After one commercial ended, I asked "Did we just hear a radio commercial for an electric cock ring?"
After a moment, Kevin replied, "I think so."
Odd, for Arkansas...
> > the bag practically lept from her hands to slam itself on the bike > > and make sweet, sweet magnetic love to the tank.That has become the main reason I don't use my FirstGear bag very much. The magnets CLANG! into the tank (yeah, I try to keep them from doing that, but it's like wrestling with an octopus) and then it's stuck there so tightly it can't be moved. So I'll spend five minutes popping the individual magnets loose and trying to reposition it on the tank so it's straight and where I want it to be, without sliding it around and chewing up the paint on the tank.
Then, since the Bandit's range is short, I wind up doing this every couple-three hours during a day ride. The suck factor is enough that I usually just toss the tailbag on and let it gnaw some more paint off the tailpiece; at least I don't have to look at the paint damage back there...
Like most people, I was suspicious of the whole magnetic bag idea at first, and the brutal magnets made me feel more secure that the whole thing wouldn't blow off in the wind. But after using a magnetic bag for a while, and realising all the magnets have to do is keep it from sliding off the side when it's on the sidestand, I could put up with a lot *less* magnetism. At least with my small bag; you guys with the giant duffel begs you can rest your chin on while you ride might need more grip.
> Personally, I DO mind if they teach Creationism in school.I don't mind if they teach creationism, as long as they give equal time to *all* the different creation myths, not just the Judaic one.
"It's all stacks of turtles."
"But what do the turtles stand on?"
"More turtles!"
"But what does the bottom turtle stand on?"
"There isn't any bottom turtle, silly. It's turtles all the way down."
"All the way down to *what*?"
"I think now is a good time to move on to a different subject..."
> > was never once addressed in the classroom. Even as Abraham Lincoln was never > > portrayed as anything but a humanitarian saint.Ah, yes, "Honest Abe." The propaganda machine went into overdrive with him, whitewashing his utterly astounding lack of competence. That tends to happen to Presidents who are assassinated; if Booth had missed, Lincoln would be remembered with Johnson, Carter, and Clinton.
Some of the US military leadership schools are using a book called "Lincoln on Leadership" now. My brother (USAF) went me his copy after he took the course. It's sort of a "What Would Jesus Do?" except put together out of Lincoln's letters and historical data.
It's a very scary book. Lincoln isolated himself from the Congress and Senate, ignored his Cabinet, alienated his military, and didn't even bother to show up for work most of the time. He started the "general of the month" program by refusing to give them orders, then firing them because they didn't do what he wanted. Lincoln seldom gave orders and never gave any feedback to subordinates. He was in danger of impeachment during most of his time in office. He was the prototypical Pointy-Haired Boss.
This is all being fed out as GOOD examples in the leadership courses. Back when I was in ROTC, those would all be been "don't do that!" examples.
Somewhere, the world took a sharp side turn while I wasn't paying attention.
"...and the politicians are now deejays..."
> > Lincoln was still a tyrant. He had anti-war protesters jailed without > > trials. He wanted to ship all American blacks back to Africa to create a > > pure, white, Christian nation.Well, why not? Haul them over, ship them back, no problem. There were so few free black citizens that it would be a non-issue.
Unfortunately, there was the problem that those slaves represented more real property than the government could afford to reimburse their owners for, if indeed it was even the duty of the government to do so. Jefferson was faced with the same problem during his own term as President, and neither he nor anyone else at the time was able to come up with a real solution, though the creation of Liberia was probably unique in all of history.
> > know why they didn't mention the quantum nature of modern physics as > > proof we are living in a digitized world, except that maybe only 1% of > > the audience would understand what the f*&^ they were talking about.Every time I read about "quantum foam" and virtual particle pairs, I realize the old "aether" theory was a lot closer than people originally thought...
All the Michaelson-Morley experiment proved was that if there was an aether, their experiment wasn't sensitive enough to pick it up. And, of course, we know that relativity would make the propagation time of light the same both ways from the viewpoint of the experimenter anyway, but M and M didn't know that, since they predated relativity by quite some time.
