online dating service
REGISTER | MAIL/PROFILE | HELP | NOW ONLINE | SEARCH | RATING | FORUMS | SUCCESS STORIES

 

     
Posted In Forum:
Home   login   MyForums  
Show ALL Forums  
 
 Author Thread: IM for PlentyofFish
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 469 (view)
 
IM for PlentyofFish
Posted: 4/29/2009 4:35:45 PM
Something you could do is simply set up an Instant Message account on a different service than you normally use then use that for PoF; if you get a jerk just abandon it and make a different account elsewhere.
In particular AIM is very useful if you need multiple "screen names" .
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 464 (view)
 
Cost of IM service - not just software licencing
Posted: 4/29/2009 8:30:06 AM

But there are so many amazing products that are open source (removing the 'cost of the product' arguement.)


Total costs for IM and chat include:

Network utilization ("Bandwidth") charges, especially for audio/visual/file transfer features.

Additional MS SQL Servers and databases; keep in mind Markus has appeared to have drank the Micro$oft Kool-Aid :grin:
I doubt there's an open-source freeware IM server application which is secure, scalable and robust enough be be useful to PoF which runs on the MS Windows Server platform.
Adobe Macromedia seems to have a patent-lock on that.

User support which for advanced features starts climbing because of end-user firewall and security configuration which make it difficult to have "direct" connections which save on server resources.

Admin time to police the system;
ever since QuantumLink in 1986 there have always been a large number of (mostly)guys who take advantage of the fact the disorderly-conduct, anti-harassment and indecent-exposure laws aren't much applied in cyberspace .
This can cause IM to become a net liability to a site like PoF which doesn't have the staff to monitor user complaints effectively.

Exposure to liability;
while online services starting with CompuServe have always included disclaimers absolving themselves from any kind of liability to their users/customers the courts from time to time have disagreed; even if the online service prevails in a suit there it can cost 10s or 100s of thusands in legal fees to get that favorable decision.

There's also the matter of having to deal with subpoenas from divorce lawyers and police agencies which is yet more time and money.

With all the above factors its not surprising that PoF discontinued the IM service and will never replace it with something "home grown".
I'm sure PoF advert revenues have taken a sharp drop the past 2 years and Markus decided to cut costs by dropping IM.
I think Userplane's poor performance played a factor in his decision too.
AOL (Userplane's owner) since its beginnings has insisted on selling its services to far more people than it can efficiently serve.

Unhelpful is Markus' apparent "Mushroom principle" style of user relationship management. But hey, its *his* system after all.

-Herb

P.S
And I'm going to be a Cassandra and predict:
by end of 2010 AIM and Userplane will go away, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger will merge and require a yearly or monthly subscription fee for anything beyond bare-bones usage and may even require a credit card as a form of positive ID for "free" users, that is if you can't qualify for a credit card they don't want you .
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 437 (view)
 
No IM devalues PoF!
Posted: 4/26/2009 8:40:54 AM
To me no more IM really devalues PlentyofFish.com and I won't be logging on as often as I did previously.

Markus runs PoF as a business; Userplane's performance has gone steadily downhill over the past year and he's probably seen more and more complaints about IM.

I have seen other systems discontinue chat and IM because it starts taking too much time for the admins to keep it up and running and prevent it from becoming a legal liability to them.

Keep in mind at one time PoF had a chat room which was discontinued when it became too hard to keep things civil and polite.

I wonder whether guys who like to IM women with their pekker showing in the little video window or sending a crude sexually-oriented remark as their opener was a factor in no more IM.

The official story from Markus is that Userplane was discontinuing the service.
Another person who claims to be a Webmaster who uses one of Userplane's services said in effect "Userplane isn't going away" ...HMMMMM!

-Herb
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 353 (view)
 
Banner Announcement for IM Disco Needed!
Posted: 4/22/2009 5:27:55 AM
I don't understand why there isn't a banner on the home page of PoF stating that the IM feature is no longer available.
That would save a lot of emails to "Admin" and posts on the forum.

Then too I think candor is something people who own and/or manage any kind of communications medium are organically incapable of.

I respect Markus' right to turn off the Webmessenger IM feature even if he is (IMO) being disingenuous for the reason which appears to be that in order to support an advert-free PoF for "serious" members either he'd have to pay a lot more for Userplane OR Userplane doesn't offer an advert-free version of its hosted product and Markus doesn't want to spend the money for additional servers, bandwidth and very expensive software licencing (Adobe Macromedia) to have an "internal" IM to replace Userplane.

