Caraccioli

No problem. That way the old stuff gets brought back to the top when someone talks about it. This means it won't be deleted in the next purge. (They do that by thread age. Still, I hope they warn me next time...) Do you keep a dream diary? I've read that the best thing you can do with dreams is keep track of them and look for recurring patterns and things that have meaning to you. I've also heard (in my Creativity class) that most dreams reflect things that have happened to you in the past day or two and that, while symbolic, the symbols are primarily to be interpreted in light of what they mean to you specifically. (So you may consider throwing out those generic dream dictionaries. While there are some fairly common symbols, even they are not necessarily universal.) I also heard that people in your dreams are often more important in terms of what traits they represent than in terms of who they actually are. Myself, I am not to trusting of my dreams for guidance. I just figure it's my brain sorting through the mental detritus during the down time. But that's just me.

Who is saying that? If you read it in a newspaper or popular magazine, it's probably been blown out of proportion to what the studies actually say. Most of the increased temperatures from the warming going on (natural cycles and any anthropological contributions) are expected to occur at night. This is true for all seasons in both hemispheres. And it's the winter temperatures that have shown the majority of the increased warming especially in colder locations. More than 75% of "global" warming in the Northern hemisphere for the last 50 years has been primarily confined to very cold high-pressure systems. (Michaels, et. al. 1998, 2000 and Balling et. al. 1998). According to one study (Jones, et. al. 1997a) of the temperature in central England - from which we have the longest running temperature record in the world - there has been a clear reduction in the number of cold days, but no clear increase in the number of hot days. (Jones, 1997a). For the US, the number of days with extreme high temperatures has actually declined a bit in the past 100 years. As for the "predicted" droughts, it is likely that warming of the planet will actually produce more rain. Many scientiests are more concerned with flooding from a warming planet than droughts - in addition to increases in regular rain, there has been a marked rise in heavy rains in many places over the past few decades. According to surveys from the US and southern Canada, more rain recorded overall than previously over time. (IPCC report, 1996a). There is some concern that places already affected by drought may experience a bit more of it, but the same places will also experience more rain during rainy periods. Interestingly, between the extra rain and the positive effects of CO2, the Earth is expected to be somewhat greener because of any warming that will take place. (I'll bet you haven't heard much about the positive effects of global warming. They don't make the news very often.) Most plants, especially rice and wheat, grow much better when there is more CO2 in the air. Add to this warmer winters and warmer evening temperatures and we have a greener planet. As for insulation - I just put insulation in my second story which never had any! The house was built in 1911...all that energy wasted on unnecessary heating and cooling. I talked with neighbors and many of them say they found the same thing.

Well, it is a living room, not a pirate-themed bar room...I like a smidgen of subtle... I have a Barbie (bought her as an accessory for a 12" tall James Bond, er, action figure I bought a long time ago), but the l shape of the light fixture already creates a moment arm that places a lot of stress forces on the joint at the base. Extend that arm further and then add a pound or so of Barbie...I'm just afraid it won't hold up very well. Then again, a bronze plate is probably worse...

It's interesting how they borrow from current events on this show. I guess it sort of fits the concept and gives viewers a link. The religion thing is odd. I notice the humans are polytheistic and somewhat irregular in their religious habits and the Cylons are monotheistic and fairly unified and strict in theirs. (Would anyone like a side of subtle social commentary with their TV viewing?) I wonder how long the story arc for the Cylon's plan (They have a plan.) can hold out? Usually those arcs are 2-3 years, right? If that's the case, I wonder where they'll go from there... It'd be great to be a Cylon actor - you can do all these fantastic and meaningful death scenes and just be back on set next episode without anyone questioning it.

