didn't know myself. However I don't play WoW or any other online game, nor am I a member of many other online groups pr communities. Obviously I am a member of /. The only other places I am a member of online is Yahoo!'s groups, which used to have some real good clubs but they've been going downhill since merging with EGroups, and a community of college students, however I haven't visited it in many months if not more than a year.

Per the article (Cringely, so not exactly trustworthy, but I don't feel like verifying the numbers) wholesale ethanol costs $1.42 a gallon and SwitftFuel production costs are ~40 cents/gallon. 1 Barrel of oil (42 gallons) currently goes for $130. That's converted to 20 gallons of gasoline (plus 20 gallons of other useful stuff), so the raw cost of gasoline is ~3.09/gallon. That's reasonably consistent with these numbers from the California gov't. Refinery costs for gasoline are slightly less, but not too far out of line.

Therefore, IF the ethanol price and ethanol conversion costs are accurate, the end user cost could easily be $1.50-1.60/gallon less than gasoline.

Screw the MagLev, make the California High Speed Rail System a reality: http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/ It's cheaper and can work with existing infrastructure. Plus, there's even an effort to get private investors to build a high speed rail line from Las Vegas to Victorville: http://www.desertxpress.com/

Focusing on pie-in-the-sky maglev projects is asinine when there isn't even respectable passenger service on steel wheels.

California needs to lead the way by building something like this:
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/gallery.aspx ...before we throw money away on maglev projects. Here's a video with some additional information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD1QGNsRg74

That's the first thing I though. High-Speed Rail to San Francisco is what we really need, the current rail situation is a joke. A four hour trip from San Diego to San Francisco for under $100? Yes please!

It's just great that California has instituted a requirement for a voter-verifiable paper trail for e-voting machines, but the fundamental problems still remain.

The problem with these machines is that there's no guarantee that the ballot that the voter verified actually matches what gets recorded in the memory of the machine, and what eventually gets transmitted upstream.

Yes, a manual recount based on the paper trail would catch massive vote fraud - but that's only going to happen if the results are obviously bogus.

The results of the voting machine review that the CA Secretary of State performed are here:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vsr.htm

Reading those reports is pretty scary. The state identified a bunch of weaknesses in the various systems, and imposed requirements on the vendors to plug the most egregious security holes. But there are literally DOZENS of operational requirements imposed to ensure that the voting is secure and that the privacy of voters is maintained.

I'm assuming that you have the Hart InterCivic system as stated by The Verifier. In that event, as other authiors have noted you may have no hope of detecting truly electrionic tampering. However you may spot some things. The links below also apply to Diebold and ES&S systems as well.

I would be sure, to tell all voters to read the confirmation screen carefully. Many other locations have reported instances of vote switching where voters, once they reach the closing screen, see a different outcome than they pushed. Evidence from a Rice University study indicates that less than 30% of people even read this screen but those that do have reported nontrivial numbers of flipped votes.

Secondly I would educate yourself about the machines. Ohio's Everest study, particularly chapter 14 contains many scary things about the machines. Some you can look for, many you cannot.

You will also find information from the California study notably the red-team reviews of the hart system.

Voters Unite is also a source of some good info As does Pollworkers.us which is a useful site for those working the polls.

Why do individuals or companies deserve any profit from oil taken from under American soil? State-owned oil companies take all the money, then the profit benefits everyone, not just those lucky enough to own the right bit of land.

The US used 386 million US gallons of gasoline a day in 2005, that's $35M profit a day for the oil execs with your figures. What would you spend the $35M on? You could, for instance, build a high speed railway in California in just over three years -- and that's just from the oil company profit, not even using the state and federal taxes! No doubt there are other projects, but I'm not American and that was the first I could find a price for.

Tax in Europe is often around 70% of the price of the fuel.

California is doing this now... heard a report on NPR about it a couple weeks ago, with a 10 year timeline to get something like 3000 MW online....

http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/3588/

For those in the San Luis Obispo market, here's some contact information:

SLO County and unincorporated cities: (805) 781-4357
San Luis Obispo, Bridgitte Elke, Principal Administrative Analyst: (805) 781-7151

These are general city contact numbers, I wasn't able to quickly find the contact info for the departments/persons directly involved with cable franchising:
Morro Bay: (805) 772-6200 x5 (administration)
Atascadero: (805) 461-5000
Arroyo Grande: (805) 473-5414 (administration)
Paso Robles: (805) 227-7276 (city hall)
Grover Beach: (805) 473-4550 (administration)

California Public Utilities Commission: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc/

Feel free to call the appropriate city or county contact for your service area and let them know that Charter's inspection of all web traffic going through their network is NOT acceptable to you, and that you prefer your web browsing to remain unmonitored and unaltered by Charter.
When calling, make sure you speak to someone responsible for cable franchising agreements.