Also the addition of the pay-for "serious" member feature tells me PoF's revenues have been falling perhaps to an extent Marcus needs to cut some costs in order to keep PoF "on the air"
If that's the real deal it's certainly better that there's no IM rather than no PoF.

If people switch to emails here as a replacement for IM watch for degradation of email performance - already PoF has reduced email retention from 30 to 20 days; I can see email send-quotas on the horizon.

-Herb
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 131 (view)
 
The shaving craze
Posted: 4/21/2009 5:04:36 PM
Broad-spectrum topic I see

I certainly find it nicer if a woman's silky-smooth; gives a new meaning to "kissable lips"!
However if she can't shave due to irritation/folliculitis c'est la vie - I'm not grossed out by a "bush".
But if she wants a loving *shave* I'll happily oblige !

I think those who equate the liking for a smooth vulva on a woman with latent pedophilia are just simply too uptight about life in general; are there any credible studies to back up this belief?

Women (and men) have been depilating their pubic regions for thousands of years (google for "Venus of Willendorf" ). In earlier days removing hair was a first defense against body lice which can carry the deadly (before antibiotics) disease typhus fever.

Keep in mind that in modern times till fairly recently giving/getting oral sex was considered "sodomy" or "the abominable and detestable crime against nature" in many parts of the world so no one would likely write about the joys of quaffing an un-bearded clam or the pleasure a woman received from her lover's face and lips upon her freshly-shaved "Venus"!
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 1 (view)
 
"Anti-smokers" showing in My Matches for smokers
Posted: 3/2/2009 5:06:39 AM
Something that strikes me odd is that I smoke yet in "My Matches" appear women who have in their contact restrictions "Must not smoke".
I hope Markus has that on his 'to do' fixes list.

-Herb
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 338 (view)
 
Starting to get turned off with shaved women
Posted: 10/2/2008 7:55:39 PM
Hey how about a little life-rune over the pubic bone and silky smooth below?
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 17 (view)
 
Ron Paulers where to go ? mccain ? Obama ? nahh it would appear to Nader !
Posted: 6/18/2008 6:42:14 AM
Those of us Americans who are disgusted with the presumptive choices this November SHOULD write-in the candidate of their choice. It is not a "wasted" vote if enough people do it; whether McSame or Obamanation get elected, if there were millions of write-ins for Ron Paul that would reduce their "political capital".

However the way the American system of government works, barring any major catastrophe such as several Allied cities getting nuked or a global financial meltdown
Congress is likely to be a counterweight to any major political changes such as having a Right or Left majority on the Supreme Court (I predict the next US Supreme Court justice will be a moderate jurist rather than a political hack), doing nationalized healthcare etc.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 57 (view)
 
Lawyer who convicted Manson wants GWB charged with mass murder.
Posted: 5/30/2008 1:53:11 PM
I am sure one of the first things future president McSame will be doing as soon as he's sworn in is granting full pardons to Bush, Cheney etc.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 10 (view)
 
Pages are not refreshing
Posted: 5/15/2008 8:48:15 AM
in another thread "Admin" mentioned doing some sort of work on the databases as they were approaching their capacity; so expect it to take awhile for the PoF site to be working
properly again.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 60 (view)
 
The price of Gas
Posted: 4/27/2008 3:57:04 PM
According to "IronmanUK": Av UK prices per litre:
Unleaded = £1.086 = $2.683 = $8.208 per gallon equiv
Diesel = £1.182 = $2.360 = $8.933

Compared with my neck of the woods where unleaded regular (87 R+M/2 Octane)
is running $3.49.9 - $3.59.9 per gallon and
No. 2 Diesel is ca. $4.39.9 - $4.59.9 per gallon .

I am sure the price difference between USA and UK (and CDN) is largely the amount of fuel tax imposed; I believe the UK has had a "prohibitive" motor fuel tax model since the beginning to discourage the masses from buying private cars or relying on them for daily transportation (so the bourgeois and nobility could enjoy less-crowded roadways).

The scariest aspect of Bush Oil (over)Prices is what happens when it becomes cost-prohibitive to do just-in-time inventory management.

