Rid yourself of this nonsense and join the rising A team. :)
GJ said about 2 hours later
Shooting fish in a barrel. Treat the Bible as a true historical account and you will find all sorts of things that don't make sense, or even better, contradict one another.
That being said, Geoff, what to make of the fact that so much of the world's population believes in some kind of deity, or force, or whatever? Could we be "programmed" in some way to seek it out, whatever it is, and try to make some sense of it?
Kristen said about 4 hours later
I think it's interesting that most other religions identify their supreme being as somewhat human-like, kind of like the Christian "made in His image and likeness" idea. Think Bhudda, "mother" nature...
GJ said about 5 hours later
Except for the Cthulhu followers...
Marc said about 19 hours later
Did anybody else think he looked like Edward Norton straight out of Primal Fear?
I sometimes wonder if William Shatner has been losing his mind, or if he's just that good and got bored with his normal work and decided to give comedy a try.
GJ said 2 days later
He's actually been doing this sort of thing since the 1970s.
Fox News Channel has been on a rampage over the past year to demonize Amsterdam as Hell on Earth (tm). See, Amsterdam is very liberal, and very agnostic. They don't outlaw pot, nor do they criminalize prostitution, and, egads, they allow people to off themselves in a nice, peaceful manner if they don't feel like experiencing terminal cancer in person to the end. All of this is against Fox News' version of morality, so obviously, they need to portray Amsterdam in the proper light so that it doesn't occur here. I mean, it's their moral duty!
Apparently, at least one resident of Amsterdam doesn't take kindly to this slander:
Let me note that the biggest perpetrator of this nonsense is none other than Bill O'Reilly. Take Bill O, Glen B, Sean H, and a few others out of the picture and Fox would come off as simply somewhat conservative (nowhere near fair and balanced).
Steve said 4 days later
Hence the reason I despise Fox News above all others. I have more respect for the National Inquirer, at least they have fun with their lies....
GJ said 4 days later
:) Very true, but I find the Weekly World News even more creative. Bat Boy, anyone?
I gotta say, I found little of this funny. I snickered a few times, but we're too immature in America for this. I think we prefer Conan's antics. :)
GJ said 2 days later
This wasn't Craig being funny for funny's sake. He was dead serious. You missed that, I guess?
Darcy said 4 days later
Damn, I love Ferguson. Have to put him back on the DVR schedule.
Geoff said 4 days later
Eh not my cup of tea for a late night show. I enjoy Conan hissing myself :)
GJ said 4 days later
Unfortunately for Conan, there aren't enough of you. :)
Geoff said 4 days later
Are you kidding, there is a whole generation. Remember, you're getting old :)
(as am I...)
GJ said 5 days later
Look at Conan's numbers, he's not getting many of this new generation. As for me, I'm far more likely to turn on Letterman even though I don't particularly care for Letterman, because he's a better interviewer than Conan. But, hands down, Fergie is the best (for me). Too bad he's on so late, but that's what DVRs were invented for.
Remember playing mousetrap as a kid? Warning, very Britishy pop music plays for the first 2:00 of the video. Of course, if you like Britishy pop music, you may want to turn UP the volume. :)
I think I know the Republicans strategy...smear themselves so much, that the Republican party becomes completely ridiculous, then some of the "smarter" republicans will start a new party in the hopes of rebuilding the republican political beliefs and this country (seems like a good tag line). There has to be some logical explanation for how ridiculous many of them are acting.
We nearly got hit by a small asteroid the other day--it sailed overhead, about 45,000 miles away. Before you say, "gee, that wasn't very close" let me add that our TV satellites orbit around half that distance. Had it hit, and hit land, you would have seen something very similar to the 1908 Tungusta blast--basically, the equivalent of a moderate nuclear blast. Check out this animation that shows the path of the offender of late:
Glad to know this after the fact. I'm pretty confident if we were going to be hit by a large asteroid, the government/media wouldn't alert us to anything until after the sky was covered in ash.
Thank you CNN, at least in my final moments I'll know just how popular Thriller really was.
Marc said 18 minutes later
I don't remember hearing anything about this, and it looks like it happened in early March. Did they have any clue it would be so close, or knew it would be plenty far away? Physics will tell you some pretty good numbers, especially in space, but 45,000 miles is pretty close.
I'm just wondering if I'll be notified if an asteroid is about to slam into earth or if it'll be more of a surprise when one does. Not like it matters, we have yet to build the gravity tractor to help save us from one.
Geoff said about 1 hour later
Welp we've got roughly 30 years to figure it out before Apophis hits us. :)
Marc said about 3 hours later
Better figure it out sooner rather than later, it would likely take several years with a gravity tractor following the asteroid to steer it off course. Most likely we'd be better off just evacuating the area it was expected to hit from an economical standpoint. I'd like to know the area ASAP so I can setup a store or something in the area and grab some asteroid insurance. :)
GJ said about 7 hours later
The very real problem is that we just don't know of many of these smaller ones until just before they'd hit. Check the name: d009-dd45. I wouldn't read into the dd45 part, but the 2009 bit does mean it was discovered this year. Six months advance notice of an asteroid hit isn't nearly enough time, and look how close this one came.
GJ said about 7 hours later
And yes, it passed by 3/2/09.
Geoff said about 10 hours later
we can only hope if one does hit, North Korea is its target.
An Easily Understandable Explanation of Derivative Markets:
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.
She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).
Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit.
By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets. Naive investors don't really understand (and/or this info is withheld from them) that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics.
Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.
One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.
Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.
Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.
The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the various BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.
Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the Government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers.
I wish tax paying was more like investing. It'd be nice to allot my tax dollars to specific places I feel deserve/need it. This was good little article Kristen, I knew what was coming, but sometimes it's almost comical to read through the whole process.
GJ said about 12 hours later
I'm guessing Drew has a slightly different take on derivatives? :)
Kristen said 1 day later
I'm not sure, but he at least probably knows what one is. LOL
