BERIGAN

Nonentity???? Do nonentities have behinds like this??? http://www.stranded.org/data_trash/britney...y_spears_1c.jpg

another foggy looking shot of the snow....

Snowing here in the ATL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Strange, as it is almost 40 degrees. Even when I lived in St. Louis, it very rarely snowed in the upper 30s...took some pics...looks more like fog, don't it????

No thanks!

I've seen a guy bring a green early 70's Javelin to a car cruise that was jacked up in back.....big green balls hanging around the rear end(Makes sense) My first thought? Classy. My second thought? I wish Queen Elizabeth had been there so I could point 'em out to her....yes, I am a dreamer.....

Bela Lugosi's dead what?????? Dog....hamster....libido?

J.H., I love that story on his "fastball"!!!!

Someone will no doubt make a joke about a vampire dying....since I can't think of good one, please help!!!! Maila Nurmi; actress created early TV's Vampira character Heather Saenz / Associated Press Maila Nurmi, in a 2005 photo, portrayed Vampira, a vivacious vampire who hosted scary late-night movies during the 1950s. By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 8:52 AM PST, January 15, 2008 In the early days of television, when horror movies were often campy by nature, actress Maila Nurmi created the character Vampira, a glamorous ghoul who as hostess of late-night fright films in the 1950s layered on her own brand of camp. Vampira played with her pet tarantula, gave gruesome recipes for vampire cocktails and bathed in a boiling caldron. With a knack for the double-entendre and the requisite blood-chilling scream, Vampira was a hit. The character won Nurmi short-lived fame and a dedicated cult following. Nurmi claimed Vampira was also the uncredited inspiration for later ghoulish yet glamorous female characters in film and television, including Elvira. Nurmi, who also appeared in the 1959 Edward D. Wood Jr. movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space," was found dead in her Hollywood home Jan. 10. The cause of death was still being investigated, said Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Nurmi was believed to be 85, although sources offer conflicting dates of birth. Born Maila Syrjäniemi in Finland, Nurmi immigrated to the United States when she was a toddler. By 17, she had dropped her surname and taken on that of her famous uncle Paavo Nurmi, a world-class runner known as the "Flying Finn." In her teens, she moved to New York, and then Los Angeles, to pursue a career in acting. Little came of Nurmi's efforts to land conventional leading roles in theater or on-screen. The unconventional came calling in 1953, after Nurmi attended a Hollywood masquerade ball dressed as the ghoul of Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. "I bound my bosoms, so that I was flat-chested," Nurmi said, "and I got a wig, and painted my body a kind of a mauve white pancake with a little lavender powder so that I looked as though I'd been entombed." Nurmi's costume was judged the best at the ball, according to an article that was posted last week on vampirasattic.com, her website. Months later, a KABC-TV producer tracked her down and offered her work as hostess of a late-night horror show. In creating Vampira, Nurmi said she went beyond the Addams cartoon, developing an alter ego influenced by beatnik culture and her experiences as a child of the Depression. Vampira wore a low-cut tattered black dress that showed off her impossibly small waist (courtesy of a waist cincher) and displayed more cleavage than was common for the day. With her 6-inch-long nails and dark, dramatically arched eyebrows, watching Vampira was "a release for people." "The times . . . were so conservative and so constrained," Nurmi said in a video interview that was posted on her website. "There was so much repression, and people needed to identify with something explosive, something outlandish and truthful." Shortly after her debut, Vampira appeared in Life magazine, and soon there were fan clubs around the world. "I was high-rolling in Hollywood, and I was quite full of myself," Nurmi said in a 1994 interview with People magazine. But in 1955, KABC canceled her show, and the result was a stinging decline. When she met Wood at a party during the height of her career, she felt nothing but disdain, she told People magazine, but when he approached her in 1956 and offered her $200 to appear in his movie, she accepted the offer. "I was scraping by on $13 a week," she said in the People article. "I thought, 'Well, here I go. I'm going to commit professional suicide right now.' " "Plan 9 From Outer Space," a zombie movie, has been called the worst movie ever. She appeared in a few more movies, but by the 1960s, Nurmi's career had taken a turn toward oblivion. "I'm a lady linoleum-layer," she told a Times reporter in 1962. "And if things are slow in linoleum, I can also do carpentry, make drapes or refinish furniture." And for 99 cents an hour, she cleaned celebrity houses, she told Entertainment Weekly in 1994. Nurmi opened a Vampira antique shop, but she continued to struggle to make ends meet. In the late 1980s, Nurmi filed a lawsuit against another glamorous ghoul. She alleged that Elvira had ripped off her character, copying features such as a "distinctive, low-cut, tattered black dress, emphasizing cleavage and a voluptuous figure." The courts disagreed. Nurmi's influence can be seen in the teen "goth" look of today, said Dana Gould, a longtime friend of Nurmi. "She really sort of cast the mold for a look that is still around," said the comedy writer and comedian. Director Tim Burton's film about Wood, starring Johnny Depp, introduced a new audience to Wood and Nurmi. Later in life, Nurmi, who was divorced and had no children, began creating Vampira drawings and selling them on the Internet. She remained proud and protective of the character she created, Gould said. "I don't have any babies or any social history that's remarkable, so I'm leaving something behind, you know, when the time comes to say goodbye, I'm leaving something," she said in an interview with KABC's Eyewitness News. A memorial service is being planned. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nu...l=la-home-local

