Big Blue Huddle

This is a truly horrible story, but I was glad to see today that they finally arrested someone. The suspect is a 28 year old grad student at Washington State U, which is only a 15 minute drive from Moscow, Idaho. The authorities picked him up at his parents' house in PA.

There isn't much info available on what led this man to allegedly kill these four people. As far as I know, there is no publicly available evidence that he was with the victims that night, although clearly the authorities may have information we don't know about (in fact that's probably the case).

Does anyone have any theories on what happened here? Did this guy know or have an encounter with these people, and they said or did something that caused him to snap? Or was this more of a Ted Bundy situation, where he didn't know his victims but rather sought them out based on his type and always intended to kill them? I tend to think the former but I don't know. Whatever his motive was, these killings were as evil as it gets. I'm glad they at least have (hopefully) their guy, and if this man is indeed guilty then at least he can't victimize more people.

There are plenty of articles but here is one:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/30/us/idaho-murders-arrest

Awful story. The thought of being brutally attacked at home in the middle of the night is as frightening as it gets. I wonder if this will lead to spouses of VIPs getting security even when the spouse isn't there. Lots of conspiracy theories flying around on this one too. I'm not buying any of them until there is compelling reason to. I have not seen any yet, although there are a few things about the case that are a bit odd.

Bottom line, this just further underscores how bad crime has become in our country especially in recent years. That is not intended to be a political statement - just a matter of fact observation.

This is a very disturbing and eerie story. Cause of death is still not reported. I am assuming it was some sort of carbon monoxide poisoning or gas leak of some kind, but that is not clear yet. This is not something you see everyday. If there was foul play involved I hope the local authorities get to the bottom of it quickly.


https://nypost.com/2022/06/26/south-africa-police-investigating-at-least-17-deaths-at-east-london-tavern/

How would you rank the greatest American rock bands of all time? I appreciate this is highly subjective, but please base your answer not just on your own taste in music but also on how prolific and influential the bands were.

Also, please list only full-fledged bands. Not solo artists.

I have always felt like sleeping is an under-discussed and perhaps under-prioritized topic relative to the proportion of our lives we devote to it.

I am curious about people's tendencies, philosophies, an techniques of sleeping as it pertains to general health, and perhaps even more importantly if anyone had any tips or recommendations towards getting better quality sleep.

I am someone who aims to get seven-plus hours of sleep a night but often lands on something closer to six. Even on weekends, when I have no pressing need to get up at any particular set time, I find that I usually wake up after 6 or maybe 6.5 hours. That's assuming I had a solid night's sleep the night before. If I am overtired from the previous night, I often will sleep seven or even sometimes eight hours. For me to sleep more than seven hours, that will usually involve waking up and then deliberately trying (and succeeding) to fall back asleep and managing to get another hour or two at that point. But 6/6.5 hours seems like the sweet spot for me. I would prefer that it be seven or seven-plus, but my body does not seem to need seven if it is well-rested from the night before.

I don't presently take any medication for sleeping. I have had things prescribed in the past, but typically the only time I take anything is if I am taking a long flight. I have tried to use non-chemical means to augment my quality of sleep, although I am certainly not adamantly opposed to medication if my techniques ever fail in the future.

Here are a few things I have prioritized that have helped me (1) fall asleep, and (2) get better overall sleep:


(1) I am a big believer in the 4-7-8 breathing technique. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it is pretty simple. Once you are in a comfortable sleeping position, you breathe in through your nose for four seconds. Then you hold your breath for seven seconds. And then you slowly breathe out through your mouth for eight seconds. You repeat this over and over, and I have found that I am typically asleep after anywhere from four to 10 repetitions. Sometimes it takes longer, but that is usually the zone. There are plenty of youtubes and articles about this technique online. The idea behind it is the deep breathing has an automatically physiological calming effect, and when I do it, I feel my heart rate instantly declining noticeably. Also, because you have to keep close count of the seconds in your mind, your mind is forced to move away from any thoughts or stressors that may have been there before. So you have both a physical and mental response to this technique. I do it almost every night, and I find that it really helps.

