While it's true that it's easier to get good quality ingredients and healthier pre-packaged foods if you have the money for it, what causes obesity isn't so much the lower quality of food available for the money, but the choices people make on what to spend their money on.
For instance, yes, a hamburger in a real restaurant is better, healthier, and more expensive than a hamburger at McDonald's. But you can buy raw hamburger and cook it at home, and make it tastier, healthier, and far cheaper than you can get at McDonald's.
The boxed Macaroni and Cheese you get at Whole Foods is indeed better for you than Kraft, but costs three times as much. Less than half the price of Kraft, though, is buying the ingredients and making it yourself. Better tasting, cheaper, and less fattening.
Vegetables at your average farmers market cost about half of what they do in a grocery store, and are fresher and better tasting.
I could go on. Yes, the rich will always have more options than the poor. But with a little bit of research, effort, and practice, people can eat far healthier for even less money than the average American is doing now.
How the hell does the fridge even get that bad in the first place? That's not just a matter of not cleaning the thing for a week.
Is this an old forgotten fridge in a disused break room? If not, were people still putting their lunches in there? I wouldn't want to be eating a lunch that had been sitting in a big pile of mold all morning first.
I bet that had an increasing number of people calling in sick in the months leading up to this incident...
Even earlier than that, a story in the fanzine Trek posited that the ridges on their foreheads were the top of their spine, having moved up due to having their backsides kicked by the federation so often.
...an entire swath of the tech/nerd culture that I am totally unaware of.
Comics.
Oh, sure, you say you "grew up" with Marvel comics - which indicates you read them as a kid.
A lot of people never grew "out" of comics, though. And comics grew up with them.
Watchmen was among the first of the mainstream comics for adults. Not marketed to adults but still child-friendly like, say, the current Spiderman, but actually made specifically to be read by adults.
Among adults who regularly read comics (not those who just pick up an issue of something once in a while, but those who regularly visit their local shops and know that new issues come out on Wednesdays), it is still very popular and quite well-known.
Any online comic forum, or gathering of fans, will have occasional references to it.
The first time through, I was there with Fawkes. Here's a character who's one most important trait, on which part of the story is dependent, is being able to survive very strong radiation.
He leaves you, and comes back right before the end game, when you end up facing very strong radiation.
It's like someone pulling Checkov's gun off the mantle then throwing it away and ending with a fistfight.
Star Paladin Cross, on the other hand, will go into the radiation for you and die. The game still ends, but the voiceover is slightly different.
Where in Portland? I and a couple of friends have looked for them. Expansion books and the Monster Manual were all over the place, but even Powell's didn't have a 3.5 Players Handbook.
Not that I think this means there was a buyback or anything. They stopped printing them a while back, so stores probably just sold out of whatever inventory they had. Most game stores don't carry a huge amount of back stock that isn't out on the shelves.
It was originally announced at $15 per month. It was lowered when they didn't get as many subscribers as they'd thought they would at that price. $7.95 per month would put it at about the price I was paying for my Dragon and Dungeon subscriptions before they got canceled.
I downloaded the 4th ed Players Handbook, too. If I'd had any intention of running a 4th ed game, I would have purchased the hardcopy, though. I agree that claiming you're going to be downloading all the future ones without paying isn't taking a stand, it's being a thief. (And not in the 1st-edition way.)
Sure, it's perfectly playable with just the first books. Although, I found it annoying that they left out certain classes and races with an ad that you could get them online if you subscribed to their service. But, yeah, even if the only thing it included had been a human fighter, it would still be a playable game. But that's not really the point.
I downloaded Paizo's Pathfinder game, too (from their web site). That one I will buy when it comes out, because I like the direction they're taking it in.
And who the hell at WotC came up with this idea? Combat piracy by making it impossible to get the products people want through legal means? Yeah, that sounds brilliant. The only thing that could top that would be to cut off access to the content they've already purchased with very short notice. Oh. Oh, yeah.
I did like Paizo's response to this, though. They announced a 35% sale on all of their pdf's for the rest of the month, and that all purchases of their printed products would include a pdf version at no extra charge.
Why? What's the South ever done for the rest of us? Most of the anti-science, anti-education, and anti-equality political activism comes from the South. Much more of our federal tax dollars go to southern states than they put into the system. Lincoln was wrong - we should've just let them go when we had a chance.
Because, you know, current administrations have a habit of becoming previous administrations after a few years, and if every incoming president legally screws the people who just left, that would tend to cause productivity problems.
If by "productivity problems" you mean that every administration is so afraid of being held accountable for their actions that they make sure to stay within the law and document everything they do so they can later show in court why it was necessary... yeah, that'd be a good thing.
I not only voted for this guy, I actively campaigned for him. While it's ridiculous to say that this one action makes him exactly like the combination of crooks and nutjobs that we just got rid of, I am still not happy with it.
I've written my letter to the White House and to my senators. Have you?
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He killed himself just because of massive failures in his company?
Why can't more CEOs follow his example?
I don't know which it is.
Which one's better?
'Cuz I know it's not that one.
Nah-uh! I've seen the space shuttle! It totally went to the moon!
But if it's sufficiently advanced, how would you distinguish the two?
The rain in Spain will be full of cocaine?
Not entirely true.
While it's true that it's easier to get good quality ingredients and healthier pre-packaged foods if you have the money for it, what causes obesity isn't so much the lower quality of food available for the money, but the choices people make on what to spend their money on.
For instance, yes, a hamburger in a real restaurant is better, healthier, and more expensive than a hamburger at McDonald's. But you can buy raw hamburger and cook it at home, and make it tastier, healthier, and far cheaper than you can get at McDonald's.
