FlaSoxxJim

QUOTE(EvilMonkey @ Mar 9, 2005 -> 11:39 PM) http://oceanhaven.com/htmls/practices.html Check out there various posts of things not allowed. Yeah, they really "Respecting the interdependence & diversity of all life." Think there are any hotles out there that have "No Kerry voters" in their ads or web pages? That is what people like to call a... uhm, what's the word again? Oh yeah, A JOKE!! Seriously, anybody that cares enough about west coast rocky intertidal to spend $$$ to stay in a low-impact cabin with no internet, SUV access, daily maid service, etc., has placed the environment and responsible environmental stewardship of the environment at the top of their personal priority list. Ergo, they wouldn’t have voted for Bush anyway.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Mar 9, 2005 -> 11:29 AM) Well, there's more variability in F's. I mean, you can score 0% and get an F and you can score a 59% and get an F. Afterall, there's no such thing as an F+ or an F-.... Not true... Bart Simpson got an F- one time.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Mar 9, 2005 -> 11:15 AM) Maybe someone will invade us and then rebuild the infrastructure. IMHO, that seems overly harsh and subjective. I drive regularly in Mexico and I see lack of guardrails, curves sloped the opposite way, dirt roads, standing water, garbage everywhere. We're at least 2 or 3 grades above that F. Maybe it's a logarithmic scale, so our D is 10x better than Mexico's F?

QUOTE(TheBigHurt35 @ Mar 8, 2005 -> 05:43 PM) Unless KBR engaged in these illegal practices AFTER being purchased by Haliburton, there's no legal basis for holding Haliburton responsible. And what makes you think that Haliburton could've uncovered any evidence of bid rigging? I realize that you dislike Cheney but, come on. Let's be reasonable. Oops, that was a big typo on my part -- that should have read Cheney and co. should NOT be held responsible... Big difference. i know. As far as whether they could have uncovered anything in doing their research before the merger, what would it be saying about the abilities of a CEO if he was completely unable to look into KBR's financial doings and not see something wasa amiss?

QUOTE(El Piervizdyeguchansodnik @ Mar 8, 2005 -> 04:27 PM) Coprastasophobia Fear of constipation. I've managed to use this term in conversation, along with copraphagy (poop eating, ala' bunny rabbits) and coprabalistics (poop flinging ala' zoo primates). Yep, biologists... You can dress us up, you can take us out, but we're still going to talk about poop, mucus, sex, drugs... I guess the conversations are eerily sililar when rock and roll roadies get together....

OK, now that I've had a look at the satelllite track, I see it's the extreme northern part of the state looking to get slammed. Coastal flooding is still going to be a big issue, but not the slug of water coming back down the mountains like it would be down by cairns or Cooktown. Still going to be a couple of wet, windy days.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Mar 8, 2005 -> 01:08 PM) Sperm is Cheap That would make such a cool adverteasing slogan. Or in Latin for us science geeks: Sperma est vilis!

Sure, Cheney and the larger Haliburton entity should be held accountable for what KBR did before the acquisition, but there are other issues that should bear scrutiny. First, why did Cheney not do his homework at the time of the merger, shed light on the dubious practices of KBR and walk away from the deal? More likely, Cheney/Haliburtin DID do their homework and DID find slime under the rocks but chalked it up to business as usual and proceeded with the merger. As for today, how Cheney and the Administration facillitates or impedes an investigation will be interesting. I personally don't have an issue with the $7 billion no-bid Iraq contract per se, because I think there was justification for sole-source contracting there. How they have handled things since the contract award is another matter entirely. But I do take issue with Cheney's extreme lack of forthcoming on how much contact he has had with Haliburton since 2000. Clearly he still has a major economic interest in the company, he has standing options to buy up more stock, etc., and because of the potential conflict of interest there needs to more transparency in that relationship and there is not. I'm sure Cheney will be asked if he knew anything about KBR's business practices prior to the Haliburton acquisition. There sure as hell had better not be any invoking of executive privilege and whatnot to allow him to stay quiet on the issue. An interesting side note is that Haliburton was poised to sell off KBR in 2003.

QUOTE(Wong & Owens @ Mar 8, 2005 -> 09:03 AM) Try downloading the Ipodagent, and import the songs into that program first. Then import them into your ITunes library. That's the most streamlined route, but just putting the files to your hard drive first and then importing from there will work too.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Mar 8, 2005 -> 01:55 PM) Yeah, I think so. Whatever a "tropical cyclone" maybe. But let's face it, twister is faaaaaaar more fun to say. A cyclone is the Pacific equivalent of an Atlantic hurricane. A typhoon is a tropical cyclone specifically on the Philippines or China Sea. So now ya know. And damn, this one is massive, solid Cat5. Hopefully it makes a turn - and if I'm not mistaken it would be a southward turn away from the equator, opposite of up here where we'rte always waiting for the damn things to turn north. I can see some possible flooding and mudslide issues on the horizon here if the Kuranda range gets heavily dumped on on. Sending good thoughts out to the blokes and sheilas Queensland way.

