Wow, this response from an 'Indian' has grammatical English much as a literate American would write... Just saying...

Does anyone recall in the book of Revelation 13:16-18, where it says, speaking of a Beast from the Earth,: "And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." Does anyone have this feeling crawling up the back of your neck that we may have found this beast? Oh, hang on a minute, there's a knock at my door... .

That's right. They needed a reason to let go a large chunk of the staff after the Christmas season (this was at the now-defunct Service Merchandise), and probably hoped that by firing us, it would reduce our chances of being able to collecting unemployment compensation. When I asked to see the inventory paperwork that I had "messed up" they refused to produce any proof of their allegation. But they *did* produced a piece of paper and asked me to sign it. Without bothering to read it, I already knew what it said; it was to release SM of any legal liability in firing me. They must have hoped that most of the people they were firing were idiots. I refused (of course) and walked out.

Absolutely. Same happened to me; a lie passed during the polygraph, but a true statement was flagged as a lie. Worthless.

At one job, many years ago, I was forced to take a polygraph (or lose my job). According to the investigator running the show, I lied (or seemed evasive) about a couple of serious questions, which I did not; I told the complete truth to every question, having nothing to hide. Specifically, I was asked if I had / or knew of anyone else who had stolen expensive items from the store (which I hadn't & had no knowledge of anyone else doing so). Very shortly after that I was fired for 'messing up' inventory, along with about 1/3 of the work staff. Interestingly, this was right after the busy Christmas season had ended. It's clear to me that they are totally unreliable as truth detectors. Sociopaths can pass them easily no matter what (terrible things) they have done.

A long explanation that doesn't hold up. The reasons are simpler than previously described. At the time before and of the Apollo program, when the space program was young, there was much better focus among the political leadership and, mostly, by NASA itself. Disagreements of logistics and methodology were handled better, and logically. Technology limited the paths that could be taken in many of the questions presented by the challenge of space exploration and ultimately the moon landing itself than today. Running against the Russians to the moon gave America focus and drive that hasn't existed since; when you're number ONE (to the moon), what do you have to prove after that? We've been sitting on our laurels since then... The physics of lunar travel, orbital rendezvous, and interplanetary travel for that matter, are very very well understood today, as opposed to the 1960s when computers were crude and huge. An understanding of the physics involved are a non-issue to be sure, and now solved in high school physics classes. Rockets, engines, and orbital mechanics, are now calculated by small computers rather than slide rules and pencils. Materials technology has evolved significantly from what was known and available in the '60s. We could build a lighter, more powerful, and safer, Saturn-class booster than 60 years ago. but it would be more expensive due to inflation, and the more complicated metallurgy involved in these advanced materials. The bottom line is, splintered political factions and lukewarm attitudes of the American populace are the reasons we forgot the moon in 1972 along with so much of what we learned in the process of getting there. In the meantime, without a driving force to give us focus, we tend to be a silly people.

I have a color Xerox Phaser as well, an older model. Bought it used, and cheap. A business-oriented model. Paper jams sometimes, but otherwise it's been a workhorse, and I buy OEM toner cartridges fairly cheap on eBay. Love laser printers; the toner NEVER dries out, no ink-wasting cleaning cycles, and the prints are waterproof. However, I also have an HP Designjet 130 (24") inkjet printer. A laser printer that size, if they exist, would be far too expensive. The Designjet inkjet output is stunning, a laser printer couldn't touch it. And it makes poster-sized prints. The six ink cartridges run about $40 each, but I've been amazed at how long they last. I tried much cheaper 3rd party ink cartridges from eBay for my wide Epson printer (I bought, like, 10 black and 10 color cartridges), and wasted my money: half of the cartridges didn't even work, and the ones that did had terrible color and faded quickly. If your prints are of no real importance, the sure, go with the cheap ink. For serious artwork, the more expensive OEM cartridges from HP for my Designjet are worth every penny!

I once had a car that had lost almost all power; it was scary attempting to pull out into any kind of traffic. Took it to my local shop for a $75 diagnostic, and when I came back they told me to try "....(several things that I already had tried or replaced)". But, they were the mechanics, so I did them again. Wasted another $60 in parts, no change. I was so pissed off at wasting $75 for the diagnostic, that I took the car back a few days later, with a letter I handed to the manager, that said something like "...Please don't give me your opinions about what is wrong with my car; I can get opinions for free, lots of them. I even have my own already. I'm not paying for opinions! You're the professionals with the professional tools to properly diagnose my car's problems, yes? If you can't professionally complete this task, keep your opinions to yourself, tell me you don't know, and I'll take my car and my business elsewhere. Please call me with any questions..." They called me later that afternoon and said the car was fixed, and had lots of power, like new. They were right! It had never run better, and I know that my letter made the difference. And there was no additional charge! Moral Of This Story: Don't tolerate second-rate work that you paid for! BTW, I once worked at a Precision Tune many years ago, and they wanted to get me, with no previous auto repair experience, ASE certified, which required (I think) a few years of previous auto repair experience. When I asked the owner about that requirement, which I failed, he told me, "There are ways around that." Shortly afterward, I too had an ASE certificate hanging on the wall in the customer waiting room, with my name on it. So understand; those ASE certs hanging on the walls in the shop may not mean anything; the one with my name sure didn't!