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You can draw that distinction, if you like; but the word "issue" in this sense dates from the 14th century legal term "issue", and was used in this way long before you were born. See here for a discussion of different uses of the word: The Issue with Issues

I've never seen George Walker Bush and Barack Obama in the same place at the same time. I've seen video purported to show as much, but we all know what they can do with that these days.

I guess you missed the obama inauguration then http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/44_01_21/4425_17677757.jpg

Devastating...

Labor Unions only add about 14% to the cost of public works in Mass for example, so its not going to be half of a movie or video game.

Just 14% or so.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/20/the_unfair_price_of_union_labor/

See the Boston Globe article detailing how he is promoting scanners that he has a financial interest in. That guy has been scum from day one. This is no different. What about the evidence that these scanners tear apart DNA? How freaking safe is that?

I also think the low-tech solution used by Israel for keeping airports safe needs to be re-examined.

What Israeli Security could Teach Us.

There's another interesting aspect to this that can tie into a discussion on race/power...

Right before the avatar hero fellow goes off to tame the big dragon thing, he says "I need them.... and they need me!*"

It's interesting to stop and ask why they in fact need him at all. There's an assumption that the indigenous population can't fend for themselves, and need to be "saved" by one of the outsiders (who, incidentally, happens to be a white male, like myself) - Couldn't the girl have gone and tamed the beast and assembled the clans and led the resistance herself, while the avatar fellow served just as the communication link between the two cultures? That could have made for a very different message, while being an equally compelling movie.

Try flipping the roles around in any movie where the sophisticated aliens are attacking humans, like say Independence Day... Does "our side" need a powerful alien figure to break ranks with the oppressors to lead our resistance? No, the general myth is that a "hero" rises from within to lead the struggle... so one could argue that the view presented in this movie is that the "native" people need to be guided by an outsider who knows what's best for them. (This is an assumption that I think many people in power make fairly often, but many of the people that they affect might take issue with it)

I saw this movie with my little cousins, and asked them if this story was imaginary or had any elements of truth.
They thought that it was all fake, imagined. Then I showed them this picture and asked them if it looked familiar: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/the_decade_in_news_photographs.html#photo38

If you scroll around a bit through that gallery, you'll see plenty more war and carnage, but then check out picture #24 to see what most people have been paying attention instead. The bigger problem isn't as much with the environment as it is with the media... If we had better media that prioritized things that were actually important (with not just stories of atrocity but also examples of positively engaged communities) then it would be much easier to go on and solve environmental and social problems...

just a thought- -jj

* I might not have this quote exactly right, as I just saw this movie overdubbed in French last night- but that's how they translated it.

We already have alcohol substitutes ( read: recreational drugs ) that are safer than alcohol. Only problem is, they're illegal.

You can't handle the truth. Dr. David Nutt, the British government scientist that was recently fired, did an exhaustive study of the real impact of recreational drugs. Herion was 8.32, alcohol 5.54, Cannabis 4.00, LSD 3.68 and Ecstacy 3.27. A higher score is worse.( Many other drugs were in the study).

So we already have several safer alternatives to alcohol.

Unfortunately, in Massachusetts:
"The law says truth is a defense against libel unless the plaintiff can show "actual malice" by the person publishing the statement."

*sigh* I didn't really want to get into this...

If it had been a (R) every news organization would have already covered it ... in spades ...

Looks like coverage to me.

But let's see, what else was covered today? Top stories -- health reform (impacts millions of lives), crash at Jamaica airport, H1N1 supply information, a captive soldier... y'know, important stuff?

Even if you're focusing on internal congressional politics, this is probably a more interesting story.

And hey, big surprise, this story isn't on the front page of foxnews.com now, and isn't "above the fold" (even on this 1200 vertical pixel screen) in their "politics" section. So while I'm sure they love taking shots at Democrats (hey, find me a Fox article critical of Republicans -- it's not hard to find a "liberal media" article, even on MSNBC, that's critical of Democrats) -- even Fox doesn't see it as that important, compared to all the other stuff going on. Maybe it'll actually matter if he succeeds...

Can you imagine what would happen to a (R) if they called someone a WHORE on TV?

Probably the same thing that happened to John McCain when he called this a "Christian nation", which is both offensive and demonstrably wrong. Or the same thing that happened to Ted "series of tubes" Stevens when he showed gross incompetence at grasping the most basic concepts of the Internet, such as e-mail.

