Didn't the people of Alaska hire you to do a job for them?

I wrote the above on facebook and several people were inspired to inform me that she has 2012 ambitions. Uhm, I get that. What I am trying to say is this:

Your personal fucking career aspirations don't trump the commitments you already made to serve your boss.

Oh yeah, it's probably easier to criticize big gov't spending when you aren't cashing the checks yourself, too. Enjoy private life. I'll keep trying to decipher what the hell you cited as a reason for leaving.

I couldn't even begin to get my head around the coverage of the Rihanna/Chris Brown beating, photos, police report, and alleged reconcillation. Fortunately, Mad Lux stepped in with some wisdom from the Yes Means Yes Blog.

What it doesn’t mean.

So, reports are everywhere that Chris Brown and Rihanna are getting back together, or at the very least spent the weekend together at Diddy’s mansion in Miami.

Who knows what’s true about these rumors? Hardly anyone. But for argument’s sake, and because many people are already assuming this is true, let’s discuss what it doesn’t mean if Rihanna takes Chris back:

1. It doesn’t mean she is stupid. Leaving an abusive partner is hard - really, really hard. Some studies have shown that it takes an average woman 4-7 tries before she can leave her abuser for good. Why? Because abusers aren’t transparent assholes all of the time. They can be very manipulative, and most of the time will wear down their partner’s self-esteem quite thoroughly long before they start with the physical violence. They’re also often charming and can be very loving and doting and romantic when they’re not being violent. They can talk real pretty about what they’ve learned, how sorry they are, how they’re going to change, how they can’t change without the help of their wo/man. And of course, we want to believe that we haven’t been so blind in choosing a partner for ourselves. We want to believe we can help. We want to believe that the good in them outweighs the bad. It’s a hard, hard situation. This is a good post about all of these dynamics.

2. It doesn’t mean we should forgive him. Because of all this, even if she does take him back, even if they seem happier than ever together, we shouldn’t forget. We shouldn’t shame her for her choices - when we think we can tell a woman what she should do, we’re not much better than a controlling boyfriend ourselves. But we can still call for justice to be served. He can still be prosecuted even if she doesn’t press charges. We can also continue to hold the media accountable for what they say about this case, to ensure that blame is placed on the proper party - the abuser.

3. It doesn’t mean what he’s alleged to have done is any less horrible. Again, see above. There are a lot of psychological reasons that victims take their abusers back. It doesn’t mean the abuse was any kind of “no big deal.” In fact, it often means it’s an even bigger deal than we thought, and involves psychological abuse as well, which leaves a victim vulnerable when the abuser comes back and tries to make nice.

4. It doesn’t mean she has betrayed any kind of sisterhood. OK, let’s get real clear on this one. Rihanna did not sign up to be any kind of spokesmodel for dating violence. The fact that we even know it was Rihanna is due to her name, and then her photo, being leaked and exploited. Rihanna is a young woman in a really hard situation, trying to figure it out the best she can. She owes us nothing. Her decisions are hers to make, and none of us know what we would do in her shoes - even if we have been through similar things, we haven’t been through her actual life. If we start judging her or blaming her for being a bad role model, the sisterhood has failed her, not the other way around. Got it?

5. It doesn’t mean that if he hurts her again, she deserves it. See number 1 - she is likely in a psychological state that’s hard to understand from the outside. There may seem to her to be a million reasons for her to take him back. Not one of them means that she deserves to be hurt again. No one deserves to be beaten or abused. Ever. By anyone. Period.

If bankruptcy means being out of cash and unable to meet your obligations, well, then the Big 3 auto makers have admitted they are there, right?

Ford, GM, and Crysler are burdended with
- pension debt that few of their international competitiors face
- a bloated dealership system that served the country well decades ago but is now competive deadweight
- UAW contracts that render impossible any of the urgent, agile change required RIGHT NOW (like plant retooling)

Bankruptcy provides the means to deal with all of these issues immediately.

