5/29    So I just sat thru 2 hours of Napoleon Dynamite and I was like,
        what the f*??? What's so special about this movie? Sheesh.
        \_ I got through about 35 minutes.  I'm not sure how you made it
           the whole way.  Stoned?  Drunk?  Tied to the couch with metal
           appliance used to force your eyes open?
        \_ Finally!  My gf and I went and saw it in the theatre and were
           quite let down also.  -scottyg
        \_ I saw it in the theatre. Initially, I thought it sucked too.
           Now I'm more mediocre on it -- hardly worth a buy or even a
           rent, but maybe worth watching on cable if it's your only
           option. It can be amusing at points, some points more than
           the first time I saw it, but mostly, not.
           --michener
        \_ you motd people are probably too smart for ND. Me and my
           low IQ friends loved it. My brother was literally falling
           out of his seat laughing, tears coming from the pain of
           holding his side. Uncle Rico is one of the greatest movie
           characters ever.
           \_ I didn't "get" ND when I first saw it. With repeated
              viewings I like it more and more. I agree that Uncle Rico
              is great!
              \_ I felt this way about Robin Hood: Men in Tights
                 For some reason the more times I saw it, the funnier it got.
                 --dbushong
        \_ http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/2005/HCR029.html
           "Girls only like guys who have great skills." --great googler
           \_ At first I didn't get it, but after reading it more
              thoroughly, I'm going to vote this as the funniest shit
              I've ever seen on motd. Thanks great Googler!
        \_ my gf and I loved it, saw it several months ago via netflix

5/29    The Da Vinci Code review:
        1) Directed by Ron Howard. One of the worst directors in
        Hollywood today: unimaginative, ham-handed, and self-important.
        2) Poor casting. Neither Tom Hanks nor Audrey Tautou fit their
        parts, nor do they have strong personalities to make the parts
        their own.
        3) The book was lame.
        I give it an optimistic D+
        \_ I'd agree except Ron Howard did Arrested Development, which in
           my opinion, is brilliant. -scottyg
        \_ If the book was lame, why did you even bother seeing the movie?

5/29    My fitness trainer/nutritionist says I should try to eat all
        organic food from now on. He claims my American wife is huge
        because of lack of exercise (which we're addressing right
        now), and also because of all the excess growth hormones
        we take in from milk, cows, and chicken. He claims that
        Europeans are thinner because they exercise more (no dispute
        in that) and also they eat more organic food and meat from
        happy animals that exercise more and are injected with less
        hormones and antibiotics. He claims that unlike US meat,
        European meat aren't subject to carbon dioxidation and red
        dyes to make them look more appealing. He also claims that
        European cows are are injected with less antibiotics and
        hormones, so while they look smaller and thus less profitable
        to sell and more expensive to buy than the US cows, they're
        much healthier to eat. How much of what he says is real
        and/or bullshit? Are Americans really eating much more growth
        hormones, antibiotics, and other residual chemicals than
        the Europeans? Do extra hormones really make you unhealthy?
        \_ Um "organic" does not necessarily mean "better".  Your guy is
           full of shit.  The average European plate is smaller, food is more
           expensive, and public transportation is generally better (I didn't
           see that many fat people in New York.)  Pesticides and additives
           and what not don't have much to do with your fitness, as poster
           below correctly says.  Avoid corn starch, white flour, processed
           sugar, etc. etc. etc., whole books have been written on how to
           eat well.  A good rule I saw was that a portion of protein should
           be about the size of a deck of cards.  -John
        \_ He's right from a nutrition point of view. I'm not sure it
           matters from a trainer point of view. That is, it's not good
           for you to eat hormone-laced beef but by doing so, although you
           may be less healthy, you'll probably not weigh any more/less
           than a person who eats 100% organic beef (all else equal).
        \_ What is true is that Europe has been moving more and more towards
           not allowing really bad ways of factory farming animals, while
           in the USA the government keeps relaxing the rules unless some
           disaster happens (like mad cow).  We use 8 times as many anti-
           biotics for livestock as people in this country.
           \_ Yes, but our cow is bigger and more profitable. Case
              in point, look at the government endorsed Monsanto
              Corporation and how their products increased farmers'
              yields and saved farm families from going bankrupt.
              Case in point, most of our milk today is produced using
              rBGH, a synthetic hormone that has helped countless American
              girls blosom into full bodied women; European women on
              the other hand look unhealthily anorexic because they
              lack rBGH intake in their dairy products. Hormones +
              antibiotics=good profit + beautiful women. I guess you
              regulation-loving communists will never understand it.
           \- i think that is horseshit. many europeans eat smaller
              portion sizes [why a friend of mine immediately began
              gaining weight after moving back from london/amsterdam/paris
              back to SF. as an illustration compare an "italian pizza"
              with a usa pizza]. why are you approaching this in generic
              terms? are you interested in discussing nutrition and diet
              \- Your brain has been classified as: small. ok thx.
                 \_ Re: portion size in US vs Europe etc:
                    http://csua.org/u/g15
              or do you have a fitness goal. assuming the latter, dont
              worry about "the europeans" and just figure out what you
              should do exercise/dietwise to get there. i would start by
              tracking your food to see where your calorie/fat/protein
              \_ proper dieting with strict calorie intake and moderate
                 exercise are good. Lack of unnecessary growth hormones,
                 fat, and anti-biotics would be even better. rBGH,
                 a growth hormone banned for health reasons in every
                 industrialized country, is still used heavily in the U.S.
                 Monsanto's own data revealed that feeding IGF-1 (from
                 to rBGH) to adult rats for only two weeks significantly
                 increased body and liver weights, and bone length.
                 More critically, increased IGF-1 blood levels have been
                 incriminated as a major cause of cancer. IGF-1 induces
                 uncontrolled growth of normal human breast cells in tissue
                 culture, and has been incriminated in their transformation
                 to cancer cells.
                 http://www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/milkismilk20405.cfm
              is coming from and in what quantity. for example, at some
              point i discovered i was ingesting maybe 1/3 of my calories
              from sugary-liquids [fruit juice, orange juice, coke etc].
              maybe you should ask your trainer/nutritionist what he/she
              thinks about fruitcake.

