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Although made up of French words, "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" is not actually French.

Yes.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Busin...
http://charity.lovetoknow.com/...
http://www.give.org/charity-re...

http://www.csmonitor.com/Busin...
http://www.give.org/charity-re...
http://charity.lovetoknow.com/...

It is increasingly plausible to foresee a future in which cheap renewable electricity becomes the world's primary power source and fossil fuels are relegated to a minority status.

Hmm...This article just begs the question: Does the US have a power grid that can provide enough sustainable power to meet that demand? Doing some Googling & some math gets us...

A) 2.5 trillion miles driven annually in the US

B) "Electricity becomes the world's primary power source", so we'll call that a majority of miles driven, or 50%, or 1.25 trillion miles

C) If everyone drove the Tesla Model S, they would get 240 miles on a 70kWh battery, or about 3.43 miles / kWh.

D) In order to drive 1.25 trillion miles, we need to have available 1.25 trillion miles / 3.43 miles/kWh = 364.4 billion kWh.

E) The US generates 4 trillion kWh of electricity per year.

F) The US consumes 3.8 trillion kWh of electricity per year. (Worksheet 7.6.)

So, it looks like we have about 200 billion kWh to spare, which is, I'm sorry to say, not enough.

So, how does anyone expect to achieve such a lofty goal if we don't have the infrastructure in place to make it happen? (And if anyone else in the world knows that their nation has the capacity to make it happen within their country, I'd love to know.)

1) You had a pretty good response going but you had to go and put a link. To an article copyright the "The American Society For Nutrition", whose sustaining partners include: The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Nestle Nutrition Institute, McDonalds, The Sugar Association Inc, Unilever North America, Kraft Food Groups, et al. https://www.nutrition.org/our-members/corporate-members/our-sustaining-members/
I'm thinking that the science produced by researchers which they sponsor is going to be just a tad bit biased, don't you?

2,3) I've seen all kinds of teeth on different breeds of modern dogs, are you saying that a chihuahua's teeth are the same as those of a pit bull or rottweiler?
Yes, they have molars ( I was mistaken in thinking they didn't), here's what they're for:
http://dogs.lovetoknow.com/wiki/A_Dog's_Teeth
Molars handle the heavy duty work of a dog's teeth, breaking down larger hard items like bones, large kibble or dog biscuits. Every adult dog has ten molars just behind the premolars; two on each side of the top jaw and three on each side of the lower jaw.

4) An animal dying of starvation, illness, or exposure is natural, similarly dying from parasites, that's the way life is supposed to work, generally that is referred to as nature. Wolves didn't "ate raw meat" wolves eat raw meat and they will continue to do so until we idiot humans finally exterminate the last of them.
I don't have a dog, I have a cat. I got and keep the cat because it kills and eats rats and mice and the odd bird now and again. I got it to protect the avocado and other fruit trees. It is extremely healthy, agile(thus its nice kill rate), and relaxed. I feed it of course because I think there aren't enough rodents to keep it full.

5.) I completely agree that supermarket meat is an abomination that is why I only typically buy soap there. Occasionally I'll buy the odd organic vegetable too but mostly I shop at farmers markets. My meat I buy online or from local sources which provide grass fed and finished animals, beef, pork, lamb...

  6.) Thanks, I did not know that.

I searched and searched on a good reference for the USB device (I can't remember my first very well, maybe a mouse). I saw a bunch of places (coping each other) say Apple Quicktake 100 connected by USB, but that seems incorrect. It was just regular serial (RS232). Anyways, if any people see this, tell me your first USB device (or if you know some of the first USB cameras). Thanks...

It and engineering pay has suffered badly because of outsourcing and visa abuse. According to Love to Know here: http://jobs.lovetoknow.com/Facts_and_Figures_on_Outsourcing It seems that if the Obama administration was to take job creation seriously and curb outsourcing of American jobs to cheap foreign contractor slavers it would save close to 1.5 million jobs for Americans. Most of those in IT are familiar by now with the visa abuse that takes place in the US. Many unscrupulous companies are playing games and pulling stunts to meet even the lax standards setup for foreign nationals to obtain work visas in the US. If the Obama administration were again to take job creation seriously then they could come up with almost 5 million US jobs by simply denying visas per the US State Department. http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/FY09AnnualReport_TableXVII.pdf

That is ridiculous for so many reasons I don't even know where to start. Engagement rings are not some sort of "un-fake-able signal of a man's seriousness". If either the man or the woman calls off the wedding for any reason, in many states, legally, the ring is returned to the man.

