Like anything, you shouldn't blindly trust all of them...but it's generally a safe bet to go with an "at home" mechanic service. They're generally good, hardworking people.
I have seen some pretty ugly hack jobs by some of these shadetree mechanics. Many don't have the skills, experience, or tools to tackle the repairs. Make sure they are truly operating as a business rather than just earning a little extra cash if you go that route. It's hard to check certifications and licenses on many of the mobile mechanics who survive through craigslist postings.
The point, as always, is that service departments in dealerships (and other shops as well) need to be hella regulated by at least 3 different agencies, with monthly audits, starting with the assumption that every single one is a den of thieves.
Regulation won't magically solve the problem. Offshore oil drilling leases are heavily regulated. But BP still managed to install a faulty blowout preventer and their contractor failed with the concrete. The SEC missed Bernie. And banks are heavily regulated but still managed credit default swaps.
The last 9 times out of 10 I've got a trouble code via ODB-II it has been completely wrong.
I've never received a bad code from the computer, but many times the code can relate to several problems. For instance, I had a cooling system under-temp code (PO128) that was as simple as a bad thermostat, but there were several other things it could have been. It can also be that the code is a symptom of the problem. And then there are problems that the computer can't monitor. My Chevy doesn't have a fuel pressure sensor, so it can't diagnose a bad fuel pump. Talk about a problem where everything will be fine one moment and you're stranded in the middle of nowhere the next...
You're right on this. However, it's near impossible to tell up front whether the place you've taken your car is a shop or a lie, since most of them look basically the same, and you only find out after your car is in pieces up on the rack which one this particular establishment is.
Some things you will have to learn through trial and error. What may be an excellent shop for your neighbor may leave you wishing they had used a little lube when they reamed you. I have three local shops that will never see my business again. Two happen to be dealerships, Ford and GM.
I took my Ford truck to the Ford dealer for a diagnosis on a front end problem (I found an accurate term for it later, look up 'Death wobble'). I paid $90 for an evaluation and found out after I left that the estimate that the service rep verbally gave me wasn't even included with the paperwork. Essentially I was told; shock bolts are loose (they aren't), track bar bushings are shot and it's a complete unit to replace - $360 + labor (O'Reilly Auto sold me the bushings for $20), and stabilizer bushings are shot. I expect dealer parts and labor to be high, but when I pay for an evaluation of a problem I expect a written estimate. They seem to do great on warranty/recall issues though.
I took my Chevy truck to the Chevy dealer regularly for oil change and lube. While checking the brakes one day right after a 'service', I found the ball joint zerks covered with dirt and road grime. Maybe they didn't need grease, so I let that slide. (fittings should have been cleaned anyway) Took my Ford to this same dealer for an oil change and new fuel filter. Since they don't stock Ford parts, they had the auto parts store across the street send them over. They paid less than counter price, billed me for list. $40 markup on what I would have paid if I had walked across the street and bought the two filters. Total price for 10 quarts of Rotella, two filters and less than an hour of labor, $270. Then they failed to install the fuel filter properly and I had to take it back because it was leaking fuel on the exhaust pipe. Thank god it wasn't a gasser. They don't get my business anymore, and I stock my own filters now.
Third shop (non dealer) told me they wouldn't even touch my truck if I brought my own parts. So that state inspection is the last $$$ they will get from me.
The way to avoid the 'car is in pieces and shop wants to ream you' scenario is to understand a little about what you are asking them to service/check. All three of my 'bad' shops were recommended to me. So either they don't screw up all the time or their customers never notice. I have the advantage that I have the knowledge to do my service/repairs, just generally not the desire. I replaced the leaky intake (thank you Dexcool) on my Chevy (4.3l) and swore I'd never work on that truck again.
If you don't have a shop you feel you can trust, try some out with a known, inexpensive problem. For example, I took my Chevy to a national chain for a cooling system flush including the heater core. (more Dexcool fun) Told them I didn't want it replaced with Dexcool and it apparently confused the mechanic. He put in regular green antifreeze rather than extended life green. They had to do the job twice. And just a bit of advice, look at your replacement intervals if you use 'extended life' antifreeze. The replacement interval is no longer than what most of us used for the old green stuff.
The IT industry gets a lot of it's bad rep due to not managing user expectations and not handling mistakes appropriately. I think auto mechanics have the same problems.
In my opinion "Global Warming" is a simplification of a topic too complex for the general public. Whether it was a poor choice in naming, simplifying the subject for public debate, or an attempt to make it sound scary really doesn't matter at this point. It has both helped and hurt the discussion.
It also doesn't matter whether the planet has climate cycles. AGW doesn't threaten the planet, it will be here long after we are gone. If what we are doing is causing severe changes we should be looking to see how we can change what we are doing. It's not inconceivable that what we are doing is affecting the climate, we've done it before. We had to change farming techniques rather than sit back and say "droughts are normal".