5/30    Bush: World record perch catcher, liar, or really, really not the
        kind of guy you want to go fishing with?
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/05/bush-tells-german-paper-he-caught.html
        \_ Obviously, you don't realize that Bush cured blindness and
           other things. People in certain parts of the country worship
           him like the next Messiah.
           http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/2002/11/14_Bush_Messiah.jpg
        \_ Or option 4, something translated incorrectly from the original
           report in German.
           \_ Very plausible. The words for "bass" and "perch" are close
              in German.
              \_ queuing German John to confirm this.
                 \_ dumme scheishe, German John isn't a real German and his
                    German is probably not even that good.
                 \_ Erm, I have no clue, I prefer tuna.  -John

5/30    SF City Hall evacuated due to "several suspicious packages":
        http://kpix.com
        \_ A good friend of mine works at city hall and tells me that bomb
           scares (and evacuations) are pretty frequent, average maybe once
           every month or two.  Her department takes them with a grain of salt
           since one time the fire department forgot to evacuate them. -dans
           \_ Dude, that's just sad.
           \_ "Forgot".  -John
              \_ Nah, they're the press clippings department.  There is no
                 political reason to forget them.  Now, if they were the
                 Department of Emergency services, that's a different story
                 entirely. -dans

5/30    For the second time in 24 hours a total stranger has contacted me on
        Yahoo IM.  This never happened before.  The first was some "ASL?" guy
        who is broken english seemed to say he got my IM handle in a chatroom.
        The second said "what are you doing on my buddy list?".  Can anyone
        think of an explanation besides "someone as going in chatrooms giving
        out your IM handle".
        \_ Elizabot, scammers trolling for personal details claiming you're
           on "their" buddy list, something like that?  -John
        \_ There are 409 scammers operating on Yahoo IM now. I have strung
           a few of them along just for the hell of it. -ausman

5/30    Super Mario -- Communist Propaganda?
        http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12015  -John
        \_ Funniest shit I've ever seen on motd. Thanks so much John.

