UK 'is road rage capital of the world'
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_808431.html?menu=news.latestheadlines Researchers have concluded the UK is still the road rage capital of the world. A survey by motoring magazine Max Power found nearly nine out of 10 UK drivers said they had been road rage victims at least once. And 20% said they had experienced road rage more than 10 times, with more than 70% committing the offence themselves. The latest statistics backed up a recent Gallup poll which showed Britain was the leading country in the world for road rage, with 80.4% of UK drivers being victims of it. Of those in the Max Power poll who admitted committing road rage, three in five said they felt fine about it, adding that victims deserved it. Only 14% showed any remorse, and said their bad mood had affected their actions. The survey also showed road rage was likely to happen in the afternoon and evening, in a town, and mainly in south-east England. The most common action was gesticulating, while in one in seven cases victims faced an aggressor who got out of the car and physically or verbally abused them. Only 7% reported incidents to the police. White van man - often thought to be a regular road rage offender - was cited in 13% of incidents. The survey of Max Power readers (typically about 16-30 years old) involved interviews with 1,035 people. Max Power editor John Sootheran said: This research proves that Britain's roads are not a friendly place to be. While it's shocking that so many young drivers are victims or instigators of road rage, I believe these results only reflect the stressful and hectic lifestyles we lead - particularly in urban environments. The survey was conducted in association with the RAC Foundation, whose executive director Edmund King said: Road rage seems to be linked to congestion and stress, as most incidents occur in the busier towns and cities. xponent Gun Substitutes Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: leave the constitution alone
So does Ms. Tucker think we should restore the original wording of the Constitution by removing the right to privacy interpretation of the 14th amendment on which the SCOTUS based its decision in _Roe v. Wade_? Or, given that she is black, how about repealing the entire 14th amendment? What the hell does this have to do with what she was talking about? She wasn't saying, Don't ever amend the Constitution, she was saying, Don't do it in _this particular case_. Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last. - Dr Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Heinlein quote
- Original Message - From: Jan Coffey [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 8:16 PM Subject: Re: Heinlein quote --- Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Robert Seeberger wrote: An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. -Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond the Horizon, 1942 This statemente is totally false. Just look at any armed society - like a slum, or an area under the control of a terrorist group - and check if people are polite there. Are you saying Texas isn't polite? wfc? One example is enough to falsify Heinlein's statement. I gave two. Once again exactly! That is exactly why I disagree with him (among other issues more subtle) but you are in fact seeming to be in agreement that a lack of power balance is a bad thing. ( I never recieved Alberto's post) A slum is not a place defined by gun ownership, some will, some won't. Terrorists have weapons for the purpose of inflicting their will upon others. Alberto falsified nothing because his examples were fatally flawed. The society Heinlein proposed is one where 100% of the people (or close enough) are armed. I'm not claiming to agree with Heinlein, but I will note that people are very friendly in Texas and not so friendly in New York. G xponent Guns'N'Roses Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: dimensions of the Streaker
Hi folks. Hoping you are all having a great summer. All except for you fine folks south of the equator. Quick question, Do any of you know the URL of images of my spaceship STREAKER? Or references to its dimensions? The people at the new Sci Fi Museum want to include it in the gallery of starships and I'd like to provide as much info as possible. Thanks. Any of you coming to Worldcon in Toronto? With cordial regards, David Brin www.davidbrin.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: Milky Way
At 03:13 PM 8/12/03 -0300, Alberto Monteiro wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: In the Tupi-Guarani mythology it's called Caminho da Anta, which means Pathway of a big-cousin-of-the-rat-with-the- size-of-a-cow. Sorry for not getting the name in Tupi but in Portuguese O:-) Those sessions with the Time-Life Series nature books as a child were not wasted...I thought it might be capybara, which is the biggest rodent in the world, and finally had time to look it up: http://www.k12.de.us/warner/capybara.htm You are right, but I am wrong. Anta translates to _tapir_, and it's a cousin of the camel, deer, and other ungulates. It's the biggest and most stupid mammal of South America [if you exclude H. sapiens, of course] Capivara is the rodent. BTW, both are used as methaphors: _anta_ means very stupid, _capivara_ means a bad chess player. FWIW, the first animal I thought of when I read the description was the capybara (even though I was not aware that they got to be as large as cows, which is one reason why I didn't say anything at the time) rather than the tapir . . . Live And Learn Maru -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: Fast Acting Ebola Vaccine Protects Monkeys (NIH)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-08/nioa-fev080403.php Excerpt: Fast-acting ebola vaccine protects monkeys A single shot of a fast-acting, experimental Ebola vaccine successfully protects monkeys from the deadly virus after only one month. If this vaccine proves similarly effective in humans, it may one day allow scientists to quickly contain Ebola outbreaks with ring vaccination--the same strategy successfully used in the past against smallpox, according to a study published in this week's issue of Nature. This finding is the result of collaboration between scientists at the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC), part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, MD. snip Under the directorship of Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., scientists at the VRC have been pursuing the so-called prime-boost vaccine strategy against a variety of infectious diseases. Prime-boost is a two-part process: First, an injection of non-infectious genetic material from the disease-causing microbe primes the immune system to respond. Second, several weeks later, an injection of attenuated carrier viruses containing key genes from the microbe substantially boosts the immune response. The VRC scientists found that the boost alone produces a quicker but weaker immune response as compared with the prime-boost strategy. Knowing that time is critical when fighting Ebola, the scientists decided to test whether the boost's fast response was strong enough on its own to protect against the disease. To perform this test, they collaborated with colleagues at USAMRIID, who had the necessary facilities and expertise and who had developed good animal models for the experiment. The VRC scientists immunized eight monkeys with a single boost injection, consisting of attenuated carrier viruses containing genes for important Ebola antigens. The monkeys were then delivered to USAMRIID where they were injected with an Ebola virus strain obtained from a fatally infected person from the former Zaire in 1995. The single vaccine injection completely protected all eight animals against Ebola infection, even those who received high doses of the virus. Le Blog: http://zarq.livejournal.com _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: Milky Way
- Original Message - From: Ronn!Blankenship [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 8:07 AM Subject: Re: Irregulars question: Milky Way At 11:23 PM 8/11/03 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 8/11/2003 8:01:20 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Robert Seeberger wrote: xponent And I Own 43 Cats Maru rob Don't move to Round Rock. They're considering a proposal that would make it illegal to have more than 4 pets. :P OOPS I miscounted. Its only 1 cat. Please excuse my lack of clear thinking. I was plain wrong. I should not be allowed to reproduce. OOPS Too late there too! G xponent A Mistake Anyone Could Make Maru rob Not X-ponent, and not X-men. But X-cat! Your cat must have the same power as one of the X-men children. It only turns into 43 cats when it hears the can opener, hoping that the human will then mistakenly open up 42 more cans to feed them all. Actually, it appears to be in 43 different places simultaneously. Yup, its a Schroedringers Manx, simultaneously rare and plentiful. xponent The Art Of Paradox Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Cloning Yields Human-Rabbit Hybrid Embryo
At 04:36 AM 8/14/03 -0500, Robert Seeberger wrote: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55911-2003Aug13?language=printer Scientists in China have, for the first time, used cloning techniques to create hybrid embryos that contain a mix of DNA from both humans and rabbits, according to a report in a scientific journal that has reignited the smoldering ethics debate over cloning research. More than 100 of the hybrids, made by fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs, [snip] Some wondered aloud what, exactly, such a creature would be if it were transferred to a womb to develop to term. Hugh Hefner. -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Author question
On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 05:53:18PM +0900, G. D. Akin wrote: P.S. Dang! I went off-subject on my own post. Do you know the etymology of the word dang? -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The evil ham and cheese sandwich
Ronn!Blankenship wrote: One possible answer in this case is that Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses, but a prohibition on homosexuality is also found in the New Testament (Romans 1:26-27, frex). Well, if so many people are uptight about the NT prohibition on homosexuality, why are so few of them uptight about divorce, which *Jesus* spoke about, and said was really bad? :) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Author question
At 12:00 PM 8/14/03 -0500, Horn, John wrote: From: Julia Thompson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] even next year.) But I did manage to get through Shardik in college. Not as good as The Plague Dogs, and *that* wasn't as good as Watership Down. I made it through Shardik as well. I really don't remember it much one way or another, to be honest. Definitely not as good as Watership Down. One reviewer when it came out called it a flawed masterpiece. -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Weekly Chat Reminder
This is just a quick reminder that the Wednesday Brin-L chat is scheduled for 3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central time in the US, or 7 PM Greenwich time, so it started about two and a half hours ago. There will probably be somebody there to talk to for at least eight hours after the start time. See my instruction page for help getting there: http://www.brin-l.org/brinmud.html __ 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: More Fiber
G. D. Akin wrote: Robert SeebergerWrote: Debbi who despises bran cereal, however good it is for her :P Have you ever tried Cracklin' Oat Bran? I eat the stuff like candy. Its fairly sweet and quite tasty. Therefore it must be bad for you. I used to eat it because it was (still is I'm sure), but it has more calories than most bran cereals and had more fat too, IIRC. I'm currently eating a lot of Honey Nut Mini-wheats. I also drink 4 ounces of prune juice a day . . . hey, I'm almost 53 and it HELPS! I generally don't eat cold cereal. I make toast with whole-wheat bread and eat *that*. (Most cold cereals contain a preservative that disagrees with my intestines. Cheerios are OK, Honey Nut Cheerios are OK, and the various brands that Whole Foods carries are OK, but that's about it.) Plus I eat my veggies. Nothing like good fibrous veggies to help keep you regular. Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The seven habits of highly ineffective list-subscribers
- Original Message - From: Ritu [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Killer Bs Discussion' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 6:58 AM Subject: RE: The seven habits of highly ineffective list-subscribers Erik Reuter wrote: On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 05:52:03PM +0530, Ritu wrote: Nope. Orders don't begin with 'Try'. Had that been an order, it would have read: 'Listen more and argue less...'. Bzzzt. Try again. Orders can begin with try. Try means to do something but not necessarily expect complete success. Try this can certainly be an order. True. I guess it is a matter of perspective. Without obvious vocal and facial clues, I tend to interpret any sentence beginning with 'try' as a suggestion. So what made you interpret Ronn's statement as more of an order than a point/suggestion? Especially when Try can be equally viewed as a request. xponent Try Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: OT: Math and Science
Erik Reuter wrote: If one examines social realism, one is faced with a choice: either reject the subcapitalist paradigm of consensus or conclude that culture is used to reinforce hierarchy,... You lost me at subcapitalist! ---David Obfuscational maximalization ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Dubya with Kung Fu Grip
Personally, I'm holding on to my money until they release the Heroes of Desert Storm Action Figures collection. I'm waiting for the Pfc Jessica Lynch figure complete with Pentagon Overstatement Accessories. Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last. - Dr Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of pricediscrimination
No matter what laws get passed, no matter who can leagaly cary a gun and who can't Criminals will allways own and carry guns. Right, and other criminals will always commit crimes, so why have any laws at all? A much more interesting statistic would be the perentage of non-law-enforcement people who carry a conceled weapons who are also non-criminals. Personsly I would prefer there to be more non-criminals with concealed weapons than criminals with concealed weapons, but proponents of gun control laws seem to prefer it if ONLY criminals carry weapons. No we don't. We don't want anyone to have a gun who doesn't have a good reason to have one. And we don't feel it is impossible to cut down on the sheer extraordinarily huge number of guns circulating in our society. Difficult, especially given the grinding political power of the NRA, but why should it be so easy to buy a gun in Virginia that criminals drive down from New York to stock up on guns and then drive them back up to New York to sell? Nobody really needs a gun. Seriously. If you absolutely have to have one (and I don't know why you would), you should have to demonstrate that need, demonstrate proper training in its use, be required to own insurance against any possible misuse of your gun by you or by anyone else (thus giving you a powerful incentive to take good care of it). I'm not talking about hunters or target-shooters, but they tend to be much more responsible about taking care of their weapons than the gun nuts symbolized by Phil Gramm, who, when asked how many guns he had, replied, More than I need but not as many as I want. Guns are dangerous. Pure and simple. It may not be possible to get rid of them entirely, but that should be our society's goal. Meanwhile, let's settle for what limitations we can get. Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last. - Dr Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: _Politics,_was_[L3]_Re:_fight_the_evil_of _pricediscrimination
--- Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jan Coffey wrote: A society where everyone was carrying a weapon would be a society where the week and the meek would have equal power when they walk out of their front door. It would be More peacefull and provide for More equality. rolls eyes Yea, like the gangs in our cities that all have guns. They're oh so equal in the cemetery. Sorry, but the above is a tired cliché that doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. Then why do Texas and Nevada have less violent crime? Where is all the major gang activity? In states that have very strong gun laws. Besides you are making my point. How long do you think it is going to be before those same gangsters realize that YOUR nigborhood where most people don't own guns is a lot easier to pilage than the hood down the street where they know their rival gang is packing. I beleive that for a weaponless society to work, we must first experience have tactical equality. Your formula assumes that everyone that is week and meek wants a gun. Are you going to force people to carry guns so that they are equal? Then there is the matter of temperament. many of the gun deaths in this country occur when normally law abiding citizens loose it and start shooting. I don't believe that. Then there is the matter of accidents. Simple solution, teach a class in gun safty in school. Replace the 10th 11th or 12th year of english those clases are a waste. Your formula assumes that all gun owners will be responsible, keeping their weapons out of the hands of minors and taking appropriate safety measures. Yes, I believe that law abiding citizens are responsible, well meaning, do not contribute to the delinquincy of minors, and are interested in safty. Much more so than I trust a society and the mercy of thugs, who no matter what you do, are allways going to have guns. All that being said, there are too much a cult of arms in this country to make firearms illegal. Though the courts have ruled that the second amendment does not allow unlimited access to firearms people continue to believe that deadly force is their right. Some people do not believe in the softening of the rights our forfathers invisoned. So be it. What we need to do is to encourage responsibility with the law. Weapons should be registered. Done Owners should be trained. Done Penalties for abuse should be persuasive. Done And the laws should be homogenous so that individuals can't skirt them by driving a few miles. Agreed, let's use Nevada's laws everywhere. = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: shoelaces, concetration, stingy reactions andRe:dyslexiaandtinted lenses
Jan Coffey wrote: Everyone (not just those with aus etc.) are effected by foods. it's not just autistic kids who get high off of bread. It's just that the autistics are more dialed in, more granular, more sensative. Granular? I'm not sure what you mean by this in this sentence. (On the other hand, it reminded me of a bit of ridiculousness on another mailing list, which was a pleasant thing for me this morning, so some good has come of it, anyway.) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: I've done it again!
