Monday Open Thread
I’m still all juiced up from the weekend craziness. You guys were chatty this weekend!
It’s open thread time – what do you want to talk about? It’s a special week this week – National Chemistry Week! The theme this year is “Chemistry – It’s Elemental.” Yeah, I know we’re not the most creative bunch. Be sure to hug your friendly neighborhood chemist this week and let them know how much you appreciate them!
In other news, our governor features prominently in a Wall Street Journal article about how governors are dealing with the financial crisis.
When Mr. Markell, a Democrat, took office 10 months ago, he inherited an $800 million budget shortfall. He has cut state employees’ salaries, grounded the state airplane and closed the Museum of Small Town Life, among other measures. Now, he is traversing his tiny state to tell constituents that his budget problems are theirs, too, and that the problems aren’t going away soon. It’s a tough message for governors to deliver after decades of expanding state services. But the recession is giving them little choice and forcing them to try to change voters’ expectations about what government can provide.
[…]
But states don’t have Washington’s ability to borrow cheaply, and their spending appetites have been growing faster than their taxing ability. Between 1987 and 2009 in Connecticut, for example, general expenditures rose by 283%, while taxing capacity — potential sources of income for the state — increased by 172%, according to an analysis by Donald Klepper-Smith, who chairs the governor’s economic-advisory council.
The recession will force big changes, not all of which have materialized. “We have yet to see the public sector adapt in the way the private sector has,” said Mr. Klepper-Smith, also the chief economist and director of research for DataCore Partners LLC. “We can’t tax our way out of this problem. Many in local government have yet to appreciate the structural nature of this recession. The cuts have been superficial.”
Tags: Open Thread
Okay, I just looked at the extended weather forecast knowing that meteorologists can’t predict shit, but really is there anyone we can call about this:
Monday: Sunny
Tuesday: Sunny
Wednesday: Sunny
Thursday: Sunny
Friday: Cloudy
Saturday: Rain
WTF?!!
Remember the drought restrictions a few years back? Well you are now witnessing Delaware’s water management plan in action: “Pray for rain.”
If you have a minute go over to The Palmer Lyceum and read about his family’s loss.
BTW, one of the top searches to reach Delaware Liberal today is “elisabeth hasselbeck topless”. Thanks jason330.
Walmart has announced that they will be selling top 10 bestsellers for 9 bucks per book. Amazon is planning to match this. http://consumerist.com/5383109/walmart-now-offering-new-hardcovers-for-9
So my question….What bookstore are you going to miss when they all close? For me it would be Between Books, a SCI/FI Fantasy bookshop up in Claymont. Great selection and an owner that knows the subject matter.
It looks like the Sussex GOP has decided to offer up another sacrifice onto the altar of Pete Schwartzkopf. Chris Weeks. Don’t know anything about him.
Also, I go to B&N to hang out and browse books…I go to amazon/ebay to buy them.
Open comment to ‘Geek:
Where in the hell were you yesterday and why were you looking at my wife? đź‘ż
i only hug chemists when they make the right compound pharmaceuticals….
Hey man, that’s the deal at those places. You pay your dollar, you get to look. You don’t like it, don’t send her to work… 🙂
OK, UI, I’m confused — I thought the basis for chemsitry was molecules, elements not so much.
Nemski – you are confused. Perhaps you were watching some Glenn Beck over the weekend…
I swear I got a prescription for my stuff.
Okay, not to step on UI’s turf but here is my lit major explanation:
Imagine watching a lot of people on a football field.
“Elements” are like huddles of people, each huddle containing anywhere from 1 to 117 people. They are all on the same team so they are going to stick together no matter what (almost).
Inside each huddle, some people are holding hands with each other, and others have their hands outward ready to grab hands in another huddle.
Now imagine all the huddles in motion. Some huddles come into contact and grab onto outstretched hands from another huddle. That is a molecule. If there are any hands left over, the molecule can keep bouncing around the field until it grabs more hands in yet other huddles. It can do that until all the hands are filled.
If you add some heat to the group, more people will move to the edge and stick out their hands, so the huddle can now combine with even more huddles. That is why you sometimes have to heat things up to make compounds.
Nemski-I think you are still on the wrong thread. I know this is “open”…but, but, but…Geek, can you show him the men’s room?
I think of chemistry as the science of electrons.
But yes, elements are perhaps the most basic unit of chemistry. The periodic table is perhaps the most famous chemistry document. Everyone recognizes it. Elements can make compounds.
In anon’s explanation, think of hands as electrons.
The question is, if we extend your analogy, can UI explain where the Higgs-Boson would be? If not, I’m not buying the whole “I’m a scientist” bit any more.
The Higgs Boson is busy sabotaging the Large Hadron Collider.
So in the football field analogy, it would be Terrell Owens? Got it.
Explanation of the Higgs Boson
It’s still a hypothetical particle, sort of like Dick Cheney’s heart.
