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| 2005/9/13-14 [Recreation/Dating] UID:39647 Activity:kinda low |
9/12 Horny Jewish old man dates 2 Chinese women simultaneously and gets
sued: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050912/od_nm/doctor_dating_dc
\_ Hey! 47 is not that old!!!
\_ Hmm. Which raises the question. Who's the oldest non-sexually
active CSUAer?
\_ Hmm. Which raises the question. Who's the oldest active
(or semi-active) CSUAer?
\_ How do you define active? MOTD? Wall? Logging in?
\_ Not incontinent
\_ I wonder how many of his patients did this horny fertility
specialist fertilized? |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Finance/Banking] UID:39648 Activity:low |
9/12 I want to tell my bank/online billpay/paypal/whomever to
cut a PAPER check to person X at Y address. I don't want
that person have to fill out some form first, I just want
them to send a check. I don't care if it has my name as
the "from". What is the easiest/cheapest way to do this?
\- get a bank/cashiers check and mail it to them?
\_ Depends on your bank. Mine can do this through Bill Pay.
Yours probably can, too. Maybe you should start calling
banks instead of asking the MOTD.
\_ wow, so unhelpful on the MOTD today. to the 1st
person above, I am trying to make things EASIER.
I'm looking for a solution that lets me sit on my ass
and avoid going to the friggin' MAILBOX, i'm sure as
hell not willing to go to a BANK to get a cashiers
check. To the second person. *MY* bank does NOT
allow me to do it. If it did I wouldn't be asking.
I was hoping you (or someone like you) would be
willing to spend 30 seconds to type the name of their
bank (or other institution) and thus avoid my
spending god knows how many hours on hold looking for
someone at a bank that will even understand the Q.
and not just say "oh, yeah, our online bill pay doeS
that", only to find out that it does NOT. Instead
you were only willing to spend your 30 seconds being
an ass. thanks. -top
\- Boy now I am glad my answer was unhelpful.
\_ You're supposed to tell me what my bank is capable of
doing. If my bank is not able to optimally serve me,
you are supposed to get a cashier's check out of your
own funds and mail the check to my designated recipient,
and I will reimburse you later once I determine that I
can do so without undue effort on my part.
\- did someone stuff a burr in your arse?
\- kids these days ... the only thing the world
owes you is a good old fashioned arse rape.
\_ Opening an account at a new bank is going to be more
trouble than writing a check and mailing it. If your bank has
Bill Pay then how do they pay bills if not with a check? Not
everyone has ACH. Ask them how they pay bills to vendors
who do not have ACH. |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Uncategorized] UID:39649 Activity:nil |
9/13 As a follow-up to the telescope thread, I've put my friend Vadim's
answers in ~john/scope if you're interested. -John |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:39650 Activity:low |
9/13 "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all
levels of government, and to the extent the federal government didn't
fully do its job right, I take responsibility" -Dubya
\_ It finally took him how many years to own up to his problems?
\_ Hell has frozen over.
\_ Read carefully what Dubya said. All he said was "I am not saying
I did anything wrong myself. But insofar as I am the executive
head of the federal government, and the federal government
screwed up, I will accept blame for that." OTOH, the non-
partisan Congressional Research Service report said Dubya did
all he was supposed to do, so maybe he's not to blame. Yeah, OK.
\_ I agree with guy who said "Hell hath frozen over"
\_ I agree with guy who said "Hell has frozen over"
\_ Bush is becoming a very very bad conservative. As one, you
should never, ever admit a mistake.
\- i hardly think this is a "conversion on the road to biloxi"
i think this is rove, not jebus.
\_ Actually, in this political climate, nobody should admit
mistakes, since their partisan enemies will attack them for
anything.