But no, instead it's all electric cars and inefficient solar and wind power instead of proven nuclear, etc etc...
Your stance is just as narrow minded as many of the renewable energy proponents. We don't have any technologies that are a single solution to fossil fuels. We could address a lot of our usage through simple efficiency requirements. Push CAFE requirements higher. Change building codes to require minimum environmental efficiency. Require remodeling to bring the affected areas up to current codes. I would even require new buildings to install 1kw solar for each 1000 sq/ft of enclosed space. Not as a solution, but as an incremental step. Builders won't do it themselves, they'll skip a 50 cent part on a $300k house if they can get away with it.
While I support building more nuclear plants, it's just part of the solution. Even if we granted permits for 100 new nuclear plants this year, it would be a decade before any of them came online. Focusing solely on nuclear is almost as bad as the big ethanol push a few years ago. We chose ethanol over biodiesel even though it meant specially designed 'flex fuel' engines, necessitating new cars. Bio OTOH was suitable for use in existing diesel engines. Trains, trucks, heavy equipment, etc. (BTW, since the new ULSD engines that is no longer the case. So we've actually made things worse in that respect) We chose to try and change millions of cars rather than focus on a less visible high usage market. Why not bio for the home heating market? Nuclear is another half attempt unless we get the political will to do something about spent fuel. And just like ethanol, it comes at the expense of another technology that could be retrofitted to existing installed technology. The US will likely never stop using coal. We have too much of it. So why aren't we cleaning up the coal plant emissions? I have a theory that it's our 'I don't want to pay for that' culture. Short term people get outraged "our taxes are paying so xxxx utility can get free stuff", regardless of the fact that if we regulated cleaner emissions xxxx utility would just pass the cost to rate payers anyway, after fighting for years in court.
Lost isn't special because it has carried the story over so many seasons. The flashbacks don't necessarily add to the storyline, they're simply character development that is used to pad the main story. And the current alternate reality story arc adds nothing, it's just extending the series. The simple fact is they couldn't run more than a season or two with the island story.
You see the same on other series. Any of the Stargate series for example. With every new gate discovered there's the opportunity for a completely unrelated story arc. And Stargate Universe is doing the flashback thing too.
If you wanted to make Band of Brothers a series, you'd just spend a lot of time developing the characters. If Stephen King can make a 4 hour movie out of a short story (Langoliers), then it's not a stretch for a competent author to flesh out a story into a multi season series. Another example, The Postman was originally a short story before it became a novel and then finally a 3 hour movie.
Lost doesn't add more than 30 minutes of new content each week and on average probably only 10 minutes toward the main story.
I don't relish the thought of spending $60k+ to do the upgrades right now, so there is an inexpensive window-AC installed to ride out the hot days.
These upgrade 'estimates' are completely ridiculous. First of all, it's not an all or nothing deal. I've worked on the houses I've owned, houses that are 40-70 years old. You can add r30 insulation to your attic for about $240 for 1500 sq/ft of attic space. It's not a task that requires a whole lot of skill and it makes a tremendous difference. You can put plastic over drafty windows, and there are many companies that will replace windows for about $200 each, installed.
On a 70 year old house, I tore out all the interior drywall and added insulation and upgraded electrical. That IS a daunting task, but you can probably do it about as cheap as remodeling a kitchen or bathroom. You also have the option of blowing in insulation which only requires small holes to be drilled in the wall.
Any BTW, there is nothing inexpensive about a window AC, except maybe the initial purchase price.
Out of all the efficiency upgrades I have done, the longest payback has been the bay window. But if I had put back in a window unit similar to what was there originally, it would have payed for itself in roughly 5 years. Just the difference in double pane over single pane leaky windows. I will admit though, I save more on heating (gas) costs that cooling(electrical).
With "smart meters" they know exactly what each individual customer is using when.
This system though seems relatively benign as there doesn't seem to be any back communication (at least not yet).
Nobody adds logging ability if they aren't going to use it. So if your meter keeps track of your usage in any period, they are collecting it. Whether it is through an automatic system or when they 'read' your meter.
One big privacy aspect is when it is used along with a programmable thermostat. If they determine how my thermostat is programmed based off of energy usage, they can determine what hours/days I expect to be at work or sleeping. Having that kind of data by unknown parties crosses from just a privacy issue to a security one.
Two rules for protecting yourself in today's data warehousing world; always remember that something posted on the internet never goes away. And NEVER give out even the most innocent data point about yourself to an entity that does not need it.
He does live in a trailer, on the back acre of his parents lot,
Ahhhh, the redneck version of living in his parent's basement. Because THEIR trailer doesn't have a basement. You just have to put it in terms people around here can understand. I grew up in Missouri, I can translate....
Probably being pedantic, but I would modify that to:
The Constitutional limitations generally do not apply to private citizens.
