Yeah I know it seems like after a thread is over 10 days old, someone else asks the same question. Especially about modes and what they are, blah blah. I was actually thinking the samething SLY, until then here's a link to just about everything everyone has added about modes on this site.

http://www.guitartricks.com/2000/search.php?input=mode&PHPSESSID=9a0a97d23b9fed17ba9ac46a7b849716

The Zentao site John posted is cool too. I think the samething to Simon, and all the confusion about them would probably be solved if people would look at them as being an individual scale instead of it's relation with the parent scale.