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Merc, I do agree that the three things on your list are good things to socialize because the small amount paid in taxes for them is repaid many times over in commerce. And you know how I feel about rail transport. We do in fact have a great freight rail system here, but I wish we had a decent...

Merc, I don't know about your current financial state but for the majority of people taxes hurt badly. Unless you're millionaire every dollar taken out in taxes affects you in some way or another. Even if you have enough left to buy what you need, the taxes you pay mean that you can't put away...

I've thought along those lines myself. The whole move to suburbia in the 1950s and 1960s was in effect was an encrouchment on these animals' territory. We should have stayed in the cities and fixed the problems there. It's more cost efficient to live in high-density settlements anyway. As...

Why not let the employees buy into the same group insurance that is used to cover them if they want to cover their spouses and children? It would still be cheaper than buying it on thier own. My point here is that a single person working for an employer (municipal or otherwise) who provides...

I can agree with you here to a point, the point being that civil unions which protect inheritence, visitation, and other rights are OK, those which provide benefits, medical or otherwise, at taxpayer expense to domestic partners are not. I don't care what someone does in the privacy of their...

Anyone ever think it's all an act with GWB? I nearly always act a lot less intelligent than I am for the simple reason that it catches people off guard. He may be doing the same. Granted, GWB may really be as stupid as he appears, but on the other hand it may all be a brilliant ploy. After...

With Ohio projected to go to Bush by two networks at best Kerry can manage a tie. In all likelihood it looks like four more years of Bush. I can't say I have any feelings about this, good or bad. I'd rather neither of them got elected. If you were a little closer Mercutio I would send you a...

I'm writing in Rudy Guiliani. Or maybe even Mickey Mouse. I can't stand Kerry and I'm not that fond of Bush. This election is a joke. If you want to talk disenfranchisment then I've long felt that neither party represents me. Both parties are all about keeping the status quo. The Democrats...

Putting aside the narrowmindedness for a moment, regimentation is what the military is all about. Either you don't mind it, or you do. Most intelligent people do not like to have every minute of every day planned the way the military does. I might be able to deal with the physical rigors of...

The word UP brought to mind a true story. About ten years ago my "know-it-all" cousin was visiting us. He always was prone to telling tall tales or acting like he heard of everything so unbeknownst to me my brother decided to try to catch him in the act. He told my cousin that Federal Express...

Living with my parents perhaps? :frusty: That's mostly what fuels my occasional indulgences. It's a good thing I'm not obessive-compulsive or I would probably be an alcoholic living around here. Anyway, I split an 18 can box of beer with my mom. That was about five weeks ago. I still have...

Yep, that's who it was. She couldn't sing her way out of a paper bag. All those American idol singers strain to hit their notes. Besides that, it looked like she was lip singing and her mouth wasn't even synchronized with the words. I'm sure glad they didn't bring her back today. She...

Seeing what others picked up in bars, the results of surveys, hearsay, etc. I remember the crowds I used to like to hang around with, and none of them went to bars. I remember groups of people I didn't particularly like who said they did. Most who go to bars tend to have some "issues" of some...

I'll drink occasionally (rarely anything stronger than beer), often alone, once in a while with other family members. I've never went to a bar in my life. I don't see the point. The drinks are too expensive, the quality of people you meet is generally low, and I can't hold alcohol well at...

I'm glad for you Doug and Boston that the Sox won but couldn't they come up with someone better than that awful American idol singer? :puke-r: :puke-l: That alone made me wish the Yankees had won. The singing cop the Yankees usually use can actually carry a tune. This girl sure can't. My...

Money can't buy everything. IIRC Baltimore had the most expensive roster in baseball a few years ago and finished in last place. The Mets have a pretty expensive team as well yet did pis poorly the last two years. There were a lot of injuries on the Yankees this year. Giambi couldn't play in...

Now I have to hear my father moan all winter about how the Yankees couldn't win one lousy game out of four. :cry: I've heard psychiatrists in New York will be doing a booming business during the next few months. This is the ultimate humiliation for Yankee fans-being beaten four straight, by...

It seems like not long ago you hit 5000. Amazing when you consider how high your signal to noise ratio is. Just about everything you post is worth reading because it's informative, or funny, or thoughtful, or creative, or sometimes all four at the same time.

Nothing in the way of contacts to offer but best of luck to you. I'll mention your need for contacts next time I talk to some of my neighbors. Since about half of them are Chinese around here in Flushing, I might get lucky. Any particular reasons for doing this? Or just a change in scenery...

Wow, I wasn't aware that LEDs could be pulsed on and off that fast, and I've been playing with LEDs for quite some time. IR LEDs operating at much slower speeds have been used for years in remotes, but those speeds mentioned are amazing.

I'm pretty sure the water in beer and soda is distilled first to get all the impurities out. As for getting rid of lead, I believe most of the commercially available water filters take care of it, along with most other impurities.

Maybe drinking all the soda I do isn't so bad after all. :mrgrn: Water pollution, air pollution, food additives-no wonder so many people end up with cancer in the US. :(

I can't even eat what's considered a normal meal in one shot. Generally, when I get a lunch special (main dish, soup, egg roll) at one of the local Chinese takeouts I'll make two meals out of it. I tend to eat a lot of smaller meals over the course of a day rather than three larger ones. That...

