Too bad they're $160 each. The search for a cheap knockoff starts now.

-janelane, energy conservation guru

I want these all over my house

Michael Crichton, whose technological thrillers like “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park” dominated best-seller lists for decades and were translated into Hollywood megahits, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 66 and lived in Santa Monica, Calif.

R.I.P.

-janelane

Michael Crichton Dies at 66

Take a sip of your red drink if:

- Someone refers to Barack Obama as a socialist.

- Anyone says anything nice about George Bush.

Take a sip of your blue drink if:

- Obama wins a state. - Anyone utters the word "historic" in reference to Obama's campaign.

- Hillary Clinton makes an appearance. (double points if Bill shows up too)

Election night drinking game going down in Roswell. I also like this simple one:

1. Make two batches of jello shots: red and blue.

2. Watch the live election coverage and take a red jello shot for each state that is called for John McCain and Sarah Palin and a blue jello shot for each state that is called for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

With any luck, all the blue shots will be gone before you pass out or go to bed.

Variation: Multiply step two by the number of Joes attending your Election Night Party.

-janelane

Election Night Drinking Game

Grammar Quiz #7: Judge Kearse, in the decision, cited the payments to the detectives as one factor that supported the prosecution’s view that the conspiracy spanned the entire period of the indictment, from 1979 to 2005.

She said that the jury had been told the principle purpose of the enterprise, as the indictment charged, was to generate money for the detectives, through legal and illegal activities.

Answer: Aaarrgh. Make it “principal,” not “principle.” (It would also be smoother to move the “that” in this sentence, so it reads, “She said the jury had been told that the principal purpose …”)

I love spotting grammatical and spelling errors in published documents. The NYT has added a third category..."style" errors. I'm on the look out!

-janelane, "also, change 'had been told' to 'was told'"

Quiz Answers - Times Topics Blog - NYTimes.com

i love this photo

I want this picture to be on the front page of memestreams always. It's so nice to scroll past bad news and see that little guy at the end.

-janelane

In pictures: Wildlife photographer of the year | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Those outside of government at places like the Cato Institute and Reason magazine are just as consistent in their opposition to government bailouts as to the kind of regulation that might have prevented one from being necessary. "Let failed banks fail" is the purist line. This approach would deliver a wonderful lesson in personal responsibility, creating thousands of new jobs in the soup-kitchen and food-pantry industries.

-janelane, personally irresponsible

How the financial collapse killed libertarianism. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine

Among that provision’s most tenacious critics has been Robert Linn, a University of Colorado professor emeritus who is one of the nation’s foremost testing experts. He argued, almost from the law’s passage, that no society anywhere has brought 100 percent of students to proficiency, and that the annual gains required to meet the goal of universal proficiency were unrealistically rapid, since even great school systems rarely sustain annual increases in the proportion of students demonstrating proficiency topping three to four percentage points.

“If, no matter how hard teachers work, the school is labeled as a failure, that’s just demoralizing,” Dr. Linn said.

Only a freaking idiot with zero grasp of scientific principles would consider 100% in anything a realistic goal. 100% carbon-free cars! 100% withdrawal from foreign oil! 100% democracy in a fundamentalist Islamic country!

This list only needs universal healthcare and world peace to be complete.

-janelane, wondering where all the smart people have gone

Under ‘No Child’ Law, Even Solid Schools Falter - NYTimes.com

Today [08/15/07], the Graham-Dodd approach produces a very different picture from the one that Wall Street has been offering. Based on average profits over the last 10 years, the P/E ratio has been hovering around 27 recently. That’s higher than it has been at any other point over the last 130 years, save the great bubbles of the 1920s and the 1990s. The stock run-up of the 1990s was so big, in other words, that the market may still not have fully worked it off.

At noon today [10/10/08], after several gyrations in the morning, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was at about 870. That meant the five-year p-e ratio was just below 12. (The corporate earnings data isn’t all available yet, so this is an estimate.) It was last that low in late 1985. Over the past 100 years, the average p-e has been about 15.5.

If you use a 10-year p-e instead, stocks look somewhat more expensive — the [current 10-year] ratio is 14, the lowest since 1988 but only a little lower than the 100-year average.

In August 2007, the 10-year price-earnings (P/E) ratio was 27.

In October 2008, the 10-year P/E ratio is 14, below the 100-year P/E (15.5) but above the "long-run average" for the depressions of the 30's and 80's (6).

-janelane, trying to make sense of my inferior 401k

Remembering a Classic Investing Theory - New York Times

“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.

In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand.

NYT on the misnomer Sarah No-Talent-Ass-Clown Palin keeps using.

-janelane

The Nation - Who You Callin’ a Maverick? - NYTimes.com

"It would be helpful if we opened up ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)[for oil drilling]. I think it's a mistake not to. And I would urge you all to travel up there and take a look at it, and you can make the determination as to how beautiful that country is."

~ George W. Bush, at a White House Press conference, March 29, 2001

Looking up sustainability quotes for a project at work, I found this gem. Hmm, what other Republican no talent ass clown thinks we can drill our way out of our oil dependence in any appreciable amount of time?

-janelane, left (and north) of the center

Drury University: Sustainability Quotes