That is ... should that situation come to pass expect to see sporadic bare shelves at the supermarkets and scarcity of out-of-season produce and frozen foods as these could become prohibitively expensive to transport long distances.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 39 (view)
 
The Embarrassing Question for Obama Supporters.
Posted: 4/27/2008 3:41:19 PM
A single, nationwide primary is what's needed.
Let's do it on the first Tuesday in May where all 50 states have (by option of their
legislatures) have their primaries or party caucuses.
Then end of August both parties have their conventions at the same time, with Labor Day being the official start of campaigning between the two nominees.

And the Democrats should re-run the Michigan and Florida primaries.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 111 (view)
 
The pennsylvania primary outcome...
Posted: 4/27/2008 6:04:40 AM
JAFO, would you be willing to post the details of that newpaper you have (paper name, date and pages the Cindy McCain story appeared on) ... or better yet scan the story and upload it to ImageShack or other free pic-sharing site?

:grin:
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 94 (view)
 
The pennsylvania primary outcome...
Posted: 4/26/2008 4:31:21 AM
Simply folks: Operation Chaos.

The GOP fat-cats are backing Obama as he would be easier to defeat than Hilary Clinton.
O.C. involves people switching parties in the primaries to vote for Obama, thus skewing the results.
Of course the "Democratic" (Liberal Socialist) Party is anything but, what with its super delegates who are controlled by the Dem fat-cats.

I have a gut feeling we could see someone other than Obama, McCain or H.Clinton be
sworn in Jan. 20, 2009 as the 44th President of the United States.

This presumes of course there is no late-October Surprise such as a co-ordinated "NBC" weapons-attack against several US and Western European cities ... or a global economic meltdown precipitated by the oil-exporting countries demanding gold or gold-equivalent for their oil instead of dollars, €uros, yen etc.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 48 (view)
 
Continuing War on Illegal Aliens
Posted: 12/29/2007 5:53:54 AM

Build the wall... and get each and every illegal that tries to go forward.
and then, put them thru boot camp, do there time and then they could be legal. Of course their time would be ... Iraq or Afghan.


I wouldn't trust such people with our national security or with access to weapons.
What could be done is any illegal who returns to the USA after deportation receive a minimum 2-year sentence working on a chain gang picking up this mess:

http://www.nowpublic.com/tag/border%2520trash

(Flash required for full sized view)
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 3 (view)
 
The Death of On-line Dating
Posted: 12/29/2007 5:33:04 AM
The story mentioned PoF in a sort of backhanded way:

Fair Use excerpt from the above story:

The trend away from traditional online dating shows up in traffic patterns too. According to comScore (SCOR), the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September from a year earlier at a time when growth has soared among social networking and user-generated sites. Some of the most prominent sites suffered the biggest declines. Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com's visitors plummeted 46%.
ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases. Many of them go at online dating in a new way. Plentyoffish, for example, allows you to browse profiles for free. I doubt they'll ever get to the size or valuation of a Match.com. The Web and the way people use it have just changed too much since then.

The full title should be "Death of Internet Dating as a Profit-making Venture".

Looks like this writer is a securities analyst; the message he's conveying is that investing in Internet dating sites is probably not a smart thing to do.

That is what you pay Y! Personals,. Match.com etc 20-40 bucks a month you can get for free on MySpace and Facebook.

Expect to see some commercial "match" sites go dead in 2008.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 24 (view)
 
Michael Vick sentencing
Posted: 12/29/2007 5:09:58 AM
Ten years for dogfighting - that would be ridiculous!
I do wish though that part of Vick's sentence would have been a bar on
future participation in pro sports, just to send a message to other pro athletes.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 12 (view)
 
Go 20 Years Without Changing a Light Bulb
Posted: 12/29/2007 5:06:35 AM
A place where LED lights would be good is applications where the light is frequently
turned on and off (bathrooms and closets come to mind).
Don't forget, fluorescent bulb life span is based on continuous hours of operation; intermittent use greatly reduces their lifespan.
And of course fluorescent bulbs do contain a tiny amount of mercury.
White LEDs need to come down some more in price.
And LED manufacturing (as all semiconductors) involves use of some very toxic substances
and byproducts which means the Chinese will have a cost edge.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 27 (view)
 
Amero-north american union-RIFD chip
Posted: 12/29/2007 3:56:32 AM
I don't think we'll be seeing universal implanted RFIDs anytime soon.
What *is* far more likely to happen is a biometric database of everyone
with it being available to all law-enforcement agencies.

