FlaSoxxJim

The last time I got called for jury duty service was two years ago. It happened to be at the exact same time as the White Sox were playing interleague games against the Marlins at Pro Player Stadium. I live 3.5 hours north of Miami and my plan before being called to jury duty was to drive down and catch two games and spend one night at a hotel. Jury duty was going to screw all of thast up apparently First day reporting for duty was the day I planned to head down, so I was hoping for dismissal, but it didn't happen. I ididn't get ampanelled either though. Instead, I was held as a reserve jurist and didmissed for the afternoon but told I had to report back at 8:30 am the next day. Crap. So I drove down to Miami that afternoon, caught a depressing White Sox loser, got lost for a half hour coming out of the stadium taht night and then drove back home to finally get there around 2 am. Got up that morning and went back to the courthouse where I sat around for another full day to finally be dismissed. Couldn't get up teh energy for another 7-8 hour round trip back to Miami, and blew off the second game. Big fun.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Oct 31, 2006 -> 09:33 AM) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...c=NEWS&ct=5 That sounds like great work, and it's encouraging that it could be done with a cell line derived from cord blood. Even stem cell lines from cord blood do not exhibit the totipotence of embryonic lines though. That said, having access to novel lines that are not derived from the handful of existing legal cell lines might make up for a little less totipotence. None of this speaks to the absurdity of not allowing new embryonic lines to be derived from fertility clinic freezers full of cast-off embryos that are destined to be destroyed, of course, but it sounds like progress in the field.

Here's a fun parody on the "call me" ad attacking Harold Ford

QUOTE(Steff @ Oct 31, 2006 -> 05:49 AM) Slim to none. I understand and agree. I am aware. Don't hate the player, hate the game. I got nothing else. Sorry. It's not that I'm not empathetic for the family caught up in all of this. But your link noted that Lay's wife had already gone so far as to open a second-hand shop to sell off belongings because she knew she would be looking at a life that was much more modest than what she was used to. And then, wham, just because Kenny Boy beats the rap by dying at a very opportune time, his wife can relax because now the bulk of the remaining estate is going to be untouched as far as criminal penalties go (I realize civil penalties may eventually get at these assets). It's a brutal slap in the face to the thousands of people who were wiped out by the illegal acts of these guys.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Oct 30, 2006 -> 08:43 PM) ho---ly----sh-----it. what the hell is going on with that kid???? Can somebody translate? Flame war with NUKE?

QUOTE(CrimsonWeltall @ Oct 30, 2006 -> 07:37 PM) Why bother with all the work of dealing drugs? 1) Go to your bank 2) Have the teller give you a friggin ton of money 3) Have the teller then deposit all that money into the joint account of you and your wife 4) Die in gunfight with cops You can't be convicted of bank robbery if you're dead. Your wife is rich. It's sooo simple. My wife is going to buy me a hun and a ski mask ifr she ever gets wind of this scheme.

QUOTE(Steff @ Oct 30, 2006 -> 06:50 PM) Maybe (hopefully) she will have a heart and still make good on some of the damages and only keep what she needs to live on. And the chances of that are?? If the NYT info is right and the estate still owns $8 million in stock in two outside companies another $25 million in real estate holdings, various properties in Aspen, Colo., and a Houston apartment, then she's got a whole lot more than what she needs to live on. Those are ill-gotten gains as far as I'm concerned if they are the fruits of illegal business dealings. If I made millions of dollars selling drugs and got busted for it but then had teh good fortune to die before I could appeal a verdict, should my widow be allowed to keep the money I made dealing drugs bacause I was the bad guy and not her?

QUOTE(Felix @ Oct 30, 2006 -> 04:58 PM) woo Willie And it all comes full circle, Felix, since Sugarcane Harris is the dude laying down the killer violin part on that little Zappa/Beefheart ditty.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Oct 30, 2006 -> 03:15 PM) The main selling point to Dish Networks HD package for me is MonstersHD, which is actually pretty dang good. http://www.monstershd.com/ There was supposed to be The Horror Channel, but that finally tanked after something like 3 years of false starts. They are now an online station. http://www.horrorchannel.com/ I've never heard of FEARNet. Love the classic Bernie Wrightson illo on the front page of that website!

Somewhere on the website it says it's a free 24/7 on-demand channel on Comcast Digital Cable. So for now, we Brighthouse people seem out of luck.

Best of luck to Da Man (Soo)!

QUOTE(Texsox @ Oct 29, 2006 -> 10:40 PM) Of course it's only one position, they never flip flop

QUOTE(Yoda @ Oct 29, 2006 -> 09:35 PM) How often is it that you can go to the park with shorts on one of the last days of October? This weather is one to make something out of . . . Hmmm, I'd have to hunt to see if I still even own any long pants.

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Oct 29, 2006 -> 05:53 PM) http://www.slate.com/id/2152402/sidebar/2152443/ So, can only Democrats write about sex? Only Democrats can write about sex and make it interesting. GOP sex these days is apparently very boring and involves only one position, because as far as I can tell anymore the GOP only knows how to ƒuck up.

QUOTE(farmteam @ Oct 29, 2006 -> 06:00 PM) Ding ding ding, we have a winner. Well, who says gravity isn't a natural cause?!! That's a good one.

