Speaking of the Yellowstone River and oil pipelines:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/20/...

Nope - because oil is a world market. It will certainly reduce prices in the US by increasing the global oil supply.

Not one bit. It will not reduce the price of oil one bit.

You should know by now that "supply and demand" does not exist in regard to the oil market, because both sides of the equation are easily manipulated by energy producers.

The KeystoneXL has nothing to do with energy policy. It does not move the meter one bit in regard to US energy. It is all about profits policy for a foreign corporation.

My biggest complaint about this is that they were using eminent domain to take people's land for a project that is not primarily for the public good.

Even better, taking peoples' land for the sole benefit of a foreign corporation.

They wouldn't call it by that name, but they would talk about the potential jobs that could have been created to build and maintain the pipeline.

A grand total of fewer than 50 permanent jobs.

...thank God.

I think you misunderstand my meaning. The people who had slaves were not worrying about taking Saturday and Sunday off because they had slaves. It was a seven-day weekend for them.

I think "weekend" is a more recent development. More likely, they traveled out to the villa in the 'burbs when the smell in the city got to be too much or there was sweltering heat. I wonder if people who owned slaves back then even thought in terms of "workday" or "vacation".

These are the stories I want to see

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." - Mark Twain.

Telling such a complex story in 90 minutes is not trivial. All dramatizations require fictional mechanisms that leave certain things out and include other things. I will bet that even those wikipedia entries you describe are incomplete, self-serving, and miss the truth by varying degrees. It's OK. Stories are how we pass along meaning. An exact 1:1 match with reality is not desirable, nor does it make it more likely that the viewer will come away with understanding. And devotion to the precise truth will definitely not make for indelible absorption of meaning.

If someone saw The Imitation Game and learned of Turing and then went on to maybe read a book or look him up online, then it's done its job. People who are not curious enough to do that will probably not be harmed by being told a good story.

The Imitation Game has been out almost six months and there are no new Turings yet! It has clearly failed to inspire the next Turing.

Also, the magic green beans I planted yesterday still haven't grown, so I'm gonna chalk that up as a failure, too. The subzero temperatures should not matter.

Has the internet made everyone stupid, or just headline writers?

I'm not joking but what the hell are they going to get by attacking a mall for god sakes!

Mentioned on Slashdot?

Seriously, I think it's all about being as shitty as possible. It's like 8chan with religious self-justification.

What could be funnier that exploding babies?

We have that game already: http://youtu.be/RH1u2kzd0Zg

Arranged marriage: worked for me. But failed for a lot more

I guess it matters who's doing the arranging. One of the happiest couples I know were an arranged marriage, but the parents who did the arranging were some extraordinary people with great sensitivity, understanding of their young people and remarkable wit.

I shudder to think who my mom would have arranged me with. Certainly not with the woman I've been married to for 27 years, that's for sure. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom, but she didn't know what I like in women. And my wife's parents certainly would never have chosen me.

I had one of the Sony "tummy buster" portable TVs when I was a young'n. Used to watch White Sox games in bed on school nights.

Carbon HDMI cable

A steal at $144.75.