coquina

Researchers may keep looking, but it won't be a solution available on the open market. The political pressure of population control wouldn't allow it.

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him' date=' I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Mr. Robertson said Monday on his show, "The 700 Club." "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

 

Quote from Pat Robertson, a President wanna-be, Christian Coalition founder. Another insane remark to add to his long list.[/quote']

 

I'm no fan of Pat Robertson, but the above doesn't sound like it was made as a serious comment. However, a case of diarrhea of the mouth complicated by constipation of the brain is not an ailment with which one should be afflicted while speaking on national TV.

On the topic of whether people should change in order to please their other half' date=' I think there is a certain give and take that goes on in a relationship that is quite healthy. It comes from compromising on the washing up schedule (irc folks will understand why I bring this up as an example...) - a lazy ar*e has to change his habits and do the washing up more often, and this should lead to a general trait change whereby he just generally isn't as lazy as he was (although such a person is always going to be a little bit on the I-can't-be-bothered side).[/quote']

 

I was married to one of those for 31 years. He hated washing dishes (and a lot of other household chores). Be forwarned about your lazy wonder - a favorite way of getting out of something they don't want to do is to do it wrong or halfway. Then when you complain (about food stuck on the bottom of a plate for instance), they'll tell you that you are a perfectionist and no one can do anything to please you. I think some men avoid housework because they don't know how to do it properly and efficiently.

 

Regardless - when I tried to force Butch into it, he was a grumpy PITA the rest of the day. I finally realized that getting him to do things he hated was fruitless - convinced him to do some other things instead, like vacuuming or dusting. Anyway - it is compromise. You gotta figure out what you can live with and what you can't. I will promise you, if he's lazy now, he will never turn into a ball of fire, so be ready to accept it for as long as you stay together.

The smile thing is very true. My problem is an inability to talk to people I don't know :| damn you shyness!!!

You must know enough about physics to tutor a beginner. Start there - it is easier to talk about something with which you are familiar. You just have to get used to speaking. Don't worry that everything that comes out of your mouth isn't earth shattering.

Take a lesson from the people of the Virgin Islands. There, it is rude to conduct business with someone without saying "Good morning" or "Good afternoon" first. Try it where you live - you'll make the person on the other side of the register feel better, and get used to speaking to strangers at the same time.

Another secret is to get someone to talk about themselves, then you can listen rather than speak. If you're really tongue-tied, most of the time you can just smile and nod your head in reply. If they ask you something in return, its easier to answer a question than it is to just have conversation.

Grandma adds her two cents ...

"Before you meet your handsome prince (or princess) you gotta kiss a lot of toads."

I think that statement has a lot of merit, because I think many of us form opinions about people on first sight, and we often don't give ourselves the opportunity to get to know them well enough to know whether we really like them or not.

To Mike 90: Compliments of my mother... "there are better fish in the sea than ever came out." I'm sorry about your breakup. It hurts a lot, however, better a breakup now than a divorce with kids to support later.

To you all: If you are lonely, you can't expect Prince (or Princess) Charming to come charging up to your front door and sweep you away. You've got to go to the jousting tournament and wave your hanky.

Probably the worst place to meet someone is at a bar. If you have interests in something, join a club, go to a meeting where other people will be who are interested in the same things that you are.

If you go to school, don't walk around campus looking at your shoes. Put your head up and smile at people. You will be surprised how many will smile back. You might see a real twinkle in someone's smile - if you run into them again, speak to them - "How ya doin'" or something equally inane is fine.

Lastly - don't try to change your behavior to suit anyone else, and don't expect them to change theirs to suit you. In all probability, it will be only a short-term change - people slip right back into their innate habits.

Believe me, if there is something that really irks you about another person, after 10 or 20 years of living with them, it will drive you crazy. When you meet someone and are considering a long term or permanent relationship, make a list - things you like about them on the left - things you dislike on the right. If there are more "likes" than "dislikes", examine the dislikes to see if there are any "deal-stoppers", if there is something about that person you can't stand on a full term basis, stop the relationship now. Decide if you are willing to put up with a quirk in exchange for the person's good qualities, if you are, then you are not allowed to complain about that irritating behavior in the future, because you knew they had it going in.

So much about life is about compromise, and weighing the good against the bad. If we would realize that it relates to personal relationships as well, we would all be better off.

There wouldn't be a problem if companies weren't allowed to make patents on medical treatments...

There would be a much greater problem.

Patents don't offer much protection, but if they didn't exist, there would be nothing to stop a company from obtaining one pill and doing an analysis of it that tells them exactly what it contains.

Then, the new company can step in and manufacture that pill for a fraction of the cost, because they have practically no R&D investment.

As far as I know, all the pharmaceutical companies are publicly traded corporations. They get their R&D money from the sale of stock to their investors. Why would you buy stock in a company if there was no hope on a return of your investment, let alone a profit on it?

