Watermonkey

George Orwell, 1984 and Animal Farm both influenced how I view the politics of this world, and especially the United States of Amerika. But to provide me with a proper reference, I read William Bramley's The Gods of Eden and I found that book ties everything together in a nice neat package making the world of politics seem a little more transparent.

Alright. I think I've got all the ingredients: Libby's pure pumpkin, several bins of cream cheese, sugar, graham cracker pie tins with extra graham crackers just in case... I just need a recipe I can use now. If anyone knows of a good recipe for this wonderful treat, please post it for all to see. Thanks! No one ever accused me of being patient... Oops. Sorry about mis-spelling "recipe" on the topic. Since I already put in the recipe, maybe some other yummy deserts can be added in addition to this one. Don't be bashful. Cookies, cake, whatever... Update: I made this today using two pre-made "natural" graham cracker pie crusts and two observations: The recipe as written is enough for three pies! So I actually had to use the recipe for graham cracker crust on the back of the graham crackers (organic) I bought. It's basically just 3 Tbs of Organic Butter and 3 Tbs. of maple syrup mixed in to the graham crackers after they've been put through the mixer. Then pack them on to a pie pan and an inch or so up the side. Then you bake the whole thing empty for 5 minutes at 350F. The second observation is that you'll have a good amount of pumpkin and evaporated milk left over from this recipe. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those things. The wild birds may be the beneficiary to the pumpkin and the evaporated milk could be used for coffee or tea if that's your thing. Not mine, so it may end up in the septic system. But, in the end, that's where pretty much everything ends up. When I went to warm the cream cheese, I put it in a large mixing bowl and put that into another large pot filled about 1/3 of the way with water. I then heated that whole thing on the stove top. It melted beautifully. In addition to the above recipe, I added a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger. Otherwise I followed it using organic ingredients except for the pumpkin and evaporated milk. I'll add to this again after I've tasted it. It's gonna be cooling now for a while. Addendum: After a couple days of thinking about what went wrong here's my observation: The taste is exquisite and well worth the one downfall of this batch. I didn't beat enough air into the mixture before baking and subsequently the pie ended up being low and dense instead of a couple inches high and fluffy. If anyone tries this recipe, add a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger if you've got some and be sure to beat the hell out of the batter before baking. I think the final result would be a real crowd pleaser if done properly.

I'm not personally going to jump on that bandwagon for another year or two most likely. The war isn't over yet, just because Blu-Ray sounds much cooler and has Sony behind it doesn't mean it's a done deal. There are many many HD-DVD players and titles out and more are coming out all the time. This is a replay of the VHS tape wars of 20 years ago, give or take, where the superior format, beta-max, ended up loosing. I don't know which is the superior format in this case, but it seems as though I'd read somewhere that HD-DVD actually holds more information on thier discs. In any case, with Apple and Sony and many others firmly backing Blu-Ray, it's probably going to win, but I wouldn't take it to the bank just yet.

That makes a lot of sense. Dogs eat a mainly vegetarian diet and can survive on a fully vegetarian diet. Cats, on the other hand, need to have a high rate of animal protein in their diet. But for some reason you're saying "cats are for lonely people and vegetarians"? And why lonely people? Why not social people? Cats are social animals too you know. They do much better in pairs than individually in most cases. Mine follows me all over the house and enjoys playing with Vladamir Putin and they both like to go outside and play with Algore. They're all individuals, to generally say all cats are loners or whatever personality aspect you want to peg to them would be to make an uninformed opinionated statement, and it would be false. They're all very much individuals just like people. Some people call cats "Little women in cheap fur coats" and I think they really act the part some times. But even "little women in cheap fur coats" are individuals with their own distinct personalities. Some are outgoing, others don't like strangers. Some use the toilet, others... Well, you get the point. I hope.

What an awesome topic Krissy. I bet this will be one of those 10 pagers.My name is simple. I was born in the Chinese Astrological year of the Monkey. I discovered the Chinese system of Astrology actually divides their years into four groups: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. So, specifically, I was born in the year of the Water Monkey.BTW, Welcome to the Trap!

