Wow, what a great way to run Society. We will let people with strong self-interests do whatever they want to accomplish those interests, then we will know what things we can do that society won't question, let alone decide are illegal.
"exploiting new technologies like blogging and Wikipedia"
Companies now monitor all social media sites. I know of one that has software key loggers on all company computers to get the blog passwords and monitor the content. Any negative posting about the company and the person is fired within three weeks for general performance issues (including the use of non-work related blogging on company computers). This is not illegal. Should it be illegal for the army to do the same?
I gotta say your above statements are downright worrisome. Such invasion of personal privacy is very wrong and yes, it should be illegal. Thus it should be illegal for the Army as well. Apparently you are a law-abiding citizen, which means you do not question anyone's activities as long as they can say "we are not violating any sort of legislation". Hope you never move to China, Turkey, or some other country with worse human right's violations. Your world view might be shaken...
PS: I tried to put paragraph breaks, but under "preview" they don't show up.... oh well let's find out.
I don't know if you should shoot down (har har) ScentCone's world view with such straight forward reality checks. Might give em' a mental breakdown... What? INFORMED opinion? Heresy
Scared? No.
Sad? Yes.
Its called Fascism.
There is no new term for it, its old-school revived. My opinion is that the people desiring freedom and equality are the ones who are less prone to violence and/or forcing their ways on others. The ones desiring power and domination played along through public debates and other such circus affairs, but were silently forcing their agenda at every chance they got. So we "the public" see only "heated debates" and such, but the legislation and policies have been changing behind the curtains.
Now the majority of people are law-abiding citizens, so any story will now be portrayed as "they broke the law and hacked Sony's property" and most people will get a concerned look on their face and nod.... I can't really fault them, people can't learn every issue at the drop of a hat so they don't know any better:(
Don't be scared, stand for what you believe in and accept whatever happens. Then continue to stand for what is right in whatever manner is best at the time.
Maybe we really SHOULD move to a pure democracy, our democratic republic seems to have only gone down-hill except for the EXCEPTIONAL struggles of a LOT of people led by some truly amazing ones such as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, all the Suffragettes, Abraham Lincoln (yay, a president that did something worth mentioning!), etc. etc.
I understand your advice, and for his own "good" a lawyer is what he should do. Most likely way to keep him out of prison, etc. Your reaction of disbelief is pure presumption, and calling his reaction stupid is an arrogant assumption that your world view is the "best". What I don't think you understand is that some people actually hold on to their personal beliefs. The right to mod their own hardware is one that graf_chokolo seems to hold dear. In that light, he is brave for releasing his database and I HIGHLY doubt he has no idea that there might be consequences for doing so.
Think of how the Colonies declared war on Britain. By all accounts a "stupid" thing to do, and one that resulted in uncounted numbers of people dying. Yet I don't think you'd be the one to write a paper on their stupidity. If you're not from the US, substitute whatever major cultural revolution you believe was a good thing.
Also, lawyering up is Sony's wish-come-true. That gives them TIME! They can tie him up in legal proceedings, and they have a TON of time to find his secret files, set up a smear campaign, etc. etc. etc.
Ok, enough of this. Come off your pedestal of "wise" insight.
Agree completely! I went and got my teaching credential which was an exercise in regurgitating bullshit and wading through requirements that did little to enhance my teaching skills. Next I find out that I can begin teaching, but am required (in California) to go through two years of BTSA (Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment) which adds extra meetings, extra reading, and extra assignments (yes, assignments when I'm working AS a teacher!) that have once again nothing to do with what I'm doing in the classroom unless its a "reflective essay". Top this with the fact that new teachers are saddled with 3-5 different courses to teach, and I mean different. One job wanted me to teach chemistry, physics, geometry, and some random sports related thing. That's a LOT of different lessons to plan and prep for.