Yes, I realize Ted Stevens was eventually prosecuted -- for actual corruption.

When 15 people show up for "Liberal" protest, the news reports "Dozens", when 5000 conservatives do the same thing, "some" showed up.

Yes, in a country of three hundred million, five thousand is "some". Would "dozens" have made you happier?

And if you're referring to the "TEA Parties" which "weren't covered" by the "mainstream media", let's keep a few facts in mind:

1. Fox News is "mainstream", as distasteful as that is.
2. Fox aggressively promoted these events. "Fair and balanced" my ass.
3. Fox took out a full-page ad, then repeated the same lie over and over, that various other news agencies had "missed" that story. I know you'll consider the source, but try to actually look at the facts in this article -- other agencies indeed covered them, they just didn't promote them, as Fox so blatantly (and tearfully -- thanks, Beck) did.

I'd dismantle the rest of your argument, but...

FOX NEWS is balance, when you have a "tingly feeling running down your leg" as fare on the other channels.

...it pretty much devolved into name-calling.

Tell me again how "balanced" Beck is when he blames a gang beating on the rise of atheism -- or when he wants California out of the union. I mean, Bill O'Reilly is a real gem, too, running a segment about how reporters should stop harassing people, leave celebrities alone, etc, right before he goes into a segment of footage of his reporters doing the exact same thing, with no segue... but hey, Beck makes O'Reilly look like a genius saint by comparison.

Whatever bias the "liberal media" might have -- and it doesn't, it just actually is fair and balanced, so liberals think it's too conservative, and conservatives think it's too liberal, but let's pretend it has a liberal bias and I just can't see it -- that hypothetical bias is entirely dwarfed by the kind of unfiltered bullshit, bigotry, and ignorance that so frequently comes

(NSFW Image)

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/12/2009_in_photos_part_3_of_3.html#photo37

A man was stoned to death just this year.

It's woefully underused, probably at least partly due to the cost of printing in color for dailies. Maybe going digital will actually inspire them to do better, like the Boston Globe's wonderful Big Picture blog.

The little bit of journalistic integrity left will be destroyed if the government starts picking up the tab. Newspapers will have a vested interest in getting funding so support of one candidate or another will be rewarded with money, instead of just interviews, questions at press conferences, and leaked memos.

This was actually an issue in Boston recently, when the city gave a small minority paper a loan to stay in business:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/17/menino_offers_loan_to_keep_banner_afloat/

"That's a very poor argument. You can swap out "church" for almost any other childhood activity. For example, soccer:"

A soccer coach has less scope for compelling sodomy than does a priest representing an imaginary celestial friend.

BTW, soccer coaches aren't paying hundreds of millions of dollars in pedophilia settlement money.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19762878/

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/04/us/boston-archbishop-will-sell-residence-for-abuse-payout.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655265.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4147431.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3872083.stm

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/us/catholic-priest-who-aids-church-sexual-abuse-victims-loses-job-military-chaplain.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/aug/17/religion.childprotection

http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/scandal/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/aug/17/religion.childprotection

Too bad this doesn't happen more often:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/24/geoghan/index.html

You have to click through on the image to get the answer to that. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/CIA_illusion/

So the Slashdot summary links to an article in the Huffington Post. And the HuffPo article links to an article in Wired. And the Wired article links to the actual story in the Boston Globe. Genius idea: have the Slashdot summary link to the actual story. YES!!!

i am upvoting you with my mind

So the Slashdot summary links to an article in the Huffington Post. And the HuffPo article links to an article in Wired. And the Wired article links to the actual story in the Boston Globe

Slashdot: now a free treasure hunt with every story !

So the Slashdot summary links to an article in the Huffington Post. And the HuffPo article links to an article in Wired. And the Wired article links to the actual story in the Boston Globe.

Genius idea: have the Slashdot summary link to the actual story. YES!!!

How the hell did he get the boot off his car? Does he have some super [...] lock picking skillz or just a set of bolt cutters?

I'm guessing that's where "possession of stolen property" comes from. They're supposed to come and remove the boot after your payment has gone through the proper channels. It strikes me as pleasantly smart-assy to remove the boot for them and include it with payment. Physical locks usually only serve to keep honest people honest anyway. Arresting someone over this procedural irregularity is downright stupid.

