Why is there a delay after I push the shutter release button before I can take another picture?

There are many reasons for this delay... here's a few... (thanks to the people who wrote in for this one..)
The camera must:
Set the focus, exposure time, white balance, etc.
1. Charge up the CCD (apparently it can't hold the charge for long, so it does it right before you shoot)
2. Copy the image out of the CCD into RAM.
3. Compress the image after it's been taken
4. Write the image to the flash memory.
As we know, newer cameras are getting faster and faster!

Set the focus, exposure time, white balance, etc.