So if we wanted to power say, California, which as of 2006 has 36,457,549 [census.gov] people we would need something around (36,457,549/4=28044 so 28044*4=) 112,177 wind turbines. That is stupid ridiculous!

Yea it's stupid to decentralize power generation when you can concentrate all that power into a few hands instead. Fact is is a farmer can have wind turbines on the farm while still growing food, and they will supplement farmers' income. Wind farms can also be located offshore. Then there's solar and geothermal. Tidal power can even be used.

Wind power 'feels good' but when you start running the numbers it gets dumb real quick.

In what way? If wind were given the same subsidies as nuclear power the math would change. As it is now nuclear power is a form of corporate welfare.

In California, a missing person is someone whose whereabouts is unknown to the reporting party. This includes any child who may have run away, been taken involuntary or may be in need of assistance. It includes a child illegally taken, held or hidden by a parent or non-parent family member (See California Penal Code Sections 277-280).

There is NO waiting period for reporting a person missing. All California police and sheriffs' departments must accept any report, including a report by telephone, of a missing person, including runaways, without delay and will give priority to the handling of the report.

Your all looking at the wrong server. (not to mention RTFA...) The article isn't talking about medical records systems or doctor/hospital systems. The abstract clearly says it is a court system serving up civil case records. Health care systems? Huh???

The server http://www.riverside.courts.ca.gov/ is just the main directory for all of the court's web presence. You did notice that there aren't any personal documents there didn't you?

The court records are served up from: http://public-access.riverside.courts.ca.gov/
The Microsoft tags are conspicuously absent. In fact the cleanliness of the headers would lead me to believe it was some sort *nix box. It doesn't make a difference because the problem isn't the OS.

The problem is the data that they are serving up. They have a legal requirement to clean the records of tax ID numbers so this will probably be cleaned up now that they have been publicly embarassed.

Your all looking at the wrong server. (not to mention RTFA...) The article isn't talking about medical records systems or doctor/hospital systems. The abstract clearly says it is a court system serving up civil case records. Health care systems? Huh???

The server http://www.riverside.courts.ca.gov/ is just the main directory for all of the court's web presence. You did notice that there aren't any personal documents there didn't you?

The court records are served up from: http://public-access.riverside.courts.ca.gov/
The Microsoft tags are conspicuously absent. In fact the cleanliness of the headers would lead me to believe it was some sort *nix box. It doesn't make a difference because the problem isn't the OS.

The problem is the data that they are serving up. They have a legal requirement to clean the records of tax ID numbers so this will probably be cleaned up now that they have been publicly embarassed.

...I direct your attention to section 10: http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/faqusetax.htm I, of course, pay use tax on all web purchases~ Board of Equalization. Orwellian, no?

State your source. I have never before heard of a state that levies tariffs on imported goods.

In my original post I was citing only the NY tax handbook, but I checked two other states and both of them have a similar policy. You might need to look for 'use tax' instead of 'sales tax', as sales tax is charged when you purchase and use tax is charged when you begin use, unless you paid sales tax.

• New York State Resident Income Tax Return IT-150 & IT-201 Instructions (Page 66)
• California Income Tax Return Instructions 540/540A (page 17) (page 10 according to acrobat reader)
• New Jersey Income Tax Instructions NJ-1040 (page 36, line 44) (page 34 according to acrobat reader)

In most cases, if you paid the same or greater than the local sales tax rate, you're required to pay the difference on your state taxes. In the case of an amazon purchase, for purchasers in most states, you paid 0% tax at the time of the sale because sellers are only required to collect tax for customers in a state in which they have a physical presence.

Diesel production presents a different series of events compared to that of reformulated gasoline production. For much of the past year, diesel production has been consistently at or above average historical levels while inventory levels have been consistently below average. This implies that demand has increased, preventing inventories from attaining average levels.

Diesel production presents a different series of events compared to that of reformulated gasoline production. For much of the past year, diesel production has been consistently at or above average historical levels while inventory levels have been consistently below average. This implies that demand has increased, preventing inventories from attaining average levels.

Diesel production presents a different series of events compared to that of reformulated gasoline production. For much of the past year, diesel production has been consistently at or above average historical levels while inventory levels have been consistently below average. This implies that demand has increased, preventing inventories from attaining average levels.

We've had a similar system where I vote for the last few elections (Orange County, CA). http://www.oc.ca.gov/ELECTION/vvpat/

I can see you aren't familiar with the smog inspection/vehicle retirement process in California.

I can see you aren't familiar with the smog inspection/vehicle retirement process in California.

Fuck the planet...you just got shit wrong (not the that the other guy was right).

First off, you suggest having to replace a hybrid battery every 3 - 5 years. Lets use a real example, the Prius, instead of some hypothetical bullshit. Toyota has never had to replace a Prius battery (other than defective ones). Here's a link since I know you don't believe me: http://cleangreencar.vibrantplanet.com/page/faq-prius#Q12. I doubt you believe that so perhaps Toyota's 10 year 150,000 mile warranty on the battery is more convincing?

