human power,

I don't see any signs that Chu is delusional about plug-in hybrids. They are a stop gap measure that help get us to the point where batteries and our electric grid can support all electric vehicles, or some other technology is developed.

We can't go straight to an economy that uses to fossil fuels. We just aren't ready yet. Emissions free technology like solar wind, and nuclear power have to be further developed and deployed. That is what Obama is planning to do, and it sounds like Chu would be a good man to lead that effort.

It is no surprise that an intact airplane floats. Planes are a lot like boats - they are made to be strong, light, streamlined, and air- and water-tight. Remember Archimedes rule - the buoyancy is proportional to the weight of the displaced water.

Given the different constraints of jet airliners versus cruise ships, for example, I would guess that the plane has a higher percent buoyancy. After all, being light is more important to a plane than a ship, which has to deal with a greater likelihood of collisions. Of course the ships are built to handle much better in the water.

The peak load to the electric grid is not the same everywhere, year round. The peak load in the north happens during the winter and the in the summer in the south. Due to these variations and differences in the amount of heavy industry, the time of the local peak power usage also varies.

I don't doubt that our power grid needs modernization and that electric car batteries could play a role, but it is definitely a complex problem. Designing the grid to deal with more small producers (wind and solar) will be difficult enough. Having to deal with electric cars as controllable, yet unreliable, sources and sinks of electric power seems like a nightmare. I don't doubt that it is a tractable problem, but at this point I think that the priority has to be on increasing the resilience of the system in order to prevent large-scale blackouts like we had a few years ago.

Michele Bachmann is a lot of things - incurious, ignorant, flippant, inflexible, dogmatic - but she is not stupid. it doesn't pay to underestimate your opponents.

Patrick,

As probably is the case for many of your readers, I have enjoyed all of your columns - every single one.

Some time the negative commenters take over the letters section - which is why Berke's following advice would have some advantages. (BTW, I am quite jealous that you have met him - he must be an interesting man to talk to.)

Anyway, your last three columns have been particularly strong. Please keep a hold of that inner crank and rip the media apart when it is called for. I wish there was somewhat out there doing the samething for science reporting.

Andrew,

I think that you have to be careful when anthromorphizing markets. That is a dangerous business. Remember that there are millions of investors, and thousands of key players that are reacting to lots of

different pieces of news at any given and pursuing there buy/sell/hold strategies accordingly.

There are many ways that individuals are going to react to todays news, but my guess is that some people are depressed. They had unrealistic hopes that Geithner would have some rabbit to pull out of a hat, but that was not to be. It is going to continue to be a messy, sloggy process pulling us out of this crisis. There is no light at the end of the tunnel yet.

The GMail attachment detector works for me, and seems to check for other words besides attach. I think that "See below" has triggered it for me.

What do you mean that it doesn't work for you? How does it fail?

I am not a finance guy. What is are "preferred secretaries"?

King,

It looks like you are, as usual, down on the Big 10 this year. That's often a good strategy, but I think this year the Big 10 seeds are a little more realistic than usual, so I would be surprised if they don't pull as many upsets as they are subjected to.

Personally, I couldn't restrain my impulse to pick most of my upsets against Pac-10 teams. It is bad to have obvious tells, but I rarely watch Pac-10 teams on TV, so I tend to underestimate them.

Hey King, why don't you make full use of your blogginess and just make every update a new post. Not a big deal, but it would make the updates stand out a bit more.

Though I suppose that it would blow the letters threads apart. Ah well.

Patrick,

Good luck On "windshear". I am still fighting a hopeless battle against "e-mail". I agree 100% that technical terms should not be "corrected" by the media to meet their standards. It is "email" and "windshear".

I know nothing about the demographics in this NY district, but this last election cycle has shown that the GOP no longer has a lock on the absentee vote. It seems like wishful/spinny thinking on their part.

Guns are allowed in checked baggage on air planes - the TSA link in my signatures. I don't see any logical reason why similar rules couldn't apply on Amtrak, though I have limited experience with Amtrak and I haven't checked a bag with them.