date:20040320


From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 17:45:56 -0600
Travis Edmunds wrote:

 The prating FOOL shall fall

 Not sure where that is exactly, but it's in the bible.
Proverbs 10:8
The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall
fall.
Proverbs 10:10
He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall
fall.
Searchable King James version of the Bible at
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/kjv.browse.html
	Julia
Ok, ok. I'm lazy. Are you happy now?

Although I did take my dog for a walk this morning. And that's gotta count 
for something right?

-Travis still lazy Edmunds

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Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

From: Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 17:47:02 -0600
 JD, with an IQ of 137

Mine is 158.
Mine is 89. Is that high?

Wanna compare penis' next?
Haha!!..I'm in. Where do we sign up?

xponent
Less Than Useful Measurements In This Context Maru
rob
Don't feel bad. Just believe it's big, and then it's not a lie. THEN...when 
you tell everyone how big it is, it's true. Does that make any sense?

-Travis we're talking about IQ's right? Edmunds

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Re: The Closest Near Miss On Record - Today

2004-03-20 Thread Alberto Monteiro

Matt Grimaldi wrote:

 Does the equation take into account how much of the meteorite
 erodes during atmospheric entry?

I think so. But I don't know how you can get the experimental correlation
between asteroid size and crater size

Alberto Monteiro

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atl: spam eddres harvesting

2004-03-20 Thread Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten

I've recieved some spam (they called it a newletter) from BOL.com into
an account that's never been used. It's a primary accountname that has a
couple of aliases attached. So I always use the aliases. When they get
spammed too much I kill them and make new ones, something I cannot do
with the primary eddress unfortunatly. Now I have visited BOL.com
yesterday but didn't realise that I left any info there (privacy
settings are reasonably high). The connection itself is zone-alarm
protected and we have firewalls from the router and the ADSL modem
between the machine and the net. Now I wonder how on earth did these
basterds get that particular eddress. Could be a huge coincidence of
course. Still makes me wonder how they got it.
Sonja
GCU: I hate spam that I cannot block.
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Re: March Madness!

At 01:16 PM 3/19/2004 -0600 Julia Thompson wrote:
And if Texas doesn't become the national champion, a local car dealer
will *not* give one lucky customer $1 million.  :D  (It's a Ford dealer,
I think Leif Johnson Ford, but not positive on that.  They've had ads
about this running since basketball season started.

An interesting trivia question for you what is the only school from the
State of Texas to win the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship.
No fair Googling/Searching before submitting your answer!

JDG
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   The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, 
   it is God's gift to humanity. - George W. Bush 1/29/03

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Re: Spanish elections query

2004-03-20 Thread Robert J. Chassell

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, Jean-Marc Chaton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote,

 For who knows Spain and spaniards number one (appeasement and
 surrender) simply doesn't fit. They are used to terrorism, and
 they never surrender to it, it's a common trait to the wide
 Spanish society.  Jean-Marc

Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] responded, saying

 For what it's worth, this is what I'm hearing as well.
 _However_, the decision by the newly elected Socialist PM to do
 what the terrorists want is handing them a victory that the
 Spanish people did not, I think, wish to give them.

Gautam is saying that even if ordinary voters never surrender to
terrorism, that the current US Administration has failed to persuade
politically active people, and failed dramatically in what amounts,
for the US, to a primary mission.  This is a very strong criticism of
US actions over these last few years.

It may be that Gautam fears that no US administration could have done
a better job of persuasion abroad.

Gautam, and others, what do you anticipate would have been the outcome
if some other Republican Administration had managed US overseas
persuasion these past few years?  For example what would do you think
would have been the result from an Administration led by US Senator
McCain?  Or by the US House Majority Leader?  Or by some other
Republican?

-- 
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com  GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Anti-War Protesters Climb London's Big Ben

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storyu=/nm/20040320/wl_nm/iraq_britain_tower_dc_1


http://tinyurl.com/2deb6


Two anti-war protesters evaded tight security to climb London's
landmark Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament as thousands
marched on the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on Saturday.
The pair unfurled a banner which read Time for Truth before
rappelling down from the clockface 328 feet above the capital six
hours later. They were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal
damage.


We want to send a clear message to (Prime Minister) Tony Blair that
we and the British people are fed up with the half-truths and evasions
on Iraq, said Stephen Tindale, executive director of environmental
group Greenpeace, which organized the stunt.


The climbers scaled two fences at the base of the tower, which is
subject to some of the tightest security in Britain.


Armed police guard parliament and concrete blocks ring the building to
prevent suicide car bombings. Britain is on high alert for attacks
after Madrid bombings that killed 202 people.


There will be questions being asked about how they managed to get
over the fence and up the building, a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said.


MAKE TEA, NOT WAR


Thousands gathered in London for a peace march, one of many taking
place across Asia, Europe and the United States against the U.S.-led
war backed by Britain that toppled president Saddam Hussein, and an
occupation marked by guerrilla resistance.


In London, protesters carried Wanted posters bearing the faces of
Blair and President Bush. Banners declared Make tea, not war.


People dressed as weapons inspectors carried an inflatable nuclear
missile to highlight the failure to find weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq and Britain's retention of a nuclear deterrent.


Hundreds of black balloons were due to be released in memory of those
who died in Iraq and in Madrid.


We don't want any more lies or wars, said Ruth Tanner, a spokeswoman
for the march's joint organizer, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
(CND).


Numbers were well down on a pre-war demonstration in London last year
which attracted hundreds of thousands.


The CND said up to 100,000 were due at the London march. A police
source said they expected 30,000.





xponent

How We Are Viewed Abroad Maru

rob


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[Listref] Bush campaign gear made in Burma

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzsell0319,0,1292393,print.story?coll=ny-top-headlines


His campaign store sells a pullover from nation whose products he has
banned from being sold in the U.S.

The official merchandise Web site for President George W. Bush's
re-election campaign has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods were
banned by Bush from the U.S. last year to punish its military
dictatorship.

