Uplift Urbane Legend #10
Brids, birds, birds and boids. The Clan of the Gubru Ot'ahh OOT-ahh OO sound number 1 Kooyio KOO-eeooOO sound number 2 Gooksyu GOOK-seeooOO sound #3 Gubru GOO-broo OO #4 Kwackoo KWA-coo OO #5 Okukoo o-COOK-oo OO #6 Six races and all six have an oo sound to their names. Sooner or later a birdlike pre sapient race will be found that will be both sane and friendly and therefore wind up not belonging to the Clan of the Gubru. It will be given a name that has no resemblance to any Gubru name. So there will be no oo counting, for good taste. William Taylor - What's the best music to sing when hunting Gubru with a mallet? Oo-whap. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Guatam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
Am I reading this right? This guy works up to 80 hr a week and *still* has time to read a ton of books, watch games and movies, worry about being single in NY, and write such long and elaborate emails from the office at 9.30 pm??? flabbergasted and getting *nothing* done on her fortnightly day off, Ticia ',:) -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Where do people find the energy, is what I wonder. Gautam Mukunda wrote: --- Doug [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Gautam Mukunda wrote: Hey, Gautam, how ya been? Got some free time? Any retrospective on the post season (or the season in general for that matter?) Doug Hi Doug (and everyone else), I've been pretty good, on the whole. I have free time for loose definitions of free time - I'm at the office now at 9:22 pm and hope to get out before 10:00, which would count as an early night, so I do have some free time :-) snip ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: Amazing New View of the Sun
From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/834647.asp?cp1=1 Amazing new view of the sun Most detailed ever photos reveal dark heart of sunspots By Robert Roy Britt SPACE.COM Nov. 13 The most detailed pictures ever taken of the sun reveal the insides of striking snake-like filaments that reach from bright portions of the solar surface into the dark hearts of sunspots. The images promise astronomers a new way to reach deep into these magnetic beasts and extract their operational secrets _ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: Tips on watching the Leonids
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/leonids_tips_021107-1.html Excerpt (It's a long article!): 10 Tips to Maximize Your View of the Leonid Meteor Shower By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 07 November 2002 Robert Lunsford is almost guaranteed to see two predicted bursts of shooting stars Nov. 19 when the annual Leonid meteor shower peaks. Hell enjoy one over Europe and another over the United States. Not even weather will be a problem. Lunsford will be aboard a NASA jet, crossing the Atlantic from Spain. I'll be monitoring both Leonid maximums through goggles connected to an intensified camera, Lunsford told an envious reporter the other day. Flying above the clouds will save the worry of weather, plus the high altitude will reduce the glare from the scattered moonlight. You are probably nowhere near as lucky. Youll only see one of the outbursts, weather permitting, and youll have to contend with the full effect of a very pesky Moon, which will be just hours away from its full phase. Moonlight will scatter with each molecule of atmosphere, drowning out more than half the meteors that would otherwise be visible from Earths surface. This being the last Leonid storm expected for at least three decades, the show is still likely to be remarkable. And there are ways to combat the Moon. Along with other tips, you can be prepared to maximize your meteor viewing potential. These tips are a combination of advice given by Lunsford, operations manager with the American Meteor Society, other meteor experts, and personal experience: 1 Practice Meteor watching is a learned skill. On one or more nights or mornings leading up to the peak (just before dawn on Tuesday, Nov. 19), do some observing to get the hang of it. The Leonids will slowly increase pace in the two or three nights and mornings prior to the peak. Map the Leonids, the Moon, or any celestial object or event from your location using Starry Night software. Leonids Special Report: Full Forecast, Photos and More While in some years this can mean 20 or more shooting stars per hour on warm-up nights, moonlight this year dictates you can only expect about five per hour on the night or two prior to the peak. Things will not get exciting until the night of the 18th and the morning of the 19th, says Bill Cooke, a meteor expert at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. Nonetheless, practice (and some patience) will improve your experience at the peak. Try spotting faint meteors out of the corners of your eyes, and if youre lucky enough to be out when a bright fireball graces the sky, look for a possible smoke trail to follow. _ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Guatam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
On Fri, Nov 15, 2002 at 12:26:51PM +0100, Ticia Luengo wrote: Am I reading this right? This guy works up to 80 hr a week and *still* has time to read a ton of books, watch games and movies, worry about being single in NY, and write such long and elaborate emails from the office at 9.30 pm??? If you sleep 8 hours per 24 hour period, then you have 112 waking hours per week. If you work 80 hours per week, that leaves 32 hours of non-work time per week. If you think about it, you can do a lot in 32 hours. Now those of us who don't work 80 hours per week can wonder about where all the time went! -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Fwd: Imagine His Surprise...
In a message dated 11/12/2002 1:38:43 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I think the best ridiculous superhero power I've heard of (and I'm not quite sure who came up with this one) is the ability to change someone else's internal soundtrack. So if you get stuck on, say, a David Lee Roth song, the superhero could change it to something different. Not necessarily better, just different My super power would be the psychic ability to have elevators always there when I want them, to have a parking spot wherever I need it and to be in the fastest toll lane. Life would be easy and in fact that would be my superhero name "Easy Man" and my sidekick would be Exact Change Boy Return-Path: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Received: from rly-xj02.mx.aol.com (rly-xj02.mail.aol.com [172.20.116.39]) by air-xj02.mail.aol.com (v89.12) with ESMTP id MAILINXJ21-1112133843; Tue, 12 Nov 2002 13:38:43 -0500 Received: from www.mccmedia.com ([206.204.15.162]) by rly-xj02.mx.aol.com (v89.10) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINXJ27-1112133828; Tue, 12 Nov 2002 13:38:28 -0500 Received: from www.mccmedia.com (IDENT:mailman@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www.mccmedia.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id gACIdr521320; Tue, 12 Nov 2002 10:39:53 -0800 Received: from fe3.cox-internet.com (fe3-cox.cox-internet.com [66.76.2.40]) by www.mccmedia.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id gACIci521288 for [EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Tue, 12 Nov 2002 10:38:45 -0800 Received: from zurg.net ([208.180.131.243]) by fe3.cox-internet.com (InterMail vK.4.04.00.00 201-232-137 license 9a2f9096933fa391a6c2fc942f8b01bd) with ESMTP id [EMAIL PROTECTED]> for [EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Tue, 12 Nov 2002 12:35:11 -0600 Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 12:39:48 -0600 From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.78 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Imagine His Surprise... References: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> 011d01c28a01$ffbd4670$6501a8c0@DENDRIITE> [EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b2 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Id: Discussions of the writings of science fiction/futurist authors David Brin and Gregory Benford. brin-l.mccmedia.com> List-Post: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Subscribe: http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l>, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=subscribe> List-Unsubscribe: http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l>, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: http://www.mccmedia.com/pipermail/brin-l> List-Help: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=help> Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Matt Grimaldi wrote: > > Julia Thompson wrote: > > > > > > I love Mystery Men. > > Mystery Men was a great movie. > > What sold me on Mystery Men was that the characters were > very much the kind of characters my role-playing-game friends > would have come up with, only a little better. I can name > which character matches which friend's style. For example, > Invisible Boy was a rules-lawyer/rules-rapist character. > The point-level of the game made a power such as invisibility > much too expensive to get, so he made the power virtually > useless just to be able to say he had invisibility. There > was the disgusting-bodily-functions character, the powerful > but seemingly insane character (who yells at her bowling > ball), and so on. I think the best ridiculous superhero power I've heard of (and I'm not quite sure who came up with this one) is the ability to change someone else's internal soundtrack. So if you get stuck on, say, a David Lee Roth song, the superhero could change it to something different. Not necessarily better, just different. :) > > I love Galaxy Quest. > > Did you know that the DVD has a Thermian language soundtrack, > which is pretty much nothing but that screaming/inhaling noise > spoken by the ship's crew. I wasn't able to watch it to the > end to see if there are any easter eggs, though. I haven't checked out that feature. (That was the first movie Dan bought on DVD after he bought the DVD player.) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Guatam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
At 08:08 15-11-2002 -0500, Erik Reuter wrote: If you sleep 8 hours per 24 hour period, then you have 112 waking hours per week. If you work 80 hours per week, that leaves 32 hours of non-work time per week. If you think about it, you can do a lot in 32 hours. Non-work time is not the same as leisure time. Some of those 32 hours will be spend on commuting, some of it will be for the grocery shopping, and some of it will probably be called lunch break. And there are probably some more items on that list. Now those of us who don't work 80 hours per week can wonder about where all the time went! Those among us with a job, a partner and one or more kids will have a pretty good idea about where that time goes... :-) Jeroen Life in the fast lane van Baardwijk __ Wonderful-World-of-Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Guatam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
Ticia Luengo wrote: Am I reading this right? This guy works up to 80 hr a week and *still* has time to read a ton of books, watch games and movies, worry about being single in NY, and write such long and elaborate emails from the office at 9.30 pm??? flabbergasted and getting *nothing* done on her fortnightly day off, Ticia ',:) 1) He's younger than you or I. :) 2) Being single, he's not putting lots of time into a relationship. I have a friend who just didn't date for a few years because he was too darn busy with work to date, and when he wasn't working, he had some projects to keep him busy. (I think he gave up on using the forge after about the first 2 years of the long work hours, though.) Oh, and there were always books to read. (Some of which I gave him; introduced him to Linda Nagata, for one.) 3) And this one has nothing to do with Gautam, but with your statement above: enjoy not getting anything done once in awhile. I for one would *love* a day where I could get away with it, but that's just not an option with a small child around. (At the end of the day, I can always at least tally the diaper changes to say I did *something*) Julia who also got 4 loads of laundry done yesterday, but hasn't matched all the socks yet, and has 5 major things to do today in preparation for going to an out-of-town wedding tomorrow, which Sammy will be attending as well, so she shouldn't waste her time posting right now, right? ;) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Uplift Urbane Legend #11
Earth is in Galaxy Two. Galaxy Two is the new name for the lost and then refound Galaxy Seven. Galaxy Seven was not part of the Galactic Civilization from 150 million years ago to 41 million years ago. The age of the dinosaurs on Earth started 205 million years ago, after the first Gronin Collapse, but before the second Gronin Collapse. Dinosaurs died out 60 million years ago. Dinosaurs were on Earth for the 90 million years that the galaxy was not a part of the Galactic Civilization. Back as far as the mid 19th century, occasionally something odd is discovered. A gold object of art being discovered imbedded in a lump of coal, etc. [http://www.violations.dabsol.co.uk/weird/weirdpart2.htm and other such places can be found.] Earthclan archeology may not be good enough to prove that the Earth once had had another sapient race. If our good Dr. Brin is ever going explore these possibilities, we'll just have to wait for the Siqul. William Taylor -- CA page 110 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
--- Ticia Luengo [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Am I reading this right? This guy works up to 80 hr a week and *still* has time to read a ton of books, watch games and movies, worry about being single in NY, and write such long and elaborate emails from the office at 9.30 pm??? flabbergasted and getting *nothing* done on her fortnightly day off, Ticia ',:) -- Hi Ticia, Thanks, I, umm, think. I don't think my energy levels are anything out of the ordinary, actually. If you're interested, my normal weekday schedule looks something like: 5:45 - wake up (Definitely the worst part of my day) 6:15 - go to the gym 7:45 - get back from gym 8:30 - leave for work 9:00 - get to work Once I'm at work my schedule varies a great deal - it usually begins with checking voice and e-mail then runs to whatever my tasks are for the day. My time for leaving work varies a great deal - when I'm on a case (as I am right now) if I'm lucky I get out by 8:00, but that's unusual. More often I get out sometime between 10:00 and midnight - I have been at the office as late as 1:30am. So on average, let's say: 10:30 - leave work. I usually spend the half hour of the commute (if I leave after 8:00pm I can take a cab home) on the phone either handling still more voice mails or talking to parents/other relatives/friends. 11:00 - get home 11:00-12:00 read, get reacquainted with roommates, etc. 12:00-12:30 - get to sleep On Fridays (like today) I usually get out considerably earlier - 7:00, if I'm lucky, go to the gym _after_ work, then do some sort of social activity (a party, most often) until 2:00-3:00am or so. Lunch and dinner are usually eaten at my desk, so they count as work time, I'm afraid. That adds up to 67.5 hours at the office on this schedule - a fairly easy week by Firm standards, actually - plus 7.5 hours in the gym, and 5 hours commuting. Plus I have all of the weekends, which is when I get most of my reading/social life done. Since I eat 10+ meals at the office every week (and breakfast if I work out is a protein shake, otherwise I eat that at the office as well), I actually do almost no grocery shopping, which helps. Anyways, the point of all of this is that 70 hour weeks are actually not nearly as bad as they sound, once you adjust. I only watch about 4.5 hours of TV a week (Alias, the Simpsons, 24, the West Wing, and Law Order) although, except for Alias, I catch even those shows only about half the time (our VCR is communal). So I actually have a fair amount of time to read and do other things - my weekends have (this study) been entirely free, actually, which has been great. That won't last, but I've enjoyed it while I could. So it really isn't too bad at all - once my schedule settled down I had much more free time than I ever thought I would. Since we're supposed to consolidate e-mails - I don't get overtime, Jeroen, so that doesn't help much :-) And as for being single in New York - when you do spend as much time at the office as I do (and are as bad at the bar scene as I am) it is a surprisingly hard city to meet people, which can get to you after a while. So let that put to rest the idea that I have abnormal energy levels - now, the people in my office who work my schedule _and_ ran the New York marathon, _they_ have abnormal energy levels. God, I wish I could do things like that. Gautam __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Fwd: Imagine His Surprise...
