Phi for All

That's what Snail said in post #4, and he's not a parent, apparently. But "No reason" works for, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" as well as, "Why did George Bush get elected twice?" The difference is in whether you shrug your shoulders or tap your skull when saying, "No reason".

No reason. Seriously, try this answer out for all why-type questions. It works.

Morning. Mrs Claus: "Can I make you some breakfast dear? How about some bacon and eggs, or maybe a nice sectioned grapefruit and a cup of coffee?" Santa: "No thanks, my dear. The Viagra really takes the edge off my appetite." Afternoon. Mrs Claus: "Can I make you some lunch dear? I can make you a grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of milk, wouldn't take a second. How's that sound?" Santa: "No thanks, my dear. I'm just not very hungry." Evening. Mrs Claus: "Dear, you really should eat something. Why don't I whip up a quick chicken stir fry, that won't take long. Or I could call out for pizza delivery, we haven't done that in a while." Santa: "No thanks, my dear. The Viagra really takes the edge off my appetite." Mrs Claus: "Well then would you please get off me 'cause I'm STARVING!"

Maybe you need three one-syllable words instead, such as: The lovely thing 'bout Chemistry is that it works for thee *or* me. English teachers love it when you throw some thees into a sonnet.

I never use it unless I have to, but thanks, I'll pass this along to those I know who do.

What's your sine? You have a well-defined set of binomials! I'm sufficiently large myself. Care to bracket and apply yourself to some index raising?

Call it conscience then. Too little and you become grandiose. Too much and you lack self-esteem. The balance is tricky but imperative, imo.

The problem isn't lack of proof. The problem is lack of time before the average person stops listening to all the proof you have.

The right amount of shame is extremely important. Too much and we're not self-confident. Too little and we're grandiose. We need just enough shame to keep us in line with our societies needs.

We are at a point where we can't produce our ideas fast enough to bring them to market before they are obsolete, and this will only get worse. AI will most certainly be applied to that problem, creating thinking production processes that can adapt more quickly to new innovation. It's a scary thought to me that we could be setting something loose that will outpace even our own intellect, and give it access to creating its own next generations.

I would caution you in the overuse of the word "theory" to mean "speculation". In science, a theory is the best you can get. Start with an idea, make some predictions based on that idea, design some experiments, collect some data. When others can duplicate your work, you can think about starting to call it a theory. So if anyone seems annoyed at you (which they will if you keep posting a "Theory of the Day" ), it's probably because you're crowning your achievement without the rigor it demands. Maybe you should get used to saying "Hypothesis of the Day" instead.

The Millionaire Next Door is a good book very close to this subject. It's full of stories about hard-working people who invested shrewdly, eschewed lavish consumerism and ended up with a million dollars plus in liquid assets. And typically, when they died and left it all to their kids (the very motivation for their shrewd money management in the first place), the kids blew through it in an appallingly short time, mostly because they felt entitled to lavish consumerism. I'm sure they all felt "bailed out" when mom and dad died.

Tyson bred chickens with four legs decades ago. They don't sell them because they can't catch them.

But isn't this just like saying that, because I object to an unjust war, I don't support the troops? If we artificially prop up the auto makers, we teach them and the unions that they don't need to be as smart as the companies who don't find themselves in this position. The workers may need to realize that times have changed, and that making vehicles that people want and can afford is the balance to their gainful employment. The managers may need to realize that people are waking up and deciding that all they really want is to buy a car, not go in debt for the next 6 years in order to support 2 million industry-related workers.

Exactly. For at least the last 20 years or so, we've been played with a False Dilemma argument about how easy we need life to be. We can't let asphalt cure because it wouldn't be convenient. We should risk ingesting Teflon because our eggs might stick to a normal pan. And we need electric motors to adjust our side-view mirrors because it's so hard to adjust them by hand. And now the auto manufacturers have gotten themselves in a pickle and they want us to think we're the ones over the barrel. They paint a picture of doom that doesn't include the upside of a failing behemoth, like restructuring and innovation due to market pressures. More False Dilemma. Let's not forget that one of the big reasons to have such huge companies is to decrease costs. Did you see any prices going down before the market tumbled? Let's also not forget that prices will never go down as long as the system stays the way it is, the system that sells you a car for $20,000 that is only worth $16,000 just 100 miles later.

Corrected.

I just got my rent notice. You should have called it Severiexpensive.

[hide]Above can be used as an adjective to describe "sentence", but below is an adverb which doesn't belong with a noun.[/hide]

It'd be pretty sweet to wake up and find out Dennis made me a McGlone sandwich for breakfast without having to turn on the lights. Or not.

It'd be pretty sweet to wake up and make breakfast without having to turn on the lights.

Natural selection *is* a part of evolution, just not the only mechanism.

If its Moon to Earth rarity exceeds its Moon to Earth weight due to gravitational acceleration difference and you can find a buyer, I would say yes.

When it comes to transportation, please keep in mind all the varied climates and the sheer size of our national terrain. Very few countries are anything like us in those terms. As Pangloss mentioned, in areas of high density and similar climate, like our northeast coastal area, trains are a big part of daily life. Out west in Colorado where I live, you could fit most of those northeastern states into our one state with room to spare, yet we don't have half the population of just New York City. The northern parts of Colorado get generally colder while the southern parts border on the deserts of New Mexico and are generally warmer. It's tough to design cost-effective rail transportation that can service such limited populations and varied climates. And let's not forget the differences in terrain. Our mountains are quite different from those in east coast states. But we do have a problem with our vehicular reality. We buy cars based on if they could handle the few times we have many passengers, when the reality is we use them primarily by ourselves. The US auto makers have spent billions over the years convincing the male population that the car you buy signals to women how big your penis is, so having a sub-sub-compact just for commuting is not going to be easy to sell. I'd like to see some enterprising business (probably with the help of the feds) offer a full electric like for limited lease, possibly with the provision that you could drive it to an airport (or train station) or wherever and leave it there for the next guy. You would join a member service and be able to commandeer any available EV offered by the service and pay for the time you use. This would definitely take some time to accomplish but there's never been a better time to break out of old inefficient patterns.

I think Congress is making another big mistake in this bailout. I'm hearing from all kinds of folks who, though glad to be paying less for gas, are suddenly realizing that big oil is still able to turn a nice profit charging 40% of what we paid this summer. Even more backlash ahead for infernal combustion and the robber LeBarons at Chrysler, GM and Ford.

I'm insane in the brain on a train into Spain but the strain is a drain on a plane to Bahrain (in the main, I'm still plain old Miss Jane Charlemagne; if there's rain I'll abstain - makes me vain - what a pain!).