3/20    I find this comic funny, if Star Wars was introduced as an RPG
        http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/darthsanddroids/episodes/0001.html
        \_ If only the real Star Wars RPG was this funny.

3/20    Clueless Guys Can't Read Women - Yahoo! News:
        http://www.csua.org/u/l2w
        I'm one of them.  Ahh!  I hate myself.
        \_ oh yes, we need http://hornyornot.com
        \_ Yeah, I never figured this out either.  I'm glad I'm finally married
        \_ Yeah, I never figured this out either.  I'm glad I got married
           I don't really have to worry about it anymore.
           \_ Seconded. When I start getting nostalgic for the dating scene,
              a 30 second conversation with some hot 20 year old usually
              dispels any illusions.
              \_ Maybe you should talk to some hottie your own age?
        \_ I mostly found out women were hot for me after it was too late.
           That's more frustrating than the opposite (thinking she's
           interested when she's not).
           \_ Yeah, I learned over time that it is better to make it clear
              that you are interested in a woman, rather than sit and wonder.
              I got lots of "no's" but lots more "yeses" and eventually ended
              up with my wife. I guess I might have gotten a reputation as
              a player, but I didn't mind, if you want lots of sex, this
              kind of reputation is a good thing, not a bad thing.

3/20    http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=^IRX&t=6m&l=off&z=m&q=l&c=
        3-month T-bill yields plunging to 50+-year lows
        \_ America! Fuck yeah!
        \_ How does this translate to homeowners (apprec/deprec property)?
           \_ severe recession -> deprec property
              http://market-ticker.denninger.net

3/19    http://xkcd.com/149
        Bahahaha xkcd sudo, funny funny!
        \_ This is one of my favorites:
           http://xkcd.com/378

3/20    What a surprise, the press practically stopped covering Iraq the moment
        things were going well.
        http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQlZpvn28yAbvyg8AaAuiELvhINQD8VELQRO0
        \_ The article does not support your scathing indictment.
           \_ "It's possible to pinpoint the exact week that the switch turned
              off. The war averaged 30 minutes per week of coverage last year
              on the three network evening newscasts up until Gen. David
              Petraeus, commander of the U.S. forces, testified in September
              about the surge's progress, according to news consultant Andrew
              Tyndall. In the last 15 weeks of the year, the broadcasts
              collectively spent four minutes per week on the war."
              \_ And so the following revised version of your statement would
                 be accurate: "...the press reduced coverage of Iraq by over
                 85% the week General Petraeus told Congress that the war was
                 going well."
        \_ You have a funny version of "well"
           \_ No, I think you've got the funny definition.
              \_ I know you are but what am I...
                 \_ Yes, that was what the first response was.
        \_ Mission Accomplished!
        \_ I don't think any of you get it.  There is no massive front we are
           battling.  There will be no victory parade.  There is no way to
           determine if the war is going 'well' or 'not well'.  As long as
           people are setting off suicide bombs in Baghdad markets, I'm going
           to say 'not well'. This isn't really a 'war'. There is no fucking
           way Iraq will not dissolve in into Shiite/Sunni/Kurd bloodshed when
           we leave.  Do you really think news coverage in this country effects
           the rate of violence in Iraq?  At all?  Even one tiny bit?

3/20    Say I have the following rows on the DB:
        user id:1       action:A
        user id:1       action:A
        user id:2       action:A
        user id:2       action:B
        I want to select unique actions by unique users as follows:
        2 unique users done action A
        1 unique user done action B
        What's the SQL to achieve this?
        \_ select distinct, group by

3/20    Majority does not think Obama shares Wright's views
        http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,339949,00.html
        \_ Fox News on Obama: We wish him well.
           http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13971463
           \_ That article has no mention of Obama.
              \_ We wish you well.
           \_ Isn't Fox News in a ratings free-fall?

