It all started with the work of one of my favorite Amazon Auteurs, Kathy Tontobreine, way back when. Then another one I'm a fan of, JS Mason (he of the "blind architect" shtick) jumped in some time later). Check out their collected works sometime.

Some of these reviews show all the signs of having been written by one person, or a group of likeminded people. There's one bunch of very similar reviews all chalked up to "A Kitchen and Housewares Enthusiast from BROOKLYN."

whew. Still need more for a cabal though.

There's a man out there I haven't seen in 15 years who's trying to kill me.

And there's nobody even in my section on the International chart.

Same here.

And I did disagree with several of the statements. Guess I'm evil.

-TPFKAS2S
http://www.braglio.com

The way the music died:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/view/

I have the same leanings as Mr Blair, which is about right as i think hes a pretty good leader.

Having said that im surprised i wasent rated as more neo-liberal, but then some of the Q's were pretty badly worded.

------
Bullets taste like chicken!

I'm not sure that test is altogether unbiased; a goodly number of the statements are phrased in a fashion it's difficult to disagree with them. Unless you're evil.

I managed an Economic Left/Right of 1.50, and a Social Libertarian/Authoritarian -1.08. Basically one square right and one square down from the exact center. Weird. And there's nobody even in my section on the International chart.

There's a man out there I haven't seen in 15 years who's trying to kill me.

I had the good fortune to see Ray at the Pioneer in Vegas one time and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Period. I've always been a big fan of his. I for one will miss him dearly. Thanks for the music, Ray.

The LOTD is truly one of the funnier things I've read in a long time. My personal fave...

I really have tried, but no matter how hard I strike or what angle of attack I use, I've been consistently unable to use this board to cut down the birch tree in my back garden. Indeed, I do think that the lack of a sharp edge on the board may render this operation completely impossible.

I'm not sure if the problem is one of species - does anyone know how to tell a Henckels Birch from other varieties?

I was out on the the links all day today and I am lobster boy!


"What is this? Some kind of freakout?"
- Hank Hill

Welcome to Europe, welcome to your future.

your future....the United States future?

This comment was edited on Jun 10, 22:12.

So, a friend invited me over to his house tonight for a nice big ole steak dinner.
He also served with it, Arby’s Curly Fries…because they are so damn good, I agree with his choice!

I cook a lot, and most people say I am good with food, so he challenges me to figure out the seasoning on it, so one could reproduce it at home cheaper and healthier.

After leaving a few curly fries for careful close tasting after dinner, I then spent about 30 min in his kitchen with seasoning. As I was adding stuff together, I realized what the hell I was making a seasoning mix for. So I ran out to the grocery store and bought a store brand mixture of “Fajita” seasoning. Whala, Arby’s curly fry seasoning in a cheap pre made form. Worked great, almost identical, just, my fries are still straight


Yes yes, I know I am a genius, you may all thank me now (you know you love Arby’s curly fries anyway!). Go make you own great “Enahs restaurant style fries” now!


_____
Enahs If you can read this - congratulations - You have won!!! Just e-mail with your CC# to claim your prize!

I laughed my head off after reading them all.

<start of memorable quotes>

"this is some big hard wood, and ive see alot in my day "

" After everything was over.. I yearned for their heroism.. the tools they used.. They only said one word.. One word that would tattoo itself in my brain.. tattooed with a laser-sharpened spear of destiny.. They said "Henckels" .... Their's was rosewood though"

"I used to watch the juice channel back when I had cable."

"The wood is too thick and hard. It took me forever to cut this thing up. They should use thinner, softer wood, or place a big sticker on it that says "power tools required". All I had was a large serrated knife. Took almost a week."

" "It's not that," I said carefully, biting my lips together as if that could prevent the bitter words from escaping them. "It's...there's no juice channel on this thing." Before he could answer, the Drag Queen Terrorist Army burst in, machine guns chattering away. "

"Soon, the cutting board and I had more in common than you would imagine a living, breathing, humane, single man could have with a slab of wood: it was missing some of its feet! It slides all over the counter, an accident waiting to happen. I packed it up and gave it to a first novelist from whose manuscript I'd removed three hundred and twelve pages, transforming it from a lumbering, ponderous work into a streamlined sprite of a light comedy. I handed it to him, hook first. He said nothing but "Thanks." "

"Well, here's my big idea: get yourself a router and just gouge out your own "juice channel." I tried this, and you know what? They say that homemade juice is best, but homemade juice through a homemade juicer is EVEN BETTER!! Not only that, but the sawdust added necessary, healthful pulp to my juice"

</end of memorable quotes>

Overall, it appears to be a really good cutting board. 4.5 out of 5 stars(overall). Not bad at all. I think I should take a stab at it. No pun intended. No juice channel either.
This comment was edited on Jun 10, 20:43.

Damn, what a shame. Amazing musician.

I'll second that. Amazing (distinctive) voice, too...what a talented guy.

Ray Charles was amazing. I have a couple things I immediately think of when his name comes up.

First was when he sang "America the Beautiful" before the second Sugar Ray Leonard / Roberto Duran fight (the "no mas" fight). It was unbelievable, it sent chills down everybody's spine. I mean this was around 20 years ago and I still remember it. I remember remarking to my dad about how Sugar Ray visibly came to life just because of the song - he was looking serious and trying to look as mean as Duran before the song but afterwords he had this huge smile on his face, his eyes were lit up, and he was bouncing all over the place. Duran seemed unbeatable at the time but at that moment I knew Leonard was going to win. You just had to be there.