Certainly the protections on search and seizure, as well as the right to keep and bear arms apply to private citizens. The limitations, in that I can't forbid you to own a gun or search your house do not apply to me. Although there are laws that could be used to prosecute me if I tried.
OTOH, if I tried to stop you from voting or keep you as my slave, I suspect it could be a constitutional issue where government isn't necessarily involved.
You see, That is when government-mandated healthcare comes full circle.
That's the heart of this whole Socialized Medicine misdirection.
You're already paying! Do you have insurance now? Ask your HR department if your smoking co-workers pay higher premiums to offset their habit. If not, you're already paying because they are in the same pool as you. Just like you're paying for the alcoholics and overweight, and any number of unhealthy habits.
People need to get over "I don't want to pay for your...." mentality and start think about whether it's good for society. I pay thousands of dollars a year for 'socialized' education, yet I have no children and do not plan to have any. Education is good for our society, and a healthy population is even more important.
If you want to think about it strictly economically, 'a rising tide lifts all boats.' In the same way education makes us more productive, so does being healthy. Personally, I'm for a single payer system knowing that I would be subsidizing families with children and spouses who are not employed. According to the SBA, 65% of new private sector jobs are created by small businesses. And I have to wonder, how many small businesses are not being started because it's too risky to give up employer provided insurance.
Are they a government organization, or are you using a word you don't understand?
Do they have to be a government organization to force their agenda on the public? The American Cancer Society is currently lobbying Kansas Legislators to pass a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes. And they're running 'think of the children' radio spots.
I don't smoke and I don't live in Kansas, but I find it disturbing that a private group has a good chance of singling out a minority who participate in an activity they don't approve of with higher taxes.
Seriously? That must be why those actors have such a hard time getting work after working for Joss..
David Boreanaz (Angel - Buffy/Angel) has done pretty well with Bones.
Summer Glau (River Tam - Firefly) I never really liked the River character until Serenity. I did like the Sarah Connor Chronicles, and her part in Dollhouse was one of the few refreshing tangents in the Dollhouse let's prostitute Eliza theme. And according to IMDB she stays pretty busy working.
Nathan Fillion (Mal - Firefly) Castle, nuff said.
Adam Baldwin (Jayne - Firefly) Chuck.
Morena Baccarin (Inara - Firefly) V. And although I don't expect it to survive, the problem is the writing and not the acting.
Jewel Staite (Kaylee - Firefly) Did well in Stargate Atlantis, unfortunately didn't get brought in until the series was winding down.
I love Firefly but if you look at the Nielsen ratings there was no way it was going to survive on network television.
Maybe a lot of people where like me and found the commercials for Firefly completely unappealing. It wasn't until several episodes into the season that I happened to stumble onto the show while channel surfing that I started watching it. Then, being in my pre-Tivo days, I had trouble finding it to continue watching. I bought the dvd so I could see all the episodes in the correct order.
And on that general rant, what is it with networks and their ADHD scheduling these days. Either it's a year break between seasons, or they split seasons with two or three multi-week breaks. That, along with the 1:01 and 0:59 scheduling I'd just quit watching entirely if it wasn't for Tivo. I never watch anything 'live' anymore.
I really liked OS/2's Workplace Shell but for one nagging problem that you wouldn't think was a problem until you experienced it first-hand. The WS remembers every window's size and position. Not some, but *all* of them, even if they were just regular applications like, say, the file manager. What do you think happens when you reduce screen resolution because of, say, a new graphics card, and you try to right-click "Properties" to adjust the resolution? It's off the right-hand side of the screen.
I never experienced that, but it would seem like it would be pretty simple to work around if IBM would open up the file structures. It has been a really long time since I worked with WPS, but I'd bet it was stored in the extended attributes. You just need the equivalent of regedit. Even better, re-implement EA in MySQL.
I have the opposite problem with XP. Applications never remember their location and always end up split between my two monitors. I rarely choose to have an application span monitors. I'd rather use something like KDEs desktop model and assign a monitor to each desktop.
What I really liked about WPS was shadows vs shortcuts. If you dropped a link to a program on your desktop, and then for some reason decided to move the EXE, all the links would follow it to it's new location.
We have Office and Shopping well centralized, we need manufacturing and housing more centralized. Manufacturing is the big problem right now.
We'll have to disagree that centralized anything is a good thing. And maybe your little shops in the mall are empty after hours, but larger retailers run 24 hour operations. If they aren't open to the public, they're cleaning and stocking merchandise.
The reason manufacturing is built in the corn fields is because of zoning. People don't want to hear the trucks, trains, etc from commercial businesses next to residential areas. But rather than tackle creating reasonable designs they segregate everything. And btw, residential is generally centralized, it's just primarily low density.
