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Out NBA center Jason Collins is still unsigned, but the NCAA can boast its first openly gay player: Derek Schell, a 22-year-old guard for the Hillsdale College Chargers came out in an eloquent essay for OutSports on Monday, part of a series for National Coming Out Week. Schell, a senior business major at the south-central Michigan school, called being a closeted teen at his Catholic high school a nightmare. I heard every gay slur in the book, directed at me and at others, just because it was, and unfortunately still is, part of our societys language I constantly felt like I was walking on eggshells, afraid to act a certain way or say something that may give away my truth. I pushed every worry and negative thought aside and committed to play college basketball, hoping, sometimes even praying, that I would find some sort of remedy for these thoughts I could not get rid of. Read the full story here: http://www.newnownext.com/derek-schell-becomes-first-openly-gay-player-in-the-ncaa/10/2013/

I must try more of these... http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/05/daily-rituals-creative-minds-mason-currey

Interesting. However, I think my passengers would tend to become upset were I try be very "creative" while flying. However, there are some routines that I try to observe. One being having an equal number of take-offs and landings. Two, avoiding meeting other pilots while actually flying. Collisions are often hard on the airframe as well as one's body parts. Three, so far, every time I have flown off somewhere, I have always come back. Again, passengers get annoyed if you just leave them hither and thither. Rarely do we maintain an exact schedule. What is the point of having an aircraft if it does not come and go when the owner wishes? Best regards, RA1

Saw the movie over the weekend, quite liked it. The actor playing Lucien is very hot indeed, and Radcliffe is excellent as well, all the longing looks. Sex scene could've been longer. Interesting look into that period, made me wish my crappy American education had included more literature.

The Secret Service may have a writ to get in on this too. The biggest part of their mission is not protecting high pols' necks but rather protecting the value of US currency by ferreting out counterfeiting around the globe. Will be interesting to see if they adjudge Bitcoin relevant to that mission in any way.

The reason these things go down to the wire, and these days over it, is that Congress people do not like to go on record because it pisses someone off. Mostly they do not like to piss off people with money or microphones or printing presses, in that order. And now they do not want to piss of the smallish group of highly motivated Tea pary GOP base primary voters. That and the new phenomenon of 40 or so Tea Party congressmen who really want to see the government crash and burn as well as big institutions of all types. The shut down and debt ceiling are such high profile topics touching so many people, that the non-fanatical members realize that voting to please the tea party money, microphones and base will be smeared all over the TV screen and that vote will be noticed by and piss off many many independent and moderate voters. Thus, damned if they do, damned if they don't. They keep their heads down until they smell the smoke and hear the crackle of flames. When they do move, they hope it is as part of a large herd where most individuals do not stand out. I do believe that there are many GOP house members ready to vote for a clean CR but they want to be led to it and not bolt the leadership. They want to be portrayed as loyal party members carrying the water for leadership and not rebels undermining the leadership. If only the Speaker would lead them. I've come to believe that, based on his long history as a grounded sane Republican who respects basic Government and a capitalistic economy, Boehner has concluded that they only way to purge the power of this extreme minority from his caucus and save the GOP as a national party is a baptism by fire. Take this group running the party for a crash and burn, hoping it doesn't, in the end, take the country with them. Else, the present scene will be the future of the Party and American politics for the foreseeable future. That is the only way I can resolve the person he has been over the last twenty years with his actions today.

Welcome back Tomcal. You have been missed. Looks like you haven't missed a step in the PA scene. Thanks for sharing your experience and those photos. That is quite some butt. Your waiter has nice friends too.

Not in my lifetime, in the lab, nor in my children's or their's in everyday practice. The problem is very difficult and up to this point has required stars to create in a sustained manner.

Thanks Lookin, that was my concern for Chrome as well (eliminating all cookies for all sites). I will follow your suggestion and try to eliminate individual cookies for just this site to see what happens and if it corrects the problem. Ok, just tried it and seems to be working fine now.

Indeed! Were you hanging from the chandelier when you took that shot?

If you follow these steps for Safari, you'll toss your cookies for all websites, not only this one. I just opened Safari 'Preferences', clicked the 'Privacy' button, clicked the 'Details' box, then found a couple of cookies that began with Boytoy and removed just those two. So far so good.

I like the view from here! thank you!

I wonder if at least some of the high early demand is from folks who figure they better get signed up quick before the Tea Party takes it away. If the Democratic spinmeisters were as crafty as the Republican spinmeisters they'd at least be floating the possibility, though I haven't heard anyone say it yet. I don't really want the Democrats to be craftier than the Republicans, but I wouldn't mind them being a little better at calling out bullshit when they see it. For example, the reason the government has been shut down for six days is because the Speaker of the House refuses to bring a spending bill to the floor and let the members vote on it. But that's the job of the Speaker and the Democrats won't call him out for not doing it. I think Pelosi could be much more vocal here. Of course, as they say on the other site, I'm probably just being an ultracrepidarian.

I'm with EXPAT. Don't get too excited or depressed about what voters will do in 2014. It is a long time and remember many many people get their 'news' from Fox. If you watch their programming it is clear that they do not report on news from the same planet that I live on. They are a powerful and effective right wing progaganda organ. They will continue to spew their disinformation along with conservative talk radio. I do believe people who have been hurt by the shutdown will remember and take it out on the GOP in the swing districts. However, most people in the country haven't really noticed any direct impact on them up to now. That may change especially if we go into default. I also believe many independents will view the GOP actions as extreme and help with the swing districts. However, there are not too many of those. However, none of this will really matter if the Dem moderates and progressives stay home glued to the sitcoms as they do every off year election. Yeah, do not count your chickens before they are hatched. Regarding Obam Care, as with any new complex software system or newly built house there will be glitches or as we like to refer to them in the software industry 'unintended features' . Clearly the adminstration miscalculated the depth of initial interest in viewing the new programs. In hindsight it would have been smart to up the number of servers by a factor of ten and make any software accommodations necessary to manage that size server farm. Also, again in hindsight, I believe it would have been wise to make the roll out a two step process. Make the first three weeks strictly informational about the plans. Create all the necessary documention to explain the details of the plans short of actually filing out the application including available providers, levels of coverage, rates. Provide that as a PDF file that people can download from the various state sites and the main .gov site. Paper copy could be requested by e-mail, snail mail or phone. A doc download doesnt take long so user turnover is much faster. Phone banks would be manned to answer questions about the program (which they already have). After three weeks the online sites would provide the same information online (in addition to the PDF) AND an open enrollment window to begin registering people. It might be wise to set up a registration order to keep everyone from trying to register the same day, maybe based on first letter of last name of registrant or the first three digits of the social security number. That this could happen is understandable. All of the big box stores plan and plan for the opening on Black Friday and every year it is mayhem despite the plans. As with war, the plans go out the window after the first volley is fired. Software houses do their best to release viable versions of new software releases with lots of money and manpower for development and testing. However, with any complicated software system it is virtually impossible to create a bug-free new release. There is no realistic way to replicate the loads and various possible cominbations of factors that can be entered by a user base of millions. The real flaw in this rollout was underestimating the load the systems would come under. While that is unfortunate it also bodes well that there really is strong interest in the program.

I don't like to sleep with anyone either. However, when I did overnights, and I did quite a few at one time, I never slept alone. I wasn't paying that money for a good night's sleep. Also, when I had an ongoing relationship, sleeping together was the price to pay for some of the benefits that relationship offered. Everything is a trade-off.