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Well speaking as a Canadian, You can lick my balls, proverbially of course... I must apologize for that remark, since of course it is the Canadian way. ;)

And FYI some of the best things to come out of Canada, in no particular order are:
-Mike Meyers
-Jim Carrey
-Basketball (Basketball History)
-Hockey (Hockey History)
-Dr. Frederick Banting (discoverer of insulin)
-The CanadaArm (which you guys have used in your shuttles for ages now)
-Margaret Atwood
-The Light Bulb
-The Telephone, By Mr. Bell
-TV
-The safest Nuclear Reactor out there, the CANDU

Hell, I'll just stop now and you can look at this list: Some Canadian inventions or this Famous Canadians

You thought I was for immigration at any cost and I thought you were bashing immigrants. But we're of like mind after all.

P.S. I meant "INS" (now BCIS), not "IMF" in my last post.

Yeah the American schools somehow forget to mention or deemphasize the first man in space, first woman in space, first open spacewalk. Now I'm not trying to disavow the great feats achieved by the American space program but I especially like this list of "firsts in space", with tiny paragraphs devoted to the first HUMANS(Russian) to do things in space and the large, detailed paragraphs devoted to the first AMERICANS to do anything in space, since we all know that the first American in space is of course a much more monumental achievement for the entire human race then just the first person in space.

For someone who sees these feats of human courage as universal it's a little shocking and sad to see so many educated Americans who have absolutely no idea about any of these events. These should be viewed not as Russian/Soviet achievements but as human achievements. Forgeting these pioneers is just an insult to their courage and sacrifices.

Yeah the American schools somehow forget to mention or deemphasize the first man in space, first woman in space, first open spacewalk. Now I'm not trying to disavow the great feats achieved by the American space program but I especially like this list of "firsts in space", with tiny paragraphs devoted to the first HUMANS(Russian) to do things in space and the large, detailed paragraphs devoted to the first AMERICANS to do anything in space, since we all know that the first American in space is of course a much more monumental achievement for the entire human race then just the first person in space.

For someone who sees these feats of human courage as universal it's a little shocking and sad to see so many educated Americans who have absolutely no idea about any of these events. These should be viewed not as Russian/Soviet achievements but as human achievements. Forgeting these pioneers is just an insult to their courage and sacrifices.

It's obvious that Microsoft is discriminating against Buddhists.

How do foghorns work then?

Low frequencies dig thick mediums.
Elephant sound

Last time I looked at pricing for such services in Australia the costs were astronomous.

Think about the population density in much of Australia. It's the second-lowest in the world, right after barren Mongolia, according to about.com. It's expensive to run phone cables out to remote sheep ranches in the middle of the desert.

That being said, I'm still amazed that Aussies have such a anti-tech hard-core conservative political bent, what with all their censorship laws and the like.

>The captured solar energy of a 150 mile by 150 mile square area of Nevada desert would provide the United States with all its energy needs: consumer, residential, transportation, commercial and industrial; oil, gas, coal, electric, etc. combined. Yes. It's a fact.

Interesting theory. Theory, though. Certainly not a fact, considering it doesn't even make mention of the most obvious problem:

What do we do at night?

But then again, I never expect someone who hasn't even taken a business course to notice a simple MISSING FACT like that.

>But we _are_ running out of oil. And we're running out of it much faster [google.com] than anybody cares to inform [peakoil.net] you.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Did you ever take a business course, ever? Even once? Hell, have you even filled out a tax return?

In conclusion, if markets are allowed to function freely the supply of oil will never run out. Changes in consumer patterns and the emergence of new technology driven by increases in the price of oil will prevent this from happening. While predicting doomsday scenarios may be a good way to get people to know your name, they are a very poor predictor of what is likely to happen in the future. -- Mike Moffatt, PhD

But we _are_ running out of oil. And we're running out of it much faster than anybody cares to inform you.

You are thicker than tar pitch, aren't you?

Nobody cares to inform you because you are deluded and your doomsday fantasies are only shared between a select few clinically insane individuals.

How much did you spend on heat this winter? On hot water? On AC last summer? On $2/gal gas for your Camry and SUV? It's time we had Open Source Energy, don't you think?

