It's called a blaster, Will, a word that tends to discourage experimentation. Now, if it were called the Orgasmater, I'd be the first to try your basic button press approach.

Xander ,'Get It Done'


Natter 48 Contiguous States of Denial  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


DawnK - Nov 28, 2006 2:14:48 pm PST #3475 of 10007
giraffe mode

There's a fair amount of increduality and often a side of is she mental?!

sarameg, I worked at a vet's office for years. We had one client who had 2 beautiful Goldens. She would bring them in every other week for baths and insist on taking them home wet. In her Rolls Royce with leather interior. Now that's sorta mental!


bon bon - Nov 28, 2006 2:16:15 pm PST #3476 of 10007
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

(And Cindy, I'm really sorry if this is starting to feel like a pile-on, which I think it may after I look at how much I just wrote. The original question hit while I couldn't answer, and it's an issue that I've had a pretty major interest in for many years now. So I'm probably doomed to go on and on about it, but my target is crappy arguments rather than anything personal.)

I don't want there to be a pile-on, but I think it's not easy to get up to speed on all the permutations of the so-called debate, so I'd love to hear you go on and on.


sarameg - Nov 28, 2006 2:20:03 pm PST #3477 of 10007

amych, I know exactly what you mean. It's basically easily treatable, but does require a fair amount of commitment. Plus, I suspect there's the whole issue of your cat lets you give him shots!?


Lee - Nov 28, 2006 2:20:25 pm PST #3478 of 10007
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.

Lee, if he doesn't remember you precisely, he definitely wishes there were more daytime people around this joint

Mine too. Especially with the heat not working, which it currently isn't.


Cass - Nov 28, 2006 2:22:36 pm PST #3479 of 10007
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.

Mister Kitty is sitting quite royally on a rectangle of crinkly irridescent plastic. He's quite thrilled with it.
It's like a Throne of Power to them, I swear.

Seriously. MK will mug me for the stuff. He knocked the top off one container and proceded to scoop out blobs with his paw. I don't imagine a lot is good for them, but...it is grease. If hairballs are the culprit, it'll let them, um, slide through.
Kittenish won't even go for the Petromalt. Snobbish twit. I just got good at cleaning up hairballs finally.

she returned the favor by apparently teaching Minion's new six-month pup to sit at intersections when they went on walks.
Good, Lu!


Strega - Nov 28, 2006 2:25:33 pm PST #3480 of 10007

On a side note, the article tommyrot linked to about the universe next door does mention how the LISA project could support, or disprove, the idea. Other theories* about extra dimensions are about things happening at the subatomic level, and there are experiments going on with particle accelerators to try to support them. But at least some of them are based on already observable data -- they're attempts to explain stuff that doesn't make sense if there are only 4 dimensions.

*And yeah, they aren't theories in a scientific sense; they are hypotheses. This is a pithy little explanation of what scientific laws and theories are. I believe that in order to be a law, it has to be universal. Theories may not be.


amych - Nov 28, 2006 2:28:15 pm PST #3481 of 10007
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

Plus, I suspect there's the whole issue of your cat lets you give him shots!?

There is that! I don't think any of mine would've objected very seriously, but then I've always had animals who've known from babyhood that they had to accept being handled in unpleasant ways -- I've known plenty of people who have never once cut their pets' nails because they just assume they'd never allow it -- and so they don't. (I just can't imagine paying a groomer or vet every time they start making clicky noises on the hardwoods...)


Topic!Cindy - Nov 28, 2006 2:47:58 pm PST #3482 of 10007
What is even happening?

amy, it didn't feel like a pile on at all. Please go on, if you have more to say. My questions were earnest questions, not argument set-ups. For every article out there (on either side) there is a rebuttal, and that's where they all lose me. Here's what I know (not necessarily in this order):

1) I have no reason not to accept sound scientific findings.

2) To date, nothing science has found has talked me out of theism, but I don't think it's meant to, in the first place (personal opinion of some scientists, aside).


amych - Nov 28, 2006 3:05:39 pm PST #3483 of 10007
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

I'd never want to talk you out of theism, Cindy -- it's such a huge part of you! For my own part, I'm pretty thoroughly agnostic on the G-d question*, but also a total evolution fangirl; I don't think atheism is required by my position, although literalism is clearly Right Out. Still, I wanted to say something upfront rather than worry that you felt like you were getting jumped. (Anyway, my major hate-on is for shitty, shitty arguments and the way they're used to manipulate people.)

* and yet? Still weird on writing it. Behold my contradictions!


Topic!Cindy - Nov 28, 2006 3:16:22 pm PST #3484 of 10007
What is even happening?

Oh, I didn't think you would try to talk me out of it. I mentioned that, because I think it plays into where all the writers lose me. I lack a tizzy for science v. religion and vice versa.

Anyway, my major hate-on is for shitty, shitty arguments and the way they're used to manipulate people.

Yes. And that's part of why I didn't feel piled on, either. I was truly asking, because at some point, when you're reading point-counterpoint articles, at least one of the writers is mistaken, misleading, or flat out lying (often both are, from what little I understand of the subject, at least somewhat mistaken/misleading).