In a message dated 11/12/2002 1:38:43 PM Eastern Standard Time, Dr. Zim writes: I think the best ridiculous superhero power I've heard of (and I'm not quite sure who came up with this one) is the ability to change someone else's internal soundtrack. So if you get stuck on, say, a David Lee Roth song, the superhero could change it to something different. Not necessarily better, just different My super power would be the psychic ability to have elevators always there when I want them, to have a parking spot wherever I need it and to be in the fastest toll lane. Life would be easy and in fact that would be my superhero name Easy Man and my sidekick would be Exact Change Boy. Or, a less boring alternative that most of us mere mortals use is EZPass (It's called FastLane in Boston and other things throughout the country.) I assume I'm one of those people who zooms by you in the cash lane and it saves an average of 10 minutes on each trip over a bridge. :-) One thing I really like about Dallas -- you can zoom thru those booths on the tollway doing 50+ -- we poor NY'ers have to slow down to 5mph or so. As for easy parking... one can only hope they're planning on turning the Hudson and East Rivers into a covered lot soon, cuz I wouldn't hold my breath for a positive change anytime in the near future!. :-) BTW, Easy Man has so many interesting connotations to those of cursed with overactive imaginations. *grin* Jon GSV But would he have X-ray vision? _ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
At 07:14 15-11-2002 -0800, Gautam Mukunda wrote: That adds up to 67.5 hours at the office That just cannot be healthy. Ther are people in this country too that have a schedule not unlike yours -- but those are the kind of people who have an ulcer by the time they turn 40, and have an heart attack by the time they turn 45. I don't get overtime, Jeroen, so that doesn't help much :-) Wow, your salary is *that* high? It is pretty much standard over here that in certain jobs (typically in higher management) you do not get paid overtime, but those people then have monthly salaries that are written in *five* digits. Such pay is awfully nice of course, but I do not believe it would be worth the 60+ hours each week and the health risks. I am quite happy already with my four-digit salary (although there is room for improvement there!) and my 42-hour work week (which includes 4 hours per week of commute and 2 hours worth of lunch breaks). Jeroen Life in the fast lane van Baardwijk __ Wonderful-World-of-Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
the evil of corporations
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002//web-science-11-13-02.asp
More sites targeted for shutdown
BY William Matthews Nov. 13, 2002
Having persuaded the Energy Department to pull the plug on PubScience, a
Web site that offered free access to scientific and technical articles,
commercial publishers are taking aim at government-funded information
services offering free legal and agricultural data.
We are looking into a couple of other databases and agencies, said
David LeDuc, public policy director at the Software and Information
Industry Association.
After more than a year of pressing Congress and the Bush administration,
the SIIA succeeded Nov. 4 in having PubScience shut down. The
association's members include publishing companies that offer some of the
same articles for sale over the Internet that the Energy Department was
making available for free.
Publishers, including Dutch giant Elsevier Science, argued that
PubScience amounted to improper government-funded competition with
commercial information services.
The PubScience Web site (pubsci.osti.gov) now reads, PubScience
discontinued (November 4, 2002) and offers links to other Energy
Department Web sites, including one that has a link to Scirus, Elsevier
Science's online rival to PubScience.
We're delighted with the decision [to shut down PubScience], LeDuc
said. The administration has done a tremendous job of hearing our
concerns and responding to what we've always considered to be our
legitimate concern.
But library associations, which lobbied to keep PubScience alive, say
shutting down the site is a very significant loss, and an ominous sign
for other government-funded information Web sites.
The Department of Energy has been doing a lot of information gathering
and making information available to the scientific community for decades.
For them to drop out is a very, very significant loss, said Susan
Martin, a Massachusetts-based academic library consultant.
Closure of the site means that articles from several small scientific
publications that aren't available anywhere else will no longer be
available, she said.
Emily Sheketoff, associate executive director of the American Library
Association's Washington Office, offered a harsher assessment. The
government recognized a need, designed a way to fill it and when it
starts to be successful, the private sector says, 'Get out of the way,
let us make a buck.'
She predicted that the elimination of PubScience will have a big
financial impact on research libraries.
Libraries now will have to pay publishing companies for a service they
got for free from the Energy Department, Sheketoff said. As libraries
have shrinking resources because local tax bases and state resources are
shrinking, it's really tough to put more financial pressure on them.
Scirus and another online source of scientific information, Infotrieve,
charge $15 to about $40 per article, according to the American Library
Association.
LeDuc said it is fairer to charge researchers for the articles they use
than to charge taxpayers for the cost of running a Web site that makes
them available for free.
He said about 10 companies in the SIIA were anxious to eliminate
competition from PubScience, and member companies now want the trade
association to challenge other government Web sites.
Two in particular rile SIIA members: One is law-related, the other has
to do with agriculture, LeDuc said. He declined to identify them
further.
One site the SIIA is unlikely to challenge is PubMed, the National
Library of Medicine site ({http://www.pubmed.gov} www.pubmed.gov) that
provides free access to millions of medical articles and research papers.
PubMed was established much earlier and has a strong foothold, LeDuc
said. We have no intention of going after PubMed.
___
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Re: Uplift Urbane Legend #11
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If our good Dr. Brin is ever going explore these possibilities, we'll just have to wait for the Siqul. William Taylor -- Gillian wondered about the dinosaurs possibly being galactic citizens, or being uplifted in _Startide Rising_. Of course, we may never actually be told one way or another, Brin has a big universe to play in where almost any kind of story can be told. -- Matt ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Uplift Urbane Legend #11
In a message dated 11/15/02 8:54:51 AM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: If our good Dr. Brin is ever going explore these possibilities, we'll just have to wait for the Siqul. William Taylor -- Gillian wondered about the dinosaurs possibly being galactic citizens, or being uplifted in _Startide Rising_. Of course, we may never actually be told one way or another, Brin has a big universe to play in where almost any kind of story can be told. -- Matt Yes, but is it just a coincidence, or something more sinister, that so many puns work so well. And did we know the history of our galaxy before Contacting Aliens was printed? Or even if uplift continued in the same way in the lost galaxies? I've sent a nudge-nudge wink-wink type of email to Dr. Brin suggesting that the name Alvin taken from Clarke's two novels is a hint that there's more than just a one word tribute going on. I'll say this in all seriousness: Dr. Brin has written in more foreshadowing that may or may not be used for future plot twists than H. Beam Piper did with his never connecting his Paratime stories with his Terro-Human Future History stories--but always leaving things open. [Martian language found on Earth, cross breading animals, etc.] And we all have to wait at least a year for the next Uplift story. And then another two years after that for another. I've seen messages on sf.written stating that Orson Scott Card is milking his Ender series. I've never seen the same said for Uplift. William Taylor --- Devour all of an author's works to get word-urp. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
5 figures a month would mean a minimum of $120K a year, right? I thought that was not all that unusual at McKinsey. Now that I know that, I guess I should have more sympathy for McKinsey employees :-) Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] Well, I am the lowest of the low here... Gautam __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Wages Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
