M O

So, we have this Dodge Neon that has been in several accidents. The last accident was about 2 years ago, and involved another car "t-boning" the Neon in the side of the hood area and the door. Ever since then, we have replaced motor mounts at least 3 times after extreme engine vibration, and its happening one again just a couple months after the last replacement. From reading around on the net, it seems like maybe there is damage to the frame that wasnt repaired correctly, and is leading to the mounts breaking continuously. I'm not sure if thats the case, and I could use advice on that as well, but my main question is, if it needs further frame repair, what kind of dollar am I expecting, and is there any real guarantee that it will actually solve the problem? This car is only worth like $3,000 and Im not sure its just not just better to push the problem off on someone else.

Nick Hanauer, billionaire, explains how the rich create nothing, and demand completely fuels job creation

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-07/raise-...

What say you trickle downers?

I recently asked a question in the geneaology board, and the only real reply I got was a bunch of people attacking the usage of nationality in the context of my question, but only one real answer, which also suggested I ask it on the sociology board.

So I will pose this question here.

I used the example of the Dutch Republic (1581-1795), and there are many examples through history, but probably the best example is the US.

We still have people who have been in the USA for 4 or 5 generations or more, that refer to themselves as "Italian" or "Greek".

My question is, Greece and Italy were something before Greece and Italy. I mean we dont have people running around calling themselves Athenian or Roman. So at some point, those families went from "Roman" to "Italian".

What point is it that a person or family changes in to something else? I mean, at what point will the majority of people in America call themselves "American" rather then "German" or "French".

The one actual answer I got on the genealogy board suggested it takes about 5 generations to completely change in to a new culture. This would probably mesh well with the fact that an increasing number of people seem to be identifying their cultural heritage as "American" rather then some older country. Opinions?

I had a discussion with my dad not too long ago, and he made the argument that, the Dutch Republic, which was established at the height of Dutch power and influence, and when many of the Dutch immigrants left, that went on to the US and other places, was actually carved from other areas, so, those people that came from the "Dutch Republic" were actually German or French, or whatever they got carved from.

That argument can be made for every country though. So, my question is, at what point do you stop being what you used to be, and start being what you are now. For instance, when do people stop saying Im "Italian", even though they've been here 5 generations, and start saying they are "American". When does that line cross? When did the people in "Italy" even become Italian so that they could call themselves Italian when they came to the US?

So, Im playing "Sweet Child O' Mine" (12 fret index to 15th fret), and I notice a ton of extra noise. It seems basically every fret I push down on the lower end of the board plays an additional note when I let it up. I dont know if the string is sticking to the metal frets, my fingers, the strings themselves are tense enough to sound just from letting a fretted string back up, or what, but its annoying me, and I cant figure out how to fix it. I have all the picks down, but I cant play it without all of this additional background noise which completely ruins the song.

Any advice?

I caught a piece of the Brent Spence Bridge speech Obama made, and I took HUGE issue with this

"There are private construction companies all across America just waiting to get to work...."

This is precisely why Obamas job plans havent really done what they were expected to do to this point. Why are we filtering money through private industry? Those companies will push existing workers to the max, hire almost nobody, and pocket an overwhelming amount of the cash. What we need are FEDERAL WORK CREWS who will receive nearly every dollar invested in federal highway programs in their paychecks.

This is the mistake Obama continues to make. Throwing money at private companies who are doing nothing but hoarding it is not doing anything for jobs or the economy.

Thoughts?

I have a very cheap Barcelona acoustic Im learning on, but I can already tell Im going to need a significant upgrade. The guitar I want to get needs to have better string spacing and a thicker neck then the one I have. Reason being, no matter how I position my hand, my bigger fingers seem to always end up interfering with strings under them. Not really a problem on the strum, but it becomes a problem on picking such as the intro to Redemption song where it goes closed E, open A, closed A. My closed E finger is so thick that it just barely clips the A but flattens out the vibration big time, either that, or I have to keep my E up a little so it doesnt push the string all the way down, which leaves E with an awful sound.

