Re: Suuuuuuuuper Bowl
At 09:53 PM 1/26/2003 -0600, you wrote: Robert Seeberger wrote: Let us all drop on bended knee and bow our heads in the direction of Tampa Bay. The Bucs rule. Now, Tampa Bay is east of here, right? Do I have to get it within 2 compass degrees, or is just making sure my body is parallel to the south wall of the house sufficient? Julia The super bowl was won by what may be the stupidest team ever, Dexter Manley not withstanding*. The after game interviews, and some of the pregame info, was cringe worthy. Kevin T. *Whatever that means ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms]
Bob Zimm [you never sign your messages. I never know how to address you] wrote: I could not enjoy the story because the science was so flawed. Darwin is turning over in his grave the way his theory was abused. :-))) So I guess you hated the Uplift books because the science is also flawed, with the 17 or so ways of cheating Einstein? I must confess that it took me a strong will to get past the few chapters of Darwin's Radio. What I hated was the use of those horrible imperial units everywhere. The notion that the genome can respond by producing an evolutionary jump means that the genome has to anticipate future problems but whether or not a gene will be improve an organism's survival is totally dependent upon the environment (including of course all of the organisms in the local ecosystem). But isn't speciation itself a jump? You can't change from a being with, say, 44 chromosomes per cell to a being with 46 without a jump. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Worm May Attack Again Monday
I spent the weekend dealing with the aftereffects of this, since it appears the IT team at my employer did NOT bother to download the free security patch for their SQL systems, including the database the has all of the maps used in my department to determine how close excavation activity is to our underground fiber systems. Feh. Farkin' idjits. Adam C. Lipscomb [EMAIL PROTECTED] Silence. I am watching television. - Spider Jerusalem ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
bush throwing away more tax dollars
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030123_1515.html Bush Plan: HUD Funds for Faith Groups Bush Administration Plan Would Allow Religious Groups Access to Federal Housing Money The Associated Press WASHINGTON Jan. 23 The Bush administration wants to give religious organizations access to federal housing money that could be used to erect or refurbish buildings where religious activities are held, so long as the groups also provide social services in those buildings. Critics say the proposal, part of an array of faith-based initiatives pushed by President Bush the past two years, comes perilously close to crossing the constitutional divide between church and state and may foster discrimination by religious groups against people of other faiths. This is destroying the notion that government and religion should remain separate, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Thursday. But federal housing officials say the proposal would eliminate bias against religious groups that offer social services like homeless shelters and soup kitchens. We are just leveling the playing field. This is part of an overall effort to end discrimination against faith-based organizations, said Housing and Urban Development Department spokeswoman Diane Tomb. The proposal, published Jan. 6 in the Federal Register, covers programs that administer about $7.7 billion a year to communities. Exact guidelines are being worked out, said HUD general counsel Richard Hauser. However, he said the proposed changes may, for example, let an organization use funding to build or renovate a room that is used sometimes as a homeless shelter, sometimes for church activities. Or a group could use federal money to renovate a basement into a soup kitchen and private funds for a church upstairs, officials said. We don't have all the answers right now but we are on the right track .. to removing some of these barriers, Hauser said. Religious groups that take HUD money would retain their independence and be allowed to express their beliefs as long as the funds do not directly support activities such as worship or religious instruction. If the organization engages in such activities, the activities must be offered separately, in time or location, from the programs or services funded with HUD assistance, according to the proposed guidelines in the Federal Register. Hauser said the government would make sure guidelines are followed in part by sending local HUD officials to inspect sites and relying on reports from the groups. Anyone who receives services from the religious group must not be required to participate in any religious activity, and a religious group also may not discriminate based on religion against someone seeking help, HUD has said. Frank said there was no way to ensure that such discrimination would not occur, and he questioned the government's role in policing the groups to make certain guidelines are followed. This is taxpayer funding for the expansion of churches and clearly a violation of the division of church and state, said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. It's utterly impossible to monitor the use of such funds. The government is accepting public comment on the proposal until March 7. The change is subject to final approval from federal officials. On the Net: HUD: http//www.hud.gov/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
colorado throwing away tax dollars on national motto
More forced religious indoctrination: http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/news_columnists/article/0,1713,BDC_2421_169 3149,00.html The bill's stated purpose is to foster patriotism, inculcate hope, express confidence in the future and acknowledge the historical role of faith in our society. Apparently, coins and bills lack the currency to convey these messages. So the bill proposes to spend as much as $400,000 to erect the national motto in about 4,000 state buildings. That state-only figure does not include the cost of making and installing a display in every local-government building and each public classroom. The University of Colorado's Boulder campus has about 196 buildings. The city has something like 300. Together, their motto liability could approach $50,000. But that's a comparative trifle. The Boulder Valley School District has about 1,570 classrooms. Assuming the state's cost estimates applied to the school district, Senate Bill 1128 would force the district to spend about $157,000. Statewide, the school-district tab could run as high as $4 million. Incidentally, public money is scarce. Local governments, school districts and the state itself are nuking employees, programs and basic services. What better time to impose new fiscal burdens? Since schools and governments are already hacking, they can just cut deeper. After all, we must express confidence in the future. You see, the future will have fewer teachers, more unemployment and decaying social services. The national motto, visibly and frequently exhibited, will surely blunt the pain. But why stop there? The state could require that every public document from each driver's license application to the state budget include the national motto on each page. School children could be forced to recite the national motto after the Pledge of Allegiance but before singing God Bless America. Additionally, questions of the national-motto ilk could become part of the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests. Schools with sub-par scores on the CSAP's patriotism test would lose state funding. Their principals could be tried for treason. The national-motto bill is inspired. You just have to have faith. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
The EU is utterly godless. Let's keep it that way
http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/joan_smith/story.jsp? story=371878 The EU is utterly godless. Let's keep it that way Its secular values are inclusive, focusing on those ideals the majority agree on, not what divides us Joan Smith 23 January 2003 Should God have an official role in Europe? It may seem a strange question in a world where church attendance and traditional forms of Christian belief are in decline. Yet a movement whose aim is to include explicit references to God in future European treaties is gathering pace, with the support of Anglican bishops and the Vatican. And it has been given a boost by the prospect of Poland, with its largely Roman Catholic population, joining the EU in 2004. Until now, debates about the role of religion in the EU have centred on the admission of Turkey, a secular state with an overwhelmingly Islamic population. Some European politicians are anxious about the inclusion of a country in which religion plays such a large part, and moves by the Anglican and Catholic churches to include elements of the Polish constitution which explicitly recognises God in future treaties are bound to be seized on as evidence of a plot to give Christianity a privileged place in the EU. The extent to which churches are working to this end has emerged only in the last month. Last week the Vatican received a delegation from a lay group, Christians for Europe, whose aim is to have Christianity mentioned in the European constitution being drawn up under the aegis of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican secretary of relations with states, urged the group to co-operate with other Christian faiths and to work in European countries where de-Christianisation or militant laicism is very strong. Christians for Europe has influential support at the top of the EU, with Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, recently writing a letter in support of their work. What they and other Christian organisations are arguing for is a clause in the preamble to the EU constitution that would recognise the values of those who believe in God as the source of truth, justice, good and beauty as well as of those who do not share such a belief but respect these universal values arising from other sources. However anodyne this sounds, its underlying intentions an attempt to halt the spread of secularism and to reinstate God at the heart of Europe are clear. Supporters are careful not to mention Christianity too openly, but references to Europe's religious inheritance which is undeniably Christian give the game away. In a House of Lords debate two weeks ago, for