Boomers: drugged out before they were born.

The greatest generation was mostly born to mothers who practiced "natural" childbirth. The GG, however, almost universally gave birth to their children while the moms were drugged into comas. The general anesthesia drugs pumped into mom had effects on the babies.

Karen... a new kind of job: "hyper-local blogging"

The NY Times and other newspapers have hired people who are expert bloggers on greater NYC stuff. All they do is search and blog on what is happening in the local area. It's an actual job!

Stealth remake?

"Night and Day" is a pretty good movie. Am I the only one who noticed that it is a remake of "The In Laws" from 1979? The Peter Falk role is reprised by Tom Cruise, and Alan Arkin's by Cameron Diaz.

fun family activity when snowed in...

Watch all 6 Star Wars episodes and count the number of times any character says "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Life's Coincidences

The acceleration due to gravity near the surface of the Earth is 10 meters per second/per second. A nice round number. 10 meters. A meter is based on the length of the average human arm. All humans live near the surface of the Earth.

The sun and the moon appear to be the same size from near the surface of the Earth. The moon can appear to block out the sun because the moon is about 400 times closer to Earth than the sun, and sun is about 400 times larger than the moon.

Free?

I really hate this sales tactic...
"The poster is free. You pay only $5.95 for postage and handling costs. " We know that nothing good in life is actually free. Somebody has to pay, even if only postage and handling costs. It was bad enough when you only heard this kind of stuff on TV and radio ads, not to mention print ads and coupons. Now, it's pretty hard to do much on the Internet without getting blasted with fake give-aways. Loans are offered as interest free (if you pay them off in the first year. If not, you pay ALL interest). "Free" stuff falls into categories:

• Payment by another name. For example, the item is free if you pay shipping and handling. S and H is jacked up to cover the cost of the item plus a profit.
• Free now, pay later. This one is obvious. A free cell phone? Hardly. The cost is added to your monthly service fee. The fee structure for cell phones, automobiles, houses, etc is so complex the cost of "free" items can be noiselessly added in, plus a profit. If you buy your house on a 30-year mortgage, you will pay at least 3 times the cost of the house, so watch out for "FREE" stuff there. It could be the most expensive patio furniture you ever bought. A typical insurance scam is that the insurer will give you some of your premium money back... after it sits in the bank for 6 months earning interest for the insurance company.
  
• Free for some, others pay extra. If you have cash, you can get a discount on big-ticket stuff. This means interest is a little higher for credit purchasers. You get airline miles, hotel or rent-a-car points, or even "cash back." If you pay interest or fees on your credit card to get these "rewards," your rewards are expensive. If you don't smoke, drink, or gamble there are perks in life that appear to be free -- especially in Vegas. Of course, those who DO indulge pay for your free stuff. And, you can end up paying extra for soft drinks. BTW, it costs restaurants almost nothing for fountain drinks. Most of the price you pay is profit. Therefore, it is easy to offer a "Free" drink and add a pittance to the cost of a hamburger and fries and still break even. Two haircuts for the price of one... only if you can convince someone to go with you. Even if it is totally free, that only means that someone else has paid the freight. Think about the free money you might win gambling. Someone else had to lose. Next time, it may be your turn to lose or pay extra.
  
• YOU work for free. You unofficially work for a company by selling your friends on a product or service, filling out endless surveys, providing personal information on yourself and others, becoming a walking billboard, looking at endless ads online, wading through email advertisements... Open source software is free, but you can end up paying for it in many hours you work trying to use it... wait, probably no more than if you bought it from Microsoft.
  
• The Barbie/GI Joe strategy. You get a free plastic doll, but the clothes, cars, houses, etc. are only available at jacked-up prices. BOGO... you get a second pair of shoes free, but only from a special "selection" of shoes the store was going to dump anyway. And look at how they jacked up the price of socks and shoe polish... not to mention the matching accessories you may need (scarf, belt, purse, dress, sash, suit, jewelry...)