some points - pete has some thoughts on income

1) poor people - living hand to mouth, no savings, never going to retire, will end up living on socsec once they can

2) rich/wealthy - can isolate themselves from the rest of us (someone else pointed out this nice distinction)

could retire today and never work again and live their current lifestyle or close enough to not matter

3) the middle - everyone else

4) yes, the middle would include 200k, even though 200k is light years away from 50k

5) but

200k is the top 5%, and they are NOT like the middle.

They can retire early. They have massive safety nets.

So we really should make another group.

Damn Comfortable

Not rich/wealthy, but not middle.

so let's try again

1) poor - 0k to 30k - 30% of the people

2) middle - 30k to 200k - 65% of the people - AKA - The MIDDLE

3) damn comfortable - 200k to 500k? 4.8% of the people - really not the middle

4) rich/wealthy - 500k+

/you can argue where the 200k and 500k break are, esp with COLA (NYC vs detroit for example), but the concept stands

/damn comfortable lowers a little, as you get older, pay off your house, have more in savings and retirement, etc

--- more thoughts

BMFPitt: pkellmey: I also know several middle class couples who have never balanced a checkbook and have no idea what their current balance is.

A literal, physical checkbook? I doubt anyone under 30 has.

in some ways, this might be an interesting and more useful split for middle

1) do you bother to balance your checking or even know how much is there? (electronically or not)

2) do you carry a balance on your credit cards, even for only a month or three around xmas?
3) is your house paid off?

no house? lower middle (or young or moving a lot)

carry a balance? middle

house paid off? upper middle

grudge vs feud vs conflict

My family accused me holding a grudge.
Which was completely false and dismissive.

I had a conflict, I was able to resolve it only one way, by shunning the people involved.

I did not pretend that the conflict had been resolved.
I did not pretend that the conflict had gone away.
I did not pretend that the conflict is over.

But I was unable to resolve it and I was unable to live with it, so I moved on.
I no longer talk to those people.


BUT
For my family, it bothers them.
They have zero skills at conflict resolution.
So everything is resolved by waiting enough time and the pretending that it didnt happen.

It isnt a grudge.
It is a resolved conflict.
And that really bothers them.
I have learned a new skill and am happier for it.
They have not and still suffer.


I WIN

gender change fluid vacuum

hahaah
Didnt even notice that there was no gender.  While I assumed that Chris was male, there were ZERO clues.
Esp since you only interacted with Chris while Chris was in Chris' robot body ... which was sexless.

And there was no side romance storyline ... LOL

I have read a bunch of books recently that have been gender insane.
One had the main character unable to properly "guess" the gender of the person that they were talking to.
Which was a problem when it went back and forth, leaving you uncertain of anything.
That the main character was the physical embodiment of an AI, one of 100s of such, gender was irrelevant.

Looks like we are back to the days of sexual investigation of Heinlein.

Q: If you lived to be 1000 years old, and there was perfect gender change reconstruction, down to the DNA level, how long would it take for you to get BORED BORED BORED and change?
Hint: If you think that you would never change, you clearly have not been bored enough.

how the zombie war started

The real goal is to stop the spread, worry about mutations later.

THIS, is the first sentence to my new book:
HOW THE ZOMBIE WAR STARTED

False Dichotomy - Vaccines

welcome to batshit crazy ....
"who should we believe?" - they ask that, pretending that it is a real question ....
1) the dr that committed fraud and lost his license
2) the playboy nude model
3) FUCKING SCIENCE

It's a false dichotomy.
One is a fact, one is an opinion.
There is no argument. They are just wrong.

/fine, you're a jehovah's witnessand HATE MEDICINE? fine. but that isnt arguing that the medicine is dangerous, just that god wins.
/nova had an episode recently on vaccines, and they had these idiot mothers on ... claiming "rationally" to question the schedule. On WHAT scientific basis? A playmate??? ROFL

The Government does not create jobs.

Next time someone says that the government does not create jobs,
PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE.

And dare them to call the police. You know, government employees.
And courts?

And them ask them if they used the sidewalk or the street while getting there. Or bridges.

And then PUNCH THEN AGAIN.

How often do you sit in a movie theater and try to hit pause or rewind or CC?

FTFA:
Cutting says some people have tried to pin declining shot lengths on MTV, by invoking a sort of video-killed-the-attention-span hypothesis. He doesn't buy it. For one thing, Salt's graph of declining shot durations has no obvious inflection point in or after 1982, the year MTV was born. Shot durations were declining before that, and they kept declining at a similar rate after.

what makes more sense is advances in tech led to quicker and shorter attention spans.

radio slowly was found in every home. people would sit around and listen to every word.

speeches were long winded and repeated themes.  news would have to graphically describe the scene on the radio.

Then we got TV and TV news and speeches. Once again, slowly filtered into the households as more and more families could afford one.  A picture could take the place of 1000s of words, video even more.

Printing, Radio and TV and Talkies directly changed how we received information.  