\_ "The people who don't want to play the blame game are
to blame" |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Politics/Domestic/President] UID:39651 Activity:low |
9/12 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/opinion/13tierney.html - danh \_ Those a certainly a step up from Kennedy and his 3 minute questions. \- Did Souter write an opinion in Kelo? I thought it was only Stevens? \_ Stevens wrote the majority opinion for himself, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer. Kennedy wrote a concurrence. O'Connor wrote a dissent joined by Rehnquist and the Defenders of All That is Good and Holy (ie Scalia and Thomas). \- so was this deliberate by the author or a mistake by the NYT fact checkers. it is misleading i think. |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Uncategorized] UID:39652 Activity:nil |
9/12 Is there any way on Google groups to have "show options" always on?
\_ sure, install the 'customizegoogle' firefox extension
\_ Nice extension. Doesn't do what I want though. |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Uncategorized] UID:39653 Activity:nil 80%like:39298 |
9/12 hey ilyas i have a new link for you
http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/cat_strange.html - danh
\_ Awww.. the Tom Cruise story is a hoax. |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:39654 Activity:nil |
9/13 go bush!
http://community.webshots.com/photo/414846943/415162080JEfWnC
http://community.webshots.com/photo/414846943/415161998ZseeBi
http://community.webshots.com/photo/414846943/414762120hUjBZU
http://community.webshots.com/photo/414846943/414903120yxipYR
http://community.webshots.com/photo/418168700/418168700JOWorQ
\_ Your point?
\_ Yup, go for her bush!
\_ Probably waxed.
\_ Q: What are bushless bushes?
A: Jenna and Barbara, waxed. |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:39655 Activity:nil |
9/13 Non-partisan Congressional Research Service says that Blanco took all
steps in a timely manner to secure federal assistance.
http://www2.dccc.org/docs/conyersgaokatrina.pdf
\_ From the last paragraph titled "Conclusions", "it would appear
that the Governor did take the stgeps necessary to request
emergency and major disaster declarations... In response to the
Governor's requests, it appears that the President did take the
steps necessary to trigger the availability of Stafford Act
emergency and disaster assistance...". Your summary, while
correct, appears incomplete and misleading. Nice try though.
\_ There's been various assertions in the media that she didn't
respond in a timely manner - hence the link. Nice try, though.
\_ Just as there have been various assertions here and in the
media that Dubya didn't. You're still being misleading by
just mentioning the one and ignoring the other.
\_ Uh, no. The reflection on Dubya is 1) that he nominated
incompetent cronies to head the responsible agencies, and
to a much lesser extent, 2) when those agencies were
floundering, rather than prod them to quicker action, he
went to McCain's birthday party. |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Academia/Berkeley, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:39656 Activity:low |
9/13 Anthro professor investigated student life by becoming a student:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2005/09/13/freshman_year/index.html
'In the book, I look at things that the university says it wants to
focus on. They say, "We're a community of scholars, we're a community
of diversity, we're about intellectual life." That's what the
university thinks it is. From what I saw, the student's version of
these concepts is very different.'
\_ oh gawd, not to criticize necessarily, but did anyone else find this
really boring? basically: students at fourth-tier university don't
like to give the impression that they're studying hard so they're
not branded as nerds/overachievers, they care more about grades than
learning anything, they take loans to pay for tuition/housing, and
part-time jobs to pay for iPods and random entertainment crap.
\_ FWIW, Berkeley students are exactly the same way - only
difference I can see is that Mommy and Daddy usually pay for the
iPod and the random entertainment crap.
\_ I didn't find a lot of Berkeley students to be particularly
wealthy, spoiled, or coddled. Some were. It's nothing
like private school, though. You should see the kids at
the private liberal arts colleges. I found UCB students
to be harder-working and less-privileged than many.
Addendum: I found a lot of academic, political, and
philosophical discussion at UCB. I submit the MOTD as an
example. That the professor thinks her students and those
at Yale aren't much different is what makes an NAU
professor and a Yale professor different.
