chuck kottke

I think greater success is to be gained by producing music to be enjoyed; to be trendy is to reduce the artists' palate. I'm just amazed Coldplay has gotten the recognition they have, as their music is unique more than it is mainstream, but of the highest quality! :) Viva La Vida!

Alright! Duisburg, North Rhine Westphalia! Close to the Rhine, and in the Rhur area - steel city then! Wiki says Geradus Mercator started a university there; same Mercator responsible for Mercator map projection, I gather! Sounds like an interesting city; nice opera house, good employment, etc.. Internet speeds - well, there was that speed check, where you could send out a packet, and see how fast it returned, but that's for the fast crowd! Here, I'm on DSL, which is better than dial-up! Fast enough for me. Bratkartoffeln? sounds like Brats and Potatoes! What is it?

Hey, English is a living language - we can make up new words, and oftentimes we do!!:P (:stunned:sheesh, this spell-checker thinks it's already a word too!):laugh3:

Their stream-of-conscious lyrics and singing..:operator:

:rolleyes::laugh3: Maybe alyssa is a celeb?? I've been compared to Grizzly Adams..:P

Ahh, Good Ol' Germany! Whereabouts??;) Let's see - 40 Euros converts to roughly 63 Dollars; A better deal than what I've got here, that's for sure!!;) Do you use High Speed then? Fiber Optic connection? Germany is ahead of us in speed, from what I gather.. (well, they've got the autobahn, so naturally..;)) Are you eating your share of sour kraut and rye bread then??:laugh3: (Grandpa came from Germany - so a lot of our meals on the farm were naturally very German..):)

Tehat, on becsapott Iringo aztem? Mi az korulbe lul?:thinking::P........

gleeting Yes, I know some Finns who moved here - the country of reindeer and Laplanders!:santa2::sunny: Yes, Johnny does an excellent job with Strawberry Swing! One of my favorites as well.. Yes, I can believe that the tickets sold out like hotcakes!;) 15 minutes - whoa is right!:stunned::) (I would imagine the scalpers got tons of them for resale, though - that could be a part of it..) Will I go to their concert? Umm.. I suppose I could - if they let me play in the band!!:laugh3: Blue is nice (especially a Blue Top:wink3:!) I'm quite plain - cotton T-shirt, black jeans, and barefoot!:P

:rolleyes:Well, mostly it's for goofing around!:laugh3: (hey, gotta get those priorities strait!).. I haven't used it for business much, so it's not a business account (which is supposedly better, and costs like an arm and a leg..) How many pounds do they make you shell out for phone and/or internet service in England (if you don't mind me asking; no need to respond, I'm just curious..)??

Internet portion $29.70 Loco/local portion $46.77 Is that reasonable? For DSL?? I dunno!:\

Hey, that sounds GOOD!!:p

4:45 PM, and I just paid my internet & loco:P phone bill!

We Are Experiencing the Loss of What Our Enlightened World was Founded Upon. Liberty, the precious gift of successful revolutions, is slipping away here and elsewhere; if we fail to notice and act on this, we will be loosing that which most modern states are founded upon; individual liberties, which are protections against the abuses and intrusions of powerful and manipulative individuals and institutions and the rights of our own free will, have been eroded, and if we fail to act to stem these attacks, we face the consequences of a poorer world, one deprived of basic freedoms. "Those who would trade Essential Liberty for Temporary Safety deserve neither". -Benjamin Franklin.

If by taking carbon and placing it in the atmosphere/oceans/life on earth, we are perhaps temporarily staving off a cooling trend, this could be the case. However, placing such a large quantity of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in so very short a span of time is running an experiment, one that hasn't been run by any other natural means since the planet's formation. Given the enormity of the risk, plus the risks associated on down the line with the fossil fuel industry, I'm casting my vote to err on the side of caution, seeing as the consequences are so great if we are making a mistake by mass consumption of these trapped forms of carbon.

To the contrary! Climate researchers do vie for funding, but their biggest payoff is finding greater truths, and getting noticed for their ideas. At times, research profs. become unwilling to change positions because they think they have all the answers, and therefore resist new information if it goes against their ideas (their "pets"), or other established concepts; this is more of a mindset problem; the lesser problem is graft for gaining research dollars. However, there is a concerted effort by the fossil fuel industries to throw up a smokescreen when the scientific investigations begin to show a strong correlation between burning fossil fuels and climate changes as a result of that. If I had to choose between the two, I would put more faith in the scientists, as they have less to loose by being truthful, and more to gain through discovering and disseminating the truth. For the "fossil industry", it's just the opposite. They're the Tobacco industry of the new century.

