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you mean like this kid? whose accusers finally admitted faking the whole thing, and NO consequences for them?

https://triblive.com/local/reg...

While I agree the cost of an ambulance ride is ridiculous, the amount that's charged is actually in line with what it costs to operate one. Ambulances cost about a quarter million dollars to purchase and outfit. So right off the bat you're at 10x the cost of a private car used for taxi services. Then you have to pay for the labor costs of two, sometimes three EMTs aboard instead of a single driver. And you're amortizing all this over a lot fewer rides per day than a taxi service. So it actually makes sense that they cost several tens of times more than a taxi service.

Those of you in countries where national health care covers it are still paying the same amount. You're just paying it via everyone's taxes instead of it being billed to the person getting the ride.

Economic situations like this normally resolve themselves by dividing into different tiers of service. e.g. If you only need a ride, a cheaper, less outfitted ambulance (or Uber) can provide that service. However, medical emergencies where lives are at stake cause people to "play it safe" regardless of cost, resulting in patients always traveling in the fully outfitted maximum expense ambulance for even the most minor of injuries. As another example, I've got several thousands of dollars of safety and first aid equipment aboard my boat which will probably never be used. We're so far up the cost/benefit curve that the marginal price increase is huge for a tiny bit of extra benefit. There really isn't a good solution here (in terms of reducing overall cost to society) unless you're willing to accept an increased risk of someone who is being transported dying while en route.

An Israeli company, Phinergy, has been working on a pilot system of vehicles that use aluminum battery plates, that are swapped at "charging" stations.

And how much taxpayer money goes Comcast and the others each year?

One example

Another example

Funny, there's no actual link to this "old article" yet you are quoting directly from it. Where is this article actually at?

Sorry, I messed-up the A-href formatting and posted too quickly. Here is the article I was referring to.

And perhaps seeing how the banks practically destroyed the housing market with fraudulent mortgages

No, they didn't — the government did, when it forced the banks to lower their requirements for the borrowers' creditworthiness. The Social Justice Warriors, who understood every rejected mortgage-application of a minority applicant as evidence of racism , caused the crisis. They presumed, those supposedly "greedy" banks were willingly refusing money-making opportunities for racist reasons...

perhaps they do need to be nationalized

Nationalization is not a cure, it is the next stage of the decease. But thank you for admitting, that Sanders' fans like yourself would support nationalization of some industries. Obviously, not only are the two politicians alike, their supporters are similar as well.

That is a blatant lie.

No, honey, at most, it is an incorrect statement. Whether it is even incorrect, let's see.

several people linked to exactly the answer you wanted

Nope, none of the links were to point-by-point comparisons as you attempted. The links were to Sanders' own program, which look remarkably similar to that of Chaves. Let's see:

Chavez is much more similar to the Republican candidates than he is to Sanders!

Hey, make up your mind — are RethugliKKKans more like Hitler or like Chavez?

Christoph Mertz, senior project scientist in CMU's Robotics Institute, is developing a computer program to detect potholes, cracks and other irregularities in roads. Mounted on the windshield of a car, a camera captures images of the street and measures the severity of potholes and cracks. Read more: http://triblive.com/news/alleg... Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

Christoph Mertz, senior project scientist in CMU's Robotics Institute, is developing a computer program to detect potholes, cracks and other irregularities in roads. Mounted on the windshield of a car, a camera captures images of the street and measures the severity of potholes and cracks. Read more: http://triblive.com/news/alleg... Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

Did you miss the whole #uninstallfirefox thing?

Calls for boycotts are rarely successful in general and on the subject of "gay marriage" in particular.

Nobody knows, whether the campaign caused any perceptible dent in Firefox' userbase — as I said, I doubt, there was much of an effect. This simply is not a reason to consider a software program. Especially, a free one — where none of your money would benefit the subject of your hatred either way.

It's legit. let's not shoot the messenger.

http://triblive.com/news/alleg...

Every single adult involved in this case, from the teacher to the judge, needs to be fired. The cop needs to be arrested for destruction of evidence.

This is why rates almost constantly move up.

Continual inflation, ever-rising demand (even with increasing efficiency), increasing emissions / safety regulations, etc., would account for all of that. This isn't something you need to speculate about... You can find the recorded profits of energy companies in the public record quite easily, and point out specific examples of growing and excess profits, if you can find them.

In fact, I'll give you a start...

http://www.google.com/finance?...

To (over-simplified I know) compare with inflation, click the "S&P 500" box to show the two side-by-side. Expand it out to 10+ years, and show me where this big spike in profitability (far in excess of inflation) is for the energy company... And you can check all those "related" companies linked just below, if you think some others might be more sinister...

By all means, let me know when you find something significant.

Do NG customers get NG delivered at anywhere near its real cost to deliver? No. It's horribly expensive, it's been horribly expensive, and it's going to stay horribly expensive. And all the while, energy company executives receive salaries in the eye-popping range.

Those "eye-popping" executive salaries are a problem across ALL US industries, certainly not just energy. And I don't see any evidence that natural gas companies are pulling in ridiculous profits, either:

http://www.google.com/finance?...

And more to the point, natural gas prices absolutely have been falling, with only a few brief spikes when the aging and inadequate pipelines can't handle sudden huge demand:

http://www.indmin.com/Article/...

Conspiracy theories are nice, but you need something... anything to back them up. Any little bit of solid evidence will do.

For instance, right now, the US has a huge surplus of natural gas. There's so much they just burn it right off at the oil fields

They don't burn it just for the hell of it... Whether their storage / transport / pipeline capacity is exceeded, or it's excess pressure that blows a valve, incidental seepage they can't capture, or something similar... burning (flaring) it is the proper and safe way to release/dispose of it. Technology is improving how much of it can be captured/stored, and increasing energy prices are making it more economical to go to great lengths to capture it. The use of flaring has been gradually declining over the years:

http://triblive.com/news/14420...

http://www.energyandcapital.co...

It is a wholly corrupt system.

Anybody with any background or just causal knowledge of US history can say, yes, there is plenty of corruption, but it's a tiny and continually declining fraction as much as there was in previous decades and centuries. It's believed technology has a lot to do with gradually reducing it. The level of corruption 100 years ago just would blow your mind, yet people look back with nostalgia at a sanitized version of history, without the warts you see living day-to-day.

oops.

http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_720838.html

http://www.irs.gov/irm/part5/irm_05-017-013.html

One of the advantages of being a non-profit organization is that you can (and they cheerfully will) do things that cost way more than they recoup just to set an example.

oops.

http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_720838.html

http://www.irs.gov/irm/part5/irm_05-017-013.html

This is a nice idea for another type of class, maybe say a graphics design class, but html does not teach students CS concepts!

Also, school boards / administrations get very very picky about a school's public image. Every bit of content would have to be approved by umpteen-million people.

I've got a little experience - I've almost been sued over my high school newspaper's website.