But it was a relatively smooth process, steadily progressing.

Now we have FARK, facebook and other news aggregators quickly spreading the news.

I dont need a slow 3 minute video.  A picture and 3 sentences are all I need to get the headline.

Toss in pause and rewind on our "tivos" and fast cuts can be slowdown and rewatched whenever you need to.   

How often do you sit in a movie theater and try to hit pause or rewind or CC? 

learning new things

I just started a new thing. Reading a text book on a topic that I know nothing or just what you might read on fark. It has been FANTASTIC. Finished my first book and my sister immediately stole it to read.

I could see spending eternity learning new things and extending human knowledge, forever.

oh what books?

Already Read

age of dinosaurs
fantastic read on dinos

kon-tiki and voyage of the rah and everything else written by Thor Heyerdahl

Great reads for discovery.

Stumbling on Happiness
Read this book NOW!

The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future
Fantastic book on Greenland Ice Cores. We all know that they drill these cores and do things with them. This book will give you a ton of interesting detail on the how and what.

The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell
The currently accepted theory of smell doesnt work. Proof? They can not use the theory to create new molecules that smell the way the theory predicts. Turin's theory WORKS, he has created a company that is producing synthetic molecules to reproduce scents.

Stranger still, his theory is rejected.
The Chemists say that the chemistry is fine, but they cant comment on the physics nor the biology.

The Physicists say that the physics is fine, but they cant comment on the chemistry nor the biology.

The Biologists say that the biology is fine, but they cant comment on the physics nor the chemistry.

Gideon's Trumpet
Interesting read on one of the most important SCOTUS rulings and how The Court work.
Fun short henry fonda movie too! Strange enough, Henry Fonda plays a petty thief!

dendrochronology - tree rings
Everyone knows that you can count tree rings to tell how old a tree is or was. But did you know that they have a 12,000 series of overlapping tree rings which allow you to accurately date a piece of wood?
Did you know that this data is so accurate, that they use this data to properly calibrate Carbon Dating, which is less accurate?

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
Very compelling read on the history if fat, the history of treating diabetes, the state of the understanding of nutrition, digestion and metabolism.  (hint: you are addicted to sugar and starch. kick the habit.)

The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe
Interesting theory refuting The Big Bang. Gives a lot of history of our understanding of Origins.
Hint, if you have two theories, and one theory does a better job of explaining the observed data, that is probably the more correct theory. No matter how many people like the less accurate theory.
Book suffers from silly chapters not related to science.  Interesting that this theory can FIT the data without dark matter nor dark energy.


phagocytes virus
The Forgotten Cure: The Past and Future of Phage Therapy
"Bacteriophages have the potential to stop many if not most life threatening, drug resistant bacterial infections."  This is exciting science that is almost completely ignored in the US.
LOVE this book.

Proof: The Science of Booze

Like I need a reason to read this? HAH

fun but meh ... not really recommended unless you have nothing else to read

Lies My Teacher Told Me
mhm great history book
Why you should read it?
Because everything that you know about US history is a complete LIE and you want to know the truth.

Reading Now

Confidence Game
need link and review
Three best people to con:
happy
sad
afraid

1491 
AMAZING history book

Open letter to mayor Rahm.

Open letter to mayor Rahm.
When will Chicago Police be required to wear a lapel cam at all times while on duty? The savings alone will pay for the cameras in one year.

1) police wont be required to testify in court, their lapel cam video will be entered into evidence and no testimony will be needed. allowing police to spend more time on the street

2) the reduction in civil lawsuits alone will greatly reduce lawsuits against the city, saving over 100 million a year.

3) it has been shown that the police AND the citizens behave better when they KNOW that they are on camera. everyone wins

PS
please confirm that it is legal for chicago citizens to record anything and everything that they want when they are outside in public. INCLUDING cops doing their jobs, cops eating donuts, cops beating kids, cops rescuing kittens from trees.

thanks!!

There are no moral absolutes. None.

 I guess ... I guess ... I could ...
Do you ....
Nathaniel ... do you know someone CLOSE to you .. a best friend or sister ... who was raped or abused?  I resolved my moral dilemmas once I had friends who had lived in a hell that I will NEVER understand. NEVER comprehend.

But I can empathize ... and I can wish death on the criminals that did that to them.

There are no moral dilemmas.  If the only way that I had to stop someone from raping again was a bat or a fire or pushing them off a building, well, I would have not qualms about doing it.  If I caught someone in the act of raping one of my niece/nephews, they would be dead. It would be a moral good.

would I be certain to find out that it was rape first and not rough sex? of course ...

there is a special place in hell for those people ...


<insert long diatribe here about the people I personally know who have been through this hell>

Dexter was a great american super hero for a reason. He righted wrongs.  There are no moral absolutes. NONE.
IF I walked in on someone raping one of my niece/nephews, they would be dead.  They would never find the body.

President Hillary Clinton

I am trying to determine what things will look like if they not only impeach Obama, but the senate found him guilty.