So, Im reading around, and I read that the Seagull S-6 is a commonly used with positive results amongst people with this issue. From looking at pictures, it looks like the strings are spaced just enough further apart for me to use it positively as well. Plus its a beautiful guitar and gets rave reviews constantly.

Anyone have one of these, have the "big finger" problem, and seen improvement with this?

Ive been picking my brain apart trying to do this, and Im not even sure if its possible, but I figured Id throw it out there because Im spinning my wheels at this point.

What I have is a table, it has many columns, but Im concerned with two. These two categories have a parent child relationship. Lets say, one row says fruit or vegetable, and the second says tomato, apple, orange, lemon, cabbage, where obviously apple, tomato, orange and lemon follow the parent of fruit, and cabbage follows the parent of vegetable.

What I want the pivot to do is display in a column, the parent, and then all instances of the child under the parent. In other words, if the whole pivot started in A1, and the first column started in A2, I would want "Fruit" in A2, "Vegetable" in B2, and starting in A3 and extending down the column of A, every instance of the child of fruit, and starting in B3, and down column B every instance of the child of vegetable.

The closest I can come is either creating a matrix with the parent on one axis and the child on the other, or I can create a "sub" sort of set up, where the children are displayed starting down and right one cell.

I absolutely need these directly under eachother, because I am trying to build a validation table that automatically updates from that pivot table.

In other words, on the raw data sheet, a person can type in a parent and a child, say, ball, and basketball, and the pivot would read that relationship, put it in the matrix, and my validation table will be able to pick that up on what I imagine is a cell reference. From there, my validation table relationships would make it so, now, on the raw data page, the new parent and child will be populated in the drop down menu.

Im confident I can make the rest of this work, Im just lost on how to get the pivot to display in that format.

Thanks.

Every time a I installed a new expansion pack on the Sims, it always has a "different file save type". Most times I dont care because I hadnt spent much time doing anything, but this time, I have a house and family I worked considerably hard on, and my g/f has a number of families in the neighborhood that she has spent a whole lot of time working on. So, is it possible I can still use these families and houses if I put on Apartment Life? Im currently using Pets.

So here is the dilemma

Within the last month, my cars gas mileage has dropped from about 19-22 city, to about 8-10mpg city. The car is a 2000 Hyundai Elantra GLS Automatic.

The following things have been checked/and or are brand new in the past 2 months

- Fuel filter (new)

- oil filter (new)

- Plugs and wires (new)

- o2 sensor (checked in the last couple days)

- catalytic converter (checked in the last couple days)

- oil (new)

- transmission fluid (new)

My mechanic is stumped, and went so far as to suggest that someone might be stealing my gas, however, I have been in my car for 100% of the time and watched 20 miles of city driving suck out a quarter of a tank of gas.

I do not drive with the heat or defog on, and I do not push the engine past 3000 rpms, nor do I ever go over 50, and rarely over 45 mph. My tires are likely a little low, but that doesnt explain a loss of about 10-12 mpg.

Im trying to find whatever I can to suggest to my mechanic, because if the problem cant be found and fixed, its going to force me to get a new car because I cant afford to fill this car up 7 or 8 times a month, especially if gas prices go back up.

I have a 2000 Hyundai Elantra GLS sedan.

Problem is, Im getting about 8-12 mpg city (should be around 21). I dont know if this is related, but I also cannot crack 3000 RPM's (not that I normally would try to, but I noticed a fall off in engine power, and I wanted to test it out) even when flooring the gas, it just doesnt accelerate fast enough.

The wires and plugs are less then 2 months old, and the air filter was just changed, and there is less then 1,000 miles on the new oil and transmission fluid.

What could be the problem?

I already took it to a mechanic who didnt see anything visibly wrong except the filter was partly clogged, but changing that did not solve the problem.

