Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Quality

how do I judge the quality of salmon (or other fish) in the supermarket?

krautland — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:04:11 -0800

how do I judge the quality of salmon (or other fish) in the supermarket? I just bought some terrible smoked salmon. it wasn't even cheap and the packaging informed me it was "wild alaska salmon, certified to the standards of the marine stewardship council" (I translated that from german). so I thought it wasn't farmed and that I'd in fact be getting some premium wild salmon to garnish my slice of bread with but I was wrong. this salmon has no texture, the color is awfully orangy-looking now that I've been able to closer inspect it and it's just one solid color without any shift at all. I also can't taste anything thanks to some bitter smell.

please help me not make this mistake again. please tell me how to look at fish in a market and understand if it's good or bad or new or old or quality or cheap. please recommend how to judge packaged salmon as well.

oh ... us seals don't help me much ... they rarely have them in german supermarkets.

Stellar Concert Performances on DVD

netbros — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:46:11 -0800

What are the live performance concert DVDs that stun you with their excellence and excitement? I recently purchased The Way Up concert DVD by the Pat Metheny Group and found it mesmerizing. The combined talent, the cohesiveness and preparation of PMG on this particular tour is astounding. Surely there is other contemporary live concert footage on DVD that is equally inspiring.

While I am a big fan of jazz, I'm an even bigger fan of music in general. Just about anything that is stellar from a tight, talented individual or group is what I'm looking for.

Please suggest your favorite live concert performances.

What on earth happened to The Simpsons?

schmichael — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:58:32 -0800

What happened to The Simpsons? My family used to love The Simpsons. And I know that everyone says that, but we were nuts. My Dad was an American emigre, and I think The Simpsons helped him to connect in a small, sad way with his lost country. In the days before DVDs with HDD recorders and TiVo, he used to tape every single episode on (severely limited) NZ TV. Over time he managed to get an almost-complete collection of grimy old VHS tapes (current to the current season, at the time about 14). And I used to watch them relentlessly, over and over.

But then I grew up - and, it seemed to me, Simpsons grew down. I grew increasingly bored with the new episodes, and by season 15, I stopped watching. Now, whenever I watch a new episode - which is not often - I usually give up after a couple of minutes. The sense of humour is wrong, the characters are all wrong, the plots are gasping for air... it feels like the show's heart is gone.

When I go back and watch episodes in the vicinity of season 6, I still love it. Episodes like Homie the Clown are just, it seems to me, on a completely different level than current efforts.

How much of this feeling is really coming from the decline in show quality? And can someone explain what exactly has changed in the nature of the show? I saw a recent episode with a slick new intro, and it just felt wrong. It was like they've had to sex the show up, make everything shiny and spotless, increase the tempo to breaking point, to continue to grab people's attention as the competition between media becomes more and more vicious, and TV gets louder, faster, and gaudier.

And am I paying to much creedence to the mementoes of my childhood? Maybe my nostalgia covers up for weaker jokes in the old stuff. Maybe the new episodes are perfectly good without this inbuilt assumption of how the show should work and how the characters should act. And I'm just turning into an old codger sniffing distrustfully at the new-fangled.

Or maybe The Simpsons really has jumped the shark - maybe it's jumped it more than once.

Teach me, Askmefi!

Suggestions for durable colthing

racingjs — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:35:41 -0800

I’m looking for quality, durable mens clothing, what are your recommendations? It could be dress wear, working clothes, shoes, sportswear; I want to buy those pieces of clothing that you pay 2 times the price but still looks fine after 10 years.

For example, I’ve been dissatisfied by Banana republic but satisfied by the quality of Patagonia clothing and I want that durability across my wardrobe.

What is a camera with a good nighttime mode?

linzenoonoo — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:06:29 -0800

I'm looking for an affordable, but still good quality camera to use for nighttime shots. My current camera is a Canon SD1000, which has an incredibly good macro mode, and takes decent pictures otherwise, but the nighttime mode leaves much to be desired. Living in St.Louis, I have lots of opportunities for nighttime photos, but I don't have the camera to take good advantage of these. I'm looking for a camera with a good nighttime mode, preferably in the hundreds of dollars range, as I'm too young for a job and don't get an allowance. Thanks!

N’est pas “on the cheap”

heather-b — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:25:48 -0800

They say you should never skimp when buying: coffee, shoes, wine. What else should you never take the cheap route when buying, where quality definitely is worth the high price?