5/30    How is it known which Supreme Court justice casts the tie-breaking
        vote (if there is one)? Do they cast their vote sequentially?
        (e.g. why is Alito assumed to have cast the tie-breaking vote
        in this whistleblower lawsuit?)
        \- without going into it more deeply, the ct doesnt exactly vote,
           they issue opinions and if one gets more than 5 people to sign
           on, that has the force of law. given that people can "join in
           part and dissent in part" and more than 2 opinions can be written,
           this can be complicated to figure out. for example in the uc davis
           Bakke aff action case, 6 opinions were written. there is an initial
           this can be complicated to figure out. for example in the UC DAVIS
           BAKKE aff action case, 6 opinions were written. there is an initial
           vote and based on that the writing of opinions is assigned, but
           this is sort of a fluid notion.
           this is sort of a fluid stage.
                \_ OK, so given that, how can the tie-breaking vote be
                   determined? -op
                   \- it depends on what the person using the term means.
                      if you point me to the article i can see if i can
                      figure it out. but it's probably not really a precise
                      term w.r.t. this decision. when there is a "real tie"
                      [like say only 8 justices are deciding a case due to
                      reculsals or absencens] the lower ct is affirmed.
                      it could mean "X voted last" or "we knew which way
                      everone else was going to go but were not sure about
                      alito" or "both opinion writers were offering changes
                      to get alito on board" etc. usually a tie breaker is
                      somebody who doesnt vote unless there is a tie as an
                      outcome. in this case there was not "final state"
                      od a tie, i assume.

5/28    http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/11718.html
        Carter and Clinton the worst administration ever!
        \_ Well one guy started an illegal, unwinnable war, but... but...
           BLOWJOBS!
           \_ Yeah, we left Kosovo long ago. Such a cheery speech,
              National Malaise.
              \_ With full NATO involvement and cooperation.
                 \_ And a humanitarian goal that was actually achieved.
                   \_ By this you mean entrenching Iran and other
                       Islamicists in Albania's government and Montenegro?
                       Humanitarian indeed.
                       \_ had a bad day at the golf range, jblack?
                        \_ I was thinking more along the lines of stopping
                           ethnic cleansing.
        \_ Wow, Carter and Clinton on one ticket? I'd vote for that! --erikred
        \_ Wow, Carter and Clinton on one ticket? I'd vote for that!
           Also, I can understand IP addresses for freerepublic, but
           http://www.theconservativevoice.com Have some pride, child. --erikred
           [Posted because someone originally posted an IP address instead of
            the FQDN. Don't steal words from my mouth.]

5/30    Baby born in China with 3 arms
        http://www.local6.com/news/9290536/detail.html (pic included)
        \_ something something arms race with China.
        \_ That's awesome--you could make a living as a pickpocket. -John
        \- ^pickpocket^gigolo
        \_ That is kind of an interesting ethical question. Assuming the
           two left arms are somewhat functional and not hazardous to his
           health, chopping one off is a little strange. What if someone
           evolved some extra functionality and doctors always chopped
           it off? What if having three arms was actually useful? Modern
           culture is based on the use of tools. And three arms might
           theoretically allow this guy to be a genius musician or artisan.
           By chopping it off when he's a baby they are robbing him of a
           body part without his consent. Maybe not in this case but it's
           interesting in principle.
           \_ How is this a hard ethical question?  You do what is best for
              the kid medically.  And that is a science question, not a
              philosophical one.  A case where you have siamese twins and
              you have to make a decision that affects each differently has
              more of an ethical flavor.
              \_ I said "assuming [they are] not hazardous to his health".
                 That makes it a philosophical question. That, plus the
                 fact that many doctors really don't know what the fuck
                 and basically make varyingly-educated guesses. It sounds
                 like in this particular case both arms are impaired, but
                 only one is in the "right place", so they will probably
                 chop the lower one off and hope the other one develops.
                 But even if they both worked fine I bet they'd do it for
                 cosmetic reasons.
          \_ Um, "circumcision".  OK, a foreskin is not nearly as cool as
             a third arm, but still.  I'd love to have a third arm.  Or a hand
             coming out of my forehead, so I can hold a cigarette while
             doing other stuff, or keep my sunglasses real cool-like sort
             of halfway up.  -John
             \_ But would they be Peril Sensitive?
                \_ Ah, wonderful.  A hack troll to keep the memory of his
                   hack writer hero alive.  *sigh*
                   \_ It's a joke.  Get over it.
                      \_ Oh, I've been over that hack for quite awhile now.
                         \_ Uh ok.  The movie sucked but there's no reason
                            to be this bitter.  The guy is dead and never
                            hurt anyone while alive.
                            \_ I'm actually quite entertained at the moment.
                               \_ I'm happy that you're happy.
             \_ Yeah, and circumcision is up for debate also. Just because
                it's in some people's culture doesn't mean it's ok. I
                do not want people chopping off my body parts. Foreskins
                aren't mutant anomalies and neither are they a credible
                health problem. It's also meaningless from a religious
                point of view since the baby has no clue about the matter.
                (There's also the problem of inflicting pain on babies...)
                \_ I wasn't referring to circumcision as "something that's
                   done anyway, so it should be a precedent".  I think
                   whacking bits off anyone without their aware consent,
                   unless said bits are life-threatening, is dumb.  -John

5/30    Teacher uses carbine in physics experiments
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/25/BAGO0J1C5O18.DTL
        \_ I love how the man is condemned because of his insensitivity
           to the horrors of Columbine.  You'd think the safety concerns
           would be a little more topical....   *sheesh*
           \_ Especially since he's been doing this since well before
              Columbine.

