I have to agree with you on damn near everything you stated. But I do take exception to your statement regarding Angelina Jolie. She started adopting kids before it was fashionable. Much to her chagrin, she's probably part of the reason that doing so has become fashionable.

Sure it does. You invert something or another and it can be used for faster than light propulsion. If done correctly you will arrive at your destination before you left your starting point.

It's been a long time since I've watched any STTNG episodes. Was it the deflector that created that consciousness? I though it was from all of the data stored in the computer or something.

Why does everyone always forget the deflector dish tech? It's probably the most powerful bit of tech in the newer ST series. Reversing the polarity or rerouting something through the deflector array can do damn near anything short of creating life.

First let me say that I agree that this discussion is pretty silly. That being said, "because someone else does it too" is not a valid justification of bad behavior. And frankly with the supposed intellectual superiority that many (not all) profess, it's even less acceptable. I have a lot harder time forgiving someone for doing something wrong that they understood was wrong, than someone who doesn't even know what they did was wrong in the first place.

In general I would agree with you. However the ones who were not professional were so far past appropriate it was cringe inducing as they self rationalized their behavior as being perfectly acceptable.

Yes and yes. While I would agree that proportionally those groups may contain more people who are likely to say something inappropriate. They also tend to accept that they did something wrong when it's pointed out to them and even apologize for being offensive. I've seen many more "nerds" argue this point.

Every time I read a statement like this, I think of this.

I'm speaking from following these types of things for several decades in numerous states and localities. Some areas are better than others.

Where I live currently there is an elementary school that has been long over due to be renovated. When it rains they have to close sections of it off because it leaks so much. Part of the problem has to do with money. Not so much the lack of it, but who's going to benefit from it. The city counsel has decided that they want to tie it to building a new road into an entirely different area. The road will only benefit a small part of the city, but those that live there have influence with the city counsel. Even though they already have land they own that would be fine. Or to simply rebuild it in the same location. But instead new land is going to be purchased and eminent domain is going to be used to build the road. This has been in the discussion stage for several years now.

I've lived in other areas that literally had trailers being used as class rooms 3 years after the school was built.

I think Pennsylvania was one of the worst places I've lived in regards to this type of thing. Particularly in regards to roads. There was an intersection that was a 2-way stop dozens of people were killed there each year. So they did a study to determine if it warranted a traffic light. Obviously it did. So they commissioned another study rather than put a light up. And then another. I followed it after I left the area as I struck me as such an insane thing to keep postponing. After 19 years and 5 studies they finally put up a traffic light. Of course people kept getting killed, year after year, at that intersection.

The voters don't really have the ability to vote on these types of things. City counsel decides. They do hold hearings to listen to what he voters think. But, there is no real recourse if they go against the voters. To make matter worse, the pay for being on the city counsel is very low and those that are on it run unopposed every election.

They provide some percentage of the educational funding. There's been a lot of debate regarding the value of taking federal funding as it only accounts for 5% of our total district budget. By accepting that money they are required to administer the SOL tests. This has made a real mess out of several states school systems.

I never said that. I said that from the time of the first analysis. I should have said from the first discussions begin. So from then until the first student sits at a desk in that school takes that long. The studies, planning, bidding, and building are all included in that time-frame.

Lucky you.

What's needed is better planning to begin with. By the time the "analysis" is done for schools, and road for that matter a ridiculous amount of time will have passed. Then to get approval it has to go through years of bureaucracy. So you end up with a study that projected the next 20 years. But by the time all of the federal, state and local governments get done it goes to the bidding stage By the time the actual building is finished it's already 10 to 15 years past the original analysis. And usually the people in the planning stage took the most optimistic numbers. So you end up with a school that is just about right by the time it is ready. Then it's overcrowded in 1-2 years, with another 20+ year of usability expected.

I was exposed to it back when it was happening in the 1980's, by family members who were on the police force and friends of the family who were. They made it perfectly clear that they almost never got warrants for anything but drugs as it was easier to do and made anything found admissible.

You needed a lawyer to tell you this? There was a time when the police had to get a specific warrant to search a house. If they had a warrant to look for a missing kidnapped girl and found an illegal handgun, or a stolen car. There was nothing they could do about it. The search warrant was for the missing girl only. Once the "war on drugs" started most agencies simply got a warrant for drugs as anything they could find was admissible. Even if they weren't looking for drugs or didn't find any. Terrorism is used today in much the same way, It's like a drug warrant being served by senator Joe McCarthy on steroids after a 2 week cocaine bender and backed up by a SWAT team who all have Tourette Syndrome trigger fingers.

I'm one of those voters. I've almost never voted for a major party candidate. Unfortunately I've also never voted for anyone who has won an election either. That being said, I can assure you that many (if not most) of those who you claim are feigning ignorance or stupidity are not feigning. A large majority of voters select their candidates like they would a sports team. It doesn't matter what they say or stand for, as long as they are in "their teams" uniform, they will vote for them. I suppose it's easier than thinking, but it's become a disastrous way to run a country.

And that's why we should ship all of the waste to his back yard until a better place is found to store it. He can also start repaying the $9 billion that has already been spent on Yucca mountain. There's another $30 billion sitting in a fund for the operation of Yucca mountain paid by (nuclear) consumers to operate Yucca. And the fees that were charged to the nuclear plants to fund this also expired 13 days ago.

Yes, but none of those thousands of year old structures are reinforced concrete. While reinforced concrete is stronger, the iron in the reinforced steel part oxidizes over time, even when in concrete. Our modern reinforced structures will last no where near as long as those older structures have.

I agree. We should use steel and concrete containers.