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What kind of study, with what kind of results, would convince you that this statement was true?

To start with, you need to be sure you correctly define "violent" video games. Many studies have stretched the definition so far as to be useless.

Then, you need to be very, precisely careful about your study. Given the number of competing influences which might cause people to be "tolerant" of violence, you need to be very careful and clearly explain your methodology and how you control for them. No child exists in a vacuum; short of taking kids and sticking them into a bio-dome with teachers for five years, monitored 24/7 by camera to ensure they get "precisely" the education you want, and then controlling as best you can for innate traits as well (genetic/hormonal development), differences will occur.

Your study also needs to control for all so-called "violent" media and fantasy play. If a book or movie or TV show includes fight scenes? Sorry, that's out. One imagines most fairy tales or pseudo-fairy tales (Princess Bride? Stardust? Narnia?)would need to be cut off. Cops and Robbers? Cowboys and Indians? Something resembling this that we used to do all the time as kids?

I invite you to read this article by MIT Professor Henry Jenkins on the matter.

This website tracks how well Obama is keeping his promises

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

The old boss destroyed the budget, and pissed off the whole world.

He gets a B?!?!?

BWAAA HAAAA!!!

That's LOL funny!

Good Lord they grade easy:

Total promises made: 342
Total promises addressed: 84
Percentage of promises addressed: 24.6%

But they give Obama a fucking B for that?!?!!? 24.6%?!?! That's not even a good batting average for a baseball player - where success a mere 30% of the time makes you a multimillionaire.

Talk about the tyranny of low standards. I wish I'd have gone to a school where getting less than 1 question in 4 correct would get me a B. Hell, I'd bet I could have even won a Nobel Prize for doing nothing if those were the pathetic standards I was held to.

That worm you saw floating in front of you? You swallowed it - hook, line, and sinker.

You credulous fool.

This website tracks how well Obama is keeping his promises

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

The old boss destroyed the budget, and pissed off the whole world.

He gets a B?!?!?

BWAAA HAAAA!!!

That's LOL funny!

Good Lord they grade easy:

Total promises made: 342
Total promises addressed: 84
Percentage of promises addressed: 24.6%

But they give Obama a fucking B for that?!?!!? 24.6%?!?! That's not even a good batting average for a baseball player - where success a mere 30% of the time makes you a multimillionaire.

Talk about the tyranny of low standards. I wish I'd have gone to a school where getting less than 1 question in 4 correct would get me a B. Hell, I'd bet I could have even won a Nobel Prize for doing nothing if those were the pathetic standards I was held to.

That worm you saw floating in front of you? You swallowed it - hook, line, and sinker.

You credulous fool.

This website tracks how well Obama is keeping his promises

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

The old boss destroyed the budget, and pissed off the whole world.

This website tracks how well Obama is keeping his promises

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

The old boss destroyed the budget, and pissed off the whole world.

That's because they are probably lying to you.

The example I'll use is google but it applies to most companies. Whenever they come out with a press release saying that they're now collecting this or that information it is only to serve you targeted ads, yet every ad I've ever seen while logged in to Google is directly related to my search terms or the e-mail I'm currently reading.

Here is an article from 2006 that states that Google is going to listen in to your microphone and webcam to serve ads. Where are these targeted ads?

Now it's 2010 and most people know about the PA school district dialing into kids' laptops to spy on them with webcams.

There is also a less known PBS documentary from last year called Digital Nation which celebrates the fact that school administrators are spying on kids with laptops and webcams.

I'd love to know what these companies are really doing with the data and the sad fact is we probably aren't suspicious enough about it.

While not to the exactness of this study, this has been done before in May 2009 ( http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/jan-june09/celldata_05-15.html ). From the article:

analyzed six months of anonymous cell phone records from more than 100,000 people in a European country, obtained from a European cell phone provider. Those cell phone records gave an approximation of each person's location at the time of each call, because cell phone calls are routed through the nearest cell tower. He and his colleagues found that people tend not to stray far -- almost three quarters of the people stayed mainly within about a 20-mile circle for the entire six months, and nearly half the people rarely strayed outside a six-mile circle. They also tended to go back and forth regularly between only a few locations, such as home and work.

