I have now officially read my first article by a squid geek. Your post is so full of information that it qualifies as an article.

Well done, sir, well done.

"Might be the case that the easy credit allowed colleges to push up their tuition knowing students could take out loans"

This is exactly the case. Would you extend a loan to someone for $40,000 to allow them to get a job making $28,000 a year (instead of $24,000?). If you could charge them 7% interest and have it be guaranteed by the government (which means you take NO risk) you sure would.

The housing bubble happened because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would buy any home loan no matter how bad it was. So, as a bank, even though you know someone will never be able to afford the payments, you make the loan knowing you can sell it off immediately and make a profit with no risk. In fact, you'd be shirking your fiduciary responsibility to NOT make the loan, since it makes money for your bank.

I've seen what happens when drivers are not selfish. Two lanes approach a stoplight. Most of the traffic wants to turn right, and can do so even if the light is red, but the "not selfish" driver who doesn't pay attention to the fact that there's another lane (with no cars in it) ends up sitting at the front of the overly-full lane, stopping traffic flow.

We decided the defendant was guilty of one count of first degree and one of second degree murder.

I was too. I'm very unhappy that I have to keep a second player around for the PS/2 games

The school where I taught math had a strong department of math teachers.

Algebra II was required. But it didn't mean anything. If a student can't pass the class, they just talk to their counselor, and get moved into a computer-math class, which doesn't require anywhere close to the same level of understanding.

The fact that a student can't (or won't) pass a particular math class will not prevent them from graduating high school. There are too many alternate paths.

I think it would be a very good thing if everyone DID understand the material in an Algebra II class, but I don't see it happening. Locally, at least 10% of the adult population never passed Algebra I.

Algebra II == College Algebra, depending on how dumbed-down the college algebra course is. If you're taking it in high school, and it doesn't involve group theory, then it's Algebra II.

PLATO was a fantastic educational system, and still is.

I've seen it in use in computer-based classrooms for students that have failed in traditional settings. A student who struggles to learn can blame their failures on the teacher. Such a student will often behave in a manner counterproductive to their own success, just to have an affect on said teacher. You can't get a rise out of a computer, however. So you end up having to blame only yourself.

The original touch-screens ended up with a lot of lessons that accurately explained a large number of concepts. One of the problems with traditional textbooks is that they don't have a time axis. PLATO lessons can show you things as they happen, walking you through all the steps yourself. They can correct you along the way, so that you can learn to do the problems yourself. None of this is stuff that CAN'T be done with HTML and scripting, but PLATO came first, and did a really good job.

You can ask out a co-worker, or subordinate, as long as if they say "no", that's the end of it, and you don't pursue it. You're not creating a hostile work environment, or anything like that. It's just when there's a pattern of continued requests (even after rejections) that you expose yourself to winnable lawsuits.

The point of TRON:Legacy was the same as the original TRON: Wouldn't it be cool to actually BE inside the computer where you could interact in a meaningful and tactile way with computer programs (that weren't designed to have a 3D representation).

The graphics were nice, especially if you paid for the IMAX 3D experience. I thought they provided the same role as in Avatar: stun the audience into not noticing the plot.

The plot wasn't the point of TRON. The graphics, while nice, weren't the point of TRON. The idea of physically interacting with arbitrary computer programs directly was the point. It's "cool" and "neat" almost because it's impossible and ludicrous.
 

If terrorism follows the power law, then that actually just confirms that terrorism is as random as sunspots and global earthquakes.

It's random. Nothing to see here.

Your wife handles all the bills too, then?

The difference in the post 9/11 world is what kinds of hijacking get what kind of response.

If there's a terrorist who takes a passenger hostage to get the pilots to fly to an alternate destination, they'll probably get to their destination: preserving human life is worth a little inconvenience. If the terrorist wants to actually physically take control of the plane, then you (as a passenger) are going to die anyway, so it might be worth the sacrifice. As a parent who travels with a little one, I'd not-so-happily but enthusiastically sacrifice myself in the hope that my child won't die.

If, however, some people just direct (direct might be too gentle a word, perhaps "threaten the life of another passenger if demands are not met" would be better) the pilot to land at a different airport, then my doing something rash would not help protect my child.

"...it would be so onerous that it might finally provoke some kind of sizeable backlash against the whole pointless process."

Which is exactly what the virtual strip search is doing now.

When I compliment another child's behavior to their parents, I'm really complimenting the parents' parenting skills. When someone tells me my daughter is so nice, I take it as a direct compliment to me.

There's both nature and nurture involved.