JamesSavik

Happy 20th Billy! Don't mourn for the loss of your teens. Take it from me: you can only be young once but you can be immature anytime you like.

Tip of the hat to you Captian. May your next year be the best yet.

One of the biggest difficulties that I had in coming to terms/accepting being gay was that you generally don't get to have kids. I wanted kids but that's just not happening. It's something that I felt that I would have to just forget about. In my state gay adoption is prohibited by law. In others, you will find various barriers that will hinder your efforts. Unless you are rich and can afford a fleet of lawyers, it's probably best to forget about it and get a cat.

planetology is merely a sub-genre of astronomy.

No- just a dedicated geek. When you study the sciences, you will quickly discover that many of them overlap. For instance it is difficult to study any science without some basic knowlege of chemistry. The new science of planetology or the study of planets constantly refers back to the well known benchmarks and baselines of geology. Geology is a relatively weak area for me so it is something that I've been working on.

I usually have two books going at once: one for fun and the other to address my interests. For fun I'm reading the third book of the The War Against the Chitorr series by David Gerrold A Rage for Revenge. The War Against the Chitorr series is about an alien invasion- not with ships and soldiers but with a tough and aggressive ecology. First came the microorganisms and plagues that killed about 60% of the population. Then came the plants and animals from that ecology and they are hungry. For the first time since the Stone Ages mankind isn't on top of the food chain anymore. The other track is for fun too but I doubt everyone would think so. I like to read Science and Technology titles. The latest in my stack: Physical Geology by Plummer, McGeary & Carlson. Typically stuff in this pile will be physical sciences, computer languages, databases, etc.

The Milky Way is twice the size we thought it was University of Sydney 20 February 2008 Source Link We were tossing around ideas about the size of the Galaxy, and thought we had better check the standard numbers that everyone uses," Professor Gaensler said. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) It took just a couple of hours using data available on the internet for University of Sydney scientists to discover that the Milky Way is twice as wide as previously thought. Astrophysicist Professor Bryan Gaensler led a team that has found that our galaxy - a flattened spiral about 100,000 light years across - is 12,000 light years thick, not the 6,000 light years that had been previously thought. Proving not all science requires big, expensive apparatus, Professor Gaensler and colleagues, Dr Greg Madsen, Dr Shami Chatterjee and PhD student Ann Mao, downloaded data from the internet and analysed it in a spreadsheet. "We were tossing around ideas about the size of the Galaxy, and thought we had better check the standard numbers that everyone uses. It took us just a few hours to calculate this for ourselves. We thought we had to be wrong, so we checked and rechecked and couldn't find any mistakes." The University of Sydney team's analysis differs from previous calculations because they were more discerning with their data selection. "We used data from pulsars: stars that flash with a regular pulse," Professor Gaensler explains. "As light from these pulsars travels to us, it interacts with electrons scattered between the stars (the Warm Ionised Medium, or WIM), which slows the light down. "In particular, the longer (redder) wavelengths of the pulse slow down more than the shorter (bluer) wavelengths, so by seeing how far the red lags behind the blue we can calculate how much WIM the pulse has travelled through. "If you know the distance to the pulsar accurately, then you can work out how dense the WIM is and where it stops - in other words where the Galaxy's edge is. "Of the thousands of pulsars known in and around our Galaxy, only about 60 have really well known distances. But to measure the thickness of the Milky Way we need to focus only on those that are sitting above or below the main part of the Galaxy; it turns out that pulsars embedded in the main disk of the Milky Way don't give us useful information." Choosing only the pulsars well above or below us cuts the number of measurements by a factor of three, but it is precisely this rejection of data points that makes The University of Sydney's analysis different from previous work. "Some colleagues have come up to me and have said 'That wrecks everything!'" says Professor Gaensler. "And others have said 'Ah! Now everything fits together!'" The team's results were presented in January this year at the 211th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas. About Professor Bryan Gaensler: Professor Gaensler is a graduate of the University of Sydney and a former Young Australian of the Year. After working at the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University he was lured back to Australia on prestigious Federation Fellowship. One of the world's leading astronomers, his research interests include studying the essential role that magnetic fields play in the generation of turbulence and large-scale structures, the production of high-energy cosmic ray particles, and the formation of the first stars and galaxies.

Keep in mind that religions have traditionally been very populist when it come to deciding what exactly a sin is and how severe it is. Most religions have held up things that were social taboos and made them into moral taboos. For instance- Baptist might not like gambling and drinking but every Sunday after church you can find them piled high at the casinoe buffets. Religions are not and have never been about rightiousness. They are about power and are designed to appeal to as many people as possible to bolster that power be it economic, military or civil authority.