\_ Ditto. For all the extremism and stupidity I was extremely
impressed by the general character of the people I was at
Cal with. FWIW, in the "real world" I've also generally
found the above to be peoples' view of Berkeley. -John |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Uncategorized] UID:39657 Activity:low |
9/13 If i have an Cholesk decomposition for a banded diagonal matrix,
is there an easy way to recover the corresponding bands of the
inverse of that matrix? i am only interested in recovering the bands,
not the full inverse.
\_ No.
\_ Yes.
\_ I'm not going to answer because you were a fucking know it all
rahimi dickhead giving people a bad time in the computer lab and
everyone around you disliked you intensely. Thought you should
know this so that you'll improve your personality in da future |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Recreation/Dating] UID:39658 Activity:low |
9/13 Abstinence-only sex education increases percentage of teenagers that
have sex:
http://www.preemptivekarma.com/archives/2005/01/texas_abstinenc.html
\_ Which is another reason why we shouldn't have sex education in the
schools.
\_ Wow. That's...wow. I didn't think it was possible to be that
dumb. I really hope this is a lame troll or a weak attempt at
humor.
\_ You're an idiot.
\_ yea, it's stupid. it needs to be combined with christianity.
\_ s/christianity/pain collars/ |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:39659 Activity:nil |
9/13 Funny finger pointing.
"The updated Louisiana death toll came as Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed
out at the federal government, accusing it of moving too slowly in
recovering the bodies. ...... FEMA spokesman David Passey said he did
not understand what the governor was talking about because, he said,
the state asked to take over body recovery last week."
http://csua.org/u/ddj (Yahoo! News)
Blanco must be suffering memory loss from the flooding.
\_ http://csua.org/u/ddk (AP)
"Federal Emergency Management Agency has slowed down the process by
failing to sign a contract with the company hired to handle the
removal of the bodies, Houston-based Kenyon International Emergency
Services. ...
Blanco said the state would sign a contract with Kenyon, even
though the body recovery is the responsibility of FEMA, because
'I could not bear to wait any longer.'"
\_ Of course, this article does not answer the FEMA claim that
"the state asked to take over body recovery *last week*
[emphasis added]".
\_ state asked, but FEMA didn't respond
\_ Reference please.
\_ FEMA originally hired Kenyon based on a verbal
agreement, and Kenyon started work. FEMA couldn't work
out an acceptable contract. Kenyon threatened to pull
out since they were doing free work until they had a
signed contract.
State stepped in and signed. State will pay Kenyon,
and ask federal for reimbursement later. Look up "body
recovery" on http://news.yahoo.com.
\_ That's essentially what the AP article above said.
Missing is any reference to the state asking to
take over body recovery last week. Note that the
AP article is dated *today*, missing is what exchange
took place between FEMA and the state *last week*.
So I have to repeat my request for a reference to
substantiate your claim that "state asked, but
FEMA didn't respond". Note also that your claim
is contrary to claim by presumably another poster
below. So did the state ask? Did FEMA say no?
Did FEMA not respond? And of course, references for
your claims, please.
\_ I didn't claim that, I'm someone else.
it's consistent with order of events below.
Basically, the point is that FEMA guy did
not dispute key statements from Blanco. By
not disputing them, FEMA guy implies that
Blanco's claims are true. What FEMA guy actually
does it make distracting comments that add
FUD -- but once again, do not contradict Blanco's
claims.
Did you go to http://news.yahoo.com and do what I asked
though?
\_ Mea culpa. With all of us posting anonymously,
it's hard to keep track of who made what claim.
Unfortunately, all I have now is one claim
by a FEMA guy, and contrary claims by anon
MOTD posters to the contrary. As lacking in
crediblity a FEMA guy may be, I think the anon
MOTD posters are even more lacking. In case
of searching for references on yahoo, it is
hardly my place to find evidence for you to
prove your point.
\_ It's the VERY FIRST LINK if you do what
I ask.
\_ Then it's surely not difficult for you
to post a reference.
