I finally got around to watching The Blind Side last night, good movie. There's a funny quip near the end where they're hiring a tutor, and before she's hired she admits to being a democrat, like it would immediately take her out of hiring possibilities (this took place in Mississippi). Later on, the parents joke with each other in "Who thought we'd have a black son before we were friends with a Democrat?" I got a good laugh out of it.

Living in a swing state isn't all its cracked up to be. I live in NC, which has recently become a swing state, so I've experienced both sides of the coin in the past 12 years. The calls, the scaremail, the ads, the unbearable campaigning for two years straight. Its enough to make you hate politics, and can arguably cause more apathy than living in a 90/10 state.

I don't mean to single you out, and this isn't specifically about you, but your post is a microcosm of why "Year of the Linux Desktop" is a fantasy. People that enjoy Linux and use linux see a break or error as an adventure. Unfortunately, this is also the reason everyone who doesn't think that way finds it frustrating.

I think this is a very good post, because it touches on something the others here haven't addressed: child psychology and physiology. The basic issue here is that children aren't mini-adults, there are fundamental development areas mentally that may or may not be ready for these kinds of tasks. Most parents understand this, but quite a few do not, nor do and quite a few giving advice here. This that 3 year olds find amazing and turn out to be great tools to develop their minds tend to not be what we would expect, like simply playing with and touching flubber. While 7 is quite a ways from those 3 year olds, its not even remotely close to a fully developed mind. Its impossible to put yourself into a child's shoes without first understanding where children's development is at that age. Giving a 7 year old a large programming task and classic instruction style to programming would be like asing a 10-year old to dead lift 200 pounds - their body (mind) is simply not ready.

My company has paid several million dollars in additional taxes because California won't repay their unemployment fund deficit to the government, and the number keeps rising. Their balance with the fed is more than 4 times all other states COMBINED.

Only 1 month? I'm impressed. I wish that kind of malarkey only lasted a month here. Election 'season' starts before half a term is over for our scumbags.

Just wanted to say I greatly appreciate the excellent description you gave. It made me feel like I could see and feel what you experienced. Hell of a tough job, and thanks for putting in your work for all of us.

Canadians might not say it or act like it, but they are quite nationalistic when it comes to brands and companies. What I've seen is that american brands have had trouble penetrating that market because preference goes to the incumbent local company. Target is struggling to gain acceptance, Canadian Tire is still the go-to, and even major e-tailers like Newegg have trouble over the other Canadian e-tailers. Hell, Sears seems to have won mindshare by having a little maple leaf in their Canadian logo. They may not like to hear it, but Canadians are just like Americans in that regard. A lot of people I've talked to buy Apple precisely because they see it as an American brand.

I understand the difficulty now, but maybe in 30-50 years, we'll be able to reclaim and re-use materials in space much easier than we can now. So, why not aim for middle ground? Aim to boost the ISS into a higher more stable orbit as a decommission method, to create a 'orbit landfill' if you will. I'd think it would be better than de-orbiting and burning up all that tonnage.

Maybe they could start a show on TLC called Space Hoarders and have interviews with astronauts to cover the cost of that orbit increase :P

This gives crab people a whole new meaning!

Have you looked at a picture of Japan lately? The country is in the shape of a string bean. Imagine telling US citizens that 20% of the best land is now off limits, good luck with that.

I just want to elaborate on this a bit. A lot of times this is not the case, and is a self-fulfilling prophecy for people who drive excessively slow. When I get stuck behind the guy that does 5-under and takes 10 seconds to get up to 40mph, I will hit *every* single red light on a westward route in my part of the city, which are spaced about a mile apart, on a two-lane road where I can't pass. That's because these lights are timed for traffic at the speed limit for 10 cars at a light. If I'm not behind that guy, I hit one red light and 6 green lights. Sometimes its not that they have to go faster, its that they know the light timings better. Its a 5-7 minute difference in my commute. The person's behavior, in this case, actually causes more traffic and a higher chance of accidents than driving at the posted speed limit or 5-over. This also happens in two other places I frequently drive.

Interest rates are about managing inflation/deflation and about creating a stimulus tool during difficult economic times. Think of the interest rates as a piggy bank - right now, our piggy bank is empty because we burned all our 'savings' in attempting to spur the economy after the most recent crash. If we hit another recession while this piggy bank is empty, we will lack a tool that helps ease the recession cliff significantly. As far as recessions go, this is the most important tool - if the economy changes too drastically too quicky, people don't have time to adapt and it creates a downward spiral with lots of irreparable damage.

One of the things I'm not sure about, though a hardcore fan might have figured it out, is the chronology of the events. What if, for example, portal 2 takes place 20 years before HL2E2? What if GlaDOS has gotten bored of 'testing' and started developing? What if there's a link beteween the ship and the GlaDOS testing facility that brings GlaDOS on board for HL3?

They have a lot of ways they can merge the stories to allow for new gameplay elements not restricted by the two games canon. I really wish they'd do it because the story was very solid and compelling, and needs to be finished, but not much we can do about that.

Really, try to tell me that boxen doesn't sound cool. N is also easier to follow into other words in a sentence than an S without that 'harsh cutoff' feel at the end of the word.