Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 07:02:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Welcome to New York Pal.....  just ranting (long)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I30 between Ft Worth and Dallas was a toll road.

Don't even get me started on the toll road thing.  The Interstate
between OKC and Wichita has a toll section, and there's another near
Tulsa.

The "Interstate" part means those highways are paid for by joint
Federal and State funding.  They're also part of the US' military
defense system; when Eisenhower proposed the system he was mostly
concerned with troop movement, truck-based portable missiles, and so
forth.

The Interstate Highway System's funding comes from various places,
including income tax, fuel tax, and (in some states) vehicle taxes.  I
pay for the goddamned system all the time, and now some dickhead gets to
slap up some tollbooths on it?  WTF?  Or the city of Memphis can
arbitrarily block half of it off for "HOV lanes"?

My tension and anger level mounts steadily all the way to the
tollbooths, and I'm usually seeing red before I get there.  More than
once I've considered just driving through and making my way out the
other end at gunpoint.  Fucking leeches, it's *not* a private road - if
it has "Interstate" on it, it's a fucking *PUBLIC* road, paid for out of
tax money, and there shouldn't be any goddamned tollbooths on it.

Fucking dickheads.


Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 16:52:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Democracy was Re: What we like?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Was mention of being able to do what you want to do when you want to.
-> Which is a fine thing, if that's what you want.
-> Or the power of the options of what money can bring.
-> To me,  those are none issues.

My life is for play; I work just enough to get the minimum of stuff I
need to play with.  My play time is apparently significantly more
valuable to me than to most other people; I haven't held a real job in
many years.  Of course, it seems I'm borderline unemployable, so maybe
it's a wash.

If I had more money, I'd have more play stuff, and I'd be happier.
QED.

My happiness doesn't depend on other people.

- Dave "Have Tools, Will Fangle" Williams


Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 16:59:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: :Cue :C.A.T.
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> You make an interesting point Mike and one that I have wondered
-> about. Do you know why you are unaffected (or negatively affected) by
-> advertising?

I don't know about Mike, but I find the barking, flashing ads annoying
anyway, and I don't care how many times they run the ad, I'm not going
to buy a new Chevy truck or orange lip gloss.  After a while it's like
aversion training; no way in hell will I purchase their product, even if
it's the best deal or is an inconvenience for me not to do so.


Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 18:02:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: :Cue :C.A.T.
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> There was a documentry about breasts last night and one of the things
-> talked about was using breasts to sell the most non related items,
-> one guy sumed it up great. "Car what, car I wasn't looking at the
-> car, what do you mean it was a truck" =-)

I saw a commercial on AB's TV a year or so ago.  It was one of those
really long ones, MTV-style with weirdly-angled cuts of kewl doodz and
their bitchez just sort of hanging around.  Then it ended.

I stood there and realized I had watched the whole thing, and I had no
idea what they were trying to sell.

I thought it might be an enculturation issue - I quit watching the toob
a long time ago, back in the days before they dribbled the camera like a
basketball.  So I asked AB what the commercial was selling.  She didn't
know.

Hm.

Of course, last time I picked up an issue of PC magazine, I couldn't
figure out what half of the ads were trying to sell me, and read through
one complete feature article on a software package that did, as far as I
could tell, absolutely nothing, except they kept talking about how it
was "easy to use" because it ran under Windows.  3.1 back then.


Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 06:08:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: :Cue :C.A.T.
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Because you have a shred of intelligence?

I sometimes wonder if advertising is anywhere near as successful as the
vendors think.  Though it bugs the shit out of me, most people tune it
right out and don't even *see* it.

Think about it... the primary purpose of advertising is to make money
for the media provider; the vendor takes its usefulness on faith.


Has anyone else noticed the trend in advertising in the computer
weeklies?  Screaming bug-eyed babies, weirdly-morphed faces, changing
fonts with each letter... the bug eyes and morphs make me queasy; I flip
the page instantly.  My eye slides right over the Macintosh-multi-font
ads; it's too much trouble to decrypt the crap.

There's a *lot* of this stuff now.


Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 12:01:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Dateline, Dateline NBC
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> No, they are just infomercials for the news conglomerates that own
-> them.

Arkansas has about a dozen murders a year.  It's still rare enough to
be news.  When I was visiting a friend in DC I was surprised to see the
news just reported the total number of murders per day; after some point
it's not news, just a statistic.


Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 12:58:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us
Subject: Re: [locost] Progress
To: locost@egroups.com

My wife tells me that when I'm welding with the shop door open she can
see the light from the arc reflecting on the houses across the street.
I don't know why, but I think that's pretty neat.

- Dave "glue things together with lightning" Williams


Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 13:02:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: CO2 and nitrogen characteristics
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> look into He,  has some strange properties.   Be careful with Navy
-> radar, I remember the way my brother looked when giving a Nimitz
-> tour, rather cautious

A friend of mine was stationed at an Air Force site in Turkey for a
while.  They had huge radar dishes which pointed more or less through
the enlisted barracks.  The official base policy was that the radar was
harmless, but each morning someone had to pick up all the dead birds
from in front of the dish.  And in the barracks, nothing electronic
would function unless it was in a wire mesh Faraday cage.


Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 12:48:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Dateline, Dateline NBC
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> call the vehicle "The Surly Beast". My mother put shorty glasspacks
-> on it when it was new that turn out in front of the rear wheels and
-> oversized steel wheels and tires. The pipe is at elbow level with a
-> BMW driver and

Yeah, Thunder has a high compression Olds 330, 2.5" pipe, 15 year old
(hollow, that is) shorty glasspacks, and both pipes exit under the
passenger side step.  Z1 and Miata drivers roll the window up if they're
stopped in the right lane, and I can set off car alarms just by driving
by a parking lot.

It's not loud at all inside the cab, but when AB drives it I can feel
the floor shake in the house when she fires it up.

- Dave "God of Thunder, and rock and roll..." Williams


Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 12:22:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: "Zoom Zoom"
To: fordnatics@lists.best.com

-> If you lived further north, mother Nature, and the DOT salt trucks,
-> would have it slipping from your cold fingers - in a cloud of
-> corroded dust.

There's not much chance of my ever living north of the Mason-Dixon
Line.  Yankees talk funny and have bad manners.


Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 03:17:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Advertising
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> umm..this must have wasted lot of paper !!

Doesn't matter to them, they're in the paper business.

Most writers get paid an advance, usually $1000-$2000ish, and get about
10% royalties on the double-throwdown-super-discount-good-buddy price of
their books, which is about 1/3 of cover price.  An "advance" is like an
advance on sales; if they don't sell many copies of your book (and
*they* keep all the records...) the author gets dinged for their "lost
profits" by having the cover price of all the unsold books deducted from
his advance payments.  The way some of the contracts are written, you
could wind up owing the publisher money.

Nice, eh?

Oh, and for most books, shelf life is two to four weeks.  After that,
Daltonbooks or whatever rip the covers off, mail them back to the
publisher, and the unsold books go into the dumpster.

Cute, eh?

Typical contracts also let the publisher keep *all* income from foreign
rights, reprints, and so forth; it's a cute little racket.

There are good reasons why most of the stuff in the stores is crap.


Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 03:35:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Advertising
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Was this the story series with a huge Human space-hermit/merchant
-> that had catlings on board?

Nah, that was "Tuf Voyaging" by... ah... dang, I can't remember the
name.  I hate it when that happens.


-> I have purchased, or received as gifts, literaly hundreds of
-> Asimov's, Analog, and those other small monthlies, but it's been a
-> while.

There was a small bookstore that sold that sort of thing back when I
was in high school, but otherwise the only ones I've seen have been in
flea markets or some used book stores.

The local magazine racks have an interesting assortment of stuff.  All
of them are stocked by "ANCO Distributing", which delivers in Ford vans.
Probably 75% of the selection is bodybuilder and media magazines.  I
would never have guessed there were so many of the damned things.  Then
a bunch of "Ladies Home Journal" and computer gaming/internet magazines.
Lots of hunting and gun magazines.  Lots of lowrider magazines.  A bare
handful of other car or non-Harley motorcycle magazines.  No Popular
Electronics, no homebuilt aircraft stuff, no metalworking, nothing but
crap.  Most of it probably goes to the dumpster when the ANCO guy
delivers the newest load of crap.

ANCO seems to have an absolute hammerlock on magazine distribution in
central Arkansas; I haven't found any place that *doesn't* have their
racks stocked by them.


Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 09:07:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Guilt
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Noble as it sounds, how do you jump start nothing?.
-> The thugs that ran the place are still there, and the locals permit
-> it. Erase the thugs, **start the economy**, leave, the thugs degrease
-> the weapons and again rule

A lesson many Presidents and State Department drones have failed to
learn.


-> weapons, and again rule.  Their *culture* is just that way for now,
-> you can't make it evolve overnight, reguardless of how much money you
-> throw at them.

To be brutally honest, what we've seen from the US lately appears to
have been more of a series of pathetic attempts by an incompetent
President to get some media rating than any honest attempt to interfere
with the running of foreign countries.  Dollar Billy can't ever seem to
forget how Uncle George's ratings went through the roof when that cool
"Desert Storm" show was on the air.

Getting a bunch of US troops whacked in third world shitholes doesn't
seem to enthuse the proletariat much, though.


-> For me, lets just be honest and say, they need to work out there
-> problems.

And as they'll proudly tell you, their country has been around a whole
hell of a lot longer than the United States.  Seems that if they didn't
like how their pestilential little place was run they'd've already fixed
things.  *We* did...


-> Lets work on straightning out some domestic stuff first.

The sumbitch was impeached, but he's still in the Oval Office...


-> The folks in Nam wanted to grow rice, and make babies, they were
-> tired of the eons of fighting, and just didn't care who won (in many
-> regions).

Exactly.  Who ran the show in Saigon or wherever would mean exactly
*zero* to the average fellahin in the villages, who would continue to
live as his ancestors had since the beginning of history.  Adam Smith
and Karl Marx don't mean shit to someone whose interest stops at the
border of his village.


Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 17:22:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Guilt
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> God was a pretty good motivator in taming the Americas 400 years ago.
-> They (the church) never did get control of Africa the same way they
-> succeeded in South America for instance.

Most of Central and South America were incredibly rigidly controlled by
classical stratified diktats.  Even after they figured out who the
conquistadores *really* were, all it took was for the Spaniards to take
out the top guy and the whole system collapsed.

North America was much more primitive, a collection of hunter-gatherer
societies living at or below the Neanderthal level.  For the first few
hundred years the indigenes simply moved away from their obnoxious new
neighbors.  Then they ran out of room, but there wasn't enough common
ground for them to form a stable power bloc to oppose the Euros, so they
went down one by one.

The Church got a hammerlock on South and Central America, but they
never made much headway in North America.  The Catholic Church was
developed to deal with the serf society of the late Roman Empire and
feudal Europe; it grafted onto the conquered lands fairly easily.  The
serf mentality wasn't near as common in North America, so there was less
appeal for "you'll get yours later" ideas.


Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 21:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Advertising
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I think Steven King may be tossing a wrench into that whole scam.
-> Seen what he's doing with "Ride the Bullett"?

The general rule is, 10% of the writers get 90% of the money.  Guess
which percentage King is in?  And to top it off, he's barely a mediocre
writer.  But the proles will buy into anything that's heavily promoted,
which makes him a success, which makes them promote him harder, etc.


Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 10:36:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: "The 350 engine Chevrolet SHOULD have built"
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Hail, steel, as a carbon-bearing alloy, _is_ organic!

"Shhh!  We don't want to give the organic chemists a myocardial
infarctions..."


"Hey, can I heat-treat this chunk of cow?"  "Sure, you want barbecue
sauce with that?"


Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 17:34:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Continuing to develop my fangling skills...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> PS--if metal in your eye rusts and leaves flakes, they have to use a
-> "burr" to remove the bits and pieces. The local anestetic is fine
-> while you're looking at the guy with the burr, but when you get home
-> and the feeling returns you get to re-evaluate your stupidity.

I had an MRI done a few years ago.  The tech asked if I'd ever had any
metal embedded in an eye.  According to him, the magnets can grab
metallic bits and puree your eyeball.


Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 17:53:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: QUOTE OF THE DAY
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> while Gore talk about shuting down the internet,the QC's govt
-> approved (true story) a program which they pay $500 on a new computer
-> as well as internet access for 2 years (maximum $25 per month) to
-> *anyone* who have kids.
-> Alain "don't know what to think of that" Toussaint

Sure.  More lusers sucking up the bandwidth going to porno and pirate
MP3 sites...

Mike O'Brien's column in Sun Times made a very valid point some years
ago.  There's a largish group of people who never will be able to make
effective use of the net... because America has a large and growing
population of functional illiterates.  Which is probably why the
shopping channel sites are pushing so hard for sound; it's hard to sell
stuff to people who can't read.


Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 08:35:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: spam
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >  Just what I needed.  Portuguese spam.

-> That would be linguisa if I'm not mistaken.  A very tasty sausage -
-> don't ask what's in it...

Any type of sausage looks pretty good once you check out the fine print
those "potted meat" cans.

You'd probably be better off opening a can of Alpo.


Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 10:18:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: QUOTE OF THE DAY
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> When I see those 'communicating' losers gesturing their arms for a
-> telephone call, that's enough for me!

Uh... I do that, but I've always been accused of talking with my hands
anyway.  Seems to startle some people when they meet me in person.


-> Me, well, I'm the real freak!
-> Do you know, I can walk without swinging my arms - and I prefer to!

Same here.  Probably got the trick during the years I carried a
briefcase.  Of course, after getting mangled by a DWI, it takes most of
my attention to walk without looking like the star in an old
Frankenstein movie...



Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 18:30:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: spam
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Actually, I had a hard time convincing the waitress in Glasgow that I
-> REALLY wanted to try haggis.  It's not as bad as it sounds -- very
-> nearly, but not quite.

I expect it would taste something like chitlins...  it wasn't the taste
so much as the texture...



Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 09:31:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: msie question
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Oh, you guys, the whole 'bookmark' thing is a Net-S-Cape metaphor;
-> the only question is, a metaphor for _what_?
->
-> Yes, it is understood, but you'll need to search for "favorites"
-> (yes, it's commecrcial, so the bastages capitalzed it!);  if you are

The original metaphor for the Web was "hypertext book."  "Bookmark"
made perfect sense.  Still does.

Microsnot's "Favorites" has been the subject of my derision for years.
Just because I mark something so I can go back there doesn't mean it's a
"favorite" of mine.  Dickheads.  Reminds me of '1984'.


-> The OS, and every next program, 'thinks' that _it_ has control of my
-> computer;  well, _I_ hold the IEC cable in my hand!;  _I_

"Here's a nickel, kid, get yourself a real operating system."

WinTop has been fairly useful for monitoring goings-on behind my back,
but it has some drawbacks and deficiencies compared to the Unix top
programs.  I smurfed the web for about an hour and failed to come up
with a replacement, which surprised me.



Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 19:33:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Canada govt spend 4 BILLIONS on internet access
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> will be in marketing (i.e. convince everyone that we can't live
-> without internet).

Edutainment, infomercials, government propaganda, "fill out your taxes
and vehicle registration online", and paid advertising.  All bilingual,
of course.

They'll link all of Canada in a big high speed web, which *they* will
control, shit on anything they don't like, and connect that web to the
rest of the world via one antique 14.4 in a wiring closet in Saskatoon.
Any time they see alien packets hitting the network they'll shut the
unauthorized links down.  Meanwhile, Ma and Pa Canuck will stay within
allowed smurfing limits, as it'll be too miserably slow to access
anything the government doesn't want them to see.

Pretty much what Al Gore envisions for the "Information Superhighway."



Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 16:41:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Russian Migs
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> To my knowledge, someplace in what was the USSR, has the largest (by
-> far) concentration of Ti.  This is one reason for the huge cost of
-> this material.

The Soviets could do it cheaper - with centralized planning and State
ownership of all capital, they cut out all the middlemen.  Plus they
could dedicate whole nuclear power plants to the job of processing the
ores.

Bauxite, for example, is almost literally as common as dirt.  But to
process it into aluminum requires shitloads of electricity, and Reddy
Kilowatt isn't doing so well any more.  If the EcoNazis have their way
the USA will never have inexpensive electricity again.  I expect to see
imports of cheap Russian aluminum sometime in the near future; it'd be
more useful and more profitable than titanium.



Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 21:29:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Russian Migs
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Everyone's been banking on all that cheap BC hydro power, but there's
-> only so much of it and when everyone wants it, it doesn't stay cheap.

Sure.  Let the Canucks supply the juice... and when they decide to
switch it off so they can use it themselves (the Canadian economy *does*
grow, slowly...) the US politicos will be sitting in the dark trying to
find a way to avoid responsibility.


-> Apparently it never occurred to anyone that those colocation
-> facilities filled with hundreds of thousands of spinning hard disks,
-> blinking routers, a few dozen big Liebert AC units, etc. need power
-> to run them.

On a smaller level, even *new* buildings seem to ignore the needs of
modern electronic offices.  Yeah, the cable runs are bigger... but they
still don't install enough air conditioning, and since modern windows
don't open, your fancy office turns into a sweatbox in the summer.



Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 13:16:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Russian Migs
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Next you'll withdraw your endorsement of the world economy idea. LOL
-> Bruce

Back when I didn't know any better I thought a world government was a
good idea.  Now I know different.  The key was when someone said, "But
what if you don't like that government?  Where would you go then?"

I don't know about you, but even the faintest possibility of a World
Soviet, Islamic Earth, or Cambodian Year Zero worldwide is enough to
make me an absolute objector to the very concept of a world government.

Cooperation, interlocking economies, great.  But give me that good
old-time bureaucratic/national confusion, thank you...



Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 13:46:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Russian Migs
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> generation business and proceeded to start selling off their power
-> plants, they actually dismantled some of the older ones (late
-> '40s-early '50s) and shipped them to China.

Makes perfect sense to the Harvard Business School types.  Like oil,
RAM chips, or milk, electricity fits the HBS "supply and demand"
concept.  As in "if supplies are large, throttle them back and drive the
price up; one $2 sale is better than three $1 sales any time."


A lot of the engineering stuff I've been readily lately is slanted
toward small generating plants using steam or Diesel generators.  Heavy
oil Diesels aren't commodity items, nor are the generators, but if you
can amortize the investment out over 20 years or so the numbers start to
look really nice for even a very small town to have its own power plant.
Hell, Henry Ford's mansion did, as did some of the DuPont places, and
some factories still make their own electricity.  It *might* even be
cost-effective for large apartment buildings and condos.

The price of all the equipment has gone up, of course, but the
utilities have raised their prices even faster on the average.  I'm sure
there are really some places where you could buy some of that 1.5 to 3
cent per kilowatt "electric car" juice, but it's 18.5 cents at the wall
socket here.

Reddy Kilowatt has you by the balls...

For a self-contained residential power unit you don't really need that
much electricity as electricity; for most people the bulk of their
electric/gas/oil use is cooling and heating.  A properly-designed
generator would power the heat pump directly and use its own waste heat
for space and water heating, for example.



Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 13:34:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: fanglers-digest V1 #1583
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Sanjay Engineer in the next office with four development machines and
-> three monitors...and they share a thermostat...

...and a hub, a router, a Mr. Coffee, a scanner, a modem, six wall-wart
power supplies for various paraphernalia, and two printers.  Like my old
cubicle, except for the Mr. Coffee.



Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 17:58:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: 351 powered Lada
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Wouldn't mind having one of those, along with a Series II Iso Grifo,
-> the later '71 to '74 models being Cleveland-powered.

Iso made some neat stuff, but some of the Italian nomenclature should
have been changed when they sold them here.  The "Rivolta" wasn't a bad
car, but the name probably sent a number of people into paroxysms of
laughter.  And when they found out it was designed by a guy named
Bizzarini...



Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 19:56:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Stupud a$$ ideas
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Cram as many folks as possible into as small of area as possible,
-> make em run around like caged mice.  Talk about sheeople.

...and people wonder why I refuse to fly.  Add massive cost-cutting
measures (get rid of the mechanics...) and insanity like the Airbus with
its flight computer being able to override the pilot...

Not to mention every airport I've ever been to sucks, and I have to do
the metal detector fandango (any moron could build a bomb that'd make it
through there), and and general bullshit of it all.

Anywhere in North America, I'll drive.



Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 10:01:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: WUZ Re: OK Mike...I hate EBAY too!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I had this problem from using the PC heavily at work.  I worked on
-> keyboard and mouse placement which helped tremendously.  I put the
-> keyboard/mouse close to my lap so my arms sit low and elbows at right
-> angles and wrists straight.

I can't type like that.  I have a low chair, high desk, and my elbows
and forearms are on the desk.  The keyboard sits about 18" from the
edge.  The monitor has the swivel base and feet removed to make it as
low as possible; some internal rearrangement and carving the case could
put the tube down on the desk where it *needs* to be, but I'm too lazy.

This setup has worked well for 15 years, much of it at 10 or more hours
a day at the keyboard.  The problem seems to be what my physician is
calling "inflammation", which he says is *not* arthritis, but from the
symptomatic point of view there doesn't seem to be much difference.  My
knees and ankles suffer about as much as my wrists.  I've been doing the
musical meds thing the past few months.  It seems that anything the HMO
will pay for doesn't work, and the few that *do* work, they want a 100%
co-pay surcharge for.  Bastards.  Why do I need a doctor if some fucking
clerk is going to decide what meds I need?

The DIN standard is close to the one OSHA wants - keyboard in your lap,
monitor at head height, so you pray to the Monitor Gods.  I don't know
how they came up with that, but they're so full of shit they squelch.
There were some reasons for the lowered keyboard back in the days of
manual typewriters, but you don't need ten pounds of striking force to
push a rubber-dome keyboard switch...  and the "typist" school of
ergonomics figures you're typing or transcribing all the time.
Programmers and writers bang the keyboard maniacally for short periods
of time, then stare off into space or flip through the documentation the
rest of time.  The things you do with a computer keyboard are much more
varied than what you do with a typewriter keyboard.


-> 3. Hold arms at side and extend forarms forward.  Rotate arm
-> tortionally.

The medical term is "pronation", which for some reason makes me laugh.
As far as I know only primates pronate; it was probably very handy for
brachiators.  Makes it handy for turning doorknobs too.



Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 11:22:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: apropos of nothing
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

I just noticed an ad in a 1967 Cycle World, for a Kawasaki Samurai 250
from "Kawasaki Aircraft Co., Ltd.", with "Main Office: Tokyo, Japan."

The first bike I had was a brand new 1972 Kawasaki S-2 250, but it was
from "Kawasaki Heavy Industries", and if I remember right Kawasaki
doesn't list their main offices as being in Tokyo any more.



Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 06:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: CD player
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> (I would/could take rap not at all - never - even if it meant
-> committing felonies to escape!)

My brain doesn't make any connection between "rap" and "music".  It's
just random noise.  The cawntrih stuff is what draaaaahves may nuuuutz.
My wife unaccountably gets embarrassed when they switch the Muzak to CW
when we're eating out.  I can't help it; sometimes the wailing makes me
do my "howl like a dog" routine.  Hardly anyone pays any attention.
They probably think I'm singing along with the noise.

Did you ever notice the correlation between quality and noise?  Cheap
eating places have Muzak, jukeboxes, televisions, or all of the above,
often simultaneously.  Expensive places, you can eat in peace without
having to shout at the waiter.



Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 06:45:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: "I can see clearly now..."
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

My Paper Reduction Act has cleaned out all the car and motorcycle
magazines.  I'm still working on the machine and system admin
magazines, and have started on the programming stuff just for variety.
Dr. Dobbs, from back when they were "The Journal of Computer
Calisthenics and Orthodontia - Running Light Without Overbyte";
Programmer's Journal, PC Techniques, Computer Language back when they
were a real magazine.  It's been a long time since I've looked through
any of them; most of them got glanced at when they came in, a few
articles got read, and they went into one of the shelves.