\_ then it's surely not difficult for
you to go to http://news.yahoo.com, type
in "body recovery", and click on the
first link
\_ At this point I must conclude that
your link must not say what you
claim it does if you are so shy
about posting it. I repeat that
it is hardly my place to dig up
evidence for you to prove your
point.
\_ at this point I conclude that
you are too fearful of being
wrong or of reading
countervailing facts that you
don't want to follow the steps
I outlined
\_ (1) FEMA slow
(2) State asks for responsibility "last week"
(3) FEMA says our responsibility
(4) State says fine
(5) FEMA slow
(6) State signs contract anyway
\_ Great. Please show reference for points 3 and 4.
\_ Great. Please show reference that says it didn't
happen this way. Note what FEMA guy said does not
dispute this sequence of events.
\_ Well, there is one assertion by FEMA that the state
asked for body recovery responsibilities with the
additional statement that "the collection of bodies
is not normally a FEMA responsibility", and there
is one assertion by you that FEMA denied that
request. FEMA guy may lack credibility, but surely
an anonymous poster on MOTD is even more lacking.
\_ an anonymous poster like yourself?
\_ Fair enough. However, I am not anonymously
countering a statement by an identified source.
My anonymous word may not be worth more than
other anonymous words on MOTD, but they're
surely worth less than the non-anonymous FEMA
guy. But so are other sources based on MOTD
opinion, insofar as none of us are on the
scene and privy to internal government
communication.
\_ hey dude, merge better.
anyways, the FEMA guy saying it's "not normally
a FEMA responsibility" just adds FUD, because
FEMA actually initiated with the verbal agreement
with Kenyon. As such, they would be expected
to follow through on the written contract, which
they tried to, but failed to negotiate.
In any case, what FEMA guy said does not
contradict Blanco's claims -- he's just adding
FUD.
\_ Still, all we have is one FEMA guy claiming
one thing, and you claiming that FEMA denied
the state's request. Who are we to trust?
Surely you must have gotten FEMA's denial from
a source. Care to share that source with us?
Or is it privileged communication from an
insider? Or were you there at FEMA's denial
and witnessed the event? I am at a loss how
else you could have known.
\_ whoever said "denied"?
and, merge better please.
\_ Quoting from above, "(2) State asks for
responsibility "last week"[,] (3) FEMA
says our responsibility". I summarized
point 3 by saying FEMA denied the state's
claim. So the question remains. How
did the MOTD poster know about (3)? From
a published source? From a privileged
source? Or did he witness it personally?
\_ != "denied"
\_ OK. That hardly changes anything.
So how did the poster know about
(3)? Published source, privileged
communication, or personal witness?
I should write though, that (3) is
better phrased as "FEMA already had
a verbal agreement, so it seems what
happened is that state was waiting
for FEMA to finalize the written
contract"
\_ Well, you should have, since this
is a substantively different claim
than (3) above. Your new claim
completely avoids your early point
that FEMA claimed responsiblity.
And how does your new claim address
FEMA's claim that the state asked
to take over body recovery?
\_ I never disputed the claim
that state asked FEMA to take
over body recovery.
See step (2) above.
I can agree that reasonable
observers could say my original
(3) and my revised (3) are
substantively different.
\_ So you agree with the FEMA
spokesman after all? Great.
\_ I agree with the statement
that Blanco asked for
responsibility.
The new (3) disputes the
idea that Blanco had
"memory loss", but
instead portrays what
the FEMA guy said as
distracting FUD.
\_ I don't think there's
evidence proving either
FEMA incompetence or
just confusion over the
handover of
responsibility. And I
would hate to defend
either FEMA or LA
without evidence.
BTW, thanks. This has been
a very honest exchange.
\_ Never again will I
oversimplify something
that shouldn't be.
I'll probably break that
promise later ... |
| 2005/9/13-16 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:39660 Activity:nil |
9/13 Finger pointing/FEMA thread below reminds me of the following line from
Plan 9 From Outer Space:
LT HARPER: "Your guess is as good as mine, Larry. But one thing's sure.
