Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt
My Hobbit name is Berilac Bramble of Willowbottom. My Elvish name is Amras Lossëhelin. Follow the links to find yours.
There’s a new production video from The Hobbit on Facebook now. In it, Peter Jackson others discuss shooting in 3D and 48 fps, but there’s lots of nifty studio footage. Given that they wrapped studio shooting several months back, it must take awhile to get one of the video diaries together.
Eric Vespe from Ain’t It Cool News has a new set report (this one involving his cameo in The Hobbit), making me wish I wrote for an entertainment website and was in New Zealand.
Looking forward to The Hobbit. December 2012. I can’t wait that long. Arrrghh!
It’s illegal in China to use an ultrasound to determine the sex of your baby. I didn’t know that. I learned that from the Freakonomics podcast on China’s one child policy. Also touches on legalized abortion leading to a drop in crime (the most controversial assertion from their first Freakonomics book).
That’s it (from me) for today. Namaste. — KW
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All Things in Moderation 
In the early days of China's 'one baby' era, expectant parents were prone to aborting fetuses known to be female. Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh! Another Tolkien movie! Have a great evening, all.
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kevin, thanks for all the updates and obscure links re Hobbit. Like you, I.Cannot.Wait.So what is going on in Oklahoma? Today we have tornadoes (don't ever remember tornadoes here in November) AND earthquake aftershocks in the same place at the same time. This is Weird with a capital W. Is this in fact a result of fracking?
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Hi allI feel like I've been out of the loop for three day, probably because I was. I managed to read the previous threads this morning and drop a quick comment in then all hell broke loose around here again. Interesting discussion re AGW over the weekend. I tend to believe the evolving scientific consensus until or unless they've determined there is not as much of a correlation as they thought. What I'm not very confident about is how do we reverse it, if we even can. I'm sure our political class will figure out some way to screw it up. They can't figure out a way to change the economic climate to end 9% employment so I doubt they'd have much luck reversing Global Warming. Hell, one party brought us death panels during the health care debate and the other sold out to the industrial complex so I still contend that it behooves all of us to try to reduce our carbon footprint individually, if we care about future generations.okie, our daughter had the opportunity to observe fracking up close and personal this summer and even some people in the industry believe there may be a correlation between it and earthquakes, at least to a small degree. She's not convinced yet but it's a powerful force they're unleashing with not exactly small explosions all along the drill pipe. It'll be an interesting by-product of our reliance on new extraction technology if we decide earthquakes are acceptable to satisfy our thirst for oil don't you think?Compromise, compromise, compromise.
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Global warming, okie, I'm tellin' you. It's the root of all evil now.
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Rush Limbaugh's defense of Herman Caine's sexual harassment underwhelms Ace at Ace of Spades HQ.LMS: Must . . . have . . . oil! Black . . . gold! Texas . . . tea!First thing you know, old Jed's a millionaire. Kin folk said: "Jed, move away from there!" They said California was the place he ought to be, So he loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly.Who else would connect fracking to The Beverly Hillbillies? I ask you.
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okie: Can't wait for The Hobbit. Did I mention Ian Holm is back to play old Bilbo for the "bookends" that connect The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings? Awesomeness. There's not another movie I'm looking forward to more. Not Avengers, not the next Superman movie . . . there's not actually any movies I'm looking that forward to. I'm excited about Little Mermaid coming back to the theaters (in 3D). And Beauty and the Beast. I will definitely go see the new Muppets movie. But I'm genuinely excited about The Hobbit, looking forward to it ever day, the way I looked forward to Tron: Legacy (big Tron fan from way back). Very pleased Peter Jackson is back. This will not be my last Hobbit post by any stretch of the imagination.
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kevinI always hated that show, lol. Hey, we're not complaining about oil here, I do still drive and use plastic and other products that are oil based. And besides that one of those hot shot companies just offered our daughter a hot shot job making beaucoup money and five weeks vacation. We're not stupid, just tired.
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I always enjoyed the show. Mostly it was Donna Douglas as Elly May Clampett, but I'm also a big Buddy Ebsen fan.
