Congress? Do something? I love the way they created meaningful gun control legislation after the Newtown shootings. And the whole sequestration fiasco. But don't get me wrong - they are the best legislative body that money can buy.

So I save up my pennies and travel half way around the world to climb one of the truly iconic mountain peaks only to have people yammering on their cell phones on the trail and vending machines at the summit? Thanks for the warning, that's one less item on my bucket list. By the way, how does 4G fit in with Mt. Fuji being listed as a World Heritage site?

The government doesn't rely much on old-fashioned human intelligence anymore. So while they're fairly inundated with information, their ability to process and interpret that information has suffered. You can write all the computer algorithms you want, but intelligence, real intelligence, requires human interaction. But welcome to The Matrix.

Americans should have no expectation of privacy. "Step out of line, the man come and take you away." Welcome to The Matrix.

In reference to the government of the United States turninng a blind eye to science, I think you would be astounded at some of the bullshit coming out of the beltway: if it doesn't have economic or defense benefits it won't be funded. We're allowing a misinformed few (Congress) to stifle pure research just when we're discovering some really interesting things about the universe and the prospect for life having evolved on other planets.

Yes, let's have both houses of congress telecommute; that way they could either use the Capitol Building as a movie theater or, I know, let's make it the best set ever for American Idol!

Now why in the world would anyone give up such a powerful position? I know, he's going to donate all his time and energy to charitable organizations. Yeah, I didn't really think so either.

Oh look, we just pissed away a billion dollars on something that doesn't work against a country that not an actual threat. Reminds me of the way we threw away a large part of The Constitution in order to win the War Against Terror. The beacon of liberty is shining brighter all of the time...

And the "Powers That Be" don't seem to change with a change in the political party that controls the legislative and/or executive branches of government. Now that SCOTUS has lost much of its principle of judicial oversight, checks and balances no longer really exist.

Just one more step in the downfall of what used to be our country.

So this little country is bankrupting itself so they will have the capability to lob a nuclear weapon at us? They need to up the ante a little bit and build up a huge stockpile of weapons and delivery systems. Then I'll show you bankrupt - morally and economicaly.

This planet is overpopulated with people. Until there is a viable way to control population growth we are on a path to eventually destroy the planet we live on. Producing more food through genetic modification is a panacea as is fracking. Both have serious ethical issues attached to them. The Earth cannot sustain a population of 6 billion people and it can't begin to sustain 9 billion. Argue all you want to about whether a person has achieved "scientific enlightenment," but for fucks sake let's sometime take a look at the real issues.

They used the kilogram because it's fucking difficult to see a gram of anything. You can call a kilometer a click; the military has been doing it for years. It's not the metric system that is flawed, it's Americans that can't drop their illogical and cumbersome system of measurement.

Ask the "average" American to point out any foreign country on a globe or map. The intellect is there, in other words people have the mental capability to comprehend scientific and mathematical concepts, but they don't take the time and effort necessary to learn them. A system of base 10 measurement is much easier to use than converting 12 inches to a foot and 5,280 feet to a mile, or 16 ounces to a pint and 8 pints to a gallon. Americans are comfortable with their systems of measurement; are they comfortable with being at the bottom of the barrel in math and science?