Society
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- hedge0
And what would those reasoned responses be, exador1? Just stating that they exist means nothing.
I hope you all take some time out of your day today to reflect on where you live and what it truly means to be American.
- Transit_Broadcast0
Just out of curiosity how old are you hedge?
- brains0
hedge is a 62 year old asshat. Either that or 2cents.
- hedge0
That's entirely irrelevant.
- Transit_Broadcast0
I think age is totally relevant.
There are many, many things that are relevant to how someone perceives the world.
Maybe you're too young, or unaware to grasp that.
- How old do you place me?hedge
- Forget about it now. You're tired.Transit_Broadcast
- Typical.hedge
- ********0
A money-losing Japanese train company has found the purr-fect mascot to draw crowds and bring back business - Tama.
All the 9-year-old female cat has to do is sit by the entrance of western Japan's Kishi Station, wearing a black uniform cap and posing for photos for the tourists who are now flocking in from across the nation.
Her job makes cultural sense in Japan, where cats are considered good luck and are believed to bring in business.
Tama has done such a good job of raising revenue for the troubled Kishikawa train line that she was recently promoted to "super station master."
"She never complains, even though passengers touch her all over the place. She is an amazing cat. She has patience and charisma," said Wakayama Electric Railway Co. spokeswoman Yoshiko Yamaki. "She is the perfect station master."
People have been snatching up novelty goods - postcards, notebooks and erasers - bearing Tama's photos.
The cat had been about to lose her place to live, with the nearby store where she was raised being torn down. Now, the station is home.
The Kishikawa line had been losing $4.9 million a year as passenger numbers fell steadily to as low as about 5,000 a day, or some 1.9 million a year.
After Tama's appointment last year passenger numbers have risen by 10 percent to about 2.1 million a year.
In December Tama was rewarded with bonus pay - all in cat food.
- ********0
During three years in the low minors, John Odom never really made a name for himself until he got traded for a bunch of bats.
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"I don't really care," he said Friday. "It'll make a better story if I make it to the big leagues."
For now, Odom is headed to the Laredo Broncos of the United League. They got him Tuesday from the Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League for a most unlikely price: 10 Prairie Sticks Maple Bats, double-dipped black, 34-inch, C243 style.
"They just wanted some bats, good bats — maple bats," Broncos general manager Jose Melendez said.
According to the Prairie Sticks Web site, their maple bats retail for $69 each, discounted to $65.50 for purchases of six to 11 bats.
The Canadian team signed Odom about a month ago, but couldn't get the 26-year-old righty into the country. It seems Odom had a "minor" but unspecified criminal record that wasn't revealed to immigration officials before they scanned his passport, Vipers president Peter Young said.
Odom said the charge stemmed from a fight when he was 17. Although he thought it had been expunged from his record, it popped up during immigration.
Originally from Atlanta, Odom was drafted late by the San Francisco Giants in 2003. He pitched 38 games in Class A from 2004-06 and was released by the organization this spring.
The bat trade wasn't the first time Calgary came up with some creative dealmaking. The Vipers once tried to acquire a pitcher for 1,500 blue seats when they were renovating their stadium, Young said.
- hedge0
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
- hedge0
I think that society in its entirety can be divided into two distinct groups. Group 1 tend to be the ones who will point out the negative of any situation. I call them bears. They are perma-pessimists who will usually err on the side of destruction, mayhem, evil. It almost seems as if they enjoy or rely on the possibility of such things. These people are more likely to identify with Hobbes' views of society: Human life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
Group 2 on the other hand are people who will point out the good in any situation. I call them bulls. These are the people who are inherently optimistic about life. They realize what humans are capable of, but they also understand what it means to be human. These are usually the people you will see running large, successful companies like Microsoft or GE. They are more likely to adopt Locke's point of view on society: "Reason teaches that no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions."
There are a lot of bears here and, unfortunately, in modern society as well.
- Don't you mean 'in contemporary society'? Are you sure you're a designer? Go somewhere...else.Transit_Broadcast
- whats wrong with saying modern society CHUMP!NewElpaso
- Nothing is. He just has no other method of attacking me at this point.hedge
- ********0
- hedge0
I never said I am a designer.