Think of a handheld device similar to an iPod which has the fingerprints of everyone in North America stored on its hard drive that has a card reader and a fingerprint scanner.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 19 (view)
 
Mexico may take fence dispute to U.N.
Posted: 12/12/2007 5:59:20 AM
Just one more good reason to:

Get the U.S. out of the U.N.
Get the U.N. out of the U.S.

And there shouldn't be a fence, there should be a full scale DMZ frontier between the USA
and Mexico.
 Herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 20 (view)
 
Gun violence Vs. Drunk Driving
Posted: 10/17/2007 6:24:21 PM
As an American. all I can say is completely banning handguns won't keep guns out the hands of criminals.
What does work but is Politically Incorrect to talk about in some circles is lengthy prison terms for those convicted of criminal usage of firearms.

I also think (again this is Politically Incorrect to some) gang activity should start being viewed as a type of insurrection and dealt with accordingly with very heavy police and if necessary military presence, curfews, stop-and-frisk, curtailment of alcohol,
enhanced prison sentences for gang members, deportations for non-natural citizens involved in gang activity.
 Herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 8 (view)
 
France offended by Russia or Russia offending France? An Iranian bomb, or the bombing of Iran?
Posted: 10/13/2007 10:20:26 AM
Iran could really clear the air by agreeing to Non Proliferation Treaty Additional Protocols inspections (if necessary by inspectors from non-aligned nations) and resident inspectors for their enrichment and reprocessing facilities.

I believe the Additional Protocols call for access to a facility within 24 or 48 hours.

One common-sense Yankee idea which comes to mind is the more bellicose the rhetoric from the Bush Regime and Israel, especially when a B-52 was flying cruise missiles with live nuclear warheads to an airbase known to be a staging area for Middle East operations, the more likely the Iranians are going to WANT some nukes to assure their own national survival.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 33 (view)
 
School Suspends Boy For Sketching...WTF???
Posted: 10/6/2007 8:15:56 AM
The United States is slowly drifting towards totalitarianism!
When a child can be suspended from school for merely making a pencil sketch of a firearm that has indeed crossed a line in the sand.
I do wonder how clear the school regulation was relating drawing weapons - it it clearly stated or is it buried in densely-worded legalese only a legal professional is likely to understand?
I wish that boy's dad had gone to the district court as soon as possible to obtain a temporary restraining order barring the school from suspending his son.

All it would take is Capitol Hill in Washington DC to get nuked while Congress was in session and the President and/or Vice President to be out of town. co-ordinated attacks across the USA on vital infrastructure or a major economic collapse.

Now much is left-vs-right debate is simply noise.
In my eye the "Right" is the established political/economic/social order and the "Left" is its opposition.
In the case of Russia, China and Cuba, once the Left led the overthrow if the established order it was no longer the Left.

Totalitarianism, autocracy and oligarcracy are independent of "Left" or "Right"
Regardless of ideology - whether they worship יהוה, "God" Jesus, Mahomet, Adolf Hitler, or Karl Marx - they are all equally adept of preserving their grip on power by suppressing anything and anyone they preceive as a threat to that power.
In the modern age, especially with the advent of the mass media of newspapers, movies, radio, television and now the Internet, the totalitarians exert as close to toal control as possible over the people's information sources.
Couple that with increasing surveillance technology which the totes use to ferret out
traitors ,dissidents and even "thought criminals" along with the classic "snitch networks"
and totalitarianism becomes easier and easier to implement.
In a totalitarian society there are no rights retained by the People, only privileges extended by the ruler(s) which may be withdrawn without notice.
A totalitarian society has no laws, only edicts and decrees which can be crafted on the fly as need be and even apply retroactively.
Another way to scale left vs right is to represent the extreme Right as ultra-authoritarianism and the extreme Left as ultra-libertarian, that is anarchist.

Labeling Communists as "Leftists" is somewhat of a misnomer - no liberty-based society has ever been overthrown by Communism; that is every country which has or had a Communist authoritarian government, the previous government was authoritarian in nature where the majority of people had little or no liberty to start with.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 40 (view)
 
Jena Six - Compaired to Emily Elizabeth Haddock
Posted: 10/6/2007 7:00:09 AM
The statistics I posted previously were from the US FBI's website, not American Renaissance.