My first thought was, "What is this, Boston ?" With the hyperlinks and everything. But no, the student hails from nearby Andover.

TFA doesn't call it a "hoax bomb" this time (i.e., we thought it was a bomb, and it turned out not to be, so rather than admit the false positive and send you on your way, we're charging you for confusing us, kthx) but "terroristic mischief", especially in the obvious absence of any such intent, is at least as bad. We might as well accuse him of being a witch.

In Boston most colleges and universities are exempt from property taxes. The city has been trying for years to figure out ways to squeeze them for the extra cash. We've heard the "pay their fair share" argument as well.Boston Globe Article

Your "Reality B" should be that IEA tells people that oil will run out. Everyone starts stock piling oil for the future. Oil Prices skyrocket over night because of massive raise in demand. Oil shortage comes very early do to people due to stockpiling which will be followed by rashening. However, the anti-nuclear; NIMBY solar and wind people are crushed. Hopeful the Kennedy Compound is burned to the ground to make way for more wind turbines. A conservative can dream right?

One thing I haven't understood on the Prius floor mats. I don't know if this is on the newer models or not but the older sedans have a clip that prevents them from skidding up into the pedal. There has not been any reports of the retaining clip breaking, only the mats slid. I wonder if this is an issue on only newer ones.

For a picture of the hole for the carpet clip;
http://www.boston.com/cars/newsandreviews/overdrive/Toyota-floor-mat-proper-installation.jpg

I've never had my mat come lose. Due to the shape shown in the photo, it can't get in the way unless it comes lose. If it comes lose, I'll remove it.

Vote! Vote my little worms!
Divert your will and energies into our little show of "change"!

While another Goldman exec is put in charge of "Enforcement - ensuring that there is none...

You see, under the post-Kennedy era system of American government, executive and legislative sideshows are intended not to demonstrate and direct power - but to distract from the real power of the land.

Bang! One magic bullet. You buy that story, and they already had you in the Matrix.

It is vital to certain parties that war become intractable, perpetual and expanding.

"War brings business to Feinstein spouse: Blum's firms win multimillion-dollar defense contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan"

Afghanistan - the proxy war

"Implementing the McChrystal plan will perpetuate the longstanding fundamentals of US national security policy: maintaining a global military presence, configuring US forces for global power projection, and employing those forces to intervene on a global basis. The McChrystal plan modestly updates these fundamentals to account for the lessons of 9/11 and Iraq, cultural awareness and sensitivity nudging aside advanced technology as the signature of American military power, for example. Yet at its core, the McChrystal plan aims to avert change. Its purpose - despite 9/11 and despite the failures of Iraq - is to preserve the status quo. . . .

If the president assents to McChrystal's request, he will void his promise of change at least so far as national security policy is concerned. The Afghanistan war will continue until the end of his first term and probably beyond. It will consume hundreds of billions of dollars. It will result in hundreds or perhaps thousands more American combat deaths - costs that the hawks are loath to acknowledge.

As the fighting drags on from one year to the next, the engagement of US forces in armed nation-building projects in distant lands will become the new normalcy. Americans of all ages will come to accept war as a perpetual condition, as young Americans already do. That "keeping Americans safe" obliges the United States to seek, maintain, and exploit unambiguous military supremacy will become utterly uncontroversial."

In Massachusetts, truth is not the ultimate defense against libel."

1. For people like myself, who were born into a country where overt gender and race discrimination are on the decline, people who continue to press these issues as if nothing have changed look to me like they're pressing for "special treatment".
2. What are these people looking for? Recognition of a problem or special treatment? Special treatment is the antithesis of the political philosophy of this country, where "equal standing before the law" is what we mean by "equality". I understand that there are now and have been injustices against certain groups of people, and that those things affect the prosperity of future generations, but does giving one group of people preference over another actually solve the underlying problem? My opinion is that affirmative action merely drives long-standing conflict even deeper.

