Folks, this place is possibly the best online auction store around. Good will industry receives a plethora of miscellaneous donations from around the nation, which they have decided to auction off at unbelivably low prices. Most of their items are used, but each item has a detailed description and they cost nearly a fraction of their original values. Visit ShopGoodWill.com and start shopping!
Much to no one's surprise, a new research shows that the level of immaturity amongst the new generation adults is rising. In my personal opinion, it is mainly because of the sub-standard programming telecasted on television today. For instance, anyone who has watched the cartoon, "Family Guy" should know it is strictly intended for an adult audience. However, the maturity level of the show is extremely poor, and in addition, it instills sex, violence and hatred through it's poor level of comedy in the minds of its viewers. The same can be said about the cartoon shows, "American Dad", and "Futurama". The following is an article published on Slashdot on the topic:
Believe it or not, there is a website where you can view live births online, at this website:
http://www.or-live.com/search.cfm
I believe they have replays of conception as well. In addition, I believe they have webcasts of various other surgeries, operations, etc available too. It may be helpful to medical students who have yet to perform operations on human bodies, or it may serve helpful for delivering a child at home. I'm kidding.
The lost ruins of an ancient Roman port, called the "Muziris" have been recently discovered in the southern Indian city of Kerala.
"Archaeologists working on India's south-west coast believe they may have solved the mystery of the location of a major port which was key to trade between India and the Roman Empire - Muziris, in the modern-day state of Kerala.
For many years, people have been in search of the almost mythical port, known as Vanchi to locals.
Much-recorded in Roman times, Muziris was a major centre for trade between Rome and southern India - but appeared to have simply disappeared.
Now, however, an investigation by two archaeologists - KP Shajan and V Selvakumar - has placed the ancient port as having existed where the small town of Pattanam now stands, on India's south-west Malabar coast. [...]
This is the story of the rise and fall of an empire created by a group of highly intellectual MIT students who used their brains' prowess to exploit the subtle loophole in gambling. Theoritically, this loophole exists only in the game of Blackjack which, according to experts, has independent outcomes, and most importantly, does not depend on luck, rather, is a game of mathematics. Using a technique labeled "counting", these brilliant MIT students employed this method so effectively, that it ultimately prompted a casino employer to say to one of the MIT Blackjack team pioneers: "You're are too good for us" and subsequently banned all members of the group.
According to the law, the technique that these people used in order to "beat the House" was legal, however, it is considered unethical according to the Casino code. It is considerably ironic of a Casino to speak of morals and ethics, but apparently they do abide by a certain conduct. Read more about the achievements and eventual downfall of the notorious MIT Blackjack team which crumbled due to internal and external conflict. Read more about it here.
Hey folks, a friend sent me this little article where a cop rants about the difficulties he/she faces in doing their job because of a small number of people who complain about inifinitesimal and irrelevant things. It's pretty interesting, so I recommend reading all the way till the end.
Folks,
I actually took this career path because it disturbed me to see so many victims and I was sure I was the one who would make a difference.
During my career, I have employed compassion, empathy, negotiating skills, and decency in an effort to be someone who people would actually be left with the feeling that you mater after we leave. I could write a book, no, ten books about the things I've seen in your living rooms, bedrooms, streets and alleys. But I won't because I am not talented enough and most of it would be in poor taste.
I see that this forum has a variety of genre. I see the intelligent people trying to provoke thought and engage other people’s minds. I see the sick, disturbed people who have found an audience for which they can share their disturbing thoughts. I see those in between who are just passing through musing at the fodder of all the rest. And of course we now know that Kim Jong lives in the Salt Lake Valley. So, perhaps this is to fall upon deaf ears. But what the hell, I can't send it to the paper because they sell entertainment and this isn't very entertaining. But at the risk of boring, pissing off, maligning, inadvertently offended, or maybe even causing someone to think a little, here goes.