example, Baroness Hooper argued that an absence of any reference to churches or religious communities in the new constitution would create a vacuum, given their real significance to society as a whole, to the values and identities on which society is based and to the Union's relationship to its citizens. She also spoke about the religious heritage of Europe as essential elements of European identity, which clearly has very little to do with other faiths such as Islam or Hinduism. In the same debate, Christopher Herbert, the Bishop of St Albans, said that his experience of European institutions is that God is simply discounted and denied 'Laicity rules OK' and that secularist ideologies of governance are becoming stridently and assertively exclusive. He also complained that Europe's political architecture wilfully denies the possibility of God as well as beliefs about human dignity and worth and purpose that have helped to shape Europe for the best part of 2,000 years. The problem is that many people who live in EU countries either do not believe in God or are agnostic. They would argue that Christianity's role in politics has been bitterly divisive, both in Europe itself where Protestants and Catholics spent years tearing at each others' throats and in terms of its relations with the Islamic world. And while some Muslims might welcome a non-specific religious clause in the new constitution, they are hardly likely to share the bishop's benign view of Christianity in the last two millennia, which encompasses the Crusades. But the argument about whether to include religion in the EU constitution goes beyond questions of history. It is also about the role of Christianity in societies where many people a minority, but a very significant one neither believe in God nor wish to see a belief in supernatural beings given official status. This is not an attempt to deny anyone religious freedom, which is already (and rightly) enshrined in various European conventions and treaties, but to argue that institutionalising religion in this way is both unnecessary and offensive. For while there are many values on which believers and non-believers can agree democracy, freedom of expression, freedom from torture and other degrading treatment it is not the case that all elements of
RE: The EU is utterly godless. Let's keep it that way
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of The Fool ... For while there are many values on which believers and non-believers can agree democracy, freedom of expression, freedom from torture and other degrading treatment it is not the case that all elements of Christian morality are either universal or uncontentious. The churches' teachings on contraception, abortion and homosexuality are unacceptable to many of us, who would like to see religious thinkers have less influence, not more, on matters of social policy. Which churches? I think that perhaps the author meant the Church, as in Church of Rome, since it has among the most conservative teachings in these areas. There are plenty of churches and Christians -- and Roman Catholics! -- who disagree with those teachings. And many who believe that far too much emphasis is placed on them, when the centerpieces of Christianity are love, forgiveness and compassion. That is why the EU's secular values, which create a balance between the rights of believers and non-believers, must be defended. They are inclusive, focusing on those ideals the vast majority of us agree on, instead of what divides us. It would be madness at this point in history, when religion is as disruptive a force as it ever was, to create an unnecessary dispute within the EU about the existence or otherwise of God. Amen! Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars)
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of The Fool ... The Bush administration wants to give religious organizations access to federal housing money that could be used to erect or refurbish buildings where religious activities are held, so long as the groups also provide social services in those buildings. Wow -- if taxes end up being raised to support construction of enormous church structures erected mainly to show off the power of its leaders to the people, we certainly will have failed to learn from the past. Those who do not remember Santayana are doomed to repeat history... But federal housing officials say the proposal would eliminate bias against religious groups that offer social services like homeless shelters and soup kitchens. We are just leveling the playing field. This is part of an overall effort to end discrimination against faith-based organizations, said Housing and Urban Development Department spokeswoman Diane Tomb. While we're at it, why don't we use tax dollars to fund the media, too. Oh, wait, we do, by protecting the media giants from competition. Where did this administration forget that it's dangerous to concentrate power? Or do they think that humanity suddenly became immune to corruption? They don't seem to have that attitude toward their opponents, only themselves. How will they ensure that church funding will not just go to those institutions that are politically aligned with the in-power party? That would be quite at odds with the way things go in secular political funding! Where would they stand if the majority (or even a large minority) of this federal money goes to liberal churches? Will they set up these programs to prevent or discourage that? We don't have all the answers right now but we are on the right track .. to removing some of these barriers, Hauser said. Is that a pun? The right track? ;-) Religious groups that take HUD money would retain their independence and be allowed to express their beliefs as long as the funds do not directly support activities such as worship or religious instruction. Aw, come on. Anybody who's done an organizational budget knows what kind of perfectly legitimate accounting will allow this money to leak pretty far across that line. Non-profits deal with restricted funds in all sorts of creative ways. So we'll have *auditors* determining what is or is not worship??? Obviously, I'm strongly in favor of social services; the non-profit where I've been a board member for a decade has received quite a bit of federal funding, though the Commerce Department. And I'm quite involved in my church. Both are values-driven organizations whose missions rise above the financial bottom line. But I'm quite happy seeing them kept completely separate from each other and wouldn't want either one to become dependent on public funding. Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: First real post - Hugo Noms
I've never sold anything, but I've found many books that I wanted, and now have, in my collection at abebooks.com. Great service. George A - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:01 AM Subject: Re: First real post - Hugo Noms In a message dated 1/26/2003 4:22:14 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Try www.abebooks.com which is linked to addall.com/used, which also has alibris and powells and I took my books off of ABE as Alibris works on payment to them only on what sells. William Taylor - Every used bookstore needs a gargoyle with glasses reading a book in the rafters. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Catholics Could Lose Seal of Confession
Bradford DeLong wrote: But when the Knights Templar were suppressed by Philip the Fair of France and Pope Clement V in 1307, one of the charges was that the Templars confessed only to each other and not to other priests--so that nobody outside the order knew what horrible and foul things were going on within the order. I refuse to listen to any further slander against my people. En garde, sirrah! ;-) Jim Templar Sharkey Are you suggesting Pope Clement V lied? :-) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: An Ebay question (was Re: First real post - Hugo Noms)
-Original Message- From: Jim Sharkey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 06:49 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: An Ebay question (was Re: First real post - Hugo Noms) Andrew Crystall wrote: How many of you, as a matter of interest, buy books on Ebay? How many of you have SOLD them on Ebay? I don't sell on eBay, but I buy on occasion. The only books I purchase on eBay are normally comics or RPG books, [...] Ditto. I think I'm contractually obligated to buy/sell on Amazon if I can't find it on eBay. -j- ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Colleges Offer Students Privacy
From The New York Times. BOSTON Jaron Friedman, a senior at Boston University, has done his time in the traditional dormitory double: a 180-square-foot box with a stranger in the next bed his video-game-addicted sophomore roommate was probably one of the worst roommates anyone on this campus has ever had and a bathroom down the hall shared by 24 underclassmen. Now, Mr. Friedman says, I want my own bedroom, my own bathroom, my own space. Boston University, which is trying to keep students on campus, is eager to give Mr. Friedman what he wants. This year he is in the $81 million high-rise apartment the university opened two years ago overlooking the Charles River. The 817 juniors and seniors in residence, men and women, all have their own bedrooms, in four-bedroom apartments. Mr. Friedman does share a bathroom with one of his three suitemates, but he is hardly complaining. The 1,200-square-foot apartment has two bathrooms and a kitchen and oversized dining/living room (with spectacular views of Boston and Cambridge). All this costs Mr. Friedman $8,680 a year (on top of the $27,042 tuition), about $1,400 more than student housing where he would share a bedroom and considerably less than a similar apartment off campus. Mr. Friedman says the privacy is worth every penny. The roommate, a source of vivid memories for generations of former students, is no longer the staple of campus life it once was. Students like Mr. Friedman, who grew up with their own bedrooms in the prosperous 1990's, are increasingly demanding and willingly paying for the same privacy they had at home. Colleges have always offered single rooms, and students have long moved off campus in search of greater privacy. But for the last decade, colleges across the country, in a high-priced competition for students who may be just as concerned with residential amenities as they are with the number of volumes in the library, have been responding by creating housing in which the single bedroom is the mainstay. College administrators say they feel compelled, in part, to create more singles to keep students, mainly upperclassmen, on campus, where they will be more engaged in college life. In addition, the revenue that would go to private landlords is attractive. The new buildings are called residence halls or even living/learning centers. (Do not call them dorms; to housing officials and builders, the term is as obsolete as the dorm mother or the telephone down the hall.) Students often live in suites, where they share living rooms and, sometimes, kitchens, but can retreat to their own bedrooms, with their own computers, television sets, DVD players and telephones. It's a statement about the affluence of America, said William Rawn, a Boston architect who is building residence halls, many of them with single bedrooms, at Northeastern University here in Boston, Trinity College in Hartford, Amherst, Swarthmore and Grinnell College, in Iowa. And part of that affluence is that we lose the ability to share. College administrators, already concerned about the effect of technology on community life, say they worry that the new emphasis on single bedrooms will give students one more reason to hole up alone in their rooms. Some colleges are resisting the trend. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, a new institution in Needham, Mass., opened its first student residence last summer with all double rooms. There is concern among college officials nationwide that as colleges have moved to more and more single rooms that students are interacting with fewer and fewer people in the hall, said Sharon Herzberger, vice president of student life at Trinity College, which three years ago opened two new residence halls with all single bedrooms. This is exacerbated by the fact that students can now watch DVD's on their computer screens. It used to be that people would congregate down the hall in the lounge and watch TV and make popcorn as a study break. Now you can do all that in your own room. When I went to Aberdeen University in the 1970's every freshman got a private study-bedroom in a hall of residence. This was before the personal computer, but students had their own hifis and tvs. The university had started building these halls in the mid 60's. The idea of sharing a room at university would seem pretty odd at most British universities for the last 30 years. What next from the USA - indoor plumbing ? :) -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ Putting an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of keyboards will _not_ result in the greatest work of all time. Just look at Windows. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Beware new Nigerian Bush spam scam
http://212.100.234.54/content/28/29034.html I AM GEORGE WALKER BUSH, SON OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, AND CURRENTLY SERVING AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS LETTER MIGHT SURPRISE YOU BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT MET NEITHER IN PERSON NOR BY CORRESPONDENCE. I CAME TO KNOW OF YOU IN MY SEARCH FOR A RELIABLE AND REPUTABLE PERSON TO HANDLE A VERY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS TRANSACTION, WHICH INVOLVES THE TRANSFER OF A HUGE SUM OF MONEY TO AN ACCOUNT REQUIRING MAXIMUM CONFIDENCE. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ A computer without Windows is like a cake without mustard. - anonymous ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Listref] Environment
--- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: Some of today's posts in this thread are not in the spirit of IAAMOAC, re: personal attacks. :( Some posts in this thread by people with initials such as D.H. are not in the spirit of clear thinking but instead make useless, broad generalizations rather than giving specific, useful examples to support a point. :( Are you saying that my post was directed at you, among others? If the shoe fits... ;) I Was Not Alone In That Observation Maru __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: protein destroys up to 70% of cancer cells
--- The Fool [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Protein 'makes cancer cells self-destruct' A protein has been discovered which causes cancer cells to self-destruct. US researchers have discovered it destroys up to 70% of cancer cells. It regulates the production of a key enzyme involved in the generation of blood vessels which feed cancer cells' growth. The enzyme is Cox-2, which is already known to play a role in causing arthritis... snip Dr Elaine Vickers, information officer for Cancer Research UK, said: There has been much interest recently in the molecule Cox-2 because it is found in high levels in some cancers. A number of clinical trials are ongoing in the UK investigating the effectiveness of drugs that block Cox-2 in bowel cancer. This research has a lot of potential. Aspirin, which blocks both Cox-1 and -2 action, has been noted to reduce the risk of bowel cancer and (probably) Alzheimer's disease, as well as coronary artery disease. A short introductory article about antiinflammatories: www.nsaid.net/ Debbi __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Suuuuuuuuper Bowl
Ronn! Blankenship wrote: At 06:04 AM 1/27/03 -0500, Kevin Tarr wrote: The after game interviews, [ ] was cringe worthy. One word for ABC: Heidi. Not Even The First View Of Jennifer Garner Was Worth The Waste Of Time Maru Guess I'm glad we started getting Sammy ready for bed just a little ways into the trophy presentation. Brad Johnson has a cute kid, though. Anyone else remark on that during the milling about before the award presentation? Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Spammers with no shame
--- William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Julia Thompson at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip p.s. anyone, recommend one of her books to me if you'd like, OK? The Witch World series is her best known work (Witch World, Web of the Witch World, Year of the Unicorn, ... and a dozen or so more). _Beast Master_ has the title and some cute animals in common with the film, and not much else. I really enjoyed the Witch World series (and IIRC there is some crossover with the Kerovan-and-Joisan stories as well). _Beast Master_ was a much darker book, with the protagonist suffering from the destruction of his home planet. (IIRC his 'telempathy' with his animal friends is all that keeps him from succumbing to utter despair.) I Need To Reread Some Of These Maru __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Weirdness
I just got glasses with a new prescription. To be exact, a new prescription for just one eye, the other is the same as it was before. If I look with just one eye or the other, everything seems reasonable. If I look with both eyes, the floor, the bottom of the monitor screen, the diningroom table, etc., anything below eye level which *should* be level seems to slope up to the right (or down to the left, however you want to look at it). I think at this point it's a problem of training my brain a bit. This will be fun (Not as much fun, though, as having to adjust between contacts and glasses, where they can make the glasses in the exact prescription needed and the contacts aren't available in the exact prescription for one eye, which is what Dan deals with on a weekly basis. I'm having a lot more empathy for his position than usual right now!) Julia who had let it go too long before eye exams before, actually ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Fareed Zakaria on Iraq
http://www.msnbc.com/news/864430.asp An excellent article. Zakaria needs no introduction, but I'll give a short one anyways. He's currently the editor of Newsweek International and formerly the editor of Foreign Affairs. He got his PhD at Harvard studying under Stanley Hoffmann and Sam Huntington, and his dissertation was turned into a really excellent book, _From Wealth to Power_. He's occasionaly referred to as the man most likely to be the first Indian Secretary of State. I like to think that he's the man _second_ most likely to claim that title, but that's just me :-) His brother, btw, is the head of Merrill Lynch, so they're sure one heck of a family. Gautam __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
William T Goodall wrote: When I went to Aberdeen University in the 1970's every freshman got a private study-bedroom in a hall of residence. This was before the personal computer, but students had their own hifis and tvs. The university had started building these halls in the mid 60's. The idea of sharing a room at university would seem pretty odd at most British universities for the last 30 years. What next from the USA - indoor plumbing ? :) When I was at uni, also in the 70's, we had the exact arrangement discussed in the article - little towers like mini-apartment blocks, with 4 rooms per floor and a common bathroom shared between the 4 residents of that floor. The kitchen and common room was one per tower, or 17 students (the kitchen floor also housed a third year student who acted as a leader/mentor to the young 'uns. There was also a big dining hall and big common rooms for the whole residential college (which was one of ten colleges on the university grounds). The idea of a room-mate as per American TV/movies always seemed so awful I didn't really think it was real. Cheers Russell C. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Listref] Environment
On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 01:00:30PM -0800, Deborah Harrell wrote: I Was Not Alone In That Observation Maru Neither are lemmings... -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Weirdness
On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 04:27:45PM -0600, Julia Thompson wrote: I just got glasses with a new prescription. To be exact, a new prescription for just one eye, the other is the same as it was before. If I look with just one eye or the other, everything seems reasonable. If I look with both eyes, the floor, the bottom of the monitor screen, the diningroom table, etc., anything below eye level which *should* be level seems to slope up to the right (or down to the left, however you want to look at it). I think at this point it's a problem of training my brain a bit. Ummm, I'd check with the optician before doing that training, to make sure there were no mistakes made in the glasses. It doesn't sound right to me. -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Now I know I am a Netizen!