Getting back to Lawrence Summers-- if you're not familiar with the story, he was essentially pushed out of the Harvard presidency for openly speculating about the causes of the small number of women in science. His mistake was speaking to a gathering of academics as if they were, in fact, scientists. Reading this article makes it clear that he was saying: here are some possible causes; we need further research to establish a link. He mentions an anecdote with his daughter-- they gave her trucks, but she ended up playing with the trucks as if they were dolls, calling them "daddy truck" and "baby truck". Any scientist worth their salt would be intrigued by this behavior. Of course, this incident cannot be generalized, but it should make you ask "why?". Is it really unreasonable to think that men and women, who served in certain specific capacities for millennia of human history, might actually be better suited toward those roles? The answer may be 'no', but science must be allowed to ask the question. Nancy Hopkins, who walked out on Summers' talk, later said that ''I would've either blacked out or thrown up" had she not left. That sounds like hyperbole to me. The appropriate response as a career scientist would have been to counter Summers with evidence and scientific argument.

With regard to the 54 incidents you mention, this is a classic case of finding problems when you're looking for them. As other people have pointed out, the number of incidents that can be called "sexist" in FOSS mailing lists appears to be vanishingly small. 54 incidents out of how many millions of conversation threads? Come on. The rational thing to do is to give us hard data, and then make your case. The link above is a laundry list of grievances; not science. But if you can make the case scientifically, showing us good evidence, we'll listen. That's the rational approach.

I think you may be mistaking California for Massachusetts.

And I think you may have your head up your ass and have no idea what you're talking about.

MA is 23rd as of 2008. Damn near dead average.

There's also the question of islands.

Even if you purchase a home sufficiently above sea level you may not necessarily have access to said home if you're neighbors are all under water and you're the only home left standing.

I'm reminded of this before/after photo here (#2):
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/one_year_after_hurricane_ike.html

How much are we willing to spend on bridges and elevated roadways to access suddenly isolated townships?

Wow, I feel dumb for congratulating you about recognizing the need for reading peer-reviewed journal articles. You do realize that you're listening to a science fiction author with a lot of irrelevant experience rather than reading the peer-reviewed journals, right? And, no, reading a novel with footnotes doesn't count as reading a scientific journal.

Photos in The Big Picture

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/dust_storm_in_australia.html

I agree. Bush did too little to correct the lending practices that led up to the troubled asset relief program (TARP). So where did it originate?

Roots of the Crisis
The cause of this crisis is the overly relaxed lending from 2000 onwards. Bankers driven by bonus targets lent to families who could not afford the mortgages: today there are five million American homeowners delinquent or in foreclosure. This is no longer a sub-prime lending problem, but a lending problem as excess home inventories push down all home prices.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/28/franks_fingerprints_are_all_over_the_financial_fiasco/t/

So what is the root of the lending that created all the troubled assets?
The first time was in 1922.
See PDF from this page
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E01E7DA1339E133A25752C2A9639C946395D6CF
and in 1929 the economy imploded.

Again in 2000, followed by about 8-9 years.
Here is the root again;
http://americaswatchtower.com/2009/06/24/barney-frank-asks-fannie-mae-to-easy-up-on-loan-regulations-will-he-ever-learn/

"The architect of the mortgage meltdown is once again asking Fanny Mae to ease up on their loan regulations. This is exactly what got us into this trouble in the first place. Even as the mortgage industry was in trouble Barney Frank denied that there was any problem with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Even as President Bush and John McCain were trying to warn of the impending crisis Barney Frank was in denial."

The start is here;

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/28/franks_fingerprints_are_all_over_the_financial_fiasco/

So yes, Bush is at fault for not stopping it. He warned about it and left it to fall apart on it's own.

I agree. Bush did too little to correct the lending practices that led up to the troubled asset relief program (TARP). So where did it originate?

Roots of the Crisis
The cause of this crisis is the overly relaxed lending from 2000 onwards. Bankers driven by bonus targets lent to families who could not afford the mortgages: today there are five million American homeowners delinquent or in foreclosure. This is no longer a sub-prime lending problem, but a lending problem as excess home inventories push down all home prices.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/28/franks_fingerprints_are_all_over_the_financial_fiasco/t/

So what is the root of the lending that created all the troubled assets?
The first time was in 1922.
See PDF from this page
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E01E7DA1339E133A25752C2A9639C946395D6CF
and in 1929 the economy imploded.