The Verve! Little River Band or Wings

Spinning the globe to see what time it is in Germany!

Virginia is the banana belt!:rolleyes::laugh3: 109 in San Fran??? Wow! Here, it hit 88 today, and everyone's thinking this is super-heat!!

:laugh3:Yes, we have those same cows too! They're from Cornwall, alright - says so on the little tags on the bottoms.. (and you dare not remove those little tags, under penalty of law!):P But getting back to the Kayaking,, I think you're in luck on the return trip, with the currents going your way. But coming out, could mean more paddling. Bring plenty of fresh water, sun-tan lotion, and some munchies.. Stop off at those friendly volcanic Islands half-way. Going from Hawaii to Seattle will be dull, as there's nothing but ocean (no beautiful tropical islands to stop by).. You could hitch a ride with a whale, however!:) The third option would be to fly. Of course, this entails grafting or gluing on a pair of sturdy, muscular wings, and learning the ways of the albatross. (actually, that does sound like fun!)

:rolleyes::laugh3:.. I like you're first one the best! I took a good look at Washington's tomb at his home in VA - yea, he really was paranoid about that 'being buried alive' business! But, in those days, it did happen!!:shocked2: :)Useless facts: the first Flash-light actually burned kerosene, had a "smokeless" flame, and was designed to be hung from the front of a bicycle. A new bicycle in 1895 cost between 40 and 85 dollars (US), and the first real production automobiles used bicycle tires and wheels. (1890's-1902).

Maybe the mint ain't green, but it could be better. Even so, it might happen as a penny-pinching measure..:laugh3: (bad pun, but I just had to). Make the penny obsolete, and change the saying to :"a dime for your thoughts.." Put Lincoln on the dime, Roosevelt on the quarter, Washington on the half-dollar, Kennedy on the dollar, and Sacagawea on a new 5-dollar coin!

Aw, comeon Jay, what if they put you on the 500-dollar gold piece?;):P And that would rarely depreciate!:laugh3: People would be lining up at the banks to get theirs: "two golden Jays; that'll be one grand, please!";) If we end the fiscal madness of unlimited foreign wars, and running up the debt, maybe the dollar would be worth it's weight in gold again?? Yes, plastic is like that! Easy. And it probably lubricates the economy's gears, but I feel the same way. If we had to plunk down a treasure chest just to buy that new car or house, it would 'feel' like we're spending a lot!;) (yea, what would that be like? here's the box with $300,000 for that home.. careful, and don't drop it on your feet - it weighs 4 ton!:laugh3:)

:rolleyes:Ahem.. back to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress.. Now, a green economy needs honest, educated, ethical referees. What are the best options, in your opinion?? And, Al Gore is too dry to hijack anything but maybe a box of crackers! :) I'm not saying he's 100% correct on everything he says, but he's just deadpan earnest. A conspiracy with Al Gore at the helm would be like suspecting Maria Theresa of spying on foreign nations!

Supercooled liquid Helium. :P Half-full, Ms. Snicket.

It is a very complicated matter, and the Earth's climate is always in flux, owing to many, many factors. However, we would be fooling ourselves to think that the scientific community has been recording data and studying the climate all these years, and actually trying to dupe us all. I think sometimes we get hung up on ideas, models, or assumptions, when later we find a larger truth that clarifies the picture. One undeniable fact remains in that we are removing from the Earth's crust fixed carbon, and through combustion of these 'fossil' fuels, have been combining them with atmospheric oxygen, to yield ever greater levels of CO2 in the biosphere. When do we reach a threshold / tipping point, and how rapidly is this carbon being reduced to non-atmospheric/oceanic carbon? We may have overlapped a cooling trend, but could be driving the CO2 levels past normal fluctuations - and the effects could be quite severe, all changes in solar intensity aside. But consider that oil, gas, and coal companies balk at climate scientists' predictions because these scientists could dramatically alter their businesses; self-interested groups tend to heckle anyone who sees problems related to their practices. One good example: the Bush administration had been suppressing top scientists at NASA, when the reports went against administration policy. Anotherwords, there is an effort to stifle the truth on climate change, and it's coming from the fossil fuel industries..