I believe it is in Armenia and was in the former Soviet Union. In Switzerland it sometimes gets coverage by the news media.

In the US it did get a mention on Trump's twitter a while ago.

As if Trump gives a shit about Chess.

Enough to post some nonsense claims about it that got a lot of blow-back.

That's not the main point, though.

The Chrysler Building is going on sale. It looks like its struggling to keep up as an office building, though it does hold some novelty and historic value as a 20s-30s Art-Deco skyscraper.

as somewhat of an art deco fan, I hope the eventual buyers takes good care of the building.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you a very common American dilemma:

'Why this iconic Valentine's Day candy won't be on store shelves this year'

This could go one of two ways:

• Pent up demand saves the company. Those candy hearts were a part of school Valentine's day parties since The '70s. People buy them next year.

• The new company gets screwed by some new fad. Those kids who traded the "be mine" candies are now adults watching their health. Kids today have a wide selection of sugary rot to consume. Those kids may see the "be mine" candies as too old fashioned. Not to mention the Moral Guardians who hate the idea of candy hearts both for the sexism and the extremely high sugar content.

I've seen some new management pull products out of the fire - several restaurant chains survived new ownership. Hell Wendy's is killing the social media game with it's snarky tweets.

But often, new owners just assume that "we bought the company that makes the thing people want, like the hard part's done!" SF Debris goes into the rise and fall of the comics industry and how bad or clueless management can run even a successful company into the ground.

A lot of movies that are remakes have flopped - but others have been successes.

Will Americans "be true" to Sweethearts or will they join RadioShack, Toys R' Us et al in the pages of history?

Edited by TairaMai on Jan 25th 2019 at 2:22:30 AM

The suspense is killing me.

I kinda hope they die out. They taste terrible.

I imagine the main reason is that, well, those chalky heart candies are not seen as very good to most people. They're mostly eaten out of traditionalism.

Having said that, I don't think health concerns are too big an issue for holiday candy in general-it's ok to splurge a little on Valentines day and the like.

Brand loyalty used to be a thing ("Chevy households" vs "Ford Households").

Consumers are more savvy, years of pop culture snark and product recalls have dented that idea.

The problem is that "under new management" is seen as "death knell" by many consumers.

So Alex Trebek, the iconic host of Jeopardy, recently announced that he has been diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer.

Here's the original tweet in which he announced it in a video.

Edited by M84 on Mar 8th 2019 at 1:28:08 AM

Hopefully this will cause more people to get themselves screened.

I’m wishing him the best and thanks to him for his work.

It’s really sad but it’s good to see he’s determined

Jaguar attacks woman who climbed Arizona zoo barrier to take a selfie

This is the third article I've noticed recently that was on the main page of The Guardian that involved animals. The fat German rat, the Queensland possum slaughter, and now this? What's going on here?

Possibly just your feed, or weird animal stories happening at once. I... very much doubt this is some kind of US culture trend.

Perhaps they want some variety to Brexit?

Edited by Swanpride on Mar 10th 2019 at 9:57:35 AM

I got all three news stories directly from The Guardian's main site in the past week or so. Someone at The Guardian must be looking for animal related news.

Or the Guardian is using cookies to track your "interests". Try using a different computer through a different ISP, and see what happens.

I remember the tales of the hippies from the 70's and 80's who were looking for the "magic mushrooms". Back then the penalties for possession of 'shrooms were less than those for weed.

Trouble was getting them.

The legend was that if you did enough the [insert legend here] would come and tell you where the "big score was" - the field of endless 'shrooms.

Queue a few of hippies freezing to death in winter or getting lost in the desert and dying of thirst in the summer.

In the American Southwest, there was the "ditch witch" - the campaign to stop teens from swimming in irrigation channels and canals.

That took years to get kids to keep out of a watery death.

Oh, don't forget "ghost riding" - dancing next to a car in drive, in motion with it's engine on.

Spoiler alert: people got run over dancing in front of a car in motion with no one at the wheel...

My point?

Americans love to do stupid shit and this selfie trend is just the latest trend.

So maybe you guys have heard that there are apparently plans to build a monument in Silicon Valley to Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley Wants a Landmark

So what do you guys think would be a monument that best embodies the spirit of Silicon Valley?

Personally I'm leaning towards a giant statue of a finger cursor with the middle finger raised.

Edited by M84 on Mar 14th 2019 at 7:52:50 PM

Just the most punchable stone sculpture of of Elon Musks smug face possible

All this geek hate.

A giant, working Commodore 64 that people can interact with.

The backlash against Silicon Valley goes a liiiiittle bit deeper than "geek hate".

How about a complex of public restrooms with pictures of various tech moguls in the urinals and toilets?

x3 That does sound good except for the "stone" part - we don't need people breaking their hands actually punching said sculptures, after all!

Edited by Reflextion on Mar 14th 2019 at 4:46:40 AM

Must be a generational thing.