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Do you honestly think that could possibly be the case? All indications are this is one of the worst economic events since the Great Depression. I sincerely doubt this is going to be a case of everything magically being fine. By who, and for what purpose? Was Bear Stearns involved? Or Lehmann Brothers? We're seeing centuries old financial institutions evaporating overnight. What agenda, destroying the American economy? You sound like a conspiracy theorist. Sadly this seems like a much more likely scenario than the other you proposed... ...that would be my expectation. A slow, gradual progression out of the crisis with its own fair share of ups and downs. All this said, what does this say about "the markets giving a vote of confidence" to the current administration's plan? I'm certainly not suggesting they are primarily responsible... the SmartMoney article alone cites 5 different factors, and that doesn't even include the good news at Wells Fargo. All that said, it would appear that the financial ice may be starting to thaw, and the money is beginning to flow again... Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged Anyone who doesn't think the economy is f*cked up at this point is a pedantic ass f*cking retard

The main thing to consider regarding the deficit and tax revenues is, well, decreased tax revenues We can attempt to increase revenue by increasing tax rates, but as has been demostrated earlier in the thread, there is a nonlinear relationship between tax rates and tax revenue One of the best ways to improve tax revenues is... to fix the economy!

Yes, The entire report implicitly touches upon the topic that the Republicans are out of touch (although I find it hilarious that they want people to teabag Obama through Twitter) I can't help but interpret it the same way through your response... I have nothing against trying to allegorically protest evoking the theme of the Boston tea party. "Teabagging" was just a terribly poor choice of words, given its colloquialism... Rachel Maddow's report, which does not directly introduce the intended interpretation, perhaps flies right over the heads of anyone who isn't familiar of how out-of-touch the people they're criticizing are.

I guess Rachel Maddow omitted noting why "teabagging" is funny, assuming her audience would know. Her entire report is effectively an inside joke that only people who understand the colloquial definition of "teabagging" If you are not easily offended and would like to know the answer, click here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=teabagging

Awesome! One of the main criticisms of Pottermania is it encourages kids to read... but all they read Harry Potter... it doesn't translate into a love of reading for the sake of reading. I'm glad to hear this isn't the case... at least sometimes. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged Yeah, that's pretty much the point. While The Gap Cycle is obviously an intentional allegory with the Ring Cycle, it most certainly still stands alone as an independent, creative work. Also: this is just me, but rather than looking down on a work for being allegorical, I'm probably much more apt to like it. If nothing else, it shows the author is well-read, and borrowing a classical story and reinterpreting it in a novel way provides a framework in which the derivative work can be understood. This is the case with some of the best literature I've ever read (e.g. Ulysses)

I'm sure Pangloss dislikes me pasting some Rachel Maddow stuff, but: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30145811#30145811 The Republicans (and Fox News) are organizing a "teabagging" protest of the Democrats' budget. Is this a joke or have we just stepped into bizzaro world?

Yeah, that's pretty much the point. While The Gap Cycle is obviously an intentional allegory with the Ring Cycle, it most certainly still stands alone as an independent, creative work. Yes, Thomas Covenant is a lot of walking too... and rape. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged As has been covered before: Harry Potter is written for kids. Lord of the Rings is written for adults. So that's entirely expected. That said it's not terribly hard for kids to read Lord of the Rings. I read it in 5th grade or so.

:D THE STIMULUS IS WORKING LIKE A CHARM :D http://www.smartmoney.com/Investing/Economy/Dow-8000-5-Reasons-Driving-the-Rally/ ...or rather, WSJ's SmartMoney reports 5 reasons for the rally, including "Team Obama". Yes, specious reasoning aside, multiple forces are working to change the economy for the better. I'm really glad to see this. Is this just temporary, or is the economy actually beginning to recover?

