BS: The Mother of all BS threads

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 09:24 PM

I need to paint the top of my house one of these days--the colors are horrible, but they were recent when I moved in so I didn't do that first. The rest of the house is brick and stone. I painted the inside of my attic silver last summer--it seems to help with heat radiating into the house, and it should help keep the inside heat in when it gets cold out.

LoMIT II is the stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 07:59 PM

Dryvit, huh?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 07:45 PM

We just signed up to have our house covered in diatomaceous earth or something like that...I really hope I'm doing the right thing. But the contractor wasa very nice man...

Seriously, we're being stuccoed, a complex job as we are upgrading from a mid-60's board-and-plaster design. But I think it will be loverly.



A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 12:47 PM

Well last time it was a Saturday, starting sometime in the late afternoon, and the weapon of choice was a case or three of something the legion had distilled in an old radiator. A couple of the guys hanging around the hovel minus their eybrows were very adamant about not going anywhere near the fire with it.

I get a bit hazy what happened past about 3 am the next morning, and had just about recovered by tuesday...

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 12:43 PM

Well, I land at the airport and go to the HoJo motel. My brother and his oldest will probably be there already. That's on the 30th. On December 1 I go to see my nephew gradiate from the US Moron Corps...er, Marine Corps. Then we go back to the motel and on the 2d everybody pretty much goes home.

I PMed you my flight info.

I'll let you know more when I do. Really.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 11:57 AM

Rapaire, you have not answered my last question concerning your trip to San Diego. Not the one about weapons, the one about scheduling, which I posed in a PM to you. Pray do!


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 11:54 AM

Drôme is a section or province of France, mon vieux, home of Montelimar, famous for its nougat.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 10:04 AM

Feller out on the Snake River Plain planted turnips (swedes to you Ukers) and by August some of 'em were bigger'n a blimp. He made out like a bandit hitting a gold-carrying stage without a guard! Sold two of 'em to the airport, where they hollowed 'em out for hangars; used a couple more hollowed out ones on the ranch as a new barn and potato barn, and sold all the small ones to the local real estate developers to be used for houses.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 08:55 AM

Drome? Isn't that that town in Alaska with Geothermally heated soil, so they can grow record breaking root vegetables. What use a rutabaga the size of a small car ( or in European terms, an adult elephant), is I don't know....

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 18 Nov 06 - 12:17 AM

14941!


And now I, too, have a pal in Drome.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 11:43 PM

I think it should be:

And the wither'd murderer,
Alarmed by his sentinel

(the wolf,
Who howls his watch)

Towards his design moves like a ghost.

Otherwise, the center will not hold.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 11:38 PM

Printer Friendly says we're at 14938.

14939 after this one.

You know, this is a great way to keep folks like Flamenco Ted from poaching. They don't have a clue as to the *real* numbers unless they do a little research.

Meanwhile, 61 to go to a really big number . . .

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 08:52 PM

Shaxperean grammar and spelling was not fettered by Victorian principles OR principals.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 07:49 PM

It scans better if you lose the second apostrophe in that line. Actually, lose both of them.

From

Who's howl's   to

Whose howls

Just my two cents.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 07:07 PM

Who's howl's his watch...


Ummmm...I dunno. Who has howl-is-his-watch? Who is "Howl-is-his-watch"?

Musta been written by an injun, I guess.

Shakespeare could have said it better.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 07:00 PM

Now o'er one half the world nature seems dead
And wicked dreams abuse the troubled sleep.
Witchcraft celebrates pale Hecate's offering
And the wither'd murderer,
Alarmed by his sentinel the wolf
Who's howl's his watch
Towards his design moves like a ghost.
Oh, thou sure and firm-set Earth
Hear not my steps, which way they wend
For fear the very stones prate of my whereabouts.
(A bell rings.)
I go, and it is done. The bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.
(Exit stage right, doing a soft-shoe)

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 04:29 PM

Why undo mischief? Enjoying it more fun....

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 04:17 PM

And thoughts of darkness seek to undo that mischief...

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 01:28 PM

That, too.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: frogprince
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 01:27 PM

"Dark thought tends to...compress thighs together..." ?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 12:22 PM

and it seems that money and gravity are mutally attractive.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 12:16 PM

Geez, Amos. Gravity gets it's money because it is, after all, The Law.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 10:22 AM

If "gravity is independently wealthy", MM, pray tell where it comes by this wealth from?


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 10:14 AM

No, I did not. If there is any substance to the story (which seems unlikely) I am sure it will be all over the place in no time, as it forces a re-evaluation of the base definition of species. Felix and Canis just don't have the DNA to reproduce together, as far as I know. Sounds like a Photoshop experiment disguised as a Kodak moment.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 10:13 AM

no punchline - Rueter's news service article

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 10:12 AM

I don't see a blank white space in your post, with the punchline hidden in html.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 10:00 AM

Did you hear about the people who claim their cat gave birth to a reult of a mating with the neighbors dog?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 09:55 AM

I heard that on NPR yesterday and had a little bet with myself that Amos would post it here for Mom to enjoy. He must be busy, it took him 24 hours to mention it.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 09:54 AM

Gravity doesn't work - Gravity is independently wealthy and just lays around doing nothing.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 09:47 AM

The LA Times reports:

Dark energy, the enigmatic force that is causing the universe to expand, has been present and constant for at least 9 billion years, a finding that eliminates many of the theories developed to explain its mysterious role in the cosmos, astronomers said Thursday.

The finding provides further support for, but does not prove, Albert Einstein's idea that a repulsive form of gravity exists in space.

