Then get to flying. Imagine and old, rich, white, male. Way over represented on aircraft. What are his odds of dying in a terrorist plane attack?

Now look at the senate, or the house, or the upper management at CNN. Maybe you'll see why we get so much attention paid to plane attacks.

In a RATIONAL world, **one** terrorism flag (i.e. one-way ticket, buying with cash, no luggage, watch list, etc) would yield pulling the passenger aside and "enhanced investigation": two flags, and the person is getting a very thorough body and luggage search, and three or more flags, it's grab the latex gloves, because it's a strip-search and fine-tooth comb search through luggage and posessions.

DRM doesn't make any sense on books. No one even has to "crack" it -- it only takes one person with access to type the book into an open format and distribute it.

The publishers can either suck it up and realize this, or lose out to the pirates who provide a better, more convenient product for zero cost.

Uh. No. Satellite (at worst) is geosynchronous, which is 500 to 900ms round trip [satsig.net].

IP round trip time from Host A to Host B is measured as: amount of time it takes for Host A to send a message to Host B and then receive a response.

It will take 500 to 900ms for Host A's transmission to go up the satellite link and be received on the ground, and carried to Host B's ISP.

Then when Host B sends the reply, and it goes from Host B's ISP to the satellite link, it will take another 500 to 900ms to reach Host A.

So, the Round trip is actually 1000 to 1800ms.

Satellite is a high-latency service up to 500 to 900ms one way.

The result is that it's slow/unusable for many types of applications, which can't handle a 1 second round-trip delay.

In other words, it's not "broadband".

You won't be comfortable trying to use VoIP over satellite, and streaming media won't work at all without a stout amount of pre-buffering.

So you're saying he's kinda like Jack Thompson?

In the US (well, the parts I've paid attention to) "real property" is the land and anything attached to it. If you can lift it and carry it out (with or without help) with nothing more than disconnecting it from utilities (or something like a dryer vent) then it not part of the real property.

It's rude and a violation of contract to remove anything "secured" to the grounds, and you have to unscrew [the light bulbs] to take them, so they are part of the real property.

They have these crazy things in Europe called "trains" that connect city centres without having to hang around in an unfashionable suburb for a few hours waiting to be put into a metal tube. You don't even have to take your shoes off to get on them.

Silly Europeans always have such a skewed sense of geography. Newark to Tampa is 1,000 miles, exactly. It's a two and a half hour flight and a 20 hour train ride.

Add to this:

• try to see the other persons side from their point of view even if you don't agree with it - it will lead to better understanding of your partners thought process.
• Listen to what they are saying without judgment, without trying to second guess or control them or their thoughts.
• Remain calm no matter what - lose your temper and you lose control of your self and your side of the discussion/argument.
• Again, remember to listen without interruption - actually hear what your partner is saying without judgement.
• Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war. Even if you know you are right. Later the truth of the matter will often reveal itself.

It's worked for me and my wife for almost 30 years now.
Good luck!

My Advice...don't get married. It's a trap.

What happens when you get married:
1. Sex stops
2. She get's fat (probably you too)
3. All your money starts disappearing for no apparent reason.
4. You will be surrounded by strange and insufferable relatives from some place you have never heard of.
5. You will get to drive the old car.
6. Gaming did you say? That won't last long. "I can't believe you are going to play on the computer AGAIN. You just played last week!"
7. She will start asking you if she looks fat, despite the fact she is perfectly aware of #2
8. She won't cook (See #1) and she won't be able to make a decent dinner.
9. You will have to leave the house when her literary friends come over to discuss the life analogies in some gay French author's book.
10. LAN parties? No Fucking Way in her house!

I keep thinking how these approaches would work when applied to books.
    Imagine buying a great book, a classic even, that you'd like to have a copy of to reread over the years and maybe introduce your kids to later on.

Now imagine the ink disappearing or turning to gibberish after an allowable reading period (5 years? 1 year? 1 month?). I wonder what your average reader's reaction would be if they pulled their copy of their favourite novel off their bookshelf, opened it, and found it to be completely empty (actually, it would be amusing if the pages could just disintegrate in a puff of smoke!)

Actually it looks even simpler then that.

It looks like $2.31 was his amount and the rest was his CC number, since the 4885 is a typical Visa Check Card sequence issued by BofA.

I wonder if this guy was smart enough to look at his card number and verify that was not the case here, especially before putting it out to the press.

Not at "a slight payload hit". To get the ET up to a reasonable altitude where it won't deorbit shortly would take pretty much the entire OMS fuel budget.

There have been some interesting proposals to use the ETs as the backbone of a station, but they've never made it past review.

I don't understand the thinking behind several parts of your last paragraph - but I am deeply interested in why you think they are so:

- If god is omnipotent / all powerful etc - why do you need to tell others about him? Can he not do this himself if he felt it was the thing to do?

- If god is generous rewarding etc. - why is there evil in the world>=? Why does he allow situations to occur that turn good people into bad people? (trauma, post-traumatic stress etc.)

- Why heaven - why not just make the real world nice.

- Why do you believe you know the mind of god? (sorry if I read that wrong - but from your post you seem convinced you do). You may believe that god cannot be mistaken - but do you believe that you cannot be mistaken for thinking you know his mind?

I am deeply interested in hearing what you have to say on this.

Because at the root, science is based on faith.

Wrong.

It cannot explain the four forces.

Explain? It certainly describes the four fources, very accurately. And no faith is needed, because the four forces exist.

It cannot explain time.

Again, what do you mean by "explain"? It certainly describes time, and its interrelation with space, in ways that religion never even guessed at. And no faith is needed, because time exists.

All of those are taken as given without explanation or identifiable cause.

What, are you asserting that the Universe, the four forces, and time don't exist?