- airey0
Social Media Eat Porn's Lunch (Again)
Regina Lynn 05.23.08 | 12:00 AM
http://www.wired.com/culture/lif…Newsweek sparked a conflagration among conservative Christians last week by pointing out that Christian dating site BigChurch.com is owned by Penthouse Media Group.
This wouldn't have been big news to BigChurch members who bothered to look under the site's hood. The Christian dating site has been operated by social networking giant Various, Inc. (which runs AdultFriendFinder.com, Bondage.com and Penthouse.com) for years. Penthouse Media Group acquired BigChurch, along with dozens of other niche social networking sites, when it purchased Various last December.
As a result of the purchase, Penthouse is now just one brand among many in a corporation that focuses on social networking, says Penthouse Media Group CEO Marc Bell.
Some people still think of Penthouse as Playboy's dirty cousin, even though Penthouse changed hands in 2004 and is now trying to be one step raunchier than Maxim rather than one step classier than Anal Sluts 13.--- more follows here:
http://www.wired.com/culture/lif…
- jfletcher0
bears and bulls? wtf? optimists and pessimists. Stop trying to copy and paste you way to sounding smart. You can heave "bears" who are very successful because they can forecast and see potential potholes. Likewise you can have bulls who fail miserably because they always see good.
You're a asshat who doesn't know thing one about society except what you can cut and paste. Go read Common Sense, Conspicuous Consumption, or Of Empire to start and get a clue. You're out of your leage.
...and if you're not aware "Common Sense" is a book. I figured I'd have to tell you that.
- 100% of what I wrote was entirely by me, other than what is in quotations.hedge
- And I wasn't applying the terms "bulls and bears" to the financial markets in this case.hedge
- logic > you
& college > you, is my guess.hedge - It's funny how you say I'm out of my league, Joe. Hypocrite.hedge
- looks like I got you going... pointing out how you haven't a clue seems to be the way.jfletcher
- It's just funny is all.hedge
- ********0
A man who robbed a woman of her keys and cell phone, then licked her toes, was sentenced Wednesday to five years' probation. Carlton Jermaine Davis, 26, faces 21 months in prison if he fails to complete probation for the robbery charge in Ramsey County District Court.
According to a criminal complaint, Davis approached the woman around 1 a.m. on Sept. 9 as she was leaving work and forced her to put her phone and purse inside a bag. Then he told her, "Now I'm going to suck your feet."Police arrested Davis a few minutes later about four blocks away.
- ********0
A MAN caught trying to have sex with his bicycle has been sentenced to three years' probation.
Robert Stewart, 51, was caught in the act by two cleaners who walked into his bedroom at the Aberley House Hostel in Ayr.
Gail Davidson, prosecuting, told Ayr Sheriff Court: "They knocked on the door several times and there was no reply.
"They used a master key to unlock the door and they then observed the accused wearing only a white T-shirt, naked from the waist down.
"The accused was holding the bike and moving his hips back and forth as if to simulate sex."
At an earlier hearing, Stewart insisted that the cleaners' claim was "a lot of rubbish".
He said the incident had been caused by a misunderstanding after he had too much to drink.
But yesterday he admitted a sexually aggravated breach of the peace in October last year.
Unemployed bachelor Stewart had been living in the hostel after moving from a house in Girvan, Ayrshire. He now lives in Ayr.
Sheriff Colin Miller placed him on the Sex Offenders Register for three years.
The sheriff said: "In almost four decades in the law, I thought I had come across every perversion known to mankind, but this is a new one on me. I have never heard of a cycle-sexualist."
- jfletcher0
ummmmmm, I just don't know what to say....... I guess.... if I had a bike.... I'd feel safe?
- ********0
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (Gk. λαβύρινθος labyrinthos) was an elaborate structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalus to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and which was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Daedalus had made the Labyrinth so cunningly that he himself could barely escape it after he built it.[1] Theseus was aided by Ariadne, who provided him with a fateful thread, literally the "clew," or "clue," to wind his way back again.