1. Complaints from citizens
People, for the love of everything holly, why do you call us for some of this absolute shit? People are always saying "don't you guys have anything better to do?" when we show up at their home for some moronic reason. Well guess hat? They are right! We have so much more to do. Why do you use us as swords to wield at your neighbor? Why do you use us as leverage mechanisms in you’re screwed up personal relationships? You say we are all fat, lazy, or no good. So why is it every time you want to threaten, scare or piss off an ex, a neighbor, a family member etc. the first statement that rolls off of your lips is "I'm gonna call the cops on you if,,,,,,
Let me use yesterday as an example. Noon, its 59 degrees and I get a call from a guy whose neighbor’s dog has been left in a car. I get there, the windows are cracked, and the dog has only been in there 20 minutes. It’s 59 Degrees! It’s not summer and if it were the dead of winter I'd say the car is a $20,000 dog house. But it turns out this guy has a running dispute with his neighbor so guess who he calls to irritate the guy a little more? Me. When I go to leave, the asshole that called this in yells, "hey, aren't you gonna do anything?" I explain why I am not and he says "great, I'm writing a letter to the paper" Holly shit. Now I'm the bad guy because I didn't embarrass your target enough for you? Grow the hell up.
1:30 PM. Mom calls in a child abuse report on the ex. Turns out the only abuse was that he is a half hour late returning from his turn with the girl. The poor guy has two of us at his door and all his neighbors watching. But we have to respond and gladly respond to every call because of the fact that every now and then, it’s real. So we can't pick and choose and no, I don't have a crystal ball installed next to my MDC so I can see into the future. Another 90 minutes wasted on a revenge complaint. And yes, the ex got what she wanted. All the neighbors are now murmuring that this guy might be a psycho because after all, there were police officers in his home. Now his neighbors have a hard on for him and they are going to start calling us everything a bike gets stolen or a potted plant comes up missing. 3:15 PM. Car just stolen from the parking lot of a grocery store. The RP left the car running for just a minute while she went inside. Dispatch gives us a description of the car. The first thing we do is spread out into a grid of sorts hitting the main routes people would use to leave the area and we actually look for the victim’s car. Believe it or not, a great many times we actually locate the car and return it to the victim. But after 30 minutes, if we haven't found it, it's either in someone's garage in the hood, or it's out of the area. So the next thing I do is respond to where the woman is to take a report. Guess what? I get out of my car and this irate woman comes rolling over and yells at me right there in front of the super market "Where the hell have you guys been!!" She goes on a tirade about how she'll never get her car back now because we didn't respond fast enough and we could give a shit about here because she's just another dumb ass taxpayer. So I try in my most composed voice to explain "maam, when your car is stolen, the one place you won't find us is the place we are sure the car is NOT" Now I'm being a smart ass and she wants my supervisors name.
People, most of you are decent, hard working, family loving, flag waving contributors to your society. And it’s because of this that I approach everyone with dignity and respect. But to that loud minority that tries to use us to get even with the neighbor down the street, or the ex, or the boss. You are the ones that are doing everyone a huge disservice. You are the ones that take us away from the people we should be watching. You are the pathetic, bored, angry, insecure misfits of society. So the next time one of you is sitting at your barstool lamenting about how "the cops are never there when you need them" there's a reason.
To the rest of you, I'm truly sorry if it takes us a little longer than it should to get there. I know who the gang bangers are. I know most of the tweekers. I know where to go and look for your property when you've been ripped off. I know where to go and look for the guy that that just jacked your wife’s purse because as soon as I heard the physical description I recognized him and a repeat offender trying to get together some cash for his habit. But I cannot tend to these real emergencies if you are going to call us because you think someone stole your paper or the neighbor is watering his lawn on an even rather than an odd day or because the kids down the street are on the damn skateboards again. Hell, we were kids once. Leave the kids to be kids. Oh, and to the guy who called us during the busiest time of night to complain that your neighbor across the street was parked too close to the corner, real funny. He's a cop and you don't like cops so you try and use other cops to harass him? Get a life.