Since most people own peecees and use programs written for windoz, you're going to get a majority of anti-mac, pro-windoz responses from asking this question. So I'd encourage you to give considerably more weight to those who recommend the mac. First the new macs use the same Intel CPUs the other peeceez use. This means that you can partition your HD and install Windoz on one partition and have your choice of OS if you happen to use software not written for the Mac. BTW, I'm not just pulling this out of my a$$, I own a MacBook Pro 17", 2.33Mhz Core2Duo, with 2Gig RAM, and a 160Gig HD. I've not encountered any reason to install Windoz personally. I've found everything I need to use for Mac and I'm just fine with it. The only reason I use my Windoz computer, a Dell, is for MS Streets and Trips. There is mapping software written for Mac, though, and I've heard it's far better then S&T. Your choice, but I'm recommending the Mac, hands down. Boozker uses a Mac too. Maybe he'll chime in here after he's finished enjoying his 666th post...

Some very nice research was done regarding T1 speed and ADSL, HDSL, and VDSL back on page 11 I think. The research was accurate as far as I can tell, a T1 and HDSL have the same speed of about 1.544Mbps. This, if symetrical, should be pretty much fast enough for anyone I should think. I'm on Satellite, so I'm not doing so well. According to Speedtest.net, my ping time is 688ms and I've got a whopping 1047kbps down and all of 77kbps upload speeds. For whatever reason, this site doesn't do a very good test of upload speeds, so I go to toast.net for that. According to toast, my upload is crawling along at 229kbps. I don't know why the huge discrepancy, but there it is. So if you're on a faster, more responsive connection than I am, be glad. It could be worse. By the way, according to speedtest.net, the fastest ISP in the world is called prov.RU with nearly 25mbps down and 12mbps up.

I did a quick search on the subject matter at hand and found what I believe to be the crux of the argument: The whole article can be found here: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/nocookies I don't know if that's exactly what you were looking for... Before getting all up in arms, I wish people would actually read. It states clearly that being a vegetarian doesn't make you smarter, is says that being smarter leads people more frequently to become vegetarians for ethical and health related reasons. Thinking people live their lives more carefully and are more likely to care for the environment and want to cause less pain and suffering to other creatures they share the planet with. So next time you've got a bead on your next year's supply of meat, make sure you're a good enough shot to kill the beast instantly, causing the least amount of pain possible. I'm serious when I say that. The unthinking person is more likely to go to the store and buy dyed, factory farmed, drugged up, tortured, unhealthy hamburger then go out with a hunting party once a year and actually work for it. There are many people in between like myself who make more careful choices when purchasing meat. I've gone to buffalo burger at Safeway and I'm on the hunt for a source of wild game meat now too. I know of a couple sources, but they're quite a ways away. It'd be worth the drive, though. My favorite is Elk, but I bet Moose is tasty too...

I'm just wondering how long before Boozker posts some more and goes past his current post count of 666...

From the Associated Press: It's going to take an event like this one to spark off the giant keg called WWIII-Part II. Of course Part I was the invasion then occupation of Iraq and the incredible destruction the West powers and their allies have caused with all the Depleted Uranium that has a 4.46 billion year half life. But this is minor compared with what we can expect to see in Part II. Nuclear reactors and Uranium enriching facilities in Iran will, no doubt, be major targets and when they're hit, massive radiation will likely be injected in to the air stream just as though a full nuke had been detonated above ground. But let's not stop there, Once a shooting war with possible real nukes starts in the middle east, you can bank on someone lobbing a nuke toward Israel with a response in kind, likely Syria will be brought along in the mix and China and Russia may get involved too. Or China will see the opportunity to take Taiwan Island with the giant distraction in the Middle East and all of America's War Machine resources dedicated there. Being in a real war will allow the Nazis' Fourth Reich running Amerika to finally engage their Utopian dream of Martial Law and all those prisons they've been building for years will finally be put to use. With Amerika's National Guard busy fighting Iranians and pretty much everyone on the planet, and many of the states having restricted and demonized gun ownership, the country will be ripe for the taking; an invasion from China could occur from Mexico and/or Alaska/British Columbia. Most people agree, though, the invasion would be stopped dead in its tracks when it came up to the Rocky Mountain foothills. We can discuss it while it happens, or post other things you think will happen in the very near future, perhaps relating to your country if you're not in North Amerika... ...or if you are in North Amerika. Either way...