I'm totally convinced they're satanists.

eschatfische — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:28:09 -0800

Is the Quality Coffee Shop in LA -- where this scene in Ghost World takes place -- still open? I checked Yelp but there weren't any reviews, I tried to call but nobody answered, and Google street view doesn't seem to work right for that address, showing what appears to be further down the street. I assume it's gone, but I just wanted to check.

A place where my call IS really important

bigmusic — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:41:42 -0800

I'm tired of dealing with bad customer service / tech support. What are some ways I can find out the quality of customer service of a company before I give them my hard earned cash? Are there some not weirdo sounding questions or things I could say to a customer service / tech support rep to evaluate the quality of thier service? I'm aware of BBB, JD Powers, and Consumer Reports. However, I would like to evaluate the quality of the companies personally before I enter into a relationship with them. Basically, I'm looking an acid test that determines if the company has a high quality customer service culture.

WalMart's Canopy Furniture?

swilkerson — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:59:27 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with Canopy brand furniture (sold by WalMart)? WalMart has evidently stepped up its marketing -- the new Canopy brand furniture looks lovely ... nice logo, great catalog, high end style. Of course, it's still WAL-MART, which makes me think "cheap" (the prices certainly are). Anyone seen this stuff in person or - better yet - bought it yourself? Where on the spectrum between heirloom woodworking and particleboard junk does it fall?

Document mis-management?

Anonymous — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:42:37 -0800

How can I convince a document management vendor to stop embracing 100 DPI / JPG as a universal format for scanned documents? I work with a document management vendor that optimizes their entire program around 100 DPI / color JPG images.

We're talking about a whole variety of documents, most of which are written / printed text and would be handled nicely at 200/300 DPI B&W (TIFF) format. Perhaps 5% of the documents involved are pictures.

I understand why they use 100 DPI / JPG: it's a universal setting where any image is easily viewable within the application. Honestly I get the impression that they didn't want to deal with scaling early on, but for the most part it's just their "universal format of choice." If you print the images, attempt to fax them, etc, you run into major problems with quality.

They've worked around these issues by designing complex algorithms that automatically apply gamma correction, etc when printing. I'm impressed with what they've done, but I'd like to see the possibility of OCR down the road.

To add insult to injury, you can use their program to scan black and white TIFFs, but when you print them out, they have enormous margins on them that render them unreadable. If you export first, and then print (I realize the goal is paperlessness in the long run) they look beautiful (no margins).

I want to explain to them that in a sense their system is a "black hole" encouraging people to abandon any hope of OCR in the future. We'd really like to be able to fax these documents electronically, but electronic fax servers create this dithered mess out of the various shades of gray picked up from the white background.

How can I handle this? Am I out of line? I have talked to other vendors that consider this heresy, so I'm pretty sure I'm on the right side.

Parting ways is not an option at the moment.

Inexpensive RCA-in, RCA-out, In-line DVR with no subscriptions?

Quarter Pincher — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:55:28 -0800

Inexpensive standalone (non-computer) DVR solution for in-line video game recording? Preferably RCA in, RCA out, with 10+hours record time uncompressed/highest quality. I'm looking for something that'll essentially perform like a "press record now" device akin to a VCR, that will record anything coming in through the RCA input, but with relatively uncompressed quality. I make a lot of video game YouTube videos, and most games do not have their own go-back-and-watch features.

I tried this with a VCR to "technical" success (but with hideous recording quality) and am considering digital options now. My father suggested a hard-drive-based digital video camera that has RCA ins and outs, but I wouldn't know where to begin.

Any suggestions for brands and models to start looking, or have similar experience to share?

