RE: AAA, was Re: World's oldest wheel found in Slovenia
With the gold card, called preferred service or something like that, AAA+, at least in Missouri. I have the AAA + membership and they will tow up to 100 miles for free, and I have 5 incidents that could include towing, locksmith, out of gas, etc. Last year, I broke a key off in the lock of my car door, and when I called them, I just happened to be beside a Longhorn Steakhouse, Bar Grill. The woman kept telling me that they don't have to give me service if I have been drinking. I tried over and over to explain to her that I had NOT been in there, that I was just beside the restaurant (a family restaurant at that!), and she finally sent a tow truck driver with a slimjim (lock opening device) to open my car. He was given explicit instructions that if I told him I was in the Longhorn, that he was supposed to leave me there. Ironically, the tow truck driver showed up with an open beer in his hand. We have a friend that works at the AAA call center here in Columbus, and she said it is their written policy to minimize service in any way possible. I really hate dealing with them. Gary ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
drinking water revisited
I can't remember who started a thread about drinking water in the USA (I am too lazy to look it up) but this is an interesting related article I ran across. Water Demands Draining U.S. Rivers By J.R. Pegg WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 2003 (ENS) - Many of America's rivers are suffering from severe water shortages, with drought and human water consumption placing some of these waterways in acute peril, warns a new report released today by American Rivers. Complete article http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2003/2003-04-10-10.asp __ Gary L. Nunn Delaware Ohio If you are going to walk on thin ice, you may as well dance. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: The Core: list of ripoffs
Regarding Earth, I noticed last week that the trailer is formatted according this book. -THey start tellink of an undetectable weapon -Then it is said that something failed. -then they present a guy telling that he is going to computer-hack the Earth. This is not the context in the film, where the guy just manipulates internet. -They finishs by telling that the film is about Earth itself (I have heard the spanish version, where the pronoum is herself). At least it is an intriging idea: to plagiarize a different book for the trailer, so the trailer does not give clues of the film. Nice. Alejandro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Delusions of Power
--- Ronn!Blankenship [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: --- The Fool [EMAIL PROTECTED] quoted: http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/03/28/opinion/28KRUG.html Delusions of Power snip So the task force was subject to what military types call incestuous amplification, defined by Jane's Defense Weekly as a condition in warfare where one only listens to those who are already in lock-step agreement, reinforcing set beliefs and creating a situation ripe for miscalculation. snip What an illustrative phrase: incestuous amplification. That applies in almost any field, I think; certainly medicine is not immune. Astrophysics, either. My advisor came up with the term manic solipsism to describe the phenomenon he had noted of some researchers referring in their papers to only the select subset of the literature which supported their own conclusions. That's a nice term, too grin - maybe your advisor should write up a paper describing the phenomenon; I'll bet some sociobiology journal would publish it serious. Debbi __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: A Moral Case to be Anti-War? Re: 3 weeks
--- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Erik Reuter wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: Debbi unable to resist final tweak who wonders why you persist in using Deborah rather than the informal Debbi ;) Because Deborah is what is on the From: line of your emails? When I see your emails, that is the name I see. True, you sometimes (always?) sign them Debbi, but that is just an obscure line of text at the bottom, the From: line name gets prominently displayed in most email reading programs. unable to resist final tweak who wonders why this snippet seems so representative of most of Debbi's discussions about political policy snort! ;) serious If I didn't poke fun, I'd be grieving. While I can grasp the concept of a just war, I am truly unable to understand what drives some people to seek total dominance over others. I myself am capable of killing in self-defense or the defense of others, but have no desire to take anything away from others at gunpoint. When I think of actual combat, I think of the death, the maiming, the sorrowing families and friends. There is no glory in it. Terrible, terrible waste. :( Debbi __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: AAA, was Re: World's oldest wheel found in Slovenia
Gary L. Nunn wrote: I have the AAA + membership and they will tow up to 100 miles for free, and I have 5 incidents that could include towing, locksmith, out of gas, etc. Last year, I broke a key off in the lock of my car door, and when I called them, I just happened to be beside a Longhorn Steakhouse, Bar Grill. The woman kept telling me that they don't have to give me service if I have been drinking. I tried over and over to explain to her that I had NOT been in there, that I was just beside the restaurant (a family restaurant at that!), and she finally sent a tow truck driver with a slimjim (lock opening device) to open my car. He was given explicit instructions that if I told him I was in the Longhorn, that he was supposed to leave me there. Ironically, the tow truck driver showed up with an open beer in his hand. The worst I ever had to deal with with them was the time I was trying to explain where the car in question was. She'd never heard