the could always reposition it as a elder engineer's retirement village. The sad fact is that NASA's mission for space was hijacked by politics. The Future in space looks like it will be more like Firefly: Mandarin speakers.

Speaking as someone who has been interviewed many times by the FBI re High School friends who were seeking a "Q" clearance, I can say the questions they asked about my friends were not intrusive and related directly to the character, honesty, and truthfulness of the candidate. I realize all of these are now outmoded and tired cliche instead of esteemed and admired character traits but that is the evolution of culture right there.

Well since humans are not natural, did not evolve here, were placed her by a (fill in myth du jours), it is only proper that we slaughter a zillion of us, then place the rest in peasantry under the Climate Lords. Excuse me...is that a glacier bearing down on the eco green house?

Oh sorry, I meant to say "Previous Administration" but my script writer was late getting it in. Thanks for the update...

Be the first on your block to blame Climate Change.

Indeed. where exactly does Stephen Hawkings fall in this typing speed test? Comparing typing and piano is absurd. I know a jazz pianist who has his own fingering technique and is a flamin GENIUS on the bones. I play guitar but not the standard classical fingering style; I use a funky blues style which every wanna be will tell you is wrong. For one thing I use the thumb in some riffs to hit the low E string. Btw: I am a hunt peck typist and do OK. This strikes me as the clip board aproach to productivity. Someone just finish a performace review and have some of the HR metrics left over?

Welcome the accountant Overlords... verily they will be with thee always...

A very large portion of the US Economy is conducted in cash. This is all to track that. To Track, to Control, to Tax.... Just another step towards the new economy for the New Age: Barter.

Certainly. We have an entire generation schooled to a standard. The menu standard of: Click on File, then Open or Help/About or Tools/Options and....oh thats right, Microsoft changed all that.... Never mind...

Indeed it does, and since the FCC insists on crafting Law (a job I THINK was left to Congress in our Constitution) I think it is time Congress exercise her other power; that of the purse string: De-fund the FCC!

the 1629 book (First English edition of Terrence) is worth about twice what I initially paid for it. This cannot be said for any of the others, and Free Bonus! can STILL Be READ!

I recall back in the dim dark days of the 1970s a book I had on 9 track tape recorded there from IBM cards via a utility IEBGENER. Still have that tape...... I recall back in the 1980s a book I had on a 5.25 floppy recorded in Fredwriter in ProDOS on an Apple II. Still have that Floppy........ I recall a book I had in Newton Book format pruchased to read on my 2100. Still have that book (remind me to change the Newton’s battery)....... I recall a book I bought that was published in 1629 . of all the formats I have listed ONLY THAT ONE is still readable. Now we have various E-Book formats. Oh Joy. Do I need to make space on the closet shelf for these too?

I would add ALGOL PL/1 and MIX to that list of oldies. PL/1 was my first. I paid 10 dollars for a programming language manual in about 1976 and didn't eat that week, but I had the most curious week of reading... Proc Options (Main); humm the rest is blue screens and history....

Regards the "Kill an Idea" statement. I have what I consider parallel circumstance to draw. Some 60 or so years ago a shepherd in the Qumram area of Palistine unearthed some scrolls. We now know these as the Dead Sea Scrolls. After being reported as "Find of the Century" a small group of scholars started to work on them. and that was it. Few reports, no translations of the more interesting ones. Nothing. Fairly recently a second group of scholars obtained copies and "leaked" the actual scrolls to the Internet. The "Scrollary" scholars were very upset, threatened law suits copyright infringement and everything. But the data was out there now. It could be viewed by MANY people some official some not. But available. One could draw a parallel circumstance with FOIA2009.zip and the global warming argument. When Data is free, many minds can look, determine, and decide. When few know, few control. Internet is Freedom and information DEMANDS to be free. Wikileaks performed a very needful service before all this and, in spite of diplomatic egg on face STILL performs a needful service. As I said: Information DEMANDS to be free.

it would smooth out crystals in the ferrite matrix of the tape. Seriously. Data at that time was measured as 1600BPI or 1600 bits per inch of tape recorded in 8 discreet tracks or "not very much". If a spot on the ferrite coating bridged the "tracks" this caused a data check (and bridging was the usual cause of issues). Running the eraser over the tape smoothed and broke this connection, resorting in the tape drive being able to read this bad spot. We are not here talking about the femto-micron gap between bits on a modern hard drive