So recently PETA sent a letter to Ben and Jerry’s recommending they replace the use of cow’s milk with breast milk from humans. Yes, you heard right, HUMAN milk….in ice cream. What’s wrong with these people?? PETA comdemns the way cows are treated throughout the milking process. They claim humans are the only “species” that drinks the milk of another species. Thus, they are recommending the replacement of cow’s milk with human breast milk…one step at a time. Their choice for ice cream as the first step boggles my mind. These people are so fanatical they have completely lost perspective on life. Even their own followers acknowledge the craziness of this idea on the PETA blog. This has got to be the stupidest idea i’ve ever heard. What are they going to do? Recommend impregnating women and lining them up in a milking assembly line? What about the babies that will now not get crucial breast milk for growth? What’s sad is that I don’t think this is stupidity and accidental ommission of common sense. I think the people actually care more about animals than people. Dare I ask what their next recommendation will be?
As a major symptom of a weak economy, Washington Mutual bank makes history as the largest bank failure in history. It’s said that one of the final fatal blows to the bank was over 18 billion dollars in withdrawals the day before as people pulled their money out in a panic. As a last minute save, JPMorgan came in and snatched up WaMu for a bargain at $1.8 billion.
As a result, my bank is now JP Morgan Chase. Here’s the message I received when I first logged in today:
WaMu Customers, welcome to JPMorgan Chase!
We’re proud to welcome you to one of the nation’s largest banks.
As of September 25, 2008, all WaMu customer deposits are now deposits of JPMorgan Chase, one of the strongest financial institutions in the world.
WaMu customer deposits — including checking accounts, savings accounts and certificates of deposit — remain insured by the FDIC and are now also backed by the strength and security of JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase has more than $2 trillion in assets and is America’s #1 bank in deposits.
Our combined company will offer superior banking convenience — over 5,400 branches and 14,000 ATMs in 23 states.
As you an imagine, this is a great opportunity for highly liquid banks to aquire struggling banks at a fraction of their market price. And that is exactly what’s happening. We’ve got CitiCorp and Wells Fargo fighting for the carcass of Wachovia while Mitsubishi bank, the world’s largest bank, purchasing a 20% share of JPMorgan Chase.
As of late I’ve been researching BD players (again) and going down the “PS3 or X/Y/Z standalone player?” road. A year ago the no-IR problem really irked me so I stopped looking at the PS3 since my whole home theater is controlled via Harmony. This week I started researching the PS3 in depth again and found a few reliable IR solutions for those with universal remotes. Coupled with the latest firmware, you can now do pretty much everything but turn the unit on from a $20 IR USB receiver. What led me back to the PS3 was that standalone BD players are STILL overpriced and under-equipped. I have a 1.5 year old AV receiver that does not decode DTS-HD, DTS-MA, DD True-HD. Finding a standalone BD player that decodes and sends it via LPCM is still an expensive proposition. Only a few do it and they are all ~$600 – $1500. After all this time, the PS3 is still the smartest choice for a BD player on the wallet. It’s also the most future proof. It would suck to have been one of the guys that pent $600 of a BD player only to now have to buy a new one to support BD Live. All these future features are only a firmware update away on the PS3 – even new sound codecs can be added via firmware since it decodes and sends them via PCM.
The way I look at it, for the price, the PS3 is the best BD player around that also gives you a free gaming console.