So
President Biden
Vice President Hillary Clinton - Biden can appoint anyone that he wants to the job. Sure the senate has to confirm her, but ... shudder.
President Biden resigning to spend time with family.
President Hillary Clinton.
President Clinton running for re-election in 2016

HOLY CRAP, I may have won!!

inclusion

"It’s part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008, continued in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things. Well that’s not true.”


SERIOUSLY ... this is what the other side thinks.
Being inclusive is NOT the same as being divisive.
Including women, does not exclude men.
Including non-white, does not exclude white.
Including poor, does not exclude rich.
Including atheist, does not exclude theist.
Including muslim, does not exclude christian.
Including GLBTAIQ, does not exclude straight. (everyone excludes furries, sorry furries)

Strange that the GOP keeps getting this wrong.

inclusion

"It’s part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008, continued in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things. Well that’s not true.”


SERIOUSLY ... this is what the other side thinks.
Being inclusive is NOT the same as being divisive.
Including women, does not exclude men.
Including non-white, does not exclude white.
Including poor, does not exclude rich.
Including atheist, does not exclude theist.
Including muslim, does not exclude christian.
Including GLBTAIQ, does not exclude straight. (everyone excludes furries, sorry furries)

Strange that the GOP keeps getting this wrong.

City Hall and the City Sticker of Death

CIty Hall and the most amazing people I have ever seen.

SO, I had to go to city hall and PICK UP my city sticker. (It got returned because WHO THE HELL KNOWS.) I got email, go pick it up, they have it. FINE.

SO, I go two weeks ago, the line is over 9000 miles long. I give up without waiting and go home.

SO, I go yesterday, friday, 4pm. Squash Mike laughs at me and tells me that it will take forever. Nooooooooooooooooooooo
I get there, there is no line, pretty dead. Maybe 10 people in different lines.

SO, I give them my ID, they go behind some locked door to search the pit.
And I get to listen to MORONS complain. and COMPLAIN. AND COMPLAIN.

This woman working there was a SAINT.
Saint: No sir, we can not help you. We never received your check or application.
Idiot: but I sent it.
S: we never received it.
I: well I checked my bank, the check was never cashed.
S: We never received it.
I: Well what could have happened?!
S: We never received it. Maybe it was lost in the mail? (she is taunting him now, ever so politely)
I: Well what about these parking tickets?
S: We dont do parking tickets.
I: But it is over $400s in tickets.
S: We dont do parking tickets.
Pete: (close to losing all control and bursting out laughing)
I: What should I do?
S: You need to buy a city sticker. And pay the late fee.
I: How much? What?

this goes on for another 10 minutes.
I am doing sudoku and trying NOT TO LAUGH OUT LOUD.

Idiot finally goes off to buy sticker with late fee.

Pete: You all are saints. How did you survive this?!
Saint: (with that LOOK in her eyes) We didnt. Our interns SAVED US!!

I had been witnessing all these people giving DEEP HUGS as they were leaving and not coming back. I now knew that these were the parttime interns that had saved them.

I has never seen such happy and sad people.
Needless to say, I had a great time at city hall and got my city sticker on my car now. No ticket, so I dont have to go back.

conflict resolution - day 1a

I have ZERO skill in this.
I can not diffuse a bad conflict without exploding.
I have very few role models.

Mike example
I never thanked you for teaching me a lesson when I was 50!!

More than once you have demonstrated BASIC CONFLICT RESOLUTION.

1) there was conflict  (usually pete being NUTTY about god knows what)

2) you got upset, but contained it for a period of time, esp until after you were no longer ANGRY/upset/whatever word workds here

3) your brought up the subject, in particular your issue with it, direct, without rage/anger

4) we talked - even if the issue was NOT resolved to your satisfaction, the issue was at least addressed in part.

I have ZERO SKILL at this. ZERO.

My family has ZERO SKILL AT THIS.

Most people that I know have ZERO SKILL at this.

What happens "normally" is:
1) YELLING AND SCREAMING AND RAGE

2) not talking for months or years

3) pretending that it never happened

4) repeating over and over

THANKS !!
you and frank have got me to start working on this!!

PS

this is exactly why ashely, her mom, her dad and others havent spoken in years.

this is why I stopped talking to my mother, she was UNABLE to resolve ANYTHING, and we were always YELLING and SCREAMING ....
I am SO done with that.
Now to get better in practice ... HAHAHA

sigh

Ideas for Dichotomous universe.

We should come up with a set of BASIC, idiot level questions.
Did you vote for Bush 2.0? Twice.
Do you drive a car?
Do you think taxes should pay for roads?
What about poor kids schools?
Are you ok with poor kids being uneducated and voting for democrats?!

Seriously, can we do this?
I bet we could get it published !!

blah
idea number a billion
people who try to do everything vs people hire someone
hint - you are wrong
you might do one thing, or a couple, but everything else you hire someone

infinite set of suggestions

...
infinite set of suggestions
...
#371 - get your B12 tested ... B12 gets lower and lower as we get older, leading to less energy ... Want to bet that you are on the low range of normal? bet you dinner in chicago

#209 - get your Vit-D tested ... want to bet that you are low? no wait, you might not be ... but get it tested while getting the other one tested !!

