Oh man, tripleevenfall, do I wish I had mod points for you. Clearly that's the impression from their goofy commercial. I just can't understand what the hipster is doing in there.

I worked for just over 2 years in a wind tunnel for a company that manufactured cooling equipment (eg, radiators, oil coolers, A/C condensers and evaporators). We tested products for a variety of manufacturers which meant a wide variety of equipment; ie, compressors, farm tractors, semi tractors, passenger cars, and on one occasion a small city bus to be used in Miami, Florida.

We had a reputation for maintaining a very stable, controlled environment (air flow, heat load, dynamometer load, and positioning of thermocouples for sampling temperatures) and consequently consistent test results.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, this was in the early 70's. But at that time, that's also where the manufacturer's typically got their mileage estimates.

I think this might also be the era from where we get the expression "Your Mileage May Vary" (aka YMMV). I think they included this disclaimer in car ads in an attempt to comply with the "truth in advertising" laws (remember those?).

Clearly nobody can drive a vehicle in a manner as controlled as that.

So if the manufacturers are still getting their mileage results from a wind tunnel test, forget it. You'll never match those results especially if you live in a large metropolitan area (where it's not uncommon to sit idling in traffic) or you live in a mountainous area or where you have really cold weather.

There are several really good comments here with additional insight as to why mileage can vary drastically from the manufacturer's estimate; type of fuel mix, for one.

So remember, when you're buying a car and read those mileage estimates, YMMV.

Well said, interkin3tic!!! Well said!!!

That is one of the most succinct descriptions of our current political system that I've read to date (other than "politicians suck"). In fact, all we have left is "political theater."

I've been suggesting that we start an "abstain campaign(TM)" (Note I TM'd that). Make a point of going to the polls, but write in your nomination/vote. However, write in something like "These candidates are not worthy of my vote. My vote is too precious to throw away. I abstain." This is primarily meant for the state or national elections, not necessarily local stuff.

I would like to think if enough people did this, the politicians would get a clear vote of "no confidence" from the population. It's another way of saying, "We know you guys don't represent us anymore. We know you're going to do whatever your corporate owners want you to do. So we see no point in wasting our votes on you."

Even the threat of something like this happening might bring greater focus to the big money corruption in politics. If we choose not to participate, it suggests we don't need politicians anymore. It says to the whole world that "we the people" know our system has been hijacked; the US "democracy" is broken/perverted. At least we as citizens won't appear ignorant and gullible to the rest of the world.

The fact a person takes the time to go to the polls and submit a vote demonstrates their desire/willingness to participate in the political process. But the write-in expresses the sense of futility.

Maybe another approach would be to write in your own nominee. Let's all write in TJ Max, or Sears, or McDonalds. Now I think of this, I do kind of like Culver's butter burgers. They would be my write in. After all, corporations are people, too. So let's elect one to be president.

Admittedly, I'm an "old guy" so maybe I'm way out of touch with the times, but I'm fairly tech-savvy, well-educated, so FWIW...

I've had 4 very unsettling experiences of near head-on collisions. Each time I saw the other driver look up and get a very astonished look on their face after which they (thankfully) swerved back into their lane.

Meanwhile I was slowing down while maneuvering for safety on the shoulder or sidewalk.

I can only hope that the person who claims texting while driving is NOT a distraction has the same experience, at some point.

As far as talking on a phone is concerned, I have my doubts about that, too.

Again, this is from my personal experience, so YMMV.

I deal with a wide variety of subjects. Some of them are design-oriented. While discussing a subject re the design of something, I find myself visualizing that which I'm attempting to describe. Those are the times I've found myself vulnerable to inattentive driving. For example, I've had some close calls rear-ending other vehicles or missed my turn-off. I DO make a point of getting over to the slow lane and dropping my speed, but I've been surprised by a semi or two that had changed into my lane further up the road in front of me. I missed it because I was... distracted. So I've been guilty, too. (Apparently, something is not happening between my visual cortex and other cognitive functions. Although, my friends from the 60's would probably say... well, never mind. That's for another post.)

Now I hand my phone to my wife and ask her to take the call or exit or pull way off on the shoulder (which isn't all that safe either now-a-days). And when I get a call from someone whose name/cell number I recognize, I ask if they're driving first. I don't want to be the person on the other end of a phone call that contributed to an accident. Besides, I still think most of our phone calls can wait.