Computer Time moves pretty fast, but this trip on the Wayback Machine
is amazing in many ways.  Sure, the editorials are a hoot and the ads
can be interesting, but most of these magazines are from the days before
I made the jump from hobbyist to being a paid programmer.  Everything
was so... simple... then.  Validating keyboard input.  Memory
management.  Sorting.  Database design, from back in the days of
fixed-size records.  Do-it-yourself windowing.  Even though the articles
cover machines and operating that no longer exist and languages I never
learned, almost everything is crystal clear compared to the intricacies
of Visual anything and the unholy mess of the multiple Windows APIs.  Or
undocumented spaghetti code in C under gcc and Linux, for that matter.
RISC vs. CISC?  CISC won.  All hail the x86 and 68K.  Should you make
your programs networkable or multi-user?  Nobody even thinks about that
any more.  Writing your own profiling tools to optimize your code?
Nobody things about that any more, either.  Unfortunately.

Wow.  With that I know now, I could have been a major code jock back in
the '80s.  Everything was so *simple* back then...



Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 08:56:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Anyone, who wants to insist that no one can ever have an abortion,
-> put your mon where your mouth is.  Adopt a beautiful newborn that you
-> forced someone to have

Ah, yes.  My mother used to do foster care for the state.  Adoption
Services has all the defective mulatto crack babies with brain damage or
cleft palates that get abandoned in parked cars or trash cans.  They're
cared for with your tax dollars.  Most of them will be on some sort of
state assistance all their lives.  And there are *lots* of them.



Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 09:14:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The ideal of "I am willing to take someone elses life for my beliefs"

The Crusades, the Inquisition, the conversion of the Scandinavion
countries, Salem, that nasty little squabble between Iran and Iraq a few
years ago...

The concept seems to be firmly embedded in the Christian and Islamic
religions.


One essential problem with taking a stance based on morality or
religion is recognizing the skeletons in your own closet.



Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 09:23:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> There are hundreds of thousands of people out there wanting to adopt

True, as far as it goes.

The vast majority of couples wanting to adopt are white, middle to
upper class.  The vast majority of available children are black,
mulatto, or Hispanic.

Yes, this is a racial issue.  The white couples want a white kid, a
desire I fully sympathize with.  Most non-white couples already have all
the kids they want.  Nobody wants the defectives.

The gross mismatch between potential adoptors and adoptees has created
an interesting little gray market in children.  I once knew a girl who
made a living by popping one out every year to year and a half.  Not
only did she get on all the state and county programs for "unwed
mothers", she was also able to sell the kid for $5K on up; just sign the
adoption papers and cash the check.  It's more common than you'd think.

Now, the mental abberation that would make someone *want* a child, and
want one bad enough to actually pay money for one, is so bizarre that
those people are less understandable to me than Charles Manson or Jeff
Dahmer.



Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 09:48:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Brazing brass rod...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Going to be brazing a lot of 360 alloy brass rod (1/8" dia,) soon

Making some sculpture?



"I submitted a sculpture
for a government grant
it was riqsue and ultra-nouveau.
A Mapplethorpe shock-value visual rant
it was fit for the best East-coast show.

But I lost to a carving
of a woman feeding duckies
by a doggy with big floppy ears.
In the letter they sent me
they said I was lucky
to be among that sculptor's peers...

O, Lord don't you know I'm too modest to brag
but my art always has a new slant.
Don't you know I'll chisel the penis
off this sculpture if you'll give me a grant!"

- Greg Keeler, "Waddell's Grant Song"



Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 11:08:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Sheesh - I never intended to start a fracas with this thread.  I was
-> only suggesting that the product's name was a poor choice on the part
-> of the manufacturer.

Starting a thread on fangle reminds me of that old cartoon about the
moose who kept trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat.  Most of the time
he got a lion instead.

"Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!"  "ROAAAARRR!"



Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2000 20:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Fw:
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I like what little of George Carlin's material thatI have heard.
-> Same as me, george's favorite word is "fuck".

Carlin's early stuff was funny without having to resort to cheap
tactics like profanity.  Take a listen to "AM and FM" sometime, then
compare it to, say, Richard Pryor's "Bicentennial Nigger" of the same
timeframe.

Nowadays profanity is like punctuation, mostly ignored.  Back then it
was shocking enough that people would laugh because they were
embarrassed.



Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 07:21:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: How to write a letter & semper fi!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Lincoln called it "a People's contest...a struggle for maintaining in
-> the world,
-> that form and substance of government, whose leading object is to
-> elevate the condition of men..."

The Federal Government's leading object was to collect taxes, which was
the very thing that split the Colonies from England in the first place,
and the direct cause of the US Civil War.

Lincoln was a complete incompetent as a leader, but he was one hell of
a spin doctor, as were his apologists.  About the only thing you can see
about Lincoln was that he makes Klinton look good, and it's a damned
good thing he was assassinated, or we might have got him for another
term or two.

There are lots of kissy-poo books about Honest Abe out there; read
between the lines and you'll see even the sanitized histories include
enough to make your stomach turn.


-> The eleven state Confederacy had a population of 9 million, including
-> nearly 4 million slaves. The Union had 21 states and a population of
-> over 20 million. Not much of a contest really, just a necessary waste
-> of human life.

The Confederacy expected a political victory; none of the leaders
expected they could win a long war.  There are many interesting
similarities between the Civil War and the Pacific theater of WWII.


-> Dave, just think how many engine blocks you could get machined in one
-> day with four or five niggers under your whip?

I'd probably just break even; I've heard they were even lazier than I
am.  For work you'd need Irishmen.  Slaves in the Confederacy were
valuable property and there were various laws protecting them.  Not
"human rights" as you'd recognize them; more like the SPCA nowadays.
They had to be fed, clothed, and maintained to various minimal degrees,
and unlike a cat, a slave could talk.

In the North were the Irish, among other immigrant groups.  Slaves took
money to support, even when they weren't working.  You could work an
Irishman half to death for a few cents and kick him out of the building
when you were done; he'd come wandering back in the morning all by
himself.  Among the poorer level of the immigrant population
malnutrition or outright starvation wasn't all that uncommon.  There
were no Welfare programs in those days.  Down in the Confederacy a slave
cost money; you wouldn't starve one any more than you'd starve your
horse or your cow, and for the same reason.

The immigrant population gave the North a vast pool of almost-free
labor, and these were the people who formed a big chunk of the Union
Army.  Down in the South the soldiers came from the main working
population, which wound up hurting the war effort.

In today's homogenized America it's difficult to see that there were
very substantial cultural differences between the North and South.
Though parts of the South had been claimed by Spain and France, there
had only been one real government and only one real culture - that of
England.  An Englishman from Raleigh, North Carolina, was little
different than an Englishman from Plymouth, England.  Up North, things
were a bit different - a huge chunk of the population was German or
Dutch, for example.  The Northerners were a polyglot to start with;
the South was... English.


The Civil War isn't one of my favorite eras of history, but it's
fascinating because almost everything you read is either dramatically
slanted or outright false; what I was taught about it in school and much
of what I've encountered later had no more relation to 'history' than
what Soviet schoolchildren learned about the overthrow of the Tsar.



Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 16:13:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Next....
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The website is fairly useful. This was the first time I used it--
-> Webster's Collegiate grew legs and walked out of my office.

Many years ago I splurged and bought a *large* dictionary - American
something-or-other, about eight inches thick 8-1/2x11.  I thought I had
it made, but it turned out to be crap.  The four or five times I
couldn't figure a word out by context I turned to the dictionary... and
it wasn't there.  Most of it is filled with specialized biology and
medical Latin, which isn't English, as it's used by all European and
many non-European languages, and they apparently bulked it out more by
including Old French and Old English.

The scholastic dictionaries we had to use in school were also poor;
their subset was mostly wasted on "and" and "five" and simple words that
even first-graders should be expected to know already, so when you
turned to the dictionary to look up a strange word, it was seldom there.

After a certain level of disappointment, you just say "fuck it" and
quit wasting time.



Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 17:16:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Liability Insurance and the Engineer
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> conform to safety standards."  The fact that they had sold that
-> particular press in 1907 cut no ice with the court.
...
- This does show a problem in our society, no?

Yes.  The Judicial Branch is out of control.  To be absolutely fair the
"rule of law" was still a fairly new thing in the 1700s and the American
system was one of the better ones at the time.  However, it has many
weaknesses which are heavily exploited by the unscrupulous.

The major problem is double-edged - the system makes each and every
judge, from a Supreme Court Justice to an elected traffic-court judge, a
de jure little tin god in his own courtroom.  This was done to make it
difficult to use various tactics (bribery, etc) to influence the court.
On the other claw, it relieves the judge of responsibility for his
actions.  A judge can do any damned thing he wants, and the worst he has
to face is having a higher court overrule his decision, and due to the
good-old-boy network (and cost for the defendant) that doesn't happen
often.

If all judges were honest, interested, informed, and competent, it
wouldn't be a big deal.  Unfortunately, far too many judges seem to be
complete blithering morons with their own axes to grind.

If you've never been to court, drop in and watch for a few hours.  Most
criminal courts run during the day, which means you'd probably have to
take off early or take an extended lunch if you can't steal a couple of
hours, but it can be very instructive.  I was frankly terrified by what
I saw when I was called as a witness once - in that two hours, I learned
that "justice", at least at the local county level, looked a lot more
like Night Court than Perry Mason.  Most of the time the judge would cut
the defense attorney off after a dozen words and pass sentence on the
spot.  Bang!  Next!  Yee-OW!  Other times I've been in court were no
better.

Here in Pulaski County, at least, there's no requirement for an elected
judge to have a law degree.  More than once I've been tempted to see how
much it would cost to file to run for one of the court seats.  Hell,
Hunter S. Thompson got elected as sheriff once...



Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 17:18:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: engine
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> You certainly run with an interesting crowd, LOL

Life's too short to waste it schmoozing with *ordinary* dumbasses.




Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 17:46:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

->  I don't wanna grow up I don't wanna grow up
-> 

The gray hairs are just camouflage; I have no intention of growing up.

I decided that when I was a kid.  Grown-ups were all sour-faces who
never had any fun.


-> friend. I've enjoyed every visit we've ever had. Come on by and shake
-> me up again sometime.

I drove by within a few miles of your house on Monday.  Yesterday, I
made a 23-hour banzai dash to Salina, Kansas.  Salina's claim to fame is
that it is the geographic center of nowhere.  Hell, it doesn't even have
*traffic*...  I kept wondering if we'd missed the air raid sirens or
something.

The fast-moving life of the geeky and self-unemployed, you know.



Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 20:25:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I also approve of the death sentence and euthanasia.... we put sick
-> animals out of their misery but sick people.....no sir!
-> Those fuckers can writhe around in agony!

The USA's healthcare industry is carefully tuned to extract every last
cent of medical insurance money, personal funds, and whatever it can tap
from the family, the states, charities, and anything else.  As long as
the money keeps on coming they'll keep the body breathing somehow.  When
the money runs out they pull the plug.

It works just like a giant sleazy auto repair shop.



Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 19:42:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: abortion pill, ova
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Yeah, I understand why.. I meant.. Ovum, not ovary. The ovaries
-> pretty much stay where they start out.

There's actually a condition women can get that's similar to a male
hernia; one or both ovaries descend below their normal station near the
uterus.  Among other things, it makes sex extremely painful.  My wife
had the problem; I took her to the gynecologist and had her spayed.


-> > was from an article in Cosmo wasn't it? About 4 or 5 years

> I don't get much past the cover. In fact, I was standing in line at

I'm still bemused that Cosmo covers have finally begun featuring models
that have breasts.  For many years Cosmo cover models were so flat
chested they looked prepubescent.  Perhaps they were all kidnapped by
the Elvis-impersonator saucer people featured in the adjacent
magazines...




Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2000 08:13:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Religion RE: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> History has been rewritten so many times, I tend to doubt how
-> accurate the reporting of events are.

Hell, you should try Eisenhower's account of how he personally won
WWII.  He wrote it in 1948.  It reads like something from an alternate
universe.  And even in his own account, Eisenhower was a prissy little
bastard.

Now I understand why Nixon got along with him so well when he was VP;
anyone else probably would have resigned.



Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2000 08:34:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Religion RE: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Well, it was widely reported, that the world was flat, and that has
-> been since the crusades....

Don't ever get into an argument with a Flat Earth advocate unless you
have all your ducks in a row.  They make the Jesuits look sloppy when it
comes to chopping logic.

- Dave "not an existentialist, just an experimentalist" Williams



Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2000 08:56:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Religion RE: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> problem in the disputed terratory in Israel.  India and Pakistan have
-> fought before (Hindu against Musilm) and re aready to Nuke each other
-> now that they both have the capability.

Do they have oil?  Maybe it's time for them to feel the iron boot of
the Empire again...  Britain would only be intervening for their own
good, besides they don't need oil anyway.



Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2000 08:52:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: [Fordnatics] Yoda comment
To: fordnatics@mustangworks.com

> "Do or do not - there is no 'try'" - Yoda


I see that one a lot.  Think about it for a moment.  It translates to,
"If there's even the slightest chance of failure, don't even try."

Hiding out in a swamp while Obe-Wan and Luke did all the work didn't
look so good either.  And that swamp didn't exactly look like a
high-rent district; I'd expect a hot-snot Jedi Master could do a little
better than that.  Of course, that defeatist philosophy probably
hampered things a bit.

- Dave "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good
blaster at your side, kid." Williams



Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 08:32:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Debates
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> This is why democary is wrong and has become marketing issue. A large
-> amount of people can't even look after their own money yet they get
-> to vote on who is going to control the control the countries purse
-> strings.......

There were good reasons why the USA was created with voting rights
limited to a smallish segment of the population.

Early America limited voting to free (as in not indentured; slavery
was fairly rare then), male landowners for the most part.  Basically,
the people who had a stake in the status quo; what the communists call
the "bourgeoisie".  You can be sure they had the example of the Roman
Republic turning itself into a Welfare state in mind.


One peculiarity of the modern vote-by-popularity system is "the
issues."  The proles are supposed to vote on "the issues", but for the
most part the candidates don't seem to have a clear grasp of (or perhaps
a clear stand on) "the issues" either.  Hm.  In which case, they truly
would be representing their electorate...



Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 08:44:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Debates
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Look at the western world for many examples of that. Someone has a
-> good idea, it goes to the committee, the committe always manages to
-> remove the good parts and add in a lot of shit.....everything here at
-> work is done by committee.........

...which is essentially why the Soviet Union finally imploded.  Yes,
the Cold War had a lot to do with it, but the key factor was the weight
of their own bureaucracy.  "Soviet" can be translated as "Committee";
*everything* in the USSR was managed by committee - usually more than
one committee, usually with overlapping and not-quite-congruent goals.

Austria in the 1800s was the center of the "Dual Monarchy"; the remains
of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, which could trace its roots back to
the days of Frederick Barbarossa.  If you think Canadian bilingualism is
a bunch of crap, you'd really get a charge out of the Dual Monarchy.  It
was wealthy, populous, and potentially powerful; it was so hamstrung by
its own complexity that it simply disintegrated in the political stress
of the beginning of WWI.



Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 10:57:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Religion RE: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> write the military at Pearl Harbor?" I've always wondered, why were
-> the carriers missing that day.. all of them? Hmmm. And the rest of
-> it. The broken Japanese codes.. blah blah blah. Focus returns.

I've done some reading about Pearl as part of my interest in WWII.
It's a beautiful source for conspiracy theories.  In fact, a whole lot
of people thought so even at the time, and immediately after the war
there was a major Congressional investigation.  The investigation's
findings were:

1) compartmentalization of information
2) failure of intelligence services to work with each other as ordered
3) standing orders inappropriate for circumstances
4) failure to generate proper contingency plans
5) turf wars among the Navy, Army, and State Department
6) way too many people eaten up with the dumb-ass, from
   Roosevelt down to various flunkies at State and Pearl
7) one shitload of CYA during and afterward

I found these findings well-supported in the Usual Sources.

There's always the possibility there was a conspiracy and that it was
successfully hidden, but given the way the politicos would squeal on
their own mother for a vote or bit of clout, I really doubt it.

"Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity" seems to
cover the situation well enough.  I was reluctant to give up the idea,
but the evidence documenting stupidity was overwhelming.



Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 12:45:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: LARGO: Back to the Front?
To: largo@chambana.com

-> Ben, I don't think Russia HAD an eastern front in WW II.

Yep, they sure did.  They had an ongoing land war with Japan along the
Soviet coast and in Manchuria.  It was very much a secondary theater
both to Japan and the USSR, but it was enough tie up a lot of resources
that the Soviets in particular needed.  That's what made the Richard
Sorge spy case such a big deal in Japan.  After Sorge's spy ring
verified the Japanese had no immediate plans to move from Manchuria to
invade the eastern USSR Stalin pulled almost everything out of the east.
It was a long, long trek, but a sizeable number of them made it all the
way to Germany.  Look at pictures of Soviet troops in Berlin and you'll
see quite a few Chinese-looking guys.  They all came from the
southeastern SSRs.



Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 12:04:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Religion RE: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Jesus was an "Infidel Dog" ie; a Jew.

And by trade a carpenter, as was his father.  A skilled trade just
under metalsmith or jeweler, ie, a high status profession.  A carpenter
is a nobody in today's pecking order, but things were very different
then.



Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 18:13:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Religion RE: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> and hope that they forget what we did to them thri first time around
-> BEFORE they develop the long range delivery systems to pay us back!

As I recall, before the British stepped in, India and Pakistan were
about a zillion petty warlords bickering with each other.  Britain
*created* India and Pakistan, something Gandhi conveniently forgot.

Much the same for Malaya, or Indonesia as they style themselves now.
And that particular bunch of ragheads *does* have oil.  And bad
political trouble.  If Britain stepped in, it would be doing a favor for
"world peace", right?

Downside, even more wog restaurants crowding out the purveyors of
traditional English fare like sheep and blood pudding.  Maybe that's
*not* a downside...


The thought of Tony Blair riding a nuke down like Slim Pickens in
"Doctor Strangelove" tickles the cockles of my hog, as Kemper would
say...  talk about killing two problems with one blow!



Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 18:44:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: abortion pill, visitation from Millam
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

->  It took me a long time to realize that
-> others weren't so appreciative when I pointed out a flaw in their
-> reasoning.  Seems
-> they only cared about winning an argument or protecting their
-> feelings, not getting at the truth of the matter.

Most people seem to argue from emotion instead of logic.  It doesn't
pay to get emotionally attached to an idea; sometimes you learn new
things that overturn the old.



Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 14:24:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> All men have need of religion in
-> one form or another and they always will. Be it the Green or
-> Christianity or liberalism it serves a purpose and is soon corrupted
-> into an evil.

I've been referring to the Safety Nazis as a religion for years.  They
have the zealotry and intolerance parts down pat.



Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2000 09:54:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> It's already been proven that the courts don't make much difference
-> to peoples actions and thoughts =-)

"Justice" in the United States has much in common with dropping a
quarter into a slot machine.  And just like the casinos, the court
always gets its share...



Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2000 09:21:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: biological origins was Re: pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> It is too bad that we have really no idea what our ancestors were
-> like.

Based on historical record, most of them were real assholes.


-> What puzzles me is the amount of time that must have passed for this
-> to have become an instinct and not a concious thought process.

There have been cultures where the club-and-drag syndrome didn't seem
to apply.  Sometimes its very hard to distinguish between instinct and
enculturation.

Throught most of Polynesia and parts of Africa, for example,
cannibalism was considered perfectly normal, yet Western cultures tend
ot think of their aversion to the practice as instinctive.


-> I've been noticing it develop since the 60's. Men getting more
-> effeminate every year. Women getting more agressive and masculine at
-> the same time.

Back when I was growing up the schools and media leaned on the sexual
equality thing pretty hard.  Within limits, I agree with the idea.
However, of late I've noticed a swing to something closer to the
husband/conjugal property concept of the 1800s than anything else.  I've
been wondering whether this is just a fad or if it's destined to become
the new social norm.



Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2000 21:42:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: biological origins was Re: pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> "Well, Dr Simba, it appears whoever left this dropping had a
-> four-course meal: berries, a couple papaya, mahi-mahi, and ... uh ...
-> your grandfather."

I find it interesting that, as far as I can tell, only modern Western
European civilization has seriously analyzed everything from coprolites
to 'preserved human feces'.

Of course, historically, there weren't many civilizations that could
*afford* to be so inquisitive about anything and everything.

"Hey, I wonder what happens when I play around with this bread mold..."



Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 08:29:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Oops was pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Never explain; never apologise!!!

...get stabbed in the back by people you've offended.



Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 09:10:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Diesel + oil?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> that does not include any "wind chill"!!!!!

"Wind chill factor" and "heat index" are bullshit the TV uses to make
things sound more extreme.  They move from their air-conditioned house
to their air-conditioned vehicle to their air-conditioned workplace; the
most the weathermen see of the temperature is the walk from the car to
the door.



Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 09:10:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: biological origins was Re: pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> But not as a preferred cuisine - they generally didn't start chomping
-> arse until the other resources had been thoroughly exhausted.

In much of Polynesia long pig definitely *was* preferred.  Not that
they were short of resources, but because of status.  Before the Euros
came, dispensing the benefits of civilization and smallpox, most of the
Polynesian groups spent the majority of their time killing each other.



Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 11:47:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: abortion pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >  The glass is twice as big as it needs to be.  

-> There's a trick! there's a trick!

View it as "thinking outside the glass..."



Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 12:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: biological origins was Re: pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> According to my anthropology classes, cannibalism was rarely a
-> significant food source.  It was primarily a religious/magical
-> thing, trying to obtain the power or courage of your enemy.

The Polynesians didn't need the extra food; they had all they wanted.
Eating your enemy was highly desirable, and they had plenty of enemies -
due to population pressure war was their main form of entertainment.




Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 18:59:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: a massively redundantly huge gimmick
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Mike  (I eat minimal beef, BTW.)

I could survive quite nicely on beef and chocolate.

- Dave "Stairmaster?  I *am* a stare master!" Williams



Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 18:39:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Oops was pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I know now you are Asian! =-)     .....you don't get much farther
-> away from redneck.

I can tell you've never been to Arkansas.

Lots of backwoods farmers down south came in as refugees back in the
'70s.  Their papers might say they were born in Laos or Cambodia or
Vietnam, but they drive pickup trucks, wear overalls, and chew Red Man
just like everyone else.

There's some sort of camouflage effect.  Arkansas' Hispanic population
is essentially zero, so for some reason outsiders perceive them as
Hispanics.




Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 19:25:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Diesel + oil?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> It just got a little too extreme.  As the temps continued to go down,
-> the outbuildings slowly froze and the central core got sort of

A friend managed to talk me into going riding with him once.  At 15
below zero.  And so we were trolling through the housing project, chokes
full on, when there was this SPANG! and his clutch lever started
dragging on the ground, held only by the cable.  The part that clamps
over the bar had shunk due to the cold and fractured.

Then there was the time we were riding at about 15 above, stopped in a
little convenience store, and got jacked against the wall by a wild-eyed
shopkeeper with a big shotgun.  I guess it *would* have been polite to
have doffed the ski masks before entering...

Riding back from Kentucky one time on the 650 Turbo, the temperature
wavering from freezing to just below.  600 miles of that.  Without
proper gear.  Hell it was 85F when we left Little Rock two days before;
the front had moved in as a big surprise (of course...) to the
weathermorons.  My moustache froze.  For some reason, that's always
painful...  at least my upper lip could feel pain; my hands and feet
had lost feeling early on.  Fortunately we didn't hit any sleet, though
there were some slick spots where snow had melted and refrozen.



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 06:06:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Absent advice
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> 'Till then dance like no one is watching.
-> After that give 'em the finger.

