Re: Wife's suggestion!
On Sep 22, 2009, at 7:48 PM, David Hobby wrote: The Christian nation bit rubs me the wrong way too. Probably because I've heard it used to justify things I strongly disagree with. ---David One last comment on my wife's suggestion and I think we may have exhausted this thread. It was prompted by both the news coverage of recent events and by email exchanges with old high school friends in West Texas. We live in Austin, TX so if you are at all familiar with Texas politics you can imagine the positions of the two parties. The Christian Nation line was targeted at those like her friends in West Texas. She is well aware that the Constitution calls for the separation of Church and State and for good reason. learner ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Wife's suggestion!
On 24/09/2009, at 12:35 AM, Chris Frandsen wrote: On Sep 22, 2009, at 7:48 PM, David Hobby wrote: The Christian nation bit rubs me the wrong way too. Probably because I've heard it used to justify things I strongly disagree with. ---David One last comment on my wife's suggestion and I think we may have exhausted this thread. It was prompted by both the news coverage of recent events and by email exchanges with old high school friends in West Texas. We live in Austin, TX so if you are at all familiar with Texas politics you can imagine the positions of the two parties. The Christian Nation line was targeted at those like her friends in West Texas. Hence my comment further back about framing. Basically, posting it here was right message, wrong place if you wanted people to go ooh, good idea - in this particular forum of mostly respectful argue about EVERYTHING any sort of pandering to one view, even allusionally, is bound to get dissected. But I do agree it's the right message. Charlie. Mostly Civil And How Dare You Say Otherwise, You Bastards Maru ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Weekly Chat Reminder
The Brin-L weekly chat has been a list tradition for over ten years. Way back on 27 May, 1998, Marco Maisenhelder first set up a chatroom for the list, and on the next day, he established a weekly chat time. We've been through several servers, chat technologies, and even casts of regulars over the years, but the chat goes on... and we want more recruits! Whether you're an active poster or a lurker, whether you've been a member of the list from the beginning or just joined today, we would really like for you to join us. We have less politics, more Uplift talk, and more light-hearted discussion. We're non-fattening and 100% environmentally friendly... -(_() Though sometimes marshmallows do get thrown. The Weekly Brin-L chat is scheduled for Wednesday 3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central time in the US, or 7 PM Greenwich time. There's usually somebody there to talk to for at least eight hours after the start time. If no-one is there when you arrive just wait around a while for the next person to show up! If you want to attend, it's really easy now. All you have to do is send your web browser to: http://wtgab.demon.co.uk/~brinl/mud/ ..And you can connect directly from the NEW new web interface! -- William T Goodall Mail : w...@wtgab.demon.co.uk Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ This message was sent automatically using launchd. But even if WTG is away on holiday, at least it shows the server is still up. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Wife's suggestion!
Chris wrote: One last comment on my wife's suggestion and I think we may have exhausted this thread. No!!! I'm still getting caught up and haven't found the original post. Add to that I get the digest, and I might have .02 to add. =+)) And what's a Jaffa cake? Amities, Jo Anne evens...@hevanet.com ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Wife's suggestion!
On 24/09/2009, at 7:08 AM, Jo Anne wrote: And what's a Jaffa cake? A kind of biccie (or possibly a cake?). A sort of sponge base with an orangey bit and a chocalate covering on one side. :) Charlie. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: What's to read?