I don't believe that everyone in America is dreaming of owning their own McMansion. And your 'out of sight' theory doesn't wash in this region either. 3000 sq/ft houses are being built on postage stamp sized lots. I have seen some $.5 million dollar houses with 6-8 feet separation from their neighbor. So it's not that they don't want to see neighbors, they don't want to hear them through a common wall. And if that is the case, we can improve building requirements and get back to building high density housing. And the rarely used innovation called sidewalks, making it reasonable to walk to neighborhood retail and office buildings.
You have more than twice as many speeding 'infractions' in the last 14 years than I have had in 30 years of driving. And I started driving in an era where 'cruising' was normal for teens. Firebirds, Camaros, and burning through a tank of gas every Friday night. I don't think your driving record is making your case that you are capable of handling the distraction of a cell phone.
The fact that a person today spends considerably more time from 20 years ago on the road daily should really be fixed.
Pushing a mass transit agenda doesn't address the amount of time a person spends on the road. It just changes who is responsible for the vehicle. And in most cases it increases the amount of time on the road.
In the US urban sprawl is the problem. City managers complain about the cost of supporting an ever increasing infrastructure, and then turn around and encourage it through city plans and zoning. Lets push all retail into huge shopping meccas. Office buildings into office parks. We never hear "traffic in that corridor is too high. We'll only let you build your office building IF you also build an appropriately sized apartment building with a few retail shops in the lobby across the street."
I guess the argument boils down to whether high-income earners should be taxed over and above the rest of us simply because they earn more. I've never really understood this because we're taxed by percentage so everyone contributes proportionally anyway.
I support a progressive tax, as long at it's not punitive. Is 35% punitive? It's hard to say without access to statistics related to income vs deductions. When higher income brackets are actually paying less than lower ones because there are too many deductions and loopholes, then the tax bracket is irrelevant. You'd need to know the tax rate on gross income, not AGI.
For corporations, 39% is the maximum. But you can't compare that to the personal tax rate because it's based on a different number. For example; your personal taxes are calculated on your gross pay minus whatever deductions you can come up with. You don't get to deduct expenses like rent, insurance, transportation, food. Your taxes are calculated off of AGI, a corporation's is based on net income.
Here's another example: you buy a house so you can write off the interest portion of your mortgage. (you can't write off rent) You will also be able to write off property tax. But not insurance and upkeep.
A business, on the other hand, will prefer to lease rather than own because then they can write off everything. Rent, insurance, and even some modifications to the property.
BTW, my reasoning for supporting a somewhat progressive tax rates is because we don't want government services based on the lowest common denominator.
And one other thing, we need to remove the cap on FICA. Social Security is a safety net, not a retirement plan. Everyone who earns less than $107k is paying 12.4% on 100% of their income. (employers don't pay payroll taxes, it's an illusion, they simply lower your pay rate) Early on you could have said that a cap was justifiable because there was a limit on your return. But the Social Security Trust Fund has been used for so many things beyond supporting the elderly. It provides income for disabled, as well as surviving dependent children. It has also been used as a low interest piggybank for a generation or more. When the government borrows from the SSTF to cover deficits, there is no income cap on who benefits from the taxes that are not levied to cover their over spending.
I agree with your sentiment but I would caution that this effectively punishes those who strive for a better lot for themselves and their families.
Maybe, but would they have had the opportunity for a better lot for themselves if not for our society? Couldn't it be argued that they have received more benefits from society and thus should give more back to it?
You wouldn't think so, but I had a neighbor that tried to light a cigarette while backing out of the driveway. She backed out, dropped the cigarette, put the car in drive and pulled forward while bending over to retrieve the cigarette from the passenger floorboard. 20 feet later she plowed into the back of another neighbor's car.
You are exaggerating the cost of preventative medical care and your car analogy is completely wrong.
With preventative care you are probably looking at 3-4 doctor visits a year and probably one lab. Probably ~$750 before discounts are applied. Diabetes is rampant in our obese culture, but who is capable of self diagnosis? Compare that to any of the complications for not treating it. Heart failure, blindness, amputation. And two out of three of those puts the patient on disability and we will support them for the rest of their life through Social Security. Untreated cavities become abscessed teeth requiring operations. Can you self diagnose that mole, is it skin cancer?
As for your car analogy, it's more appropriate if you look at true maintenance items, not the strawman you presented. If you said it's a waste of your money to ever wash or wax your car, after all, rain will clean it just fine, I'm sure the local body shop will be happy to repair the rust that accumulates in a few years because the road salt and dirt that collects on it.
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Like anything, you shouldn't blindly trust all of them...but it's generally a safe bet to go with an "at home" mechanic service. They're generally good, hardworking people.
I have seen some pretty ugly hack jobs by some of these shadetree mechanics. Many don't have the skills, experience, or tools to tackle the repairs. Make sure they are truly operating as a business rather than just earning a little extra cash if you go that route. It's hard to check certifications and licenses on many of the mobile mechanics who survive through craigslist postings.
