Soxy

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 4, 2005 -> 08:23 AM) I'm not saying he's innocent. Just talking about the testing process. I would like to know what the testing procedures are. If there is a second test conducted at a different lab and how accurate the tests are. Nothing is 100% accurate. 99.9 means one in a thousand will be wrong. Either a false negative or a false positive. Isn't it poppy seeds that can trigger a false positive on some drug tests? You have to eat a whole crapload of poppy seeds (I've heard the equivilant of 18 poppy seed muffics) to test positive. So, yes it but in that case odds are you're on herion not going crazy at the muffin store.... And to be honest 99.9% accuracy is good enough for me--do they give them a second test (or do a second test on the sample) before kicking them out? That would clear out the problem of false positives....

QUOTE(Leonard Zelig @ Apr 5, 2005 -> 09:54 AM) More evidence? Dang, he's got skills to be able to run in heels like that.

AL East: Yankees Central: Twins West: Mariners WC: BoSox NL East : Braves Central: Cards West: Dodgers WC: Phillies

QUOTE(TheBigHurt35 @ Apr 5, 2005 -> 07:34 AM) I know a lot of liberals who attend church. I wasn't putting you into the "nihilist" category and don't see how you drew that conclusion. FWIW, my grandmother (a Presbyterian) disowned two of her daughters because one married a Catholic and the other married a Jew. I agree that Christians hating Christians (or Jews or Muslims, for that matter) is stupid. I think the phrase that got me was "nihilist progressives on the left". I just get really frustrated hearing about how if you're left you're some kind of godless heathen.

QUOTE(TheBigHurt35 @ Apr 5, 2005 -> 07:25 AM) IMO, the greater split now is between Christians (or those of faith, in general) and the nihilist "progressives" on the left. You're not Irish are you? Although, seriously, about half of my mom's family (younger generation too) wouldn't go to her wedding because it was to a protestant. And many of those same relatives do not acknowledge my sister, myself and my protestant cousins at family functions. And, as a devout leftist that attends services every week, I find your statement offensive and stereotypical...

QUOTE(Texsox @ Apr 5, 2005 -> 07:05 AM) ChiSoxy, isn't some of this more a linguistic issue than a sex act definition? Look at words that have sexual connotation and how this generation has altered the meanings gay and pimp come to mind. Could the research actually be pointing to a narrowing of what the word "sex" means, and not a narrowing of what the sexual act is? There may not be an lessening of moral boundaries, this doesn't necessarily mean that oral sex has become any more common. I know I'm not being clear. Yeah, I'm sure it's one of those semantic issues that people always use. Is it narrowing the definition of sex? I don't know--I feel like older people (even in their twenties) lean more to the fact that it IS sex. If it is a linguistic change I, for one, am SHOCKED by how quickly the definition changed--like within a generation (or half a generation). I think that's a little quick. Essentially because oral IS penetration (at least most of the time)--and I guess that's much more how I definite sex... I think the problem probably lies in two parts: inadequate sex education (by parents and/or school). A lot of these kids don't think it's sex--and a lot also think you can't get an STI from oral. Ignorance is bliss, until you get chlamydia.... I also think that, and I'm totally expecting the flame for this, but I think that this kind of definition of sex is very heterosexist. Oral isn't sex, anal isn't sex, but plain old missionary is. So, essentially, this kind of definition of sex means only a man and a woman can have it--which is also a double standard. As far as oral sex becoming more common--I have no idea. Possible, maybe even probable--if it isn't sex then it's much less of a job to do it, less guilt afterwards. But I can't even conjuncture on the sexual patterns of teens across time....

QUOTE(Capn12 @ Apr 4, 2005 -> 10:35 PM) I've moved onto "Extraordinary Machine" by Fiona Apple.. Love to hear Miss Fiona play the piano and sing...solid disc...Fiona fans should go "locate" it and check it out, since Sony won't release it themselves. Where did you find it? I love her....

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Apr 4, 2005 -> 04:13 PM) I did NOT see that coming. Me neither..... But I don't understand how oral isn't sex...I mean, hi, just wow. Honestly speechless....

