edmcgon

I think if permission slips had been obtained, it would be ok. Something like this is up to the parents, not the teachers.

Speaking as a parent, if my kids were in high school, I would sign the permission slip. I don't believe in hiding kids (especially teenagers) from reality, no matter how gross reality may be.

I also recognize that not all parents share my belief, so permission slips are necessary. I don't condemn the teacher for what he did, just how he did it.

Nem,

Yes it is played online. You will have to wait until "City of Villains" to kick my butt! :unsure:

Goose,

What server are you on? I have characters on Triumph and Champion.

I believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life. Statistically, there are far too many solar systems in the universe for life NOT to be out there.

Have they visited us? The jury is still out.

Just wondering if anyone else has played this new game.

For those of you not familiar with it, it is basically a "comic book"-based MMORPG. Your character is a super hero, of your own design.

BTW, the design options are VERY impressive. I have heard the average person could spend 30 minutes just designing their character, although I spent 2 hours the first time (I am anal, and it was fun).

I have been playing for about 2 weeks now, and I am addicted. I grew up reading comic books, so this game has a lot of appeal to me. Yes, I am 39 years old and hooked on a comic book game. I prefer to think of it as feeding my already obese inner child.

I also got my wife hooked on it, so at least it is not just me. :P

Following is the main website for the game if you are curious:

City of Heroes

If any of you are aleady playing, let me know. Maybe we can team up!

What exactly is the premise of the show?

TUH,

I agree. I just don't find anything interesting in these types of shows.

There is a comedian up in the northeast who shares my name.

Peanut butter cookies!

I seem to recall there was a study several years ago which showed that math skills and music skills accessed the same part of the brain.

Jeanway,

I will agree that math does effect my emotional state. I tend to be very content (I would even say unemotional) while concentrating on a math problem. After completion, I gain a sense of accomplishment, so I am pleased (sometimes ecstatic depending on the level of difficulty).

I can see how that would help during a time of emotional stress. It would provide you an opportunity to shut off the emotional faucet (so to speak).

A bright kid with a promising future.

One other thing: The neighbors behind our house own some horses.

On the hill next to my yard, there are two groundhogs. They eat the kudzu, so I leave them alone.

There are also two wild tabby cats. About 5 years ago, I used to have mouse problems every winter. When the cats moved into my yard, that stopped. I leave them alone too, although I will on rare occasions (during colder times of year) leave a little food for them. I don't want them to rely on me, but I don't want them to starve either. They are good mousers.

I saw a long black snake on my hillside a few years ago (I don't know what kind). I turned the sprinkler on him and I have not seen him since.

I saw a terrapin turtle (about 6 inches long) in my yard last fall. I moved him down to the end of the yard (there are a lot more insects down there). I think he may have crawled into the woods behind my house because I have not seen him since.

There are two adult rabbits which constantly run around my yard (except in the winter). They are cute and don't eat much, plus the kids like them.

I did see one of the cats catch a baby rabbit last summer. It is quite impressive to watch a cat, even a little one, stalk prey. The cat carried the immobilized (may have been dead) rabbit into the woods behind my house. The next thing I see is the other cat going into the same part of the woods where the first cat went (rabbit dinner for everyone?).

I have also seen a few lizards.

The worst thing I have seen was black widows. I have killed 6 of them since we moved into the house almost 7 years ago (although it has been a few years since I killed the last one). There was one in the basement, one in the main hallway, one in the garage, one outside the garage, one under the deck, and one on a foot-tall pine tree that I transplanted in the yard.

That last one was truly shocking because I spent at least 15 minutes carefully digging up the roots on that pine VERY close to it. She could have easily bitten me at any time. I did not notice her until I was carrying the tree into my back yard. When I saw her, I shook her off the tree and sent her to God with my foot. Sorry, but the black widow is one of God's creations I could easily do without. :spidy:

For some reason, I am hungry now.

Phlox. He seems more creative and willing to try unorthodox treatments. The others just seem to stick to whatever the current technology says is the best treatment.

Scotty.

I had to give Riker the nod on this one. I consider it a very tight 3-way race between Riker, Kira, and Chakotay. Riker just seemed to me to be better at "thinking outside the box". If I am captain, I would rather have Riker there to save my butt. He would find a way no matter how impossible the odds might be.