The merchandise sold on www.georgewbushstore.com includes a $49.95
fleece pullover, embroidered with the Bush-Cheney '04 logo and bearing
a label stating it was made in Burma, now Myanmar. The jacket was sent
to Newsday as part of an order that included a shirt made in Mexico
and a hat not bearing a country-of-origin label.

The Bush merchandise is handled by Spalding Group, a 20-year-old
supplier of campaign products and services in Louisville, Ky., that
says it worked for the last five Republican presidential nominees.

Ted Jackson, Spalding's president, said, We have found only one other
in our inventory that was made in Burma. The others were made in the
U.S.A. He said the company had about 60 of thefleece pullovers in its
warehouse, and that a supplier included the Burma product by mistake.

Bush campaign officials did not return calls seeking comment. The
imports are potentially an issue because outsourcing has become a hot
political topic in the election.

Bush last July signed into law the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act,
saying The United States will not waver from its commitment to the
cause of democracy and human rights in Burma.

Violators of the import ban are subject to fines and jail, according
to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Burmese textile workers earn as little as 7 cents per hour, according
to the National Labor Committee, a human rights group.

If it is true, it is very contradictory because the sanctions were
imposed by the Bush administration, said Bo Hla-Tint, a spokesman for
the Burmese government-in-exile in Washington, D.C.

Spalding, which works exclusively with Republican candidates at both
local and national levels, tries to order American-made products,
Jackson said. Our first effort is always to source things from the
U.S., but not a lot of garments are made in the U.S. Friday, he said.
He said all embroidery is done in the United States.

The Bush-Cheney fleece pullovers were imported to the United States by
Denver-based Colorado Trading  Clothing. President Jeff Schmitt said
Thursday the pullovers were included in one of the last shipments
brought in from Burma last year before Sept. 1, when the import ban
went into effect. It's a terrible irony that the Burmese jacket
landed at Newsday, he said.

Schmitt said Colorado Trading employs an agent in Asia who conducts
checks of factory conditions.

Human rights watcher Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor
Committee, said the slip-up showed a lack of conviction on the
administration's part. Given the debate about outsourcing, it's
amazing that the campaign would be selling stuff made in the most
brutal country on earth, known for things like child labor and sexual
slavery, he said. It shows a crude indifference to this issue.

The National Basketball Association recently vowed to stop selling
Burmese-made sweatshirts after a campaign by the NLC.

Last week, Newsday ordered a hat, T-shirt and fleece pullover or
jacket from both the Bush and Kerry campaign stores. The Bush
merchandise - which totaled $81.85 - arrived this week. The Kerry
products, worth $62, have yet to arrive because the fleece jacket was
on back order, according to Financial Innovations, the company that
licenses and sells Kerry merchandise on the Web site
www.kerrygear.com.

The campaigns receive no profits from the merchandise because of
federal election regulations.

The Kerry merchandise was made in the United States, according to Mark
Weiner, the president of Financial Innovations. The company, whose
employees belong to the Communications Workers of America Union,
sources most of its merchandise from union factories.

It's becoming more difficult to find American-made union product,
especially in textiles, but you just have to look. We pay more money
for them, so we make a smaller profit margin, said Paul McConnell,
Financial Innovations' vice president.


http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2.htm

LETTER TO CAMPAIGN FROM MERCHANDISE SUPPLIER
Fri Mar 19 2004 13:26:53 ET

Mr. Tom Josefiak
General Counsel
Bush Cheney '04 Inc.

Dear Mr. Josefiak:

I am writing to apologize and accept responsibility for the recent
distribution of foreign goods in our Bush Cheney '04 merchandise
program. We take great pride in providing this service to your
campaign, and at your request have worked with our vendors to
distribute goods that have been made in America.

Unfortunately, in one of our recent shipments, a vendor inadvertently
supplied us with foreign goods, and our own company did not discover
this mistake before distribution to the public. The

Ex-Watergate writer laments 'idiot culture'

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/19/Tampabay/Ex_Watergate_writer_l.shtml


 Legendary reporter Carl Bernstein riffed Thursday night about
President Bush, the Martha Stewart trial, the war in Iraq and his
affection for Florida.
But mostly he talked about an epidemic that troubles him deeply these
days. He calls it the triumph of idiot culture.

Speaking to a crowd of about 200 at the Wyndham Westshore, he placed
most of the blame on modern media outlets.

Bernstein, the former Washington Post journalist who, along with
fellow reporter Bob Woodward, unearthed the Watergate scandal that led
to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, said much of today's
news has deteriorated into gossip, sensationalism and manufactured
controversy.

That type of news panders to the public and insults their
intelligence, ignoring the context of real life, he said. Good
journalism, Bernstein said, should challenge people, not just
mindlessly amuse them.

He said the modern press lacks true leadership, citing such examples
as AOL Time Warner and mogul Rupert Murdoch as media owners that have
increasingly abandoned the principles of meaningful reporting.

Their interest in truth is secondary to their interest in huge
profits, Bernstein said.

Still, he said people can change that trend by exploring the Internet
and piecing together from reputable sources their own news about
important world matters.

He offered another solution to avoiding the trash that fills the
airwaves: Change the damn channel. Simple.

Bernstein also turned his attention Thursday to the coming election,
calling President Bush the most radical president of my lifetime and
perhaps in the century.

Bernstein said Bush is radical in every degree, from a favoritism of
the wealthy to a pre-emptive foreign policy to a lack of concern for
civil rights.

He certainly seems more ideological than any of our presidents,
Bernstein said.

Even so, Bernstein said he hopes a genuine debate can take place this
year about the future of the country, rather than the petty quarrels
and meaningless accusations that so often dominate campaign coverage.

Let's move beyond the absurd name-calling and sound bite journalism,
he said. It is our job ... to force a real debate.

Try as he might, Bernstein could not escape the ghosts of Watergate,
even for one night. A man stood during the post-speech
question-and-answer session and asked if Deep Throat, the anonymous
source used by Woodward and Bernstein, was a real person.

Bernstein smiled and broke into an impression of Nixon, grumbling to
an assistant and wondering himself about Deep Throat's identity.

