Well that’s funny, because another team claimed that there was no hiatus, and that it was just a measurement error.

Nice.

Clearly the solution is to finally invent a TARDIS, so there’s room for more furniture.

Was the Dyson swarm actually discredited, or just ignored for a “more reasonable” answer? Hey, maybe it’s a Dyson swarm in the process of being constructed. That would explain the dimming over the last 100 years.

I’ll see if I can find a single event that’s produced the same amount of emissions. Methane seeps produce about twice 3 times this, every year, though a good part is consumed by methane digesting bacteria (http://www.mpi-bremen.de/en/Methane_see…)

True. But how much of an impact do these leaks have, in comparison to the total amount of natural gas naturally being emitted?

No; of course it’s not completely harmless, but the way these stories are written, it sounds like this never happens on its own.

I’ve said this before, but I would be more concerned if this kind of event is something that cannot occur in nature, but it can, and often does. Natural gas underground + Earthquake = gas leak, with or without human help.

So wish I was on that dig...

Well.. you know Rome was pretty recent....

I wouldn’t take the annuity. I don’t trust the state governments to handle it properly, nor do I trust the USD to be anywhere near as strong as it is now (average rate of inflation is around 4 - 5% per year). Likewise I do not trust that the tax rate won’t go through the roof.

That’s easy. The lump sum, after tax, amount will be around $450M. I would take $50M for living expenses and paying off debts, then the $400M would go into a holding company, which would be used to start four other businesses: an R&D firm, a real estate firm (which can also have holdings in agricultural land, etc), a…

Gotcha.

Clearly. I was being sarcastic.

At best, it does.

Pocahontasmurfs-in-space + capitalist bashing... nah... I’m fine without it.

That statement assumes that a government could represent such a large group of people. Even a democracy, at best, represents only the majority.

> But you still claim that they work well enough that (in your opinion) they’ve made high speed rail necessary.

But government exists to protect us, doesn’t it? We can trust the government to keep things “neutral.”

> On the one hand you’re claiming that the interstate freeway has been seemingly a failure and “hasn’t exactly worked”, being in a constant state of neglect and costing a lot to maintain....but then in almost the same breath you turn around and claim it’s worked so well that it’s reduced the demand for trains and is…