3/28    http://www.brentwoodcc.net
        I'm trying to get more information on Brentwood Country Club.
        How much is the club due? I can't find this info anywhere. Thanks.
        \_ If you have to ask...
        \_ Why don't you call them and ask?
           \_ I'm just doing some research and have no desire to join. I
              don't want to ask because they might find out that I'm a
              minority AND a poor ass student AND a non-resident of
              Brentwood, any one of which would disqualify me as a member. -op
        \_ In point of fact, I called, and they don't give that info out over
           the phone. They also don't discuss the membership process over the
           phone. You're welcome to try talking to Rosemary Bryan, the Director
           of Membership, for more information if you like. To be honest, I
           think you have a better chance of joining the Bohemian Grove.
           \_ THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! May I ask how you asked them, and if
              the person you talked to sounded like a snob? I guess they
              really want to make sure if you qualify or not. While you're
              at it, can you also please call the Riviera Country Club
              1/2 mile to the west of Brentwood Country Club, the Bel Air
              Country Club a mile north, the Los Angeles Country Club
              2 miles to the east, and the Hillcrest Country Club 1/2
              more mile east? They seem to hide the membership info
              pretty well. This is for a research project. Thanks so much!!!
           \_ THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! May I ask how you asked them, and if
              the person you talked to sounded like a snob? I guess they
              really want to make sure if you qualify or not. While you're
              at it, can you also please call the Riviera Country Club
              1/2 mile to the west of Brentwood Country Club, the Bel Air
              Country Club a mile north, and the Los Angeles Country Club
              2 miles to the east? They seem to hide the membership info
              pretty well. This is for a research project. Thanks so much!!!
              \_ I called the number on the website and said I had recently
                 moved to Brentwood (lie), that I was thinking about joining,
                 and what were the dues? The woman who answered (receptionist,
                 at a guess) transferred me to another woman who sounded
                 eager to get my phone number so that their Director of
                 Membership could call me back ("She just stepped into a
                 meeting."); when I asked about the membership  application
                 process, she actually apologized for sounding so secretive.
                 And while I wish you luck with this project, I'm sorry to
                 say that I don't have the time to participate further.
                 Do let us know how it goes.
                 \_ Dude needs to learn how to use the phone himself.

3/28    Hey motd -- I was looking to buy a decent quality starter digital
        camera without spending too much money.  Eventually I'd like to move
        up to something really nice, but at the start I'd just like decent
        quality, affordable equipment that can easily download to my
        win2k machine.  Can anyone offer any advice/suggestions/warnings?
        TIA.           -mice
        ps.  Thanks everyone for answering the mp3/audio question I asked!
        \_ I'd wait for slickdeals to post a deal on the SD400/500/550.
        \_ I have an old powershot.  Cheap, does the job but nothing special.
           Maybe the new models will take pictures faster but mine is useless
           for anything moving faster than a snail.
           \- there are lots of people who can give you advice, but you
              have to tell people more about your budget and plans.
              there is a big difference between a $1k budget and $400 budget.
              and are you looking for something that weights ~8oz and
              can fit into pocket/purse/belt or a real SLR where you are
              committing to carrying a camera bag? are you mostly looking
              to shoot landscape or indoor candids of people etc. dont worry
              about easy download or "the future" at this point ... if you
              move to something "really nice", you will essentially start
              over. also see dpreview, kenrockwell[somewhat opinionated but
              basically resonable] and http://photo.net. ok tnx.
              \_ Fair enough: I think $500 is my absolute upper limit for
                 this first purchase.  I'd be doing a fair mix of indoor
                 and outdoor photography, but I seriously doubt I'll be doing
                 much in the way of landscape or action shooting.
                 Smaller is better, but within reason, size is really
                 secondary to my needs.  Thanks for the links!    -mice
        \_ http://www.dpreview.com .  I really like my Canon Digital Ixus SD500
           as a portable camera, but all the Ixus models in that class are pretty
           nice--I also have an EOS 350D as an SLR--they were ca. $500 and
           $1200 respectively (the 350D with a nice non-kit lens).  On the off
           chance that you are in the NYC area, B&H Photo Video
           (http://bhphotovideo.com has decent prices but I've found them to be
           tops in terms of advice and customer service three times around
           already.  Plus, what psb said.  -John
           \_ The dude wanted a starter camera, and you are talking about
              all these expensive ones.
        \_ If you want to get a DSLR, I'd look for a used Digital Rebel on
           cl or http://keh.com. The DRebel is a very nice camera (I love mine)
           and should be ~ $400-$500 w/ a lens.
           Otherwise I'd go w/ one of those little Canon cameras, whichever
           is best suited to your budget (they are all pretty good).
           \_ Also there are refurbished Nikon D50s for $479 with lens. Try
              http://pricegrabber.com and select the "used and refurbished" results.
              I have no idea how the refurbs are but it is a good camera.
        \_ Please define "affordable" for you. i guess I'd recommend a tiny
           camera like John suggested, although I don't specifically recommend
           (or not) that Canon but I don't think you can go far wrong. The
           portable will still be useful even if you get an SLR later.
           \_ I think $500 is my upper limit (though of course I'd rather spend
              less if I can do so and still get decent equipment).     -mice
              \- $500 is under the SLR threashold. get a decent compact canon.
        \_ Canon "A" Series.  If you don't care about manual override, then,
           Nikon Coolpix 4xxx is pretty good.  Those things runs about $200.
           Try to get the *LOWEST* pixel beyond 4Mpxel.
        \_ price is not an issue.  what you want is.  You may be one of those
           who would only carry a small camera with you.  You may be the type
           who don't mind carry your two camera body and 4 lenses with you
           when you travel to Europe.  You need to decide how much you are
           willing to carrying with you.  Most of ultra-slim camera takes
           *LOUSY* pictures.  Canon "A" series is decent as it has manual
           override.  dSLR is beyond your price range and the "kit" lens is
           usually not THAT great... and it's heavy and bulky.
           In general, make sure you have easy access to 1. exposure
           compensation, and 2. white balance override on the digital camera,
           as you will be spending a lot of time tweaking it.  Otherwise,
           most of the camera on the market is actually pretty good.
                kngharv