I used to see old guys sitting around.  Sort of isolated, you know,
with a touch of that thousand-yard stare.  Not a part of things any
more.

Now I sit there and look around, and I see goobers with their shorts
pulled up to their sternum and their pants hanging off their ass,
strangeos with shaved heads and half a dozen facial piercings, crazies
talking to themselves, freakazoids ready for someone - anyone - to
notice them so they can put the make on them, posers, and the countless
numbers of sararimen scampering through their nowhere lives and the
desperate boredom of their wives.

The voices in my head are much more interesting.

I think I'm getting that thousand-yard stare...




Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 06:08:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: a massively redundantly huge gimmick
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Beef and chocalate sound good,

Carnivores of the world, unite!

I always thought those vegetarian guys were weird and sneaky anyway...


-> just I gotta add FK506, Mycophenolate, Sporonox, couple other items
-> 

...and Claritin and Astelin and Vioxx and the occasional handful of
ibuprofen...

- Dave "Better living through chemistry" Williams



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 06:18:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: CSH, HQ  Grand re-re- opening
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> > $crew airports.
-> > $crew airports,

That's where I first encountered pay bathrooms.  I staggered off the
airplane in the old Denver airport with a terminal case of airsick and
charged for the pissoir.

There were coin slots in the doors.

Fuck you, assholes.  I puked in the hall.  Let the fuckers mop it up...


Federal law says any "public area" must have some minimum number of
restroom facilities available for a percentage of its rated capacity;
either that doesn't apply to airports or the Fed doesn't care if they're
pay toilets.

I could just see some confused traveler trying to figure out what to do
with his Vietnamese or German change...




Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 13:54:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Absent advice
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> What is sararimen anyways?

It's a perfectly good Japanese word.  It's what happened to "salaryman"
after they adopted it from (British, apparently) English.

Low class works by wage, middle class lives on salary, upper class
lives off dividends.  Something like that, anyway.

More portmanteau Japanese:

pasopoto = passport
supun = spoon
forku = fork
napukinu = napkin
basu = bus
takushi = taxi
resutoran = restaurant
kohi = coffee
miruku = milk
sunakku-ba = snack bar
jusu = juice
kurimu = cream
shiroppu = syrup
chokoreto = chocolate
bekon = bacon
kyabetsu = cabbage
dezato = dessert
naifu = knife
kappu = cup
biru = beer
aisukurimu = ice cream
massaji = massage
empitsu = pencil
tabako = cigarettes
asupirin = aspirin
iaringu = earring
nekkuresu = necklace
garaji = garage
supaku-puragu = spark plug
gasu = gasoline

See, you already knew a bunch of Japanese already.  I bet you didn't
even know!  

- Dave "waskarimasn desu" Williams



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 14:09:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: a massively redundantly huge gimmick
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I was desperately hoping that the MickeyDs in Germany (where they
-> really do sell beer) would have McBrau on the menu.

A friend of mine came back from Holland with an interesting story about
Coke machines over there.  Some of them sell beer.  He asked the motel
clerk how they kept children from getting to the beer machines.  The
clerk said they could buy a beer out of one if they had the money.

Apparently the Dutch aren't as terrified of Demon Alcohol as Americans
are...



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 18:41:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: don't vote for me!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> office?  At least Texas *borders* a foreign country!"

Would that be at the southern border or the northern border, senor?



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 19:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Dilbert (Was: Oops was pill)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Because sunlight promotes better spirit/moral in the office.

Don't want no damned window!

I get alternately baked or frozen, I get all the traffic noise, *and*
the sunlight washes out the monitors' images.  And management gets
annoyed when I put a whiteboard over the window.

Give me a nice inside office with central air and heat, and I'll be
juust fiiine...



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 19:05:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: don't vote for me!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> And --all of this from two clowns who claim to be against abortions!
-> I guess it depends on how you define the word abortion--- 8=O>

I always found it interesting that the ADA sucked off every conceivable
"differently abled" group *except* the 10% or so of males who are
red/green color blind.

Those fucking crosswise traffic lights are invisible to many people,
yet most of them have audible signals for the blind.  ?!?!?!



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 18:59:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: CSH, HQ  Grand re-re- opening
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> No where's near that serious, hey, gotta finish the GN.
-> BTW, just had to take her out to stretch her legs a tad (gross
-> understatement)
-> Hard to feel the least bit sick when up to speed

Remember to wear a dirty pajama top (no T-shirt), slip-ons, and only
one sock. Muss your hair (assuming you're not hair-impaired).  Bring
*all* your meds, even if they're expired.  Use a big *transparent* bag,
like a ziplock freezer bag.  More than one if needed.

When you finally get nailed at 155mph, make sure you don't *quite*
focus your eyes when talking to the cops, and make sure you mention you
have to get home soon so you can 'check up on the little guys.'

If you wind up having to go to court, use a cane or your old walker.
Extra points if you bring your oxygen bottle and mask.



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 19:09:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Oops was pill
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> There must be some great picture shots of Billy Jo Jim Bob and Ng
-> giving a tourists "local looks"

The old timers are no problem.  It's when you meet someone of 100%
Laotian descent who was born *after* her parents came here that you get
a shock.  Cornpone suth'n so thick you could spread it with a spatula.



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 19:19:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: don't vote for me!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Figure out how much sending a person over to do the normal BS that
-> ADA stuff makes accessible, and it adds up.

I have had a hell of a time with this at verious employers.  The first
time was when the company wanted to put all their employee handbooks and
other materials online.  Great.  But it was all .PDFs.  I pointed out
they had 4500 employees and some of them were blind; talker software
can't handle picture files.  Lots of blank looks.  And their corporate
employee web pages were all image links, invisible to Lynx.  I finally
was disinvited from participating in web design meetings.

I hope the stupid fuckers got sued.


The next time was when I worked at a startup ISP.  They got a couple of
customers who were blind and needed some extra help.  The ISP just
wanted to scoop up customers, they didn't want to do any extra work.
I pointed out that none of the other local ISPs wanted to bother with
these people either, and that Little Rock has the largest school for the
blind in the United States, and that school mostly teaches programming
nowadays.  A little extra work now and we could snag a sizeable customer
base... *and* all we had to do was show a few of them the ropes and
they'd show the others; it would affect the (lousy) support crew a bit.

After all, I pointed out, blind people have money too, and the object
was to get that money, wasn't it?  Lots of silence.  My co-admin and I
finally dealt with them ourselves, bypassing the support people.  I
don't think the ISP ever realized how many of their customers were form
the College For The Blind.



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 19:26:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: don't vote for me!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Hey Dave, there's that word integrity again!

That's bad shit, avoid it if you can...


-> No. I define the size of the government by the amount of taxes they
-> collect, and Dubya is for reducing the tax burden.

The only candidate I can remember who *wasn't* for reducing the tax
burden was Perot.  The budget, crime, education, healthcare, taxes...
all the candidates sing pretty much the same tune.  The President can't
do fuck-all about most of it anyway.  That's the prerogative of the
Congress and Senate, who mostly do as they damned well please.



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 19:38:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Prohibition was Re: a massively redundantly huge gimmick
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> day. I'l like to see pot leaglised here in NZ for 1 big reason it is
-> the major funder for the local gangs.

I'd like to see it legalized here.  The Fed wants to tax something?
Go for it, guys!  Tax the shit out of it.  See if I care...  However,
the War On Drugs is big business, and those Colombian cocaine dealers
are bad news.  Much easier to build your statistics up with teenage pot
busts when budget justification time comes around...

We now have an extensive Federal bureaucracy with a vested interest in
their own failure to do their job...



Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 20:24:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Absent advice
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The neat thing is that all foreign loan words in Japanese are written
-> in Katakana which is just 46 symbols (and modifications) to remember.
-> Memorize only these symbols and you too can READ the foreign loan
-> words. That's actually fewer symbols than the 52 we use commonly!

Long ago I was able to read katakana well enough to pronounce the words
even if I didn't understand them.  Then I branched off into the kanji,
which was interesting, but most of the references I had seemed to be
more interested in telling you about the Chinese roots than the Japanese
usage.  I had a pretty good start on the romaji already, though.


For those who are unfamiliar with Japanese, there are three types of
written language - phonetic, like the alphabet English uses; syllabic,
which usually consists of matched consonant and vowel pairs (ba be bi bo
bu type of thing), and ideographic, which is just a idea symbol with no
inherent relation to speech, like international traffic signs.

Normal written Japanese uses *all three*, mixed according to arcane
rules I doubt even the Japanese know.  Words of Japanese origin are
often, but not always, written in katakana, or syllables.  But Japanese
has a hell of a lot of Chinese loanwords, and these (and some native
Japanese words) are written in ideographs closely related to written
Chinese, sort of like how high-class Englishmen used French and Greek.
Finally, after the Peary expedition Japan wound up borrowing entire
technical vocabularies and lots of loanwords in general from Portuguese,
English, and German.  Japan then got another dose of English, mostly in
pidgin form, during the Occupation after WWII.

At my very best the sentences I could build in Japanese would probably
have left a listener howling with laughter if they could figure my
mangled pronunciation, but I found the Japanese language to be
interesting and fun, unlike most of the Romance languages, where
learning one becomes mostly memorizing vocabulary.



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 04:37:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Prohibition was Re: a massively redundantly huge gimmick
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Uh....I'm certainly not the one promoting ritalin. I think some other
-> fellas on the List may have something to say about the efficacy of
-> mood-altering prescription drugs.

Hell, they don't even have to be psychopharmaceuticals.  Even 24 hours
without my meds and I start getting a bad attitude...



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 04:46:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Prohibition was Re: a massively redundantly huge gimmick
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> > You're not paranoid, if they're really out to get ya!

-> Well I know they are watching Dave =-)

I'm okay now.  Did you know they have "heavy duty" aluminum foil that's
thicker than ordinary foil?  Works great!


I was afraid the Water Department might find some of the ordnance
buried in the yard, but all they found was the gas main that feeds the
whole street.  Hmm, why did they run it through *my* yard?  Aren't they
supposed to have maps?  There was much excitement in the front yard
last Wednesday.



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 04:41:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Prohibition was Re: a massively redundantly huge gimmick
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Yes, some. I doubt if many at all of those who are prescribe ritilin
-> for kids, tho!

It doesn't take a doctor to prescribe ritalin for kids.  All it takes
is a note from whoever is the school counselor at the time.  And you can
go to jail if you don't comply.

Not only are the insurance companies second-guessing your doctor, but
your schools are doctoring without training or licensing.  Cool eh?


For some really nasty stuff, see what happens if your wife wants to
have a baby at home instead of at a hospital.  As far as I know it's not
actually illegal anywhere in the US (yet), but the bullshit gets deep;
the medical industry has plenty of clout, and they resent not sucking up
all those obstetrics dollars.




Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 04:58:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: [Fordnatics] History of the SUV?
To: fordnatics@www.mustangworks.com

-> Something that was not even conceived of 100 years ago would have to
-> be computer controlled engines.

Charlie Babbage would certainly have been impressed, though.

However, the computer isn't doing anything you couldn't do
mechanically.  Modern technology merely makes computers cheaper than the
alternatives.

Computers were mostly curiosities until Carroll Killebrew invented the
integrated circuit in the '60s.  Then came Intel's traffic light
controller chip, which begat the 4004, which begat... ... ... the
Pentium III...

Which makes you wonder, did they get it right the first time, or is
processor design simply stuck in a rut nobody notices?



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 09:52:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Buell Motorcycles
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Chris, when you say "Goldwing", do you really mean the opposed-four,
-> and not the Voyager with the opposed-six?
-> (How would _I_ know?, I'm a death-bike guy.)

Last time I was in Vicksburg I was telling Kemper how ugly the flat six
punker Honda was.  I can't ever remember the name of the thing.  Anyway,
Kemper said something like, "oh, that's just Art Deco."

Well, duh.  It's close enough to Art Deco for government work, anyway.
Viewed through that particular filter, the thing isn't so bad.  Though
I'd be hideously embarrassed if someone caught me riding one...



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 10:09:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Bleeding heart liberals (Re: Oops was pill)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >  Hey Ron, have you ever read "The Probability Broach" by L. Neil
-> Smith?

-> No, although my buddy Brian has recommended Smith on a few occasions.

Smith wrote:

"The Probability Broach"
"The Venus Belt"
and
"The Nagasaki Vector"

They're all set in the same alternate universe, one where the Whiskey
Rebellion was successful.  They're good solid reading, nice story lines,
and hysterically funny from time to time.

Smith wrote another half-dozen or so books in the same setting, but
they all suck.  In fact, everything else he wrote sucks, with the
exception of three Star Wars tie-ins he wrote back in the late '70s.



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 10:11:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: don't vote for me!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >  The only candidate I can remember who *wasn't* for reducing the
-> tax > burden was Perot.

> The only major candidate who admitted it in public, you mean.

That should go without saying.  Those tax dollars let them buy
influence; no way are they going to cut off their own hand when they can
dip it into your pocket.



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 16:21:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Wound tooo tight
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> We're aways apart on that it seems.  Cave man in my view is having to
-> live in a cave since the knowledge to built anything else doesn't
-> exist.

They're called "cave men" because that's where their remains were
preserved best.  A good cave was probably a real prize; the majority of
them lived and died under simple bough shelters.


-> and arrows, fish nets, and the like are "really new age", in my book.

Fire may have been the big factor.  Without fire you had to migrate
with the seasons unless you lived fairly close to the equator.  With
fire, you could stay where you were, and didn't lose all your stuff
every time it started getting cold.



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 16:17:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Wound tooo tight
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> gatherers can live a lot more comfortably if they know how to
-> make bows and arrows, fish nets, animal snares or deadfalls, etc.

Most primitive societies still wind up with a *lot* of free time on
their hands.  That's probably why their major entertainment seems to
have been killing each other.

The root word of "civilization" is "city"; civilized men were able to
live and work together in groups.  The concentration of power let them
conquer or kill their less-organized neighbors.



Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 18:05:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Some people just don't get it
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> You ever make a joke, and the person doesn't get it, and they just
-> think you're stupid?

Happens all the time.  My sense of humor is evidently not compatible
with societal norms to start with, and I keep running into the
"differently abled" who were apparently born with no sense of humor to
start with.

"Please give to help those who can't see the joke is on them..."



Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 06:39:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re:  [Fordnatics] Long: The whole "computers in cars" debate
To: fordnatics@mustangworks.com

-> competitor, but Microsoft did not even exist back then

Sure they did.  They were in business before the IBM PC or even the
Apple I - Gates and Allen started off selling "Microsoft BASIC" for
various S-100 bus machines, descendants of the original Altair.


-> You would think that economies of scale and automation would drive
-> prices down, but try and buy a new EEC-IV module today, and you'll
-> find that it costs a lot more than $50,

I'd bet *Ford's* cost on an EEC is in that vicinity, no matter what
their parts department gouges out of customers.  The production cost on
a VCR is only about $30, and Ford builds more identical EECs than any
company builds of VCRs.


->  Even a used one that you find in a salvage yard costs more.

True, in most cases.  "A new one is $500 from Ford, if we can't get at
least $150 we'll just crush the damned things."  Junkyard thinking has
always been strange to me, but that's the way it works.


->  And I won't even get into the cost of CDs...

You're dealing with the music industry there, and a very inquitable
situation that's starting to rumble with revolt as the potential for
performers to sell their work without going through traditional channels
continues to develop.



Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 18:14:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Evil Dave
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

My buddy Joe had some excess funds and wanted to add to his gun
collection.  He's bought half a dozen in the last year, and added a
Springfield Armory 1911-A1 clone yesterday.  His "instant check" failed,
no reason given, but they called him this morning and told him it was
clear and to come pick it up.

By the time we got there he'd decided he was going to buy another
pistol.  He already has a .44, two .45s, a 9mm, and a .40.  He was
browsing the yuppie 10mm stuff; Glocks, crap like that.

I grabbed his arm.  "10mm is a yuppie piece of shit.  You're 6'4 and
heavy, you need a man-size pistol."

"My Model 29 is a .44 Magnum; that's as big as they get."

I flagged a salesman.  "Hey, you guys have anything in .454?"

Turned out they did, a Freedom Arms SA and a bunch of Taurus DAs.
I'd already shot a Freedom Arms .454 and I didn't like the way the shape
of the butt let the thing rotate 90 degrees every time you pulled the
trigger.  The Taurus' grip was narrower than I liked, but at least the
backstrap wasn't shaped like a plow handle.  Plus the Taurii were all
magnaported from the factory and had the heavy bull barrels.

Joe was holding a 5" Taurus .454.  "This thing is enormous!  I'd need a
trailer just to carry it around!"

I passed him an 8-3/8" barrel .454.  He recoiled in horror.  "No way!
That thing would kill me!"  He went back to browsing the 10mms.  I
followed, trailed by the salesman, still carrying the long barrel .454.
Joe was wavering between a Sig and a Glock.  I put the .454 back in his
hand.

He walked out with the .454.  It's nice to be able to help a friend
out...


Further plans for the day included putting the EFI wiring harness on
his Suburban and then going out to play with the new pistols, but an
oversize dose of fajitas did us in.  We didn't even tinker with the Sun
boxes.  Instead, I found out he'd never seen "Evil Dead III: Army Of
Darkness".  I rented a copy of the tape and we watched that instead of
doing anything useful.  Too many fajitas will do that to you.

Oddly enough, this tape wasn't *quite* the same as the one I rented a
few years ago when Dan Jones recommended the movie to me.  Several of
the scenes didn't seem quite right, but I did make note of two major
omissions - the entire Jack-In-The-Box sequence at the Necronomicon
altar was missing, and at the end, he smooched up his girlfriend and
returned to the 20th century.  In the version I saw first, he had made a
comment along the lines of she was pretty, but people didn't bathe often
enough in the 14th century.  Run time for this version was 1hr 21min.

Not major discrepancies like between the many variants of the original
"Phantasm", but odd.

"Good?  Bad?  I'm the guy with the gun." - Good Ashe



Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 19:15:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: spelling
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> DON'T WORRY ABOUT THEM! If a person feels the NEED to point out your
-> error to you even though they KNOW what you meant let them have there
-> little thrill.

Some people seem to think they're making a statement by spelling things
any way they want.  Half the time they're not even consistent.

I understand some people have problems with spelling.  Der Anglisch,
she ain't too logical.  But there's almost nothing that's capable of
getting online by itself that doesn't have a spelling checker available
for it; there were perfectly good ones for 64K Ataris and Commodores.
If someone refuses even that, fuck 'em.  If they can't take the time to
spell, capitalize, and punctuate, why should I bother reading their
crap?   And the worse these feeboids are about spelling, the more
sensitive about it they pretend to be.

"Hey!  Look at me!  I'm a blithering idiot!"  It's the online
equivalent to a mud-and-stick hairdo and massive body odor.  Yes,
people notice you, but they're not likely to take you seriously.  Or it
could mean that, whatever it is you're trying to say, it's not important
enough for you to see that the recipient can read it.  Or it might mean
you're butt-lazy and everyone should work to figure out your gems of
wisdom.

Occasional typos, brain fades, and homonyms are no big deal.  Nobody's
going to jump on you because you used "there" instead of "their" in your
original message, for example.

What people see on the screen is *it*; a $50 razor-cut hairstyle and
Dale Carnegie body language don't mean shit in 80 column text mode.
Some people have a hard time adjusting to that.



Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 08:31:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Jury sides with woman cut from Duke team
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Funny so few in Congress have figured that out.  Berattas for combat,
-> sorry give me a 45 or newer version with a larger capacity.   I can
-> get so wound up over this new age military.......

The 9mm Parabellum (that's "for war" in Latin, for the cognoscenti) was
developed by the Kaiser's army to pester their fellow Euros.  The .45
Automatic Colt Pistol cartridge was developed to make people dead.  The
United States Army found out that ivory tower ballistics didn't mean
shit to Moros in the Philippines.

Current military thinking is that pistols aren't "real" weapons,
they're just status symbols for officers and military police.  They're
not intended for use in combat.  So I guess the Pentagon felt safe doing
their back-door-buddy deal with Beretta.



Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 15:54:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: spelling
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> from the engineers I **ALWAYS** have to proof read it for spelling
-> and grammar errors.
->
-> Maybe the difference is that they KNOW somebody (me) will fix
-> anything that might be not quite right?

If I had an engineer working for me who couldn't spell, I'd be worried
about his math too.  I hope they don't expect someone is going to follow
behind them to check their calculations.



Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 08:19:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: thermostats and controll of their bypass
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> (I've got Glassman's "Combustion", and Heywood's "Internal Combustion
-> Engine Fundamentals" to be picked up at the library today.)

Glassman is a primary source.  You're getting the straight stuff, as
far as I know, right from the horse's mouth.  He actually did much of
the research that produced the data in his book.

Heywood's stuff is at least half from the NACA papers, now at
naca.larc.nasa.gov.  Heywood has a really bad habit of stating special
cases and generalizations as fact, and in an effort to cram as much as
possible into one small volume it's distilled and edited to the point
where it's more like the Ten Commandments than an information source.
Once you're been through Schwitzer, Heldt, Glassman, Rogowski, and the
NACA papers, you can read Heywood and say "oh, yeah, that's what he's
talking about" instead of just wondering "where the fuck did he come up
with *that*?!"  Heywood is indexed well and touches on almost
everything; it's a handy reference... but only if you know most of the
material already.  I also found his homemade units and weirdball
terminology irritating.  Yeah. the poor bastards in his IC Engines 101
classes have to take it, but the industry has their own way, and it's
silly to buck it.




Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 21:57:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Talledega
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Oh yeah, I forgot, it's about spectator safety, not racing.  NASCAR
-> comes to the fastest race track in the world and immediately start
-> whining that the cars are "going too fast", and they have to be
-> slowed down.

It's nothing to do with speed.  It's about sensationalism.  When NASCAR
starts talking about "too fast" the drooling masses buy tickets so they
can be on hand to see a bloody crash.  Every few years the "too fast"
thing comes back, and people fall for it every time.



Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 22:12:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Food fangle
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> translate 'in character.'  Despite my loathing for dubbing
-> (Subtitles Rule!), they usually do a pretty good job.

I tried watching closed-captioned TV for a while.  I thought it might
let me see a movie without cringing from all the howling and barking.
Unfortunately, the people who do the captioning must think that if you
don't want the sound, you're probably legally blind too.  The caption
box took at least a third of the screen, usually the third where
something important was going on.

C'est la vie...

One of the funniest uses of subtitles I ever saw was in an old Jerry
Lewis movie.  It was a scene in a Japanese submarine.  The voices were
in English, but the subtitled were in Japanese.



Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 22:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Planet of the Apes, again?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Don't laugh, geezer.  _Mod Squad_ came out last year.  And the
-> _Charlie's Angels_ remake is coming out soon.

I am stunned.

What's next, remakes of famous commercials of the 1960s?

NO!  Don't answer that, I really didn't want to know...



Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 08:39:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Ford Focus RS
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> the splashy MTV ad campaign when it was introduced, and why they have
-> special Sony (stereo) and Kona (mountain biking) versions. Remember
-> that most young buyers are not as performance-oriented as this
-> fanglers group...

25 years ago MTV was hailed as a revolution in marketing - not only
could they get potential customers to watch advertising, they were able
to get them to *pay* for ads.  Most of them never even realized the
videos were just ads for albums.

Now, people are willing to pay to put advertising on their car...

Hm.



Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 08:59:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ford Focus RS
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> that the Focus should be 2nd only to the PT Cruiser as a basis for
-> displaying parts at this year's SEMA show.

I kinda like the PT Cruiser.  My 71-year-old father likes the PT
Cruiser.  My 18-year-old Hootergirl niece likes the PT Cruiser.

I've only met one person who likes the Focus; everyone else made
gagging sounds.