J. van Baardwijk wrote: At 07:14 15-11-2002 -0800, Gautam Mukunda wrote: I don't get overtime, Jeroen, so that doesn't help much :-) Wow, your salary is *that* high? It is pretty much standard over here that in certain jobs (typically in higher management) you do not get paid overtime, but those people then have monthly salaries that are written in *five* digits. A lot of jobs are salaried and not hourly. I don't know how it is across the board, but in Texas, to have a salaried job, it needs to be either managerial or require a degree (or special skills equivalent to having a degree); I think there's one other criteria that could be met instead, but I don't remember what it is. You *could* have someone work hourly on a job that wasn't managerial but required a degree, but depending on the demands of the job, it works out more cheaply in the long run to just put the person on salary. Anyone working hourly that works past 40 hours gets paid 1.5 times the hourly rate for the extra hours, and anyone working hourly that works past 60 hours gets double pay. At least, that's how it was last time I looked. (I never had to worry about figuring out time past 60 hours when I was writing paychecks, because nobody worked more than 56 hours in any given week.) The longest hours I ever worked personally were at an hourly job, at most 55 hours/week (and that was just Monday through Friday, never worked weekends), I ate at Luby's for dinner a lot (the calculation would be, will the take-home part of my overtime pay cover dinner there? Yes? Then let's do that, rather than make anyone cook), I had a social life on the weekends, and I didn't manage to finish a single novel during that period. It didn't last long, though. :) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Guatam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
Well, having been on both sides, the one where I did 70+ hours a week and the one being a housewife with my own schedule, I can safely say, that the busier you are, the more you get done. Somehow you become very good at doing things on the run, increasing efficiency, matching scedules, fitting things in, time wise, without caring much about details (which is good since that does save a lot of time). When I still had my job, I did 70+ hours a week on a regular basis, took care of all of my listmail, ran the whole household and still managed to get into a lot of social activities. During a short period I even easily managed to do my regular 38 hours a week in combination with a dayly 4 hour commute. Now that I'm a housewife I hardly have time to get anything done to my liking and social activities aren't that high on my priority list since I don't have the time. Spare time? ... whassat? One of the things causing all this is of course that I do take my household more serious (still not serious enough according to some ...), and I have Tom to look after as well, and then there is that assorted range of DIY tasks still not finished. But I've noticed that I never seem to get the timing right, so nothing gets done as fast or as good as I would like it to. That results in frustration and more things not done to my liking, which results in ah well the intricate life of a house-wife. ;o) Sonja Julia Thompson wrote: Ticia Luengo wrote: Am I reading this right? This guy works up to 80 hr a week and *still* has time to read a ton of books, watch games and movies, worry about being single in NY, and write such long and elaborate emails from the office at 9.30 pm??? flabbergasted and getting *nothing* done on her fortnightly day off, Ticia ',:) 1) He's younger than you or I. :) 2) Being single, he's not putting lots of time into a relationship. I have a friend who just didn't date for a few years because he was too darn busy with work to date, and when he wasn't working, he had some projects to keep him busy. (I think he gave up on using the forge after about the first 2 years of the long work hours, though.) Oh, and there were always books to read. (Some of which I gave him; introduced him to Linda Nagata, for one.) 3) And this one has nothing to do with Gautam, but with your statement above: enjoy not getting anything done once in awhile. I for one would *love* a day where I could get away with it, but that's just not an option with a small child around. (At the end of the day, I can always at least tally the diaper changes to say I did *something*) Julia who also got 4 loads of laundry done yesterday, but hasn't matched all the socks yet, and has 5 major things to do today in preparation for going to an out-of-town wedding tomorrow, which Sammy will be attending as well, so she shouldn't waste her time posting right now, right? ;) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
At 09:58 15-11-2002 -0800, Gautam Mukunda wrote: 5 figures a month would mean a minimum of $120K a year, right? I thought that was not all that unusual at McKinsey. Now that I know that, I guess I should have more sympathy for McKinsey employees :-) Well, I am the lowest of the low here... What, you mean that even the janitor gets paid the same amount as you? Well, so much for the added value of a college education... GRIN Jeroen Life in the fast lane van Baardwijk __ Wonderful-World-of-Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Ancient Mickey Mouse Found!
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/11/15/offbeat.malta.fresco/index.html Maybe Disney *doesn't* hold the copyright to Mickey Mouse, after all... - jmh ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Contraception (Was: science Vs religion)
--- Bryon Daly [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Deborah Harrell wrote: (Of course, that means her husband must also abstain from sex for 11 of ~30 days - I'm not sure how realistic that is.): If they've been married for more than a couple years, and/or if they already have some kids, its *very, very* realistic! :-) grin Well, I wasn't going to mention it, as this was also an unscientific poll, but back in the early '80's when I was active in the church, the Adult Sunday School Class had a series on sexuality. One of the statements was that men's interest declined over the years; the Lutheran ladies (~ 30) discussed this among themselves, and concluded that whoever wrote that hadn't asked _their_ husbands! Of course, this was part of the same group who, at one party my parents gave, asked how many adult Lutherans can fit in this bathroom?! :D Seventeen If You Allow The Bathtub And Sink Maru __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
J. van Baardwijk wrote: At 09:58 15-11-2002 -0800, Gautam Mukunda wrote: 5 figures a month would mean a minimum of $120K a year, right? I thought that was not all that unusual at McKinsey. Now that I know that, I guess I should have more sympathy for McKinsey employees :-) Well, I am the lowest of the low here... What, you mean that even the janitor gets paid the same amount as you? Well, so much for the added value of a college education... GRIN It may be that the janitor is not an employee of McKinsey, but of a janitorial service hired either by McKinsey or whoever is in charge of that sort of thing in the building. So then he could be the lowest of the low and still be making more than the janitor that services the offices he uses. :) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Contraception (Was: science Vs religion)
At 11:59 15-11-2002 -0800, Deborah Harrell wrote: More that women, generally speaking, have less 'drive' than men, and so - biologically speaking - have less difficulty with abstinence (although most women do have several days of their cycle where their drive may match/exceed the average man's!). On a somewhat related note: http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/11/12/offbeat.sex.marriage.reut/index.html Study: Married women enjoy best sex LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Forget forbidden flings and passionate one night stands, it's married women who enjoy the best sex. Two thirds of married women say the best sex they've had is with their husband, compared to 13 percent who say it was when they were single and just 9 percent when having an affair, a survey by British health magazine Top Sante said. This survey turns on its head the idea that the best sex is when we are footloose, fancy free and single, Juliette Kellow, Top Sante's editor, said. Men will be able to draw reassurance from the findings, based on a survey of 2,000 women across the UK. More than half of the women think their partner had a gorgeous body, 69 percent were happy with their man's weight, and 93 percent were pleased with his manhood. Even after 14 years of marriage, 63 percent of women still fancied their husband and 65 percent thought sex never went bad with the right man. But although 95 percent of women believed being faithful was important in a long-term relationship, 16 percent admitted to having affairs. Jeroen Life in the horny lane van Baardwijk __ Wonderful-World-of-Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
[Recipe] Chocolate cheese cake, Re: Grocery Shopping
