Thanks Ron! As a father of three, working full-time, my salary would not afford me the opportunity to go back to college to further my education in an effort to better myself, not only for me, but for my family. Take away federal grants and federal student loans and I will not be able to finish my degree. If you are young, still living at home then you would probably be ok working a part time job to pay for your tuition and books, etc. However, if you are like me (and many of my classmates), who are displaced, trying to work toward another career while working full time and raising a family, those federal funds are necessary. I honestly believe that we can cut a lot of waste in Washington without ending programs that help people! But what the hell do I know, I'm just one of the 99%.

Unfortunately, even on a Mac you still get the "MS office 30 day nag trial".

From Dell's site: "You are already using WINDOWS programs (e.g. Microsoft Office, ITunes etc) and want to continue using them" Since when is iTunes a WINDOWS program? Damn, Dell will have the boys in Cupertino on their ass next.

I suggest Flight Gear flight simulator. Any modern computer should be able to run it, it is not as graphics intensive as you might think, just need OpenGL. Great game, fun to play and also teaches the physics of flight and world geography. My kids and I love it! You can find pre-built Debian packages at http://packages.debian.org/sid/flightgear they should install just fine on Ubuntu.

Quote from Photo #3 comment: "Release valves designed to let leaking gas escape could not let it out fast enough to prevent the damage." I hope that money not only goes to repairs but also to beef up the safety net. I'll be really pissed if we destroy our planet over budget concerns.