Great post. Also, Harvard was more about preparing the ruling class, and they do need the rigours of classical studies plus the brain cell exercise provided by math.

Thank God tunnel-visioned Slashdot people is not deciding this issue...where have you seen whole regions being evacuated because a gas plant failed?

It's called "Tunnel vision", which seems to abound in Slashdot. How dare somebody to criticize technology?

A few years ago, the whole elector's database was illegaly sold to private companies, including an American one, and as a result most people keep receiving unwanted calls from their banks up to 7 or 8 times a day trying to sell you insurance over the phone or asking for overdue payments, same from other companies, sometimes for years even if it was a clerical error. Last year the government tried to force everybody to register their cell phones since most people opt for prepaid cards to avoid fraudulent charges from Carlos Slim's (richest man in the world) Telcel company. About half the users naively did. Now they're receiving extorsion calls from people claiming they've kidnapped a relative of yours. Most calls have been traced to prisions where influential prisioners have their little kingdoms. Of course that has been a fact of life with land lines too, but up to now there was no way to know which cell phone number youi have. Now they have all your personal info since the registration is tied to the equivalent of your SS number (CURP), who also links you to info on your bank balances. And now, oh my my, the same government whose corrupt politicians, police chiefs, and even state governors have been found to protect kidnappers wants you to register all the info of your children in one convenient big database...and the company in charge is owned by a president's in-law (Hildebrando)...wow...can't wait to comply...!

...on whoever the elite deems adequate to provide replacement organs.

During the flight you're the authority, traveler's lives are in part your responsability, you should be able to specify the safety measures you consider appropiate for the ocasion without having some over-opinionated uber-alienated gadget geek valuing his temporary convenience over a somewhat possible danger to the passengers. Sorry, but for obvious reasons the pilot's confort is way more important than some whiny's traveler.

Although silver-based I think the "Pieces of Eight" option captures for informal purposes all metal-based options. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar

The most influential celestial body around here is the Sun, and the second one is the Moon. Coincidently your main sign is called your Solar Sign, and your secondary one is your Lunar Sign. That should cue you that astrology is trying to correlate hundreds of years of empirical observations to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun and the position of the Moon. Astrology says they have found a tipology that can be attributed to whatever fields the Sun and the Moon are directing toward Earth. As for the influence of something as faraway as planets and other stars, astrology says those influences exist, affecting mainly superior qualities of the human personality, but subordinated to stronger influences caused by your genetics and your Karma. How can you start a personal investigation of the validity of real Astrology? Check in the groups you belong to the "Element" you all belong to and classify them in two groups, one for Air and Water the other for Fire and Earth. Also, check with all the married couples you're acquainted with and check their "Element". The results might surprise you.

Congratulations, youre back at the medioeval witchhunt/inquisition paranoid lifestyle when a single anonymous tip was enough to ruin your enemies and claim their property.

We have a Police Farce.

Got news for you, down here in Mexico bilingualism is required for any half-decent job, and the closer you get to the border an American frequent border-crosser visa is a requirement for any decent job.

Wow! We're about to catch up with Atlantis technology! http://www.forgottenagesresearch.com/lost-knowledge-series/Edgar-Cayce-on-the-Great-Crystal-of-Atlantisand-Be.htm

There are areas in New Mexico (formerly Nuevo Mexico), California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Colorado and Nevada where the native language of the oldest residents is Spanish since it was Mexican territory. They didn't crossed the border, it was more like the border crossed them (Jessica dixit).

"And where do you have the right to take from other people to have what you want?"

It's the basis of the capitalist economy: You produce $ 10 worth of something, you get $ 5, the owner of means of production takes the rest, or actually as much as he can get away with. Because he can, and the police and army are there to safeguard this right of his.