I'm surprised that no one's mentioned that one of the biggest employers in the Seattle area -- where this station is located -- is Microsoft.

So perhaps the station was just trying to lure more viewers by being anti-apple? That's one way to make 15 iPods into an "alarming" number!

Another possibility (that doesn't seem to be already mentioned) is that the more "pious" are on life support with the belief that God will "come through" and heal their loved ones despite what the doctors claim to be a "hopeless cause."

Personally, I'd classify myself as a "Christian" and this is the main reason that I can believe -- while I am totally comfortable with death (not to the extent that I'm going to go play on the freeway) I also see the possibility of "supernatural events" aka "miracles" to occur and thus can see that prolonging a loved one's life via life-support seems plausible, particularly for a younger individual. However, myself, if I was old and have had a full life, I don't think I see the need to be on life support -- I've done what I need to do in this life.

This idea isn't discussed in the originally linked BBC article, but comes up in other articles on the same study (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=7105959&page=1 for example)

So no, I disagree that it's patients being "unsure" about the afterlife or that they're unwilling to accept death. I just think it's relatives that are praying for a miracle.

I disagree -- if the lawmakers had seriously intended this to be only for the poor in the country, wouldn't they have coupled it with Welfare or something to that effect? Or at least had some kind of measure of your income and therefore only people with an income below a certain threshold would get the coupon?

I think the coupon is the appropriate thing to do for people of all income levels. The government has changed the way that TV is being broadcast which makes older TV's unusable -- shouldn't they also help us transition by making the converter boxes available to all?

yea, but if you're trying to simulate Mars-like conditions, you'd probably want to only get up to 80ish F degrees (http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q2681.html) at the high end.

Also, boiling "astronauts" isn't a good way to get PR.

a friend of mine just got back from the MDRS -- he was there for a week at the beginning of January. He said it was an awesome experience as well. And for those who are wondering, yea, it's not paid, but the Mars Society covers food, transportation, and I guess technically lodging as well. The food he said was all dried stuff. While he was there they would go on scouting trips and worked on revamping the documentation for the site. Oh, and he also mentioned that while boucing around in their spacesuits outside, he found a dinosaur bone! (So the analogs to Mars may end there, but of course, no one's been bouncing around Mars -- maybe there *are* fossilized dinosaurs there!)

Sure, you'd have to get teachers trained in programming (which'd probably fall into the Math/Science department) but I think that the US needs some serious technical literally and what a better way than including computer science in the curriculum?

This isn't necessarily a whole course on CS, but hey, it could be a small unit in the math class or something -- at least enough to pique the kids' interests.