3/28    http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=34.212651~-118.660726&style=o&lvl=1&scene=3064367
        Is this an example of how suburbs grow? First they carve out
        the road and then they build houses on top of it?

        shares is 1,000,000.  All 1,000,000 shares are issued, and employees
        are granted 10% of that, and the founder grants himself 90%.
        What's to prevent the founder from voting to double the number of
        authorized shares to 2,000,000 and screwing the employees with 2x
        dilution?  Other than all the employees getting pissed and leaving.
        \_ The board can do anything.  If you're a staffer and want to sue,
           you're welcome to but good luck on that.  You'll spend way more
           on lawyers than whatever you might have regained in a lawsuit and
           probably won't win anyway.
        \_ Word of advice, if the chair/founder/whatever is Ari Zilka, leave.
           He'll take most of the money and leave you suckers with
           almost nothing.
        \_ Nothing.  But, generally this is why small corporations have
           boards, and, if memory serves, the board must be at least 3 people,
           and, once a corporation gets to a certain number of employees, the
           board gets bigger. -dans
           \_ What if two of the three positions on the board of directors
              are occupied by the founder and his wife, in which case the
              founder will always get the majority vote?
              \_ Welcome to the wonderful world of business.
              \- Is the founder's name RIGAS? --psb
        \_ Merely issuing more shares would not directly screw the employees.
           If he did something like say grant himself 1,000,000 new shares
           that could be grounds for a shareholder lawsuit but good luck.
           \_ What about doubling the number of authorized shares?
        \_ We just started covering this in my bus org/corp law class. The
           way I understand it majority controlling shareholders have a
           fiduciary duty wrt to the minority shareholders. In the scenario
           you describe the maj shareholder has effectively reduced the
           voting power of the min shareholders by 1/2 (assuming that each
           of the new shares has one vote and the voting power of the old
           stock did not increase). By acting this way the maj shareholder
           has breached his fiduciary duty and the min shareholders can sue
           him for this breach.
           [ I might have this wrong, so I'll ask my bus org prof on thurs ]
        \_ Can the dude with 90% also pay himself a big salary, and thus
           take away all the profits of the company?

3/29    Poll:  Most homoerotic arcade game (playble on MAME)
        PitFighter:
        Knuckle Bash: .
        I'm Sorry:
        Street Fighter I: .
        FINAL FIGHT: .
        \_ Maybe some of the wrestling games?  A lot of them are
           really terrible though.