Hey, Julia, pt ... don't tell Jeroen but I've got a recipe for chocolate no bake cheesecake. Is that OK with you? (Haven't got a clue as to what Oreo is.) But I've got a recipe that is dead easy to make. Filling: Use good quality whipped wip cream (maybe add something to keep it stable, dr. Oetker has f.i. 'Sahne fix') and fromage frais or quark or even (high fat if you can) yoghurt in equal amounts. Mix with a mixer, blender whatever you've got untill the mixture is smooth. Than add* cocoa powder (the real stuff), sugar (maybe some rum or orange zest or anything else you'd like) and perhaps some crushed dark chocolate untill you feel the mix tastes really nice. Add some melted** gelatine (use the amount of leafes you'd need to solidify if the mix where all liquid), mix it in. Stirr. The mix is fairly liquid at this stage but that will change once it's been in the fridge (not the freezer, mind). Put the mix into a tin on the crumbled biscuit and melted butter bottom. (You only need baking paper lining the bottom of the tin underneath the crumble. The part of the topping touching the tin will melt when you use a hot towel, after which you can easily remove it from the tin.). Put it in the fridge for a while. Tastes really fab and only takes about 20 minutes to make. Most of the work goes into crushing enough of the chocolate chip cookies (fighting off any passers by) for making the crumble. ;o) And the longest part is waiting for the stuff to solidify enough so you can eat it (at least 2 to 3 hours). Oh and the washing up afterwards of course. But since you've got a dish washer that shouldn't be too much of a problem. :o) Sonja * Actually you can add anything you like here. If you like it fruity use fruit and sugar or even use flavoured yoghurt instead of the neutral one (that is a dead easy tip for the lazier cooks among us), or maybe add cereal (it doesn't stay crunchy though). Or what about nuts and honey or if you feel like it leave it natural. Whatever suits your tastes. Just make sure you get the right type of cookies so the crumble goes with the cheesecake filling you make. ** Melt the in water soaked gelatine leafs holding the bottom of the bowl in hot water, add one spoonfull of hot water to the gelatine Julia Thompson wrote: Um, I can *buy* chocolate pie crusts at my grocery store. Or, you can just crush up a bunch of Oreos and see if that'll work to line the pie pan as well as a homemade graham-cracker crust. Is the Oreo cheesecake no-bake? (No-bake cheesecakes are wonderfully easy to make, and if I had a recipe for a no-bake Oreo cheesecake, I'd love to try making *that*. I'm not really big on cheesecake per se, but I'm big on chocolate!) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Contraception and Wedding Nights Re: science Vs religion
At 18:08 09-11-2002 -0600, Ronn Blankenship wrote: Bathroom humor is an American-Standard. Speaking of bathroom humour: http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/11/14/offbeat.sweden.toilet.reut/index.html Customer: Fast-food, toilets don't mix Toilet humor STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) -- A customer in an international hamburger chain outlet in western Sweden lost his appetite when he discovered the restaurant's toilet seats were being washed in its dishwasher alongside the kitchen utensils. The man noticed on a visit to the bathroom in the restaurant in Arvika, Sweden, that all the toilet seats had been removed. When he asked staff about the missing seats, an employee took them out of a dishwasher where they had been cleaned together with trays and kitchen utensils, the Swedish TT news agency reported Thursday, quoting the regional newspaper Nya Wermlands-Tidningen. The employee tried to reassure the customer by saying that the freshly washed toilet seat would be warm and pleasant to sit on. A senior representative of the restaurant chain said the incident was a mistake and not standard company procedure. Arvika's environmental and health inspector later visited the restaurant. Jeroen Do you want fries with that? van Baardwijk __ Wonderful-World-of-Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Scouted: Tiny sea horses given protected status
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/11/14/seahorses.protect.reut/index.html Excerpt: Tiny sea horses given protected status Thursday, November 14, 2002 Posted: 1:19 PM EST (1819 GMT) SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) -- The tiny sea horse briefly stole the spotlight at a U.N. meeting in Chile this week when delegates agreed to protect all 32 species of the sea creature from a lucrative global trade that threatens to drive them to extinction. The decision by the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) does not ban the sea horse trade, but instead forces countries to better monitor and control cross-border business to ensure that it does not pose a risk to their sea horse populations. Each country, with help from CITES and other international organizations, must take steps to certify that all sea horse catches and sales are legal. Seventy-five member nations voted for the measure, proposed by the United States, while 24 opposed it. The U.N. body had no immediate comment. _ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Uplift Urbane Legend #11
William Taylor wrote: And we all have to wait at least a year for the next Uplift story. And then another two years after that for another. I've seen messages on sf.written stating that Orson Scott Card is milking his Ender series. I've never seen the same said for Uplift. The real problem is: does He want to spend the rest of His life only writing Uplift books? I can imagine that there are some other possibilities: (1) lease some stories, with only a benighted guidance [to keep consistency with His hidden agenda] (2) sell parts of the Uplift to make movies or TV series and forget about it when they release a dumbed version with cute alien familiar and spellcasters (3) write stories, keep the in locked boxes, so that His sons can publish them 100 years after His death Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Got back from early voting a little while ago
Alberto Monteiro wrote: Julia Thompson wrote: Each person in the US is governed at both the state and federal level. Lucky Bastards :-) In Brazil, we are g*verned at federal, state and municipal [the polis, or city] level. Which means that things that must be done aren't, and taxes are levied in triplicate :-/ Alberto Monteiro Sounds pretty much like the Belgian system. They've also got to do everything in two (or three) languages simultanously. Sonja ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels
Erik Rueter wrote: 5 figures a month would mean a minimum of $120K a year, right? I thought that was not all that unusual at McKinsey. Now that I know that, I guess I should have more sympathy for McKinsey employees :-) Ye gods, but that is an obscene amount of money. Brings up a point of curiousity for me: what sort of money, exactly, do people make? I know in a vague way what my parents gross, but since they're running their own business that doesn't mean much. Last I heard, once business expenses were subtracted, we were somewhere under 20k a year but that still doesn't mean much... and, now that I think of it, isn't necessarily right either. Gah. Myself, I thought I was doing great when I was making £240 a week (about $350) for 60 hours a week or so of work... when I start working this January, realistically, I'm going to be paid whatever my parents can afford to pay me, but practically I think the going wage for a trained herdsman is 15-20k. Er, is that not a lot? Kat Money? What's that? Feete - What you have to remember is that in the movies there are two types of people 1) the directors, artists, actors and so on who have to do things and are often quite human and 2) the other lifeforms. Unfortunately you have to deal with the other lifeforms first. It is impossible to exaggerate their baleful stupidity. - Terry Pratchett ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Washington Cathedral question.
Well, I could send an email to their site, but I'd probably look more like a terrorist than an author. And we do have a fairly local list member. How is the Washington Cathedral heated? Are there floor vents or any wall vents? Is there any interior sculpture, and is it floor level or also higher up? If a gargoyle sculpture were to be replaced, is there an interior place it might logically be put on display for a while before it's put in its final resting place? And think several hundred years into the future. I want to use the cathedral setting for a 'secure' conversation between a human and an alien at midnight on a cold winter's night. William Taylor -- Several Tytlal today were removed from the Museum of Natural History as they were seen to be posing as statues ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: You Are a Suspect
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:Medievalbk;aol.com] Yup. I did not retain that. I was still tripping out that I had read through all three novels and didn't catch all of the Lord of the Rings references until the second time through. Lord of the Rings references? - jmh ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels
Erik Rueter wrote: 5 figures a month would mean a minimum of $120K a year, right? I thought that was not all that unusual at McKinsey. Now that I know that, I guess I should have more sympathy for McKinsey employees :-) Ye gods, but that is an obscene amount of money. Brings up a point of curiousity for me: what sort of money, exactly, do people make? I know in a vague way what my parents gross, but since they're running their own business that doesn't mean much. Last I heard, once business expenses were subtracted, we were somewhere under 20k a year but that still doesn't mean much... and, now that I think of it, isn't necessarily right either. Gah. Myself, I thought I was doing great when I was making £240 a week (about $350) for 60 hours a week or so of work... when I start working this January, realistically, I'm going to be paid whatever my parents can afford to pay me, but practically I think the going wage for a trained herdsman is 15-20k. Er, is that not a lot? Kat Money? What's that? Feete Without commenting on my own salary, I would point out that between the various taxes and government-mandated deductions in my salary, I end up paying 42% to the government. That's _before_ I deduct for my 401K and things like that. I also live in Manhattan. Despite the fact that I have _4_ roommates, my rent+utilities exceeds $1300 per month. There are plenty of people at McKinsey - or any other financial/consulting firm - who make more than $120K/year (I assume - salary figures are confidential, but that isn't that much by financial world standards), but I understand quite well why they say that it doesn't go nearly as far as you might think. If you're interested in distributions, you could take a look at the CIA World Factbook, which has some info. on things that, as do the BLS, the World Bank, and things like that. Gautam __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Tolkein tribute. Was: Re: You Are a Suspect
In a message dated 11/15/2002 2:19:43 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Lord of the Rings references? Oh my oh my oh my. The easiest one is where Herbie is offered to the Old Ones and they reply, Do not temp us! The Ur are specifically named for the Urukhai. This comes directly from an email from Dr. Brin. [One tribe is even described as being fleet and swift. (I think.) Almost exactly as the Urukhai are described in the Two Towers.] I thought he was subconsciously mimicking Tolkein. Nope. It was deliberate. I think the Hoon are named for the booming Huron. Ents could have inspired the Kanten. I don't know how far Dr. Brin was carrying this theme. We don't seem to have a Gandalf, Sauron, or Saruman--YET. Spiders are spiders--maybe. William Taylor - Too tall for a Hobbit ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Uplift Urbane Legend #11
In a message dated 11/15/2002 2:22:15 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I've seen messages on sf.written stating that Orson Scott Card is milking his Ender series. I've never seen the same said for Uplift. The real problem is: does He want to spend the rest of His life only writing Uplift books? --His rule right now is at least one non-Uplift novel between Uplift stories. Why I said two years and not one. I have to agree with this. Keeps the reader begging and the writer fresh. I can imagine that there are some other possibilities: (1) lease some stories, with only a benighted guidance [to keep consistency with His hidden agenda] --already done with Contacting Aliens, I think. You're in the credits on page 187. What was your part in the greater scheme of things? Besides the lighthearted series of Uplift Urbane Legends, I've sent Dr. Brin an idea for a shortstory based upon CA that could be the basis for a novel. As it should not interact with any other current established caracters, it could work as a handoff novel. A different author each time the main characters change. From Human to Thennanin to Synthian to Pila, Pring and Soro. The novel ending with the Soro clan in glorious dissolution. Well, glorious to everyone except the Soro, that is. Dr. Brin has the idea on file. He won't look at it again until it is time for his mind to switch back to the Uplift side. Meanwhile he has 3,000 high school kids to take care of. (2) sell parts of the Uplift to make movies or TV series and forget about it when they release a dumbed version with cute alien familiar and spellcasters --I don't see that in his character. I've repeatedly stated that the Jijo youth would make a good Saturday cartoon. IF SF people kept control of it. Remember, even Ghostbusters degenerated into The Slimer Show. Ugh. (3) write stories, keep the in locked boxes, so that His sons can publish them 100 years after His death --I would love to see into his locked boxes. And some boxes, I think, he has purposefully left empty. As to his sons, I don't know their names and ages, but I would like Dr. Brim to mention on his webpage what books he has read to them. I vote for Spike Milligan's Badjelly the Witch. Alberto Monteiro William Taylor Roar, roar, squeek-squeek, roar. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
--- Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip You don't get overtime for almost any profession in the US, so far as I know. My parents (a physicist and an engineer) don't either. When I was doing locum tenens (sort of a Kelly Girl doctor, i.e. via an agency) I did get overtime for hours over 40 (agency) or 50 (myself)/week. As a staff member of a clinic, however, there would be no overtime - and I don't think so for a hospital either. Except for those who work part-time (and their 25 usually creeps up to 30-35 hours), most docs put in at least 55-65 hours/week, and I have 'gonzo' subspecialist friends who do 80+ regularly. Debbi __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colin Powell President
- Original Message - From: Kevin Tarr [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 5:15 PM Subject: Re: Colin Powell President Kevin T. *Would he win the state races, the primaries? I don't think even at state levels there would be too much obvious racism. Unfortunately race is an issue in the backs of people's minds. A small percentage of the populous, and even less of eligible voters but still there. But I think specifically for Powell this wouldn't matter as much. Well, that's been falsified experimentally just this year in Texas. Ron Kirk, who was a black moderate Democrat, got a record low % of white votes in Harris county for a senate election, running against a fairly obscure Republican candidate. In other words, he got fewer white votes than did a Democrat who was far to the left of him running against well known and incumbent US Senators. Being black is a net negative. How else can you explain the low numbers of blacks in the Senate? Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Wages Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
A lot of jobs are salaried and not hourly. I don't know how it is across the board, but in Texas, to have a salaried job, it needs to be either managerial or require a degree (or special skills equivalent to having a degree); I think there's one other criteria that could be met instead, but I don't remember what it is. You *could* have someone work hourly on a job that wasn't managerial but required a degree, but depending on the demands of the job, it works out more cheaply in the long run to just put the person on salary. Anyone working hourly that works past 40 hours gets paid 1.5 times the hourly rate for the extra hours, and anyone working hourly that works past 60 hours gets double pay. At least, that's how it was last time I looked. (I never had to worry about figuring out time past 60 hours when I was writing paychecks, because nobody worked more than 56 hours in any given week.) The longest hours I ever worked personally were at an hourly job, at most 55 hours/week (and that was just Monday through Friday, never worked weekends), I ate at Luby's for dinner a lot (the calculation would be, will the take-home part of my overtime pay cover dinner there? Yes? Then let's do that, rather than make anyone cook), I had a social life on the weekends, and I didn't manage to finish a single novel during that period. It didn't last long, though. :) Julia You are right, there are three job classifications that can be called salaried, but I cannot remember the other class either. The only part of law is that a person receive 1.5 times pay after 40 hours. There are no provisions for working 60+ hours, or double time for working holidays, or shift differentials, these are just incentives that an employee can offer. Also if a 'supervisor' does less than 45% (by hours) unique work from his subordinates, then he really isn't a supervisor and qualifies for overtime pay. And there is a weird way they calculate overtime pay for supervisors. If your normal salary is $400 for 40 hours, and you work 50 hours, your pay is 400/50= 8, (8*40) + (12*10) = $480. So you lost $70. There is some hours limit on how much your base hourly rate can be reduced. I had a job and was hired as a salaried employee, I even had four people working underneath me, but I was still just an electrician/mechanic. I couldn't fire them or set their hours. My only duties above them was I planned the major projects and directed them in their work, but 99% of the time I was right next to them turning wrenches and wiring machines. There was a fight the one time I worked overtime. To compensate they gave me extra time off, illegal at that time, then a few weeks later made me salaried. Kevin T. But that's in the past now (please don't go on strike, please don't go on strike, please don't go on strike) prayer to union/governor ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Open Source and Linux: 2002 Poster Children for Security Problems
So, you thought Windows has more security glitches than Open Source and Linux? The Aberdeen Group thinks differently. Open Source and Linux: 2002 Poster Children for Security Problems November 12, 2002 Open source software is now the major source of elevated security vulnerabilities for IT buyers. Security advisories from Cert for the first 10 months of 2002 show that open source and Linux software accounted for more than half of all advisories. The poster child for security glitches is no longer Microsoft; this label now belongs to open source and Linux software suppliers. Full article at http://www.aberdeen.com/ab_abstracts/2002/11/11020005.htm. To access this article, you need to have cookies enabled in your browser, and you will have to register (free of charge). If that poses a problem, contact me off-list and I will e-mail you the article (zip file, 31 Kb). Jeroen Security Risk van Baardwijk __ Wonderful-World-of-Brin-L Website: http://www.Brin-L.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels
K. Feete wrote: but practically I think the going wage for a trained herdsman is 15-20k. Er, is that not a lot? Kat Money? What's that? Feete It really depends on where and how you live, but around here, that will get you an apartment (with roomates), a used car, and enough finances to live with some comfort while avoiding drowning in debt, if you manage your spending very carefully. It is not enough, however, to buy a house or raise a family with any level of comfort. -- Matt ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Wages Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
To compensate they gave me extra time off, illegal at that time, then a few weeks later made me salaried. Kevin T. Duh. I meant hourly. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colin Powell President
Kevin T. *Would he win the state races, the primaries? I don't think even at state levels there would be too much obvious racism. Unfortunately race is an issue in the backs of people's minds. A small percentage of the populous, and even less of eligible voters but still there. But I think specifically for Powell this wouldn't matter as much. Well, that's been falsified experimentally just this year in Texas. Ron Kirk, who was a black moderate Democrat, got a record low % of white votes in Harris county for a senate election, running against a fairly obscure Republican candidate. In other words, he got fewer white votes than did a Democrat who was far to the left of him running against well known and incumbent US Senators. Being black is a net negative. How else can you explain the low numbers of blacks in the Senate? Dan M. I was trying to be careful in my words. Would Texas be the same as Washington, Iowa, or Delaware? Why would the former mayor of Dallas be well known in Houston? What are the percentages of minorities in the congress? (No need for real answer) There isn't a 50-50 split male/female is there? Is being a woman a net negative? Does one county prove a trend? Is Harris County mostly dem? What about the other counties? In fact: what are these 'record low' numbers based on, polling data? Bah. (please don't flame me, I'm just making fun) And I was trying to make a point of (black + repub) (black + dem) in white voters minds. People would turn out in droves to vote against Jesse Jackson. Not saying Ron Kirk is anywhere near Jesse Jackson. Kevin T. Please no reply needed because I cannot get into a numbers battle. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Colin Powell President
- Original Message - From: Kevin Tarr [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 6:03 PM Subject: Re: Colin Powell President Kevin T. *Would he win the state races, the primaries? I don't think even at state levels there would be too much obvious racism. Unfortunately race is an issue in the backs of people's minds. A small percentage of the populous, and even less of eligible voters but still there. But I think specifically for Powell this wouldn't matter as much. Well, that's been falsified experimentally just this year in Texas. Ron Kirk, who was a black moderate Democrat, got a record low % of white votes in Harris county for a senate election, running against a fairly obscure Republican candidate. In other words, he got fewer white votes than did a Democrat who was far to the left of him running against well known and incumbent US Senators. Being black is a net negative. How else can you explain the low numbers of blacks in the Senate? Dan M. I was trying to be careful in my words. Would Texas be the same as Washington, Iowa, or Delaware? IMHO, Texas is less racist than those states. Why would the former mayor of Dallas be well known in Houston? He was at least as well known as his opponent. I live in the Houston area, so I'm reporting from personal experience. What are the percentages of minorities in the congress? (No need for real answer) There isn't a 50-50 split male/female is there? Is being a woman a net negative? Yes, but the source of that is more debateable. To first order, in order to be a sucessful big time politician, your family has to be a distant second to your career. Historically, women have not had these priorities as much as men have. I think that's more important now than prejudices. There isn't a big drop in male votes for female candidates. Does one county prove a trend? Is Harris County mostly dem? What about the other counties? In fact: what are these 'record low' numbers based on, polling data? Bah. (please don't flame me, I'm just making fun) Well, I am puzzled by your understanding of flames. Making fun of the points of others is not flaming, but using numbers is. :-) I quote Harris county because I live here, but its fairly well known across the country. Even moderate blacks lose about 25% of the white vote that a white of the same persuasion gets. All you have to do is check the voting in precincts that are predominantly white. Now, in the general election, the fact that Powell could get a lot of Democratic cross over votes would probably counter that. But, in the Republican primaries, it would be too high of a wall to climb. That was the prevelant wisdom at the time. He is a real moderate too; as is Kirk. Kirk got support from bidness leaders and law enforcement groups that rarely support Democrats. Its not that he lost; that's very understandable. Its that he got fewer white votes than the opponents of Graham and Hutchenson. And I was trying to make a point of (black + repub) (black + dem) in white voters minds. People would turn out in droves to vote against Jesse Jackson. Not saying Ron Kirk is anywhere near Jesse Jackson. In the general election, that's valid. But, in the Republican primary, that wouldn't matter. Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Washington Cathedral question.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Well, I could send an email to their site, but I'd probably look more like a terrorist than an author. And we do have a fairly local list member. I can maybe do you one better. If I were to forward the e-mail to someone who went to the school at National Cathedral in the late 1940s-early 1950s timeframe, and to someone else who not only works in DC, but lives there, and who has been to National Cathedral a few times, would that maybe help? :) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Washington Cathedral question.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Well, I could send an email to their site, but I'd probably look more like a terrorist than an author. And we do have a fairly local list member. How is the Washington Cathedral heated? Are there floor vents or any wall vents? Is there any interior sculpture, and is it floor level or also higher up? If a gargoyle sculpture were to be replaced, is there an interior place it might logically be put on display for a while before it's put in its final resting place? And think several hundred years into the future. I want to use the cathedral setting for a 'secure' conversation between a human and an alien at midnight on a cold winter's night. Response from someone who was at the Cathedral a *lot* roughly 50 years ago: I have a vague recollection of floor vents and possibly wall vents. If you want a really dark place in the Cathedral, try the chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea. Hope that helps. (Still waiting on a response from the other person, but don't expect it before lunchtime Monday.) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Washington Cathedral question.
