Considering we're talking about the number of people using email (or worse, the number of emails being sent all together!), I'd say that a multiplier of 3.6 will produce a rather significant number.

Oh, and as a sidebar.... I was born here in the Bay Area (specifically San Francisco) and in my opinion, San Jose/"Silicon Valley" is so much like Los Angeles in it's "feel" that you couldn't pay me to live there! ...even with a 6-figure salary job! (yuck!)

The basic answer is culture...be that arts, entertainment, or what-have-you...which the suburbs are more limited in. If you're lucky, there's some stuff to do in your (suburbia) town (Marin to the north is very artsy-fartsy, and Berkeley has a lot being a college town), but others (Hayward in the East Bay, or San Bruno on the Penninsula south of S.F.) don't have much more than the traditional malls. So "going out for a night on the town" usually means hopping in your car (or if it's convenient, hopping on BART) and heading to The City.

The suburbs aren't "bad"....just less stuff to do there versus the city....and I think that's true for a lot of cities.

Heck, I know of some people who lived out in the Central Valley (to the east of the Bay Area and it's suburbs) but moved to the Bay Area, even though it's WAY more expensive, simply because "there's more there"...

Excuse me, greed is non-partisan, so Republicans can blame the Democrats, and vice versa....but the result is the same: people in positions of power look out for themselves only.

...and if you're agnostic? ...or atheist? Your statement...

...either shows your ignorance, your bigotry, both...or is simply a perfect example of the closed-minded attitude of the populous in general. Either way, I weep for the future of the human race.

FTFY

...what we actually have to do is spend that much on each student, rather than on the over-paid administration.

Uh...I will agree to an extent that the rest of the world is pretty much on board with the evolution theory.....but here in the heartland of the good ol' United States of America, there is a rather large group of these "wacky" people who have taken their beliefs to an extreme. Have you missed the Creation Museum?

Wow....thank you for two things:

1) bringing forth such a blatant example of why this country (and the majority of the "developed" world) can be described as "under-developed"

...and...

2) reminding me to never, ever give up my imagination...nor day dreaming....because I'd hate to live in this world with an attitude like yours.

I totally agree with that statement, and I would like to add my own take on it: Using both FB and G+, I am starting to feel like I felt about FB versus MySpace...the newer one (back then FB, now G+) seems much more "mature" than the older one (MySpace then, FB now). Over the past year, more and more, I look at the content on FB and feel like I'm back in high school...immature, drama-driven drivel that I get little from, in the way of information or even entertainment. However, the more I peruse G+, the more I see engaging content and offerings....and at the very least, when I read the posts, I'm not constantly thinking to myself, "How old are you?"

I also disagree with another poster's assessment about the security/privacy. I feel like I've got a much better handle on who sees what on G+ than FB. And from what I hear about friends blocking other users, or just "un-friending" someone, and yet still having stuff seen or shared amongst those same users, I'm shying away from what I post on FB more and more.

You know, I've watched all the things you listed happening over the last few years, and I wonder to myself if Britain is like a test-bed for all the things that the United States would like to do to it's citizens (and is trying at every turn). I can just see the (US) government's response to outraged citizens going something like, "We are inacting these measures for your protection, and they have been proven and accepted in the United Kingdom, so get with the program...otherwise we'll be left behind by those darn Europeans!" (...right, as if we aren't already at the bottom of the barrel in innovation, education, and on and on....)

Or it's the best/cheapest alternate when (1) you're too far out of a rural town for DSL service to reach you, (2) the (only) cable company will charge you $500 to just *get* it to your property and put a telephone pole in the middle of your front yard in the process, and (3) you're so deep in the forest, you'd have to clear-cut half of your property to get a line-of-sight for satellite service (and that's at a rate of $120/month for 60% of typical broadband speeds)

BTW I'm talking about a Northern California coastal town with a population of over 6,000, not some shack in the middle of the Canadian Rockies.

...and ALL of them (still living...not sure about heirs) get their in-office salary as a pension! Isn't that great?

I wonder what I'm going to do with the $2000 (TOTAL) I have saved up in my Social Security account...?

It probably was just that...a sound bite for the mass media to be able to report on Anonymous as a bunch of idiots, rather than the slowly growing collective of like-minded individuals hell bent on keeping the power & freedom of the Internet/world in the hands of the people, not those in power. This way, the sheeple think of them as criminals, but revere the government as their protector (from what, only those idiots can tell you).

It's all spin, baby!

I tend to disagree. Most people I run across look at you funny when you present the idea that the government is invading their privacy. In fact, most will deny it outright and argue that "the people" would never let anything like that happen (even though, it's already happening, and worse!)

You have a nation of consumers, which means they all think in terms of "who can I go to when [whatever] doesn't work, is broken, is causing me inconvenience, etc. and when they find the company they're dealing with is doing questionable things, they think the government will be the one to correct the situation.

Isn't that a great way to divert attention and control the sheeple?