"Solar panels will become a lot more efficient."

They've been around for 40 years but the efficiency is still typically 10-20%.

But that's not really important. What matters is not watts-per-meter but watts-per-dollar. Make them cheap and rugged enough and people will just roof and side their houses with them.

"Why is the model always solar panels?"

Because they're simple.

"Why can't every desert landowner buy and operate such a facility, providing his or her own power and selling the excess?"

Because of the first-cost and the maintenance costs.

"The technology is simple and cheap, but for some reason no one is attempting to market such systems."

Because it's not as simple nor as cheap as simply getting juice from the grid.

"land is available in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah, states where the sun shines an average of something like 250 days a year?"

The problem is, that's not where the energy is most needed. Add in the cost of sending it long distances and things get interesting.

"I've not met one woman who had sex before marriage who was ashamed of it."

I've met a few. Very few! They had "issues" with a lot of things, though.

If you were going to buy one pair of shoes that you hoped would last for the rest of your life, and you'd never ever wear any others, I think it would be a good idea to at least try them on first.

I applaud the fact that at least some folks are trying to get beyond the prudish image, but they've got a long row to hoe. For centuries the word from many pulpits has been to connect anything that's pleasureable with sin. Not just sex but even things like card-playing-without- gambling, because it's simply for pleasure.

All this stuff about women "submitting" to men rubs me the wrong way, too. The mentally-healthy men I know want a woman who is actively interested and involved, not one who is just doing a "spousal duty" and thinking about England.

who is and is not a "Christian"?

And what does it *really* mean to be a Christian?

If you read what He actually said, there's a lot about loving your neighbor as yourself, helping the poor, sick, weak, and disadvantaged, turning the other cheek, etc. He spent a good deal of time with prostitutes, tax collectors, working people, lepers and other outcasts. The only record I know of where He became angry or violent was when He encountered moneychangers in the temple.

How much of what is often passed off as "Christian" is actually from the New Testament, and how much is a strained interpretation of bits of the Old Testament?

1) If Boston weather is so awful, how will she deal with New York?

2) If the school really is Harvard, why not say Harvard, rather than "the top school in the Ivy League"?

sheesh

I recall an episode of MST3K where Gypsy, Crow and Tom Servo reverently recite Asimov's Three Laws - and then burst out laughing uncontrollably.

Still miss that show.

Lucille Ball

Madeline Kahn

Teri Garr

Anne Meara

Gilda Radner

Diane Keaton

Lily Tomlin

...just to name a few....