I'm for it, so long as those stingy marine organisms are willing to share half the ocean with us landlubbers.  Floating cities! 

How can you even accurately judge the risk and probabilities when there is no transparency and insufficient data except for the most blatantly obvious? Smallpox is blatantly obvious.  Polio is blatantly obvious.  Diphtheria is blatantly obvious.  Pertussis is blatantly obvious.  Tetanus is blatantl...

[quote=MachineGhost]The relentless tit sucking at vaccination around here makes me sick.  [/quote] I'm sure there is a vaccine for that!  :) Seriously, for me it is a simple equation.  Are the risk and consequences of an adverse reaction to a vaccine greater than the same for the disease?  If so, av...

[quote=Libertarian666]This is easily explained by the fact that high IQ and high introversion are strongly correlated.[/quote] In one of my early report cards (1st grade I think), the teacher commented "Plays well with self".  So I got that going for me (ignoring myriad other interpretatio...

[quote=dualstow]Well, come on, you've got to bold the G.I. Bill part, too.[/quote] Right you are.  I spent 4 years in the Navy as an enlisted man making a ridiculously low salary (we did get a good salary bump in 1971) in exchange for a B.A. (and a semester of grad school).  Fair exchange, I think. ...

California State University, Chico.  B.A. in Biological Sciences 1978 (G.I. Bill, tuition about $98 per semester for all the units you could stand, if I recall correctly).
California State University, Chico.  M.A. in Botany 1980
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Ph.D. in Botany 1983

[quote='Ad Orientem']In fairness I should note that things were quite different in the 19th century. There was no assumption that everyone, down to and including the village idiot had a "right" to go to college. There were not the vast plethora of colleges and universities we have today al...

[quote=jafs]The issue's been decided by the SC, so it's not an open question any more.[/quote]

So was Dred Scott, et al.

[quote=Maddy]Lately, there's been a lot of discussion about "girding loins" and going to battle.  Scary stuff.[/quote]

No doubt soon to be followed by "weeping and gnashing of teeth". 

jafs, You are right.  A union between a male and female should be called marriage. Other forms should be called civil unions, domestic contracts, etc. And it is not the fact of having children, it is the potential for such to occur (however likely or remote), that makes marriage fundamentally differ...

[quote=jafs]Why? My wife and I don't have kids, and are past child-bearing age - should our union have a different name from other straight couples who have kids?[/quote] Because "traditional marriage" has religious, cultural, and biological attributes (historic and current) that "gay...

I am tired of the issue too, but ... If we allow "marriage" to occur between any two consenting adults then we need to call a "joint living agreement" between two consenting adults,  who are jointly capable of reproduction, something other than marriage. The distinction is profou...

A couple of computers ago I bought an Aquarium screen saver for the cat.  He loved it.  Not so good for the monitor.

[quote='BearBones']Not talking about cash going away. Just that stored in deposit accounts. [/quote] Ok, I see the distinction.  In a negative-interest-rate world, leaving "cash" in deposit accounts paying negative interest makes no sense, and could result in a run on such deposit accounts...

[quote=BearBones]I, for one, am not really as concerned about the demise of cash. More wondering what happens if their is a shortage of it when/if lots of people come to convert their digital money into paper because it is more likely to retain value. This would occur in a deflationary environment. ...

I am going to put my tinfoil hat on and say that if you are truly worried about the demise of paper cash, holding paper cash makes no sense.  The government could call all of it in and issue you an EBT card.  After such-and-such date, paper cash would no longer be legal tender, etc. This is essentia...

[quote=Pointedstick]The addition of nickel makes it non-magnetic.[/quote] That is interesting, since nickel itself is magnetic. [quote=Gumby]Plus, I didn't like that I could take a paper town to my cast iron, at any time, and it would basically look like I could wipe oxidized grease off of it. The F...

I'm a traditionalist.  .30-06.

Don't see goiter around much these days.

Not even in the "Goiter Belt".

No argument from me about Ziggy Stardust.

I've been living with the "All-In-One Cooking Device" for a few months. Mini review:  Does what it says it does.  Seems sturdy.  Perfect rice.  Stainless steel pot better than teflon-coated stuff. Sous vide is ok, but there is something off-putting about pulling a perfectly cooked 135F med...

One or two of the principals seem to be graduates of Long Term Capital Management.

Either that is good (they learned from their mistakes) or bad.

Dividends do reduce the stock price, right up to the point where the market opens and prices fluctuate (up or down or unchanged).  But the company begins earning a new dividend at the same time.  So is the price adjusted upward daily (in the same manner it was reduced by the dividend payment) to acc...

I think you miss the point. Unless gains (either dividends or capital gains) are realized, those gains, regardless of how they came about (i.e. the excellent performance of "Cory's Tequila Company"), are subject to vagaries of the market.  Your unrealized gains can evaporate in a heartbeat...

that would be one big baloney statement then . your portfolio value is all yours each and every day . it would be ludicrous to think that anything different transpired except a taxing event if instead of selling each night and re buying another investment in the morning is any different then choosi...