--- J. van Baardwijk wrote: Debbi Harrell wrote: The Old Ones Made Me Do It Maru Ah yes, the classic blame it on your parents approach... GRIN And now you know why I call myself an Evil Overlady: daddy is a squidhead! From one Evil Overperson to another: Join me, oh Evil Overlady! Stand by my side as my Queen, and together we shall rule the world![*] EVIL GRIN [*]Or our solar system, or our galaxy, or even the whole universe, depending on how ambitious your are. :-) taps a long, red-lacquered fingernail thoughtfully against a cheek I should consider your proposition, but for the fact that I know you already have a Queen...although I do not think that she qualifies as an Evil One. smirk Galactic Domineightrix Maru;) __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Listref] Environment
- Original Message - From: Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 4:55 PM Subject: Re: [Listref] Environment On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 01:00:30PM -0800, Deborah Harrell wrote: I Was Not Alone In That Observation Maru Neither are lemmings... An argument based on a faked scene from a Disney movie is rarely convincing. http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Listref] Environment
On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 05:43:05PM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: An argument based on a faked scene from a Disney movie is rarely convincing. Quite a leap you made there, anyone with you? -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Listref] Environment
- Original Message - From: Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Listref] Environment On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 05:43:05PM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: An argument based on a faked scene from a Disney movie is rarely convincing. Quite a leap you made there, anyone with you? Depends on whether anyone else wants to get involved in a Mickey Mouse discussion. Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Catholics Could Lose Seal of Confession
- Original Message - From: Bradford DeLong [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 11:23 AM Subject: Re: Catholics Could Lose Seal of Confession Bradford DeLong wrote: But when the Knights Templar were suppressed by Philip the Fair of France and Pope Clement V in 1307, one of the charges was that the Templars confessed only to each other and not to other priests--so that nobody outside the order knew what horrible and foul things were going on within the order. confession is only seven centuries old? No. Confession is older than that. But the idea that the seal of confession could never be broken--that it could not be overridden by, say, King Philip the Fair's desire to get his hands on the Templar Treasury, or (supposing for the sake of argument that the charges against the Templars were true) by the necessities of investigating whether Templars were in fact guilty of kissing the anus of a cat, worshipping the Egyptian cat-goddess Bast, secret Muslims, open userers, secret Jews, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The idea that the seal of confession could *never* be broken would seem to be less than seven centuries old. If it was older than that, why bother to accuse the Templars of the crime of refusing to confess to priests outside their own order? I dont claim to know better, nor to know better than you Brad. But by itself the logic seems to be a bit weak. That the Templars confessed only within their own circle would seem to be a bit incestuous. Add to that the old saw that one cannot have an organisation within an organisation and you can see why the .ahem authorities might throw a ton of hyperbole atop a society such as the Templars. I suppose the ...ahem authorities would not be too happy about a prominent and somewhat powerful group, not under central control, who could go rogue unexpectedly. But I find it to be an interesting question either way. Anyone know where to find a concise history of the confessional? xponent Not Enough Information Maru rob You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars)
Quoting Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED]: -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of The Fool ... The Bush administration wants to give religious organizations access to federal housing money that could be used to erect or refurbish buildings where religious activities are held, so long as the groups also provide social services in those buildings. Wow -- if taxes end up being raised to support construction of enormous church structures erected mainly to show off the power of its leaders to the people, we certainly will have failed to learn from the past. Those who do not remember Santayana are doomed to repeat history... Let us not forget that he Catholic Church is the wealthiest landowner on this planet. They own real-estate all over the planet and don't pay taxes. Anybody who has seen Godfather 3 has to agree on that one. :-) I am catholic. I have seen small parishes driven to the ground because of the tribute they have to pay the archbishops and bishops to support expensive lifestyles. Do not misunderstand me.. I respect the Church and all religious institutions. But I also strongly believe that the Church has enough money to cancel the national debt of many different countries. It also has enough money to feed a small planet. I have to agree with Nick re: the fact that they don't need the funding. Just my two cents... JJ Mendicant Sysop - This mail sent through : http://webmail.coqui.net ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars)
- Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:31 AM Subject: Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars) Quoting Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED]: -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of The Fool ... The Bush administration wants to give religious organizations access to federal housing money that could be used to erect or refurbish buildings where religious activities are held, so long as the groups also provide social services in those buildings. Wow -- if taxes end up being raised to support construction of enormous church structures erected mainly to show off the power of its leaders to the people, we certainly will have failed to learn from the past. Those who do not remember Santayana are doomed to repeat history... Let us not forget that he Catholic Church is the wealthiest landowner on this planet. They own real-estate all over the planet and don't pay taxes. Anybody who has seen Godfather 3 has to agree on that one. :-) I am catholic. I have seen small parishes driven to the ground because of the tribute they have to pay the archbishops and bishops to support expensive lifestyles. I don't know every parish in the US, but I have known several bishops personally, and through family connections. It is true that the official residence of the bishop is often a big building in a very nice part of town. I'll be more than happy to grant you that, with the older diociese, there were numerous examples of ornate residence for the bishop. The bishops I know now live in a small apartment, comprising just a few rooms. The rest of the bishops residence is used for various functions of the diocese. Bishops do have human faults. But, becoming a priest in order to live a lavish life style is fairly foolish. A priest makes about 15k/year, for goodness sakes. On the level of the diocese, as well as on the parish level, the salary of the priests and bishops, and the cost of maintainging their lifestyle is a small fraction of the total costat least in the US. Dan M. Do not misunderstand me.. I respect the Church and all religious institutions. But I also strongly believe that the Church has enough money to cancel the national debt of many different countries. It also has enough money to feed a small planet. I have to agree with Nick re: the fact that they don't need the funding. Just my two cents... ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars)
On 27 Jan 2003 at 19:00, Dan Minette wrote: Bishops do have human faults. But, becoming a priest in order to live a lavish life style is fairly foolish. A priest makes about 15k/year, for goodness sakes. On the level of the diocese, as well as on the parish level, the salary of the priests and bishops, and the cost of maintainging their lifestyle is a small fraction of the total costat least in the US. That's something I've never quite understood. A community Rabbi makes a good deal more than that. (and isn't begrudged) Andy Dawn Falcon ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Welcome, Jose
- Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:14 AM Subject: Re: Welcome, Jose Quoting Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Every once in a while, someone I knew long ago finds me on the Internet. Our newest subscriber to Brin-L is Jose Ortiz, who was one of my team of sysops on the CompuServe Multimedia Forums, which I launched in 1989 and sold (the contract to operate them, that is) to Cowles Media in 1992 or so. We had the pleasure of meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a few years back when I was on my way to visit my sister in the USVI. Jose tracked me down and asked where he might find a good on-line community, like we used to have on CIS... and so here he is, lurking at least. Welcome, Jose! Nick: Thanks for the warm welcome!! I totally appreciate it. I'll begin by saying that I love what I'm reading, and I'm reading quite a LOT. Everything from Internet viruses to the coveted Hugo awards. Yipeee!!! :-) Feel free to tell everyone how we used to hog-tie flame-baiters and tickle them into submission. You mean, those who didn't threaten to sue? And we got a lot of those, folks. Actually, it went something like this. Nick would do the hog-tying, while I would do most of the tickling. Meanwhile, Ian (our British Sysop) would dry- wit them to death, while Courtney (our man in Hawaii) would luau-them with roasted pork and teach them how to do the hula. After that, everybody was happy. I think we help bring CIS down, if you ask me. Those midnight raids on the Virtual-Sysop-Liquo..er..Medicine-Cabinet ran quite a bill, Nick. And it got worse after you left for greener pastures. Seriously now, it's a pleasure and an honor to be here. I don't think I could be on better company. Hola from Texas Jose! If you really do like what you are reading, then you are probobly a very sick individual indeed, in which case you will fit in quite well with the rest of us who are here by court order. G Ahem.. Sheesh...and all that and welcome to the list! xponent How Do You Do And 23 Skidoo Maru rob You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars)
- Original Message - From: Andrew Crystall [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:00 PM Subject: Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars) On 27 Jan 2003 at 19:00, Dan Minette wrote: Bishops do have human faults. But, becoming a priest in order to live a lavish life style is fairly foolish. A priest makes about 15k/year, for goodness sakes. On the level of the diocese, as well as on the parish level, the salary of the priests and bishops, and the cost of maintainging their lifestyle is a small fraction of the total costat least in the US. That's something I've never quite understood. A community Rabbi makes a good deal more than that. (and isn't begrudged) Do Rabbis take a vow of poverty? xponent Its A Christian Thing Maru rob You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars)