The boxed Macaroni and Cheese you get at Whole Foods is indeed better for you than Kraft, but costs three times as much. Less than half the price of Kraft, though, is buying the ingredients and making it yourself. Better tasting, cheaper, and less fattening.
Vegetables at your average farmers market cost about half of what they do in a grocery store, and are fresher and better tasting.
I could go on. Yes, the rich will always have more options than the poor. But with a little bit of research, effort, and practice, people can eat far healthier for even less money than the average American is doing now.
How the hell does the fridge even get that bad in the first place? That's not just a matter of not cleaning the thing for a week.
Is this an old forgotten fridge in a disused break room? If not, were people still putting their lunches in there? I wouldn't want to be eating a lunch that had been sitting in a big pile of mold all morning first.
I bet that had an increasing number of people calling in sick in the months leading up to this incident...
I dunno. I'd rather have the robot go get my slippers and I go Venus, Mars, and Europa myself.
I tried that.
Didn't work.
The upside, though, is that I learned a lot more than I ever really wanted to about tax preparation.
Hell, before the whole thing, I didn't even know that the IRS had field agents.
Even earlier than that, a story in the fanzine Trek posited that the ridges on their foreheads were the top of their spine, having moved up due to having their backsides kicked by the federation so often.
Comics.
Oh, sure, you say you "grew up" with Marvel comics - which indicates you read them as a kid.
A lot of people never grew "out" of comics, though. And comics grew up with them.
Watchmen was among the first of the mainstream comics for adults. Not marketed to adults but still child-friendly like, say, the current Spiderman, but actually made specifically to be read by adults.
Among adults who regularly read comics (not those who just pick up an issue of something once in a while, but those who regularly visit their local shops and know that new issues come out on Wednesdays), it is still very popular and quite well-known.
Any online comic forum, or gathering of fans, will have occasional references to it.
Ah, yes, you are correct. My mistake.
Yeah, that one annoyed me, too. A lot.
The first time through, I was there with Fawkes. Here's a character who's one most important trait, on which part of the story is dependent, is being able to survive very strong radiation.
He leaves you, and comes back right before the end game, when you end up facing very strong radiation.
It's like someone pulling Checkov's gun off the mantle then throwing it away and ending with a fistfight.
Star Paladin Cross, on the other hand, will go into the radiation for you and die. The game still ends, but the voiceover is slightly different.
You got it backwards.
There are no unionized minors. Once the unions get involved, there are no minors among the miners.
Where in Portland? I and a couple of friends have looked for them. Expansion books and the Monster Manual were all over the place, but even Powell's didn't have a 3.5 Players Handbook.
Not that I think this means there was a buyback or anything. They stopped printing them a while back, so stores probably just sold out of whatever inventory they had. Most game stores don't carry a huge amount of back stock that isn't out on the shelves.
It was originally announced at $15 per month. It was lowered when they didn't get as many subscribers as they'd thought they would at that price. $7.95 per month would put it at about the price I was paying for my Dragon and Dungeon subscriptions before they got canceled.
I downloaded the 4th ed Players Handbook, too. If I'd had any intention of running a 4th ed game, I would have purchased the hardcopy, though. I agree that claiming you're going to be downloading all the future ones without paying isn't taking a stand, it's being a thief. (And not in the 1st-edition way.)
Sure, it's perfectly playable with just the first books. Although, I found it annoying that they left out certain classes and races with an ad that you could get them online if you subscribed to their service. But, yeah, even if the only thing it included had been a human fighter, it would still be a playable game. But that's not really the point.
I downloaded Paizo's Pathfinder game, too (from their web site). That one I will buy when it comes out, because I like the direction they're taking it in.
They were doing the wave.
It just took five minutes to get all the way across the theater.
Paizo's coming out with a new edition in August. And if you buy the print edition, you get the pdf for free.
It's called Pathfinder now. When the two companies broke up, WotC got the name - Paizo got all the content.
(The beta version of Pathfinder is available as a free download from their web site.)
I think ITunes has proved there will.
Especially now that their sales are up since getting rid of DRM.
There's also the ubiquitous sales of bottle water. Billions of dollars a year paid for something that everyone gets delivered to their house for free.
Which would be kinda ironic considering that the Harry Potter books have recently all been released as ebooks with no DRM at all.
And who the hell at WotC came up with this idea? Combat piracy by making it impossible to get the products people want through legal means? Yeah, that sounds brilliant. The only thing that could top that would be to cut off access to the content they've already purchased with very short notice. Oh. Oh, yeah.
I did like Paizo's response to this, though. They announced a 35% sale on all of their pdf's for the rest of the month, and that all purchases of their printed products would include a pdf version at no extra charge.
Why?
What's the South ever done for the rest of us?
Most of the anti-science, anti-education, and anti-equality political activism comes from the South.
Much more of our federal tax dollars go to southern states than they put into the system.
Lincoln was wrong - we should've just let them go when we had a chance.
If by "productivity problems" you mean that every administration is so afraid of being held accountable for their actions that they make sure to stay within the law and document everything they do so they can later show in court why it was necessary... yeah, that'd be a good thing.
I not only voted for this guy, I actively campaigned for him. While it's ridiculous to say that this one action makes him exactly like the combination of crooks and nutjobs that we just got rid of, I am still not happy with it.
I've written my letter to the White House and to my senators. Have you?
What's the difference?
With, as you'll recall, pretty horrific consequences.
"Too big to fail" doesn't mean it's too big to be able to fail, but too big to be allowed to.
Where's Hari Seldon when you need him?