of MLK in Austin. I had to give the full name of the street Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, gave the other street (Trinity? it was the UT lot closest to the Nursing building there), and she insisted she needed a street number. When the tow guy showed up, though, he was great, and ended up fixing the problem for under $20 cash on the spot. That was good enough to last another month or so until Dan could get the car to his dad's mechanic in Richardson and get the part replaced on his dad's nickel. We've had reasonable experiences with the guys they send out to our new neighborhood, although it's a struggle to convince the call center that Pflugerville is actually *closer* to us than Taylor, and that it'll save time and miles if they send someone from Pflugerville. (If you look at a map, sure, Hutto is technically closer to Taylor -- but we're not actually *in* Hutto, and Pflugerville is probably 10 miles closer than Taylor would be.) Wonder what would happen if you called in and gave exact GPS coordinates? :) Julia tempted to find out someday ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: The Core: list of ripoffs
In a message dated 4/12/2003 9:50:40 AM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Time to read some Harlan Ellison? What in particular? I read _An Edge In My Voice_ earlier this year I was refering to non-fiction events of the making of Starlost and then Phoenix without Ashes. Are there other Hollywood horror stories out there? Those who do not study history may be condemned to pay repetitive legal fees. William Taylor - The screenwriter to Enemy Mine eats kiz. Longyear repaired most of the damage in the novelization. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Random thought
In a message dated 4/12/2003 12:52:07 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: (let's just say that if someone burned all the liveoak trees within 100 km, I wouldn't grieve this month) It is illegal to plant new chinaberry trees in Tucson. However, you can't go about randomly cutting down the ones that are already here. A good law would be to force their removal when the property changes hands. But as it has nothing to do with spotted owls, or repainting the A on the mountainside red, white, and blue, I doubt if one could get the city council's attention. William Achoo Taylor ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Random thought
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 4/12/2003 12:52:07 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: (let's just say that if someone burned all the liveoak trees within 100 km, I wouldn't grieve this month) It is illegal to plant new chinaberry trees in Tucson. However, you can't go about randomly cutting down the ones that are already here. A good law would be to force their removal when the property changes hands. But as it has nothing to do with spotted owls, or repainting the A on the mountainside red, white, and blue, I doubt if one could get the city council's attention. Sounds like the chinaberry trees are not indigenous. Liveoak trees *are* indigenous to the Austin area, and incidentally the most popular landscaping tree. This is the worst year in ages for liveoak pollen, apparently. I believe it. (But if you wash your face carefully with Lava soap (or some kinder, gentler exfoliating stuff, but the Lava was what was handy *downstairs* and I was too impatient to even go upstairs) after you come in, it helps a lot.) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: no anti-war for oil!
--- Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: --- Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Julia who came home to find her child stickered with The infidels are not in my diaper LOL! I won't ask what you *did* find in his diaper, as I can guess quite easily! Actually, it was a fresh, put-on-in-the-past-5-minutes diaper he had when he was handed to me. By the time we were getting him to bed about 15 minutes later, he needed a fresh one, but it was only stuff that the diaper *absorbs*. The babysitter likes to use my labelmaker to put silly things on the back of his shirt for our amusement. I think this was one of the better ones. Julia last day of this round of antibiotics, so diaper changes will become easier again in the next few days grin Your babysitter has a good sense of humor! grunt Yeah, antibiotics play havoc with our good gut bacteria. Will Sammy eat yogurt? That does help, usually. Debbi who recently was feeding her cat yogurt, for that same reason :P __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: A Moral Case to be Anti-War? Re: 3 weeks
--- Damon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [I asked:] My understanding is that they were mere weeks away from being able to bomb the US mainland - is that just an 'urban war myth?' (Not a rhetorical question, BTW) Must be an Urban Myth, as the Germans cancelled all heavy bomber projects. The Germans had no force projection outside of Europe. Their Navy would have to deal with the Royal Navy before dealing with the growing and potent US Navy. Thanks for the clarification; some of what I know in history turns out to be an exaggeration or misrepresentation. My point is that Germany was as much a threat to the US in WWII as they were in WWI. Japan was far more a threat, able to project naval power and actually pose a credible threat to the US. Yet we declared Germany to be the greater threat, something I think the Roosevelt administration wanted to do long before Pearl. I only read a little bit of the linked article(s) about Japanese biowarfare/experimentation [how anyone who calls themselves a physician could participate in - hell, *design* - such monstrous projects is incomprehensible]; I think the impact of some project like Cherry Blossom... would be more 'terror' than actual damage, but the psych blow would be considerable. Debbi Pearl Harbor Conspiracy? Maru __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: no anti-war for oil!
