"Preserve historical neighborhoods, create pockets of interests, " Lau says.

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"That would be enough to help create new products and put dollars in the pockets of farmers, " Alexander said after a tour of Iowa State University's agriculture research labs in Ames.

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However, you'd think that in an industry that is famous for such embarrassing pronouncements that 640K ought to be enough for anybody (well, maybe for your camera's firmware) or that there is a world market for about five computers (perhaps in every person's pockets), companies would tread cautiously in announcing that they're not going to create something.

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And since 70% of U.S. economic growth springs from consumer spending, the key to getting the economy growing again would be to create more jobs for those consumers so more of the 14.1 million unemployed would have more money in their pockets to spend.

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