Again in 2000, followed by about 8-9 years.
Here is the root again;
http://americaswatchtower.com/2009/06/24/barney-frank-asks-fannie-mae-to-easy-up-on-loan-regulations-will-he-ever-learn/

"The architect of the mortgage meltdown is once again asking Fanny Mae to ease up on their loan regulations. This is exactly what got us into this trouble in the first place. Even as the mortgage industry was in trouble Barney Frank denied that there was any problem with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Even as President Bush and John McCain were trying to warn of the impending crisis Barney Frank was in denial."

The start is here;

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/28/franks_fingerprints_are_all_over_the_financial_fiasco/

So yes, Bush is at fault for not stopping it. He warned about it and left it to fall apart on it's own.

Break-ins happen at 2 pm as well as at 2am. Daytime home burglaries are actually fairly common, in part because during the late morning and early afternoon, most homes are completely vacant. Most burglars do not, to the chagrin of overzealous gun owners, want to be anywhere near anyone while committing a crime.

So, your point is that the time of days is irrelevant? Glad you cleared that up for the obfuscant. Except there's this one lingering problem - it was the front door. In broad daylight. In plain view. What kind of burglar - wishing to avoid being near anyone - tries to break in from the most visible place on the entire property?

Sorry, that's just not how it works. The cops don't know you live there, hell, they don't even know who you are, but they have received a 911 call reporting a 911 call. They are legally required to follow up on this by establishing whether or not a crime has happened,

No, simply receiving a "911 call" is not enough to justify entering the house of someone who appears to be complying. Absent any other suspicious activity, a 911 call in which the caller herself is unsure that anything wrong is going on is far from reasonable suspicion. If that's all it took to be reasonable, well (a) Crowley would not have felt that he had to lie in his report about what the caller said to him when he arrived and (b) the fourth amendment would, for all intents and purposes, be rendered moot since it would fall to the lightest possible allegation.

And they'd be perfectly happy to explain to you that they are investigating a reported possible break-in, and that without ID they cannot assume it is your home. You're trying to establish an obvious catch-22 here, and you're an idiot if you think any court or jury with 2 working brain-cells would ever take it seriously.

The only idiot here is the person who thinks that an extremely hesitant and equivocating 911 call constitutes reasonable suspicion. If the caller had said something like, "I know who lives there and those men jimmying the front door definitely do not live there" then that would be another thing. But a report that says things like, "I don't know if they live there and they just had a hard time with their key," and talks about the front door out in plain sight is far from strong enough evidence to convince any court or jury with 2 working brain-cells that following an obviously complying man into his home is necessary.

The only reason to follow him into the house was if there was some other reason to be suspicious of him beyond what the 911 caller said, and the only other factor that has been reported is that Gates was black. No wonder he was pissed.

So, so far, in Massachusetts, it's illegal to leave Lite Brites out, illegal to wear a shirt with LEDs on it, illegal to do chemistry at home, illegal to delete spam email(!!) , and now it's legal to secretly track people with GPS systems?!

What the hell is wrong with that state?

Money is tight, but seems the city had enough money for this, though.

You need to look up this case. There's an image of the artwork, and an article on it, at http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/09/mit_student_arr.html. When she was asked about it by an employee, she just walked away, and besides the circuit board she had a lump of what looked like putty in her hands. (Upon closer examination, it was flower shaped sculpture.) That raised the concerns of the airport security quite a lot. The object wasn't large, but it's not clear even to me at first glance what it was supposed to be.

Given the historical problems at Logan Airport (where the 9/11 terrorists launched from), and the ongoing IED problems and threats against Americans coming from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the testimony that she didn't stop or answer questions when asked, the security response is completely understandable. And if the bomb were real, what are they going to do? Throw a batarang at her?

Basic research has gone the way of the Dodo, just like the dividend and investors happy with stable growth.

Allow people to easily bypass mutual funds in their 401(k) plans and we'll see a return to stable companies with long term growth prospects. It may help get a CEO who thinks down the road more than 5 years too.

As a Maine resident, I hear about Fairpoint quite a bit. Never in a good light.

To put it in perspective, Fairpoint brings us such blunders as 911 outages and Horrible Customer Service which has prompted Investigations by local governments.

In short Fairpoint is horrendous!

Man, you're telling me. I have all sorts of problems with my cat messing with electronics when I'm not around. Even had news stories and sheriffs get all riled up over this. People seem not to believe me :/

- Keith Griffin

When I think Segway, first I think of the annoying guy on the Arrested Development TV show, which itself is annoying. And then I think of these photos from the Beijing olympics.