And from a Story which originally appeared in the Jena Times of Oct. 3 2006 by Craig Franklin (associate editor): which Amren.com has archived (the Jena Times website only publishes the current issue):
Full text at:
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2007/10/daschool_offici.php#




“According to JHS Assistant Principal Gawan Burgess’ report of the incident last August, two nooses were found hanging from the tree in the center of the school’s square as students arrived for school August 31, 2006,” LaSalle School System Child Welfare Supervisor Melinda Edwards said. “The nooses were made out of nylon ski rope, were crudely constructed, and were cut down around 7:55 a.m.”


The nooses weren't even the classic "hangman's noose".


“Once it was determined who had placed the nooses in the tree, all three of the students were interviewed personally, by many different persons of authority,” the superintendent said. “The results of those interviews showed that the students were not motivated by hate and there was no indication from any of the students that they had any inclination to do any violence.” With so much emphasis on the nooses in this case, [Supervisor] Edwards said it might surprise everyone to learn that the three students did not have a knowledge of black history in relation to the hanging of black citizens in the south during the civil rights movement..


So we have some typical Generation Y kids - ignorant of American history.

And this was the noose-hangers punishment:


According to [LaSalle School System Principal Roy] Breithaupt, the students were suspended for nine days where they attended classes at the system’s alternative school off campus. “Then they served two weeks of in-school suspension and also had a number of Saturday detentions,” he said. “They were also required to attend the discipline court and were referred to the FINS (Family in Need of Services) program. This is a program of intervention for families faced with crises that could continue for six months.”


Much more extensive than the "three-day suspension" misreported by CNN et als!
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 29 (view)
 
Jena Six - Compaired to Emily Elizabeth Haddock
Posted: 10/5/2007 2:45:45 PM
You may want to check this out:
USA FBI Uniform Crime Report Data 2005
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_43.html
(from 2005)
For a more in-depth analysis using Uniform Crime Report data from 2001-3:
American Renaissance (Joe Jared) The Color of Crime 2005 Editon
http://amren.com/colorofcrime/color.pdf

This is nationwide arrest data listed by "white", (includes "Latinos")
Keep in mind blacks make up about 18% of the USA population.

Black percentages for:

murder/non-negligent manslaughter: 48.6
aggravated assault: 34.3
forcible rape: 32.7
robbery: 56.3
car theft: 34.8
prostitution: 41.8
gambling: 71.1
drugs: 33.9

Juveniles:
Murder: 54.0
Agg. assault: 42.2
Rape: 34.0
Robbery: 67.5
Car theft: 43.4
Prostitution: 55.8
Gambling: 92.2
Drugs: 29.4
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 16 (view)
 
This happens in AMERICA?
Posted: 10/4/2007 8:55:45 AM
Comparing Williams vs. Christian and Newsom:

The atrocity committed against C. & N. were IGNORED by the Mainstream Lapdog Infotainment Media until a group of White Nationalists held a rally in Tennessee several months later.

The case of Williams on the other hand quickly made national news.
And lets not forget - Ms Williams is still alive (unlike C & N).

Sadly folks this stuff is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, especially if the US economy really goes pear-shape.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 9 (view)
 
Che Guevara/Cuban Revolution
Posted: 10/3/2007 2:21:54 AM
Considering the nature of governance in Latin American countries, Castro isn't much worse than a slew of other dictators.

Unlike the English colonies which started off as self-governing (perhaps with the exception of Georgia, which was started by the Hanover Regime as a penal colony), All of New Spain had 'top-down" governments via appointed viceroys and the Catholic clergy.
So when Spain bailed from South and Central America in the 1820s, the people lacked the skills needed to govern themselves.
Almost 200 years later they still aren't up to the level of the USA and Canada.
Now as many here know Cuba is a special case where the USA evicted Spain from Cuba but in the face of an insurgency which had begun while Cuba was under Spanish ownership,
the USA gave Cuba independence (BIG MISTAKE IMO) but the corporates supported a
series of odious dictators...eventually Castro came to power where with the help of the Soviets he has remained for almost 50 years.
After Raul Castro passes on .. things are likely to get very interesting in Cuba; as many tyrants do, the Castro regime has had the tendency to remove anyone with political/leadership skill who could be a potential threat via a coup to the Maximum Leader's position.
This does have the side effect though of guaranteeing instability when Maximum Leader is deposed by the Grim Reaper if he hasn't named a successor who will be around for a long time and who will have the loyalty of the armed forces.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 32 (view)
 
Illegal Alien kills Police Officer
Posted: 10/2/2007 1:44:42 PM
Any illegal alien convicted of a "Class A" felony (assault with permanent bodily injury, any felony where someone is killed including DUI or reckless driving homicide, forcible rape or intercourse with a child under 14, sabotage, espionage, bomb-making or planting for examples) should receive the death penalty after one appeal.
All other alien felons should be cryo-branded and chipped prior to deportation; return to the USA after deportation as a criminal should also be a capital offense with the Border Patrol or the Posse Comitatus being authorized to give the illegal a summary tribunal and carry out the sentence.


Personally, I think they should give an illegal alien found guilty of a capitol offense a firing squad. That is what any other country would do if we went there and killed their officials. Except they wouldn't give them decent treatment, a lawyer, or a trial.


As this happened in Phoenix, Arizona the perp will very will likely get the "squirt and squrim" treatment sometime within the next 8-12 years.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 230 (view)
 
Michael Vick defended by the NAACP
Posted: 10/2/2007 1:22:41 PM
At this stage of the game, the NAACP is likely doing more harm than good for Americans of African heritage.
Every time they go to bat for criminals who happen to be of their group, that's going to be a few more citizens who will vote for "law and order" candidates next elections, more people who will fight any (more) "affordable housing" for A-A refugees of the inner cities etc.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 128 (view)
 
When did asking your bra size become socially acceptable?
Posted: 9/28/2007 6:09:05 AM
well ***I*** have never asked a woman on PoF what her "dimensions" or "cup size" was!
Seems a lot of guys do ask though.
My gut feeling about that is guys who start off asking a lot of personal questions tend to drop off after the 100th or so rejection.

Ever since women started using online services they have always had to deal with *ahem* intimate queries; thus they either develop a thick skin in a hurry - or avoid online activities which involve and one-on-one person-to-person interaction.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 148 (view)
 
Do you like taking Showers or baths with your lovers ?
Posted: 9/28/2007 5:44:27 AM
I think showers for two (M/F that is) are *divine*! And to those concerned about disease spreading, if someone's personal hygiene or overall health is THAT in need, things are highly unlikely to progress to the shower!
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 1 (view)
 
Over 17,000 US Gulf-Conflict Deaths since 1990
Posted: 9/27/2007 6:43:28 PM
Recently the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) released a report "Gulf War Veterans Information System May 2007" which shows that since the start of hostilities in Iraq with "Desert Shield" in September 1990, they have counted 17,847 service-connected deaths amongst veterans of those conflicts.
This does NOT count Afghanistan.

I presume deaths from all causes including the Khobar Towers and USS Cole bombings, accidental deaths (motor vehicle and materials-handling for example) diseases contracted in that part of the world are included in this statistic.

During the same time perion for US forces NOT deployed to the Persian Gulf region,
there have been 55,999 service-connected deaths out of 5,670,404 total in uniform.
(Some of these would be Afghanistan, some of these could be attributed to Vietnam).

Sadly the GWVIS doesn't as yet report statistics since "Operation Iraqi Liberation/Freedom " was launched in 2003.

You can download a PDF copy of the report here:

http://www1.va.gov/rac-gwvi/docs/GWVIS_May2007.pdf
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 45 (view)
 
Man fed cats and kittens to his pit bulls.
Posted: 9/26/2007 7:35:03 PM

Pitbulls are an endangerment to other animals as well as humans!
Is there not a Ban on them in the U.S.??


A few cities have de facto banned pit bulls by refusing to license them but in most of the USA, you may own all the pit bulls you want, unlike the U.K. where pit bulls and some other breeds considered "dangerous" were banned about 15 years ago.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 53 (view)
 
MIT student arrested at airport for wearing fake bomb 'art'
Posted: 9/26/2007 1:59:16 PM
It sure seems like the Bush/Harper Regime lick-spittles have come out in full force over this incident.

How dumb can people get? Really I'd be scared to think the word bomb in an airport.


Anyone who would think that was a bomb really needs medical attention for severe paranoia!
Now, truly "stupid" people wouldn't be admitted to M.I.T. - not even as art majors!
I see this young woman as someone who has probably decided after 9/11/2001 to avoid reading or listening to the news in the interest of preserving her own mental health.

The way the Mass "hoax" law is written, the "hoax device" charge likely wouldn't sustain;
even disorderly conduct would be "iffy" as D.C. to the best of my knowledge requires guilty intent.

