gbear

So I was thinking about things most cultures have in common, and if these are the things which define "humanity." Then I was wondering if the things we share are likely evolutionary. Having 4 kids, I was naturally thinking about how poop is generally thought to be foul smelling in every culture (that I know). If that's true, is this something evolution wove into us because being around too much poop makes us sick? I mean kids don't generally know that, but they still think poop smells bad.

So on average, they lost more than a billion each. It must be nice to even have a billion dollars to lose.

I had to admire the efforts in which one of my family is engaging. He and his friends are leaving 5 star reviews of Russian restaurants on web pages like trip advisor. In them, they are quoting new stories from the west about what is really going on in Ukraine. The posts aren't getting taken down, and he knows from previous trips that the owners monitor their reviews. They are doing it for Hotels and restaurants on all the travel sites they have used. They figure it is one way to get news into Russia about what is happening.

As the parent of a child born male who has claimed to be a girl since age 2 (now 6) and worn dresses and skirts by choice his/her entire life, I hope this is challenged quickly. More I hope the "conservative" courts remember what it is to be conservative. If this gets to MD, I guess we will be hiring lawyers and hoping to be able to support R and his mental health. Seriously, do people think it is easy to be trans and people are doing it just for fun? I mean they get attacked more often, commit suicide more and often don't even get the support of other marginalized groups. I know my sister was afraid to come out as trans until after my father died, and my dad was a gay accepting hippy. Being trans is truly different, and I suspect, even less accepted in many circles.

Funny thing is when I heard ice fishing and whores together, all I could think of was George Castanza's, "It was cold out. It was shrinkage I tell you!"

I loved 3:10 to Yuma, but I don't think it is the best Western movie. For my money, that still goes to Unforgiven. Unforgiven has the architype of the gun slinger along with a great cast. It's hard to beat Eastwood as the retired broken down hero along with Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman. The plot has everything from the retired gun slingers turned broken down farmers trying to make one last run to right a wrong (cowboy cutting up a whore) and make enough money to get back on their feet. It has Gene Hackman as the no nonsense sheriff deconstructing many of the myths about gun slingers to a story teller. Then he meets up with the retired gun slinger... 96% approval on rotten Tomatoes isn't shabby either. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1041911-unforgiven

Personally, I think I would rather watch Telatubbies on repeat, the show that took 5 points off my IQ every time I had to watch an episode with my kids, than 60 min with Jar-Jar Binks...

It isn't the only supplier. It is simply the cheapest, closest supplier for much of Europe. When we talk about energy/gas, we need to remember all of these are traded commodities. The question I have is are we willing to pay more to stop Russia? I am, but I question whether most of America is given the perception of Russia amongst one of our two parties. Now imagine if the financial pain was multiplied by a factor of 10 as it may be in Europe despite our efforts to get them enough natural gas. Then there is Germany that actually has a pipeline to Russia (even easier supply for them) that they would have to turn off all with a brand new leader. I am unsure the political will exists to do what NATO was made to do.

Might be showing my age, but is this the NFL equivalent of "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife. If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, get an ugly girl to marry you?"

How close are we to a shooting war? Will these proposed sanctions on Russia push them to the point they feel they have to attack? I am thinking of the excuses Germany used to justify WW II after the economic penalties they suffered from WW I.

I just finished Anxious People. It is simultaneously hillarious and deep. There is a lot of it that seems it could come straight from a standup routine...abd then it mixes in things like quotes from Martin Luther. I would reccomend this book to anyone in need of a smile.

