chuck kottke

Valley Girl Speak is still alive and well??:laugh3: It's just an avant guard dialect, laid on thick for rebellious/pointed/silly reasons.. like, totally!

Oh wow, now there's insight!^^ I graduated a long long time ago, and now I like to learn without structural limits, so to speak. But back in the day, I did sweat on occasion. Preparedness and confidence to do your best helped me the most. Strive to be your best, and improve - don't worry about competing with anyone else - all that does is make us like horses in a horse race - wonderful, if all of life were just a derby.. Oh, and having a good understanding of the role others must play, and the different perspectives we all have in life. There are many paths to go by in life. Einstein was correct when he said imagination is more powerful than knowledge. How true - we try to make objective, simple analytical tools to measure learned ability, and yet that can be very limiting. Subjective analysis often makes more sense, but then it is very hard to quantify. So, a mix of the two seems in order. And space to allow for a range of different approaches to learning seems wise; for having everyone thinking the same does not provide ample room for diverse perspectives, and can lead to a kind of "group think", which can lead to flawed approaches to problem solving. Diversity is the spice of life; uniformity provides the basic bread. A balance between the two leads to harmony.

Hmm.. Would there be a market for inflatable picnic tables then?:P

The Taoists would say something like "we should bend like a branch in the blowing breeze" or "like a river, flow around a large stone.." I think that does make some sense - perhaps floating gardens of woven mats of reeds would work. I'm just trying to find solutions, that's all... Oh, yes there is substantial evidence that man has affected climate on a scale that matters. In fact, we have been doing so for thousands of years, long before fossil fuels became the mainstay of the economy. Pick up some scientific literature - Scientific American provides some excellent articles showing examples based on sound science.

I'm looking for ideas. Any suggestions on how to lessen the impact of climate change / hurricanes / flooding in Bangladesh?

Bonobos don't have these problems.. But then again, they don't have our types of cultures, either! Floating gardens in Bangladesh.. Maybe make them of reed boats like the Incas, and grow crops in the inundated areas.. Dredge silt from the delta.. Build sea break-walls of vegitation on sand-bars, like mangrove swamps, to lessen the effects of those hurricanes... Sure, there's only 6 million people in Wisconsin, and some 100million plus people in Bangladesh, but we don't have the growing season to support millions more... Heck, it snowed today! It would be like their moving to the Himilayas ... Trade carbon credits for people?? Hmm... there's got to be a better way..

I suppose it's indecent, but illegal? Was the picnic table harmed in any way?:\:laugh3: Did it involve a salt with a shaker? I just think unless a crime is committed, it's really between Art Price Jr. and his frolicking picnic table. The world is awash in expensive sex toys, and Art was probably on a budget, given the economic blows dealt to Ohio recently. I suppose the timing was off a bit - he should have waited until after dark, and been more discrete. Maybe a park bench in a heavily wooded area..:laugh3: ..seriously though, I think the issue is exposure to minors, and this fellow needs to see a psychologist, and get some therapy. But a felony? Unless there's been a serious crime committed, I think that's extreme.

Yes, that's it! The Large Hadron Collider. Guaranteed to dim the lights of millions of homes when it is turned on!!:laugh3: Micro black holes - those things could swallow Switzerland in one gulp! (I don't even think they burp - that gets swallowed too!!):P ...Someone from Hawaii is suing to stop the experiment - on the grounds that it's not safe, and could wind up consuming the planet, and possibly the moon as well.. I really doubt it - but if it happens, oh well!:laugh3:

Is it true that Swiss Cheese's holes are the result of cosmic rays striking Swiss cheese wheels held in caves high in the Alps?? This thought crossed my mind today after hearing the CBC broadcast "as it happens" on the possibility of the new super-collider in Switzerland leading to the formation of black holes, which could be large enough to "swallow the earth." Of course, tiny ones, it is claimed, happen all the time in the universe, due to collisions of high-energy wavicles - Cosmic rays. Hence, some of the openings in the cheese could be resulting from tiny black holes! And, somewhere in another universe, all those pieces of missing cheese must be spilling out from a portal!:laugh3:

Marketing - the art of deception.:dozey:

Has anyone else checked out the featured videos on YouTube today?? Quite the surprise!:)

:laugh3:Yea, it is a bit of a catch-22, isn't it! License suspended for an unpaid ticket? That sounds draconian! Florida must be a pretty tough state for licensing then?? Best of Luck, and watch out for the spy cameras that check speed, etc...

