Most people in the military are severely lacking in kind of skills needed to protect America's electronic infrastructure. It has to do with military culture more than anything else. Techies just don't get promoted the way fighter pilots do. I would shut the whole thing down and start a new branch or something. Otherwise, it's a giant waste of money.

It just has to be a web app. The App Store model is actually a response to software piracy. If anyone could write and execute app store programs without permission, it would be much more difficult for app developers to make money.

Artists are actually doing much better since the dawn of the Internet because of increased ticket sales from live performances, and box office sales are better now than ever. I highly doubt illegal downloading contributes very much to lost revenue since a very small percentage of the people who download illegal media would actually buy the product.

My point is essentially that successful opposition candidate in Iran will necessarily have to be perceived as anti-Western, so it makes it little Westerns to try and help the opposition.

I'm not arguing Mousavi's policies aren't better. What I'm saying is that Westerners rallying behind him will not help him.

It's statements like that why the vast majority of Iranians want the Americans out of their politics.

My point isn't whether Mousavi's economic policies are better. I think they are. However, I think it's ridiculous for Westerners to think they can help the Iranian opposition.

You are not helping the reformists. You may think you are, but trust me you are wrong. No faction of Iranians want Americans interfering in their politics.

1.) If you're somewhere in Europe or North America, it's the same deal. 2.) You should, but in practice you almost never do. 3.) Hitler was democratically elected.

Everyone who thinks they are helping by siding with the Iranian opposition has a very poor understanding of Iranian politics. It doesn't matter whether it's from the government or whether it's from regular Western citizens, helping the opposition figures does not help the United States in any way. It just puts a different face on the same anti-Western government. The difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi is on economic policy not foreign policy. What makes you think that if they opposition was successful in their political ambitions that they would become pro-American? Did they become pro-Israel after Israelis sold them weapons during the Iran Iraq war?

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I read a lot of blogs, and the best ones are seldom very profitable. If you want to make money from advertising, your best bet is to run around chasing celebrities (TMZ/Perez Hilton), but if you want to make a difference in the world around you, don't expect get rich doing it. I would suggest getting a real job, so that you can afford doing you're passionate about.

...you know that a small random sample of the population tells you what the general population is like to a very high degree of certainty. A random sample of 10 percent of population is virtually guaranteed to be within the margin of error of the general sample. Now the early vote counts are not exactly random sample, but it's not unreasonable to announce the result of an election with a very small percentage of the vote counted.