twenty-seven years and one million words
For some reason, the gang decided to rent a car and go for a wander in the countryside. We came upon the Eaton estate and so that's where we did that.
At some point I saw a gas container that had the word 'Ether' on it and it reminded me of my decision to name my own domain where I'll host this site. I mentioned the name 'etherlabs.net' and everyone agreed it was good (enough).
I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
—Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (1995)