Not sure how one could come to such an assumption. Let's take a real example: Israel with a population of 8 million people has already built a fence of 300+ miles, with a final length of 400+ miles (the project started in 2002). This fence has nearly shutdown any and all intrusion attempts from some of the most "determined" border crossers on the planet. Any you to suppose that a country of 300+ million people (nearly 40 times more people) cannot build an equally competent fence of 3000 miles (only 7 to 8 times longer) then the Israeli's have? We might not have the political will to do so -- but the task is certainly not "IMPOSSIBLE".

2 things to note: Represa de Furnas is a reservoir -- which didn't exist until man created it in 1957. The Aral Sea is a natural feature, and to give some perspective on how much water was diverted, one could transfer all the water from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario (Great Lakes) and still not refill it...

But what about flying whales? (or should that be falling ones)... Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet. And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more.

Don't forget big legal -- hence no tort reform in the bill, not that malpractice insurance is that expensive...

But you have to remember that a significant "influencer" on the democratic side of the legislation was the trial lawyers guild (hence no tort reform in the bill). If we truly "nationalize" the industry, you end up either throwing the trial lawyers under the bus, which would probably be the best case for the taxpayer, but not good for a significant source of democratic campaign cash -OR- you have the trial lawyers going after the government directly for malpractice payouts. The former might actually be a plus for nationalizing health care -- i.e. the majority wanted government to run and be responsible for doctors and nurses and hospitals and so forth -- no problem, but don't sue if anything untoward happens or perfection is not achieved when government bureaucrats make the decisions on what and how care is provided. The alternative is somewhat scarier to be honest. Mistakes happen (which it seems like they must), the same or even empowered trial lawyers guild steps in to sue the government, which then re-directs more taxpayer money to those harmed, with the trial lawyers take a percentage on, which cuts another chunk of that lucre back to the politicians -- wash and repeat -- and see how corrupt this process end up...

Could not agree more with this statement -- Unix under the hood is THE reason I have a half dozen mac's today (whole family). I have made a number of serious runs at switching back to Windows (latest several months ago with Windows 7 (64 bit), but the combination of Unix under the hood and the UI above is just a tough combination to beat.

Could have sworn that XP was not available before Windows 2000 -- but what do I know...

It is frequently not any of the above at higher altitudes where this weapon is designed to operate -- it is on a plane after all...

Not quite understanding the purpose behind this application. After all, the perpetrator who illegally parked their car is admitting quilt, just that they want to pay less to the government. This is what is wrong with this country in the first place. Folks are too selfish as it is, don't they realize the benefit that comes from transferring their money to the government? It is proven that that money spent by the government returns more value to society then any other type of potential spending. The sooner we all buck up and pay government it's fair share -- the sooner the economy will pick up, providing benefit to all folks in the most equitable manner possible.

You might need to bump up the total cost when one thinks of depreciation, but for the most part, you've got it right. I travel nearly weekly, and I've only ever done it on trains 3 times for business. The first was a business meeting in Chicago (Sears Tower) in the afternoon. Took an overnight from upstate NY to Chicago (12 hours), walked the block from the train station to the meeting and an overnight back. At the time, the cost was a third what the airlines wanted, but today it would be MUCH different. Flight costs have moderated a lot from the go-go 90's. Nowadays, traveling by train could never work (especially since my company has to pay for every hour of travel time (which mostly counts as overtime -- i.e. time and a half), due to the latest California laws (although getting paid for the 36 hour trip to Chicago would have been nice).

But the solution is so obvious. Just have the government step in with tax dollars to fund these icons of journalism. After all, if the plebeians are too cheap to fund what is so obviously beneficial to the control of them, then the state must step in and make them contribute to that apparatus.

Typical web browsing (which these days means lots of flash :-( as well). Safari just seems to accumulate more cruft over time, using more memory, and generally getting slower until it crashed (every couple of days). FireFox in my experience appears to be much more kind on memory usage 200-300 MB over time, as opposed ti Safari (500-600MB over the same timeframes). Even with the extra memory, it didn't appear to perform any quicker. I really wanted to standardize on Safari (have used it most of the last 3-4 years, but the latest version of FireFox on OSX is really quite good, including: - Inline support for PDF's - Less memory usage - more compatible with my range of websites I think/hope Safari/Webkit will continue to improve, but for me, for now, FireFox is just a better browser on OSX (this coming from someone with a whole family of Mac computer users, an Apple TV, and Apple Extreme, iPhone, etc...).

Can't speak for Windows or Linux, but the latest versions of Safari are memory whore's on OSX 10.5. Put up with it as long as I could, but eventually had to switch to FireFox on my Mac (with 3 GB of memory), just to get my sanity back (besides which, more sites that I need access to play nicer with FireFox then with Safari).

I have to stop this thread now -- respond as many times as you like, as I will not be responding anymore. You must be one of the biggest horse's asses on slashdot (which is saying something). Have fun with your life, I truly feel sorry for the twisted, mean and ridiculous world witch you inhabit, and I don't wish to be drawn any further into your lunacy... Have a fun life, although I doubt you are capable of it.