Second Life Newbie
I really enjoyed reading the July issue [and the] Get a (Real) Life and Reality Check articles about Second Life. I have heard of Second Life from an academic point of view but never visited the site myself.

It does give me some idea about the virtual life.

Thanks for sharing,

Cecilia Hui

Pacific Northwest National Lab

Local Action
Your August editorial [The Sacrifice at Home] raises some interesting questions. It suggests first that your real target is the Bush administration's prosecution of the war effort in Iraq - rather than federal funding and crime rates. I would suggest that misses the real issue, which is that the level of federal spending may or may not have affected the crime rates. I seriously question that relationship.

I've been engaged in transportation issues for nearly 40 years, and there are some strong parallels - including those technology related. So, a few questions:

How does handing the states and municipalities back their own money, after taking a 10 percent to 20 percent cut and creating another layer of bureaucratic oversight and control, help crime local rates?

Is the lost flexibility to respond to local issues that may differ from federal perspectives worth the typically small change in distribution of the funds?

Is the issue really one of willingness of state and local government to directly address their own needs?

In my view, more than 40 years of federal oversight has not significantly changed how transportation systems are constructed, with the single exception of the interstate, or the general levels of safety of those facilities.

That said, like crime issues, there are many variables. For example, I believe that in both issues federal guidance on standards has helped, but not the "redistribution of wealth." One could make the same argument for streets, roads and highways as you suggest for crime, and I believe the same questions are important to resolving what we are trying to accomplish, and the best way to do so.

It would seem to me that the best solutions have come from local resolve and action.

Al King, P.E.


No Politics Wanted
I wasn't aware that this was a political opinion magazine. I thought that technology information distribution was the goal. Your private political opinions [are] of little interest to me - and perhaps to other readers??

Pat Hoepner

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Pat.Hoepner@ci.eau-claire.wi.us

Faulty Findings?

Mr Towns:

I strongly disagree with your editorial [The Sacrifice at Home, August 2007] on several counts, as well as with Mr. McKay's analysis [Vanishing Act, August 2007].

First, your opinion of the war and how it has been run should be kept to yourself since it's your opinion. There are many people who read the government news who believe the war is [a] right and just cause, even though I may agree the political, desk-bound generals and Pentagon personnel have truly screwed up the tactics after the initial victory over conventional troops.

This is due to no longer having down-to-earth, fighting generals like Omar Bradley and Patton. It is a syndrome of the present upper echelon to think in terms of big wars instead of down-and-dirty wars, as we are in now, who fail to listen to their own personnel who are experts in fighting this kind of conflict - their egos and political nature got in the way.

The new general in charge - who wrote the book on counter insurgency - is