And another attempt on the same idea was done by MIT in July 2005 ( http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/25/1751234 ). Difference here was that the percentage was 85%. Not the 93% declared now. From the Wired article:

Eagle's Reality Mining project logged 350,000 hours of data over nine months about the location, proximity, activity and communication of volunteers, and was quickly able to guess whether two people were friends or just co-workers.... Given enough data, Eagle's algorithms were able to predict what people -- especially professors and Media Lab employees -- would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time.... Eagle used Bluetooth-enabled Nokia 6600 smartphones running custom programs that logged cell-tower information to record the phones' locations. Every five minutes, the phones also scanned the immediate vicinity for other participating phones. Using data gleaned from cell-phone towers and calling information, the system is able to predict, for example, whether someone will go out for the evening based on the volume of calls they made to friends.

It doesn't follow that helping others would be illogical. Our axioms if you will come through evolution and social darwinism. So while self-preservation is important we find that species preservation and preservation of life is also important as these features can be seen throughout the animal kingdom.

1. The harm is far more minor than it is being made out to be. Plus, depending on your age you may need to pay for it towards the end of your life anyways.

2. True, I suppose the contract is of a form that doesn't normally exist. Being born you were brought into a world that is pretty nice. You are expected to keep it that way. An example of this is parenthood. You were raised and helped through school, got to leech off your parents. You aren't expected to pay them back for this. But you are expected to do the same for children if you have any. (There are real world examples of deals you don't get an option on, being part of society for example.)

3. Human population is to peak soon and shall drop ( http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/World-Population-1800-2100.png ) most estimates saying we'll stabilize at around 7.5BN (1BN more). Coal plants produce 1kg per KwH, gas 380, Nuclear can produce a net 0 carbon output. Next we need to switch cars to electric, this can be mostly done over 20 years. And lastly cement manufacture can be modified fairly easily. ( http://www.pscleanair.org/programs/climate/chart-co2.jpg http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/heat/art/graph3.jpg ... all these stupid charts give different figures but the three things I mentioned that we can fix are most of it). I believe we need to hit it from all fronts, less humans, greater efforts to get off this rock, more efficient tech, better power plants (fusion?) and changed farming practices.

After all that I think you are right we still won't make it because people kind of suck. But if you we can make it less doomsday and more survivable that would be helpful. Even if we only delay runaway warming 15 years it could be a big help. I believe we will need scientists to do some crazy crazy geo-engineering to save our asses in the end. But using less would be nice.

I think what this (different) school is doing is fantastic, and I applaud their efforts and achievements. However ... checkout what happens at 4:37 in the video.

How Google Saved A School

Yes, different school, and the students are in school at the time, but .... I'm not sure I like the idea of teaching kids to accept this level of surveillance as 'normal'.

The subject of drone pilots was recently covered in a PBS Front Line documentary called Digital Nation, specifically Immersion Training, and Remote Control War.

Worth watching.

The subject of drone pilots was recently covered in a PBS Front Line documentary called Digital Nation, specifically Immersion Training, and Remote Control War.

Worth watching.

The subject of drone pilots was recently covered in a PBS Front Line documentary called Digital Nation, specifically Immersion Training, and Remote Control War.

Worth watching.

Ah, I stand corrected on one point - this IS an OSX based computer so it sounds much like the ones used in NYC! Here's the DigitalNation video http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/ At about 4:39 or so the administrator shows how he takes over the desktop and attempts to snap a picture in order to get the kids to behave and stop using the cam as a mirror.... It is possible that the kid in THIS story was posing for pictures at home privately and the teacher somehow got a look or perhaps the teacher saw the pic on the computer when he was back at school? Lots of possibilities but so far NO clear story yet IMO. I'm not quite ready to go nuts but something certainly smells here if they retain this capability when the kids are off-campus...

This video (at 4:39) shows how it can be done with fairly standard screen grabbing feature: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/learning/schools/how-google-saved-a-school.html

PBS's Frontline had an interesting episode earlier this month - "Digital Nation" there's a section where a school official is remotely watching what kids are doing from a laptop, and showing a reporter how he does it... it's all inside the confines of the school, but it still scared me. At the core of the problem here is that we have an education system that is still stuck in the 19th century.

True. I am sure there were lots of 19th century schools in which the school officials were watching the kids remotely.

PBS's Frontline had an interesting episode earlier this month - "Digital Nation" there's a section where a school official is remotely watching what kids are doing from a laptop, and showing a reporter how he does it... it's all inside the confines of the school, but it still scared me.

At the core of the problem here is that we have an education system that is still stuck in the 19th century.