5/30    So when do we see http://cnn.com and foxnews.cm headlining the Treasury
        Secretary pick?  It's already leading on washpost/nytimes/latimes.com.
        I guess Dubya doesn't want there to be news of the current Treasury
        guy resigning - in the face of the stock market taking a dump on news
        of falling consumer confidence and rising oil prices.  Also, the new
        guy is as well-heeled as can be, Goldman-Sachs CEO?
        Optimistically, he will be competent as hell, but his nomination can
        very well piss off all the have-nots.

5/30    In a 5-4 decision (Kennedy being swing vote), justices decide that
        government employees are not protected by the Constitution when
        pointing out wrongdoing and suffer punishment because of it.  State
        laws, if they exist, still apply.

5/30    http://www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/milkismilk20405.cfm
        This is from a link below. Now I understand why American women
        have bigger breasts than say, European women: "Eli Lilly, in
        its application for registration of rBGH, admitted that IGF-1
        blood levels of injected cows are increased up to ten-fold. IGF-1
        is resistant to pasteurization and digestion, and is readily
        absorbed from the small intestine... IGF-1 induces uncontrolled
        growth of normal human breast cells in tissue culture..."
        God bless hormones in our milk that make our women beautiful!
        On a more serious note, I'm wondering where I can buy milk
        milk without Monsanto's rBGH hormones? I'm a guy and I don't
        need bigger breasts. They're already pretty big for a guy.
        \_ Whole Foods definitely seels rGBH free milk. Probably Trader Joe's
        \_ Whole Foods definitely sells rGBH free milk. Probably Trader Joe's
           too.
           \_ TJ's has for a while (w/ the disclaimer that there's no way to
              actually test for it)  Apparently Safeway's default cheap-o milk
              says it's rBST free now!?  --dbushong
              \_ Almost all milk you buy in a store is rBST free.  But there
                 are a lot of milk products in most people's diet.  Ever eat
                 prepared foods?  Or cheepish cheese?
        \_ Sexist!
           \_ Cowist!
              \_
                 ______
                < hey! >
                 ------
                        \   ^__^
                         \  (oo)\_______
                            (__)\       )\/\
                                ||----w |
                                ||     ||

5/30    [rant self-deleted]

5/30    Looking for a UNIX equivalent of "file <file>" in PHP. I'd like
        PHP to determine what type of file it is looking at without
        having to call system or exec("file $file"...). Please help...
        \_ Try the Fileinfo PECL extension: http://pecl.php.net/package/Fileinfo

5/30    http://www.swedish.org/16720.cfm
        Bikers beware. You may never get your penis up if you don't
        get the right seat.
        \_ ...said the guys trying to sell you new products

5/30    http://eed.llnl.gov/flow/02flow.php
        Excellent info on US Energy Flow Trends. 22.4 out of 27.9
        energy from petroleum for transportion is lost energy, which
        is expected given the inefficiency of modern internal combustion
        engine. However, 27.8 out of 40.3 electric power sector is
        electrical system energy losses, which is quite surprising to
        me. Is the current electric grid system as good as it
        can be, or is there room for improvement?
        \_ Do "electrical system energy losses" include losses at the point
           of generation?  If you're burning coal in a power plant you only
           get a certain percentage of the energy ...
           \_ It's been a while since I read anything on this but IIRC, when
              they talk about the electric grid losses they mean the losses
              that occur during transmission from point of origin at the plant
              to your wall socket (or at least your local hook up out on the
              street).  I have no idea how they calculate losses at the power
              plants themselves.
                \_ Transmission line losses are not that bad.  Something like
                   2% for every 1000 miles of high voltage wire?
                   \_ no idea.  maybe someone with a browser will come along
                      and help us out.  ;-)
                        "Transmission and distribution losses in the USA were
                         estimated at 7.2% in 1995 [1], and in the UK at 7.4%
                         in 1998"