The term labyrinth is often used interchangeably with maze, but modern scholars of the subject use a stricter definition. For them, a maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage with choices of path and direction; while a single-path ("unicursal") labyrinth has only a single Eulerian path to the center. A labyrinth has an unambiguous through-route to the center and back and is not designed to be difficult to navigate.
This unicursal design was wide-spread in artistic depictions of the Minotaur's Labyrinth even though both logic and literary descriptions of it make it clear that the Minotaur was trapped in a multicursal maze.[2]
A labyrinth can be represented both symbolically and/or physically. Symbolically it is represented in art or designs on pottery, as body art, etched on walls of caves, etc. Physical representations are common throughout the world, and are generally constructed on the ground so they may be walked along from entry point to center and back again. They have historically been used in both group ritual and for private meditation.
Ancient labyrinthsPliny's Natural History mentions four ancient labyrinths: the Cretan labyrinth, an "Egyptian labyrinth", a "Lemnian labyrinth" and an "Italian labyrinth".
"Labyrinth" is a word of pre-Greek ("Pelasgian") origin absorbed by classical Greek, and is perhaps related to the Lydian "labrys" ("double-edged axe," a symbol of royal power, which fits with the theory that the labyrinth was originally the royal Minoan palace on Crete and meant "palace of the double-axe"), with -inthos meaning "place" (as in "Corinth"). The complex palace of Knossos in Crete is usually implicated, though the actual dancing-ground, depicted in frescoed patterns at Knossos, has not been found. Something was being shown to visitors as a labyrinth at Knossos in the 1st century AD (Philostratos, De vita Apollonii Tyanei iv.34, noted in Kerenyi, p 101 n. 171)
Greek mythology did not recall, however, that in Crete there was a Lady who presided over the Labyrinth. A tablet inscribed in Linear B found at Knossos records a gift "to all the gods honey; to the mistress of the labyrinth honey." All the gods together receive as much honey as the Mistress of the Labyrinth alone. "She must have been a Great Goddess", Kerenyi observes (Kerenyi 1976 p 91).
That the Cretan labyrinth had been a dancing-ground and was made for Ariadne rather than for Minos was remembered by Homer in Iliad xviii.590–593 where, in the pattern that Hephaestus inscribed on Achilles' shield, one incident pictured was a dancing-ground "like the one that Daedalus designed in the spacious town of Knossos for Ariadne of the lovely locks". Even the labyrinth dance was depicted on the shield, where "youths and marriageable maidens were dancing on it with their hands on one another's wrists... circling as smoothly on their accomplished feet as the wheel of a potter...and there they ran in lines to meet each other."
The labyrinth is the referent in the familiar Greek patterns of the endlessly running meander, to give the "Greek key" its common modern name. In the 3rd century BCE coins from Knossos were still struck with the labyrinth symbol. The predominant labyrinth form during this period is the simple 7-circuit style known as the classical labyrinth.
The term labyrinth came to be applied to any unicursal maze, whether of a particular circular shape (illustration) or rendered as square. At the center, a decisive turn brought one out again. In the Socratic dialogue that Plato produced as Euthydemus, Socrates describes the labyrinthine line of a logical argument:
Then it seemed like falling into a labyrinth: we thought we were at the finish, but our way bent round and we found ourselves as it were back at the beginning, and just as far from that which we were seeking at first. Thus the present-day notion of a labyrinth as a place where one can lose [his] way must be set aside. It is a confusing path, hard to follow without a thread, but, provided [the traverser] is not devoured at the midpoint, it leads surely, despite twists and turns, back to the beginning. (Kerenyi, p. 91.)
