All that really matters (in terms of marketing) is that they have one that you can still see clearly in a well-lit room. Most people won't care about the contrast ratio, HDMI, or even (to a certain extent) lifespan as long as it "look good"

Funny all the different movies we've come up with--I immediately thought of Starship Troopers (which fits into the "bad" category much better than the Matrix in my opinion)

They missed three ticks... that means that three bugs had an opportunity to reproduce in the wild... Since such creatures tend to have high reproductive rates, isn't missing even three a problem?

#3-->the IS on my s2 is great--and there is a noticeable difference in picture quality between when it is on and when it's off. I haven't noticed much difference between IS/non-IS in battery drain either (a couple hundred pics on one set of 4 2500mah AAs is plenty for me). I was less impressed with the Panasonic (and Sony as well) features on the models I played with at the store.

Will these only work with Verizon (the photo shows their branding) or is there a choice along those lines as well?

I realize the photo to the right is just a stock photo, but could someone explain why the cone begins in midair?

I am a bit confused on the whole issue--the government should not be allowed to shutdown a service that millions have contracted for without requiring a provision for those who have so contracted, especially when it affects international business with travellers coming over from places where it has been affirmed as fully legal.

The main argument on behalf of keeping the service (apart from NTP's invalid patents at any rate) seems to be that a major government agency does not want to lose its service--is the government the one that really needs this failure protection?

#10-->

Just checked travel.state.gov and it indicates there will be shielding on all U.S. passports that will protect data from "skimming" as long as the passport remains closed. As well, all new U.S. passports (beginning 30 December 2005 in most areas!) will be "e-passports"

I'd love this, but Yahoo! won't function with Opera

I would think using robots instead of real people will help the opposition--the whole point of a protest is to get media attention and thereby rile people up enough to tick off (err... change) the governing body against which you are protesting.

Using robots will demonstrate that the people behind the protest don't really care enough to march themselves (or can't find enough real people to march with them). The protesters will be marginalized (like they should be in many cases... .001 percent of the population of a city marching should not cause change for the other 99.999 percent who don't care). We can then get on to more important news, like the moral dilemma over whether or not professors should use a red pen or a dark purple one when grading a test.