And for the icing on the cake, you get paid next to nothing. For those that point out summer and winter vacation, yes those are nice but the amount of work you bring home with you as a teacher is ridiculous. Especially if you are a new teacher and need to make lesson plans every week! I heard from veterans that by year 5-9 things ease up....
Now I'm in full flight, unemployed and looking for a new career. I will return to teaching only to keep myself from under a bridge since at that point the level of respect one would get is finally dipping below that of a teacher....
-Gabriel
I read, I laughed, I cried (the last metaphorically). Well done cynical humor depicting someone you can hardly have sympathy for. However it's a general tone on/. of arrogance and detachment/cruelty to assign someone's LIFE to a technical mastery of a car (car analogy built right in!). What if we judged all of slashdot (thus getting the actual 95% of true nerds even at the expense of the 5% "innocent") on the frequency that they get laid. Or better yet, laid by different people:P (gets us our 5% innocent back into "guilty"). BOOM!
Rational inquisition!!
and yes... I know... nobody expects it that's why you're all so surprised...
-Gabriel
The "facts" comment by denmarkw00t was using the findings of the actual article to make a play on the topic by saying he has increased the faith in elrous0's own beliefs. Then someone thought denmarkw00t had not gotten the "joking" nature of the first post, and hilarity ensued.
Seriously, calling in the right people is a sign of humility and intelligence. If they can't figure it out and are WILLING to publicly humiliate themselves by asking a foreign agency for help.... then I say GO TOYOTA! This speaks to their commitment to excellence instead of a commitment to the bottom line.
Yes, putting democracy on hold is THE most dangerous thing. However, if there is something the general populace does NOT know and IF they DID know they would panic... I can see putting it on hold. If you guys DO put shit on hold, please remember that 10,000,000 to 2,000 is a shitty ratio. Don't fuck with the people, do your best to help them and do your BEST to tell the truth ASAP. From my own personal observations throughout life, and from studies such as "freakonomics" by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Levitt it is pretty sure that only 10% of the population is actually messed up and the rest deserve the truth and the respect of those who "know better".
Please help the world as best you can, and please trust the world to do they can. Explain the truth, explain the dangers, and explain what help you need!!! Trust in people to help you out.
Now... if you are only worried about economic gain then... piss off? That is the stupidest and most selfish thing ever. If you think your religion is the truth... wow. Get with it. If people are really so ignorant, if the government is really so out of it that they have NO idea what the dangers are of our current situation then damn... we are probably already screwed. Now I put on my tinfoil hat, and not cause of the government.... Slashdotters are the worst most ignorant example of smart people so I put on the hat for them;)
Good luck guys! I wish you the best!!! Specially you slashdotters, go out and run, get in shape, you'll get the chics. It IS possible... just go out till you stop caring. Find a pool hall and stop being smart asses:P
-Gabriel
Thank you! By the time I logged in to post you already replied. I'll just add the fact that the chiseling away of rights does not need to be a huge conspiratorial scheme (for all you tin hats, AND tin hat haters). However, when some group like the SEC thinks its ok to do this it just indicates a larger trend in society that is to the detriment of civil liberties.
Sorry if my paragraph spacings don't show up, when I hit preview they seem to disappear.
Your entire position is based on the failings of the monetary system. Inherent to the definition of civilization is the need for human beings to work together. We can not survive without one another, even though this truth might be harder to see in our dispersed society where some roles seem to have no meaning, or little enough (fast food workers?). The monetary system is a great invention that allowed people to trade goods and services very freely and thus spur innovation. No longer did you have to find someone who would trade a couple of cows for your steam engine (not historically accurate) that you could then trade for dozens of chickens, produce, clothes, etc. Monetary system, great stuff.
Until (you knew this was coming) some assholes learned how to game the system. Now, I don't fault the majority of rich people for this behavior since it has "become" a part of the system but it is true regardless. The fact in modern society is that you need money to earn money. If it weren't for social programs poor people would never get a decent education and would thus never be able to earn more money.
