We should also ad an X-do not oppress field to everyone on Earth's birth certificate or equivalent? That way if they don't want to be oppressed, they can just say so, and surely oppressive governments will abide by the rational, peaceful and nicely expressed desire of their citizens to be, or not be oppressed. Right?

Corporations of the giant sort aren't faceless. They are people now didn't you know? Don't discriminate against Bank of America!

As to the existence of an external universe we have only the flawed testimony of our own unreliable perception.

A big part of the problem is that in the USA we have defined "CAR" to be a relatively large, powerful vehicle, which must travel at 60+MPH while potentially trading paint with trucks which are up to sixty-thousand pounds and traveling at the same speed. Add to this a lemming-like, almost suicidal traffic pattern, and you see how it becomes impossible to go out there and travel around your daily ten mile or less errands in a reasonable, lightweight vehicle, which however it was powered would lower the emissions (Both local, and global) immensely. Part of the problem with fixing THAT of course is that we've built an entire country, and interstate highway system around the old model. Now, we're not paying enough to sustain the roads, bridges and infrastructure we have now. So something will have to change in the future.

Most things in nature are chaotic, the tiniest variations and deviations from the purely uniform in the starting conditions can lead to great irregularities in the final state of the system. I hadn't given much though to the matter of the heliopause, but I think a little thought would have lead you to expect it to look like a snowflake, or a raisin, or maybe a supernova, galaxy or nebula, rather than a light bulb, other than the rainbow which was put there by the almighty as a promise to not end the world again by flood most natural phenomena are pretty irregular, aren't they?

I would have you believe it's my heroic abilities and self idealized individual ruggedness that allowed me to survive the first thirty-four years of my life, and then the last two (Voluntarily) with no cell phone, but hey, really it's no big deal. The actually spun before twitter and facebook as well, although I'm not sure it wasn't all cannibals and dinosaurs, asteroid impacts and human sacrifice before /. but my memory of that dim before time is pretty vague.

That post must of been below mine. Am I supposed to read all posts before replying? Now interestingly the wiki article you link to says that the Chicago area encloses parts of 3 different states, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. While I thought the greater Chicago area may include Gary, Indiana, I didn't know it included any of Wisconsin.

So, to follow up, can a person take public transit to go from Wisconsin to Gary, Indiana? That is other than Greyhound and other national or regional transportation systems? After all your reply was about public transit. And the Greater Houston is also 10,000 sq miles.

Since we're considering metro areas, why don't we expand that to include Megalopolis (city type)? Then Chicago is only a part of the Great Lakes Megalopolis.

Falcon

The Chicago area is 234 sq miles (606.1 km). Jacksonville, FL at 885 sq miles (2,292 km) is the largest city in the 48 contiguous states and is more than twice Chicago's size but still is not nearly as big as 10,000 square miles.

Falcon

I am arguing with your statement that "You can actually back up all your stuff to another machine across the Internet in a reasonable amount of time." As I've said twice, and will again, that statement depends on how "reasonable amount of time" is defined.

Falcon

And my 3TB drive? 8 hours? My 4 TB drive would take more than 10 hours. So again "You can actually back up all your stuff to another machine across the Internet in a reasonable amount of time" depends on how "reasonable amount of time" is defined. Of course 4TB is what I have now, who knows how big my storage will be in 1, 2, or 5 years? Saying "1Gbit upstream is reasonable" is just as ridiculous as saying "nobody will ever need 640KB of memory". Nobody can accurately see what the future will bring. That is except for a supernatural supreme deity, which I don't believe in.

Falcon

640K of memory should be enough for anybody.

Falcon

That depends on how "reasonable amount of time" is defined. I have a 750 GB hard disc drive in the PC I'm typing this on and it is mostly full. I want to replace the PC with another, as my main computer. Currently I use a 3 TB external drive for backups, along with smaller drives too. I have another PC I want to use as my main PC, it has a 120 GB HDD as well as a second HDD that's 4 TB. The first drive is for the OSes used and software to run so the second one is for my data. Of course as it's a laptop I can and will still use this PC. But I do not expect to use the internet to transfer my data for storage and backups.

Falcon

What FCC broadband page? I didn't see a link this.

Falcon

What FCC broadband page would that be? The only FCC page I found linked to is WCB Announces Workshop on Gigabit Community Broadband Networks but it does not say how to build gigabit fiber. It may be in the video on the page, but that is more than 5 hours long. Searching FCC how to build gigabit municipal fiber networks doesn't return the how to either in the first five pages of results. Only the first result is an FCC link.

Falcon

Should there be a Law?

kansas city gives it up for google...., provides the first, third, and last paragraph of six paragraphs on what Kansas City gave up to Google printed in a Harper's Magazine article of the same title. The online article is only available to magazine subscribers.

In the second paragraph there's this:
"According to its contract, Kansas City must give Google access to its underground conduits, fiber, poles, rack space, nodes, buildings, facilities, and available land. It cannot charge the company for 'access to, or use of any city facilities...nor will it impose any permit and inspection fees.' And what does the city get in return? It has no say in the pricing of Google's services, nor can it ensure that Google will deliver fiber-optic service to all of the city's residents. Google's offices, meeting spaces, and showrooms are provided free of charge, and the city pays the company's electric bill. The major, moreover, is barred from commenting on Google's activities without the express permission of Google."

The Harper's page linked to does have this correction, "The space the company maintains in city-owned buildings is indeed free; its other local facilities are privately rented." Otherwise it appears Google is getting more than Kansas City is getting in return. And that does not count all the marketing data Google gains with all the eyeballs of surfers.

Falcon