No no ... you're right actually

Actually, the cost of the upgrades should come out of the $200 Billion pbs.org that Hatta (162192) mentioned below. The BIG problem with this is that it would seem the money was handed out without:

(a) A mandate with a specific goal.
(b) Mileposts clearly specified for progress toward that goal.
(c) Follow through by Government regulators (wait, could this be that?)
(d) Payment per milepost acheived, due upon delivery not upon agreement to consider delivering.

What absolutely boggles my mind is: didn't any of "our" "representatives" have the common sense to realize that just handing out LARGE SUMS OF MONEY without any sort of enforceable performance requirements was a bad idea?
And make the same mistake several times over.
They can't all be that stupid.

Actually, the cost of the upgrades should come out of the $200 Billion that Hatta (162192) mentioned below. The BIG problem with this is that it would seem the money was handed out without:

(a) A mandate with a specific goal.
(b) Mileposts clearly specified for progress toward that goal.
(c) Follow through by Government regulators (wait, could this be that?)
(d) Payment per milepost acheived, due upon delivery not upon agreement to consider delivering.

In the mid-90s the Telecom industry was given 200 billion dollars to roll out 45 megabit internet across the country. Nothing ever came of it, and the telecom industry got to pocket that $200 billion.

Sounds to me that the telecoms should know a good thing when they hear it.

7 billion dollars[...]in the form of "stimulus"

Peanuts. We already gave them $200 billion.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070810_002683.html

gewg_

Sorry, I fscked the link to the Nova special, "The spy factory"

It doesn't really need to be socialist though, just well regulated. Only a few countries have truly socialized medicine, the rest just have a heavily regulated insurance industry.

Although I agree that socialism is demonized for some pretty bad reasons.

I believe segregation was ended largely by the courts, not Congress.

The standard proposed was "1 out of every 3 people doesn't want it". Nothing to do with courts or Congress.

As for the Declaration of Independence it passed with 9/13 = 69%.

Again, I was speaking of the level of support among the general population. We don't have good information on what that might have been -- as I said, no Gallup polls. But if we had a time machine and a bunch of pollsters to find out, I'd bet you a nickel that at least 1 out of every 3 colonists was not in favor of a war for independence. (In fact, this page claims that the majority were neutral or Loyalists.)

Had there been anything else than rumors charges would have been different.

Rumours? Really?

He was involved in para-military activities, however I can find no evidence that he ever harmed people.

So if I blow up your house, but I don't hurt you, I've not done anything illegal?

Google is a propaganda partner of US. It has blocked users from Syria and Iran since 2008 - http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/10/google-blocks-chrome-browser-use-in-syria-iran287.html

The US media, however, is eager to twist the story. Why should I trust them to be any more honest in talking about China?

actually "enforceable request" pretty much means warrant or subpoena. Enforceable means the cops have to make a request that if google said no, they'd face jail time for obstruction of justice.

And yes google has turned down requests for information from the FBI, telling them to get a warrant or subpoena. Similar requests were made to yahoo, aol, and microsoft, but only google told them to pound salt unless you have a warrant or subpoena for a specific case or investigation.

Google is the only search engine with the balls to refuse a government subpoena to turn over its search records. Not Microsoft, not Yahoo!, not AOL.

Two things your logic misses. First you've completely ignored the fact that the profits from drugs are used to finance the war. It isn't just the Taliban who are trading dope for military hardware. The drug trade is a perfect way for the government and companies to launder money. Here is a link to a PBS article that details a small, ACKNOWLEDGED portion of the process.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/us.html

The PBS article talks about legit goods like appliances and automobiles. The arms market is a whole other beast. The CIA and other agencies use drugs to fund operations that they can't go to Congress for.

Here's an article about how the CIA was involved in running drugs through Arkansas.

http://www.serendipity.li/cia/hayes2.html

The other thing that I think you should consider is that the farmers need an alternate crop. As others have stated, there isn't much that will grown in Afghanistan. They could grow hemp though. In my mind, and I've said it before, it would be great to switch them from opium to hemp. Opium has one use. It is a pain killer. Hemp has multiple uses. The way I conceived of it working, the UN or US or whoever would buy the opium for a few years while the transition takes place. Once the farmers start growing hemp, they could sell to local markets in the provincial capitols. The capitols could start to build infrastructure to use the hemp. Hemp can be turned into cloth for clothing. The oil can be used for cooking and heating. The farmers could be allowed to grow marijuana too. It's about time that people pull their heads of their asses regarding marijuana prohibition. It isn't the best substance in world for your body, but it isn't any worse than cigarettes or alcohol. The added benefit of hemp is that it encourages companion industries like textiles.

