Phi for All

Other than realizing that certain photo angles could make the subject seem to follow you with it's eyes, I don't remember any pictures haunting me. I just wonder if Buendia's obsession with pictures isn't part of that age when we feel judgement from all angles. When we're younger we feel the need to be constantly cool (tight?) around our peers to avoid their judgement. Possibly she feels it most when alone in her room with only her thoughts and pictures for company.

I remember when I was 11 I thought everybody was looking at me. I was big but pretty quick and nimble, but if I thought people were watching I'd suddenly get clumsy and embarrassed. I think because I was starting to really look around at other people I was becoming self-conscious as well. It was awful at the time but I think it was pretty natural and normal at that age.

"How did you break your leg?" the doctor asked the middle-aged farmhand as he wrapped the cast. "Well, doc, 25 years ago ..." "Never mind the past. Tell me how you broke your leg this morning." "Like I was saying...25 years ago, when I first started working on the farm, that night, right after I'd gone to bed, the farmer's beautiful daughter came into my room. She asked me if there was anything I wanted. I said no, everything is fine. "Are you sure?", she asked. "I'm sure, I said. "Isn't there anything I can do for you?" she wanted to know. "I reckon not" I replied ... "Excuse me," said the doctor, "What does this story have to do with your leg?" "Well, this morning," the farmhand explained, "when it dawned on me what she meant, I fell off the roof!"

A man goes to a doctor for his annual check-up. After performing some tests, the doctor comes into the examining room with a serious look on his face. The man immediately senses something is wrong. MAN: What the matter, Doc? DOCTOR: Well... I'm afraid you don't have long to live. MAN: I don't believe this. How long do I have? DOCTOR: Uh... 10. MAN: Ten what? Years? Months? DOCTOR: 9...8...7....

I think it's a sponge from Avon's Designer Loufa line that has calcified from prolonged exposure to old socks at the back of your closet....

Shame on you all! Poor Sara* is simply looking for answers to Life's tough questions and it's up to us with our superior intellects to give them to her so she doesn't have to look them up or think or anything! Worok must sweep the kitchen floor and then clean the bathrooms. Then he will be done. Calcualte was the Aztec god of lower back disorder and had no mechanical advantage over machines. I believe that's why His back always hurt. The pencil' date=' the paper clip, the eraser, the stapler, scotch tape and the crayon; examples are sef-explanatory. Asking for homework help online in an insulting manner is apparently one of those functions. I would never force advantage, it's against my moral principles. It depends. If the plane is inclined at too great an angle and you eat a wedge of cheese, you could sick up all over the flight attendant, and that could cancel out some frequent flier priveleges. Now see? That wasn't so hard...

I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.--George Carlin

A guy had a headache for twenty years and was at the point where he wanted to kill himself, but he decided to go to a specialist first. The doctor said "You have a very rare problem, your testicles are pressed up against your spine causing your headache. The only way to fix it is to remove your testicles." The man hesitantly agrees and gets them removed. On his way home he walks past a tailor shop with a sign saying "ALL SUITS HALF PRICE" He walks in and the tailor greets him and says, "Hello sir, I see you want a suit. I would say that you are a 34 sleeve and a 24 pant." "Wow! How did you know that?" asked the man. "Sir, I've been in this business for 40 years. Would you like shoes to go with that?" "Sure" says the man. The tailor says, "I'd say that you're a size 10 wide." "Wow, what a great talent!" says the man. "Thanks" replied the shopkeeper, "Now how about some undergarments?" "Ok, see if you can guess my size", said the man. "Easy, 36" said the shopkeeper. "Nope, 30" replied the man. The tailor says, "Impossible, a size 30 would squish your testicles against your spine and you'd get a headache".

Coffee. I only drink coffee, tea and water anyway. Like YT, I like a fresh ground blend, usually something dark with espresso or French roast in it, with a little bit of cream if I'm not having breakfast. Oh, and lots of it, until my eyes stay open while I sneeze. I know I've had enough when I can thread a sewing machine while it's running, or short out a motion detector. I get offended when people use the word "brew" when they're talking about beer. My birthday is a national holiday in Brazil and Columbia.