BUT, who would buy a car from a bankrupt auto maker? US airlines have emerged admirably from bankruptcy. However, I'm the first to admit that I was able to ride out Delta's bankruptcy (with my 100,000 frequent flyer miles) after watching United and others go through it first. Does a frequent flyer program really compare to your car warranty and service infrastructure? I think not.

So, restructuring is desperately needed, but do we need to package it as something other than bankruptcy? Or do we all just get over it?

For the record, I am more interested in my free Dr. Pepper than I am in owning the album.

For those keeping score, theshapka and helpimarock tied for first place in notifying me about this latest newsflash from Axl and his merry men. Hillary (theshapka) also provided helpful instructions:

Dr Pepper is ready to give out free soda coupons to every American when the album releases on Nov. 23, 2008. If you're out to get a free Dr Pepper just follow these simple steps:

HOW TO GET YOUR FREE DR PEPPER

1. On the Nov. 23, 2008 release date, go to www.drpepper.com

2. Register your information to receive a coupon for one free 20-oz. Dr Pepper.

3. When your coupon arrives, redeem it wherever Dr Pepper is sold.

4. Drink your Dr Pepper slowly to experience all 23 flavors. Dr's orders.

Coupons will be available for 24 hours, starting at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 23, 2008. Allow 4-6 weeks for coupon to arrive. Coupons will expire on Feb. 28, 2009. Limit one coupon per person. Full terms and conditions available at www.drpepper.com

Courtesy of theshapka, I bring you Scroogle, a web service that disguises the Internet address of users who want to run Google searches anonymously.

Google Watcher Daniel Brandt designed the tool to filter searches through his servers before going to Google. Brandt explains,

Not only does Google scrape much of the web, but they keep records of who searches for what. If information about your searching is accessible by cookie ID or by your IP address, it is subject to subpoena. This is a violation of your privacy. Someday Google's data retention practices will be regulated, because Google is too arrogant to do the right thing voluntarily. In the meantime, you should not be leaving your fingerprints in Google's databases.

For anyone concerned about employer monitoring or service provider profiling, Scroogle also offers SSL encryption for all communication between their computer and the search page.

Google quite literally sold out to China, and that's a really, really good reason not to let them fulfill their publicly stated goal of knowing everything there is to know on Earth. No entity should have power.

"Our goal should be, in 10 year's time, we are free of dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

And we can do it. Now, when JFK said we're going to the Moon in 10 years, nobody was sure how to do it, but we understood that, if the American people make a decision to do something, it gets done."

"When I hear President George W. Bush say the government's measures require putting a significant amount of taxpayers' money on the line, and that it entails risk but they expect it'll eventually be paid back, I fear I do have fear.

"Perhaps now, when our trust in him is so important, Bush wishes he hadn't been so abusive of it before."

-- Paula Poundstone on NPR's Morning Edition

I was walking into work and I saw a flash of buzzing wings and felt a tickle as it hit the back of my throat.

I paused, leaned over, hacked, and only a teaspoon of spit came up.

I can still feel it tickling.

Have I mentioned lately that I am really excited to be alive right now? I've been listening to NPR and the BBC nearly non-stop for the last week, riveted by the international debate on America's financial meltdown. Armchair economist LaGizma much prefers dialog between our senators and representatives to overly detailed coverage of a silly horserace. I am energized and excited by Speaker Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid, Senator Chris Dodd, Senator Richard Shelby, Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Mike Enzi, and others.

(Speaking of which, the publicity stunt of the senator who decided to suspend his campaign failed. The American public is smart enough to realize that the two of you have missed so many votes you aren't on any of the relevant committees to influence this process. The candidates should be at the debate, and the public should be watching the debate, and no one should read another poll as long as they shall live.)

The shrubjr administration scribbled a three-page draft of a blank check and demanded that congress rubber stamp it. They've done such a good job running the country the last 8 years that we should definitely hand over "non-reviewable" powers and remove checks and balances, right?

Mid-week, I heard a journalist talk about how he sought out economists with different viewpoints for his coverage. Guess what? He couldn't find a single one who viewed the shrubjr proposal positively!!

