At first I thought that this article was just "sophomoric contrarianism." I then looked up the authors and found out they have dedicated their lives to environmental causes.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_Shellenberger

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ted_Nordhaus

So perhaps the tendencies they decry within the environmental movement are actually a problem.

I just wish they were better and more persuasive writers.

Net revenue is a far better barometer than net income of whether on organization could support the costs of a lawsuit (or any other unplanned cost of doing business).

Consider the following:

Company A: net revenue $300,000, net income $50,000

Company B: net revenue $20,000,000,000, net income -$100,000

Which company could better afford $1,000,000 in litigation?

Wow! Why are there so many angry atheists?

I was raised an atheist but eventually got bored of it. If we are free to define "God" however the hell we want to, why not come up with a definition that you can believe in?

As far as I can tell there are basically two different atheist positions:

A)"there is no such thing as God"

B)"I am indifferent to this whole god concept, and feel it is a waste of time thinking about something that we could never prove"

The former position requires that one have a definition of "God" while the latter position requires that one does not.

While it is very easy, and often emotionally satisfying, to contemplate what things I do not believe, I find it much more rewarding (and much more challenging) trying to figure out exactly what I do believe. For this reason I prefer to believe in God (defined any way I want) rather than not.

The fun (and imaginative) part is coming up with that definition, and it is a lifelong creative process.

I guess I could do the same thing without reference to the word 'God', but then I'd just cutting myself off from all that thinking that has gone into all the different religious traditions around the world regarding one's relationship to the universe and finding meaning within it.

I am not going to give you my working definition at the moment, but I will say that it is constantly evolving, and (take note Styrofoam Blocks) it does help me sleep at night.

A couple weeks ago an Airbus A-319 flying from Victoria, BC to Toronto hit some severe turbulence over the Rockies and had to land in Calgary because several passengers were injured:

Air Canada Flight 190 not only lost altitude but also pitched violently from right to left before dropping 900 feet.

"The aircraft rolled to the right to about 35 degrees of bank and rolled to the left about 50 degrees of bank and effectively the auto pilot was disconnected," said Nick Stoss of the Transportation Safety Board.

The flight, en route from Victoria to Toronto, made an emergency landing in Calgary. Two crew members and eight passengers were admitted to hospital, most with soft tissue injuries, and released later that night.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/01/11/flight-calgary.html

They are now saying wake turbulence is the likely cause:

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether a United Airlines aircraft, flying just ahead of the Air Canada Airbus, created "wake turbulence" that caused the plane to sway and plunge. Wake turbulence is a powerful vortex of air that trails behind an aircraft as it flies. It can last up to two minutes after a plane has passed.

The United flight, which was flying just ahead of the Air Canada Airbus - perhaps as close as 12 kilometres - had the potential to create wake turbulence that could have caused the Air Canada plane's plummet, said Canadian Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson...

www.canada.com/topics/news/national /story.html?id=c8d743e2-bed8-4543-b60d-beb88e275010

I never understood the whole POW/MIA campaign. Vietnam still has over 300,000 MIA from that war. Why should its government give higher priority to finding the small number (by comparison)of unfound remains left from soldiers of the country that invaded them?

Yet you still those POW/MIA flags flying everywhere. What do they even stand for now?

Remember his moment of guilt and shame in Season 3, when Bunk tells him about the kids on the block pretending to be him? Even though he lived by a code, and followed his own rules, and was a sort of hero because of that, his death at the hands of a child reminds us that the legend of Omar - his legacy - is one that contributed to the violence and cheapening of life in Baltimore.

I also think this was a good move. It will help keep Salon letters an interesting and integral part of the site. I find that Salon letters are generally a cut or two above what you tend to find on the Internet and I suspect this move will only contribute to their overall quality.