You want to know what Ford's Focus market is?  Due to the way financing
works, it's easier to buy a new car than a used one, and the kind of
people who buy a Focus don't *care* what kind of a car it is, all they
care about is whether their loan was approved and how much the payments
will be.  The Focus is cheap, they can buy it.  Same reason Yugo sold
their cars about as fast as they could unload them from the ships, or
why people bought Volkswagens, back in ancient times when they were
cheap.



Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:22:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Al Gore's Global Auto Plan
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Here's an interesting editorial about Al Gore's environmental views.
-> It bothers me that he advocates global regulation to improve the
-> environment, yet supports the Kyoto treaty which would not restrict

Uh, Tom...

Gore's just a talking head.  He's saying whatever he thinks will bring
him some ratings now, and maybe votes later.  That's one reason why he's
inconsistent and illogical.  The other reason is because he's a fucking
moron.

Most people really *don't* notice; they hear what they want to hear and
ignore the rest.  I can refer you to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" for an
excellent example.

What really bothered me is when Klinton ran for his first term.  He did
the same song-and-dance promise-the-moon thing.  As far as I remember
not one of the media bothered to publicize his record as governor, where
his platform had often been the exact opposite of what he was promising
for a Presidency.  Then when he ran again, the discrepancies between his
campaign promises and what he had actually done in office was somehow
ignored.

Gore, and to some degree Bush, are basically beggars.  You have
something they want, and they'll promise almost any damned thing to get
it, whether they can deliver or not.  Once you cast your vote you're
about as important to a politician as a used condom, at least until the
next election comes around.



Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:38:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: DTV fangle
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> TV haters say there's nothing on 1500 channels that would interest
-> them. How can you know this without checking each channel? The answer
-> is, you cannot. You can only assume that none of it is going to
-> interest you.

No, but the ordinary statistical technique of sampling works rather
well.  If 100% of a random 5% sample sucks, the other 95% probably does
too.

The vast majority of TV breaks down into simple-to-define categories,
which can be treated as sets.

About 50% of all programming is commercials, which can be dismissed
immediately.

Some percentage is "news", of which a majority is too slanted or
incomplete to form any independent opinion with, or outright lies to
start with.

Soap operas, game shows, and other loser programming.

All sports programming is a waste of time.  Even if it was something I
might be interested in, it'd either be MTV'd to death, they'd spend all
their time talking to the participants' trainers or girlfriends, or
they'd just zoom in on a nostril while jiggling the camera.  Not worth
it.

"Learning Channel", "History Channel", "Discovery Channel".
Potentially useful as a source of film clips; not useful as a source of
learning or information unless you're very patient or under the
influence of major narcotics.

"Prime Time" TV programming, from "My Three Sons" to "Tool Time" and
whatever they're marketing this week.

Movies.

Re-runs of all of the above.

Anything I've forgotten doesn't occupy much of the remaining time.



-> This is the personality flaw: you spite yourselves and miss every
-> potentially interesting, potentially self-enrichening event on TV,

I could be more self-enriched by using the time to finish the EFI
software for Tyrannosaurus RX...


-> Like anything else, there are users and there are abusers.

Mostly, there are addicts.  Who needs a wire run into their pleasure
center when they're programmed to be good Toob viewers from early
childhood?



Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:14:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: DTV fangle
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Mike  (thee ultra-racist - my race is better than your race!)
-> (Since we are of the same race - Human - let's be friends!)

Yeah, but I'm starting to wonder how many people I pass on the street
are really giant lizards or pod people...

- Dave "What, me paranoid?  Why do you ask?" Williams



Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:46:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Ford Focus RS
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> that the sales figures are strong evidence that most people
-> are more interested in trucks and SUVs.

I still think most people don't *want* a truck, no matter what they're
calling them nowadays.  What they want is a car that has enough room to
haul more than two sacks of groceries, sits up high enough so they don't
have to crawl in on hands and knees, and has a little room inside.  That
leaves out almost all small and mid size cars, particularly if you're
overweight, elderly, or handicapped - and a sizeable percentage of
Americans fit one or more of those categories.

When you look at making the jump to an Impala or Crown Vic, a pickup or
"SUV" starts to look like a decent alternative.



Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 14:37:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: DTV fangle
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Each station is not a sample from a population.  It would be like
-> looking for a lost contact lens in 5% of possible places and deciding
-> its not in the remaining 95% either.

Each station is playing programs of one of the described categories.
It's all the same stuff.



Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2000 18:30:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ford Focus RS
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Shock value? A famous automotive designer (forget which) once said,
-> you can't have a new car model look too appealing at first glance, it
-> will not have any staying power. Most successful car designs with
-> staying power were actually a bit hard on the eyes at first glance.

I fell into instant lust with at least three cars at first glance -
Raymond Leowy's '53 Studebaker coupe, Giorgetto Guigiaro's Lamborghini
LP500, and Tom Tjaarda's Pantera.

Some cars have to grow on you, but beautiful cars knock you over the
head as soon as you see them.



Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 06:37:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: DTV fangle
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> True, they live.
->
-> Your comment creates many questions for me!  (Is this really my
-> race?)

You starting to get that thousand-yard stare yet, Mike?


Jeez, things were so much simpler in the old days, when all I had to
worry about was work, paying bills, building hot rods, and getting laid.



Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 06:42:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Trucks & SUVs (Was: Ford Focus RS)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Feeling safe and being safe are two different things.

Some largish percentage of the population would never understand the
difference.

"You know how dumb the average person is?  Just think, half of them are
dumber than *that*!"



Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 06:40:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: [Fordnatics] Hood pins PHOTO (where to get these?)
To: fordnatics@mustangworks.com

-> This brings up a question.  Is it legal to put hood pins on a street

Legal according to whom?

The State of Arkansas couldn't care less.  You can toss the hood while
you're at it if you want.

The SCCA would probably have a collective infarction at the very
thought of such a radical modifications to your car.

The Hastings UFO Society would wonder if you had an ulterior motive.



Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 12:15:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: NY Times article on Vikings (LONG)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The Vikings were everywhere, intrepid and often menacing, from about
-> A.D. 800 to 1200. At home in Scandinavia they were herdsmen,

I found it interesting that the Skraelings (Indians) ran the Vikings
out of North America and managed to exterminate several of the early
British and French colonies, but were eventually done in by bunches of
heretic religious deportees from England.



Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 15:42:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: NY Times article on Vikings (LONG)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> With some help from smallpox, measles, and venereal diseases.

I doubt the Vikings were free of pestilence themselves.  Hell, they
were probably one of the major vectors throughout Europe; they got
around a lot.



Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 19:17:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: USS Cole
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Remember the Johnson campaign against Goldwater? Goldwater would have
-> ended that war within a year. Johnson just got more of our boys
-> killed.

Johnson's entire term was... strange.  JFK wasn't one of my favorite
presidents by a long shot - he was just shy of being a total nut case,
among other things - but when he was killed he had orders drafted to
pull a whole bunch of troops out of Vietnam and he was really leaning on
the Justice Department about organized crime.  The Vietnam order was
still laying on the desk when Johnson was sworn in; it went into the
trashcan and Johnson sent in more troops.  And did a hatchet job over at
Justice.  Then spent the rest of his term finagling to get cost-plus
military contracts for his backers and buddies.

Lots of people made lots of money under Johnson's administration.  The
only complainers were the ones getting their asses shot off in southeast
Asia.  They didn't matter since few of them were voters anyway.



Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 19:40:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ford Focus RS
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> that sort of thing, system, it is still all-too-widely mistaken for
-> "chaos" - which is a direct opposite.

Anarchy is no more stable than democracy in the long run, though.  You
have to *work* at anarchy; the normal human tendency, from toddlers to
diplomats, seems to be to thump heads until a definite pecking order is
established, and one clear top dog.



Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 11:42:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: new drill!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Tom Teixeira -- Author of "The Hole Fangler Catalog"

Long ago someone said something I wish I had thought of first.  It was
along the lines of, "You have to be careful separating cause and effect.
Lots of people buy electric drills.  But they don't *want* electric
drills; what they *want* is holes."

That thought has carried me through untangling more than one mess I've
been called in to fix...

- Dave "I'll take a box of 3/8" holes, please." Williams



Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 17:25:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Fw: Fwd: Great Perspective on Liberalism]
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> It is going to make for some _VERY_ interesting political earthquakes
-> if genetic science ever comes up with a true genetic marker for
-> faggotism!

Ozone Science would invade the Human Genome Project.

The queers don't bother me in the least.  Now, if they could find the
right genetic sequences for "evangelist" or "pointy-haired boss"...



Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 21:05:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: steam cannon
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> sparked by the book "Trigger" by Arthur C. Clarke and Michael
-> Kube-McDowell.  The premise of the book is the invention of a

Sounds like "Shield" by Poul Anderson, except it was nukes in that one.
Clarke is about two hundred years old and McDowell is a hack.


-> I thought the whole plot was poorly thought out.  The authors
-> seem to believe that making gunpowder and explosives ineffective
-> would lead to widespread peace and non-violence.  I think that is
-> wishful thinking.

Yeah, the Roman legions, the Mongols, and the Vikings didn't need any
crummy explosives...

Poorly thought out plots are pretty common.  I read one by William
Fortschen and Newt Gingrich (!?) where Sepp Deitrich led a suicide
flight of Luftwaffe over Oak Ridge to destroy America's atomic bomb
project.  Um, yeah, both Fortschen and Newtie should have remembered Oak
Ridge was just *one* of the three major US uranium extraction plants...



-> The book specifically mentions air-powered guns but seems to
-> assume that they are hopelessly limited (they are mentioned in
-> the same phrase as crossbows).  From what I've read, airguns were

Um, yeah.  Compared to artillery or modern small arms, air guns aren't
so hot.  Compared to flintlocks and the like, they're competitive.
Compared to throwing spears, they kick ass.  Since your enemy would
presumably be comparably armed, it doesn't really matter.

The crossbow is nothing to sneer at, either.  It was the Ultimate
Weapon at one time; outlawed in most European countries and interdicted
by the Church, back in the days when there was only one.  It took time
to make an archer; any asshole could shoot a crossbow.


-> A simple calculation indicates that 900 psi pressure (e.g. CO2) in a
-> half-inch bore (perhaps with a sabot round) and 24-inch
-> barrel would develop performance comparable to .38 special ammo fired
-> from a four-inch barrel.

Consider the .38 Special was more gun than most police and some
military carried until just 50 years ago, and it's still considered
adequate.



Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 17:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: the Racial Reparations suit
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Absolutely true.  Obviously this is all speculation, but my suspicion
-> is that very few people fought to maintain slavery.

Slavery had ceased to become a crucial issue in the South.  Eli Whitney
had wrecked their economy badly with his automated farming equipment.

Of course, it was Whitney who gave the North's armaments manufacturing
industry the boost it needed to get an decisive edge over the South.

Whitney machinery caused riots - the Luddites, again - in England, and
came *this* close to putting the USA and England at war, before, during,
and after the US Civil War.

Eli Whitney is mostly remembered as the inventor of the cotton gin.
I never figured out how he got relegated to the backwaters of history;
his fangleage makes Morse and Edison and the others look like small
change.

There are damned few *engineers* who have changed the course of
history.  Eli Whitney was one of them.



Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 17:07:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: the Racial Reparations suit
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> ye...like the idea that the civil war was fought over slavery.  From
-> what I remember, it was mainly about everything else...trade, states
-> rights, etc. Slavery was just the hot button....

Lincoln raised the slavery issue, and he did it fairly late.  He had
the idea the slaves would do a mass uprising and the Union could take
military advantage of that.

Read the Emancipation Proclamation sometime.  All the way through.
Like Mein Kampf or the Constitution of the United States, it's not quite
what it's purported to be.

Lincoln and Clinton would have made quite a pair of buddies.



Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 17:27:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: the Racial Reparations suit
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I took that to mean the white man in general, and I imagine more
-> specifically an example would be any rich families that made their
-> money on slave plantations, and still has any wealth left falls into
-> that "people who are still benefitting from slavery" group, no?

The Reconstruction wiped out all the old money in the South.  They want
the big bucks, they're going to have to go back to Yankeeland and start
looking for... oh... a bunch of people who have inherited serious
political clout.

It would be fun to watch, in a suicidal way.



Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 05:27:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: the Racial Reparations suit
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Puts him right up there with Werner von Braun!

Von Braun doesn't make it.  The V1s and V2s may as well have not
existed for all the effect they had on WWII.  After he got Paperclipped
into the US space program... um, much as I hate to say it, he was just
another gear in the machine, *and* the space program, while very
interesting, hasn't influenced the course of history much.

We made it to the Moon and then all the steam went out of the space
program.  The money tap got turned down due to the first Energy Crisis
and the post-Vietnam depression, then NASA's hulking bureaucracy and
old-time purchasing system has managed to absorb most of the money that
should have been going for hardware.  NASA's time is long gone; it's
an impediment to future progress.



Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 11:02:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: the Racial Reparations suit
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> John Erikson's Monitor changed history big time and screw propellers
-> are now much more popular than paddle wheels!


Balance of power was maintained; both sides in the US Civil War had
ironclads.  They weren't anything new, just improvements on existing
ships.  If the war had been fought without them there would have been no
change.

Whitney's inventions *caused* that war.  Big difference.



Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 06:33:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: the Racial Reparations suit
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The people who don't want deadbeat parents strewing their issue onto
-> the streets for the rest of us to contend with?

Over heeere!

Unfortunately, we're stuck with a system that rewards overbreeding.
From tax breaks to outright cash payment "aid", if you quit your job and
devote your life to jacking up the population, the State will be happy
to lend a hand.  And money.  And a place to live.  And food.  And free
medical care.  And even a car, if you're lucky.

Remember, people on Welfare and other aid programs are voters too...
and remember how that sort of thing has affected democracies through the
years.

There were damned good reasons why the Constitutional Conventioneers
limited voting rights.



Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 15:24:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Fwd: (Fiero) Gore on cars
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> "One creature, caught. Caught in a place he cannot stir from in the
-> dark, alone,outnumbered hundreds to one, nothing to live for but his
-> memories, nothing to live with but his gadgets, his cars, his guns,
-> gimmicks...
->
-> Dan "I am legend" Jones

As a measure of how asocial I have become, I see nothing whatever wrong
with that...

- Dave "Look at the marks.  The pretty, pretty marks..." Williams



Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 16:07:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: the Racial Reparations suit
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> biggest objection to Clive Cusslers "Sahara" is his assumption that
-> the Virginia could have crossed the Atlantic.

The ironclad 'Cairo' is on display in Vicksburg.  It was built
someplace way up in Yankeeland, sailed all the way down the Atlantic
coast - which, as you noted, is a veritable graveyard of ships - all the
way around the tip of Florida, through the Gulf of Mexico, and up the
Mississippi River.

I don't know how similar the 'Virginia' was to the 'Cairo', but I have
no doubt the 'Cairo' could make it across the Atlantic.  It looks like a
giant cement barge, so I imagine it wouldn't be a comfortable trip, but
the coastal waters are no smoother than the deep ocean and a hell of a
lot more hazardous.

I had thought Cussler was talking through his hat until I stood on the
catwalk inside the 'Cairo'.  That's one big, sturdy sumbitch.



Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 17:29:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Little gems
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> > "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
-> > ...George W. Bush, Jr.

Nah, last time I saw those they had "Dan Quayle" on them.  They were
probably recycled from something else before that.

One thing about the 'net is it allows private individuals to mount
smear campaingns on a scale heretofore reserved only for the mass
media...



Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 18:01:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Nissan/Jackson, MS
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The state needs the revenue as our projections have been off every
-> year for years. How do people make blunders like that and keep their
-> jobs?

They took lessons from the Soviet Union?  All the big shots kept their
perqs until the whole house of cards collapsed.

"Peasants are still starving in Novosibirsk?  Does that affect my
position on the waiting list for a new Zil limousine?"



Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 18:36:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: El-Cheapo (free) CAD program?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> hmmm..interesting theory.  More downtime make me look good....
->
-> Tha can be arranged!!

Call it "scheduled maintenance."  Do it over the normal lunch hour, so
you "don't disturb normal business."  That's when everyone is checking
their mail and smurfing the web and other non-work-related tasks; it
might be days before they noticed anything really important wasn't
working.



Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 12:15:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: RDBMS
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Phone companies are *required* by the FCC to maintain a certain level
-> of service.  If they don't, they could loose their licensing.

I took my license out.  I loosed it.  It fell on the floor.

I guess it didn't want to be free.  I put it back in my wallet.



Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 12:34:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Candidate information
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Here's a pretty good web site for voting information.

I registered to vote in '83 or so.  It involved picking up a form at
the library, filling it out, mailing it in, and getting a card back.  No
problem.

I voted in '84, which involved standing in line for almost four hours.

I voted in '88, which involved standing in the rain for two hours.

I spent almost a full day trying to find out where I was supposed to
vote in '92; I went through every city, county, and state phone number
that looked even remotely applicable; I accosted people at City Hall;
I asked other people how they found out.  They got a letter in the mail.
I never got one.  I never found out where to vote, either.  Didn't
really matter, the state always goes Democrat anyway.

I spent some time a couple of years ago trying to find out how to get a
new voter registration, as I lost the old one somewhere along the way.
No luck there.  There's an Electoral Commission and some other things in
the phone book, they all drop you into voicemail.  (fuck off, asshole,
we don't want to talk to you!)  I left a lot of messages.  No callbacks.

Yesterday I tried again, this time with the phone book and the ark.gov
web site.  Still no luck.  Did you know Arkansas has a Spinal Cord
Commission?  And other bizarre things, all carefully listed.  The only
county listings are for the sheriff's departments; there are no numbers
for the quorum courts.  The cop shop didn't know where to go, either.

People gripe about how voter turnout is low; there are fucking good
reasons why...

Oh, Arkansas has "motor-voter" now; but the "voter registration"
apparently is a euphemism for "licensee names go on the jury duty list."
The "Department Of Finance And Administration" (license plate people)
don't know anything about voting... only took two dozen automatic
fuck-you menus and thirty minutes on hold to find that out.


Life sometimes has its Kafka-eqsue moments...




Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 19:49:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: RDBMS
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Grammar question;  If you use the word 'whether' in a sentence, does
-> this mean that the phrase 'or not' is implied?

"Or not" is implied; however, it's almost always used, even in "formal"
English.  The English Nazis go all a-titter over it, but it's just a
redundancy; like "damn Yankee."



Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 20:00:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: How old am I?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Since I no longer consist of all my original parts, can I have my
-> average age with my donor's?.
-> Or, should I prorate my age based on weights or volumes?.
-> Can I claim to have 3 lungs, even though one has been removed?
-> More meds damn it!...

'We were mugged by some senior citizens on the way from the chopper to
the main gate, but no great harm done; they were using vintage
revolvers.  There was one funny incident.  After we chased them I looked
around and there was Nemo kneeling on a prostrate maladroit and sincere
as hell.  He was slapping the Shortie across the face with his own
pistol and chanting in rhythm, "This is not... the road... to
survival.... You must transplant... transplant... transplant...
transplant...."'

- Alfred Bester, "The Computer Connection"

(yes, it's a rather strange book...)



Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 05:53:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: newbie books
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> "A pitman arm is the arm on the end of the pitman shaft;  if your
-> steering box was built in the last fifty years, the arm on the end of
-> the sector shaft is called the sector shaft arm".

That's a new one on me.  I'm going to keep on calling it a Pitman arm.


-> Months ago, when I read the book, "How To Think Like Leonardo", one

My brother gave me a copy of a book called "Lincoln On Leadership"; it
was one of the texts at the NCO school he went to earlier this year.
Umm, yes, Lincoln was such a fuckup half of his officer corps defected
under his leadership; I'm looking forward to reading this one...  That
has to be the equivalent of "Nixon On Leadership."  One thing Nixon
proved over and again was that he knew *nothing* of leadership...


-> I refuse to suffer idiots  (not "us" - "_them_"!!!);  there are no
-> "pitman"s any more!  (exceptions?)

Pitman arm!  Pitman arm!  Pitman arm!



Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 10:11:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: odd words
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

I found Dean Acheson's biography hidden under a pile.  What a bunch of
crap... but interesting more for what it doesn't say than for what it
does.  I resumed reading it.  About a third of the way through he
printed the full text of a letter he received from President Truman when
he left the office of Under Secretary of State.

Truman's letter ended,  "Love long and prosper...  - Harry S Truman"


Um.  Right.  You don't suppose...?   nahhh....



Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 04:59:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: halloween
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Mike  (for over ten years, I've bouught and worn blackl clothing
-> only)

"Mike the Goth?"


I prefer black myself.  That way my wife doesn't go, "You're not going
to wear *that* with *those*, are you?!"


- Dave "Fade To Black" Williams




Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 17:00:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Bikers and such
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Preferred by Marilyn Chambers. After an evening "Behind the Green
-> Door" nothing helps one feel fresher.

Nah.  I think after the multi-participant ejaculation shots, they just
haul the performers down to the car wash...

I bet those sets *reek* after a few days under the spotlights...



Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 17:10:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Focus Targets Hot Rodders
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Just thank God we didn't need one of those fugly bowl-cut haircuts to
-> be cool back when we was a teenagers. That would have sucked royal.
-> The bell bottoms and Earth Shoes were bad enough.

There was a retro-'50s wave right after the love beads and tie-dyed
clothing.  I managed to ride through most of my teen years with blue
jeans and T-shirts.  My ROTC haircut made the dopeheads think I was a
narc.

No Earth shoes... just real horrorshow boots, good for kicking...



Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 05:34:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Bikers and such
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Whatever # it was, it's the one which was HQ'ed at Fort Knox, KY in
-> the early '70's. Saw them all over the place back then. N

Sometime after WWII the AAF removed the nose art from their aircraft.
During Desert Storm there was a big fuss when nose art sprang back up
again; Schwartzkopf made them take it off *right now*.  Probably
offended the pissy little Euros or something.

I was down visiting my brother in Florida the other day.  He's in a
USAF Special Ops unit.  They have nose art on all their aircraft, and
huge banners on their hangars - grim reapers, the horsemen of the
Apocalypse, etc.  He said the PsyOps people decided it would be a good
idea, so it's *required*.  Cool.

They work with the Army fast-response units.  The Army guys ride
big-bore dirt bikes with light-amplifier helmets like something out of
"Timerider."  Kevin says there is no depth perception with the images in
the helmets, so it takes lots of practice for them to make speed in the
woods.



Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 14:47:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Bikers and such
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Remember the Dirt Bike guys are haulin ass, wearing a helmet that is
-> I'd venture a cross between a motorcycle helmet and a military
-> ballistiic type.

Every year the first bike leads the first car at the Baja 1000 by a
substantial margin.  You can really make time on a bike.

In WWI, the German armor units used motorcycles as scouts.  (Infantry
used bicycle scouts)  Tuchman and Marshall both mentioned that after a
few engagements the French learned the sound of motorcycles meant the
tanks were coming up to put some industrial-strength whoop-ass on them.
After a while, French troops would break and run at the sound of even a
single motorcycle.



Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 15:27:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Focus Targets Hot Rodders
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> You've got a point.  I think a lot of it has to do with modern
-> parenting techniques coupled with a weird desire to be your kids'
-> best friend, rather than sometimes being the Bad Guy.

We're on the third generation of feral parents raising feral children,
thanks to bizarre Lysenkoist "educational theory" and "scientific child
raising."

Kemper was right; the private school/public school division is
beginning to reflect the developing class structure in the modern USA.



Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 15:10:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Bikers and such
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> affordable.    "Don't Tread on Me"     was after being looked down
-> upon, and shun to some degree, by those they fought to protect.

"Don't Tread On Me" goes *way* back.  If it hadn't been for some
last-minute good-old-boy shenanigans it would have been the US flag
instead of the Stars and Stripes.  It goes back even further than that,
though.  Some of the privateers used that flag before and during the
Revolutionary War.  Vice-President Aaron Burr had planned to put it on
his flag after he set himself up as Emperor Aaron I of Mexico, but Andy
Jackson brought him back to Congress in chains.



Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 15:41:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Cool guns
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Holy shit I want one!  Fully automatic handgun.
->
-> Fires a 9" long (wild ass guess) clip in slightly over a second.

Almost completely useless.  Come to the next LFB and I'll let you shoot
my MAC-11.  1400 rounds per minute - it's almost a single shot firearm
until you learn how to tickle the trigger right.  It's also
uncontrollable without the shoulder stock and barrel extension; add
those and you might as well have a real SMG.

I wanted it; I paid a lot of money for it and went through all the
Federal bullshit to get it, but it's not nearly what I thought it'd be.
It turns out the real trick is to *lower* the rate of fire to something
useful, in the 300-400 RPM range.  The old Thompson and some of the M3s
would do that.

There are few things that give as big of a thrill as holding onto Mad
MAC with the selector set to rock-and-roll, but it's a piss-poor excuse
for a firearm.  Any full-auto pistol will have the same problems as the
MAC.

Presidential bodyguards used to carry MAC-11s.  Take a look at when
Reagan got shot; you'll see them waving them around.  Now they carry
Mini-Uzis, which are very similar.  MAC went out of business some years
ago.

First time I noticed, I thought, "hey, cool!"  Then I thought about it.
Carrying the little machine pistols tells me they don't give a shit
about spraying bystanders with uncontrolled fire.  I wouldn't care to be
standing near any Prez, VP, or Secretary of State in a public place.



Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 19:52:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: scum
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I do _quite_ well without a mailer and a client;  last time, vast
-> quantities of E-mail just vanished - and I _paid_ for that!

That's what you get for trusting someone else to make and maintain
backups of your data.


I got a referral from one of the local computer stores last week.  A
bank had a Unix box and they wanted another serial port installed.  All
the person knew was that it already had two cards with two ports each,
and that it was an AT clone.

I asked for the usual information - OS version, if they had the
original installation tapes or CDs, root password, if they had a current
backup, if it was okay to take the system down during the day or did
they want me to do it after hours, etc.  They said they'd find out and
get back to me.

No call; later I found out through the grapevine that the question
about backups spooked them.  If I wanted to know about backups, maybe I
didn't know what I was doing...  the grapevine indicated they were
running four ATMs on a Unix box with no backup device.

Ri-ight.  I wouldn't have touched that box with a ten foot pole anyway.


Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 19:53:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Bikers and such
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> their favorite soccer teams coat of arms, it provides the required
-> amount of team spirit and aggression - remember we invented soccer
-> violence here.

A friend in Plymouth refers to it as "audience participation."

Why should the guys on the field have all the fun?



Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 22:06:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Bikers and such
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >  Vice-President Aaron Burr had planned to put it on
-> > his flag after he set himself up as Emperor Aaron I of Mexico, but
-> > Andy
-> > Jackson brought him back to Congress in chains.

> You have to wonder what difference if Andrew
> had not made that particular little trip.

I tend to think it might have worked out better, at least in the end.
Burr's little empire probably wouldn't have lasted, but chances are
Mexico would have wound up as part of the USA.  That would have changed

the status of the western territories substantially, as most of that
land was claimed by Mexico.  The Louisiana Purchase wouldn't have looked
like such a hot deal, which would have made the center of the country
even less accessible to the original thirteen colonies.  Hmm...



Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 22:10:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Poignant copy
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> oil, and electricity... Like Gods were those men.
-> Small wonder the traces of them would best be removed.
-> People would see and know and dream.

Sometimes Man transcends the ordinary and does things *just because*.

Consider the artwork of the Nazca plateau; compare it to Crazy Horse or
the Gateway Arch...



Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 05:44:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Bikers and such
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Dave, the Germans hardly had any tanks during WW1, so what's this all
-> about? Theirs was just a rolling fort, without any industrial
-> whoopass. You sure about this piece of triv?

Most armor in WWI was what we'd call armored cars or APCs nowadays, not
what you'd think of as a tank.  They usually carried machine guns.  The
machine gun was the atomic bomb of WWI, and killed a hell of a lot more
people too.  Some of them towed light artillery, but more just to get
the stuff to the combat zone and drop it off than as an adjunct to the
vehicle.

Nobody expected the armor to hold up against artillery; it just had to
be reasonably proof against French Lebels and British .303 and .30'06
rifles.

Manchester's "The Guns of Krupp" has an amusing story of Krupp's
attempt to sell armor plate to the Kaiser's army.  He set up a pillbox
made of the plate on one of the military firing range.  Someone was
supposed to sit in the box while the machine gunners hosed it.  The
officers were sure the plate was too thin to be proof against the 8mm
cartridges; not only did none of them volunteer, they wouldn't even send
an enlisted man out there.  It looked like Krupp was going to lose the
contract, so old Krupp climbed into the pillbox himself and told them to
open up.  He never did hear too good after that, but he got the
contract.

Anyway, as far as the Kaiser was concerned, it was armor.



Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 05:53:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Cool guns
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Kemper, ever been on the range when someone's 1911 went full auto?

The last time Kemper and I went shooting my very first shot resulted in
the empty case (1911 in .45) hitting me in the face.  That happens; most
firearms are "ergonomic", which means they're deliberately designed to
make it as awkward as possible to handle left-handed.

I noticed Kemper giving me a strange look.  The empty case had failed
to bounce off my head.  Instead, it was wedged just over the bridge of
my nose, between my glasses and forehead.

Naturally, we had no camera on hand...  but nowhere near as painful
when my buddy Jay shot me in the head with his .44 Magnum.



Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 06:40:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Bikers and such
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Didn't Rommel have a good size tank corps down in Africa?

That was WWII.  The British pioneered tanks-as-we-know-them in WWI, but
the usual British military fuckups made it hard to evaluate their
usefulness.  The Brits dropped the idea for a while.  The Czechs went
right on and started making tanks, but they couldn't afford many, and by
the time the Panzers rolled in what they had was obsolete.  In France,
the High Command was so retro-hidebound-inflexible that they were
absolutely unwilling to look at anything new.  The younger officers did
what they could to get tanks and develop tactics.  A certain Colonel De
Gaulle gets a lot of credit, but he was actually just one of many.

In Germany the situation was similar, except the tank proponents had to
make do with cardboard taped to old staff cars.  Heinz Guderian was one
of the tank proponents.  Guderian managed to capture Hitler's approval
after bypassing the normal chain of command; Hitler was enchanted by the
concept of an armored, high speed strike force, promoted Guderian, and
rammed the Panzers down the throat of the General Staff.  At the
beginning of WWII the Germans were the only ones with *effective* tanks.
To all the other military forces, tanks were self-propelled light
artillery mixed in with infantry; Guderian and Hitler thought in terms
of tank *divisions*.  To be fair, so did some of the French and British,
but only Guderian was able to get backing for the idea.  The concept was
validated over and over as the Panzer Korps rolled through
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and France with
hardly any effective opposition.  Generals still thought in terms of
masses of troops; by the time they could arrange things for battle, the
Panzers were already well behind their lines, cutting off their
communications and supplies.  The French High Command, in particular,
never *did* seem to understand what was happening to them; they simply
denied the reports of their own intelligence system and wound up moving
imaginary troops against imaginary enemies, much like Hitler did only
five years later.

Whoops, there's your overdose of military history for this morning...



Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 06:10:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: junk mail
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 01:07:43 -0500 (EST)
-> From: Shot803@
-> Subject: Footwork Porsche
-> To: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us
->
-> Hello Dave,
->
-> My name is Tim Benton and I am looking for a 1:18th scale Diecast
-> Footwork Porsche.  If you know of a collector or secondary market
-> where one could be found I would appreciate the help.  By the way I
-> am a fan of Jordan Grand Prix.
->
-> Thanking You in Advance,
->
-> Tim

Well, at least this one is comprehensible... I get stuff like this
fairly regularly, but it's usually rude demands for the main bearing
size of some Japanese-spec Subaru I've never heard of, or the electrical
diagrams for a 1963 Fairlane (high resolution only), or...  about half
of them, I can only guess at what they want, though they seem damned
insistent about it.  Hell, this one is even polite and has punctuation.

What the fuck is this?  I mean, it's been going on for *years*.  Does
someone have a web page for "Dave The Answer Man" or something?  What
makes people I've never heard of think I'll send them a complete set of
blueprints for an RS200, or decode the data plate on a '57 Chevy?

Does anyone else get stuff like this?



Date: Fri, 03 Nov 2000 17:50:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: junk mail
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Or would you give me the hac for this or that ecm?.

I get a lot of things like, "The timming belt page on youre web doesnt
list my Lautentian Gold Altima S30 what is the beltchange mile?"  or
"can you send me the wheel bolt pattern and offset for a 1937 Packard,
you didn't put that one on your page."

No, asshole, it's not on the page.  I secretly divined someone might
want that information, so I left it off deliberately.  Gorons...


-> Since when do I owe them this stuff?

The message I forwarded was just a polite enquiry; it was notable
mainly for being literate and polite, though I have no idea how he
managed to link me with model cars.  A good chunk of the messages I get
*demand* information, or for me to write their term papers, or whatever.
I usually forward the more interesting ones to some friends and send the
originals to the bit bucket.


-> Or would you give me the hac for this or that ecm?.

Nah, you're probably just hoarding them so you can revel in your Secret
Knowledge... 



Date: Sat, 04 Nov 2000 22:05:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Tanks (was: Bikers and such)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> It's actually interesting to read Churchill's history, and then read
-> Eisenhower's book, and then a biography of Patton...

I just finished Eisenhower's book.  I don't think he fought the same
war Churchill did.

Despite their genuflections to each other in their books, I get the
strong impression there was no love lost between them.  Eisenhower says
he dealt almost daily with Churchill months before the Torch landings in
Africa, yet he claims he "didn't understand why the Prime Minister
attented the meetings of the Allied Command."  Apparently nobody told
Eisenhower that Churchill also wore the hat of Minister of War, and no
British troops or materiel went anywhere without his approval.
Meanwhile, Churchill makes almost no mention of Eisenhower until the
very end of his history, where Eisenhower pops up, commands the D-Day
invasion, and fades back out of sight.


-> than that, although it would be interesting to read what Montgomery
-> and Bradley thought at the time (or rather what they claimed
-> afterwards).

Montgomery was a gen-u-ine British nutter.  Eisenhower wasn't far
behind, judging from his own words in "Crusade In Europe."

I'm not as much interested in battles as I am the logistics and
politics behind what went on.  Kahn and Winterbotham, among others, have
radically changed the interpretations of standard histories like
Churchill and Eisenhower's, with their explanations of Ultra and the
lesser intelligence available.  The OSS takes credit for the troubles in
the Balkans that delayed Barbarossa; as far as I can tell there's at
least some truth in that.



Date: Sat, 04 Nov 2000 22:11:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Message from Larry H
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> "THEREALGORE.COM -- the Web site for information on Vice President Al

For some reason I parsed that as 'There Al Gore" instead of "The Real
Gore."

- Dave "Werewolf?  *There* wolf!" Williams



Date: Sun, 05 Nov 2000 07:26:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: scum
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Mike  (still no idea on the loss of continuity)

Continuity?  If I ever contract Alzheimer's I probably won't notice;
I'm used to processing in packets.  



Date: Sun, 05 Nov 2000 20:31:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: scum
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >I'm used to processing in packets.  

-> Hmmm.
-> Are those like quanta?

Packets *contain* quanta, if you think of quanta as ones and zeroes.

They're a higher level of abstraction.

- Dave (abstracted)



Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 14:50:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: [pcct] Please shoot me if......
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Enter key -- too long, in our opinion -- you'll receive a response,
-> culled from various text files on your hard drive. As with most AI
-> programs, every once in a while you'll get a response that actually
-> makes sense.

...now my darkest secret is exposed!  I'm really just a
not-too-sophisticated parsing program.  Dave's not here, man...



Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 15:35:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Attention fellow conspiracy theorists!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> sites. Both the students and the teachers are carefully seduced into
-> believing  that they have undergone an "Educational Experience".

Same shit, different media.  They were trying to push the "programmed
learning" crap at us in the '60s with slides and long play records.
Didn't work worth shit.  Then in the '80s they started pushing
"educational TV" in the classroom.  As far as I know that was a dud too.
Now it's computers and the net.  Big friggin' whoopee.  Sounds like a
ploy to save money from one pocket by reducing the schoolbook count,
while billing the IT pocket for the computers.

The "professional educators" are too damned lazy or incompetent to
actually teach anything, and no amount of clicking is going to help the
total and functional illiterates who comprise a large and rising
percentage of each class.

It's just another version of the electronic pacifier.



Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 16:58:06 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: E-Book Format Wars
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Imagine:  pay, let's say, $20 and get the right to read your e-book
-> forever.  For the paltry sum of $5 it will be readable for a month.
-> No need to worry about those pesky used book sales; unless you can
-> enter the unlock key you have to pay a whole new entry fee.  Just
-> imagine the continued profit margin on textbooks!

There's a small but vehement subset of writers who'd love to see the
return of pay-per-loan public libraries and the abolition of used book
stores.

Yeah, I forgot about the people who'd love to limit you to one or two
reads of your electronic storage module.  I kept focussing on the
likely-short useable lifespan of the format.

You can read 4,000 year old Egyptian papyri, assuming you can read
heiroglyphic Egyptian.  What can you do with a hard-sectored 8"
Northstar floppy disk in CP/M format?  That's only 20 years old and
you're hosed unless you get lucky at a hamfest.




Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000 15:40:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Vote Nader
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> A motocycle cop in my little town was killed a few weeks ago in that

As far as I'm concerned a lone motorcycle cop is a suicide looking for
a place to happen.

Riding a bike is risky enough without having "TARGET!" signalled to
every freakazoid on wheels.



Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 18:52:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Gore/Bush
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I think you have come unstuck, Fred.Since when is notoriety or
-> celebrity
-> equal to a proven ability to serve ?


Nobody even expects a politician to be competent any more; about the
best you can hope for is entertainment.



Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 18:58:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Electoral votes
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Kevin "Down with the 2 party system!"

The real voting was done at the National Conventions that elected the
delegates.  All you get to do is choose between them.

In the USSR, the Party chose the delegates, and the electorate
confirmed them.

Not a hell of a lot of difference, if you think of it.



Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 19:24:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Electoral votes
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Now anti-gay: I know of no anti-gay policies or positions by true
-> conservatives.

Well, since part of your definition of "true conservative" seems to
mean no anti-gay policies or positions...

Like the old saying goes, "A politician's platform is like the platform
on the end of a train.  It's not for riding on, it's for getting in on."

What a politician says during election years has almost no bearing on
what he does in office.  Most of these people probably don't even *have*
opinions of their own; they just say whatever they think will be
advantageous in the short term.



Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 22:56:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Electoral votes
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> What I'm saying is the liberals make conservatives out to be anti-gay
-> if they are not Pro-gay.

Well, of course.  That's a typical liberal mindset.  If you're not
gung-ho for, you must be entirely opposed.  "Doesn't give a shit" does
not compute for them.



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 11:32:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: 9 guidelines
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The Principles of War are frequently mentioned as a valuable,
-> ingrained, check list toward achieving success.


I don't know where those came from, but they sure look a lot like Sun
Tzu, circa China's Warring States period.

- Dave "I really don't read too much" Williams



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 11:59:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Cool guns
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> So, what the hell IS a gravlock

That's easy; that's what holds the shuttlecraft in the hangar deck.
What Sally was doing with them in the kitchen... you probably don't want
to know the gory details.


-> Builders have to pay extra for recirculating hoods. Why don't they
-> all just vent it to the outside? Gorons, I guess.

Depends on the fashion of the times.  Recirculating hoods "save energy"
by keeping the heat in the house.  South of the Mason-Dixon Line, air
conditioning is usually considerably more expensive than heating.
Gorons, yes, they're everywhere.


-> So exactly what were Chef Sally's gravlocks like?

Wonderful, especially with quadrotriticale!

- Dave "Who put the tribbles in the quadrotriticale?" Williams



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 14:22:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Ongoing election fraud
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> And for you strict constructionists, where does the Constitution
-> require you to be smart to either vote or hold office?

You know, voting is a lot like playing the lottery, with about the same
chance of getting what you want.



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 14:32:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Cool guns
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Now that was a coke snot blower if I ever read one. Glad I wasn't
-> drinking coke. I'm a director now in a paneled office.

Right.  Upper management should drink tea or Perrier!


Your underlings may not even know you have a twisted sense of humor.

They probably just think you're really, really weird...




Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 14:34:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: a different view on Iwo Jima
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> him..  I guess we are all a "sum total" of our life's journey.
-> 

I *knew* I should've bought that map...



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 14:55:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ongoing election fraud
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> way, I would apply English language requirement to both voters and
-> new citizens, as well. How can they be full participants otherwise?

Back some years ago there was a Chinese guy in the shop where I worked.
Hanh was from Taiwan originally; he and some of his family had been in
Laos when Carter brought one of the bunches of refugees over, and Hanh
and much of his family had chosen to accept Unka Jimmuh's generous offer
of citizenship and schooling, which the State Department applied equally
to anyone who got herded on the boats, apparently...

Anyway, Hanh was a decent sort.  He and a couple of cousins were
relocated here, his brother and some others in Dallas.  One day he
decides Dallas isn't too far to drive - like most foreigners, he was
intimidated by the distances in the USA - and drove down to visit.

Hanh's vocabulary was fine; he could read or listen to English with no
problem.  His accent was so thick you could cut it with a knife, but
that's pretty common with immigrants.  Accent is harder than vocabulary.

Anyway, I came in a few days later, and Hanh was back and he was
*freaked*  As in, barely functional.  Bad culture shock.  The story, as
I got it in bits and pieces, was that he'd made it to Dallas
successfully and was enjoying his visit.  As his hosts were preparing
the evening meal they were out of something or the other, so Hanh
volunteered to drive down to the store and get some.  He was very uneasy
in the store, and then it hit him.  There were signs all over the
place... but he couldn't read them.  Nothing made any sense.  He thought
he was going crazy.  Dropped everything on the floor, ran to the car,
made it back to his brother's, and started working on a total nervous
breakdown.  His brother eventually got the story from him, and explained
that they were in a Hispanic part of town; the reason Hanh couldn't read
anything was because all the signs were in Spanish.

Hanh was alternating between freaked and angry.  "What?  You go to
China, everybody speak Chinese!  You go to America, not everybody speak
American?  What?  What is this?"


I can see his point.  I'm sympathetic with the Hispanic population and
their culture, but if they want to participate as citizens, they need to
spikka de goddamn Eeengleesh like-a everybody else.  They're not any
sort of special case; a sizeable chunk of the Thirteen Colonies spoke
German, but they had to learn English.  Parts of Florida spoke Spanish
and had to give it up, and the same with the territories of the
California and New Mexico, not to mention the Frenchies that came along
with the Louisiana Purchase.  Setting up little Hispanic ghettoes is not
the answer.  Quebecois in-your-face bilingualism isn't either.



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 15:27:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: suzuki.4x4 OT a different view on Iwo Jima
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> if we took all the resources wasted on wars over the last 1000 years
-> and used it to invest in society, we could

Just for the last major war, most of Europe, North Africa, Southeast
Asia, and probably Australia and New Zealand would be de facto slave
states of the Third Reich and the Japanese Empire.  The Nazis would
probably have a firm grip on South America, and the US and Canada would
have their heads stuck firmly up their asses so they could pretend
everything was juuuust fiiiine...

War is bad.  Many times, peace can be worse.  Chamberlain and the
British Parliament, the various French leaders of the Third Republic,
and the isolationist elements in the USA really believed they could turn
the other cheek, give Mussolini and Hitler what they wanted, and the bad
boys wouldn't come over and kick the shit out of them.  That kind of
thinking doesn't work in the third grade, and it doesn't work in
international diplomacy either.

Britain and France paid bitter prices for the few years of peace they
purchased from 1935 to 1939; the remains of two of the largest colonial
empires in the world and the legions of their dead put a different slant
on "peace at any price."



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 18:14:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: LARGO: Read about the VICTORY before it happens!!
To: largo@chambana.com

-> Hear!  Hear!  BTW, from the dusty volumes of historical trivia, did
-> you know that in old Saxon England almost _no_ new laws were passed
-> during the two centuries between 800 and 1000?  And, yet, the kingdom
-> worked and worked well during that time.

The Saxons weren't really into writing things down.  Everyone was
supposed to know how things worked.  That later became the basis for
English Common Law.



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 18:11:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ongoing election fraud
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> That's because the separate states provided for voter qualifications
-> within their own states, some of which required land holdings, age
-> limits, race and gender profiles. Norm

Perzackitly.

Things were a bit more complex then.  The comment about "service" meant
persons under indenture, which was common then.  (Ben Franklin's father
sold him under an indenture, and a lot of immigrants indentured
themselves to pay for passage.  We don't have indentures any more; we
have the IRS instead) and "Indians not taxed" (note the Constitution
does *not* say "Native American...") to differentiate from taxed
Indians, who were legally voting citizens, like the Cherokee before
Andy Jackson de-citizenized them at gunpoint.

Nobody mentioned slaves, women, or children for the same reason they
didn't mention dogs, field mice, or octopi; they considered it perfectly
obvious none of them were citizens.

Then, as you mentioned, the individual states had plenty of say in
matters not specifically defined.



Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 21:47:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ongoing election fraud
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Amen brother!
-> If you can't speak our screwed up language then go back to where you
-> came from!

That's probably the worst approach to the Spanish problem.  Go out to
California or Nuevo Mexico and there are families who can trace their
lines of descent to back well before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth
Rock.

"Hey, Anglo, go back where you came from!"

Like the Indians, the Hispanics' main problem seemed to be the lack of
a properly restrictive immigration policy...



Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 17:48:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ongoing election fraud
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> It must look very Rube Goldberg on the backside in the guts of the
-> thing, but for the voter it's so simple: You close the curtain behind
-> you with a big pull lever, you pull the tiny levers for your party or
-> individual candidates. When you push back the big lever to let
-> yourself out, a bell rings and your vote's recorded. No worries mate:
-> no fine print, no writing, no hole punching, no computer hacking, no
-> power outage issues.

Arkansas' voting booths are like that.  However, they work in a way I
found most peculiar - the levers are there for all the offices up for
vote at the time, like President, Governor, etc.  Then all the way down
to county fire hydrant inspector and stuff you never even heard of, much
less have an opinion about.

You must vote for *all* positions before the big lever will move.  So
I usually wound up flipping levers up and down in alternation just so I
could get the hell out of there.

Elections really *are* like giant slot machines...



Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 17:52:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ongoing election fraud
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> > hell..in hillbilly town tennessee, we have computerized boting >
-> booths...

> You have to boat to the polls ?:)

Sure.  The old "landowner" thing was deemed too restrictive since a
majority of people rent nowadays.  However, every resident of Tennessee
has at least one bass boat, so the change made things more equitable.



Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 09:10:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ignition only  (bwa-ha-haaaaa...!)
To: diy_efi@diy-efi.org

-> I'm thinking the SAE probably has reams of stuff about spark systems
-> - with pictures? Anyone see any nice references they'd like to share?

naca.larc.nasa.gov; the dollars of the American taxpayer doing
something useful, for a change.  Also lots of stuff on combustion, fuel
injection, and so forth.  And for those with a letch for the exotic,
lots of declassified Cold War goodies; anyone up for boron-magnesium
slurry fuels?  How about half a dozen papers on how to make your own
mass air meters, or measurement of combustion pressure?  How about
algorithms for a MAP system with AFR trimmed by exhaust back pressure?
Dozens - literally - of papers on supercharger design and construction.
Fuel chemistry.  And, yes, ignition...