"Obviously, there will be differences over some details, and we will have to work through them," Bush said, but "the whole world is watching to see if we can act quickly to shore up our markets and prevent damage to our capital markets, businesses, our housing sector, and retirement accounts.

"Failure to act would have broad consequences far beyond Wall Street. It would threaten small business owners and homeowners on Main Street."

Could the man get any LESS leader-like in his speeches? He just told Congress to go fucking solve the problem already. Good work.

As much as crackedmyself and I both love Dan Savage, as she points out, he's wrong about Sarah Palin's support of abstinence education.

"I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues," Palin said during a debate in Juneau.

crackedmyself also reminds us, "however, the argument that she appreciates her daughter making a choice when she herself wants to remove the option for other women is spot on."

Excuse me, but if abstinence education can't keep the daughter of the evangelical governor of Alaska off the cock, what hope is there for the daughters—and some of the sons—of average Americans?
--Dan Savage

09/09: Dragons, I slays them.


08/19: Nothing to see here, humans. Just tape up the box and send it to Antarctica.

"Sensationalistic, emotional issues serve as a distraction from the real, important issues that are being approved without our knowledge or consent. It's been that way for decades, possibly centuries."
-- blozor

Drainage is a huge problem in the desert. When our street gutters get backed up, I usually shovel them out for me and the two houses to the south, so the water will keep flowing past my house.

Yesterday, as I slaved in the gutter, neighbor Henry pointed out that the gutter mess is raw sewage. We traced it up to a house north of us.

I am on my fourth, YES, FOURTH government agency and NO ONE appears to cover environmental health in my rural, unincorporated area of Kern County.

I'll head back to pleading on the phone...

Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime.
-- Michael Mukasey, 81st Attorney General of the United States, member of the Bush Administration

Jeff and I drove around the desert last night selecting my fantasy properties on which to have wind power and live with as many cats as I want.

Giz: Why was Jesus wandering around the desert anyway?
Jeff: He was fasting for 40 days and 40 nights after he was baptized. It was a trial of strength.
Giz: That seems kind of stupid.
Jeff: Well, they tell it better in the book.

I'm only halfway through decoupaging my laundry room door, but I decided to start researching two new projects.

(1) Installing solar panels, which I seem to remember runs about $30,000, is done with a home equity loan, and pays for itself in 10 years. My electricity bill is over $400 in the summer but I get rebates because I have an AC regulator, bringing it down to $200-300 a month.
(2) Xeriscaping my yard. I talked to tt about it and he was iffy on me just turning my water off, so I ordered some books from the library. I don't have any money but I want to start a five-year plan to get rid of my lawn.

A week ago, I was driving home from Dr. Wittenberg's after declaring myself cured (I'm cured every few months and a New and Improved Jessica appears) and I started thinking about lawns.

• Lawns were invented in England where the grass friggin' grows naturally and native plants are used.
• You Can. Not. have a lawn out here without an in-ground automatic sprinkler system. Period. People stress if their houses are in escrow too long because the lawn will die forever if you don't water it at least every other day.
• In the desert, we have to plant this super-hardy bristly grass that can survive our direct sun and heat. You have to live here 20 years to own a tree that provides any shade. Shade grass is soft and invites lovemaking. Desert lawn grass pokes you and gives you rashes from the tumbleweeds that sprout in it.
• I am deathly allergic to the tumbleweed sprouts yet I manically pick them to get them out of my lawn. I have to cover myself head to toe (pants, long sleeves, etc.) to do anything in the yard so that I don't die by itching. I have to cover myself in this manner whether it is 60 deg out or 112 deg out. I have to hop in the shower and scrub down as soon as I have come in contact with the lawn.
• Jeff gets sick from the exhaust and grass particles whenever he mows the grass.
• I pay about $90/month for water in the summer months because of my grass. Why did we import an English country tradition to the freakin' Mojave desert????

At that moment, I declared I wasn't watering my front lawn for another second. I turned the sprinklers off and it's mostly dead after a week. I can't think of any reason I would regret this decision. Can you? I am so happy to kill my lawn. I'm going to a class on killing your lawn next weekend and Jeff and tt pointed out a great place to shop for native plants.

