8/10    I'm the person who took care of my gf's sister's cat while she was
        away with the Air Force. In return, I asked her to check on my
        sons for a week while I was away. She skipped a day (and committed
        a lie of omission when she didn't say so but admitted it when
        questioned) and the upstairs bedroom was full of my sons' diarrhea all
        over everything (wooden floor, bookcase, blankets) - which is not
        typical for my litter-trained sons, but probably a result of my
        absence - but she didn't clean it up or even mention it to me. I
        got in at 11pm at night and spent 2 hours dealing with that. After
        I cleaned her place spotless I'm VERY pissed.
        \_ I keep a mental blacklist of people I never ever want to be in
           contact with. Very few people get on that list. It sounds like
           this person needs to be put on this black list. FYI, for example,
           this junior high "friend" that I invited to the wedding said he
           would come to the wedding. I even confirmed it the week before.
           I reserved 1/2 of a table, or $300 worth. My wedding came, and
           1/2 of that table was empty. I called him up a few days later
           and he said he totally forgot because there was this really
           important church retreat. Then he came up with a bunch of excuses,
           said he was sorry, and said he would reimburse. Then later on
           he said "I don't think it should cost $300, ours was really cheap."
           I never heard from him again. He is on my blacklist. He sounds
           like the same breed as your gf's sister.
        \_ I don't hang out with my friends who have kids anymore. Once
           they started the family nucleus, nothing outside matters anymore.
           You're an outsider. You're of someone who could help them. Period.
        \_ You know, sometimes you do meet people who are irresponsible or
           who just don't care. There's not much you can do. Some people are
           just like that, just learn to not deal with these people. I've
           learned to ignore some of my family members who are totally
           wackos. Yeah, they're family... SO WHAT? If they can't help
           you, they can't.
           \_ I have a bunch of crazy and irresponsible relatives, including
              one who has been in and out of prison and another who is a
              crazy (literally) drug abusing homeless guy. I have learned over
              one who has been in and out of prison and another who is an
              insane (literally) drug abusing homeless guy. I have learned over
              the years not to trust them and consider my help to them to
              be charity, nothing more. With friends, I would expect some kind
              of reciprocity, but with a charity case, you just help them and
              don't expect anything in return except gratitude.
        \_ Yea, that sucks.  Get someone else next time, or kennel them.
        \_ I totally agree with you.  It's not too much to expect a threesome
           orgy in return.
           \_ that's not an orgy.
              \_ Good orgies have an even ratio of men/women present.  It's
                 just simple orgy etiquette.
        \_ Hey douchebag who changed 'cats' to 'sons' -- get a life.

8/10    On the USPS web site, is there any way to use the self service
        site for FIRST CLASS mail? It keeps wanting me to use Priority
        Mail which costs a lot more than going to the USPS for first class.

8/10    James Kunstler is a genius.
        http://kunstler.com/blog/2009/08/the-fog-of-numbers.html
        \_  sarcasm?  or are you really an easily impressed dolt??
            \_ The latter I guess. I had not run across him before, and
               while I think he is hyperbolic, I think he is telling a
               very unpopular truth in a funny and attention getting way.
        \_ This sounds like it was written by a 14 year old.  You really
           aren't being sarcastic?
           \_ 14 year olds throw out phrases like "the greatest misallocation
              of resources in the history of the world"??? I want to meet
              your kids!
              \_ Umm.. yeah, 14 year-olds throw around retarded hyperbole all
                 the time.  What part of that phrase do you think is beyond
                 a reasonably well indoctrinated 14 year old?
                 \_ Nah, I was a pretty good writer for my age and in 9th
                    grade I was just starting to write three paragraph essays.
                    Go back and read some of your own work from the time, if
                    you still have it. Perhaps the phrase you are searching
                    for here is sophmoric.
                    \_ I'd expect a pretty good writer would know the
                       difference between a word and a phrase, and might
                       even know the spelling of "sophomoric."
                       \_ Touche!
        \_ We'll "grow" our way out of trillons of dollars in debt, even
           though soon our energy supply will be shrinking, not growing,
           as we pass peak oil; and we haven't figured out a way
           to grow the economy without also growing energy consumption
           (efficiency improvements have their limits).
           \_ We have unlimited energy if we want it. Not only with improving
              technologies like solar but also nuclear. Two things we will
              never run out out of, despite liberals' fears: energy and water.
              \_ We'll also never run out of environment, if most liberals would
                 GTFO off cali and travel they'd see that the only reason they
                 think the environment is going away is because thye live in a
                 effen brown desert. duh.
              \_ I agree with you on this, and I am a green liberal. However,
                 getting from our current fossil fuel dependent society to
                 one that runs on nuclear electricity is going to hurt,
                 especially if we keep putting off the changes we need to make.
                 \_ must be nice to be a trustafarian.
                    \_ trustafarian? What are you talking about? I grew up
                       in a trailer park.