(2) Another thing that I care about greatly is having a cool bedroom. I guess everyone is different on this front, but I think a cooler-than-room temperature bedroom leads me to sleep better throughout the night and also to have an easier time falling asleep. I like to have the room at about 68-70 instead of something like 72-74.

(3) A third thing that I prioritize is my level of fullness before bed. A good rule of thumb is to not eat anything for at least two hours prior to going to sleep. Ideally longer than that. But from what I have gathered, if you go to bed with a full stomach, since your body is working to process the food, that is going to adversely impact the quality of your sleep. I try to go to bed with a fully digested stomach as often as possible and, if anything, slightly on the hungry side.

(4) An obvious one is exercise. There is no question that I sleep better on days where I have exercised versus days where I didn't.

(5) Another obvious one is alcohol. Drinking right before bed or even within an hour or two is not a good idea if you're trying to get a good night's sleep. Depending on our social lives or other factors, many of us still do it at least occasionally, but as a base practice I feel it is better to go to bed alcohol free.

(6) I have always been more of a back sleeper, but over the past year or so I have tried to sleep more on my side. You tend to snore much less often on your side, and for those who suffer from not just routine snoring but also sleep apnea, side-sleeping is always recommended if you want to avoid the CPAP machine. Although I will say that people I know who have this condition and went for the CPAP machine all say they wish they had done it sooner.

(7) It is always recommended to not be in your bed at all other than for sleeping or for intimate activity. Lying around in bed all morning, or getting into bed 2-3 hours before your intended bedtime, while tempting, is considered not ideal for promoting the best sleep health. I know that insomnia sufferers are usually advised to actually get out of bed and go into a different room and sit up doing quite activity like reading until the sleepiness comes over them again, rather than just lying in bed wide awake. I am pretty good about all of the above, but I could be better.

(8) The one thing I don't do enough of that I really should try to make more of an effort on, because I know it is important, is completely getting rid of all screen use (phone, TV, and laptop) at least an hour before bed. This is one of the basic tenets of proper "sleep hygiene." I don't usually do this myself, but I know I should.

(9) I think sleeping is something worth investing in, not just with respect to the above practices, but also financially. Several years ago my wife and I needed a new mattress, and we decided to "pay up" for the new one. We ended up spending several thousand dollars. I don't remember the exact number, but it was at least triple what we had paid the last time. We did plenty of research and spent hours in the showroom before making up our minds. I have to say, I feel like this was one of the best investments we ever made. Having a quality mattress and good quality pillows and bedding is a massive, massive difference maker. A cheap, sagging, or uncomfortable mattress with old, flimsy pillows really has an adverse impact on your quality of life relative to what a really high quality sleeping setup brings to the table. There are a lot of things in life one can belt-tighten on to save money, but in my opinion getting a restful night's sleep every night should not be one of them. It never will for me again.


Those were the main things I was able to think of off the top of my head. I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts and/or advice on this important health-related subject.

By now many of you will have seen or heard about the incident at the Oscars last night. Chris Rock was on stage, and he cracked a bald joke about Will Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who shaved her head due to suffering from alopecia.

Smith subsequently marched on stage and smacked Chris Rock across the face quite hard. At that point, I assumed it was all fake. However it sounded much more serious when Smith started screaming at him back from the seats. The fact that the LAPD put out a statement after the event further suggests it was real. Here is the video (please be aware there are expletives):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOsPuUnvK9E

By now, most signs seem to point to it being real. I guess it's not 100% definite though.

Assuming it's real, what a terrible look for Will Smith. Even if he was truly offended by that, there are numerous other ways to handle it that would have been better than that. If there are no criminal or civil ramifications for him, he should consider himself lucky.

There is a lot of real wisdom, intelligence, and life experience on this board, so I figured this would be a good group to ask a bit of a tricky question.

