riddler

Gas tax, in fact, will increase Not that it would've made a huge difference to holiday the tax, but OTOH, an increase is going to hurt. Hey guys and gals running for office - you're supposed to break your promises after you get elected. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

For me, that is the funny part. I'm just gonna go with the assumption that EVERY ONE of his subordinates was smarter than him I really, really hope so .... Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

More things that will make you popular: Putting some background into posts so that people know what the hell you're ranting about. Few people in the world know who "trigg" is, fewer people care, and I'm guessing only a handful of strange children want to buy his clothes. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

My 20-month old is a real clown - she loves to do whatever just to see us laugh. One of her hobbies is crawling around on the floor and picking up tiny pieces of dirt and handing them to us. We teach her to say "please" and when she gives us something, we say "thank you", and she does the same. She also puts her finger up her nose, but it wasn't until a month or so ago, that she realized that there's stuff up there that she can dig out, too. Usually, I tease her about it and say things like "let me know if you find anything good up there." I work from home with computers, so I get to play with her a lot during the day. When she gets frustrated with me working and wants to play, she walks up to me (usually sitting on the floor), slams my laptop closed, grabs my hands and drags me to the play area. It's all very cute. Until you put them all together. The other day, I was sitting on the floor with the laptop, and it was getting dark because I had been hacking some code out for a few hours. She comes up to me and grunts as if to say "enough, dad", and she's got a piece of dirt from the floor to hand me. Without even looking up too much in the dark, I hold out my hand and absently say "thank you", and the little ingrate proceeds to wipe a giant booger in the palm of my hand At first, I didn't even know what it was because it was dark, so I'm playing with it, like "what the heck is this?" Then I run over to the bathroom and wash it off trying not to shudder and get water everywhere. The entire time I'm running away and washing, I hear her giggling behind me and chasing me to the bathroom, laughing her little demon-laugh Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

If you're going this route, do NOT go through your company plan - they rip you off on the price. I search online and get pretty good deals - $2700 deductible on myself, wife, and two children - $300/month. I contract for a company that offered a similar deal to a co-worker, his wife and one child for $750/month. I swear they were reselling someone else's package and marking it up. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Frank Zappa on "words" Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Not a plumber, so making a guess. It sounds like the control for your shower is letting cold water through, even when you have it turned to hot. When the toilet flushes, less of that cold water can get to the shower, so it's finally hot. If I'm right, only a replacement of the control for the shower will fix the problem. Edit - depending on the model of the control, there may also be an internal adjustment, but you may have to take it apart to find it. Also, some manufacturers offer a lifetime replacement - I once called a company that made my sink faucet, as it was leaking out of the turn knob, and they sent me a free replacement of the entire faucet. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

As a father of two young girls, I can only hope they say the same thing about me someday

I was referring to the timeline that that Bush starting making the case to go to war in Iraq - Dec 2001, which is seven years, I guess, not eight. Saying Iraq was going to nuke the world with unrefined ore is like saying every American farmer is going to bomb federal buildings with all the fertilizer they have. Raw materials are a long way from weapons of mass destruction. Probably Saddam hoped one day to actually be able to refine it, but other countries have gotten much closer (and in the case of North Korea, succeeded). But hey, if raw materials are an excuse to invade a country, I guess we now have an excuse to invade Australia, Canada, former Soviet republics, Africa and South America. Uranium ore is aplenty in those countries. Bush invaded Iraq for one reason - because he wanted to. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Hysterical. The whole thing started because Dubya really needed a good excuse to go to war in Iraq. So he made up a story about Saddam trying to get Uranium in Africa. Slight chuckle there. Then US ambassador Joseph Wilson went there to check it out and came back to tell Bush that it wasn't true, and next thing you know his wife is outed as a CIA agent by the VPs chief of staff (Libby). That's a nice laugh - way to stick it to 'em. Of course, after the jury found Libby guilty of perjury and obstruction, and another jury sentenced him to prison, Bush commuted his sentence, something that no other president has ever done before. Now it's really starting to get funny. Meanwhile, Dubya moves forward with his plan to invade Iraq, started on completely false pretenses. 8 years later, after 3 trillion dollars of damage and 4,000 American lives, Americans are just starting to see the whole picture, and the liar declares executive privilege to cover it all up. All those good people dead - I would try to cover it up too! That really makes me roll on the floor, laughing. I'm so glad we have a president we can laugh with while our soldiers are getting killed for no reason. Especially after that last president that lied about getting a blow job - now that's just not decent. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Already have a full time nanny But can't leave the little one for three hours since we're still breastfeeding. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I've been wanting to see Wall-E for over a year now, but I can't escape to the movies for two hours because I have a two-month old and a 20-month old at home. I'll have to wait six months for the DVD. In any event, what's wrong with pointing out how fat humans have become? And what's wrong with speculating that it will probably get worse? If the mu'umu'u fits, wear it. If you want to see another good movie, rent Mike Judge's Idiocracy. 500 years in the future, and everyone is so dumb they've forgotten even basic things like how to grow food. Fox didn't distribute it because it pokes fun at too many corporations, but I'm sure if it had wide distribution, stupid people everywhere would be offended. People should use that angry energy and go for a walk, or go to buy vegetables at the health food store, but I suppose that's too hard. Edit for HTML stylization. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Nice. The old prop won't be worth putting back on, so I'm guessing he wants to sue the A&P that last worked on it? Just needs the evidence. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Spelling and context are two different things Here's a fun exercise. Imagine that you are currently reviewing a software product to determine best fit for a company. Here is a link to the list of features that this product offers: Mail Order Manager Now, keep in mind, this is a real product, for sale, and this page contains information that is supposed to help you decide to purchase this product. I count six spelling errors on this page, including one title (in bold). Why should you believe this is a good product when the employees of the company: 1. Can't spell 2. Are too lazy to press the "spell-check" button 3. Probably think that you, the sales opportunity, are incapable of reading past the first paragraph, anyway. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Spelling is no longer a mark of intelligence or perfectionism in the first world. Most students and workers use computers, and they have spell-checkers built-in. But hey, a lot of great physicists are really bad at basic math, right? Maybe she's just that smart Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Anytime I think something is better than sex, it means one of three things: A. I'm already oversexed. B. The sex I'm getting isn't very good. C. I haven't had sex in so long, I've forgotten what it feels like in the first place. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