What's your favorite on-line fitness tracking tool?

scblackman — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:34:43 -0800

Fitness 2.0 quesiton: I'm a big fan of Fuelly. It's one of the few Web 2.0 tools that I've stuck with. I want to be as disciplined with tracking my workouts as I am my gas usage. For me, a user-friendly tool makes a big difference. Can anyone recommend a high-quality Web 2.0 fitness tracking tool (preferably a free one)? I've looked at Traineo and a couple of others, but wanted to see if the hive mind could come up with a strong recommendation. If you can let me know why you've stuck with it (or why you've dropped it, if it's a negative review), I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Good video gone bad in cheesy tool chain?

jet_silver — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:15:22 -0800

Knowing when to stop (fiddling with video) - MPEG-1 to (Mac) desktop I have four short clips taken with my Sony DSC-T77. The clips are fine for my intended use. Streamclip says these are MPEG-1 clips. It will convert them to .mov and to .avi. These converted clips have quality similar to the originals.

iMovie will accept the .mov clips but not the originals, and the editing I want to do on the clips - concatenating, adding slugs and the like - is pretty easy for a n00b. The issue is that the "share" output to a .dv or Quicktime file looks dreadful - fuzzy, blocky. Even the CG-type stuff looks jaggy and that's created right in iMovie. I have twiddled the output settings from iMovie and haven't gotten anywhere near the right look - the .avi files converted look way better and are much more compact to boot.

Should I quit fooling with these tools? "What you're trying to do won't work and cannot be made to work" would be unfortunate-but-a-relief. I am OK with giving up on this editing project and sending the .avi files separately. If there's a way to do this work that costs <USD100 then that would be bonus information.

Where to look for professional resources in quality assurance and control?

nanojath — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:21:20 -0800

Looking for professional resources in quality assurance and control. I've gotten into a career in quality assurance and control pretty much by chance. I'm thinking about the intentional pursuit of professional development in this field. The contributions of anyone who has education and/or work experience in the field (or works closely with QA/QC professionals) would be appreciated.

1. How portable is QA/QC experience? My thinking about this was encouraged by a conversation with someone in a very different industry than mine (he is in project management for engineers, I'm in calibration and testing for scientific instrumentation) and I was surprised by his opinion that I could have reasonable access to jobs in his industry. Is this opinion valid? Is there a lot of crossover of QA/QC professionals between quite disparate industries?

2. One of the reasons I'm wondering about portability is that I'm pondering the value of pursuing education with a more generalist perspective. Any thoughts about the value and validity of education - degrees certainly, but anything accelerated and self-study and test-based would be particularly suited to my situation. I'm wondering though whether the sorts of professional certificates I'm seeing based on passing tests that cost a few hundred dollars are really worth much in the real world. Any thoughts about selecting particular programs, certificates, providers would be great. Also, under the aim high category, any recognized institutions/programs that are sort of "gold standards" for the field? Finally, any input on the relative value of specific quality management systems, e.g. Six Sigma.

3. Professional societies or similar resources. My education is in chemistry and as far as professional societies went, basically the American Chemical Society was THE generalist professional society in the field. Is there a similar society in QA/QC? I found the American Society for Quality, are there others I should be looking at? Other resources (periodicals, secret handshakes) that enjoy a sterling reputation?

4. Finally, any good books in the field, particularly that treat the kind of general philosophy of quality management or that address general technical subjects with broad applicability (e.g. statistical tools). Big bonus points if they contain a certain amount of humor and/or style. I find the topics are pretty interesting when you dig into them but my God, the literature of the field is dry.

Is there a high quality repository of art images?

Leech — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:52:08 -0800

Is there a website or anything with high quality art images? All kind of artists, from Picasso to Hundertwasser. I think there should be a torrent tracker or anything related to art/artists.

Colour quality with inkjet printer (Canon).

purephase — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:52:38 -0800

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to improve the colour quality on a Canon MP-series printer? This is printing from Photoshop/Illustrator CS (both CS and CS3) and Mac (Panther and Leopard). The two specific models that I've tried are the MP-500 and MP-600.

Other colours appear to be fine but red is more rust coloured. I've tried using coloursync and tweaking in Bridge to no avail.

Is this a common issue with Canon or inkjet printers? Is it simply because it is a lower-end printer model?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Upgrade Me!

Balonious Assault — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:03:22 -0800

Can you suggest some replacements for standard, everyday household items that are far superior in terms of usefulness, luxuriousness and quality? A while back I got some Egyptian cotton bed linens with a ridiculously high thread count, and now I sleep like a baby and wonder how I ever got a full night's sleep on anything else. Another time I bought an expensive water-resistant fabric liner for my shower curtain, because I needed a liner and it was the only thing they had at the store. Now I'll never go back to the yucky vinyl liners. A few months ago my shower head broke, and I replaced it with a removable hand-held massaging shower wand, which has drastically improved the quality of my shower time.

