A 7' iPad can't possibly work. It would mean creating a THIRD app store, since 9.7' iPad apps couldn't run on it, and iPhone apps would have the same problems they have now on the iPad. No, Apple is married to their current screen sizes, for better or for worse.

@NaraVara: It does. But its usually fixable.

@Error601: But you have to agree that there is a balance between survivability and aesthetics. The iPhone can handle day to day usage, just not being dropped from a high point onto a hard surface. If the iPhone cracked if you squeezed it too hard, then it's poorly designed. But dropping a phone onto concrete is a risk…

@FlawedHero: I agree and have the same setup, with an iPad. And I am seriously considering converting and getting a shiny new iMac, though.

@CaptainJack: Problems are beginning to creep into Android though. Carriers are gimping the new handsets (I'm looking at AT&T) and stuffing them with crapware / bloatware. And manufacturers are screwing with an already good thing by skinning the handsets inappropriately - In fact, virtually every manufacturer is using…

@sweetelectro: Eating up some of the leftover BlackBerry and earlier WinMo crumbs. I don't think they can hope for any more than that, given that they're so late to the party. It's like showing up to prom after they've already crowned the king and queen.

Incredible quality. They look like scenes out of a new depression-era movie. I had no idea that color film was around that early - I thought that color pictures of WWII were very rare.

@Error601: I thought that it was a stupid design decision too - until I played with one. I really can't express how much better the quality is from the 3g/3Gs, but it really does make those phones feel like toys in comparison.

@Maori_Yelir: I went to High School at Choate in Wallingford, 20 minutes north of New Haven. I don't miss it, but I'd be lying if I said that Southern Cali wasn't as batshit crazy as CT.

I'm surprised that the Iberian Peninsula seams like such a hotbed.

Bizarrely, I just finished watching the first Jurassic Park. Remember the scene with the sick Triceratops?

@nikefreak252: No doubt that it was political posturing, primarily. That's why all the blasts seem clustered together. A few tests were legitimate - for example, the miniaturization process for loading nuclear weapons onto ICBMs and SLBMs requires testing.

@hercules_100_98: No. In fact, neither does this man.

How disgusting. If this isn't the definition of moral bankruptcy, I don't know what is.

@WilliamTheFifth: Once we have the means and will to construct a ship to carry us to Mars, I don't imagine that we will lack the ability to protect against radiation. Additionally, the first terraforming activity will almost certainly not be carried out by humans. Robots and bio-engineered plants and animals will be…

That's nauseating. I can't imagine the purpose of the USA testing over 1000 atomic devices, but there can't possibly be a good reason.

@Devin Teague Connelly: I don't. I don't think it's a necessary requirement to begin terraforming.

@Vidikron: Thanks for the illumination. I personally have an iPad and a Kindle 2, so I know where you're coming from here.

@Batmanuel: Good point. You're probably right.

@Devin Teague Connelly: We're not talking about current knowledge, but rather about knowledge that will be acquired reasonably quickly. If sufficient funds were devoted to the enterprise, we would be able to start the process quite quickly. But I see this sort of expansion as an inevitability. Venus, however, is…