oops ... forgot to add this comment to my initial post. I grew up in a rural area near a small town. There were 100 people in my high school graduating class. I had known more than half of them since kindergarten ... so by the time I had graduated, I was pretty much ready to leave them behind and meet some new and interesting people. I'm sure many of them think/thought the same thing about me also, hahaha, but that does not matter to me at all.

I graduated from high school in 1988, went away to college and have pretty much been away from my home town since then. I kept up with some of my high school friends for a few years, but I've made new and better friends since then. I got back in touch with a few high school friends on Facebook and we communicate from time to time and that's just perfect. I didn't go to either of my reunions (10 or 20 year) simply because I had no interest in going. It might have been nice to go out of morbid curiosity, but aside from that, I decided it was not worth the effort. Heck, it's been so long and I've had so many new and more exciting experiences that I barely remember anything about those 4 years (less than 10%) of my life. Things change, people. Get over it.

I used to think Facebook was pointless ... however, a friend convinced me to use it and I signed up. I actually like it ... yes, yes, yes, I know all about the supposedly "horrific" privacy violations and all of that jibberish. However, as someone mentioned above, I couldn't care less whether or not some marketing drone knows I like Whole Foods. Anything I post about or talk about on Facebook is something those people would have found out in some other way. With a little self control, and some common sense, you are not going to get yourself into trouble by using social media sites like Facebook. I have met many people on Facebook that I would not have met otherwise- and yes I have met the majority of the people on my friends list face-to-face, including the ones who live outside of the US.

A lot of libraries "loan" eBooks.... I know plenty of Nook users who borrow eBooks from libraries all the time ...

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/26619/how-to-loan-an-ebook

On a few recent flights I was on, I took a look around the cabin.... the majority of the people who were reading, were reading eBooks (and there were more iPads and Nooks than there were Kindles).

I've had the opposite experience... all of the eBooks I've purchased have been less than the hardback version. I've not checked the paperback prices on all of them (some were not available in paperback) and generally the eBook price was comparable. In the few instances where the price was slightly higher, the convenience of an eBook offset the slightly higher price.

I buy a few books a month, just what I can read in the time that I have. I am pretty sure that I spend less on books than most people spend on other forms of entertainment.

The loss of the ability of lending a book is not really a big deal for me because I never really loan any books out. My friends who are readers generally read different things than I do and if I find something that I think they might enjoy, I'll just buy it for them. In the past, I've sold some books that I no longer had any use or need for, however, not being able to resell an eBook is not that big a deal either.

I still buy traditional books. It all depends on the book and what I'll be using it for. However, the majority of my book purchases have been eBooks over the past year.

I have a NOOKcolor (and had a wifi Nook before that). Like you, I waited until the prices dropped a bit on the readers before I purchased one. I sold my wifi Nook when I got my NOOKcolor. eBooks are great for a lot of genres, but I still buy a hardcopy book from time to time. I prefer hardcopy cookbooks and I prefer getting magazines in electronic format.

Sure, you can not really loan an ebook, however, I rarely ever loaned any of my hardcopy books, so that's not a big loss for me (many of my friends are not readers, and the ones who do read are generally interested in other things). I think technical books are good candidates for ebooks, simply because many of them are huge and take up a lot of space on the shelf.

I especially like being able to take a "stack" of books with me while traveling and not have to worry about "books" taking up space in my luggage.

I'll agree with that also. The wifi capabilities of the Nook are more than adequate for its intended use.

I wanted an iPad but kept talking myself out of purchasing one ... then B&N announced the NOOKcolor and I was tempted again. I ended up getting one for myself in December and I have been very pleased with it also. I primarily wanted it for eBooks (I had a wifi Nook and sold it after I got the Color) but the extra tablet functionality is nice- especially at half the price of an iPad. It's not as full-featured as an iPad and B&N are touting it a an e-reader, but it's certainly a device worth investigating.

I have not rooted mine (as someone who is familiar with Aussie slang, "rooting" a device makes me feel uncomfortable, hahaha, but I'll go along with the term) but It's good to hear from another person who's pleased with the NOOKcolor.

FedEx (and other carriers) handle materials like this all the time. Also, if you had bothered to do a little more research you would have found this article:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-26/fedex-seeks-missing-shipment-of-radioactive-rods-used-in-ct-scan.html

quoute:
"The recovered cylinder, which was about 10 inches long and weighed 20 pounds, contained four rods of germanium-68, used in medical-imaging cameras. Their total radioactivity is 684 megaBecquerels, the equivalent of about 18 microcuries, said David McIntyre, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The rods are among the least significant sources of radioactivity from health and security perspectives, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

If someone had opened the canister, “it would take like 1,000 hours of exposure to get a skin blister,” Munoz said."

Rural life has a lot more to offer than "country music" and "small bars".

Besides, Forest City is a little over an hour from Charlotte-
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Charlotte,+NC&daddr=Forest+City,+NC&hl=en&geocode=Fc-FGQIdiW4u-ymBGjj8xB9UiDFk0UO_5lBGiA%3BFXsnGwIdcdYe-ymL-Li2eUBXiDEcD-cexdHc0Q&gl=us&mra=ls&sll=35.330812,-81.864624&sspn=3.136834,3.66394&ie=UTF8&z=9

Kings Mountain is a little over 30 minutes frmo Charlotte:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=kings+mountain,+NC&daddr=Charlotte,+NC&hl=en&geocode=FU7MGQId9tQm-yl3b2jZZN1WiDHoaxOciHBonA%3BFc-FGQIdiW4u-ymBGjj8xB9UiDFk0UO_5lBGiA&gl=us&mra=ls&sll=35.289595,-81.602645&sspn=0.784656,0.915985&ie=UTF8&ll=35.256834,-81.088715&spn=0.784971,0.915985&z=10

and Maiden is about an hour away
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Maiden,+NC&daddr=Charlotte,+NC&hl=en&geocode=FYnXHgIdnc4o-ymH5GR5yzRRiDFUcW6pZdAArw%3BFc-FGQIdiW4u-ymBGjj8xB9UiDFk0UO_5lBGiA&gl=us&mra=ls&sll=35.256834,-81.090088&sspn=0.784971,0.914612&ie=UTF8&z=11

These places are hardly remote and isolated. There will be plenty of people who will be willing to take the jobs offered in these places (and who will appreciate the low cost of living and the proximity to a larger city).

As bad as it was ... it was not nearly as awful as the SyFy "reimagination" of "Flash Gordon" or that awful NBC remake of "The Bionic Woman". I could not get through the first episode of either one of those shows. haha!

I think the writers made a huge blunder by not revealing that Ellen Tigh was a Cylon earlier on ... I think that they should have shown her being resurrected at the end of the episode where she died, instead of waiting until the final season. I think that would have made for a more interesting story line throughout the latter seasons.... or at least a decent cliffhanger.

haha, I made it through 1.5 episodes of SGU before giving up.... maybe I'm too old for these kinds of shows now. hmmm. hahaha!

oh, yeah.. I knew that. :) It's one of the other things that was annoying about the show (and the network). By the time the second half started airing, I'd pretty much forgotten what had happened in the first half.

"Another perspective here might be that a boring, ponderous show got yoinked because nobody watched it. Just sayin'"

I tend to agree. I gave "Caprica" a chance, but the story was not compelling enough to hold my interest. I gave up after the first part of the first season and never bothered with trying to watch any of the newer episodes. I keep thinking of the line from the 'reimagined' BSG "The Cylons Have a Plan" ... but the writers don't.