What are your general overall thoughts on loaning friends money? Have you done it before? What were the circumstances in your friend's life that led to him/her asking you for the loan? Was it a very substantial amount of money? Did you get paid back when the friend said he/she would? If they didn't pay on schedule how did you handle it? Did it impact your friendship? If you said no, did it impact your friendship?

Do you have any rules of thumb on this practice? Do you have a firm, "hard no" policy under all circumstances, or are you more case by case? Or do you basically to it almost anytime a good friend asks? If the latter, how have the results been as far as getting paid back?

I have loaned friends money before myself but I have mixed feelings on the broad subject, and I have a situation where I think I'm about to get asked by someone, possibly for a more meaningful amount than what I have done with people in the past.

I'm just curious what your experiences have been around this subject and what if any rules of thumb you have.

Thanks in advance.

What are your overall thoughts on social media? Do you see it as a positive or negative in society?

Someone proposed this random hypothetical to me, and I thought it was interesting (albeit a touch unsettling).

Imagine the following proposal were made to you:

You will be paid $1mm in tax-free cash per day for every day that you agree to not eat anything. Should you agree to this challenge for any number of days, you can drink as much water as you like, but you cannot eat anything (or drink anything besides water) during the agreed period. You can be in any setting you want to be in, and you can sleep as much as you want or or are able to. You can do any activities you wish, including nothing at all. You can also take whatever medication you're currently prescribed, of course. However you cannot eat anything at all under any circumstances. This includes if you end up in the hospital somehow. You cannot be fed intravenously either.

The important part of this challenge is to understand that once you sign up for any number of days of fasting, there is no way out. You MUST complete all the days you agreed to, and you cannot change your mind, including if your life depends on it. So if you were to sign up for let's say five days, and at the end of day two you were really suffering and begged to be let out of the challenge and begged for food, even if you agreed to forego the $2mm you already earned at that point, you would not get any food until the full five days where completed. It's not important how this would be enforced, but for the sake of this challenge just imagine that there were a way for you to be 100% unable to acquire any food once you agreed to the deal.

So, given all of the above, how many days (if any at all) would you sign up for?

Ok, my turn.

Prison is a grim topic, but there have been some great movies. Here is this website's take on the 25 best:

https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_best_prison_movies_of_all_time/s1__30075968#slide_1

My personal favorite of all time is "Shawshank Redemption." I would probably consider that a top 10 movie of all time actually.

Others I have thought were excellent were "Bad Boys", "Escape from Alcatraz", and "American Me."

Some of these movies I would not necessarily consider prison movies. "American History X" has a segment of the movie that takes place in prison, but it's not anything cloe to the whole movie. For me, the prison portion really needs to be at minimum half of the movie and probably more like 2/3 or 3/4 at least. Having a few prison scenes doesn't make a movie a "prison movie."

What are your favorite prison movies?

Is anyone following this story? It is obviously terrible, but it is also very mysterious. All kinds of possibilities about what may have happened here.

Long story short:

Rich family in South Carolina, with the father being a prosecutor. Son (22) is seemingly a bit of a bad seed or at least black sheep type. He was already in trouble for the wrongful death of a girl who was with him when he was driving a boat drunk. He also may have been involved in a hit and run death. Several months ago, he and his mother were gunned down at their property. The just the other day the father was shot in the head (but somehow survievd) on a secluded road not too far from their home. There are all kinds of theories going around about who may have been behind the killings and the attempted murder of the father the other day. Pretty wild story. I am curious to hear if anyone has any theories.

There are plenty of articles on this story if you just do a google search of "Murdaugh family", but here is one from the other day:

https://nypost.com/2021/09/04/alex-murdaugh-reportedly-shot-in-south-carolina/

I had a debate with a good friend of mine the other day about which of these two bands was "better." I put the word "better" in quotes because obviously this is entirely subjective, and we acknowledged that from the beginning of the conversation. Both are clearly iconic, great bands. That is not in question.