8/10    Severe typhoon toppled hotel in Taiwan, caught on video:
        link:www.yahoo.com/s/1112771
        \_ am failing to care?
           \_ there are a lot of Asians reading motd.

8/10    College ranking
        http://shine.yahoo.com/event/backtoschool/americas-best-college-497708
        #10: StanfUrd
        #73: Cal
        Even if ranking public colleges separately, Cal still ranks only #8.
        (Though The top 3 are all military academies.)
        \_ Yeah, Cal isn't what it used to be anymore. Increasing bureaucracy
           and long lines really made it go downhill in the past decade and
           a half. That, and pissed off alum don't want to donate...
        \_ What the FUCK is Williams College? WTF?
           |_ Short for Williams and Sonoma College.
              \_ There is no such college.  There is Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
                 \_ We have now identified Mr. Pedant!
           \_ If you had gotten a better education, you would have heard of
              Williams College.
        \_ Conservatives in California have finally achieved their long desired
           dream of destroying public higer education.
           \_ Because conservatives have controlled the California state
              legislature for the past 4 decades, right? Or was it Bush's
              fault?
              \_ It's Pete Wilson's fault.  Don't hide it.  I know it.
                 You know it.  And the American People know it.
                 \_ bullshit
              \_ It is the combo of Prop 13, "Three Strikes" and Prop 98
                 that has massacred higher ed funding in CA. These are
                 all Conservative initiatives. The legistlature has very
                 little control over the budget anymore, it is almost all
                 set by Constitutional initiative.
                 \_ I agree that Prop 13 and 3 strikes (I'm not that familiar
                    with prop 98) are largely responsible for budget problems,
                    but if you think those are the only major contributions to
                    the budget problems, you have anti-conservative blinders
                    on. And the state legislature does have control over the
                    budget. That's their job. The fact that they've not done
                    anything significant the past few decades because they're
                    horribly deadlocked doesn't let them off the hook.
                    \_ Prop 98 is 40% of the budget, corrections is now
                       15%. Interest on bond issues approved by voters is
                       another 10%. Just those alone are 2/3 of the budget
                       and all of that is out of the legislatures hands.
                       \_ Prop 98 might be 40% of the budget, but that
                          40% is going to educate people for free. To
                          steal money from K-12 kids with no other options
                          to educate kids at UC seems disingenous.
                          \_ It is still money that the Legislature does
                             not have at its disposal, no matter how noble
                             what it is being spent for.
                             \_ Do you want to cut K-12 spending? I don't.
                                Not even for UC.
        \_ These rankings are bogus. Nothing more to say than that. Mills
           College is ahead of Cal, Brown, Penn, *and* Dartmouth. Not.
           \_ Just like it is unreasonable to keep tweaking your ranking
              criteria and weights until it produces an ordering you like,
              it seems bogus to not feedback patently bogus orderings into
              refining your process. Perhaps the answer isnt more tweaking
              but just to limit what results to share ... for example a
              system which seeks a lot of resolving power at the top end
              may not do much in the middle of the pack ... like say in
              a sport tournament, you may not waste resources to separate
              #30 from number #31.

8/10    Man invents windmills that turn air into clean water
        link:www.yahoo.com/s/1111578
        It can produce 800 litres of water per day.  But it sounds to me that
        it's only a windmill generator combined with a dehumidifier, not some
        breakthrough idea.

8/10    Etch-A-Sketch 3D
        http://www.thisandagain.com/iv/?type=Image&id=3370515763