Live like decent people and yes, absolutely call us when you see something real happening. I'll do everything in within my ability to help you. Disclaimer. I know there are asshole cops just like there are assholes in any and every profession. I know some of the guys where like me, idealists who wanted to make a difference but now suffer from a thing we call “compassion fatigue” Most of us really do give a damn about you and when you are in trouble, we haul ass to get there before it’s too late. Even then someone will always call in to complain that I was driving to fast and ‘must have been late for dinner” But I’ll tell you what, when we get a 911 call at 2:00 AM and all the call taker can hear on the other end is a woman screaming, it still gives us chills and yes, we’re gonna drive like hell to get there as quick as possible because whoever is doing whatever to her needs to be stopped and we’re the only ones that are going in. So cut us a break. It could be your wife, or mom, or girlfriend or daughter
this is in or around your neighborhood
no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Source: Craigslist
This is one of the fascinating, and informative tests I've ever taken. Contrary to the title, I believe this is more of an analytical/general knowledge test. Your general knowledge must be very good, and you must know your numbers well. If you can get 19+ answers out of 33, your general knowledge is quite commendable. Take this test here.
An Indian friend of mine sent this to me, and I HAD to share this with everyone. The traffic system works exactly like that in the rest of South Asia. God Bless those people who have to drive around in that part of the world all day long.
I don't usually follow Bollywood (Indian Film Industry) events, but I couldn't stop myself from posting this news because this guy is an extremely famous actor. Read on...
Bollywood star Salman Khan has been sentenced to five years in prison for poaching rare antelope.
The judge in Jodhpur in India's western Rajasthan state also fined Khan 25,000 rupees ($550). An accomplice was given one year in jail. Khan, who was in court to hear the verdict, has always denied wrong-doing. He was sentenced to a year in prison in February in an earlier poaching case, but had remained out of custody while appealing against that verdict.
As camera flashbulbs went off, a visibly shaken Khan was bundled into a police van and taken to Jodphur Central Jail. His lawyers say he will appeal against the verdict. "We will file an appeal on Wednesday," Khan's lawyer, Hastimal Saraswat, said. "I believe our case is strong on merit," he added. [...]
Scientists have made one of the most important fossil finds in history: a missing link between fish and land animals, showing how creatures first walked out of the water and on to dry land more than 375m years ago. Palaeontologists have said that the find, a crocodile-like animal called the Tiktaalik roseae and described today in the journal Nature, could become an icon of evolution in action - like Archaeopteryx, the famous fossil that bridged the gap between reptiles and birds.
As such, it will be a blow to proponents of intelligent design, who claim that the many gaps in the fossil record show evidence of some higher power. Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, said: "Our emergence on to the land is one of the more significant rites of passage in our evolutionary history, and Tiktaalik is an important link in the story." Tiktaalik - the name means "a large, shallow-water fish" in the Inuit language Inuktikuk - shows that the evolution of animals from living in water to living on land happened gradually, with fish first living in shallow water.
The animal lived in the Devonian era lasting from 417m to 354m years ago, and had a skull, neck, and ribs similar to early limbed animals (known as tetrapods), as well as a more primitive jaw, fins, and scales akin to fish. The scientists who discovered it say the animal was a predator with sharp teeth, a crocodile-like head, and a body that grew up to 2.75 metres (9ft) long. "It's very important for a number of reasons, one of which is simply the fact that it's so well-preserved and complete," said Jennifer Clack, a paleontologist at Cambridge University and author of an accompanying article in Nature.
Scientists have previously been able to trace the transition of fish into limbed animals only crudely over the millions of years they anticipate the process took place. They suspected that an animal which bridged the gap between fish and land-based tetrapods must have existed - but, until now, there had been scant evidence of one. "Tiktaalik blurs the boundary between fish and land-living animal both in terms of its anatomy and its way of life," said Neil Shubin, a biologist at the University of Chicago, and a leader of the expedition which found Tiktaalik.
The near-pristine fossil was found on Ellesmere Island, Canada, which is 600 miles from the north pole in the Arctic Circle. Scientists from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the University of Chicago, and Harvard University led several expeditions into the inhospitable icy desert to search for the fossils. The find is the first complete evidence of an animal that was on the verge of the transition from water to land. "The find is a dream come true," said Ted Daeschler of the Academy of Natural Sciences.
