Went full streaming nearly a year ago. 1 ea of Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, WD TV Live Plus, and an older Roku connected to various TVs all streaming Netflix, plus a mix of platform specific channels. Hulu and a few others play on the WD TV Live Plus via a Playon server running on a PC. The WD TV Live Plus is really a great device, playing movies and other media shared on networked PCs. Mostly we watch Netflix and have ran up to three simultaneous streams on a 12Mbps Comcast connection. To complete the streaming experience, our Logitech Squeezebox radio is a fabulous Wifi music only streamer- finding local streaming radios stations automatically, playing Pandora, and blending nicely with the decor. The 6 hours of life in the optional battery pack makes it great for portable music outside. Downsides are lack of live sports. Upsides include the reduction in random bored TV watching and queuing Netfix videos from the phone when someone suggests one, instead of trying to remember what they suggested later.

Agreed. When someone "experiences something weird", there is an explanation. But that explanation may be beyond our current limited understanding of the workings of our universe and reality. It seems to be arrogant to claim that "ghosts" don't exist, when some limited cases may be phenomena beyond our current ability to measure and explain. Before the discovery of bacteria, we could sense and measure their effects, but were unable to explain the mechanism. This didn't mean that bacteria didn't exist though.

Though I agree with your other points, the US does not have a national "popular vote". It has separate popular votes in each state. Think of it this way- the winner of the World Series is not the team that scores the most total runs over the course of World Series, but the team that wins the greatest number of games. A "national popular vote" would result in less populous states becoming irrelevant.

Gateway sold off a PC business unit to MPC a few years back, supposedly also selling off the warranty responsibilities as well. MPC then went out of business. Severals clients had Gateway PCs fail that Gateway refused to repair, claiming they were MPC's problem- I took one case all the way to the Gateway head office, only to be refused. Terrible business practice. Gateway is on the "actively avoid" list for all our clients.

Now, to figure out how to use broadband.gov as a proxy..

"One Second After" was a great, if very sad, book. After reading it, I asked a few friends in law enforcement and EMS if they had plans for this type of emergency- no cell phones, no radios, no vehicles. To quote one response "Ahh, yeah, we haven't prepped for that. Every man for themselves."

Pretty sure you're thinking of "Manna" by Marshall Brain http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm A very enjoyable read!