Right... Get a huge potion of business for a large established company. Cultivate this over a few years. Then, tell them what their prices are going to be. When they refuse to budge. Stop selling their products. I mean it is almost the Wal-Mart business model what was hell was Amazon thinking? Oh yeah... It works! Remember Rubbermaid?

A wonderful example was the race to create superfluids and acheive absolute zero. PBS had a great special on this. Transcripts here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3501_zero.html

It's an enormous amount of time spent doing something that seems almost silly now: making things like liquid helium. If you notice we had abundant amounts of it, and use them specifically in medical imaging.

The have it better now than anytime in their history.

There are now two Chinas. The vast majority are working poor, and are severely and even cruelly suppressed. PBS has a good documentary about 1989, which includes an extensive section on what working in China is like now, and how the country has been changing.

If you watch this documentary, you might easily see why a large number of chinese people might want to revolt, if they weren't so completely powerless.

The Fed listens to Wall Street and believes what it hears. This distortion into a partial and often highly distorted perception of reality is unhealthy and dangerous.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2008/08/fireworks-at-jackson-hole-buiter-lets.html

This is what happens to many regulatory bodies, like the US Fed, FCC, US Patent Office, SEC, FDA, FERC (Federal Electric Regulatory Commission), etc. They end up promoting and defending their institutional clients rather then performing honest regulation.

The problem is made much worse by revolving doors, money and right wing ideology. The FED is a horrible example of the revolving door: just look at Paulson. When he was in charge of Goldman-Sacks they successfully lobbied to change the leverage ratio of banks (like Goldman-Sacks) from 20:1 to 30:1. This made the crash even worse. Then when he was the Treasury Secretary, he bails out banks at the expense of the national deficit. And by the way, he also helped preserve his own personal wealth. (Why is Pauson not under indictment for fraud?)

As for the corruption of money, a lot of lead researchers at the FDA in charge of specific programs were on the payroll of he very companies that were applying for FDA approval on their topic. All undisclosed to anyone, and all legal under the then current rules. Can you say conflict of interest?

Or look at FERC during the California energy chrisis when ENRON was gaming the system. The energy lobby got a bunch of pro-industry/anti-regulation hacks (some of whom owned energy monopolies) appointed to FERC, and when the chrisis hit they refused to do anything. On top of that, they blocked California regulators from doing anything. After the damage was done and Califonia wanted to get out of the bad deals that wer made during the worst part of the problem, FERC ruled that the contracts were valid, and the court backed them up. As a result California is still paying for the bad results of deregulation to this day. For some details see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/blackout/themes/ferc.html

If this move fails, its time for a bailout. "

Interesting show I saw on PBS this weekend, had these two guys who had a book out regarding the demise of journalism in the US.. They made one point that really stuck out at me..that when we lose so many independent sources of true, investigative journalism, that we risk becoming a propaganda society, where what news outlest are out there, are merely parrot what the administration/govt. feeds them as news releases.

I think we can safely say that we already see a great deal of this. The 24/7 TV news outlets take what is given to them mostly, and hash out an opinion piece on it. I really don't see anywhere the type of investigative journalism of the likes of the Woodward and Bernstein that helped bring down Watergate. Where are the journalists today that are out there fact finding, holding the current govt's feet to the fire?

I think one of the things the founding fathers wanted with respect to the free press, was a press that the govt was afraid of....today it seems we have the other way around, they either don't disagree with the government in order to not lose 'access'...or they just agree with it and promote the views which to me...is more propaganda than news.

These guys on the PBS spot...advocated that the US govt. 'funds' an independent news...which mostly sounds a bad edea to me, one automatically thinks of govt. influence, but, they did have one possible scenario that was at least interesting..in that every US citizen got either a voucher or tax credit of say, $200....that they could give to any non-profit news entity the wished.

Regardless of your opinions of the current state of reporting at the NYT and other news papers...I think most anyone could agree that the shrinking number of news outlets that have paid staff dedicated to dissecting our current leaders' every moves is not necessarily a good thing for keeping the politicians in check, nor allowing for an informed populace that votes.

Essentially you are blaming the driver. Yes, you can't drive a SUV like you can a passenger, what Frontline uncovered was that even in low speeds, the SUV was unstable:

The new vehicles caught on big. But there was a downside to the love affair: Because SUVs were taller and narrower than passenger cars, they had an alarming tendency to roll over -- sometimes at speeds as low as 20 miles per hour. And Detroit knew it. FRONTLINE focuses on Ford, the leading seller of SUVs, and uses internal corporate documents, federal regulatory deliberations, and filings from lawsuits to tell the story.

