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That doesn't sound too bad! I hope your mouth starts to feel better soon.Ninja tooth sticker?! I'm trying to imagine what that would look like... A ninja ripping out a tooth? A tooth dressed as a ninja? I think the heart monitors and wheel chairs have more to do with the anesthesia than the actual extraction. And at least where I'm from, the like knocking people out to remove impacted teeth, or if you have any sort of health issue (including common things like asthma and heart murmurs) that would make a dentist nervous to use gas in an office without the availability of emergency support. I was also expecting gas, and then my doc came in and said, "Meet your friend, the anesthesiologist. He's here to get you high." I don't remember much after that, although apparently I was still conscious and walked into the operating room and laid on the table under my own power. If only I could replicate that feeling legally (and skip the part where they ripped stuff out of my jaw), work would be AWESOME.

This. Also, political science =/= politics. Politics is the process of administering governance (or, famously, "who gets what, when, and how"). It can be dirty, manipulative, and corrupt. Political science is the study of this process, making use of the scientific method, statistical analysis, models, etc. It, like any other science, generally is scholarly and strives to be unbiased.

I haven't seen Corel Draw in years! I remember it being easy to use, but frustrating to use once I found out all of the wonderful things that Photoshop could do more easily.

You should be fine! All of the stories you heard were likely the worst of the worst - the majority of people, those for whom the procedure goes well, move on with their life and don't really consider it worth talking about.It takes all of 20-30 minutes, with a decent portion of that time spent waiting for anestesia to kick in; you won't really care how long it takes, as you'll be loopy and have no real sense of time until probably the next day.I had 2 of my wisdom teeth + four other molars taken out at once, then my other 2 wisdom teeth taken out a few months later. They were all impacted, I had stitches, etc. It was not a particularly simple procedure for me. But it wasn't bad at all. I'm usually a pretty big wimp, but honestly, the worst part for me was gauze and the drooling in the hour or two afterward. Sure, there was a bit of swelling and discomfort, but I never needed anything more than Tylenol and felt generally fine as long as I kept up with ice 20mins/hr for the first few days. There is liquid tylenol, advil, motril - pick your poison, or, if your dentist prescribes anything for pain, you can ask for a prescription for a liquid rather than pills (you may want to have whoever goes with to drive you to ask in case you get nervous or too drugged up to remember). After three days of napping and watching lousy TV and movies, I was more than ready to get back to real life, and even starting eating soft foods that I could chew a bit (think macaroni and cheese). After a week the swelling was all but gone (only my mom could see it) and I didn't really notice anything unless I opened my mouth too far or ate pokey things. I know people who have gone back to their normal activities within a day or so.Try not to worry too much! Get some sleep, good luck tomorrow, and let us know how it goes!

If they REALLY wanted to promote it and get more people to use it, they'd make IE available for Macs again. Then again, I don't know of any Mac users who would actually want to use IE, new version or not...

I'm intrigued. I realize this is sort of an old thread, but contactskn (or anyone else), if you're still around, could you elaborate a bit more on this? If banana and buttermilk are one example of foods that should not be eaten together, what other foods shouldn't be eaten together? Do you have any suggestions for books or websites so I can read more about this?

I agree with all of the above. And as a user with a 12in screen, I cannot see the entire width of the page at once; this is especially problematic on this page, as it crops off the right side and all I see is "News at" before I scroll over. This may also pose a problem for Blackberry users and users of other similarly small screened devices. Ideally there would be some flexibility within the code so that the columns and text get bigger or smaller based on the size of the browser window Much easier to navigate that way.Good luck!

On the note of universities prohibiting Wikipedia as a source, most of my professors generally frowned upon citing Wikipedia (but encouraged us to use the links within Wiki as a starting point for research). Despite this, some professors, many of the same who prohibited Wiki as a source, would print out Wiki articles and use them as their lecture notes. They'd never tell us, but I saw a few printouts, and with some professors we'd follow along on our laptops and ALWAYS knew what the next question would be. I'm not sure whether that reflects poorly on my professors or extremely well on Wikipedia ...perhaps a bit of both.