I saw a standee with R2 and 3PO in the local USPS...they aren't giving it up, though. 3PO is still my favorite character from the series, no matter how negative and effeminate he is. "Take the Professor in back and plug him into the hyperdrive!" Professor. *snicker* Hey, Captain Grey, have you seen those SW Unleashed Shadow Stormtrooper figures? Wicked cool... http://www.starwars.com/collecting/news/ha...ws20061212.html

Ya' know...I started this post half in jest - I figured it would tire itself out in 5 or 6 posts... (Although I've wanted to grow a banana plant from a seed since I was a kid. Tried it twice, actually.) Yet here there's all this pent up banana plant discussion! If there's a banana plant called Goldfinger, that's probably the one I should get, even if it is a large production plant. It's just karma. (Goldfinger is presently #5 on my list of top 5 fave movies, see...you can't watch that movie without marveling at how cool it must be to be a secret agent. Contrast this with Roger Moore's portrayal...but I digress.] Hey, I have a piratical plant light! I designed it myself. http://www.markck.com/images/My%20House/Li...oom%20lamps.htm (I want to get a plaque with pirate flags and ships or something like that for the front of it, but it's a tad spindly and don't want to overburden the joint at the base. I saw a shop that makes cast bronze plaques from pictures for gravestones and am I considering the possibility. I think that would be neat on several levels.

More than a handful is too much, right? I was sagely explaining this to a group of friends when I was in college (the dark ages) who were lasciviously discussing girls when some wag said, "Yeah, but in your case it's 'More than a handful for a raccoon...'" (See, I used to like awfully thin girls before I realized that it was wholly irrelevant to happiness in a relationship.) I believe I left soon after that as the discussion just sort of went downhill from there. On another note, I used to want a step van with a table and refrigerator so that we could all hang out and play Euchre in the parking lot when I was in college. It's harder to leave a discussion when it's in your step van, however.

You can use my "Do it Yourself Pyrate Report" generator! If they start talking about how pirates were essentially trying to rebel against the strict rules of the Navy and form democratic societies on sea, lock the instructor in a room with Ed Foxe for an hour.

(Re-creating yet another topic that appears to have been deleted last year. ) I was just enjoying a Butterfinger candybar when it occurred to me that I used to really dislike Butterfinger candybars. I liked Kit Kats or Twix or Whatchamacallits. Now I like Butterfingers. That got me to thinking about the candy thread we used to have (which is now gone apparently) and ruminating on candy. Candy thoughts or memories anyone?

"No more Mr. nice Gaius!" Oh, it's corny, but I loved it. I'd probably watch a whole mediocre episode just to get to a line like that. Heck, that was the only thing I really remember about the movie Wild, Wild West (Speaking of mediocre...bordering on bad.) Not that that was a mediocre episode...the writing is really top notch on this show. (Except that absurd "Cylon glowing spine during sex" thing. The first time it was kind of cute - now it's just sort of dumb. Why would the Cylons build something into their human replicants that could potentially give them away?) "No more Mr. nice Gaius!" I laughed out loud, which I rarely do with media. (Now I want to listen to Alice Cooper...)

But, in a way, all reasoning seems to be circular - just in ever-widening circles. What actually started me thinking was your comment about robin and butterfly sitings. This occurs in a multi-decade (and possibly longer) cyclical patterns. (Although I understand there is also a mathematically chaotic element present in animal population sizes and behaviors. As I mentioned, this is cyclical in nature as well, but in really weird ways. Alas, I have only passing knowledge of animal studies, however, so I'll not wander too much further into the topic.) Wandering around this overarching topic...I think the most important thing I've learned in regard to philosophy and the broad concept of mastery is that we each live in our own world and that that world is unlike anyone else's world. Most important to this idea is that we mentally construct the vast majority of our world and we can alter it in important ways. So we are each, in essence, the master of our created world. If we don't chose to consciously guide parts of this creation, it will be subconsciously and externally guided - meaning we essentially forfeit our mastery of our own lives.

I was just thinking about the cyclical nature of things in the shower this morning. (There's a mental picture for ya'.) I started out with the 11 year sunspot cycle (an odd number from a human perspective for some reason) and the 1500 year temperature cycle which lead me to thinking about the annual seasonal cycle then on to the human aging cycle, the cyclical nature of chaos theory (repetitions of repetitions) and back to my book (Godel, Escher, Bach: A Golden Braid) which is (among other things) about recursive cycles. So it's really funny that you bring it up.

"Striving but never arriving?" Balance is always a good thing. I come from the western thinking into the Eastern. Some of it is good. I am particularly fond of the concept "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Of course, teachers take many forms... Of course, we're far from my original point of that quote. I brought it up to counter the House quote. An average-looking person of average intelligence who perseveres will accomplish far more than a beautiful or brilliant one who won't. Even Taoists must persevere to some degree to resist the outer world in moving toward emptiness, flexibility, effortlessness and detachment. (It's something of a conundrum, really.)

