There were a lot of Christians on my Facebook feed - none of them extremists or anything, mind you - but they certainly felt the need to tell the world that the shootings were a direct result of removing God from the school system.

To me, that is intellectually the same as what the Westboro folks believe. Just without the picketing.

There's a reason for the saying "Never bring a knife to a gun fight".

No kidding. I just upgraded my 6-year-old Core 2 Duo box (which was no spring chicken even back then) and am always pleasantly surprised to find that my dollars are going that much further.

i7 3770k - $250
8GB RAM - $25
Motherboard - $100
3TB hard drive - $89
Radeon 7700 - $70
430W power supply - $20

All for $550.

Hmmm...good idea for a name for a pub/grill near the Microsoft campus...

You ain't kidding about the overreach of corporations in SK. It's as close to a real-life Omni Consumer Products as it's going to get.

In Korea, it's possible to leave from your Samsung-constructed apartment complex using the Samsung-constructed elevator, and get into your Samsung-built car to drive to a Samsung-owned eatery before going to work in a Samsung subsidiary.

" I have asked my Japanese friends and they have never even heard of it."

My numerous personal anecdotes say otherwise. They're just too ashamed to admit it, as they may know what Westerners/non-Japanese think about that stuff.

There are many people in Korea who will never admit to foreigners that they know someone who's eaten dog meat.

" dvd rental stores are for grandmas that don't have/understand the world wide net or for people living in small outport villages in arctic Alaska with dial up Internet."

I'm in my early 30s and live in Seattle. I rent Blu-Rays from Red Box occasionally because streaming doesn't get you 5.1 surround sound and HD picture. But I guess my needs are in the minority of consumers.

Speaking of Schoenberg, I was listening to a John Adams concert the other night. He was conducting a performance of Harmonielehre. I knew nothing about it, other than that it was composed in the mid-80s. Ten seconds into it, I was getting into it more and more, and realized that the entire thing was the background soundtrack to Civilization 4. Because I have heard it more than a thousand times just playing the game, I knew the music quite well subconsciously and thereby enjoying the music probably much more than I would have otherwise. The people sitting around me have never heard his music and were not quite as impressed.

Your peso is dropping against the dollar, and oil is priced in dollars.

$1USD was 3.70ARS when I last visited Argentina. Now it's close to 5ARS?

The average elderly Romney voter would go to the nearest public library, ask for help from the library staff, print out the PDF for free, then vote against their local library levy.

Your roads and your electrical / water / utility grids are subsidized at a much higher rate per capita than urban areas. Your low cost of living is a direct result of tax dollars paying to deliver all modern conveniences and energy sources to your community - again at a much higher per capita rate than urban areas. Private companies refused to electrify rural areas as they could not recoup their investments. The postal service delivers mail and packages to/fro your community at a loss that is made up by urban dwellers. I could go on and on here...

I actually know the family in person, but I've never step food in that grease pit (both the old one and the new one).

Having lived in my voting age primarily in OR and WA, it's like going to the zoo and viewing exotic animals every time I see people lining up at the polls on TV.

I mail hundreds of packages every month via USPS, Fedex, and UPS in more or less equal numbers for each service. Let's just say I haven't had to go deal with the USPS in person in the last 3 years. I can't say the same about Fedex and UPS (UPS is better than Fedex, though, in terms of reliabiility).

Seattle to Portland is only 174 miles one way.