#466 - do all the quick and easy things first. if you got 12 things to do, do the easy 5 first. TADA !!! you got 5 things done today, you are AWESOME!!!

Atkins reduces Gallbladder problems.

http://www.atkins.com/Science/Articles---Library/General-Health-Issues/Dealing-with-Gallbladder-Disorders.aspx
not proof, but seems to argues that atkins is good for your gallbladder

http://www.livestrong.com/article/486957-atkins-diet-and-gallbladder-problems/
"However, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine reports that 9 percent of people who followed the Atkins diet reported gallstones or gallbladder problems to an online registry set up to track complications."
UM WAIT A SECOND.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/gallbladder/gallbladder-problems-without-gallstones.aspx
By comparison, gallstones are a rather common malady, striking more than 25 million people in the United States — as much as 10 percent to 15 percent of the entire population.

So atkins reduces the chance of gallbladder problems !!!!!

London - Totals

London Totals
steps - 112,359 
miles - 53.22 
flights - 196
days - 9

so um ... this could explain the 5lbs weight loss and the REALLY REALLY sore feet.

amazing trip

london recomendations

Tea place (near Hammersmith on the circle/district line I think)- small, very cute place, kind of out of the way, but if you’re in the area, I suggest you stop by!

http://www.upsydaisybakery.com/

borough market (outdoor food market)

http://boroughmarket.org.uk/

-have to try http://boroughmarket.org.uk/gorwydd-caerphilly-2 which I think is a Welsh cheese (usually I grab a loaf of bread from the baked goods section and just eat it with it)

-cheese sandwiches http://boroughmarket.org.uk/kappacasein-2 really good toasted cheese sandwiches (SERIOUSLY HAVE TO TRY THIS)

-also good cheese place http://boroughmarket.org.uk/neals-yard-dairy-2

-great bratwurst http://boroughmarket.org.uk/the-german-deli-ltd-2

-hot cider http://boroughmarket.org.uk/new-forest-cider-2

-really good Turkish delight http://boroughmarket.org.uk/the-turkish-deli-2

-mushroom pate (if you like mushrooms) http://boroughmarket.org.uk/p-t-moi

-http://boroughmarket.org.uk/brindisa-2

-if you have any friends who are coffee fans, try Monmouth Coffee

Fish and Chips

-North Sea Fish restaurant (there’s a sit down, and there’s a “to go” section which just wraps your fish in basically newspaper http://www.northseafishrestaurant.co.uk/

Szechuan (spicy) food

-Chili cool http://www.chillicool.com/ I suggest you order (if you’re brave enough)

Sliced fish in homemade twin chilli sauce

Hot & chilli crispy pork intestine

Chinese food

Four Seasons (in Chinatown) http://www.fs-restaurants.co.uk/

-there are two locations, one on the brighter strip near an HSBC, that one is better I think… MUST order the peking duck (and crispy noodles if you like that)

Malaysian food

http://www.yelp.com/biz/rasa-sayang-london I’ve never been, but I have heard from my Malaysian friends that this place is really good

Okonomiyaki
http://www.abeno.co.uk
The one by the museum is better than the one in soho I think... But the line might be long!

Fleet river bakery is pretty good too if you're in the area for lunch
http://www.fleetriverbakery.com

Veeraswamy is good. I haven't had too much Indian food in London (not a fan of whatever region is popular in London as it's usually too sweet for me... Most Kormas contain currants or shredded coconuts which I hate, from what I noticed). I remember liking this place though (very good lamb shank). Can't promise it's by touristy though, you decide...
http://www.Veeraswamy.com

I'll send more as they come to mind if you don't mind random floods of emails! Most of these are centered around the areas I used to hang out at a lot. There's also a really good Japanese restaurant in soho near whole foods that I have yet to think of the name of..

Near centre point (off of oxford I think) there's a small cluster of Korean restaurants. Asa is good, and Seoul bakery is this little hole in the wall, nothing fancy, but strangely it's my favorite place for bibimbap.

Try to get some Aspall's cider. Most pubs should carry it.

list of good tv shows

MODERN SHOWS?

Downton Abbey

reasons for netflix
House of Cards
Orange is the New Black

reasons for HBO
Game of Thrones
Newsroom - Aaron Sorkin doing what he does best!

reasons for Showtime
Californication (some truly sublime parenting comments, of all things)
Homeland - first two seasons are INSANELY amazing

Amazon VOD
In the end, it will be available here, sooner or later.

/one of the things that you have done is take control, sort of, because commercials alone will melt your brain

BBCA
Sherlock - DUH
Luther
MI-5
Orphan Black - first season was pretty good ... seems to have lost me by season 3

I need to write up a post I had about this with my masseuse.