The taboo of incest (and a number of other sexual taboos) is illegal. I think that most people, fantasies or not, want nothing to do with something that would give them that sort of trouble. Here in the US, District Attorneys love to grandstand sex cases and the public eats it up- the raunchier the better. That's one railroad you never want to ride.

A few thoughts: It is estimated that there are 3 1/2 guns per person in the US. Other sources makes the ratio go even higher. We forget that teenagers, kids 14 to 18 have always been the the foot soldiers in insurgencies, rebellions and civil wars. Students have long been a target of political adgitators because they can easily be moved to action. I could make something in any chemistry lab that would be more deadly than any gun. So could any kid with the smarts and motivation. Frankly I'm surprised no one has done it. If you liked school shootings, waith till you get a load of school nerve gassings. I live about 20 minutes from Pearl, MS where the first high profile school shooting ocurred. The shooter was a kid who was tormented for years in the most cruel sort of ways by the "in crowd". One of the girls he shot had played like she liked him and was his girl friend for a couple of weeks and then humiliated him in public. Some of the wounded were the children of city officals and the powers that be- you know: the kids who could and did get away with anything. Many people here believe that the Shooter was an easy scapegoat and there should have been a deeper investigation which looked at the environment created in the school for the "in-crowd" and everybody else. What actually happened is that kids that played D&D with the shooter the year before were arrested and charged with a conspiracy in the form of a Cult that required the shedding of virgin blood. This fell apart but branded seven geeky kids as guilty but got away with it because of legal trickery. In these school shooting situations, we have to ask: what has the administration done to discourage and/or punish bullying in the affected school. When the Pearl HS shooting happened, I angered some people when I said that while I deplore the action, I understand why it happened and was surprised that it hadn't happened already. BTW- I worked with several of the Pearl 7 to help them get jobs and get on with their lives.

If you pay careful attention to these shootings, the media is playing an essential part of the problem. The media will HAVE to be a essential part of the solution. The national media responds to every school shooting, there are profiles of the shooter/victims, commenttators discuss the incident at length and then you never hear anything else about it unless you do some digging. The way this is portrayed, you might think, and I'm sure some people do think, that nothing ever really happens to the shooters. I believe that the media has to show more of the process other than the initial shock and hysteria of the initial incident- specifically the trial (or at least highlights of the trial) and most important, the penelty. BTW- the law often has problems posed by the age of the perps. In the Jonesboro shootings of 1998, Mitchel Johnson (13) and Andrew Golden (11) were under Arkansas's 14 year old cutoff for trying the pair as adults. They were both held by the Arkansas Youth Authority until they were 21 and released. Johnson has since been arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and faces more time than he served for all of the the Jonesboro killings.

Hell no. The little b@stards shoot up schools.

Sounds more like a good reason to contain 14 year olds until they are in control of themselves. I suppose that is why the archictecture of middle schools looks a lot like prisons.

SO the use of violence/force never works? Hummm... I wonder what the Nazi Germans think about that... Oh that's right. They are all dead from the use of force by the Allies. Force does work and it is applied all the time. Whether it is used sucessfully or not depends on how it is applied. The reason that Americans aren't so good at the use of force is that Americans don't have the stomach for the terror behind that force. Without it you might as well be playing games like dropping bombs and food at the same time. Oh that's right. We do that too.

Germany has Draconian gun control laws and the dubious distinction of having the single most lethal school shooting rampage on record. 18 dead in German school shooting (BBC 4/26/2002) I believe that the problem with this phenomenon in the US is the percieved disconnect between the crime and the punishment. When a school shooting happens, it's wall-to-wall coverage for days. Perp and victims alike are profiled. The perp has instant celeberity status. The trial will probably take about a year or longer when the shootings have become very old news and rarely get any media coverage. Some stupid individuals, and we've got plenty of them, seem to interpret this as there is no punishment. I suggested a very public and brutal punishment for these incident: This eliminates the apparent disconnect between the crime and punishment. It also prevents the romanticism of shooter as a heroic figure that is fighting for something and shows them as they truly are: sniveling little cowards. Do it this way and I guarantee that it will be the end of school shootings. Continuing to treat school shootings as media events is a sure way to inspire more of them.