3/29    Does soda have any blogging software preinstalled?  Any links
        on how to quickly get one going?  I don't need a blog but I need
        to pretend like I do.
        \_ Not to my knowledge.  Download Wordpress, install it in your
           ~/public_html directory.  It's not rocket science.  soda's apache
           configuration is *way* to restrictive for what's allowed in
           .htaccess files, which may cause you problems with some things,
           e.g. prettifying urls.  I've been meaning to email root about
           this. -dans

3/29    Liberal
        \_ anal sex
           \_ http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/12/43315/5534
        \_ sex with intern
           \_ Lewinsky
        \_ weed
           \_ Berkeley
           \_ Guitar
              \_ Woodstock
                 \_ Protest

3/29    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060329/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq
        Bush blames Saddam for the ongoing civil war.
        \_   "I want the Iraqi people to hear I've got great confidence
             in their capacity to self govern," Bush said. "I also want
             the Iraqi people to hear -- it's about time you get a unity
             government going. In other words, Americans understand
             you're newcomers to the political arena. But pretty soon
             its time to shut her down and get governing."
           What the fuck is he talking about?
           "I want the Iraqi people to hear I've got great confidence
           in their capacity to self govern," Bush said. "I also
           want the Iraqi people to hear -- it's about time you get
           a unity government going. In other words, Americans
           understand you're newcomers to the political arena. But
           pretty soon its time to shut her down and get governing."
             Bush said Iraq's instability "is the legacy of Saddam
             a tyrant who exacerbated ethnic divisions to keep himself
             in power."
           Yeah, see, this is the whole "opening the gates of hell"
           thing people tried to WARN YOU ABOUT...  Fuckhole.
           (failed on second cut and paste.  fixed.)
           \_ Why didn't he listen to his Daddy? Especially when he knows his
              daddy is about 10 times as smart as he is!
              \_ being smart doesn't win ya elections post-9/11 for you and
                 your party.  being ruthless against the Tewwowists does!
                 Even Hillary gets that.
                 \_ I love this "9/11 has changed law of physics" arguement.
                    It is almost comical.
                    And by the way, we are talking about IRAQ here... why
                    makes you think 9/11 and Iraq has anything to do with
                    each other?
                    \_ The president told us that the Iraqis were harboring
                       Al Qaeda, and if you can't believe your CINC, whom
                       can you trust?  -John
                       \_ Bob.

3/29    And now for something completely different:
        http://www.apfn.org/apfn/moon.htm
        "Hoagland, West, Hancock and Bauval are on to something. What they
        collectively have implied is nothing less than a PERFECT set up for
        the advent of the Antichrist. With the idea that Isis was the Egyptian
        god of "returning" and resurrection, it is uncanny that NASA has been
        engaged in a type of worship of this god from the beginning of the
        space program. Even the name Apollo is the Greek derivative of Isis.
        The landing sites, the dates for landing and the incredible connection
        with Giza concerning the moon missions all fit together. There is even
        evidence that the US astronauts were closely watched by the aliens
        while on luna firma."
        \_ And, the opposite page (equal time) http://www.clavius.org
           \_ See?  Now you just go and spoil it.  My link was much more
              amusing.
        \_ Isis was a goddess. She was married to Osiris, whose brother, Set,
           murdered and dismembered him. Isis sewed Osiris back together and
           brought him back to life. If you're going to set out crazy
           conspiracy theories, at least get the base parts right.
           \_ Isis was a goddess?  She isn't now?  And just who officiates
              when two godlings marry?
              \_ fnord.
              \_ Bast, Egyptian Goddess of marriage.
                 \_ I thought Hathor was the Egyptian Goddess of Marriage.
                    And it is unlikely that Bast would have officiated the
                    marriage of Isis and Osiris as Bast is considered to
                    be the daughter of Isis and Osiris born after Horus.
                    \_ Good point. Here, read Plutarch: http://csua.org/u/fdl
              \_ Well, if you recall SG1 Season 4 Eps 13, 'The Curse',
                 Isis died b/c the canopic jar that held her was damaged
                 (and boy was Osiris pissed).
                 In general "gods" die when people stop believing in them.
                 I thought this was clear from 'Who Mourns For Adonis?'
                 (TOS Eps. 32). -stmg
                 \_ You're a strange duck, man.
           \_ You left out the best parts: Isis was Osiris's sister, and
              he was was so virile that he managed to knock her up AFTER
              he had been dead for years.
              \_ Man had a lot of living to make up for.

3/29    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060329/ap_on_sc/smart_brains
        Smart kids' brain may mature later than dumber kids. Horray
        for all immature men on Soda! You may all turn out to be
        smart kids later in your life.
        \_ great, still waiting for my foreskin to retract.

