Yes, I can. But tonight I am posting on my laptop, since a hard drive crash has put my main megaphone in the bin. Four trips to Surcouf has not solved the multiple problems- Video card, bad power supply connector (intermittent) as well as four new drives (mirror backup with RAID card and double array), so first things first.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

Galileo needs a rational financing structure.

Also a bit of imagination in relation to the applications it enables.

The "soft" authentication available using a combination of GPS and mobile location technology would be perfect for a global messaging/payments/clearing infrastructure.

Iraq's access - post "apocalypse now" - to global payment systems was (I don't know if it still is) essentially via satellite onto laptops.

I was involved in a bid six or seven years ago for a new satellite based payment system for Iran, but we pulled the plug on the bid when at the last minute someone asked for a 25% "commission".

As I recall, a French system got the contract....

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

It is easy to document the evisceration of climate science, but very hard to document an intuition, Mig. Multiple whiffs of fundie drivel, and some good reporting is what I have to go on- there are endless anecdotes describing Bushian refences to a fundamentalist world view-- perhaps the most classic is when Bush was asked how he thought history would view his presidency, and he replied that it did'nt matter because we'd all be dead--

A bad joke?
A glimpse into the gourdian knot of his head?

Dunno. That's why I put it as a question.  

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

The USA might head for political irrelevancy, but how fast will that reduce its fuel imports? While at the same time, China is fast rising as new big fossil-eater, and even while the EU does something, it's not enough.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}