So...extrapolating a bit...this means all banana plants must be decended from one banana plant. (When banana plants congregate or attend conventions and cocktail parties, they must surely refer reverently to this "supreme" banana plant or "the lawgiver" or some such. Maybe it's a minor diety in the banana religion or something. We should ask the bananas in pajamas...anyhow...) The crux of the issue, the real burning banana question in my mind, is where did the first banana plant come from? Paging Dr. Darwin to the tropical plants greenhouse! Was the world originally a giant banana plant floating through the recesses of space (and time) that gradually gathered space dust and debris in its luxuriant buds and leaves, the bulk of which said dust and debris, over billions and billions of years, coalesced to form the planet that we now call "Earth?" The mind simply reels. Now I really want a banana plant cutting. I may go and see someone at the local greenhouse tomorrow. A slice of the master banana plant...

Uh...apparently I am all wet here. From an Oz website: "But the edible farmed banana has no seeds. So how do we get new bananas? They take cuttings from an existing banana plant. New banana "trees" are "born" in a new location when the shoots of cuttings are planted in the ground, and take root successfully. The cycle starts with an underground stem (or vigorous root), often metres across, that can have several banana "trees" growing from it. Each of these so-called "trees" started from an underground "bud". A "bud" will push up a shoot, which breaks through the soil. The shoot is made of leaves, wrapped tightly around each other, so that it looks like a green tree trunk - even though there is no wood present. The oldest leaves are on the outside, with the newest leaves pushing upward through the middle. When the time is right, the underground stem switches from making leaves, to making an "inflorescence", which makes flowers, and subsequently, fruit. The inflorescence has a broad leaf-like structure that wraps around a hand of flowers, which ultimately turn into a hand of bananas. The final "tree" can be up to 6 metres tall, with bunches of 50-150 individual fruits or "fingers" of bananas, broken up into hands of 10-20 bananas each. Once that particular underground bud has grown an inflorescence, it cannot reset itself to growing leaves, and ultimately, another "trunk". It has done its dash. So that bud and trunk will die and wither away. But in the next summer, other buds appear on the underground stem, and so the cycle continues. So bananas are definitely a fruit, even though the fruit is sterile and has no seeds. And the banana hand does not grow on a tree. It grows on a plant. But it's not a tree, because it's made from leaves, not true woody tissue. So even though the banana has a phallic shape, it is a sterile and mutant fruit that has not had sex for 10,000 years." (http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1453046.htm) Boy, there is so much to learn. I guess that's why you weren't aware of them, silent. They don't exist! I wonder what that little thing in the bottom of the banana is...?

It's a wee little elongated football sort of thing in one end of the banana. It's dark brown. Heat, huh? I should have known you'd know, Mary. These are just regular store bought yellow bananas. I am plant illiterate, but I am cultivating several miscellaneous tropical plants - two are in the pirate room (Caribbean themed!) that you can see on this page with their specially designed plant growth light. (You can also see two little bamboo plants in there as well. I'm still not sure why I was compelled to buy them.) The other two are sitting forlorn hogging all the sunlight coming in from through the lone outside window of what will one day be the Key West-themed dining room. (They're too big to put on a shelf.) They all seem to be thriving, so maybe I can get a banana plant to grow as well. I'm not looking to have it produce, I just think it would be cool to grow my own banana plant from a seed. Michigan, probably also zone 5?

Has anyone (in the US) ever been able to do this indoors? I want to try it. Last time I tried it however, it failed. Do I need a greenhouse or what?

What an interesting idea if you have a lot of time to travel and you don't don't mind a little discomfort. I have yet to set foot on a formal cruise. I'd rather go somewhere and grok it as deeply as I can in a week or two. (Although days/weeks of relative solitude have a strong appeal...)

I finally got the next disc and found out what happened to Starbuck! The parachute thing was sort of cool. The Cylon cyborg thing is cool. The insight into Adamma's character was really cool. This show is pretty cool. Kewl.