Futhermore, Ford knew this at least a decade before and did not address the situation directly:

"Rollover" includes footage of a lawsuit deposition in which a Ford engineer reveals that his company knew its first big-selling SUV, the Bronco II, was killing people in rollovers much more often than other SUVs. What's more, the rollover problem had actually been discovered in early road tests conducted prior to the Bronco II's release. To address the problem, Ford engineers recommended lowering the vehicle's center of gravity and widening its track by two inches to increase its stability. Doing so, however, would have delayed production and pushed back the vehicle's release date -- a decision that would have been extremely costly. Ford executives opted not to make the design change.

My memory of that if far different. The tires were faulty but in a small percentage of tires. There was a manufacturing defect that would cause tread separation. The number of faulty tires was relatively small.

The real problem was that Ford Explorers were rolling over in accidents. Ford wanted to blame it all on the tires when in reality that particular defect was a factor in only a small number of accidents. The real cause of the issue was the instability of the Ford Explorer. It is a simple matter of physics. SUVs like the Ford Explorer have a high center of gravity. Sudden motions (like those that occur in an emergency) would cause the vehicle to roll over.

An overview of the data showed that:

1. All accidents involved the Ford Explorer
2. Some accidents involved tire problems
3. Some of those accidents involved Firestone tires
4. Some of the Firestone accidents involved tread separation

Logically one would conclude that the problem wasn't so much the Firestone tire but the vehicle based on the percentages. But Ford had more money to spend on lobbyists and PR. And most people want to believe that the real issue is a $100 tire that can be replaced instead of the $30,000 vehicle that cannot be easily replaced.

There was a Frontline report which uncovered that Ford knew their SUVs had roll over issues since the Bronco II which came out ten years earlier.

DEBORAH NELSON: It takes time. It takes resources. It doesn't necessarily take a lot of money, but it does take time.

You know, I've done investigative projects with six-figure budgets. I've also done them when the travel budget was a, you know, roll of subway tokens. It doesn't take a lot of money, but it does take a commitment to letting reporters spend the time it takes to ferret out facts.

Investigative reporting will change, but it will not go away. Stop being so melodramatic.

We dont want this happening again..

From a recent PBS Newshour analysis AIR DATE: Dec. 22, 2009
Subject: How Dangerous is the Cyber Crime Threat?

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, in fact, President Obama had talked about doing this as early as May. And then there were reports that it was taking a while to fill the position or to figure out who that person would report to.

JAMES LEWIS: There's a dispute in the White House and in the administration. And I think that slowed things down. Some people think it's best to leave the Internet alone, let it be the Wild West, let it continue to have a limited role for government, and the Internet community will find its way out of this problem. I don't happen to agree. I'm not sure where Howard comes out on this, but...

JEFFREY BROWN: Don't you agree why?

JAMES LEWIS: I don't, because we have tried letting the Internet community solve this. We have tried seeing if it was a self-organizing global commons. It hasn't worked. It's just like the Wild West. Time to move in the marshals.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/july-dec09/cyber_12-22.html

Males are not an independent population. And individuals don't evolve, so the notion of evolving males is silly.

You might want to look at the hummingbirds of St. Lucia before you make such a broad statement. The male bills are much shorter and straighter than those of the female which are longer and more curved. Same species, different bills. For reference. Also, the video from the PBS show where this was discussed.

Also, why can't an individual evolve? How do you think evolution works? That everyone in the group changes at once?

Similarly, Comcast could use the behavior everyone is hypothesizing to show that they need more bailout money because, "Gosh, Mr./Mrs. Congress Critter - We've been trying to implement better connectivity, but usage keeps going way, way up! We need more money to increase infrastructure!" At which point they pocket 99% of any corporate welfare money they get, and use the remaining 1% to increase the cap by 25GB/month.

That's exactly what they are doing. The taxpayer paid the industry 200 Billion for 45 megabit fiber networks to be deployed across the country, and got nothing.

Until the FDA is publicly funded again, the pharmaceutical industry will continue to abuse the entire medical industry.

For the first 86 years of FDA's existence, from 1906-1992, all of FDA's funding came through the U.S. Treasury. In other words, everyone -- industry, people -- paid their taxes, and FDA got appropriations out of the budget.