Deborah Harrell wrote: grin Your babysitter has a good sense of humor! It's an amusing sense of humor, anyway. grunt Yeah, antibiotics play havoc with our good gut bacteria. Will Sammy eat yogurt? That does help, usually. He loves yogurt. So, that helped some, apparently -- but it didn't keep things from eventually getting a lot mushier than usual. (At least it didn't progress to the point of out-and-out diarrhea, which was something we'd been warned to watch out for.) It's improving now, slowly. Julia who's got to get him up from his nap and offer him -- guess what -- yogurt! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: no anti-war for oil!
The babysitter likes to use my labelmaker to put silly things on the back of his shirt for our amusement. I think this was one of the better ones. Julia Oh this is too good. If it hasn't been used before, the next time our good Dr. Brin writes something than includes human children. William Taylor How about: If you've ever read The Ransom of Red Chief, you'll put the child back down. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Shogun MacBeth?
--- Horn, John [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Marvin Long, Jr. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Shogun MacBeth? Is that anything like Kurosawa's Throne of Blood? :) When I first saw this subject line I read it as Shotgun MacBeth! Figured it was some sort of Texas variant of the classic. :) Me too! I thought of Patrick Stewart as The King of Texas (an adaptation of King Lear). Kodos The Executioner Maru __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The Miniature Earth
On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 09:04:38 -0400, Erik Reuter wrote: On Thu, Apr 10, 2003 at 08:38:41PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: How exactly, does the concept of sustainability preclude technology? Or are you reserving the term, and concept, for use only by tree-hugging luddites living in communes? Here are some questions I asked Han, but he did not answer. Maybe you could answer them for yourself: 1) How much electrical energy (in kW-hours) do you use in an average month or year? 2) If you have natural gas, how much gas (or gas energy) do you use in an average year? 3) And if you drive a car, how far do you drive in an average year? After you post the answers, I will work through an rough calculation of the issues involved if 6B people each used that amount of energy, and we can talk about whether it would be possible to get everyone in the world up to that level in a sustainable way and how long it might take and how expensive it would be. Remember, so far almost all technology is dependent on energy. For 2002, Electricity 3935 KWh Natural Gas 1002 M^3 X 10.34 KWh/M^3 = 10360 KWh Gasoline 3100L X 8.61 KWh/L = 26691 KWh Total 40986 KWh Here is some actual numbers by country if you would rather use them. http://onsager.bd.psu.edu/~jircitano/Energy.html So what did you have in mind? ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Brin: The Core: list of ripoffs
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] I was refering to non-fiction events of the making of Starlost and then Phoenix without Ashes. Those who do not study history may be condemned to pay repetitive legal fees. Not to mention The Terminator and Soldier... - jmh ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: 3 weeks
This is the second part of a response to Gautam. [JDG?] But, beyond that, we worked with Stalin to get rid of Hitler. Stalin was worse than Hussein. [D] Not the same degree of threat to the US at all - the Nazis were a direct threat to us. Saddam was not. Hitler had the ability to kill millions of Americans with a suitcase? Um, could you cite the evidence that Saddam did? :) setting myself up for karmic slappage here Furthermore you are, very conveniently, ignoring the immense scale of the threat that was perceived at the time. When the Iranian Revolution happened... snip Well, guilty of ignorance here: I was a student then, and more concerned about passing calculus etc. (and dating, as I was still quite new to that winces and ruefully shakes head); I'm afraid that I never caught up on world events later either, as 80++ hour study/work weeks were my lot for 7 years... [D] If you're going to use a rabid dog to guard your yard snip, cut paste...in this case a bullet might have saved a lot of suffering. [G] This seems to be a proposal that we invade Iraq in 1989. I'm guessing that's not what you meant... cut paste ...I think that this is an allusion to the idea that we could have somehow just killed Saddam. That's a fantasy... snip No to the former, but yes to killing him in (or before?) 