Holy hostility, Batman.

Sure, there are knee-jerk environmentalists. Take any movement and I'll find you someone who takes that movement to its logical extreme. Christianity has Falwell. Conservatism has Coulter. Ad nauseum.

But I think you're missing that one of the largest, most prevalent streams of environmentalism isn't anti-nuclear, isn't anti-fossil fuel, perhaps isn't even anti-pesticide. It's simple conservation.

And you know, there are plenty of people working on things like low-emissions automobiles, more-insulative materials, and safer waste dumps.

Aren't these guys also scientists and engineers?

I disagree! The barriers to entry to the web are so much lower than they are to television that the web will never be reduced to TV's glossy (corporate) flash. Sure, some web sites will always be as you describe, fraught with ads and spyware, but try not to get too jaundiced. Web content has long been richer and more varied than television content, and I don't see this ever changing. I mean, for every one cable TV channel, there must be a hundred relatively in-depth blogs...

No, the chipset can address full 4 GB technically speaking, though not all of may be available to the OS, it really depends on hardware design. The limitation probably has to do with physical limitations, 2 GB SODIMMs being longer than 1 GB usually -- maybe there's enough place only for one?