Let's take away the life and death aspect of ethics here for a bit. Answer all by number: 1. You are waiting in line at the store and you find a $20 bill on the floor. You didn't see it fall, there is nothing to indicate ownership. What do you do? 2. Same scenario as #1, except you saw the $20 fall from the pocketbook of a woman dripping with jewels, wearing a $1000 dress, who has been obnoxious and impatient with everyone in line. What do you do? 3. Same scenario as #2, only this time the lady is a sweet, elderly grandmother-type who looks like the $20 will cost her dearly. What do you do? 4. Same scenario as #3, but the elderly lady has been rude and obnoxious like the rich lady from #2. What do you do?

What is your opinion, jgerlica?

I think "the right of the PEOPLE to keep and bear arms" tells us that a government-formed National Guard is not the militia referred to in the Second Ammendment. We are definitely talking about armed private citizens being capable of defending themselves from their own government should that government get out of hand. Maintaining the security of a free Country (another country attacking us) is the duty of the military, maintaining the security of a free State is where the militia comes in. Since we've goofed up the whole representation thing by believing we "can't fight City Hall", I'm sure the founding fathers, if they were alive today, would be wondering why we haven't revolted against the government already. None of the politicians represent MY views more than about 5% of the time.

As I'm learning in other threads, one of the biggest problems with religion is the tendency to consider your beliefs sacred, which keeps them from evolving since you never hold them up for criticism. I think we make this mistake with our political beliefs as well, not acknowledging that politics changes hundreds of times faster than religious doctrines do. Political expediency needs to spin public opinion on an almost daily basis depending on where the money and power lies (and I do mean lies). After spending eight years and untold millions of dollars trying to persuade the American public that Clinton was a diabolical monster, this is what the Republican party had to say about the United States it was taking control of at the beginning of GW Bush's administration: "The Twenty-First Century opens with unique promise for the United States. Democratic values are celebrated on every continent. The productivity and ingenuity of American business are the envy of the world. American innovation is leading the way in the information age. New technology speeds an exchange of ideas that often bear the mark of American inspiration. No other great power challenges American international preeminence. There is every reason for Americans to be extraordinarily optimistic about their future." Now, of course, with everything from employment to foreign policy to national debt in some of the worst shape this country has ever seen, the GOP is back to kicking their favorite dog, BJ Billy. And don't get me wrong, I don't think the Democrats are any better than the Republicans. I'm only registered as a Democrat so I can vote in the primaries, something that is denied Independents in this country. I think the two-party system sucks because the spin makes everyone believe their vote is wasted unless they choose either Republican or Democrat. Why does the two-party system still exist? So big business only has to buy two candidates to insure 100% cooperation with their agendas. Many religions also ask us to make a choice and stick with it no matter what. We are ostracized if we question the doctrines imposed by our religious leaders, yet we've seen occasions when religious principles seem to change suddenly after centuries of denial when public opinion becomes too uncomfortable to deal with (OK, you don't HAVE to abstain from eating meat every Friday, from now on just Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent...). We need to keep questioning blind faith, whether in religion or politics, in order to protect ourselves from being deluded by our leaders. I'm not saying they are all bad people, I'm just saying that we make things too easy for them when we never question them. If we always accept everything they say without question, they could say just about anything: "I appreciate that question because I, in the state of Texas, had heard a lot of discussion about a faith-based initiative eroding the important bridge between Church and State." GW Bush Jr, Washington, D.C., January 29, 2001 "Islam was founded by Mohammed, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives -- and his last one was a 9-year-old girl." Jerry Vines, pastor, First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, FL (after being praised by President Bush Jr for religious tolerance). "The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law." GW Bush Jr, Austin TX, November 22, 2000 "... in the creationist's view, the carving of the Canyon would have taken place when the sedimentary layers were still soft, allowing the catastrophic erosion process to quickly and easily cut through the layers." Tom Vail, minister, Canyon Ministries, in his book Grand Canyon: A Different View, currently sold by the US Parks Dept in Grand Canyon Book stores. "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." GW Bush Jr, St. Charles, MO., November 2, 2000 Ultimately, we need to choose religion (or more properly spirituality) AND pride in our nation (or what our nation could become) because they are both vitally important to our well-being. Both give us a sense of where we stand with regard to morals, integrity, love, duty and everything that makes life more than just a routine. Taking a stand and then tempering that stand as we grow in understanding leads us away from cynicism and apathy. It's way too easy not to care, and way more interesting when we do.