Adam C. Lipscomb wrote: Reproduced, that is. Alexander Norman Lipscomb (Alec) was born at 7:46 AM on Monday, August 11th. He weighed 9 lbs, 8 oz, and his mother is incredibly happy that someone else will be carrying him for the next while. Congratulations, and my deepest empathy for the mother. :) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
--- Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jan Coffey wrote: statistics gatheing techniqes vary and therefore are not comparable. Bullsh*t. Or at least bullsh*t until you provide evidence that the above is true, or your own statistics that use the same gathering techniques or that make the necessary corrections. And even if gathering techniques vary, I doubt they would wipe out a 18% difference. No, it is not my duty to do that study. It is the duty of those making the claim to do the study in such a way that there is no other resonable explination for the results. Comparing statistics gathered in two compleatly different ways is esentaily useless for comparison. FREX two studies ask what percentage of a population like Sci-Fi. Study 1 askes how often the individual watches the Sci-Fi channel, Study 2 askes how many books by Asimove the individual has read. The results can be very different in the same population. Comparing study 1 from population (a) and study 2 from population (b), is compleatly useless. You may in fact be correct, but you can not use two seperate studies of this nature to support it. = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
neo-Cubism
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/08/08/DD251010.DTL And I thought I was a nut over this kind of thing, but this guy is kinda creepy. Besides he solves it backwards. The corners should be solved first then the centers. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: _Politics,_was_[L3]_Re:_fight_the_evil_of price_discrimination
Jan Coffey wrote: If everyone has a gun, that power is balanced. If every country has nukes, power is balanced too. Regards, Ray. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
On Fri, Aug 08, 2003 at 04:40:27PM -0500, Ronn!Blankenship wrote: Given that the total number of known human¹ deaths due to being struck by a meteorite stands at zero, of what meaning is the figure they quote? A number of cars have been struck by small meteorites over the years, according to car insurance companies. This (and the total number of cars) gives an estimate of the rate of meteorite hits per area. Multiply that by the area of all the people, and assume some fatality rate if you are hit, and you get an estimate for the death rate. -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Most Dangerous States
--- Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Robert Seeberger wrote: - Original Message - From: Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2003 4:02 PM Subject: Most Dangerous States http://www.morganquitno.com/dang02.htm Nevada 7th most dangerous Texas 14th New York 24th You forgot to mention California is 13th. No, I didn't forget, I just didn't think it had any relevance in the current discussion. If anything, since California's rate is about the same as Texas and it is listed as less dangerous than Nevada, it falsifies Jan's implication that Nevada and Texas are much safer (or much more polite). Doug I didn't say that, I said that ~I~ felt safer. But as long as we are at it, it wouldn't have falsified it if that had been what I meant. California has the strictst gun laws and yet there are 37 safer states even by their standards. Europe is no shining example either. That's not even get into the issue of showing corolation. Texas before concealed carry and Texas after would me a better test. = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: irregulars: how to split c++ class between multiple files
-- From: Horn, John [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: irregulars: how to split c++ class between multiple files Date: Saturday, August 09, 2003 10:20 AM From: The Fool [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I have a c++ class that is very large (90k lines) that I need to split up between multiple files. I'm not a c++ programmer. But that seems to be a very, very large class. Wouldn't it be better (and/or possible) to split it up into a main class and some helper classes? Not that that answered the original question, of course... --- Not in this particular case. All the functions are related / use the same class variables etc. Also sometimes speed and efficiency are more important than ease of use. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Hyperion - The Motion Picture
On Wed, Aug 06, 2003 at 01:05:52AM -0400, Jon Gabriel wrote: I know I'm in the list minority when I say this, but I would also highly recommend Endymion and Rise of Endymion as well I liked them. Rafting down the endless river was a great idea. as the final coda story entitled Orphans of the Helix which may be hard to find. I didn't know it existed. Where did you find it? I think the entire series was just incredible and it's on my personal top ten as well. Yes, Simmons best work. A good film adaptation could be eye-popping and mind-blowing. But since when has Scorsese shown any interest in skiffy? Who cares? *grin* He'd be awesome at it. ;-) I guess it will never happen. Hyperion is too high concept to make a viable movie. If by some chance it is made, it will surely be dumbed down and much of the story will need to be cut. -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Polish, stupidity myth
I wrote: snip [2] ...one of General Pattons advance units, while rescuing a group of Allied prisoners, had captured a string of Lipizzaner brood mares, foals, and breeding stallions... http://r.searchhippo.com/r3.php?i=8q=lippizzan+horse+history+breedu=http%3A%2F%2Flipizzan.com%2Fwelcome.html For some reason, this throws you to the homepage; to get the actual article, click on Articles about Lippizzans (5th from the bottom) and then _The White Horses of Vienna_, which is 4th from the top. Sorry about that! Debbi __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The seven habits of highly ineffective list-subscribers
On Wed, Aug 06, 2003 at 11:56:20PM +1000, Ray Ludenia wrote: I naturally (and erroneously) assumed that everyone on this list would be technologically literate enough to realise that by written notes I would naturally mean using a digital assistant of some kind. (A computer may not be ideal, it's a bit of a nuisance to lug around.) No, a digital assistant IS a computer, but most of them don't have keyboards that are good for touch typing. Written notes are slow. Typed notes are faster. No need to lug a computer around -- mine is on the internet and can be accessed from almost any other computer on the internet. Since we were discussing making notes of emails, it is logical to assume a computer would be nearby when the notes are needed. PS Erik: What do you do to your posts so that when I reply, the quoted message is automatically truncated at the end of your comments? I could tell you, but then I'd have to...uh, that's classified, too. -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
[Listref] Obesity - some encouraging news
http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/70/80978.htm?printing=true ...According to the 2001 U.S. surgeon general's report on obesity, a number of studies show that weight loss as modest as 5%-15% of excess body weight reduces risk factors for a variety of serious medical concerns, particularly cardiovascular disease, at least in the short term. And, the benefits may be even greater -- and come sooner -- if you are one of tens of thousands who suffer from metabolic syndrome. This little known phrase describes a relatively common disorder that includes not only toting around some extra pounds, but also falling prey to related abnormalities including high blood pressure, high fasting blood-sugar levels, abnormal cholesterol with low HDL good cholesterol, and a large waist circumference. Experts from the Baylor College of Medicine report that metabolic syndrome may affect up to 40% of people over 50 and nearly one-third between 40 and 50 who have three or more symptoms. If this is the case for you, studies conducted at Baylor and published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism in 2002 revealed that even a modest weight loss -- just 7%-10% of body weight -- can return all these metabolic levels to normal in just 30 days. In a second study, the researchers showed that walking just 130 minutes per week, combined with losing just 5%-7% of body weight, offered a 60% reduction in the risk of diabetes... ...If you simply take some healthful steps in the direction of your weight-loss goals, you are likely to reap some healthy rewards, even if you never drop a single pound. As remarkable as that sounds, in studies published in March 2003 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, CDC researchers found that those folks who simply tried to lose weight lived longer... [with healthy lifestyle changes, not starvation diets or stimulants] Debbi Walking Is Good Maru __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Dubya with Kung Fu Grip
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 8/10/2003 12:26:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time, TomFODW writes: Interestingly, in his novel Snow in August, set in Brooklyn in the late 1940s, Pete Hammill has a rabbi who is a refugee from Nazi Germany teach a Catholic teenager he befriends how to create the Golem. Good book. Made into a pretty good movie as well. Has been on cable for about a year. Steven Rhea plays the rabbi Not to steer you off topic or anything, Bob, but how were the Canadian Rockies? Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
At 05:15 PM 8/4/03 -0700, Chad Cooper wrote: -Original Message- From: David Hobby [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 6:57 PM To: Killer Bs Discussion Subject: Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination No, David, you proved my much larger point. Congratulations, _you_ are the perfect example for why the left has no relevance to American politics today. You pegged it in one - I do say you're an extremist too. If you really feel that it's reasonable to call the American flag a symbol of hatred - which you have just repeatedly said you do - you have just proven my larger point about the collapse of the left far better than I ever could. Out of your own mouth. I couldn't have _asked_ for a better post to make my point. = Gautam Mukunda Yes, I feel it is reasonable to call the US flag a symbol of hatred, in the sense that many who wave it most fervently do so partially out of hate. Wait a sec... I see 50% of all automobiles with at least an American Flag decal, and a fair percentage with an actual flag. Those that use the flag in hate are such a small percentage, it probably can't be measured ... And so far, unlike the example of the Confederate flag in the school logo I mentioned I my reply to Ritu, I don't recall anyone being shot because he was driving down the street with an American flag on his vehicle. -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: ADMIN: Julia and Jose are running the show, mostly
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Deborah Harrell ... What a terrible shock. I hope it is operable; at least he's in a great institution. Stanford certainly is. I wish I hadn't had so much experience with it, though! From the MRI, it appears that it almost certainly is a tumor. Good news is that it is operable and surgery is scheduled for Wednesday. And the team thinks it probably won't be malignant. In my tiredness, I described the location wrong. It's in a frontal lobe, which makes a lot of sense, given the fact that he's been struggling (like me, somewhat) with ADD symptoms. Unlike me, he has a rather clear cause, since the mass is between the size of a golf ball and a lime. All of us, including Dave, are feeling positive and optimistic, which may seem a bit odd. Too tired to write more about that, though. All thoughts and prayers are very welcome. Nick ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: good olde fashioned bible burning
Jon Gabriel wrote: At first sight, the subject header appeared to say ' good old fashioned bride burning'. Maybe that's why in Utah they frequently have wedding receptions at the stake center . . . Perhaps they hold secret bride burnings in the temple? Humm.. It would truly suck to be a groom in Utah then. No sex before OR after the wedding. Oh, but the grooms can get married again. And anyway, the bride is burnt only after a few days/weeks/months have passed. First comes marriage and dowry, then sex, then demands for more dowry, then a jump in the consumption of keroseneand then comes marriage and dowry. Ritu GCU A Method To The Madness ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
vv audits non profits that don't tow the ideological line
