Overnight Open Thread

Oh and apparently the AosHQ Two have been unbanned. Sometimes the system fails us.

Charts!

Man those scandis are a surly jittery bunch.

Was The Egypt Uprising Caused By Ethanol?
Well food prices are at an all time high and that was a contributing factor to the uprising. And why are prices so high?

Well a big cause is the US cutting back on other grains to grow corn - most of which gets turned into ethanol:

“What’s driving the [prices] are the corn numbers. When you look at the supply demand numbers, we are now putting two Iowa corn crops in the gas tanks.

And if you look at the history going back to 2002, the ethanol number is growing every year, and that’s what’s really driven the whole market. Now the question becomes, if you change government policy, and reduce some of the tax incentives that are built into this ethanol climate, what will that do to the demand for ethanol in this corn complex. And I’m sure that it will back off the demand. I’m not sure we’re going to back to where we were in 2002, but on the other hand we’ve discovered we can produce a lot more corn. It’s those corn numbers though, that are dragging acres out of wheat and soybeans, and maintaining those prices.

Remembering Jonestown and the Jim Jones Communist Death Cult
Most accounts of Jonestown gloss over Jones' longtime membership and association with the Communist Party USA. In fact his People's Temple was essentially a church based on communism with some Christian trappings. And you might imagine that an avowed communist would have been shunned by politicians in the US but you would be wrong:

The 1960s and 70s were a special time, and Jones, with his Communist church, eventually become a political power in the San Francisco Bay Area. He moved comfortably with the Marxist pop-culture fringe where his inner vision could express itself in manner. George Moscone appointed Jim Jones head of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. Jones met with Walter Mondale. “First Lady Rosalynn Carter also personally met with Jones on multiple occasions, corresponded with him about Cuba, and spoke with him at the grand opening of the San Francisco Democratic Party Headquarters where Jones garnered louder applause than Mrs. Carter.”

In response to reactions of seeing the poison take effect on others, Jones commanded “Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity.”

What Does the IPv6 Transition Mean to Me?
Well a longer ip address for one. And that we're gonna have to work a lot harder to keep logprof banned.

Valentine’s Day Importance Vs. Time

Ramones Win Lifetime Achievement Grammy
Well finally. I've always liked the Ramones. They were punk but they always seemed like happy punks.

How to Tell If You’re Compatible With Another Person
Well according to OKCupid these three questions are remarkably good at predicting who you're likely to be compatible with. The questions are:

* Do you like horror movies?
* Have you ever traveled around another country alone?
* Wouldn't it be fun to chuck it all and go live on a sailboat?

The Importance of Kissing
According to research it's much more important to women:

Or, as the researchers rather unromantically put it, women use kissing to “establish and monitor the status of their relationship, and to assess and periodically update the level of commitment on the part of a partner.”

In 2007 British scientists measured the brain and heart activity sparked by passionate kissing, but found it was less intense that the stimulation produced by eating chocolate.

Is Travelers Insurance Dropping Gun Owners?
For having evil 'illegal' assault rifles i.e. perfectly legal AR-15s. Maybe, but it's hard to tell if this is a corporate policy or just some anti-gun local office. All the more reason to insure your guns through the NRA Endorsed Insurance program. For around $80 a year you can insure up to $5000 worth of firearms without having to register serial numbers or have them appraised. Or risk losing your homeowners insurance.

The Great Condom Heist
Hmm why would someone steal this many condoms:

More than 700,000 ultra-thin condoms disappeared on their way from Malaysia to Japan last week. When the freighter arrived in Japan, the condom containers were empty, and the locks had been changed. Cargo theft is relatively common in Malaysia, but why would anyone steal that many condoms? How much might the thieves get for them?

The Yahoo AoSHQ group. Bla bla bla. And don't forget about the Job Bank.

Tonight's post brought to you by varieties of Cupid:

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to maetenloch at gmail. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

posted by Maetenloch at 09:18 PM

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