The point, as always, is that service departments in dealerships (and other shops as well) need to be hella regulated by at least 3 different agencies, with monthly audits, starting with the assumption that every single one is a den of thieves.
Regulation won't magically solve the problem. Offshore oil drilling leases are heavily regulated. But BP still managed to install a faulty blowout preventer and their contractor failed with the concrete. The SEC missed Bernie. And banks are heavily regulated but still managed credit default swaps.
The last 9 times out of 10 I've got a trouble code via ODB-II it has been completely wrong.
I've never received a bad code from the computer, but many times the code can relate to several problems. For instance, I had a cooling system under-temp code (PO128) that was as simple as a bad thermostat, but there were several other things it could have been. It can also be that the code is a symptom of the problem. And then there are problems that the computer can't monitor. My Chevy doesn't have a fuel pressure sensor, so it can't diagnose a bad fuel pump. Talk about a problem where everything will be fine one moment and you're stranded in the middle of nowhere the next...
You're right on this. However, it's near impossible to tell up front whether the place you've taken your car is a shop or a lie, since most of them look basically the same, and you only find out after your car is in pieces up on the rack which one this particular establishment is.
Some things you will have to learn through trial and error. What may be an excellent shop for your neighbor may leave you wishing they had used a little lube when they reamed you. I have three local shops that will never see my business again. Two happen to be dealerships, Ford and GM.
I took my Ford truck to the Ford dealer for a diagnosis on a front end problem (I found an accurate term for it later, look up 'Death wobble'). I paid $90 for an evaluation and found out after I left that the estimate that the service rep verbally gave me wasn't even included with the paperwork. Essentially I was told; shock bolts are loose (they aren't), track bar bushings are shot and it's a complete unit to replace - $360 + labor (O'Reilly Auto sold me the bushings for $20), and stabilizer bushings are shot. I expect dealer parts and labor to be high, but when I pay for an evaluation of a problem I expect a written estimate. They seem to do great on warranty/recall issues though.
I took my Chevy truck to the Chevy dealer regularly for oil change and lube. While checking the brakes one day right after a 'service', I found the ball joint zerks covered with dirt and road grime. Maybe they didn't need grease, so I let that slide. (fittings should have been cleaned anyway) Took my Ford to this same dealer for an oil change and new fuel filter. Since they don't stock Ford parts, they had the auto parts store across the street send them over. They paid less than counter price, billed me for list. $40 markup on what I would have paid if I had walked across the street and bought the two filters. Total price for 10 quarts of Rotella, two filters and less than an hour of labor, $270. Then they failed to install the fuel filter properly and I had to take it back because it was leaking fuel on the exhaust pipe. Thank god it wasn't a gasser. They don't get my business anymore, and I stock my own filters now.
Third shop (non dealer) told me they wouldn't even touch my truck if I brought my own parts. So that state inspection is the last $$$ they will get from me.
The way to avoid the 'car is in pieces and shop wants to ream you' scenario is to understand a little about what you are asking them to service/check. All three of my 'bad' shops were recommended to me. So either they don't screw up all the time or their customers never notice. I have the advantage that I have the knowledge to do my service/repairs, just generally not the desire. I replaced the leaky intake (thank you Dexcool) on my Chevy (4.3l) and swore I'd never work on that truck again.
If you don't have a shop you feel you can trust, try some out with a known, inexpensive problem. For example, I took my Chevy to a national chain for a cooling system flush including the heater core. (more Dexcool fun) Told them I didn't want it replaced with Dexcool and it apparently confused the mechanic. He put in regular green antifreeze rather than extended life green. They had to do the job twice. And just a bit of advice, look at your replacement intervals if you use 'extended life' antifreeze. The replacement interval is no longer than what most of us used for the old green stuff.
The IT industry gets a lot of it's bad rep due to not managing user expectations and not handling mistakes appropriately. I think auto mechanics have the same problems.
In my opinion "Global Warming" is a simplification of a topic too complex for the general public. Whether it was a poor choice in naming, simplifying the subject for public debate, or an attempt to make it sound scary really doesn't matter at this point. It has both helped and hurt the discussion.
It also doesn't matter whether the planet has climate cycles. AGW doesn't threaten the planet, it will be here long after we are gone. If what we are doing is causing severe changes we should be looking to see how we can change what we are doing. It's not inconceivable that what we are doing is affecting the climate, we've done it before. We had to change farming techniques rather than sit back and say "droughts are normal".
But no, instead it's all electric cars and inefficient solar and wind power instead of proven nuclear, etc etc...