1989; I did read your posts about how it wasn't possible to do so post-Gulf War I -- does that apply post-Iran as well? (This opens another can of worms, of course - because if assassination became a 'known viable option' of US policy, I'll bet unsavory characters would be less likely to 'do our proxy work' for us. And it's certainly not moral.) snip[G] ...to contain him. [D] I will take your word for this (was it because of Russia that we couldn't intervene?). It's partly because of the Russians. It's more because we're reinvented our military into something the likes of which the world has ever seen. An invasion with 1980s technology would have cost thousands of American lives (and tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of civilian lives) with no guarantee of success. We're a lot better now. Had toppling Saddam involved the death of hundreds of thousands with no chance of success, I wouldn't have been in favor of it now. Only because the American military is so astonishingly capable did we have the real option of freeing the people of Iraq. Thanks for the information. snip, snip Uh-oh, is this a Roseanne Rosannadana moment? I didn't oppose the war on purely humanitarian grounds, but for lack of evidence of threat to the US, lack of early- Yahoo can't seem to handle messages any longer than this in replies - so the rest of what you wrote got cut off, but I don't know what a Roseanne Rosannadana moment is. grin Ouch! Showing my age. Someone's probably answered this already, but in case not: that was a character played by Gilda Radner on SNL; she would be on a crusade about something that she'd completely misunderstood: frex, 'What is it with these Crustaceans and their taking up arms?!' 'Roseanne, that was Croatians. Not crustaceans.' '.OhNever mind...' It seemed to me that I might have been responding to an incorrect interpretation of your position, which is why I wondered if I'd pulled a Roseanne. :) Rest of my statement: lack of early diplomacy/coalition-building/under-the-table-arm-twisting, lack of legitamacy - and for motives of the administration. Although I _was_ afraid (hmm, more like sure) that there would be massive civilian casualties, so that might qualify... [Re-posting the part that got truncated:] [G] You condemn the motives of the Administration, Debbie. OKay. Those malign, hypocritical, two-faced men and women just toppled one of the worst dictators in human history. The morally pure anti-war folks - they would have kept Saddam in power. If those are the options - and they were - I know which side I want to be on. [My response:] Again with the Black And White. (And was Rice a member of the Reagan-Bush team?) Nor do I have anything but respect for our armed forces members who risk their lives daily. I certainly don't claim to be morally pure (and think that anyone who states they are is either deluded or hypocritical). If useful efforts/attitude on the part of this administration had been in place from the beginning, this might have been a UN/world-approved war; if despite genuine efforts on their part, obstruction from certain Security Council members remained, then at least that hypocrisy would justify taking oligolateral action. What's important now is the restructuring of Iraq into a fair and free nation. It will take hard work and firm commitment - and resources/aid/help from the UN shouldn't be turned away. sigh Then it looks like we might need to work on restructuring the UN... I will add that the Black And White referral above is only WRT your seemingly uncritical praise of
Re: 3 weeks
I'm going to respond to this in two parts, because part of my original reply was cut off. --- Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- Deborah Harrell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip Nor have I said that we can't work with/use someone who is less-than-stellar in the moral department, but I _do_ object to publicly ignoring their shortcomings. In the long run, dealing with treacherous people nearly always comes back to haunt you - and if this Iraqi general who was held in Denmark for humanitarian crimes turns up in Iraq, and is promoted by the US government as a candidate for position in the new Iraqi government -- well, the cycle begins anew. But, the only people out there in the world are treacherous people. Take a look at the Middle East. Outside of Israel and Turkey, the best thing you can say about most of the leaders is not a sociopath (my comment about Abdullah of Jordan, in one of my few witty moments, actually). If we aren't allowed to work with treacherous people, we're not allowed to do anything in the Middle East. Or France, for that matter :-) wry grin I agree that many leaders are treacherous; as I noted above, I understand that you