Second, you talk about how regulation has strangled the power plants in California and that's why they've had rolling brown-outs, etc. Perhaps you aren't familiar with Enron. They analy butt-raped California after getting them to deregulate the power in the state. They then requested various power plants they had ownership to arrange shutdowns to drive the price up. They would also arrange to ship power out of the state so the price would rise and then only bring it back after it was 3x what it was before. This little game cost California 30 BILLION DOLLARS, fuckhead. Regulations are put in place to stop greedy fuck-head companies like Enron from doing this shit and as soon as they deregulated, they dicked over the state. There's a whole film on it with actual recordings of their energy traders doing this. It's called Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room. Of course, you probably believe it's some kind of liberal BS campaign.

Any power shortages California has now are due to it's continuing rise in population combined with the ban on new nuclear plants. It has nothing to do with plant profitability you stupid dumbfuck. Here's a link showing how there's four plants currently under construction: http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/all_projects.html#announced. I guess the builders aren't planning on making any money?

So STFU until you learn something other than what people like Rush Limpdick shove down your throat.

Finally, I'm not a democrat of liberal. I'm a realist. All power is abused and greed will grow to the point of ridiculous wherever and whenever it is allowed to. That's the nature of humanity and I'm sick and tired of all these idiots (like yourself) talking about how we don't need to control it. These regulations were put in place because people abused this shit in the past. Fuck it, you're a waste of time.

Actually if you break down the cost of gasoline in the US right now you get this:
http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/margins/index.html
And you see that the cost of crude oil - pre-refine, pre-distribution, pre-everything is spiraling quickly to $3/gallon (it's at $2.80 right now) If this can produce the effective equivalent of light sweet crude for $2/gal then screw any more improvements get that into full scale industrial production right now. We can get it more efficient once we stabilize the world oil and food markets. We haven't had crude at $2/gal since Dec of last year and I personally would love to see gas prices drop back below $3/gal at the pump please.

Okay, so its your position that alternative energy sources are really cheaper than oil, but they haven't been widely deployed because of a corporate conspiracy?

Got some references? Alternate energy plants exist, so what do they charge for energy? These figures from the state of California would seem to disagree with you: http://www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/levelized_cost.html

Let's see. The cheapest is geothermal. Great if you live where it works. Second? Wind. Again, great if you live close by. It's also intermittent, so you need something to supplement it. Third: natural gas. Hm. The three of those are all pretty close, at 4.5-5.18 cents/kWh. What next? Well, hydro, at 6.04. Again, hydro is enthusiastically deployed, where the resources exist. After that? Now we're looking at things like solar thermal, in the 13.5-22 cent/kWh range. Not so good.

Would the costs even out if you charged for emissions? Sure would, but we don't, so until that changes there's no incentive for an energy company to put much development into alternative energies. Alternative energy sources are MORE EXPENSIVE and that price difference limits their demand, so they are not widely deployed. Besides being supported by the numbers it is also a much simpler conclusion than a big conspiracy theory.

Here's the thing. The CA use tax isn't just for mail order items. It is for *any* item on which you did not pay sales tax that is for use in CA. So, if I am visiting family in Oregon, and I buy something there like a cashmere blanket, then come back down to CA, the state of CA wants 8.25% of that. Here is the line from the ca.gov website:

http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/faqpurch.htm

"What is taxable?
Retail sales of tangible personal property in California are generally subject to sales tax. Examples of tangible personal property include such items as furniture, giftware, toys, antiques, clothing, and so forth. In addition, some service and labor costs are subject to sales tax if they result in the creation of tangible personal property.

In some instances, retailers must pay use tax, rather than sales tax, to the Board. The most common example of a purchase subject to the use tax is a purchase of an item for use in California from an out-of-state retailer. Out-of-state retailers who are engaged in business in this state are required to collect the use tax, whenever applicable, from the consumer at the time of making the sale.

The tax rate for sales and use taxes is the same.

Some sales and purchases are exempt from sales and use tax. Examples of exempt sales include, but not limited to, sales of certain food products for human consumption, sales to the U.S. Government, and sales of prescription medicine. For more information on exempt sales, please refer to Publication 61, Sales and Use Taxes: Exemptions and Exclusions."

County, City and other regional taxes make it very complex. And some states, such as California specifically tell you that zip code isn't enough to identify which taxes apply to an address. See http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/pub71.pdf

If you are in doubt about the correct rate, check with your customer, call our toll-free number (800) 400-7115, or call the local Board of Equalization office near you for assistance.

Yes, that's REALLY easy to automate....

This may come as a shock to many, but in most (all?) states, you are supposed to stop on yellow if possible. Not 'beat the red', but stop. Really.

Your conclusions are correct, but you're a bit off in your definition of the yellow. At least here in California, a yellow light means, "...stop if you can do so safely. If you can't stop safely, enter the intersection cautiously."