AdamSmith

I thought we had finally gotten the ergot out of the bread supply. Oh, well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot

Puts me in mind of one of my favorite SF pieces -- Stanislaw Lem's novella "Golem XIV". About a supercomputer constructed in the mid-21st century, intended to be a military strategist but which achieves consciousness, then reconstructs itself to become vastly more capable and independent than its builders intended. It then gives an amazing series of lectures that upend mankind's conception of the nature (and "purpose") of evolution; of the "use" of intelligence from evolution's perspective ("the meaning of the transmitter is the transmission", not the other way around); of the coming necessity for mankind to choose between remaining an emotive species and dead-ending there, or forsaking emotion for intellect in order to continue evolving; and finally expounding on its own coming self-evolution to higher zones of intellect, which will require ever higher levels of energy to power its thinking, likely its move from the quantum/luminal structure built by its designers, into first a brown dwarf star (thinking by means of controlled refracting of light and heat there), then ultimately into a black hole, to "think with all the power available in the Universe" and, possibly, to discover what lies beyond the singularity. Mind-bending. http://www.lem.pl/english/works/novels/golem-xiv http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem_XIV

All good points above. One observation about an additional tactic (not based on scientific survey, just 30 years' personal experience): Massachusetts patrols tend to be fairly liberal about speeders, except for a number of well known speed traps. But Connecticut takes advantage of this, in being much more strict in the first place, then in the second place putting patrolmen with radar guns at just about every significant road crossing between the two states. You really have to remember to slam the brakes as you approach the border when traveling southbound.

That's it, isn't it? Ben Franklin's mordant quip after the Declaration of Independence that "We had better hang together or we will certainly hang separately" is no less true today. I am as lefty as they come, but I am absolutely with RA1 in that the posturing and tomfoolery and dishonesty coming from all sides in DC today threaten to be the death of the republic. One can make fine partisan distinctions, but they won't much alter the outcome.

The answer is: Yes! I trust your motives.

Fuck fuck fuck yes yes yes!

I met him once, when he came to my college to give a talk (as such!). He was incredibly gracious. He autographed my copy of (only thing I had on me ) Dante's Inferno.

If this should be in the Politics forum, make it so...

Deepest condolences. Been there. Our thoughts are with you.

Just couldn't resist...

And what about the airport metal detector... Would TSA make you remove it and put it in the little dish to go through the X-ray machine?

In case it was in question, one might note the obvious: this RockHard is pretty clearly not our beloved cuss of the same name from Daddy's forum. The above post -- the grammatical slip "Use to be" and the general style -- is nothing like the writing of the original RockHard. Further, given how emphatically and repeatedly RockHard Edition 1 has expressed his contempt for the present site, it strains credulity to think he would post here. lurker's post was heartwarming. Thank you, lurker, for all you do for our community here. Kumbaya!

Standards? What are they? See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizard_Lick,_North_Carolina

A bit late, but I just noticed this dead-on indictment of this foolishness: P.C. insult to a Mark Twain classic By Ron Powers, Special to CNN January 7, 2011 7:04 a.m. EST Editor's note: Ron Powers is the author of "Mark Twain: A Life" (Free Press, 2005). (CNN) -- The vapid, smiley-faced effrontery of it corrodes the foundations of respect for American literature. And the effrontery is the least of it. NewSouth Books' announcement that it is bringing out a desecrated edition of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" -- in which faceless editors at this distinctly vanilla-flavored publisher will have excised every one of Mark Twain's brilliantly seditious employments of the evil word "nigger" -- has caught the fleeting notice of bloggers and pundits around the country... More: http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/01/06/powers.huck.finn/index.html?iref=obinsite

Something to watch for, starting Feb. 7... http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/31/958027/lizard-lick-towing-the-tv-show.html ...Sounds authentic to me!

Amazing, marvelous, often warmly hiliarious to ruminate on how the books we loved as children helped form us. When I was little (age 4-7), one or other of my parents would read to me many nights, just before bedtime, in the bed beside me. First The Gingerbread Man, which was grim enough; then the even more Grimm fairy tales (slightly redacted!), together with some Aesop from the same anthology as Grimm; other little children's books of the times, Little Toot on the Thames, The Berenstein Bears, et al.; then Dr. Seuss & Sendak & so on. Then I got a voracious appetite for the, I think, 50-cent Fawcett-Crest paperback collections of 'Peanuts.' Also, thereafter, 'B.C.' ((possibly one of the drollest creations the other side of 'Beavis & Butthead,' at least until Jonny Hart was overtaken by senility)); 'Wizard of Id,' 'Tumbleweeds' and a few others. Anybody else have favorites to add? Anyway, at age nine, I watched '2001,' then bought the paperback, and read and re-read it into oblivion. Literally. I still have it. 2/3 of its body weight is Scotch tape. ... One's first, alas lifelong, glimpse into the torment of all that remains unread.

How could I have missed this series? http://worldofwonder.net/productions/Machines_of_Malice/ I once saw an Iron Maiden at a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Gatlinburg, TN. It was as horrifying as you might think. Not full of many small spikes, as often drawn; just a few big ones, strategically placed.

January 2011 interview with Terry Gross... http://www.npr.org/2011/01/21/133110607/reynolds-price-a-southern-writer-a-lyrical-gift I studied with him in 1979. Last spoke with him in 1989. You just never envision that such a thing will one day not be possible ever again. http://www.maleescortreview.com/forum/index.php?/topic/3706-deaths/page__p__19441__hl

To N.C. novelist & Milton scholar Reynolds Price: RIP. One feels the loss so deeply. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/books/21price.html?pagewanted=1&hpw http://www.npr.org/2011/01/20/133094306/novelist-professor-reynolds-price-dies http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/reynolds-price-legendary-_n_812024.html I took his course on Milton. One of the 2 most magnificent minds I've ever encountered in person.

"...with all deliberate speed..." http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr007.html

Somewhat extraordinary audio I just came across... http://www.kennedylibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-TPH-30.aspx

HAW! ... Worth 4 or 5 of these ...

The Two Towers of Bologna both lean, one of them quite visibly, due some think to haste in building them fueled by competition between the two families to see who could complete theirs first. Walking around them one time, I was actually a little fearful to get too near the one that looks like it may be about to tip over. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Bologna

Well ... there is some scholarly thought that 'Jesus' (Yeshua bar Joseph), as such and as placed in history by the Gospel writers, did not actually exist, but was rather a narratological invention modeled on a 'Yeshua' who lived some 60 years before the time of the Gospel stories, then outfitted with circumstance to 'fulfill' conditions laid down in the Pentateuch. One of many itinerant sage/miracle-workers who abounded in that part of the world in those times. Several of whom seem to have become the focus of one or another of the abundant mystery cults of the day. But that it was the Gospel writers, plus the scribe who set down the Thomas gospel -- plus a hypothesized 'Q' gospel and in the view of at least one scholar a 'Cross' gospel, both now lost, but possibly both having served as source texts for the 4 canonical Gospels (the latter 3 of which fairly clearly just rewrite, as well as compete for authority with, the Markan gospel) -- and above all the near-superhuman efforts of Paul, that together transformed the Jesus movement from one of many minor mystery cults into what it ultimately became. The only independent (i.e., outside canonical Scripture or the Apocrypha) near-contemporary reference to the Jesus movement is a brief, dodgy mention by the Roman Jewish 'historian' Josephus Flavius, whose motives are in any event suspect. Let me stop before MsGuy has to chastise me again.