The only alternative I can see (mind you, I'm pointing out the possibility, not endorsing it as the answer) is to nationalize the pharmaceutical companies so they are owned by the government. Then the cost of new research is ultimately borne by you and me, because the government has to raise taxes to pay for the raw materials, the labor, and the overhead of the pharmaceutical facility.

Something else that hasn't been pointed out in all this - what happens when the company thinks a drug will work and after it goes into production a significant portion of the general population has an adverse reaction.

Merck just lost the first Vioxx lawsuit ( http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/19/business/vioxx.php ) - the jury awarded the widow of the man who died $253 million dollars. That is only one lawsuit, and there are many more to come.

In my humble opinion, if individuals at Merck knew that the drug was dangerous, and hid or falsified that information to gain FDA acceptance, those individuals should be put in jail. The widow should be awarded an amount sufficient to cover her legal bills, and enough to insure that she will have adequate money to support her in the manner she lived prior to her husband's death.

Taking "punitive damages" out of the corporation only hurts its future potential to develop beneficial drugs.

But I do wonder why can I never see the same 'spark' if it is directed at me?

Well.... If you're wearing a suit of armor and a welder's helmet, there may be a spark, but you won't see it, and there can be no ignition. In order for the spark to ignite, you have to take a chance on being burned. Whatcha think?

"involuntarily unspoused". I was married for 31 years - I've been a widow for 3 years now. On August 17, 2002, if someone had told me I'd be contemplating dating, I'd have laughed in their face. The last time I dated, I was 17 and the "pill" hadn't been invented. The worst thing that could happen from indescretion was an unplanned pregnancy.

Why am I still single? I'm picky and I don't want to settle. I know better than to expect someone to change their behavior to suit my preferences, and I'm not liable to change mine to suit theirs. There are worse things than being alone.

There are "about" forums that may interest you...

http://www.about.com/ ... http://www.about.com/religion/ ... The "homework help" section contains the history forums... http://www.about.com/homework/

Here is a neat website ... you can click on the various satellites and see its view of earth: http://fourmilab.ch/earthview/satellite.html

I am struck by how few clouds are shown. Is there some kind of filter in the cameras that remove them?

Almost every time a foreign organism is introduced into a new ecosystem, the results are catastrophic. Think about rabbits in Australia, for example.

Also think about the fact that they may bring parasitic, bacterial, or viral diseases into the country from which we have no defense. When caucasions arrived in North America, we brought with us measles, and other diseases to which the navtive americans had no natural immunity, and the population was decimated.

Africa is home to some mighty nasty micro-critters, ie the organism that causes ebola. Although I think the main reservoir for it is chimpanzees, it may be carried by other animals that don't catch it.

This is from a fictional crime novel, but it made me wonder....

The person who was the serial killer was found to have had a brain injury as a child which caused an undiagnosed hemorrage into the temporal lobe. After the perp was caught, brain imaging tests were performed that revealed the injury. I haven't finished reading the book, so I don't know the outcome. I did some research and found that frontal lobe injuries can indeed affect social behavior and judgment, and can cause people to become psuedopsychopathic. (Backed up by this page: http://www.neuroskills.com/index.shtml?main=/tbi/bfrontal.shtml)

One of the most common effects of frontal damage can be a dramatic change in social behavior. A person's personality can undergo significant changes after an injury to the frontal lobes, especially when both lobes are involved. There are some differences in the left versus right frontal lobes in this area. Left frontal damage usually manifests as pseudodepression and right frontal damage as pseudopsychopathic (Blumer and Benson, 1975).

 

Sexual behavior can also be effected by frontal lesions. Orbital frontal damage can introduce abnormal sexual behavior, while dorolateral lesions may reduce sexual interest (Walker and Blummer, 1975).

 

Just throwing this in as food for thought.

Has anyone else seen the movie? I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was fascinating to learn about rigors and extreme conditions penguins must overcome to successfully reproduce.

It may not be the same everywhere, but around here, water is found in strata of water-bearing sand called "aquifers". There are layers of clay above and below them called "confining units". Usually aquifers are at a pretty constant depth in a particular area. However, this area was hit by a large impactor 35 million years ago. The unconsolidated material that washed into the crater has cause the strata that were subsequently laid down to subside unevenly. Therefore, in this particular area, the depth of the acquifer (or whether it is present at all) can change in a very short distance.

I have seen a Native American well driller use a divining rod to find water when modern well drillers didn't hit it. I can't give an explanation of how he did it.

Here are some links to the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater that explains the aquifer problem:

http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/epubs/bolide/aquifers.html You can double click on the graphics to enlarge them.

Music is based on math and science. There is math behind all the rhythms, and it is a good math exercise for one's brain to learn how to sight read. For example 4/4 time means there are 4 notes in a measure and a quarter note is equal to 1 beat. 6/8 time means their are six beats to a measure and an 8th note gets a beat. One has to figure out the whole measure before one plays the first note, when sight reading, one usually reads 4 measures ahead. There is also math involved when figuring out chords and harmonics.