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0332/lee.php Watchdog Reveals Effort to Gag Anti-Bush Causes Muffling the Left by Chisun Lee August 6 - 12, 2003 The Bush administration is actively seeking to gag or punish social service organizations that challenge the party line on such matters as health care for poor children and HIV prevention, according to a new report. Nonprofits that disagree with the president's own solutions, or go further and blame him for problems in the first place, have come to expect unpleasant consequences. Those might include audits of federal-funds spending and reviews of content, such as workshop literature. If you disagree with the administration on ideological grounds, they're going to come down with a hammer. This has huge implications for the free flow of speech in this country, says Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, itself a nonprofit, which released the report last week as part of its 20-year-old mission to monitor White House budget and spending decisions. As dramatic as that assessment sounds, the assault has been nearly invisible to the public. The Bush administration and its allies have hit progressives under the radar, maneuvering in the soporificif enormously importantrealm of nonprofit oversight. The idea of a right-wing conspiracy to audit nonprofits is more likely to set off yawns than outrage. Yet virtually every imaginable social causecivil liberties, reproductive rights, affirmative action, accessible health carerelies on a lifeline of nonprofit advocates, fundraisers, and service providers. Since nonprofits operate on a tax-exempt basis and often receive government funding, they have always been subject to federal oversight and are forbidden from engaging in electoral politics. Under George W. Bush, however, oversight has quietly morphed into ideologically motivated intimidation and censorship, according to OMB Watch's review of some dozen specific conflicts. Even though causes of the right have their own tax-exempt advocates, conservatives have long reviled nonprofits in general for supporting the welfare state, according to Bass. He points to the major efforts to defund nonprofits and restrict their advocacy during the Reagan administration in the '80s and in Newt Gingrich's Congress in the '90s. But those were head-on, equal opportunity offensives, going after an entire genre. Under obvious attack, the nonprofits really rose up like a firestorm and survived, says Bass. The selective, stealthy approach of today is unprecedented, he says. His organization had wanted to put out the alert months ago, but piecing together the scattered developments took time. Almost every example we have here, there's a link to the Bush administration directly, not just ideologically, says Bass. Bush spokesperson Allen Abney declined to comment Monday, saying the White House had not yet thoroughly reviewed the July 28 critique. In perhaps the clearest example of the report's claims of squashed dissent, Bush's Health and Human Services Department (HHS) threatened advocates of the nonprofit Head Startincluding parents and teachers of poor childrenwith monetary sanctions or even prosecution for speaking out against a presidential proposal. Head Start is the hardly controversial program that has promoted education and healthcare for young children nationwide since 1965. Participating providers launched a campaign earlier this year to get parents and teachers to tell Congress their concerns that standards and funding might fall with Bush's plan to decentralize the program. HHS soon began warning Head Start affiliates that their lobbying might violate nonprofit rules. This summer the National Head Start Association sued the administration, claiming it was interfering with First Amendment rights, and won. But organizers worry that the administration's warnings, wrong as they were, might have frightened many into silence. HHS began its apparent policing of protest a year earlier, when it audited over a dozen AIDS service organizations after they publicly shamed the administration at a July 2002 AIDS conference in Barcelona. There, U.S.-based advocates accused the Bush administration of cheaping out on HIV prevention and, during HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson's closely watched speech, heckled so forcefully as to drown out his entire address. Conservative members of Congress immediately demanded that HHS review the nonprofits' spending of federal funds in Spain. HHS complied. Thompson's deputy, Claude Allen, told The Washington Post at the time that advocacy groups need to think twice before preventing a Cabinet-level official from bringing a message of hope to an international forum. In an interesting but brief mention, OMB Watch also reveals that groups currently applying for federal grants to provide humanitarian relief in Iraq are required to advertise the U.S. government's generosity. Presumably, any criticism of Bush administration policy would be
Re: shoelaces, concetration, stingy reactions andRe:dyslexiaandtinted lenses
Steve Sloan II wrote: Sonja van Baardwijk wrote: But seriously, your verb tense there is perfect. Thank you. I don't know about the colored lenses links, but the page about the family with the Aspergers kid was very interesting. I've suspected I might have Aspergers (or however you'd put it) since Michael first mentioned it several years back, and I went to the links he gave. You wouldn't happen to have some of those for me, now would you? This adds more evidence to that, because my ears also turn bright, glowing red the way his do when I eat something my body doesn't agree with. I suspect that one of my legs is getting longer then the other here? Sonja :o) GCU: Puzzled ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Most Dangerous States
--- Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: That's an example of why I say mostly the argument is silly. People quote stats trying to compare things that are not at all alike. Just thought it needed to be repeated is all. = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Hyperion - The Motion Picture
I can see Endymion as a stand-alone movie. But I agree, Hyperion and Fall would be nearly impossible to transfer properly to the big screen. That is what they said about LOR. Just get Peter Jackson to devote a few years to the project ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
On Fri, Aug 08, 2003 at 04:28:52PM -0500, Ronn!Blankenship wrote: If the asterisks are supposed to refer to a footnote, the footnote is missing. He did give a URL. ** Standard Population is 2000, all races, both sexes. -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] So the only people you want carrying guns is criminals? You want everyone else, every law abiding citizen to be at the mercy of gun toting criminals? I think I'm being baited here, because I don't see any other way what I'm saying could be so completely misunderstood. But just in case this is a genuine misunderstanding: No. I don't want ANYONE to carry guns. Certainly not criminals. Okay? Get it? I DON'T WANT CRIMINALS TO HAVE GUNS. Have I made myself clear? My whole point is to try to keep guns OUT OF THE HANDS OF CRIMINALS. And before you say that that is impossible, unworkable and therefore not even worth trying - it may be difficult, it may not be possible to achieve in full, but why not at least TRY? Every gun we get out of the hands of a criminal is a step in the right direction. At this point we actually make it easy for criminals to get guns. Why not start reversing that? ... Tom, reading your reply, the questions that occur to me are: - If guns were made completely illegal (which I gather is your preference from the I don't want ANYONE to carry guns statement), do you think that would keep them out of the hands of criminals? My thought is that many drugs are easily available despite their illegality; why would it be different for guns? Might it not increase crime by creating a new black market for a previously legal product, the way prohibition did with alcohol? - How many gun-toting criminals actually bought their guns legally? What is that as a percentage of all guns bought legally? Also, what percentage of gun crimes used legally purchased guns? It'd be very interesting to know these numbers: if the percentages are high, that would certainly argue in your favor, or against you, if they are low. - If guns were kept legal, but just made much harder to get, wouldn't potential criminals still be able to get guns legally, if they had a prior clean record? ... Cut down on the number of cheap gun imports, cut back on the incredibly lax gun laws in certain states, begin to stress gun responsibility instead of gun rights. I don't see why we can't - or shouldn't. I think that some gun rights advocates have almost the same slippery slope mentality that some abortion rights advocates do, where even moderate and seemingly resaonable laws are fought against tooth and nail by the pro-* side, because they fear that *any* legislation against their position will start a downward trend, paving the way for more and more restrictions or outright criminalization. _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Sea Launch platform
Very cool Leaving a bubbly wake behind, Sea Launch's Odyssey launch platform cruises at full speed toward the equator in the Pacific Ocean in this aerial view captured Aug. 1 and returned to company headquarters via satellite http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_030806.html The Sea Launch home page. http://www.sea-launch.com/index.html ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Update on Nick's friend/biz partner
At 12:24 AM 8/7/03 -0700, Nick Arnett wrote: My buddy Dave Land had brain surgery today and it went well. His type of tumor has well-defined margins, so surgery often gets all of it, and his surgeon feels confident that they got it all. Even if not, it is a very slow growing type that rarely is malignant, rarely metastasizes. So further treatment may be needed. He was out of it when we saw him, between the OR and the ICU, so we haven't talked yet since the operation. But they expect to move him out of ICU and into a regular bed sometime tomorrow, then home in a couple of days. Pretty amazing after brain surgery. Dave, his wife, everyone at the hospital and I were very optimistic, very positive throughout the last few days, after the initial shock and fear on Sunday, especially because Dave and his wife lost their first son to a brain tumor eight years ago. I've really felt uplifted by all the kind words, prayers and other support from literally hundreds of people, including many of the Brin-L community. Thank you! Great news! Obligatory Second Line Mary-Lu -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Listref] Obesity - some encouraging news
At 03:45 PM 8/10/03 +0200, Sonja van Baardwijk wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/70/80978.htm?printing=true ...If you simply take some healthful steps in the direction of your weight-loss goals, you are likely to reap some healthy rewards, even if you never drop a single pound. As remarkable as that sounds, in studies published in March 2003 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, CDC researchers found that those folks who simply tried to lose weight lived longer... [with healthy lifestyle changes, not starvation diets or stimulants] steps onto a soapbox So I'm gonne die earlier because I've never in my life attempted to lose weight? Sure sounds a bit strange to me. I'm obese but have had approximately the same weight for over 20 years now. (give or take the odd kilo). And I never tried to loose any. Because quite frankly I couldn't care less what others think about my looks. They can look away if they are that displeased. I'm not gonne be told that I should lose weight or even attempt it and then start yo-yoing all over the place as a result. With the added bonus that I then for the rest of my life have to consider the consequences for every morsel of food I wanne eat. No thanks very much! I rather stay healthy. I walk and bike a lot. That and the house work with all the jobs attached to it that usually are physically very demanding are all the exercise I need. (I don't know how often I have to climb the bloody stairs but I know it is lots). And on a slightly related note. You know what really makes me furious. When I have an ailment (no matter what it is) and I go see another doctor then my own about it, the first thing I usually get told is that I have the ailment because of my weight. Even if it isn't in the slightest connected, that is still the first thing I invariably will be told. And that isn't only for me but also for a lot of other people I know. I call them lazy doctor's diagnosis. When I then ask that doctor full serious to please in detail explain (if possible with references to resent research) the underlying mechanism that connects my ailment to being overweight I usually get silence and a very confused doctor. After that I get either treated like the average patient with that ailment or I walk out and find another doctor. Being overweight isn't the all evil, and as a result weight loss cann't be the all cure. Even healthy slim, trim and young people do get heart attacks, brain haemorrhages or die of cancer. So the first quack that ever again starts telling me that loosing weight is gonne cure whatever it is that's amiss just because that person is too lazy to find out what *really* is wrong with me, will get the full brunt of my fury about all the lazy doctors diagnosis' (pl?) I've ever had. And that's a promise. lazy doctor mode Oh, you're just a hysterical woman. Here's a prescription for Prozac. Now go away. /lazy doctor mode If It's Not Your Weight It's All In Your Head Maru -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: dimensions of the Streaker
d.brin wrote: Hi folks. Hoping you are all having a great summer. All except for you fine folks south of the equator. Quick question, Do any of you know the URL of images of my spaceship STREAKER? There's Robert Hurt's classic Streaker Down: http://members.aol.com/roberth616/latest/streaker-down.jpg There are front, side, and three-quarters views of my model: http://www.sloan3d.com/chmeee/streaker.jpg And my Izmunuti animation: http://www.sloan3d.com/gallery/izmunuti.avi And this image has an earlier version of my model: http://www.sloan3d.com/gallery/kithrup2.jpg Or references to its dimensions? I dug up my old notes. Startide gives two firm numbers: the interior of the ship's main bay is 20 m in diameter, and the ship's central spine is 5 m in diameter. My model assumes the exterior is *exactly* 20 m, and the interior is only a little less. Looking back at the notes I used to build my 3D model several years ago... http://www.sloan3d.com/chmeee/streaker.jpg Back when I wrote those notes, it looks like I tried to do a lot of math to figure out the length, but that never really settled anything. In the end, I just *picked* a length, 128 m, that looked like it matched the book's illustration. I've drawn a quick sketch containing the rest of the measurements used in the model: http://www.sloan3d.com/brinl/streaker_hand_measurements.jpg The people at the new Sci Fi Museum want to include it in the gallery of starships and I'd like to provide as much info as possible. Cool. __ 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: Polish, stupidity myth