I had to think on this before responding. Let me say if I can state your ideas in my words (and concepts). Persistence in doing something that lacks personal integrity is bad. If that's what you're saying, I agree. However, persistence is just a tool and, in and of itself, is not bad. In fact, a great deal has been accomplished by people who persevered when they wanted to accomplish something. "For the resolute and determined there is time and opportunity." –Ralph Waldo Emerson

You're in support of the theory of anthropological GW having the potential to cause major environmental destruction and you've never been to the IPCC website? I was looking at your linked page...interesting. From their report summary (I don't have time right now to review the whole thing): "Taken collectively, the observations presented in this report indicate that during 2000-2005 the Arctic system showed signs of continued warming. However, there a few indications that certain elements may be recovering and returning to recent climatological norms (for example, the central Arctic Ocean and some wind patterns.)" So, in some ways, they're saying it seems to be getting better. Notice that they restrict their comments to 2000-2005. Remember how the focus of Mr. Gore's movie on certain numbers dramatically altered the predictions? Anyhow, they do go on... "These mixed tendencies further illustrate the sensitivity and complexity of the Arctic physical system. They underlie the importance of maintaining and expanding [More money, please] efforts to observe and better understand this important component of the climate system to provide accurate predictions of its future state." Here's something from the Temperature International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks web page that you may find interesting. "Despite the significant body of research and a preliminary understanding of driving mechanisms of the recent observed changes in the Arctic, there is still a large degree of uncertainty about the role of natural low-frequency variability and trends." Once again, we are told by scientists that the complex system of the environment, even in this small area, is not fully understood. [More money, please.] Now, on the satellites, they've only been collecting temperature data using satellites since the 1979. Even the NOAA website admits this. So we are looking at less than 30 years of data in what needs to be at least 1500 years of data, according to some scientists. (They believe that since the Earth's temperature has stabilized, it has gone through a roughly 1500 year temperature cycle. This is where all that Little Ice Age stuff comes to bear.) Besides all this, who's to say that the ice cap melting is due largely to anthropological GW anyhow? From an article in National Geographic: "In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row." ( http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20...rs-warming.html ) Of course, this all but dismisses the effects of the natural global warming effect, which, as I said previously, is definitely a factor in the temperature on Earth. However, it does hint that warming due to the sun may be increasing. (Although 3 years is a small window and much more data would be needed, it does happen to correspond with the 2000-2005 thing the website you cite mentioned.) Something else that factors in with that time period is sunspot activity, which has a direct effect on the low-level cloud cover on Earth. This is sort of complex, but basically low-level clouds keep the Earth cooler (as jessie mentioned) by reflecting the sun's rays. During periods of increased sunspot activity there are fewer low level clouds and thus more solar radiation is allowed in which has a warming effect on our planet. Sunspot activity is on a roughly 11 year cycle and was at a maximum in late 2000/early 2001. (See for example: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0009/26sohospots/ ) In sum, the whole thing is very complex and not fully understood, which is even suggested by the NOAA. I still see no evidence that there will be 20 foot rises in sea level over the next 100 years from any of this.

Actually, that's another one of the flaws with the IPCC's models that are used to project the amount of global warming. (There are several.) They don't take cloud cover into account because of the way their system is built. The clouds are too small to model. The IPCC says in their 2001a report that, "...probably the greatest uncertainty in future projections of climate arises from clouds and their interactions with radiation...Clouds represent a significant source of potential error in climate simulations." "The sign of the net cloud feedback is still a matter of uncertainty, and the various models exhibit a large spread. Further uncertainties arise from precipitation processes and the difficulty in correctly simulating the diurnal cycle and precipitation amounts and frequencies." BTW, jess, while what you say is true, clouds can actually both cool and warm the climate depending on how high they are and the distribution of water in them.

If you're talking to me, we're apparently talking about different things. Many studies are already governmentally funded. Pure (or as near to pure as we can get) research is pretty much the purview of the government and universities. (Although universities are getting into private research as well.) I'm talking about political power, not scientific studies. Legislation, regulation and (most particularly) taxation to solve this as yet incompletely proven problem.

Splendid! So many opportunities for people to do something. I do free trainings exclusively for volunteer groups to motivate and teach them for my little part (and to learn from them of course).

Hey, can I play? I have that empty treasure chest sitting in my living room and everything in the house is a reflection of something I've been involved in and this website is certainly that. Empty Chests! (The dark wood one) pm me an address and I'll make something I recently learned about for my house and send it to you...