a fragrance or hear a sound that instantly transfers you back to former times, good or bad, that is your subconscious recalling details you thought were gone forever. Ideas are powerful, and once they're out, there is no putting them back. The elites understand this, which is why they are keen to prevent ideas from being broadcast. The single biggest thing they fear is the individual with the fresh idea that catches on and smashes their careful plans into dust. Ideas can flatten empires, whether they are spread by blogs, books or word of mouth. I had linked to Tubridy's attempt to sponsor a grown up argument on his radio show recently which just got drawn down series of accusation of bias, and never got near talking about the substance of the matter. But what you say is all too often true about some of our threads, sometimes even a majority of them. There is something to be said for a well moderated comment zone. But I've not yet found an efficient enough way to do it. If you could automate the penalties for misbehaviour (in the way that perhaps eBay does) you could incentivise people to play well. Though I am not sure just how practical such would be. arcifal: "Because the individual can have their ideas tested in the blogsphere better than anywhere else. " Bollocks. A great many things can happen to an idea on the internet, but being tested, unless we're being very broad in our