It’s still a hypothetical particle, sort of like…
A liberal Republican.
A Nemski post.
A Libertarian who didn’t vote for Bush.
Death panels… (they needed to make something up to give their theories some weight).
… OK, somebody else try.
not so much a nemski post, but the point of a nemski post
All I know is the Geek-Element had his electron hands pointed at my wife yesterday and all it cost him was a freaking dollar. I’m firing my damned business manager and then cranking the heat so the Geek-Element is forced into forming a bond with a bag-o-nuts© element, most likely causing a catostrophic event, but still. One dollar? Frick!
Joanne – I heard you launched a flower at the stage…but sorta missed/fell off the stage! On a different note, I think an orchestra-pit member is hopelessly looking for his/her anonymous love, but only has a wayward floral momento to document it.
…a neocon who doesn’t want to bomb Iran.
…a teabagger who doesn’t compare Obama to Hitler.
…a Sarah Palin fan who doesn’t invoke her looks.
…a racist that doesn’t say that they have black friends.
Yes Smitty, tis true…for Evita, or a member of the “company” :), but the pit proved wide, and my aim hit the ledge–a BIG plastic magnolia it was. I was in fear of being rassled to the ground, by one of Peron’s people, as the husband denied knowing me.
Really good show Smitty…and I think it’s just criminal that LG claimed to be a Sr. citizen to get a break on the ticket:)
Smitty is just mad that I threw a keycard for a hotel room on stage.
Why does the White House hate Fox? cause they don’t take dictation:
White House Aide Says Barack Obama Team ‘Controlled’ the Media
Telegraph.co.uk ^ | Oct 19 2009 | Toby Harnden
Anita Dunn, a senior White House aide, has boasted of how Barack Obama’s presidential campaign managed to “absolutely control” the press during the 2008 election.
The top campaign strategist who has shot to attention recently as President Obama’s main attack dog against Fox News, the conservative-leaning cable network, was speaking at a conference in the Dominican Republic in January.
“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” she said.
“One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe [Mr Obama’s campaign manager] videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters.
“We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it.”
nice try at deflection.
now why is FoxNews not an arm of the GOP again?
Anita Dunn, a senior White House aide, has boasted of how Barack Obama’s presidential campaign managed to “absolutely control” the press during the 2008 election.
I loved how the Obama team overcame the objections of FOX executives to run that Rev. Wright footage nonstop throughout the campaign.
Actually FOX does take dictation, they just take theirs from the RNC. There have been numerous instances where FOX has shown or read RNC press releases verbatim, usually with the “Property of RNC” tag still inadvertantly attached. Of course, they don’t label them as partisan talking points, they present them as “facts” and “news”.
Here’s the full article that excuse-maker’s talking about:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ari-melber/caught-on-tape-obama-advi_b_325782.html
Hell, I remember this was applauded by the non-journos during the election. Straight to the people AND THEN the talking heads and scribes respond, not the other way around, is the point.
And now it’s sinister, if you’re a true American patriot!
So, anyone else watching the NLCS notice SUCK Martinez of TBS literally giving Torre coaching advice during the in-game interview and Torre actually using it to his advantage? IMO (OK, I am a Phillies fan, but seriously), as soon as broadcasters start affecting a game, they should be off the air. This, aside from the fact that TBS should be stripped from being allowed to ever broadcast another playoff game, EVER. They s-u-c-k…except Ron Darling. He actually is decent. I’m still burning about Suck Martinez. Effing a-hole has come off as a Dodger lackey so far and then this crap tonight. He needs to go.
So the Fightins’ lost?
Uh, Jason, the game is still on. 4-3 Dodgers lead in bottom of 6th. 2 men on for the Phillies, 1 out.
Sorry. just turned on my television machine. Phils got this.
See?
I don’t blame you for not watching, 330 (who I believe happens to be an O’s fan). It’s just excrutiatingly awful to listen to the TBS announcers (except for Darling), especially SUCK Martinez, who apparently wants to make love to Joe Torre, on-air [/sarcasm].
That was cold about the O’s
Well, aren’t you?
Kansas City Monarchs
You are right about the announcers. BRUTAL
Kansas City Monarchs – BTW
Uh huh. You die with the O’s every year.
He missed the tag
Ungh. They are hitting that predictable funk. Sort of like Jason’s O’s for the last ten years or so.
They’ve got this. (The confidence is how you know I am not a real phillies fan.)
Between Books is a great store, but a top 10 bestseller has never sullied their shelves. They’re not the target of this.
The Chester County Books Store up in West Chester is fantastic.
Ninth Street Books – Wilmington
Browseabout Books – Rehoboth
Chester County Bookstore – West Chester
See Randy?
J-Roll is clutch!
Be Champions!
Stay in-state and stop by Browseabout, in Rehoboth.