Crosswords are pretty popular, too, yet I've never heard people who don't like them complain about what an idiotic pasttime it is.

There is obviously something compelling about Sudoku puzzles for them to be so popular. As solving the puzzles is dangerous to nobody, takes up very few natural resources, and is generally quiet and unobtrusive, I don't see what the problem is. You don't like them, don't buy them. It's as simple as that.

"Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport"? That's a mouthful and a half.

Dan Vincent: you say you don't know who to believe on the "rendition" flights. Would the 2006 report on these by Dick Marty, the Council of Europe rapporteur on the subject, have any credit with you? The Council of Europe is an association of 46 European countries, founded in 1949. Its mission is "to protect human rights, pluralist democracy, and the rule of law".

A page of link to the sections of the report:

http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc06/EDOC10957.htm

And the main part of the report:

http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/doc06/edoc10957.pdf

Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states

Report

Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights

Rapporteur: Mr Dick Marty, Switzerland, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

Enough said.

Many congratulations for a well-deserved award!

I've always described Salon as a "web magazine" or an "online magazine" when telling people about something I've read here.

"Cosmopolis" was the first DeLillo book I read, and it will probably remain the last. Earnest, pointless, self-important artsy-fartsy crap.

dgholstein writes:

In 1979 at the school where I earned my physics degree, FAU, a professor there was being funded to measure CO2 absorption spectrum specifically to monitor how that greenhouse gas is progressing in our atmosphere. Before that, astronomers (including Carl Sagan) had noted that the planets of Venus and Mars seemed to be hotter than they should be, "why might that be?", they asked -- maybe it is their CO2 atmospheres.

Was is your point here? If it's to point out that even naturally occurring CO2 can cause atmospheric warming, not just CO2 released as a result of human actions, I have news for you: that is not one disputed by any climate change scientists. The Earth would be quite cold without this effect.

It is 2007 and Sheryl Crow and Laurie David are touring around in a biodiesel bus, saving maybe 15 to 25% of the petroleum diesel they would normally use. If they draw 2,000 to 5,000 people to their "global warming" tour, drawing 1500 to 3000 cars, driving an average of 50 miles round trip at an average of 20 MPG -- I figure each "global warming" concert accounts for 5000 gallons of fuel just burned up and put into our atmosphere.

Your point here is disingenuous. Since our societies' transport infrastructures are mostly based on the internal-combustion and jet engines, everybody in the world, except for the poorest, contributes to burning fossil fuels. So how could any touring artist avoid this? If these two artists would not have gone on their tour, do you think members of their audience would all have forgone using their cars for the day of the concert?

In any case, if you think anthropogenic global warming is bunk, and therefore burning fossil fuels has no harmful effects on the climate, then whyever are you worried about the concert tour's effect on fuel consumption?

What's my point? Global Warming has turned into a religion,

Really? It seems to me that the shoe is very much on the other foot. On the one hand, to mix my metaphors slightly, we have decades of peer-reviewed science, and broad agreement among the vast majority of the field's experts; on the other, people who are wilfully ignorant of the scientific arguments, like ostriches sticking their heads in the sand.

For the deniers of anthropogenic global warming to maintain their beliefs, a religious attitude is required -- strong in their beliefs no matter what the temptations of the devil, even if the guise of science based on evidence and reason.

LW, when asked for a reference on this person, simply give the following two words:

"Means well."

I have to disagree with this review. I thought the film veered way over the line into sap. The cinematography was good, and Rasmussen was indeed easy on the eyes; but compared to "Nikita", the best Luc Besson film I've seen, this is rather weak tea. Two stars.

Well-designed, modern, clean, efficient, and punctual. In passenger satisfaction surveys, regularly places at or near the top of the list. Europe's most punctual airport in 2005. A short walk from the gate to the taxis, buses, and parking. There's no train service yet, but a commuter line to central Helsinki is being planned. Three runways. Contains a full set of services, including a small transit hotel. Has been expanded several times since it was built for the 1952 Olympics, and the latest expansion is in progress, to cater for the growing Asia-to-Europe gateway service, and to accommodate A380s (which are not nearly as ugly as some sources keep alleging).

http://www.helsinki-vantaa.fi/home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki-Vantaa_Airport

That was a fair summary of the article's points, matthwa. On the other hand, I fail to see any point in your complaint.

If the iPhone turns out to be of poor quality, no one is going to see it on evening news? Are evening news in the US going to be discontinued after 29 June 2007, then?

So now the A380 is "the worst-looking piece of industrial design ever conceived by human beings"?

Enough said.