Four for Friday

(Link at left)

Q1 - What was I thinking? What is your most regretted impulse purchase of all time?

Well, the biggest in cost was our previous house, which I hated pretty much from the day we moved in. And the minivan was also a huge error, in virtually every way.

Q2 - Staying ahead of the curve: DNA mapping has advanced to the point where it now offers strong clues as to the medical conditions you may develop later in life. Given your current age, would you want to know what the DNA map has in store for you? If you have young children, would you want to know what a DNA test reveals about their future health?

You know, I've always said that I wouldn't want to know, but actually...I think, knowing what I've got in my gene pool, I would like to know about myself. I think Sparky can make his own determination on this.
Also, just to be clear, this sort of thing will tell you about purely genetic diseases like Huntingdon's chorea, but it really WON'T tell you about accidental health issues, like getting hit by a car, or environmental illnesses.

Q3 - Pricing: As a consumer, which item that you purchase and use on a regular basis--aside from gasoline--do you find to be the most ridiculously overpriced?

Fast food. I would say coffee, specifically, but I don't drink it.

Q4 - Hourly wages: On this day in 1966, the U.S. federal government raised the minimum wage to $1.40 an hour. Today, the federal minimum wage is $5.85 an hour, with the state of Washington registering the highest minimum wage rate for any of the 50 states ($7.93 an hour). Do you think the current federal minimum wage is too low, just right, or too high? If you think it is too low or high, how much do you think it should it be?

Way, way, way, waywaywayway too low. I don't know what it should be, but you certainly can't live anywhere for $12,168 a year, or even $13,322. That's just crazy!