I see 4 major problems with this...

I see is tires running on a wet glass road. The glass is a lot flatter than asphalt, and so hydroplaning will be far more prevalent unless specific tires were made to cope.

Further, the cost issue will be catastrophic. Solar panels are very, very expensive. Manufacturing solar cells these days is a fairly dirty process, with many very hazardous bi-products. Producing enough solar cells to cover even just major roads would be problematic.

There is also a huge issue of light pollution. Upward facing LEDs replacing road lines is going light up the night sky to absurd degrees, especially in the already light doused cities.

And finally, there is the issue of shifting roads. No matter where you are, soil is always moving. Look outside at the nearest street and see if you can't find a crack due to soil shearing. This will be especially bad in certain geographic locations. Breaking of the roads will require challenging repairs and custom peices to be made. Further, if the roads are replacing power lines as was suggested, power outages would occur as a result of these road breaks, and restoring power will take as long as it takes to fix the road, weeks probably, longer if there is severe damage from natural disasters, earthquakes, etc.

I love the ingenuity, but it is just not practical...

That's an extremely morbid use of the catsanddogs tag -- I like it!

In reply to this comment by Throbbin:
*canada *nature *eco *catsanddogs

Yeah, try making a sled from the ribcage of a cat. Dogs 1, Cats 0.

Also, most Inuit did not see the British as Gods. Instead, white folks were (and still are) referred to as 'kablunaaks' - Kabluqs = eyebrows (because they found the white folks had big, bushy eyebrows), and Naak = Stomach (because they had big stomachs). Inuit on Baffin island were amazed at the technology the Europeans brought with them, but Inuit on eastern Baffin island had also heard stories from Greenland Inuit who had clashed with and run-out-of-town the Vikings sometime before, and were well aware of the existence and mortality of Europeans.

>> ^EMPIRE:

Damn it. That was funny. Because is true.
It's ironic how Microsoft had this bad image, and was generally viewed as evil, and Bill Gates as the overlord of our tech demise, and Apple was the scrappy underdog, making do with ingenuity and originality.
Yet... Microsoft has actually made a pretty good product with Windows 7, Apple is producing hype-crap after hype-crap, Steve Jobs is now out as the asshole he is, and Bill Gates is using his fortune (and the fortune of others) to actually try to make the world a better place.
Oh.. how the tables have turned.
(let the flame war begin! )


Same thing with Google, they try to portray themselves as happy hippies or something when in reality they are all about gathering as much power and control as possible...

Damn it. That was funny. Because is true.

It's ironic how Microsoft had this bad image, and was generally viewed as evil, and Bill Gates as the overlord of our tech demise, and Apple was the scrappy underdog, making do with ingenuity and originality.

Yet... Microsoft has actually made a pretty good product with Windows 7, Apple is producing hype-crap after hype-crap, Steve Jobs is now out as the asshole he is, and Bill Gates is using his fortune (and the fortune of others) to actually try to make the world a better place.

Oh.. how the tables have turned.

(let the flame war begin! )

I don't want to put words in blancos mouth (goodness knows what else has been in there), but I believe the major catalyst for blankfist's politics is anger at paying taxes. Government and democracy is the major focus of his ire. Our political feud is a years-long battle that goes far beyond the subject matter of this video.

He believes the free market is a benevolent, intelligent, almost supernatural force that somehow is able to right all wrongs. Oppressive sweatshops are put out of business by angry citizens who stop buying their products or open their own competing businesses. I've never seen any evidence to suggest the market works like this. To me, it seems to reward low prices at any cost, be it human rights, environmental carnage, livable wages, the exploitation of the 3rd world, squandered resources or otherwise.

I believe the concept of 'the free market' was created to justify greed, selfishness, gross inequity and to absolve the wealthy and big business of all personal responsibility for the part they play in this world. Those with wealth earned it with hard work and ingenuity (or more likely inherited it from their parents); those without are lazy bums who are receiving just desserts for their lack of ambition (or more likely inherited it from their parents). If only those lowly wage slaves would pick themselves up by their bootstraps, they could be the next Bill Gates.

We are pretty much together in our disgust for corporations, but what constitutes an oppressive work environment differs greatly between the two of us.

@Throbbin. I know Denmark (speaking of them because they're the Leftist utopia for welfare programs and high taxation) lacks cultural diversity, meaning they're not a melting pot. Think about that connection for a second. They enjoy high taxation, they enjoy sweeping and comprehensive social programs, and they do so by closing their borders, right? [of course barring tourism] I'd probably say the same goes for any nation ranking highly on the HDI report you mentioned earlier.

I don't necessarily think Westernized countries need immigration for "stability" (as illustrated with Denmark and others), however I do think immigration leads to growth in prosperity and ingenuity. What anti-immigration people don't get is that the people who migrate into their country aren't "taking their jobs", but rather through assimilation they create jobs by renting or buying homes, maintenance on their property, buying food, going to the theater, etc. If given the freedom to do so, they can also be great American inventors!

I also disagree with the welfare state because it can cause a generations of people to be lazy (from abundance to complacency). I can say that safely because I see it directly with people on a Native American reservation. It's not just that some group of white people are stepping on their throats, but rather that the Native Americans live solely for that welfare check. It's sad. They also learn from previous generations that they need to stay on the reserve, and this continues the cycle.

They learn from the previous generations to have abusive and addictive personalities. Usually that means child abuse (which happens way too much), alcoholism, drug addiction and gambling. The parents use their children to get more welfare. And their homes are riddled with toxic black mold, the kids have one pair of clothing (everything else they owned is either stolen or pawned), etc. etc. It's just plain awful. Awful.

We're afraid for family members who are stuck on those reservations, and especially the younger ones who have barely escaped sexual abuse. Who knows if they've already been sexually abused or not? And we watch as those young boys turn into the men they resented that stole from them and gambled away their personal property (clothing, video games, etc.). I would love to see that welfare system yanked from under them tomorrow, so each of them must learn self-reliance. It would certainly help the kids, maybe not the old and stubborn.

I'm sure you'd disagree.

Intel has a great article on their circuit, this is awesome, if I were in the science fair with them I would want them to win! But the top winner was a girl who invented a way to kill cancer tumors by activating chemicals with photosynysized light to target the tumors using nano technology.

But for them to do what they did with limited resources, shows that there is no limit to human ingenuity.

Well, it IS getting harder and harder to find ways of keeping the Brothers down. Props for ingenuity!

Always enjoy popping a left wing groupthink bubble... Reagan was correct, and Stewart is dead wrong. It has been repeatedly established that increased taxation results in decreased economic activity, and subsequent strangulation of tax revenue. What Stewart (et al) ignore is that America has the #2 highest business tax rate in the world (39.25%) behind only Japan (39.54%). And then the left wonders why 'evil' companies choose to operate in places like Hong Kong (15%), China (25%) and India (30%).

And the 'evil' rich? Our top tax rate is 39%. That's lower than Germany (49%), Japan (50%), Italy, and the UK (50%) - but it is higher than S. Korea (35%), India (30%), Finland, Argentina, Brazil, et al. The US is very middle of the road (leaning to high) in regards to top tax rates. This is statistical fact as opposed to Stewart rabble-rousing. The top 5% of U.S. wage earners pay over 60% of all federal income taxes. The top 50% pay a whopping 97.1%. The poor aren't paying squat.

To listen to Stewart you'd think businesses & the rich pay nothing, and the poor are the ones paying all the taxes. That is a left-wing delusion peddled which only the stupid and inattentive could possibly accept. The rich are the ones paying the taxes. So when a tax CUT happens, it is attacked as a 'cut for the wealthy'. Yeah, the wealthy get it because they are the only ones PAYING it. The only place you can 'cut' taxes for the poor & middle class is gasoline, state, social security, medicare, and medicaid. And yet oddly, no one on the left ever proposes alleviating THAT tax burden.

When you make a nation a friendly environment for business and wealth it results in wages, jobs, industry, growth, and (yes) TAX REVENUE. The "tax the rich to prosperity" concept the left ascribes NEVER works. A heavily taxed wealthy class combined with a low/un-taxed middle & poor class results in a disincentivized lower & middle class, inflation, depression, stagnation, low productivity, shrinking population, business flight, and eventual economic collapse.

Everything Stewart says here is baloney. No one is saying "no taxes on the rich and kill the poor!". Fiscal Conservativism advocates reasonable, sensible economic policy friendly to business, investment, and wealth. Such a method benefits everyone. America became great because it welcomed and rewarded business, wealth, ingenuity, creativity, and hard work. Countries like Germany (52% taxes) the UK (50%), France (50%), Italy (46%) and so on are the ones that have screwed up royally by stifling these attributes in their populations via socialization.

So, in theater and scriptwriting, you learn there are only "7 types of stories". I believe this is true, for the most part. However these are all a framework, and human ingenuity and imagination constantly reworks these 7 "types" into new and interesting tales that continue to surprise us. If they didn't we'd have been bored of narrative long ago.

However, if Avatar has succeeded or pushed the envelope in any way, it is that it's the most generic film ever made. A plot produced of a million monkeys at a million typewriters. There is no one scene in that entire film that is memorable or iconic; it exists as the epitome of the Hollywood formula.

So yeah, I stand behind this parallel, and pretty much any others that are drawn, as this film borrows heavily from every single preexisting story that precedes it.

For what it's worth, I felt like I was watching the first Ewok Movie.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Fantastic post. I spent six months in Pt. Barrow- and can attest that it must have taken incredible ingenuity to stay alive without modern conveniences like snowmobiles and shipped in heating oil.

Great find Eric. I spent part of my childhood in Arctic Bay, which is one of the areas that he talks about and have made the trip to and from Iglulik in the spring by snowmobile before. I can attest to the fact that Inuit are indeed among the most ingenuous people in the world. Over the course of the trip from Arctic Bay to Iglulik, which usually takes 2 days, every snow-machine in our party broke down and the frame of my father's cousin's snowmobile actually broke in half while crossing a large crack in the ice.

Most other people would have simply given up on the machine and would have abandoned it on the ice, but instead, without hesitation he turned the machine on it's side and began repairing it using rope, bolts and strips of hard plastic from one of the jerry cans. This quick fix was strong enough that the machine made it to Iglulik and back to Arctic Bay! After he got back home, he sold a couple of his carvings and bought a new machine.

This example pales in comparison to what the older generations did, of course.

Agreed therealblankman, regardless of the amaaaazing ingenuity, the film was a full-on irritating aural assault....I am speaking of the entire script, especially the exchanges between the hero and heroine.Lame.

...and Pearl Harbor sucked sweaty, unwashed, balls.

I'm impressed by their ingenuity, actually.

^a pretty little woman inside every D3. Gotta love Nikon for their ingenuity.