BTW, for those of you outside the US, the above video link won't work.

I have a friend in Canada who, at least in the recent past with some alternate PBS shows, has been able to view video directly from the PBS site. So ... Canadians may at least want to give that link a try. (And I'd be interested to hear if it does end up working for anyone there.)

Jesse Ventura agrees with you.

Arrrr! The Honeycomb hideout!

Am I the only one that hears this eighties commercial in their head every time the word "Honeycomb" is used for a product?

You might have a point, but maybe in this case we don't want those type of people on the network anyway? Honestly it's just a thought.

I can't help but be reminded of the current Internet before it became popular with the masses. Remember the influx of clueless AOL users?

I don't see how that can work at all.

My initial reaction is to agree with you, but an optimist's response would probably be something like, "Is that a reason to not even try?"

And as soon as I start to think that way, I consider just -- as you suggest -- managing to get cities assembled into their own intranets (not even necessarily connected with one another). Would that not be some type of victory?

And who's to say that, if that were to happen, some corporation or conglomeration of non-profits wouldn't come along and donate "dark fibre/fiber" to connect some of those cities with each other for the good of human-kind?

Or that after setting up city intranets, someone discovers a way to send data using pulsed streams of neutrinos, and that that technology is found to be economically viable enough that it can be used for connecting at least the largest of those city intranets?

Who can predict the future? And seriously ... is there a reason to not even try?

Ridiculous?

Air marshal leaves plane after dropping bullets

Passenger Finds Loaded Ammunition Clip on Southwest Flight

US air marshal leaves gun in airport restroom

Air Marshal Causes International Incident

Air Marshal Accused of Rape at Gunpoint

Marshals Fight Battle in Air and on Ground

From that last article:

"How would you describe the management in the air marshal service?" CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian asked a current air marshal.

"Sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-disabled vet group, grossly incompetent," said the marshal, whose identity was concealed. "That's the general consensus among air marshals."

Nearly two dozen current or former marshals have told CBS News the agency is dominated by an "old boys club" of white, male supervisors -- mainly ex-secret service agents who, they allege, routinely discriminate, intimidate and retaliate against employees who question their actions or authority.

"This behavior has just spread like a cancer and it's out of control," the marshal said.

Well ... it sounds like you called it right: ridiculous.

This Bloomberg video on the Chinese neodymium monopoly starts off as bleak as your post, but the last 45 seconds show that US industry shouldn't be counted out just yet. There is hope. Want to help? I suppose you could buy Molycorp stock.

If it's any consolation I don't think it's just Slashdot. A general-topic discussion site I heard about here on Slashdot years and years ago is plastic.com. It used to be a truly excellent place for really thought-provoking discussions. I think things have slowed down simply due to dwindling participation. Maybe that's at the core of the changes you see in Slashdot -- the prime contributors are finding they've got less and less "free" time to contribute to online discussion forums?