Jeff is making a xeriscape plan and drawing up rock layouts for the front. We're keeping the backyard for the cats, but I also eventually want to rip out the grass in half of it.

DEATH TO LAWNS!!

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, a review rejected by the Hipster Book Club! (For cogent reasons pertaining to the subject matter.)

If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer
By: The Goldman Family (Author), Pablo F. Fenjves (Foreword), Dominick Dunne (Afterword)



O.J. Simpson’s 2007 hypothetical murder confession is worth your attention, not as a confession, but as a glimpse inside the man who is O.J. Simpson, the celebrity who flaunted getting away with murder. If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer provides a new perspective on the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. As published, this book is truly the story of the Goldman family. The family wrote the forward, explaining their reasons for publishing the manuscript; the afterword was written by renowned crime journalist and close Goldman family friend Dominick Dunne. The eight-chapter story of the Brown-Simpson marriage and year preceding Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman’s murders constitutes the bulk of this text, but that narrative is best read in the context provided by this publication.

Simpson’s version of events places blame on Nicole Brown Simpson, who is portrayed herein as an emotionally unstable drug addict. He describes the two famous 911 calls during their seventeen-year marriage as isolated incidents for which both parties were responsible. He adamantly denies being an abuser; in Simpson’s portrayal of the marriage, he is the stable, responsible one who reacted to Nicole’s mood swings. A classic wife abuser, Simpson blames the victim, an unstable woman who drove him to extremes. The pair separated two years before the murders but had been in reconciliation discussions for the last year. By Simpson’s description, Nicole was prone to violent mood swings and changed her mind about reconciliation on a daily basis.

Co-author Pablo Fenjves, a Brentwood neighbor of O.J. Simpson and witness at the murder trial, interviewed Simpson over a matter of weeks to ghostwrite the confession. The sports star was forthcoming about his marital troubles and opinions on Nicole’s cocaine-using friends, but froze when it came to the material for “Chapter 6: The Night in Question.” Fenjves claims that Simpson wanted to exclude that material from the book, despite the fact that Simpson’s handlers had promised publisher Judith Regan that this would be a confession in every manner. When the project came to light, Simpson attempted to distance himself from the actual confession, but Fenjves is adamant that he has included only the words and sentiments of the man himself, and Simpson did sign off on the final manuscript.

( O.J. Simpson’s hypothetical confession to the Simpson-Goldman murders reveals details that only the killer could know... )

Brought to you by blozor:

On March 28th, Rikki Rockett was arrested on suspicion of rape in Los Angeles after getting off a flight from New Zealand. According to police reports, a woman in Neshoba County, MS, filed a report stating that on September 23, 2007, Rockett sexually assaulted her in his room at the Silver Star Hotel & Casino located on a Choctaw Indian reservation. Rockett was exonerated of all charges on May 22, as it was discovered that he was not in Mississippi during the time of the alleged rape, and that a man by the name of John Minskoff used Rockett's name when he met the woman before raping her.

Love, His Stage Mom

As always, Madeleine is here to bring pregnancy conversation to the table:

As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year.

Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town. School officials started looking into the matter as early as October after an unusual number of girls began filing into the school clinic to find out if they were pregnant. By May, several students had returned multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and on hearing the results, "some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Sullivan says. All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Then the story got worse. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," the principal says, shaking his head.

eh_notsomuch and bart_calendar were also on top of this news item.

Go Bush Administration!! Your $1 billion for abstinence-only education finally has some tangible results. Know what would be really sweet? If you could do this to the rest of the world, too.

Giz: *scanning the yahoo! main page headlines*
Giz: New Guns N' Roses Tracks Leaked Online...??
Giz: *turns to Jeff*
Giz: As in...
Giz: Ready. Go.
Jeff: I've already got SoulSeek loading.

"The world is a happier place today because I know that you and I could get married if we really wanted to. Go California!"
-- antarcticlust

Yes, dlux is freakin' sending me and Madeleine Axl videos off YouTube. Here, he kicks a fan out of a concert. Because he's Axl.