3/20    Dammit!  This global warming isn't warming the oceans!
        http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88520025

3/20    McCain asked for Hagee's endorsement
        http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003728364

3/20    "Television's History Channel is History"
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080320/ap_en_tv/tv_history_channel
        Why?  I like the History Channel shows, exactly because most of them
        are not about history.  Why are they doing this?
        \_ OH SHIT Where am I going to get my dosage of Hitler history?
        \_ What, dropping the "The" from their title? I don't see the outrage.
           \_ No, it's dropping the "The" and the "Channel".
        \_ Can they just broadcast MAILCALL 24 hours a day?  I'd watch.

3/20    Looking for a generic Pakistani gift for a Pakistani couple.
        What are some appropriate things to buy? I've heard about mithai,
        is that appropriate? What other things can you get that's
        Pakistani themed and that they'd enjoy?
        \_ anyone notice the new female pakistani premiere looks EXACTLY
           like bhutto?  what's up with that?
           \_ I'm sorry, how is this RELEVANT to the original question?
              \_ Since when was the motd about relevance?
           \_ Yousaf Raza Gilani is female?

3/20    There's a correlation between home prices and interest rate right?
        As long as the government intends to buffer the housing crash,
        home prices shouldn't drop much right?
        \_ More money => inflation.  As long as money is cheap (i.e. interest
           rates are low) we'll have lots of money chasing houses.  However,
           with the foreclosures, there are houses being dumped, so prices are
           probably going down.
        \_ I don't know of any studies that have shown a correlation between
           interest rates and housing prices, in fact what little evidence
           there is tends to point the other way, since interest rates and
           home prices both tend to go down during a recession.
        \_ I assume you're one of the "should I or shouldn't I buy a house
           now?" people.  I'll tell you what my wife and I did, decide for
           yourself if it makes sense for your life: we both had good jobs at
           the time and could have bought a much larger house, instead we
           chose to get a house we could afford on either income (so a job
           loss wouldn't be extra devastating since I was at a startup then),
           given our $$$ range we then decided where we wanted to live
           starting with country and narrowing it down to the greater bay area
           taking into account transit/commute options, how 'nice' the area
           is, food, potential future of area, etc.  Once we chose an area
           (near BART, not too far from freeway, bad food but improving), we
           looked at houses in our range and a bit above and below.  Chose
           house.  Here's the key part:  we got a loan with no fees, points,
           or other BS.  Rates were quite a bit higher then so we took what we
           could get on the loan given the no-BS requirement.  As rates
           dropped we refi'd a few times.  Each time was no-fee-BS.  Our
           current payment is low enough that my wife no longer has to do the
           9-5 and we're doing great.  Buy something you can see yourself
           living in for *many* years and possibly until retirement.  If you
           intend to move around more often than once every 5 years or so then
           renting may be a better option for you.  Selling/buying a house has
           *very* high costs that will eat any potential increase in property
           value you may have obtained over a short time period.  YMMV.  Do not
           try to time the housing market.  If it was that easy then no one
           would ever lose money on real estate.  Best of luck in your house
           hunting.
           \_ This is the best financial advice I have seen on the motd.

3/20    Huge money flows out of equities as stock indexes rocket higher
        http://tinyurl.com/2wzcfx (wsj.com)
        (Look at the Money Flow column, then click Find Historical Data,
        choose any another date, compare to today)
        \_ Look at the "Buying on Weakness" link. What's your point?
           \_ did you check the historical data?  do you know how to count?
              \_ What's your point?
        \_ The stock market appears to be recovering. Why does this upset you?

3/20    2 State Department Employees fired for looking at Barack Obama's
        passport file.  WTF?
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama_passport
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23736254
        Apparently there were three breaches over the past three months.
        This smells really bad, given the Bush Administration's habit of
        replacing career bureacracts with Republican operatives.
        \_ Wouldn't be a Repub conspiracy if they didn't fire them?
        \_ Didn't Clinton have the FBI do the same thing?
           \- yes, and then they made lame comments like "well we stopped
              at the letter G". and "we were evaluating if they were
              security risks, and we were considering giving them jobs"
              ... so did they consider james baker iii a possible security
              risk or a possible clinton admin job candidate?
        \_ Fired? I bet they get a promotion:
           http://www.csua.org/u/l33

3/20    McCain asked for Hagee's endorsement
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/yvqryp [editor and publisher]