"We knew that the rocks on Ellesmere Island offered a glimpse into the right time period and were formed in the right kinds of environments to provide the potential for finding fossils documenting this important evolutionary transition." When Tiktaalik lived, the Canadian Arctic region was part of a land mass which straddled the equator. Like the Amazon basin today, it had a subtropical climate and the animal lived in small streams. The skeleton indicates that it could support its body under the force of gravity.
Farish Jenkins, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University said: "This represents a critical early phase in the evolution of all limbed animals, including humans - albeit a very ancient step." Tiktaalik also gives biologists a new understanding of how fins turned into limbs. Its fin contains bones that compare to the upper arm, forearm and primitive parts of the hand of land-living animals. "Most of the major joints of the fin are functional in this fish," Professor Shubin said.
"The shoulder, elbow and even parts of the wrist are already there and working in ways similar to the earliest land-living animals." Dr Clack said that, judging from the fossil, the first evolutionary transition from sea to land probably involved learning how to breathe air. "Tiktaalik has lost a series of bones that, in fishes, covers the gill region and helps to operate the gill-breathing mechanism," she said. "The air-breathing mechanism it had would have been elaborated and having lost the series of bones that lies between the head and the shoulder girdle means it's got a neck, it can raise its head more easily in order to gulp the air.
"The flexible robust limbs appear to be connected with pushing the head out of the water to breathe the air." H Richard Lane, director of sedimentary geology and palaeobiology at the US National Science Foundation, said: "These exciting discoveries are providing fossil Rosetta stones for a deeper understanding of this evolutionary milestone - fish to land-roaming tetrapods." A cast of the fossil goes on display at the Science Museum in South Kensington central London today.
Source: The Guardian
I think a lot of jobs may be being created in the defense industry. Whenever a Republican government is in power, you can observe an emphasis on recruiting in the armed forces. You can see their advertisements on TV, in the newspapers and even on the streets where army recruiters roam the streets of the neighborhoods where the less fortunate reside.
The armed forces are constantly looking to strengthen their defenses by hiring skilled mechanical, aeronautical, electrical, and civil engineers. Of course, the list does not end there, but those are some of the most obvious professions in high demand. In addition, they are always on the lookout for doctors and nurses to assist with their medical staff. Here is an article that featured on BBC where they talk about the increase in job production.
The US economy created 211,000 jobs in March as the unemployment rate dropped to 4.7%, the Labor Department said. The rate at which employers added jobs surprised analysts, who had forecast 190,000 new posts. However, the Labor Department revised down the number of jobs created in January and February by 34,000. March wage growth was below forecasts at 0.2%, but fears remain that current high levels of employment could boost consumption levels and raise inflation.
The markets are also worried that current hiring levels could lead to inflationary pay rises, which might then encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in an effort to contain them. "I think the Fed wants the unemployment rate to stop going down pretty much immediately, and if it doesn't the Fed will keep tightening," said economist Jim O'Sullivan of UBS Securities in Greenwich, Connecticut.
The Fed has raised its key short-term interest rate 15 times since mid-2004, and many analysts believe the current rate of 4.75% marks the latter stages of its rate-rising cycle. Not all industry sectors created jobs in March. Manufacturing employment fell by 5,000 after a 10,000 drop in February, while transportation firms shed 7,600 posts.
Service sector businesses led the hiring, recruiting 202,000 new staff in March, following on from the 194,000 in February.
Source: BBC
Brace yourselves, Rocky has returned, and he's back with a bang!
The Return of Rocky
Alternative link (Larger)
Hello folks, my article was published in the Daily 49er University newspaper. Please take a moment to read it. Thank you!
A religion should not be judged by its followers, but by its preaching and its values. In today’s world, people believe Islam preaches violence, intolerance and hatred towards people of other beliefs. I am going to endeavor to rebut their misconceptions through a historical journey of the Islamic empire.
The word Islam has its roots in the word "Salam", which means peace. Once again, a population of 1 Billion plus people can not be bundled up under the title of terrorism, judging by the acts of a small number of people. In order to understand the violent nature of certain Muslims, one must rationally approach the reasoning behind their reactions. One must understand what it is that has separated the so-called "Islamic Nations" from each other, despite the fact that Islam emphasizes heavily on unity.