(+) As I sped south at 90 mph through the grapevine at 6 AM Sunday morning, I came upon a cop around a bend. I braked and passed her at 80 mph. She never pulled out to give me a ticket.

(+) First and second gear stopped working in my car last week. I left it in the driveway hoping that they would return on their own. Everyone at work laughed at me and told me my four-year-old not-even-fucking-paid-off Civic needed a new transmission. I drove it in third gear to the mechanic, rolling through stop signs and traveling in the early morning to avoid traffic. It turned out to be a broken pin in the linkage between the stick shift and the transmission and the repair only cost $45.

(+) Today the Constitution was upheld and my degree of shame at being American has lessened.

Our basic charter cannot be contracted away like this. The Constitution grants Congress and the President the power to acquire, dispose of, and govern territory, not the power to decide when and where its terms apply.

The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law. The Framers decided that habeas corpus, a right of first importance, must be a part of that framework, a part of that law.

We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.
-- Carlos Castaneda

Trader Vics is now a swanky poolside lounge with $14 cocktails, rather than the cheesy tiki bar with $14 cocktails that it used to be.
schmecky's recent Beverly Hills restaurant review

“Some have suggested our new sound will be influenced by the current popular music trends. Our fans will be pleased to know that it’s still 1989 to us: Bush is president, the Middle East is a boiling cauldron of chaos and violence, and the economy’s about to go in the shitter. Our new songs will have the same mediocre, innocuous, and ultra-Caucasian qualities that previously endeared us to so many.”
-- Jordan Knight in a satiric piece forward to me by dlux

I mean, there's a freakin SQL tab in the filter dialog. That's intense. I don't know how I could be so wrong about Outlook's capabilities. I've never enjoyed being this wrong this much.
-- Jeff now endorses Microsoft Outlook

Water with lemon isn't an official party stance; it is more of a soft bloc.
--dlux and halux responding to my question about the family restaurant drink of choice

"I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you."
--Roger Ebert's review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as quoted by brdgt

This is what our backyard would look like if we didn't pursue the American dream of reshaping the natural landscape into an even green lawn:



( This is what lives in the natural landscape of Rosamond, CA, at 40th St. West north of Rosamond Blvd., to be exact ... )

Agrippina's new mood is very much

my independence let me show you it

So I love Pixie more now:

Her job is to stretch three hours of work into a full eight hours. She shelves books, works through sections of boring gov docs ensuring the collection is in order on the shelf, and prepares newly arrived books to join the SU collection.

On Friday, she was putting alarm strips in books. She managed to lose one alarm strip and couldn't find it no matter how hard she looked. Ahh, well.

It turned out that she had slipped it inside her copy of Slash. She figured this out when she left the library and set off a series of alarms.

You know how sex offenders have to stay so many feet away from places where children gather?

There should be a similar law that Carlos Mencia promos can't be played within 15 seconds of any other show.

Stage Mom LaGizma has pimped Agrippina out yet again on Stuff on My Cat. Don't miss the first round, even though there are some repeats here.

4/29: But Agrippina, I thought you kicked the stuff!?


(He's drinking Black Dog ale!)

5/06: Sleep tight Agrippina.


05/01: Try to take it from her kung-fu grip...I dare ya!
( ... )

04/28: Now that's good eats.
( ... )

I liked this MUCH better than her most recent effort, The Gravedigger's Daughter, which was my introduction to Joyce Carol Oates.



Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates

A deceptively simple novel that tackles a tough subject, February 4, 2008

The protagonist of Joyce Carol Oates's Zombie is thirty-something problem child Quentin P. The son of an accomplished professor, Quentin is on probation for a sexual molestation charge and currently working as a caretaker for his grandmother's boarding property. He struggles daily with his desires for a sexual zombie of his own, a creature who will be a companion without passing judgment or challenging his master. He has attempted crude surgery on several candidates, always taking care to choose victims from the fringes of society, so they will not be missed or connected to Quentin P.

