3. Instead of this highly suspect and unporven technology how about some good old fashioned guns, tanks, and planes?

I think the bird needs some changes. Draw on an expensive suit, shove a $1000-wrapped-cigar in its beak, plump up the proportions until the visual connotation of "mother" is replaced with "diseased corpulent glutton," then slap a haughty self-satisfied grimace on its jowled and jaundiced face. Finally, you need to turn it around 180 degrees so the food the birds are consuming is properly represented.

Reminds me of high school and the music scene. I listened to music you didn't hear on the radio. It was called "alternative" and sometimes "new wave" by the uninitiated. These no-name, underground, and marginalized bands were The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, Nine Inch Nails, REM, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Janes Addiction, Souxsie and the Banshees, The Smiths/Morrisey, Bjork/Sugarcubes, 10,000 Maniacs/Natalie Merchant, No Doubt/Gwen Stefani, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Butthole Surfers.

Now everyone recognizes these bands. Their music, both old and new, is considered mainstream. I have heard early Cure elevator music. Perry Farrell from Jane's Addiction is on a damn reality show. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) may win an Oscar this year for the score of The Social Club. The examples are too numerous to list. Needless to say, these musical analogues of the archetypal basement dwelling geek are now industry leaders and serve as seminal inspiration for the young, fresh , hot new things that will form the mainstream of tomorrow.

This interaction and evolution is relfected in the rise of geek culture in the mainstream. However, the main difference I see is that geek culture is directly shaping our society and catalyzing our future merely by the expression of its core identity. Sepcifically I am referring to the inexorable link between geeks and the technology they not only love, but create. Generous helpings of new, unavoidably ubiquitous, geek-made technology like smart phones, file sharing/P2P, game consoles, social network services (facebook), Bluetooth, navigation systems, WiFi, laptops, everything Apple, and so on (ad nauseam!) not only change the way we interact, relax, work, and play but also, in an almost insidiously seductive way, mold everyone who uses them into and effigy of geek-ness.

The geekification of America is inevitable, and I, for one, welcome our new geeky overlords.

Poor nerdy Sagan. Apparently he never had the pleasure of tasting the the heavenly sins of a debauched 16 year old preacher's daughter. From my experience the only things preacher's kids were "fanatical" about was Boone's Farm, a bag of good hydro for the weekend, and indiscriminate sexual encounters (especially on school property.)

Further proof of my theory: Don't take social advice from basement dwellers.

I have never met a human who is not susceptible to suggestion and who does not posess some level of superstitious fallability. If you have I am betting you just don't know them well enough. I think you are creating a distinction without a difference with regard to the humanity in general and this supposed gene.

The irony here is also notable. There is no known "religious gene." However, if one exists you may well have it, as your skepticism about its existence is curiously nonexistent.

"There's something to say about pots and kettles here :)."

Can we please update this saying? Most kids don't even know what those are. Furthermore, even if you can help them find one in their kitchen their response is "Well this one's red..."

In honor of this discussion I suggest we replace "pot" and "kettle" with "black hole" and "dark matter." Hmmm, might need to change "black" to "unobservable" or something like that.

Then again, maybe I am just going off half cocked?

Ignorance plus subjectivity equals arrogance and intolerance.

Check your head.

"One more thing - Hannibal is by far the baddest fictional antihero ever."

Try Quinn Dexter from the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton.

Unfortunately, someone painted Mickey Mouse on one of the bricks. Patents will expire but Mickeyright is FOREVER!

"The obvious solution, of course, is that we fill these positions by hiring illegal immigrants."

That was exactly my idea and it is the solution to the US Southern border and illegal immigration problems! It is also elegant in a von Neumann sort of way as well.

Every person caught illegally crossing the border is immediately given citizenship and a job. Their job is to give the same job to everyone they catch illegally crossing the border.

I figure inside of a year we could have the entire population of Mexico and South America living on the southern border of the US protecting us from illegal immigrants.