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/14/technology/amazon.php

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...sdate=1/13/2008

Me neither. Has it become more unstable with your wireless network?(I assume you have one now)

Lets hope if it really works like this, they don't wait a decade to put it on the market..... Drug 'can reverse Alzheimer's symptoms in minutes' Last updated at 21:37pm on 10.01.08 Alzheimer's affects 700,000 Britons A drug used for arthritis can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's "in minutes". It appears to tackle one of the main features of the disease - inflammation in the brain. The drug, called Enbrel, is injected into the spine where it blocks a chemical responsible for damaging the brain and other organs. A pilot study carried out by U.S. researchers found one patient had his symptoms reversed "in minutes". Other patients have shown some improvements in symptoms such as forgetfulness and confusion after weekly injections over six months. The study of 15 patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation by online publishers Biomed Central. The experiment showed that Enbrel can deactivate TNF (tumour necrosis factor) - a chemical in the fluid surrounding the brain that is found in Alzheimer's sufferers. When used by arthritis sufferers, the drug is self-administered by injection and researchers had to develop a way of injecting it into the spine to affect the brain cells. Sue Griffin, a researcher at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said: 'It is unprecedented to see cognitive and behavioural improvement in a patient with established dementia within minutes of therapeutic intervention. 'This gives all of us in Alzheimer research a tremendous new clue about new avenues of research.' Enbrel is not approved for treating Alzheimer's in the U.S. or the UK and is regarded as highly experimental, said Dr Griffin. 'Even though this report predominantly discusses a single patient it is of significant scientific interest because of the potential insight it may give into the processes involved in the brain dysfunction of Alzheimer's,' she added. Lead author of the study Edward Tobinick, of the University of California and Director of the Institute for Neurological Research, said the drug had 'a very rapid effect that's never been reported in a human being before'. He added: 'It makes practical changes that are significant and perceptible, making a difference to his daily living. 'Some patients have been able to start driving again. They don't come back to normal but the change is good enough for patients to want to continue treatment.' He said top-up injections were necessary but some patients had them a month apart. Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia, affecting more than 700,000 Britons with about 500 cases diagnosed every day. Neil Hunt, of the Alzheimer's Society charity, said: 'The pursuit of a miracle cure for Alzheimer's continues to drive research into a variety of potential treatment targets. These include a possible link between inflammatory reactions in the brain and Alzheimer's.' Children exposed to lead in old paint, Victorian pipes and toys could be at risk of Alzheimer's later in life, scientists said yesterday. A study shows that even small amounts of the metal in the first few years can build up plaques around the brain. Scientists at the University of Rhode Island told the New Scientist that they fed infant formula milk laced with low doses of lead to baby monkeys, then followed their progress for 23 years. A post mortem of the brains revealed plaques - harmful deposits of protein found in Alzheimer's patients. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article...#39;/article.do

Funny stuff indeed! And about the light/lamp situation. I read the comments of an editor of a car Mag called Hemmings Classic car, talk about the proper words for certain items, and one was how everyone called Headlights, and taillights, headlights and taillights, and how the correct terms were really Head lamps and tail lamps(Or should they be run together as one word? ) I shall never call them such goofy names! I am sure others agree with me, and soon after reading his column, started a now 25 page thread arguing with those that disagree with them on some auto forum ...

