Yes, this is true. I am a customer of Kabel Deutschland, and in the past, they've already admitted to doing it, but have now taken back that statement. However, there is clear evidence when using traffic monitoring that this is actually taking place. Sources (in German): http://www.klamm.de/partner/unter_news.php?l_id=5&news_id=35204&a_datum=20.07.2009 http://www.onlinekosten.de/forum/showthread.php?t=121367

TI-51-III, sorry! Typo!

I've got a TI-53-III with an LED 8-digit display in (almost) mint condition, I say almost because I lost the battery lid, but other than that, it's perfect.

Why does the DoD not simply destroy the disks in question?

Who says you haven't?

...is this part of the Year of Astronomy, then?

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/31/1332257
...cosmonauts rename themselves to 'astronauts'.
"We're just going with the times. We see this is a value upgrade to our main product, cosmonautics, called "astronautics" starting April 1st 2009."
Oh and yes, we hope that we can also use the toilet too then.

Random Deus ex Machina?
Oh he's gonna hate me for that one.

Indeed.

A friend of mine and me (over- and over-)analyzed Voyager over the years. In fact we found it so involutarily ridiculous that we wrote around 30 parody episodes of Voyager in the absurd humor style, here's an excerpt:

(Janeway and Tuvok are in a room; there's a door on one of the walls.)
Janeway: We're trapped. What should we do now?
Tuvok: I could try to modify the door in such a way that it is open.
Janeway: How do you want to do that?
Tuvok: I will pull this lever.
Janeway: I don't have any better idea myself (hesitates) Try it.
(Tuvok pulls the lever, the door opens.)
Janeway: Well done. I will add a positive record to your personel file, but now we've got to get out of here.

Anyway my point is that a lot was due to the bad acting, a terrible lot. Some stories weren't actually so bad, but the bad execution made it look like nonsense. The same stories with the actors of DS9 would have been actually somewhat decent.

I should really try to promote a "KHAAAAAAAAAN!"-contesting event at one of the local hacker clubs.

Uh, as in Battlestar Galactica re-imagined?

I had enough after page 3. I didn't even remember it's so crappy, but then again I only saw it I think 1 time (maybe 2 but god only knows why).

LOST-like Star Trek, that's like "24"-like James Bond: It's a backconversion. LOST took a lot lot from Star Trek. Nevertheless, I don't think it would be a bad thing or as prominent as I just made it appear; was just a thought.