Pat wrote: I have a Sony 505. The books on my reader are on my reader and on my desktop, not on my account on someone else's server. If anyone wants to delete them [think 1984] or whatever, they have to physically steal my reader and then delete the book. I own them outright. Nobody else has any rights in the copies I own except, in this state, if I had a legally married spouse. (Community property state). No one gonna take my 505 away Doug wrote- That's nice, but if I was a best selling author I think I'd be pretty reluctant to sell my book that way for fear that someone would make copies and give them away a la mp3 file sharing. And unlike musicians, authors aren't likely to make a lot of money on tour so once their book is being distributed for free, they're SOL. Other than the ownership factor, how do you like your reader so far? * Hi all, Since this thread has been around the block twice, I figured I would finally get around to chiming in. My Sony 500 is 3+ years old and going strong. I still feel a bit like Chekov on the bridge reading it :-) Since I have been rather behind on scifi reading compared to many of you, I have had fun with some of the bundles (finally read Red/Blue/Green Mars) and have been pleased with the addition over the past year of having an option of selecting from a list of award winner options that have been broadening my author pool a bit. My pleasure reading time still isn't the best, but I do refuse to put my professional journals on it (.pdf) just on principle. It has held up well to a wide variety of stressors including quite a few long hot days at the beach, etc. I had concerns about the battery, but it is also holding up well and holding for days/thousand plus page sessions. Seeing the newer version with the light on the side was cool, and it looks like now there is an easy right hand page turning function which this one doesn't offer. I know some of you pointed me to free download sites, but it has proven a bit more challenging with the older model. Just saw the new large size Kindle in the airport security line today and it looks like the black on white print technology is getting crisper (or it could be that I am needing to start wearing glasses- true sign of approaching crone-ism) and am starting to use the medium size print option :-) I did find Bank's Matter on my recent set of downloads (saving it for a particularly blah time, since it is always a good read). Some of the older things like the day the earth stood still and flowers of Aulit Prison were good to find as they are re releasing some of those stories. One recent read question (blending threads)- finally tried my first Pratchett book- Night Watch. I found it to be lighter and a good brain break, but I am not sure if there is any particular order to things. Is there another book related to Vetinari? Jeez, I guess I missed you guys with all the blathering on. I am always around lurking, but guess it has been too long. Dee ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: A Real Free Market in Health Care
(lost track of who wrote what) But if you repeal ALL government mandates, you'll wind up with lots of policies that appear to cover everything a consumer might want, but are actually full of loopholes so that the insurer need not pay for standard treatments. That seems the opposite of transparency. Comments? I don't see how your conclusion (2nd paragraph) follows from your stated assumptions. Are you making an unstated assumption that many consumers will purchase policies that are full of loopholes? If so, why would they? I think the assumption that consumers will purchase policies full of loopholes is a fair one. I see this every day in the world of physical therapy. Folks are offered 2-6 plans and don't look at the physical therapy benefit, the look at basic doctor visit/med copays as the most frequent cost basis and evaluate assuming much of the other plan will follow suit. It is not until folks need the other benefits that they find the loopholes, like visit maximums (most commonly something like 30 visits per year regardless of the type or number of problems- from catastrophic things like stroke or 2 knee surgeries, etc). I have heard in Florida that some plans have a 20 visit maximum per body part per lifetime. Some of the Medicare Advantage plans look attractive to folks since they have lower copays and contrary to 30 days of rehab under conventional Medicare and then paying more, the Advantage plans require copays of $150-200 per day for 30 days then picks up the tab. Most folks don't really want to read all the details or get presented with such a huge variety of things they don't know how to sort it all out. A standard set of options can be compared by consumers much easier. Since healthcare providers have to help folks live with the consequences of policies, we see how confusing it is to average people. My 2 cents only on this part of the dialog, Dee ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: DeLong on health insurance reform
Personally, I think that a system that places an emphasis on boner drugs, reformulation of proven drugs and anti-depressants that don't work is in need of an overhaul in and of itself. Being the healthcare provider I can share this without cringing, but it will make some of you sit up with a bit of squirming. Just to share one of those stats to keep us all humble- 40% of men over age 40 will have some dealing with impotence. From a basic human intimacy element- those commercials wouldn't be still playing without an audience. 5-10 years ago, my sweetheart got notice of melanoma and prostate cancer within 24 hours, recovery was challenging, even without messing with a man's brain on the topic of intimacy. When we think of health, mental health parity, prosthetic parity, etc. seem a tough set of standards to set and decide if we will pay for in commercial or public options, they say things about us as a society (although exactly what I am not always sure). Do we mandate breast reconstruction but not continence surgeries depending on need? Do we only cover basic starter prostheses after someone loses a leg? There are extremes that we might agree on like not paying for $80,000 computerized prosthesis, but where is the line? Sorry not more logical, there is lots to these topics and we really haven't been able to fully debate, figured I would get some rambling out of my head in one fell swoop, Dee ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: What's to read?