I'm sure your idea isn't original boozker. Not that I'm saying you stole it, it's a good idea and all, but for not too much, a person could install a cheap knock-off of what you're describing... http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Sorry man...

That's a theory. Another theory is that oil is strictly mineral and is generated deep within the earth's mantle. It's speculated that the lubricity of oil allows the tectonic plates to shift slowely and not so violently but when it's extracted from deep wells that causes friction to build resulting in harsher earthquakes. It's still all a matter of speculation and theory though at this point. Cross your fingers!

Oh MAN!!! Now I've got to find another funny joke to tell at parties! Sheesh! I didn't realize it was so widespread! Oh, and the list is one of the most retarded ideas I've heard in a long time. Anyone who participates in such a thing may as well just hang it up and live single for the rest of his/her life because no relationship is gonna withstand that for long.

From Reuters, I'm personally disturbed that there's a black market for "claws, skulls, and bones" from this magnificant animal and I hope the government there beefs up law enforcement to protect them from the most effecient, destructive, and dis-honerable of all preditors: Humans. How does this news and other reports just like it from other Asian countries like Thailand, other SE Asian countries, even Siberia, effect the planet as a whole, and how does it make you feel individually?

Well that describes our house. I'll remember that bit about the panels. Now that's good information. I just wish all replies were so informative... Sadly, I'm seeing nothing but absolutely insane asking prices for land around here and in the county to the east. I don't know how we'll be able to afford to build a shed let alone a project on this scale if we spend all our money on the land. I don't get why people suddenly think their land is worth so much... I've gotten a preliminary estimate on the cost of the building and after all is said and done including landscaping and road work, I can expect this one building to cost upwards of $400k USD. I hate to think of how much the actual residence would cost to build when the time comes...

I created a special topic just for you to discuss your adventures with wild animals. It's under Science and Nature. Please post your comments regarding wild cats and such there. This topic is regarding the personalities of people who prefer either a domestic cat or dog.

Well, I have many "favorite" cars, but since my net worth is under $50M I'll mention a couple or three that are also "reasonable" as opposed to the Bugatti Veyron at an obscene price of $1.44M base (current pound to dollar conversion)! To quote the first paragraph in Wikipedia's entry: Since you brought it up, the VW Touareg is on the top of the list. Sadly, the diesel variation that will begin to be imported in '08 or '09 with a 6 cylinder motor and awesome (for a 5500 pound AWD vehicle) efficiency that should be rated around 28 MPG City and 35 MPG Highway I think, will cost around $50k... But, boy is it a sweety! Next in line would be the VW Touareg with the 10 cylinder diesel motor that gets and admirable 25 MPG overall and is extremely powerful. I love to feel those "G's" pushing my head into the cushion when my foot gets on it. Something about pure torque that really makes my day. Gives you that feeling.. like... victory. Unfortunately, "victory" comes at a steep price: $70k+ Next would be pretty much anything Audi, especially the R8. Of course I'd rather have a diesel for the economy and torque, but this will do: a V-10 engine based on the same power plant used in the Lamborghini Gallardo. Forget about gas mileage on this one, and I think it's safe to say it's priced well over $100k... I can dream too, right? ...Right???

So I get some audio engineering related email since that's what I went to school for (Shoreline Community College, AA/AS 1993) and I ran across this the other day: http://www.purepoweraps.com/ Anomalies like noise, clipped sine waves, and surges are the leading cause of lower life expectancy in electronics of all sorts, high end and Kmart level. Obviously, if you buy all your home electronics from Wallyworld or Kame-a-part, you've got issues that supersede power conditioning, so we won't even go there. For others who might actually buy high-end components or actually have an expensive theater and/or recording studio in their homes (or elsewhere), power conditioning is one of the most important ways of making that sound quality reach its full potential. I'd love to know how a $10M studio cleans its electricity, other than good old fashion AC to DC (rectifiers) with battery backup, back to AC again through HUGE inverters. I bet it'd be nothing to spend $100k on power conditioning alone in a setup like that. I've heard of people taking a drop off the utility, bringing it in to the door, and injecting a transformer right there, before the electricity enters the studio's wiring. They must've done more though because it wouldn't accomplish much except to provide newly transformed voltage to them; they'd still be vulnerable to brownouts, frequency fluctuations, and surges. The wiring is something to pay attention to also. Copper wire can easily, if not shielded properly, provide just the right pathway to accommodate Radio Frequency interference and without the proper grounding, that interference can carry all the way to the speakers or your recording. (If you're recording, you really need to isolate those mics, by the way. A mic stand can pick up low frequency vibration from air traffic or ground traffic. There are cheaper ways, but Bad Animals studios in Seattle WA actually has several feet of concrete isolating the studio from the walls and the slab the studio sits on is floating on top of a layer of oil which sits sealed upon another slab of concrete. However you do it, that's definitely one way to shield your recording from low frequency interference.) Now the wiring should avoid parallel runs for much distance and it should all consist of top-of-the line heavy gauge construction. Having just one master ground is key because then, you're just working from one reference to drain all the interference to instead of two potentially competing grounds whose voltages may differ, even slightly. In a house, I recommend a copper water pipe that you know to go to the outside world. If you're not sure about its grounding, you can measure its voltage in relation to a known ground. You should detect absolutely no voltage with a good Fluke volt/ohm meter that is sensitive down to .00 volts. To really fully, and obsessively shield your studio, room, or house from RF interference, build it all underground and encase a copper cage around all six walls like a chain link fence and drain the ground to just one point along with all the electrical grounds. If your middle initials aren't N.S.A., you probably can't afford that, so you'll have to expect some amount of interference depending upon your budget, but using a AC/DC/AC method, such as the solution I've linked at the beginning of this article is probably the most cost-effective means of beginning this process. One way to determine if your sound system is on a clean power supply is (and this works best with self-amplified speakers such as Mackie HR824 professional studio monitors) to simply turn all the electronics on and listen to the speaker. If you turn the volume up to about half and with your ear next to the speaker you don't hear any static, white noise, 60Hz ground loop, or anything at all, you've done a tremendous job of "cleaning" your power and ground system! Congratulations. Questions? I'll try and answer as many as I can.