We will if you keep your hands out of the economy. It's working perfectly fine and if you keep trying to screw with it, you may just succeed at breaking it. At that point you *WILL* have your doomsday scenario, and if you think running out of oil or coughing in smog sucks, imagine the depression, but 10 times worse. Rent Mad Max someday to get a feel for what life without a stable economy would be like.

Now ask yourself, why? How's that? What the heck is going on?

Oil is heavy (duh!). Greenpeace makes it costly to transport. Nobody wants to handle it (grose, smelly, dangerous stuff). So they don't without adequate compensation. Which makes it cost effective to buy it from Canada. That along with the good relations that comes with trading with neighbours and the mutual benefits NAFTA provides mean the US is an intelligent country that knows a good deal when it sees it.

That WHAAAAAMBULANCE sure struck a deep pothole, didn't it?

For every four barrels of oil we burn, we're only finding one new one.

So you admit we're daily finding new oil?

You're shooting holes in your own argument!

Again, for every four barrels of oil we burn, we find only one new one.

Then you repeat that fact. Yeesh, why did I even bother to write this?

And again, for each new barrel of oil discovered, we're burning four from the old fields.

For crying out loud. Am I the only one reading this? That we are finding new oil even now?

Do you know how many of these we could have built for the over $100 billion spent on securing middle east oil?

??? Can you give even the slightest shred of evidence of that? Any? At all? Even an iota? Even a nudge in the right direction?

First law of business: Make the consumer believe the product is scarce, then package and sell it in a format that can be controlled (ie. barrels of oil can be controlled, solar roofs can't

You haven't lived until you've been a cub to a bear.

WOW

Last year, counterfeiters turned out $44 million in U.S. currency...

I did some googling for peanut allergy and photosensitive epilepsy. It seems peanut allergy occurs at about 25x more often; however, I was not aware that either of these are as common as the statistics show. This is quite an eye opener for me.

Peanut allergy affects about 1:125 people

The study, which measured the number of people reporting peanut and/or tree nut (almonds, cashews, walnuts and pecans, for example) allergies, found that prevalence rates in 1997 and 2002 were relatively the same for the population at-large. However, reported peanut allergy in children rose dramatically, increasing from 0.4 percent in 1997 to 0.8 percent in 2002. Based on 2000 U.S. Census data, FAAN estimates that nearly 600,000 children are now affected by peanut allergy -- about 1 in every 125 children.

Between 40 million and 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and between 3 and 5 percent of epileptics are photosensitive.

NOTE: This post is actually meant to be informative; I went with a humorous title to get noticed.

This guy must be Andy Richter's brother - the guy who wrote the MyDoom virus!

Of interest in the UCMJ is article 15, or non-judicial punishment. For minor disciplinary infractions, the soldier agrees to give up his right to a court-martial (and legal representation) and place his punishment solely in the hands of his commander.

The advantage to an article 15 is quick resolution of minor issues, a guarantee of a low maximum punishment (loss of rank, one month's pay, short confinement), and no 'conviction' being placed in the soldier's record. The disadvantage is the loss of legal rights most civilians hold dear. But the soldier can refuse the article 15 and demand a court-martial if he's willing to risk greater punishment if found guilty.

Check out the UCMJ here.

so this publicity is probably a good thing, even though they never tell the truth.
I can still remember the days when these books hit the shelves:
"Evil steam-monster", around 1803, told a horrifying tale about a big steel monster that spewed steam, ran over everyone and made everyone cough very heavily.
"Lightning horror!", around 1877, very good thriller about artificially created light that made zombies of everyone so they couldn't stop working for the whole 24 hours.
"Tube of death", around 1926, which was mostly about a tube that transmitted moving light-beams and brainwashed everyone with stories about fictious people through their everyday lifes.

See, nothing to worry about...

so this publicity is probably a good thing, even though they never tell the truth.
I can still remember the days when these books hit the shelves:
"Evil steam-monster", around 1803, told a horrifying tale about a big steel monster that spewed steam, ran over everyone and made everyone cough very heavily.
"Lightning horror!", around 1877, very good thriller about artificially created light that made zombies of everyone so they couldn't stop working for the whole 24 hours.
"Tube of death", around 1926, which was mostly about a tube that transmitted moving light-beams and brainwashed everyone with stories about fictious people through their everyday lifes.

