For the sake of discussion, let's assume this report showed a problem orders of magnitude worse, and we were on the verge of Kessler syndrome conditions. What technologies exist today to combat the problem? (Yes, I know, no government today would unilaterally scrub space without a quid pro quo...)

If there are 19,000 trackable chunks of debris, how many untrackable (and just as deadly) small particles are there? I know that particle densities are minute. If we launched an array of satellites with Aerogel paneling, is it reasonable to expect a significant improvement in "air" quality up there?

What about that heat-ray device recently pulled our of Afghanistan? Can we launch one of those to spray microwaves tangentially to the Earth's surface? Would the heat applied to a paint-chip sized debris particle be enough to change the orbit? It doesn't take too much delta-v to alter the eccentricity of a paint fleck enough to burn up in orbit, does it?

(Less coffee, more sleep next time, methinks)

This.

The City of Scottsdale employs aggressive, effective process servers. I dodged the ticket for 3 months, then got served at 8 pm on Martin Luther King Day. I never expected a server to be working after hours on a federal holiday.

I live in Phoenix, AZ where speed cameras were recently deactivated after two years of controversy. The same vendor, Redflex, was snapping pictures if you were driving 11+ mph over the limit.

However, Tempe and Scottsdale still have red-light cameras. I have no issue with red-light cameras, so long as common sense is used when reviewing tickets. TFA:

Speeders going 11-over when the rest of traffic drives 8-over aren't a public safety risk; red-light runners coming perpendicular to broadside traffic and kids in crosswalks are.

Sounds like a sudden outbreak of common sense. Ticket those red-light runners. I paid my ticket for getting there after the yellow; fair and square.

Not that it matters, but if you're going to rebut someone with a snopes link, at least state that it's true. Snopes debunks so many urban legends that the folks who can't be bothered to even RTFA will think you just debunked the whole cocaine-laced money thing.

**SNIFF** Man, George Washington smells good.

What sort of competition is there in your city for sewage services? Is it expensive to change providers?

My point exactly, but your delivery was all the more poetic than mine.

I seem to remember a recent article describing the smell of space (http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp6/spacechronicles4.html). The senses are completely bombarded with input which our brain ignores, for example the feel of your tongue on your teeth right now, or the weight of your shirt. Remove the background input, and the brain will interpret what is left and reported.

If space can have a smell, it can most certainly have a taste. It just might not be raspberry-flavored in our neck of the Milky Way.

You, sir, may be trolling for some epic battle of 'teh flames' but your points are valid. Star Wars had the makings of an epic tale, if only G-Lucas could have contrived a coherent delivery. In its current form, it's been nothing more than the wet dream of a DND Magic Missile D20...with blasters and midichlori-something-or-others in the end.

+1 Awesome.

God I wish I had mod points...I read that part of the article and I knew somewhere, subconsiously, I had heard that broken English somewhere before. Thank you for the translation from Rooskie.

Fortuantely for the parent, there is no -1, Wrong moderation option.

The cable companies do not encrypt the digital stream unless the channel is on a pay tier, or the content provider mandates it. My employer had been carrying ESPN HD, Discovery HD, History HD, and a few other national channels in the clear for almost a year. Contract renegotiations have come up, and those channels now must be encrypted for us to retain the rights to carry them. As a result, the cable co looks like the bad guy when we must tell our subs that they now must lease a converter box or CableCard to decrypt the channels we previously could send in the clear.

In regards to being forced into using the company's cable box, the FCC has mandated this to be illegal. Simply go down to your local electronics store and pickup a CableCard enabled converter...which according to the FCC, should be available nationwide. Oh wait...no manufacturer has started making them in the last 3 years. Go FCC! There's always TiVo, I suppose...