Good luck Mark!!!! It should be quite an adventure, hopefully, a good one!

Because GEE Dumbya needs a smoke screen for his failed Iraq War, housing/mortgage crisis and environmental gaffs. Bush is all about the cover not the reality. Gosh, didn't know Harry Waxman was on the Bush payroll as well! http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/14/...in3618383.shtml

Tim, Very sorry to hear about this young woman's death!!! 33 is way too young. We always think of what could be when Someone's life expectancy is shortened by 40-50 years. I mentioned several years ago about the suicide of a former girlfriend who I remained good friends with. Different situation, but I am still haunted by it....She was only 24, and I still wonder where she would be today if she had overcome her depression(And the French doctors had kept her on the same level of anti-depressants her US doctors had recommended) As for what you said....well, I was busy yesterday, and never got back on the computer til today, so in other words, don't worry about whatever it was you said!

I just seem purely incapable of making my points in a few paragraphs, sorry! If you get bored with what I wrote, please read the final paragraphs and make your suggestions! Thanks! A good friend of mine is going through some very rough times right now. My Dad and I met Dale about 7 years ago at a car cruise south of Atlanta. He, like us, isn't into Corvettes, or the typical muscle cars everyone else is, but the less popular full size luxury cars of the 60's and 70's. (They are cheaper to buy as well) Even though he is not a hands on guy with auto repairs, he has an almost photographic memory for differences between models, even for the most subtle of changes from year to year, even going back to cars from the 1930s! Even though Dale was only in his 30's then, my Dad said had never met anyone with more overall car knowledge. Anyway, we became better friends with him since then, grabbing dinner now and then, having him over to watch a movie.... His life started to go downhill about 3 years ago when a textile job he had finally went overseas to India. He had worked for this company for 19 years...of course they canned him just before he would be eligible for retirement. So, he ended up with a job at a car dealership. There, he met a guy that was to help him waste the next few years of his life(At some later point, I will have to tell the funny story of him outing himself to me and a clueless mutual friend, but now is not the time) No idea what he saw in this guy, as soon as I met him, he seemed like a typical hustler, but he truly loved this guy, and would give his life for him. And the reason he finally outed himself as he approached 40. Only reason I mention this twerp is soon after meeting him, Dale started to have health problems. All of the sudden, his leg would give out like someone had kicked him behind the knee. Also, he was suffering neuropathy in his arms it seemed,(He is a diabetic) he couldn't cut with scissors very well, no strength in his hands. Well, after going to a few doctors, turns out, he has ALS(Lou Gerhig's disease)Prognosis is not good, when you get it at a younger age, you usually only have 5-6 years. Meanwhile, he is not focusing on trying to maintain his health, but trying to make things work with the hustler. Very hard to see him hurt by this jerk, who would do things like take Dale's credit card and run it up. The Hustler also has a serious drug problem, and as Dale was getting weaker, this piece of work pushed him so hard into a wall, he was knocked unconscious! After we heard this, we told him never to bring this guy around our house, as even my 76 year old Dad would love to take a swing at him! During the lost years, he lost the job at the Dealership after having his 2nd deep leg abscess from his diabetes. Got a job at a small textile company, but had to leave that after he was unable to do the physical work there..... Ok, this gets us to my main points/questions. He is clearly disabled, cannot work. He can still walk some with a cane,(He falls some as well) but couldn't work on a computer (unless it was voice activated)with the hand issues. He has a lawyer working on his SSI case. This has gone on for months, and months.(He hasn't worked for about 2 years) Again, Dale has been as much if not more concerned with the hustler, than anything else. On again, off again relationship. But with his health and what little wealth he had gone, the hustler is not in the picture much these days. So, he calls the Lawyer's office now and then,and they claim they are working on it, but there are court delays, blah, blah, blah....well, Dale doesn't have a whole lot of time left in this world, and I don't get how there can be these kinds of delays for someone with ALS! Shouldn't they go to the top of the list? My Mom, who was in terrible health, was able to get apply and receive SSI and retroactively as well, with just notes from her doctors. No lawyers were involved. It is rare not get turned down the first time, since there are so many fakers trying to collect, but she was accepted first time. This was around 2002. So, what should he do??? He has talked about getting another Lawyer, but worries that his name will end up at the bottom of the list again. The specialist that deals with this disease was supposed to make it easier to get benefits,(Supposedly, if he diagnosised you with ALS, you got the money) but still no checks. Don't know if having a Lawyer on the case is making things more difficult... Also, Dale had an Aunt die about 2 years ago, that left him $20,000. Of course, he hasn't seen a penny of that money either! Something about all the money being tied up in the private family business. Sounds like Bullshit to me. I don't think Dale wants to stir up family strife with this, but the Aunt left him the money..... Dale has little money, and is back living with his 85 year old Mother that doesn't "get" his illness(Gets mad at him when he falls into her old furniture, basically threw him out of the house for awhile after he fell and destroyed her dinner table) and doesn't get that he has but 2-3 years left. He's a great guy, and he shouldn't have to waste what little time he has left on this earth like this. I worry that with no one loving him, and this illness, he will just end it all if something doesn't go his way soon.......