You may be correct - but only time will tell. I'm just hoping for better than worse out of the next election. It is the process that is a large part of the problem. I do not wish to hope for another revolution here, so I put some faith that as things get worse, the public will be awakened to the realities of the day, and movements already afoot to reform the process will get real teeth. Otherwise, it's not a hopeful picture, and that's not something I care to entertain as an idea right now. Pork gets packed into bills for only so long, and corporate control cannot reign supreme forever - we pushed the tea crates into Boston Harbor at one time for just such a reason.

Dadists then. (& here I thought you were trying to send me a message, Rachel!:laugh3:) Contradictions, vagueness, half-intelligible words and phrases. Bono likes to use this as a way of creating lyrics, or so I hear.. Hmm.. well, in a sense, old things can be "new", since they can be new experiences. Or, something totally new could be in your future. No doubt about that! And since you're a budding creative talent, I would hope a new piano piece??:cool:;) (I made a new one up :P - now it's your turn!)

Sounds like a shocker. I hope you're friend's doing alright - I lost my Grandpa when I was young, and it took a long, long time to get back to normal. Could hardly imagine loosing a parent.:(

I brought in some lead to be recycled, and I told them it was a chunk of Uranium!:P (it didn't work, but hey, you gotta try!):sneaky:

OOO, that's not so good..:cry:

out out, damn spot! Well, yes! The problem is the process. What the process does is allow the worst kinds of behavior to surface to the top, and uses the tools of big money and a largely monopolized media to control voting by either negative or positive messages. Until the level of disgust reaches a zenith, that is to say.;) Well, Hillary's pretty well lost the nomination (or at least I hope so!). She's so far in debt, I cannot see her continuing much longer. Unless her twisting of the disallowed states' primary results are somehow included, I think she's finished. What isn't being looked at is the fact that Wolfowitz (on the bad council of a senior neo-con who moved him to the "dark side") got Bush and the administration to buy into the Iraq war idea (according to Woodward) - before then, they were focused on the war to be started in Afghanistan. Then, like MacBeth with Lady MacBeth, Bush bought into the idea (as they all did), and rode it and us right over the cliff. So, Congress, being chicken in times of crisis, gave the President a blank check to do whatever he wanted, and the press were corralled like so many penguins into having to be "loyalists" during a "national crisis", and to get access to press briefings at the White House, abandoned their role as watchdog. Media ownership did the rest (the silent hand of the market - e.g. - the paymaster knows how you should report the news), as Dan Rather later confessed... So, I think Bush deserves much of the blame. He, and his loyalists. Congress deserves plenty, of course, for not putting up much of a fight. But there are some who fought hard against the war. Congressman Charlie Wrangle was one. (More like lone voices in the wilderness, but they were there.) Now, given that history repeats at times, Vietnam was a lost cause long before we pulled out, and yet President after President kept on with it - afraid of letting down the American people. Iraq seems like this as well - we're the occupiers, and the national government there looks to be created in such a manner as to create divisions, so I see no hope of future peace, until we leave, and some restructuring occurs. But, unlike Vietnam, Iraq has oodles of oil, and the region is crucial for the global oil supply. Perhaps Barack Obama will get us out of this mess - I sure hope so - it's not a good situation, and stability will return in time - for the economy to function there, the groups within Iraq must cooperate. Anyhow, I'm not so pessimistic about the future - better people in office can make a difference, and the public will regain control of the government. We did it in 1776, and we can do it again!;)

Hello Josh! I had been a resident of the Commonwealth once - near Charlottesville. You're in the old capitol, I see! Glad you could join - plenty of mischief here, amongst the usual zanies!:hat::jester::sunny::guitarist::bandana:

Yes, I've seen it quite a number of times too - an excellent program! - but I can't recall if anyone answered the question of what is randomness. It's a big part of quantum mechanics, yet really, it's something we've just accepted without much insight - the concept is simple, but in reality, it must have a deeper meaning.. Maybe 42? :>

:P:P:P Was it a nipple? Bottle? Thumb?? Be as creative as you like (or can remember).

NYET!:P TNP likes those bananas you can buy with the seeds in them.

:shocked2:Is this true? Does Disco Music cause homosexuality in mice, and deafness in pigs?? And if I'm a pig farmer - this could have serious implications! Sure, if I play disco, the mice no longer have big families, so there's less feed lost to rodents, but then my pigs won't come to the trough when I call them!:laugh3: Oh, lord n' butter, what's a pig farmer to do these days??:P

:laugh3:Wonderful quote! But then, what explains probability? Quantum Mechanics?

uno, dose', quattro!:) So, did they use a holographic projection method, or something else??