Your stance is just as narrow minded as many of the renewable energy proponents. We don't have any technologies that are a single solution to fossil fuels. We could address a lot of our usage through simple efficiency requirements. Push CAFE requirements higher. Change building codes to require minimum environmental efficiency. Require remodeling to bring the affected areas up to current codes. I would even require new buildings to install 1kw solar for each 1000 sq/ft of enclosed space. Not as a solution, but as an incremental step. Builders won't do it themselves, they'll skip a 50 cent part on a $300k house if they can get away with it.
While I support building more nuclear plants, it's just part of the solution. Even if we granted permits for 100 new nuclear plants this year, it would be a decade before any of them came online. Focusing solely on nuclear is almost as bad as the big ethanol push a few years ago. We chose ethanol over biodiesel even though it meant specially designed 'flex fuel' engines, necessitating new cars. Bio OTOH was suitable for use in existing diesel engines. Trains, trucks, heavy equipment, etc. (BTW, since the new ULSD engines that is no longer the case. So we've actually made things worse in that respect) We chose to try and change millions of cars rather than focus on a less visible high usage market. Why not bio for the home heating market? Nuclear is another half attempt unless we get the political will to do something about spent fuel. And just like ethanol, it comes at the expense of another technology that could be retrofitted to existing installed technology. The US will likely never stop using coal. We have too much of it. So why aren't we cleaning up the coal plant emissions? I have a theory that it's our 'I don't want to pay for that' culture. Short term people get outraged "our taxes are paying so xxxx utility can get free stuff", regardless of the fact that if we regulated cleaner emissions xxxx utility would just pass the cost to rate payers anyway, after fighting for years in court.
Lost isn't special because it has carried the story over so many seasons. The flashbacks don't necessarily add to the storyline, they're simply character development that is used to pad the main story. And the current alternate reality story arc adds nothing, it's just extending the series. The simple fact is they couldn't run more than a season or two with the island story.
You see the same on other series. Any of the Stargate series for example. With every new gate discovered there's the opportunity for a completely unrelated story arc. And Stargate Universe is doing the flashback thing too.
If you wanted to make Band of Brothers a series, you'd just spend a lot of time developing the characters. If Stephen King can make a 4 hour movie out of a short story (Langoliers), then it's not a stretch for a competent author to flesh out a story into a multi season series. Another example, The Postman was originally a short story before it became a novel and then finally a 3 hour movie.
Lost doesn't add more than 30 minutes of new content each week and on average probably only 10 minutes toward the main story.
I don't relish the thought of spending $60k+ to do the upgrades right now, so there is an inexpensive window-AC installed to ride out the hot days.
These upgrade 'estimates' are completely ridiculous. First of all, it's not an all or nothing deal. I've worked on the houses I've owned, houses that are 40-70 years old. You can add r30 insulation to your attic for about $240 for 1500 sq/ft of attic space. It's not a task that requires a whole lot of skill and it makes a tremendous difference. You can put plastic over drafty windows, and there are many companies that will replace windows for about $200 each, installed.
On a 70 year old house, I tore out all the interior drywall and added insulation and upgraded electrical. That IS a daunting task, but you can probably do it about as cheap as remodeling a kitchen or bathroom. You also have the option of blowing in insulation which only requires small holes to be drilled in the wall.
Any BTW, there is nothing inexpensive about a window AC, except maybe the initial purchase price.
Out of all the efficiency upgrades I have done, the longest payback has been the bay window. But if I had put back in a window unit similar to what was there originally, it would have payed for itself in roughly 5 years. Just the difference in double pane over single pane leaky windows. I will admit though, I save more on heating (gas) costs that cooling(electrical).
With "smart meters" they know exactly what each individual customer is using when.
This system though seems relatively benign as there doesn't seem to be any back communication (at least not yet).
Nobody adds logging ability if they aren't going to use it. So if your meter keeps track of your usage in any period, they are collecting it. Whether it is through an automatic system or when they 'read' your meter.
One big privacy aspect is when it is used along with a programmable thermostat. If they determine how my thermostat is programmed based off of energy usage, they can determine what hours/days I expect to be at work or sleeping. Having that kind of data by unknown parties crosses from just a privacy issue to a security one.
Two rules for protecting yourself in today's data warehousing world; always remember that something posted on the internet never goes away. And NEVER give out even the most innocent data point about yourself to an entity that does not need it.
He does live in a trailer, on the back acre of his parents lot,
Ahhhh, the redneck version of living in his parent's basement. Because THEIR trailer doesn't have a basement. You just have to put it in terms people around here can understand. I grew up in Missouri, I can translate....
Probably being pedantic, but I would modify that to:
The Constitutional limitations generally do not apply to private citizens.
Certainly the protections on search and seizure, as well as the right to keep and bear arms apply to private citizens. The limitations, in that I can't forbid you to own a gun or search your house do not apply to me. Although there are laws that could be used to prosecute me if I tried.
