Apr. 15, 1998; updated Dec. 30, 2000
If you ask someone a question, please listen to the answer.
A biological solution to a political problem: Engineer things so that the father and mother each bear half the baby, which is assembled at birth. There are a few potential complications to address, which (here) I will not.
Public posting of presidential fitness scores (the practice when I was in elementary school) remains, despite providing more ammunition to taunt weak kids, a great idea. They should also do this for all academic scores.
Demand-triggered traffic lights often lead to smoother traffic flow, yet also create absurd situations where six lanes of arterial traffic come to a dead halt so some schmo can drive to the 7-11 to get a pack of smokes.
Fines for public offenses should be proportional to income. (I later found out that in Finland this is the case - (Yahoo))
Wal-mart, Wheel of Fortune, and Windows 95 seem to trigger the same receptors in the human brain.
The US National Endowment for the Arts concentrates scant funding in a few areas. Only the offensive ones seem to get publicity; meanwhile, Jesse Helms types would rather fund Elvis on velvet or scrap it entirely. Meanwhile, Canada funds a little performance art group called Cirque du Soleil.
With call waiting, you can 1) be interrupted as you're trying to gracefully finish a long-distance or business call; and 2) minutes later, realize after the 5th ring that the machine won't pick up, but there *is* someone there, and they've simply practicing "caller ignore". This is a step backward from the more efficient and polite busy signal. If you don't want to miss a call, get your telecom's voice mail service, which can take a message while the line is busy.
Paula Cole's character ("where have all the cowboys gone") seems to wake up one day and find out her husband was a jerk. Men don't change that fast. She married him because he was good-looking and nice to her; the first doesn't stand on its own, and the second all too often wears off.
Did you elect Jesse Helms/Bud Shuster/Tom Delay, etc? I sure as hell didn't. Their states did, for local reasons. But their decisions affect us all. Conscientious voters in other states should have input on candidates of national influence (don't ask me to figure out the mechanics of this :-) Barring that, just consult me on election day.
We go to computer shows, and drop business cards like birdseed to get free stuff. Then we're a little surprised, if not offended, to be flooded with sales calls from the vendors about products completely unrelated to our line of work. The nerve!
Corporations feel justified in demanding and keeping more and more personal information about you. However, privately held companies are not required to divulge certain financial information; and terms of settlement of most product liability cases include keeping the results secret.
Some pundits and politicians have floated the idea that it's unethical for a union to support a political cause without the (unanimous?) vote of its members. As a stockholder, I would want the same veto power with the corporations in my portfolio.
Nicotine and marijuana, similar drugs with similar delivery methods and health hazards, should be treated equivalently by law. It's up to us to choose that point between FDA regulation and outright prohibition.
An urban dance station, piped in to the gym, was taking calls about "what's bugging you these days." A young caller explained her particular situation: she was pregnant and didn't know which of three guys was the father. The uncharitable fan of other types of music would think: "Typical."
In New England, people tend to oppose street widening even in the most commercialized, congested area of town, fearing a tolerable road would destroy the rural character. But rural character, like virginity, is easily lost and not regained. The only way to get it back from all the strip malls, grocery stores, and auto dealers is to stop patronizing them; when they go out of business, plow the empty buildings under. Barring that, pull your head out of your rectal canal and build effective access to this commercial area.
The sheep cloners could bring in billions by working on one of two animals: a quiet, odorless dog that cleans up after itself and doesn't lick anything; or a cat that can catch a frisbee.
How did American banks survive for the century or so before they felt the need to make huge margins on token service fees?
Here's some fun: go to the bookstore and find all the fitness mags that have articles on the proven best way to work your abs. (There are usually about 15.) Compare and contrast them. Which ones are wrong?
My friend had sent an acceptance letter to Company A, but was still mulling over an offer with Company B. His plan: if he decided to go with B, he would just not show up at A. What if this catches on? with so many job offer acceptors cancelling at the last minute, and with a high demand for some positions, some companies will start overbooking the same way the airlines do. There could come the day where you walk into work and "sorry, we have to bump you. We can offer another job down the street and $200 cash...?"