Herodotus' "Egyptian labyrinth"
Even more generally, "labyrinth" might be applied to any extremely complicated maze-like structure. Herodotus, in Book II of his Histories, describes as a "labyrinth" a building complex in Egypt, "near the place called the City of Crocodiles," that he considered to surpass the pyramids in its astonishing ambition:
It has twelve covered courts — six in a row facing north, six south — the gates of the one range exactly fronting the gates of the other. Inside, the building is of two storeys and contains three thousand rooms, of which half are underground, and the other half directly above them. I was taken through the rooms in the upper storey, so what I shall say of them is from my own observation, but the underground ones I can speak of only from report, because the Egyptians in charge refused to let me see them, as they contain the tombs of the kings who built the labyrinth, and also the tombs of the sacred crocodiles. The upper rooms, on the contrary, I did actually see, and it is hard to believe that they are the work of men; the baffling and intricate passages from room to room and from court to court were an endless wonder to me, as we passed from a courtyard into rooms, from rooms into galleries, from galleries into more rooms and thence into yet more courtyards. The roof of every chamber, courtyard, and gallery is, like the walls, of stone. The walls are covered with carved figures, and each court is exquisitely built of white marble and surrounded by a colonnade.
Pliny's "Lemnian labyrinth"
Pliny's Natural History (36.90) lists the legendary Smilis, reputed to be a contemporary of Daedalus, together with the historical mid sixth-century BCE architects and sculptors Rhoikos and Theodoros as two of the makers of the "Lemnian labyrinth", which Andrew Stewart (One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works, "Smilis") regards as "evidently a misunderstanding of the Samian temple's location en limnais, "in the marsh".
Pliny's "Italian labyrinth"
According to Pliny, the tomb of the great Etruscan general Lars Porsena contained an underground maze. Pliny's description of the exposed portion of the tomb is intractable; Pliny, it seems clear, had not observed this structure himself, but is quoting the historian and Roman antiquarian Varro.
Ancient labyrinths outside Europe
At about the same time as the appearance of the Greek labyrinth, a topologically identical pattern appeared in Native American culture, the Tohono O'odham labyrinth which features I'itoi, the "Man in the Maze". The Tonoho O'odham pattern has two distinct differences from the Greek: it is radial in design, and the entrance is at the top, where traditional Greek labyrinths have the entrance at the bottom (see below).A prehistoric petroglyph on a riverbank in Goa shows the same pattern and has been dated to circa 2500 BCE. Other examples have been found among cave art in northern India and on a dolmen shrine in the Nilgiri Mountains, but are difficult to date accurately. Early labyrinths in India all follow the Classical pattern; some have been described as plans of forts or cities [1]. Labyrinths appear in Indian manuscripts and Tantric texts from the 17th century onward. They are often called "Chakravyuha" in reference to an impregnable battle formation described in the ancient Mahabharata epic.
Labyrinth as patternIn antiquity the less complicated labyrinth pattern familiar from medieval examples was already developed. In Roman floor mosaics the simple classical labyrinth is framed in the meander border pattern, squared off as the medium requires, but still recognisable. Often an image of a bull-man, a minotaur, appears in the centre of these mosaic labyrinths. Roman meander patterns gradually developed in complexity towards the fourfold shape that is now familiarly known as the medieval form. The labyrinth retains its connection with death and a triumphant return: at Hadrumentum in North Africa (now Sousse), a Roman family tomb has a fourfold labyrinth mosaic floor, with a dying Minotaur in the center and a mosaic inscription: HICINCLUSUS.VITAMPERDIT "Enclosed here, he loses life"
- ********0
Worldwide, 20,000 brands of beer are brewed in 180 styles, from ales, lagers, pilsner and stouts to bitters, cream ales and iced beers.
Beer has been a popular beverage for a long time. Babylonian clay tablets show detailed recipes of beer making in 4300 BC. Beer was also brewed by the ancient Chinese, Assyrians and Incas.
An Egyptian text of 1600 BC gives 100 medical prescriptions using beer. A few years ago, the New Castle Brewery in England brewed 1,000 bottles Tutankhamun Ale from a 3,200-year old recipe found in the sun temple of Queen Nefertiti.
Commercial beer making was established in 1200 AD in present-day Germany. In 1506, the German Purity Law is issued, specifying that beer ingredients must only be water, barley, wheat and hops. Bottling of beer started in 1605.
Making beer
Brewing is the process of changing water and grain into beer through a yeast catalyst. The quality of the water is extremely important. Hard water produce a bitter ale, soft water produce bitter lager. Barley or hops, or a combination of them, is used for the grain.Getting dry grain ready for fermentation is called malting. The grain is steeped in water until it sprouts. The sprouting or germination is not allowed to end naturally but is interrupted either by drying or roasting in kilns.