When Muhammad (PBUH) passed away, the Islamic empire, which was at that point mostly centered around
At one point after the Prophet's death, the Islamic Empire stretched from
The famous explorer Avicenna was actually Muslim, and his name is Ibn Sina. Muslim explorers had landed in
In addition, the father of Chemistry, Gerber was actually Jaber Ibn-Hayyan, who studied between 5 - 7 different fields of study, and propagated the fundamentals of alchemy, pharmacy, philosophy, astronomy and physics to a new level, along with important inventions and discoveries.
The Islamic world was home to some of the greatest philosphers of all time, who studied Greek philosophy in great detail, and advanced it further, always giving the author its credit, something that has not been the case when it comes to Muslims being given the credit for their contributions to the world today. Famous Islamic philosphers include: Ibn Rush (Averroes), Al-Farabi, AlGazel (Al-Ghazali), Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Ibn Arabi, and the list goes on.
One thing that was common to these individuals was that they held their religion in high regard, and always relied to God to guide them. They never crossed the boundaries of morality or religion, and stuck to their paths.
All this, of course, was abolished, and burnt to the ground with the invasion of the Christian crusaders that was sanctioned by the Papacy itself! The Christians were hell-bent on capturing the Hold Land of Jerusalem through a military venture against the Jews and the Muslims in that region. In addition, the hordes of Gengis Khan, which were proceeded further by his grandson, Hulagu khan, who exterminated entire dynasties, states and caliphites. His armies raped, pillaged, and incinerated libraries, places of worship and academic structures to the ground without a shred of mercy.
The greatest capital of culture, literacy, arts, philosophy, etc was obliterated by Hulagu Khan, and later, his people converted to the very same religion whose empire they collapsed.
From that point on the Christian crusaders conquered Islamic lands, followed by the emergence of the colonialists who further carved up the Muslim lands in to different states, which later gained independence, only to be recognized as autonomous nations. This systematic division and the elimination of a glorious empire is what has angered today's scholars and preachers, some of who are not entirely educated in religion itself to comprehend the true message of Islam. The golden era of literacy, discoveries, inventions, and progression was forever halted by the sword of the Mongols and the Christians.
These so-called preachers systematically select portions of the Qur'an that deal with war and defense of one's lands and use them to create a message of death and destruction through aggression, which is tantamount to the message delivered by the Papacy during the Christian crusades. Using the common logic that Islam preaches violence, it can be said that Christianity is a religion of hatred, intolerance and militancy because it was the invasion of the crusades and the bloody Spanish inquisition that is responsible for the state of the Muslims today; and in fact also in a profound way responsible for their violent attitudes today.
Such hasty generalizations and faltered logic are the reason behind today’s misinterpretation of Islam and its message. This generalization of a population of nearly a sixth of the entire world is fundamentally erroneous, and should be abandoned. Unfortunately, the golden ages of education and literacy never blossomed again after the European renaissance of arts, science and culture, which was preceded by the Dark Ages of Europe. It was an era of ignorance, hatred, intolerance, and violence, which seems to have besieged the mentality of many people today.
An Alienware DesktopLikewise, a Dell spokesman said there would be no link to Alienware from Dell's site. The acquisition of Miami-based Alienware by Dell has been rumored for several weeks, and was first speculated upon in a blog entry by Rahul Sood, the founder of Canada-based Voodoo PC, an Alienware competitor.
Gonzalez said Alienware will take advantage of Dell's greater efficiences, allowing it to buy computer parts at very low cost and assemble them quickly. Mark Vena, a former Compaq and Dell executive who became Alienware's vice president of marketing in January, said the time between when an order is placed by an Alienware customer and the PC is built and delivered can be as much as 3-5 weeks. Full Article...
ATI’s Avivo video and display platform brings an increased level of visual fidelity to the professional graphics market with features such as automatic gain control, gamma correction and increased colour bit depth. With a 10-bit per RGB component graphics pipeline, instead of the standard 8-bit, the FireGL’s colour palette increases to over a billion colours. Full Article...