OTOH, if I tried to stop you from voting or keep you as my slave, I suspect it could be a constitutional issue where government isn't necessarily involved.
Not if I'm being taxed for their medical bills.
You see, That is when government-mandated healthcare comes full circle.
That's the heart of this whole Socialized Medicine misdirection.
You're already paying! Do you have insurance now? Ask your HR department if your smoking co-workers pay higher premiums to offset their habit. If not, you're already paying because they are in the same pool as you. Just like you're paying for the alcoholics and overweight, and any number of unhealthy habits.
People need to get over "I don't want to pay for your ...." mentality and start think about whether it's good for society. I pay thousands of dollars a year for 'socialized' education, yet I have no children and do not plan to have any. Education is good for our society, and a healthy population is even more important.
If you want to think about it strictly economically, 'a rising tide lifts all boats.' In the same way education makes us more productive, so does being healthy. Personally, I'm for a single payer system knowing that I would be subsidizing families with children and spouses who are not employed. According to the SBA, 65% of new private sector jobs are created by small businesses. And I have to wonder, how many small businesses are not being started because it's too risky to give up employer provided insurance.
Are they a government organization, or are you using a word you don't understand?
Do they have to be a government organization to force their agenda on the public? The American Cancer Society is currently lobbying Kansas Legislators to pass a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes. And they're running 'think of the children' radio spots.
I don't smoke and I don't live in Kansas, but I find it disturbing that a private group has a good chance of singling out a minority who participate in an activity they don't approve of with higher taxes.
SciFi movie bomb - see Battlefield Earth
I think that one meets all of your criteria...
If I had to choose, I'd take a Whedon movie over a Hubbard movie any day.
He regularly casts average or poor actors.
Seriously? That must be why those actors have such a hard time getting work after working for Joss..
David Boreanaz (Angel - Buffy/Angel) has done pretty well with Bones.
Summer Glau (River Tam - Firefly) I never really liked the River character until Serenity. I did like the Sarah Connor Chronicles, and her part in Dollhouse was one of the few refreshing tangents in the Dollhouse let's prostitute Eliza theme. And according to IMDB she stays pretty busy working.
Nathan Fillion (Mal - Firefly) Castle, nuff said.
Adam Baldwin (Jayne - Firefly) Chuck.
Morena Baccarin (Inara - Firefly) V. And although I don't expect it to survive, the problem is the writing and not the acting.
Jewel Staite (Kaylee - Firefly) Did well in Stargate Atlantis, unfortunately didn't get brought in until the series was winding down.
I love Firefly but if you look at the Nielsen ratings there was no way it was going to survive on network television.
Maybe a lot of people where like me and found the commercials for Firefly completely unappealing. It wasn't until several episodes into the season that I happened to stumble onto the show while channel surfing that I started watching it. Then, being in my pre-Tivo days, I had trouble finding it to continue watching. I bought the dvd so I could see all the episodes in the correct order.
And on that general rant, what is it with networks and their ADHD scheduling these days. Either it's a year break between seasons, or they split seasons with two or three multi-week breaks. That, along with the 1:01 and 0:59 scheduling I'd just quit watching entirely if it wasn't for Tivo. I never watch anything 'live' anymore.
I really liked OS/2's Workplace Shell but for one nagging problem that you wouldn't think was a problem until you experienced it first-hand. The WS remembers every window's size and position. Not some, but *all* of them, even if they were just regular applications like, say, the file manager. What do you think happens when you reduce screen resolution because of, say, a new graphics card, and you try to right-click "Properties" to adjust the resolution? It's off the right-hand side of the screen.
I never experienced that, but it would seem like it would be pretty simple to work around if IBM would open up the file structures. It has been a really long time since I worked with WPS, but I'd bet it was stored in the extended attributes. You just need the equivalent of regedit. Even better, re-implement EA in MySQL.
I have the opposite problem with XP. Applications never remember their location and always end up split between my two monitors. I rarely choose to have an application span monitors. I'd rather use something like KDEs desktop model and assign a monitor to each desktop.
What I really liked about WPS was shadows vs shortcuts. If you dropped a link to a program on your desktop, and then for some reason decided to move the EXE, all the links would follow it to it's new location.
We have Office and Shopping well centralized, we need manufacturing and housing more centralized. Manufacturing is the big problem right now.
We'll have to disagree that centralized anything is a good thing. And maybe your little shops in the mall are empty after hours, but larger retailers run 24 hour operations. If they aren't open to the public, they're cleaning and stocking merchandise.
The reason manufacturing is built in the corn fields is because of zoning. People don't want to hear the trucks, trains, etc from commercial businesses next to residential areas. But rather than tackle creating reasonable designs they segregate everything. And btw, residential is generally centralized, it's just primarily low density.