It is true that electing some one of African American lineage was a major barrier the US has overcome, but for some reason, Im not overly impressed. I couldnt help but think, what if he were an atheist, or muslim? What if he were homosexual? What if Obama were poor, or didnt graduate from a top college? Would he even get to the Senate? Even be considered for the office of president?

I think this election has concentrated a whole lot of attention on race unity, but is that the biggest social divider? For what its worth, I think some one of a religion that is non christian, some one who is not monetarily successful, or a homosexual would probably face far greater barriers then a person of a minority race. When we start electing people from these categories without stigma, then we truely have come together in my opinion.

Thoughts?

So, I have a bachelors degree in Business Management-Finance, and Ive been an accountant for almost 3 years, and I have almost 2 years of experience as an operations analyst before that.

Heres the problem, Im tired of accounting. It doesnt interest me, and quite frankly, Im tired of the low pay, long hours, and zero respect. Being "support staff" is not my cup of tea. Im tired of the raises, bonuses, respect, and decision capability going to sales and operations people, while I work countless hours preparing the data, financials and reports they use to make those decisions.

So, my question is, has anyone successfully ditched the dark room number crunching job for something in operations management without having to start at the bottom? How did you do it?

So, 80% of people picked Arizona to win, including most every "expert", and Minnesota laid them out. So, who is going to go ahead and pick Atlanta next week?

According to this recent article

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081210/sc_li...

Men who spend more money, and make themselves appear more wealthy then they are, have more partners then those who are more financially conservative.

So what does that mean to you? This seems to say that this strategy of "flash" is very successful in attracting partners......so does this mean that women, in general, are in fact, gold diggers, and are in fact more attracted to wealth and status then any other possible attribute? Thoughts?

Minnesota has now won 5 of their last 6 games, yet on a weekly basis, they are still constantly a popular pick to be upset by scrub teams. For instance, they blew out Jacksonville, and Chicago, and were picked my many to lose those two, even though Minnesota is a superior team to them both, and even this week in Detroit, there was about 15 posts on here proclaiming the Vikings were the only team that the Lions have a shot at beating, dispite playing GB, a clearly inferior team to the Vikings, and the Saints at home, who are 16 and 20th in total defense, and the Saints are 24th against the pass.

I have a question for very experienced mechanics.

Is there any possible way for perfect transmission fluid to become a sticky mess within a couple months, without coolant leaking in?

I ask this because, two months ago, my transmission fluid was clean (it was checked when I took it in for brake work), and then just recently, I took it in and the same place which stated that it was now dirty, but not burnt.

I took it to a second mechanic, who said that there was definatley something else in the transmission fluid, but he suspected that it might be a foreign liquid, such as brake fluid or motor oil, because he has never seen tranmission fluid in that texture or color.

My coolant was not low, which didnt suggest a leak, and I imagine the mechanic probably would have recognized the color/texture of coolant mixed in, since its a fairly common problem from my understanding.

I suspect that the first shop put something in my fluid to make it appear dirty, and figured I would just let them do the work without questioning it.

Would that be the most likely answer, or is there something else that could be wrong that two shops missed, and Im missing as well?

I have a number of different peppers (bell, jalapeno, hungarian wax) planted. The problem is, every day I come home from work, or wake up in the morning, many of the stems are partially snapped off from the plants. It appears as if something is knawing in to the stems. This happens any where from a couple centimeters to about 2 inches from the ends of the stems. Many times, there are several pepper buds on these broken stems, and its ticking me off. At this rate, I wont produce a single pepper. Please help!

I just read an article quoting Bush as saying "it was unacceptable to attack a sovereign nation" (in reference to Georgia). Why exactly was it acceptable for Bush to attack Iraq, a sovereign nation?

Every one likes to cry about how much the media is on Obama, but come on here at any given minute, and you find nothing but anti Obama spam. Im guessing its probably an economic thing (a huge amount of Obama supporters are in poverty or are minorities, both of which have disproportionate access to the web), but Id like others opinions on the matter.