It is one person, Bernstein said, finally. We did not make it up.

And when Deep Throat dies, he said, We will reveal him.



xponent

He He, He He, He Said Deep Throat Maru

rob


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Re: Terrorists Win in Spain

2004-03-20 Thread John Doe

From: John D. Giorgis [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Terrorists Win in Spain
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 20:48:17 -0500
At 04:20 PM 3/18/2004 +0100 John Doe wrote:
So, John, 200k civilian deaths is little to no evidence for you? Then 
how
many civilians should have been killed before you accept that ethnic
cleansing happened? Couple of millions?

Just for the record, I said that there was little to no evidence of
genocide.   In fact, I used precisely the words ethnic cleansing to
describe what was going on.
I am stunned. Over 200,000 *civilians* were killed in that conflict, and you 
still consider that little to no evidence of genocide? How many civilians 
would have to been killed before you call it genocide?

Would you call it genocide if those 200k+ civilians had been Americans 
rather than Yugoslavians?

BTW, your exact words were little to no evidence of serious genocide. Are 
you implying that there is any other (not or not-so serious) form of 
genocide?

JD

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Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

2004-03-20 Thread John Doe

From: William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 01:13:08 +
JD, with an IQ of 137
Isn't that close to being retarded?
No, anything but. As The Fool already pointed out, it's well above average.

JD

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Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

- Original Message - 
From: John Doe [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 4:04 AM
Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

 From: Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
 Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 17:47:02 -0600

   JD, with an IQ of 137

 Mine is 158.

 Wanna compare penis' next?

 Why would a guy like you be interested in the penis size of some
other guy?

 Oh wait, you're one of them homosexuals, ain't ya? Better watch out
for them
 anti-gay Christians then! :-)

Sheesh!  I'm not even a metrosexual and I watch out for fundies.

The point I was making is that IQ alone is a useless factoid.
I think most here would agree that *I* am proof of that! G

xponent
Index Of Accomplishment Maru
rob

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Re: March Madness!

2004-03-20 Thread Julia Thompson

Ray Ludenia wrote:
 
 Julia Thompson wrote:
 
  experiencing March Insanity having nothing to do with basketball, and
  everything to do with RL stuff
 
 Huh? What's your insanity got to do with my stuff???

RL = Real Life.

I don't think *your* stuff has anything to do with my insanity.  :)

Julia
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Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

2004-03-20 Thread Julia Thompson

Travis Edmunds wrote:

 From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
 Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 17:45:56 -0600

 Travis Edmunds wrote:

   The prating FOOL shall fall

   Not sure where that is exactly, but it's in the bible.

 Proverbs 10:8
 The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall
 fall.

 Proverbs 10:10
 He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall
 fall.

 Searchable King James version of the Bible at
 http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/kjv.browse.html

Julia

 Ok, ok. I'm lazy. Are you happy now?

I'm happy, but nothing having to do with your response.  :)  But you
could bookmark the site and next time look it up yourself -- it's a
*lot* easier than wrestling with a Strong's Concordance, I tell you.

 Although I did take my dog for a walk this morning. And that's gotta count
 for something right?

Hey, all I've done for my dog this morning is let it out and feed it. 
So you're ahead of me there.

 -Travis still lazy Edmunds

And I figure you're grateful you don't have 3 small children to feed
today.  :)

Julia
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Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

From: John Doe [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:21:12 +0100
From: William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 01:13:08 +
JD, with an IQ of 137
Isn't that close to being retarded?
No, anything but. As The Fool already pointed out, it's well above average.

JD

If we were to turn the word well as in well above average into a 
percentage, what percentage would it represent in your mind?

-Travis IQ??pleaseit's all about the MI Edmunds

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Re: [ADMIN] Call for administrative action

From: Deborah Harrell [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [ADMIN] Call for administrative action
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 14:48:36 -0800 (PST)
 Travis Edmunds [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 And with all the silliness, I didn't know whether
 or not you having a laugh at my expense.
Ah, no -- now one of the post-replies that never got
sent, having to do with 'the impetuous and
oh-so-sure-of-itselfness-of-youth' -- *that* would
have been laughing at you.   ;)
You're a meanie. But I guess it's all true, so...ah...yeah...you're a meanie 
and I'm telling my mommy...

Or is it mommie? I dunno.

Debbi
who read some of your posts feeling that she was
looking at a time-warp of her own impassioned youthful
certainty (although the _direction_ of surety was
quite different)   :)
I'm being serious now. And before I ask you a question, let me say that I 
take the above statement as somewhat of a compliment. You are after all, 
decent with the written word.

Anywhoo, if you don't mind, could you tell me a little more about our 
different directions?

-Travis where's my lego blocks! Edmunds

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Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

2004-03-20 Thread Doug Pensinger

Travis wrote:

Don't feel bad. Just believe it's big, and then it's not a lie. 
THEN...when you tell everyone how big it is, it's true. Does that make 
any sense?

As long as you don't set off the metal detectors...

--
Doug
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Re: More outsourcing . . .

2004-03-20 Thread Kevin Tarr

At 11:48 PM 3/19/2004, you wrote:

Mentioned by Jay Leno in his monologue tonight:   calls from welfare 
recipients in Utah to the state office are being answered in India . . .

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03172004/business/148517.asp



-- Ronn!  :)


Same here in PA. I don't recall the Department, but it could have been for 
Labor  Industry, Welfare, or the higher education assistance group.

Err, oh, I just got the relevance of doing it for the welfare office.

Last year, officials in Indiana came under heavy criticism when it was 
disclosed that the state's Department of Workforce Development, responsible 
for helping unemployed workers find jobs, had hired a company based in 
India to do $15.2 million worth of computer upgrades to speed the handling 
of unemployment claims. Gov. Joe Kernan announced in November that that 
contract had been canceled.

Kevin T. - VRWC 
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'Greatest Generation' Struggled With History, Too

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41555-2004Mar8.html

When the U.S. Department of Education reported that in 2001 nearly
six out of 10 high school seniors lacked even a basic knowledge of
the nation's history, Bruce Cole was indignant and concerned.