The idea being that teaching our kids about "sex" needs to go further in some ways. Certainly more than just safe sex.

Silly things like stop flirting and use clear and CONCISE words.
If you cant use the words, maybe that's how you know that you are not ready.

teach them about those mistakes by examples .... your own

Expected Outcomes - 001 - bullied kids + guns = mass shootings

Expected Outcomes - 001 - bullied kids + guns = mass shootings

IN RE kara's comment about fist fights ....
is it possible that we are seeing the simplest of recipes finally completed?

take one part completely ignoring bullying in schools
stir in 50 states with concealed carry permits and no guns laws
bake until bullied kid snaps
TADA
school shootings

As a kid who was mercilessly bullied all through grade school, I can speak for all the kids who were ever bullied,
On any given day, we were one inch away from going postal.


If my parents had owned a gun, and if they had pushed me one more inch.

Nope, none of this is a surprise.

School shootings are an expected outcome of:
pro-bully
pro-guns

I expect to see a LOT more of this, as more and more bullied kids read these stories and start putting 1 and 1 together!

FUCKING SAD, but expected outcome.

local events

confusion about local events

did you drive on the road on the way to work today?
did you drink or eat something this month?
did you put your right sock on and your left sock on?


Non-locals ask this very funny question.
Did you go to the "local event"?

The short answer: FUCK NO! WHY THE FUCK WOULD I EVER GO TO THAT STUPID THING?
SLighty better answer: (to the person asking the question) Did you come to this event, everyday, for last 30 years? WHY NOT!!! IT IS AWESOME.


Seriouly Folks, I go to that local event 24 hours a day when it happens.
I hear them set up, I hear them during the event, I hear them breaking down the event.
I walk outside and I have to spend 10 minutes getting past people standing in the middle of the fucking sidewalk blocking all humans from ever getting past them. There's no parking for my visitors.

That local event that you might spend two hours at?
FUCK THAT

No I never go to that stupid event.
Once, 300 years ago it was mildly interesting.
Now? FUCK NO, and stop asking about it.


My new answer.
Yes, yes I go, I get up early on the first day and spend 12 hours there.
Then I get up even EARLIER the next day to spend even more time.
I havent missed a SINGLE second of the event in 30 years.
Why havent you joined me? What is wrong with you?!!!
Seriously, there is something wrong with you for not spending at least 24 hours here with me!!!!


LOL

Protein

http://www.mensfitness.co.uk/nutrition/supplements/1155/amino-acids-explained
Good article talking about needed proteins for working out and what not.
Esp BCAAs

links to a great nutrition source website
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/117/2     - 132
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/beef-products/3574/2                  - 94
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1846/2        - 62
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3138/2         - 55

* the number after the link is the amino acid quality index ... a measure of how complete the protein source is in quality

short, but great comparison of different amino acids by food

good chart for RDA of different amino acids
http://www.vegtalk.org/vegan-nutrients/essential-amino-acids-vegan-diet-t2558.html
Keep in mind, these are RDA numbers. Lowest number needed to not get sick.
Your healthy needs will vary.

first major goal 30lbs down - 45lbs to go

thanks for all the encouragement, assistance and help

mike's fault for even bringing up the THE IDEA, that people talk about losing "75lbs" that made it a concept even

irene's fault asking probably the most critical question VERY EARLY in the process,
"what am I going to do when I hit my goal?"

At that point I had NOT thought about a goal or what would happen.
Set a goal right there and then, even if I didnt share it. 75lbs. or 190lb
But my answer to Irene was JUST as critical, "I am not on a diet, reaching my goal changes nothing, I have changed my life and eating habits.  I am not on a diet."

And that has made all the difference.

mark's fault for training for an ironman, losing a ton of weight and finishing. FFS, if mark can do this, so can I. (not the race ... LOL)

And lastly, eric and synthia, because they have jumped in feet first and joined me on this trip. So now I have PRESSURE to keep going.

We do this absurd thing with "privacy". We dont want to share our weight, or our health. We get embarrassed that we let things get so bad.

FUCK IT
Shouting it out.
Ending the stigma, is the first step to solving the problem!!

Being honest is the only way to begin.
I was OBESE.
I was in excess of 265. 44 inch waist and growing.
Peak Pete was absurd. 

Down 30lbs, 3-4 belt notches, put away the 44s that are WAY too big, had to punch holes in the NEW belt because I ran out of holes.

Bought a new jacket this week, SMALLER size!!
YAY

american POWs

It is interesting that POW and AWOL are not separate things.
That the GOP and pretty much ALL americans are always in favor of getting AMERICAN POWs returned, as soon as we can. Which is typically something which is negotiated at the end of a war.

Strangely enough, that negotiation is pretty much ALWAYS done with the "BAD GUYS", aka, the people that the war was just fought with.

Strangely enough, the "bad guys" almost ALWAYS want THEIR POWS returned in exchange for OUR POWS.

IF this confuses you ... well .... I guess you dont want OUT POWS back.

extinction events

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event#Major_extinction_events 

not even FARKING CLOSE to a mass extinction event. not even close. lesser event at best.

