It's 2012, and the National Ocean Service still feels it necessary to weigh in on whether or not mermaids exist.

Repeat: It is two thousand and twelve. We have a world of information in our pockets now. Science has cured a number of terrible diseases so hard that they're basically wiped from the planet entirely now. And we're just getting around to making it official that there are no mermaids.

Well, it can't do zombie updates so it has to keep itself relevant somehow.

The Cid wrote:And we're just getting around to making it official that there are no mermaids.

I'm willing to bet some bureaucrat or another actually was paid to "research" the subject first. Just to make certain, you understand.

The Cid wrote:It's 2012, and the National Ocean Service still feels it necessary to weigh in on whether or not mermaids exist.

Repeat: It is two thousand and twelve. We have a world of information in our pockets now. Science has cured a number of terrible diseases so hard that they're basically wiped from the planet entirely now. And we're just getting around to making it official that there are no mermaids.

Maybe it might be in response to things like this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/25/american-fundamentalists-loch-ness-monster-is-real_n_1623533.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Shh, Seir. We need something to keep our economy going until the Brave dollars kick in.

Disney's next Princess will be Norwegian, a take on the snow queen novel. Or so I hear.

Anyone anywhere within driving distance of the DFW area can loot an arcade auction. Just throwing that out there for the arcade lovers...

http://www.aacbid.com/cgi-bin/mnlist.cg ... ory/ARCADE

Seir wrote:Maybe it might be in response to things like this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/25/american-fundamentalists-loch-ness-monster-is-real_n_1623533.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Wait, what? I read through the entire article and that was my response. I generally consider most of what Fundamentalists push as just uneducated silliness and laugh it off, but this was disgusting:

•Apartheid was beneficial to South Africa as segregated schools meant different heritages could be passed on to children

Moving on

I walked into Gamestop to buy a new copy of Fable 2 because I felt like murdering innocent civilian NPCs. The two men working there were watching a fake game of football. They weren't PLAYING a fake game of football, they were watching it. They were watching the computer play a game against itself.

I will never understand men.

Would France be upset if their uniforms were made in China? Would China be upset if their uniforms were made in Vietnam? It's just a uniform. I suspect all of the countries' uniforms in the Olympic were part of some huge batch order at a Chinese plant that the Chinese didn't care about.

I understand the desire to keep all sorts of jobs and merchandise made from your home country, but once the purchase has been made, it's too late to whine.

spikegirl7 wrote:

Seir wrote:Maybe it might be in response to things like this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/25/american-fundamentalists-loch-ness-monster-is-real_n_1623533.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Wait, what? I read through the entire article and that was my response. I generally consider most of what Fundamentalists push as just uneducated silliness and laugh it off, but this was disgusting:

•Apartheid was beneficial to South Africa as segregated schools meant different heritages could be passed on to children

Moving on

I walked into Gamestop to buy a new copy of Fable 2 because I felt like murdering innocent civilian NPCs. The two men working there were watching a fake game of football. They weren't PLAYING a fake game of football, they were watching it. They were watching the computer play a game against itself.

I will never understand men.

which is why my idea for a sports forecasting stream will be quite interesting.

ampersand wrote:Would France be upset if their uniforms were made in China? Would China be upset if their uniforms were made in Vietnam? It's just a uniform. I suspect all of the countries' uniforms in the Olympic were part of some huge batch order at a Chinese plant that the Chinese didn't care about.

I understand the desire to keep all sorts of jobs and merchandise made from your home country, but once the purchase has been made, it's too late to whine.

What.

ampersand wrote:I understand the desire to keep all sorts of jobs and merchandise made from your home country

Only if you really, really want to keep some subset of the labor force working to make clothes when they could be earning more making something more valuable....

All the best uniforms are made in Italy.

There's a story or two out there that the US Olympic Team's Opening Ceremony uniforms, and possibly other US team uniforms, were made in China. That's the story. That's what some people are all in a huff over. And my point was, it was probably part of a really large batch of uniforms made around the world as requested by Nike, Adidas or whomever is the official uniform supplier to the United States Olympic team.

And I really agree with CS22, better to have more skilled laborers making more sophisticated equipment than it is to have them mass producing less sophisticated equipment. However, have you checked how high tech some of the running clothes that Nike and Under Armor have come out with?

I can see why that'd cause a kerfuffle. I'd rather they be made in the US as well. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they were made anywhere else, but it'd be nice to know Americans worked to make those uniforms.

ampersand wrote:And I really agree with CS22, better to have more skilled laborers making more sophisticated equipment than it is to have them mass producing less sophisticated equipment.

That really depends on the situation. It's certainly not an absolute. Really, like China, you'd prefer to be making both.