Anyone ever join one of those forums for a particular car you may own?  If so, you are guaranteed to have seen the “oil change” argument.

It goes like this:  The manufacturer who has 1000 automotive engineers says you can do oil changes every 10k miles.  Someone else who has the sum total experience of having just driven a car before says that’s crap, you have to do it every 3k miles on the dot or your engine will explode.

Then you get the people who try to balance the conflict by saying you should do it every 5k miles.  And now many cars have oil life sensors that tell you when to change it, from 3-15k miles depending on how you drive.  But of course the very car these people bought because they’re so dependable, well, that sensor they have is just not to be trusted.

On the other hand is my one buddy who shall remain nameless.  When 100,000 mile tune ups just came out on vehicles, the sales guy explained that included oil changes.  Yeah, he was a sales guy.  So 65k miles later he’s still on the same oil.  Just added more when it needed it.  Around this point he found out what the rules really were and changed the oil finally.

No, the engine didn’t give up immediately thereafter.  But he did immediately put the thing up for sale!

Anyways, trust in the professionals who sell the car.  Change it when they say.  What group of people push the 3k mile oil change?  Could it be… the people who sell you oil or perform the oil change themselves???  No conflict of interest there of course.

Bono, the lead singer of the band U2 is famous throughout the entertainment industry for being more than just a little self-righteous.
He is playing a U2 concert in Glasgow, Scotland when he asks the audience for total quiet.
Then in the silence, he starts to slowly clap his hands, once every few seconds.
Holding the audience in total silence, he says into the microphone, “Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies.”
A voice with a broad Scottish accent, from near the front of the crowd, pierces the silence………….
“Well, fukin stop doin it then!”

On the radio this morning that long gone over question came up.  A couple who are engaged split up.  What happens to the engagement ring?

There are essentially two answers.

1. The guy always gets the ring back.  He gave it as part of a contract to get married.  With the contract broken, all items are returned to the owners.  The gal never “owns” the ring, she merely holds it as part of the promise to marry.
2. Some states hold that if the guy broke off the engagement, then the gal can keep the ring.  If the gal breaks it off, it must be returned.  This is kinda flaky reasoning because what if it is purely mutual?  What if the guy breaks it off because the gal was cheating, so why should she keep it?

Notice that the gal keeping the ring in all circumstances is right out.  At least according to every caller on the radio.

Nah, this has nothing to do with not getting nekkid and dancing on top of the bar. SmartMoney.com covers what you need to know about getting quality drinks and service at your friendly neighborhood tavern. When you’re hammered is a great time to get ripped off. Especially now that bartenders tend more and more to be poor college students rather than professional mixologists.

Sad but true…

MEN are more likely to look at a woman’s face before any other part of her body when studying sexy pictures but women go straight for the rude bits, a new study has found.

Suddenly it all makes more sense…

so I’ve been playing with the concept of “joke grenades,” where you tell a coupla pieces of a joke that someone will get when they’re exposed to the critical piece of information later on. Often I’ll make references to stuff that I read on the local news online, but people won’t see until they get home and watch the evening news.

The other day I came up with my first insult grenade. It functions in two stages. The first stage introduces the insult, but without understanding the last piece of information it doesn’t make sense. When the person looks it up, they not only understand the scope of the insult, but will probably have a negative physical reaction.

“If you were any bigger of an asshole, it’d be your picture on goatse.cz”

sure, you’ve called them a name, but you’ve put a qualifier on it they’re (hopefully) not familiar with so they won’t know how to respond. Later on, they’ll hit the webpage and
1) throw up a little
2) understand exactly what you meant
which is why you shouldn’t hurl it at someone who can affect your career path. Go ahead and give it a try. I suggest using it at church…

–jason

I call shenanigans on this “study”!

Paying taxes feels good, say researchers.The surprising discovery, based on brain scans, can also predict which people are most likely to donate cash to charity.

Bill Harbaugh at the University of Oregon in Eugene, US, and colleagues gave 19 female university students $100, and told them some of this money would have to go towards taxes.

Each volunteer then read a series of 60 separate taxation scenarios involving $0 to $45 in taxes, knowing that one of the scenarios would be selected at random and the related amount be subtracted from their $100.
Secret pleasure

As the participants viewed the tax scenarios, their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Surprisingly, whenever the students read the taxation scenarios, scientists saw a spike in activity within two of the brain’s reward centres – the nucleus accumbens and caudate nucleus.

