Given all the issues with the American economy, this is bread and circuses if there was ever one.

Yeah, I've noticed this too. Tho here in GF-W, Newfoundland, the 'beer' of choice is usually Coors Light or Bud Light. Why, I really don't know, but my hypothesis is that there are truly very few BEER drinkers out there anymore. What most people have become are 'soft, fizzy, alcoholic beverage' drinkers; kinda like how many girlies claim to be 'on the wine' when, in reality, they are drinking an overly sweet, fizzy, fruit flavoured spritzer by the name of "Boone's". That shit ain't wine -- it's not bad per se, and I've been know to have a bottle or two over the years, but it's NOT WINE.

In line with this theory, those who moderate (well, usually :) their consumption tend to enjoy more full bodied beers. Anything with higher malt, hop, etc. content will start to turn on you if you over-indulge (higher calorie content, worse hangovers, dry towel-tongue). Coors can be drank to excess without any of that (hell, I once couldn't even get a buzz on with that shit no matter how I tried.)

Oh man, "better for student learning"... As a HS teacher for the last 10+ years, this phrase is what boils my frickin blood. Education seems to be the place where charlatans and quacks can gain a strong foothold and peddle nouveau nonsense every 10-15 years, claiming to be on the cutting edge of NewEd, but never once have I seen any real G*dD@mn evidence that any of it works. Yet we buy into such crap time and time again, with each successive step making education more expensive (first for the governments, then for individuals). As for the quality of education in the last 30-40 years? Left as an exercise for the reader.

Some tech makes certain problems easier where they once were not (such as 3D visualization of molecular structure, spreadsheets, etc). I am no luddite. I love using tech when it makes total sense. What I _DON'T_ need is a layer of overpriced cruft that makes my job ultimately more difficult and diminishes the quality of education.

Um, yeah.....OK. Because calculus is practically the pinnacle of mathematical analysis? Because physics/chem/etc would be impossible to explain and quantify without it? If you are interested in math, you should find calculus a piece of beauty (if not frustrating to understand on times.) If you DON'T like calculus, you don't really like math. IMHO, etc, etc....

Mmm... statues, naked and petrified!

Ah yes... choice. That damn demon again.

_Real-time_analog_circuitry_ has "NO LATENCY"[1].

[1]The closest thing you have to latency in these circuits is slew-rate, which is measured in volts per _nano_seconds. There are also the phase shift/distortions that the GP mentions, but the truth is these are practically impossible for humans to perceive in any real sense. 'specially for audio frequencies and circuits that aren't garbage.

Word.

"to give money or presents to someone so that they will help you by doing something dishonest or illegal"

Oh. Such as either voting for what the people of the state believe or truly need, instead of bending over backwards for the major campaign contributors, screwing the people of the state over?

Oh shit, he did! And in today's environment any allergen is a no-no it seems.

So I guess we have to reduce our options to corn meal, soy paste, and glucose-fructose.

North Americans are in trouble.........

... re-usability, maintainability, and other such trivialities ...

Which are all pretty much moot points if you don't have an inclination to understand the underlying tech. How does one maintain that which they don't understand?

I can't believe I'm responding to such an obvious childish troll, but the hell with it, I'll bite this time :) With a car analogy no less!

I don't build my own cars. I don't have the tech, time, and general wherewithal to do so, especially to modern North American standards.

What I _DO_ do however, is learn how to use the features of the car and know how to drive it defensively, as opposed to thinking I should be able to snooze at the wheel.

That's the point the GP was making, making the whooshing sound as it passed you by.

No, no, and no.
Unless you _want_ to eventually toast your amp (or in rare cases, your entire house) you do not want to use long lengths of 20/22 ga. unsheilded pairs (that have been daisy-chained God knows how many times) for audio power. Nevermind the likely impedance mis-match. You _also_ do not want unbalanced line level signals going over unsheilded wire, lest you love hearing 60 Hz hum, AM/CB/HAM radio, and AC switching 'pops' over your music. And the pot idea may work well for line level, but definitely not on power signals.

Telephone cables work well for telephones/RS-422/etc... For any other uses they are generally garbage.
Just say no to 'recycled' phone lines.

I doubt any of these will auto-level like you suggest, but often the computer will do that anyways (see ReplayGain and the like). So set up your audio library to normalize to the same audio level.

As for finding a clear frequency, yeah, I never thought of that one ;P Rural areas should have no problems; high density metro areas might be... and your idea of odd spacing is a good one, but many 'digital' radio these days are designed to frequency step at 200kHz. Remember, YMMV :)