Funny you should mention the 80s. My grandfather told me that there is a 30 year drought cycle. It is here now. It was here in the 80s when my uncle went broke trying to be a farmer, and according to my granfather they slept outside during the 50s because it was too damn hot to sleep in the house. That said, I don't think this possible drought cycle explains it all. I have no idea how much is natural and how much is man made.

As far as the article goes, the mention of Ky (where I live) and the current corn crops is accurate. Farms that usually get around 130 bushels/acre this year are producing about 30. Many corn crops aren't even being harvested because it is not worth it. The stalks can't even be used for feedstock for cows and chickens. Soybeans have been hurt, too, just not as bad as corn.

What you say is true, and your config certainly reduces the chances of being infrected. But the point that I am trying to make is that doesn't mean your PCs have NEVER been infected as you claimed in your original post. There is no way for you to know that solely on the basis of the preventative measures you mentioned.
And I don't mean to belabor the point, I have just always found it to be an interesting claim when someone says their PCs have never been infected but mention nothing of how they know...which would have to include client and network traffic analysis information. You cannot even make this claim with AV since as you point out there is malware that can pass AV checks.

Well yes, I understand that there are legitimate programs calling home as well.
My point being that there are enough exploits (IE, Adobe, Java based to name a few) that are drive by that it would be easy to end up with something and not even realize it. And then it is calling home, and you are pwned. And it is possible the only indication you would have would be anamalous network traffic. And while it is certainly true that it could go undetected by AV products, they do increase your chances of knowing something happened.

And on a side note, is it just me or has something similar to this level of screw up happened to just about every major AV vendor at this point?

And you also know that you would need to monitor both incoming and outgoing network traffic (at the router, not the client) to make sure nothing is calling home to a command server? Because you know that there is yucky stuff out there that is NOT obvious in any way other than network traffic monitoring?

That may be your hardware replacement schedule, but I doubt that is true for the masses. With ATT, you are eligible for a phone upgrade after 2 years. I think many people keep them longer once they find one they like, if for no other reason than to avoid having to "learn" a new phone.

On the PC side, it has been my experience that most people have computers older than 3 years. The Slashdot demographic is probably not indicative of the general population in this case. I would put the average age of a home PC at closer to the 5-7 year range. Same with corporate. Where I work, the main DB servers are on a 3 year refresh, as are the customer facing computers. Everything else is 5-7 years.

So while I agree with you that people will probably buy more smartphones than computers in their lifetime, I would not put the ratio at 3:1 nor would I expect a 3 year refresh cycle. Although I am sure the manufacturers would love it if the consumers did follow your schedule.

Debunked may be a bit harsh, as they are mostly saying that the studies they reviewed lacked credible findings due to the methodology used. This leaves us with several possible explanations:

1) the idea of different types of learners is not valid
2) the idea is valid but we haven't figured out how to measure it scientifically
3) the idea is close to, but not the actual explanation

Being that our memories are combinations of our senses and that some people do seem to recall certain aspects easier than others I wouldn't say the idea is completely without merit. But as the article you referenced says, there isn't enough proof to justify using scant resources on something that may not help.

From TFA: The biggest savings would come from ending funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and holding steady spending across the entire Department of Defense.

I wonder why people can't be bothered to even read the SUMMARY of his plan contained in the article. While not a Ron Paul supporter, even I know that he generally supports ending foreign involvement that requires defense expenditures

to me.

As a purchaser of the the PS3, and having the things I paid for stripped away and my info released due to poor security, I don't care what the performance is because I wouldn't own one if Sony GAVE it to me.

Well don't keep us in suspense, elaborate.