If you get email notifications to subscribed threads, you may be able to PM some of the lengthy ones back to their owners for reposting.

Just don't call it Independence Day! How about this: The aliens show up and give a great secret to a small country. Some cheap, simple energy technology like replication or maybe the secret to wiping out sickness so the real human life potential of two hundred years can be reached by everyone. Now the small country has to decide, do they try to exploit the knowledge so they can become like all the other capatalist countries or do they share it with everyone so a new world economy will have to be embraced. I've always wondered how we could possibly go from our present economy based on money to what Star Trek has, an economy based on the worth and abilities of the individual.

When you get to 100,000 you get a Porsche Carrera GT! Or am I dreaming?

An elderly man and his wife are rocking on their front porch. The man says to her, "Mabel, I have to confess something to you. I cheated on you three times in the forrty-nine years we've been married." Mabel looks over at him and says, "I know", then stands up, goes inside and comes out with a shoebox. She tells him, "After your first affair, I started having affairs myself." She opens the box and inside are a couple of dozen kernels of corn and over fifteen thousand dollars in cash. He asks, "What's this?" Mabel says, "Every time I had an affair, I put a kernel of corn in this box." His eyes widen as he counts them, then he asks, "Where did you get the cash?" Mabel says, "Every time I got up to a bushel, I'd sell it!"

Bush is sleepless one night when the ghost of George Washington appears before him. Bush says, "George, what's the best thing I can do to help the country?" Washington tells him, "Be honest and set a good example like I did." Then he vanishes. Bush thinks, yeah right, like that's ever going to happen. Suddenly the ghost of Thomas Jefferson appears before him. Bush asks him, "Tom, what's the best thing I can do to help the country?" Jefferson tells him, "Put the general welfare of the people ahead of the greed of big business." Then he vanishes. Bush snickers to himself but suddenly the ghost of Abraham Lincoln appears before him. Bush asks, "Abe, what's the best thing I can do to help the country?" Lincoln replies, "Go to the theater."

Got big plans for #19 tomorrow, Dave?

Okay, we need more funny: There were these two guys out hiking when they came upon an old, abandoned mine shaft. Curious about its depth they threw in a pebble and waited for the sound of it striking the bottom, but they heard nothing. They went and got a bigger rock, threw it in and waited. Still nothing. They searched the area for something larger and came upon a railroad tie. With great difficulty, the two men carried it to the opening and threw it in. While waiting for it to hit bottom, a goat suddenly darted between them and leapt into the hole! The guys were still standing there with astonished looks upon their faces when a man walked up to them. He asked them if they had seen a goat anywhere in the area and they said that one had just jumped into the mine shaft in front of them! The man replied, "Oh no. That couldn't be my goat, mine was tied to a railroad tie."

Many thanks, Martin! Witten is amazing. I'll crack loose some time later today to check out the links.

Not all fossils have to be dug up. Some of them are lying right on the surface.

What has Witten been up to? Was there any further research into whether or not gravitons pass across multiple universes?

I installed mine on 5/31/04 and I've got 801 points. I love the fact that my comp is doing cancer & smallpox research while I sleep.

For instance, when your country drafts you involuntarily into the military and your religion forbids taking a human life? Or when your country implies that patriotism means hating someone who is not from your country, and your religion compels you to love your fellow humans, no matter where they come from? There are ways to personally separate church and state. You can love your country without loving everything it does. And you can follow your religion without being blind to its weaknesses as well. This is how both religions and nations can grow to be better.