What reflects the human-size soap opera that is the life of a real teenager are all the casually stinging asides, the surge and abrupt decline of social power, the unforgivable betrayals and gnawing insecurities that the kids experience.

There is rage. And most important, there are rules.

This is like a parking lot. But it is what it is.

"Students are desperate for hands-on experience," says Neil Gershenfeld.

"All I know is, there is water where it didn't used to be."

"This new reality," she added, "is a lot more pleasant."

She knew how to exploit a rich idea.

"I didn't think it was possible for her to do it, or anyone to do it, for an entire year."

We Americans demand too much from our athletes, particularly our girls.

"Only the real special ones can do this kind of thing."

They blame "imperfect" systems for monitoring such problems.

And then there are the culprits of a more conceptual kind.

Instead, we leap at the chance to deem someone — anyone — responsible.

Parents were alarmed. Blogs buzzed.

"You can't stop them and ask them what their names are."

"The consensus was that we should just let it peter out," he said.

School is school, you know. "Looters are looters," said Pyotr Taslagan.

It's not the problem, and it's not the answer.

The hulking timbers illustrate Gehry's obsession with "big wood" ... which probably says more about who we are today than it does about ... the occasional burst of pseudomedieval pomp ...

Human-propelled versions turn up at most of the events, wobbling and waving to an annoying techno theme song.

For many Europeans, there is a simple explanation: the United States has learned nothing.

But why cafe tables at the crossroads of the world?

"We're trying not to silo our future," said Lyne Pitts, a vice president at NBC News.

It was built in 1922 -- a lost era of two-bit skills -- by nuns outside a Roman Catholic church, three years after a catastrophic storm.

She added: "It's the illusion of free choice, but it's actually an absence of choice." "It's really a fight for the soul of the profession."

"There is a system out there or network, and that network is going to have to be attacked," Mr. McCain said.

In other words, New York City is about to get interesting again.