I think I remember reading somewhere that men usually try to imagine the map in their heads whereas women do this less. However, once the way to the objective is known, (so, in other words, the second time around) apparently women will find their way better because they remember landmarks very well (like "At that tree, right there, we have turned left and drove until we've seen a red mailbox on the right, and there we turned left again. I am absolutely sure of this.")

I can't remember where I've read this, though (I'm a man !)

The idea sounds very good... in theory. I would like to understand in more detail how this payment method will work. First, people should pay that fee in their local currency, whatever that might be. Euro, USD, CAN $, Yen, Swiss FR, etc, will not work - most people in this world don't have easy access to them. Also, the charities in question should either be local (so that they are appealing to people in, say, Mongolia, or New Zeeland, etc), either truly worldwide (Unicef). The second problem - how will the internet users pay in Surinam, for example ? Should they go to the bank, exchange their local money in some convertible currency, and then deposit that in some kind of micro-payments account ? What will happen to internet cafés all over the world (in some countries they are still the only way to have access to the net)? In case of a payment conflict, who will arbitrate ? Of course, it cannot work in any other way than pre-pay (otherwise you can install a virus on someone's computer and let that person fight the charges). So then what happens when you need to send an important email in the middle of the night and you have no money left in your account ? Remember that many people do not have a credit card to load their account with ! Will all the ISPs in this world agree to police their subscribers and provide accounting tools and supervision for ? I have many, many questions. I'd like to see this implemented, but...

Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know much about how the set-top cable boxes work, but I'm pretty sure that (it being a computer, in the end) the cable company alreay knows that the subscriber at address IP so and so is currently watching the PBS channel, since 18.5 minutes now. By extension, assuming that there are in average, 1.2, let's say, viewers per tv/box, one can extract superb statistical and demographical data... Am I wrong ? (Maybe it's not feasible yet, I don't really know, but I assume it is).

Canada is the champion. You people, in the States, you don't know how good you have it, in comparison. In Canada pricese for telecomm are easily double yours ! Look at this, for instance: http://www.cellphones.ca/cell-plans/960/ Another example, because some people seem to like iPhones ? The iPhone plans in Canada (with Rogers) are more than double what people in the US pay, with AT&T. And on top of it all, we pay federal tax, and then provincial tax on top of it, so then because the 6.95$/month is already a tax (kind of illegal, in the end (longer story), but tax) in the end we pay tax on tax on tax. Howzat ? And still, amazingly enough, right now Bell is losing money on wireless (and no, not even the service is good - it's contracted out in India, and it's miserable) ! This is beyond belief ! I can only assume that these peoples' levels of corruption, laziness and incompetence are unsurpassed (because we must be the first in something !) Little wonder, then, that Canada has a pathetic cellphone penetration rate. PS. I might have used some Engrish here. Sorry - English is not my first language.