1. K-T 17% , 50%, 75%  (families, genera, species)

2. T-J  23%, 48%, 75%

3. P-T  57%, 83%, 96%

4. D-C 19%, 50%, 70%

5. O-S 27%, 57%, 70%

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6187/1246752.abstract?sid=3f4c15ad-79f5-4eeb-a618-af62e6fccef2 

Strange, no where in the abstract does it specify any percentages.

Strange 

NO

This is NOT a mass extinction event.

Lesser event at best.

/yawn

file:///E:/downloads/Science-2014-Pimm-.pdf

how to fix the House

ikanreed: How about an system of elections where one group losing doesn't automatically imply victory for exactly one other?

this would require a change in the constitution, therefore, it will never happen.

changes that we would need, and need at the federal constitution level?

1) increase the number of members in the house from 435 to 1600-5300 (200k to 60k citizens per seat)

2) make it trivial for 3rd parties to get on the ballot with a federal law (state parties keep 3rd parties off of a federal ballot? wtf)

3) all elections are vote by mail (only way to be able to recount)

but none of these things will happen. ever. they dilute existing power structures.

Drug usage by recent president

is pot even stigmatized anymore? hasnt EVERYONE tried it 10-20 times by now? ;-)

cracks me up that we got to live threw the dark ages of drugs in america
nixon: shoot the hippies
carter: you KNOW he gets stoned
reagan: WAR ON DRUGS toss everyone in jail
bush 1.0: gave arms to the contra and saddam - probably not
Clinton: didnt inhale (translation: DUH of course I got stoned)
bush 2.0: quit around 1992 ("As I understand it," he said in 1999, "the current FBI form asks the question, 'Did somebody use drugs within the last 7 years?' )
Obama: I did coke and pot. (whatever big deal)

It will be interesting to watch what happens in 2016.

Odd Prediction from Pete - #376 - The Privacy Card

Odd Prediction from Pete - #376
At some point in the near future, the GOP will pull the Privacy Card.
They will accuse the DNC, rightfully, of having a massive database of every voter in the US, with massive amounts of "private" information.

The GOP will argue that the DNC is doing something evil with this database.
AKA getting out the vote, improving voter registration, skewing elections in the favor of evil democrats, etc.

The RNC has been trying to implement a similar get out the vote system as the Obama/DNC version. It was an hilarious failure in 2012.

/note: I REALLY hope that the DNC continues to use this system for 2016 and doesnt make their candidates recreate the wheel. sigh

divisive people

something really terrible happened. I think it started with reagan.
the vilification of the other guy. certainly it was when I first noticed it.
people who LOVED him, and demonized you if you said ANYTHING NEGATIVE against st ronnie, esp while we were at war, or whatever.

it go worse during clinton.
Those same ronnie worshippers attacked the president from all sides, policy and family, call him horrible names and insulted the office.

and then it got worse again, with 2.0
HOW DARE YOU QUESTION GOD THE PRESIDENT WHILE WE ARE AT WAR?????

and then a black, secret, illegal alien won the white house.
AND ALL HELL broke loose.
So we were still at war, but it was OK TO ATTACK THAT GUY in the white house.

FUCK EM
I started shunning THOSE PEOPLE.
And it has made all the difference.

Mother's Day

(composed while sleep deprived and drunk)

I had an AMAZING opportunity with my mother.
SHe was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
This is a death sentence.
They send you home to die.

Seriously.
The experimental treatments at PLUTONIUM, injecting into the tumors.
This is not a FUN cancer, where with radiation and chemo you might have a slight chance of recovery.
This is go home and die.

OR agree to be part of one of the FEW experimental, and not hopeful experiments.
Dont get me wrong, the experiments ARE AWESOME. They expand the range of human knowledge and are awesome.

BUT!!

But we had a 6th month notice.
WE had the LUXURY of knowing, that my mom had 6 months to live. period. (she made it almost 6 months to the day).

Given that notice, I did what I could.
Saturday dinners. EVERY saturday. Until SHE was unable to travel.
The first one was near and easy.
The next one was at a place, that unknown to me, she had ALWAYS wanted to eat at, (Bernham - Atwood Cage), which is quite awesome.

Dinner was every Saturday.
Not everyone could make it. Not to every dinner, not to every location. But it was out of the house, until she couldn't travel anymore.

But it was FANTASTIC.
Unbelievable.
Different people. DIfferent places. Different times.
Sharing her life, and her friends and family.

We did it as long as she could travel.
I think she enjoyed it. I know that she said that she did.
I KNOW that others did.
I KNOW that pictures were taken and stories were told.

It was a celebration of life.
IT was amazing.

SO
What have you done?
You mother is alive?
Why dont you see here every day, week or month?
EVERY WEEK.
EVERY MONTH.

IF you do this, there is ZERO chance of regret when she dies.
ZERO ...