What about lies that other people told your parents and they believed, and passed on to you? Do those count? My mother believed the world was going to end. She bought books about "clairvoyants" who predicted that the world was going to end. She talked every year about how this is the year that the world is going to end, and how so-and-so predicted it, so it must be true. It was never an all-out cataclysm, more just a "repositioning" of mother nature, involving earthquakes, tidal waves, the earth turning upside-down (a misinterpretation of a misinterpretation about geo-magnetic reversal), rising oceans, volcanoes, etc. The plan was most of the world's people would die, but we would live, because we kept canned food in our pantry . She still believes it. Saying things like that to your kids can fuck up them up more than telling them that if they make ugly faces, their faces will freeze, or if your ears burn, then someone is talking about you. I'm working on it, and I've made some progress. Now, I just worry that the economy will collapse or the house might fall down - a little better than thinking the whole earth will die. But I still have canned food in my pantry Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

No, you can't have a laser beam for Christmas! You'll shoot your eye out! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Sex with three celebrities = exposure to at least 9 communicable diseases. I'll vote for celibacy. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The entire US wireless industry is moving away from unlimited data. Verizon no longer offers it, even on their wireless PC modems. Bandwidth is becoming a finite resource. Another article from CNN. Note to Steve Jobs: When you deal with a shit company like AT&T, they are going to stab you in the back. Note to other wireless carriers - phones shaped like sex organs may sell very well in Japan. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I love Austin. One day, I was walking downtown to Jamba Juice, to get my usual (original OJ, no ice). Outside, I walked by a 6'5" nordic-looking bodybuilder wearing a pink tutu with a thong who smiled flirtingly at me. A few seconds later, a 5'5" cowboy with a Texas drawl and a 10-gallon hat walked by and swatted him(?) on the butt with a rolled up newspaper while spouting through a mouthful of chew "hey, thare, sweet-cheeks!" America doesn't get better than that. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

It wasn't ignorant or stupid to say it, after all it's true! I doubt he was saying it with pride. In fact, I'm sure during the conference that it was probably pointed out several times by several different sources. One problem with the G8 is that they don't really care about the environment. They all talk about it, but no one does anything that even marginally threatens their economy. The G8 exists primarily to find new and better ways to make international corporations more profitable. It's not about bettering the first world, making peace with the second world, or helping the third world. It's profiteering, disguised as a "summit". It was started because they didn't want another global recession (money) after the '73 oil crisis, it continues to serve the interest of international corporations (money) that make up 65% of the world's GDP, and while they discuss other items (hunger, terrorism, et al), the only actions taken are usually designed to make the rich richer (money). Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

That totally sucks!! They're definitely around CO, even in my basement in Denver, and in my lawn-sprinkler box outside. As a rule, when I'm about to put on work gloves, I pinch the fingers and beat the gloves against the sidewalk a few times, because they sometimes hide in there. Also, if you leave shoes outside, be sure to tap them upside down on the sidewalk to get out any spiders (or scorpions if you live in the south). Little things I learned from listening to stories, but once or twice, I have found poisonous nasties in there. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I never said you could. However, if we provide free birth control in the same way we provide free food and medicine, a lot of people will elect it. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

You know, I watched one episode of "24" since everyone seems to talk about it. It made me laugh to see how efficient and righteous everyone in the show was. I wondered if I could go to the networks and propose a similar show, but based on my experience working with government employees. The script would go something like this: Kiefer Sutherland (KS): "I saw a bunch of guys loading a nuclear bomb into a van outside in the parking lot. They don't look white and they were speaking some weird language". Boss: "Can we talk about this after my two-hour lunch? I'm starved." KS: "Think we could go track them down sometime after our third staff meeting today?" Boss: "Well, we probably could, but that's not the way we do things around here. I need to get approval from the Vice President, a nun in Argentina and that one chimpanzee in the Chinese zoo that we're still trying to teach how to sign papers." KS: "Wow - how long does that normally take." Boss: "I don't really know - never done it. Anytime I rock the boat, it causes sooo many problems. Longer hours, lots of paperwork. How about we just say they were the gardeners watering the asphalt and that was a lawnmower that they were putting in the van?" KS: "OK, you're the boss." Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD