lookin

I'd have to hit eighty-five posts in five days, or seventeen a day. I think my all-time record was ten in a day, and that was during a full moon. But, who knows? Something exciting may yet happen, like a postcard from Ralph Woods, and I'll just have to share.

If I'm understanding the article correctly, they were indeed. Before modern humans “replaced” the Neanderthals, they had sex with them. The liaisons produced children, who helped to people Europe, Asia, and the New World. The leaky-replacement hypothesis—assuming for the moment that it is correct—provides further evidence of the closeness of Neanderthals to modern humans. Not only did the two interbreed; the resulting hybrid offspring were functional enough to be integrated into human society. Some of these hybrids survived to have kids of their own, who, in turn, had kids, and so on to the present day. Even now, at least thirty thousand years after the fact, the signal is discernible: all non-Africans, from the New Guineans to the French to the Han Chinese, carry somewhere between one and four per cent Neanderthal DNA. Africans, therefore, would be the only ethnic group who are 100% human. The rest of us are part neanderthal. Goes to show, if you look hard enough, there's no telling what you may discover in a pair of genes.

Interesting article. Especially the part about how we humans, before driving the neanderthals into extinction, fucked them first. Even more interesting is that no one had predicted it before seeing the genetic proof. Bet no one here is surprised.

Three men are in bed together: two are sinning, two are sinned against. . Doesn't that make four men? You're mistaken: the man on either end is implicated once, but the one in the middle does double duty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ( courtesy of an ancient Roman, Ausonius - ca 310-394 AD )

And maybe just the one time. I watched it over and over before I realized it's a loop. Still, the OP's point holds. The cat's a lot smarter than I am.

For me, the thing that makes this so difficult to understand is the need to embrace the idea of all these dimensions. I'm pretty comfortable getting around in three dimensions and, when I stumble across an especially good batch of sensimilla, I can sometimes manage four. But string theory would have me imagine a universe with ten dimensions. It's so far from anything related to my day-to-day world, getting my head around it would be like a dog learning to drive a car. And then there's M-theory which kicks the number of dimensions up to eleven. I guess if it somehow became necessary for survival to navigate in such a world, our brains could eventually rise to the task, as Steven Hawking's already has. We do, after all, continue to learn new tricks. While I may be trailing the pack today, who knows what the future holds?

More likely because of the major overhaul to their new pricing strategy which took effect last quarter. They've started to offer everyday lower prices and have pretty much done away with the frequent special sales they had before. They're counting on retraining their customers, but it sounds like that's a tougher challenge than they thought. They've got a couple other acts waiting in the wings: specialty shops within the stores, and exclusive designer labels. Ron Johnson, their new CEO who had great success at Target and Apple, said the revamp will take 12 - 18 months. Whether he's got that long remains to be seen. Of course, that doesn't mean the Million Moms won't try to take credit for JCP's bad quarter. . . . . . ]

Gotta admit, I still can't get anywhere close to understanding how these credit derivatives work and what the potential for economic disaster is. Until I hear otherwise, I'm going to assume that they could bring down the U. S. economy in the twinkling of an eye, as they nearly did in 2008. It's the size of the market and its opacity that give me the willies. According to this article, the nominal value of Credit Default Swaps alone is $25 trillion, much bigger than the U. S. annual GDP. Equally spooky is the fact that nobody really knows what the risk is, let alone where it is. If I recall, that uncertainty is what nearly froze the U. S. banking system in 2008. Jamie Dimon's $2 billion whoops-a-daisy is a blip compared to what could go wrong if this house of cards starts to teeter. The article also seems to debunk the theory that these derivatives are anything like "insurance", Dimon's blather notwithstanding. Insurance contracts require the disclosure of all known risks involved. CDSs have no such requirement. Most significantly, unlike insurance companies, sellers of CDSs are not required to maintain any capital reserves to guarantee payment of claims. Again, my recollection is that AIG's near-demise was based on its inability to pay the claims against it. If this market is as big as it seems, who's to say that the Feds could bail out the banks and stabilize the economy even if we decide they should? It's amazing to me that these credit derivatives are legal, let alone that they are an integral part of our banking system. I sure hope some of our more knowledgeable posters can assuage my concerns. In the meantime, I'm fixin' to put my money where my mouth is.

Thanks! I'll be watching.

" His Master's Vice "

So long as she weans him before he starts wearing braces . . .

You can say that again!

Apparently the iPad is a big hit with the younger orangutans at Miami's Jungle Island. ( OK, JKane, handoff to you. )

I wonder. There was a time early in Obama's presidency when everyone was on the talk shows with a different point of view. I can't recall the issue, and no one was swearing (s)he spoke for the President, but there were definitely some different positions out there. There was a hullabaloo then, too, but I recall being rather pleased that Obama was willing to have different opinions simmering in public prior to a final position being reached. Maybe naive on my part, but I considered it a refreshing change from the nut-cracking policy of Bush II, who I believe was being counseled by Cheney. A slightly more cynical view is that it provides Obama with the benefit of a day or two of public reaction before he has to weigh in with a final position. I know there are some very smart folks who believe that marching in lockstop is the only way to go but, at this point, I'm not among them.

I'll show you my proclivities if you'll show me yours.

Fun story! I wonder if Lucky will go have a look.

Bless his heart, he's probably just fixin' to file off the serial number.

Funny, my great-great-great grandfather, The Commodore, was also a fat cat.

Can a Content Bored Lurker become a Board Content Scroller?

How very kind of you!

I'm working on a bit of fiction myself. "Let's just stay in tonight and enjoy ourselves.", whispered the gerontophilic twink, slipping a blue pill under my tongue and kissing me hard so I couldn't spit it out. Haven't got to the second line yet.

A tour de force no doubt but I'd hate to have to diagram it in front of a large crowd.

I understand there are many restaurant cooks and waiters who provide this service willingly and without additional charge. While it is generally reserved for their more 'difficult' patrons, I expect they would discreetly honor individual requests.

Thanks for posting. This one is from the same site, and a bit closer to the ground.

Amazing how perspective makes these shorter guys look massively hung. Just realized that, if I had topped out at 3'11", I could have had a pretty successful porn career.