Milk is expensive. Blame China. (Or so this article says. I'd guess it has more to do with our own government...think ethanol.)

More on China - 175 million people are currently studying English there. Worldwide, there should be 2 billion people learning English by 2010. Well, I'll learn Chinese anyway.


Francis Fukuyama tells you why you shouldn't worry about immigration. (He wrote End of History and the Last Man. He has since realized that maybe there's a few more things that will happen. Capitalistic Democracies are certainly the best systems, but not everyone is convinced.)


The Weekly World News is dead! This sucks pretty bad. Now what will I read at the grocery store? That's one of the few things I liked about shopping. I suppose I'll have to start my own.

Finally, I have read that this guy is not actually the best around, but I'm impressed anyway. He plays his guitar like a piano. It sounds neat.

It has been a while, again. I just had to post this first one, though.

An arm wrestling game has broken three arms in Japan. It was recalled.
But here's the quote:
"The machine isn't that strong, much less so than a muscular man. Even women should be able to beat it," said Atlus spokeswoman Ayano Sakiyama, calling the recall "a precaution." In other words, "you guys are so weak you scare us."



This isn't really a link to a story, per se; it's a link to a comment. The story is about a reporter's recent trip to the town in Peru that was almost totally destroyed.

"I pray they find peace and understanding that this was through no fault of their own, not punishment from our God or their God."

Uh...who is our God, and who is their God? Is there a different God for Latinos?

Of course, she continues:

"It is the forces of nature in which we have no control. Our Earth is continuously moving, good or bad, it is going hurt some people...an unexplained force beyond their comprehension. Only those of us that have post graduate degrees understand what these innocent people have experienced. To try an explain to them is somewhat futile for us but to empathize is to be human not a scientist, I know it would be hard but Mr. Potter can reach out and put his exquisite gifted skills to good use, Mr. Potter try…just give it a try…"

Holy crap. "Only those of us who have post graduate(sic) degrees understand"? Talk about condescending. Or dumb. Or both, as is usual.
But, being full of herself, and thus unable to stop yet, to wipe herself clean of this affair, she can't stop there, no. "To try to explain to them is somewhat futile..."
Yes, because those dumb Mexicans or whatever lives in Peru have a different, stupid God, and that is because they are also stupid, but we are educated people with postgraduate degrees who understand the Earth is crazy, and We know it's futile, but we're good people so we should explain it to them anyway. We are saints.

Just...This really caught my attention. I had no idea there were people like this, really. I kind of thought they were caricatures. Guess not.

Wow. I didn't really want to write commentary or anything. This is just supposed to be links with short descriptions.

So.

Diet food makes kids fat.

Baby Einstein videos actually decrease kids' vocabulary. And the creator says they "were never designed to make infants smarter, only happier." Right.

Maybe women really do prefer pink. (maybe. But, I am tired of the old, "men were hunters, women sat at home, thus _x." Does this seem overused and unprovable to anyone else?)

Things labeled "McDonald's" taste better to toddlers, even better than unlabeled McDonald's food. Of course they decrie marketers, but, might it also be possible that any label would make the food taste better than none?

Women who get silent when they argue have a lot more health problems, and are likely to die earlier. So...please talk things out. It's better.

And on that note, there are certainly things you should argue about.

That's it for now!

Kids in Nigeria who got free laptops use them...to look at porn.

Lesson of the day: do not irritate ex-marines, whether you be a bank robber or bear.

Also, when is free speech a hate crime? When it offends Muslims.


You probably already know, but most of the guys cheering for Saddam, or at least advocating not going to war, and protesting the sanctions, were in Saddam's pay. Not that the sanctions were a particularly good idea, or very effective, but....

Finally, a site dedicated to eating Chinese food. Some recipes, too.

(Just for my own use, unless you'd like it, too - a recipe that calls itself "Taiwanese bread". I'll have to make it and see whether it tastes like the bread there. It may need more sugar.)