I don't believe that everyone in America is dreaming of owning their own McMansion. And your 'out of sight' theory doesn't wash in this region either. 3000 sq/ft houses are being built on postage stamp sized lots. I have seen some $.5 million dollar houses with 6-8 feet separation from their neighbor. So it's not that they don't want to see neighbors, they don't want to hear them through a common wall. And if that is the case, we can improve building requirements and get back to building high density housing. And the rarely used innovation called sidewalks, making it reasonable to walk to neighborhood retail and office buildings.
You have more than twice as many speeding 'infractions' in the last 14 years than I have had in 30 years of driving. And I started driving in an era where 'cruising' was normal for teens. Firebirds, Camaros, and burning through a tank of gas every Friday night. I don't think your driving record is making your case that you are capable of handling the distraction of a cell phone.
The fact that a person today spends considerably more time from 20 years ago on the road daily should really be fixed.
Pushing a mass transit agenda doesn't address the amount of time a person spends on the road. It just changes who is responsible for the vehicle. And in most cases it increases the amount of time on the road.
In the US urban sprawl is the problem. City managers complain about the cost of supporting an ever increasing infrastructure, and then turn around and encourage it through city plans and zoning. Lets push all retail into huge shopping meccas. Office buildings into office parks. We never hear "traffic in that corridor is too high. We'll only let you build your office building IF you also build an appropriately sized apartment building with a few retail shops in the lobby across the street."
I guess the argument boils down to whether high-income earners should be taxed over and above the rest of us simply because they earn more. I've never really understood this because we're taxed by percentage so everyone contributes proportionally anyway.
I support a progressive tax, as long at it's not punitive. Is 35% punitive? It's hard to say without access to statistics related to income vs deductions. When higher income brackets are actually paying less than lower ones because there are too many deductions and loopholes, then the tax bracket is irrelevant. You'd need to know the tax rate on gross income, not AGI.
For corporations, 39% is the maximum. But you can't compare that to the personal tax rate because it's based on a different number. For example; your personal taxes are calculated on your gross pay minus whatever deductions you can come up with. You don't get to deduct expenses like rent, insurance, transportation, food. Your taxes are calculated off of AGI, a corporation's is based on net income.
Here's another example: you buy a house so you can write off the interest portion of your mortgage. (you can't write off rent) You will also be able to write off property tax. But not insurance and upkeep.
A business, on the other hand, will prefer to lease rather than own because then they can write off everything. Rent, insurance, and even some modifications to the property.
BTW, my reasoning for supporting a somewhat progressive tax rates is because we don't want government services based on the lowest common denominator.
And one other thing, we need to remove the cap on FICA. Social Security is a safety net, not a retirement plan. Everyone who earns less than $107k is paying 12.4% on 100% of their income. (employers don't pay payroll taxes, it's an illusion, they simply lower your pay rate) Early on you could have said that a cap was justifiable because there was a limit on your return. But the Social Security Trust Fund has been used for so many things beyond supporting the elderly. It provides income for disabled, as well as surviving dependent children. It has also been used as a low interest piggybank for a generation or more. When the government borrows from the SSTF to cover deficits, there is no income cap on who benefits from the taxes that are not levied to cover their over spending.
I agree with your sentiment but I would caution that this effectively punishes those who strive for a better lot for themselves and their families.
Maybe, but would they have had the opportunity for a better lot for themselves if not for our society? Couldn't it be argued that they have received more benefits from society and thus should give more back to it?
Doesn't take much attention to smoke.
You wouldn't think so, but I had a neighbor that tried to light a cigarette while backing out of the driveway. She backed out, dropped the cigarette, put the car in drive and pulled forward while bending over to retrieve the cigarette from the passenger floorboard. 20 feet later she plowed into the back of another neighbor's car.
Driving while stupid isn't illegal yet either...
You are exaggerating the cost of preventative medical care and your car analogy is completely wrong.
With preventative care you are probably looking at 3-4 doctor visits a year and probably one lab. Probably ~$750 before discounts are applied. Diabetes is rampant in our obese culture, but who is capable of self diagnosis? Compare that to any of the complications for not treating it. Heart failure, blindness, amputation. And two out of three of those puts the patient on disability and we will support them for the rest of their life through Social Security. Untreated cavities become abscessed teeth requiring operations. Can you self diagnose that mole, is it skin cancer?
As for your car analogy, it's more appropriate if you look at true maintenance items, not the strawman you presented. If you said it's a waste of your money to ever wash or wax your car, after all, rain will clean it just fine, I'm sure the local body shop will be happy to repair the rust that accumulates in a few years because the road salt and dirt that collects on it.
Ridiculous. Somebody has to pay for the services that maintain your rights as a property owner
Around here, public schools are the largest component in property tax (60+%). I don't see how that is maintaining my rights as a property owner.
What exactly are the evangelical Christians doing do make you think that their premise is that the ends justify the means?
I don't know, kidnapping Haitian children......