Science is involved with the sound waves. Bands and orchestras tune to A440hertz. ( http://www.uk-piano.org/history/pitch.html & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency)

However, unless one put one's heart into it while playing, music is just technical noise.

You should be careful not to breathe the fumes when you're melting metal.

...the media rarely reports anything good that happens, and they sensationalize the bad stuff to the hilt.

Sure - terrible things happen. On 9/11 nine terrorists managed to take out over 3,000.

However, at the same time, millions and millions of people were not bombing anyone and a lot of them were actively helping others.

I've only got one shot at this life. I intend to enjoy it and make it as pleasurable for myself and my family as I can. If I have the bad luck to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and get blown to smithereens - that's tough, but I'm not going to spend the rest of my life living in a bomb shelter.

Hell - I spent my elementary and high school years practicing "duck and cover" (what to do at school in the event of a nuclear attack - "put your head between your knees and kiss your a$$ goodbye."). The whole world was at a much greater risk for annihilation than it is right now.

There will always be evil people in the world. But they are the minority. If you let them get to you, they win.

Interesting, the late Frank Perdue used to feed marigold petals to his chickens while basking in their air conditioned chicken coops.

He fed them the marigold petals to give the gold color to their skins. Do you remember his commercials where he intimated that white skinned chickens were unhealthy, while his gold skinned ones were healthy?

Speaking of vulgar songs that have come into acceptance - "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw" is right up there at the top.

I grew up around people who swear. Machine-shop lingo can turn the air blue. There was a time when I used profanity much more often than I do now. A couple of faux pas in polite company made me clean up my act.

If you hit your thumb with a hammer, an utter an "Oh, Sh*t!" it is much more acceptable than if the only modifier you use is "f*cking". If you have children and use the words around them, it is amazing how quickly they pick it up, and they have no clue that what they say is inappropriate. But, when parents who don't allow their children to curse hear it, your kid will be off the playlist. It's not fair to the child to limit his playmates because of your language choices.

My Great Grandpa Vladimir Metanova died quite recently' date=' and ive been finding it quite difficult accepting that he's gone.

We were very close, especially to the end of his life, and everybodya round me's crying and upset, but i just feel empty. and i just thought a little advice in coping with it would be helpful[/quote']

 

I'm writing from personal experience - my husband died in August 2002, and my mother died in Feb 2003. The death of my mother probably relates more closely to the loss of your great-grandfather. She was 95 when she died, and had maintained her wonderful mind right to the last. She was my best friend, and I miss her tremendously.

 

I'm so sorry for your loss. First, everyone has a different reaction to death and grief. You are experiencing what is normal for you. Second, most people do have an initial "numbness". I think it is a mechanism to get you through the first days.

 

Don't try to stifle your feelings, whatever they may be. Talk about him to people, write about him - some day you will want to talk about him to your children. If he told stories, for heaven's sake, write them down now. Make a scrapbook with any pictures you have so that you can look at them and remember him. My mother used to tell me about cathcing a tarpon when she first came to America. It was her favorite story and I used to think I would go mad if I heard it one more time - now, I would give my eyeteeth to hear her tell it one more time. I wish I had taperecorded her telling it. I do have a picture of her with it that I scanned into my computer and enhanced. It was taken many years before I was born, but I love it.

 

Finally - here is an internet bereavement site for people who have lost a loved one:

http://www.griefnet.org/

 

I'm sorry - I know you miss him. Remember the good times.

I don't know why J.K. Rowling always has to kill a character from book four onwards. After reading the book, my friends and I were going "ERM...we were like, so happy that they got the Horcrux and then, TADA, Dumby's dead, and the locket's gone." I know death is inevitable, but...why must there always be a guy who will die at the end of each book? It's like a death ritual or something. o_0

Did you ever think you might be spoiling the book for someone who hasn't read it yet?

Cool - I see they have a US distributor - if I ever get around to building a house...

Well - DB is doing just great. He has all his feathers is walking around. He got housetrained to his bucket - as long as you put him outside every 3 or 4 hours, he poops in the grass instead of in his bucket. However, he was definitely getting too big for the bucket, so yesterday I moved him to a parrot cage. I put a box in it that has a lip about 3" tall and put a bunch of crumpled paper towels in it. He hopped right over the lip and went to sleep in a corner of the box.

He stretches and flaps his wings, but still can't fly. I guess his mom would still be feeding him because he won't eat anything unless it is warm. I've added wheat germ to the grits and dogfood recipe. I tried him on baby bird food, but he turned his beak up at it. I guess I'll have a carnivorous pidgeon. (Pardon me - rock dove.)

He has learned to hold onto my finger with his feet and will step up on it when I put it in front of him.

Have his friend take his mother to the hospital and go out with the girl.

The groove in the back side looks like a rope went there. One end looks like it was broken. It's hollow, so maybe another piece fit inside. I'm wondering if it is a part of a tool for crushing herbs or grain to powder.