You compare a CEO to a janitor here: "Maybe next the Dems in Congress will come up with the idea that everyone, from CEO to janitor, in every company in the private sector should be paid the same? That's only fair, right? Disregard the fact that the amount of work is different, the education required is different, the skills are different." While I do not disregard the human need for incentive, can you honestly say that one person should be earning literally thousands of times more than another? We all must work together to maintain our society, so why do we reward one set of people so insanely more than another?
You said "That's only fair, right?", yet I think you do not understand the difference between "fair" and "equal". This seems to be a relatively new trend so don't feel bad. I won't comment on other socialist societies and how they perceive things, however fair is not the same thing as equal. The fair thing to do is guarantee every human being with the right to shelter, food, clothing, and health care. These are the basic things that every human being needs just to exist on this planet. The world as a whole can EASILY support this requirement with a "reduction" in "quality of life" for EVERYONE that NO ONE would even notice except possibly those exceedingly rich people who would have to buy small 4 - 8 person planes instead of Gulstream Jets for their personal use.....
The whole concept that conservatives have (generalizing heavily here) of being "individuals" who EARN their way and have a RIGHT to unlimited wealth is abhorrent. It is the most greedy and self-centered viewpoint I have ever seen that completely disregards the fact that society is a giant web. Every rich person has gotten there from their own initiative, AND through the work of others. There are exceedingly few people who have become rich solely off the their own sweat and blood.
To say that society must sit by and watch these people suck the life out of everyone else just because the technicalities of our monetary system allow the hoarding of wealth (takes money to make money, ain't that the truth) is RETARDED! Based of some innate idea that the rich are little islands that owe nothing to the rest of the world? L.... O.... L
And do NOT fall back on the idea that every person can make their own way and become rich, etc. etc. While this is true for a few career paths, once those paths are filled the option is gone for the rest of us. There is a limited availability. And, if you think people can just save up money and invest intelligently you have another thing coming. You have to earn well above the average salary in the US to even think of saving enough money to then make more money. At 75k a year my friend is barely able to support her mortgage. Eventually she will own the house and be
Sorry, headline is correct. The Earth's magnetic field lines and the Sun's field lines are connecting every 8 minutes. The fact that they connect allows a stream of the solar wind into the Earth's magnetosphere and/or atmosphere.
The article clearly states that the magnetic field of the sun and the earth become coupled every 8 minutes. Since this is an article posted on nasa.gov I'd like to assume that it isn't just another example of bad science journalism. Especially since it makes sense;)
Indeed, great post!! I was going to put my own.02 in but I really have no idea what concepts to use etc. You said it perfectly:)
Econ 101 is used SO often, with "supply and demand" being used as the excuse for extortion. Drives me nuts!
While freedom_india has a rather strange way of wording statements this does not make them untrue. Basically what is being said is the lesson we should take from the South Park episode that is running through all of our minds....
Canadians striking will do little to nothing since popular media will pay no attention. Just because the undead and psych warfare are brought up does not make the argument worthless. These are just appeals to popular geek culture:P
People who participate in rallies can be safely ignored? HA! Maybe by you, but the governments of the world disagree.... Usually these are the people they bother to keep tabs on, though not likely in this case.
I would say people who simply attack a person's method of communication instead of contributing to the conversation should go back under the bridge.
Thank you! This helps clarify some of the things going on in my brain about Verizon... From recent news reports I've come to think of Verizon as one of the "good guys" when it comes to telecoms, so I considered supporting them by changing my wireless plan. After researching I found the wireless sucks! The concept that some parts of a company are better than others is relatively new to me and will take getting used to, so thanks for helping my brain straighten itself out.
I'll stick with Metro for now:)
Gotta say, really tired of people throwing around the idea that its "human nature" to be screwed up. We are living beings with free will. Just because the majority of people are screwed up does not make it inevitable!
