Throwing out some book recommendations (will refresh every now and then) for interested people who have time to read outside of the books scattered around Azeroth. Would love to hear what you think of them if you get around to them (or have read them). Anti-intellectuals please look away =).

Non-fiction: Micro Trends: the small forces behind tomorrow's big changes by Mark Penn

This is a collection of statistical analyses on social factors that help forecast how consumption, education, technology, etc will change based on a changing America. For example, did you know that:

1) It has historically never been a better time to be a single straight male in the United States, or a worse time to be a single straight female under 34.

2) The most common occupations of the 9 Million millionaires in the US are a) welding contractors, b) pharmacists, and c) pest exterminators.

3) If porn were a televised sport, it'd get better annual ratings and boast greater profitability than all four major sports leagues combined.

Non-non-Fiction: Confessions by St. Augustine.

No this is not a text of religious doctrine despite the author. It's basically a play-by-play of a young man struggling to reconcile his humanity with his morality. While the topic may be spiritual in nature, the method and the basis is decidedly secular.

Some pics of New York. Hope you enjoy:

Tree Graffitti

Tree Graffitti

The Hudson

You couldn't tell that Ground Zero is 10 steps behind these buildings:

WFC

 Graduation (Happiest/saddest day of my life)

Graduation

Man With The Weight Of The World Before The House of God

Here is a logic puzzle/riddle. You will not already know the answer, because I just made it up myself. You can however get the answer very quickly if you turn off wow and think =).

First 3 correct responses get a "meaningful" prize in-game. It will be worth the while.

All correct responses after that get a "very very modest" prize in-game. It might not be worth the while.

Please send me all responses in private forum messages. DO NOT post the answer in this forum. DO NOT post clarification questions in the forum. Virtually everything you might need to know is in this post =).

Here is the puzzle / riddle:

• The odds of winning the lottery in New York State are 175,711,536 to 1
• Suppose you buy 175, 711, 535 tickets and all of them are losers.
• Suppose you then buy 1 single ticket for the same drawing.
• Did you win the lottery?
• Why? Why not?

The answer is very very specific, and if you get it you should think "Well Duh" like all good puzzles. "Because its probability" is not a suitable answer.

EDIT: Two hints and one clarification that I've given so far

1: Assume you are a logical being. Which means you're not going into this blind and you actually have a plan (i would hope so if you're buying 175 M + lottery tickets

2: Whether the jackpot is $350 M or $1, the odds of winning are still the same.

Clarification: The one leap of faith you need to make is that SOMEHOW you know that the first batch of lottery tickets you bought is a loser.

I like to set goals for myself. For example, today's goal was to get through the morning (when I don't have work) unscathed to set myself up for the afternoon (when I DO have work). So this morning, I established a "goal for WoW 3.2". And that is as follows:

"Double my haste rating"

Sounds like a simplistic goal, but it's actually a good guide for maximizing my DPS as a Fire Mage as most of the pieces with haste tend to have other good stats for me as well. It's not a BIS list for sure, but it is my goal for this patch...

My current haste rating fluctuates from 400-500, depdending on several gear choices that I switch back and forth from. So let's just take the midpoint. Therefore, my goal for this patch is to get to 900+ haste rating (without gimping myself in other stats, or articificially forcing it).

I have researched and researched Rawr, and the loot tables and came up with this wish list of gear that will propel me towards my 900 Haste goal. It is NOT a BIS list…and several choices in there are only as a consequence of the other choices in there (think Quartz Crystal Wand)…but it is the Gear set that I'm going for as Fire. Check back here to see what pieces I've picked up and my progress on the road to 900+ Haste and Beyond!

The + Stats provided by this set of gear (enchants and gems included, base stats not) is as follows:

• Stamina: 1096
• Intellect: 1113
• Spirit: 249
• Spell Power: 2861
• Hit Rating: 348
• Crit Rating: 770
• Haste Rating: 928 (effective), 856 (passive)

Below is the actual checklist. Wowhead only has the normal mode versions of some of these items. So, for now just assume the gear set calculation embeds stats from the highest level item of the same name.

This gear set would get me to 928 Effective Haste rating (using the optimized effective haste buff from my trinket) and an 856 passive haste rating all BEFORE raid Buffs. That would mean my Fireball cast would go down from 3 second casts to 2.15 seconds on an "effective basis" and 2.21 on a passive basis, pre raid buffs and heroism and speed

• Head: [47761]
• Neck: [47139]
• Shoulders: [47758] (got 245 version)
• Back: [47095]
• Chest: [47603]
• Wrist: [47585] (got)
• Hands: [47762]
• Waist: [47617] (got)
• Legs: [47760]
• Boots: [47194]
• Ring 1: [47618] (got 232 version)
• Ring 2: [47732]
• Trinket 1: [45466] (got)
• Trinket 2: [47182]
• Weapon: [47815]
• Wand: [45257] (got)

I know I've seen a couple of these on the site...but someone sent me a compilation so i figured, hey why not post it?

BTW PDF is prob NSFW...even though i got it at work...

While I'm generally of the view that the bailout was necessary to avoid catastrophe...I find the following portrayal of the bailout to at least be amusing...

It's in PDF form, because putting it in webpage-sized images prob wouldn't do it justice.