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.)

I'm back in the US now. So, with that exciting news out of the way:

Due to the usual idiocy, foreign doctors (and everyone else with talent) are finding it harder to practice medicine in America, or to stay once they get here. This hurts the poor more than anyone else. Big surprise. Go CONGRESS! And I mean, leave.

There is supposedly a cat who can predict the deaths of people at his nursing home. CAT PLAYS FURRY GRIM REAPER, read the headline. I hoped it meant animals were trying to reclaim their turf from those damn furries.

There is a new study purportedly showing that the more independent you are, the harder it is for you to understand others' viewpoints/needs. So of course it praises collectivist societies and disses Americans. Nevermind that we try to take care of the rest of the world...then again, look how that's turning out....

Also, if you are currently engaged or married, (and I am the former! Hahah! 我愛你,家寧!), you might like to know the secret to successful marriage: it turns out it's saying, "thank you." I hope only the scientists involved needed a study for that - I'd think the rest of us might've suspected already.

Finally, re-introducing wolves to Yellowstone has helped the aspens there greatly. They can grow now, instead of being eaten by elk/deer. Good news.

As cities grow, rainfall diminishes.


Also, a former Marine killed a bear - by throwing a single piece of wood at it.
He was also ticketed for not securing his campsite properly.

And, as further proof that Chinese people will eat just about anything, especially if someone says it's medicinal, they dug up dinosaur bones...and ate them.

I'm back from my unannounced vacation!

And, no relation at all (probably), it turns out that, if you are clever, you can figure out how to make people do useful work while playing.

Also, a well-known and influential, not to mention bizarre, coder is accused of murdering his Russian mail-order bride, who apparently was having an affair with his bisexual, sado-masochistic (murderous?) buddy. Sounds like a bad movie.

This guy thinks we may soon have high-speed rail available in America (or at least, it would be possible and a good idea, which is new).

That's it for now.

The rich got richer - in the 80s. Not now.
(Also, though the gap between the very richest and poorest grew, there is not a "welfare gap" - in other words, nearly everyone has their needs taken care of.)

Also, say thank you to the government for screwing up gas prices. (Thank you, government, for spending my money on ethanol, which is more expensive, to sell back to me at a high rate, and discouraging the production of gasoline, or the opening of new refineries! You are so awesome and wise!)