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I liked Buddy Ebsen too, but that show was just too corny for me. And now I have that song stuck in my head, so thanks…. 🙂
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I've talked about this before, the fact that even seniors with the benefits of SS and Medicare are falling behind. It wasn't for no reason at all that the group of women I work with started a food bank at one of the local senior housing facilities. We have over 200 addresses, either couples or individuals, out of just a little over 400 apartments participating on the needy side of the food bank and maybe about 10 participating on the donation side.The US Census Bureau changed its formulation of poverty for the first time in over fifty years, taking into account reductions in the cost of food while including rising costs in health care, child care, housing and transportation. In addition, non-cash government aid like food stamps and tax credits were finally included in the formulation.When all of those figures were taken into account, it turns out that poverty is more prevalent in the United States than previously thought. The ranks of America’s poor are greater than previously known, reaching a new level of 49.1 million — or 16 percent — due to rising medical costs and other expenses that make it harder for people to stay afloat, according to new census estimates. The numbers released Monday are part of a first-ever supplemental poverty measure aimed at providing a fuller picture of poverty. It is considered experimental and does not replace the Census Bureau’s official poverty formula, which continues to determine eligibility and distribution of billions of dollars in federal aid for the poor. Based on the revised formula, the number of poor people exceeds the record 46.2 million, or 15.1 percent, that was officially reported in September.The biggest increase in poverty rates came from elderly Americans aged 65 or older. It was always a point of pride that the combination of Social Security and Medicare drastically reduced elderly poverty. Under the old statistics, just 9% of seniors were seen as living in poverty. However, because the new formula takes into account out-of-pocket medical costs, particularly rising deductibles and prescription drugs, that number has jumped by 2.7 million, and now represents 15.9% of all seniors, roughly 1 in 6. This is consistent with the rest of the population.This is an important finding. What we’re seeing is that Social Security and Medicare are NOT ENOUGH to keep millions of seniors out of poverty. This comes at a time when the elites in Washington are trying to find ways to cut Social Security benefits or phase out Medicare. These new poverty statistics should stop that dead in its tracks. But it won’t.
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Just a reminder everyone that Friday is Veteran's Day. I'm picking out one of the pages from my dad's diary and also have a funny story to tell from my husband and Vietnam. Hope some of the rest of you will share a story or two. I think we could just do each one as a separate diary and then let everyone comment on each one. How does that sound?
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For all of you worrying about "austerity," don't.Is a little bit better than nada? Only Freddy Fender knew.
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Hi, lms [waving}!!!Hope your weekend was great. McWing and I have exchanged a couple of e-mails and we're both planning to post. I was hoping to talk a friend of mine who's currently still on active duty to write a post, but he's in the middle of a dissertation of his own so doesn't have time to work something up. But, really, three posts is probably enough to get things rolling unless McWing's friend who served in Iraq is able to come up with one. How 'bout it, SGT McWing (I'm making a guess on the rank here)?
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Nice promotion but I was an E-4, alas, never a Sgt. I did get my bloodstripe however. I haven't gotten my friend to commit however, but am going at his again in the morning.
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Sound good, Corporal! Hope you can rope your friend in, I'd love to hear a take on the current view from the trenches/front lines as it were. My friend's take on life would be very different, given his rank, and very interesting. . . and he's not given to toeing the corporate line, although I don't know that he'd really let loose in even such a small venue as this.
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lms:I still contend that it behooves all of us to try to reduce our carbon footprint individually, if we care about future generations.And I still contend that it behooves all of us to try to reduce government spending, if we care about future generations.
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ScottIt doesn't increase government spending to be a good steward of the environment and preserve natural resources for future generations if you commit to it on an individual level. Try it you might like it.MichiThat sounds great re Veterans Day. I'm sure the other vets will have something to say as well. And Utah was beautiful as always. It's so funny, I was born and raised in CA but my ancestral roots go back to the Montana, Utah, Colorado area and every time I travel that direction I feel like I'm going home. If they had a Pacific Ocean I'd be outta here. Our daughter took the job that keeps her in CO for a couple of years longer, so I'm jazzed about that. I'll be able to avoid Houston that much longer.
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lms:It doesn't increase government spending to be a good steward of the environment and preserve natural resources for future generations if you commit to it on an individual level.True enough. Equally true is that it doesn't increase carbon in the atmosphere to be a good steward of government finances, and oppose the seemingly never-ending growth in government spending programs. Try it. You might like it! And even if you don't like it, it is almost certainly going to do more for future generations than worrying about your carbon footprint will.
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scott, there are all sorts of ways to trim government spending and I'm actually in favor of some of them, shocking I know. I like to pick my battles based on value not whether it's the government or private industry picking the winners and losers.
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