The topics:

• Phil saw and liked the X-files movie. Phil thinks that some of the audience was disappointed in the movie because they weren't expecting a "monster of the week" movie. Fans of the show will remember that there were two kinds of X-files episodes. Ones that dealt with the myth of the show, and "monster of the week" shows. This movie was the latter, but a good one.

  Stephen saw Space Chimps with his kids. It was a decent kids movie, but if you don't have a kid in tow, don't bother to go out of your way to see it.

• We had a rather provocative segment on solving crime. Did Rowe v. Wade result in a drop in crime during the 90's? If so, do we pay at-risk mothers to avoid pregnancy? The guys agreed that you don't, but the discussion on why not was fruitful. Then they got into better solutions.

  Stephen pointed out another reason that has been suggested for why crime dropped in the 90's - we switched to unleaded gas in the late 70's.

• Harvey kicked us into our next topic by calling in. One way to solve hunger (and help the environment and reduce tensions between nations) is to make sure that potable water is abundant. We do this, he suggested, with seawater desalination. He suggested that you power this with clean solar.

  Stephen thought nuclear might be a more attainable clean power source for desalination. The plan is to use nuclear powered desalination in the Shandong Peninsula.

  By the way Harvey, you're in good company on desalination:

  If we could ever competitively, at a cheap rate, get freshwater from saltwater, that would be in the long-range interest of humanity (and) would dwarf any other scientific accomplishments.

  President John F. Kennedy
  April 12, 1961

  Throw, also, vertical farming into the nuclear/solar desalination mix. Energy, fresh water, and food would be produced within urban centers saving transportation expense.

• Phil and Stephen agreed that the ultimate answer to poverty is to get more people plugged into the global economy. This has been happening in China and India over the last two or three decades - and this has changed those countries for the better.

  Of course, basic needs like food and water have to be met before globalization is possible. If people are starving, shipping food is appropriate. Once that's taken care of, helping people help themselves is much more efficient and effective.

  Michael Darling reminded us that fab labs could be very important - especially in the developing world.

• Don't miss Harvey Espatchelowe's explanation of Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs:

• And here's Harvey's answer to terrorism:

  Phil and Stephen agreed that waging war on terrorists is a good thing, but there are other less violent things that can also be done to help. Poverty might not be the direct cause of terrorism (look at Osama Bin Laden), but Phil and Stephen agreed that the things that help address world poverty - education and globalization - would also help reduce terrorism.

  Stephen suggested that Saudi Arabia could stop promoting the Wahhabi sect of Islam. Stephen believes that the government does so, in part, to give their people an "other" to blame for problems rather than their government. But in the long run promoting a more cosmopolitan form of Islam would be better not only for the rest of the world, but, ultimately, for Saudi Arabia too.

• The Arab Peace Initiative is a hopeful sign.

Our front bumper is a sample of Marginal Prophets' "The Difficult Song."

Our exit music this week is from James Casto. The song is "Awesome Alpharetta."

James Casto has a MP3 album out that he's charging $1.00 to download. I haven't listened to the entire album yet, but so far I've found three songs worth the typical $.99 each. So, its a good value. Check it out.

Don't miss the FastForward music compilation:

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