So, are they also going to have a mandate that computers must include modems? For a large % of the public, especially those buying new TVs, the concept of receiving television over the airwaves is a bad memory.

I wathced one movie (The Island) on comcast HD on-demand. I considered it unwatchable. Far below DVD quality with massive motion-blcking artifacts. Non-moving scenes looked nice and sharp as you'd expect. They must be allocating a fraction of the bandwidth for this that they allocate for say, HBO-HD.

>In fact, the number of whales may have increased to the point that they are damaging the ecosystem by eating too much fish.

No one seriously believes this. Its a talking point from the pro-whaling block.

The minke whales are plentiful because of not being significantly hunted into modern times, and because of the whaling ban. The history of whaling consists of a continuous downard trend in the size of the species of whales hunted, as each successively smaller species becomes too rare to be a practical target animal.

I'm not an animal rights person. But whale (and shark) populations are too fragile to be a fishing target.

I've been to Papua New guinea before, and am headed back for a month in july. Its really an amazing place, and there's no way to appreciate it on just one trip - its a tough place to get around in, and the different regions are really different from each other. My trips are mostly scuba diving, with a mix of land visits thrown in. I saw some amazing things both above and below the water last time.

West Papua/ Irian Jaya is also amazing, but even harder to get to/around in.


downsides:
the captial, port moresby is considered one of the more dangerous cities on earth.
you must take malaria prophylaxis.

Obviously, front projection (and everything that goes with it) is the ultimate. There's no way a plasma could equal the draw dropping ability of my 8' wide 1080p FP display.

Very pricy. For that $3000, you could buy a sonos bundle with speakers (giving you music at two places in your house and a jazzy remote control), and a computer + hd to store your music on and still have some money left over.