A nation that does not know why it exists, or what it stands for,
cannot be expected to long endure, said Cole, the chairman of the
National Endowment for the Humanities.

It is a sentiment repeated often, part of a torrent of distress over
the state of American history education. The 2001 report said most
12th-graders did not know that the Gulf of Tonkin resolution led to
the war in Vietnam. Most eighth-graders did not know why the First
Continental Congress met.

Yet, according to recent papers by two researchers, it turns out
Americans have been deeply ignorant of their history for a very long
time, while still creating the strongest, if not the brightest,
country in the world.

A test administered in 1915 and 1916 to hundreds of high school and
college students who were about to face World War I found that they
did not know what happened in 1776 and confused Thomas Jefferson with
Jefferson Davis. A 1943 test showed that only a quarter of college
students could name two contributions made by either Jefferson or
Abraham Lincoln, leading historian Allan Nevins to fret that such a
historically illiterate bunch might be a liability on the
battlefields of Europe in World War II.

And still, Americans won both wars, and many of the 1943 students who
said the United States purchased Alaska from the Dutch and Hawaii
from Norway were later lionized in books, movies and television
as the Greatest Generation.

If anything, writes Sam Wineburg, a Stanford University education
professor in a new Journal of American History article, test results
across the last century point to a peculiar American neurosis: each
generation's obsession with testing its young only to discover -- and
rediscover -- their 'shameful' ignorance. The consistency of results
across time casts doubt on a presumed golden age of fact retention.

Appeals to it, the article continues, are more the stuff of
national lore and wistful nostalgia for a time that never was than a
claim that can be anchored in the documentary record.

Richard J. Paxton, an assistant professor in the Educational
Foundations Department of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and a
former Wineburg student, makes a similar point in the December issue
of the Phi Delta Kappan. Frequent articles about historically
challenged U.S. students, plus public displays of ignorance on The
Tonight Show With Jay Leno, propagate the impression that today's
students are educational midgets standing on the shoulders of
giants, Paxton wrote. . . . More important, they spread the false
notion that the biggest problem facing history students today
involves the retention of decontextualized historical facts.

The earliest evidence of historical cluelessness that either scholar
could find was a study by J. Carleton Bell and David F. McCollum in
the May 1917 issue of the Journal of Educational Psychology. Bell and
McCollum tested 1,500 students in Texas and reported these
percentages of correct answers on history questions: elementary
school, 16 percent; high school, 33 percent; teachers college, 42
percent; and university, 49 percent.

It was particularly troubling that many of these sons and daughters
of Texas could not state the significance of the year 1846, the
beginning of the Mexican-American War, and had Sam Houston marching
triumphantly into Mexico City rather than beating Gen. Antonio Lopez
de Santa Anna at San Jacinto 10 years before.

The next key survey cited in both the Wineburg and Paxton studies
appeared in the New York Times on April 4, 1943, under the
headline Ignorance of U.S. History Shown by College Freshmen. Only
6 percent of the 7,000 freshmen could name the 13 original colonies.
Only 13 percent identified James Madison as president during the War
of 1812, and only 15 percent knew that William McKinley was president
during the Spanish-American War.

Some commentators at the time blamed the results on then-
controversial public school efforts to wrap history, geography,
economics and civics into something called social studies.

A bicentennial survey in 1976, supervised by Harvard University
historian Bernard Bailyn and published in the New York Times, tested
nearly 2,000 freshmen at 194 colleges. On average, the respondents
got only 21 of 42 multiple-choice questions right, although Bailyn's
standards appeared to be very high. Wineburg said the professor
called it absolutely shocking that more students believed that the
Puritans guaranteed religious freedom (36 percent) than understood
religious tolerance as the result of rival denominations seeking to
cancel out each others' advantage (34 percent).

Many surveys and tests in the generation since have produced similar
results, with high school students getting about

Mass Extinction Not Inevitable

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62735,00.html

Two new studies published this week in Science that show steep
declines in bird, butterfly and plant populations across Great Britain
provide the strongest proof yet that we are in the midst of the sixth
great extinction of life.

The British analyzed six surveys covering virtually all of their
native species populations over the last 40 years. They discovered
birds and native plants had declined 54 percent and 28 percent
respectively while butterflies experienced a shocking 71 percent
decrease.

According to scientists, there have been five prior mass extinctions
in the past 450 million years. The last was 65 million years ago, when
the dinosaurs and tens of thousands of species disappeared, likely as
a result of a comet or large asteroid hitting the Earth.

There's no great mystery about the cause of the sixth extinction.
Humans have dramatically altered the ecosystems of the Earth, says
Stuart Pimm, a leading conservation biologist at Duke University.

Wired News: What's the significance of this new British research?

Stuart Pimm: It's the first comprehensive look at all species in one
location. It's also the first to survey insects. Up till now we've had
a good handle on the status of only few species such as birds. We know
they're in decline globally and that 11 percent of all birds are
extinct or will soon be. But we could only guess at what was happening
to the vast majority of species. However, based on the enormous
amounts of natural habitat such as rainforest that's been lost, we
extrapolated that they were in decline.

This study goes a long way to confirm what we expected. It's also a
strong argument to counter those who deny that we are in the midst of
a massive extinction of life forms.

WN: Any surprises?

Pimm: The fact that butterflies were declining faster than birds was
surprising. It may mean that the little things are in more trouble
than the big.

WN: What will the world be like in the future if this extinction
continues?

Pimm: By 2050, between 25 percent and 50 percent of all species will
have disappeared or be too few in numbers to survive. There'll be a
few over-visited parks, the coral reefs will be beaten up, grasslands
overgrazed. Vast areas of the tropics that have lost their forests
will have the same damn weeds, bushes and scrawny eucalyptus trees so
that you don't know if you're in Africa or the Americas.

Without its natural diversity the world will be a poorer place. It
will be boring.

Besides the amenities that people love about the natural world, we
will also lose the services it provides. Nearby forests provide the
clean, untreated drinking water of two the world's great cities, New
York City and Rio de Janeiro.