The utter lack of situational awareness this woman showed while dangerous to herself
should hardly be considered a crime let alone the enormous amount of media attention this incident attracted.

However this incident shows an urgent need for ALL middle and high-school art teachers to make sure their students KNOW that certain common artist's materials and "techno" art could be mistaken for explosives at an airport or other high-security situation.

Had the woman been someone who was easily scared or even someone who didn't understand English this could have had very tragic outcome for her and possibly other people at the airport nearby her if the pig's bullets started flying.

As far as I'm concerned current airport security is and always has been a real crock of $hit - just an expensive, annoying, time-wasting boondoggle to make the sheeple think the Great White Father in D.C. is looking out for them.

If the USA was *serious* about air security for starts there would be absolutely no personal electronic devices allowed to be brought past the first airport entrance; you'd have to have your laptop/PDA/cellphone etc expressed to your destination.
There would be plenty of fair-priced payphones and data terminals; for an additional charge you could buy paging service where the airports would make available local pagers (like the kind some restaurants use).
The current inspections cannot guarantee that a P.E.D. doesn't contain a detonator;
lithium-ion batteries have fairly thick stainless-steel cell cases ( designed to hold up to 750 psi (5 MPa) pressure) which take an X-ray far stronger than what an airport could safely use to "see" through.
Secondly, all checked baggage would have to be brought to the airport 24 hours in advance so it could be properly inspected. There would be a fairly short list of what you can pack in your checked baggage such as clothing and shoes; everything else goes express to your destination.
Thirdly, anyone whose national origin is from an Islamic country or any other part of the world where hatred for the "West" and the USA is endemic would be subject to an interview as part of checking their baggage and may be subject to a "fluoroscope" exam before boarding the plane.
If someone is determined to go for their 72 virgins and 28 pre-pubic boys in Allah's Paradise the combo of a cellphone or Walkman with a hidden detonator cap and modified electronics and internal smuggling of explosives sealed in a plastic bag is all it takes.
Bomber goes into the lav, take out the explosives, removes the cap from the cellphone,
the Walkman becomes the bomb casing .... you can fill in the rest !
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 39 (view)
 
Can we live with a nuclear Iran?
Posted: 9/26/2007 10:34:52 AM
And my money is if a "nutjob" uses a nuke, that nuke will be from or facilitated by the Zionist Entity* as a False Flag attack.


Hopefully, the same MAD principals will keep the peace just as they did in the cold war. But it seems to me that the more countries who have the bomb, the more likely some nut is going to use one.


That strategy would be to provoke the incineration of Dar-al-Islam by whichever country of Dar-al-Harb was the target of that nuke which could be one or more of the USA, UK, or Russia..

And as others have mentioned, Pakistan *already* (a) has nukes and (b) has a large number of fanatical Wahabbi Muslims.
I've seen news reports to the effect Pakistan wants another plutonium-breeder reactor which would give them 50 Bombs-worth of Pu-239 a year.

The current military dictator of Pakistan is hanging on by the skin of his teeth, totally dependent on the loyalty of the officer corps of his army and any intelligence he may get from the CIA, MI.6 or the Mossad to squelch any possible Taliban coup.

If the Talibans get the Bomb - Great Eastern Waste here we come!

*I consider all 'gods' to be a construct of humans who seek power over other humans - a formula which has worked for the past 6,000 years!
As such I disagree with the concept of "divine rights" to any particular piece of real estate, whether that deity is called "God", "Allah", "Yawheh" or anything else.

I am fully aware that making any such statement in any part of the world with a majority Muslim population would make me a "blasphemer" and thus an outlaw; I am sure that even 150 years ago such a statement in most of the Western world would have had the same effect, that is and was blasphemy (public denial of the existence of "God" ,the divinity of Jesus the Nazerene or the final prophethood and messages of Mahomet or denial of the literal veracity of the Old or New Testament, Koran or Hadiths)
was considered a form of treason whereby any witness of such conduct could arrest and bring before a court the blasphemer - or even kill them on the spot if there were enough
witnesses , a situation which still exists in the back parts of the Islamic world!
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 8 (view)
 
