I was up by the ATK plant last month. My Aunt died. She had lived within sight of the Morton Thiokol plant on the Utah-Idaho border for almost 30 years. Her Husband retired from it. ATK has displays set up out front of some of the solid fuel rockets they make. Most are military medium or short range types. The shuttle boosters are featured too.

What if they could have a successful orbital insertion by March? The have the Contract, they can get paid for any work done. If they do, they might be able to get the full contract value. It would be a nice touch. NASA even has a history of canceling replacement programs for the Shuttle, just before they work.

That would be sweet! maybe ATK could compete with SpaceX.

You forgot a couple of things. First, the University of Maryland associated polling organization did the referenced poll in 2003. I went first to the site of the polling organization, and looked for the poll. I couldn't find it. Then I went to the Article and jumped to the referenced poll. Look at the date.

Wow! no wonder the Fox viewers didn't know much about President Obama. in 2003, he was an Illinois State Senator. Not even US.

The Article is extremely biased and dishonest. It's just a bunch of Mainstream Journalists who are worried that Fox is going to take their jobs. (Fox is blasting PBS, ABC, NBC and CBS in the ratings. Remember, )

Oh well, if you can't find something nasty to say, just make it up! that's what Dan Rather did. But, he got caught. then fired. Now the NY Times is coming off of a several year long string of being exposed reporting things that never were. But, it's all Fox's fault. Just like every mistake Obama has been called for is Bush's fault. You know, like that hurricane.

No wonder Slashdot has a reputation of being a hangout for immature leftist juveniles.

There are some things I have read about on Fox News (internet site, I don't watch broadcast news. Too many opinions masquerading as news with limited sound bites.) You can not get the meaning of a half hour speach in one 15 second sound bite. I get that whenever i watch Fox, CNN, CBS, ABC, etc. I prefer to read online. Fox, CNN, some PBS. WSJ, a little Politico. also, Science News, Scientific American, Space.Com. The mainstream media can't seem to understand what science and technology reporting is. All of them seem to think that a new video game is what Science and Technology reporting is. Sad.

On the subject of Barack Obamas birth, Hawaii says that he was born there. OK, subject closed. He qualifies. Per Fox News.

On the subject of the Health Care thing, a majority of Americans oppose it. That explains the recent congressional elections. the Democrats are still smarting and lying about that one. Kind of like what the Republicans did 4 years ago. maybe the Dems would be better off if they did watch Fox.

In case you didn't know, ALL political labels are false.

Republicans call themselves "Conservatives" but want to change everything. Conservative means resistant to change.

Democrats call themselves "Liberal" but want to take all the money and don't want to allow any disagreement. Liberal means either generous and open minded, willing to listen to all views, or promoting liberty in politics.

Both labels are false.

The "Progressive" label is equally so. To have progress, you have to have a goal. No goal is mentioned. The only progress that the "Progressives" I have seen have made is towards total state control and national bankruptcy. That is not progress.

"Fair" only means that you agree with their bias.

"The problem with books is that if the parent is a religious fundamentalist type, you end up donating to the local circular file."

That only indicates that you insist on picking things that will insult the child's parents. The question was phrased by someone who wants to get what is best for the child, not someone who wants to insult the family.

Yes, it is inappropriate to give a child books with sexual themes. It is inappropriate to give a child books that belittle what the parents believe. Even if you worship at the Throne of Darwin, not everyone does. When in doubt, ask the parents advice. It will help you win in the long run. The child will reach an age where they make up their own mind. If you want to still be in the kid's life, then show a little respect.

It's the adult thing to do.

Yo yos have been around for thousands of years. They are still easily available. Still bits of plastic, but enjoyable none the less.

For the SciFi fans out there, remember that Dr. Who's tool for measuring the strength of gravity on any planet was a Yo yo.

If you can't beat them get them to join you. Microsoft will find a way to make money off of this. Not least by selling a ton of Konnect units for PC's now.

I have a Motorola Droid on Verizon. I have not experienced this bloatware you speak of. Could you be more specific?

I have seen a lot of bloatware on new computers and laptops. The first several hours of the life of a new machine is spent removing unwanted sales applications. I had none of this on my Android. The Verizon rep did install one App not on the default PDA set. He put in an App Killer. All the rest I have loaded from the Google store. One or Two from Verizon's store.Now I have about 2 dozen apps, and use about 6; Some of the rest are for the wife and grand kids.

This makes me wonder if you know what you are talking about.

On the other hand, Google does know where I am. That goes with the map app. I knew it when I installed. Oh well...

Build things - been doing that for 50 years.

vacuum floors - been doing that for 6 years.

Bring food - Been doing that for a decade. Mail in offices too.

Playing with the kids - been doing that for 9 years.

Preforming Surgery. - I had some heart work done by a robot 2 years ago. It's mainstream stuff.

Driving a car, Google is doing that right now, they have over 100,000 miles logged. Europeans have been doing this for 10 years.

Only running for political office is not something they already do. About half of Congress in the US are puppets for corporate lobbyists anyway, so that shouldn't be a problem. Most voters would never notice.

This poll is too little too late!

Bread and milk are relatively easy. anything with sunlight and a growth medium can provide it.

Fact is that we are using enough wheat and fodder right now making ethanol to feed several hundred million people. we are also burning enough petroleum distilling the ethanol to exceed the heat value of the ethanol.

Our main problem is bad government decisions.

Milk just takes cows. Yeah, that means lots of methane (a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2), but well, that's life. You can get both bread and milk right now anywhere on earth, if you have the money. Personally, I prefer cheese.

That should tell you where the problems really are.

Lucky for us there is a large Moon nearby. It has a lot of resources.

As a geologist I once knew had on his bumper, "EARTH FIRST! we'll mine the rest of the planets later."

Meanwhile, a little judicious recycling will be helpful. So will more nuclear power plants. Solar, wind and Hydro all have too many environmental impacts.

If the US has problems with building Nukes, we can always buy them from the French!

No, because it wouldn't have happened.

But, for a long document, Lyx would be better.

I am waiting for VLC on Android.

A simple solution might be to send up a sounding rocket to the altitude where a typical debris cloud is and just release a cloud of nitrogen gas. the cloud will fall soon into the atmosphere, the sounding rocket will too. the debris field will have a short time in a very low density gas cloud, and drop in it's orbit. Normal decay will then reduce the overall problem.

Presumably, the AF knows where the debris is. Look for any clusters. Publish where and when it is going to be taken out. Unless someone objects, with a why, then do it. Probably find out who owns a lot of the back satellites that way.

Begin to get rid of the litter. We won't finish until after we start. Right now, there is no cleanup.

Maybe a first test run, then, when we can predict the outcome, a regular program of removal.

. . . that allowing the manufacturer to sell directly to the public (Perhaps in a different color) will drive down the cost of the unit because of larger production volumes. That is after all why the origional OLPC missed the $100 PC missed it's target price.