- Original Message - From: Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:19 PM Subject: Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars) - Original Message - From: Andrew Crystall [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:00 PM Subject: Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars) On 27 Jan 2003 at 19:00, Dan Minette wrote: Bishops do have human faults. But, becoming a priest in order to live a lavish life style is fairly foolish. A priest makes about 15k/year, for goodness sakes. On the level of the diocese, as well as on the parish level, the salary of the priests and bishops, and the cost of maintainging their lifestyle is a small fraction of the total costat least in the US. That's something I've never quite understood. A community Rabbi makes a good deal more than that. (and isn't begrudged) Do Rabbis take a vow of poverty? Actually, most priests do not take a vow of poverty. Ministers certainly don't. They have wives and husbands. :-) The starting salary for a minister is in the mid-30s. The rule of thumb for the Presbyterian church is that the salary and benefits of the head pastor should be in line with the median for his/her congregation. Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: About me (was First real post - Hugo Noms)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: There are even books by Frank Bawm at times. Didn't he write the Wizard of Awz? ;-) __ Steve Sloan . Huntsville, Alabama = [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brin-L list pages .. http://www.brin-l.org Chmeee's 3D Objects http://www.sloan3d.com/chmeee 3D and Drawing Galleries .. http://www.sloansteady.com Software Science Fiction, Science, and Computer Links Science fiction scans . http://www.sloan3d.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars)
- Original Message - From: Dan Minette [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:29 PM Subject: Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars) - Original Message - From: Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:19 PM Subject: Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars) - Original Message - From: Andrew Crystall [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:00 PM Subject: Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars) On 27 Jan 2003 at 19:00, Dan Minette wrote: Bishops do have human faults. But, becoming a priest in order to live a lavish life style is fairly foolish. A priest makes about 15k/year, for goodness sakes. On the level of the diocese, as well as on the parish level, the salary of the priests and bishops, and the cost of maintainging their lifestyle is a small fraction of the total costat least in the US. That's something I've never quite understood. A community Rabbi makes a good deal more than that. (and isn't begrudged) Do Rabbis take a vow of poverty? Actually, most priests do not take a vow of poverty. Ministers certainly don't. They have wives and husbands. :-) The starting salary for a minister is in the mid-30s. The rule of thumb for the Presbyterian church is that the salary and benefits of the head pastor should be in line with the median for his/her congregation. Wellwe were talking about catholics. My understanding is that Catholic Priests take a vow of poverty. I never personally met one who was not more or less poor. The ones I have known personally took such a vow I believe. I think I can find for sure out by tomorrow, since I have access to a priest (at the hospital where I work) on a daily basis. Stats about protestant conditions are not very relevant I dont think, except as a point of comparison. Apples and oranges. xponent Pears And Lemons Maru rob You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: First real post - Hugo Noms
Dean wrote: The only Banks I have read is Feersum Endjinn. While quite difficult reading, I did enjoy it. !!! OH!!! *That* Banks! I read Feersum Endjinn when it first came out, and liked it also. When I started reading about The Culture onlist within the past year and a half, I never made the connection. I feel really stupid now. Reggie Bautista And Feersum Endjinn has probably been mentioned on this list before, and I likely just missed it Maru _ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The CIA's Secret Army
--- Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030203-411370,00.html Because of past scandals, the agency had largely dropped its paramilitary operations. But the war on terrorism has brought it back into the business... snip If a soldier is assigned highly clandestine work, his records are changed to make it appear as if he resigned from the military or was given civilian status; the process is called sheep dipping, after the practice of bathing sheep before they are sheared. nitpick Sheep dip is not merely 'bathing,' but a procedure to remove pests that harm or might harbor disease (ticks, mites, lice). Organophosphate products have been linked to depression and other problems in sheep handlers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2414431.stm and non-OP substitutes have been marketed: http://www.vpmag.co.uk/news/188 What's your experience, Kat? Yorkshire Veterinarian Saga Maru (and Tricki Woo too! :D ) __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
At 08:49 AM 1/28/2003 +1000, you wrote: William T Goodall wrote: When I went to Aberdeen University in the 1970's every freshman got a private study-bedroom in a hall of residence. This was before the personal computer, but students had their own hifis and tvs. The university had started building these halls in the mid 60's. The idea of sharing a room at university would seem pretty odd at most British universities for the last 30 years. What next from the USA - indoor plumbing ? :) When I was at uni, also in the 70's, we had the exact arrangement discussed in the article - little towers like mini-apartment blocks, with 4 rooms per floor and a common bathroom shared between the 4 residents of that floor. The kitchen and common room was one per tower, or 17 students (the kitchen floor also housed a third year student who acted as a leader/mentor to the young 'uns. There was also a big dining hall and big common rooms for the whole residential college (which was one of ten colleges on the university grounds). The idea of a room-mate as per American TV/movies always seemed so awful I didn't really think it was real. Cheers Russell C. You say four rooms on each floor, but is that four bedrooms, no common room or kitchen room? My first semester in college was in a dorm. I hated it. I had to pay a penalty to move off campus for the second semester. But that was fine. Moved into an apartment with a friend who was working, had my own room even if it was in a freezing attic. My second and third year was in a different town and college with two other roommates. The apartment was a railcar (is that the right word, all rooms were in a line without a hallway?). I still had my own room, which meant nothing because there was basically no privacy, but I had a girlfriend to keep me warm ;- privacy be damned. I think Pittsburgh had nice college apartments, owned by the college. They were fourteen story buildings, four apartments on each floor each with two bedrooms, kitchen and living room. The thirteenth floor was a rec room/study lounge. Kevin T. Dinner at eleven ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Suuuuuuuuper Bowl
At 03:51 PM 1/27/2003 -0600, you wrote: Ronn! Blankenship wrote: At 06:04 AM 1/27/03 -0500, Kevin Tarr wrote: The after game interviews, [ ] was cringe worthy. One word for ABC: Heidi. Not Even The First View Of Jennifer Garner Was Worth The Waste Of Time Maru Guess I'm glad we started getting Sammy ready for bed just a little ways into the trophy presentation. Brad Johnson has a cute kid, though. Anyone else remark on that during the milling about before the award presentation? Julia Sure my brother, a friend, and I all talked about how cute his kid was after the game. Wait do you mean the commentators? Yeah that is even more likely. Kevin T. Joking. But we did talk about how dangerous it was to have those kids on the sidelines. There was a late play and a little kid had to be snatched out of the way. The same thing happened in the world series. Not joking, we included Brad Johnson as one of the dumb players. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: [Humor] Official Canadian Temperature Conversion Chart
--- Horn, John [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Kevin Street [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 32° Fahrenheit (0 ° C) American water freezes. Canadian water gets thicker. But what's IN that water? Some things are better left secret... So *that's* what's going on with that lake up in Minnesota (or wherever)... So it's *Canadians* who are the aliens?! and the source/cause of those NASA photos of UFO's!? Does this mean that there really _is_ a vampire cop in Montreal - and that Canadians/aliens are vampires? Forever Knight Maru __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Church and state (was RE: bush throwing away more tax dollars)
On 27 Jan 2003 at 19:19, Robert Seeberger wrote: On 27 Jan 2003 at 19:00, Dan Minette wrote: Bishops do have human faults. But, becoming a priest in order to live a lavish life style is fairly foolish. A priest makes about 15k/year, for goodness sakes. On the level of the diocese, as well as on the parish level, the salary of the priests and bishops, and the cost of maintainging their lifestyle is a small fraction of the total costat least in the US. That's something I've never quite understood. A community Rabbi makes a good deal more than that. (and isn't begrudged) Do Rabbis take a vow of poverty? xponent Its A Christian Thing Maru Uhh no. That would kinda influence things. Andy Dawn Falcon ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: For your amusement - paper towel dispensers
--- Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A Friday discussion of paper towel dispensers by TCU faculty members. If you're a little bored and looking for something amusing, this might fit the bill: http://libnt2.lib.tcu.edu/staff/bouchard/papertowels.htm From Adam Eve to the difference sizes of American vs. Brazilian football fields...a truly erudite and far-ranging discussion that suggests some of those faculty members ought to join Brin-L... ;) Not To Forget The Compassionate Mention Of Oppressed Dispensers Everywhere Maru __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms]