3/28    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4858484.stm
        Airbus A380 passed crucial tests and approved as a 853-person
        jet. Go superior French communist engineering!
        \_ Communist or not, I am just looking forward to the day when it
           takes 2 hours just to board the plane!
           \_ Multiple boarding passages.  It's already done at a lot
              of airports.  -John
              \_ I don't know... In some Asia airport, it takes a bit more
                 than a hour to board 747.  I don't know if multiple boading
                 passage would be able cut the boading time down to, let say
                 30 min
                 \_ It's interesting that you mention Asia--a colleague of
                    my girlfriend's is the daughter of the CEO of Thai
                    Airways; according to her, a lot of Asian outfits
                    (Thai, Singapore, Emirates off the top of my head) only
                    use the shiniest new planes for Asian routes, because
                    European and American travellers are more used to
                    crappy old stuff.  I can imagine the same happening
                    with airports; many of the cramped, overcrowded
                    airports you get in Europe and the US wouldn't be
                    capable of multiple boarding entries, but many of
                    the newer ones I've seen have bigger waiting areas,
                    room for at least 2 tunnels, and generally more
                    allowance for greater planeloads.  There's also
                    a divergence in how airports are viewed--many
                    airlines seem to be betting on smaller planes
                    going to less-cenral airports directly, rather
                    than the traditional model of feeder->hub
                    flights.  Maybe this will take strain off some of
                    the current big hub airports that can handle the A380,
                    and let them adapt their terminals for fewer big
                    planes.  -John

3/29    Own your own landspeeder:
        http://tinyurl.com/jtvcp (ebay.com)
        \_ Based on an 88 Ford Escort?  I guess Luke was used to his
           Landspeeder breaking down too...

3/29    Is it better to open all the windows and breath fresh air but
        sleep at chilling 50F or close all the windows and live comfortably
        with stale air at 65F? I hear pros and cons from both sides. My
        German friends think fresh air and cold temperature build
        strength. On the other hand cold weather increases the chance
        of flu and cold transmission, no?
        \_ Stale air means more sharing between people, which increases the
           chance of virus transmission.  Strike a balance between temperature
           and staleness and go on with your life.
        \_ Air out your house during the day and close the windows at night.
           Also, as above poster suggests, stop sleeping with sick people.
        \_ Agree with the previous poster. Open the window during the
           day to get some air exchange, and close it at night. It
           also depends on where you live. If you live close to a busy
           street, you might want to open your window more
           selectively, say avoid commute hours. If you are rich and
           live in the hills, then you can probably open it anytime
           you want. What you don't want, is to have the same air
           circulate over and over again during the entire winter. You
           may think this is common sense but I've been to houses (in
           the bay area non less) where the air quality is just bad
           and all I want to do is to open the window.
        \_ ZE COLD AIR MAKES US STRONG FOR ZE RUSSIAN WINTER.  -John

3/29    http://cache.valleywag.com/tech/sergey-drag.jpg
        http://cache.valleywag.com/tech/ls-hottub.jpg
        Nice pictures of Sergey
        \_ google go down da hole!!

3/29    You know, it's not actually possible to birth a baby that way.
        Besides, she had an elective c-section.
        http://www.stereogum.com/archives/002424.html
        \_ Aww.. the pictures don't show the baby coming out.
        \_ You know, the artist isn't serious.
           \_ It got him his 15 minutes.

3/29    Is it ok to wear green pants to work?
        \_ Thank you, Mr. Random
           \_ Is it beteer than black or blue pants?
           \_ Is it better than black or blue pants?
        \_ How about something subdued?  Olive is green too.  -John

3/29    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4855682.stm
        Indian doctor aborts female fetuses in a land that prefers boys
        over girls, is jailed.
        \_ this practice makes Indian girls all the more exotic and precious.
           I feel bad for Indian men who can't find a mate. Ya reap what
           ya sow... then again, Muslims are worse.
           \_ Don't forget to mention how a lot of your friends are muslim.

3/29    Does anybody have any data/experience/rule of thumb for dealing with
        the HTTP accept-language header in browsers?  Do most non-english
        browsers set this logically?  tia.

3/29    The McMansions are coming!  The McMansions are coming!
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327/ap_on_re_us/mansionizing_history

3/29    What day of the week should I vacuum my house?
        \_ Tomorrow
           \_ Actually, if this is the average sodan slob, the answer is
              more likely "yesterday"
              \_ I think you missed the joke.
                 \_ Doesn't a joke have to be funny..or at least amusing to
                    qualify as a joke?
                 \_ No I didn't miss the "joke"
                    \_ You missed the mockery of the inane motd questions
                       like the one below.  BTW, the "green pants" post is
                       in the smae vein.  If you are too stupid to get a joke
                       or allusion, it's may not be funny or subtle to you
                       but it is still a joke and you are still a loser.

