Bester: Mal. Whaddya need two mechanics for? Mal: I really don't.

'Out Of Gas'


The Crying of Natter 49  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Topic!Cindy - Jan 17, 2007 8:15:55 am PST #3512 of 10001
What is even happening?

Yeah, and it was moved after 9/11. But I didn't hear about it. Maybe because I wasn't on b.org at the time, and b.org is where I get all my cool news.

No, I just mentioned that, because I'm not so sure it ought to belong in academic decathalon materials on the 80s.


DavidS - Jan 17, 2007 8:16:29 am PST #3513 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

but I am definitely old enough to remember when it was like 11:59:45 or some shit during the Reagan era.

That clock's a big old drama queen.

In Super Power News:

We've got China on the cover of one of the newsweeklies, we've got Russia withholding oil from from Europe again and a review in the NYTimes about India's ascendence with some useful quotes:

India’s dizzying economic ascent began in 1991, when the government abruptly dismantled the “license raj,” a system of tight controls and permits in place since independence in 1947.

India’s economy has grown by 6 percent annually since 1991, a rate exceeded only by China’s, yet there are a mere 35 million taxpayers in a country with a population of 1.1 billion. Only 10 percent of India’s workers have jobs in the formal economy. Its excellent engineering schools turn out a million graduates each year, 10 times the number for the United States and Europe combined, yet 35 percent of the country remains illiterate.

Despite its robust democracy and honest elections, India faces the future saddled with one of the most corrupt government bureaucracies on earth....As a former cabinet official tells Mr. Luce, corruption is not simply a nuisance or an added burden on the system. Rather, he says, “in many respects and in many parts of India it is the system.”

Sometime in the 2020s, at current growth rates, India will overtake Japan to become the world’s third-largest economy.

Mr. Luce takes a cautiously optimistic view. “India is not on an autopilot to greatness,” he writes. “But it would take an incompetent pilot to crash the plane.”


Polter-Cow - Jan 17, 2007 8:18:26 am PST #3514 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

No, I just mentioned that, because I'm not so sure it ought to belong in academic decathalon materials on the 80s.

Oh, right. Point.

That clock's a big old drama queen.

It really is. I mean, doesn't it just cause MORE drama by making people freak out about the state of the world that it measures? It's like the Fandom Wank of clocks.

Mr. Luce takes a cautiously optimistic view. “India is not on an autopilot to greatness,” he writes. “But it would take an incompetent pilot to crash the plane.”

Go Team India!


amych - Jan 17, 2007 8:19:38 am PST #3515 of 10001
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

It's like the Fandom Wank of clocks.

Nah, the clock has way fewer sockpuppets and flouncy journal deletions.


DavidS - Jan 17, 2007 8:20:04 am PST #3516 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Go Team India!

Did you skip over the part about the most corrupt bureaucracy on earth?


juliana - Jan 17, 2007 8:20:46 am PST #3517 of 10001
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…

Dammit, our Academic Decathlon topic was the '80s.

Jeebus.

I've forgotten what our AcaDeca topic was. I think something having to do with Amy Tan's books, but I misremember.


shrift - Jan 17, 2007 8:20:47 am PST #3518 of 10001
"You can't put a price on the joy of not giving a shit." -Zenkitty

I knew I was getting old when I discovered that I could no longer use The Breakfast Club as a shared cultural touchstone.

On the other hand, The Daily Show still uses it, so maybe I should just mock those pesky kids who don't get my jokes.


DavidS - Jan 17, 2007 8:22:00 am PST #3519 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

On the other hand, The Daily Show still uses it, so maybe I should just mock those pesky kids who don't get my jokes.

Or maybe you should switch to The Daily Show for all your cultural touchstones. Or better yet, The Simpsons. That's good for a 20 year span of humans.


juliana - Jan 17, 2007 8:22:51 am PST #3520 of 10001
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…

Go Team India!

Did you skip over the part about the most corrupt bureaucracy on earth?

One of. Besides, P-C lives in the Bay Area. It's not like we don't have some corrupt bureaucracies right here.


Jesse - Jan 17, 2007 8:23:32 am PST #3521 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Of course, in 10 more years, The Daily Show is going to be, like, News For Your Mom.