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Comment Asteroid bad for economy. (Score -1, Offtopic) 397

Hopefully it really does burn up totally in the atmosphere. An asteroid colliding with the world right now would make a bad economy worse. Speaking of the economy, do you know how this whole meltdown began? It started in 1977 during good ol' Jimmy Carter's presidency (geez, his presidency just keeps on giving so many years later; giving nothing but damage, that is). They wanted to make sure that poor people would be able to own their own homes. So they made up this law about making it possible for these people to get loans. Then this dude named Barack Obama came along some years later, along with some Acorn thing, and they went around and sued banks into complying. What banks did in order to keep making money while making bad loans was this: They'd bundle together lots of good loans with bad loans and sell these bundles to Freddie Mac and Fannie May. Those two government corporations would then bundle together a bunch of these bundles and sell the resulting bigger bundles to investment bankers. That is, 401k's and stuff like that. Then Bill Clinton came along and encouraged even more of this loan-giving, because you see, it's a pyramid scheme, kind of like Social Security. Well the result of all of this was that people who should never have received a loan (since they couldn't conceivably pay it back) did, homes were purchased, demand went up, supply couldn't keep up, prices skyrocketed, people who wanted loans beyond a home's value could get them since the price would "always" continue to rise, and so forth. It was a huge bubble. And that bubble just burst. And now, in order to "fix" the problem, the government is gonna make up even MORE legislation, even MORE regulations, etc., and the banks and CEOs are going to get punished, and everyone is conveniently forgetting that it's the government that started the whole thing and Barack Obama who, through the threat of litigation, forced banks to make these bad loans, which they knew were bad. In other words, what I'm saying is that the government forced the banks, through this ridiculous legislation, to make these loans. The banks did because they didn't have a choice (and Obama was there to make sure of that). And when it failed, everyone blames greed and banks and whatnot. The government walks away scott free, Obama gets elected because one Jimmy Carter isn't enough for a country this size, and the entire American people are left paying the bill -- which will come out to something like SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS PER TAXPAYER! What would YOU do with $7,000? For these reasons, an asteroid crashing on the Earth and driving stock prices even lower is something we really don't have time for right now. Government regulation out of control. Because when Rome is burning down, play a fiddle.
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Journal Journal: I'm a man 15

It's time to tell the truth. I am a 55 year-old man. My name is Andy Kaufman, and I live in New York City.

I am sincerely sorry to everyone for all my lies.

--Andy

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Journal Journal: Merry Christmas -- $$$$$exyGal

It's not the new year yet, but it seems like a good time to give thanks.

Long story short, I've had a good year. Great job, short commute, and dating again. I've become focused, but with great flexibility. I'm not sweating the big stuff, or the small stuff. The good stuff is in the middle.

May your holidays be commercial-free,
$$$$$exyGal

============

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Journal Journal: Teach me economics: Why are tech jobs going to India? 19

American companies are moving tech jobs overseas to India [more info]. Why? Simple, it's all about money. But how is that so? The article says that Indian programmers make 1/10th that of American programmers. Why do they make so much less?

I'm not an economist, but here's a some possible reasons:

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Journal Journal: Can the blind see? 30

Xerithane left me a very interesting comment a few weeks ago. Here's a blurb:

For instance, I suffer from a moderately rare eye condition. I will go blind for 3+ hours if I'm exposed to bright light for more than a few minutes. It's like a goths wet dream. When it first happened I was probably 12 or so, and the whole time I sepnt trying to think what blind people saw suddenly made sense.

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Journal Journal: Slashdot Oldtimers? Are there more archives? 21

Just for fun, I decided to peruse the really really old Slashdot stuff to see how everything started. Maybe I'd find quiet thoughtful debate about the HTML CENTER tag (1995?) ? Or maybe some lively debate regarding the plot of "Good Will Hunting (1997)" ?
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Journal Journal: The Evolution of Compassion 14

My Theory of Evolution - Scenario #1: "Now"

By chance, one trait is introduced into the genome of a specific individual living thing. If the trait is immediately advantageous over those of the same species who do not possess the trait, then the trait will very likely be passed along to future generations. If the trait is immediately undesirable, then the individual will be rejected by its peers and will be unable to pass along the new trait. This is called evolution.

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Journal Journal: A serious topic: Why men masturbate. 54

Ok, so I came across this article on Yahoo News, and the obvious conclusion hit me right in the eye. Evolutionarily speaking, men who masturbate have an advantage over men who do not masturbate. The article does not suggest my conclusion, but it seems obvious from the facts given. Here are some facts/quotes given in the article:
  • Men with low sperm counts can si

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