Unless I'm mistaken, he'll be doing the same thing as me, and that is picking up the first Who studio album in almost 25 years. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/arts/music/29ligh.html Keeping a very open mind about this one untill I listen a few times. But Townsend is one of Rock's true geniuses in my opinion, and this may be something special. Arguments can be made as to whether Pete and Roger = the Who. And we've certainly seen that the big Happy Together retread tours (which I've never plunked down any money for) are more about raking in the bucks than about artistic urgency or integrity. But despite my usual insistence taht it's better to let sleeping dogs (or dead bands) lie, I'm looking forward to this release.

NYT has the first chapter available online for anybody interested, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/books/ch...amp;oref=slogin

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Oct 27, 2006 -> 11:12 PM) then you should love his stuff.... heh heh heh. I was waiting for you to knock that 'tater out of the park, PA. I mean

QUOTE(farmteam @ Oct 27, 2006 -> 05:01 PM) I have (a relatively easy) one for you guys: Two guys are found dead in a cabin on a mountain. There was no sign of foul play, but they didn't die of natural causes either (i.e. it was an untimely death). How'd the die? There's a very good chance I just screwed up the telling of that riddle. Along the lines of the avelanche answer. . . They were snowed in the previous winter and starved and/or froze to death. With the spring thaw, the evidence of being snowed in had vanished leaving only the bodies. ?

QUOTE(Queen Prawn @ Oct 27, 2006 -> 12:57 PM) Mr. Ed sucks donkey dick. That is all. fixed.

I liked both the waterbed and the gas line answere. And I love these "what happened" riddle things. I've collected a bunch of them and I can throw some of them out here and give the requisite yes/no answers if people care to play. On this one, I'll guess that the scissors was used to cut the phone line, and the victim – who suffered from some undisclosed medical condition – couldn't make a call for help and died. I like the gas line answer more than this one, but thought I'd come toss out another answer.

PA, I appreciate your taking the time to read the piece and offer your commentary. And if you read my last post you see our takes on the prudence of Dawkins' in-your-face tactics are pretty similar. We differ in where we see that tactic evolving from – i.e., is it ignorance and arrogance or is it someone who thinks he's earned the right to be brutally honest in his opinions. And your reaction confirms my suspicions that it could turn a lot of people off of entertaining any openness whatsoever about evolution through natural selection if all of Darwin's footsoldiers opted for confrontation over gentle nudging. I'm going to stick with the NOMA strategy for now. As long as the existence or non-existence of a divine agent remains untestable then faith and science operate within different realms and neither one can inform nor obviate the other.

QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Oct 27, 2006 -> 11:08 AM) Boy's Penis in Father's Mouth 'Not a Sexual Act,' Webb Tells Radio Host... Developing... http://drudgereport.com/flashaw.htm There was a good diary entry on Kos about this where the author explained why it's not going to be enough for Webb to distance himself from the writings by saying it's just fiction. Much more effective for him to stress that these are fistionalized accounts of a very real level of depravity that existed in wartime post-war Vietnam, that exists in Thailand, and elsewhere. As a Vietnam vet, Webb would know this. As a war vet, people like John McCain who has lauded the realism of Webb's novels would know this. As somebody who didn't serve, Allen would not know this. That is a way to deflect this. Those passages are certainly disturbing, and the novels wouldn't be my cup of tea. But the portrayal is of scenes of human depravity and not eroticism. Webb can't ignore Allen's attack here and just hope it dies out. He needs to address it head-on.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Oct 27, 2006 -> 10:11 AM) Gave my two weeks yesterday because I got an amazing job offer... ...came to work this morning and they said "pack your bags." so, I get two weeks paid vacation. Any ideas for things to do? Read the new Richard Dawkins book.

QUOTE(mreye @ Oct 27, 2006 -> 09:38 AM) Sorry, Jim. I just thought it was ironic that you're going to read a book called "The God Delusion" over the "holidays." True enough. The. . . er. .. winter break will likely coincide with my being institutionally reorganized out of a job, so it seems like a good time to get some reading in. Unless I go the audiobook route. That linked piece I think is a good preamble to the book, settting the stage for the arguments for and against being a "Chamberlain" or a "Churchill" on the issue. In truth, I'm still a Chamberlain, and I do regularly invoke Gould's Nonoverlapping Magisteria as a way to not needlessly rile up religious moderates. I respect the fact that Dawkins is at the stage in his storied career that gives him the right to just speak his mind and not worry about who he agitates, but I'm not yet so brash. For me, there is a real concern over whether those of us who consider ourselves Darwin's footsoldiers take on all spiritual sectors versus just fighting back the fundamentalists. And it's based on by absolute steadfast belief in the strength and elegance and intellectually unifying power of the theory of natural selection. If interested people cut through the hype and the popular misconceptions and the "debate" and really look at what the the theory says and the simplicity of the underlying mechanisms, and some of the ammassed supporting evidence then there will be a great number of converts to the cause. But if every Darwin soldier became radicalized in the mold of Richard Dawkins, we would end up closing many minds before they had a chance to be opened. That's why I'm eager to read the book. Even if Gould's NOMA doesn't hold up if the goal is to focus the tools of science on ultimate origins of the universe, i still think it has a lot of merit as far as allowing some undecided people be open-minded enough to judge natural selection on its own merits rather than as the social powder keg people try to portray it as.