I will concede that in government you are dealing with such large numbers of people that DOES make it inevitable someone will abuse the power (at least in our current society). I just don't want people saying "its human nature!" Sounds reminiscent of "original sin" and all that crap.
Oooh, terrible idea.
We don't have another planet currently, and living in artificial structures is just SLIGHTLY risky:P Not to mention that we would need fusion and anti-gravity to really make leaving the planet feasible in the long term.
I suspect you are just trying to annoy me since you think I'm a tree hugging hippy. This is not the case, and you should probably mind your own quote from Mark Twain!
From the air!!
You are trying to be clever and say that thus it will help our global warming problem, however it could have disastrous effects upon ecology. We might really mess up our planet with this new bio-fuel concept. Personally algae seems like a better source than corn so I'm glad this tech is coming about.
How might we mess up our planet? The simplest answer is we might turn the planet into a dustbowl through too much agriculture. If everyone switched to biofuels food prices would rise (as they are now) but eventually way more land would have to be used for agriculture. The top-soil would get depleted very quickly, and the amount forest that we would lose (Amazon anyone?) because of farmers seeing a chance for higher profit would skyrocket.
We can't blindly stumble along as a society anymore, we have to put some serious thought into our plans and not just be swayed by the popular catchphrase of the day!
You make a very good point! Mass transit was killed by a lack of interest by the masses (we all want our OWN car) and the greedy interest of various companies. Just look at LA! That city had the best train system at the time, and now its completely gone...
Whether or not a hydrogen economy is the answer is best left to some SERIOUS research. Releasing that much water vapor could have significant weather effects. Creating a higher demand for water may have disastrous effects on society.
I'd say the best bet is mass transit first and foremost. Such systems greatly improve the efficiency of moving large numbers of people around, and efficiency truly is the goal. Next society should consider how to diversify its energy consumption so that we aren't invested 100% in any given tech.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, what a great way to run Society. We will let people with strong self-interests do whatever they want to accomplish those interests, then we will know what things we can do that society won't question, let alone decide are illegal. "exploiting new technologies like blogging and Wikipedia" Companies now monitor all social media sites. I know of one that has software key loggers on all company computers to get the blog passwords and monitor the content. Any negative posting about the company and the person is fired within three weeks for general performance issues (including the use of non-work related blogging on company computers). This is not illegal. Should it be illegal for the army to do the same? I gotta say your above statements are downright worrisome. Such invasion of personal privacy is very wrong and yes, it should be illegal. Thus it should be illegal for the Army as well. Apparently you are a law-abiding citizen, which means you do not question anyone's activities as long as they can say "we are not violating any sort of legislation". Hope you never move to China, Turkey, or some other country with worse human right's violations. Your world view might be shaken... PS: I tried to put paragraph breaks, but under "preview" they don't show up.... oh well let's find out.
I don't know if you should shoot down (har har) ScentCone's world view with such straight forward reality checks. Might give em' a mental breakdown... What? INFORMED opinion? Heresy
Scared? No. Sad? Yes. Its called Fascism. There is no new term for it, its old-school revived. My opinion is that the people desiring freedom and equality are the ones who are less prone to violence and/or forcing their ways on others. The ones desiring power and domination played along through public debates and other such circus affairs, but were silently forcing their agenda at every chance they got. So we "the public" see only "heated debates" and such, but the legislation and policies have been changing behind the curtains. Now the majority of people are law-abiding citizens, so any story will now be portrayed as "they broke the law and hacked Sony's property" and most people will get a concerned look on their face and nod.... I can't really fault them, people can't learn every issue at the drop of a hat so they don't know any better :(
Don't be scared, stand for what you believe in and accept whatever happens. Then continue to stand for what is right in whatever manner is best at the time.