I laughed till my face and gut hurt after watching that movie, Grizzly Man. What a moroon! It was especially hysterical when he bragged about not having a firearm with him, "because I know these bears won't hurt me." HA! That's good stuff right there. Sadly he had his girlfriend sold on his stupidity too and she was killed shortly after whacking the bear (in the beginning of enjoying his tasty little snack -the Grizzly Man), on the head with a frying pan. I have no idea how they knew which bear did it, but not long after, a team of professional hunters or Park Rangers (if memory serves) came to the island and shot the bear (Ironic since The Grizzly Man was there to "protect" the bears and their habitat!) and they found the bodies partially digested. Must've been one big bear! I think the Kodiak variety of Grizzly is the second largest carnivore in the world, next to the polar bear. I wouldn't be caught within ten miles of one without at least a .45-70 rifle locked and loaded. The game guides on a neighboring island all laughed and thought he was mad, but he did make it for four years, so they weren't laughing when he finally met his demise. Thing is, he may have been right except for the fact that the bears he befriended weren't around when he was attacked. The bear that attacked him was from another area and was only there for a short while so he didn't know the dude and lady. He only knew them to be an especially rare and tasty treat. Last one he'd eat, as it turned out. We've got a neighbor who told me he was out in his trailer doing some work or something one summer afternoon. He said he walked out of the door and saw the strangest, most unexpected thing. He couldn't identify it at first but when he did, he walked very quietly and quickly away from the trailer. On the roof of the trailer was a mountain lion taking a nap! The lion's tail was hanging over the edge of the roof and, while he was tempted, the guy wisely refrained from reaching up and playfully grabbing it. Had he done that, it would've ended with a hospital visit or worse. On the other hand, he said something to a neighbor about the incident and, sure enough, within an hour word got around that a mountain lion was spotted and another neighbor showed up, shotgun in hand, looking for "that damn cougar", ready to kill it. He was told to leave immediately. People, even locals who live with nature, seem to have an unnatural fear of big cats and other wild animals who might consider humans, especially adolescent humans, on their menu. My dad has an innate fear of wolves and hates eagles because they kill fawns. I told him the deer are so think here I'd welcome wolves and anything else that has them on their menus. At least that way the predators are well fed and I'm less likely to meet one of those stupid animals crossing the road right in front of me while I'm driving (I totaled a car that way once when I was much younger). While you should always maintain a healthy respect for big cats and wild animals in general, I do believe they want nothing to do with that stinky, slow, loud, dangerous animal called human and when they cross paths, they tend to not attack unless you've accidentally crossed between them and their young ones. That can spell your death, even if you back away and try to apologize profusely... Most humans they've encountered were either hunting them or hunting one of their siblings so they not only fear all humans, they hate them as much as that emotion can be attributed to a wild animal. Big cats aren't stupid, they're survivalists, but more importantly they're BIG! One swipe with that big 'ole paw has the potential not only to knock a person ten feet, but also could kill that person with its claws. Basically, I'm saying that advising someone to go out and "get to know" or "tame" or "befriend" a wild animal such as a Big Cat is dispensing irresponsible and reckless advise and anyone doing should follow their own advise so we can read his "statistic" in the paper later too. You're a sure candidate for the Darwin Awards if you do something as stupid as that.

One thing I haven't seen here, speaking of common sense, is we're not really talking about the same milk that has been consumed by people in history. Pasteurization is a relatively recent phenomena and heating the milk (and juice, and everything else that undergoes this process) not only kills harmful bacteria, it kills beneficial bacteria and enzymes. The only cheese I eat is made from RAW milk that is sourced from cows that haven't been treated with rBst or antibiotics. That way I'm eating a living vital food that nourishes me. It is not a good source of calcium; if you want a good source of calcium go eat your green veggies like broccoli. The growth hormones injected into cows to make them produce more milk has several impacts: First, the udder was only "designed" to accommodate a given amount of milk production and flow per day. When this virtual milk-making machine produces more milk then the teats were designed to handle, they become sore and soon puss will begin to leak into the milk. So when you drink that glass of 2%, just remember you're also ingesting a little bit of udder puss too. A further consequence of growth hormone is earlier onset of puberty in children. While this may not seem like a bad thing to you, there are many health risks to a human body that begins to mature before nature intended including reproductive health issues. Also, rBst has been shown to be a potential cause of breast tumors and obesity in children and adults alike. Bottom line is if you're consuming anything that's been pasteurized, even if it's rBst-free or organic, you're still eating dead food so you're not going to gain much if any benefit from it. Pasteurized fruit juice is just sugar water. Maybe not so bad as soda pop, but not much better either. Pasteurized milk is, as Thorned Rose posted several times, actually harmful to you. A possible healthier alternative, if you can get it, might be raw goats milk or sheep milk. But, really, humans were only meant to drink human milk for the first few years of life. I hear coconut milk is healthy... For those of you who hold on to your precious milk insisting it's not bad for you, consequence isn't a concern for you, but the consequences will catch up with you some day regardless. I only wish my mom had been informed of these things when I was growing up. Maybe today I wouldn't have asthma and a tendency to gain weight. Did you know that Elmer's Glue is made from milk? Mmmmmm..... glue....