I can speak from experience.
As one of the accidental lucky few.
I had 6 months notice. I spent as much time as "I" could. I helped others where I could.


You have TODAY.
If it is the last day that you will ever see your mother, ....

The new GOP health care plan is AWESOME!

The GOP has not officially released their health care plan, but we have been able to figure out some of the details by listening to their complaints about Obamacare.

1) Your rates can never go up.  You will pay the same or less than what you are currently paying.
2) You never have to change doctors, in fact, doctors will be required to take you as a patient.
3) You can never be dropped or denied for pre-existing conditions.
4) Birth control is covered for free.
5) All doctors will be in all networks
6) The government website with details about this plan will be available 24 x 7 x 365. It will work flawlessly on day one and never be slow, no matter how many people try to use it at one time.
7) Insurance companies will be banned from ever dropping a plan.
8) Only 8 million people signed up for Obamacare, the GOP plan would have many many more people covered.
9) Some number of people lost their coverage, that will be undone with GOPcare. They will get their old plans back, at the same premium.
10) All medicines will be covered, no matter what the cost.

No seriously.
We have been told, over and over, that these are the TERRIBLE things about Obamacare.
And the GOP keeps telling us that they will repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better.
Right?

online dating

We discriminate in ALL processes in life. ALL OF THEM.

discriminate - recognize a distinction; differentiate.

So I have been using okcupid as an attempt to differentiate.

The idea being that similar dating material is better than completely dissimilar.

This then begs the question of what should be selected on and what should not.

Dating Stupid - nope, been there, done that, HATE DATING STUPID

Dating Dancers - FFS, no, I dont want to go dancing!!

So there is a list of pros and cons, with varying levels of importance.

I would love to discuss this in detail next time with you and Irene.

2014 04 04 - helping drew with computer hell

download this - it will answer many questions
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

CPU-Z is perfect fro

windows remote assistance
save invitation as a file - fuck trying to use the other options

HP printer from hell

1) I replaced all the ink and have always used genuine HO ink

DO NOT SUGGEST THAT I GET OTHER INK or that this is AN INK PROBLEM

2) I spent a few hours cleaning the original printhead.
DO NOT SUGGEST CLEANING THE INK HEAD

3) I ran align a number of times, that is INPOSSIBLE TO DO, no black ink = failed alignment
DO NOT SUGGEST running alignment

4) clean print heads function of the printed - I ran this a LARGE number of times, draining all of the ink from a full set of color cartigages. HINT THE COLORS PRINT. THE PHOTO BLACK PRINTS.
NO, I will NOT RUN the clean print head function again.

5) bought an genuinine replacement printhead.
SHOCK OF SHOCKS, black does NOT PRINT.
The colors still print.
Alignment can not run without black ink.
YES, I tried the cleaning function. STILL DOES NOT WORK.


THIS IS NOT the first time that this has been asked here or elsewhere.
WHAT do the engineers say is happening?
HAVE they investigated broken printers to determine what is wrong?
Is it fixable ??

PLEASE let me know what is wrong and if it is fixable.
HINT, you must be an engineer to answer this question.

If HP can not answer this question, given that LARGE number of people with this problem, PLEASE forward this to legal.

SERIOUSLY, if you cant fix this, it is time to get the lawyers involved for selling a defective product.

laws and theories

um - no .... science only has theories
sometimes those theories get disproven or modified or enhanced or completely rejected only to be accepted later (plate tectonics was laughed at originally,  but we have MEASURED the yearly movement, so we KNOW it)

the theory of gravity formulated by newton was good enough.
good enough for pretty much everything on earth ...

BUT something was wrong. Mercury's orbit didnt fit that theory.
The theory was WRONG.
Einstein fixed it. TADA
New theory of gravity.

laymen speak of the law of gravity ... esp when making fun of people who fell down or dropped something. but in the end ... no laws in science

ON THE FLIP SIDE, next time someone says that EVOLUTION is just a theory, SMACK THEM IN THE HEAD!

Evolution is a fact. We have seen it happen.
We have a THEORY to explain HOW it happens.

If the creationists were really smart (which they are not), they would argue that their theory of evolution is equally valid. That god sits in a corner tweaking genes and causing species to evolve.  THAT could be argued as a separate explanation of the observed facts.

LOL

Questions to ask the GOP about their PLANS FOR HEALTHCARE!!

"This is a challenge the GOP will almost certainly fail. In fact, the right has become wholly invested of late in the notion that federal policymakers
must never, ever consider measures that would:
1) take away someone’s coverage.
2) Or cost consumers more.
3) Or force them to change doctors. 
4) Or raise the deficit.
5) Or raise taxes."

THIS ABOUT THIS for a second.
THE GOP has attacked Obamacare on these points.
ANY GOP plan would be measured on these SAME POINTS!!
HAHAHAHAH

HINT: The GOP doesnt have a replacement plan and pretty much ANYTHING that the GOP does will screw with one or more of these points.

high rise farms

rpm: Harbinger of the Doomed Rat: I'd say the breeders are contributing a f*ck of a lot more to society and our species than the child-free are.

