sheepdog

A few days ago I went at least 10 rounds fighting with Amazon Books in a hopeless attempt to order a book for a friend of mine. Finding the book she wanted was easy, and finding a good price was too. The problem came when I tried to order the book. Amazon absolutly refused my real honest to goodness address. No matter how I tried to type it in I kept getting an error message that there was a problem with my address, and it gave it's own ideas of how my address should be written, none of which would get my book delivered to me. It seems that Amazon does not realize that people live out in the country and have some type of Box other than a P. O. box. My correct address contains my rural route number, and a box number. This is NOT a Post Office box, it is a rural route box. A P. O. box is something you rent when you live in town. It took a ton of digging but I fianally found a phone number for Amazon, wasn't even put on hold overly long, but the person I spoke to was nearly as stubborn as the web site. She seemed to think there was no such thing as a rural route box either. She even had the nerve to ask me if I had actually had mail delivered to this address, at which point I nearly lost what little patience I had left and said, well duh, only for the past 30 YEARS!!!Eventually she talked to someone else, and they said that the problem could only be solved by their technical department that sounding like it was way to complicated to even hope they would get fixed before the book is outdated and of no use to anyone. I asked the gal if anybody that lived in the country had ever ordered a book from them and she said she had no way to know that. Gosh, being country can sure be a problem sometimes when the world is run by ignorant fools who don't even know which end of a cow gives the milk. What you say??!!! Milk from a cow? I bet you thought it grew in those plastic jugs in the store, right?

LOLOLOL, I'm with Bikerman! 35 sounds mature enough if you ask me. Really, keep kids away from the internet. Way too much weird stuff on here and you can't watch them constantly. Make them go play outside, make friends, ride bikes, play baseball in the park, or build a tree house. Let them be KIDS not nerds. They will thank you when they grow up and are physically and mentally fit.

No, actually it makes perfect sense for the alcohol consumption to have gone down in more recent years. Now there are way more options for screwing up your life than ever before! Weed, and other even worse drugs are now rampantly available to anybody who wants them. Alcohol is probably now considered old fashion, and not "cool" like drugs are. As long as there are stupid teenages there will be new ways discoverd to get high and screw up your life.

I don't know anything about the rules for absentees at your school, but 13 times in a year doesn't seem like all that many to me. And since your doing a good job of keeping your grades up, I would think you would be fine. Maybe you should talk to one of your teachers or the school councellor or even the school principal to see what the schools policies for being absent are. I hope things work out ok for you.

This is an interesting and might I say, complicated subject? It takes in several different topics actually. For starters, one has to grow and change along with the times, or face being left behind or just left out completely. Back when we stopped using horses and carriages, those buggy whip manufactoring plants had to figure out that they could no longer make buggy whips, and it was either switch over to manufactoring something related to cars instead of the old horse and buggy or go out of business. Those smart enough to switch over to making seat covers or fixing tires survived and those that didn't were left behind. So it is no wonder that churches are gearing up to take advanage of social media. If they want to remain in the face of the public, that is where they have to be. But as to the subject of social media sites, I assume you mean those like facebook or twitter, while churches may promote themselves at those kind of sites, their end game is to fill up the pews in the church. As it should be. And there is no comparison to having hundreds of Facebook "friends" who will type out a snappy responce on their computers if you are sad or in trouble in comparison to a whole congragation of real human beings that will physically come to your aid when you are in trouble. I can't see social media taking over where the church is concerned. Physical contact between humans is sorly needed in this day and age when everyone is hidden behind a computer screen. Chatting online with a friend cannot take the place of meeting that same friend in a restuarant and having a real visit over a sit down dinner and actually interacting face to face. There is just no comparison.

Ok I wouldn't even try this one! I am seriously geographicly challenged. I'd be hard pressed to name all the states in the United States, though I probably could if I had a pencil and paper to make a list as I thought them up, and plenty of time to think it all out.

Now that kind of science scares the crap out of me! I have no desires whatsoever to become a vegetarian. Yuck. But I have seen what is happening in this country due to the drought and it is scary. The thing is, without water, we can't really grow vegetables that much easier than we can grow meat. And the protien sources in vegtables are so much lower, that far more vegetation must be grown and consumed than would need to be if a animal meat sourse is included in the diet. So that is kind of a trade off in the equation. The big question here you ask is can humans work together for the greater good of all? From what I have seen in my life I find that quite unlikely to happen. There will always be someone who will take advantage of any situation to promote their own agenda and do their thing to take over whatever they think they can get away with. Power hungry individuals who don't care if thousands of people starve just so long as they gain more power and control. Under these circumstances, it looks pretty dismal for the continuted survival of the masses.

Yes, but is this really science, or is it junk science? You realize that there are a lot of government grants out there that scientist strive to gain, and some studies are bogus, or have no real value in the grand scheme of things to start with. The whole global warming thing is suspect to start with. Have you noticed that studies often reach opposite conclusions when 2 different groups study the same thing?

