I fully believe that the universe is teeming with life and that there are more than a couple intelligent species out there other than us.

I also believe the lifespan of species is finite. I expect we'll probably destroy ourselves in the end. I don't know how long that will take, but I suspect it's on the order of hundreds or thousands rather than millions of years. Remember Egypt is only 5000 or so years old.

Wwhat are the odds that a civilization with space travel or radio technology emerges at the same time that we're around in the same neighborhood and happens to traverse the near-infinite blackness of space successfully and finds us?

The speed of light limitation on travel makes the odds exceedingly low. We may find signs of extraterrestrial intelligent life in the future, but it's more likely to be in the form of archaeological sites rather than hovering space vehicles.

Opus will end up in a dandelion patch with his mother - home.

Both parties are beholden to lobbies that protect IP and abuse the copyright provisions of the Constitution. This is, unfortunately, not an issue you can get mad about and swear to vote against the Rep or Senator from your district who supported the measure, because his opponent will hold the same position.

Eventually, these fines will be struck down as unconstitutional. They are certainly unusual in their size and disproportionate to the harm done, but by that point, everyone readin gthis entry will be much, much, much older.

There's my prediction for the day.

Those two are not sympathetic. Ugh.

Why would the SS announce they had a problem? They wouldn't. They just fix the problem.

Send me the instructions. I can't get our five month old to sleep before 9:00pm

Or maybe it's anti-stupid last minute stunt. If most people had voted before Osama Bin Laden came out with his video in 2004 that was calculated to keep the American people afraid and reactionary we might have not had such a horrible last four years.

You're a Yankees and Cowboys fan, aren't you?

But they will flock to good mass transit. And they prefer trains to buses if the trains come frequently enough.

That's it. It's that simple. Keep the vehicles clean, provide safe, comfortable transit, price it reasonably and make it go where people want to go and they will flock to it.

The U.S. is continent-sized. Europeans travel to other European countries about as much as we travel to other states. The distance from New York to Los Angeles is greater than the distance from London to Istanbul.

I'd be interested to see how many Americans and Europeans travel outside their continent.

I'd say New Zealanders and Australians are probably the most active world travellers, based on the number of them I've seen overseas and her in the U.S. compared to their populations.

United States of America - Americans

People's Republic of China - Chinese

United Mexican States - Mexicans

Argentine Republic - Argentinians

It works that way. It's not arrogant of Americans to call ourselves Americans. It's pedantic of you to claim we are arrogant in using a conventional formula used for citizens of countries around the world.

Because in any threesome there's one nutcase, and if you don't know who it is, it's probably you!

Oh wait, let's DO start one. I understand Sarah Palin knows two professional witch hunters.

It just makes the campaign and McCain look stupider and stupider for picking her. Every shot they take at her sticks and rebounds on them twice as hard and they don't even realize it yet.

Makes this lifelong Dem's heart all warm and tingly.

(and I'm not even including myself).

Useless mouths? They'll just breed? Jesus.

The big problem with fixing the food crisis in the Third World is delivery and the corruption in the governments of the region.

As for breeding, studies show that as wealth increases, families tend to have fewer children as fewer are needed to ensure that the line is passed on and that the family as a whole will survive. Fixing the food problem (and the clean water problem, increasingly) will reduce fecundity, not increase it.

Jeez. Even during the primaries, people kept asking why Obama couldn't close the deal. Well, he had already closed the deal, the Hillaryites just didn't realize they were already defeated.

He's beaten McCain already. He just needs to keep doing what he's doing and get ready for a huge party in Grant Park Tuesday night.

Damn.

Damn song still applies.

I thought the 2000 election showed higher turnout among youth than among many other demos.

There's a fragrance that's here to day and they call it

Charlie

(don't remember this line)

Kinda new, kinda now - Charlie!

Kinda free, kinda wow! - Charlie!

The kind of fragrance that's here to stay and they call it Charlie!

(That's as much as I can remember)

Can you Canoe?

The RNC never figured out how to effectively tag Obama, and their desperation led to picking Sarah Palin for VP.

If HRC is the nominee I think you would have seen a different VP, a less effective counter-smear strategy, a weaker ground game and a much better chance of waking up Wednesday morning with president-elect McCain.

Seriously, are you doing performance art or are you simply deluded?

I want to know.

http://www.eyeliner3d.com/cisco_telepresence_holographic_video_conferencing.html

They used it with Prince Charles during the World Energy Summit. It's probably not what CNN was using, but it's not sci-fi by any means.