Here are some statements with supporting compiled statistics.
The purpose of these statements is to demonstrate that the WWU CSci department is a very good department with needs within WA state. It's existence is still well within the stated purpose goals of WWU (something like "high qualtiy education","serve the needs of WA residents").

The WWU CSci department has a quality curriculum and excellent graduates.
+ accredited CSci Bachelors program from Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) . http://www.abet.org/AccredProgramSearch/AccreditationSearch.aspx (do a search by State)
+ Among 177 graduates from scores of the ETS® Major Field Test for Computer Science between Winter 2007 and Winter 2011 (inclusive), results were:
++ Mean (average): 166.2
++ Median (middle score): 167
++ Mode (most common score): 170
++ According to http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/MFT/pdf/MFT%20PDFs%202007/ComputerScience4CMF.pdf
+++ The 90th percentile for individuals starts at 173.
56 of 177 students scored 173 or better.
+++ The 95th percentile for individuals starts at 179.
31 of 177 students scored 179 or better.
+++ The 95th percentile for institutions (based on mean score) starts at 164.
+ WWU Collegiate Cyber Defense team took second (a very close second) to UW (who went on to win nationals) at the Pacific Rim Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition
https://www.piersystem.com/go/doc/1538/1053947/WWU-Team-Places-Second-at-4th-Annual-Pacific-Rim-Collegiate-Cyber-Defense-Competition

The WWU CSci department cost is slightly below average for an engineering department at WWU.
+ Among departments within the WWU College of Sciences and Technology, the Computer Science department uses
++ the average amount of State funds (roughly)
++ has the 2nd highest student contributions to it's cost (10%).
From page 93 of WWU OPERATING BUDGET FISCAL YEAR 2011

There is a demonstrable need for Computer Science.
+ Computer science has the highest field related employment and average salary of any degree WWU offers (after lumping education departments together).
From http://www.careers.wwu.edu/surveyapplicationX/statusdefaultXX.asp (concluded by J Anderson)

Thanks to C Reedy, J Bucher, N Fitzgerald, B Costa, JT Moon, J Anderson for statistics,

-J_Tom_Moon_79 '00-'-05

off-topic political point: I am partial to the view that the state should not be involved in education. However, state planning is the reality and I'm not debating that with this post. The fact remains, the WWU CSci department provides a very high quality education for a needed discipline (albeit, paid by WA state residents and businesses that may or may not have any interest in such a program).

The idea here being
"if we could just make super-judicial executions cleaner... then this Assassination business will be nice and tidy. No hurt feelings on both sides. It's a real win-win!"
Interventionism hasn't worked for several decades now (and has backfired catastrophically several times).

I don't understand how zapping people suspected of being "bad guys" is justified.
The implicit idea in this story is those people (Pakistanis) are not Americans. So the American goverment doesn't have to follow bothersome American laws and rights. Those laws and rights only hamper real "justice".
You might think " American's will get it right, they won't zap people indiscriminantly".
But that's one reason Guantanamo is a big deal. Some people wasting their life away in that concrete jail were put there based on hearsay.


That song ought to be changed to
"And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I can watch the YouTube video of the swarm of missiles blowing some unlucky towelhead to bits in the middle of a sunny day in a city that's in a country deemed dangerous by the American military and I can feel safe knowing the American missile robot swarm is not hunting me
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave their life for the American missile robot swarm so the American military didn't get bored and turn those robot swarms on me."

I thought sustained nuclear fusion would be a really huge scientific breakthrough.
Can this replace all nuclear fission and coal power plants with a clean plentiful nuclear fusion?

Isn't this a change-life-as-we-know-it achievement?
Would a local expert comment on this?

I agree.
A human created it, whether with digital tools or acoustic tools.

The idea that computer tools are incompatible with authentic artistic expression is a form of "everything was better back in the old days, the world has finally reached the point of no return; it's going crap!" simplistic thinking.

-J_Tom_Moon_79

I want to chime in with maxume (above).

In college, I had a friend that worked at Home Depot while majoring in Economics.

He always laughed about all the customers that would complain to him about the high prices and then continue to buy stuff from Home Depot. The obvious thought being, "if it's too expensive then don't buy it here". But the same customers kept coming back. Proving that the prices were NOT too expensive for them (not enough to make those customers seek other sellers or alternative options).

IMO, money speaks louder than words.
If people pay this much for text messages then text messages must be worth that price to them.
The proof being, people keep paying for them!

-J_Tom_Moon_79