Does anyone really know how the TCP/IP network interface "magically" sends packets of information across the "magical" fiber optic?

I work in a huge distribution warehouse. We had some contractors running fiber optic cabling for us a couple of years ago and one of their guys accidentally broke off a sprinkler head. I seem to recall that they said it was only his 2nd or 3rd day on the job. He was about 40ft up in the air on a mechanical lift, so when he broke the sprinkler he got drenched for a good 30-40 secs while he lowered the lift. The water that comes out of those pipes is absolutely nasty.

They should just go ahead and make Orwell's 'Telescreen' and get it over with. Come to think of it, Fiber optics can work in both directions.

The flipside is that I had to dig though pages and pages of "cop hate" and "cop misbehaving" videos on YouTube to find the handful that doesn't make them look like monsters. They're under plenty of surveillance themselves by video camera wielding citizens. The watchers are being watched.

MLX, if fiber optics ever become available in your area, GET IT! And assuming this bill doesn't pass, try to get it from Verizon. I've read that their service is excellent.

Want the biggest laugh of all? This is from my google video account No I didn't ask jimnms to post it either Thanks jimnms! That is the only comedy in this video. I had hoped this would eventually make the sift!

Someone submit The Rise of Dominionism, Life and Liberty for All Who Believe. Two others I would love to see sifted are A Fox 17 News story on the discovery of prehistoric cave art in Dunbar Cave, and Fiber Optics, Lighting our future. All would make excellent sifts imo, but I was unable to sift them.

Last time I checked, hungry people can't eat fiber-optic cable or cell phones.
(Well, they could, but it wouldn't be very safe or nutritious.)

If you can stop ranting and read for a second, I never said market solutions couldn't help the situation.
But they are not the miracle cure you envision, any more than it is here in the U.S.

I'll get excited about IT infrastructure when people are safe and can eat, OK?
Until then, what you're describing sounds like the beginning of some kind of gentrification.

Raise awareness where Theo47? That Africa is in crisis mode? Everyone knows that... it's reached saturation levels now in the media. I heard of NGOs having trouble getting press to show up because the topic they covered was deemed not news worthy (donation of out-phased PCs to inner city schools/universities in Africa).

It's never news worthy until they can take a video or picture of a child with a large belly due to malnutrition and flies all over their faces.

And what happens then? It goes on media networks and is totally tuned out, because "God how many times have you seen it already"? Of course the coverage of wars, genocide, famine, corruption does the exact opposite... it makes Africa seem like an a bad place to invest in.

No one ever talks about positive things, things that are changing, like Rwanda's drive to increase IT usage in it's population. How most African countries have ridiculously large expansion of mobile phone networks because it's cheaper to build towers instead of laying conventional copper/fiber optic lines? Right there is a large untapped, high rate of adaptation market for cell phone companies.

Theo, thats the same reasoning NGOs give all the time, saying Africa is not ready for free trade, globalization or capitalism or whatever the 'word' of the moment is. I heard that excuse a billion times. I could tell you a million stories about why that's not the case, but... I know you wouldn't listen to me but I hope you read this Der Spiegel interview with Kenyan economics expert James Shikwat. Which is about as close as from the horses mouth as you can get.

Everyone thinks Africa is some kind of disabled person that NEEDS donations. That is simply not true, did 1st world nations have donations drop from the sky when implementing new technologies like phones? power lines? Of course not. What made it happen is sound economic and development strategies of improving infrastructure, subsidized by the goverment and offered to the population at low prices. Exactly the kind of advice, deep thought and planning that doesn't go into the mindset of 90% of NGOs involved in Africa today.

If you want to make real change in Africa, go there, see for yourself. Be a tourist, see Kenya, Zambia and South Africa. Spend your American dollars there, because that would create infinitely more change and improvement in life then any donation or dollar-child-adaptation scam that is run. And again...

Why not protest about the restrictive agricultural subsidies and tariff systems that the EU and US possess that destroy the import/export competitiveness of agricultural products from Africa? (Africa is mostly agriculturally based) Of course you won't your governments will warn you of dangerous lower food standards in the Third World, which is so ironic considering food borne diseases sprung up in the UK first with BSE.

Try this next time at Live 8 Aid, ask an NGO representative how they want to actually promote change, you will receive ambiguous answers that show no understanding of the situation on the ground... How I ever managed not to punch out my colleagues and their delusional views, I don't know... NGO people think they are just morally superior because they have a good humanitarian agenda, but don't realize that even good causes can be carried out poorly, like the Democrats.