As with most things, the problem with cutting-edge research ain't what you don't know, but what you do know that ain't so...
>> This is a good question...one that I've thought about on several >> occasions, and unfortunately have no good answer for. Guerilla >> warfare (the most extreme version of which is terrorism) is >> ridiculously hard to fight. We found that out in Vietnam. We >> found that out in Africa. We're finding that out again in Iraq. >> The Israelis have been finding that out for years.The British found that out in 1776... a lesson we promptly forgot. And forgot again in the Philippines, though we wound up both fighting guerrillas and being guerrillas there.
The British have had a greater or lesser level of conflict between England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland for around a thousand years. Even intermarrying with the local nobility and establishing interdependent economies hasn't been a complete solution.
Frankly, as long as there are headcases with nothing to lose, who latch on to Welsh sovereignty, or a jihad against American infidels, or ridding the world of those danged Jews, or whatever thing takes their fancy, we're going to have some level of terrorism. Get enough of those headcases together, and we have a real problem.
>> I'm just not at all clear on what sort of real military power >> can be brought to bear against this sort of threat.Close to zip for conventional forces. A military is a concentrated force applied to a specific target, usually another army, a fortress, or a civilian city. Being concentrated, it's not much use against a diffuse enemy.
One possibility would be to create small tactical teams, put them in the field, and have them scout likely positions and engage the enemy as they find them, possibly with tactical air support. The US Army did something similar during the Indian wars in the 1800s, without the air support, of course. Modern thinking tends toward moving larger groups around, with lots of hardware, under close supervision. Turning small teams loose on their own grates against micromanagement types.
What we've been doing in the recent conflict is something a bit different. Satellites look down from above, and AWACS monitor radio signals. Over time, even small groups show themselves by their communication patterns or to the spy eyes. Then the HQ decides whether to bomb from high, bomb from low, or send in the ground and chopper guys up close and personal. It works fairly well against *organized* guerrillas. It doesn't work very well against very small bands or singletons, who are usually defined as "terrorists." There's not much you can go about a terrorist, other than vivisecting them on TV as an example to the next one who thinks it might be a grand idea.
>> As an aside, these sort of things actually turn out to be really good >> arguments FOR the second amendment. I often hear people spew nonsense >> about how the 2nd amendment is obsolete since the common populace, >> armed with sporting rifles and the like, are no match for the US >> Military. This rubbish is *true* if and only if the US Armed Forces >> can engage an aggrieved American populace in head to head combat.The Soviet Army vs. the Afghan hill people is a good counter example. "We'll use our handmade copies of century-old bolt action rifles to pick you off at extreme range, then walk over strip your bodies of any stuff that might be useful to us."
Again, it's a concentration of force problem.
>> In the case of a suddenly despotic US Government, a well-armed and >> motivated guerilla force is already embedded within the very fabric >> of the territory that would need to be subdued. Coupled with what >> is likely to be a high rate of AWOL among soldiers being commanded >> to fire upon their own friends and family, this presents a nightmare >> scenario for any military planner. Obsolete indeed.Ever notice that people who enlist in the military almost never get stationed anywhere near their home town?
The Soviet Union crossposted their troops across the various SSRs for the same reason. In their case, they had the advantage that many of them couldn't speak the language of the native populaces anyway, which made them even less likely to sympathize with them and disobey any unfortunate commands that might have come from Moscow.
> > Anyway, there's enough buzzwords in this email for Carnivore to chew on for > > a week, so I'd better stop now...besides, there are some strange men in > > black suits walking toward my cube....If they're carrying neat pop-out cellular phones that look like old Remington electric razors, you have nothing to worry about. If they're carrying Glocks, it might be best to sort of nonchalantly sidle out a side door...
http://travel.howstuffworks.com/radial-engine2.htm
> > A normal speech channel would be chopped into 60 packets per second, and > > each packet analysed for overall sound level. A pair of steady tones, > > too faint for a human to hear, could then be added to each packet. > > Modulating these tones according to a pre-arranged cipher would transmit > > the secret message.It's called "steganography," and it's ancient technology. Yaaaawn.