Inspector Clay is dead...murdered...and somebody's responsible!"
\_ I don't think there's any evidence of competence in any of the
governmental parties involved. But I am also not comfortable
due to the lack of evidence to say that any one governmental party
is less competent than any other. I suspect any such claim at
this point would be ideological rather than factual.
\_ I think it's safe to say that all parties in all sectors south
of the Mason/Dixon line are less than competent. I used to
feel bad about this "predjudice", but the older I get, the more
evidence I see of it. This clusterfuck would not have happened
in Boston or Seattle not becuase there's a FEMA conspiracy
to fuck New Orleans, but because the police and other emergency
service workers in those places see themselves as public servants
and not as the biggest gang in the jungle. Ask yourself why
the NYPD didn't act like the NOPD on 9/11. Because of the
leadership of New York? Maybe a little, but mostly because
northern culture is simply, objectively better. Every single
NYPD cop had to make a personal choice to put their city before
their own life, and every single NOPD cop had to make a choice
to turn into a fucking barbarian the day order started to
collapse. The fucking southern trash are right that the schism
in American culture is about values, they just got it wrong who
has the values.
\_ 9/11 NYC was a much different event than Katrina/NO. Using
the response of *some* NOPD in a wide spread disaster as a
sign of all southerners being trash vs. NYC in a devastating
but physically localised disaster as a sign of the superiority
of northerns is, at best, simply inappropriate. You really
think people in NYC are going to "come together and help their
fellow man" when the shit hits the fan on a wide scale? Most
of them watched it on TV from home the same as the rest of us.
When you start tossing phrases like "southern trash" around
as generally applicable to a hundred million people, you only
diminish the rest of your points. Same thing with phrases
like "every single NOPD cop had to make a choice to turn into
a fucking barbarian". So every single NOPD cop was looting,
raping, and murdering people? I think not and no reasonable
person is claiming that anywhere. I know people who were
there at the superdome as first responders with food, water,
medicine, etc. It wasn't the NOPD shooting at them. It
wasn't NOPD raping children and shooting random innocents.
It was "their fellow man". The same "fellow man" you'd find
in any wide spread disaster because that's what some people
really are when there's no legal structure to hold them back.
\_ This is cool. -John
\_ I wouldn't judge the entire South by New Orleans. For
instance, Florida seems to be able to handle these
calamities. The truth is that Louisiana is an extremely
poor state and that the people living in and running New
Orleans in particular are corrupt and incompetent. I know
someone who lived nearby on the Mississippi coast whose
house was flooded and the situation there never deteriorated
like it did in New Orleans. Of course, those were mostly
law-abiding white folks with at least enough money to
get the hell out of there - but even the people who
stayed came together as a community to help each other.
New Orleans is many times larger than those towns, much
poorer, and the people are far less educated. Even so, the
people who stayed do not represent the entire city. Most
people got the hell out of there. The poor, elderly, and
criminally-minded are what remained.
\_ I don't think any reasonable person is heaving blame exclusively
at any one person - the fact is that the whole system failed.
My hope is that this failure will lead to a larger conversation
about how to make government work better and more efficiently -
but my fear is that politics as usual will guarantee lots of
expensive pork for the few, lots of opportunistic politics,
and very little change for the better. It's also quite alarming
that in the four years after 9/11, the government (at all levels)
seems to have become *less* competent at handling disaster and
catastrophe. Contrast the four years after 9/11, the amount
of money spent, and what was accomplished, with the four years
after Pearl Harbor.
\_ Look at the finger pointing discussion. There was clearly
a desire to exonerate the LA governor and place the blame
at FEMA's feet.
\_ I think all levels of the government, both federal and state,
failed. Like I said, I don't see any sign of competence
anywhere. But the finger pointing discussion below is a
clear example of an attempt to exonerate the LA governor and
to place the blame at the feet of FEMA.