And anytime there are winds past 150 MPH, that is pretty big news!!!! By Kathryn Reed SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif., Jan 4 (Reuters) - A fierce storm swept through central and northern California on Friday, cutting power to more than 1 million homes and businesses, closing major roads and canceling flights at several airports. The storm may dump as much as 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.5 metres) of snow through the weekend in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, and up to 2 feet (0.6 metre) at the popular tourist spot of Lake Tahoe, forecasters with the U.S. National Weather Service said. Southern California braced for possible flash floods and mudslides in areas that burned in the October wildfires. Total rainfall could reach 5 inches (12.5 cm) in Los Angeles and 10 inches (25 cm) in the mountains of Southern California -- the most significant rainfall in the region since January 2005, and on the heels of the driest year on record. "It is very important, since there is so much land that has burned, that we are prepared for mudslides," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said after being briefed by the Office of Emergency Services. There have been no reports of deaths or serious injuries, the office said. In San Francisco, winds blew scaffolding off buildings and temporarily shut the main thoroughfare, Market Street, while the landmark Alcatraz Island, the former prison and now national park, was closed to visitors. Big trucks were barred from the Golden Gate Bridge, where winds reached 55 mph (90 kph). The nearby Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, which connects two of the state's major highways, was blocked most of the day by a toppled truck. "There is a lot of rain coming down in the valleys, a lot of snow in the mountains and there is a lot of wind with speeds of 100 miles to 150 miles (160-240 kph) per hour in the Sierra Nevada," Schwarzenegger added. "So please be very cautious." Near Lake Tahoe, home to the state's most popular ski resorts, a stretch of the main road connecting northern California and Nevada was closed down. Many of the resorts were closed on Friday due to the high winds. (Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall and Mary Milliken in Los Angeles and Adam Tanner in San Francisco) http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN04338208

Word! (psst Guy - the SF Bay is in California not Carolina ) I asked Guy about this, and he said to me, "clearly I had Carolina In My Mind".... Man, the lenths I go for to make a lame joke...... -_-