See, nothing to worry about...

so this publicity is probably a good thing, even though they never tell the truth.
I can still remember the days when these books hit the shelves:
"Evil steam-monster", around 1803, told a horrifying tale about a big steel monster that spewed steam, ran over everyone and made everyone cough very heavily.
"Lightning horror!", around 1877, very good thriller about artificially created light that made zombies of everyone so they couldn't stop working for the whole 24 hours.
"Tube of death", around 1926, which was mostly about a tube that transmitted moving light-beams and brainwashed everyone with stories about fictious people through their everyday lifes.

See, nothing to worry about...

James Cameron may have spawned the Terminator franchise, but he had no connection T3 (the film was directed by Jonathan Mostow.) Rumor has it that Cameron was planning to buy back the rights to the Terminator franchise, and then produce/direct his own script, but was outbid. When the guys who bought the Terminator rights tried to hire him for T3, Cameron turned them down.

Actually, another one would be the Japanese calculator firm Busicom hiring some semiconductor memory company named Intel to make a calculator chipset, getting a general purpose computer on a chip, and then renegotiating for a lower price while allowing Intel to sell it.

If I hadn't wasted all my moderator points on 'Funny' yesterday, I could send some 'Informative' your way. Here's another description of how the line works.

WWJD?

Though if I ever drive by and see someone trying to use a blowup doll as a car jack, I'll think of this..

Woman dies from premature rapture

I don't know, but a combination of this list of continents and this list of continental plates would possibly agree...

You're thinking of monorails.
This is a maglev.
It routinely does 267 mph.

Just like telephone networks, automobiles and transistors the internet will follow the usual pattern of: 1. US Invents it

Except the US did not invent the autombile.

The most significant contribution the US has made to automobile engineering is the cup holder.

From what I remember, the taxation depends on your type of incorporation. There are various types of S-corps and C-corps.

And, from what my financial friend told me, while there's double taxation there are also some advantages to certain types of corporation. Basically it involves loop holes with personal compensation and using the company as an entity to lower your taxes. People do it all the time .. how else do you think rich people get away without paying much in taxes?

military uses (maps anyone?)

Am I not the only person that immediately thought of the Marauder's Map?

but the clowns the Dems are producing this year don't leave much choice

Dude, you don't know what a clown is. Everybody has a t-shirt.

according to this site the circumference of the earth measured through the poles is 40,008 km which fits pretty well with the equator theory.

More precisely, Baghdad itself was the center of global scholarship. From About.Com:

In about 762 A.D., the Abbasid dynasty took over rule of the vast Muslim world and moved the capital to the newly-founded city of Baghdad. Over the next five centuries, the city would become the world's center of education and culture. This period of glory has become known as the "Golden Age" of Islamic civilization, when scholars of the Muslim world made important contributions in both the sciences and humanities: medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, literature, and more. Under Abbasid rule, Baghdad became a city of museums, hospitals, libraries, and mosques.

Most of the famous Muslim scholars from the 9th to 13th centuries had their educational roots in Baghdad. One of the most famous centers of learning was Bayt al-Hikmah (the House of Wisdom), which attracted scholars from all over the world, from many cultures and religions. Here, teachers and students worked together to translate Greek manuscripts, preserving them for all time. They studied the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Euclid, and Pythagoras. The House of Wisdom was home to, among others, the most famous mathematician of the time: Al-Khawarizmi, the "father" of algebra (which is named after his book "Kitab al-Jabr").

While Europe festered in the Dark Ages, Baghdad was thus at the heart of a vibrant and diverse civilization. It was known as the world's richest and most intellectual city of the time, and was second in size only to Constantinople.

After 500 years of rule, however, the Abbasid dynasty slowly began to lose its vitality and relevance over the vast Muslim world. The reasons were partly natural (vast flooding and fires), and partly human-made (rivalry between Shia and Sunni Muslims, internal security problems).

The city of Baghdad was finally trashed by the Mongols in 1258 A.D., effectively ending the era of the Abbasids. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers reportedly ran red, with the blood of thousands of scholars (a reported 100,000 of Baghdad's million residents were massacred). Many of the libraries, irrigation canals, and great historical treasures were looted and forever ruined. The city began a long period of decline, and became host to numerous wars and battles that continue to this day.

Oh, a sensitive one? You did know that dogs have been sent to space for suicide missions, didn't you? More than that, there are some
humans that many would like to see sent up there for just these kinds of missions.

