The Beloit College Mindset List was published today in an attempt to “provide a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college.”  Kids entering college this fall were most likely born in 1990 and:

Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative–or known about a friend’s relative–who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been “Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

Sourced from The Beloit College Mindset List.

Just when you thought he couldn’t do any more damage before he left office, the Bush administration proposes to weaken the Endangered Species act.  Faster than you can say “fox guarding the hen house,” they propose:

“The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.”

And their press office speaks such lovely Orwellian language as:

“We need to focus our efforts where they will do the most good,” Kempthorne said in a news conference organized quickly after AP reported details of the proposal. “It is important to use our time and resources to protect the most vulnerable species. It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species.”

Of course melting ice has nothing to do with global temperature.  Nor does the decrease in coral reefs have anything to do with warming seas.

And did you know this interesting fact?  In the US, we are required to blend 9 billion gallons of ethanol into the fuel supply every year.  To make this much ethanol requires 1/3 of all corn grown in the US.   By 2015, this requirement will jump to 15 billion gallons.  If corn production remains the same, we will then be using 55 percent of the US corn supply for fuel.  Never mind that corn has been driving up food prices globally and domestically.   This is for “energy security.” [source]

I have always sucked at chess because I get too damn excited and can never think through the moves.  When I play against the easiest computer chess program it whoops my pretty little white ass because it thinks ahead two moves.  There is one particular real-life individual, in fact, who I want to smear all over the checkered squares.  But, alas, I have all but once had my king toppled by him.  This is my goal, to gloat over him in victory.

So I have been practicing.

I have been playing computer chess (and losing) and have been studying with the oral lessons that come along with it (and wondering how people can keep so many moves in their heads at once).  And I have been playing online chess (and losing more).  What the hell was I doing wrong?

Today I looked at a few standard chess openings in between visits to clients.  I know zero about chess openings.  But I realized I used the same damn opening every time, and every time my pieces get stuck in untenable positions.  I would lose because I couldn’t move, and my opponent could.  Tonight, I played online chess against a player who was rated more than 200 points above me.  I used one of the openings I learned today.  Some kind of gambit.  He fell for it.  It left his pawn structure weak.  I worked him down to two rooks and a few paws, and I had a bishop, two rooks.  At this point he offered a draw.  I took it.  Perhaps I could have mated him.  I wasn’t sure.  My end game is still weak.  But it sure felt damn good not to LOSE for a change.  Maybe I just got lucky.  Maybe I’m improving.  Time shall tell.  I will let you know.

The Federal Minimum Wage rises today to $6.55.  That means that someone who works a 40 hour week will take home $262, or a grand whopping total of $13,624 a year.  And this huge sum before taxes and assuming that one does not take any days off for vacation.  God bless America.