Stan (from South Park) is getting older (he's turned 10), and it's a major transition. He can't seem to get along with his friends, and to boot his parents are divorcing. Everything he used to enjoy looks and sounds like s__t.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/398743/same-old-crap

The link is to a scene from an episode called "Ass Burgers" (a play on the word "Aspergers"), since the school therapist thinks Stan is suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. Though it's explained in the finale from last season (called "You're Getting Old") that Stan has become a "cynical a__hole."

I can relate to this scene and others where stuff feels like crap to Stan, though I don't see everything that way. I enjoy the stuff from when I was teenager, and some stuff I didn't "get" back then. I'm "older," and I can relate to feeling disgusted by the ploys that are used to entertain and persuade people now. I've felt the same way Stan feels, asking people, "You like this crap," and seeing them enjoy it. I've had that feeling to some extent since my twenties, though it's increased since I've gotten into my late 30s and beyond.

Anyway, the above scene made me laugh a lot. It's just so masterfully irreverent and truthful.

I remember I used to hear this music around in Boulder, usually in someplace like a store selling New Age stuff. Music by Andreas Vollenweider.

Behind the Gardens

Pyramid

The phone is called "Touch Wood." This is decadent, but I don't care. I like the "xylophone in the forest" for its own sake.

Here's the "making of" video

S&P downgrades outlook on U.S. debt

Everything's cool for right now, but in 2 years the U.S. could lose its AAA credit rating if the federal government does not do an about-face on the deficit situation.

I remember billionaire Ross Perot giving a similar talk on this about 15 years ago, except back then you couldn't balance the budget by taking everything the rich had. He said that would only fund the government for 3 months. Now the rich are a lot wealthier, and it's conceivable that you could balance most of the budget by taking everything the rich have. The problem is the government would get significantly less revenue the following year if it actually did that. The goal isn't practical, and we would be rightly considered a nutcase of a country if we did it, but I've met people who basically believe in this.

The article the presenter refers to is here.

The inconvenient truth is that the government is going to have to cut spending, and in the most uncomfortable places. Another problem is that in order to avoid a crisis, some brave politicians are going to have to sacrifice their careers, just as the Democrats did to pass their health care bill (though they got cushy private sector jobs as rewards for their votes. I doubt any politicians are going to get the same rewards for cutting federal spending...). Barring that, events are going to force us as a country to make some tough choices, and that's going to be a lot more painful. I hope we choose to avoid that fate.

Check it out!: http://dvice.com/archives/2011/01/split-second-ph.php

"Where are the jobs? For many companies, overseas", AP, Dec. 28, 2010

60 Minutes did a segment on the looming fiscal crisis that many states are facing in the near future, titled "State budgets: the day of reckoning". I consider this an important story, because the states that are in crisis could cause another financial collapse like what happened in 2008. Meredith Whitney, a financial analyst interviewed for the segment, has done extensive research into the fiscal health of the states, and she said that there will be 50-100+ municipal bond defaults within the next year, despite what the ratings agencies say (which also misled investors in the real estate bust). She said it like you could take it (the information) to the bank. She also said it's highly unlikely the problem will be corrected before the crisis hits, because there is so much complacency in the state governments towards this problem. It looks like we're going to need to prepare for another "bumpy ride."

A little of the code Zoe gives to the computer is legitimate Algol, but not very much, from what I can tell. She should've gotten a compiler error. :) In any case, it's been years since I've seen sci-fi in the video format where someone is attempting to use computers in sophisticated ways like this.