WN: What can be done to slow the rate of species loss?

Pimm: We have to stop doing stupid things like subsidizing
economically and ecologically damaging activities. For example, the
global fish catch is worth about $50 billion at the dock, but
government subsidies to the fishing industry amounts to $100 billion.

The Florida Everglades are in trouble because we prop up the sugar
industry, which spews huge amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and other
chemicals into it. We pay higher sugar prices, we pay to clean their
mess and we lose the natural amenities of the Everglades. That's a
stupid thing and we should change it.

Tax subsidies are also responsible for much of the clear-cutting that
goes on in the Amazon rainforest. And we have to stop selling off
natural resources like the Tongass National Forest for 5 cents on the
dollar.

We have to be smart, be informed and understand where the connections
are.

WN: What do you think the future will bring?

Pimm: Actually I am optimistic about slowing the rate of extinctions.
These are not unmanageable problems. Tropical forest deforestation
could be almost entirely stopped by buying out the logging permits. It
would cost $5 billion, which is a lot of money, but not an enormous
amount.

The mismanagement of the global fishing industry could be fixed fairly
easily and would save governments money.

There are lots of big things that could be done right away to help
keep the world a more enjoyable place. And that's the kind of world
people want to live in.



xponent

Endangered Feces Maru

rob


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Re: 'Greatest Generation' Struggled With History, Too

2004-03-20 Thread Damon Agretto

The difference, howevver, is that the number of kids
in school now, as well as the number graduating, is
much higher than in 1917, or 1943, and are probably
more intelligent to boot. They SHOULD know more!
Besides which, saying that people were ignorant of
history in the past is no excuse for NOT criticizing
history education NOW. Instead, it should serve as
more of an impetus.

Damon.

=

Damon Agretto
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html
Now Building: 


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Scouted: Gartner on Offshoring

2004-03-20 Thread Horn, John

1 in 4 IT Jobs Going Offshore, Says Gartner; One Major Offshoring
Failure in 2004 
Predicted

http://www.linuxworld.com/story/44127.htm 

Gartner has been holding forth again - on offshoring (and a new
variant, nearshore outsourcing). The bad news is that a quarter of
the West's IT jobs headed East in the next 5 to 6 years; the good
news that Gartner also says 2004 will see the first major offshoring
failure - that will lead to a company taking its operations back
onshore...

  - jmh
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Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

2004-03-20 Thread Ronn!Blankenship

At 01:19 PM 3/20/04, Travis Edmunds wrote:

From: John Doe [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:21:12 +0100
From: William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Killer Bs Discussion [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 01:13:08 +
JD, with an IQ of 137
Isn't that close to being retarded?
No, anything but. As The Fool already pointed out, it's well above average.

JD
If we were to turn the word well as in well above average into a 
percentage, what percentage would it represent in your mind?

100 is by definition average.  I believe the standard deviation is 
something like 15 or 16.  Of course, when you get out on the tails ( 3 
siogma), you run into two problems: as the number of humans (either 
currently alive or ever) is finite, the effect of the discreteness of the 
actual population becomes important, and while there are people who have IQ 
scores  200, again by the definition of IQ scores  0 are impossible.

-- Ronn!  :)

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Re: DEFENDERS OF THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

2004-03-20 Thread Medievalbk

In a message dated 3/20/2004 6:24:40 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 again by the definition of IQ scores 0 are impossible.
 
 
 
 -- Ronn!  :)
 

Has anyone ever given a ghost an IQ test in a seance?

Totally bored minds want to know.

Vilyehm Teighlore

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Book Binding

2004-03-20 Thread Damon Agretto

I just recently bought an oversixed softback book that
the binding has failed on. I could just take it back
and order a new copy, but then I'd have to wait for
it...

Anyone have experience preserving the binding on these
kinds of books, or repairing them when they fail like
this? What kinds of materials should I use? I have
other (irreplacable) books where this is happening as
well, so the technique has added importance...

Damon.

=

Damon Agretto
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html
Now Building: 


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Re: More outsourcing . . .

2004-03-20 Thread Ronn!Blankenship

At 03:23 PM 3/20/04, Kevin Tarr wrote:
At 11:48 PM 3/19/2004, you wrote:

Mentioned by Jay Leno in his monologue tonight:   calls from welfare 
recipients in Utah to the state office are being answered in India . . .

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03172004/business/148517.asp



-- Ronn!  :)


Same here in PA. I don't recall the Department, but it could have been for 
Labor  Industry, Welfare, or the higher education assistance group.

Err, oh, I just got the relevance of doing it for the welfare office.


ring-ring

Yes, my name is Chandra, how may I help you?

Hi, I'm calling from Provo to check on my state benefits which I need 
because I got laid off a year ago and haven't been able to find a job 
anywhere in Utah.

I'm sorry to hear that.  I, too, was looking for work until I got hired 
for this job last week in New Dehli . . . 

(No aspersions meant toward Ritu or anyone else from India.  Just a comment 
on the irony of hiring people in another country -- or even another state 
-- to take calls from people who are out of work because no one is hiring 
locally.)



Last year, officials in Indiana came under heavy criticism when it was 
disclosed that the state's Department of Workforce Development, 
responsible for helping unemployed workers find jobs, had hired a company 
based in India to do $15.2 million worth of computer upgrades to speed the 
handling of unemployment claims. Gov. Joe Kernan announced in November 
that that contract had been canceled.


One presumes that in that case it might be possible that there were not 
enough unemployed IT people in Indiana who have the necessary technical 
skills that they could have hired locally.  However, that reasoning 
probably wouldn't apply to phone people.  In fact, when I was living out 
there back in the 80s I met people who worked for the unemployment office 
(called the Job Service office, at least in those days) in Utah who said 
they got that job after getting laid off, going to the office to apply for 
benefits and look for a new job, and eventually, after they couldn't find 
anything else, they ended up getting a job working for Job Service as a 
client counselor.  I don't know how common that is, but at least a person 
like that would know what the clients they are helping are going through . . .



