Andrew,

"Global warming" and "climate change" are two different, yet obviously related things.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate_by_any_other_name.html

Ollie North has the kernel of a point. We should have always been talking about climate change, since it more important than just warming. Of course blaming weather on climate changes is a bit hazy.

Andrew,

Could you please rest that California is the "nth biggest economy" phrase. It is over-used and silly. If California was still a separate country, likely neither it nor the US would have economies that are as big as they are in this Universe.

Of course, you should feel free to tell us about how badly California is screwed up and how it is pulling the rest of us down, but let the nonsense about the size of its economy go. I would love to see California split in two somewhere between SF and LA, just so I wouldn't have to see that silly comparison again.

Andrew,

Buffett's metaphor is a bit limited by the fact that he owns so many other companies. He may be all in on the company, but he has players still in the running at hundreds of other tables.

Patrick,

Thanks for the great article, especially comeing so soon after the passing of your mother. She sounds like a great lady - my condolences.

Your response make nice ammunition for various discussion I have had with people about this event. I basically said a less eloquent version of what you did. The pilots likely did something stupid and should be punished accordingly, but there is no need to continue

covering this.

There's a problem with this sentence.

"Obama was already in New York when he went on the Tonight Show."

The Tonight Show is taped in Burbank and Obama appeared on set rather than via satellite, so you either got your cities confused, got your shows confused, or were refering to another TV appearance entirely.

I think that he was probably referring to Obama's appearance on the Late Show. I don't think Obama has been on the Tonight Show lately.

Tivo has a web portal for years. The web portal is very flexible.

The bias in this article is evident:

"The one exception to this outcome would be if operating lifetimes could be substantially increased beyond 40 years on average; there is currently no basis for such an assumption."

Of course there is quite a bit of evidence that nuclear plants can last more that 40 years, and many have already been relicensed in the US for longer periods. The fact that this article makes that argument without justification and then bases a bunch of further analysis on it, tells me to take the article with a block of salt.

One thing about this movie that didn't come out in this review - the director wanted to pick a cross-generational set of guitarists. He also wanted people who didn't already know each other, so that there could be some surprises when he brought them together. So obviously once he had Page, Clapton wasn't an option.

You can quibble about his choices of the Edge and Jack White but they make some sense. There are a slew of othe guitarists from the Edge's generation who are more flamboyant and may be more skilled, but it makes sense to bring in someone who contrasts with Jimmy Page, and the Edge certainly does that.

In the case of Jack White, there are obviously more talented guitarists in his generation, but not many have had success playing such a variety of different styles.

Finally, the director and producers of this movie had to attract some money to get it a decent release. So they needed to pick "name" guitarists that people have heard of. And in the Edge's case at least, it was nice to pick someone who is still making popular music. What has Eddie Van Halen done in the past 15 years? Do people under 25 even know who Steve Vai is?

Aubrey,

The other key, of course, to your strategy is to keep other interesting Democratic ballots off of the Democratic primary. Since voters can only vote in races for one party in the primary, even if the other races are cleared off, if the primary for Senate or Governor is close or even potentially close, it is obviously difficult to Democrats to vote in the Republican primary.

Last year the Senate primary wasn't close, but Franken got enough of a challenge that there was a reason to vote in that race. The governor race next year has the potential to be worse. While most of the candidates have agreed to respect the caucus endorsement, with so many candidates in the race, it is quite likely that someone will challenge the endorsee in the primary.

I had the impression that Tarryl Clark was a smart politician. Now I am not too sure. Running against Bachmann is probably a suicide mission for her. While she is a much better debater and speaker than Patty Wetterling (Bachmann's opponent in 2006), she is probably to the left of Wetterling on most issues and lack's Patty's name recognition in this state.

I don't understand how Clark thinks that she will possibly win this district in 2010, which is likely going to be a year that will trend red, in this blood red district. Don't get me wrong, I will be out their pounding the pavement for Clark if she is the nominee, but I just don't get it.

Maybe Clark hopes to run again in 2012 after some favorable redistricting.