The Broad Breasted White breed of turkeys is the most common commercially-raised turkey in the US.  But there's a problem: 

These birds have shorter breast bones, exceedingly large breasts, are often very fat, and have shorter legs than "standard" turkeys, rendering them unable to breed without human assistance (typically via in vitro fertilisation).

Unless you intentionally buy a heritage breed for three times the price, this is the turkey you eat at Thanksgiving.  (via Freakonomics)

Slightly related:  Corn sex, grape sex

The bank that currently holds my mortgage was one of the ones that failed circa 2009.  It got taken over by the government, then sold to a bigger bank, then later sold to another bank.  Thankfully this had absolutely zero effect on me as a mortgage holder, aside from worrying that it might have an effect on me as a mortgage holder. 

I just got a letter in the mail from this bank offering me a good deal on refinancing.  I'm actually thinking about refinancing anyway, but I'm hesitant to go with this bank because it feels like I'd be rewarding failure, and that's not something I really want to do. 

Related:  Advertising a failure

I could've told you this: 

Business majors spend less time on course work than other college students, but they devote more hours to nonschool duties, like earning money and caring for family members. In contrast, engineering students spend the most time studying and the least on outside demands.

(via Shoebox)

Like corn, there's a lot to be said about grape reproduction: 

But Walker says grape breeding is frowned upon in the industry. Most vines are grown from a branch that's taken off an existing plant. "This essentially means that grapes have not really been having sex very much," says Sean Myles, a geneticist at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College.

Makes me hungry.  I think. 

A computer science professor from UC Berkeley calculated that a 4GB e-book reader filled to capacity weighs about 0.000000000000000001g more than an empty one. 

"Although the total number of electrons in the memory does not change as the stored data changes," Dr. Kubiatowicz said, the trapped ones have a higher energy than the untrapped ones. A conservative estimate of the difference would be 10^–15 joules per bit. As the equation E=mc^2 makes clear, this energy is equivalent to mass and will have weight. Plugging this into Einstein's equation yields his rough estimate of 10^–18 grams.

Or, as another writer put it, about 2 tons less than the equivalent number of actual books.

(via Marginal Revolution)

I missed the game, and I dislike the Steelers, but I like what Troy Polamalu said about this past weekend's game: 

When asked about the play after the game, Polamalu said, "Whatever is going to get me in trouble, I'm saying the opposite."

I like his style.

Our house went without power for a few days due to a snow storm, and I have a few observations: 

1. People rushed to buy ice so the food in their refrigerators wouldn't spoil.  Just put your food in the snow, dummies.
2. The main problem with an all-electric house is no backup heat source.
3. We sometimes pay for the privilege of living without electrical power.  It's called camping.
4. The only times we've ever lost power or water was when our sink was full of dirty dishes.  Thus, preventing power and water outages is as easy as always doing dishes.
5. Using a generator to power a space heater was nice.  Using said generator to power an Xbox and a flat screen was even better.
6. Driving on streets with non-working traffic lights and walking through stores with angry tired people makes you realize how quickly our society could unravel.  And that was after 24 hours.

Getting power back after 48 hours was like a gift from God.  It's stupid how much we depend on that temperamental invisible force, but such is life. 

I keep seeing commercials for this service offered by DirecTV that lets you play a recorded show in one room, pause, then restart in another room.  I don't know what it is about this idea, but it's completely unappealing to me.  I just can't imagine a person signing up for DirecTV in order to get this feature.  Maybe it's just me; I only have one TV.  But even if I had many TVs in many rooms of my spacious house, I can't see why I'd want to pause something in one room and start playing it in another.  This advertisement is lost on me. 

My package of candy corn says it's "Made With Real Honey," as if that's something I value.  Candy made with artificial sweeteners?  Hell no.  Only natural ingredients for me.

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~ Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets