let's not forget that the NSA's charter explicitly prohibits them from spying on Americans, which they've admittedly done with this program (including American to American communications, which are not exempted by the Patriot act).

My understanding is this program has been invaluable to the FBI for getting warrantless information on suspected drug offenders or dealers (where they typically have to request a warrant), but I've heard nothing about it stopping terrorism in any way.

Since it's a financial crime, I would expect the Secret Service to be handling it and hold the property. The FBI does the investigation but not the arrest and seizure of property. Source - I knew this guy, who got busted by them for piracy (albeit not well - friend of a friend kind of knew him).

Yeah, I get about the same - technically it's 7/768, but due to distance to router it is more like 6/.5. On the plus side, CenturyLink finally updated the ancient Qwest CO (like a month ago) to be able to carry faster traffic, probably because I think they are getting killed by 4G (both Sprint [formerly Clearwire], aka WiMax and 4G phone carriers). Comcast has offered high speed service in the area for about a decade, but they only seem economical with pay TV, and their pay TV is overpriced. I seriously plan to switch to a faster network soon, as I think their 25Mbit plan is actually cheaper than the old one I have now (to keep it competitive).

My telecom just rolled out 40Mbit service, about 10 years after Comcast did the same. I don't expect to see this any time soon unless Comcast uses it (they're Fiber-to-the-Neighborhood and then copper, so it's possible). I still won't do business with Comcast, even if I can basically make pricing a wash with bundling. I also could get a DirecTV bundle but giving up DISH would be hard, plus I don't give a rip about sports, which is kind of the focus of DirecTV.

Sigh... said it before, but most fourth generation designs including the one the US killed by John Kerry's ignorance burn nuclear waste as fuel. Russia continued, and their once through versions like the BN-600 burn 80% of their nuclear fuel and would burn nearly 100% if they used continuous reprocessing, but that is considered a proliferation risk. 80% - vs .5 to 5%.

In any case, one of the primary reasons nuclear experimentation was killed off was that it was corrupt and in the pocket of reactor owners - from the NRC site itself:

AEC to NRC

By 1974, the AEC's regulatory programs had come under such strong attack that Congress decided to abolish the agency. Supporters and critics of nuclear power agreed that the promotional and regulatory duties of the AEC should be assigned to different agencies. The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 created the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; it began operations on January 19, 1975.
The NRC (like the AEC before it) focused its attention on several broad issues that were essential to protecting public health and safety.

The NRC rubber stamps everything too, so not much has changed.

But prior to the American Civil War

Actually including at least part of the American Civil War - specifically until the National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 (the Civil War ended in 1865). Very close though - I doubt most people know that at all. Incidentally, there were numerous State banks until 1866 when further legislation taxed them to death (don't know a lot about these, but pretty sure they were unconstitutional, anyway).

Yeah, I have the same predicament, but probably not as many as you. Most of the kit robots I built as a kid and they now live on a shelf, but every once in a while I throw in a 9 volt and fire them up - kids still are entertained by the one that dodges walls and obstacle and crawls over obstacles about half its height on its 6 legs. The other ones aren't quite as much fun because they follow set patterns.

I also own a Roomba.

While that may be a useful measurement for scientists, it isn't a very useful measurement for humans - a better one is about 1 in 142000 jumps (2010 numbers).

This is probably why one of my life insurance specifically prohibits skydiving and hang gliding (my work one has no prohibitions, but pays less money). It also prohibits SCUBA diving over (under?) 150ft, but I only recreational dive (less than 110ft).

The simple answer - both China and the US depend far too much on coal for electricity, and there is currently almost no control over CO2 emissions from these plants.

  45% of US electricity is coal and about 23% after that the 1/3 less polluting natural gas (which can be derived from coal, but isn't), after that is 20% nuclear and the rest mostly "green" energy. The EPA has proposed forcing new coal plants to adopt carbon capture technology, but Republicans (and yes, I call out Republicans, some of this info is from their coddling "news" site) oppose it for various reasons, usually citing it is experimental, expensive, and poses safety risks. What they don't say is it is about 1/3 less efficient in generating electricity and therefore impacts their constituent's profits, since their constituents can't regulate their own rate hikes (such is the life of a regulated monopoly). Thus the EPA has to focus on the other 55%, much of which has already taken place (automobile emissions standards, industrial emission standards, etc).

I don't know Chinese numbers, but the fact that they mine almost 4x what the US does suggests they are far more dependent on coal.

I understand the purpose of your post, but IMO the light isn't so bright.

In regards to:
* still practice slavery?
Yes. Human trafficking is still a huge worldwide problem.

* stil have children working in mines?
Yes, unfortunately, but less so than in the past. Same for child labor in general. Mostly a third world problem, but it happens in America, too, often due to human trafficking.

