I would agree with periodization... From what I have seen the current fitness trends are using this as well. Body builders refer to it as 'cutting' and 'bulking' phases FYI.
1. Who is the party responsible for posting the comments?
Clearly it is the FCC itself (or possibly some coordinated entity) posting this comment. The response is directly in line with the President's agenda. It is doubtful that any real person agrees with the concept of destroying net-neutrality.
2. Why are they posting the same comment over and over?
It seems to be an attempt at influencing behavior by the FCC. They think that people visiting the site to leave a comment will be for net neutrality. If the visitor sees a bunch of comments that are attacking their position their reaction is to counteract the bot by leaving a coherent argument disputing the bot's message. What the FCC doesn't want is people leaving trolling comments like 'My body has been modified to run on internet privacy, why are you doing this to me?'
> I asked him what he was assuming for his supply and demand curves -- continuous, uniformly continuous, differentiable, continuously differentiable, infinitely differentiable, convex, pseudo-convex, quasi-convex, etc.? He said nothing.
> Soon I got a call from my department secretary to call my Ph.D. advisor -- I was out of the econ course!
This is my favorite economist joke: There is a physicist, chemist, and an economist stuck on a desert island together. They find a can of beans, and are discussing how to open the can. The physicist says "Lets climb up the tree and drop a rock on it. The force from the drop will make the can explode and open." Then the chemist says "We should put the can in some saltwater. The metal will corrode, and we can get inside." Finally the economist says, "Let's assume a can opener..."
What about double majors? Or a BS with a minor? Knowledge in multiple subjects can create a synergistic effect. For example a double major in computer science and biotechnology - or something similar - could be effective. I think that jobs are becoming less specialized, and also workers need to do several things well.
Maybe they couldn't afford a refrigerator in the 1970's. Living within ones means is a value that has not been a large part of the country's identity (US.) We could just be growing more conscious of living with in our means now because of the economic crisis. I don't mean to sound like an expert or anything, I'm just playing devil's advocate
Ya that's kind of what it seems like you did... throwing a big number out on purpose so that $9M jump would be "rational." The math in my head says you could weight figures on estimated acceptance probability. By throwing out a low probability figure first before a relatively higher probability acceptance figure - versus just presenting them with a reasonably high probability figure - give a better result. It is almost like expected value.
I've heard similar stories. Before the hazard of smoking was known as common knowledge runners used to smoke for their training. They thought that it would increase their lung capacity. It was their idea of a performance enhancing drug. Some drank rat poison as well.