-- Ronn!  :)

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the Joys of Corporate Accounting [L3]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1099284/posts

How Cuts in Retiree Benefits
Fatten Companies' Bottom Lines 

Trimming a Health-Care Plan

Creates Accounting Gains,
Under Some Arcane Rules

A Shield Against Rising Costs
By ELLEN E. SCHULTZ and THEO FRANCIS
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


The loud message comes from one company after another: Surging
health-care costs for retired workers are creating a giant burden. So
companies have been cutting health benefits for their retirees or
requiring them to contribute more of the cost.


Time for a reality check: In fact, no matter how high health-care costs
go, well over half of large American corporations face only limited
impact from the increases when it comes to their retirees. They have
established ceilings on how much they will ever spend per retiree for
health care. If health costs go above the caps, it's the retiree, not the
company, who's responsible.Whirlpool Corp. picked up $13.5 million in
earnings, or 19 cents a share, in last year's second quarter from
accounting gains, after imposing both caps and cuts in health care for
its retirees. This gain more than offset charges of 16 cents a share
primarily for a recall of microwave-oven products. Whirlpool then just
beat consensus estimates of $1.31 in second-quarter earnings. Whirlpool
confirms the information but says it didn't cut retiree benefits to help
it meet earnings targets. 

Cuts Redux 

Gradually, the pools of accounting gains generated by early rounds of
benefit cuts and caps run out. When that happens, companies sometimes cut
further, replenishing the pool. 

International Paper Co. capped its spending soon after it adopted the
retiree health-care liability required by the accounting rule, Financial
Accounting Standard 106, in 1991. This cap reversed much of the
liability. It generated a pool of accounting gains that trickled into the
company's financial statements -- to the tune of $17.7 million a year --
until 2000. 

Then the stockpile was used up. International Paper again cut benefits in
2000, 2001 and 2002, primarily by capping the benefits of retirees of
newly acquired companies. This generated a new batch of accounting gains.
They have added a total of $65 million to International Paper's income so
far. 

A company spokeswoman confirms the figures, noting that they reflect
standard accounting practices. She says the company simply made plan
design changes as part of our focus on controlling our costs while
maintaining a competitive benefits program. 

New Formulas 

When a company's liability for retiree health care soars, it's usually
just because of some change in the assumptions that went into the
liability formula -- a change the company itself made. 

Most commonly, it involves interest rates. Liability calculations assume
a particular rate at which the assets used to pay benefits will grow. A
lower rate leads to a higher liability. Think of it this way: If the
return on the money you set aside for an obligation is going to be lower,
you have to set more money aside. 

For instance, UAL Corp.'s liability for retirees' health care surged more
than $1 billion in 2002. Reason: The airline had lowered the rate used in
its liability calculation -- known as the discount rate -- to 6.75% from
7.50%. Companies have considerable latitude in picking the interest rate
they use and deciding when to make a change, though rates were certainly
declining when UAL made its change. 

A shift could be in store. If interest rates rise from current historic
lows, billions of dollars in corporate liabilities for retiree health
care will vanish. 

Also feeding into this murky mix is a company's estimate of health-cost
inflation. As with the interest rate, companies have wide leeway to
change their assumptions about health-cost trends -- giving their
liability figure either a bump up or a push down. For example, in 2002,
Motorola Inc. boosted its assumption of annual health-care inflation to
12% from 6%. This was a key reason its liability for retiree health care
jumped by $122 million. 

Rather than focusing on health-care liability, which companies have so
much latitude to adjust, shareholders might want to look at what a
company actually spends year-to-year for retiree medical benefits. At
Bank of America Corp., for example, the liability for retiree health
benefits rose by $69 million, to $1.1 billion, in 2003. But federal
filings show that what the bank actually spent for these benefits in 2003
declined to $63 million from $84 million the year before, a 25% drop.
Retirees' portion rose 27% to $62 million. 

Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn't uncommon for companies to
report declines in their actual spending on retiree health care. Those
whose filings reveal lower benefits paid last year include Altria Group
Inc. (down 5%, to $246 million); R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.
(down 11%, to $63 million); Clorox Co. (a 33% fall, to $4 million); Ball
Corp. (down 21%, to $8

Ex-Bush aide: Iraq war planning began after 9/11

2004-03-20 Thread Doug Pensinger

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/03/20/clarke.cbs/

Clarke, who headed a cyber-security office at the White House until the 
office was transferred to the newly created Homeland Security Department 
in February 2003, told CBS that Rumsfeld suggested retaliating against 
Iraq immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the 
Pentagon.

Rumsfeld was saying we needed to bomb Iraq ... We all said, 'but no, no, 
al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan,' Clarke said in the interview. And Rumsfeld 
said, 'There aren't any good targets in Afghanistan, and there are lots of 
good targets in Iraq.' I said, 'Well, there are lots of good targets in 
lots of places, but Iraq had nothing to do with [the September 11 
attacks].'

--
Doug
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Carbon Dioxide Reported at Record Levels

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2cid=624u=/ap/20040321/ap_on_sc/climate_record_co2_4printer=1

Carbon dioxide, the gas largely blamed for global warming, has reached
record-high levels in the atmosphere after growing at an accelerated
pace in the past year, say scientists monitoring the sky from this
2-mile-high station atop a Hawaiian volcano.

The reason for the faster buildup of the most important greenhouse
gas will require further analysis, the U.S. government experts say.

But the big picture is that CO2 is continuing to go up, said Russell
Schnell, deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's climate monitoring laboratory in Boulder, Colo.,
which operates the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii.

Carbon dioxide, mostly from burning of coal, gasoline and other fossil
fuels, traps heat that otherwise would radiate into space. Global
temperatures increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees
Celsius) during the 20th century, and international panels of
scientists sponsored by world governments have concluded that most of
the warming probably was due to greenhouse gases.

The climatologists forecast continued temperature rises that will
disrupt the climate, cause seas to rise and lead to other
unpredictable consequences unpredictable in part because of
uncertainties in computer modeling of future climate.