Bob Zimm [you never sign your messages. I never know how to address you] wrote: I will sign from now on; Bob is what most people call me. . :-))) So I guess you hated the Uplift books because the science is also flawed, with the 17 or so ways of cheating Einstein? No and there are several significant differences. First FLT is a convention in Sci Fi and it is needed to make any space story viable. Otherwise we would have stories that go like this: Hi my name is vortag and I live on a planet near Alpha Centuri; Ten years pass - Hi my name is bob and I live on earth- 10 years later - vortag has moved and he has not left a forwarding address. 2) There are many things about the universe that we don't know and in the future many things may be possible. At least we can hope. 3) We know about evolution. We know about language. The mechanism for abrupt change cannot be true. There was a German scientist who believed that evolution could occur in jumps. He imagined hopeful monsters. But this has been throughly discredited. Stephen Gould and Nile Eldridge in their original formulation about speciation and gaps in the fossil record punctuated equilibrium) also initially proposed that speciation occurred in a burst (well a geological burst of say 1 years) but even Gould ended up retreating from his original claims that punc equ would replace the orthordox darwinian paradign. Species originate when a portion of a population becomes isolated from the large parent population. The isolated population has a smaller and more limited inventory of genes and it will therefore diverge from the parent stock. This divergence happens all the time producing races, subspecies and finally species. A population becomes a seperate species when it can no longer interbreed with members of the parent population. Once it genetically isolated it will contiune to diverge from the parent species in particular if it encounters new environmental elements. If the two subspecies or races come back int contact while they can still interbreed the differences between the groups will gradually disappear. This is perhaps the most important thing to think about when considering the contentious topic of genetic differences between races. There are minor differences but a) the variation between individuals of the same race are much greater than the mean differences between races ! and b) human racial differences are the result of geographic isolation and as we all know we are all completely inter fertile. Walk around New York and you have to see that racial differences will disappear has humans engage in the happy habit of loving others who are not quite like themselves. But isn't speciation itself a jump? You can't change from a being with, say, 44 chromosomes per cell to a being with 46 without a jump. Chromosome changes in isolated populations are certainly one way to produce reproductive isolation. In the founder population mutation can occur. Chimps have 24 pairs of chromosomes we have 23 (although interestingly this what known at first. Up until the 40s I think) it was thought that humans had 44 pairs. One of the chimp chromosomes got incoroprated in to one of other chromosomes as I remember it (of course I am now wondering it isn't the other way around. That chimps have 22 pair and part of one broke lose to become our extra pair) Bob Z Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Weirdness
--- Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I just got glasses with a new prescription. To be exact, a new prescription for just one eye, the other is the same as it was before. If I look with just one eye or the other, everything seems reasonable. If I look with both eyes, the floor, the bottom of the monitor screen, the diningroom table, etc., anything below eye level which *should* be level seems to slope up to the right (or down to the left, however you want to look at it). Maybe the lenses weren't set quite equally/levelly into the frame? It sounds a little 'off,' but I can relate to the visual weirdness of removing contacts and putting on glasses - that always takes a few moments for my brain to re-sort. Debbi __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
--- Russell Chapman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip The idea of a room-mate as per American TV/movies always seemed so awful I didn't really think it was real. One of the joys of campus life...one roomie had a full-length poster of Burt Reynolds in his birthday-suit - not a cheery sight to wake up with; I walked in on another (and her boyfriend) who'd forgotten to let me know the *do*not*disturb* signal. Then There Was The Time They Had A Party While I Was Gone And Some Idiot Puked On My Bed Maru :P __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
Deborah Harrell wrote: Russell Chapman wrote: The idea of a room-mate as per American TV/movies always seemed so awful I didn't really think it was real. One of the joys of campus life...one roomie had a full-length poster of Burt Reynolds in his birthday-suit - not a cheery sight to wake up with; I walked in on another (and her boyfriend) who'd forgotten to let me know the *do*not*disturb* signal. Then There Was The Time They Had A Party While I Was Gone And Some Idiot Puked On My Bed Maru :P Oh, I could tell you folks some tales from the fraternity house, but I don't even know with which one I should begin. Maybe with the semester I coulnd't find a date if I was at a women's prison with a fist full of pardons, but my bed was still seeing action, and I know I wasn't in it. And that's one of the less heinous ones. Jim Sharkey Pi Kappa Phi, Beta Alpha #569 ___ font size=2 face=genevabJoin Excite! - a href=http://www.excite.com target=_blankhttp://www.excite.com/a/b The most personalized portal on the Web!/font ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Suuuuuuuuper Bowl
Kevin Tarr wrote: At 03:51 PM 1/27/2003 -0600, you wrote: Brad Johnson has a cute kid, though. Anyone else remark on that during the milling about before the award presentation? Julia Sure my brother, a friend, and I all talked about how cute his kid was after the game. Wait do you mean the commentators? Yeah that is even more likely. Kevin T. Joking. But we did talk about how dangerous it was to have those kids on the sidelines. There was a late play and a little kid had to be snatched out of the way. The same thing happened in the world series. Not joking, we included Brad Johnson as one of the dumb players. Yeah, but at least he doesn't count both as dumb and ugly. :) Julia who likes football players who are easy on the eyes ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms]
In a message dated 1/27/2003 6:48:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: But isn't speciation itself a jump? You can't change from a being with, say, 44 chromosomes per cell to a being with 46 without a jump. A few more thoughts. The notion of an evolutionary jump is called a saltation and the theory was put forth by Richard Goldsmicht ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
Deborah Harrell wrote: One of the joys of campus life...one roomie had a full-length poster of Burt Reynolds in his birthday-suit - not a cheery sight to wake up with; I walked in on another (and her boyfriend) who'd forgotten to let me know the *do*not*disturb* signal. Then There Was The Time They Had A Party While I Was Gone And Some Idiot Puked On My Bed Maru :P Yep, that's pretty much how I figured it would be, and why I thought it would only be a movie concept... Cheers Russell C. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
- Original Message - From: Russell Chapman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 4:49 PM Subject: Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy When I was at uni, also in the 70's, we had the exact arrangement discussed in the article - little towers like mini-apartment blocks, with 4 rooms per floor and a common bathroom shared between the 4 residents of that floor. The kitchen and common room was one per tower, or 17 students (the kitchen floor also housed a third year student who acted as a leader/mentor to the young 'uns. There was also a big dining hall and big common rooms for the whole residential college (which was one of ten colleges on the university grounds). How Harry Potterish! G xponent Hogwarts Maru rob You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
Kevin Tarr wrote: At 08:49 AM 1/28/2003 +1000, you wrote: When I was at uni, also in the 70's, we had the exact arrangement discussed in the article - little towers like mini-apartment blocks, with 4 rooms per floor and a common bathroom shared between the 4 residents of that floor. The kitchen and common room was one per tower, or 17 students (the kitchen floor also housed a third year student who acted as a leader/mentor to the young 'uns. There was also a big dining hall and big common rooms for the whole residential college (which was one of ten colleges on the university grounds). The idea of a room-mate as per American TV/movies always seemed so awful I didn't really think it was real. You say four rooms on each floor, but is that four bedrooms, no common room or kitchen room? There were little towers, each five stories high, linked by walkways to a central dining hall complex. Each tower had it's own kitchen and common room, and each floor had four private bedrooms - everyone got a corner room! It was very quiet compared to the more traditional rooms along halls arrangement of some of the other colleges on campus. What made ours interesting was that it was run by Rotary International, and was designed for overseas students to more easily integrate into the uni population, so every floor had 2 Australian students and 2 overseas students. It was very enlightening, and I believe it was successful in its goals. (also cool was the fire escape passageways built onto the roof of each walkway between the towers, which made unobserved transit between male blocks and female blocks much easier to accomplish) Cheers Russell C. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
Robert Seeberger wrote: How Harry Potterish! G Ha! Never thought of it like that - the potions we were brewing were a little more specific in their purpose, even the herbology experiments had the same goal as the potions experiments... Actually, the boarding house here at work is a lot more Harry Potterish than anything I experienced. The students are in houses, which compete, and led by a senior student (called a boarding master). They all troop down to the dining hall at the appropriate time, and once a week they even do it all in ties and jackets, and the teaching staff wear their academic gowns and all. Of course, in this case, the forbidden forest they are trying to get into is my server room, but the pranks are similar... Cheers Russell C. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Texas fiction (L3!)
After our move in July, everything I was reading in the way of fiction was by a Texas author, up until sometime in September, when I noticed the trend and decided to see how long I could keep it up. As I have a policy of not reading more than 1 book by a given author per month, and I've exhausted the available authors for books I own (and it'll be a hassle and/or an expense to get borrowing priviledges anywhere right now, so I'm not going the library route this week), this is as far as I go with it. So I figured I'd report on what I'd read. I'm grouping books by author, not by order in which they were read. SUSAN WITTIG ALBERT Mystery writer. Lives somewhere near Austin. Has created a setting for her novels somewhere between here and San Antonio, a fictional town called Pecan Springs. (Can't remember the fictional county she used, though.) The novels focus on a heroine named China Bayles, once a Houston criminal defense lawyer, now the proprietor of an herb shop (but still keeping her bar membership up-to-date). Romantically involved with a former law-enforcement official she knew in Houston as something of an adversary. I have read: Love Lies Bleeding Lavender Lies Chile Death Mistletoe Man (Maybe even in that order.) If you're interested in the series, start with _Thyme of Death_. (Yes, they all have plant-themed names. If you don't recognize the plant in the title, it'll be explained in the book.) I got interested in her work when I walked into (the now-defunct storefront of) Adventures in Crime and Space and asked for a mystery recommendation. I didn't know what I was looking for, and rejected the first 3 or 4 suggestions, but as soon as Lori described the theme and setting for the series, I figured that was it. I find them to be a fun read. If you don't want to read about an herbalist and her new-age-y friend running around central Texas, this isn't for you. (The friend can get on my nerves sometime. I think that Kneem, for one, would probably not enjoy the series very much. I could be wrong, though.) JOE R. LANSDALE Lansdale has written some seriously twisted stuff. I've seen him at SF cons (AggieCon, ArmadilloCon), he's very nice and polite, thanks you when he's handing back the book he's signed for you -- and he writes