It's still a fun converation though. I thought I'd throw it in the FP to see if anyone here had a view. Since there isn't a ton of traffic here, I realize this thread idea may not take, but I still thought it would be worth posting.

For me personally, the winner is Zeppelin. I have always liked Floyd, and I went through a multi-year phase when I was in high school and college where I was very into them, but I have always loved Led Zeppelin, and that continues today. Floyd is more of an experiential type of band, almost like an opera. Zeppelin to me is just incredibly tight, high quality rock with a great blues element but also a lot of beautiful melody. Zeppelin also has truly top notch musicians in the band. Page is arguably the best guitarist of all time (certainly in the top short list), and Bonzo was one of the greatest drummers of all time (Rolling Stone has him as number one in their top 100). Plant is also clearly an iconic front man with a unique, powerful voice. So as individuals I think Zeppelin wins out, and for me personally their music is just more versatile while not sacrificing any quality.

One characteristic of a great band in my opinion is when you listen to the music, it can take you back to a certain time in your life and make memories more vivid. Both of these bands actually do that for me, but Zeppelin songs for me personally are ones I just always want to hear. For Floyd you need to be in a certain mood.

I would love to hear any opinions on this subject if there are any here.

For those who don't know, "The Many Saints of Newark" is a movie coming out in October that is the prequel to the hit show "The Sopranos." David Chase, the creator of "The Sopranos" is one of the writers of the show, so it does seem potentially promising. Interestingly, they went with the late James Gandolfini's son with the role of Tony back from his teenage years.

It remains to be seen how good this movie will be, but it certainly seems promising. Here is the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHa95iy2lF0

I am not sure if the Sopranos has been discussed here already, but I am a huge, huge fan of the show. For me it is easily my favorite show of all time, and by a huge margin. I am probably a little biased because I have always loved the mafia genre, but The Sopranos in my opinion succeeded in being much more than just a good mafia show. There is a lot more to it than that. I hope with this movie they managed to achieve something good. I guess we'll find out in a few months.

Are there any other big Sopranos fans here?

I'm not a big milk drinker these days, but I do consume it for coffee/tea and sometimes cereal (albeit I am eating cereal less and less these days).

For the past 20 years or so, I have always been a skim milk guy, but recently I have been trying out other types of milk such as oat milk and almond milk. I have not tried soy milk yet, and to be honest I'm not dying to. I am not lactose intolerant as far as I know, but reducing dairy intake does seem like a good idea as I get older, as dairy contributes to inflammation.

I'm curious, does anyone have a strong preference with some of these other milks? So far, from a taste perspective I prefer oat milk to almond milk, but I have read that oat milk has higher sugar content than almond milk (and regular milk), so I am not sure whether the health benefits are a net positive.

I have not done a great deal of work on this subject to be honest, and I do intend to read more, but I was curious if anyone had any strong or well-researched thoughts/recommendations on the subject.

I am curious if anyone here has a strong view on whether inflation is here to stay in the US, or if it's just a temporary phenomenon.

Plenty of respected economists, including the Secretary of the Treasury and the majority of members of the Fed, as well as a number of prominent Wall St economists, think it is temporary. The argument for it being temporary is basically that supply chains got badly disrupted by Covid, and they have not been able to replenish quickly enough to keep up with the sharp surge in demand of a reopening economy and pent up spending impulses by consumers who were previously locked down and not having as many things to spend their money on. The enormous stimulus pumped into the economy by the government, coupled with interest rates pinned at zero, have only further fueled this demand. But once the supply chains normalize again, and once the extra covid relief aid provisions for people run out, then prices will come down again. That is the argument for it being temporary.