Before the industrial age and extensive use of fossil fuels, the
concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere stood at about 280
parts per million, scientists have determined.

Average readings at the 11,141-foot Mauna Loa Observatory, where
carbon dioxide density peaks each northern winter, hovered around 379
parts per million on Friday, compared with about 376 a year ago.

That year-to-year increase of about 3 parts per million is
considerably higher than the average annual increase of 1.8 parts per
million over the past decade, and markedly more accelerated than the
1-part-per-million annual increase recorded a half-century ago, when
observations were first made here.

Asked to explain the stepped-up rate, climatologists were cautious,
saying data needed to be further evaluated. But Asia immediately
sprang to mind.

China is taking off economically and burning a lot of fuel. India,
too, said Pieter Tans, a prominent carbon-cycle expert at NOAA's
Boulder lab.

Another leading climatologist, Ralph Keeling, whose father, Charles D.
Keeling, developed methods for measuring carbon dioxide, noted that
the rate does fluctuate up and down a bit, and said it was too early
to reach conclusions. But he added: People are worried about
`feedbacks.' We are moving into a warmer world.

He explained that warming itself releases carbon dioxide from the
ocean and soil. By raising the gas's level in the atmosphere, that in
turn could increase warming, in a positive feedback, said Keeling,
of San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that, if
unchecked, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations by 2100 will
range from 650 to 970 parts per million. As a result, the panel
estimates, average global temperature would probably rise by 1.4 to
5.8 degrees Celsius (2.7 and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit) between 1990 and
2100.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol would oblige ratifying countries to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions according to set schedules, to minimize
potential global warming. The pact has not taken effect, however.

The United States, the world's biggest carbon dioxide emitter, signed
the agreement but did not ratify it, and the Bush administration has
since withdrawn U.S. support, calling instead for voluntary emission
reductions by U.S. industry and more scientific research into climate
change.

xponent

Cough Cough Maru

rob

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Medicare Actuary Gives Withheld Data to Congress

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/20/politics/20MEDI.html?ex=1395118800en=
b55a3388a20b7a6fei=5007partner=USERLAND

Medicare Actuary Gives Wanted Data to Congress By ROBERT PEAR

Published: March 20, 2004


WASHINGTON, March 19  Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary of Medicare,
provided Congress with documents on Friday showing that federal payments
to private health insurance plans under a new Medicare law could far
exceed what Congress assumed when it passed the measure last fall.
 
For months, lawmakers had been seeking the data, but Mr. Foster said in
an interview that he had withheld it under instructions from Bush
administration officials. 

He turned over documents outlining the information at a meeting on Friday
with Congressional aides of both parties who work on health legislation.

The documents estimate that the new law will increase Medicare payments
to private health plans by a total of $46 billion over the next 10 years,
not the $14 billion assumed by lawmakers when they voted on the
legislation. Mr. Foster had cited the discrepancy in an interview earlier
this week, but the documents he turned over on Friday, Mr. Foster said,
show that the Bush administration was aware of the gap well before
Congress approved the new law.

Moreover, the documents show that the administration expects a huge
increase in the number of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in various
types of managed care. About 12 percent of the 41 million current
Medicare beneficiaries are in such private health plans today. By 2009,
Mr. Foster says, the proportion will reach 32 percent, equally divided
between health maintenance organizations and preferred provider
organizations.

By contrast, the actuary estimates that enrollment in the traditional
government-run Medicare program will decline from 2006 to 2009, along
with payments to many health care providers.

For example, the documents show that payments to doctors under Medicare's
fee schedule will decline each year from 2006 to 2012, while spending for
inpatient hospital services and skilled nursing homes under the
traditional government-run program will decline in 2006 and 2007.

Doctors and hospitals have lobbied vigorously against such cuts in recent
years. The actuary's report suggests they will need to mobilize their
lobbyists again if they want to preserve the gains they won last year.

Many Republicans wanted to encourage the growth of private health plans
because they believe such insurers coordinate care better than the
traditional Medicare program. 

But if the estimates of higher costs had been known last year, they would
have given ammunition to Democrats and other critics who said the bill
was lavishing money on insurance companies at the expense of the
traditional Medicare programs.

Mr. Foster said he withheld the cost estimates and other information from
Congress last year on instructions from Thomas A. Scully, who was then
administrator of the Medicare program. 

Mr. Foster, who has been a government actuary for more than 30 years,
said Mr. Scully had threatened to fire him if he gave the data to
Congress.

Mr. Scully, who left the government in December, confirms that he told
Mr. Foster to withhold certain information, but denies threatening to
fire him.

A federal law stipulates that officials must not try to prevent federal
employees from having oral or written communication or contact with any
member of Congress on matters relating to the employees' duties. 

On Thursday, a group of 18 Democratic senators led by Frank R. Lautenberg
of New Jersey asked the comptroller general to investigate whether Mr.
Foster had been muzzled in violation of this law.

Trent D. Duffy, a White House spokesman, said no White House official had
instructed Mr. Foster or Mr. Scully to withhold information from
Congress. But Mr. Duffy acknowledged that the actuary's cost estimates
had been sent to White House officials, including Doug Badger, a special
assistant to President Bush who negotiated with Congress on the Medicare
bill.

Some Republicans, especially conservatives concerned about the cost of
the new law, have criticized the administration for withholding
information.

An earlier Medicare law, adopted in 1997 at the behest of Republicans,
explicitly protects the actuary's independence. 

A spokeswoman for Representative Bill Thomas, Republican of California,
who helped write that provision, said Mr. Thomas believed that members
of Congress should have access to differing assumptions and estimates and
that any administration should provide requested information.

Representative Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas, who voted reluctantly
for the Medicare bill, said the costs of benefit programs often soared
beyond expectations.

I never believed anybody's cost estimates for the Medicare bill, Mr.
Hensarling said. I didn't believe the Congressional Budget Office or the
administration.

Consumer advocates told the administration on Friday that one way to hold
down costs would

Re: March Madness!