This is a pretty good synopsis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gap_Cycle#The_Gap_Cycle_vs._Wagner.27s_Ring_Cycle:_a_comparison

Maybe the universe has always existed (infinite regress)

The problem isn't so much the "addition" of questionable ingredients as side effects of the manufacturing process. Tobacco is grown in soil fertilized with calcium phosphate. Calcium phosphate fertilizer often contains typically harmless "uranium progeny" (namely lead-210 and polonium-210) which emit alpha radiation. The presence of these compounds is not typically a problem as they are too heavy to be absorbed into plants through their roots and thus they do not enter the food supply. However, these radioactive compounds can be blown around by the wind, and tobacco has a relatively sticky surface, causing the radioactive dust to stick to the leaves, where some of it remains throughout the manufacturing process. Minute amounts of it are present in cigarette smoke, and at least two independent studies (although the second cites the first) have determined it poses a health risk: http://www.pnas.org/content/80/5/1285.abstract http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2005.06.004 In addition to radioactive compounds, nitrosamines, another carcinogenic compound, are formed on tobacco leaves through curing them over an open flame. Beer makers had the same problem with curing barley, but discovered it and corrected it in the early '80s by switching to clean air curing through a heat exchanger. Some tobacco growers have made similar moves but at this point it has not been mandated by the government. Many other carcinogens in cigarettes (e.g. benzopyrenes) can be eliminated by using cigarette vaporization technology, in which tobacco is heated rather than burned. Cigarette vaporizers deliver nicotine and provide the oral fixation smokers need, in the form of tobacco vapor without the harshness or "tar" of cigarette smoke. In addition, vaporizers exist for pure nicotine: http://www.crown7.com/ I don't know what studies have been done, but I would suspect this approach could actually protect a smoker from developing lung cancer as nicotine is not a carcinogen.

Can God microwave a burrito so hot that he himself cannot eat it?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090406102555.htm A new process for liberating hydrogen and oxygen from water has been developed, using heat and light as its power sources. Unlike the previous process I posted, this one results in hydrogen, not methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_Administration_quietly_expands_Bushs_legal_0407.html Ugh, I'm not exactly a huge Ron Paul supporter, but there were parts of him that I liked, and one of those parts was that he would never do anything like this. He would do the opposite, dismantling this unconstitutional program and shutting it down for good. This is the sort of thing I was worried about with Obama (although moreso worried about it with Hillary)... I'd really like to give Obama the benefit of the doubt and try to convince myself the program must have some merit, but uhh yeah, no. F*ck that. Don't compromise essential freedoms for temporary safety, thanks.

Can you point out where you think regulation of international trade should begin for the following items, if anywhere. They are on a continuum from least dangerous to most dangerous, so just feel free to point out the first one you think should be regulated: - Uranium ore - Milled uranium - Low enriched uranium - Enriched uranium - Weapons grade uranium - Plutonium - Weapons grade plutonium - Nuclear implosion lens - Nuclear warheads

The nice thing about having a computer operate a vehicle is that you don't have to depend on evolution to determine its "senses". You can use whatever ones make sense. So, think: cameras, RADAR, lasers, GPS, sonar, whatever, all working together to help the computer figure out where it is and what's going on around it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5355NK20090406 This is awesome. Iran gets the fuel they need for their experimental nuclear reactors, and uranium enrichment remains under strict control. It's win-win!

The IAEA is pretty damn sure. While they are enriching uranium it is nowhere near weapons grade. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially since there's no real evidence they actually have a weapons program. I've been worried about Iran for quite some time, but the fact they don't do much besides saber rattling has slowly eroded my concerns. Ooookay, well we'll cross that bridge when we get there...

I heard Obama rapes kittens

Our city had a great compromise: if a property owner wants to permit smoking, they can set up a designated smoking area with an isolated ventilation system, closed off by doors so the smoke doesn't drift into the nonsmoking areas. These areas can have bars and even serve food, but the employees who work in them must do so voluntarily. Needless to say, there wasn't much of an issue finding bartenders who were willing to "volunteer" to work in the smoking area. Our state passed a much more restrictive ban and this approach went away

Yes, and let's be clear on another thing: Iran isn't going to produce a thermonuclear warhead. If they make a nuclear weapon, it's going to be a simple fission device with a yield in the kiloton range. To put that in perspective: more people died in the conventional firebombing of Tokyo during World War 2 than died in the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagaski combined (source). The long term deaths from radiation exposure would eventually tip the scales, but point being that in the kiloton range, similar devastation can be wrought by conventional attacks. The US military is more than capable of firebombing Tehran into oblivion.

Unless they never get nukes in the first place... and were they to use them in an otherwise nuclear free world, they would most certainly never use them again.

Yeah, please keep in mind where we are in the solar cycle:

Yes, the nanotubes use solar power to convert CO2 into methane. No perpetual motion machine to see here, sorry.

Red meat has nasty health consequences, terrible moral ramifications, and disastrous environmental consequences. Sadly groups like PETA don't focus exclusively on banning red meat and work on problems like saving the sea kittens.