Phi for All

Perhaps you should be our Resident Sex Expert since you've, you know, read a couple of books. Is that a threat?

Joking? Puns!? Please cite your sauces. As for the FSM, the quality of His mercy is not strained, but his noodles are. His followers shall not be diluted.

I think this has gone on long enough. If Dave or any of the Experts wants it opened again, so be it, but for now it's CLOSED.

All of these Challenge threads go through a Moderation queue, where they are vetted before being actually posted. That's why there is a lag time between when you post and when it shows up. Anything different than "I agree/disagree" gets deleted. We regularly get people making pages of debate despite what the rules state. It's sad, really. Actually, "I agree" is pretty pointless as well. The Challenger is obviously going to pick someone who disagrees with his stance to debate with. Eventually we'll probably give the boot to anything but "I disagree". Perhaps Sayonara³ could rig up something where the words "I disagree" are automatically passed through the queue. It would save time AND prove you can read.

I changed it for you but I don't know that it will make a difference.

Women have more mind over matter capabilities. My wife just looks at me, concentrates, and I take the trash out. Mind over matter.

Listen to you, already an old hand. What a great Dad!

An illusion, I assure you. Some of the toughest guys I know are shorter than average (more experience in fights than tall guys?). Medically, I suppose someone has to fall for the "get tall quick" schemes. Charlatans and snake-oil salesmen have to make a living too. Don't confuse respect with intimidation. You want respect, earn it by being a respectable person.

I can't believe some wonderful woman hasn't snatched you up yet!

This is one of the definitions of stalking. Seriously reconsider your plans. This is beyond sick and I feel like reporting you. I have family in California this is very threatening to me.

This has nothing to do with going to bed, just when you have to be off the streets. This is an age-driven phenomena. All I can say is that it's nearly impossible to tell a human being they're doing something stupid when they're doing it. It only sinks in when you can look back in a few years to see just how stupid it was. When you're 10 you can look back at the crap you used to do when you were 7 and just shake your head. When you're 14 your actions are perfectly justifiable but you can ackowledge you were a complete goober when you were 10. When you're 20 you know everything, including what a dangerous late-night street-walking idiot you were when you were 14. And it really never ends. I look back at some of the things I was doing when I was 35 and wonder how I'm still alive....

Remember, the reason most people have sheds on this land is for gardening. Bury that line an inch deep and everybody's going to be digging it up. Plus an inch deep means any foot traffic will quickly displace the soft soil, even if it was only a few hundred feet.

It wasn't. Restraining an underage person is automatically considered a sex offense. Hmm, I wonder if any shopkeepers are on "the list" for restraining kids caught shoplifting. I only mentioned it because it's such a stereotypical pervert thing to say. It can be said in many ways that don't hold any sexual connotations but it easily lends itself to be taken the wrong way. I don't think women's lib or talking down to her had anything to do with it. The law doesn't seem to have much leeway once you're convicted of restraint of a minor. It was simply a poor choice of words, imo, and kids are constantly being told not to go anywhere with strangers who say, "Come here!". But even saying, "Excuse me, Miss" doesn't mitigate the use of force in restraining her.

Tbh, this kind of thing has been going on in the US for years. I'm really sorry the infection has spread across the pond. I truly hope the UK can show the US how to find their common sense again. Besides what they're proposing in this article, in the US the schools are really concerned about what I call STDs (Suddenly Too Dangerous). Games and equipment kids have played with for 100 years are now being removed from schools. Tetherball poles, seesaws, dodge ball, all have the potential for either bruising the kids physically or mentally so out they go. I think this mentality is creating kids who aren't ready for the real world by the time they're 18-20. Not trusting kids to deal with potential harm means they have no defenses built up when it finally finds them.

What about the labor involved in burying a "few hundred feet" of wire (or a mile)? Get real. YT, you've come up with a great innovation here, I don't see why you keep getting people who want to criticize your system. If it's not people suggesting illegal death traps, it's people suggesting the obvious. Very resourceful. Did they ever let you hook up the community room?

To me, this is like hiding all the sharp knives in the house from a 6 year-old. You may think it keeps them from harm but it doesn't teach them what to expect when they eventually get hold of one. They should be teaching that the only failure is in not trying. To me, not exposing children to the concept of failure is not trying. There are ways to be positive without avoiding the issue.

Well, this was hardly implied when you said, "I have to call people I don't even know to get a ride."

If we were taking the same program together and didn't mind giving me a lift I would use it as an opportunity to make a friend. Your recruiter could also be looking for you to take a little initiative, put it together yourself. It shouldn't be a big deal to call a fellow Navy man.

Bamboo can also be used for emergency tracheotomies.

Wow. Talking to strangers. Asking for help. They better not ask you to do any of that once you start basic. Make sure and tell your Recruit Division Commander what a burden he's placed on you. [/sarcasm]

Before you turned 15, were you interested in anything a 24 year-old wanted to teach you? At that age you have enough to learn going into high school, dealing with kids your own age, so why would you be interested in learning about someone's college and life experiences? You're dreaming, or fantasizing really. In your own words you said most people don't adhere to the age-of-consent laws. And there really is a big difference between two 16-year-olds experimenting with adult relationships and a 24-year-old college graduate dating a 15 year-old. Why would you want to deny a normal high school experience to someone you cared about? Would you be happy going to high school parties? Would she feel comfortable with your college friends?

I don't believe this. I think people take advantage of systems that allow it. Perhaps we can start a Member Project that seeks to get free publicity for a group that is doing innovative things with bamboo. All you need is a hook that will catch a reporter's interest and people willing to keep forcing the stories down their throats. When the story is in print it gets sent to the politicians, and just keep stuffing it down their throats. Find the scientific angle for sustainable biofuel research and it isn't too hard to sell the upbeat angle as well. The press love positive stories too, and if the pols can get a vote or two they'll add their publicity machines to the effort. Bamboo is a good choice since it doesn't have the stigma that hemp does. Now if I can just convince the US citizens that southeast Asia got bamboo from us....

You wrote those? OK, maybe you will get it done.

You may have jabbed your bodkin at the heart of the matter. Consider that lobbyists are more interested in barrels of pork and less interested in publicity for solutions that might actually work. Subsidies for bad biofuels line pockets, make you look like you're doing something, and detract from more noble efforts.

But they are very careful to state that, for instance, "corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced". Is the use of fossil fuels simply driving tractors and farm machinery to plant and harvest the biomass or are they used in the extraction process as well? They advocate them but have they tried combining solar and wind energy along with using biofuels instead of simply oil and gas? I just hate it when environmental concerns get used in this fashion. Real solutions are needed, not photo ops and private subsidy gains. Especially considering that many groups, whose concern for ecology outweighs their concern for politics or commerce, can work very inexpensively to maximize that $3 billion. Who gets the subsidy money for ethanol production now? Is it the oil and gas industry paying the farmers for biomass or do the farmers get paid directly?