I understand why people were excited about DVDs.  VHS was low quality, it degraded quickly, and was too easily damaged.  Most of my VHS tapes where grainey, had lines or lost vertical sync when they were only a few years old.  Most of what I had on VHS I have now replaced with DVD.  The images are crystal clear, scene selection is easier, and you get cool bonus features.  What I don't understand is HDDVD/Blue-Ray.  It seems like they're jumping the gun here, because they only offer better visual performance on high def TVs.  While high def has become standard on new TVs, my TV is over ten years old and is working just fine.  It replaced a TV that was fifteen years old.  TVs last for a long time, and it seems like not many people are going to have high def. TVs yet, so you'd get no benefit.  The only other benefit for High Def dvd/blue-ray is the play length.  Due to production standards and human attention spans, movies aren't getting any longer really.  Sure, you will be able to fit a whole trilogy on one blue-ray disk, but no one is going to sit and watch them all at once, so what's the point?  I think in another five years they will be ready to take over the industry, but right now, blue ray players are too expensive to buy just to have one or two movies that you can play on a handful of tvs.

We live on a stree that has several very nicely decorated houses.  Some of them have a little over-the-top decorations.  Our has the tree, a wreath on the door, and some bush lights.  Nothing fancy, but it's nice and adds some holiday color.   What I don't understand are the people who put up no lights what-so-ever.  Maybe you don't have kids, or maybe you're not a Christian, but I have single, Jewish friends who still decorate their house for the Holiday season.  Christmas lights are cheap and cheap to operate.  You don't have to do much, even just one strand shows that you've got that holiday spirit.  It really makes me sad to drive home at night and see the houses with cars in the drive that are completely dark.

Check out this website:

factcheck.org

This gives you a lot of information about both candidates.  Of course, it makes both of them liars or both of them not knowing what they're talking about, but as soon as you said "politician" you pretty much covered that.  Take the time to read up about the issues, see what's true about these adds.  Don't let the media vote for you, get out there and see which candidate really stands for what you believe in.

The upcomming vice presidential debates are a toal waste of time.  Both Biden and Pailin will try to paint themselves as "regular people" while simultaneously saying they have the most experience.  This so called "Troopergate" will come up certainly, and the same things will be said about it as have been said already. 

Really, why don't they just put out some fact sheets about the candidates?  What does anyone really know about Joe Biden?  What does it really matter how long he's been in the senate?  What people really want to know is "what do you bring to the campaign?"  And the answer is, nothing.  Really, nobody actually cares what the credentials are of the person on the vice president, because the president doesn't really do very much.  They're our face to the world, so a good image is really all that matters unless they plan to veto a bill.  All they do is make recommendations.  Congress is where the power is, and nobody ever points the finger at the Congress.

I think a lot of the things we've seen in the stock market have nothign to do with market factors like supply and demand, but rampant speculation.

Look at gas prices due to the hurricane. I saw one company push their gas from $3.63 to $5.48 in one day. ONE DAY.  They didn't get a gas delivery that day; supply did not go down so low that they figured they had to hold out for months on this one shipment.  Nobody made a run on the gas station with that kind of price, so it couldn't have been demand!  People were saying the wholesalers were bumping their prices, so the gas stations had to bump their's.  I call shenanigans.  If they had to buy more gas, RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT, then yes, upping the price makes sense. 

But it has nothing to do with that.  It is merely people panicing, and the media flooding the market with this information that makes other people panic.  Take the recent House vote on the proposed Bailout bill.  Did people need to know if it was passed or not? Yes.  Did people need to know who voted yes and who voted no?  Yes.  Did they need to know it all in real time, as it unfolded and try to buy and sell stocks based on that information?  NO!

In this age of informaiton, too many people are quick to look at every peice of 'news' that someone posts on the internet or on TV and accept it as fact, and to take instant gratification from it, rather than taking the time to digest it.  Information is power, but too much information is worse than none with the way people are acting these days.

What is the famous phrase "you have nothing to fear but fear itself" supposed to mean anyway?

Let's look at it word by word

We: generic everyone

have nothing to: do not have a reason for

fear: the state of emotional distress

except:unless one other condition

for fear: the state of emotional distress

itself: fear

So... there is no reason to fear unless it is for the sake of fear?  Does that mean we make our own fear for the sake of being affraid?  Or does it mean The only thing we have to fear, the only reaosn to hesitate, is that our own fear will hold us back?  As long as you are not affraid, you have no reason to be affraid?

I wonder if this can be represented in a logic statement.  I tried it out, but I don't understand the question well enough to make all the necessary condition