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...and signed their john handcock...

I think the turn of phrase you're looking for is this.

'Effect' is used as a noun. 'Affect' is used as a verb.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.

And how does misuse of effect affect early child development or SEC filings?

(Sigs can change so this post AC.)

I guess it would have been cruel irony to have Hurricane Xuxa (http://www.who2.com/xuxa.html) ravage Latin America.

On Saturday evening, talk show host Art Bell had an interview with journalist Douglas Mulhall in which they discussed this new solar cell technology. The Hindustan times is the first paper to cover this development (American media is too obsessed with the Pope and Chris Rock). Bell is typically a ham (both figuratively and literally), but occasionally he hits on some very leading edge issues, which make listening to the other 80% of nonsense worth it (and the nonsense is entertaining).

While I am certainly not a fan of Ashcroft, I must point out that he is certainly not Catholic.

Those are different things -

1. Python
2. Benny Hill

There's no particular reason why you should like one just because it's authors are from the same geography as the other.

Otherwise if you like Matt Groening's cartoons, you'd have to like Tonya Harding's work too.

BTW, ex-Marine isn't the proper reference - once a Marine, always a Marine.

Amelia Marcos

If you're referring to the wife of deposed Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos, her name is Imelda Romualdez Marcos.

Reporting probably violates NDAs. In the case of IBM v. Worker, Worker loses.

Reporting hazardous working conditions does not violate NDAs of any sort. Furthermore, both IBM's policy and the law forbid retaliation for reporting this type of problem.

However, it is true that many people feel that they are powerless to do anything about problems they see in major corporations, US government (federal, state, and local) agencies, and the US military. In many cases, a culture of perceived helplessness may be fostered by management in order to prevent exposure of potentially expensive or embarrassing situations.

The tools are there for people to protect themselves. The problem is that many people are more afraid of the consequences of trying to fix a problem than they are of the problem itself. (Sometimes this fear is well founded, e.g., the experience of Frank Serpico).

I know why it was stolen; it was an inside job to cover for what made the thing work. See all that shrouding on the device? Maybe a little of that would make sense to conceal corporate secrets (like they do with concept cars during road tests)...but that much could hide the presence of a small human. OK, tinfoil hat off now.

Which reminds me of the sideshow attraction in the 1700's called "The Turk" which was a chess playing manikin in a turban. Nobody could beat it and the world was vexed for a generation. Well the chess board sat atop a large chest containing a few visible gears and wires, behind which sat the automaton. Part of the chest was blocked off however and on examination was just large enough to conceal a somewhat cramped master chess player! This was never proven to be the way the device worked however, and eventually the device was lost in a fire (gee...that sounds familiar) but these days nobody doubts that there was a person in the chest.

Fighting these windmills seems a bit Quixotic to me..

Cliff Notes:
Quixotic
Don Quixote

Samuel Pepys didn't write in cursive.

He wrote his diaries in shorthand.

Thought you might be interested.

This idea is actually pretty old: Edinburgh Masker.

I saw this many years ago on The Tonight Show (back when they had competent and funny people on it, not like now), when they had Mel Tillis on. Mel put the ear piece in, switched it on, and stopped stuttering completely.

Of course, Mel Tillis without stuttering is like a flat-chested Dolly Parton.

These chess players aren't really THAT smart.

Yeah, especially because all they really are are just midgets crammed inside mechanical men. They don't impress me none.

Personally, I'll go with the Moxy Fruvous explanation of who's smarter. Sure, Deep Blue beat Kasparov, but if the building they were playing in ever caught fire, Kasparov would be the only one of the two that was smart enough to get the hell out.

---

for the record, i am not he.

Whew. For a second there, I misunderstood that headline. What a relief. Although she is getting on in years... Who2 Profile

A wily and ruthless competitor can, under my understanding of US copyright, challenge your copyright, using the previous incident as an instance of negligence to protect your copyright.

Do NOT discount this, as it is the reason Alfred E. Neuman and MAD managed to avoid two potentially damaging lawsuits from people who had originally copyrighted his image. (You can check up on the whole story in their published "History of MAD")

The interesting thing about talking to Mr. Kamen while he was standing on the Segway, aside from the fact that he was of course towering a full head above everybody else in the crowd, was the fact that he is one of those people who likes to lean towards you as he talks. As I learned firsthand, talking to one of these people who happens to be standing on an electric scooter that is controlled by leaning your body means that you are constantly being semi-run-over by the thing, in direct proportion to the intensity of the point the other person is trying to make! He kept having to back the thing up a couple feet, like it was an overly-friendly horse that wanted to lick my face (instead of an overly-pricey scooter that wanted to run over my feet).

(I would have liked to have a go with his scooter though, as I was not relishing the prospect of having to slog all the way back across the show grounds to the car yet again!)

mcb

Is the same method that Claus von Stauffenberg tried back in 1944 to get rid of a paranoid delusional dictatorship. He just needs to use a bigger briefcase.

Am I joking? I'm not entirely sure. I believe that ICANN has slipped from beyond commonplace self serving greed and incompetence into blatantly self preserving malice bording on genuine evil. The evil they inflict on any individual is small, but summed up, they are having a dreadful long term effect on what could be a wonderful medium for We, the People.

Am I really advocating killing the board of ICANN? Mmm. Probably not. But I doubt if I'd shed a tear if an asteroid hit their next board meeting.

Lot49.com is an interesting tribute to Thomas Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49 , an intersting exploration of life in CA. (My favorite part is the name of one of the bands--Sick Dick and the Volkwagens)

For those interesting in a real headtrip, try to plow your way through Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

Pynchon is an interesting hermit. He didn't accept his award for Gravity's Rainbow.

Instead, he sent Irwin Corey.

(BTW, You'll enjoy GR a lot more if you read it with a companion.)

They did a pretty good job of hiding this in the series, but if you're looking for it you can catch a glimpse every now and then.

Ask Robert Wagner about water being harmless.

Visit dhmo.org for more information on the dangers of this all-too-common substance.

Or maybe Kubrick was referring to his frequent soundtrack composer, Walter Carlos, who went to to have a successful new age career as Wendy Carlos...