Why would it be more than temporary? Because the Fed clearly seems hell-bent on keeping monetary conditions easy for a long time. This will encourage borrowing and dissuade savings. It will keep asset prices high and debase the currency. An unwillingness to raise interest rates when growth rates and expectations clearly call for higher rates is what classically leads to inflation. There is an argument that these forces are not just temporary but that they are here to stay. Even if the Fed raises rates in a year or so, how quickly will they raise them? The people in charge are extremely dovish, and that seems unlikely to change anytime soon. Based on their rhetoric and their past behavior, it is very hard to envision a scenario where they raise rates very aggressively and quickly.

If inflation gets really bad, then that will surely hurt people and hurt the markets. However some moderate inflation, particularly if it includes wages, won't be the end of the world.

I tend to think that we will see the current pace of inflation level off in a quarter or two, but I don't think it will completely disappear. I think it will remain elevated and above the rate of where it was before the pandemic, and I expect that to coninue for a good long while, not just a couple of quarters. And we'll just have to live with it.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Curious to hear other views.

Two iconic actors. Both Italian Americans. Both active during the same time period. Both have had numerous great films. Both have played good guys and bad guys. They have acted in the same movie together more than once.

Which of the two would you say has had the better overall career? Consider both acting talent and also total body of work.

I am not really looking to start any sort of heated debate here or make this a political thread. So please don't turn this into that. It is more just that I felt compelled to express my dismay about this event on a purely human level. There is major tragedy and human suffering on both sides here. I don't know what the solution is or if there ever will be one, but this latest flare-up has been particularly ugly, with many civilian deaths. It is truly tragic, and I wish it would stop.

We just watched the first episode. Kate Winslet is the lead, and Guy Pearce is also in it. Both top notch actors. Looks like your typical high quality whodunnit muder mystery that we often get on HBO. Past examples are "The Undoing" and "The Night Of", both of which were excellent. This looks to be the another of that genre. I thought it would be worth developing a thread as we did with the Undoing, as speculating on the killer can be fun.

How would you rank your top five favorite cuisines by country? Let's leave the USA out of this one. Which countries represent your top five non-American cuisines? Feel free to include honorable mention as well.

Here are mine:

1. Italian
2. Japanese
3. Chinese
4. Indian
5. French

Hon mention: Vietnamese, Mexican, Greek

First off, clearly this is a somehwat personal topic that some individuals may not wish to participate in, which is totally understandable. If that is how you feel, that is completely understood, please simply just don't participate if you're not comfortable with the topic or not interested.

For those who are comfortable, I'm just curious how much people are drinking these days and whether people are drinking more or less during the pandemic than they normally do. I think it is different for different people, so I'm just curious to get people's thoughts and observations.

To kick it off, I have selected 4-7 for myself. I typically drink on two evenings a week, occasionally three, but the majority of those evenings would be one glass of a wine, or one glass of wine with a half glass top-up. If we're doing something a little more interesting for dinner and I want to have a slightly better bottle of wine, I might go up to 2-3 drinks.

I am definitely drinking less now than before the pandemic, but probably not dramatically so. But since I currently never have any bigger nights out, the total is lower. These days (I'm 46) I don't go for big nights out anywhere nearly as much as I used to, nor are they as aggressive when I do, but if I'm going to dinner with friends and we meet somewhere beforehand or possibly have a nightcap after the dinner, I could easily 4-6 drinks over the course of a 3-4 hour evening. Obviously I haven't done one of those in over a year, so I have definitely drunk less during the pandemic. I know people though who, mainly out of boredom and perhaps an element of depression/anxiety, are drinking more during the pandemic than they normally do. I don't know anyone who has gone completely off the deep end, but I do have friends who have said that they are drinking on most evenings now, whereas they weren't a year ago.

I'm curious what others' thoughts and observations on this topic are.

Just started a new show on Showtime starring Bryan Cranston called "Your Honor." Curious if anyone else watched the first episode. So far it seem very promising. It takes place in New Orleans, and it is about a respected judge whose son is involved in a hit and run. The second episode airs tonight (Dec 13). I never leap to conclusions about a series either way after just one episode, but this one has potential to be a really good thriller.