In some states of the United States, engagement rings are considered "conditional gifts" under the legal rules of property. This is an exception to the general rule that gifts cannot be revoked once properly given. See, for example, the case of Meyer v. Mitnick, 625 N.W.2d 136 (Michigan, 2001), whose ruling found the following reasoning persuasive: "the so-called 'modern trend' holds that because an engagement ring is an inherently conditional gift, once the engagement has been broken, the ring should be returned to the donor. Thus, the question of who broke the engagement and why, or who was 'at fault,' is irrelevant. This is the no-fault line of cases."

And some info on the history of engagement rings. Note that the rings were initially made out of iron (pretty inexpensive).

Romans used iron rings to symbolize strength and permanence, and the Greeks are credited with the initial idea to wear the ring on the fourth finger of the left hand, where the “vena amoris” or vein of love was supposed to connect to the heart.

During the ninth century, Pope Nicolas I endorsed the idea of engagement rings by making a gold ring a betrothal requirement to demonstrate the groom’s wealth and ability to care for a wife. In 1215, Pope Innocent III made a similar declaration though the rings could consist of different metals, including silver and iron, and the rings were meant to be worn during a longer engagement period.

I'll leave the part about how DeBeers controlling the resale market is good for men (or anyone) for someone else to debunk.

Interesting rumour. I'm slightly interested to know what your basis for this assertion is

Half a dozen of my friends figured this out the hard way. Their doctors all traced it back to drug interactions between antibiotics in the -cycline family (minocycline, tetracycline, etc.) and their low-dose oral contraceptive pills. But since anecdotes aren't proof, I spent about five minutes Googling:

Reference 1
Reference 2
Reference 3 (about 3/4 down the page)
Reference 4
Reference 5

Many sources I found note that it is difficult to conduct formal research in this area because women don't want to take antibiotics as part of a study and risk getting pregnant. It is difficult to prove what happens, but my friends have traced it back and told me what their doctors said. I hope sexually active readers hear this and protect themselves.

I also still think Kirk looks like a preppy douche, not a skilled (if overly testosterone-driven) starship captain. Rest of the cast still looks fine.

Uhh, have you seen ST:TOS? This sure looks like a "preppy douche" plus 5-10 years of experience. Hell, Shatner (who basically manifested himself in Kirk) is pushing 77+ (!) years old, and he's still a bit of a progressed "preppy douche".

Google for "James T Kirk" and tell me the resulting images do not look like a 1970s version of a "preppy douche". The similarity is, indeed, uncanny. The difference is that back then, that - being cocksure of yourself and your ability in life and with women - was an aspiration, not a character flaw.

Having solved all other problems within their country, Israel turns it's attention and taxpayer dollars towards the onerous problem of DOG SHIT. As I said, you've got to be kidding me. Isn't DNA analysis still kind of expensive?

Not that this is the way I'd like my tax money to be spent, but this is probably just a city investment in fostering a local budding biotech industry. A private company might even provide such a service at a loss -- just so that it could get the press -- and the credit for having done it first. And for as low as $35 (retail price) per test, it's also bound to get cheaper with time and with bulk. Eventually, may be ten to twenty years from now, this kind of tech may even take the form of an hand-held device that gives you nearly-instantaneous results -- which could be used at security check points and high risk security areas.

Let's face it - Americans on a whole can't manage money outside a few of us that live "behind the times." 60% of Americans can't pay off their credit cards each month. I believe the number for Americans with no debt is under 17% (can't remember where I saw that number). According to that same link, most Americans live at 10% above their annual income. I'm sure that will grow as more people invest in Blu-ray on credit. I'll wait a while and budget for it eventually - maybe when the price hits $100.