Cue it becoming a political talking point on party lines rather than the merits of the material at hand. This has already been decided in United States Federal Court with Kitzmiller Versus Dover. I think its time we stopped hosting all these unbalanced Fitzroys parading around in our educational system. Instead of slitting their own neck, its sacrificing their constituents.

Not across the entire United States or not until people realized the cumulative cost of maintaining their own vehicles. United States became a personal vehicle nation after World War 2 when the economy was at its height and consumer satisfaction back then was probably also high as well.(citation needed) It became a cultural sense and public transport support waned. I live in the midwest and there used to be a light rail system in place but that was long ago. The topic of a new system is brought up now and then but is quickly buried. Now, having said that, there are metropolitan centers which would probably work quite well because there is an established public transport. I have used Chicago's Metro system and was very pleased with it. The hassle and cost of having a car versus using the public transport would be a no-brainer under circumstances such as these.

"Share their lives online," to be marketed to. When the perception is that your life is treated like a commodity, you tend to stop wanting to share especially in Google's aggregated mess of accounts.

You are right on and that is the actual voting demographic. It doesn't matter anymore about taking sides because there is one side then the other side and then there is the REAL story which we will probably never hear about.

I think there is such a time that the radio signals emanating from our planet will become indistinguishable from the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. Radio signals travel forth in a wave, spreading out, which means that there will be more square units that the signals must illuminate. So at twice the distance from the source, the signal will only one one fourth as strong and at ten times the distance, it will only be one hundredth as great. So at a few light years from Earth, the television and radio signals will become indistinguishable from the CMB. However, this is only because our radio and television waves were not intended for transmission to outer space. If someone were to build a purpose built transmitter here or on another planet, and depending on the initial strength of that transmitter, that extends the signal out to another hundred light years or so.

Since we are just beginning to appreciate the tenacity of life itself, currently we only have ourselves to look upon for some precedent regarding intelligent extraterrestrial life. At this point in developed countries' cultures much of the expenditure is on military spending. We have not progressed past our warlike tendencies. It has been suggested that, were an alien race to make themselves known to us, that they would have transcended their cultural tendency towards war expenditures and spent more time on exploration to the extent that would allow them intergalactic travel. In the ability to see other planets, Kepler, despite being hobbled by its pointing wheels, has already given four or more years of planetary data and new discoveries of planets within the habitable zone are always being found. Recently the question of what we consider to be habitable has even been revised. For closer objects, I think we could be doing better; not necessarily for flying saucers but to safeguard our planet against things such as Chelyabinsk or worse. Asteroid 2014 BA14 was discovered by an independent group in Spain by using equipment by a grant from the Planetary Society so this was no large government funding this project. The asteroid is 250 feet (45 meters) in diameter so that should give you an indication of what a small but dedicated team of researchers can accomplish. The problem with spotting near Earth objects, be they ETs or asteroids, is where they are in the sky and their composition. Looking towards the sun is not very successful and if the object is dark, space is dark as well, compounding the problem of seeing it, therefore infrared is a good way of spotting it. Mathematically, its very possible and plausible that there is life on other planets. How much is intelligent remains to be seen.

But according to standards of listing "enemies of the state" or those that are worthy of being intercepted, and this is according to the FBI, are those interested in “libertarian philosophies,” “Second Amendment-oriented views,” interest in “self-sufficiency,” “fears of Big Brother or big government,” and “Declarations of Constitutional rights and civil liberties.” The document (Authorization For Use of Military Force) that details those who are associated with terror organizations is also open ended and has been used by the NSA in use of electronic surveillance without prior court authorization as required by the constitution. So, if you are interested in the founding of what the United States was based upon and don't follow the rest of the flock of good little tax bases who shut up and don't make waves and waive their rights, then you are deemed suspicious and possible enemies of the state.

If this has been covered, I apologize for re-iterating but the problem with politicians answering questions like this is that they never seem to answer them in the manner of what they actual believe. I say believe because it doesn't have to do with the answer to the question but rather the way it can cater to one side or the other. It becomes politicized and is the case with much of what becomes politicized, it loses its original meaning and instead has been determined to pander to one demographic or the other. So, I really don't think any politicians will answer these sorts of questions in the original context. As well, consider that in a recent Gallup poll, it was found that Republicans would not change their mind even if given sufficient evidence that should change their mind one way or the other. This is decidedly unscientific and those that associate strongly with a political faction seem to held captive by their convictions. Consider that the recent statements from such people as Missouri Congressman Todd Akin in regards to the reproductive system of women who have been raped is not the only anti-science person within, of all things, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee! He is joined by Ralph Hall, who tried to use porn to scuttle a science funding bill, and Paul Broun, a creationist ON THE SCIENCE COMMITTEE! Is it any wonder that I saw "I want neither of them" posted? Politicians and science evidently do not mix.

2001 A Space Odyssey, rounded corners, BOTH are guilty of copying a prior form factor.

I opted to not answer ANY questions or surveys and used AdBlock Plus for Firefox to bypass the entire process. Since it seems that with any corporate strategy these days, it is to keep asking and wear the user down, witness SOPA, PIPA and now CISPA. Granted, these are ALOT worse than a simple identity box but also there is alot of cross referencing in data mining between services and I opt out of the entire process where applicable.