Society is drifting closer to a have vs. have not split. When it comes to science, we are closer than ever to drastically increasing life spans for those with access to the procedures. Whether it is the studies on aging and our ability to stop it or the replacement of major organs with genetically modified animal organs, those with means will be able to live longer and eventually better. If we continue to stick with privatized healthcare, we will end up with a comparatively short lived working class and long lived upper class struggling to maintain their life styles. The have versus have nots is a battle waged throughout human history, and I don't see our capitalism republic experiment ending much differently than all the other attempts thus far. There is an old saying along the lines of, "Democracy is the worst form of government except for every other form we have tried so far." (I don't remember the exact quote.) I believe this to be true, but I note it does not preclude finding something else better down the road. Our founding fathers attempted to make our Constitution flexible enough to change over time. The question is whether we as a population will be up for making the changes as needed to keep it or will we decide it would be easier to start over? I think we increase the risk of revolution more as the lives lived by rich and poor come to differ so much more the poor (the have nots) can only look with envy rather than aspiration at the rich. Further more, I think society will have to grapple more and more with the question of "should we" rather than the "can we" questions which have dominated the past two thousand plus years. This may be a greater divide even than the haves versus have nots because it is new to human kind.

I would guess saying they only play the game for 6 months is a sever understatement. It is not like they can stop training/rehabbing their body during the other 6 months. The mental grind to stay on top of one's game has to be enormous. Lord knows I get on them for not being able to make free throws. Don't they have time to practice those? If not they should. As for Rui, I believe he had some international obligations too where he took some harsh press from his home country (from memory so could be mistaken). I get thinking he is lucky to play a game for a living. He is, but if you think one can stay in the league thinking they are just playing a game rather than putting in the time like it is a job, I think you are likely mistaken.

All I know is my two older kids are in a school right now that had 108 positive tests yesterday (not the way I want my kids' school to make the news because that means 108 kids came to school with it and spread it until told to go get tested). My other two are in 2 different elementary schools. From talking with friends teaching in the schools, I know there are already enough teachers out that no subs are available. I know the portion of my daughter's class where they teach preschoolers has already been canceled for the week due to covid cases. The mitigation plan to keep schools open is to combine classes. Thus our normally full classes will have twice as many students being baby sat in the room (teaching a class of 30 is hard, but try doubling that in the same confined space). It's OK because we don't need a mask mandate and the kids don't wear them well anyway. So our family is a maximum exposure case. I know I am waiting to switch meds for my MS because the initial dosage will drastically deplete my immune system because I want all hand on deck for my immune system for the next month. I basically assume our family will all get it in the next month, and I am thankful we are all vaccinated with everyone over the age of 12 having had a booster. I think the spread of this is going to happen, and I am just glad we made it through Christmas testing negative so we could see grandparents and our family can fly back home to the countries where they are currently living. I just hope none of us need a hospital any time soon (for anything) because there seems to be no empty beds.

Yes Peter, thanks for preventing my panic. I was already thinking about the study showing the 40% increase in deaths of people between 18 and 64. I still think this may play a part, the general assault on our systems. I just hope like you mentioned, being vaccinated should lower the impact on the whole system. With luck, it will be but a temporary blip those who catch COVID recover from over the coming weeks/months.

I suspect they had to word it that way because the tests are so hard to get right now. If they said you needed a test to say you could go back to work, they would have heard the howls of protest on Jupiter. Some people would have used it as an excuse not to work when they could. The employers would have screamed about not being able to stay open, and the economy would stutter more. Simply put, if the hospitals and emergency services can stay operable, giving this middle of the road guidance makes sense. I note this is no given. Just look at the state of emergency in MD now, and we have a ton of hospitals for our population density. We will have to see what the right call was. Sadly, I am not sure of the potential impact of a stricter testing recommendation after so much harm to the credibility of/faith in the government in general and the CDC in particular. Alas, I am unconvinced we have the political will to do anything more.

