So, you "I'm the real programmer because I program in C" types... tell me, how will having to handle memory management and all the crufty bits help you when you get a real work problem, and deal with a bunch of users who really don't know what they want their system to do, or you have to deal with management who have no idea what IT can do. When your requirements keep changing, but the deadline can't shift. When you have to take a poorly written system, and adapt it to the new business environment - but you don't have the time, budget or resources to rewrite from scratch. Get your collective heads out of your "this is what real programming is" arsehole. Thirty years ago, the same was said about people who programmed in BASIC or COBOL vs those who coded in Fortran or Assembler. You're just a bunch of irrelevant elitist snobs.

Surely, with all of our experience with what natural events (strong winds / tornados / hurricanes / ice stoems) can do to aerial cables, wtf isn't the city / state mandating that all new utility services are run underground?

No shit.

Why would you want to have a television in the bedroom? The bedroom is for sleeping (and other related activities), not watching the idiot box.

When I was at University, my Physics professor told us "chemistry is just outer orbital physics".

Sure - I'll give you my Facebook password, if you give me a network administration user name and password. I won't do anything bad, I promise....

You clearly have never had to work in a programming team environment, when you have to take some piece of shit code written by some half-arse educated script monkey, and actually make it work.....

Like in Australia - every person eligible to vote has to enrol and vote. Maybe that would help drown out the extremists?

And what about that US law (its called the Constitution) which states:

No person ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

"Due process" generally involves a court of law, where the prosecution has put put their case, and is subject to cross examination - none of that took places, as required by US law.

I never drank the Apple kool-aid. I used a Mac once, back in the mid 1980's, and after a week, it started to piss me off - it treated me as if I was a computer imbecile, that didn't need to know what was going on behind the flashy interface. To those that believe in the cult of Jobs - that Apple produces were the pinnacle of what technology could offer - I'm sorry, but they were just another computer, running just another point and drool interface.

About time someone realized that the emperor has no clothes.

I am always amazed my "Christians" that climb desperately to the Old Testament - that's the bible of a non-christian religion - Judaism. It's tenets and doctrine doesn't apply to a Christian - the fundamental way a Jew received salvation was by following the "Law" - which is contradictory to what Jesus said - "I am the way the truth and the life - no one gets to the father by through me". So, there's 39 books that can be removed from the Christian Scripture. And the epistles - why should the writings of some of the early church leaders (Paul, et al) given the same status as the record of Christ's life and teaching? There's another 21 books that can be removed. And Revelation - that should go too.

No. The plural of "fox" is "foxes".

If someone can't use the English language correctly, how seriously do you expect me to take anything they write?

You clearly havn't been watching shows like "American Idol".

Innovation and discovery comes from people with inquisitive minds - minds that have been nurtured by a well rounded education system; one that encourages critical thinking, experimentation, and a good understanding of what scientific knowledge we have already. Now look at what is happening in the US - a drastic cutback in public education, "teaching to the test", and in many areas, official dismissal of science and scientific discoveries. Quite a few school districts are actively pushing creationism against evolution, dismissing global climate change, and many "non-essential" curriculum activities.

I was once told "If you think the cost of education is expensive, consider the cost of ignorance."

They've gone about a fur as they can go.