What I really want to be able to do is to incorporate this signature into my own images. It could be used to provide a modicum of image protection from the technophobes, or else to annoy people. I found a few details on how it works here. I particularly like a comment from one guy about how it blocks scanning of $20 bills...

"You can still scan a $10 bill twice."

:D

Why in God's name is this flamebait? Nazi Germany conducted a ceasless campaign against London for years on end. 1940 being the darkest year, with over 13,000 civilians being killed. It pisses me off no end when people cite Dresden and fail to mention the London Blitz.

Also, maybe you should try to be a little less mean spirited in your replies.

Good point. Though my style varies depending on how many luddite posts I read before replying. :) Still, sorry for being too harsh.

Regarding the main point, first and foremost, I don't think there is anything wrong with being a cyborg. Just think for a moment - where are you getting your cyborg-related ideas from? My bet would be on sci-fi books and movies. Am I right? If so, than you must realise that the authors had very little reason to be objective and all the reasons to be entertaining. There are very few authors who tactfully handled this issue, very few books which were nautral and matter-of-factual towards the cyborgisation. Too much attention was paid to how cyborgs would be different and too little to how they would be the same (in a good sense). So if your concerns about it are really based on fiction, better think again about the pros and cons.

Next, your partially (or overall) positive attitude towards tech doesn't mean you are not at all a luddite. The people led by Ned Ludd in early 19th century might have been extremely positive towards such exciting developments as steam locomotive, city lighting, photography, battery but would like engineers and scientists to leave the textile industry alone, thank you very much. So, excuse me, but you still look very much like a luddite, and there is no principal difference between you and christian fundamentalist opposing stem cells research. Because of your personal beliefs (cyborgs are BAD) you oppose the technological developments. I don't like that, but the worst thing is that you are doing this because you are not informed very well. :(

BTW, Dictionary.com, which I used to look up the years when luddites first appeared, had a very fitting ad:

Supersize your brain (tm)
Subscribe to Dictionary.com Premium for exclusive features & services!

Don't you think it would be great if we had instant access to Dictionary.com and thousands of other reference sources? Would that make us inhuman? Should we stop trying to do that? Even though some people like the idea?

Which type of 56K modem did you see in 1992?

>>The 56K modem was invented by Dr. Brent Townshend in 1996.
56K Modem

Yes and the same people that find the cartoon imp offensive are likely to object to "evil" daemon processes and "sexist" man pages.

And, FYI, the swastika was around long before Hitler used it.

If you got kick backs, you'd be eager to perscribe drugs too. I had strep throat a few months back, and instead of a shot (which I've always got for strep throat for the past 20 years) I got pills instead. I also saw a doctor I had never seen before (I have a GPs office I go to, there are 4 doctors at this office).

This is a good read

This gibberish from email messages is now being recycled by a whole cadre avant-garde poets into "found" poems:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles /2004/01/04/spam%5Fpoets/

http://poetry.about.com/b/a/055812.htm

Actually, aleatoric methods for generating poetry have been around since Dada (they used to literally pull words out of hats as a randomizing algorithm...). These guys are just piggybacking on the spamming hash software.

Nothing new here, the police Already use a color coded system!

There's a simple solution to this problem: we'll have the big five charge consumers twice the price of a DRM CD because they're getting twice the product.

How's that for added value?

http://space.about.com/cs/iss/a/iss.htm:
"U.S.-ow ned, Russian-built Zarya control module"
"U.S.-built Unity connecting module"
"The Russian-provided crew living quarters, Zvevda (Russian for Star)"
"The first mission of the twenty-first century, in February, 2001, had
Atlantis and her crew deliver the US Destiny Laboratory Module"
"Additional modules installed include 2 Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules:
Leonardo and Raffaello, the station's robot arm, called the Space Station
Remote Manipulator, the station's joint airlock, and finally, the Russian
Docking Compartment, known as Pirs (Russian for pier)."

Part of the funding boondoggle known as the ISS was that most of the
International contributors were having a bit of trouble putting up the money
needed to get things built.

Here is a list of 5 of the most common prepaid cell phone plans so that you can compare their features.

Note that above list doesn't include plans by Virgin mobile. It's rates are here. A friend that used Virgin mobile didn't appreciate the choppy quality...