Maybe we really SHOULD move to a pure democracy, our democratic republic seems to have only gone down-hill except for the EXCEPTIONAL struggles of a LOT of people led by some truly amazing ones such as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, all the Suffragettes, Abraham Lincoln (yay, a president that did something worth mentioning!), etc. etc.
I understand your advice, and for his own "good" a lawyer is what he should do. Most likely way to keep him out of prison, etc. Your reaction of disbelief is pure presumption, and calling his reaction stupid is an arrogant assumption that your world view is the "best". What I don't think you understand is that some people actually hold on to their personal beliefs. The right to mod their own hardware is one that graf_chokolo seems to hold dear. In that light, he is brave for releasing his database and I HIGHLY doubt he has no idea that there might be consequences for doing so. Think of how the Colonies declared war on Britain. By all accounts a "stupid" thing to do, and one that resulted in uncounted numbers of people dying. Yet I don't think you'd be the one to write a paper on their stupidity. If you're not from the US, substitute whatever major cultural revolution you believe was a good thing. Also, lawyering up is Sony's wish-come-true. That gives them TIME! They can tie him up in legal proceedings, and they have a TON of time to find his secret files, set up a smear campaign, etc. etc. etc. Ok, enough of this. Come off your pedestal of "wise" insight.
Agree completely! I went and got my teaching credential which was an exercise in regurgitating bullshit and wading through requirements that did little to enhance my teaching skills. Next I find out that I can begin teaching, but am required (in California) to go through two years of BTSA (Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment) which adds extra meetings, extra reading, and extra assignments (yes, assignments when I'm working AS a teacher!) that have once again nothing to do with what I'm doing in the classroom unless its a "reflective essay". Top this with the fact that new teachers are saddled with 3-5 different courses to teach, and I mean different. One job wanted me to teach chemistry, physics, geometry, and some random sports related thing. That's a LOT of different lessons to plan and prep for. And for the icing on the cake, you get paid next to nothing. For those that point out summer and winter vacation, yes those are nice but the amount of work you bring home with you as a teacher is ridiculous. Especially if you are a new teacher and need to make lesson plans every week! I heard from veterans that by year 5-9 things ease up.... Now I'm in full flight, unemployed and looking for a new career. I will return to teaching only to keep myself from under a bridge since at that point the level of respect one would get is finally dipping below that of a teacher.... -Gabriel
Radiation damage!
I read, I laughed, I cried (the last metaphorically). Well done cynical humor depicting someone you can hardly have sympathy for. However it's a general tone on /. of arrogance and detachment/cruelty to assign someone's LIFE to a technical mastery of a car (car analogy built right in!). What if we judged all of slashdot (thus getting the actual 95% of true nerds even at the expense of the 5% "innocent") on the frequency that they get laid. Or better yet, laid by different people :P (gets us our 5% innocent back into "guilty"). BOOM!
Rational inquisition!!
and yes... I know... nobody expects it that's why you're all so surprised...
-Gabriel
The "facts" comment by denmarkw00t was using the findings of the actual article to make a play on the topic by saying he has increased the faith in elrous0's own beliefs. Then someone thought denmarkw00t had not gotten the "joking" nature of the first post, and hilarity ensued.
Seriously, calling in the right people is a sign of humility and intelligence. If they can't figure it out and are WILLING to publicly humiliate themselves by asking a foreign agency for help.... then I say GO TOYOTA! This speaks to their commitment to excellence instead of a commitment to the bottom line.