But I'm 40!!!! CARNAL KNOWLEDGE Programmed for love Author sees hard-wired sex in the future - and apparently it's all good - especially if you like robots By FRITZ LANHAM Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle By David Levy If you're younger than 35, you'll probably live long enough to put David Levy's prediction to the test. Levy says that by 2050 we'll be creating robots so lifelike, so imbued with human-seeming intelligence and emotions, as to be nearly indistinguishable from real people. And we'll have sex with these robots. Some of us will even marry them. And it will all be good. Levy lays out his vision of a Brave New Carnal World in Love and Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships, which, despite its extended riffs on sex toys through the ages, is a snigger-free book. Levy's no Al Goldstein. Rather he's a 62-year-old British chess master turned artificial-intelligence expert persuaded that robot sex can brighten the lives of many, many unhappy people. "Great sex on tap for everyone, 24/7,'' he writes on the final page of the book. What's not to like? "Chess'' and "sex'' aren't words that normally share the same sentence, but in Levy's case, the one led to the other. A keen chessman since boyhood, by the time he got to St. Andrews University he played at the international level. At the university he got interested in computers and the challenge of programming machines to play chess. Eventually he earned international recognition for his work on chess-playing computers and natural-language software, and in the mid '90s headed a team that won the Loebner Prize, widely regarded as the world championship of conversational software. Today he owns a firm that develops electronic hand-held brain games. Designing computers that talk like humans naturally led to the larger question of how humans interact with robots, which are nothing more than computers with arms and legs and a head. The Japanese have taken the lead in developing "partner robots,'' machines that, for example, might do household tasks for elderly people. But if you could invent a robot that serves cocktails, could you not invent a robot that would make a superior bedmate? It sounds like a mighty tall order. A machine with skin that feels like ours? With our physical dexterity? And, most important, with a mind like ours - imperfectly rational, sometimes emotionally intelligent, sometimes emotionally dumb? "I think it's a reasonable assumption,'' Levy said in a telephone interview from his home in London. He lays out his case in a voice that's calm, rational, almost flat, more geeky than goatish. "If one looks at the advances in technology in the last, say, 40 or 50 years, they've been immense, and the more we learn about the science and the technology, the quicker it will be to discover even more within that science." Smart money never bets against technological advances, but it helps if you stack the deck. "The automaton simulates man when man has been defined in an automaton's way," literary critic Hugh Kenner wrote. Is that what Levy does? "I take a pragmatic point of view," he said, "partly because in my original field, computer chess, that was how the problem was solved." Not by making machines that thought like chess masters but by making machines that beat chess masters. Similarly, Levy thinks, robots need only "simulate" human intelligence and emotions "to the point that they are absolutely convincing." If you can't tell whether the thing is man or machine, what difference does it make? You'll treat it as if it were alive. The rest is philosophical hairsplitting. So who will avail themselves of 21st-century sexbots? Sad cases, for one, people so physically unattractive or anti-social or isolated or emotionally crippled that they have trouble finding human romance. People who love their computers more than their fellows. Hey, they're out there already. "They're lonely; they're miserable," Levy said. "I think society will be a much better place when they have an alternative that satisfies them without doing any harm to other people." Add in those who have a satisfying sexual relationship but are simply curious and somewhere between 20 percent and 50 percent of the population will experience man-machine mating at least occasionally, Levy predicts. He respects the fact that plenty of people, out of moral or religious conviction, will contemplate this with horror. "But by and large," he said, "it will be very good for society, very beneficial, and I think that will be the majority view within a relatively short space of time." Sexbots may put prostitutes out of business, he notes. Near the end of the book Levy alludes to a set of vexing questions. If robots become utterly humanlike, must we not treat them as more than machines? So if you marry a robot, can it inherit your estate? If you catch it boffing the mail carrier, can you toss it out with heavy trash? If your robot pops your neighbor in the mouth, who does your neighbor sue? Levy admits he doesn't know the answers. "There are lot of questions here that need a great deal of discussion and consideration from people who are much wiser than I am in the field of ethics, philosophy and law. Clearly the law makers and the lawyers are going to have a field day debating these issues." He expects the impetus for creating sexbots to come from the sex-toy industry rather than, say, MIT. Already a Japanese sex-doll manufacturer has announced plans to market a doll with electronics in it, and Levy has read that Japanese companies are working to produce sex robots for people living in outlying fishing villages. "I think the Japanese are probably working on this more than one would realize from the little that's been published so far," he said. Levy has been amazed at the publicity the Love and Sex With Robots has generated since its release last month. He's done a dozen radio interviews and a TV interview. Howard Stern raved about the book. So far, no hate mail. Would Levy himself have sex with a robot? He doesn't have to ponder the question. "If there was a robot of the sort I describe in the book, I would certainly want to experience using it for sex, and I wouldn't regard it as anything untoward," he said. "I would do it out of curiosity. Not that I have a need for a new sex partner. I'm happily married." And the wife would be OK with this? "Yes, yes, and if she wanted to try one I wouldn't have a problem with that. I would regard it as genuine scientific curiosity." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/5414105.html