What other upgrades should I consider? There are some excellent ideas in these threads but money isn't necessarily an object, nor am I really looking for new items to add to my collection of stuff. Just top quality upgrades for ordinary household items. The more specific, the better. Thanks!

I Want Quality to Kick Quantity's Ass

antisocialstudies — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:26:01 -0800

Help me extract more quality from the quantity of the Information Age, especially as regards my leisure time. I recently received a promotion that seemed initially fortuitous but is now eating up more and more hours in my day with every passing week. In that context, I find myself newly wondering: how do I, amidst the overwhelming mass of life and leisure options already offered up by the Information Age, best separate the wheat from the chaff, the cream from the crop, and the ones from the zeros? In other (less cheeky) words: how can I distill the most quality out of the ginormous quantity of shite that bombards us every day, when I - like you, no doubt - have less and less leisure time as it is?

Here are some examples of strategies I'm already implementing (or contemplating) toward this end: 1) I generally won't see a movie anymore unless it has a 60+ rating on metacritic.com (after all, two lost hours is too much to risk on a crap film in today's time-starved world). 2) Rather than watching a news program, I'm starting to think, "If any part of this show is REALLY good or noteworthy, I'll read about it later on a message board or see it on youtube." 3) Yes, I already own a Tivo, and it is a must for time-crunched leisure obsessives like myself (by fast-fwding between plays, I can watch an entire football game in under 45 minutes!). 4) When I'm reading a really old ask.mefi question, sometimes I only read the answers that were favorited (scandalous, I know).

Stuff like that. My interests are wide-ranging, so any tip that the hive mind has to offer about maximizing QPM (quality per minute) is likely to help, regardless of the subject matter or medium.

(p.s. I've read a ton of threads here about GTD and maximizing efficiency, so I'm not looking for that kind of info per se.)

Quality goods made by real people

dance — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:36:19 -0800

Talented people making high quality goods (belts, wooden objects, pens, misc leather items , clothes, manuscript books, etc) at reasonable prices. A recent askme thread whetted my appetite for lovingly crafted objects created by real people who have a talent and a passion for their work, and are maybe selling on eBay...or via a personal website.
These things are perhaps made simply but effectively, or in a traditional way - and the seller's aim is usually not massive profit but just to see their quality goods used by happy customers.

Or maybe people who refurbish antiques, get them working again and sell them on?

A real world example is a man called David Naish who sells his high quality leather wallets, belts, pouches etc from a bridge in Jesmond Dene, Newcastle, England for very small amounts of money.

Where can I find high-resolution music videos?

sunimplodes — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:30:06 -0800

Where can I find high-quality, downloadable music videos for free? I have a low-key DJ night once a week at a small bar, and I want to do a theme night, where we project music videos onto a small screen. I've put together a long list of videos I want to play, and now comes the task of locating them.

I've found .mov files of a few of them, and I've used Firefox extensions to download .flv files from Youtube, but they're generally of a pretty low resolution. Is there a site somewhere where I can find downloadable, high-res music video?

Why does TV video appear so different than that which is produced with normal video camcorder?

torpark — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:14:32 -0800

Why does TV video appear so different than that which is produced with normal video camcorder? I am wondering why videos produced for TV appear not only smoother, but have a very "distant" or unreal sense to them, whereas videos recorded by camcorder appear very raw and real like the way they happen in reality. I am not referring to the jitter caused by holding a camera, of course, but the different "quality" and properties that tv produced videos have. This is especially visible when you see low-budget commercials for cars/furniture, then back to regular TV quality. Is it the framerate, is it "hd" resolution, is it the photosensors, is it the lighting, is it interlace, is it tweening?

How do I report a doctor for bad care?

hal_c_on — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:27:39 -0800

I just had a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE experience with a doctor. This is the reason most people do NOT go to doctors. It kinda makes me not want to go to a doctor. Let me give you the whole story so you can assess the situation, get really mad, and provide me with constructive advice. If you don't feel like reading it all, scroll to the bottom and tell me what I should do if I am unsatisfied with the quality of care from a doctor. So within the last 6 months, I noticed a LOT of symptoms, including a DRAMATIC weight gain over 60 days ( I'm 30 years old, and started off weighing 140-145 lbs..it has NEVER gone over 150 lbs, but suddenly I gained about 30-35 lbs for a total of 175+).

