NumbersGirl

And this won't help at all... Congressional Democrats seek to raise minimum wage WASHINGTON (AP) - House and Senate Democrats want to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, more than a dollar higher than President Barack Obama proposed in his State of the Union address. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and California Rep. George Miller say their bill, introduced Tuesday, would boost the minimum from its current rate of $7.25 an hour by 2015. It then calls for automatic annual increases tied to changes in the cost of living. Obama's proposal last month called for an increase to $9 an hour, but Harkin says that doesn't go far enough. The lawmakers say a hike in the minimum wage would help lift millions of workers out of poverty and boost the economy. But top Republicans have rejected the idea, saying it would hurt employers. link

I wonder if the fecal matter in the cake came from the horses that shouldn't have been the meatballs. I feel like we're beating a dead horse here. ah ha ha ha haaaaaa

Aaaaaahhhhhhh more tour dates! I kinda want to get tickets for Lolla whenever they go on sale, I have a feeling they might be there... 6th July 2013 Zenith Paris FRANCE - on sale here 9am GMT Wed 6th March 9th July 2013 Lotto Arena Antwerp BELGIUM - on sale here 9am GMT Wed 6th March 10th July 2013 Zenith Munich GERMANY -- on sale here 9am GMT Wed 6th March 12th July 2013 Pohada Festival Slovakia - CLICK HERE for info 13th July 2013 Exit Festival Serbia - CLICK HERE for info 16th July 2013 Rock in Roma Ippodromo delle Capannelle Rome ITALY - on sale here 9am GMT Wed 6th March 17th July 2013 City Sound Festival Ippodromo del Galoppo Milan ITALY - on sale here 9am GMT Wed 6th March 21st July 2013 Melt Festival Germany - CLICK HERE for info 24th July 2013 Roundhouse London UK - on sale here 9am GMT Wed 6th March 25th July 2013 Roundhouse London UK - on sale here 9am GMT Wed 6th March 26th July 2013 Roundhouse London UK - on sale here 9am GMT Wed 6th March

And of course the whole "fiscal cliff" thing is going to rear its ugly head again at the end of this month. They just kicked the can down the road when it came up a few months ago. These "cuts" (or "not increases", as Mike pointed out), need to be reigned in big time. Maybe this whole thing will be good in the long run. Although some of the cuts may seem ridiculous, if things don't end up being all doom-and-gloom, maybe it will open up their eyes and they'll realize that plenty of other things can be successfully cut.

^ The back should say, "and all I got was this lousy onesie".

Okay, this might be a stupid question, but since there aren't any other musicians onstage in that second video, where is the extra stuff (bass, etc.) coming from? Is that just being streamed from his MacBook into the sound system?

You don't have a Best Buy near you? Since my special edition thingy probably won't arrive for awhile (I ordered it from the AFP site instead of from XL), I decided to get the CD in the meantime. I found it at Best Buy, but it wasn't with the main CD section... it was on the New Releases end cap. There were plenty of copies. After a few listens, I have no problem identifying my top two: Reverse Running and Default. I suppose my next choices would be Dropped, Before Your Very Eyes, and Stuck Together Pieces. I need a few more listens to fine-tune the order though.

