5/14    Jobs available in my group at Amazon
        http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/jobs/pre-sales-marketplace-management/-/1/103-6511325-3219840
        Interested?  Send me your resume -larryl
        \_ Leisure Larry?
        \_ No location?

5/13    Looking for a free web site that shows you a listing of houses
        sold in the neighborhood with price/date/location, thanks.
        \_ Yahoo! Real Estate. Also, possibly your county assessor,
           depending on what your county is.
           \_ http://sfgate.com publishes a list of bay area homes sold
              with city, address, price
        \_ http://sfgate.com/homesales if youre looking at Bay Area.
           \_ Thanks. Looks like there's no end to housing bubble. I will
              just wait a few more years and see what happens.
              \_ http://csua.org/u/c3e
                 What bubble?

5/14    Buy a "dinosaur" pine:
        http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/05/wip_wollemi_pin.php
        http://www.wollemipine.com

5/14    ausman-- curious about your survival. How did you crash, and at
        what speed? Was it a direct-on or a side-wipe? What did you ride
        at the time and what kind of gears did you have? Was it a typical
        left-turn, I didn't see you type of accident? High-side or low-side?
        \_ I was going too fast, probably about 40, down Fell street in
           SF (a four lane one way) and some parked car pulled out in
           front of me. I hit my brakes hard, skidded to about 20, realized

           that I was going to hit her anyway, pulled my brakes harder
           and did a flip over my handlebars, hitting the pavement face
           first. My full face helmet saved me. And to think, I used to
           be against the helmet laws. I probably had a minor concussion
           (a saw a flash when I hit the ground) but I walked away. Oh,
           I was riding a race tweaked Honda F600 at the time with
           super sticky tires and steel brake lines. Probably why I
           was able to stand my bike on its front tire like that. I
           was pretty lucky the bike did not end up on top of me.
           I was wearing a Shoei F900 and a First Gear ballistic nylon
           I was wearing a Shoei F700 and a First Gear ballistic nylon
           jacket with pads in and jeans. I got pretty good road rash
           though the jeans. I don't know what I was wearing on my feet,
           probably sneakers. -ausman
           \_ HOLY SHIT. Glad you're ok! Did you try swerving instead of
              a stoppie? Are you skilled at doing stoppies? Did you hit the
              car at all? And is this an F3/F2 you're talking about?
                \_ I don't ride a motorcycle, but even in a car I'm always
                   wary of swerving.  If you swerve to avoid a Yugo and
                   get creamed by a Mac truck instead that's no good.  And
                   if you have enough time to check your mirrors, there is
                   probably enough time to brake properly.
                   \_ Idealy, you should know what's around you and try to
                      keep your sides open for swerving when riding a
                      motorcycle.  Some people are quite good at this.
                      Unfortunatly, this rarely works out in RL,
                      especially in SF.
           \_ Let me get this right. You were riding a motorcycle and you
              fell down on Fell street?
              \_ Ha ha!  Did he get his motocycle license from that DMV on Fell
                 Street too? :-)
              \_ No, I thought I could stop in time and there was
                 a car next to me. Once the bike started sliding/skidding
                 I didn't feel like I could try and split lanes. I actually
                 didn't even think of it, I was just trying to stop. I
                 have no experience with stoppies, except for this one
                 not particularly enjoyable one. And no, I did not hit
                 the car. It was an F2 that I had bought from a racer.

5/14    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/14/world/main695223.shtml
        Tiananmen Square, Uzbekistan style.

5/14    http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8345
        While the Christians kick ass, millions more Muslims around the
        world are getting pissed off. I don't know about you but I think
        this is beginning to look more and more like the Fifth Crusade.
        \_ that's not exactly "massive" protests
           \_ No, but demagoguery + uneducated masses + aggressive ideology +
              media coverage can certainly lead to these.  -John

5/14    "Where a government has come to power through some form of popular
        vote, fraudulent or not, and maintains at least an appearance of
        constitutional legality, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be promoted,
        since the possibilities of peaceful struggle have not yet been
        exhausted." --Che Guevara
        \_ try to go through that once yourself, then, you might have a
           different reaction.  Overthrowing Taiwan's government never
           went across my mind until I personally went through the election
           in 2004.
           \_ Are you saying Taiwan is ripe for a guerilla takeover?
              \_ not yet.  just that the government is no longer legitimate.
              \_ Gorilla takeover?  I thought the Chicoms were trying Pandas..
           \_ You tried to shoot President Chen in South Taiwan?