Harbaugh says that people probably like paying taxes more than they admit. He believes the results of his new study help explain the widespread compliance with tax laws. “We like to complain about it, but based on what we do, we are not as opposed to it as we like to say,” Harbaugh says.

So I want to know:  Was my taxes involved in paying for this research!!!  Especially on a day like today when I have to cut a big frickin’ check to the feds for quarterly estimated taxes… And I guarantee, I don’t like it one bit!

Attention all you global warming fans. I will risk another comment. This is hysterical

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.html

OK, I know, I am personally killing off at least a hundred bird species with my mini van, but, try the survey. Once you have found your global footprint, go to the bottom of the page. Go to the “New, carbon offset quotation tool” at the bottom. Enter the amount that you wish to be “cleansed” of. Global taxes come to mind. So, in order for me to drive my mini van to Maine weekly, just because I want a yummy lobster roll, all I have to do is send my hard earned money out of my country, and invest in Kenya, Brazil or India. Gee, didn’t we already send all of our jobs to India, now they want my money to build hotels?

Now I beg of you, please do not feel the need to donate at the end of this exercise. I couldn’t live with myself afterwards… But, if you really want to throw your money and cleanse your carbon soul - please donate to my kids’ college funds, I’ll even send you a carbon footprint coupon…

A couple of news items this week drew my attention to the disappearance of Europe as we knew it. The most surprising news item of the week was the idea that Mohammed will now replace Thomas as Britain’s second most popular baby name. And next year, it will probably become the most popular name, period.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1890354.ece

Now, I know that I’m opening myself up to being called a racist pig, but Mohammed does not strike me as a particularly British name.

Another interesting item I found was some recent birth rate tables

http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/indic/indic_49_1_1.html

Now, when you look at the tables, keep in mind that in order for a population to replace itself, it needs a birth rate of 2.1 children per woman. The next interesting fact is that no civilization / culture has survived with a birth rate less than 1.1.

So, at a rough glance, basically most or all of the countries in Europe are not producing enough children to replace themselves. Yes, I can hear the cheers now from the 0 population growth proponents. But, before you guys lose your voice cheering, look towards the bottom of the table. Does it strike anyone else as odd that some of the countries who seem least able to support themselves have an extremely large birth rate, especially when compared to the rest? Looks to me as though Islam could take over Europe in the next generation based on birth rates alone.

Another interesting, yet lonely, interpretation is that most Europeans in the next generation will grow up without brothers or sisters, aunts or uncles, nieces or nephews. Without traditional familial support systems, who will they turn to in their hours of need?

And shouldn’t a country want to preserve it’s cultural identity? Shouldn’t it want its traditions and people to survive? The special things that makes British British? Italians Italian? Germans….

About the death penalty…

Anti-death penalty forces have gained momentum in the past few years, with a moratorium in Illinois, court disputes over lethal injection in more than a half-dozen states and progress toward outright abolishment in New Jersey.

 

The steady drumbeat of DNA exonerations - pointing out flaws in the justice system - has weighed against capital punishment. The moral opposition is loud, too, echoed in Europe and the rest of the industrialized world, where all but a few countries banned executions years ago.

 

What gets little notice, however, is a series of academic studies over the last half-dozen years that claim to settle a once hotly debated argument - whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. The analyses say yes. They count between three and 18 lives that would be saved by the execution of each convicted killer.

 

The reports have horrified death penalty opponents and several scientists, who vigorously question the data and its implications.

The data seems solid, and the opponents aren’t being scientific, they’re biased to their predetermined conclusions.  Whaddaya think?

OK I am a Peanuts fan, love Snoopy, Lucy, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Marcie.. and the rest of the gang. I just bumped into a site that a really creative artist has created the gang in a “japanese-animation” style.. check it out!

http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/gnaw/

Will anyone see themselves as a violator and listen?

It probably doesn’t matter to the people who should listen — because they’re thoughtless, rude, self-righteous idiots — but June is Lane Courtesy Month across this great nation.Lane courtesy? It’s an easy concept: If you’re on a multilane highway, drive on the right, pass on the left. In other words, if you’re not passing, you’re not in the left lane.

Apparently, though, that concept — and yes, it is a law — escapes some people. In Colorado, under a law passed in 2004, anyone driving in the left lane of a multilane highway where the speed limit is 65 mph or greater can be hit with a ticket carrying a fine of $41.20 and three points. It does not matter if the driver in the left lane is driving the speed limit.