Yes, putting democracy on hold is THE most dangerous thing. However, if there is something the general populace does NOT know and IF they DID know they would panic... I can see putting it on hold. If you guys DO put shit on hold, please remember that 10,000,000 to 2,000 is a shitty ratio. Don't fuck with the people, do your best to help them and do your BEST to tell the truth ASAP. From my own personal observations throughout life, and from studies such as "freakonomics" by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Levitt it is pretty sure that only 10% of the population is actually messed up and the rest deserve the truth and the respect of those who "know better". Please help the world as best you can, and please trust the world to do they can. Explain the truth, explain the dangers, and explain what help you need!!! Trust in people to help you out. Now... if you are only worried about economic gain then... piss off? That is the stupidest and most selfish thing ever. If you think your religion is the truth... wow. Get with it. If people are really so ignorant, if the government is really so out of it that they have NO idea what the dangers are of our current situation then damn... we are probably already screwed. Now I put on my tinfoil hat, and not cause of the government.... Slashdotters are the worst most ignorant example of smart people so I put on the hat for them ;)
Good luck guys! I wish you the best!!! Specially you slashdotters, go out and run, get in shape, you'll get the chics. It IS possible... just go out till you stop caring. Find a pool hall and stop being smart asses :P
-Gabriel
Thank you! By the time I logged in to post you already replied. I'll just add the fact that the chiseling away of rights does not need to be a huge conspiratorial scheme (for all you tin hats, AND tin hat haters). However, when some group like the SEC thinks its ok to do this it just indicates a larger trend in society that is to the detriment of civil liberties.
Sorry if my paragraph spacings don't show up, when I hit preview they seem to disappear. Your entire position is based on the failings of the monetary system. Inherent to the definition of civilization is the need for human beings to work together. We can not survive without one another, even though this truth might be harder to see in our dispersed society where some roles seem to have no meaning, or little enough (fast food workers?). The monetary system is a great invention that allowed people to trade goods and services very freely and thus spur innovation. No longer did you have to find someone who would trade a couple of cows for your steam engine (not historically accurate) that you could then trade for dozens of chickens, produce, clothes, etc. Monetary system, great stuff. Until (you knew this was coming) some assholes learned how to game the system. Now, I don't fault the majority of rich people for this behavior since it has "become" a part of the system but it is true regardless. The fact in modern society is that you need money to earn money. If it weren't for social programs poor people would never get a decent education and would thus never be able to earn more money. You compare a CEO to a janitor here: "Maybe next the Dems in Congress will come up with the idea that everyone, from CEO to janitor, in every company in the private sector should be paid the same? That's only fair, right? Disregard the fact that the amount of work is different, the education required is different, the skills are different." While I do not disregard the human need for incentive, can you honestly say that one person should be earning literally thousands of times more than another? We all must work together to maintain our society, so why do we reward one set of people so insanely more than another? You said "That's only fair, right?", yet I think you do not understand the difference between "fair" and "equal". This seems to be a relatively new trend so don't feel bad. I won't comment on other socialist societies and how they perceive things, however fair is not the same thing as equal. The fair thing to do is guarantee every human being with the right to shelter, food, clothing, and health care. These are the basic things that every human being needs just to exist on this planet. The world as a whole can EASILY support this requirement with a "reduction" in "quality of life" for EVERYONE that NO ONE would even notice except possibly those exceedingly rich people who would have to buy small 4 - 8 person planes instead of Gulstream Jets for their personal use..... The whole concept that conservatives have (generalizing heavily here) of being "individuals" who EARN their way and have a RIGHT to unlimited wealth is abhorrent. It is the most greedy and self-centered viewpoint I have ever seen that completely disregards the fact that society is a giant web. Every rich person has gotten there from their own initiative, AND through the work of others. There are exceedingly few people who have become rich solely off the their own sweat and blood. To say that society must sit by and watch these people suck the life out of everyone else just because the technicalities of our monetary system allow the hoarding of wealth (takes money to make money, ain't that the truth) is RETARDED! Based of some innate idea that the rich are little islands that owe nothing to the rest of the world? L .... O .... L
And do NOT fall back on the idea that every person can make their own way and become rich, etc. etc. While this is true for a few career paths, once those paths are filled the option is gone for the rest of us. There is a limited availability. And, if you think people can just save up money and invest intelligently you have another thing coming. You have to earn well above the average salary in the US to even think of saving enough money to then make more money. At 75k a year my friend is barely able to support her mortgage. Eventually she will own the house and be
Sorry, headline is correct. The Earth's magnetic field lines and the Sun's field lines are connecting every 8 minutes. The fact that they connect allows a stream of the solar wind into the Earth's magnetosphere and/or atmosphere. The article clearly states that the magnetic field of the sun and the earth become coupled every 8 minutes. Since this is an article posted on nasa.gov I'd like to assume that it isn't just another example of bad science journalism. Especially since it makes sense ;)
Indeed, great post!! I was going to put my own .02 in but I really have no idea what concepts to use etc. You said it perfectly :)
Econ 101 is used SO often, with "supply and demand" being used as the excuse for extortion. Drives me nuts!