Someone wrote: I always figured it was because of WW2 that they got that reputation. Didn't they attack tanks with cavalry during the Blitz, or some such? Damon replied: No; Polish cavalry were pursuing a unit of broken German infantry when they blundered on some German tanks. It's a myth. Ouch! At what point during the war did this happen? Reggie Bautista Curious Maru _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
shrubCo's plan to eliminate anonymous mail
http://www.counterpunch.org/plummer08042003.html Privacy Villain of the Week President's Commission on the US Postal Service By JAMES PLUMMER Next week, a special commission created by President Bush will present him with a final report on articulating a proposed vision for the future of the United States Postal Service. That vision includes the idea that no person should be able to mail a letter without the USPS and their pals in Homeland Security knowing about it. According to PostalWatch, the Final Report of the President's Commission on the United States Postal Service will include the Final Recommendations of a number of Subcommittees, including this gem from the Technology Challenges and Opportunities Subcommittee: The Subcommittee believes that a more secure system could be built using sender identified mail. The Subcommittee recommends that the Postal Service, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, explore the use of sender identification for every piece of mail, commercial and retail. And among the other recommendations of the Commission is the maintenance of the monopoly on first-class mail. Taken together, those two key recommendations mean that this special Presidential Commission is pushing for the legal abolishment of the right to correspond anonymously. Yet this nation's very Constitution was founded on anonymous correspondence -- the Federalist Papers, which swayed public opinion in favor of its ratification, were authored under the pseudonym Publius by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. Presumably if those fellows were alive in the Commission's vision for the future, they could not mail their pamphlets without a Homeland-designed mailbox snapping a few pictures and running the images through face-recognition software. The Commission's document is extremely vague, of course -- the sender identification they wish for could take the form of any number of biometric identifiers, or possibly some other scheme. But its implementation will close the circle and end any remaining scraps of privacy in the US mails. For it was four years ago that the USPS announced that it would not deliver to private mailboxes -- like those at Mailboxes, Etc. -- unless the proprietor collected and delivered to the Postal Service peronal information that USPS itself is not allowed to collect. When, as per current policy and the Commission's recommendations, one entity -- USPS -- has a monopoly on first-class mail and demands its customers forsake any and all claims to privacy, the consumer choice is gutted. Consumers should be able to decide for themselves whether the risk of an insecure mail system (though something tells me those Priority Mail guarantees will remain insecure regardless) is worth the cost in privacy. With a legal monopoly and Orwellian policy, the President's Commission would make that impossible; for this week's Privacy Villains would have us all scrutinized and tracked Under the Eagle's Eye. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: Bester News
Ronn!Blankenship wrote: At 05:45 PM 8/5/03 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But for starters, in The Demolished Man, there are a hell of a lot more mind reares than just three in a tub. Three reares in a tub is at least one too many. (No butts about it.) Depends. If you have 2-year-old triplets, in some ways it's probably easier to bathe them all at once. In some ways. :) If you're bathing them all at once, well, at least you know where all of them are during that bath time. But you might not want to be triple-teamed like that. (It gets interesting enough with just *one* 2-year-old in the bathtub.) Julia heard some interesting stories from a mother of toddler triplets last week ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: A dead end for the Democrats
Erik Reuter wrote: On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 08:19:15PM -0700, Doug Pensinger wrote: I agree with the gist of the article, but what he doesn't seem to realize is that if it wasn't for the WMD hype, Bush never would have had enough support for the war no matter how many other good reasons there were. That _is_ an issue for me, and I think it will become an issue for more and more people as the casualties and costs of the occupation mount. That is a really depressing thought. I hope you are wrong about Americans. Well, first of all, Americans aren't the only one Bush was trying to persuade with his deceptive tactics. He had to convince other governments and their people as well. Secondly, this conflict was never about the well being of the Iraqi people however much we try to point it that way after the fact. There are too many other places, especially in the Africa, that are suffering far more than the Iraqi people were and to whom we pay little or no attention to for us to justify the war on those grounds. Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: shoelaces, concetration, stingy reactions and Re:dyslexiaandtinted lenses
Sonja van Baardwijk wrote: In general it used to be good brin-l practice to deliver information to the list in this form, usually resulting in nuanced replies of informed people who have taken (tense?) Nope, I'm perfectly relaxed. ;-) But seriously, your verb tense there is perfect. the trouble to glance through the material that the original poster pointed to. Additional surprising information can thus be acquired and it is even possible to have a discussion of the subject between polite, enthusiastic and inspired people. Generally broadening the horizon of the members on this list.. I don't know about the colored lenses links, but the page about the family with the Aspergers kid was very interesting. I've suspected I might have Aspergers (or however you'd put it) since Michael first mentioned it several years back, and I went to the links he gave. This adds more evidence to that, because my ears also turn bright, glowing red the way his do when I eat something my body doesn't agree with. __ 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: Irregulars question: Milky Way
From: Jean-Louis Couturier [EMAIL PROTECTED] At 23:12 2003-08-07 -0700, Josh wrote: Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003. (Google it if you Yup. I did an evaluation for our company. So, are you going to have an API so that forms can be stored in XML databases? Just so everything is on the up and up - I'm posting this from a personal account, but I'm [EMAIL PROTECTED]; detailed questions should go to news:microsoft.public.infopath where more people from MSFT will see them. (Short answer: yes, absolutely. InfoPath directly supports Web Services or you can do custom submit handlers. Follow up to the newsgroup for more details.) Joshua _ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
- Original Message - From: Jan Coffey [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 3:20 AM Subject: Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination --- Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jan Coffey wrote: --- Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jan Coffey wrote: statistics gatheing techniqes vary and therefore are not comparable. Bullsh*t. Or at least bullsh*t until you provide evidence that the above is true, or your own statistics that use the same gathering techniques or that make the necessary corrections. And even if gathering techniques vary, I doubt they would wipe out a 18% difference. No, it is not my duty to do that study. It is the duty of those making the claim to do the study in such a way that there is no other resonable explination for the results. But you made the claim that an armed society is a polite society. You haven't backed up that claim with _any_ statistics or studies. Until you do provide data, you're claims are bogus. Sorry I never made that claim. I did not and do not believe that an armed society would be any more or less polite. Those are your words. You are taking the words I say, relating them to a position you know and reaplying the buzz from that position to what I have said, generalizing to a fault. It disapoints me to see someone who I respect making this error. Further more logic is all that is required for a situation such as this. Data is only necisary when logic fails, or when one wishes to attempt to debunk a logical argument. If one requests data as a precondition to accept a logical argument then they are practicing sudo-science. This kind of situation is a beakon for the scetic. Well, you and I have very different understandings of science. What is your basis for defining science? Logic gets you from A to B. It does not, by itself, allow for any conclusions concerning the emperical world. The simple truth is that without conceled carry, the only ones with guns are the criminals. The power of leathal force is in the hands alone of the very people we would prefer did not have that power. The police have guns. Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Dubya with Kung Fu Grip
Jon wrote: Le Blog: http://zarq.livejournal.com Cool blog. It's on my Check it every day list. Adam C. Lipscomb [EMAIL PROTECTED] Read the blog. Love the blog. http://aclipscomb.blogspot.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Some more stats
Facts About Firearms In 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:2 * Suicide with firearms took the lives of 16,586 Americans * Homicide with firearms took the lives of 10,801 Americans * Unintentional firearm injuries took the lives of 776 Americans * 75,685 people suffered nonfatal firearm injuries3 *More than 2,200 Americans aged 18 and under died from bullet wounds, equaling six young people per day4 http://www.doctorsagainsthandguninjury.org/docs/gun_injury.pdf Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: vv audits non profits that don't tow the ideological line
I didn't know you could tow an imaginary line. The phrase is, actually, toe the line as in, put your toes on the line and not past it. Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last. - Dr Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: vv audits non profits that don't tow the ideological line
In a message dated 8/6/2003 1:32:20 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I didn't know you could tow an imaginary line. Sing it Doobies! What a fool believes... Kevin T. - VRWC Layin' it on the line Or Toke that barge, lift that Scott Baio... But no Fool listing this week can beat that interview with Dr. Brian Nerd William Taylor ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 8/3/2003 12:54:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Now, I think both of them are very important figures, because they are extremely influential. One is the single most cited living intellectual. The other edits the most important magazine of th Left. They influence opinion. But they are also indicators of opinion - and the fact that people who believe what they believe are so adulated by a fragment of the political spectrum - and so completely immune from criticism from _their own side_, as opposed to from the other side, tells us something really important Chomsky is one of the most important thinkers of our time but it his contributions to linguistics not his political views that have influence. You evidently haven't had any sort of political discussion with some of the people I end up in political discussions with. Granted, the ones big on Chomsky are pretty far off to a fringe, but there *are* people who take his political views very seriously. And a number of them are activists. So while his political views may not make a big impact except at a local level, there are localities where his views are influencing things at least somewhat. I haven't read anything of his, but I don't entirely respect him, on the basis of 2 incidents about 4 decades apart that I heard about second-hand, in which someone asked a question about something that might challenge him, and instead of taking on the *argument*, he tore (rather viciously in both instances, apparently) into the *asker*, which is a great way to get onto the Julia has less respect for you now list, especially when I have no other data about the personality of the person in question. Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Scouted: Bester News
John Horn wrote: Didn't they already make this movie? The one with Tom Cruise? The name of which escapes me at the moment but I'm sure you know what I mean... In Demolished Man, they just read your mind, as opposed to Minority Report where they actually see the future. And Demolished Man has a lot more than three teeps... Reggie Bautista _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: _Politics,_was_[L3]_Re:_fight_the_evil_of _pricediscrimination
Jon Gabriel wrote: I can't speak to that, but I did almost flunk art due to my color-blindness. I think they should make exceptions due to disabilities. And I almost failed an elective class in typing that I took in junior high, because my fat fingers were too clumsy. She was very strict about counting typos against my grade. I just wanted to take the class so it could speed up typing programs into my computer, which doesn't require the kind of anal grading she gave. I eventually had to pull out of the class, to keep it from hurting my overall grade. I never did learn how to touch-type, and I currently use a two-fingered hunting-and-pecking style that works OK for me. __ 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
Be careful what you shoot at whom....