Without going into too many details about the symptoms, so that everyone on the 'net knows what I have. I looked into it (webmd, mayo clinic, wikipedia), and said "wow...these are the same symptoms another member of my family had before being diagnosed with condition X". Maybe I have it too. I looked into patterns of inheritance...yes, it is possible.

So I found an Internal Medicine doctor through my insurance (BCBS-PPO), called them up, and scheduled an appointment. At the office, the medical assistants/nurses checked my weight and blood pressure, and told me to wait in the room.

I'll be honest, I didn't know what the hell to do in the room. The last time I went for a physical was 10 years ago. As I waited there for 15-20 minutes, I wondered if I should take my clothes off, or not...or what? Maybe the nurse/assistant forgot to tell me where those robes that don't cover your butt are stored, etc. In the end, I decided to keep my clothes on because the other option would have been a LOT more embarrassing if I was mistaken. When it doubt, don't let it hang out.

So the doctor came in, didn't introduce herself, and went to work. She listened to my heart and lungs, made me follow her finger with my eyes, and did some simple reflex tests. I started to talk to her at this point, told her about my DRAMATIC weight gain (w/o any change of diet/lifestyle), and she just IGNORED all my symptoms. She asked about my exercise habits, and I told her they haven't changed in 10 years. "Maybe you need to exercise more". The visit with the doctor took less than 5 minutes.

"Maybe, but theres no way that would explain 30+ lbs in 60 days", I said.

"You're probably not exercising correctly". She said.

"Possibly, but that still cannot account for the weight gain in such a short period. It could also be condition X that another member of my family has".

"No, men don't get that", she said.

"Actually, its rare, but men DO get it", I came back with.

"Yes, I know, I'm the doctor". Ummm ok...what the heck do I say to her?

"So can you give me some blood tests, because I still think something is off".

"Ok, but you really need to exercise differently", she said. "You're getting older".

So I left the office, feeling like I'm dumb, fat, and old (I'm 30...I don't look old. I get ID'd all over the place). I went over to the lab and gave them my blood.

I joined a gym, and started working out hardcore. 2 hours each day, with 30-45 min of cardio EVERYDAY. During those cardio sessions my HR averages 145, and it maxes out at 171. I really am working out. After 2 weeks...no change in weight. Highly unusual. Whenever I want to lose 5-10 lbs, I go to the gym, hit a treadmill regularly for 2-3 weeks, and I shed weight like crazy. This time, its not working.

I also kept tabs on what I ate. I eat about 1800 calories a day, spaced out in about 5 meals. Thats how I've been eating. I also have a fairly healthy diet (vegetarian except for fish and eggs, no fast food).

The next week, I called the doctor's office and asked them about the blood tests. They told me that they can't release it over the phone, but if a doc didn't call me, its "probably fine". Umm, ok. So I came in that same day to get a copy of my blood test, and doctor's report. The report had NOTHING about what I talked about except that I was overweight (Alright, I'm a fatty...sigh). Everything on the blood test looks good (within range)...except for ONE test. I looked that up, and BAM...there it is. It confirmed my suspicion of condition X.

Still no call from the doctor, though.

I went in for a second opinion to another doctor. As soon as he came in, I said "I'm here for a second opinion. I believe I have condition X, "

"What makes you say that", said the new doctor.

"Well I have symptoms, symptoms, symptoms, and 30+ lbs weight gain over 60 days".

"Wow...thats over 20% of your weight in less than 2 months...bodybuilders would want to do that, except it looks like it wasn't muscle (thanks again, I'm such a fatty). Well the first thing we would need to do is some blood tests" said the doc.

"I have some from 3 weeks ago right here".

Within 30 seconds of looking through it, he goes 'WHOA, this is 4 times higher than average...you actually DO have condition x. Why did you not tell your doctor about these symptoms?"

"I did...she neglected to give them any weight, and even didn't write them down on the report. She just told me I needed to exercise'

"What did you say when she called you with the test results?", asked the doctor.

"Umm, she never called me...I had to go get them myself."

"Wow", said the doctor.

He took another blood sample, and prescribed me some meds...and told me I will need to come in monthly to see if I'm getting the right dosage, and vary if I'm not. He also said I will probably be on these meds for the rest of my life. Great. The good news is, that this should correct the symptoms I have been having, and I should see my weight back to normal by summertime.