Has anyone used pinwheel phones to introduce kids to smart phones? We have a teen who has had problems with dangerous phone usage in the past, but we want her to be able to have one. Any advice or shared experiences would help. Thanks,

https://www.thecentersquare.com/indiana/indiana-life-insurance-ceo-says-deaths-are-up-40-among-people-ages-18-64/article_71473b12-6b1e-11ec-8641-5b2c06725e2c.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark People should be paying attention to this. I fear this is the real COVID impact. It is the deaths above normal. Unless somebody thinks the 40% increase in deaths of people between 18-64 is due to something else, I think the true impact of COVID has been severely understated. Yes, those who have had their booster shots like I have are unlikely to die if we get it, especially if we get a milder strain of it like the one infecting huge swaths of us now. I just think we are underestimating the societal impact the virus is still causing when our emergency rooms are full, our fire stations have too many people out sick to function, etc. When we start seeing a huge increase in deaths of people between 18 and 64, we need to realize we are losing people are their peek productivity. These are the people who have reached or are reaching their earning productivity. We are losing our teachers, our managers, our leaders, etc. We are not just losing the elderly like when COVID first seemed to just take out the elderly in nursing homes. From a tax base perspective, we are losing our workers who pay into the system upon which we all depend. There may be little personal risk right now for most of us, but that should not be confused with little societal risk. I realize the points above some what over sell the problem, but a 40% increase in deaths amongst a population in which we need growth is a big impact I see discussed rarely unless one works in insurance.

In our house, Elf is universally loved. Christmas vacation is approved by the above 12 croud. Jingle Jangle was watched many times last year. This year, A Boy Named Christmas got high marks from all age groups.

Conversation married men should avoid: "Hey hon, i'm curious, what is the most masculine or femenin thought you have ever had?" The wife replied,"I have no idea where you are going with this one. Give me a clue. What's yours?" "Well what got me thinking was looking down in the toilet and thinking I wish my erection was as big as this poop! Then I thought there is no more typical male thought then that one." Her reply came quick. "That's easy then. My most feminin thought is I too wish your erection was as big as your crap."

I still can't get over the name Stew Peters. I know it is incredibly low brow/low class humor, but it sure sounds like a name Bart would call in to Moe. "Is Stew Peters here?" "Is Ollie Tabooger here?" "Is Lee Key Bum here?"

I must admit the smartest thing I ever did from a personal finance standpoint was to create an "Oh $h1t!" fund. Putting a few dollars a week into it got me to the point where I could pay for bigger purchases that save money over the repeated smaller purchases and got me enough money to deal with life's expected unexpected expenses (meaning something will happen even if I don't know what or when). Creating that fund and paying into it is the advice I give every young person when it comes to finances. It saddens me how few manage to do it.

Is the Lonovo Idea pad a decent laptop? I don't know enough to know if this is a good buy, but it seems to have everything on my check list. https://www.costco.com/lenovo-ideapad-5i-15.6"-touchscreen-laptop---11th-gen-intel-core-i7-1165g7---geforce-mx450---1080p---windows-11.product.100794677.html I am looking for a lap top that will primarily be the one my wife uses. She tends to open up a dozen windows with various office programs running in background complaining all the while about any lag in performance. I would like to have the option to play some games on it (if I ever have time and energy at night), and I will end up watching all the Redskins games after they are played as my weekly workout routine allows. My son will likely do some video editing on it along with mixing some music. All in all, I thought this one looked like it could handle those needs. Does anyone have advice on this or other models?

If all it takes to make a top 5 Wash QB list under Snyder, how does Todd Collins not make the list? He may have only started 5 games with the last being a dud in the playoffs, but he did go 4-0 to get us there with a QB rating over 100. He was the first QB I saw in the Snyder era who seemed to just catch fire in a bottle. He had a great stretch for us after we lost Taylor in a heart wrenching way (we have yet to replace him 15 years later) .

I wish there was no reason to ever teach those terms. Unfortunately, the move to ban the teaching what those terms represent probably proves the need for teaching the ideas behind them. I can only hope Republicans banning those terms/subjects has the same effect Catholic Church banning books and movies had. Let's have people actually look at why is being banned to figure out why it is being banned. Nothing says "Look here!" like saying "Don't look here!" Please ignore the man behind the curtain!