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/08132003_nw_paintball.html In Pittsburgh, 3 teenagers were shooting paintballs from a moving vehicle, and someone living there decided to return fire with real bullets Julia who believes that paintball guns belong in *controlled* environments ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The seven habits of highly ineffective list-subscribers
Erik Reuter wrote: On Wed, Aug 06, 2003 at 11:10:36PM +1000, Ray Ludenia wrote: If you have memory problems, one technique you might find useful is to make written notes. No, written notes are slow and not easily searchable. Digital notes stored on a computer are far superior. Sorry for not being clearer. I didn't mean to give the impression that I meant the old-fashioned notes using pencil and paper. My bad. I naturally (and erroneously) assumed that everyone on this list would be technologically literate enough to realise that by written notes I would naturally mean using a digital assistant of some kind. (A computer may not be ideal, it's a bit of a nuisance to lug around.) Regards, Ray. PS Erik: What do you do to your posts so that when I reply, the quoted message is automatically truncated at the end of your comments? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Dubya with Kung Fu Grip
Wonder if it comes with drug paraphernalia, booze bottles and MPs in hot pursuit. No, that's the _Teddy Kennedy_ action figure. For a little more money you can buy the car accessory containing a lifelike babe. Realistically steers off bridges unexpectedly. (OK, it's a low blow, I know.) Actually, checking further, the George W. Bush action figure cannot be purchased on its own. You have to also buy the Dick Cheney action figure, as the larger Cheney doll has its hand up the smaller Dubya's back, and Dubya is permanently glued to Cheney's knee. Oh, and, by the way, the company producing both action figures is apparently owned by Halliburton... (Is that a lower blow? I'm not sure.) Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last. - Dr Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Hyperion - The Motion Picture
From: Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Hyperion - The Motion Picture Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 07:14:14 -0400 On Wed, Aug 06, 2003 at 01:05:52AM -0400, Jon Gabriel wrote: I know I'm in the list minority when I say this, but I would also highly recommend Endymion and Rise of Endymion as well I liked them. Rafting down the endless river was a great idea. I was glad he brought the Tethys back and made it a part of the last few books. Thought it was an utterly fascinating concept. as the final coda story entitled Orphans of the Helix which may be hard to find. I didn't know it existed. Where did you find it? I first spotted it in an anthology of scifi short stories whose name escapes me. I'll find and post the name tonight. Interestingly enough, that book also has an Uplift coda story by Dr. Brin which explains what happened to Peepoe and the Jijo Dolphins and an OSC Ender story. According to Amazon, Orphans of the Helix is also one of the five short stories in Worlds Enough Time : Five Tales of Speculative Fiction by Dan Simmons. I have the story in pdb format saved on my home computer. (That's a Palmdoc format, which can be read with PalmReader or MobiPocket software on your PDA.) If you'd like, I'll see if I can convert it to text and email it to you. (Or I can just send the pdb) OotH isn't as action-packed as the two Endymion books but it does fill in a few minor details. :) snip A good film adaptation could be eye-popping and mind-blowing. But since when has Scorsese shown any interest in skiffy? Who cares? *grin* He'd be awesome at it. ;-) I guess it will never happen. Hyperion is too high concept to make a viable movie. If by some chance it is made, it will surely be dumbed down and much of the story will need to be cut. I can see Endymion as a stand-alone movie. But I agree, Hyperion and Fall would be nearly impossible to transfer properly to the big screen. Jon Le Blog: http://zarq.livejournal.com _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The seven habits of highly ineffective list-subscribers
On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 05:36:17PM -0700, Jan Coffey wrote: Toung pushed forward, mouth open, eyes rolled up, head shaking and bobing from side to sidemaru Do you ever post anything worth anything? I can't recall the last time I saw a post of yours that had anything worthwile. -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Scouted: Bester News
From: Bryon Daly [EMAIL PROTECTED] It's funny, whenever I think of Demolished Man, that rhyme pops in my head: tenser said the tensor. Tenser said the tensor. Doh! I hit the send button before I could type the whole thing... Trying again... Tenser said the tensor. Tenser said the tensor. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun. Damn, that thing got stuck in my head for while... _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Irregulars question: Animated GIFs
Okay, this may seem like a very elementary question, but I can't seem to find an answer, so I have to ask it. Given a bunch of stills, how does one create an animated GIF out of them? -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: irregulars: how to split c++ class between multiple files
--- The Fool [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: -- From: Horn, John [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: irregulars: how to split c++ class between multiple files Date: Saturday, August 09, 2003 10:20 AM From: The Fool [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I have a c++ class that is very large (90k lines) that I need to split up between multiple files. I'm not a c++ programmer. But that seems to be a very, very large class. Wouldn't it be better (and/or possible) to split it up into a main class and some helper classes? Not that that answered the original question, of course... --- Not in this particular case. All the functions are related / use the same class variables etc. Also sometimes speed and efficiency are more important than ease of use. A class of that size is certaily not well factored. Trust me, good OO abstraction will not screw your performance in C++. Send me your design and I can help you refactor it. = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
republicans Vs Science; the Environment: global warming
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storyu=/oneworld/20030730/wl_onewor ld/4536646341059569466 GOP Senators Blame Nature for Climate Change Wed Jul 30, 9:24 AM J.R. Pegg, WASHINGTON, DC, July 29, 2003 (ENS) - Some Senate Republicans say there is considerable doubt that the climate is warming and if it is, humans are not responsible. Leading scientists vehemently disagree. Backing up statements he made on the Senate floor Monday, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe today told colleagues of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the science shows natural variability, not human activity, is the overwhelming factor influencing climate change. Inhofe cited findings of a study by Drs. Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that determined the 20th century was neither the warmest nor the century with the most extreme weather within the past millennium. The findings of this most comprehensive study shivers the timbers of the adrift chicken little crowd, said Inhofe, who is chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. It is a credible, well documented and scientifically defensible study examining the history of climate change. But a climate expert at today's hearing told Inhofe that the mainstream climate research community believes the Soon and Baliunas study is nonsense. The study is fundamentally unsound, testified Michael Mann, University of Virginia environmental sciences professor and a lead author of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report. Natural variability is a large factor in climate change, Mann said, but it can not explain the warming of the past two decades. There is no doubt that mainstream climate researchers have concluded that the warming in the late 20th century is unprecedented in a very long term context and that this warmth is likely related to the activity of human beings, Mann told the committee. Today's hearing illustrated the contentious debate over climate change in American politics, as the Bush administration and some in Congress contend that the science is too uncertain for the government to force industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in particular carbon dioxide (C02). For many there appears overwhelming evidence--from the United Nations ( - ), the U.S. government and independent researchers across the globe--that human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels, is impacting the climate. The IPCC panel, for example, says that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have increased to a level higher than at any time during the last 420,000 years. Mann said today that new evidence indicates these levels have not been seen for some 10 million to 20 million years, since the time of the dinosaurs. Many scientists predict that the average global temperature could rise from one to four degrees Fahrenheit by 2050 and some say it could rise as much as 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years. Critics believe the administration and its Congressional allies are casting doubt on the science in order to avoid difficult political choices about how to address the concern. The Bush administration said last week that it was launching a new initiative to study climate change, amid criticism that it edited a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( - ) report to remove references to global warming ( - ). I know these debates have political implications because heaven forbid we would tell somebody in the private sector not to do something or that we might have to make sacrifices in the quality of our life for future generations, said Senator Hillary Clinton ( - ), a New York Democrat. But it is not useful to carry out this kind of argumentation when it is clear by the very nature of human development and industrialization we have changed is in the atmosphere, in the Earth and in the waters. There are several bills before the Senate that would put caps on carbon dioxide emissions and there is a good chance proponents will try to tack amendments with similar intent to the Senate energy bill this week. These caps would devastate the economy, said Inhofe, by increasing energy prices and causing coal-fired plants to switch to natural gas. Inhofe said today's hearing was an attempt to hone in on sound science as the Senate considers the implications of climate change. It is no secret that we are not scientists up here, so we look at things logically, he said. Inhofe rejected Mann's analysis and noted that his study, which shows a spike in warming in the late 20th century, came out in 1999, whereas the Soon and Baliunas study came out in 2003. Mann's research is commonly referred to as the hockey stick study, because it shows a relatively stable trend in climate temperatures until a sharp up tick in the past two decades. This new study shifts the paradigm away from the previous hockey stick study, Inhofe
Something else for Ronn
The Seat Also Rises: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59979,00.html J Le Blog: http://zarq.livejournal.com _ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Did you catch the noon Paul Harvey, Debbi?
In a message dated 8/4/2003 3:15:15 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Peanut Butter Breath Maru :) ?? I missed a joke or something. Peanut Butter? Spread on the gums or teeth so that the horse looks like it's talking. Although the WB would probably find other places.. William Taylor - What the hell did Wilber design other than a barn? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Most Dangerous States--43 times
Dan Minette wrote: ... Mortality studies such as ours do not include cases in which burglars or intruders are wounded or frightened away by the use or display of a firearm. Cases in which would-be intruders may have purposely avoided a house known to be armed are also not identified.A complete determination of firearm risks versus benefits would require that these figures be known. And the best way to show how this is true is to show how the % of people who are victims of crimes and own guns are much lower than the % of people who simply own guns. If owning guns is as much of a deterrant as this author suggests, than one should see a significantly lower crime rate for households that have guns vs. households that don't. That's certainly a good way to do the study. But one should control for the amount of crime in the neighborhood as well, since it could well be that gun ownership is higher in high crime neighborhoods. ---David ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: leave the constitution alone
From: Ronn!Blankenship [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] At 11:43 AM 8/10/03 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: So does Ms. Tucker think we should restore the original wording of the Constitution by removing the right to privacy interpretation of the 14th amendment on which the SCOTUS based its decision in _Roe v. Wade_? Or, given that she is black, how about repealing the entire 14th amendment? What the hell does this have to do with what she was talking about? She wasn't saying, Don't ever amend the Constitution, she was saying, Don't do it in _this particular case_. What it has to do with what she was talking about is that the same leave the Constitution alone argument she used in the article could be used by someone else for a different issue, such as the ones I used for illustration. Her argument is not Leave the Constitution alone, period as the headline of the article might suggest, but more like Leave the Constitution alone except for issues I agree with. I didn't say that a Constitutional amendment defining marriage such as she describes in the article is necessarily a good idea or a bad idea: I simply pointed out that the same argument she makes against it in the article could have been - and indeed has been - made by those opposed to such things as the decision in _Roe v. Wade_, etc. I read that original article more on the lines of don't amend the Constitution for religious beliefs that aren't universally shared even among the same religions. And don't amend the Constitution for what is really a minor issue. And no, as an ardent pro-choice supporter, I wouldn't back an amendement that guaranteed the right to abortion. Not without a seriously good reason... Does anyone else see SCOTUS and reflexively substitute another word as they read...? - jmh ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: I've done it again!