While freedom_india has a rather strange way of wording statements this does not make them untrue. Basically what is being said is the lesson we should take from the South Park episode that is running through all of our minds.... Canadians striking will do little to nothing since popular media will pay no attention. Just because the undead and psych warfare are brought up does not make the argument worthless. These are just appeals to popular geek culture :P
People who participate in rallies can be safely ignored? HA! Maybe by you, but the governments of the world disagree.... Usually these are the people they bother to keep tabs on, though not likely in this case.
I would say people who simply attack a person's method of communication instead of contributing to the conversation should go back under the bridge.
Dilbert just released a comic recently which I believe he based on your predicament... http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-05-22/
Thank you! This helps clarify some of the things going on in my brain about Verizon... From recent news reports I've come to think of Verizon as one of the "good guys" when it comes to telecoms, so I considered supporting them by changing my wireless plan. After researching I found the wireless sucks! The concept that some parts of a company are better than others is relatively new to me and will take getting used to, so thanks for helping my brain straighten itself out. I'll stick with Metro for now :)
I think he's finally wasted enough time and demonstrated his lack of reason before judges that they just want to make sure he shuts up this time...
Gotta say, really tired of people throwing around the idea that its "human nature" to be screwed up. We are living beings with free will. Just because the majority of people are screwed up does not make it inevitable! I will concede that in government you are dealing with such large numbers of people that DOES make it inevitable someone will abuse the power (at least in our current society). I just don't want people saying "its human nature!" Sounds reminiscent of "original sin" and all that crap.
Oooh, terrible idea. We don't have another planet currently, and living in artificial structures is just SLIGHTLY risky :P Not to mention that we would need fusion and anti-gravity to really make leaving the planet feasible in the long term.
I suspect you are just trying to annoy me since you think I'm a tree hugging hippy. This is not the case, and you should probably mind your own quote from Mark Twain!
From the air!! You are trying to be clever and say that thus it will help our global warming problem, however it could have disastrous effects upon ecology. We might really mess up our planet with this new bio-fuel concept. Personally algae seems like a better source than corn so I'm glad this tech is coming about. How might we mess up our planet? The simplest answer is we might turn the planet into a dustbowl through too much agriculture. If everyone switched to biofuels food prices would rise (as they are now) but eventually way more land would have to be used for agriculture. The top-soil would get depleted very quickly, and the amount forest that we would lose (Amazon anyone?) because of farmers seeing a chance for higher profit would skyrocket. We can't blindly stumble along as a society anymore, we have to put some serious thought into our plans and not just be swayed by the popular catchphrase of the day!
You make a very good point! Mass transit was killed by a lack of interest by the masses (we all want our OWN car) and the greedy interest of various companies. Just look at LA! That city had the best train system at the time, and now its completely gone... Whether or not a hydrogen economy is the answer is best left to some SERIOUS research. Releasing that much water vapor could have significant weather effects. Creating a higher demand for water may have disastrous effects on society. I'd say the best bet is mass transit first and foremost. Such systems greatly improve the efficiency of moving large numbers of people around, and efficiency truly is the goal. Next society should consider how to diversify its energy consumption so that we aren't invested 100% in any given tech.