New uses for the Green Lantern Blue-Ray:

1) Coaster for my coffee table.

2) Skeet shooting target practice.

3) The ability to download the Sinestro Corps Batman alternative costume for Arkham City!

The best part of #3 is that you can still take your choice of the first two after you complete #3.

Attached Images

Batman-Arkham-City-Sinestro-Skin.jpg (49.0 KB, 7 views)

TO me, US Nationalism *is* Multiculturalism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpggZ9hDxC4

I should clarify, that's becuase we are the Borg of countries.

Well, Borgulation isn't necessarily a bad thing. Hungry? Get Borgulated and be freed from hunger!

The evidence:

1) Blue jean craze in other countries (mainly asia) during the last few decades.

2) McDonalds

3) Our interwebs basically eliminating the distance between cultures.

Give it a little while and all cultures will be dressed sloppily, eat nothing but garbage and no longer communicate with people outside of the internet.

Resistance is futile.

I never meant to imply it was a bad thing. I'm on the inside, baby!

I really just wanted to write "Borgulation." It's fun!

I didn't realize you were an Anti-American communist hippie luddite!

World Cup soccer games are something I found myself enjoying, though I still can't really call myself a fan. I will watch one of those far more readily than I will an NFL game, though. As mentioned when we were talking about this -- months ago, a great deal of it has to do with the relentlessness of the clock. All the time-outs, regroupings and commercial breaks have helped keep me from developing an interest in U.S. football.

As for the metric system I reached a point years ago where it became obvious that any change that occurs in this direction is unlikely to come from an executive order. I run an engineering laboratory, and while we take our measurements - predominantly mass, volume and length/distance - in metric units we predominantly serve an industry (construction) that still wants densities in pounds per cubic foot, etc. So long as the units are clearly noted, for the most part it's not that important of an issue. It's when people become used to a local standard and so forget to include the units of measure when reporting results or handing over instructions, well, that's when we get space telescope optics that need corrective lenses and Mars probes that burn up on the way down.

Would it be easier if we all defaulted to the same units of measure? Certainly. But this isn't an area where trying to force it appears to work.

As for a global time zone system, I figure that's something that's going to be adopted much more naturally, as more and more of us find ourselves dealing in a virtual world that spans most time zones. It'll come.

The best one can do is use the global standard but, when referencing a zone here in the U.S. also add that in brackets. Don't be haughty, dismissive and absolute about it -- be helpful and instructive. People generally like to add things - especially something that's ultimately as simple as GMT - casually to their knowledge. If someone approaches them with head-shaking at their small-mindedness in clinging to a tinier view, though, the natural tendency is to take offense and cling to the familiar.

McDonald's taught Asians how to stand in line, and the Golden Arches are a magical beacon that promises clean, Western-style bathrooms wherever you go in the world. It is not without some measure of respect that US expats call them "the American embassy."

Heh. I'm interested in seeing what the AIM minions bring, too.

I got some indication not long ago that I can't tolerate at least some of their food anymore. On one of those odd whims/cravings on a day (not unlike today, come to think of it) when my usual lunch buddies were out or at other locations, I decided to get some quarter pounder meal at McD's. The flavor hit was up front, quickly diminishing, and it shot through me for a dynamic* exit in less than an hour.

Granted, it could have been a mix of components that led to some of that, and I might not get the same reaction another time, but if the time comes that I do that I'm going to make sure the right facilities are going to be handy for the hour or two after I eat it.


* As in almost needing a change of underwear.

On the chance that today does not mark the End Times, I'd better get back to work. I may have had my mid-afternoon escape plans scuttled but I still want to get out of here sometime today, and I need to knock at least four more line items off my To Do list before I can leave.

I love baseball, which reaches a conclusion without time being a factor. But as a pro football fan, I enjoy the part that the clock plays. As a teammate once said of the great quarterback Bobby Layne: he never lost a game, he just ran out of time.

The guy who said that meant it as a huge compliment. But in NFL coaching, using the clock well is part of the challenge and some are better at it than others. Not so long ago, the NY Jets had a head coach -- a guy who had played in the NFL with much success -- who was viewed as a leader of men, but couldn't manage the game clock to save his life. Now he's working in a TV studio.

NFL coaches who waste their timeouts and challenges put their teams at a great disadvantage; those who seem full of smart strategies early on but founder in the last two minutes are unlikely to reach the Super Bowl --- or finish out their contracts.

Huh. What about the End Thread?