Adam C. Lipscomb wrote: Reproduced, that is. Alexander Norman Lipscomb (Alec) was born at 7:46 AM on Monday, August 11th. He weighed 9 lbs, 8 oz, and his mother is incredibly happy that someone else will be carrying him for the next while. Congratulations! __ 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: leave the constitution alone
At 12:22 PM 8/10/03 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What it has to do with what she was talking about is that the same leave the Constitution alone argument she used in the article could be used by someone else for a different issue, such as the ones I used for illustration. Her argument is not Leave the Constitution alone, period as the headline of the article might suggest, but more like Leave the Constitution alone except for issues I agree with. I didn't say that a Constitutional amendment defining marriage such as she describes in the article is necessarily a good idea or a bad idea: I simply pointed out that the same argument she makes against it in the article could have been and indeed has been made by those opposed to such thinhings as the decision in _Roe v. Wade_, etc. Except, those deal with interpretations of existing Amendments, rather than calls for adding new Amendments. Argument over what is already in the Constitution is unending, and there's nothing wrong with that. Disputing a particular interpretation is NOT the same thing as disputing a call to amend the Constitution anew, and should not be confused with opposing a proposed amendment. Which is why I also asked if she¹ would have said Leave the Constitution alone in 1866 when the Fourteenth Amendment was proposed to give rights to former slaves . . . _ ¹If anyone does not know who Cynthia Tucker is, she is a black woman who was born and grew up here in Alabama and now is an editorial writer for the _Atlanta Constitution_. -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Dubya with Kung Fu Grip
At 08:42 AM 8/11/03 +0530, Ritu wrote: Ronn!Blankenship wrote: I swear I've seen a big stone one of Lincoln, sitting down. You mean that it WON'T come to the defense of Liberty when a rabbi writes the word on its forehead? I dunno. Was Lincoln Jewish? If not, why would a statue of him pay any attention to what a rabbi does? Ah, but would Lincoln think of rabbi as a jewish figure of authority and ignore him or would be consider the rabbi a man of God and listen to him? Good point. -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Scouted: Bester News
Bryon Daly wrote: Doh! I hit the send button before I could type the whole thing... Trying again... Tenser said the tensor. Tenser said the tensor. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun. Damn, that thing got stuck in my head for while... Yeah, it's much catchier than Mary had a little lamb, which is what they used in A Race Through Dark Places. That's the same episode of B5 that had the worst joke in the entire run of the series. Sheridan: Knock knock. Ivanova: Who's there? Sheridan: Kosh Ivanova: Kosh who? Do I really even need to finish it? Reggie Bautista _ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Schwarzenegger to Run for California Governor
In the truth is stranger than fiction department (I'm rooting for the porn star): http://tinyurl.com/j8ve BURBANK, Calif. (Reuters) - In a major political surprise, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday he will challenge California Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) in an unprecedented recall election this fall -- a stunning move that could recast the race. Other challengers include columnist Arianna Huffington, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, Hollywood billboard queen Angelyne and porn star Marcy Carey. -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Listref] Obesity - some encouraging news
--- Sonja van Baardwijk [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/70/80978.htm?printing=true ...If you simply take some healthful steps in the direction of your weight-loss goals, you are likely to reap some healthy rewards, even if you never drop a single pound. As remarkable as that sounds, in studies published in March 2003 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, CDC researchers found that those folks who simply tried to lose weight lived longer... [with healthy lifestyle changes, not starvation diets or stimulants] steps onto a soapbox looks attentive, but half-opens umbrella to deflect stream of righteous fury :) So I'm gonne die earlier because I've never in my life attempted to lose weight? Sure sounds a bit strange to me. I'm obese but have had approximately the same weight for over 20 years now. (give or take the odd kilo). And I never tried to loose any. Because quite frankly I couldn't care less what others think about my looks. They can look away if they are that displeased. I'm not gonne be told that I should lose weight or even attempt it and then start yo-yoing all over the place as a result. Yo-yoing weight is worse than keeping a stable one, IIRC that research. And activity/exercise is without question a major factor in improving/maintaining health. With the added bonus that I then for the rest of my life have to consider the consequences for every morsel of food I wanne eat. No thanks very much! Ooh, no, no diet - that's a word practically guaranteed to make me hyperventilate! Too many people here have a 'diet of fast food,' however, and all that processed fried food _is_ unhealthy. I rather stay healthy. I walk and bike a lot. That and the house work with all the jobs attached to it that usually are physically very demanding are all the exercise I need. (I don't know how often I have to climb the bloody stairs but I know it is lots). I was impressed with the amount of walking that people did when I visited Europe; this study was conducted with Americans, who tend to be more sedentary - instead of walking to the corner store to get bread, they drive. So you've been doing the exercise thing all along, which was one of the big points of the study. And on a slightly related note. You know what really makes me furious. When I have an ailment (no matter what it is) and I go see another doctor then my own about it, the first thing I usually get told is that I have the ailment because of my weight. Even if it isn't in the slightest connected, that is still the first thing I invariably will be told. And that isn't only for me but also for a lot of other people I know. I call them lazy doctor's diagnosis. When I then ask that doctor full serious to please in detail explain (if possible with references to resent research) the underlying mechanism that connects my ailment to being overweight I usually get silence and a very confused doctor. After that I get either treated like the average patient with that ailment or I walk out and find another doctor. Well, that's rude and incorrect of them. But over here there's been an alarming increase in Type II diabetes, which is definitely related to sedentary obesity, and diabetes really increases the risk of heart disease, hypertension, kidney failure and blindness (as well as a few other conditions). Being overweight isn't the all evil, and as a result weight loss cann't be the all cure. Even healthy slim, trim and young people do get heart attacks, brain haemorrhages or die of cancer. grin Living is ultimately a fatal disease! So the first quack that ever again starts telling me that loosing weight is gonne cure whatever it is that's amiss just because that person is too lazy to find out what *really* is wrong with me, will get the full brunt of my fury about all the lazy doctors diagnosis' (pl?) I've ever had. And that's a promise. steps down from the soapbox, walks home Sonja :o) ROU: NO DIET! xROU: Where is the chocolate? You *do* know that dark chocolate is one of the essential components of a healthy diet, especially for us women, yes? ;) Debbi Had My Chocolate Malted Milk This Morning Maru :) __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: shoelaces, concetration, stingy reactions and Re:dyslexiaandtinted lenses
--- Steve Sloan II [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sonja van Baardwijk wrote: In general it used to be good brin-l practice to deliver information to the list in this form, usually resulting in nuanced replies of informed people who have taken (tense?) Nope, I'm perfectly relaxed. ;-) But seriously, your verb tense there is perfect. the trouble to glance through the material that the original poster pointed to. Additional surprising information can thus be acquired and it is even possible to have a discussion of the subject between polite, enthusiastic and inspired people. Generally broadening the horizon of the members on this list.. I don't know about the colored lenses links, but the page about the family with the Aspergers kid was very interesting. I've suspected I might have Aspergers (or however you'd put it) since Michael first mentioned it several years back, and I went to the links he gave. This adds more evidence to that, because my ears also turn bright, glowing red the way his do when I eat something my body doesn't agree with. Many people have autistic tendencies. Most smart people do. That desn't mean you have aus. Also, many many people are effected by environmental noise. Wouldn't it be better if we simply change the lighting, noise levels etc. instead of having kids be singled out by weird glasses and hearing aparatus? Everyone (not just those with aus etc.) are effected by foods. it's not just autistic kids who get high off of bread. It's just that the autistics are more dialed in, more granular, more sensative. = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Terminator 4
Again, from the Sunday NY Times: August 10, 2003 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR 'Terminator 4: The Rise of Colin Powell' By ANDY BOROWITZ Just hours after Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for governor of California, the contest to replace Mr. Schwarzenegger in the lucrative Terminator film series began in earnest. Secretary of State Colin Powell was the first to toss his hat in the ring, discreetly phoning several high-ranking executives at Warner Brothers to let them know he was interested in taking over the Terminator role. He likes the idea of being in a job where people have to listen to him, and if they don't, he can just blow them away, one of Mr. Powell's confidantes said. Plus, he won't have to deal with Wolfowitz. Mr. Schwarzenegger's candidacy may have also created a perfect opportunity for John Poindexter, who is set to depart the Pentagon after his recent attempt to think outside the box was met with less enthusiasm than his previous efforts. As soon as he heard the news, the irrepressible plotter established a Terminator futures market to predict his own chances of getting the prized role. So far, his prospects are trading lower than those of fellow Terminator wannabes Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader and Roseanne, but Mr. Poindexter still likes his chances. After Iran-contra, everyone left John for dead, noted one of Mr. Poindexter's associates. But like the Terminator, he keeps coming back. On the Democratic side, Jerry Brown, the former California governor, dropped a hint that he was interested in the Terminator part during a speech in Oakland on Friday, when he departed from his prepared remarks to drive a truck through a plate-glass window. While naysayers argue that the role has traditionally been played by a Republican, Mr. Brown's supporters are quick to point out that during his tenure as governor, Mr. Brown established solid sci-fi credentials every time he opened his mouth. The conservative pundit Ann Coulter's rivalry with fellow pundit Arianna Huffington is so white-hot, associates say, that Ms. Huffington's decision to run for governor made it a lock that Ms. Coulter would try for the role. Ms. Coulter's audition, however, was less than encouraging. The script just called for her to say, `Hasta la vista, baby,' but she wouldn't stop there, one Warner executive said. The evil cyborg couldn't get a word in edgewise. Why does Sean Penn want to be the new Terminator? Simple: he's tired of politics, friends say, and wants to return to the movies full time. In a field of long shots, however, Mr. Penn may be the longest shot of all, according to the Warner executive: After two decades of Arnold as Terminator, I don't think the audience will accept an actor in the role. -- All contents of this post have been checked and cleared by the Department of Homeland Security xponent Coming To Video Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: Milky Way
- Original Message - From: Reggie Bautista [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 9:26 PM Subject: Re: Irregulars question: Milky Way Debbi wrote: Here are a bunch of pix: http://www.capybara.com/capybaras/Gallery/Gallery_1.html Reggie, wanna have a really *big* guinea pig?! :) I'm not sure where I'd put the cage... ;-) Cage? Cage? Reggie!!! You are supposed to let it sleep in the bed with you and your wife, and pet it, and hug it, and call it George! xponent And I Own 43 Cats Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Dubya with Kung Fu Grip
I know the legend. My question was, what if the figure is in the likeness of a Gentile? Are there goyim golems? Well, the Golem is not actually in the likeness of _anyone_. It's just a clay figure. The rabbi formed it for the purpose, he didn't take an existing statue or something. Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last. - Dr Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Dubya with Kung Fu Grip
--- Jon Gabriel [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: No, that's the _Teddy Kennedy_ action figure. For a little more money you can buy the car accessory containing a lifelike babe. Realistically steers off bridges unexpectedly. (OK, it's a low blow, I know.) Jon Why? I mean, I got started in politics working for the Kennedys, and I have great affection and esteem for the family - something I don't admit around my conservative friends. But if you or I had done what he did at Chappaquiddick, we'd probably still be in jail. That's not exactly a minor thing. = Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] Freedom is not free http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Hyperion - The Motion Picture
