Crossover "artists" like you mention have their place; but what they do artisitically is the same as the colorization of B&W films. The original composer composed with the available sound "palatte" that they had available. To modernize it with upbeat tempos, electronic instruments and modern rythyms makes it an alien work to what the composer intended when they wrote it.

Hey, Pachabell WROTE a canon. Beat that Tchaikovsky

It is not just logical argument that the internet hinders, it is ANY thought process that requires extended and deliberate thought. The ability to quickly jump to another website if one gets bored makes it difficult to do the deep diving necessary to really understand abstract concepts. When I was obtaining my education, pre-internet, I only had physical libraries with a limited number of physical books on a topic. If I found a section of a book boring, I couldn't just hop to another one, there often wasn't one. As a result, I read books cover to cover and followed the author's train of thought from beginning to end. Now I find myself only "skimming" or reading a portion of a wb page. Followng the tedious path of watching the author build and expound on abstract concepts is just simply too boring. I end up knowing a little about a lot instead of understanding a lot about a little. You can't reallty learn without being bored some of the time and working through it. The internet makes it too easy to bail on boredom.

It is pretty impossible for geeks to understand how the average young person relates to long term focus and concentration. By our very makeup, we routinely tune out all distractions and focus laserlike on abstract concepts for long periods. I think there is very little difference between being immersed in debugging a block of code for a few hours and listening to a 90 minute Mahler symphony. I think it is more than a coincidence that I like abstract music and computer coding. But if the public at large continues to lose their ability to concentrate on one task and one task only for long periods of time, our civilization will suffer. We are already too distracted with the information overload of the technological age as it is.

An electric light???? Say, where can I get one of these new fangled contraptions pilgrim? Is it as good as the gas lamp recently installed out near the horse shed?

In the modern technology and knowledge econonomy, the time change is an anacronism at best and a potentially dangerous confusion at worst. In the fall, for 59 minutes and 59.00 seconds, you get duplicate time values in servers and databases tracking on local time and in the spring, you have an hour that never exists. That can cause havoc with time calculations on 24x7 systems. The most frustrating thing for me logically is how is distorts and confuses the already limited understanding thae average person has of the astronomical basis of time. It is staggering how many people who believe that somehow DST gives them an extra hour of daylight. Like somehow the earth's rotation is magically and instantly adjusted for their benefit. All that really happens is that they are simply getting up an hour earlier. The most insane thing I have yet seen is a proposal by a lawmaker (in Florida I believe) to make DST a year round thing. Huh? Wouldn't that just make it the new "standard" time and nonsensically destroy the historical significance of noon as (the equation of time and distance form the zimezone central meridian notwithstanding), the "middle" of the day and midnight the "middle" of the night? All for some fuzzy illusion that somehow time has bend made to bend and stretch for our comfort? It is all smoke and mirrors and it causes nothing but confusion and ambiguity. It blurs hard scientifc reality. It is everything we geeks profess to dispise.

"tiny tax" yesh right. Even if it starts tiny, not tax ever stays that way. And once implemented, even a "temporary tax" never dies. Don't ever fall for it. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

Practically speaking though, if I feel my Constitutional rights have been violated by being killed in a drone strike, how exactly am I going to sue in court and for what redress? My ghost shows up in court and demands immediate reincarnation?

I would posit that Rand Paul is only nominally a Republican. He chose the Republican Party machinery to get elected. He is really a libertarian and I think the Republican most likely to declare himself independent if the party tries to force him to act gainst his beliefs. He is his own man. Now the real question is if he has this independent streak because of deeply heald beliefs or a cynical power play at populism. Whatever your politics, you've got to admit from a pure political standpoint this move is a masterpiece of timing and media manipulation. Watch Rand Paul closely the next ten years or so. He is a unpredictable force who plans on going places. I am not yet sure if he is Angel or Devil; but he has much bigger plans.

Just like how the same-sex marriage backers decided to totally destroy Chick-Fil-A over their "homophobic" veiws? oh, wait.... Maybe the best thing DC could do for business is to publish the stories and then collect the bonus bucks from the anti-boycott backlash.

This is embarassing. Yes, these are the people who believe they are competent to legislate on matters like IT Security, privacy, science and space funding, healthcare and other critical matters. And it is not party driven. Both parties are rife with elected people who would fail basic high school proficiency exams. Other examples that come to mind are the representative who is worried that Guam might tip over and sink due to poulation increases, Rep. Maxine Waters who warns that budget sequestration could eliminate 170 million US jobs and a certain President who thinks 'Austrian" is a language. You could ranomly select each of our represenatatives, senators and presidents from a phone book and not do any worse than we are doing now, IMHO. I think Jay Leno should do "Jaywalking" from the floor of the US House of Represenatives. People would be shocked.

We Americans have already purposely recreated OUR great National Disaster. We re-elected Barack Obama last November.

It's ok. Mars has the illudium Q38 Explosive Space Modulator. They will be fine.