Starting in 1992, unfortunately, a law was passed that said for a large proportion of the work done by the FDA on new drug applications, the money's going to come directly, quid pro quo, from the industry. If they want a drug reviewed, they pay directly to the FDA to have the drug reviewed.

-Sidney Wolfe, Director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group

source

Robert Cringely had an article about Home batteries a while back. http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2001/pulpit_20010510_000690.html His idea was a response to the rolling blackouts California was experiencing in 2001. Power would be cached at night to eliminate peaks in demand.

How does DRM help the BBC provide their services to the taxpayer, better ?

The BBC partners with other prduction companies and distributors world-wide.

International syndication and home video sales draws in big money and big talent. That's the benefit to the taxpayer.

Small Island
Adapted from the award-winning 2004 novel, this mini-series stars Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean, White Teeth, 28 Days Later) as Hortense, a young ambitious Jamaican woman thrust into the grit of 1940s post-war London. A Ruby Television production in association with AL Films for BBC, coproduced with WGBH and made on location in Northern Ireland with the assistance of Northern Ireland Screen.

Sharpe's Peril
Sharpe's Challenge
Shot entirely in India, these two installments of the award-winning series, Sharpe, star Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, Troy, Golden Eye) as Bernard Cornwell's title character. Sharpe's Peril is a Celtic Films Ent./Picture Palace Films/Duke Street Films co-production in association with Harper Collins. Sharpe's Challenge is a Celtic Films and Picture Place production.
  BBC WORLDWIDE ANNOUNCES DRAMA CO-PRODUCTIONS WITH WGBH/MASTERPIECE FOR EMMA AND CRANFORD 2

Dougray Scott, Joely Richardson, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, Eddie Izzard and Jason Priestley star in The Day Of The Triffids, written by Patrick Harbinson (ER, Law & Order). This epic, apocalyptic and futuristic two-part drama is a co-production between Power and Canadian producer Prodigy Pictures for BBC One The Day Of The Triffids attracts all-star cast to BBC One

These may be useful to you:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/insurgency/etc/graph.html

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/12/iraq_by_the_numbers.php

I can't speak of afghanistan, but in iraq the insurgent attacks were higher and more effective:

-when the ground was dry (moving around in iraq during the rainy season is a nightmare)
-lots of blowing dust in the air, drastically reducing visibility
-around dusk
-toward the end of ramadan

That's just a taste of all the factors that you'd have to account for to get an accurate map of insurgent behavior. Even then, I think it'd be pretty useless, since they are not a regular army and do not usually coordinate among cells. Maybe they want to attack, but the shipment from libya isn't here yet, so they wait for that but now the americans are getting suspicious so they launch all 20 of their libyan mortars at once and high-tail it out of there. Seems like a major, coordinated attack when in reality things are very different.

Guaranteed to make your brain hurt.

-b

Try watching "How its Made" on discovery HD and watch how compressed things look as fast moving manufactured parts pass through machinery.

Well, there's your problem. Try watching The Woodwright's Shop on PBS. Things move a bit slower there.

See here for a history of Greenspan and regulation.

The thing about electricity is that people couldn't see that it would service more than just lights. But there were a few people out there (like Edison's lab and Tesla) that could see innumerable uses awaiting. The people just couldn't comprehend it or were rightfully dubious. I mean, traveling scam artists were well known to people at the time (probably even far before) just look at what Mark Twain was writing a decade before.

If we follow through with this analogy the solution is simple, you merely need to tell us about and convince us that the "inalienable right to broadband" will indeed herald a new era of empowerment--or at least will be easily worth the cost it's going to take getting an infrastructure up that will cover the nation. Unless you have some WAN technology I don't know about or are accepting the issues of broadband over power, I think it's hard to convince someone that a traditional infrastructure covering--say--all of the Ozarks is going to be worth a whole lot more than the few towns and cities in it that are already covered. And you'd be out of your mind to ask a taxpayer in the farmlands to subsidize via tax dollars some infrastructure their not going to gain anything from.

Does the name Ahmed Ressam ring any bells? He was caught crossing into the US from Canada with a trunkful of explosives — intended for Los Angeles' airport...

He's the host of Nova Science Now on PBS. Actually, I find him to be annoying and not that bright, but his appeal is that he is the perfect everyman, that is, someone that anyone can relate to regardless of gender or ethnicity. I doubt his abilities to do real science, but he makes a good spokesman.