On Wed, Aug 06, 2003 at 12:09:40PM -0400, Jon Gabriel wrote: I have the story in pdb format saved on my home computer. (That's a Palmdoc format, which can be read with PalmReader or MobiPocket software on your PDA.) If you'd like, I'll see if I can convert it to text and email it to you. (Or I can just send the pdb) Thanks for the offer, but that's not necessary. I'll add the Simmons anthology book you mentioned to my reading list. -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Polish, stupidity myth
--- Damon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [somebody wrote:] Ouch! At what point during the war did this happen? Very early in the war (like Sept 1939). After the Fall of Poland I don't think the Polish deployed large units of horse cavalry...at least not the Free Polish serving in Western Europe. Small units of mounted partisans did operate for a while behind-the-lines, but they used guerrilla (?sp) tactics and their aim was sabotage. However, when the Nazis were transporting horses by rail (they'd begun a breeding program to produce a horse 'worthy of Aryan warriors'), those trains were spared. [1] Patton's saving of a group of Lipizzaners [2] was docudrama'd in a Disney movie, but he also ordered the 'rescue' of a large group of Nazi super horses at Hostau[n], upon the pleadings of 2 German veterinarians who feared for the horses' safety if they were captured by Russian troops. Some of these were Polish 'bounty of war'. http://www.equinepost.com/userpages/arabhistory/march02.html Debbi who is taking ridiculous advantage of the opportunity to talk horses... :) [1] _And Miles To Go_ by Linnell Smith, 1967, is a biography of Witez* II; she travelled to Poland and Germany as well as various places across America to interview people who'd worked with this horse, including one of the above-mentioned veterinarians and the Polish boy-turned-partisan who saved him. I think it's out-of-print now, but if you enjoyed _Seabiscuit_ you'd love this too - another (mostly true) story of how a horse and his special humans overcame great odds. (At Amazon.com they're asking from $90-120 for used hardbacks!) [2] ...one of General Pattons advance units, while rescuing a group of Allied prisoners, had captured a string of Lipizzaner brood mares, foals, and breeding stallions... http://r.searchhippo.com/r3.php?i=8q=lippizzan+horse+history+breedu=http%3A%2F%2Flipizzan.com%2Fwelcome.html __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The seven habits of highly ineffective list-subscribers
--- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 05:36:17PM -0700, Jan Coffey wrote: Tung pushed forward, mouth open, eyes rolled up, head shaking and bobbing from side to sidemaru Do you ever post anything worth anything? I can't recall the last time I saw a post of yours that had anything worthwile. By worthwile I assume you mean worth wile. (you left out a space.) Quite frankly the post for which you only responded to the humor portion above certainly did display skill in outwitting (the Websters on line definition of wile.) But of course you would never respond to something that did, you would have to repost it to do so. [ never mind that, I copied it below] I could ask if you ever respond with anything other than personal insults. Do you ever address the issues, or do you just redirect conversations to unimportant side-effects of the communication process as I did above? Seems I am not the only one who misspells And talk about a lack of courage. You wouldn't dare kill-file me on-list because you know you might miss something that would make you look silly, and you have to respond to everything that might with personal insults and redirection. Sorry, but this is not good debating technique. Because it's annoying, and more importantly it is too easy for others to come back on you with your own technique like this. You talk about worthwhile posts, you can't even spell worthwhile The thing is, I am the one person on this list who is most likely to agree with your stance on communication style, and aggressiveness. Sad really, because you can't seem to let go of your ego-based patterns, and view reality. If you are going to state that content in important and that any aggressiveness viewed by others imposed on your message should not be considered, then you yourself must give the same benefit to those who's communication skills lack precision. You must address the intent and not the medium. After all, that IS what you are asking for. Since you won't communicate with me off list, I am offering to resolve this with in a manner that is mutually apologetic. You agree to address the intent of communication by all, and I will agree to spend some time considering the true intent before hastily responding. Both would benefit the list. And our bickering is defiantly not. Do you have the courage? How about it Erik? Jan - --- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tue, Aug 05, 2003 at 11:57:24AM -0400, Jon Gabriel wrote: Why do you think that is? Good debating technique? A) Debates are activities to be won or lost. - You claim to not care about -winning- or -losing- as long as the information is correct. B) Debates are won or lost not on the correctnes of a position, but on the abilities of the debaters. - You claim to not care about winning or losing as long as the -information is correct-. C) You have contradicted yourself and therefore any arguments made based on the information you have provided are invalid. D) It would appear that even if your ~technique~ is good. It is not sufficient. Jan Toung pushed forward, mouth open, eyes rolled up, head shaking and bobing from side to sidemaru = _ Jan William Coffey _ = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Scouted: Bester News
At 20:47 2003-08-05 -0500, Reggie wrote: That's the same episode of B5 that had the worst joke in the entire run of the series. Sheridan: Knock knock. Ivanova: Who's there? Sheridan: Kosh Ivanova: Kosh who? Do I really even need to finish it? Reggie Bautista Would have been funnier if the punch line had just been Yes. Jean-Louis ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: SCOUTED: Why I hate the Segway
- Original Message - From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 6:02 PM Subject: Re: SCOUTED: Why I hate the Segway Ronn!Blankenship wrote: Let's start with the way the thing looks. I'm sorry, people, but you're riding around on an upright canister vacuum cleaner. Think of it this way. Can you imagine a Hell's Angel riding a Segway? Let's make it easier: can you imagine anyone SMOKING while riding a Segway? (Cell phones, on the other hand: definitely. These are certainly cell phone people, but handless sets, with earplugs, so they'll be even MORE oblivious to hapless pedestrians.) Smoking? Maybe cloves? Wonder what would happen if someone on weed were operating one of those things For them, 12 MPH would seem *fast*. WHOSS!!! xponent Relative Motion Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Scouted: Okay to execute innocent?
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ronn!Blankenship ... Most people who have studied it say that rape is a crime of _violence_, and that the sexual assault is only the way in which it is carried out. I fail to see the legitimate need a would-be rapist has for committing violence against someone weaker than himself. Straw man -- no one is saying that the legitimate need is to commit violence. I don't think that is *ever* a legitimate need. Also, most pedophiles or others who molest children are not Catholic priests who have no legitimate way to engage in sexual activity. Again, a straw man. Nobody is saying that people do these things because they can't deal with their needs legitimately. Most children who are victims of sexual abuse are abused by a family member, sometimes their own father or step-father, who presumably has access to a legitimate source of sexual activity (the child's mother) or if not, there's always other willing adult women. Having access doesn't mean anything if the person hasn't even realized what's wrong with himself or herself. And even if they know what's wrong, people act compulsively about these things. You seem to be making an unreasonable set of assumptions about what I wrote. so I don't think one can even begin to address such problems without some grasp of what legitimate needs are not being met and why not. Again, most of men do not rape women or even consider it (sorry, feminists) and most men do not inflict themselves sexually on children, in both cases regardless of whether they have one or more regular adult sexual partners. What makes one man become a rapist or a pedophile when most men in similar situations do not? That begs the question of what is a similar situation. People who come from superficially similar situations may have had entirely different family dynamics. They may have different genetic dispositions. I agree that providing treatment to a rapist or pedophile should be part of the rehabilitation process. We touched on that a couple of weeks ago in the discussion about the pedophile who was found to have a brain tumor and who said he no longer felt attracted to children after the tumor was removed. What about all those who do not have such an easily-identifiable physical problem that may be causing their behavior? If I had answers, I'd offer them. But I don't have much, nor does our society, I fear, because we're reluctant to talk openly about these matters, or to imagine that we, who don't do such things, would ever, under any circumstances, have done something like that. We openly label sexual predators as monsters, as though they aren't human. And punish them, offering treatment to very few. And I'm not sure that treatment holds much hope when the whole subject area is taboo in our society. Not that I'd want to justify incarceration that way! My best friend's all-too-recent experience with a brain tumor was a real lesson in judgment for me. Clearly it is unreasonable to demand that guilt and punishment bring about change in a person. We don't know enough about these things. But we do know, for example, that there's a high correlation with ADD and incarceration, as well as between ADD and addiction, even ADD and sexual acting-out, according to current research. But we don't have much of a grasp of what ADD really is. In fact, it seems to be a bunch of things that cover a spectrum of behaviors, some of which are quite advantageous in some situations. And obviously, not everyone with ADD is a criminal, etc. As for how to deal with these things, a more just society -- in my opinion -- would figure out how to let go of the taboos that keep us from talking openly about such struggles. Look at the segment of the population where it is most taboo -- the ordained priesthood, Catholic and Protestant -- and it seems awfully clear that *not* talking is a disaster. But that would deprive the advertising-based media of one of its main sources of titillation and therefore, revenue. Not likely. Exactly my point. Every time I have heard someone calling for the U.S. to be made a more just society, upon asking what is meant by that, it turns out that the person is saying that there is too big a gap between the haves and the have nots, so I gave a few examples of serious crimes where the motivation was clearly not the perpetrator's economic poverty. Not do such people not know right from wrong, as most of them would certainly use every available legal or illegal method to punish someone who stole from them or who rapes their womenfolk or molests their children. Economic justice may very well be among the lesser one in terms of its effects on society. Not that I'd use that as an excuse, either. But it's certainly easier to talk about poverty of money than poverty of intimacy, friendships, etc. That's where the wealthy can be poor,
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
Jan Coffey wrote: But you made the claim that an armed society is a polite society. You haven't backed up that claim with _any_ statistics or studies. Until you do provide data, you're claims are bogus. Sorry I never made that claim. I did not and do not believe that an armed society would be any more or less polite. Those are your words. You are taking the words I say, relating them to a position you know and reaplying the buzz from that position to what I have said, generalizing to a fault. It disapoints me to see someone who I respect making this error. I apologize for using the word polite, I should have said: But you made the claim that an armed society is a _more peaceful and more equal_ society. You haven't backed up that claim with _any_ statistics or studies. Further more logic is all that is required for a situation such as this. Data is only necisary when logic fails, or when one wishes to attempt to debunk a logical argument. Which I did. Beyond that, you made statements of fact such as Texas and Nevada have less violent crime but have not supported those statements. If one requests data as a precondition to accept a logical argument then they are practicing sudo-science. This kind of situation is a beakon for the scetic. I didn't ask for data as a precondition, I provided data that I believe contradicts your statements and then, when you told me my data wasn't relevant, I asked you to provide backing for your statements of fact One can claim that 2 plus 2 is not allways 4 for every type of item and then request those who logicaly argue to the contrary to show data prooving that whenever you have 2 items of a type and 2 more items of the same type that you will infact have 4 items of that type. But the act of gathering that data is a fools errand. Likewise for statistical analisis on systems with infinate variables. No answer is ever the truth is such cases. The simple truth is that without conceled carry, the only ones with guns are the criminals. You see, that's a false statement. Other people, have guns, most of them aren't packing, but they do have them. And still others are permitted to carry concealed weapons The power of leathal force is in the hands alone of the very people we would prefer did not have that power. Again, false. With conceled carry there is a balance of this power. In fact i would argue that there is a greater power in the hands of the law abiding citizen specificaly becouse the criminal would never know who was carying and who was not. Everyone might be a hard target. This is a logical argument for which there are no statistics. If you disagree it is your responsability to show that this argument is wrong, or show how it is not logical. It isn't that it isn't logical, its that it is far too simplistic. It assumes from the outset that there is a clear boundary between criminal and law abiding citizen. In fact all of us have the capacity to break the law, and this capacity becomes more likely in certain situations. The phenomenon known as road rage is a good example. People who are otherwise upstanding citizens loose their cool and commit violent criminal offenses. Furthermore, you seem to assume that if both criminal and victim have a gun then neither of them will use one, and the number of violent acts will decrease. I don't agree that this logically follows. It seems to me that the more people with easy access to guns, the greater the likelihood that people will use the guns if only because , and the greater the likelihood that a criminal will feel he needs a gun to commit his crime with an increased tendency to get the jump on his victim. This jumpiness could then transfer to non criminals to the point of innocents being hurt or killed as a result of misunderstanding. As for logical arguments, they are only as good as the facts that verify them. I could make logical arguments about the sun rotating around the earth or the moon being made of cheese but without facts they are malarkey. Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Question on Religious Matters
