WHY IS THIS MODDED INFORMATIVE!?!?!?!

Ahem. sorry for shouting. Why is this modded informative? Seriously, you people don't realize that those numbers are bullshit, right? Just like album sales?
I've seen this number trotted out recently elsewhere, but don't we realize that it comes from the total amount SHIPPED TO RETAILERS, not the number of people who actually bought it?

Sigh...

Yeah or, you know, you could look at Star Citizen.... 100K unique users and 7 million total in funding (not sure why they say it's 2 in the summary, that's completely wrong for the overall total).
100K clocks in at a need for $6 of profit per copy to equal your 3% on 20 million. Even if we account for cost variances and other things, Star Citizen is going to make a metric fuckton of money for its creators before the game ever even gets out the door.

Overr here, from a financial perspective, kids are INSANELY expensive. The media (toys, tv, movies, clothing, etc) and our government (school costs, taxes, regulations, esp college costs) have leveraged people's natural desire to have children against those people. Wanna have kids? You're going to be broke unless you make a very large salary.
I keep being told how cheap kids are by some people, but seeing the financial reality it goes like this:

"My husband has a fine, comfortable job making 75K a year! We have two cars and a house, let's have a kid!"
Me: (more nicely than this) As your financial advisor, I advise you to make double what you are now and then consider it.
Them: Well it's our decision
Me: Ok.

Them 12-18 months later: Barely able to afford house repairs, have to trade down to one car, and the "free" parent has to greatly consider getting a job because these people finally realize that schooling and giving kids opportunities costs a HUGE amount of money.
Me: Can't say I told them so, but I watch their happy, healthy lives go to shit as they are ground down under the weight of their new responsibility.

I know this sounds horrible and terrible and all sorts of bad things, but this has been the de facto standard in everyone around me who I've seen have kids. Thing is? THEY KEEP HAVING THEM! Suddenly they have 3 or 4 kids, no saving for retirement or college, and are locked into "family life". For a while this is nice... until the kids hit school age and the bills start piling up.

From what I've seen, I recommend that people NEED to be making at least 50K PER PERSON in a family. If you're making 100K you're pretty much ok with two people. 150K? Ok, you can have a kid and give them what they need to get by in the world. Want more? You better work your buns off or you're looking at a grim future.

This is just my opinion, but sadly i've found it true more times than I'd like. I'd like to think everyone can have kids, but the financial reality these days is that you'd have to be crazy to do so without a lot of backup cash or a cushy job.

BRINED TURKEY!

1) Of the traditional cooking methods, I feel that this one involves enough chemistry and physics to be considered deeply geeky, but also holds the greatest flavor potential (deep-friers may disagree). THAT was in order to fulfill the post requirements here, hopefully I don't get modded to hell... now HERE is the reason I am actually posting... let's call it a grudge. A food grudge. A turkey food grudge...

2) Rant:

When you read this, you know who you are. You were wrong, it's delicious and POPULAR. There was brined turkey all over the place FOR SALE at trader joe's last week. AND NOW THEY'RE GONE BECAUSE PEOPLE BOUGHT THEM! I rest my case, brined turkey is both legitimate and legitimately delicious. Don't like it? I'll just have your portion, thank you.

For all those of you who are not in the know on this one, some geeks are very full of themselves and think they know a lot more than they do. It leads to their being Elitist Hipster Assholes, and while I'm sure you know this it seems only right to make it a sort of PSA. Give thanks that these people aren't YOUR friends. I do.

Something useful rather than "just close":

My problem with DVD rental now is the amount of choice. Back in Chicago there was this AWESOME place called specialty video. Loved it. Problem was, they had so many good and rare movies that I would walk out without renting because I couldn't decide. Hundreds of movies, and what the internet does now is narrow down the frustration of making a choice. It gives us a handful of movie ideas and we can pick one if we want.

Also, there are definitely DVDs that we cannot get online, lots of them. I say market to the cinephiles, the people looking for the rare gems. Get online.

I really think that dvd rental has a place still. I like going someplace like that, but the interface could use some updating IMO

I talked with an investment firm holding a large chunk of Nintendo stock. It was pointed out to me that Nintendo is holding a HUGE amount of cash right now, similar to Apple's strategy. Basically, Nintendo isn't going anywhere, most likely, as they have the resources to weather just about any storm from the looks of it. Doesn't mean they wouldn't make the move out of hardware, but rest assured Nintendo isn't going anywhere, at least for a while.

In order to keep power, one must have the trappings of power.

That's why, and a reason why many very wealthy people keep expensive toys. It's not just because they want them, it's so they can keep their status and continue to be as successful as they are.

We can finally reach the gooey jelly filling!
Any bets on what flavor it'll be?

Forgive me if this has already been covered, but does this mean that if we sent up materials for it that it might be possible to build ships with nuclear-powered engines, since firing them won't be on earth?

This could be awesome news in terms of getting fuel up there.

"Go all mercenary"
What the hell is that supposed to mean?

All Your Bits Are Belong To U.S.?

seriously, wtf government?

so... let's do some math here: they'd need to build 1,000 self-driving cars and drive them each 300,000 miles. Or, 10,000 cars for 30,000 each, etc etc

Essentially, the DMV is saying that unless Google installs this in a huge fleet of vehicles then it's a no go. Still, it's a start.

Also, basically the laws say that since someone has to be behind the wheel and ready to take control, what is the person going to do? Sit there for an hour worried that the car is going to fail? That's awful, I'd never in a million years do that.
The whole reason driving is enjoyable is that one can sort of reach a "flow state" while doing it. It keeps you engaged and aware for long periods. Merely sitting there waiting for software to fail on my 15 hour car trip would see me turn into a madman, frankly.

"Government funded, Samuel Hubinette approved."

Well come on, I couldn't think of a Soviet Russia joke!

Mormons?

Um... have you SEEN what they did to The Boy Scouts of America?

Neither does the size, if memory serves me right.

If.

I had a major "aha!" moment after reading this. It is absolutely true in my experience, oddly enough. I get a pint in one of those tall thin glasses and it goes down *fast*. Otheriwse I tend to be more of a sipper. I guess I just figured that might be why they serve beer in those at some of the "chain-ier" restaurants out there. They already know this information, perhaps?

The beer shoots down the into the mouth faster, I think, less feeling against the skin above the lip (what's the term for that?), so maybe you don't get that "I have to wipe my face off" feeling, and just keep drinking?
The feeling against the lips/mouth is different between glasses, and I'd be interested to get more data about the cognitive EXPERIENCE of the beer and probably other factors... I posit that this IS an ok place for me to totally geek out on thinking I'd love to conduct an experiment on this sort of thing and learn a lot more details than this research may have accounted for.