3/29    Sweden burns?
        http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/938
        \_ More like, "Right Wing Alarmists Make Shit Up."
           \_ Here's the variation from NYT.  "Islam on the Outskirts of
              the Welfare State"  ttp://tinyurl.com/qhosl
              Are you still so certain that the http://brusselsjournal.com
              article is pure fabrication?  - !op
              \_ Of course he is. It is incompatible with his worldview,
                 therefore it is false.
              \_ The "variation from NYT" doesn't paint a Sweden in danger
                 of imminent collapse from Islamic immigrants; the BJ
                 article, by noted anti-Islamist Fjordman does. So, yeah,
                 I think Fjordman's making shit up.
        \_ we need a goddamn all-out crusade against islam.  stop all these
           pussyfooting excuses of terrorism.

3/29    Contemplating on getting a tandem wife. Is the SPORT Mountain Wife
        brand a reputable broad?

3/29    These are the counties in the USA with the most millionaires,
        excluding the value of their primary residence : (from Money/CNN)

        1       Los Angeles County, CA  262,800
        2       Cook County, IL         167,873
        3       Orange County, CA       113,299
        4       Maricopa County, AZ     106,210
        5       San Diego County, CA    100,030
        6       Harris County, TX        96,593
        7       Nassau County, NY        78,816
        8       Santa Clara County, CA   75,371
        9       Palm Beach County, FL    69,871
        10      Middlesex County, MA     67,552
        \_ http://www.city-data.com/top2.html
           Top median household income are usually in N Cal
           \_ It's not what you earn, it's what you save/invest.
        \_ Hmm .. I didn't expect Cook County to rank so high.  It's kind
           of a dump.  I guess it's just a big county, or maybe housing
           is still relatively cheap here so they don't have all their
           money locked up in their homes.          - cook county resident
        \_ Why is New York not in there?
           \_ New York City is *IN* Nassau County last time I checked.
              \_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassau_County,_New_York
                 "Nassau County is a county located outside New York City
                 in the state of New York."
                  \_ As a former resident of Nassau County: I would like to
                        correct this info: Nassau is most definitely not a part
                    of NYC. It is a distinct county of the state of NY.It is
                    of NYC. It is a distinct county of the state of NY. It is
                    \_ What info would you like to correct? You proceeded
                       to say the exact same thing yourself.
                    not a borough of NYC. Now if you want to start defining
                    what is or is not a part of suburban NYC; then things get
                    interesting in that suburban NYC is contained in three
                        states; not one. Most of the NY rich have houses
                    in Connecticut, NJ or Westchester County ;AFAIR.
                        http://www.worldstatesmen.org/US_NYBOROUGHS.html
            \_ In NYC, each borough is its own county of about 2-3 million
              people. None of them qualified on their own. I'm going to
              also guess that lots of people who work in NYC actually live
              in CT and NJ, further reducing the number in NYC counties.
              If you look at number of billionaires by city then NYC is
              #1(#2), LA is #2(#5), SF is #3(#7), and Chicago #4(#10) in the
              USA/world.
              \_ It still seems wrong that there aren't 68k or more
                 millionaires in Manhattan.
                 \_ As the guy above points out, this has a lot to do with
                    the number of people in a given county.  It's not a
                    coincidence that the counties are mostly in Western
                    states.  Western counties are the size of eastern states
                    in some cases.
                 \_ "excluding the value of their primary residence"
                    Doesn't seem too unlikely with that caveat.
                 \_ Might seem wrong, but those are the stats.
        \_ Why would you exclude the value of someones primary residence?
           \_ With the recent runup in real estate prices, lots of people
              are paper millionaires. However, their wealth is not liquid
              and not really useful either. (If they sold their house
              they would have to buy another for a similar price.) It
              makes a lot of sense to ask how much in cash/investments
              people have *outside* of their house, which they are
              presumably living in and intend to keep.

3/29    Contemplating on getting a tandem bike. Is the SPORT Mountain Bike
        brand a reputable broad?

3/29    Any recommendations for a good Verizon phone? My 2-year contract
        is up, and I'm looking for a new phone. I do not want the RAZR,
        however. Thanks.
        \_ While I'm not up on all their latest phones, I can say that
           Motorola quality control seems to have gone in the shitter.
        \_ Do you want a pda-phone? If so, you might want to consider
           a Treo 650. I really like mine.
           \_ Seconded.