Thanks for the suggestions, Fractured.Logic! I shall have to check out those authors (bad library humor? I need sleep). Stalking the Wild Asparagus is an intermixing of the author's personal stories and commentary on various foods with some tips on where to find them, how to identify them, how to cook them, and some recipes. It includes everything from fruits and veggies to flowers and weeds to fish, frogs, and birds. It has a lot of information, but is written as a narative of sorts so you sort of feel like you come to know the plants rather than just reading factoids on them. The major criticism that I've heard is that the only pictures are hand-drawn diagrams of the plants, but hey, the book was published in 1965.

I personally never did well with sitting meditations ...you know, the butt on a pillow, spine straight, legs crossed, hands on knees sort of thing that everyone mocks. I'd always sit there counting the minutes, wondering at what angle was most beneficial to have my legs crossed at, etc., and it was anything but relaxing.And then a friend of mine introduced me to walking meditations. One foot moves with each breath. Breathe in - move right foot; breathe out - move left foot (or vice versa). And so on. When done slowly enough, it makes a surprisingly good balance exercise, too. I guess this is a personal preference, but I find it much easier to reach a meditative state like this, and having a physical action associated with breathing makes it much easier to focus for me (then again, I find deep breathing to be far more difficult than most).I also really enjoy meditating outside. Trying to mediate in the same room as my computer just doesn't work for me. But under a big, leafy tree, by the water, out in the grass - I feel much calmer and clearer.So I guess where I'm going with that is that the same thing doesn't work for everyone. Try things, switch it up a bit, see what works for you.

I think that children should be presented with a broad range of religious beliefs, in the sort of frame of "these people think this, these people think this, and mommy and daddy think this," but without putting a bad tone to other religious beliefs. Religion is a fact of life just like everything else - even if you don't actively engage with it, you still exist in a world of people who do.I was lucky enough that when my parents realized after three weeks that I was miserable in Sunday school at their church, they let me stop going, because they believed that I was an innately spiritual individual and they didn't want to ruin it with my bad feelings toward one particular church. They let me explore several other local churches, and when I was older, several other religions. Even though I never became a particularly religious person, I'm still thankful that I had some religious education from a young age, mostly for the fact that there are numerous religious references throughout popular literature and so I was able to understand texts much more deeply.That said, my sister did continue through Sunday school at the church that I disliked, and it always struck me a bit like brainwashing. My parents made sure to discuss sermons and Sunday school material with her at home, always asked "why," and always brought the material back to things like being nice, honesty, etc. that are important for anyone of anyone religion.

Wikipedia is a good source for basic information - and a source for more sources that provide much more reliable, in-depth information. Obviously Wikipedia cannot be relied on as a primary source, and you can't believe everything you read, but it is usually far more current than Encarta is, and from what I have seen, more detail (although admittedly I haven't seen MS Encarta in years because it costs money, whereas there are many free encyclopedias available online).

Cauliflower in potato soup... ingenious! I always eat half a head of cauliflower and then can never figure out what to do with the rest. I'm the only one in my family and of my friends who eats cauliflower, so I never have anyone to share with - and a whole head is a lot for just me to eat in the 4-5 days before it goes bad.I think it was in a South Beach Diet cookbook... I remember my sister once tried to show me a recipe for "mashed potatoes" made out of cauliflower as a low carb alternative. It sounded gross to me at the time, and I scoffed at the idea of "low carb," but if cauliflower is good in potato soup, who knows, maybe its good in mashed potatoes, too. I don't think I could ever go so far as to leave out the potatoes completely, but I guess I won't know until I try.Now all I need is cooler weather so that I can try this out! (something about potato soup when its 90 degrees and humid just isn't appealing)

Ha! Thank you! That was actually really helpful. Hitchhiker's is one of those books that seems like such an obvious choice that I always forget about it, and actually have yet to read. As for labels, I read them somewhat compulsively before buying things; I have most ingredients for all of my food, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. memorized from reading them so often (and admittedly, they're short lists). Dr.Bronner's, however, is quite the challenge. Are you familiar? THAT is quite a label. Books I'd recommend? I just finished reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz and found it fascinating, if a bit violent. I also just finished Stalking the Wild Asparagus, which is AMAZING if you have any interest in wild plants and foraging (I guess that's what I meant by food-themed books? Omnivore's Dilemma-esque books). My usual recommendations are anything by Margaret Atwood, or Vandana Shiva and Bruce Ackerman for those into nonfiction.