"What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"

"And cheese is just a form of milk that stores better, just like flour is wheat that stores better." And whiskeys are various grains that store better. Seventeen years, twenty years, give or take some . . .

I've seen just this very thing happen where I work. We're still recovering from the results. Not that any of those programs are necessarily bad, per sey, it's just WHO does the implementing . . . you know, the sycophant dancing-and-prancing, ass-kissing, no-real-life-work-experience so-and-soes. I once heard a executive of a high-powered engineering firm doing some contract work for us state he's "never seen an 6-sigma blackbelt that wouldn't get his ass kicked in the parking lot." I agree. Recently due to the, um, economic downturn, a new senior management team came to town. Within a few months the new management plan was obvious: ax the blackbelts: check; ax the total quality leadership program and any other "total" programs found lurking about: check; reduce the LEAN department from many to one: check; try to mitigate the damage done . . . well, that's harder to do both from the perspective of the company's employees and our customers, some of them former customers.

Mark Twain's autobiographical stories about life on the Mississippi River as a steamboat pilot are absolutely funny and at the same time insightful and moving. The collection is a great read and well worth the time the time spent.

Try the National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola NAS, Pensacola, Florida. Allow two days. (www.navalaviationmuseum.org)

Why isn't this comment modded up? Maybe it's too far down the thread. . . I'd give it a "insightful" mod point or two.

Sad part is: there's no grey bars or idiotic "friend/foe" buttons when viewing with IE 7 (not my browser of choice); say, Slashdot's rulers are not trying to tell us something, are they? Or, perhaps SUBSCRIBING to Slashdot will make this crap go away? Hm?

Hey, this is funny. Sort of like: What's the difference between zoos in the North and zoos in the South? Well, the zoos in the North have nameplates next to the animal exhibits and on those nameplates are the animals' common names, scientific names, and a little of the animals natural history. The zoos in the south have nameplates that have the animals' common name . . . and a recipe.

Ah, for the want of a mod point. . .

I'm left-handed and keep the mouse on the right-hand side because it's easier to write something down as needed while still using the mouse. I know an engineer who's right-handed and uses the mouse from the left side for the same reason: he can write while still using the mouse. Didn't change the button orientation, though; still a standard right-side mouse.

Children don't have many rights, that's true; and it's true even those rights and freedoms that remain are being eroded. But children do grow up. And they DO remember. If the cohort in question, the current generation of children-through-teenagers, aren't too fragmented to coalesce into a Movement reminiscent of that of the "Sixties," well, it may be fun to watch. Just mix in enough pissed off kids and a few charismatic leaders with a Message. . . By the way, when I was a teenager back in the "Sixties," just like today, nobody listened nor wanted to; every generation faces the same hurdle it seems. And remember that great 60's anthem "we won't be fooled again"? Sadly, most of my generation and the following generations didn't remember or care to. The consequences are obvious.