Come to think of it, I've even had people walk into me or nearly walk into me in stores while talking/texting on their phones.

Anyhow, please be careful, folks.

Oh yeah... and get off my lawn, kid.

Here's one perspective re this issue.

Who's Hiring H-1B Visa Workers? It's Not Who You Might Think

It's probably Phronemophobia.

Personally, I think there's nothing the people in the US could do about it now anyhow. If their "representatives" want to do something like that, they will. And they'll justify it to the people they "represent" in some twisted "in order to serve you better" way (which is "political code" talk for "there's nothing you can do about it").

Intersting you should suggest that. I started with Lubuntu (mostly because I'm interested in trying LXDE more, not because of any noteworthy insight), but decided to go with xfce. My niece had been using a 3- or 4-year-old version of PCLinuxOS I had installed for her. The drive I used originally was too small for her purposes. She takes LOTS of pictures. So that's what prompted the upgrade.

This is another example of how Linux holds up well in terms of being user-friendly, stable, and secure. Just saying. Please. No flames.

I've also used Windows (without any AV software) for long periods of time without incident, but that's because I'm very careful about where I surf and never click on attachments from sources I don't recognize. I also did not use IE except to test my web pages and never used Outlook (I used T-Bird).

Anyhow, to get to the point, xfce seemed like it would be a little more familiar to her as a DE in comparison to KDE. Just a judgment call on my part. YMMV.

I have to echo what the others have said re Ubuntu. Every experience I've had with it has been a disappointment. I've installed it on 4 different systems and always had trouble with something. The most dramatic experience was when I installed it on a Dell Inspiron 1501 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core with 2GB RAM (admittedly that CPU is weak re cache). After I installed the 64-bit version of Ubuntu, I almost tore the laptop open to see if there really was a dual core 64-bit processor inside because it ran like a 486. Needless to say, I dumped it and installed sidux instead (sidux reorganized as aptosid and then forked to siduction, if memory serves). I used the laptop reliably and extensively for just over two years with sidux and finally aptosid.

Even one of the more popular and respected Linux columnists did a write-up re the disappointments in trying to use Ubuntu. We both had sent comments to their community, but never received any responses.

That was 3 years ago. I would have expected that since then things might have improved. As a matter of fact, I just reconfigured an old P4 box for my niece. And the distro I installed on it was Xubuntu. I had tried several. (I typically have several liveCD distros laying around to do installs.) And to my great relief, Xubuntu worked quite well. Now she's happily using her reconfigured P4 (while her husband and his family members have all been hit by a virus on their Windows machines) Sorry. That last bit is a cheap shot.

So long story short, I have no doubt installing a distro other than Ubuntu would result in better performance. Once more, the availability of choice is shown to be a benefit.

I had always been told catfish were "bottom feeders." I guess they're not, huh? Next thing you know, they'll grow legs and run up on land and catch squirrels and rabbits and the occasional, unsuspecting small dog.

Spot on!

I will admit, as a life-long Republican, I didn't vote for Romney.

The Repub's (or elitists, plutocrats, or whoever they are because they sure aren't anything like the Repub's I've supported all these years) became so extreme, I was beginning to suspect the Posse Comitatus had infiltrated their ranks.

I wonder if they in fact threw the election. I mean, how out of touch can they be? Well, now we know.

And now I hear them saying something like the white conservative is in the minority. Well, duh?!?! When you are as extreme as they were in their platform, odds are pretty good you ARE in the minority.

Or maybe this is just all political theater. After Citizens United it's hard to believe our politicians represent our interests at all anymore.

Personally, instead of attempting to secede, I think all those states should ask for a refund of their campaign donations.

They get caught up in the Pro-Life stance. I have friends and family members who focus ONLY on that. They can't (or won't) accept that the Right Wing extremists are not actually Pro Life. They have NO problem sending our youth to war to die for a lie. Nor do they have a problem contributing to and maintaining economic conditions that condemn so many people to live and ultimately die in poverty. Nor do they care if some greedy corporatists gamble with the money of others and lose causing those folks to lose their retirement funds and consequently being unable to afford their homes or healthcare.

Anyhow being Pro Choice doesn't mean you agree with abortion. It means you want to allow people to have the freedom to choose even though you personally might not approve of abortion.