That site was like a peek at the Promised Land; the top of my modem
took on a definite concave curve, and I filled half of a 10Gb drive.  I
wanted to make sure I got everything useful before some bureaucrat
decided it was a waste of money and pulled the plug.

Oh, yeah, they wasted a bunch of space on airplanes and junk like that,
too...  but they have 56 papers on the design of airships!  And papers
by people like Werner Heisenberg and Charles P. Steinmetz, and some of
the original papers that people like Rogowski, Schwitzer, and Taylor
built upon to eventually become the Usual Sources for engine design,
and...



Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 18:20:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Lawyers...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> gave to his protege. "When the law's on your side, pound the law.
-> When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. And when
-> neither is on your side, pound the table."

That would fit Soviet 'diplomacy' to a T.  Andrei Gromyko started it in
the mid '50s, best as I can tell; by the early '60s even Khruschev was
doing it.

I'm still boring steadily through Dean Acheson's biography.  He was
Secretary of State under Truman.  Acheson's comments on dealing with the
Soviets are right in line with those from such personages as Adolf
Hitler and Richard Nixon, who both expounded on the problem at length.



Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 18:25:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Lawyers...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> 202, give them enough science to make any event seem likely
-> having bullets back up to hit a second victim comes to mind, (funny
-> this is Nov).

I've read half a dozen books on the JFK assassination.  Even the media
realized the 'magic bullet' was pure bullshit.

The more I read about the subject, the more amazed I am at how DPD, the
Secret Service, and the FBI all operated at a level equivalent to that
of the Three Stooges impersonating the Keystone Kops.  In all the
excitement, I can understand some fuckups would be made, but it's *all*
fuckups; like Fidel Castro said, nobody would believe that plot even in
a cheap movie.



Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 06:33:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Free book about engine simulation
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> "In the future, computers will make your life easier." - Discovery
-> '67(?)
-> "This is the future, and computers are making your life easier." -
-> ATT , or some other fuckheads

I don't know about "easier"... but my computer is essentially an
enhanced replacement for my old typewriter and the telephone.  The stuff
I used to type up and put in binders now goes into the DbFH and various
files; it lets me manage a shitload more information than I could on
paper.  Well, *effectively* manage; I could possibly have indexed and
filed all the paper eventually.

About 75% of my keyboard time is plain old communication, replacing
letters and telephone calls.  It has dramatically broadened my world;
the people I've met and the things I've learned online completely
overshadow what I've been able to pick up locally and from books or
magazine articles.

Communications and storage; I do damned little "computing" in the sense
of databases or math.  Sometimes if I'm on the phone I'll fire up
Solitaire or Mah Jongg; I guess that's 100% of my gaming.

The computer is transparent to me now; it's like a third lobe in my
brain.  I don't do anything with it I couldn't (eventually) do without a
computer, but it makes my world a little larger and brighter.

Isn't that enough?



Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 07:15:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Lawyers...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The whole system took a dump, when the Warren commision (is commision
-> antyhing like a committe?),  accepted all the BS in the first report.

The conspiracy theorists feel Johnson told the Commission what they
were going to find, and their job was to arrange things to support that
conclusion.  Earl Warren was a party hack and a flaming asshole; he's
the one, btw, responsible for various crimes against American citizens
of Japanese descent during WWII.  Gerald Ford was a junior Congressman
and nobody, as were a couple of others... but John J. McCloy, Dulles,
and others were seriously powerful, connected types, and generally not
considered partisan.  Most of the Commission had law degrees; McCloy had
been in charge of the Nuremburg Trials after WWII, yet the Commission's
utter disregard for any type of investigative procedure or even checking
its facts is beyond belief.  Even their own massive report, which I've
read, doesn't show enough facts to support their conclusions.

It has been mentioned in many places that many of the Commission
members were very unhappy at being selected and initially refused to
participate; it took several meetings with Johnson before some of them
cooperated.

The main effect of the Commission was to short-circuit normal
investigative procedures.  DPD, the Secret Service, etc. all turned over
evidence to the Commission, critical pieces of which were "lost."  By
the time the Commission finished and regurgitated its report, too much
time had passed and too much evidence was gone for a real investigation
to be made.

The Commission itself was investigated in the early '70s, and the
second commission found the first was unjustified in its conclusions,
that evidence had been tampered with, and the commission had acted in an
incompetent fashion.  However, it was too late to do anything about it.


What makes the JFK assassination so fascinating is the sheer quantity
of loose ends.  Like I said earlier, it was *all* a fuckup, from the
time Kennedy got off the airplane through the second Commission ten
years afterward.  The more you read about it, the more loose ends and
unexplained gaps turn up.




Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 06:58:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Archaeology, genetics, and linguistics work together (LONG)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> possible by the invention of agriculture. But it now seems that the
-> world filled up early and the first inhabitants were quite resistant
-> to displacement by later arrivals.

I have an interesting volume called "The Origins of War", in which the
author shows sketches of some of the earliest known villages.  He points
out that their location is almost always in the most defensible area,
not necessarily the most practical for access to water, etc., and that
almost all of them were fortified to a greater of lesser degree; some
with substantial earthworks in addition to walls.

I guess without cars, computers, or television, there wasn't much to do
other than kill each other.



Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 07:17:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Lawyers...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Hell--to this day, I believe that Ford's appointment as VP (by Nixon)
-> was a political payoff for keeping his mouth shut about the doings of
-> the Commission!

Nixon wrote many books, but I can't even remember him mentioning Ford's
name, even in his memoir about Watergate.  Nixon was, by my standards,
an asshole, and by his own writings pretty much of a Pointy-Haired Boss,
but he was a big believer in the good-old-boy and taking-care-of-friends
networks, which both aided and hampered his career.  He makes a special
point of mentioning these people, some of whom he only met a time or
two, but nothing on Ford.

I have the impression Ford was wished on him by the party.

I've never been one of Uncle Jerry's fans, but he did pretty well,
considering what he inherited - the media was full of themselves for
pulling down an incumbent, and Ford stepped right into their sights.
The Energy Crisis, a fairly severe depression (I was there, and it
sucked), problems with the FBI, the loss of the war in Vietnam... Ford
didn't do anything notable in office, but on the other hand he made it
through without getting any of the shit stuck on him, either.
Considering where he started from, that's quite an accomplishment.




Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 15:31:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: DIY EGOR
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Just wants to about make me want to cry at times.  For all the
-> Fu@king effort folks put into saying it won't work.   Like this silly
-> thread about coils, gads, all the theory in the worls don't mean
-> chit,

I've always been annoyed at how a majority of people will put forth
more effort trying to sabotage something than they would to support it.

"That thing will never fly..."

Or like that Yoda comment; unless success is guaranteed, don't even
bother.  ("Do, or do not.  There is no try." as Yoda's defeatist
philosophy put it)



Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 15:41:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Lawyers...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> didn't fuck things up royally because he didn't think he had to "do
-> something" (which tends to mean make a big nuisance of one's self).

Sometimes doing nothing really *is* the best course.  The crusader
types have always been trouble.


->  Well, except for pardoning Nixon,

That didn't help Nixon either.  Since he had not actually been
convicted of anything, Ford's action nulled any chances Nixon had of
bringing matters to a conclusion (microscopic though those chances were)
by implying guilt with a pardon.  Like Truman and Roosevelt, I have the
impression there was no love lost between Ford and Nixon.



Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 16:21:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Also shuffling off this mortal coil...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Saddened to hear of the death of L S DeCamp. His books had a
-> significant influence on me in my younger days. Try his "The Ancient
-> Engineers"

I didn't discover that one until just a few years ago, but it's
something any fangler ought to read, along with Willy Ley's "Engineer
Dreams."

I'd bet "The Ancient Engineers" is out of print.  It might be available
through ILL.

De Camp's fiction wasn't too bad.  I think my favorite was "The Worlds
of If", but that could be because alternate universe stories have always
tweaked my imagination.  "The Incompleat Enchanter" was fairly good.  At
least I understood why it made such a splash when it came out; it marked
a major departure from the way fantasy stories had always been written.
Now it's old hat.  Just another arrow in the back of those who blaze new
trails, I guess.



Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 17:10:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: What I did this weekend
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> << Which First World War?  The most recent one ended in 1918. >>

> How was the great conflict of the '40s not a "Word War"?
> I guess WWI did have more entrants in the conflict....

Churchill's "History of the English-Speaking Peoples" mentions two of
the British-against-the-world spats in the 1600s were called "The World
War" and the "Second World War" back then.  Tom Leone has read up on it
more recently than I have; he might remember the dates and the
combatants.  1914-1918 was "The Great War", "The World War", or "The War
to End All Wars" until 1941-ish, when the terminology went to "World War
One" and "World War Two."

"What goes around comes around", or something along that line.



Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 17:18:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: More fun on L. Sprague
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> He never actually said anything against DeCamp except that he could
-> not for his life write in the Howard style

Well, neither could Carter.  I realize Carter was a hack who was
churning stuff out to pay the rent, but everything he wrote always
seemed... unfinished.  Some of it wasn't half bad, except for that.


-> Personally, I hope he meets Robert Howard's spirit in Vahalla, and
-> Howard rips his fucking head off...

I probably read most of the Conan stuff in my teen years, but I don't
remember being greatly impressed by it.  Some of Howard's lesser-known
stuff was better, though I can't think of any titles offhand.  Of
course, there wasn't much Howard in most of the Conan stuff, even when
his successors twisted every Howard fragment they could into "Conan"
material.



Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 13:01:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Shareware house plan software?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Anybody know of a piece of software that would allow me to layout
-> walls in various locations in a basement? I checked tucows but no go
-> :(

What's wrong with graph paper and some strips of cardboard?  It's cheap
and the learning curve is zero.


I'm reminded of a former employer who popped for the full-dress
version of AutoCAD, a plotter, and various paraphernalia so they could
revise cubicle arrangements.  Perhaps I should have taken that as a
warning; after that they did a re-org about every three weeks.



Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 18:22:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Klinton in Nam
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I knew some tough guys back then, tough meaning could absorb alot and
-> then continue fighting.  One guy had lost both of his arms above the
-> elbows,

Nobody in DC ever sees any of this.

I'd like to see a bunch of the Secret Service and US Marines who do
ceremonial and bodyguard duty in DC rotated out and replaced with an
honor guard composed of disabled vets who are still ambulatory enough to
pull at least half a shift.  I bet there'd be plenty of volunteers for
recall to active duty.  Put 'em in uniform and put them all around the
memorials and the White House, where it wouldn't be possible for a
politician to even get to work without having to look at shitty
VA plastic surgery and low-bidder VA prostheses.  Call them the
Presidential Guard and bury them in the White House grounds as they die,
so that no incumbent can look out a window without seeing exactly who
pays their price for their "policies."


-> upsetting about Gore claiming to be a Nam Vet..  5 months in country,

I'm not *that* upset; hell, he was there.  My Dad spent at least four
years in Vietnam as an electrician, he didn't see any combat either.

However, the people Gore probably hopes to impress with his claim are
likely to be the ones most pissed that he didn't do a full tour.  It's
probably not helping with the hardcore Democrats, who usually think the
military is evil.



Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 18:38:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Doesn't this sound like fun?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> SALE 31-1008 HAZARDOUS MATERIAL/CHEMICAL PRODUCTS Sale 31-1008 This
...
-> carbonate, sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide, thermometers, toner,

Sodium chloride?  SALT?  SALT IS A HAZMAT?  WHAAAAAAT?

Is the state of Utah applying for Superfund money?



Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 18:30:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: FE's don't handle (Was: cobras)
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> If it's frozen they call it ICE not water!


Naw, if it's frozen it's one of the hundred-odd variants of "snow".


- Dave "Watch out where the huskies go..." Williams



Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 11:52:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Klinton in Nam
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The handicapped in general are just invisible to many folks.
-> That or talked down to in such a way that it makes you want to puke.

Every now and then I get the chance to talk to one of the wheelies when
he's getting in or out of his vehicle.  Sometimes they're otherwise
able-bodied and can swing from the chair into the driver's seat and stow
the chair behind them; I talked to one guy who did that.  He was an
ex-cop who lost both legs in a car wreck.  He said it was pretty
awkward, but it let him drive any two-door car with simple hand
controls, which gave him a whole lot more selection to choose from.
I've talked to several of the conversion van guys who were thrilled to
show me how the hydraulics and chair locks worked.  I guess not many
people are interested.  Hell, if mobility is a big deal to us, I can
imagine what it must be to a wheelie.  Behind the wheel they're just
like anyone else.  They climb out, and they're a cripple in a
wheelchair.


-> A loaded firearm, with a vet near some Presidents sure would cure
-> alot of the country's ills, that's for sure....

The thought brings a warmth to your heart, doesn't it?

There are probably legions of vets out there who would be willing to
trade the last few years of their lives to do a service to their
country.

I suspect a lot of them would think it was a damned fine idea, if
someone suggested it to them.  The difference between modern Democrat
democracy and Communist democracy is getting pretty damned small.



Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 06:23:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us
Subject: RE: Re: [locost] Adaptor or bellhousing question
To: locost@egroups.com

-> What is a "deep pilot bush"?

I think I saw that at one of those sleazy little theaters in San
Francisco...



Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 17:56:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Ebay - we have a winner
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> this is one of the evil twins of the escaped clones from Dave's
-> genetic experiments in the 60s

I suspected there were a few left loose.  The rest of them hang around
the shop, get in my way, and drink all my beer.  And if they play that
Cheech & Chong skit *ONE MORE TIME* I'm going to do something drastic
with the MAC-11...

- Dave "Still crazy after all these years" Williams



Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 18:31:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: The worst thing about windblows
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Micro$hit Windblows is how it decides to move my desktop icons from
-> their "proper" positions to what it "thinks" they belong.  I put them
-> where I put them for a freaking reason.

95 seems to leave mine alone.  Though if I change screen resolutions it
doesn't seem smart enough to deal with it.

One of the old X managers let you set default positions for the icons.
If someone moved them, they'd eventually creep back to the positions you
had defined for them.  I liked that.

More than once I walked into work to find someone had been into my
machine; some people seem to *have* to move all the icons around no
matter what computer they're on.  The PC LAN guys seemed to have the
idea they could dick around with any machinery they wanted if nobody
caught them at it.  My standard response was to fdisk and reformat;
project files, source code, reports, everything.  No telling what was
fucked with, no way I'm going to trust anything on that machine.  Then a
couple of days to get a new Weiners install to "take" successfully, then
reinstall everything, then start all over again.

"But, but, you should be keeping your data on the network drive; the
server is backed up every night!"

"You people have never made a successful recovery with Arcshit, and I
don't want you fucking around with my stuff anyway.  If Purchasing is
too cheap to buy me a ZIP drive, fuck 'em all."

Of course, everything important got LHarc'd to floppies every day
before I left, but none of *them* knew that... it's surprising how
little data on a business machine is important.



Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 10:57:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: 3D modeling
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> And WTF is the deal with those keyboards that make so much damn
-> clickety click noises.  I like mine quiet!

I'd be just as happy if my antique IBM AT 84-key keyboard was quiet;
I've had quite a few people complain about the noise.  I take a spare
with me when I'm doing one of those "job" things.

The IBM board has mechanical switches which are spring loaded with an
over-center mechanism.  After you push the key down past a certain
point, the mechanism pulls the key the rest of the way down against the
contact.  When you feel the key go over-center you don't have to look at
the screen to see if you got a character, like with those crappy
foam-and-foil-pad keyboards.  The clicking noise is a side effect.

Unfortunately, most people don't seem to be able to tell the difference
in key feel.  Perhaps they're all one-finger typists.  Anyway, they
focus on the click for some reason.  Hell, I've even seen cloneboards
with little speakers in them to make clicky noises, and TSR software to
do the same thing through the PC's speaker.  Ri-ight.

Most keyboards nowadays are rubber-dome design, which is better than
the foil pads, but a hell of a long way from the old IBM switches.  Not
even IBM makes those any more.  The rubber dome keyboards have very
short key travel and the key bottoms out hard on the contacts, which
makes my fingertips sore after a short time.  After the spring-loaded
action of the Real Thing(tm) the rubber dome keyboards are very crude.

I'd like to meet the asshole who designed the 101-key "enhanced"
keyboard in a dark alley some night, though.  Obviously he was right
handed, and had no use for cursor or function keys... that inverted-T
thing is absolutely braindead.  And what's the deal about making the
keyboard so radically concave?  If you're going to curve the keyboard,
it needs to go the *other* way.  The "ergonomic designer" people still
don't seem to have grasped the idea that a computer keyboard is not an
ancient Remington mechanical typewriter where you had to have plenty of
oomph to make a good key strike.  Dickheads.

IBM also made the keyboard heavy enough so it doesn't slide around on
the desk, and stuff enough that it doesn't bow in the middle if you're
on a roll.  No wonder some people sign up for the religion of the holy
mouse; if I had to use that kind of crap hardware I'd hate keyboards
too.

They'll pry mine from my cold, dead fingers.



Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 10:30:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: LARGO: Re: State of War???
To: largo@chambana.com

-> Nyet, the term is not "Hall Monitor" it is "Political Officer".

That kindasorta brings us back to things Spanish... I just finished
reading "The Treasure of the Concepcion", a history of the Nuestra
Senora de la Concepcion, part of the Spanish treasure fleet, that went
down in the Caribbean in 1641.

The ship, its crew, and events on board were amazingly well documented,
both by the Spanish bureaucracy and from diaries and accounts from the
survivors.  The author of the book spent quite a bit of time describing
how the system worked.  The bureaucracy controlled everything in minute
detail, but the system was so corrupt everything worked on favors and
bribery - what the Soviets called 'na levo.'  Each ship had one or more
agents of the King, who watched for treason, and three or more priests,
who watched for heresy or incorrect thinking.  The more the author
described 17th century Spain, the more it sounded like the Soviet Union.

Brrrr...

The Concepcion sank due to the complete and utter stupidity and
incompetence of its navigator and helmsman.  It went down with over 200
tons of silver, some gold, jewels, and 40 bronze cannon.  The Spanish
economy ran on silver; gold was for jewelry.  The cannon weren't as
valuable as the cargo, but they were easily worth several times more
than the ship itself.

The rest of the book is a history of attempts to salvage the vessel.
It's a fascinating story despite the author, who makes it all sound like
a high school book report.  The first success at salvage was done by a
raving nut case named William Phips, who managed to persuade James II of
England to finance the operation in 1689.  James II later became famous
for sponsoring an official translation of the Bible into English - the
"King James Edition" considered standard in much of the English-speaking
world.  He was a Catholic monarch of a Protestant country; not long
after he got his slice of the treasure of the Concepcion he was pulled
down in civil war.  Phips was knighted and became governor of
Massachusetts Colony, returning to Boston just in time for the Salem
Witch Trials, which he was expected to preside over.  Phips, in an
apparent stroke of genius, appointed a commission to deal with the
problem and went off to Canada to hunt Indians.

It's not a bad read.  Ancient Spain sounds like it sucked.




Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 04:11:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Kemp:  scooter!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> They are ostrich. Farmed Ostrich. We have ostrich farms here.

In Arkansas the big thing is emu.  An emu looks like a very wooley
sheep on stilts.  There's an emu ranch just outside of town.  Since
there's a stop sign there you can observe the emus, which mostly just
stand around doing nothing.  Like sheep, they clip the foliage off at
ground level, so there's a bare field with emus and large cylindrical
objects that I eventually identified as emu dung.  By my best guess, an
emu us 25% fecal matter by weight.



Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 20:35:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Left handed 101 keyboard
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Let's sue Wrigleys... how dare they put the pull cord on their gum
-> packs in the right-handed direction!

That's not quite a joke - even Tootsie Rolls are right-handed.
Doorknobs, zippers, most firearms, crash helmets - all right handed.

That's okay.  What the righties don't realize is there's a huge
left-handed underground getting ready for a little tit-for-tat and
genetic cleansing... first we'll herd all the right-handers into
concentration camps, then set up the Zyklon-B producers...



Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 20:45:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Left handed 101 keyboard
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> to eat! And how about the drive to consider the overweight as being
-> "handicapped"!

"85% of Americans are overweight!" the dieticians scream.

Overweight compared to what?  Ethiopian ebola victims?

Yeah, well, when the Big One comes and the food supplies dry up, the
skinnies will be trying to eat their synthetic fiber shoes, and I'll
still be juuust fiiine...



Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2000 06:00:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Left handed 101 keyboard
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I am 'handed', yes, but I am two-handed, not one-handed.  Laern to
-> use both handsnow, before you hurt your dominant hand, and are forced
-> to use your 'weak' hand.
->
-> Mike  (Bucking the trend;  following no one!)  (insane)

You missed the handedness discussion a couple of years ago.  It was
policy in many school districts to "break" nonconforming lefties of
their "bad" habits.

In elementary school in the People's Republic of Kalifornia in the
1960s, they only leaned on me hard and called in my parents for
counseling.  In other states it was worse; when AB was in school in
Arkansas they tried beatings and tying her left hand to the desk with a
piece of rope.

Most children are probably more ambidextrous than not; the grim forces
of right-handed society impel them to conform.



Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2000 05:57:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: 99
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> In the TV series Get Smart (five seasons: 1965-1970, created by Mel

The series ran that long?

I only got to see a few episodes; it wasn't in syndication anywhere I
lived.

I like to use Max Smart's shoe phone as an example of the advancement
of consumer electronics.  Barry's gadgetry on Mission:Impossible would
probably be another good example, except I was probably only thirteen or
fourteen when I saw those and I am slipping rapidly into senility.
Today is my birthday, I am now 41.



Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 19:09:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Library, and Magazines
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Went to the local library, that is truely a joke.
-> No more automotive refernce books, and the whole reference section is
-> no larger then a small living room.  They do have half a dozen PCs
-> thou.

Sounds like here, except the local library has one PC for their online
card catalog.  The handful of technoid books are long gone; it's all
best sellers, travel, nature, enviro-ozone-science, and kiddie books.
They still have magazines, but only "Redbook" and "Arizona Highways"
sort of things.

The city put up blue-on-white signs on main street.  Open palms with a
book.  I thought it was something to do with churches; some of them have
signs like that.  Apparently it's the international illiterate symbol
for "library,"  Oh.  Seven little letters would have clued us readers in
on the secret.  What do illiterates need the library for?  And why put
signs up for them?  If it's important for illiterates to know where
public services are, wouldn't the police station be higher on the list?
The international symbol is probably a bloody nightstick and a crumpled
body.



Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 15:25:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: 69
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Back then, I thought WordStar and VP Planner would conquer the world.
-> Mwahahahaa!...uh. heh heh. Never mind.

BoeingCalc, Javelin, Lotus HAL, Flight Simulator, SideKick, Quattro,
Microsoft Works, WordPerfect, Mace Utilities, PeachTree, Stacker, PC
Tools, DESQview, Spinrite...

"all gone, like tears in rain.
Time to die."

- Rutger Hauer, "Bladerunner"



Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 21:45:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: coneheads
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

>Can also be barrels of fun for *driver training courses* in parking
>lots, well till they see all the black marks LOL.   BE ADVISED the
>state cops HATE it when you make SoloII courses in contruction zones by
>rearranging them............

Many years ago, when I was younger and dumber, I was riding along on my
Kawasaki looking at an apparently-endless row of those yellow cones in a
construction zone.  I'm putting along about 45 mph.  I get this idea, I
could stick a foot out and kick one of those cones into next week.  So I
stick my foot out...

The cones are *much* heavier than they look.  And they're soft, and
instead of bounding off, they'll fold around your lower leg.  I thought
the sumbitch was going to yank me off the bike before I could get rid of
it.  The guy I was riding with thought it was all hysterically funny, of
course.



Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000 14:02:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Airport intimidation gates
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> standing around harrassing the innocent. So he decides to "pat" me
-> down. I told him to fuck off. So they call an armed gaurd over to
-> enforce the kids demand. I told him that I'd already passed the
-> hand-held detector

I get to go through that *every* time I go to an airport.  Just call me
"Iron Man."

Some businesses seem to think metal detectors are buying them
something; I set off the alarm at Lunati Cams in Memphis, and another
at the "Soviet Union In WWII" exhibit at the Pyramid, also in Memphis.

Some airports have more than one metal detector checkpoint now; one for
the lounge, another before you get on the plane.

I strongly object to such harrassment, and harassment is all it is.
Last time, I loudly announced I wasn't going off into some office to be
groped by a faggot, I'd disrobe right there.  I had my pants undone and
my thumbs in my shorts when they decided to let me through.  The
sheeple just stood there waiting patiently for their turn.

I've heard stories of people being hauled off in cuffs for "causing a
public nuisance" for balking at the detector.  They'd better call for
backup before they try that one on me.  Fuckheads.


-> facist assholes? How many billions of dollars have been spent to
-> prevent how many, if any, high-jackings?

The detectors cost them almost nothing; they exist to show the sheeple
that someone is "doing something" about a problem that never really
existed.  Someone hijacks a plane?  No sweat.  Make it an automatic
death penalty.  They have to land somewhere.  Sent the trigger-happy
SWAT boys in, kill them all, and haul the bodies off to the zoo; might
as well get some use out of fresh meat.



Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000 16:54:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Airport intimidation gates
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> that shit whenever the MiddleEast heats up. You'll get racial
-> profiled for doing nothing except being yourself!

I think I fall under "fat redneck honky with a bad attitude"...

- Dave "make my day" Williams




Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 08:24:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: my cool crash
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> cool crash!  The speed was very low, and I saw it coming, but there
-> was no help.

Sort of like when I fell off the back porch last year.  Everything
snapped into the usual slow motion and I thought "this would be funny if
it was happening to someone else..."



Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 09:42:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Lord, what geeks these mortals be!
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

A friend sent me another copy of that "dumb users and tech support"
thing that floats around.  I just realized that file has probably been
around a *long* time.

One of the dumb user stunts is more or less,  "and I told him to stick
the disk in the drive and close the door, and the moron gets up, walks
across the room, and closes the door!"

Ha haa haaa...

Um.

I know what a disk door is.  I had a couple of full height single sided
Shugart floppy drives from an old IBM PC - the 5-slot, 8088 PC with the
cassette port.  You put the disk in and slid the door down over it.  The
door was sort of like a garage door.

I don't think anyone's made anything like that since the early '80s.
Later PCs, XTs, and most clones used floppy drives with the little flip
lever.  A few drives used a flat ejector paddle thing you pushed down,
like a piano key.  All the 3.5" drives I can recall were pushbutton.

Ha ha ha.  I bet the average support asswipe has never even *seen*
a floppy drive with a door.



Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 09:50:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: looks like core memeroy is back
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> > Big Blue and German partner Infineon Technologies will work
-> together to > develop new technology that the companies said will
-> revolutionize > computer memory by storing information using magnetic
-> energy, rather > than electricity.

Someone finally built a Jaquard loom to lace core memory?  I always
thought it was silly they made them by hand...


-> > preparing for the future by setting up a web site that allows users
-> to > apply for jobs at the White House.

Hmm, I wonder if they need any computer geeks...



Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 09:53:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Airport intimidation gates
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> A buddy of mine carried a chainsaw on. He told them it was a
-> "delicate musical instrument." They even had him open the case to
-> check it out after he ran it through the x-ray.

Amusing.  All you can do with a pistol is poke holes in things.  A
$129 Wal-Mart chainsaw can cut a jumbo jet in half.

"All right, everybody, stand back!  Or the vertical stabilizer is
next!"



Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 17:06:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Smog plan for Houston
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> morning took 4 or 6 hours to cross town,  all the while watching
-> these empty metro trains cruise along with no one in them.  In what
-> could have been 4 more traffic lanes.

That's because too many planning commissions build railways with both
termini at places nobody wants to go.

What's the use of driving five miles to the terminal, paying for
parking, paying to ride the train, then having to wait and pay for a bus
to get to work, when you can just drive the whole way in the
air-conditioned comfort of your Grand National and some good music in
the CD player?



Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 21:57:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: irrelevant rifle stuff
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

It has been several years since I've shot my Mauser.  Hell, probably
seven or eight, to get right down to it.  I found a couple boxes of
180-grain reloads I made in 1991, according to the labels...

In three weeks the rifle will be going on 110 years old.  It's a Model
of 1891 model made for the Argentine Army.  It was made in a factory
that used steam power and gas lights, glass gage blocks and handmade
machinery.  It's a military weapon - it was made to kill soldiers, not
woodchucks.  It never saw combat.  It was brand spanking new and covered
in cosmoline when I bought it almost twenty years ago.  The Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms considers it a "curio or relic."  Far be
it for me to disillusion them.  It may be an extremely senior citizen,
but Peter-Paul Mauser and Mauser-Werke did their job well.  Other than
those really crappy sights, anyway.  My 1917 Enfield has much better
sights.

I was thinking I ought to go out and shoot it some.  And then I
realized why I haven't; all the places I used to go are fenced or turned
into housing projects now.  The nearest range is 40 miles away and is
run by rule Nazis; fuck 'em.

Maybe I ought to drag it down to Vicksburg... it seems like the only
place I do any shooting any more.



Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 11:13:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Polytek answers their email...
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The best part about MK is, for all it's nonsense about social
-> Darwinism, the "swindle of 1918," and the role of race in human
-> endeavor, Adolf didn't even attempt to hide his ultimate goals.  None
-> of events that came later should have come as a surprise, and to
-> claim so is utter bullshit.

Yeah, but... politicians lie by default.  It was pretty much the same
cant Mussolini had been spouting, suitably Germanized, with Adolf's pet
peeves added in.  Mussolini's Fascisti weren't much of a threat to
anyone, and in the early days, Hitler's National Socialists looked like
a nifty up-and-coming organization.  Chamberlain said he and Daladier
had expected Hitler to settle down and shut up when he got into power;
both were astonished when Hitler, in a most un-politician-like fashion,
proceeded to do exactly what he'd been promising all along.


-> stuff in small quantities.  For each wacky entertaining section, you
-> have to wade through 10 sections of translated formal Deutsche.

If I'm ever held accountable for me sins, plowing through this crap
ought to absolve me of at least some of them...



Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 11:32:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Smog plan for Houston
to: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> expensive, and a bad experience before PT will work. Some tricks
-> Boston used were: No parking. None planned for, none provided.

Sounds like an example of noncongruent topology.  As Lewis Carroll put
it, "You can't get there from here."


-> nailing. Plus they like to "develop parking spots". That's when there
-> is almost enough room but not quite, so you move the other car with

They do that here too.  That's one reason I'm making three nosecones
for the Seven-clone...



Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 17:44:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Smog plan for Houston
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I'd say it's more accurate to say there is no ECONOMIC OR stylish
-> reason to accommodate cars. Reminds me of.. say, the Titanic? With a
-> shortage of life boats? Any parallels there? Or am I reaching.

How am I supposed to haul a month's worth of groceries home without a
car?  A load of 1x8s for shelving?  Basic fangling items?

I guess the cliffdwellers *don't*, come to think of it...  shop for as
much as you can carry, have anything heavy delivered at a premium, and
turn up the TV to try to drown out the neighbor's TV.

Life in a rabbit hutch.  Brrrr....



Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 11:56:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Smog plan for Houston
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> overpopulation.  He sighed, and commented about how pitiful we are to
-> live (and want to live) in single family dwellings.  How much more
-> efficient we'd be to all own condos or rent apartments.

Apartments?  Hell, all you need are barracks, comrade...  Apartments
are bad; people could hide out behind closed doors and do bad things.

"If you don't have anything to hide, you won't mind living in
barracks...  only criminals need that 'privacy' stuff."



Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 12:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Smog plan for Houston
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >   My fellow man annoys the shit out of me,
->
-> Well, if you can't be a hermit, at least you're regular.

I'm *not* going to comment on that one...



Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 12:08:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: New "manta" while doing Home Improvements.
To: shop-talk@autox.team.net

-> My only choice, was the good ole chainsaw!  I must say, that you
-> really haven't done a "home improvement project" until you've cut
-> through timbers and walls with a chain saw!  8>)

I used a chain saw to level off the 4x4s I set in concrete to support
my shed.  Not as dramatic as cutting through a wall, though.

I *did* cut through a wall with my 4" Black & Decker angle grinder.  My
Dad wanted a door in the back of his workshop, which is a steel pole
barn.  It took me about ten minutes to follow the chalk marks and make a
hole for the door.

Handy hint:  don't forget your ear muffs...



Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 15:19:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> like any other manure. What do you think happens to all the shit from
-> big cities like NYC, Chicago, Cleveland, man?

From Pueblo, Colorado past Little Rock, they dump it in the Arkansas
River.  For some reason there's no town near when the Arkansas meets the
Mississippi, but if you drop a turd in Pueblo, it'll eventually float by
Kemper's in Vicksburg, Mississippi on its way out to the Gulf of Mexico.

I've never seen anyone swim in the Arkansas River.  You hardly ever see
any boats on it.  It stinks too damned bad.  I worked near the river for
a while; the smell will make you toss your cookies on a bad day.



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 11:46:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: xmas lists again
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Yall Sutherners keepin' warm ok ?

Electricity and phone went down at 0915 Wednesday.  Got electricity
back about 1430 Saturday, phone just the morning.

This is the first time I've ever been without power this long.  I can't
remember an outage of more than a couple of hours until just a few years
ago, when outages and brownouts became fairly common.  This is the first
time the phone has ever been down.

GTE and AP&L sold off their local operations to some little mom and pop
outfits who aren't even in this state.  They don't even have offices
here any more.  I should have suspected something when I found out the
new power company's only phone number is listed as "1-800-4-outage."

It was the ice storm that brought things to a halt over most of the
county, but mainly because none of the trees have been trimmed from
around the rights-of-way for several years now.  All that dead wood came
down and brought the wires with it.

Fortunately, our non-electric, open-flame gas heaters still worked, so
we had heat and hot water.  Sitting around in the dark for four days
SUCKED.  Reading by candlelight is not practical for long.

I will have a generator soon.  I don't see Reddy Kilowatt charging to
the rescue here.



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 12:33:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Turds
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I like the idea of a pressurized turboshitter.

The third day of sitting in the dark, it occurred to me those people
with the fancy electronic crappers might be in a bad way about now...



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 13:20:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> and I could tell it was one of those 1.8 gallon units.  I finally
-> yanked the tank cover off, and behold, there was an accumulator in
-> the tank.

Pretty soon we'll see loaded pickup trucks parked in alleyways, loaded
with illegal South American toilet fixtures being sold by Hispanic
characters with Spanish accents.  "Eh, gringo, 5-gallon toilet?  Good
flush!  Bawoosh!"



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 13:25:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Turds
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Then there's the newer pressure-fired siphon-jet toilets, which have
-> a flush noise level that only someone used to air tools can
-> appreciate, but they do seem to get the shit moved.

Ever since the sub-5-gallon-flush jobbies came out I've been waiting
for someone to produce one with a Teflon bowl.

There's also the problem that porcelain seems to be getting hard to
find.  Most of the new stuff is plastic.  Shit *sticks* to plastic...
at least the stuff they use in toilets, which looks like ABS.



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 13:51:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The most high-tech toilets I've seen are in Japan (as well as the
-> most low-tech toilets). The low-tech toilets are open troughs you
-> squat over and shit in (no seats).

France still has those, or did about ten years ago, when one of the
car magazines sent some editors over and found some at rest stops on
the autoroute while traveling.  The fancy ones have grab handles so
you won't fall over.

Interestingly, William Shirer mentions covering the acension of a
sultan in the Middle East in the 1920s and described that sort of
facility, and how one Frenchman was outraged when someone mentioned he'd
seen them in France too.  The Frenchman claimed there'd been nothing
like that in France since before the Great War.  Apparently he didn't
get around a lot.

I found one of the "big hole" shitters in a New Mexico rest area a few
years ago, except they'd acquiesced to the American fascination with
plumbing by adding a toilet seat to sit on, which I was very grateful
for, having had knee and ankle surgery not long before.



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 13:53:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Turds
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> it very deeply, but I suspect the low-flow toilets have a completely
-> different outlet design that is supposed to let the bowl fill more

Perhaps the solution would be one of those marine-type macerator
toilets.

"Wheeeeee...ARRRRR."

"What was that?!"

"Fiber."



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 13:58:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Turds
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> water-efficiency standards. To conserve water, those standards set
-> the upper limit of a single flush at 1.6-gal.

The stupid thing is, most of the USA has no water shortage.  Hell, down
here in swamp country (excuse me, "wetlands") *too much* water is the
problem.

Just because some freakazoids built a major city in the desert in
California and other freakazoids have overrung their water supply in
Yankeeland doesn't mean we all have their problems.  And we certainly
don't need their solutions.

Stuff like this should be dealt with at a state or county level, not by
the fucking Federal government...



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 14:09:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Toilet options A to Z, 1 to 10
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> For instance, there is the Shower/Toilet by Geberit (219-879-4466), a
-> wall-hung fixture that contains a wand to give you a warm-water
-> nether shower.

I guess it'd *have* to be combined with a shower, because if you had
any clothes on the water would run down your legs and fill your shoes
with dingleberries.


-> specially designed triangular tank that can help to solve your
-> bathroom-space problems. With its 90" angled tank, the Triangle Ultra
-> can fit into an odd corner of your bathroom. The Triangle lists for

Corner toilets have been around for decades, though availability is
often a problem.  At least it'd be hard to jam it up against the wall or
a cabinet like they do with regular toilets.  Come on, I'm not *that*
fat; why do I wind up riding some of those toilets sidesaddle because it
has 1/32" of clearance between the seat and the wall?  It's not like
it's rare or anything, a *lot* of toilets are jammed up like that.


-> warmed seat. And both the Geberit and the Toto offer fans that
-> extract toilet air and pass it through a filter.

Wow.  When you have to filter chunks out of the air, you *know* it
was a power dump...


-> For extremely specific toilet requirements, Toto makes a toilet that
-> analyzes your urine, takes your blood pressure and then sends that
-> information to your doctor via a built-in modem. Unfortunately, you
-> have to go to Japan to buy one.

I don't even *want* to know where you're supposed to put the blood
pressure cuff...

Besides, calling the doctor's office via a modem is old technology.  To
sell in America, it'd have to have be "Web-enabled."  You could
probably market a separate "bunghole cam" attachment to keep your
records updated at the proctologist's...


I dunno.  Maybe I'm just a hopelessly retro whitebread American, but my
idea of a great "restroom experience" is to close and lock the door,
ensconce myself upon the throne, and read a good book until my feet go
to sleep.



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 14:19:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Societies can be classified by how they solve these problems.
-> The Romans had some pretty complex shit devices.

Up through at least Shakespeare's day, the English simply crapped in a
bucket and tossed it out into the street.  An unlucky passerby could
(and often enough did) get doused.

Various sources report most urban areas during the late Middle Ages and
Renaissance era could be smelled twenty miles or more away.



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 14:22:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> In France (Paris), they had two brick pillars rising out of a hole.
-> One for each foot. What does this say?

I've seen pictures of the ones that just look like football starting
blocks.  Maybe it's so you can make a fast exit?



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 14:31:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Turds
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> getting the shit out. One wonders about the toilet and it's
-> instructions that were briefly shown in the movie "2001, A Space
-> Odyssey" back in 1968.

NASA has been untypically silent about dealing with urination and
defecation in zero gravity.  From odd comments here and there, it
appears they haven't yet come up with really good solutions to the
problems.  Moving air would work well for handling liquids and solids,
but it's a closed system, so those pesky odors become an even larger
problem.  The last setup I saw involved a sort-of-diaper plastic bag you
were supposed to tape to your ass and variations on the "trucker pisser"
funnel-and-bottle arrangement.

I guess for those power dumps, you have to worry about conservation of
momentum...



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 14:40:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: [SoHo-Can] The First E-Mail Message
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> transatlantic phone call. I'm not sure how far back one has to go to
-> get the first e-mail message of any kind. I would guess CTSS

Mr. Morse and M. Baudot and their systems predate that by almost a
century.



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 16:23:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> My work there has one sitter, and 3 or 4 squatters.  The sitter gets
-> far more action than the squatters since I often need to exit and
-> come back.

I'm *not* going to ask...


-> Their restrooms are only waterclosets with no other appliances.

Good lord!  Not even a book case?  That's uncivilized!



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 21:16:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> they tell me that customers have a `Shopping experience' and dont

-> want to buy meat that has blood anywhere on it, and that we want
-> irradiated food and GM stuff... No we dont we want food that fucking
-> tastes of something.

I don't mind food that tastes of something... but it took me a while to
persuade AB that plain old chemically-processed, bland white bread was
perfectly adequate for my occasional bread needs, which mainly consist
of a vehicle for transferring tuna or PBJ from their packages to my gut.

I don't want bran bread with gerbil nuts and real sand, bread that's
"butter topped" and sliced so that all the jelly runs out all over my
fingers, or bread the color of weak tea with coffee grounds.

Real yeast bread can be a cosmic experience.  Anything less is just
bread.  Hold the rock chips and oats, please...



Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 21:28:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Oh Kemper
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> > Man! you limeys are so nice.. why did we ever throw you out?

> Lack of fore-sight.

Mad King George had something to do with it...

Hey, if England were to secede from the Union, it could join up with
the USA and get $1.29 gasoline!

We could dismiss the Congress, Parliament, Senate, and House of Lords
and replace them all with deathmatch RollerBall...



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 08:23:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: fatal mystery on Flight 1763
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> aboard the Boeing 737 tell terrifying and often conflicting stories
-> about what happened during the flight. At least three of the 121

Hardly unusual.  Trial lawyers soon learn eyewitness testimony is a
very poor prop to lean on, at least if there are more than two or three
witnesses.

I don't know if it's stupidity, selective memory, inattention, or maybe
we all actually live in slightly different, overlapping parallel
universes...



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 09:32:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Toilet options A to Z, 1 to 10
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Bunghole tip of the day: 1 in 20 of us will contract colorectal
-> cancer in our lifetimes. If you are shitting any blood whatsoever,
-> get checked ASAP. They make a simple test paper that you throw into
-> the toilet bowl to check for blood.

I'm taking a drug called Vioxx, which is one of a group of similar
medications designed to reduce joint inflammation.  It got to the point
where I could barely get around any more and had to see a doctor.  He
says it's not arthritis, just "inflammation", but from this end there
doesn't seem to be any difference.

Anyway, reading the microscropically-printed data sheet they packed
with the samples I took before getting a prescription, there were all
sorts of warnings about internal bleeding.  Taking a full dose gives me
bloody diarrhea, oh boy.  Cutting the pills in half seems to be a
workable compromise; maybe a little stiff in the mornings, but no blood
problems unless I hit the Thai buffet for lunch.  You don't need any
test paper then!


My Dad is 71 years old, doesn't have one damned thing wrong with him,
and bitches because he doesn't get around as well as he used to.  If it
wasn't for my daily load of pharmaceuticals I've just give up and blow
my damned brains out.



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 10:31:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: [SoHo-Can] The First E-Mail Message
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The first fax was sent in the 1820's.  Cool mechanical contraption
-> that worked through telegraph lines.

I read a book on the history of television back when I was a kid.  I
wish I remembered the title.  It talked about systems going way back to
the early days, many of them hybrid electronic/mechanical.

My Dad told me he'd heard about TV in the late '40s, but the first TV
set he actually saw was at a bar in Philadelphia in 1951.  I remember
visiting people in the late '60s who lived too far from a station to
pick anything up.

Here in the 'hood, antennas are making a comeback.  $55/mo for basic
cable now.



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 10:04:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Kemper the Frightening
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Carlson's no fool, he put it on his feet.
->
-> Dan Jones
->
-> >  Foot powder!
-> >
-> > - Dave "There's a monkey on my foot!" Williams

Carlson whipping off his shoe and beating his foot with it got all
snarled up in a flashback of that film clip of Khruschev using his shoe
to hammer on the table at the UN; it was one of those unexpected things
that make you laugh until it starts to hurt.



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 10:15:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Way cool video
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> mehicanos use no WWW???

Almost all the Spanish stuff I see on the net comes straight out of
Spain, other than the Cuban government's stuff.  I see almost nothing
out of Mexico, or at least not with a .mx domain.

The US telephone network considers everything north of the Panama Canal
"American", which is why you don't have to dial country codes to connect
to Canada or Haiti.  I bet Mexico is just a plain old top level US
dot-com to the root DNS servers.  *Technically* xephic would be
"xephic.dynip.com.us", but the .us part is a default.

By the way, US geographic domains are still free - chaos.lrk.ar.us is
my desktop machine, aliased to one of the VAXen at the local university
and fed via uucp, which is why you can't ping it.



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 10:57:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Toilet Reading Material
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Which begs the question:  What reading material is in YOUR throne
-> room?

I just cleaned a bunch of stuff out last night.  Let me walk in and
look at what's left...  haul it all into the study...

MOTOR Magazine, Sep 2000

PAW catalog.  That goes back for now.

"A Text-Book of Physics", by Louis Bevier Spinney, Revised Edition,
1921.  This one is great - "engineer physics" a friend calls it.  It's
probably a first-year introductory text, but it covers a little bit of
almost everything, all oriented toward practical use.  The thermo
section talks about thermocouples and steam calorimetry, for example.
Back to the throne room.

"Microsoft Windows NT Network Administration" from Microsoft.  System
admin for the clueless.  Click here, bring this menu down, click there.
All it covers is how to drive the GUI; no meat there for anyone who
would want to do anything more than maybe add a user every now and then.

"Fundamentals of Gas Dynamics," Robert D. Zucker, 1977.  Lots of good
stuff on gas flow, much of which is new to me.  Monospace Courier font,
looks like reduced typewritten course material.  More math than I can
really handle, but at least I can nibble on the edges.  Back to the
throne room.

"Modern Refrigeration And Air Conditioning," by various authors... shit,
it's printed by Goodheart-Willcox, the same people who printed Dykes'
Automotive Encyclopedia!  1968.  It's a vo-tech coursebook on
refrigeration, but the poor bastards who used it probably hated it -
lots of theory and even some useful design information, and the most
complete and useful information on ammonia absorption cycle
refrigeration I've seen so far.  All interleaved with practical "prong A
to socket B" stuff.  Back to the throne room.

"Advanced Engine Technology" by Heinz Heisler.  I think I left it in
there when I was looking up some Diesel injector stuff.  Another college
text, but not very useful - Heisler touches on almost everything, but
seldom past the sound bite level.  Every now and then there's a big
chunk of real information, like with the Diesel stuff, either because
he had a bunch on hand or maybe it was a subject he was interested in,
like Diesel injectors, which have a massively disproportionate amount of
coverage compared to some other stuff.

"How To Build Horsepower, Volume 2" by David Vizard

"Scavenging of Two-Cycle Diesel Engines" by Scheitzer.  Damn, *that*'s
where it was!  I was looking for it the other day.  Paul H. Scheitzer,
1949.  A "Usual Source" now.  Sure, the title says two stroke Diesels,
but the only source that even comes *close* to Schweitzer on IC engine
design is Heldt, and amazingly enough Heldt and Schweitzer have almost
no overlap!  Schweitzer and Heldt are the ones Taylor, Heisler, and the
rest all lifted their stuff from... and down in the ancient grimoires of
Schweitzer and Heldt you get the unabridged techno-geek goodies instead
of sanitized-for-college-course-sound-bits micro-factoids.  Back to the
throne room.


That's all; like I said, I made a cleanup run through there last night.
Uh... reading matter tends to accumulate in the Throne Room.