Well, first, Kees Moeliker was awarded an "Ig Nobel" Prize, not a Nobel prize. Details, details... Second, the joke answer: If the one duck was only mostly dead, how better to revive him than with a firm how-do-ya-do? in the backside? Third, the serious - albeit humorous - biological answer: Homosexuality is actually not uncommon in vertebrates, and neither is forced sex, rape, gang rape, etc. Interestingly, but not unexpectedly, cases of homosexuality are almost always in male animals. From an energetics/evolutionary perspective this makes complete sense. Alas, sperm is cheap, and the consequences of an incorrect mating event - with another male, with a different species, with a tree stump, with a house slippert, etc., are negligible. For females, however, the consequences of an incorrect mating are much more severe. Eggs are not cheap, nor is maternal care pre or post-partuition. If females only come into estrus for a brief period each year, making tghe wrong mate selections during that brief window of opportunity could mean you do not reproduce that year. Even worse, from an individual fitness perspective, if week offspring or inviable hybrid offspring from heterospecific mating were produced, the maternal investment put into rearing those mistakes is of ecological significance if your neighbors are successfully passing their genes on to the next generation and you are not. It is precisely for these reasons that elaborate courtship rituals have evolved in the animal kingdom, and also why it is always the female who gets to be the choosey one. Making the correct mating choice is a lot more ecologically important for females than for males. Folks tend to get in trouble when they apply insights from animal behavior to humans, but I'll do it anyway. Male and female human behavior (with exceptions to be sure, and social mores that blur things quite a bit) closely follows all of the above rules. Males feel a biological compulsion to mate with just about any female who makes herself available (although they don't usually act on these impulses), and also a compulsion to mate with their chosen mate as often as possible because we have evolved under a set of rules that says sperm is cheap and get it out into the population. Males also tend to self-satisfy more frequently than even honest females will cincede, again because sperm is cheap. Females, on the other hand, are more selective, typically feel intense sexual urges only on a cyclical basis (when they are most apt to conceive of course), and are rightly concerned with tying up a lit of reproductive time rearing young and for that reason want them to be fit progeny.

QUOTE(mreye @ Mar 8, 2005 -> 07:51 AM) Feels good, doesn't it, Jim? Eewww, no. I feel dirty, dirty, dirty.

Happy Happy!

I had my first DEEP FRIED TWINKIE at the county fair this weekend. Amazing somebody found a way to make them even worse for your health. I had it with confectioner's sugar on top to boot, but I declined the chocolate sauce. Of course, I ordered a Diet Coke to go with it to keep my girlish figure...

It had to happen eventually. No back-handed compliment or sarcasm. Bush nominated Acting EPA Administrator Steve Johnson to the top job permantly. He will the first career EPA employee to head the agency and for once there will be a scientist in the top spot. http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7265 Sure, he's going to have to push a lot of the weak Bush environmental agenda. But he will be able to communicate with scientists and hopefully will demonstrate enough moral conviction to not just sit back and watch EPA rules get gutted or allow EPA lawyers to roll over in court and let industry steamroll environmental safeguards. He also has 24 years logged as a protector of people and the environment, rather than having any long-held ties to Big Energy like we might have seen in other candidates. OK, GWB... you got this one right.

Dude, you need a drink!

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 4, 2005 -> 12:35 PM) Who in Euresia is looking for defense, and what from? Russia is the only one I can think of, and I would really hope they aid in defending themselves. Who at the India Daily needs a spell checker??

Slainte' That is the correct number of Guinness pints to imbibe at Murphy's before stumbling to LaBamba for a big greasy chorizo burrito. And on a dare, maybe a brain taco or two... :puke

The South Africa and Brazil inclusions are cartainly interesting, and make the group fairly global.

Tavern On the Green. Somebody else picks up the tab. And flies me there and back...

Truly scary stuff, PA. The up-side, of course, are that you and your co-workers are safe, but I can only imagine what went through your heads and how shook up you've got to be. Sending good thoughts your way...

Party like you mean it! Happy Birthday.

Didn't Ted Turner donate $1 billion toward reducing the debt a few years ago, back when he had that kind of money lying around?

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Feb 28, 2005 -> 04:33 PM) I just learned I have to go pick up someone at the Philly airport.... for my safe travels. Did you bring me back some scrapple? P.S. What the f*** is scrapple??

Oops, sorry!? And no moves are being made to set up new accounts for the million plus people...? Just an apology letter and continuing to monitor for suspicious activity... Not a very proactive remedy. And that ChoicePoint backstory link was interesting. Somewhat worrying to see they have expanded their horizions from facilitating election rigging to facilitating electronic identity theft. How are they still in business?