Ross Gload

QUOTE(winodj @ Apr 4, 2005 -> 07:14 AM) I don't know why, but the song "Good Night Good Night" by Hot Hot Heat is stuck in my mind lately. Better than the Safety Dance....

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

QUOTE(BridgeportHeather @ Apr 2, 2005 -> 11:41 PM) I was chosen to teach the math portion of the ACT Prep Course at Bogan and will be paid an extra $300 to do so, and it will be added to my next CPS paycheck. The course starts next Tuesday and meets three times in both of the next two weeks. Sweet! That will buy a lot of sox tickets!

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Apr 1, 2005 -> 12:38 PM) OK, who got you and how?!? Clearly, what you need is some Refreshing Google Gulp. No one--I just have no time in my busy and important life for such tomfoolery.

Yahoo is now reporting it--but no Vatican confirmation. What a tremendous impact he had on the world. He's home now...

QUOTE(winodj @ Apr 1, 2005 -> 11:55 AM) I heart my box! I heart my box too....

Chipper pets... Animals enjoy good laugh too, scientists say By Peter Gorner Tribune science reporter Published April 1, 2005 Tickling rats to make them chirp with joy may seem frivolous as a scientific pursuit, yet understanding laughter in animals may lead to revolutionary treatments for emotional illness, researchers suggest. Joy and laughter, they say, are proving not to be uniquely human traits. Roughhousing chimpanzees emit characteristic pants of excitement, their version of "ha-ha-ha" limited only by their anatomy and lack of breath control, researchers contend. Dogs have their own sound to spur other dogs to play, and recordings of the sound can dramatically reduce stress levels in shelters and kennels, according to the scientist who discovered it. Even laboratory rats have been shown to chirp delightedly above the range of human hearing when wrestling with each other or being tickled by a keeper--the same vocalizations they make before receiving morphine or having sex. Studying sounds of joy may help us understand the evolution of human emotions and the brain chemistry underlying such emotional problems as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders, said Jaak Panksepp, a pioneering neuroscientist who discovered rat laughter. Panksepp, of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, sums up the latest studies in this week's edition of the journal Science in hopes of alerting colleagues to results that he terms "spectacular." The research suggests that studying animal emotions, once a scientific taboo, seems to be moving rapidly into the mainstream. "It's very, very difficult to find skeptics these days. The study of animal emotions has really matured. Things have changed completely from as recently as five years ago," said Mark Bekoff, an expert in canine play behavior and professor of biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Biologists suggest that nature apparently considers sounds of joy important enough to have conserved them during the evolutionary process. "Neural circuits for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the brain," Panksepp said, "and ancestral forms of play and laughter existed in other animals eons before we humans came along." Research in this area "is just the beginning wave of the future," said comparative ethologist Gordon Burghardt, of the University of Tennessee, who studies the evolution of play. "It will allow us to bridge the gap with other species." New investigative techniques often rely on super high-tech scanning wizardry, but the most important tool for scientists in this field is much more simple. "Tickles are the key," Panksepp said. "They open up a previously hidden world." Panksepp had studied play vocalizations in animals for years before it occurred to him that they might be an ancestral form of laughter. "Then I went to the lab and tickled some rats. Tickled them gently around the nape of their necks. Wow!" The tickling made the rats chirp happily--"as long as the animal's friendly toward you," he said. "If not, you won't get a single chirp, just like a child that might be suspicious of an adult." Rats that were repeatedly tickled became socially bonded to the researchers and would seek out tickles. The researchers also found that rats would rather spend time with animals that chirp a lot than with those that don't. During human laughter, the dopamine reward circuits in the brain light up. When researchers neurochemically tickled those same areas in rat brains, the rats chirped. Rat humor remains to be investigated, but if it exists, a prime component will be slapstick, Panksepp speculated. "Young rats, in particular, have a marvelous sense of fun." Panksepp said that laughter, at least in response to a direct physical stimulus such as tickling, may be a common trait shared by all mammals. Psychologist and neuroscientist Robert Provine, author of "Laughter: A Scientific Investigation," tickled and played with chimpanzees at the Yerkes Regional Primate Center in Atlanta while researching the origins of the human laugh. Laughter in chimps, our closest genetic relatives, is associated with rough-and-tumble play and tickling, Provine found. That came as no surprise. "It's like the behavior of young children," said Provine, of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. "A tickle and laughter are the first means of communication between a mother and her baby, so laughter appears by about four months after birth." The importance of such an early behavior is apparent. "We're talking about a life-and-death deal here--the bonding and survival of babies," Provine said. When chimps laugh, they make unique panting sounds, ranging from barely audible to hard grunting, with each inward and outward breath. "We humans laugh on outward breaths. When we say `ha-ha-ha,' we're chopping an outward breath," Provine said. "Chimps can't do that. They make one sound per inward and outward breath. They don't have the breath control to ... make the traditional human laugh." The breakthrough in dog laughter was accomplished by University of Nevada, Reno, researcher Patricia Simonet while working with undergraduates at Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe. With extensive chimp research behind her, Simonet was open to the idea of animal emotions, but the laughing sound she discovered in dogs was unexpected: a "breathy, pronounced, forced exhalation" that sounds to the untrained ear like a normal dog pant. But a spectrograph showed a burst of frequencies, some beyond human hearing. A plain pant is simpler, limited to just a few frequencies. Hearing a tape of the dog laugh made single animals take up toys and play by themselves, Simonet said. It never initiated aggressive responses. "If you want to invite your dog to play using the dog laugh, say `hee, hee, hee' without pronouncing the `ee,'" Simonet said. "Force out the air in a burst, as if you're receiving the Heimlich maneuver." When she played a recording of a laughing dog at an animal shelter, Simonet found that even 8-week-old puppies reacted by starting to play, something they hadn't done when exposed to other dog sounds. "Some sounds, like growls, confused the puppies. But the dog laugh caused sheer joy and brought down the stress levels in the shelter immediately."