Ok, I think that is actually pretty cool, thanks for posting it. Does anybody besides me actually find it amazing that we know so little about this planet we inhabit? We can't even agree on what caused the dinosaurs to go extinct! So many theories out there and so much unknown. I find it all very fasinating.

YIPPEE! I am so glad to finally get some very badly needed rain. Issac may of brought disaster to some, but the rain storms the rest of us are getting now are a true blessing. I was so happy to see the rain I intentionally worked outside all day yesterday, in the rain, got soaked and loved every minute of it. After baking all summer long in the hot sun it was actually fun to be cool and wet.I often wonder if the people who live in cities really understand the problems a long and serious drought can cause, since they can't actually see the physical side of it. Just a few days ago we made a short road trip, and I myself was shocked at the number of dry ponds we saw, and the bare dirt ground that used to be pasture for livestock that now looked more like a gravel bar than a grass field. I feel for the farmers,not only those with cattle who will be hard pressed to feed their herds with hay that was $30 last year for a big round bale now bringing $80 or more. It is rapidly reaching the point when the feed for a cow costs more than the cow is worth. And the grain farmers are taking a great hit too. Sure, costs paid to them for their products is higher than it has ever been, but if you don't have any to sell because of the drought, it sure doesn't do you any good now does it? And the consumers who are seeing much higher prices in the store are hurting, but you don't see the farmer makeing any of that profit, it's all snatched up by the middlemen, the processors and everyone else except the farmer. And to complicate matter even more, our own government won't change it's stance on the blending of ethanol into our gasoline supply, despite the terrible shortage of corn to make ehanol with. That corn should be going to ease our food supplies and make life a little easier on the common man. Yes, crude oil is high too, but it is not in dangerous short supply like our corn crop. Why does the government have to be so short sighted, or pig headed that they can't learn to adjust with the flow and take care of problems as they happen, not send things to committess and work for a year until they can come up with some solution for a problem that probably no longer exists?

Computer technoligy has really changed everything in our lives hasn't it? We used to call this day dreaming, now its virtual reality. There is absolutly nothing wrong with day dreaming, as long as of course, you don't let it rule your life. It can actually be benificial, if you use it as inspiration to make your dreams come true in your real life. Every great inovation in our lives today probably started out as somebody's day dream. It's just a matter of figuring out how to make your day dreams come true when you come back to the real world.

"so I don't have to ponder on their youthful stupidity"Ok, that was funny! Great comment!But seriously, there is a good side to those stupid pictures for us old foggies. We can look at them and think, "oh my god, I am so glad I'm grown up and don't act like those idiots anymore." Or, "Thank god I surrvied my stupid phase when I was a youngster and made it to adulthood in spite of all the stupid stuff I did." Gives us brownie points for making it to adulthood.

A sad day indeed. Neil Armstrong was an American icon, a lot like apple pie and baseball. The dreams and aspirations he created for untold thousands about what we can do with our lives are an inspiration. It does sadden me too that the space program has not continued to reach such glorious hights and achievements as it ventured out to do back in the day. Too bad we have to spend all our money on stupid wars that never really solve anything, the money would be better spent on exploring our universe and all the wonders within.

I certainly hope all the new measures worked like they were supposed to. Katrina was such a horrible disaster, surely we can learn from past mistakes. Of course, when you live in an area that is actually below sea level, it shouldn't come as such a surprise when something like this hits. There has been very little news coverage about Issac, quick blurps about the number of people that are without electric power is about all I've seen. Seems the media is too busy covering political campaignes and conventions. Which quite frankly, I'm getting rather sick of. Another jump in the price of gasoline though, effects everyone, not just those actually facing the storm. We sure didn't need any more financial challenges the way the economy is now.

Welcome Durvesh! You've certainly found the right place for your interests! Lots of great people here, smart ones too, and all this great stuff for free, how can you beat that!?

Ok, but what is it good for? Seriously? Real earth worms are only good for a couple things. Airiating our soil to improve the ability of plants to grow is their most important job, and then also, the production of humus, (earth worm poop) that increases the fertility of the soil. And when they die their bodies also ad vitality to the soil. It's a safe bet a dead metal bug is not going to increase soil fertility. Might even be considered toxic to the soil. And the next most important thing is for fish bait. I'm betting fish are not going to be impressed with a metal bug for lunch. Not to mention the fact that anything electronic would probably short out the first second it hit the water. I'm thinking all that brain power that went into the creation of a fake worm would be better spent on more useful projects with more lofty goals than this one.