In any case, had I NOT taken the initiative to get the blood test results from the first doc, and taken them to another doc for the second opinion, I wouldn't have found this out until something REALLY bad happened and a competent doctor would have done the test AND FOLLOWED up, or for another 10 years when decide to go to another doctor.

So now, I'm going to write professional, yet critical letter to the doctor, CCing her medical group, and the insurance company. Is this what I'm supposed to do? Is anything going to happen?

WHAT CAN I DO? I'm not suing for money, I just want to do something so this doesn't happen again with this doctor. It was this doctor's bedside manner, and attitude that made me think "Wow...I totally remember why I don't to the doctor every year". I also totally understand why some people say "I don't go to the doctor...I hate doctors". What I used to think was an ignorant attitude towards medicine, now seems legitimate if all the doctors were like my first doc.

If I was treated that way, I'm sure others are treated that way; thats just neglect. I checked the insurance to see the doc's bill. The insurance paid $155(for the doc, not the blood tests), I also paid $20 copay for a total of $175. $175 for a 3 minute visit, and a diagnosis of "FATTY!"

What can I do, who can I report this to? Is writing a letter to the doctor too small, is writing a letter to the AMA too big? Would sending it to the insurance company do anything? Where in Blue Cross/Blue Shield do I send it to? HELP!

Toxic Inhahler

glibhamdreck — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:22:02 -0800

Where can I learn more about professional (or semi-professional) equipment for testing the levels of indoor air toxins like carbon monoxide, radon, mold, VOCs, etc.? Here's a Talk of the Nation show that addresses the need, if it helps.

Where can I find no-nonsense, scientific analysis of important issues, practical advice, and forecasts for the future?

lunchbox — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 08:40:39 -0800

Where can I find no-nonsense, scientific analysis of important issues, practical advice, and forecasts for the future? I love reading analysis of current events, especially in technology, business, economics, and politics. I am especially interested in information that is practical for my life: predictions for the future, advice on what is important to do/learn about, and so on. But I am getting sick of all the hype and uninformed speculation. Even in "intelligent" publications like the New York Times, most analysis articles seem to be for the purpose of entertainment: they reflect the whim of the writer, not the results of years of research. So instead of reading an article written by a top journalist, I would want to read an article written by a top academic/industry expert. (Or an article that summarizes the opinions of the top academic/industry experts.)

Here's a perfect example: Let's say I want to understand the implications of Microsoft's bid for Yahoo. Instead of reading analysis in Wired, the New York Times, or Slashdot, I would want to read the following Gartner article. However, I want this kind of thing for all fields, not just technology. For example, I would want to know:

-What are the most important developments in different areas of science, business, and technology, and what are the projections for the future?
-What do the top 100 academic experts think about issues like global warming, gun control, economic policy, and so on?
-What information do I need to know to be more productive and successful in my day-to-day life? (E.g. as a consumer, technology user, investor, citizen.) How are people or organizations trying to fool/trick me? (cf. "Influence" book linked to below)
-What are the most surprising or counter-intuitive facts I'm probably not aware of? (Freakonomics-type stuff)
-Projections for future political events, like: "Who is more electable: Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?" (Justified by poll data, statistical analysis broken down by who is projected to win the swing states, etc.)

I'm looking for information that is presented rigorously and if possible justified quantitatively, yet in a concise and accessible form, it to be accessible for people who aren't specialists in this field.

Now, here are some examples of sources of information that at least partly fit my description:

Economist Intelligence Unit
Edge.org
Lifehacker
Intrade.com
HowStuffWorks.com
Gartner
The Wall Street Journal

Books:
Influence: The Hidden Psychology of Persuasion
Freakonomics

Hive Mind, what sources of information can you think of?

Toga! Toga!

I_Love_Bananas — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:31:16 -0800

Source for better-quality womens' Roman toga-type costumes? Can anyone point me to an online source for higher-quality costumes of the Roman-toga-goddess-type?

All I can seem to find are the cheapo kind like this or this. The second one is what I got stuck with and it's hideous. While these may be OK for Halloween, they are definitely not for 12 performances of a musical requiring lots of activity.

It needs to be full-length and NOT made out of that practically transparent crappy nylon or horrible faux-velvet. I will pay for quality but I can't find it. It also must be available in large-size (women's 18/20 or 22/24) since we need one for a man to wear as well.