I friggin hate April Fool's Day.

My best friend's chemo seems to be working and doesn't make her ill. I got a bridesmaid dress over spring break and it's gorgeous and flattering. It's burnt orange (but more gold) and matches my eyes. Now all I need is a date.... My cat is super nice and snuggly. And I think I am going to name her Bagheera (after the Jungle Book)--this name seems to fit her and she almost responds to it. I turned in a term paper today and am officially stress free until the middle of May. Opening day is April 4th. Tomorrow is Friday. It's Spring!

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 31, 2005 -> 11:57 AM) When do the old lady shoving, and kicking people in the nuts day happen? Crap, I'm only supposed to do that on special days?

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 30, 2005 -> 08:40 PM) Oh boy; I like it...

My grandma out in Morris called to see if I was okay (she's insane, as I live in NY and had the best weather of the year)--but she said they had golf ball sized hail and just crap weather...

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Mar 30, 2005 -> 08:38 PM) Plus he's White Sox colored. Lol, I knew I wanted to name her Black Betsy for a reason.....It's, like, totally Kismet...

QUOTE(AddisonStSox @ Mar 30, 2005 -> 08:34 PM) Is this the one? If so, I use it on frozen pizza all the time. Cheers!!! Oh gosh, yes. That's the stuff. Mmmmmmmmmm.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 30, 2005 -> 08:28 PM) Those are some cool ideas for some names there. I've got a ginger cat, and his name is Nike, mainly because he's got white feet so it looks like he's wearing sneakers (corny I know). He's a real nice sociable cat, but he's too fat and greedy. Here's a pic of him on a mousepad saved from my webcam; That cat looks like he bosses everyone around. But he's a cutie--I was debating getting the black one I ended up with or a ginger one. But I figure a black cat suits my personality better.

Tabasco is tastey. But I definitely prefer that hot sauce that they have in bottles in Mexican restaurants. Oh yum. My parents eat a lot of pizza and I have a bottle of that stuff at home so I can eat pizza (I'm not usually a big fan).