I find a lot of information online to be pure BS. Especially when what you are reading is conjecture and also, well endowed with personal opinions. It is so bad as a matter of fact, that recently a new company has started that is designed to protect your business and personal reputation on line from people who for whatever reason have a vendetta against you. There are just some people in the world that no matter what you do you can't please them, and this type of person loves to attack you in whatever way they possibly can to cause you grief. And then there are the so called experts who read a few books and suddenly decide they know everything there is about some particular subject, wether they actually have any real life experience with their chosen subject. I actually got into a pretty good argument one time with an idiot who told me in no uncertain terms he knew more about Komondor Livestock Guard dogs than I did because he had read all about them and I had only raised them for 30 years. And let me tell you, no matter how hard you try to explain things, you really just can't fix stupid. Any time I want to research how to do something online, I read at least 3 or more articules written by different people, and try to use a little common sense and find a balance between all the different points of view. This way, at least with general information you can get a better idea of how things are usually or generally done. There are some pretty radical ideas out there that just don't work for everybody, even if they did work by some fluke of luck for the person writting the articule.

Not exactly a new idea, anybody remember the Chatty Cathy dolls from eons ago? But I'd venture to guess with the fantastic advances in technoligy we have today, these toys will be a far cry from the original toys of this nature. Not to mention a great money makeing deal for the toy manufactor, when a new toy takes off and rockets to the top of the want list of all the little kids, they usually end up not being able to produce them as fast as demands require them. They usually wait till around Christmas time to push they newest fad, so all those little children can start nagging their parents about what they want for Christmas.

jlhaslip, too funny, still thinking Xisto after all this time it's been changed to Xisto! Funny thing is, I still think of it the same way. It's just easier to remember Xisto than it is to remember Xisto, and a lot easier to type too. And now I see the title of IPS community, what's that all about? Are we getting another name change? And welcome tyrthas, I'm sure you'll be able to learn a lot here about web sites and all that jaze. That seems to be the speciality of many of the people here.

I'm not a scientist by any means, but this doesn't make much sense to me. First, I don't see gasses being released from free flowing water. But even if it did have gasses escaping from it would it not do so also if it was not dammed up and was free flowing as a river? And second, yes, methane is released from bubbles in the ooze and slim in the bottom of the lake from decompsing matter, fish poo, bugs, trees, anything that falls into the water and eventually sinks to the bottom, etc. But methane will also be released from dry matter decomposing on top on dry ground too. Why would more methane be made just because it's underwater to start with?

Your right, it's nice to be recognised when you try to do good or help. It helps anyway. But even so, I am only in this world to live up to my own expectations, so as long as I feel good about trying to help, that really is all that matters to me. I'm sure that sometimes just telling your story can ease your mind and relieve some of the preasure of having a problem. And it's even more helpful if you get others to contribute when you are having problems, I'm sure any advise, right or wrong makes a person think that at least they aren't all alone with their problems and other people do care about them. So either way, it's a good thing. And by the way, I'm really glad your here at Xisto. You make some really good posts that I can contribute my opinion to. Thanks for being here!

Wow, a psychopath? That sure seems a bit harsh to me. I was begining to think I was the last person on earth that didn't have a facebook page. Seriously, I worry about getting viruses in my computer, and quite frankly, I am rather private, and don't care to have just any Tom *BLEEP* or Harry have any information about me, or track what I do on line or in any other way stick their nose in my business. But when my favorite dog breeders forum went to facebook I finally broke down after several months of missing all my friends and signed up. I honestly don't like it. Way too much information and junk on there.

When I read your topic headline, this is not the subject I was thinking it was going to be about. I was thinking, babies cry all night, smell funny, and love to scream at the top of their little lungs when they belong to someone else in a restuarant when you are trying to enjoy a good meal, in which case they would be annoying. However, despite all these annoyances, people just love them anyway. Which is a good thing, or else the human race would cease to exist. But to ban baby pictures or cull them some way from social media is a fool hardy project. Why would anyone want to do something that crazy? Seriously, babies are a part of normal life. I'm sorry if you want one and can't have one, but if you can't, you are the exception to the rule, and certainly not in the majority. You can't expect to get to go threw life without being exposed to things that make you feel bad. It just doesn't work that way.

Oh, it's ok, we are all sinners! I've made my share of political comments. And probably a lot of politically incorrect comments too! :)I know I should pay attention, but after awhile it all seems to be a big blur, with each one saying just exactly the same evil things as the other one said about them. Romeny is a male chavenestic pig, Obama is a communist, geeze. It just goes on and on.But, anyway, how do you suppose those soil samples that Curiosity is supposed to be able to drill for get analized, tested, and the info sent back to us? All seems terribly complicated of a process to me. I wonder what all information it is going to provide. I assume it's not going to be able to fly back, but what all can it do while it's there and how long will it be working?

Your lucky the cops didn't find you. What you did is considered dumping an animal, and is illegal and you can be arrested and charged with animal cruelty. I know you think it was your best option, and in these circumstance, it probably was the best choise, but it's just a shame you didn't have more time to try to find a real home for your cat.