The main problem with this is the lack of accountability, and lack of a resulting permanent record. If you invest in the "real world", your credit rating will get shot to hell and banks will deny you funding for opportunities down the road. With these gifts, is there any sort of "real world" mechanism to track who has used their gifts honestly and who has pissed them away? ....Carrot, meet stick.

Sure, undue burden on so-called out-of-state businesses on this plan. However, the drop in sales tax income as more and more sales have moved online is a serious problem that underlies the tax structure of all state governments (Putting aside arguments against the sales tax in general). What does not change is the fact that Colorado citizens are required to pay sales tax on these purchases, just like anywhere else. Of course, no one does this, so the taxes go uncollected. Coloradans may as well be Greeks. (And well, frankly, all of us.) The problem with overturning this law is that it now puts pressure on the idea of "regulating the Internet" - in other words, government may now want to obtain your internet history from your service provider to see how many items you have purchased. Call it an automated audit. Pretty sure no one is going to like that. So, sales tax is rendered obsolete with internet sales = increased property tax burdens on homeowners = further stress on already shaky housing market = ?

There may be some religious folks who self-identify as conservative who do not trust science, although I would like to see exactly what questions were asked in this survey. But there are plenty of liberals who deny the realities of evidence too. People of every political stripe tend to see what they want to see. Moreover, let's apply scientific analysis to the study in the American Sociological Review. How does one reasonably define "science?" Does "science" include doctors, medicine, biology, or was the study in the surely-unbiased American Sociological Review slanted toward the hot-button issues of climate change, etc.? How does one reasonably define "trust"? If I question the scientific rigor of this study, does that make me some kind of a Conservative? Maybe people who tend to be Conservative are also the same types of people who have a healthy degree of skepticism.

I know plenty of successful professionals who have trouble figuring out their Blackberry. Computer technical proficiency may be helpful in a number of fields, but "web construction" is hardly the economic cure-all.

I take these comments in a particular way: 1) It's very French to consider such a philosophical response. "Don't tell me it's not possible." Which leads to Point #2... 2) Sarkozy's need to appear "tough on crime" to fend off his ultra-conservative competitor in the upcoming elections, Le Pin.

That's why I prefer shapes. My feeble brain can remember "equilateral triangle" starting at '6' far easier than the complex methods described above.

That's a really good point. I was not thinking about keyboard language translations. It's also a pain to try to explain to someone remotely how to type your password....which actually might be a good thing. Though, this method does tend to get me instant cred from the IT guys. :)

Instead of words, I think shapes. Pick a starting point, say &, then for a shape on the keyboard (say a 4x4 square), returning to the original key. Lots of shapes, sizes, patterns that are not vulnerable to dictionary attacks, but easy to remember.

Used to work at a major university lab doing brain research - liked the naming scheme there, all landmarks in the brain: Amygdala, Hippocampus, Cortex, Callosum, Thalamus...

Again, not an engineer here, but if the CME / magnetic pulse is large enough in magnitude, couldn't it also effect the circuitry on the generators, independently?

Why does it seem I am the only one that is concerned about what's going to happen when one of these flares whacks the power grid in the Northeast U.S.? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859 Oh, that's right - the US Gov't is real concerned too. - http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/21jan_severespaceweather/ So here's what really concerns me - say, the entire Northeast grid goes down. There are a number of nuclear plants that have cooling pools for spent fuel rods, just like Fukushima. So what happens when - just like Fukushima - the power goes down and the pool pumps can't run for lack of electricity - Won't that be like Fukushima x (no. of nuclear plants in the Northeast)? Don't mean to be alarmist, but someone tell me where I am wrong on this?