Thanks, was unaware of ghostery until now.

The more fit you are, the harder it becomes to approach your max heart rate. Your max doesn't get higher.

At the gym, yes, stretching is not necessary. Before playing sports, you want an active warm-up and a light stretch after.

Excellent post. It's amazing what short memories people have. The Japanese and South Koreans both had periods very similar to what China is experiencing now, with workers living in crowded conditions and working for (comparative) peanuts. The US and UK also had terrible working conditions during their industrializing periods, probably worse than what the workers at Shenzhen experience.
This is a positive step, and welcomed by anybody with a bit of pragmatism.

Ha! I don't have a car!

Deregulation - do you really need me to provide examples of why unfettered deregulation is bad? The banking example I provided above shows that simplifying regulation but ensuring enforcement can be much more effective than just straight deregulation.
Lower taxes - I'm assuming that you like civilization and the benefits provided to you by your government - things like roads, sewage treatment, fire and police services, courts of law etc.? These things generally cost money and since society as a whole benefits from having them, it makes sense that they should be provided by the government, as otherwise you'll be creating huge social unrest when people who cannot afford to pay for the services run by private companies decide they've had enough. Taxes pay for these services.
Eliminating minimum wage - here's a decent pdf that sums it up in clear language: http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/commentary/2007/0501.pdf

Oh I forgot there are no differing opinions in science. I guess Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins agree completely on how evolution works.

I've already posted - someone else mod up please.

Not all economists habitually claim that wealth inequality and deregulation are good things. Also there is a strong movement to get economics away from simply math-based models and starting to use more empirical data. For example - if you take any decent class on international trade, you should find countless examples that disprove the basic models that have been around for ages. The Heckscher-Ohlin and Ricardian models (two of the most basic models upon which trade is based) have been tested and found wanting, especially H-O. Ricardian has been modified and updated somewhat but it still contains flaws. Newer models such as the New Trade Theory (inventive naming schemes abound! there's also a New New Trade Theory) and the Gravity Model have come into vogue, especially with the advent of FTAs in the past 20 years and the WTO.
As for monetary policy, it has certainly been the unfortunate case that in America and the UK (and to a certain degree Canada - although with Harper and his cronies with their goddamned majority it's sure to increase) the Austrian school has been prominent. However, people are starting to see that regulation needs to be enforced. If we look at the differences in banking between Canada and the US for example, we can see that Canada has fewer regulations, but enforcement is stricter and penalties more severe. I'm not, by the way, advocating that the Canadian banking system is without flaws, just that it tends to be less volatile, and their practices are less risky due to the regulations being observed. Now obviously the US is not going to adopt the Canadian banking system wholesale, but there are lessons to be learned.
There is a growing understanding that economists need to look at bigger pictures, and so political economy and comparative governance are big fields of study now.
I know that being on a board dominated by engineers and "hard" scientists this post will probably get downmodded, but it's important to recognize that there is a great diversity in the opinions of professional economists, and many of the younger generation will not buy into the simple ideas of "deregulate, lower taxes, and eliminate minimum wage".

There is much controversy over the Venona Files, and if you were merely a member of the Communist Party of America, and not spying for the Soviets, with that level of hysteria, you would certainly lie your ass off too lest you get hauled off to the 50's equivalent of Guantanamo Bay.
McCarthy might have been right some of the time, but he was certainly not innocent of creating a poisoned atmosphere.

Just because your friends are shallow, doesn't mean that everyone uses Facebook in a shallow way.
I love that canard about calling old friends. Some of us have moved out of our mom's basement - I have friends in East Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas. When it's convenient for them to receive phone calls, it's almost never convenient for me to make them. The reverse holds true as well.

The number of my Korean and Japanese friends jumping on facebook would seem to indicate otherwise.
yes 2ch is still wildly popular in Japan. Yes in Korea daum/naver "cafes" (bulletin boards usually dedicated to a single topic, often with a frightening degree of focus) are very popular (also it should be noted that you cannot register for these cafes without a national ID number, so anonymity is not really a consideration). But I don't think they are abandoning social networks by any stretch. If anything, there is probably increasing personal online separation - you are a member of a cafe because it serves your interest and you have a facebook account because it allows you to stay in touch with a larger circle of friends. Being an "otaku" is not so frowned upon anymore, so people aren't going to think you are total reject for liking something obsessively, but they might not want to be a part of that interest.

I could swear I've seen that done...must have been in some low-budget cult movie, that didn't rip off a famous SF writer.

So, not very well at all then?

Not any kids that are worth being friends with....