In a message dated 11/15/2002 5:31:09 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: And we do have a fairly local list member. I can maybe do you one better. If I were to forward the e-mail to someone who went to the school at National Cathedral in the late 1940s-early 1950s timeframe, and to someone else who not only works in DC, but lives there, and who has been to National Cathedral a few times, would that maybe help? :) Oh yes. And the person need not even know what a Wazoon is. :-) William Taylor ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tolkien tribute
William Taylor wrote: The Ur are specifically named for the Urukhai. In which sense? There are two ways we can take this; I imagine that the naming of Alien species - if this eventually happens with Humanity - would borrow names from sf and fantasy. But the Urs, as non-hostile to Humans, would never be named for an evil fantasy race. OTOH, the narrative structure of SR, UW, and the Storm Trilogy are similar to LotR: we have the action seen from a multi-character perspective, with they joining and separating along the chapters. And the One Ring _is_ Ewasx Master Ring :-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Uplift Urbane Legend #11
William Taylor wrote: (1) lease some stories, with only a benighted guidance [to keep consistency with His hidden agenda] --already done with Contacting Aliens, I think. You're in the credits on page 187. What was your part in the greater scheme of things? I could tell you. But then I would have to kill you. serious I did some timeline calculations /serious Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Tolkien tribute
In a message dated 11/15/2002 6:03:16 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: The Ur are specifically named for the Urukhai. In which sense? Strong runners and swift on the plains. The one Ur tribe that did capturing--I don't have the name handy --more specifically sound like Urukhai. [I remember the same syllable number and scan.] There are two ways we can take this; I imagine that the naming of Alien species - if this eventually happens with Humanity - would borrow names from sf and fantasy. But the Urs, as non-hostile to Humans, would never be named for an evil fantasy race. -Ask Dr. Brin. He said that he specifically did so. [His emails to me are downloaded on my other computer.] And I think an SF tribute to an author would be way different than the eventual naming of real beings and animals. I like the story about the human who pointed and asked the native, What animal is that?, and forever after the animal's name translates into the native tounge as Piss off. OTOH, the narrative structure of SR, UW, and the Storm Trilogy are similar to LotR: we have the action seen from a multi-character perspective, with they joining and separating along the chapters. ---Oh yes. If someone wishes to count, I think we have way more POV changes with Jijo than with Middle Earth. And the One Ring _is_ Ewasx Master Ring :-) -Being a stack of rings, Maybe Asx was Gandalf the Grey, and the final being was Gandalf the White. But the Noor are NOT Hobbits. Alberto Monteiro -Thanks. William Taylor -- And in the darkness bite them? Shoulda done another take. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Guatam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
At 06:50 AM 11/15/02, J. van Baardwijk wrote: At 12:26 15-11-2002 +0100, Ticia Luengo wrote: Am I reading this right? This guy works up to 80 hr a week and *still* has time to read a ton of books, watch games and movies, worry about being single in NY, and write such long and elaborate emails from the office at 9.30 pm??? He can only do that *because* he is single -- once a woman lures him into her liar The cynical comment of a married man? --Ronn! :) I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed that I would see the last. --Dr. Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
At 05:19 PM 11/15/02, Deborah Harrell wrote: When I was a resident, we calculated our hourly rate and found it was something between $2-5/hr, depending on how many hours we worked that week, so we *were* paid less than the janitors! I dunno how much the custodial personnel at school get paid, but those of us who teach get a flat rate per semester hour taught, or simply so much for teaching a 4-semester-hour course, which may not sound too bad if you divide the number of classroom hours into the salary, but when you take into account preparation time, grading of papers, and all that other stuff, the effective hourly rate goes down rapidly . . . (And whatever they got paid, they deserved more - hospital waste is _not_ fun to deal with, and can be deadly besides.) Like when an amputated arm reaches out of the trash and grabs you . . . --Ronn! :) I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed that I would see the last. --Dr. Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gautam's energy levels (was: Re: My return and baseball)
At 04:56 PM 11/15/02, Deborah Harrell wrote: --- Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip You don't get overtime for almost any profession in the US, so far as I know. My parents (a physicist and an engineer) don't either. When I was doing locum tenens (sort of a Kelly Girl doctor, i.e. via an agency) I did get overtime for hours over 40 (agency) or 50 (myself)/week. As a staff member of a clinic, however, there would be no overtime - and I don't think so for a hospital either. Except for those who work part-time (and their 25 usually creeps up to 30-35 hours), most docs put in at least 55-65 hours/week, and I have 'gonzo' subspecialist friends who do 80+ regularly. Not to mention occasions like the time my father needed emergency open-heart surgery on Friday night, and one of his doctors had to come in and do it . . . --Ronn! :) I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon. I never dreamed that I would see the last. --Dr. Jerry Pournelle ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Recipe] Chocolate cheese cake, Re: Grocery Shopping
On Fri, Nov 15, 2002 at 09:30:31PM +0100, Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote: (Haven't got a clue as to what Oreo is.) Oh, the horrors, the horrors! -- Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Recipe] Chocolate cheese cake, Re: Grocery Shopping
In a message dated 11/15/2002 8:39:10 PM US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote: (Haven't got a clue as to what Oreo is.) Oh, the horrors, the horrors! A packed up lips cow. So that's how Marlin Brando got so big. William Taylor - Though Ruth Gordon had the better lines. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: My return and baseball
Gautam Mukunda wrote: I'm lucky to have a job. The market just _sucks_. Yes, I feel lucky that my wife and I both have relatively secure jobs. Let's see, the postseason, and the regular season too :-) I was very disappointed when Oakland lost, of course. It was, I think, symptomatic of the one thing that Billy Beane hasn't been able to deal with, and one of the major reasons for the Yankee's continued success in the postseason - the Yankee's money buys better coaching and better scouting. The As were simply poorly coached - witness Jeremy Giambi's memorable failure to slide last year. I agree. I think that Howe made some questionable discussions this time - why not set up your rotation so that both your lefties get two starts against a team that performs poorly against southpaws, for starters. I'm very relived that Beane didn't jump ship. Let none of that take away from the Angels' remarkable achievement, however. They were an excellent team and absolutely deserved to win the World Series - in no way do they resemble the fluke Marlins of 1997. It was a fun World Series, on the whole - not as good as 2001, but good nonetheless. If the owners would stop talking down baseball and actually _market the sport_ then something like that will be wonderful indeed. The Angels are a good team, well coached, and did deserve to win. Some of the best games down the stretch were the two A's - Angels series. Baseball at its best. I had trouble choosing a team to route for in the Series. The Giants are local, of course, but there's always a rivalry between A's and Giants fans, so that made it hard. Then there's the fact that the Angels are essentially an L.A. team and its hard to route for anything from L.A. (no offense 8^) ) Eventually I found myself pulling for the Giants, but most of all I wanted for them to pitch to Bonds. The other major takeaway from both the season and the postseason is, of course, that Barry Bonds is not a human being. He is either the best or the second best baseball player of all time, I think. The argument for him being the best, of course, rests on the fact that Babe Ruth played against a much lower level of competition generally, and specifically one that lacked African-American players (like, of course, Barry Bonds). I find those arguments to be almost, but not entirely, persuasive, so I'm not sure where I come down on that stance. In either case, he's a marvel to watch and we should count ourselves lucky to be seeing him play. Barry Bonds, Jerry Rice, Michael Jorden, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky: it's a great time to be a sports fan. My final comment before I head back to work - while the Angels were totally a deserving team, they also had pretty much every player have a career year _the same year_ - something that I do not think will happen next year. The As will win the West again next year - and hopefully the World Series, although I actually think Boston might just give them a run for their money :-) We'll see. I think our young pitchers really proved themselves this year. I hope they can move Durham to CF and keep him on board. The rookie, Ellis, is an exciting player, very mature for his years, I''m looking forward to seeing him improve in 2003. I don't think that the Angels are going to go away though, they've got an exciting bunch of young players down there as well. Seattle, on the other hand may go away - with aging stars, a questionable rotation and no Pinnella I'm guessing they'll have an off year. That's about it. I hope that all is well with everyone. I look forward to hearing from all of you. Thanks for the update - and the titles. Good to hear from you again. Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Statement on Farscape from the Jim Henson Co.
So it looks as if there's hope for fans. J http://www.farscape.com/news/index.html Farscape is a flagship show for The Jim Henson Company. We are proud of its achievements over the past four years, which have included international critical recognition, three Saturn Awards, and a recent Emmy nomination. As always, your show of support is a true inspiration for our company and has been integral to our success. Although SCI FI Channel has chosen not to pick up a fifth season, The Jim Henson Company is in active development on a new Farscape film, an anime project and is currently discussing syndication of this highly acclaimed series. We are eager to move forward with the Farscape creative team in developing new projects that will resonate with our overwhelmingly loyal fan base. To register to receive notification about upcoming Farscape projects send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: [Recipe] Chocolate cheese cake, Re: Grocery Shopping
Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote: Haven't got a clue as to what Oreo is. Oreos are a brand of round chocolate sandwich cookies with white creamy stuff (mostly lard, I think) in the middle. Hydrox is another brand that makes a similar kind of cookie. __ Steve Sloan . Huntsville, Alabama = [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brin-L list pages ... http://www.sloan3d.com/brinl Chmeee's 3D Objects http://www.sloan3d.com/chmeee 3D and Drawing Galleries .. http://www.sloansteady.com Software Science Fiction, Science, and Computer Links Science fiction scans . http://www.sloan3d.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
tech sector
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101021118-388992,00.html ?cnn=yes ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