The National Motorists Association is hoping to talk some sense into folks who break this law. Laudable, but unlikely. These are the folks who can blithely ignore horns, flashing lights, the middle finger, tailgating and other dangerous forms of impatience.

The association says better lane courtesy improves traffic flow, prevents accidents and can even save motorists money on gas. It also makes commuting less stressful.

If you know and, despite yourself, care about a left-lane hog — or you are one but hope to become a better, more considerate person — visit www. lanecourtesy.org/ to learn more about driving right, passing left.

Found at Dean’s World…

Bear robot rescues wounded troops

The US military is developing a robot with a teddy bear-style head to help carry injured soldiers away from the battlefield.

Hehhehh… the pics on the site actually look pretty cool.  I wonder if the thing will growl at you if you whine too much.

Trying out the new Windows Live Writer beta for blog posting.

Seems pretty nice and easy to use… very clean interface, spell checker, etc.  Kinda like it!

From IFPI about file-swapping

1. Pirate Bay, one of the flagships of the anti-copyright movement, makes thousands of euros from advertising on its site, while maintaining its anti-establishment “free music” rhetoric.
2. AllOfMP3.com, the well-known Russian web site, has not been licensed by a single IFPI member, has been disowned by right holder groups worldwide and is facing criminal proceedings in Russia.
3. Organized criminal gangs and even terrorist groups use the sale of counterfeit CDs to raise revenue and launder money.
4. Illegal file-sharers don’t care whether the copyright-infringing work they distribute is from a major or independent label.
5. Reduced revenues for record companies mean less money available to take a risk on “underground” artists and more inclination to invest in “bankers” like American Idol stars.
6. ISPs often advertise music as a benefit of signing up to their service, but facilitate the illegal swapping on copyright infringing music on a grand scale.
7. The anti-copyright movement does not create jobs, exports, tax revenues and economic growth–it largely consists of people pontificating on a commercial world about which they know little.
8. Piracy is not caused by poverty. Professor Zhang of Nanjing University found the Chinese citizens who bought pirate products were mainly middle- or higher-income earners.
9. Most people know it is wrong to file-share copyright infringing material but won’t stop till the law makes them, according to a recent study by the Australian anti-piracy group MIPI.
10. P2P networks are not hotbeds for discovering new music. It is popular music that is illegally file-shared most frequently.

Of course, it really comes down to, you can get something for free, or you can pay for it.  Maybe if realistic pricing tied with the ability to only get tracks you want were in common practice besides ITunes, then the problem would be lessened.

They (parents who are way too attached to their kids) are there in the play ground observing their babies every last move… the baby is a pre-teen. Why do parents have to be glued to their kids? Once upon a time kids could play without mommy watching and so insanely involved in their child’s life. (Yes being involved in your child’s life is not a bad thing… the problem is the extreme it has reached! Remember ANYTHING in excess is a BAD thing!). (more…)

Maidens who are steely-hearted
Are not easily persuaded.
But just hit the proper spot,
Oh, ye’ll have a happy lot.

Is it possible for any TV show or movie, that in any way shows the mid to late 60’s not give some stupid Vietnam flashback?

Flipping channels:

1. From the Earth to the Moon.  The first 15 minutes seemed to be all about Vietnam. Then they suddenly cut to showing work on the Saturn rockets? When they cut back to another Kennedy dying I couldn’t take anymore.
2. Twilight Zone the Movie.  As soon as I cut to the channel they had the guy in the water get cut down by a bunch of drugged up US soldiers who simply start shooting in all directions like.. well, drunk rednecks know more about guns than a Hollywood liberal, so the soldiers start shooting like Hollywood liberals.
3. At this point I gave up and flipped to Mythbusters.  Who fortunately were doing their Pirate shows.

So for you movie buffs:  Can you name a movie or TV show, set in that time period, that ignores both stinking filthy hippies and Vietnam?

Because back then hippies were a small minority, and Vietnam affected the day to day lives of people about as much as Iraq does now.  8.7 million deployments though the total of Vietnam with only 1/7th of them ever in combat positions.  So maybe one million total troops ever in combat in Vietnam.  That’s one out of every 200 people in the US were affected.  That tells me that most people did not even know someone in combat.  Probably the same percentage of hippies.

Check it out here

Do you like blues, jazz, and cabaret?

Give it a listen on her site, you’ll like her music.