I also hate to hear something like this. We're all here if you need to dump your problems. Feel free to PM whenever you want.

I figure about 3.6 TB (decimal) just from what's in that list. What on earth do you need all that storage for? That must be a really nice pr0no collection you have. ;) Seriously, is this video? I can't imagine anything else needing this much space, and yes, we are promised a drive next year...

I seriously thought about doing that this summer. As I said, it was almost unbearable until I tried the hydrocortisone cream. As long as that keeps it under control, I should be OK until I find the cause. I pretty much eliminated any of those causes. I wear the same types of clothes I've...

Can't say I know what this looks like but Home Depot's Commercial Electric 6500K CF actually has pretty decent color rendering, and really does look like 6500K. Some of the cheaper grade daylight CFs not only have poor color rendering, but are actually closer to 8000K than 6500K. These look as...

Since we're all talking about unattractive growths on the skin, I might as well talk about a problem I've been having for the past few years. It's not as bad as some of the previous things in this thread but if you're easily grossed out don't read any further. Every summer for about the past...

At least this isn't as bad as Flagreen's poop thread. :lol:

Most of the people I knew in school and at my first job drove without licenses or insurance. As long as you don't get in an accident or get pulled over it's no big deal. A license doesn't replace your eyes and ears. Quite a few who have licences really shouldn't, and many who don't are...

Actually, it's always referred to as simply catenary. I've noticed the relative lack of sensation of speed in trains myself when traveling 125 mph along the NorthEast Corridor. There isn't that much side-to-side motion, it's fairly quiet, and you're pretty high up. In fact, 70 mph in one of...

Well, that may be blazing fast for a motorcycle but it's not much above the day in and day out speed reached by high-speed trains in Europe and Japan. And if MS Train Simulator is any indication of what the real thing is like, you get acclimated to those kinds of speeds in no time at all. I...

Congratulations, Doug! :beer: :thumbleft: And thanks a million for everything you've done to keep this place going! :thumbright:

From the article: This is the same old song-when blacks can't compete on their own for whatever reason, they want the government to step in and level the playing field. Hint-it didn't work then and it won't work now. Maybe if more blacks stayed in school and didn't have babies when they were...

Pradeep, we can only hope one day the Supreme Court finds the kind of extreme gun control laws such as NYC and NYS have to be unconstitutional. I never understood how a handgun with more than 10 rounds suddenly became an assault weapon anyway. IMO states shouldn't be free to enact more extreme...

The only redeeming thing here is that it's too expensive to really catch on. I dread to think of everyone driving one of these. I showed it to my mom-she had some interesting comments on this part: Her response was that they want to make a statement that they're an asshole. :rofl:

Neither will I.

:thumbright: !yvoorg gnileeF

Is it just me, or does this whole thing sound very similar to the movie The Andromeda Strain? Not the helicoptor capture stunt, but the idea of capturing some extraterrestrial material and returning it to Earth for analysis. In the movie it was called Project Scoop, and I think they captured...

Guys, I was talking about California in a general way. The places where most of the population (i.e. LA, SF, SD) lives are warm all year round, at least by NYC standards. It's always cooler at high altitudes so that's not really a fair comparison. By the same token, I'm sure New York State...

Well, it hasn't been quite so hot here, but I'm glad summer's almost over. I couldn't stand to live in a place like California where it never really gets cold. When I go out walking or riding I'm uncomfortable whenever it's much over about 55°F. Summer sucks.

I'm on broadband-RoadRunner to be specific.

I couldn't find SF just now so I tried those links from a copy of this thread saved on my hard drive. The first link gives me a picture with cars and the text "STATE OF EMERGENCY". The second one gives a cPanel screen which says "There is no website configured at this address". The last two...

Thanks for the compliments-I've never entertained the thought of writing for a living since I'm an engineer and tinkerer by nature. However, contributing an occasional piece to the op-ed column certainly sounds interesting. I'll inquire as to what's involved next time I have something...

Just curious Merc, but how would you feel about a McCain-Guiliani ticket? That's who I really wish was running instead of Bush-Cheney. Guiliani could deal with all the national security stuff, which he is best suited for by training and temperament. McCain could best deal with domestic...

Your power supply might be on the way out. About a year and a half ago I was getting similar problems with one drive (not bad sectors, but SMART told me I had more and more reallocated sectors). I had problems with UDF CD-RWs. I would get bad sectors even on new, freshly formatted disks. My...

mubs, IIRC the utilities that come with new retail Maxtor drives include a way to copy one partition to another, and I'm pretty sure that the folder dates are copied correctly. I'll have to double check that for you one of these days, but I think it works that way. Yes, it's very annoying...

Actually, SR was a typo. I meant to say SF in that sentence. No problems with SR or any other sites, just SF. I'll try the things you say next time it happens and see if they work. The fact that CityK is also experiencing this leads me to believe that we are occasionally being redirected to...

I mentioned this problem in another thread also. Sometimes I'll post here, go back to SF a few minutes later, and then get "site not found", or whatever the message is that IE gives when it can't connect to a site. This condition may persist for only a few minutes, and sometimes even the...

As far as the drive is concerned, all it deals with are commands to write or read to a sector or group of sectors starting at whatever LBA. As Howell mentioned, it is up to the O/S to make sense of the data it stores on the hard drive. Also, whenever anything is done with a hard drive, the...