It's not an error. Times Less = 1/x times as much in language, and has done so for 3 centuries

"Jonathan Swift, for instance, used it in 1711, writing "I am resolved to drink ten times less than before." It wasn't till the 20th century that language commentators - not mathematicians - came up with the notion that "three times closer" and "100 times slower" were illogical and confusing."

from http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/10/21/do_the_math/

Just because it sounds like it can be misinterpreted doesn't mean it's wrong. "5 times less" in english is the same as 1/5 in mathematics.

High unemployment (average of double digit unemployment over the past 20 years or so). High taxes, including a 20% VAT, 40% income tax, 12% social tax, just to name a few. Higher crime rates (with a source). I could go on.

And what if I want to work more than 35 hours a week (I do)? Who are you to tell me I should legally not be allowed to?
What if I want to work more than 47 weeks a year (I do)? Who are you to tell me I should legally not be allowed to?
Your definition of free is sorely mistaken (see taxes above, large copayments (10-40%), and >90% with private insurance).

People here complain all the time about "big media" stealing from bloggers, so why should we reward this blogger with clicks, when it's an obvious lift of boston.com's images from the "The Big Picture" section, just so the blogger can drive impressions to his page (which, if you noticed, is inundated with ads).

Here's the boston.com link.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/the_longest_solar_eclipse_of_t.html

these pics look much bigger nicer over at boston.com's The Big Picture, where they were posted yesterday and no doubt scooped and scaled for your link.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/the_longest_solar_eclipse_of_t.html

Actually, the live-action roleplaying community is pretty cool. And since most LARPing is done outside, it's a great way for otherwise basement-dwelling nerds to get outside and enjoy the sun...

Which is more that can be said for those vampire Otherkin communities created by those shitty teen vampire romance novels (especially Twilight). Those people are batshit insane. There's even been rumors going around that a prominent Boston prep school is inhabited by "vampires" to the point where the police had to get involved.

This article didn't seem to mention the fact that other companies also received the same amount for concept development.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/07/15/raytheon_gets_space_fence_contract/
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/press_releases/2009/063009_LM_AirForce_SpaceFence.html

Actually, after searching google news, no article paints the complete picture with awards going to all three competitors, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.

Handy? Yes. But you don't have a job where you go to new cities on a weekly basis and drive around trying to find a new place.

Secondly, sure I can find my way around Boston with a map. With the way people there drive, the fact that half the streets have no signs and the new signs for the other half are so damn confusing, I gave up. I grew tired of getting lost (damn rotaries) and just got myself a GPS. Now, my life is peaceful and the GPS is probably one of the best investments ever.

Palestinians to do inhuman test on, it goes with the inhuman concentration camps they're in.

These "camps" you speak of look a hell of a lot like cities.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/2892931020089791706gjXfOM

yeah... looks serene...

"http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/scenes_from_the_gaza_strip.html"

The NIMBY crowd would be more than happy to Luddite civilization into the stone age, and then complain about the lack of affordable power. Californians are the worst at this -- in the US, anyway.

You mean like Senator Ted Kennedy (www.boston.com):

...But, it turns out, Kennedy's antipathy to furtive rules changes and backroom power plays stops at the water's edge -- specifically, the waters of Nantucket Sound, which separates Cape Cod (where the Kennedy family has an oceanfront compound in Hyannis Port) from the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. A shoal in the center of Nantucket Sound is where Cape Wind Associates hopes to build the nation's first offshore wind farm -- an array of 130 wind turbines capable of generating enough electricity to meet 75 percent of the Cape and Islands' energy needs, without burning any oil or emitting any pollution. The turbines would be miles from any coastal property, barely visible on the horizon. In fact, Cape Wind says they would be farther away from the nearest home than any other electricity generation project in Massachusetts.

But like a lot of well-to-do Cape and Islands landowners and sailing enthusiasts, Kennedy doesn't want to share his Atlantic playground with an energy facility, no matter how clean, green, and nearly unseen. Last month he secretly arranged for a poison-pill amendment, never debated in either house of Congress, to be slipped into an unrelated Coast Guard bill. It would give the governor of Massachusetts, who just happens to be a wind farm opponent, unilateral authority to veto the Cape Wind project.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/07/kennedy_doesnt_play_by_the_rules/