kananda...@aol.com wrote: One recent read question (blending threads)- finally tried my first Pratchett book- Night Watch. I found it to be lighter and a good brain break, but I am not sure if there is any particular order to things. Is there another book related to Vetinari? Many. Pratchett's Discworld series at this point has many threads that wind their way through the books. Vetinari is a something of a critical nexus of several of these threads, but most particularly the Watch books (one of the first being *Guards! Guards!* if you want to attempt a somewhat more chronological study). *Night Watch* in particular is sometimes frowned upon for the book being a bizarre nexus in and of itself within the Discworld time stream. (Mostly time progresses appropriately forward across the books, albeit rarely does it matter, but *Night Watch* manages to be both contemporary and a possible prequel, all the while teasing the reader with uncertainty principles.) Some Pratchett fans that particularly hate *Night Watch* would be amazed that you find *Night Watch* lighter reading, but perhaps you lucked out by skipping *Thief of Time*, first. You might find *Night Watch* to be a subtly different beast if you re-read it after *Thief of Time*. (Personally I'm a fan of *Thief of Time* and *Night Watch*.) However, you probably want to read a lot more Discworld books before you work your way back to *Thief of Time*... If you want particular recommendations from the vasty canon of Discworld, I heartily recommend the Moist von Lipwig books: *Going Postal* and *Making Money* (in chronological order). It's a good thread unto itself with some of his (in my opinion) sharpest satire and deepest insights. Also, another great sequence that stands alone well is the Discworld Young Adult novels: *The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents*, *The Wee Free Men*, *A Hat Full of Sky*, and *Wintersmith*. (That is if Young Adult doesn't scare you, which it shouldn't, because these books are equally awesome.) Then there is every other awesome book in Discworld. :) Ask enough Pratchett fans and you'll find a glowing recommendation for any and every book, for one reason or another. Apologies for the rant, hopefully it helps, -- --Max Battcher-- http://worldmaker.net ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
RE: What's to read?
There are lots of Terry Pratchett books with Vetenari in them, including Going Postal - utterly delightful, that one! I tried downloading some PDF files on the university's eReserve list and they came out dreadfully tiny - and the print-size changer did not work, Not on PDF. So I read the fool thing on my desktop. Sigh. Hardly worth the effort. (Someone being sententious abotu the function of Art.) http://idiotgrrl.livejournal.com/ From: kananda...@aol.com Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:34:56 -0400 Subject: Re: What's to read? To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Pat wrote: I have a Sony 505. The books on my reader are on my reader and on my desktop, not on my account on someone else's server. If anyone wants to delete them [think 1984] or whatever, they have to physically steal my reader and then delete the book. I own them outright. Nobody else has any rights in the copies I own except, in this state, if I had a legally married spouse. (Community property state). No one gonna take my 505 away Doug wrote- That's nice, but if I was a best selling author I think I'd be pretty reluctant to sell my book that way for fear that someone would make copies and give them away a la mp3 file sharing. And unlike musicians, authors aren't likely to make a lot of money on tour so once their book is being distributed for free, they're SOL. Other than the ownership factor, how do you like your reader so far? * Hi all, Since this thread has been around the block twice, I figured I would finally get around to chiming in. My Sony 500 is 3+ years old and going strong. I still feel a bit like Chekov on the bridge reading it :-) Since I have been rather behind on scifi reading compared to many of you, I have had fun with some of the bundles (finally read Red/Blue/Green Mars) and have been pleased with the addition over the past year of having an option of selecting from a list of award winner options that have been broadening my author pool a bit. My pleasure reading time still isn't the best, but I do refuse to put my professional journals on it (.pdf) just on principle. It has held up well to a wide variety of stressors including quite a few long hot days at the beach, etc. I had concerns about the battery, but it is also holding up well and holding for days/thousand plus page sessions. Seeing the newer version with the light on the side was cool, and it looks like now there is an easy right hand page turning function which this one doesn't offer. I know some of you pointed me to free download sites, but it has proven a bit more challenging with the older model. Just saw the new large size Kindle in the airport security line today and it looks like the black on white print technology is getting crisper (or it could be that I am needing to start wearing glasses- true sign of approaching crone-ism) and am starting to use the medium size print option :-) I did find Bank's Matter on my recent set of downloads (saving it for a particularly blah time, since it is always a good read). Some of the older things like the day the earth stood still and flowers of Aulit Prison were good to find as they are re releasing some of those stories. One recent read question (blending threads)- finally tried my first Pratchett book- Night Watch. I found it to be lighter and a good brain break, but I am not sure if there is any particular order to things. Is there another book related to Vetinari? Jeez, I guess I missed you guys with all the blathering on. I am always around lurking, but guess it has been too long. Dee ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
