Duck-Billed Catechist

To quote Steve Alford, "You're from freaking Iowa." I'm not sure there's anywhere else in the country where 89 octane is cheaper than 87. Yay government subsidies yay.

Keep in mind that we were entreated to envy him. I'm glad you had a good time, Pops.

There's nothing like a good mustard foam...

America's greatest untapped energy source may be lipids. I wonder if they will ever put us on bikes with flywheels and make us generate! Of course, I'm sure that's not all that efficient when you calculate energy used in making food, but we have an abundant supply of excess human energy for the time being. /nonsense

Obama has done well in the REALLY white states. The places he has not done well with whites are mostly places with some amount of black population. This is a historical trend going back to reconstruction. I believe I read in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Black-Politicians-Re...2000&sr=8-1 that blacks in Georgia suffered less harassment and were able to form political alliances with whites in counties with a lower percentage of black population. Blacks were seen as economic competitors in places with a higher percentage of black populations and thus poor whites were less likely the

Hubris, although I did like both Signs and Unbreakable and have not seen the most recent ones.

Craziness http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2...he_size_of.html

A station that is normally one of the cheapest around here jumped to 4.07 the other day. I figured it was only a matter of time before the rest of the stations got their new inventory in and followed suit. Nope, they all peaked a $3.99 and soon the $4.07 place was down to $3.98. The price hikes seem to make it hard to predict which station will be the cheapest. We went to the city that day and prices in Rogers Park (where they should be ~20 cents more because of taxes) were about the same as in Dupage. I have discovered that a suburban bus route picks up right across the street and has a st

Reuters must be short on articles these days.

Here's the aforementioned Manny reel: http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id...6d-71ac16618dd4

First White Sox victory this year in which they have not hit a homerun. 19-10 in games in which they have hit a homerun, 1-10 in others.

I believe the question was "Do you like Manny Ramirez," not "Is Manny Ramirez allowed to watch the flight of his homerun whilst standing on the baseline and taking off his batting gloves."

I think that's the main deal. I like him because I remember reading some story about him living in a small apartment after he was making big bucks. I also heard a story about his car being towed and his glovebox being full of undeposited paychecks.

As long as it takes for you to beat it out of them (kidding).

There's something to be said for the supers holding back until it's a foregone conclusion. Let the voters decide and all that.

It plays a "Girls Aloud" song. Actually, it says what it does right in the article... "the file is actually an installer that claims to require a special codec and a special media player to play back the file. Install the codec and what you really get is a computer screen full of pop-ups delivered through a variety of malware programs. You can see what the infection process looks like by checking out the video on this post. The attack is being distributed primarily through peer-to-peer networks"

Thanks all

What are you basing that statement on? Also: If it's fun, it's bad? No. Most good books are in some way fun. I wouldn't wish Edith Wharton on anyone. There's nothing wrong with video games in moderation, the problem is with constant bombardment of the senses. I also disagree that video games are the "most active form" of entertainment. They're are obvious counter-examples (playing an instrument, writing, etc.), but reading is plenty active, but in a different way. Here is one reason why video games are often not taken seriously as art (though I'm sure some are and the potential is there)

This post brings up a good point about this generation getting a raw deal in some respects. They won't know extreme poverty for the most part, but they do have to deal with the inflated cost of education and housing, among other things, with earning power generally at or below their parents' generation. I think you are barking up the wrong tree suggesting that this conversation is somehow bigoted, though. For the most part it is just Americans talking about American culture.

I do that (the late night working from home thing).

So you don't like those younger than you and expect life to improve after previous generations die out--were you just born in the generational sweet spot, or what?

If there's a shift downward in social practices, though, it's going to hit kids the hardest because they won't know anything else.

But doesn't that result in a decline in intelligence?

That sounds like parents not letting kids grow up (home alone, etc) which is EXTREMELY common now. http://www.nysun.com/editorials/why-i-let-...de-subway-alone

Don't mean it's wrong! The gradual decline of western civilization... It's hard to make a macro-sort of judgment, we all rely on our strongest personal experiences. However, there are some studies that you can look at. For instance: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6504107.html I believe you said on your own facebook profile that you don't understand why people don't read more.