How are the two the same? Scroll even further down. In a message dated 8/7/2003 5:49:23 AM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Question: What was the difference between Noah's ark and Joan of Arc? [scroll down for answer] Answer: Noah's ark was made of wood. Joan of Arc was maid of Orleans. And how were the two the same? ---highly offensive answer--- --beware-- As God intended, neither one was ever to go down. William Taylor - But Ronn started it. Blame him. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Author question observations
I asked if anyone had read Saran Zettel's The Quiet Invasion. At this moment, there have been 13 responses. First, one person responded that he (thanks, Tom) had read her (but not that book) and said she was okay and had once met her. I also mentioned that I had just finished Lucifer's Hammer and said it was the best end-of-the-world novel ever. That was construed as a spoiler, to my surprise (tho' he graciously let me off the hook later). Anyway, there were a few posts that impleid he should've known what the book was about. The discussion quickly moved to The Lord of the Rings and Greg Bear's Forge and Anvil books and a short (justifiable trashing) of Dhalgren, though someone for whatever reason managed to read it twice. I'm not complaining, but it is interesting that this list can goes more wildly off-subject than any other list I'm on (2 others). And not slowly either, it happens FAST. Just an observation. George A P.S. I still want to know if anyone has read The Quiet Invasion and do you recommend Sarah Zettel? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The evil ham and cheese sandwich
I'm not going to use the word all here, because there probably is some fundamentalist in this world who takes all of the bible to heart including wearing non-blended fabric (amish?). But just because a person has some guiding principle, it doesn't mean they have to be bound to every single tenet that is laid before them. And I'm showing my ignorance here, maybe homosexuality is the only item in Leviticus** that she follows (but I seriously doubt that's they way it is, or was). I just feel the writers of the show were grandstanding about something they felt wasn't getting enough coverage. If you are going to claim that your reason for opposing something comes from a particular religious text, but you're going to ignore other things from that text, then how can you object when someone else ignores the thing you are opposing while opposing something else from that text? If you can selectively quote the Bible, why can't they? Where is the principle in that? Aren't you just finding some religious text to support a prejudice you have already settled upon? I.e., homosexuality is bad - oh wait! Look, here in the Bible - it also says homosexuality is bad! See? See? A sincere religious belief is one thing. But many people who quote the Bible to oppose homosexuality ignore other things the Bible rejects even more strongly than it does homosexuality. (Since the prohibition on mixing linen and wool comes from Leviticus, the fundamentalists observing it are Orthodox and some Conservative Jews, not the Amish, who probably could not care less.) Tom Beck www.prydonians.org www.mercerjewishsingles.org I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last. - Dr Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Ebay bans artist's boy-king deck
http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=aug5steins-cards0805200 3 Ebay bans Dawson artist's controversial 'cards' WebPosted Aug 5 2003 09:05 AM CDT WHITEHORSE - A Yukon artist has been censored by eBay for making fun of the Bush administration. In John Steins' most-wanted deck, U.S. President George Bush is the trump card Dawson City artist John Steins has been ordered off the popular auction Web site for mocking Bush and other U.S. leaders in a series of hand-painted drawings. Steins' art project is a parody of the most wanted deck of playing cards issued in the Iraqi war. George Bush is the ace of spades and (U.S. Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld is the queen of spades and so far down the line, Steins says. I think an artist has to use their talent to make a statement that they really believe in, though it might be really unpopular. Ebay apparently banned the cards after receiving complaints from pro-Bush Americans. Steins says he's also gotten plenty of angry emails from people who back U.S. foreign policy in Iraq. Since being forced off eBay, Steins has found another Internet outlet for his art. He owns the domain name, thebushadministration.com where he's posted the images for sale. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Dubya with Kung Fu Grip
From: David Hobby [EMAIL PROTECTED] I want the figure, and the plane, and the Evil Saddam Hussein Underground Fortress, ... I'd have a blast with the Falling Statue Playset, complete with Falling Statue Action. As for the Evil Saddam Hussein Underground Fortress, does it include an escape tunnel? JJ _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Author question observations
From: G. D. Akin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Author question observations Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 19:47:12 +0900 I asked if anyone had read Saran Zettel's The Quiet Invasion. I haven't. Just realized I never mentioned that. :) At this moment, there have been 13 responses. First, one person responded that he (thanks, Tom) had read her (but not that book) and said she was okay and had once met her. I also mentioned that I had just finished Lucifer's Hammer and said it was the best end-of-the-world novel ever. That was construed as a spoiler, to my surprise (tho' he graciously let me off the hook later). Anyway, there were a few posts that impleid he should've known what the book was about. Yep, I should have. Sorry to jump down your throat like that. I'm around page 400 now and it's gotten really good. :) Was just a bit of a shock. The discussion quickly moved to The Lord of the Rings and Greg Bear's Forge and Anvil books and a short (justifiable trashing) of Dhalgren, though someone for whatever reason managed to read it twice. Yet another author I've missed. Guess I should be thankful. :) I'm not complaining, but it is interesting that this list can goes more wildly off-subject than any other list I'm on (2 others). And not slowly either, it happens FAST. Try to keep up with the thread creep George! *grin* For over a year or so I tried splitting conversational topics I was contributing to into different subjects. I gave up after realizing that it happens to *every* thread here. Jon _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Author question
From: Ronn!Blankenship [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Author question Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 17:20:35 -0500 At 05:59 PM 8/11/03 -0400, Jon Gabriel wrote: From: Ronn!Blankenship [EMAIL PROTECTED] At 04:51 PM 8/11/03 -0400, Jon Gabriel wrote: This post may contain spoilers for Lucifer's Hammer, so be forewarned. Or it may not, or you may not care. Your choice. ;-) [BIG flooping snip] snip Of course, after all this, Amazon.com has a picture of the paperback front cover. It says something like The million copy bestseller about the end of the world. And IIRC either Niven or Pournelle or both said at the time it came out that what they had set out to do was to write the ultimate end of the world novel . . . Heh. Considering how old I was when the book came out I wouldn't have seen an interview with them unless they had appeared on the Muppet Show. *waves to George*: You're off the hook! :-) Jon Le Blog: http://zarq.livejournal.com _ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Most Dangerous States
--- William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sunday, August 10, 2003, at 11:15 pm, Doug Pensinger wrote: Jan Coffey wrote: I also suggest that given that the same site lists Nevada and NewYork as 7 8 respectivly for previous years the statistical significance given their method of rating is rather low. OK Jan, I give. I'll use your standards to prove my point: Armed societies aren't more polite because I said so. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hosb502tabs.xls The average homicides per 100,000 persons per year over 1998-2000 in the USA was 5.87. In England and Wales (where guns are pretty much unavailable) the rate was 1.50. In fact the whole of Europe has much lower homicide rates than the USA, and much stricter gun control. what about home invasion and rape? = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Hyperion - The Motion Picture
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=15798 quote Hi Harry- Lorrimer here. You've posted a couple of tidbits from me in the past. This one isn't a big secret or anything, but I haven't seen anything about it yet on your site. Dan Simmon's Hyperion saga is one of the best series of science fiction novels in the last several years, if not ever. It's not really a series; it's two long stories each split into two books. Amazing characters, amazing literary references, amazing prose, and one of the most amazing far-future human civilization concepts ever. Mind-blowing stuff. I've always assumed there was no way this could be made into a movie -- the plot is broad and complex (almost to the point of incomprehensibility at times), the amount of CGI that would be necessary is staggering, and the themes are profoundly mature. Dan Simmons spoke at the University Bookstore in Seattle a few nights ago. Among a bunch of great stuff, he told us that the screen rights for the Hyperion saga have been sold to a major studio -- and that a major star and major director are in talks for a trilogy of movies based on the Hyperion saga. He pointed out that this is the movie business and anything can happen; nothing is definite. He told us that he's not allowed to announce who it is. But he is allowed to give hints. And he gave us a pretty solid goddamn hint. He said the director and star did a movie together very recently. He said something about it being a movie with an extravagant budget. And then he said, and I'm attempting to quote him from memory, it was a movie about some gangs in some city somewhere. Is Martin Scorsese directing Leonardo DiCaprio in a fucking trilogy of movies based on the Hyperion saga? If so, if this actually happens, it may be the first real attempt to do with the science fiction genre what Peter Jackson is trying to do with the fantasy genre with Lord of the Rings. Adapt a major genre epic, do it right, don't dumb it down, use cutting-edge technology to attempt something always considered impossible. God, I hope this is what's happening. /quote More on the site xponent Maybe I Should Read The Book Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: neo-Cubism
From: The Fool [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/08/08/DD251010.DTL And I thought I was a nut over this kind of thing, but this guy is kinda creepy. Besides he solves it backwards. The corners should be solved first then the centers. http://www.speedcubing.com has info about the upcoming competition in Toronto. I'm a big fan of this class of puzzles from an aesthetic/mechanical perspective - I can solve them but don't go for speed. Check out http://www.twistypuzzles.com and http://www.twistymegasite.com (or my page @ http://www.speedcubing.com Joshua _ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Politics, was [L3] Re: fight the evil of price discrimination
--- William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Monday, August 11, 2003, at 09:20 am, Jan Coffey wrote: The simple truth is that without conceled carry, the only ones with guns are the criminals. The power of leathal force is in the hands alone of the very people we would prefer did not have that power. With conceled carry there is a balance of this power. In fact i would argue that there is a greater power in the hands of the law abiding citizen specificaly becouse the criminal would never know who was carying and who was not. Everyone might be a hard target. This is a logical argument for which there are no statistics. If you disagree it is your responsability to show that this argument is wrong, or show how it is not logical. Because criminal is a type of act and not a type of person? And if you arm everybody, more otherwise 'law abiding citizens' can potentially perform criminal acts with guns. Due to road rage, or finding the spouse in bed with the maid or whatever... Sorry criminal IS a type of person. Law abiding itizens don't commit crimes, so you don't have to wory about them using a gun to do something they were not going to do anyway. = _ Jan William Coffey _ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