I can see it now. After sufficient processing of random noise, they'll get "...Paul...is...dead..."
> > BC=Before Christ. AD=something in latin. I couldn't remember > > exactly, so Google to the rescue...Now the politically-correct are pushing for "A.C.E. and "B.C.E."; "After Common Era" and "Before Common Era."
Hey. We've been using Anno Domini for 1500 years; calling it something else isn't going to make it not Anno Domini. Most people don't even know what AD stands for; calling it ACE isn't going to make it any different. They'll get the idea every time the Holiday Shopping Season comes around.
> > that time, Pope John the First asked a monk named Dionysius to prepare > > a standardized calendar for the western Church. Unfortunately, poor > > Dionysius missed the real B.C./A.D. division by at least four years!"With a name like Dionysius, what do you expect?
> > That's one of my gripes - all I hear is people talking about code re-use > > from the perspective of other people re-using *their* code.Remember the "software IC" fad a few years back?
What a lot of programmers don't realize is that they're *already* using modular code; that's what the Standard C Library is, or Microsoft Foundation Classes, or Borland OWL, or other things that most people now don't bother to separate from the programming languages they were written to support.
The way I see it, "printf()" is one bang-up piece of reuseable code... at the opposite end, the VB programmers drop a "browser" icon onto their form, and embed 50Mb of Internet Explorer runtime. Just as modular, I guess...
> > I doubt that you would, this is not a slur on the American people, but > > its because Dictators tend to rise to power with a flood of populism,This is true. The cases where someone manages to take power behind the scenes are so few I can't even think of one offhand.
The line that works, as history shows repeatedly, is "This whole place is f****d up, and if you give me the power, I'll *do* something about it." When the process of government bogs down to blamestorming and indolence, having someone willing to step up and take charge is a very attractive proposition. The Germans didn't want Adolf Hitler in particular, it was just that the Weimar government was so rotten and ineffective he looked good by comparison. Hitler, Lenin, Mao, Castro, and the rest - they identified specific problems with their societies, proposed certain cures, and persuaded the general population they were ready, willing, and able to fix the things the current government could or would not. A little backstabbing, compromise, threats, the odd assassination or few, and voila! You're in charge!
"The Handy Fangler's Handbook: Managing A Successful Revolution." Coming to a printer near you...
> bullshite medical work like going to the ER for the flu,I brought a bug back from the Capri Swarm. It finally got to the point where I had to call the doctor and make an appointment. It took an average amount of time ot get in - four days. This may actually be fairly quick by local standards; it took five weeks to see the first cardiologist, and two months for the second, and those were considered life-threatening situations.
Since the doctor was not available promptly, my options were either "do without" or "emergency room." I chose "do without" since our insurance basically doesn't cover emergency room visits, nor was I inclined to wedge into the tiny waiting room and breathe the same air as the rest of its diseased clientele for most of a day before being run through like a hamburger on the assembly line. And with previous experience with how emergency rooms work, they would have charged me $500-$1000, given me an aspirin, and told me to make an appointment with my doctor.
It's sort of a damned-either-way situation, as I see it. Similar to the "911 problem" the local media whine about. Too many people call 911 and tie up the line, asking about petty crap. Well, yes they do. Because both the police and fire department have UNLISTED telephone numbers; all calls must be funneled through 911's central point of failure and incompetence.
> Problem is, everyone want really great healthcare, > but they don't want to pay for it."Bread, circuses, and chirurgeons. NOW!"
E-mail has lost much of its utility now, as ISPs and user software psychotically filters "spam", plus a lot of people simply don't reply to e-mail. I'm not sure why they bother to maintain an address.