T'pol has her "drug" problem.

Spock was ok, but I would prefer any of the big 3 above to him. Spock was just a little weak on leadership qualities.

I would give more credit to the great Eurasian/African civilizations because they had more/better competition from other civilizations. How many "great" civilizations did the Mayans have to compete?

This should be separate questions.

For security, Odo was clearly the best. The only security problem he could not control was Q (which none of the others could have done better).

For tactical, I would pick Worf because he has the best instincts for the position.

The last standardized test I took was the GRE (Graduate Record Exam). I bought some software (I don't remember the brand) to study for the test. I found it incredibly helpful.

The software included a sample test which was exactly like the real test (not the same questions, but exactly the same concepts). It pointed out the areas where I was weak so I could concentrate my studies there.

While I do not remember my exact score, I do remember my score was significantly better than my SAT's (the GRE scoring system is similar to the SAT, and the GRE is harder).

On a side note, I gained a better understanding of calculus studying for the GRE than I did in my college classes.

If the U.S. had to go to war with any country in the world, which one would present the most difficulty for us from a naval standpoint? In other words, aside from the U.S., which country has the best naval forces?

I gave this episode an 8.5.

This was definitely Connor Trinneer's "coming out" party as an actor.

Many times in Trek, they will put one of their supporting characters "front and center" in an episode. Many times we see how two dimensional their acting skills really are.

Not Trinneer. He has truly given Trip some depth.

Kudos to Trinneer!

The first thing that came to my mind when I read your ? Jeanway was

the Xfiles,...I watched that show every week, loved it, was addicted to it...

then it went to far for me and be came ridiculous.....the ep that comes to mind

is the one where brothers had their mother under the bed on a board with wheels

and she had no legs......

 

Click for Spoiler:

and she was being raped by them and having their babies...yuk!

 

 

 

I for some horrible reason sat thru the show and hated it.....I never watched

it again.....

 

To fans of the show, I'm not bashing it ...I just wasn't enjoying it anymore.

Since that episode, I have never been able to listen to Johnny Mathis' "Wonderful Wonderful" the same way! :lol:

They will begin making Survivor 9 anytime now, so casting for Survivor 10 will begin fairly soon. should I try out for it?

VBG,

Was this AE's idea? He is just trying to pass your post count! :lol:

Seriously, go for it!

Yes, but when you consider those three words were spoken before a Super Bowl where the Jets were an overwhelming underdog (I think the line was about 16-17 points), that was a pretty impressive accomplishment.

I have a problem with the examples they used for this phenomenon, plus their explanation:

In mammals, if a newborn has an X and a Y chromosome, it will be male; and if it gets two X chromosomes, it will be female, with a few, very rare exceptions. Similar mechanisms work for birds, snakes and some reptiles such as lizards.

 

But in crocodilians, turtles and some fish, the temperature at which eggs are incubated can affect the sex of the developing foetus.

 

David Miller, of the University of Leeds, and colleagues ran an analysis that showed a temperature shift could theoretically have led to a preponderance of males among the dinosaurs.

 

Other studies have shown that when there are too few females, eventually the population will die out.

 

"The Earth did not become so toxic that life died out 65 million years ago; the temperature just changed, and these great beasts had not evolved a genetic mechanism (like our Y chromosome) to cope with that," said Dr Sherman Silber, an infertility expert in St Louis, who worked on the study.

 

But crocodiles and turtles had already evolved at the time of the great extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. So, how did they survive?

 

"These animals live at the intersection of aquatic and terrestrial environments, in estuarine waters and river beds, which might have afforded some protection against the more extreme effects of environmental change, hence giving them more time to adapt," the researchers say.

 

But other scientists are not convinced by the sex idea.

 

"More than 50% of all species that lived prior to the mass extinction were wiped out. In fact, the dinosaurs were not among the most numerous of the casualties - the worst hit organisms were those in the oceans," said Benny Pieser, of Liverpool John Moores University.

 

"I am afraid sex-selection mechanisms are an unlikely cause for the termination of the age of dinosaurs - despite the sexed-up headlines."

In other words, the animals most likely to have been effected could have survived it. Birds, which are theorized to have been descended from dinosaurs, are not effected by this.