For a school shooting to happen, laws have already been broken. Minors aren't supposed to have guns at all or under a very narrow range of circumstances. In most past shooting incidents, guns were taken from the home or the home of a relative which is at least negligence on the part of parents or grandparents. The Columbine shooters purchased their weapons on the street. In all of these cases laws were broken and/or guns were not secured by their owners as required by law. No laws, other than a complete ban would have prevented any of the shooting incidents because once someone has made up their mind to pull the trigger (or commit murder), a bunch of class A misdemeanors don't mean squat. If a person is intent on committing murder there are plenty of other "legal" weapons or makeshift weapons that will do the job just fine. Ice picks, razors, garrotes, knives, machetes, axes can be purchased anytime, anywhere by anyone with no waiting period no questions asked. If you want to do something legally to prevent these crimes, I would suggest an expedited trial and very public and televised execution. Put the bastard into a giant blender feet first so the public can watch their expression. Most of these damned things are media driven. Instead of making the little sh*ts famous, show them lead to their death crying and wetting themselves like the little b*tches that they really are. Deal with it with absolute brutality instead of a media circus and it will end. period.

My sense of humor can sometimes run a little dark. Benji has the right idea- we need an icon for "just kidding". On the other hand, it really would be cool to take out the trash every year between January and March...

Other: supplied by bellsouth. two tin cups and a long string.

Here's an angry baboon and John McCain. Scary huh? Here is a startled Baboon and Hillary... Here is Huckabee and a baboon making a point. You can't see Huckabee's teeth simply because they are too short but the body language is a dead on match.

OK we've all seen this picture but George's ears make chimp jokes passe'. Let's take a look at the major candidates and other in the news side by side with their closest biological relatives... Here is Phred Phelps and a baboon. Can you tell which is which? Here is Phred again and an baboon... which looks more evil?

Here's the key to this piece. No, I don't like HATE per see but I believe it is honest. Understanding that its emotional roots come from fear is the key to understanding and gives us important clues in how to deal with it. I suggest an experiment: Watch a politician who is really wound up about something: doesn't matter what-- gays, immigration, terrorism, take your pick. Watch their body language and their hand gestures. Then go to the zoo and watch baboons pay particular attention to the angry and/or frightened ones. The answer reveals itself.

Hate has a bad rap. For generations the Christian church have sought to discourage it. Lately it has become politically incorrect. Hate is one of the most basic and powerful emotions. It's also one of the most honest if you understand where it comes from. In studying apes, our closest biological relatives, they have two basic emotions: yikes and goody. All the rest of their emotional states are somewhere in between. Goody we can all understand. It's the reaction to spending time with our mate, sex, our favorite food, physical comfort, etc. Yikes is a response to a threat- either real or perceived. It is how apes respond to something that is unfamiliar or not understood. It evokes in apes a fight or flight reaction. Apes will either run from or confront something that frightens them. So we have Yikes changing into Anger. Does this sound at all familiar? Human emotion is a lot more complex than apes. Apes don't know how to lie. Humans are adept at dishonesty- so much so that they often end up lying to themselves. What has happening in society is that social pressure is discouraging people from showing or voicing hate. On the surface this sounds like a good thing and I suppose that it is. Those that openly preach hate are viewed with suspicion and disgust. The problem is that that hate doesn't really go away. It is internalized and carried around, political correctness be damned. It comes out in small doses while looking at employment applications, performance reviews, and a thousand other little ways where internalized hate can replace judgment. Is this really better? I don't know. When we hear a hate preacher like Phelps, Hucklebee or Dobson carrying on like a baboon, at least its honest and we know where we stand-- even if we won't turn our back on them. Where things get really dangerous is when that internalized hate is concealed behind a smile and a warm handshake. To me it is easier when the haters rave. You can protect yourself from the danger that you see. I takes a politically correct bigot that professes to love everybody to really hurt you. IMHO: let the haters hate. I'll buy them t-shirts. It's never the snake that you see that bites you. It's always the snake in the grass.

Love is a transient emotion but hate lasts for decades.

They are correct. The sad fact is that while overt bigotry is out of fashion, attitudes haven't changed that much.

I don't like breeders. They are boring and one dimensional.... barely sentient. I am wary of them they tend to think gay people are weak, stupid and/or easy to take advantage of. It gets tiresome showing them the error in their thinking. We should be allowed to get a hunting license and kill a couple of dozen of them every year just to thin out the heard- you know the stupid ones, the ugly ones, any named Bubba or Skeeter... They would definitly benefit from some eugenics as they apparently don't care which cows they impregnate. Sometimes it seems they look for the worst match possible.