In the end, is this truly going to change how the ISPs work? The article mentions that one of the reason for doing this is because of Bell Canada. I personally don't think Bell Canada is going to care - neither will Comcast and all the other ISPs who throttle and shape the network (can we say all ISPs at this point to at least some extent?).

Really, all this will do is continue to drive a wedge between the "evil" file sharers and "enlightened" ISPs who will attempt to use the other 95% of the users to make claims to whoever will listen... Personally I don't do much file sharing and I'd get real pissed if my broadband speed dropped to a quarter of what I actually pay for.

If it is going to be peer reviewed, I doubt they'd publish it in Scientific America... Though a quick review for spelling mistakes could get it published there...

>p>What about those people who cannot be vegans or even vegetarians for that matter? People in the far north hunt in the fall and winter in order to have enough food. Maybe 50 years ago that is all they had to subsist on. Even now, it is extremely expensive to bring fresh food to them as it takes so long to get there.

Now personally, I like meat and don't have any problems eating it. I do however attempt to eat more free range, wild game, etc than "farmed" animals and I probably eat less meat than 10 years ago. I almost must admit that I really respect your decision to become a vegan. I'm sure it was a long road.

And really, it is only wealth that allows us to buy vegetables at the store. During the winter here, I'd get very little fruits or vegetables if I had to grow everything myself. We would never get most fruits here because of the climate and I think I'd get awfully tired of corn and grain and potatoes if it wasn't for those deer and cows...

This really does make no sense. When we lived in Calgary, my wife had to commute to 3 towns away for work. She would carpool with at least one other if not to other people and would take turns driving each day. This would suck - she would spend almost a weeks worth of pay to drive herself each month...

I ride my bike to work. It is almost as fast as the bus and definitely cheaper. Plus it keeps me fit. It isn't any greener of course since the bus runs with or without me but I also have the ability to leave on my own schedule and not have to wait hourly for the bus.

If these rules prevented me or my wife from travelling how we wished, I think I would take the board to court - or at least file a complaint with the government. At least we live in a more free society out here in the west ;)

I'm surprised that the bank didn't step in at the point and not lend her the money. Several times I've gotten a mortgage or line of credit the bank always wants to know why... "Why do you need to mortgage your house again?" should have been the question and the bank, upon hearing her answer (I can't imagine she would lie since she seems pretty gullible) should have been "No ma'am, I'm sorry but we cannot lend you the money for that." I'm sure there are some unscrupulous banks but - come on - the bank is not likely to see its money after she declares bankruptcy!

This is a bit of a relief for those of us who study space weather and aurora and what not. It is hard to study things when they don't appear... There has been very little aurora or interesting weather in the last couple of years. Of course, studying the quiet time is important too... just not as interesting! Check out NOAA Space Weather for more information on space weather in the current solar conditions.

That's the point - weaponizing it does no good unless it is in space. There, nothing but a few satellites exist and they will take no time to destroy. I suppose we could set one up on the moon and shoot at asteroids or something :) (That's no moon, it's a spacestation - I think there was already a comment on that...)

Of course, the problem with weaponizing this would be creating a vacuum to the target... the beam would simply collide with atmospheric particles and dissipate. If used in space... well, once we shoot down all the satellites... what's left? I would hope that by the time we are a spacefaring race we would have better weapons. How else will we battle the Kligons or the Cyclons or whatever your favourite space races are.

I agree with reducing my stress on the environment and try to live in a more sustainable existence. However your next comments on plenty of scientific debate (there has) and for the most part there is universal consensus (nope, there are plenty of new papers detailing sun-earth connections to climate change though no one completely understands why) and it is not accurate to say this deabate is going on only in the US. Perhaps this argument seems over to the layperson, Al Gore, and the IPCC but certainly not to other scientists in atmospheric and space sciences.