5/14    As of 4:40PM, the followings are respective headline news:
        "Offensive Over: U.S. says insurgent strongholds ... 'neutralized'"
          -- MSNBC
        "U.S. Marines complete offensive on insurgent staging area" -- CNN
        "U.S. Wraps Up Border Sweep: 9 Marines And More Than 125 Militants
          Killed, U.S. Says" -- CBS News
        "U.S.: Matador a Success: Insurgent sanctuary 'neutralized'" -- Fox
        "U.S. Calls Iraq Border Operation a Success" -- ABC News
        "Syrian military build up on Iraqi border, as US calls western
         offensive 'successful'"
        Same news, very different political overtones from CBS, ABC,
        and Fox Conservative. Fuck American media.
        \_ They all sound the same to me.  Fuck stupid motd people. In the ear.
           \_ He apparently doesn't know what ':' means.
        \_ At least all the different overtones can co-exist, unlike in
           countries with govt-controlled media where there is only one tone.
        \_ What's wrong with those headlines... Should they all be the same?

5/14    This is just depressing stuff. Woman kicked like a soccer ball dies.
        http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/15/MARIA.TMP
        \_ Tragic, but you'll note that her family offered to buy her a home
           in Chicago and she refused because of the weather. Yes,
           homeless is so much better.
           \_ The woman got stomped to death after living a life that would
              break just about anyone.  How about you just shut the hell up
              and stop trying to score some meaningless points.
              \_ I think you got trolled.
           \_ She has mental problems.  Give her a break.
                 \_ Trolling is also trying to score meaningless points.
           \_ She had mental problems.  Give her a break.  Besides, there is
              this line in the article: "Calls home became less frequent, and
              more desperate for money."  I doubt if her family was really so
              generous as to buy her a home.  Otherwise she wouldn't need to
              sound desperate for money.  Maybe her family only offered a small
              downpayment and she was supposed to handle the mortgage.  Some
              people like to exaggerate their goodness when there's no one to
              counter them.
              \_ You might be correct, but people are often reluctant to
                 give money without strings to crazy/drug addicted people.
                 This is not unreasonable.
           \_ well, in my country, they say that America is a great country
              with lots of opportunities IFF you're young and fit, because
              if you're not, there's no one (government) to take care of you.
              In this case, she got a physically debilitated and things seemed
              In this case, she got physically debilitated and things started
              to go downhill. In my country, this would never happen. But
              then again, my country isn't as big and powerful as America.
              \_ What's your country?  I was very surprised to see how many
                 homeless and despondent people I saw on the streets of
                 "functioning" places like Vancouver, London, Tokyo and
                 Frankfurt.  Even Sweden & Denmark have the pooor, broken
                 bastards that just fall through the cracks.  -John
              \_ Simple response - Move back. Seriously.
                 \_ I will gladly get out of your facsist imperialistic country
                    and move back when I've made enough money for retirement.
                    I'll reap social benefits of my country while enjoying
                    wealth that I earned when I was young and healthy. You
                    on the other hand are stuck with broken infrastructures
                    and national deficits. Anyways, this is what I love about
                    America. I get free education (scholarships), I make lots
                    of money with only 30% tax, and I get to take everything
                    from America back home. America IS a great country.
              \_ I was going to say "Yeah, but how much tax do you pay in your
                 country?"  But then I just remember that we pay lots of tax
                 here too.
                 \_ US is 15% for the poor, 40% for the richest. I am
                    personally paying 30%, and I wouldn't mind paying 50% if
                    1) my government would stop squandering money on pointless
                    war, propaganda, and Corporationally aligned agendas and
                    2) my government starts improving things INSIDE the U.S.,
                    like better (more organized) mass transit, better road
                    systems, better education, and infrastructures in general.
                    I personally prefer a country run by Denmark/Switzerland
                    like government with lots of accountability and a sense of
                    duty and ethics than see it run over by private
                    corporations like it is now. This whole talk on
                    privatization on every little thing is sickening me.
                    \_ I think the word you're looking for is
                       "accountability."  Be wary of using places like .dk and
                       .ch as examples--they have a lot of problems too, they
                       just don't show up as much because they're generally
                       on a smaller scale.  -John
                       \_ Tell us about their problems. Percentage-wise, is it
                          worst than U.S.? Do they also privatize social
                          security, electricity, water, and other things?
                          Is the quality of education level more "flattened"
                          thoughout the country, or is it very aymmetrical
                          like the U.S.?           -Curious liberal red-neck
                          \_ I dunno about Denmark, althoug they have a m4d
                             immigration backlash.  .ch privatizes most
                             utilities to heavily regulated companies.  The
                             problems are way different (mainly to do with
                             immigration/integration and heavy-handed
                             bureaucracy stifling business and innovation.)
                             You can't draw comparisons between ethnically and
                             culturally homogenous countries of < 20 million
                             and the US.  -John

5/14    Fuel cell that runs on vitamin k3:
        http://tinyurl.com/d6oef
        \_ ketamine?

5/14    Virtual Bubblewrap:
        http://www.nonstop.lv/files/bubblewrap.swf