* still only allow men to vote?
Yes still in many Muslim countries and maybe others.

* still horde science/technology/knowledge such as fire, computers etc or do we share it with others?
Yes, thorough corporate secrets, patents, copyright, etc. In fact, when America was founded, patents and copyright were frowned upon and given small terms when allowed. Now these periods are mammoth and benefit corporate owners.

To be fair, America also had German and (non-citizen) Italian Internment camps during WW2, but since the German population was too large, they mainly expelled them from coastal areas and held about ~11000 people as opposed to the ~110000 Japanese. Unlike the Japanese or Italians, the German internees have never been given an apology or reparation, which IMO is a dick move on the part of America. I think America was a bit more restrained with German-Americans during WW2 because of what happened during WW1 (unconstitutionally banning the German language for starters, then registration cards, random roundups and imprisonments, killing pacifist draftees in prison, etc).

Pearl Harbor itself was masterfully orchestrated, but I think Roosevelt expected a different result. We had cracked their codes, knew an attack was coming and where. An aircraft carrier due in two days before suddenly develops engine trouble, fixes it and is supposed to arrive that morning, but is mysteriously hours late. I expect Roosevelt thought a bunch of planes (known to be scout vehicles) and a few small ships were not going to be able to take out the mighty battleships stationed there and expected an attack and an easy repulsion of Japanese with few casualties while instantly polarizing America to join in the war. In fact, Japan had declared war on America already (for refusal to sell oil to them), so an attack was hardly the "surprise" the US made it out to be. We knew an attack was coming and where, the question is, did we know when? Only Roosevelt and his top brass know that, and I'm sure they took it to their graves.

Well the debt ceiling forcing a default was a liberal lie (and as a moderate, I'll call you liberals out for lying just like conservatives) - it would be trivial to prioritize the small amount of debt repayment due monthly to avoid a default, and interest payments really are a trivial amount of the monthly budget. Credit rating may have been at risk, but really American livelihood was at stake. What would happen is treasury bonds that mature won't get paid, Social Security payments will drop significantly (because of debt owed to SS), numerous, primarily military projects under the discretionary fund (since these aren't mandatory and won't be prioritized for funding) would be shut down, etc. Liberals don't want to lose their precious Social Security, the elderly rich don't want to lose their T-Bonds, and conservatives don't want to lose their pet military programs. As someone that is not a fan of Social Security, debt, the polarizing of the classes, or big military, this sounds like win-win-win-win to me, but I think in most American't eyes it is lose-lose-(?)-lose. Polarizing of the classes is something the rich is for and the poor and maybe middle class are against.

As for the original comment, the movie focused WAY more on the bug war than the book did. But admittedly, focusing 3/4 of the movie about classes and talking probably wouldn't make a good movie.

In regards to yours, the movie actually parodies the political views in the book from what I recall.

As for the political views of Heinlein, his view is largely what brought Nazis to power in Germany - the belief that communism or fascism is inevitable, and fascism is preferred to communism. Jack London feared socialism or a plutocracy was inevitable for America in the early 1900s, and I think Heinlein's view is an evolution of that based on the rise of Communism (plutocracy is almost oligarchy, and oligarchy not far from fascism).

I've recently thought about what exactly was the "breaking point" of this and other movies I hated that other people love. Many of these movies I enjoyed until that point, but that point onward the movie was completely ruined for me. Some of these are pretty trivial, too. With Starship Troopers, it was bugs shooting ships in space out of their asses. With the Matrix, it was using people for electricity. With Independence Day, it was the completely unrealistic physics (I had the same problem with V, btw - those ships would literally crush the cities if they entered the atmosphere), With the Hobbit it was that ridiculously long and improbable mine car ride and the cartoonish goblins. With Avatar it was Unobtainium (floating rocks I'm fine with - it's an alien world, so magic is fine - that word is a total groaner).

heh - I consider myself moderate, but when I actually think about my political views, many are radical in the eyes of most Americans. They just are radical toward both conservative and liberal issues. I would never get support from either Democrat or Republican tickets if I ever ran for election.

My work's HR system requires an ActiveX control with our smart card system. To make things worse, this system barely supports IE7 (apparently IE8 in compatibility mode works, as well, but IE9+ absolutely does not) and they only upgraded it to support 7 because Microsoft stopped supporting IE6. I actually created a VM explicitly so I can log into the HR system (because I HAVE to have IE9 or higher for my other work, since I work in html 5 and need to test on most major browsers). My ops group thought it was odd that I requested key card software installed on a VM, but when I explained my situation they did it (in fact, they set up a lab machine specifically for others with similar circumstances).

Incidentally, nobody really uses IE except for the HR system, and everybody has an old version also because of the HR system. I believe the HR issue is money related and more related to SAP upgrade costs than key card (and I believe we paid SAP to integrate our key card access).