A geek is some one who would bother to look up the word in the dictionary. On that score some of us qualify. Also a geek can be considered a nerd in training, which may or may not be a bad thing depending on your point of view. I would consider a geek to be anyone who knows that a planetary nebula has nothing to do with the planets. We all fit that definition. However a nerd will have heard and understood the terms post asymptotic giant branch star, proto planetary nebula, and axisymmetric superwind mass loss . and actually cares about the subject. Few of us have attained this level. People who pride themselves on their non-geek status spend a lot of time in bars bragging about how little they know. They take pride in their carefully nurtured ignorance The news media tends to attract these people. I remember an interview of Ted Coppel on the Tonight show. He struck me as a rather intelligent human being. The next night on his own show Nightline, he was interviewing some news figure and was asking the dumbest most asinine questions I could image. Clearly Ted was reading a script of questions fed to him by a producer but the contrast after seeing him out of character was very stark. Its not that Ted is stupid, rather his handlers think the stupid audience wants to hear stupid questions put to news figures. I guess the Tribune has taken it a step farther. Why hire the smart and program them to act stupid, when you can hire the stupid for a lot less money. Clear Skies DT __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com