some seriously twisted stuff. Since the move, I have read the following: Savage Season Blood Dance Waltz of Shadows A Fist Full of Stories (and Articles) For A Few Stories More The first listed, _Savage Season_, is the first novel in his Hap Leonard series. Two reasonably nice guys getting into some serious sh*t when someone nasty crosses their path. (That also describes the other one I've read from that series, _Mucho Mojo_.) If you can't stand to read about people and pets being killed, avoid this series. If you can somehow bear it, Lansdale's writing style is great, IMO. The next two on the list are novels as well. I make the same disclaimers for _Waltz of Shadows_ as I do for the Hap Leonard books. _Blood Dance_ is a Western, and I'm not really familiar with the genre, but it's pretty bloody, as well. These are part of the Lost Lansdale series that Subterranean Press is putting out every so often, where you've got signed numbered copies, and if you really want to shell out the bucks, a much smaller run of signed lettered copies. No reprints are planned. The last two books are collections of short stories, and in the case of the first one, a few articles/ reviews of bad movies. Some of the stories are in the horror genre, and Lansdale does nice horror short stories, IMO. There's even one he co-wrote with his 2 kids for a compilation of stories by horror writers and their kids; one of them wanted more gruesomeness than was actually put in, and then it got sent back to them to be cleaned up a bit in that department. (Which should make you cautious around his kids, right?) These made me both want more and want less to go to one of his storytelling sessions late at night at a con. P.N. ELROD Everything I've read of Elrod's so far has been in her Vampire Files series. A reporter around Chicago in the 1930s gets shot dead and becomes a vampire, one who is trying to stay as human as possible despite his condition. I find it entertaining. Art in the Blood Blood on the Water Fire in the Blood A Chill in the Blood The 3rd through 6th books in the series. I ought to have all the ones I own read by the time I go to AggieCon, where I expect to see the author. KINKY FRIEDMAN I've heard a lot about Kinky Friedman, and finally got around to reading one of his books. Armadillos and Old Lace Kinky leaves New York to go to help out his family with the summer camp they own and run, and is approached by someone who's heard about his reputation as a private eye to catch a serial killer. If you're interested in reading about mystery stuff going on in central Texas, this is a fun one, and unlike the Albert mentioned above, no potentially
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
Deborah Harrell wrote: --- Russell Chapman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip The idea of a room-mate as per American TV/movies always seemed so awful I didn't really think it was real. One of the joys of campus life...one roomie had a full-length poster of Burt Reynolds in his birthday-suit - not a cheery sight to wake up with; I walked in on another (and her boyfriend) who'd forgotten to let me know the *do*not*disturb* signal. Then There Was The Time They Had A Party While I Was Gone And Some Idiot Puked On My Bed Maru :P The oddest thing with *my* bed was that my roommate assumed (and accurately so, actually) that I wouldn't mind person X crashing on my bed for a nap on occasion. Didn't find out about it until a month or two after it had started, and had anyone asked, I'd have said no problem. (The rabbit tossing was at the roommate's bed. Nothing like throwing a stuffed animal across the room to wake the person whose alarm is going off.) Julia who doesn't want to go into the more negative roommates right now, because she's not sure which story would qualify as the worst ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 1/27/2003 6:48:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: But isn't speciation itself a jump? You can't change from a being with, say, 44 chromosomes per cell to a being with 46 without a jump. A few more thoughts. The notion of an evolutionary jump is called a saltation and the theory was put forth by Richard Goldsmicht Do you know why it's called a saltation? I think it was explained to me once in college, but I've forgotten. :( Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms]
- Original Message - From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:23 PM Subject: Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 1/27/2003 6:48:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: But isn't speciation itself a jump? You can't change from a being with, say, 44 chromosomes per cell to a being with 46 without a jump. A few more thoughts. The notion of an evolutionary jump is called a saltation and the theory was put forth by Richard Goldsmicht Do you know why it's called a saltation? I think it was explained to me once in college, but I've forgotten. :( Because it had to be taken with a grain of salt? Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Texas fiction (L3!)
You forgot the most important one!!! William Browning Spencer xponent Zod Wallop Maru rob You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Texas fiction (L3!)
Robert Seeberger wrote: You forgot the most important one!!! William Browning Spencer xponent Zod Wallop Maru I don't *have* any Spencer to have been reading. Should I start with _Zod Wallop_? Or would you recommend something else? (I also didn't list Bill Crider among the mystery writers, but I don't know if anyone else would have picked up on *that* one.) Julia p.s. in non-fiction, I read _It's Not About the Bike_ by Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins, and *that* was a good book, IMO. I read some other non-fiction, but not by any other Texas authors. (Gotta get into that Knowles book I got for Christmas soon!) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colleges Offer Students Privacy
At 10:21 PM 1/27/2003 -0600, you wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: --- Russell Chapman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip The idea of a room-mate as per American TV/movies always seemed so awful I didn't really think it was real. One of the joys of campus life...one roomie had a full-length poster of Burt Reynolds in his birthday-suit - not a cheery sight to wake up with; I walked in on another (and her boyfriend) who'd forgotten to let me know the *do*not*disturb* signal. Then There Was The Time They Had A Party While I Was Gone And Some Idiot Puked On My Bed Maru :P The oddest thing with *my* bed was that my roommate assumed (and accurately so, actually) that I wouldn't mind person X crashing on my bed for a nap on occasion. Didn't find out about it until a month or two after it had started, and had anyone asked, I'd have said no problem. (The rabbit tossing was at the roommate's bed. Nothing like throwing a stuffed animal across the room to wake the person whose alarm is going off.) Julia who doesn't want to go into the more negative roommates right now, because she's not sure which story would qualify as the worst It's easy for me. I was the worst roommate. Kevin T. But I was old enough to buy beer ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Texas fiction (L3!)
Were you looking for more authors? (okay I see you weren't) How about: http://mostlyfiction.com/west/mcmurtry.htm#bio Larry McMurtry was born in Wichita Falls,Texas in 1936. His father and eight uncles were all ranchers. He graduated with honors from Archer City High School, received his B.A. from North Texas State College. He earned a masters degree from Rice University in 1960 then quickly rose to international fame as a premier American writer. McMurtry served a two-year term as president of P.E.N. American Center in New York City and operates antiquarian bookstores in Washington, D.C., Texas, and Arizona. He lives in Texas. Kevin T. Lonesome Dove is my favorite book. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Fareed Zakaria on Iraq
--- Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.msnbc.com/news/864430.asp An excellent article. snip It presents the potentially good outcomes of a (more-or-less unilateral?) American invasion of Iraq very well; Saddam's downfall is without question desirable. The same Newsweek issue has also the following articles: http://www.msnbc.com/news/864439.asp ...There should be no illusions that the reconstruction of Iraq will be anything but difficult, confusing, and dangerous for everyone involved, says a recent working paper from the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and the James A. Baker Institute at Rice University. If Washington does not clearly define its goals for Iraq and build support for them domestically and with its allies and partners, the report predicts in its very first paragraph, the United States may lose the peace, even if it wins the war. The paper offers a blend of prescriptions for a U.S. and then a U.S.-U.N. occupation leading to the creation of a sovereign Iraqi government within two years. But it is laced with dire warnings. The immediate aftermath of fighting will find American troops trying to stop anarchy, revenge and score-settling, it notes. While the initial goal is to disarm Saddam Hussein, there is a significant danger that some in the weapons complex will simply privatize technology or systems. That could make weapons of mass destruction more available, not less, to the likes of Osama bin Laden and groups hes helped inspire... http://www.msnbc.com/news/864455.asp 'It's a matter of trust-' Our militarys the best trained and prepared in world history. Maybe so, but were you paying attention last October when the Pentagon was finally forced to admit that 250,000 faulty battle-dress overgarment (BDO) suits manufactured by Isratex Inc., whose executives are now in jail for fraud, have been lost amid 800,000 other BDO suits that work just fine? Even now, nobody can track down which are which... ...The hawks argue, rightly, that Saddam is evil, too. But even if you agree, as I do, that he will eventually have to be removed by force, bold assertions of a direct threat to world peace arent the same as real evidence of that threat. Condi Rice has a point when she says that we dont want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. OK, the gun doesnt have to be smoking. But there does have to be proof that a gun exists. And we have to knownot trustthat it is pointed at us. It occurred to me previously that maybe this whole scenario is in some way a set-up: Bush the cowboy 'bad cop,' and Powell the dovish 'good cop.' A sort of high-stakes game in which the goal is to convince Saddam (and others) that Bush really will attack, alone or not, and if he (SH) wants to survive, he'd better take his money and run. Now that GC Powell seems to be turning more hawkish, it's a further turning of the thumbscrews. If it works, a nearly bloodless regime change would result - very slick. Of course, there'd still be aftermath to worry about, but maybe that's been taken into account with Putin/Russia waiting in the wings to help 'now that American imperialism is no more.' wry grin Unless someone else already posted this idea, and, in a sleep-deprived haze, I morphed it into 'my own' thought. Which is possible. :} Debbi __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Suuuuuuuuper Bowl
Ronn! Blankenship wrote: At 06:04 AM 1/27/03 -0500, Kevin Tarr wrote: The after game interviews, [...] was cringe worthy. One word for ABC: Heidi. Not Even The First View Of Jennifer Garner Was Worth The Waste Of Time Maru John Madden is still head and shoulders above anyone else in the booth, IMO. Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Texas fiction (L3!)
