Who, me?

Your Learning Style: Objective and Rational

You are logical and rational. You are open to any ideas or subjects that make sense to you. You Should Study: Anthropology Economics Engineering Finance Law Philosophy Political Science

Well, we've got 2 out of 7 so far. I don't think I'm going back to school though.

When I first saw this I thought it might be fake, but no, it's real & it's on Forbes' web site. Why you shouldn't marry a career woman, brought to you by the lovely folks at Forbes.

I haven't yet looked at the underlying studies, but the entire attitude & tone of this article is pissing me off. Once I get past that, I will look at the underlying studies & figure out if they actually have something real here, or if it his is just a swipe at those women taking away jobs from the rich white males who are Forbes' target audience.

So someone on another board asked people for their three favorite books. I found the lists very interesting, and started pondering what I can find out about the people based on their lists. Unfortunately, I don't know most of the people on that list well, so other than the obvious (the person picking the Bible & Book of Mormon is boring & religious) I couldn't do much with the data.

So I thought I would ask you nice folks. I know most of you pretty well. I'm curious if I will find a correlation between your three favorite books & what I know about you. Tell me your three favorite books. Feel free to say why, but that's not required at all.

Clearly I'm missing some classics.  Which one of the ones I haven't yet read should be on my "must own" list?

2005 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke (on my to-be-read list)
2004 Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold
2003 Hominids, Robert J. Sawyer
2002 American Gods, Neil Gaiman  (made me want to cuddle up with Bulfinch's, and revisit some old Norse legend books)
2001 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling
2000 A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
1999 To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
1998 Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman
1997 Blue Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
1996 The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
1995 Mirror Dance, Lois McMaster Bujold
1994 Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
1993 Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
1993 A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
1992 Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold
1991 The Vor Game, Lois McMaster Bujold
1990 Hyperion, Dan Simmons
1989 Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
1988 The Uplift War, David Brin
1987 Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card
1986 Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
1985 Neuromancer, William Gibson
1984 Startide Rising, David Brin
1983 Foundation's Edge, Isaac Asimov
1982 Downbelow Station, C. J. Cherryh
1981 The Snow Queen, Joan D. Vinge
1980 The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
1979 Dreamsnake, Vonda N. McIntyre
1978 Gateway, Frederik Pohl
1977 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm
1976 The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
1975 The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
1974 Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
1973 The Gods Themselves, Isaac Asimov
1972 To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer
1971 Ringworld, Larry Niven
1970 The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
1969 Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
1968 Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
1967 The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
1966 Dune, Frank Herbert
1966 "...And Call Me Conrad" (This Immortal), Roger Zelazny
1965 The Wanderer, Fritz Leiber
1964 "Here Gather the Stars" (Way Station), Clifford D. Simak
1963 The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
1962 Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
1961 A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M., Miller Jr (one of the few SF books I read for school.  I hated it so much.  I haven't reread it though I probably should)
1960 Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
1959 A Case of Conscience, James Blish
1958 The Big Time, Fritz Leiber
1956 Double Star, Robert A. Heinlein
1955 They'd Rather Be Right (The Forever Machine), Mark Clifton & Frank Riley
1953 The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester

I'm sure at least one of you can recommend a CD ripping software that works on Windows. Right? Because I just realized that Books-on-Tape are wonderful, except that I own neither a working portable tape player nor a working portable CD player. On the other hand, MP3s are portable, and there is this Treo 650 that claims to play them & lives in my pocket.

The $70Billion Tax Cut has a lovely little chart on the WaPo site:

Income versus Average tax savings ($)
$10,000-20,000 2
$20,000-30,000 9
$30,000-40,000 16
$40,000-50,000 46
$50,000-75,000 110
$75,000-100,000 403
$100,000-200K 1,388
$200,000-500K 4,499
$500K-1 million 5,562
$1 million+ 41,977

I'll bet that $9 will come in handy to all those folks making $30K a year.

You Are a Jam Cookie

On the outside, you project a straight-laced, innocent vibe. But on the inside, you're complex, exotic, and full of flavor.

I don't remember who to blame for this one.

Time for some good news, I guess. Although from what I gather this is a calculated political move because he had pretty good odds of losing his seat in what was constructed to be a Republican majority district. Apparently according to his calculations, a replacement candidate would likely win which would enable DeLay to stay on the good side of the Republican party as he uses the revolving door to go right into lobbying.

But DeLay out is still a good thing.

How to Spot a Baby Conservative. Short summary: the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints, s/he grew up to be a conservative. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The study was a 20-year follow-up for 95 kids from Berkeley.