Mark34
Not by a long shot! Go to cakewrecks. There are some amazingly gross ones. This one was mild by comparison to the Gastro Intestional nurse cake!

They could also be used as disposable yarmulkes. Real handy should you have extra guests for Purim or Hanukkah.

Judge Dee was the central figure in a series of mystery novels set in Ancient China. The author Robert VanGulik wrote about a dozen or so, the first one a translation of an old Chinese book.

They were inspired by Ming Dynasty set of stories about the real judge, Di Rengie(sp?). I first encountered the books when I took a Chinese history class in college, where the professor recommended them for outside reading.

I remember the TV movie as being remarkable because of its all-Asian cast (rare for the 1970s) and it being well done and interesting. Too bad the series never took off.

But if you see any extraterrestrials, HIDE!

Uh, Bruno?

Maybe you should reread my comments. I made no reference to military superiority. Or even what alien intentions would or would not do.

I was saying, there is no guarantee that a planet hospitable to lifeforms that evolved there would be habitable to a lifeform which evolved elsewhere.

Unless the aliens came from a vitrually identical planet with the same gasses in its atmosphere, a similar temperature range and radiation exposure rate, surviving on Earth without a LOT of life support equipment would not be very likely.

The biology/nature argument is tenuous at best.

The alien species invasion model works on this planet because all the plants and animals come from the same planet. They may have evolved in geographically separated ecosystems, but they did not evolve on a completely different world.

The odds of Earth and some extra solar world being so similar that life forms from one can exist on the other without bringing its own life support are pretty low.

Despite what we were raised seeing on TV, there is no guarantee that alien life forms on different planets are will be bipeds resembling humans in exotic costumes speaking 20th century English and mating with Captain Kirk.

I seriously think Hawking is out of his depth here. He may have revolutionized our views of cosmology, but I think he has seen too many Roland Emmerich Movies.

Short of Warp drives, worm holes, or some other fantasy mode of interplanetary travel, Earth will not be invaded by aliens the way the New World was conquered by the Europeans.

If physical contact with extraterrestrial entities ever occurs, I would be more concerned that the alien life forms were able to survive on Earth. Did they evolve on a planet with a similar atmosphere, gravity and chemical composition? Does Earth have too much or too little nitrogen or oxygen for them to breathe? Will they be able to survive Earth's rate of ultraviolet radiation?

I doubt disease will be as serious a threat from ET as it was from the Europeans when they moved into the Americas. The native populations were the same species--their immune systems were not able to tackle the diseases that Europe had survived. So it seems unlikely that any alien viruses or microbes will decimate the human population--they probably would not recognize us as useable hosts.

Perhaps if the first poster had actually read the article--
Prohibition created an environment conducive to creating and supporting organized crime. Law abiding citizens became criminals (and made professional criminals wealthy)because they wanted a beer or a martini. There were probably as many people killed in alchohol related incidents AFTER Prohibition as before it.

But then, you'd also have to add in the gangland murders caused by criminal syndicates fighting each other for control of illegal liquor distribution. Prohibition also caused a sharp rise in homemade liquor. Much of it, highly toxic containing methanol.

It also closed hundreds of small local breweries out of business. When prohibition was repealed, the few remaining breweries gained control of a nationwide market.

If you live in a state such as Washington or Utah, you have to buy liquor in a State owned and operated store paying state-set prices.
We are seeing something similar in the drug cartel wars in Mexico and Central America. There is big money to be made smuggling illegal goods into the United States.

And the illegal pot growers in California are opposing legalization, because it will drive the prices down and run the growers of California's largest cash crop out of business.

I was being serious.
Check out this website:

http://www.schickele.com/

But, I would not say no to a T shirt

Not totally sure of the name, but I am pretty certain it is an old instrument, possibly baroque, developed by P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742)when he lived in Wein Am Rhine, Germany.

It is a group barstool from the RNC's last party at that L.A. S&M Bar

survived the large hadron collider xxl

In all fairness, I must admit, I do know of Pierre Pica's work, and the issue of numeracy and numerical perception is really quite interesting.

And the Munduruku have been living peacefully within Brazil since their last makor tribal wars in about 1800.

Maybe of the article linked originated somewhere besides that paragon of journalism, The Guardian, it would have been easier to buy

Wes, I did read the damned article. I was being sarcastic.

I just find it hard to believe there are any more truly untouched tribes in the wilds of anywhere. Supposedly the Tasaday had no word for blue. A color they never encountered despite being able to see the sky. These people supposedly went undiscovered until 1970, living in a cave a three hour hike from town.

I am not surprised that there are cultures that see things differently. That is normal. Pick up a bible. ever wonder why 40 keeps showing in days of rain and years in the wilderness? Or Methusela living 900 years?
They were the preliterate middle easterners' descriptions of a "shiteload." But to not pick up on base ten?
Pierre Pica's reluctance to discuss specific facts and figures in the article almost screams "Kippendorf's Tribe" to me.

Why does this story remind me of the "discovery" of the Tassaday, a stone age tribe in the Philippines? Remember how authentic they turned out to be?

No numbers greater than five? Wow! How do they manage in the jungle with only half the usual supply of fingers and toes?

In the back of my mind, I kept thinking Trololo reminded me of another song.
I just remembered what it was: "This is my Song" from "Tom Thumb" starring Russ Tamblyn (Dr Jacoby in Twin Peaks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLwtFzmUE7c