Malthus is going to be right eventually. How soon do you want that to be?

Why?
Broken clock is right twice a day logic?

1) checks and balances on populations in wild are obvious. too many critters for the existing food supply = population crash.

2) while humans are critters, humans also have the ability to do a couple of things that critters can not do:

   a) restrict pregnancy

   b) increase food supply

   c) increase technology of food production

   d) decrease the population (war, exterminations, carousel )

Strangely enough, we have seen no evidence that Malthus will ever be correct.

Every time that pressure has increased, people have risen to the challenge.
And population pressure has been decreasing long after Malthus predictions.
His predictions basically excluded the industrial revolution.

Paul Erhlich was wrong, not even close and should be ignored, not worshiped.

Better yet, we havent even come close to tapping out the theoretical maximum of food production.

1) High-rise farms

2) fission power plants for grow lights

3) fertilizer directly from the N₂ in the air. 

While greenies dont like fission, it is a trivial solution to the problem of needing more food.

Initially costly to build the power plants and factories, but not so much that it couldnt be done if needed.

This doesnt even required new technology.  Existing technology could be used.

/yes, there are costs. but you could refine the uranium responsibly with regulation. you can clean the water from the factories and recycle it. etc etc etc

/the idea that the sky is falling has been around since 800,000BC.  Why do these people assume that we have to use yesterdays technology to solve tomorrows problems? 

addiction

yes no sort of
before I learned what I learned, I was just as ignorant as the average person.

"JUST STOP"

As with all mental illness, unless you have one, it is a COMPLETELY foreign concept.  It is close to impossible to empathize with something that you have ZERO experience with.  And the more mental something is, with no physical aspects, makes them the idea even harder to comprehend.

PANIC ATTACKS are a perfect example.
You can have them without being addicted, etc etc etc.
But unless you have had a full blown panic attack, they seem like a crazy person JUST OVER REACTING. GROW UP.

But once you have had ONE PANIC ATTACK!! WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO
You instantly have empathy and sympathy for everyone who ever has and ever will.

I have an asshole sister who thinks that all psychology is complete bullshit.  Strangely enough, she really needs a couple decades of DEEP therapy before she could even come close to empathizing with another person.

knock on wood, my family does not have the addiction gene. everyone has pretty much been able to quit whatever they were on, whenever they wanted. cigs, crack, bottle, meth, crack.  When they were done, it was done.

I really feel for people how cant.
I dont understand it. But I get it.

But that is the minority.

bad medicine

so drugs are being used to treat symptoms, rather than tests being done to determine if there is some sort of underlying condition and then treating that condition?

COLOR ME SHOCKED
Especially given the terrible health care in the US.


CSB
I had undiagnosed hashimoto's (hypothyroidism) for probably 10 years.
ooo depression? lets put you on meds
ooo sleep problems? lets put you on meds
ooo weight gain? well you are just lazy
ooo hypertension? lets put you on meds
ooo sleep apnea? lets put you on a machine or something

Even after being put on hormone replacement, the doctor was under dosing me, because they are TERRIFIED of going over. LOL

FFS, once I FINALLY was properly treated, oh LOOK, my sleep problems went away, my depression went away, my weight improved, my hypertension improved.

All at the cost of a generic pill and proper testing.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

TL;DR - be in charge of your own medical health, because no one else is
/csb

The Ultimate Resource

PLUS
If you read pretty much all of history from 1000AD to now, you will mind billions of people repeating this same story, over and over and over again.

Chicken Littles. The end is near.
We are running out of wood!!!   YAY COAL!!
We are running our of coal (only in england)!!!   YAY OIL!!!
We are running out of clean air and water!!! YAY EPA!
We are running out of oil! YAY fracking, photo, wind, nuclear.
We are getting hot and melting!!! YAY tbd

Seriously. Solutions are TBD.
The world tends to solve problems once they are BIG, even catastrophic.

Look at Haiti earthquake (and every earthquake in a poor country). We have ALWAYS KNOWN that the buildings in Haiti were POS that would fall down in a strong wind. We did nothing. We reacted after the event.

If the global ocean actually rises, we will build dikes and move and poor will suffer. Like always. But globally, we will do NOTHING to stop the increase in CO2. It would require us to NUKE China and India to remove all of their fossil power plants. Anything else will barely slow the change.

For an AWESOME READ on the topic from my only personal hero,
try The Ultimate Resource, Julian Simon.

THis book converted me from an ignorant cynic and pessimist to an informed optimist. WTF!!

10 first kiss video

FFS - watch this
3 minutes of your life
107% chance that you will thank me

memories of all those first kisses
the awkward body language of some of them
some pulling away
some diving in

WHICH LEADS TO
who would you be?
would you be able to do this?
would you let someone else lead or enter your personal space?
are you so sure?

quite well done

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/11/tatia-pileva-first-kiss-strangers_n_4940669.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpbDHxCV29A