Giorgia
Maria Callas
Angela Gheorghiu
Faith Hill

The Andy Griffith Show

Little House on the Prairie

Doctor Who

Battlestar Galactica (old & new)

The Sopranos

Seinfeld

Southpark

The Twilight Zone

Cheers

Gilligan's Island

The Tartars - the original inhabits of the region before Stalin brutally displaced them and transplanted ethnic Russians there - want nothing to do with the Russian Federation. They boycotted the referendum; however, as they are now only a small minority in their own homeland, their actions are only symbolic.

Although the Crimea is important to the Russians for the naval ports, Russia's big picture goal is eastern Ukraine for its industrial and manufacturing capacity. Expect to see "self-defense" forces popping up in eastern Ukraine shortly.

The West won't respond to the referendum with military force. It will be all-out economic warfare. And, in response, Russia will probably shut of the flow of oil and gas to Europe. It should be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out in the next year.

In the mid 1970's the United States attempted to convert to metric. It was a miserable, miserable failure. As an elementary school student at the time, I remember schools replacing all rulers with new metric rulers. I also remember being subjected to some terrible "edu-tainment" videos produced by Canadian television, featuring a the superhero "Metric Man" who battled the arch-villain "Inch Worm." I think the whole failed metric conversion experiment is the whole reason for my utter hatred of Canadians.

I enjoyed the show immensely. It did some good fan service but also told a compelling story that will set the stage for the upcoming season.

Regarding the McGann-to-Hurt transition, I think Moffitt made it a little cloudy as to whether it was a true regeneration, based upon what happened in "The Night of the Doctor." Technically, Doctor #8 died.

Regarding the sonic screwdriver, I thought the TARDIS made 11 a new one.

Although I did enjoy the show, I also think SM needs to come up with some new plot ideas. Most of the show's plot was really just a mash-up of past SM stories and plot devices.

I'm underwhelmed. Pages load slow as maple syrup and the videos don't seem to be loading at all. I'll give it a week to see if they can work out the kinks.

The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov.  I also just finished reading Obama's Wars, by Bob Woodward, and Shogun, by James Clavell.

Absolutely love opera.  Puccini operas are always my favorites.

Nessun Dorma

Vissi d'arte

O mio babbino caro

Signore ascolta

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

god damn you are stupid

liberalus

Prior to the economic meltdown, many, many financially unstable people who should not have received home loans got them.  Goldman Sachs, like many other brokerage houses, began to securitize mortages in a big way and selling these mortage-backed securities to institutional investors.  However, as certain emails from Goldman trader Fabrice "Fabulous Fab" Tourre revealed, Goldman knew these investments were terrible but sold them as grade A investments anyway.  Goldman and others also would sell the mortage-backed securities to one customer while taking a short position on them for another customer.  This is not illegal per se, but the lack of disclosure makes Goldman out as unethical.

Goldman Sachs as a firm settled with government regulators but did not admit liability.  Goldman trader Fabrice did not settle, tried to defend against the SEC charges, and was found liable for fraud.

Although Goldman Sachs played a major role in precipating the crisis, it should not bear the full burden of guilt.  That being said, Goldman Sachs has always been tainted with sleaze.  I understand what Goldman Sachs does, but I don't respect the firm.  My personal opinion.