My phone rings, if I feel like talking to someone, I pick it up. Sometimes it's someone with a plaintive "I've been calling you for days" routine, like I should feel guilty or something. I'm near the phone most of every day, and AB is parked by it every evening; it's not like I'm hard to get hold of. Yesterday, someone tried the plaintive guilt thing again. I suddenly realized they probably think I have Caller ID, and I should have seen they had tried to call. I'm not giving the phone company $16/mo to turn on a service that's already part of my line, sorry. (and no, I don't care if your telco provides caller ID for some nominal charge or for free; CenturyTel wants $16, not that I would bother with it anyway)
> > along the same lines as Jewish shape changing > > lizards and pope cloning. This website markets > > helmets which can block out mind control beams from > > the new world order.Lies! LIES! Only real Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil will work! It works so well lots of families actually use it to cover the insides of their windows; you can see houses like that if you look hard. The mind control beams (MCBs) have a narrow focus so They only shoot them when they can see you through a window. They'll go through most wood or masonry walls, but They don't try that much since so much rigid insulation is foil-backed, and aluminum siding, though not of particularly high quality, is plenty thick enough to stop the beams. Hitting foil backing or siding causes the beams to split up and reflect off at odd angles, which can cause problems when the mind control beams affect other people. Certain... sources... have revealed this is why so many members of the California legislature invested heavily in Enron stock, for example.
I used Reynolds "barbeque grade" foil under my toupee. Some people will tell you you need to use a double layer of folded foil, but those guys are just paranoids who think people are out to get them.
Last Christmast AB bought me an electric moustache trimmer. It works for that, and for trimming the edges of the beard.
The old Norelco's blades had started to rust not long after I got it. I guess Norelco's intended customer market had more modern bathrooms with big extractor fans to remove the shower steam. Anyway, to keep the rust problem under control, I put a drop of 3-in-1 oil in each head. The cutters ran fairly hot for some reason, so shortly after you switched it on, you got the aroma of warm 3-in-1 oil. Which I found mildly pleasant. Anyway, one application seemed to do for a year or more; whatever the odorant is in 3-in-1 is fairly powerful.
So, after years of this, I grew to associate the smell of 3-in-1 with shaving. I've had the beard for 20 years now, but when the moustache trimmer's blades started to turn brown, I put a drop of 3-in-1 on them. And shortly after I turned it on, I took an involuntary trip in the Wayback Machine.
Frankly, 3-in-1 smells a lot better than what some guys use for aftershave, and a hell of a lot better than the roach killer some women spray themselves with.
>Where do you keep this info so that it is readily available? In your >pockets? In the tail section of your bike? Tank bag?I think the necklace-type ID holder is the best bet. First thing an EMT will do is cut your shirt off, no matter what part seems to be injured...
> 1st off, use the I.C.E. system in your cell phone. (In Case of > Emergency) This is recognized as a fast way to look up contact infoAll they will get from my phone is the screen that wants the security code.
Still, contact information *somewhere* is a good idea. In the old days they'd look your name up in the reverse directory or other public records, and they'd find where you lived and the telephone number. But that doesn't work well any more, when some households are cellular only, and the name on the phone account may not be the same as the person who carries it. (spouses with different last names are an example)
When I was much younger I was riding once in the mid teens, just to see if I could. The Kawasaki never did warm up enough to run without the choke. I made it about 10 miles when there was a "PING!" and the clutch lever fell at an odd angle. The clamp had shrunk around the bar and split. Getting back home was an adventure...
> Geothermal and hydroelectric are excluded because, while they are > effective at producing a constant level of power, they cannot be set > up anywhere....and the same freakazoids don't want you tapping hot springs, and they won't want ugly nasty noisy windmills whop-whoo-whopping in their back yards. Someone *else's* back yards, but not theirs.
You should be able to run your house, your cars, and your businesses off nice clean solar energy. And no big ugly panels; maybe about a foot square. And they shouldn't cost more than $10, and they should last forever. They think "science" will eventually provide this, if they demand it long enough...
> > Of the forms of power production not currently in use, there are some > > options. My personal favorite is to get some use out of solar cells > > by putting them where the sunlight is, in orbit. An orbiting satellite > > with a square mile of solar panels would produce a hell of a lot of > > power.Not to mention it would put Star Wars to shame. A variable-focus mirror a mile across would let you toast entire city blocks at will, and it would cost almost nothing to operate once it was built. That's an even better bang for the bucks than nukes!
