I can tell you where the few and getting fewer by the year geeky nerdy math/physics/engineering type young (American citizen) people are: they are interning for the top U.S. defense industry corporations: Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, Northrup-Grumman, SAIC, General Dynamics, BAE, United Technologies, ITT, etc. and all their many, many sub-contractors. Let's not forget the National Labs, such as Sandia, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Savanna River, Battelle, Lawrence Livermore, Pacific National Labs, and more! Did I mention they are interning? Why yes I did! The American University system has this cozy relationship with the military-industrial complex to act as a huge farm team system to bring young people talented in science and math into the fold for life. Go poke around some of your favorite universities and see what their profs and grad students are working on for the the war machine. And, from a realist's viewpoint, why not? We have a nearly three-quarters of a TRILLION dollar defense budget, when you add up DOD, the continual off-the-budget Iraq/Afghanistan war supplementals, the National Intelligence/Reconnaissance/'spy' budgets, the Department of Homeland Security (a brand new bloated behemoth), and various let's say 'off-the-books' budgets. Where else in our sick-man's economy do you think young bright scientific/technical-minded kids will get rewarding, high-paying jobs with job security? They get to work with lasers, high-power electronics, explosives, all kinds of computer chips and circuit boards, and so much more! It is like a giant series of on-going science fairs: Want to make a pain beam to control crowds? Want to make a micro-miniature flying machine that looks and acts like a mechanical moth to spy on people? Meanwhile our civilian industries are out-sourcing their high-tech work to China and India (no security clearance issues there)...how many opportunities do you think exist for young tech folks in automobile production and civilian aircraft manufacturing and so forth? Yes, there are theoretical opportunities in solar, wind, bio-fuels, and alternative energy autos, but these areas are on their own, on starvation diets...they are not getting $750B/year in subsidies (yes, I know a lot of that goes to O&M, I was 20-year military, don't bother to tell me). Oh, did I forget the oil/gas/coal tax subsidies? So, if the USG were to devote real, significant resources into high-tech sustainability enterprises, then you would see talented young (and older) people working there and developing the technologies we need. But, if a candidate suggests that, he/she is accused of socialist industrial policy and scolded that government shouldn't be picking winners and losers in industry. Bull-****! The US has been engineering industrial policy for 50 years...the winners are (and will be) resource extraction and defense. And you, the taxpayer, pay for this, but don't you worry, most of the bill is paid by government securities that are bought by China (isn't that odd, aren't they our enemy? Remember when Rummy and Shrub were building up China as our next near-peer competitor before 9-11 interrupted? Remember the EP-3 USN plane that collided with the PRC fighter jet and the crew was held hostage for a week or so?). Now the Mil-Def-Politico-Religious-Academia complex is jumping for joy! We have >1B Islamic folks to fight in the world, Middle East oil to capture and defend, resource in Africa to capture and defend, the Chines Dragon, the resurgent Russian Bear, and Hugo Chavez to boot! There is currently a move afoot in repub circles to set a fixed floor of DoD spending as a fixed percentage of our GDP...guaranteed loot forever, and none of it for wind farms, solar cells, or 100 mpg cars. What is sad is that our warriors sneer that Russia would be a third-world country without its military...what is really sad is that, without our mild-defense complex, so would we!

Thanks again for your comments. If I have missed the motivation for your efforts in past DB's I apologize but what is the basis for your crusade? Are you a concerned citizen or are you acting on behalf of a organization? Are you working for Pick?