\_ Yeah, but it's the motd. I said *reasonable people*. ;)
I also believe that the failure is systemic, a failure of
the current approach to government at state and federal
levels - but that's a discussion for another time.
\_ You know, there is a difference between the culpability of
state and local authorities and FEMA, because FEMA has
*no other reason for existence* other than disaster
planning and recovery. The governor of Louisiana
was not elected on the basis of her ability to
prepare for and recover from disasters, while everyone
involved with FEMA *should* be in their positions
because of their abilities in this specific area. -tom
\- by making the "clusterfuck" sound really bad, the
region will get a lot of fast tracked money.
spreading around "10,000 dead" is probably worth
a couple of billion. that moron brownie will cost
teh federal govt a couple of more billion. it's
too bad he didnt commit suicide like the JAL supervisor
after a JAL crash. of course given a lot of this will
flow to halliburton, it's not like some of the executive
branch people will care ... $2000 for a displaced
person, $200,000 to Halliburton Carpet Cleaning Service. |
| 2005/9/13-16 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President/Reagan] UID:39661 Activity:nil |
9/13 To conservatives and small-government supporters, what is your opinion
on regulating mercury emissions?
http://tinyurl.com/chhea
Another fact: FDA/EPA & number of states have issued fish consumption
advisories: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg.html
Don't you think these two things somehow related?
\_ If the mercury is completely w/in the state it OUGHT to be
beyond the reach of the fed gov. Re fish - so what? don't
eat fish, I've never eaten fish (or any other animal) in
my entire life and I'm doing okay.
\_ Your mind has been classified as: small and conservative.
\_ Brilliant!!! Maybe Colorado can charge an exorbitant amount
of money for water going into California since they have an
abundance. And you're thinking of privatization right? That's
great! Go America, go Ronald Reagan, go Conservatism!!!
\_ Re air, I've never breathed air my entire life and I'm...oh
wait.
\_ so your general position is a lack of respect for animal life,
AND disrespect for people's culinary tastes?
\_ Are the fish affected by the Hg? If so, let them evolve.
If not, what is the big damn problem - why don't you get
some culture and stop living off the flesh of dead animals.
\_ most mercury emitted to the air in the coal-firing powerplants.
coal contains a very very small amount of mercury, but because
we burn a lot of it, this become a problem. Since mercury
vapor do travel across state lines, what is your opinion on
Feds impose regulation on state-own power plants?
\_ Legitimate ways for congress to get pwr over state coal
plants would be:
1. the plant provided pwr to other states not just
the state it was located in
2. the plant got coal from another state
3. Congress paid for the plant (all or part)
4. Congress took over all regulation of all coal plants
in the entire US
If the state is paying for the plant and it gets all of
the coal locally and provides all of the coal locally,
it OUGHT to be beyond the pwr of Congress. The argument
that the effect of the coal production on other states
justifies fed regulation if taken to its logical
conclusion justifies congressional regulation of
everything. Crime in one state affects another - why
shouldn't congress regulate that?
The pwr of the fed gov in necessarily limited and should
remain so.
\_ I'm going to shoot you. I've never gotten anything good from
you in my entire life and I'm doing ok.
\_ Bring it on! |
| 2005/9/13 [Science/Disaster, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Recreation/Travel/Nola] UID:39662 Activity:nil |
9/13 New Orleans: A Green Genocide
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19418
\_ This is posted by jblack |
| 2005/9/13-14 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:39663 Activity:moderate |
9/13 152 people killed in Iraq today. Look,
before Saddam: No law but order
After Saddam: Law but no order
Which one is worse?
\_ Nono, a haiku is 5-7-5. -John
\_ HEIL GERMAN JOHN!!! HEIL! Wie geht es Ihnen herr Salomon?
Gibt es hier einen Schwulenclub?
\_ W00T! He's back! Hi heil-cherman-john-guy! I was hoping
you hadn't vanished into troll oblivion! A good troll
farmer should always care for his charges. -John |
| 3/15 |