- Original Message - From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:53 PM Subject: Re: Texas fiction (L3!) Robert Seeberger wrote: You forgot the most important one!!! William Browning Spencer xponent Zod Wallop Maru I don't *have* any Spencer to have been reading. Should I start with _Zod Wallop_? Or would you recommend something else? Zod Wallop is great! xponent All Good Maru rob You are a fluke of the universe. You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Fareed Zakaria on Iraq
Gautam Mukunda wrote: http://www.msnbc.com/news/864430.asp An excellent article. Zakaria needs no introduction, but I'll give a short one anyways. He's currently the editor of Newsweek International and formerly the editor of Foreign Affairs. He got his PhD at Harvard studying under Stanley Hoffmann and Sam Huntington, and his dissertation was turned into a really excellent book, _From Wealth to Power_. He's occasionaly referred to as the man most likely to be the first Indian Secretary of State. I like to think that he's the man _second_ most likely to claim that title, but that's just me :-) His brother, btw, is the head of Merrill Lynch, so they're sure one heck of a family. Who could disagree with most of what he is saying? But why not keep working with our allies and the U.N. and keep the pressure on Hussain while continuing to support internal dissent. Actively seeking a peaceful solution has the potential of reaping all or most of the benefits of an immediate, preemptive attack and avoids the serious problems mentioned along with a few more I can think of including not having to rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure after it is destroyed and the good will of the international community. Doug GCU Patience is a Virtue ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Fareed Zakaria on Iraq
Doug Pensinger wrote: Who could disagree with most of what he is saying? But why not keep working with our allies and the U.N. and keep the pressure on Hussain while continuing to support internal dissent. Actively seeking a peaceful solution has the potential of reaping all or most of the benefits of an immediate, preemptive attack and avoids the serious problems mentioned along with a few more I can think of including not having to rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure after it is destroyed and the good will of the international community. Doesn't grab the headlines like the footage from a AGM65 seeker head. Doesn't gather the nation fearfully under the flag and have them support the war on terror in ways they would never have considered contemplating 2 years ago... Maybe I'm too cyncical Russell C. (referring to my own government's position as much as GWB's) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: Videotaping How Bugs Breathe
Original press release at the Field Museum of Chicago can be found at: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/museum_info/press/press_insect.htm Jon Stuck on top of tower. Great view, but constant pelting sleet not good for pointy hat. Am amusing self by spitting gum down on the Orcs. From: The Very Secret Diary of Gandalf the Grey http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/01/24/bugs.breathe.ap/index.html X-ray shows how bugs really breathe Friday, January 24, 2003 Posted: 12:09 PM EST (1709 GMT) Beetles and other insects have tiny air sacs around their wings, legs and abdomens that help pump air inside their bodies. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bugs don't have lungs, so how do they breathe? Maybe more efficiently than people, according to the first close-up view of insects forcing air in and out of tiny oxygen pipes. It took one of the world's strongest X-ray beams -- a view hundreds of times more detailed than today's most sophisticated medical scans can provide -- for scientists at The Field Museum in Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory to videotape how beetles, crickets and ants breathe. They are really pumping some gas, said lead researcher Mark Westneat, the museum's associate curator of zoology. While resting, the insects exchanged up to half the air inside their main oxygen tubes every second -- equivalent to how hard a person breathes while doing moderate exercise, the researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science. These tubes, called tracheae, connect to tiny air holes in the insect's outer coating. For decades, scientists thought air just passively oozed into those holes. Then researchers spotted some tiny air sacs near insects' wings, legs and abdomens that they might use to help pump air inside. But the rest of the insect body is rigid, so no one thought much more air pumping could go on. Instead, Westneat discovered insects somehow squeeze the air tubes throughout their bodies to suck air in and out, much as lungs do. It's an important discovery, said insect researcher Robert Dudley of the University of California, Berkeley -- and equally important is the technology that allowed it. The machine is called a synchrotron, a large particle accelerator that generates the world's most intense X-rays. There are only a few in existence, and they've largely been used in chemistry, Westneat said. Then Argonne physicist Wah-Keat Lee, hunting new uses, put a dead ant inside his synchrotron and saw spectacularly detailed images of its organs. He teamed with Westneat to put living insects in the machine. They were bombarded with mega doses of radiation, so experiments with more advanced animals aren't likely. Still, Westneat said, What we've done with this work is created a window into these tiny little animals that nobody's ever seen inside before. Stay tuned: Future research ranges from how bugs eat to how beetles' eight-to-10 hearts function. Original press release at the Field Museum of Chicago can be found at: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/museum_info/press/press_insect.htm Jon Stuck on top of tower. Great view, but constant pelting sleet not good for pointy hat. Am amusing self by spitting gum down on the Orcs. From: The Very Secret Diary of Gandalf the Grey ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms]
Couple of sources: (Oh, and Dr. Zim, your spelling of Richard Goldschmidt was inventive. :)) Jon Stuck on top of tower. Great view, but constant pelting sleet not good for pointy hat. Am amusing self by spitting gum down on the Orcs. From: The Very Secret Diary of Gandalf the Grey http://www.stephenjaygould.org/people/richard_goldschmidt.html Biographical Sketch Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958), a brilliant but unorthodox geneticist, did not believe that Charles Darwin's idea of slow, gradual changes could account for the origin of species. Forced out of his native Germany by the Nazis, he continued to develop his research at the University of California at Berkeley, where he wrote his magnum opus The Material Basis of Evolution published in 1940. Although he recognized the constant accumulation of small changes in populations (microevolution), he believed they did not lead to speciation. Between true species he saw bridgeless gaps that could only be accounted for by large sudden jumps, resulting in hopeful monsters. Goldschmidt tried to explore possible genetic mechanisms of how rapid change might occur in lineages of organisms. He suggested that a relatively small change might have a large effect on the phenotype, especially through controlling genes which mediate the expression of the organism's blueprint. Later, he thought macromutations or mutants (which used to be called monsters) might arise in a single generation, and this biological novelty might enjoy a selective advantage under changing environmental conditions. That was where the hopeful came in. One hope was that the mutation would prove so useful in the newly changed environment that it would become selected as a new norm. Another hope was that the variant would appear often enough in the population to allow several similar monsters to find one another and produce offspring. There is a grotesque humor about the unfortunate phrase hopeful monsters that lent itself to caricatures of Goldschmidt's ideas and obscured the theoretical issues. From m-w.com One entry found for saltation. Main Entry: sal.ta.tion Pronunciation: sal-'tA-shn, sol- Function: noun Etymology: Latin saltation-, saltatio, from saltare to leap, dance, frequentative of salire to leap -- more at SALLY Date: 1646 1 a : the action or process of leaping or jumping b : DANCE 2 a : the origin of a new species or a higher taxon in essentially a single evolutionary step that in some especially former theories is held to be due to a major mutation or to unknown causes -- compare DARWINISM, NEO-DARWINISM, PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM b : MUTATION -- used especially of bacteria and fungi -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Dan Minette Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 11:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms] - Original Message - From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:23 PM Subject: Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 1/27/2003 6:48:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: But isn't speciation itself a jump? You can't change from a being with, say, 44 chromosomes per cell to a being with 46 without a jump. A few more thoughts. The notion of an evolutionary jump is called a saltation and the theory was put forth by Richard Goldsmicht Do you know why it's called a saltation? I think it was explained to me once in college, but I've forgotten. :( Because it had to be taken with a grain of salt? Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Humor: When you're happy and you know it bomb Iraq
Posted on the Culture list, no attribution: When you're happy and you know it bomb Iraq If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq. If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq. If the terrorists are frisky, Pakistan is looking shifty, North Korea is too risky, Bomb Iraq. If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq. If we think someone has dissed us, bomb Iraq. So to hell with the inspections, Let's look tough for the elections, Close your mind and take directions, Bomb Iraq. It's pre-emptive non-aggression, bomb Iraq. Let's prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq. They've got weapons we can't see, And that's good enough for me 'Cos it's all the proof I need Bomb Iraq. If you never were elected, bomb Iraq. If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq. If you think Saddam's gone mad, With the weapons that he had, (And he tried to kill your dad), Bomb Iraq. If your corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq. If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq. If your politics are sleazy, And hiding that ain't easy, And your manhood's getting queasy, Bomb Iraq. Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq. For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq. Disagree? We'll call it treason, Let's make war not love this season, Even if we have no reason, Bomb Iraq. Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
