I think the key difference - other than the fact that the American government works for the rich and only does what will benefit that particular group - is that the Chinese government can devise a plan of action then act on it without morons or special interest groups getting in the way.

For example, they saw the need for economic stimulus in the form of massive government spending so they did that without having to worry about how an opposition party would respond or how the people would complain. They become incredibly effective at the cost of freedom.

That doesn't make China a great place to live though; a similar comparison would be Nazi Germany, who got out of the Great Depression with one of the strongest economies in the world only to start and maintain the largest war in history.

I'm going to side with Microsmacked! here as far as the comparison between print and digital media goes. For all intents and purposes a space costs nothing in digital media.

Also, for a typography fanatic, the article is incorrect about a space representing a pause. A period represents a pause, not the space. Two spaces does not cause people to pause longer after a sentence.

For me, I am normally a two-spacer but I have been known to drop down to one based on the font. On many fonts two spaces looks better to me and allows me to more easily spot the beginning of sentences when I am quickly scanning a page of text. I tend to memorize text by where it is located on a page and the space between sentences helps with that.

I'm not a militant two-spacer, but I like my two spaces.

I don't really care about the cow - they are food after-all - but nutbastard is right: how is this even news?

A cow is a large animal with a rather thick skull and there are plenty of news stories that show .22 pistols not being able to kill humans who were shot in the head.

There used to be a good bar like this, called Scholars, near the University of Alberta campus in Edmonton. Unfortunately most of the bookshelves were lined with crappy books found at flea markets and garage sales.

Alberta has some funny town names.

There is Vulcan - which has a huge assortment of Star Trek themed sights - Sexsmith - which was once the "grain capital of the British Empire" - and Viking, which has a Troll Garden that celebrates Scandinavian history.

farm
-noun
2. land or water devoted to the raising of animals, fish, plants, etc.

Looks like a farm to me.

I've been a follower of Windowfarms for a few years now and it really is an amazing project. It's "open source" allowing people to customize their farm and share their results and designs with others.

There are 13,000 members, many of which are able to produce about one salad per week throughout the winter just with a single window farm. While one salad a week doesn't sound world changing, the project as a whole is definitely doing something amazing.

This is definitely not Neatorama-worthy. It's basically a particularly picky 8-year-old complaining to people about non-American holiday foods.

The reindeer stew comment was particularly idiotic as it wasn't based on the food itself, just a moronic connection to some fictional beasts of burden.

The author needs to grow up.

I just reread my post and realized it might not clear it up very well. I know what I mean, I just failed at putting it into words :\ .

What is wrong with the sentence is that it effectively says that someone is going to find out that someone else is the winner. As in, "The first one to read the blog, find out Miss Cellania is a winner..."

Should probably be, "The first one to read the blog, find out they are a winner..."

I think everyone got the idea, but it could be a little confusing.

Growing one's own vegetables always tastes better than buying it at the supermarket - it doesn't have to be organic gardening.

Food in the supermarket is from massive producers who use the hardiest cultivars, not the tastiest, harvest them early so they are ripe when they get to you and ship them incredible distances. Growing your own means you have tasty cultivars, harvested when ripe and served shortly after harvesting.

As for organic being better for you:
1. See Penn and Teller's Bullshit about that.
and
2. Some studies have shown that organic vegetables have higher levels of *natural* pesticides in them. Some commercially available organic vegetables have pest-deterring chemical levels approaching human toxicity.

This sounds like it could be the origin of the "Bloody Mary" game that kids have been playing for generations.

I remember kids playing this at sleepovers and coming out of the bathroom genuinely terrified. To this day I'm a little uneasy when in a dark room with a mirror. Now that I know what that's all about, maybe it'll be less weird ;).

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/bloodymary.asp

While the article cites some recent research, the Type A/B Personality theory is basically pop psychology and has been routinely and heavily criticized.

Adding a category to a bad and outdated model seems a little silly.

Interesting article, but William I was not even close to being England's first king.

Those interested in the subject should look into George Cheyne, an early proponent of vegetarianism. "Obesity and Depression in the Enlightenment" is a good look at his interesting life.

This is a stupid experiment even if it wasn't so unoriginal.

McDonalds' food is very salty. Salt has long been our number one preserver of food. Case closed.

Salt kills and inhibits the growth of microorganisms by drawing water out of the cells of both microbe and food alike through osmosis.

Microbes are what cause decay, the saltiness of their food ensures there are few microbes, therefore the food does not decay.

Chris Braiden, an authority on Community Policing, noted that while 182,000 bicycles were stolen in Canada in 1984 at a loss of $45 million, police were more obsessed with solving 1,069 bank robberies that resulted in losses of $2.8 million, all of it covered by insurance.

It's good to hear that there are police out there willing to spend some time on the little things (that, in the end, are actually big things).