Comments:

1. Mudak on April 4th, 2012 at 19:47:

   Kudos to the kids who spoke out. (And I thought the Catholics liked adoption, at least among straight couples. My wife was adopted, and the broker of the adoption was Catholic Charities in Massachusetts, giving her to a Catholic couple who was infertile…)

   One question: is this school a public school? If so, then the presence of a representative of the Archdiocese may have been a violation of the separation of church and state…

2. mysteryweapon on April 4th, 2012 at 20:13:

   It is a catholic school, but I believe that supporting a particular political standpoint from a religious organization is a violation of it’s tax exempt status in the US.

Comments:

1. Desiato on April 4th, 2012 at 20:22:

   I’ve thought for a while that the term “pink slime” is just anti-marketing by those who don’t like the idea.

2. John Domingue on April 6th, 2012 at 2:38:

   Desiato, the meat industry will work to insure it goes no further than the ewww factor generated by this revelation. And it probably won’t, because most don’t really want to know. From cow pies in otherwise pristine streams in wilderness areas to dosing the animals with antibiotics in their feed (creating immunity to the same drugs we rely on) to the “confined animal feeding operations” (let them eat corn!) to the assembly line at the processing plant (faster, you lackeys!) to the end product bringing heart disease to a sedentary population, industrial meat production sucks. Bovine growth hormone, anyone?

3. Desiato on April 6th, 2012 at 9:40:

   No disagreement that industrial meat production is rife with problems.

Comments:

1. Sue W on April 5th, 2012 at 2:46:

   There is an interesting mention about governments using inconsistent data with intent to deceive. I’m shocked!

2. Desiato on April 5th, 2012 at 13:09:

   It’s easy to *claim* intent to deceive, but note there’s no evidence in the article.

   The claims is that the U.S. government has changed its method of calculating inflation without retroactively updating calculations for prior years. The current common method of calculating inflation is through the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which *necessarily* changes because spending habits change. E.g. in the 80s people spent money on long distance phone calls, now they spend money on internet service. You can’t go back and recompute the old baskets–there are no 1980s prices for internet service.

   Now, I can’t offhand find whether the US Govt has used the CPI throughout the 20th Century of if it used to use other types of stats. This is stuff for policy & finance wonks. I’m hesitant to believe any claims that come with no explanation, as there may well be good explanations.

Comments:

1. M on April 4th, 2012 at 16:05:

   But the body of the car looks fine?

2. John Sinteur on April 4th, 2012 at 16:07:

   If you look carefully there’s a couple of dents in the roof, and I spot a few suspect places on the boot as well

3. M on April 8th, 2012 at 22:52:

   Hmm.. Hardly visible though.. Impressive.
   But I’d guess that this would be one of those days where “♫under my umbrella♪” would not mean much…

Comments:

1. Desiato on April 4th, 2012 at 10:11:

   It may make sense to think about the converse: if you’re getting a new phone and you care little about things other than making calls, then you’re not likely to pay for a phone, so more likely to end up with an Android phone.

   Note that this doesn’t logically prove that Android sucks or Android apps are worse. (Also doesn’t prove that it doesn’t suck.)

   Given the semi-open nature of Android, operators could actually transparently force data onto wifi networks when the phone is in reach of a ‘friendly’ base station. Can’t do that on iOS AFAIK.

2. matt w. on April 4th, 2012 at 14:35:

   I didn’t want to be another phone junky who has no manners in restaurants etc, and thought I had no interest in watching TV at the bus stop, so I went in to get another regular phone. They offered me a droid for free ($10/mo. data). It turns out it is nice to see email instantly; the camera is fine; I can google shit in a bind and sometimes have that annoying gps bitch tell me to make u-turns. I have a compass app and craigs list app that tell me when certain things come available in my area. I am yet to please myself sexually while my phone is on and I think mp3 format is the lowest quality-highest price scam ever sold to “tech savy” people.

   I’m sure people who care enough pay the extra $ might think life would be unlivable without a iphone. I suspect people like me wouldn’t know the difference. (We can only ask that stupid voice the quickest way to committ suicide for the 1st week of having the ip4s and still be amused)

   For those of you who do care, at least you can be glad there is a force that is helping prices stay down.

3. Roland Hesz on April 6th, 2012 at 13:40:

   I feel more and more like an outlier I now have an HTC Desire And an iPhone 4S. Appwise, I’m more on the Android, taking photos more on the iPhone and speaking is on the iPhone. To set up my iPhone the same way I did eith my Android, I HAD to spend money. So yes, bought more apps for my iPhone. Because I had to.
   Internet usage I can’t comment on yet, my iPhone has the local contract, the HTC has the other one – just moved to Zurich a month ago, so it’s all forming yet.

   All in all, the iPhone has an amazing, but very small screen, a pretty much useless Siri – sorry Roland, I can do that only in the United States – and that’s all.