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 09:55:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Lost Wages was RE: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The cat is free to do cat things, such as sleeping on my bed.  There
-> is a difference, to me.

Dogs will play with you, or bring you your slippers or a duck, or run
down a raccoon.  A dog will attack a burglar, or go with you into a dark
building where there might be some nut with a knife, or pull a sled in
the snow, or herd sheep.  Dogs have been the companions of men since
before the days of the Cro-Magnon.

Cats shed.


- Dave "cat-a-pult!" Williams



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 19:24:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Kemper
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> I'm wondering... is this waiter piece as funny to you non network
-> types as it is to me? I'm going to have to copy some of these
-> somewhere and hang onto them. It's great having althimerz. I crack
-> myself up.
-> k.porter

You don't have to be a network type; anyone who's been on the consumer
end of more than three support calls knows the drill.

- Dave "we're all waiters on this bus" Williams



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 19:48:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Kemper the Frightening
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Little know fact, modern translators have determined he wasn't
-> actually making the "rockets like sausages" speech as most Historian
-> would have us believe. In REALITY he was screaming "The BATS! The
-> BATS! The Giant BATS are back!"

Hell, he wasn't any crazier than Eisenhower, JFK, or Johnson, all who
had major screws loose.

Some people think "Doctor Strangelove" was a comedy.  I see it as more
of a documentary...



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 20:39:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Lost Wages was RE: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Oh, I know that you're only making a point.  (I 'think' that you're
-> only making a point?)

Cats are 'cute' and (sometimes) cuddly.  That's a result of natural
selection, simple behavioral patterns that enable them to (sometimes)
freeload off of homo sap.

The little bastards have been pulling their trick for a long time, but
some of us are wise to it...



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 20:49:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Lost Wages was RE: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> As far as I can tell, the only reason that cats were domesticated was
-> to hunt rodents

Ballocks.  Dogs will hunt rodents too.  My dachshund was better at it
than any of my Mom's cats were.  Bigger dogs don't seem to be interested
in ratting, but most smaller ones seem to.

Dachshunds are silly looking until you see one yawn.  Then their whole
head splits all the way back to their neck, and you realize they're just
furry alligators with floppy ears.



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 21:03:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Don't Think, Just Feel
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Hey, I thought cutting out alla that red meat was supposed to curb
-> one's violent impulses.  I guess plenty of testosterone and
-> adrenaline can still be synthesized from tofu and broccoli...

Hitler was a vegetarian.  If the veggie types are supposed to be
disinclined to anger and violence, he'd've been a real pain in the ass
on beef!


-> That's bizarre.  He's willing to start something with you, but not
-> willing to finish it.

Typical bully behavior.  It might have been the first time he picked on
someone who wasn't a sheeple.

Of course, it could be "tolerance."  "Tolerance" used to mean putting
up with people who were different.  Now, the schools apparently teach
that "tolerance" means the weirdos are supposed to get their way,
each and every time, without argument, and that the rules are all on
their side.


-> Ron "the hundred yard stare is growing daily" Rader

"There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move, but I can't hear what you say."



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 21:30:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Lost Wages was RE: a Fangled toilet?
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Because... Humans are pack animals !

Sheeple.

- Dave "predator" Williams



Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 22:06:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: FWIW  Notes about Wheelchairs
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> While there are many issues with my health, undoing the damage done
-> by 2 years wheelchair use is staggering.

Shit, I can imagine!  And the degeneration comes *much* faster than I
would ever have thought.  When that drunk asshole mangled my leg it was
in a cast for two weeks before they put the steel rods in.  After a
month, it looked more like an arm than a leg, and by then the other leg
wasn't in good shape either, not to mention trying to hold most of my
weight while I crutched around.

They started physical therapy after four weeks.  There were "adhesions"
where the damaged tissue layers had grown together inside the leg.
Those had to be physically ripped apart.  No fun there.  I could
straighten the leg okay, except for the foot, which wanted to point out
like a ballet dancer's on pointe.  The calf muscle had shrunk up, and it
had to be stretched back into shape.  And *that* hurt like a bastard
too.

A wheelchair would have made it easier to get around, but it would
probably have dramatically lengthened the recovery time.


-> With all the PT and exercise I've done,  now that they have taken
-> into acount my foot problems, I find myself basically learning to
-> walk again.

The left ankle never was right after they put it back together.
Specifically, the foot won't bend up past horizontal at all.  It took
five or six years before I could walk without a visible limp.  I can't
take big steps like I used to since the foot doesn't articulate properly
any more; if I lengthen my stride to what it used to be I start lurching
around like an extra in a cheap horror movie.


"...mobility... is the key to survival."
- voiceover at the beginning of 'The Road Warrior'


I guess a Grand National qualifies as 'mobility'...



Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 09:41:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: [SoHo-Can] The First E-Mail Message
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >  A friend of mine is very proud of his IBM-made M-1 carbine.
->
-> Is it marked with "IBM" anywhere?  Cool!

It's been a few years since I saw it, but I think it says
"International Business Machines" instead of "IBM."

- Dave "the carbine is mightier than the keyboard" Williams



Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 10:04:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Circuit Cellar EFI
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> these characters are in the upper 128.  Isn't this a problem with the
-> original ASCII set and not a Windows issue?

I don't see it as a "problem" with ASCII.  ASCII is a compact method to
emulate the characters found on a common teletype machine.  They even
had enough space left over to provide a few extra symbols.

However, ASCII was designed back in the days when all machines were
mainframes or minis, and the byte and word sizes were chosen for best
efficiency for whatever kind of data the machine was supposed to operate
on.  7 bits was plenty, so that was all they used.  The problem came
about when general purpose minis and micros *later* settled on multiples
of 8 bits as a convenient chunk size.  Back in the days when individual
bytes cost significant money, 7-bit characters encoded in 8-bit bytes
wasted 12.5% of the available space.  So some companies used tricks like
packed strings, and others simply extended the standard ASCII character
set to 8 bits, which doubled the amount of characters, and added 127
more characters of their own choosing.

Portability?  ASCII was the first successful portable character code
for computers. ASCII was the very *definition* of portability!  Before
ASCII, every company designed their own character set?  Foreign
characters?  Special symbols?  Hell, they couldn't even read their
competition's data without converting it!  Just being able to send "Hi
Bob!" directly to an 'alien' system and having them read it was a big
thrill, to hell with pound and cent signs, degrees, and all that rot.

Practically everything that's strange about modern PCs is a result of
not enough storage and Teletype I/O.



Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 09:52:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Don't Think, Just Feel
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> True.  Elaborating the original point, physical violence is
-> a completely legitimate _last resort_ response.

There are situations where physical violence is appropriate as an
immediate response; muggers and certain types of drunks are best dealt
with that way *if* you can identify the situation and react fast enough.
Getting caught in an escalation game means you're starting from the
losing position; getting your licks in first at least gives you a chance
of disengaging without being on the receiving end of the shitty stick.

Such situations are rare and best dealt with by avoidance; true.


The problem is, the mass media - specificially, movies and TV - have
reduced almost all social interaction to confrontation, sex, or
violence.  You can see a lot of this in teens and young adults.  As
children they're on the short end of a dominant/submissive setup while
being pumped with confrontation/sex/violence through the Tube.  When
they get out on their own, they have no idea how to behave as people;
their concepts of proper or normal behavior are warped by their
distorted upbringing... which may well be second or third generation.



Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 11:09:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: RE: Toilet Reading Material
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> most people.  A well-written textbook makes the learning process
-> faster and easier by introducing topics in a logical order and with
...
-> Of course, a poorly written textbook make the learning process
-> difficult, and may introduce errors that aren't in the primary
-> sources.

That's the problem here, Tom.  All the "usual sources" textbooks on
automotive engineering have major problems, either with incorrect
information, missing important information, or boiling complex and/or
not completely understood phenomena into sound-bite-sized "facts."
Heywood is a major offender at the last.

The best single-source book is probably PM Heldt's "High Speed
Combustion Engines", but it's not presented in "textbook" form, at least
by modern standards.

The problem with modern textbooks is, the entry-level texts are
designed, not to impart information, but to guide people into
specialties.


-> is already familiar with the info in a good textbook, and wants a
-> deeper understanding of a specific topic.  YMMV...

What volume would you consider to be a "good" textbook on automotive
engineering?



Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 11:18:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: NASCAR Dodge
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Did I mention that the last Autoweek, had a blurb that Daimler isn't
-> thrilled with the NASCAR investment?.  While the teams are proceeding

Lack of NASCAR teams doesn't seem to hurt Honda or Toyota sales.

With truck vs. car sales the way they are, if Detroit wanted to get the
most bang for their sponsorship dollar, they'd be supporting tractor
pullers, mud-boggers, and Baja racers.

Even if a potential buyer is a NASCAR fan, they're probably not going
to be in the demographic segment that purchases the more expensive and
more profitable car models.



Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 11:30:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Don't Think, Just Feel
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> "Immediate" and "last resort" aren't mutually exclusive.  Sometimes
-> the last resort is all you've got.

Possible.


-> Media is a symptom, not the cause.

A symptom of what, though?  Everything moves through the filters of
ticket sales and Nielsen ratings.


->  There's nothing inherently
-> wrong with using confrontation, sex, or violence in expressive
-> works.

No.  But the media influences reality.  Why negotiate when you can just
blow the fucker away?


-> Human beings should still be expected to use their brains and
-> judgement.  Parents should still be expected to help their kids
-> develop their own brains and judgement.

Have another Prozac, Ron.  The US court and education systems have
already decided against us.

Make sure you eat a *lot* of Twinkies before you climb that tower...




Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 11:23:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: [SoHo-Can] The First E-Mail Message/now M1's
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> They were marked as such. Also, other vendors on the M1 were Rockola,
-> GM Guide, Remington, etc. All stamped with manu. Collect one of each!

Yeah.  Ben really, *really* wanted a Rock-Ola, but he says his "IBM
Personal Carbine" is okay.  



Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 19:39:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Oh Kemper
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> >  How about a one-way ticket to France?  Even at firstclass, it'd be
-> a > one-time expense...

> One way tickets to Miami worked well for Cuba, eh?

Exactly.  Fidel's idea works pretty good.  Now we can file the serial
numbers off and claim it was our idea all along.  



Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 05:29:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Hahahahhaaa
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> This goes on most days.  I get very few _wanted_ calls, and anybody
-> that is calling me - that I _want_ to talk to - will either
-> understand, or fuck 'em.

We were plagued by the calling machines for a while.  There's always
that short wait before they start barking at you.  I finally got to
where I pick the phone up, say "Hello?" and if I don't hear anything
in, oh, about half a second, I push the button to turn it off.  And if I
hear any clicking noises, it gets shut off instantly.



Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 05:43:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Fw: Hahahahhaaa
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> The ones that go click are probably telemarketers as well. Pushing
-> *69 here calls the last person that called you.

Works here, but the telco bills you a dollar each time you do it.

Most telemarketer setups configure their lines for outgoing calls only.
If they're even in your state, which they may well not be.



Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 02:19:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re:  [Fordnatics] Re: BYE BYE F-BODY?!
To: fordnatics@mustangworks.com

-> Well imagine those dumb GM engineers...giving sexy sleek styling more
-> priority than functionality.

Eh?

The Camaro looks like a vibrator with a harelip.



Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 02:54:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: [Fordnatics] Re: BYE BYE F-BODY?!
To: fordnatics@mustangworks.com

-> As for smoothness, yes, a 60-degree V6 will generally feel better,
-> but split-journal cranks and balance shafts can accomplish wonders
-> nonetheless.

60 degree V6s tend to be much taller than 90s, which is why do many
clean-sheet-of-paper V6s are 90s even when they don't have to share any
tooling with any other engines.  Styling rules, baby, and we'll even
change the cylinder bank angle to get the hoodline down.  Not that
anyone outside of Marketing really cares...



Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 10:48:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: [Fordnatics] Re: BYE BYE F-BODY?!
To: fordnatics@www.mustangworks.com

-> True.. but they were profitable before Daimler made Chrysler a new
-> division. What happened ?

Duplication of resources and expenses.  Redundant, non-producing layers
of management.  The usual.  Profitability always goes down after a major
purchase or merger even if the efficiency experts immediately attack.



Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 01:37:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: LARGO: Politico Largo:The Clinton-Gore Counterrevolution..The
To: largo@chambana.com

-> By Michael Ledeen, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and
-> author of Tocqueville on American Character

Not an attack on you, Randy, just some observations on net.drivel.


-> revolution in modern times. The French and Russian "revolutions," so
-> dear to the hearts of the leftists, were monumental failures. The
-> first led quickly to terror, then to Bonapartism, then to the
-> restoration of the monarchy.

Mm, France is still around.  The little Corsican got squelched, the
Second Republic was formed, and then the Third Republic that fell to the
Nazis, and the Fourth Republic born under Le Grand Charles, which was
still around last I noticed.


-> American Revolution created a stable republic that has lasted more
-> than two centuries, and is now threatened by a counterrevolution,

Heck, it's not the first time.  Remember the Whiskey Rebellion?

"My father he made whiskey
My Grandfather he did too
We ain't paid no whisky tax
Since 1792."

And don't forget Al Hamilton, John Jay, and the rest of the
Federalists, who stole the Revolution from the Jeffersonians and set up
their Federal Republic instead.  Kinda reminds me of how Lenin and his
Bolsheviks overthrew the Kerensky government in 1917.  Vladimir Ilych
Ulyanov and Alexander Hamilton were both lawyers, come to think of it.

Maybe Shakespeare was on to something?


The English didn't even bother with a revolution.  The Parliament
managed to get control of the purse strings while various monarchs were
off in the Continent amusing themselves raping and pillaging, and only
King James fought it, unsuccessfully I might add.  "He who has the gold
makes the rules."


-> The Founders dreaded any sort of tyranny,

True, but they lost out to the Federalists.


-> Al Gore comes from that anti-democratic tradition, and he is using
-> the same methods that Roosevelt employed: Rally his political
-> followers, enrage the electoral masses, and demand that his own
-> version of justice be imposed, the Constitution be damned.

Uh... yeah.  Despite the fact that he's a loser and an asswipe, he
still has the same rights to whine and moan and pull all the strings he
can that any other American does.  So far as I know, Gore's actions,
though despicable, differ only from the usual Democratic fixing methods
only by being much more public.


-> One does not - even now - sense that the Bush people understand the
-> drama of the moment. With the exception of a few-far too
-> few--carefully crafted words from the elegant Jim Baker, our
-> leaders-in-waiting have fought a dangerously limited battle instead
-> of a grand campaign against the counterrevolution.

Until he's sworn in, Uncle George is a private citizen, just like me.
Exactly what is he supposed to to?  Rant like Gore?  Assassinate him?

I'm sure Bush's whole staff is deeply aware of the issues, and that
whining about them in public will likely accomplish little good.

After the swearing-in, I predict a Night of the Long Knives...



Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2000 10:36:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: LARGO: Politico Largo:The Clinton-Gore Counterrevolution..The
To: largo@chambana.com

-> Le Grand Charles was not so Grand, in almost any respect...

De Gaulle went back for seconds and thirds for "asshole", but without
him France would likely be a pale shadow of what it now is.  France had
suffered from a lack of effective leadership ever since the fall of
Napoleon.  The Second and Third Republics were constitutionally weak,
they changed incumbents more often than they bathed.  During the period
between WWI and WWII the average length of a controlling coalition was
about two months according to Shirer.

Churchill picked De Gaulle to be a puppet figurehead for the French
government-in-exile.  The Free French didn't want him; Giraud and others
were already contesting for the top slot.  Roosevelt hated him and
wouldn't even speak to him.  Churchill probably felt like Bullwinkle The
Moose when he reaches into his hat and pulls out a mountain lion instead
of a rabbit.  Finally De Gaulle even got on Churchill's nerves.
Everything had to be Le Grand Charles' way; there were no compromises.
Not even Stalin was so hard to deal with.

France needed a leader, and there certainly weren't any to be had in
1939; they were damned lucky Colonel De Gaulle turned into General Hyde.


-> Interesting poetry, but this is an example of one more or less ad hoc
-> revolution, and as such not quite pertinent to the present
-> discussion...

The Whiskey Rebellion same a lot closer to succeeding than most people
give it credit for.  A big chunk of the population of English America
migrated north after the Revolution; the population of Canada almost
doubled by 1780.  Of the ones who stayed, a hell of a lot didn't care
for the King, but they weren't all that thrilled with the
self-proclaimed "General" Washington and his band of merry men either.
The Whiskey Rebellion was the first (and, for all practical purposes,
the only) popular revolt against the Revolution.  The history books make
the Revolution look cut and dried, a historical imperative... but it
wasn't quite that way.  There were lots of people who had other ideas
about how things should be run, and fresh experience with the craft of
revolution.  Lots of unhappy citizens, and most of them with guns...


-> And this is that under which we're operating now? Not the original as
-> imaged by Jefferson?

Look for "Articles of Confederation", which defined the original United
States.  Not to be confused with the Confederate States of America,
which was an abortive attempt to throw off the Federalists and return to
something more along the original political layout.


-> When he wrote what? Don't keep me in suspense :)

Shakespeare
2 KING HENRY VI
Act 4, Scene 2

CADE  Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows
Reformation. There shall be in England seven
halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped
pot; shall have ten hoops and I will make it felony
to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in
common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to
grass: and when I am king, as king I will be,--

ALL  God save your majesty!

CADE  I thank you, good people: there shall be no money;
all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will
apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree
like brothers and worship me their lord.

DICK  The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.


-> That's what I was referring to. I'm headed back to my history books.
-> I especially need to refer to the Federalist Papers, I guess?

They're useful.  I've never seen anything specifically on the
Federalist counterrevolution.


-> Oh, I know we're a Republic alright, but the particular history of
-> that happening is what I need to re-learn...

The most difficult part is unlearning all the propaganda that was
taught to us as history.

"When I think back on all the crap
I learned in high school
it's a wonder I can think at all
but my lack of education
hasn't hurt me none
I can see the writing on the wall..."



Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 05:45:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: LARGO: Politico Largo:The Clinton-Gore Counterrevolution..The
To: largo@chambana.com

-> The government established by Lenin & Trotsky was overturned by
-> Stalin in a counter-revolution.

Minor quibble:  Kerensky and Trotsky formed the first semi-stable
government, a coalition of the Menshevik socialists and various centrist
groups.  Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the Kerensky government by a
program of strikes, riots, and using the Bolshevik Red Guard to break up
the Duma.

Lenin had been a political theorist leaning not too far to the left, at
least by the standards of the various Socialist groups.  Unfortunately,
his first taste of power was all it took to make him abandon two
decades' worth of proselytizing and go for the gold ring.  Within two
weeks of assuming control, Lenin and his Bolsheviks had basically
reinstated the Czarist government, only with Lenin in control instead of
the Czar.  On Lenin's death, Stalin was able to get enough power to edge
out the other contestants, many who apparently still believed in the New
Socialist Order and failed to protect themselves adequately.

There is practically no difference between Stalin and Nicholas II.
Only the terminology was different; the power structure was *exactly*
the same.  Dictator, nobility, serfs.


The pattern of revolution is usually the same - those who take the
power try to keep it.  Lenin in Russia, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Castro in
Cuba... the English and French don't have a whole lot of company in
their success at establishing a revolutionary government without a
dictator at the helm.



Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 08:08:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: amusing ads
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

I always got a kick out of the big Atari ads in 'Bladerunner'; Atari
was a has-been by the time the film came out.

Looking through a 1988 edition of "Autosport" there was a centerfold of
an Indy car.  Sponsors were Oracle, Priam, and Altos.

One out of three ain't bad...  Twelve years is a long time in Computer
Time.

I guess I didn't even notice when Priam went away.  I would dance on
Altos' grave if I knew where it was.  Bizarre pieces of shit with a
crippled runtime of SCO... yaccck!



Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 20:01:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: LARGO: Politico Largo:The Clinton-Gore
To: largo@chambana.com

-> is that ALL of these different factors go together to make for the
-> overall health of the American Nation.  Without these things you

My father-in-law believed that American Communists ought to be
imprisoned or deported.  I used to tell him that holding crackpot
political beliefs was their right as Americans; if a few freakazoid
Commies could overthrow the Republic just by holding meetings, maybe it
was too weak to survive long anyway.



Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 20:12:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: [Fordnatics] re: jegs
To: fordnatics@mustangworks.com

-> A properly run business that takes phone calls for customer support
-> should have several things:

Most companies seem to concentrate on offices and press releases, but
the "face" they represent to the public consists of three things:

1) advertising
2) sales staff
3) support or "customer service"

How to run things should be apparent to anyone, but I guess the Dilbert
Syndrome is more prevalent than I thought.  I have a whole list of
companies I boycott due to offensive advertising, another list of ones I
boycott because I've been brushed off by their "sales" staff, and a
third list of ones I will no longer deal with after tangling with their
customer disservice department.

I realize working in Support sucks.  But that's not *my* problem.  It's
*their* problem; it's a service I paid for, just like the warranty and
the sackful of plastic peanuts.  Maybe I will need it, maybe I won't.



Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 20:16:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: [Fordnatics] jegs issues
To: fordnatics@mustangworks.com

-> I just don't like it when a company has their employees under this
-> little control with that much attitude.

It's strange how, in recent years, "attitude" is by default bad.  What
are they if they don't have a bad attitude?  Utterly indifferent?

Nobody has a good attitude any more?

- Dave "definitely got attitude" Williams



Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 16:13:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Vegemite/Marmite
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Wow, national varieties of Marmite!  It's almost as bad as Coca Cola.
-> Have you ever tried UK soft drinks?  UK Coke is far sweeter to my
-> palate than US Coke.

Uhhh... there are *substantial* variations between different Coca-Cola
bottlers in the USA.  The difference between Little Rock, West Memphis,
and Shreveport Coke is dramatic.  Hell, I can tell the difference in LR
Coke from batch to batch.  I used to think the wine snobs were trying to
pull my leg, but you really *can* tell stuff like that.

On the other hand, there are people who can't tell the difference
between Coke and Pepsi...



Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 16:17:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Vegemite/Marmite
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Euro who could tolerate root beer or any of the associated tree bark
-> based drinks.  They seem completely mystified by such a concoction.

Dock took me to a microbrewery in Raleigh that made their own root
beer.  The canned stuff isn't quite the same after that...


-> The US seems to corner the weird soda market.  I have yet to meet a

"Drink Health Cola!"

(it'll bring a smile if you've ever seen the movie, "I Was A Zombie For
The FBI")



Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 16:32:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Vegemite/Marmite
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> One thing I've noticed is that it's bloody difficult to find a soft
-> drink in Europe (certainly in the UK) that doesn't have aspartame or

Someone was telling me about his trip to the USSR in the mid '70s.
They had soft drink machines over there.  You put your kopecks in and
you got a cup full of soda water.  You put more kopecks in and it gave
you a 'fizzy' tablet in the water.  I told him it sounded sort of like
Alka-Seltzer.  He said no, Alka-Seltzer tasted a lot better.


(anyone else remember Coke machines that served a cup?)



Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 21:07:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Vegemite/Marmite
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> > (anyone else remember Coke machines that served a cup?)
->
-> Has that changed?.
-> I need to get out more

I was going to say I hadn't seen one since 1970, but I have this
sneaking suspicion I encountered one at the old Denver airport about
1985...

It was always interesting when the cup would come down sideways and the
soda would squirt all over the side, or when there was no cup at all...



Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 04:37:00 -0500
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Subject: Re: Vegemite/Marmite
To: fanglers@xephic.dynip.com

-> Ron "less sweet is better, dammit" Rader

No fake.  I like the acid and carbonation; sweet's not an issue.  The
local bottler has a problem with consistent carbonation.  When the stuff
attacks your palate and tries to fizz out your nose, at least you have
the potential for a good batch of Coke there!