In diary entries, Quentin chronicles his daily life, explaining his dreams to his court-appointed psychiatrist, visiting his grandmother to earn cash for odd jobs, and ducking his father's inquiries. Quentin is as intelligent as he is misguided. He studies one potential victim for weeks, plotting his routines and patterns and getting a thrill off of brief interactions. Quentin quietly awaits the most opportune moment to strike, ensuring he has an alibi for the time of abduction.

The novel climaxes as Oates takes the reader deep inside the mind of a serial killer and sexual sadist as he captures his prey, nicknamed SQUIRREL. Quentin writes, "In a movie there is a FADE OUT, & a FADE IN to a later time. But I could not do that. I did not have that power. I was in Time." The reader is along for the ride, minute by minute, as Quentin fails yet again in his quest for a Zombie, and returns to his makeshift life on the fringes of society, managing to fit in enough to get by undetected.

Fans of this book should pick up Lionel Dahmer's A Father's Story. Dahmer's memoir is the story of the dark journey of a father who was faced with the grisly reality of one of America's most notorious serial murder, mutilation, rape, necrophilia, and cannibalism cases. Both this novel and the memoir humanize the Jeffrey Dahmer's of the world, providing a brief glimpse into the inner machinations of a serial killer.

crossposted to lagizma and booksalon

Tell me, does this sign read "DUMP?"

Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer

A first-rate family history from inside a fundamentalist polygamous sect, February 5, 2008

Shattered Dreams is the autobiography of Irene Spencer, a woman raised in a fundamentalist polygamous sect of the Mormon faith. Irene was raised to honor the Principle (of plural marriage and reverence for the sect leader) to achieve eternal salvation. Despite her own mother abandoning the Principle, and despite a suitor who promised Irene a monogamous, mainstream lifestyle in the LDS church, Irene married a polygamous man in 1953 at the age of just 16. From girlhood through motherhood, Irene grappled with her own mortal desires to have a husband all to herself, to bear only as many children as she could afford, and to achieve stability and financial security. As a member of a polygamous sect, Irene prayed to banish these selfish desires and worked to obey her husband's desire for a kingdom of seven (or more) wives, which would ensure him godhood in his faith.

Polygamy is punishable by ex-communication from the LDS church, so Irene's marriage was a secret from her closest friends and family members until her husband moved Irene and his first wife, Charlotte, to rural Mexico, where they could avoid both LDS scrutiny and the law of the U.S. With their husband Verlan, Irene and her nine sister wives moved across Mexico and South America in search of farming and business ventures that would ensure their survival. She lived in unfinished homes without running water or electricity for most of her life, but she formed a community with the local Mexicans, sharing U.S. surplus clothing and blankets as well as food. Irene even adopted a local abandoned baby who was turned out by the family patriarch. Her stories are humorous and heart-warming, despite the fact that in reality, her family was constantly at the edge of survival. Irene is a terrific storyteller who often ends a chapter with a zinger of a punch-line.

From the title of this book, I expected to read more ruminations on the "shattering" of dreams. Irene's story is no tell-all expose against polygamy. She left the lifestyle after she was widowed, and she has lived in monogamy for the last two decades, but she does not crusade against her former sect. Irene has instead chosen to share the story of a wife and mother struggling to find balance and contentment in life. The reader is left to draw his or her own conclusions from Irene's life of poverty and personal sacrifice. The author does mention inter-sect murders and power struggles, but only in passing, because she was consumed with much more immediate pressures to feed and clothe her thirteen children. Later in her marriage, when her husband courted a new teenaged wife (a girl of only 14 years who was friends with Irene's oldest daughter!), Irene questioned him outright about the girl's suitability for marriage, but finally conceded to her husband's desires and blessed the marriage.

Irene Spencer has written a first-rate family history for her legacy of children and grandchildren (most of whom chose not to live in the Principle). This is a powerful glimpse inside a life that is alien to most Americans.

crossposted to lagizma and booksalon

Why I love NPR affiliates:

You can catch a mid-afternoon show from Public Radio International with an academic look at the effect of the lousy dollar on the international cocaine market. This is sexy economics!