Horse meat found in Taco Bell beef products in Britain LONDON (AP) - Taco Bell is the latest restaurant chain to acknowledge that its food has been adulterated with horse meat, yanking a variety of ground beef products from its three British outlets and issuing an apology to its patrons Friday. Meanwhile, in Iceland, a food official said his team had found a beef product from a local producer that contained no meat at all. Chief meat inspector Kjartan Hreinsson said a brand of beef pie found at a Reykjavik supermarket had "no mammalian DNA." "That was the peculiar thing," he said. "It was labeled as beef pie, so it should be beef pie." It should be, but across Europe meat labeled as beef has been found to be contaminated with horse — from frozen food at supermarkets to fast food in restaurants and even school and hospital meals. Authorities say the fraudulent labeling poses no health risk, but the scandal has drawn attention to the complex supply chains behind processed meat products. Thousands of products have been tested, and found that contamination is relatively rare. Britain's Food Standards Agency said Friday that of more than 5,400 products tested in Britain, more than 99 percent were clear of horse. Still, a steady drumbeat of brands found to contain horse meat has kept the issue in the headlines. Taco Bell joins a long list of food providers — Nestle, Burger King, Tesco, Birds Eye, Findus and even Ikea — that have had to remove products amid horse meat revelations. British authorities said Friday that horse DNA had also been found in Birds Eye spaghetti Bolognese and beef lasagna and spicy minced beef skewers from catering company Brakes, which supplies pubs and the House of Commons Food Service. In a statement, Taco Bell owner Yum Brands Inc. said: "We apologize to our customers and take this matter very seriously as food quality is our highest priority." The company's presence in Britain is tiny compared to its profile in the United States, where it has more than 5,600 restaurants. Taco Bell stressed that its U.S. restaurants do not use meat from Europe and are not affected. Yum Brands' statement gave no further detail as to the nature of the supplier, and the company said it would not reveal the information as the matter was being investigated by Britain's Food Standards Agency. A spokesman could not immediately say how long the supplier had been providing food to Taco Bell, or how many customers were thought to have been affected. As for the Icelandic non-meat pies, Hreinsson said they appeared to have been stuffed with some sort of vegetable matter. He said the municipal authorities are investigating. link

"This video has been removed by the user." :cry: Bummer, I wanted to see it! I know. I keep expecting a motorboat.

I love the fact that she would actually point that out :dazzled:

I guess it depends on what exactly you mean by a Secret Gig. Secret as in, most people don't know about the gig itself, or secret as in the band announces they will have a gig but the secret is where it will be? For example, Coldplay had "Secret Gigs" that were announced to the public a month or two in advance. They disclosed the city, but the venue itself was a secret; the venue was announced the day of the event.

:surprised: Hopefully it will be waiting for me at my doorstep when I get home today!

Kitty trying to eat grass while it is snowing on her back. I love her little paw prints on the porch, to the right. :wacky:

My husband watched the entire 2-hour live stream announcement last night. He was in heaven. Mouth wide open, nearly drooling. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "oh wow".

I find it interesting that the majority of the people here think Default is blah and they like the rest of the stuff better. I really like Default, so hopefully I don't not like the other stuff. :uhoh: (I still haven't listened to it.)

btw, they are airing black & white versions of the episodes, starting from season 1, on Thursday nights. I think they are playing episode 3 of season 1 tonight.

maybe he will follow in daddy's footsteps (I think he's a professor?)

now that's a classic death stare + lovely smile combo

it's YOU :surprised: there's a separate AFP thread though, feel free to visit it and have joyous times

I'm going to patiently wait until the official release date to listen to it. Yip. Well, they are starting to announce tour dates. YAY

I'm also bummed that Axel got axed. I was looking forward to a Daryl/Carol/Axel love drama; that could have been an interesting storyline.

I received my Default vinyl the other day... and it's already sold out. :shocked3:

And people in the midst of rage / crime of passion only ever stab/shoot somebody once, right...

A departure... Dear Oracle, This morning when I looked in the toilet, I realized that my poo was pale yellow instead of brown. What could possibly be wrong with me? Is it temporary due to something I ate, or is there something really wrong with me and I'm about to die? Please help! Regards, Dookie Brown

When I woke up and saw this on the news this morning, I thought "wait a minute, I thought the experts said this thing wouldn't hit the earth!" *shortly afterward realizing that was the asteroid, and this is completely different* oops I can't imagine what it would have been like to witness it, not knowing exactly what it was at the time, where it would land, etc. In regard to it causing windows to break, was that because of the uber-loud sonic boom that it created, or because of the impact? Or both? It's not clear to me from the reports I've been seeing, the news just vaguely says that it caused windows to break.