The other thing I always think of was when he hosted Saturday Night Live and was in the sketch where "The Young Caucasians" were making a record of his song "What'd I Say" (ala Pat Boone recording Little Richard's "Tootie Fruity"). After the Young Caucasians were done, which btw was funny as hell, Ray says, "I still like my version best" as he rolls into the opening on the organ. Once again, chills - every time I see it.

-------------------------------------------------------
WarPig's link of the week:
http://www.fractalcow.com/rex/index.html

So, Blue, haven't heard much about your bug problem lately. Having been in Florida for 11 years now, I can say that's one thing we have on you guys up there. I'd give anything to get bit by those puny little knats you guys think are mosquitoes...they try to carry you away down here...lol...

Funny that it's actually hotter up there than down in the 'Sunshine State' of Florida,
=-Rigs-=

This comment was edited on Jun 10, 19:58.

new law here provides $1.75/year/vote to any party which gets votes.

Yeah, I read something about that the other day, and it helped me decide that a vote on a non-main party wouldn't be 'wasted'.

The Conservatives, yeah, they want to turn Canada into mini-Bush-USA. Why would I want them in power when I can't stand Bush in power in the States!

At the beginning of the Iraq invasion, the Conservative leader here gave the ruling Liberal party crap for "not supporting our neighbours" and said that if he was in charge, Canada would have gone without UN approval. Strike one. Now, he's saying, "uhhh, I didn't say that" and hoping it goes away, in the fine Bush tradition. Strike two.

Third strike? He just seems like a dick.

_____________
O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue
To drown the throat of war!

complicity:
Vote for green, they are running candidates in all major ridings, and new law here provides $1.75/year/vote to any party which gets votes. If a few hundred thousand people vote green this year, they will be able to mount a real campaign in 4.
The liberals are fucking evil, but at least they dont want to kill people in foreign countries, which the conservatives do, they (libs) just liketo steal our money and fuck around endlessly. Those fucking assholes want to turn us into USA's favorite cheerleader, complete with outlawing abortion, gay marriage, and a continued war on pot (which, if anyone hasnt been to canada, is quickly replacing beer as the intoxicant of choice).

The companies will be very pleased.

says that they can only work 35, but I can't reduce their pay

Alright, if that's the case, I can clearly see where there would be an immediate problem, but I don't know if that is part of the plan for the Greens in Canada. Also, abolishing OT would be plain idiocy, because as we all know, sometimes you just have to work extra to get something done.

In any case, I don't think it would get passed even if the Greens got in a position to try and make it happen, which they won't this time for sure.

I wasn't aware of how things are in France, thanks.

_____________
O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue
To drown the throat of war!

How does a shorter work week translate into higher unemployment?

Because it can lead to a loss of sales/profits, preventing me from keeping people I do employ. That's a worst case scenario of course. More likely, it simply doesn't translate into higher employment figures.

As a silly example, if I have $10 to use to hire someone then I do so. That person works 40 hours/week. If the government suddenly steps in and says that they can only work 35, but I can't reduce their pay, then that doesn't mean I magically hire someone to work the other 5 hours -- there simply isn't money to do so.

Of course, that loss of 5 hours/week may mean that I'm actually less profitable, so maybe I can't even afford that additional employee...

And there are other issues to consider -- even if I could afford to hire more people to make up for the lost hours, what if I don't have the office/floor/whatever space for them? What about purchasing additional tools? What if there simply aren't enough qualified people in that profession in the first place?

And you can't possibly allow companies to pay employees less, even though it's less work. Doing so means that they'll have less cash available to buy things -- at the same time that you're squeezing sellers to raise their prices to hire more people.

If you allow for overtime (pref. paid at an increase, or at least time off in kind) then it pretty much eliminates the problem, but as I understand it (and I could be wrong), French law simply says 35 hours period. It creates an artificial limit on supply and really whacks things out.

I'm not for repealing labor laws regarding a 40 hour work week -- there is such a thing as a fair medium -- but we no longer have closed economies, and imposing limits on employers and employees has side effects.

Because of the increase in unemployment after the unification of Germany the government there also reduced the working week. People thought this was a great idea right up until the millisecond they realised that this also meant they would be paid less. So now you have a situation where a swathe of people had their pay reduced, so that the lower tier of their humanity could hold down a job without competition. It's also far harder to have your job terminated in France or Germany than it is in most of the rest of the Western world.

So if you come from an American perspective where jobs are plentiful and temporary in your larger cities, and you only expect to hold them until you're fired, then imagine your world when you have more control than the company employing you. If they make the mistake of giving you a job and you don't measure up, their only realistic option is to move you somewhere you can't do any harm, and hope they do better next time. They can't actually fire you unless you set someone else ON fire <and> laugh about it, or you quit because the recommendation they gave you got you a better job. Then imagine your standard of living when the rest of the world is laughing at you because your employment legislation is preventing you from producing anything worth a damn. You're importing your clothes and cars from India and most of your TV is from 10,000 miles away. Welcome to Europe, welcome to your future.

Glad they got the people! Maybe? We will see, progress none the less though.

Now if I could just get the FBI to help me with the 4 hours of math I gotta do every day during this summer, they will be my new god and can implant tracking chips in my ass if they want!



_____
Enahs If you can read this - congratulations - You have won!!! Just e-mail with your CC# to claim your prize!
This comment was edited on Jun 10, 17:25.

There's a thread on /., hopefully Blue will post some news here if anything substantial is found (already emailed him the Gamespot link).

Some people were arrested, nobody's saying who, how many, where, or when.

Ask France how well that 35-hour mandated work week is going for them

How does a shorter work week translate into higher unemployment? Seriously, I'm not even trying to be a smartass here.

_____________
O for a voice like thunder, and a tongue
To drown the throat of war!

Shacknews says the HL2 source code thief has been arrested!