And let's not forget about their use of ancient symbolism

I don't imagine Jackie O passed around this childhood photo of herself much during the presidency

there are two types of agnostics. Strong Agnostics and Weak Agnostics.

Meanwhile, the Empire State Building withstood a whole goddamn bomber crashing into it in the 1940s.

The Empire State building was hit by a B-25. The WTC was supposed to be able to be hit by a 707.

B-25G: ~35,000lb
Boeing 707: ~150,000lb
F-15C: ~68,000lb

The B-25 in question was an early model, and unloaded. Probably around 20,000lb. It created a hole in the building eighteen feet wide and twenty feet high. Considerably smaller than a modern airliner.

Your "whole goddamn bomber is actually a pretty small aircraft. About 1/2 an F-15..:)

ping www7.mplayerhq.hu
PING www.linux.ncp.fi (195.148.194.75) 56(84) bytes of data.

They get you drunk faster.

Caffeine causes changes in the chemicals of your brain, mainly in 2 ways. It mimics adenosine, and binds to all the adenosine receptors in your brain. This prevents the real adenosine from doing its job, which happens to be the slowing down of nerve impulses and the causing of drowsiness. So your brain becomes more alert. Caffeine also increases the levels of dopamine in your brain, which improves your feeling of well-being and improves your mood. It's this dopamine effect that is the root of caffeine's addictive properties

You don't know what you're talking about. ADD is most definitely associated with a defective brain. However, please note that the defect is not one that affects intelligence, just behavior.
About.com says:

"ADD/ADHD is a neurological disorder. According to the National Institute of Health, between 3% and 5% of the population in this country are affected by ADD/ADHD. The major symptoms of the disorder are distractibility, forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, poor attention span and impulsiveness."

ADD is mainly caused by problems with brain chemistry in the frontal lobe. Signals sent across the brain's synaptic gaps are often transmitted more slowly than they would be in a non-ADD brain, thus causing the problems listed above.

Drugs used to combat ADD, such as Ritalin and Straterra, are stimulants. Rather than cause greater distraction and hyperactivity, they help to speed along messages crossing synaptic gaps, thus helping to reduce the problems associated with ADD. Read more about these medications (and others) here.

Personally, I've noticed that most people with ADD tend to be brighter than those without it. Every person I've known with ADD (myself included) seems capable of learning new things very quickly. As a result, ADD is both a blessing and a curse.

For those of you on Ritalin: Stop using it. It is hurting you more than you know. It has messed with both my memory and my metabolism. Once I got off of Ritalin, I grew about a foot and a half. Granted, I was going through puberty, but this was over a period of six months and was more growth than I had seen in the previous year. Also, I have almost no memory of the years that I was on Ritalin, even though it was less than eight years ago. People who went to school with me remember those years perfectly, and I can't remember them at all. Ritalin is BAD for you.

-- my two or three cents

You don't know what you're talking about. ADD is most definitely associated with a defective brain. However, please note that the defect is not one that affects intelligence, just behavior.
About.com says:

"ADD/ADHD is a neurological disorder. According to the National Institute of Health, between 3% and 5% of the population in this country are affected by ADD/ADHD. The major symptoms of the disorder are distractibility, forgetfulness, inability to concentrate, poor attention span and impulsiveness."

ADD is mainly caused by problems with brain chemistry in the frontal lobe. Signals sent across the brain's synaptic gaps are often transmitted more slowly than they would be in a non-ADD brain, thus causing the problems listed above.

Drugs used to combat ADD, such as Ritalin and Straterra, are stimulants. Rather than cause greater distraction and hyperactivity, they help to speed along messages crossing synaptic gaps, thus helping to reduce the problems associated with ADD. Read more about these medications (and others) here.

Personally, I've noticed that most people with ADD tend to be brighter than those without it. Every person I've known with ADD (myself included) seems capable of learning new things very quickly. As a result, ADD is both a blessing and a curse.

For those of you on Ritalin: Stop using it. It is hurting you more than you know. It has messed with both my memory and my metabolism. Once I got off of Ritalin, I grew about a foot and a half. Granted, I was going through puberty, but this was over a period of six months and was more growth than I had seen in the previous year. Also, I have almost no memory of the years that I was on Ritalin, even though it was less than eight years ago. People who went to school with me remember those years perfectly, and I can't remember them at all. Ritalin is BAD for you.

-- my two or three cents