That theory, called the cosmological constant, was developed by Einstein to explain the balance between the expansion of the universe and the powerful gravitational pull of stars and other matter.

He eventually abandoned it, calling it the "biggest blunder" of his career, and the theory lay dormant until the discovery of dark energy in the late 1990s.

The finding that dark energy was present in the early stages of the universe "is a significant clue in the quest to understand what is probably one of the most, if not the most, pressing problems in physics," said astrophysicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University, who led the team making the announcement.

The research, which will be published in the February issue of Astrophysical Journal, is the latest in a series of discoveries that have "opened up a completely new realm of understanding about how gravity works," said theoretical astronomer Sean Carroll of Caltech, who was not involved in the research.

Dark energy is analogous to dark matter; scientists have extreme difficulty seeing and measuring them directly, inferring their presence primarily by their effects on visible matter. Dark energy accounts for about 70% of the energy in the universe, scientists believe.

In the interests of Better BS, I offer the thought that "as above, so below" -- the possibility that it is also true that 70% of the thought in the universe is "dark thought", whose characteristics include a tendency to repel prepared minds, and a sort of non-analytical, automatic stimulus response character which places it in opposition to the effort of "clear" thought to disentangle, differentiate and understand. "Dark thought" tends to compress, and be inappropriate to the moment, and collapse thigns together that are in fact different.

Some threads are rich in dark thought -- for example where anonymous posters voice antagonistic or harmful sentiments.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 09:27 AM

Rapaire:

This recidivism on your part is sorry news indeed.

I had hoped you had succeeded at dealing with this problem.

The first part of a solution is recognizing there is a problem. Won't you come to a P.A. meeting? There will be folks just like you there, getting it said. Acknowledging issues and surrendering to a Higher Author. You never know, it might work. C'mooon.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Nov 06 - 09:01 AM

I stole it from a Great And Respected Poet.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: frogprince
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 10:40 PM

"Flo was fond of Ebenezeer,
"Eb" for short she called her beau.
Talk of the Tides of Love, Great Caesar!
You should have seen them, Eb and Flo."

Is there any way you wrote that without thinking of the melody of "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing"?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 09:57 PM

That's always a problem when they reach an age where they fade in and out like that. Don't take it personally.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 09:27 PM

I've been doing my best to keep her company whenever I can get to her.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 07:26 PM

The cat's moving in slow motion today. I tried to offer you a greeting earlier this afternoon, MOM, but I couldn't wait for the browser to load and had to turn it off, hoping it had launched itself. I sea(!) it hadn't. I hope you don't get sea sick with all of the pitching and tipping going on in the server!

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 03:15 PM

I'll betcha you didn't know that the number 65 in base 10 is in

Base-28       29
Base-29        27
Base-30        25
Base-31        23
Base-32        21

Ain't math fascinating? (In base 27 it's 2B.)

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 02:59 PM

By the way, Ebenezeer Scrooge went to Carnal University, high above Cayuga's Waters, with their waves of sludge.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 02:55 PM

Ebenezeer Scrooge, when he was at University, met the true love of his life at the Mermaid and Squid Public House. Her name was Florence Trueheart, and they were seem everywhere together. A poem was written about them....

Flo was fond of Ebenezeer,
"Eb" for short she called her beau.
Talk of the Tides of Love, Great Caesar!
You should have seen them, Eb and Flo.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 02:44 PM

Why is there no record of Boz and the Queen et al in NY 1842? I blame it on Gluon!

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 02:39 PM

Hmmmmmm....okay, then you won't be cured by arriving.


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 01:53 PM

8338

Amos,Amos,Amos!

it is a little known fact (though we are doing our best to promote it) that the *Entire* idea for Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' was derived from events occuring during Charles dicken's visit to Upstate NY during 1842. Specifically when he visited Skaneateles. And the idea of the Christmas Spirits? They were originally named "Christmas Gin", "Christmas Grog" and "Smoking Bishop".

I am looking forward to the party at the Hollywell house, Clara can certainly throw a party. and she always invites everyone - even the Cratchits!

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 12:41 PM

Well, neither the Marleys nor Scroogitis had been identified (or invented) until 1843.

So once you get there, you will recover. Either that or no-one will understand what's bugging you! !:D


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 12:38 PM

I get the Marleys, myself.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 10:24 AM

The trip to 1842 isan't bad - only takes about an hour each way. The problem is I keep hitting Christmas....and that gets a little wearing after a while - too much Christmas leads to grinchitis or in severe cases Scroogeosis

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 10:21 AM

Going to 1842 sounds like quite a trip, MM. I am very glad to see Mom back after the recent hiatus of technological fribbery.

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: MMario
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 10:11 AM

MOrning MOM there's gonna be a full house this weekend - the Kida are home from their European honeymoon and the nephew is bringing his girlfriend home for the week - though they are staying at the lake cottae there's no hot water - so we suspect they will be there only to sleep.

I'm gonna go to 1842.

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Nov 06 - 08:41 AM

Good Morning, Mom. Did you have a nice rest? Can I get you a nice cup of tea and, perhaps, some of those raspberry scones you like? The ones with white chocolate?

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Nov 06 - 04:02 PM

I have that, and it's quite large. Most people call it "The Highland Golf Course."

Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Nov 06 - 09:44 AM

If you buy a good set, you may discover that those sheets cost almost as much as the beds themselves.

I vote that you set up a third guest room. Outside. And decorate it your way. Those who want to rough it can camp in your guest room.