Rats have rights too.

More bacon links

I just want to note that my housemate made the Bacon Explosion recipe for a Super Bowl party and I am eating the leftovers for lunch today. Mmmm, bacon.

What I find intriguing about all the hubbub over the enormous bonuses paid in 2008 is that, of the people I know in banking, all receive their bonuses in February/March, based on the previous year. So, while I think most executive pay is outrageous, it's not really fair to say that the bonuses they received in 2008 were based on substandard performance.

I'm leery of Ancestry.com's subscription services, because they tend to share out portions of your genealogy as part of their archive.

That really doesn't bother me much. Knowing that Joe Schmuckbait added part of a genealogy that I've researched and added it to his family tree is no big. I've done the reverse a number of times. It just means we're related in some way. Plus, any living members are left anonymous in the trees. All you know is that there may be some distant relations (second, third cousings, etc.) out there. Plus, you can designate your tree as private. Then the person has to contact you by e-mail if they really want to know anything. The big thing is being able to actually look at the census records and attach them to your tree., but that costs you. I finally had to quit paying for my subscription. Unemployment does that for you.

megan, some of the outcry is because companies that received bailout funds shifted the bonus payout to December.

Sail, if you unsubscribe to the service, do you lose the stuff you've found and added? I'm really just interested in tracking the last three or four generations.

I don't think I mind others being able to see my tree--I think a lot of geneology is gleaning information from other people who have records, if you don't want to do the hard core public records searches. Besides, my family is so large and widespread that there are probably members out there who have the information I need.

I couldn't/can't afford Ancestry.com. I put my file up on Rootsweb.com, and then when Ancestry took them over Rootweb stayed free, but the files there became searchable within Ancestry.

From sarameg's polar bear root canal link:

Anoki's fangs are anchored deep in the bone. They're perhaps 5 inches long from root to tip, and they curve.

Whoa. And the video is amazing. So unreal to see the size of this bear with people all up in her paws and face. Crazy huge animals.

I hope Colbert has the video.

I know that top executives get a lot of their income from sources other than their salaries, so being capped at $500K shouldn't put them out on the street.

If I were an executive and I did make the majority of my money from sources other than salary, why would I stay at a company with hundreds of thousands of employees, offices around the world, multiple divisions, a high degree of public scrutiny, no credit line, government ownership that is highly likely to fail anyway, permanently tarnishing my resume for what is a relative pittance? I wouldn't. I wouldn't need that kind of hassle.

Maybe there are enough executives out there for whom that kind of money is enough for all the bailed out companies to get competent management. But maybe not. Permanently capping salaries does create a set of incentives that are a bit hard to predict, just like it does in any industry. But I would point out that high compensation, especially for leadership at companies in trouble, does have actual justification, and as it stands there's little reason to work for these institutions right now.