Thanks so much for your work!

I think they're saying that an increase in school funding doesn't necessarily lead to an increase or decrease in quality of education. Like maybe it's essentially uncorrelated above a minimum amount to fund basics (lights, desks, teachers, etc.). There's a lot more factors than money at play here. In other words, a poorly-run school with bad policies, teachers, etc. is crap whether it has X million dollars or 2X million, and a well-run school is good even with a small budget.

Anyone watch the first season and have thoughts? It clearly did well enough, and I really enjoyed the good seasons of Dexter and liked the one sequel series.

There's a lot more perpendicular universes, though

I think it's one of the flaws with representative democracy. When faced with a choice between what's good for the country/state vs. what's popular (or just good for their district), what should an elected official pick? If they go with the former, they will eventually be replaced by someone who votes the other way, and we'll end up with a government of elected officials who only vote selfishly (to get reelected by supporting public opinion, I mean).

Maybe proportional voting would help with legislatures to avoid that, but I don't see a great fix for executives. And proportional voting can also have its own flaws by making parties more influential. The best is trying to elect people who can convince the public/their constituents that what's good for the country (or state) is also good for the people, and change public opinion on the topic. Obama (preceded by VP Biden) coming out in favor of gay marriage worked pretty well on that front. So I guess we're just back to trying to elect the best people, or at least the most influential. But that's also why Trump has been successful politically and that sucks, so I don't know.

The right of the people to bare arms shall not be infringed! *Flexes

Yes, it's true. This man has no dick.

Oh my god, they were ROOMMATES!

It would suck for the Atlantic and Jeff Goldberg, but I almost hope that they charge him with distributing classified info for posting the plans. The courts would absolutely WRECK the government in that case

I did just hunt through my old CDs, and I've still got it! Along with Diablo 1 and some weird burned copy of Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 that has a black bottom, like it's a PlayStation CD. Anyway, I'll try to check it out; thanks for the recommendation!

I remember being very frustrated in that game, but I was also probably like 12 and dumb. So I can take your word for it. I'll count it!

Has there even been a Civ release that was great at the start? I had the old Civ 2 "Multiplayer Gold Edition," which my friend, who had the original, said had a much better AI. Give it a little while and see what they can do to make Civ 7 better, then it'll sell well.

No, no, it was originally "Taking God's name in vein," as saying the name of God out loud would allow Him into your blood. If you say the name of God, you allow him to inhabit your blood, gain your power, and become even more mighty. The ancient Hebrews feared God gaining too much power, as He would be able to destroy the world. Then Christians figured out that if they took Communion and instead drank the blood of Christ, they could reverse the Hebrew God's power and slowly increase their own until they could ascend to the heavens and do battle with the Almighty, empowered by His blood in their veins, rather than weakened by taking His name in vein. In this seventeen-part essay, I will describe how we can defeat God by

Mark Twain was a writer in the late 1800s in America who wrote some real novels, but also is mainly known for his humorous and satirical writing. He's exaggerating here for comedic effect, not trying to be serious. So it's probably a combination of the older language and the fact that he's trying to be funny.

One of my favorite passages from Mark Twain's "The Awful German Language":

There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. An average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime and impressive curiosity; it occupies a quarter of a column; it contains all the ten parts of speech -- not in regular order, but mixed; it is built mainly of compound words constructed by the writer on the spot, and not to be found in any dictionary -- six or seven words compacted into one, without joint or seam -- that is, without hyphens; it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each inclosed in a parenthesis of its own, with here and there extra parentheses which reinclose three or four of the minor parentheses, making pens within pens: finally, all the parentheses and reparentheses are massed together between a couple of king-parentheses, one of which is placed in the first line of the majestic sentence and the other in the middle of the last line of it -- after which comes the VERB, and you find out for the first time what the man has been talking about; and after the verb -- merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out -- the writer shovels in "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein," or words to that effect, and the monument is finished. I suppose that this closing hurrah is in the nature of the flourish to a man's signature -- not necessary, but pretty. German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head -- so as to reverse the construction -- but I think that to learn to read and understand a German newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner.

Interesting! Do you have a different word for the French " l'omelette", made with beaten eggs?

What the fuck did you just fucking say about Nicole, you little removed? Ill have you know she graduated top of her class in the Navy Seals, and shes been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and she has over 300 confirmed kills. She is trained in gorilla warfare and shes the top sniper in the entire Polish armed forces. You are nothing to her but just another target. She will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to her over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak she is contacting her secret network of spies across Poland and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. Youre fucking dead, kid. She can be anywhere, anytime, and she can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and thats just with her bare hands. Not only is she extensively trained in unarmed combat, but she has access to the entire arsenal of the Polish Marine Corps and she will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little clever comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldnt, you didn't, and now youre paying the price, you goddamn idiot. She will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.

Handmade puzzles, i.e., puzzles crafted intentionally by a real person almost never require guessing. However, a lot of "extreme" difficulty puzzles (or similar difficulty terms) in apps, newspapers, puzzle books, etc. are not handmade by a real person, but computer generated. There's probably a logic chain that's like 15 steps long that humans couldn't reasonably follow, but a guess is likely faster and more enjoyable.

Someone else recommended Cracking the Cryptic on YouTube, which is a great source - the daily puzzles are nice because you can follow along in the video if you're stuck, but they also have lots of apps with Sudokus that never require guessing. Another good source is Logic Masters Germany, which has lots of handmade Sudoku and other puzzles: https://logic-masters.de/

What counts as an "older game?" Surely not... thinks about the games I played last week ...Tie Fighter or Dune 2?

Oh hey, it's Sam Reich's dad!