A Megadeth concert. That wasn't the problem, the problem was the opening act, Corrosion of Conformity! What's funny, I had heard a few songs by them that seemed like decent metal(And have since the concert) but as an live act, they just were terrible! Seemed to play one song after another that sounded like the song before. And the song before sucked. I was losing my mind. Then, they brought up a local boy(From Atlanta) on stage. Looked to be around 12. Was this the next Jonny Lang? No....and they kept playing with him! I really was going to leave before Megadeth even got onstage, but kept thinking surely there would be a giant hook to pull them off the stage any minute. A few hours later they left the stage. Megadeth seemed to play with a lot of rage that night, perhaps they were angry at the band they were on the road with too! After the night made a 180, it went back to sucking again...my car and about 100 more were towed from the lot of a Chinese restaurant. Even though it was a fairly late concert on a Sunday night. I am sure this was a very profitable venture for the restaurant and the towing company(There were no signs saying no parking for concerts there) A miracle that we didn't burn the restaurant down the to ground. We were pretty amped up. One guy said if it had been a Rage Against the Machine show we had seen, the place would be in flames! Tow company rep would call to have cars dropped off after you paid. One guy was an ass, and they dumped his car in the middle of the road!!! I was in my Dad's car and I kept thinking I would pound this guy into the ground if anything happened to that car. So, I stared at him, and stared at him, and said nothing. I was the only guy there without long hair(This was the mid 90's)so he knew something wasn't right about me! I just...kept staring at him. Next thing I knew he said in a low voice that others couldn't here that it was my lucky day, I just needed to pay $50 instead of $75 like the others. And my Dad's car was undamaged! Sometimes it pays to try to scare folks that don't seem scarable!

No wonder you seem like a bitter man!

CHEERS! CHEERS!

Ghost, do you know anything about what's going on at Borders today???

Well, I worked at Waldenbooks, then Borders from 1993 to 1999, so no, I know nothing as well! Seriously, I lost my "inside" connections years ago (Great job, but the pay is beyond terrible-people make more as a cashier at Target) but the "plan" has been to close down Waldenbooks stores for years. I think it's stupid to give up customers that shop at malls, (They have opened a few Borders in malls) but that hasn't stopped them. Borders used to brag that they didn't close stores, but that's not the case anymore. I started at a Borders north of Atlanta in 1995. They closed that store around 2001(I think?) Of course, they had spread all over the north side of Atlanta and said it didn't matter, it wouldn't hurt sales at other stores....yeah, right. Anyway, they do close stores now. I'd love to see if that store near you is really bleeding red, or if it's sales are down 5-6% and they are just giving up on locations down a bit....no sense in seeing if we can turn around the ship, just close the location! Won't we make more money with fewer stores for customers to shop at??? Borders is losing money nowadays , and it's stock is down more than 50% since May(When it no doubt went up to a recent high after news in March of Borders becoming a leaner, meaner store) From the March story from the NYT it shows how another non Borders CEO(Last thing you want to do is hire smart people who have worked their way up from within and know the book biz ) a guy from Saks, had all sorts of swell ideas like doing away with Amazon online deal, and starting a new web site! Of course, they joined late the online business, which is why they partnered up with amazon in the first place, but now everyone will just rush to a Borders website! Double http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/business/23barnes.html And another story about how stupid the new CEO is http://www.thepublishingcontrarian.com/200...rnes-noble-inc/