Barley
Barley has been a grain of choice for thousands of years. The longer the roasting of the malted barley, the darker the beer. Barley, or wheat beers have a sweet taste.Hops
Hops are herbaceous climbing vines and look like a cross between pine cores and artichokes. The bitter, dry flavour of hops counterbalance the sweetness of malt.Yeast
Sugars in the malted grains are converted into alcohol by yeast. Different yeast ferment sugars into different flavours. For ales, top fermentation yeast is used, while bottom fermentation yeast is used for lagers.The beer making process starts by germinating the grain, then steeping the resulting malt in hot water to get the wort. Base wort contents means the percentage of wort in the beer before fermentation. The alcohol contents is roughly one third of the base wort contents.The wort is boiled (brewed) and hops are added. After brewing, fermentation starts by adding yeast. After fermentation, the wort is drown into tanks where it is allowed to condition or age. Yeast and hops are sometimes added in a secondary fermentation process.
Ales and Lagers
Ales, stouts and several other types of brews, like porter, are top-fermented. The top-fermentation yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, usually produces stronger alcohol contents than the bottom-fermentation yeast, Saccharomyces carlsbergi, but the latter produces more quality-consistent brew. Lagers are bottom-fermented.Ales usually are heavily hopped, and include bitters, brown ales, cream ales, mild ale, pale ale, India pale ale, barley wine and several other types. There are two types of the aboriginal ale still brewed in Europe. They are Belgian "lambic" and Finnish "sahti", which is brewed from rye malt. They are brewed on wild yeast and spontaneous fermentation. Both have very distinct tastes.
The word "lager" is German and means "storage", which refers to the lager (storage) fermentation. The main fermentation of both ales and lager are done on the similar temperature for 7-14 days. After that time the ale, depending on the type, may be ready for bottling. With lagers, this is only the start. After the main fermentation the beer is pumped into lager (storage) tanks with temperature some 10 deg C lower than room temperature. It is then let to mature and ferment for several weeks, usually 6-10 weeks. At 270 days, the longest lager fermentation is for that of Budejovicky Budvar brewery's Bud Strong.
Best taste
The best taste usually is acquired at an alcohol contents of 4.7% ethanol per volume. Less than that results in a beer with a bland taste. More than that and the higher alcohols (butanol, pentanol etc) become overpowering and spoils the taste.The strongest beer type by alcohol content is doppelbock, which is usually 8%-10% ethanol by its volume content. The strongest beer brand in production is German "Eisbock", with some 14% ethanol by volume.
Ice beer is produced by freezing the brew and filtering the ice crystals, increasing the alcohol content. This process was already known in the Middle Ages to "cold-distil" brandy from wine, and the ancient Chinese produced rice hooch that way. The Canadians adopted the cold-distillation method for ice beer.
Beer factoids
The oldest brewery in Munich, the Augustiner brewery, was founded in 1294, when, on the order of the bishop of Freising, an Augustinian monastery was established at the Haberfeld, just outside the gates of the city. Munich was famous for its breweries operated by monks.
A true pilsner comes from the Pilsner, Czech Republic. The original pilsner was Pilsner Urquell (Plzensky Prazrod), meaning "The Original Spring of Pilsen." It still is one of the most popular pilsner in the world.
The first beer brewery in the US opened in Manhattan in 1623. But the oldest contiuing brewery, running since 1829 is Yuengling in Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania.
The first Octoberfest was held in 1810 in Munich, Germany. It started as a wedding celebration.
Löwenbrau of Munich was founded 1373.
The Czech Republic has the highest per capita beer consumption in the world, at 155 litres (40 gal).
Sake, the Japanese rice brew, is closer to beer than wine by its production method.
The English word "brewer" refers to a male beer-maker; "brewster" to a female.Beer and ale volumes
4 gills = 1 pint
2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon
9 gallons = 1 firkin
2 firkins = 1 kilderkin
3 kilderkins = 1 hogshead
2 hogsheads = 1 butt
- NewElpaso0
hedge = jesse??
- hedge0
Thank you for your contributions to this thread, organic.