2004-03-20 Thread Tom Beck

On Mar 20, 2004, at 9:16 AM, John D. Giorgis wrote:

An interesting trivia question for you what is the only school  
from the
State of Texas to win the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship.
No fair Googling/Searching before submitting your answer!
Easy. Texas Western at El Paso (now UTEP). Won the 1965 championship,  
defeated Kentucky (first time Kentucky had ever played a team with  
black players). UTEP coach Don Haskins' greatest moment. Pat Riley  
(later coach of the Laker, Knicks  Heat) played for Kentucky. That was  
the Final Four that Bill Bradley led Princeton to.

 
--

Tom Beck

my LiveJournal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/tomfodw/

I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I never thought I'd  
see the last. - Dr. Jerry Pournelle

 
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Re: Book Binding

2004-03-20 Thread Medievalbk

In a message dated 3/20/2004 8:04:07 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 
 I just recently bought an oversixed softback book that
 the binding has failed on. I could just take it back
 and order a new copy, but then I'd have to wait for
 it...
 
 Anyone have experience preserving the binding on these
 kinds of books, or repairing them when they fail like
 this? What kinds of materials should I use? I have
 other (irreplacable) books where this is happening as
 well, so the technique has added importance...
 
 Damon.
 
 =
 

Vinal glue. 

There's an expensive source specifically designed for books available through 
Brodart--the people that make all those dustjacket covers.

And I don't know if there's that much difference from the vinal glue 
available at a general hobby/craft store.

It's an easy repair if you mean that the cover has seperated from the pages, 
but that there are no loose pages.

For loose pages, you may want to spread the glue out on scrap cardboard, and 
then dip the edge of the page onto the glue.

Sometimes for a cracked spine you want to reverse the process and use the 
edge of a scrap piece of construction paper to get the glue to the spine without 
having it spread to the pages.

William Taylor
G. F. Armoury Books
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Re: 'Greatest Generation' Struggled With History, Too

At 05:38 PM 3/20/2004 -0600 Robert Seeberger wrote:
 Most eighth-graders did not know why the First
Continental Congress met.

A lot of these questions sound like classic gotcha! questions.I mean
really, how many people can quickly name the differences between the 1st
and 2nd Continental Congresses and contrast them with the US Congress?
Or how many people can quickly name the President of the United States
during the War of 1812, Spanish-American War, Mexican-American War, the
Military Actions on the Barbary Coast?

This article acts like such bits of information should be common knowledge
rather than fairly difficult quesitons on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

JDG
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   The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, 
   it is God's gift to humanity. - George W. Bush 1/29/03

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Re: 'Greatest Generation' Struggled With History, Too

2004-03-20 Thread Ronn!Blankenship

At 10:22 PM 3/20/04, John D. Giorgis wrote:
At 05:38 PM 3/20/2004 -0600 Robert Seeberger wrote:
 Most eighth-graders did not know why the First
Continental Congress met.
A lot of these questions sound like classic gotcha! questions.I mean
really, how many people can quickly name the differences between the 1st
and 2nd Continental Congresses and contrast them with the US Congress?
Or how many people can quickly name the President of the United States
during the War of 1812, Spanish-American War,


Most can name the *future* presidents who became famous for military action 
in each of those wars, though.



-- Ronn!  :)

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Re: 'Greatest Generation' Struggled With History, Too

 From: John D. Giorgis [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 At 05:38 PM 3/20/2004 -0600 Robert Seeberger wrote:
  Most eighth-graders did not know why the First
 Continental Congress met.
 
 A lot of these questions sound like classic gotcha! questions.I
mean
 really, how many people can quickly name the differences between the
1st
 and 2nd Continental Congresses and contrast them with the US Congress?
 Or how many people can quickly name the President of the United States
 during the War of 1812, Spanish-American War, Mexican-American War, the
 Military Actions on the Barbary Coast?
 
 This article acts like such bits of information should be common
knowledge
 rather than fairly difficult quesitons on Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire.

Those are actual questions from standardized tests.
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Terrorist Group Endorses Shrub

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=storyu=/nm/20040317/wl_nm/securit
y_spain_truce_dc

WE WANT BUSH TO WIN 


The statement said it supported President Bush ( - ) in his reelection
campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the
Democratic candidate John Kerry ( - ), as it was not possible to find a
leader more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force
rather than with wisdom. 


In comments addressed to Bush, the group said: 


Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats
have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and
Muslim nation as civilization. 


Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected. 


The group said its cells were ready for another attack and time was
running out for allies of the United States. 


Whose turn is it next? Will it be Japan or America, or Italy, Britain or
Oslo or Australia? the statement said, adding Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
were also targets. 


The group is named after Muhammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs, a close
bin Laden aide killed in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan ( - ). 

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Re: 'Greatest Generation' Struggled With History, Too

At 10:47 PM 3/20/2004 -0600 The Fool wrote:
Those are actual questions from standardized tests.

No kidding.. 

.But, while I am the first person to argue that history is important
and the first person to argue for the importance of standardized tests,
most of the provided questions struck me as being having been very
carefully selected both for their non-importance and for their difficulty.
 The article makes no mention of actual standardized test scores.

JDG
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   The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, 
   it is God's gift to humanity. - George W. Bush 1/29/03

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Re: Book Binding

2004-03-20 Thread Damon Agretto


 Vinal glue. 

By Vinyl glue do you mean PVA, aka Elmer's white
glue? 

Thanks for the response!

Damon.


=

Damon Agretto
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html
Now Building: 


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Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html
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Re: Terrorist Group Endorsements

And Earth First! no doubt endorses John Kerry.

It is pretty amusing that you found this article at all noteworthy

JDG
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
   The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, 
   it is God's gift to humanity. - George W. Bush 1/29/03

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Teen's right to wear sweatshirt in School is restored

Teen's right to wear sweatshirt is restored Denbigh High responds to
letter threatening lawsuit  
By Angela Forest

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-77026sy0mar19,0,6762857,print.st
ory?coll=dp-news-local-final

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Re: Terrorist Group Endorsements