must work with the less-than-stellar - but you must also accept and deal with the consequences of your choices. snip I think you're engaging here in the Fallacy of Good Outcomes - the belief that there is some more palatable alternative than, say, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. There really isn't. In Iraq, for example, my assessment of the most likely outcome is that it ends up something like Jordan - not a democracy, but not bad. If that's what happens - then from the perspective of the people of Iraq, we will have done a great and wonderful thing. They will be _vastly_ better off. I agree with (or at least hope for) your assessment of the Iraqi outcome; but that is not what the Admin has been trying to sell to us, the American public. Democracy in the Middle East is what they are claiming to deliver. If 'that is what must be said because the American people won't support the war effort otherwise,' what does that say about their opinion of the public? Worse, is such a low opinion of us as a whole justified? *I* don't think so, despite the current (non)reality TV popularity; I do believe that if expectations/set goals are made low (as in the lowest common denominator), then the lazy (and let's face it, we often tend to go the easiest route) will not make the effort to 'rise to the occasion.' Well, that got a bit off-topic, didn't it? :} As for ignoring their shortcomings - I agree with you. The single worst offender among American Presidents in that regard is Jimmy Carter, who never met a dictator for whom he did not have kind words. I'll be second in line to go after him if you're first :-) Actually, I think that Jimmy C is a very good *man,* but was a sadly ineffective *president.* What makes me a very effective physician (empathy, kindness, genuine interest) would cripple me as a political leader. [That's sort of answering somebody else's probe, BTW.] Motives count in murder trials; motives count in the current debate on religious groups who feed the poor; the motives of interventionists matter as their future actions may be determined by them. If much of the world thinks that US motives include world domination in a sort of Pax Americana, it matters very much indeed. A Pax Americana is the only type of Pax the world is likely to see. So you can have that, or you can have war. Those are your options, sadly enough. Actually, I sort of agree; but the route this Admin is taking to get there is, I believe, bass-ackwards. I think the influence and benefits of American *culture* are what should be exported (and in fact are, just not as effectively as they could), or 'leading by example.' You don't get folks to follow you by insulting them - that will just make them 'rear back on their haunches.' It is a slower, non-showy, and subtler way, but it allows _them_ to make the choice. [Of course, there are still times you're going to have to crack the whip or even strike the dangerous ones; a rare few will have to be shot.] But actually the central insight of the Founding Fathers is that motives don't matter at all. Actions do. The purpose of the American system of government is to make people with selfish motives act for the collective good... But the *perceptions* of others as to motives *does matter!* Else why would there have been a search for an acceptable cause? 'Danger to his neighbors' - 'Direct threat to the US' - 'WoMD' - 'Liberation of the Iraqi people.' Intent and motive still count under the law. sniplet Not even you, who (in my opinion) take despising Bush to remarkable heights, could believe that the Administration would create a regime that even vaguely resembles that of Iraq. Of course not. (And for the record, I find
Is Iraq a Threat? Re: 3 weeks
At 10:57 AM 4/10/2003 -0500 Marvin Long, Jr. wrote: (Although part me wonders, if it was this easy was Iraq really such a threat to begin with? Time and bunker-searches will tell, I suppose.) Exactly. the US might never have attacked Iraq if we had preceived its greatest threat to be the Republican Guard and other traditional, land-based assets. The primary reasons for the attack were anthrax, nerve agent, and nuclear ambitions that could not be tracked. JDG ___ 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 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
US Budget Re: 3 weeks
At 09:41 PM 4/9/2003 -0500 Dan Minette wrote: 28% of the Texas state budget is spent on K-12 and 21% is spent on higher education. On the whole, state and local budgets average about 4% of the GDP of the US, and the federal budget averages about 20% or so. *Averages* 20%? Over what time period? JDG ___ 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 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