> > Getting it back to earth is pretty simple too, just send it down as > > microwaves. A few spotted owls might get flash cooked in mid flight, > > but I think that's a fairly small price to pay.Every spotted owl is precious; we should all sit in the dark and freeze lest a single one be harmed. You fool!
> > Yet another thing our city government is considering in its effort to > > better serve our needs: > > > > "Consider extending the operating hours for parking > > meters and enforcement to remain in effect as late as > > 11:00 p.m. in areas with considerable evening activity > > [i.e. the downtown entertainment district] (compared > > to the normal meter coverage of 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.)."Do they have the networked parking meters that alert the Meter Gestapo by radio when someone's time expires? Several cities started installing those, oh, ten years or so ago. They use a sensor buried in the parking place like the ones some traffic signals use to tell if a car's stopped, so they know if the car is still there when your time expires.
Other places have card-swipe meters. You use a prepaid parking card to swipe a preset time. Note: you can't just park as long as you want; then swipe out - they want to be able to tag you if you go over your preset. Big Brother knows who you are, and where you've been parking...
Little Rock abandoned metered parking in some downtown areas several years ago, but they left the meters in place. There are no signs saying which zones are safe and which aren't. They still send the meter maid truck around to collect change from the meters; it's "gimme" money for the city.
The people who make the "Denver Boot" immobilizing devices have been marketing an upgraded model with a LoJack type radio locator inside. Apparently some of the macho truck guys were just driving off, Boot and all.
It's war out there, and the enemy is our own governmental infrastructure...
> But tolerance is allowing others to express their viewpoints. Saying that > the other ideas are right is "agreement".Obsolete. "Tolerance" now means "give us what we want." Agreement is now implicit.
> > Why? I have trouble seeing any real need (From the Red's point of > > view) to revalue its currency, or improve the standard of living. > > Cash is King, and China will continue to reap the harvest until itThey have the same problems the Soviets did. When the serfs see how the dirty running-dog capitalist gwailo live, they get the idea they'd like cars, cellphones, single-family homes, and imported Australian beer too.
The Soviets cracked down on all media, but even the satellite nations of Eastern Europe lived better. The Politburo chose to bury the problem, and it buried them.
The Chinese are Communists, but they're a hell of a lot more pragmatic than the Soviets. The Soviet Union was more like a giant religious state than anything else; nothing could be done without sanctification by Party ideology. Mao and his crew used Communism as a tool to gain power and consolidate their state, but the modern Chinese state is flexible. Flexible enough for "one country, two systems" in the case of Hong Kong. They realize they can't keep the whole country in ignorance of ourside conditions, and they're working all-out to be competitive in world trade and raise their national standard of living. Not because they give a shit about the peasantry, but purely out of enlightened self-interest; the more powerful China is, the more powerful their rulers are.
So, trade agreements, juggling currency, buying American politicians or military secrets, whatever. The Chinese government is actually *doing* something for its people, instead of chanting "We're the biggest! We're the best!"
Well, damn. And I *have* a Citibank card, and I never knew that. Maybe you have to have the Ultra Plutonium card and the secret handshake before they let you in on the secret.
> > I've read that the 24" wide three string bales have an R55 equivalent > > insulation factor, the 18" two string bales are R48. "Modern" bale > > houses are dotted all over the sun-baked southwest.The building code people, finance companies, and insurance companies are all interlocked together. It's very difficult to do anything other than a "stick" house, or cinderblock if you're in an area where that's considered normal. My buddy Jay went for one of the concrete-filled Styrofoam block houses, and it took about a year of negotiation with the finance and insurance people, filing several Memphis and Tennessee code variations, etc.
Even if you're in a place without building codes, it can be hard to insure or sell something nonstandard.
I always wanted to do sprayed concrete over a geodesic dome. Oh, for a *commercial* building that would be fine, but They want everyone living in identical rabbit hutches or apartments.