Faux Censorship - Sally Fields at the Emmies
Posted: 9/19/2007 12:54:18 PM
Faux could have simply bleeped out the offensive word.
Certainly they have the right to air or not whatever they choose
however We the People have the right to call them on it!
And seems hardline fundy-Xtian groups are down on Faux for the amount of
swearing and sex in their entertainment shows.
If I'm not mistaken Faux practically pioneered "trash TV" to go along with the rest of News Corps tabloid empire; all 4 supermarket tabs are News Corp-owned.
Fox "Noise" is simply tabloid journalism brought to TV.
Witness Geraldo Rivera telling the Boston Globe how he'd love to spit in Fox polemicist Michelle Malkin's ( Anne Coulter Lite) face!
What's the Canadian version of Fox...SkyTV?
Or have the Canadians been able to keep Murdoch's slime off their airwaves?
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 67 (view)
 
OJ Simpson arrested
Posted: 9/19/2007 12:11:56 PM
This time around Chimpson doesn't have the big bucks to hire a Dream Team to help him beat the rap.
Looking forward to him spending the rest of his life in the Big House .. unless he does us all a favor and hangs himself, thus sparing the taxpayers the cost of his trial and incarceration.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 6 (view)
 
Faux Censorship - Sally Fields at the Emmies
Posted: 9/19/2007 11:46:36 AM
I'm sure you know Bush/Harper bootlickers are *so* predictable!
Islam is a perversion of normal human nature.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 74 (view)
 
When Cops attack - what's your opinion?
Posted: 9/19/2007 11:09:34 AM
Police are more and more acting like an army of occupation.
Report police misconduct? Expect all sorts of harassment unless you plan of moviing real soon!
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 1 (view)
 
Faux Censorship - Sally Fields at the Emmies
Posted: 9/19/2007 11:00:27 AM
Sally Fields won an Emmy award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as the matriarch in “Brothers and Sisters".
Towards the end of her acceptance speech she got flustered by audience applause, screamed something sounding like "hurry up y'idiot I've gotta finish talking" (maybe she was wearing a teleprompter?)
then went into a mini rant about wars and motherhood :
"If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn’t be any god-damned wars in the first place."
After "god" Faux cut off the audio and switched to a still image of the Emmy Globe until Fields had left the stage.

Canadian TV didn't feel the need to censor her speech.
Americans can see the CTV version here:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8b3_1190041214

And the networks aren't required to censor "goddam" as they are for the F C and S words.
See:
http://www.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2004/FCC-04-43A1.html footnote 37
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 51 (view)
 
Police taser guy who won't shut up at Kerry rally
Posted: 9/19/2007 9:51:06 AM

Could it be the words TERROR, TERRORIST and the like being bombarded at the American public everytime you turn on a T.V. I wonder?


More like police are being bombarded with training that makes them see potential terrorists in anyone who steps out of line at any kind of political event?
The old Red Chinese saying about the nail sticking up getting hammered seems to apply here.

That Meyer guy was out of line for sure - but whether his conduct crossed the line from simply being a jerk in public to criminal conduct - well I smell lots and lots of billable hours to determine *that* question!

Now a potential casualty of this incident may be the open Q&A sessions or even the open "town meetings" themselves. especially if U Florida winds up coughing up big bucks.

I think the cops overreacted - they should have just walked Meyer out the door and the person in charge of the Town Meeting should have filed an incident report with the Dean of Students (or whoever is in charge of UFL student discipline).
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 61 (view)
 
Environmentalist Reject Nuclear Power
Posted: 9/12/2007 7:03:00 AM
As long as nuclear power plants require siting next to large bodies of water there will be legitimate environmental and safety concerns .
The current method of extracting power from steam involves the need for a large amount of water to cool and condense the "spent" steam back to liquid water so it can be re-boiled and recirculated thru the steam turbines.

In addition the reactor itself has a significant need for cooling.

It just so happens most places which have the cooling water requirement for a large power plant (large meaning gigawatt or more electric output (GWe)) are located fairly close to large settlements of humans.

Also, economics dictate having the power plant as close as possible to the customers;
each added mile of transmission line represents a loss of electricity due to resistive heating.
There have been advances made in ultra-high-voltage transmission lines (which reduce line loss) however they aren't cheap and have their own set of problems with electromagnetic fields plus being a terrorist target.

So, I see the real challenge to the power industry is to find a means of generating large amounts of electricity which doesn't require a large amount of cooling water and find ways to make smaller power plants more economically viable.

When all is said and done, a nuclear reactor is simply a giant boiler.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 39 (view)
 
Connecticut home invasion leads to death of family
Posted: 9/11/2007 4:52:40 AM
While I'm not a big fan of capital punishment, this is the type of crime where you'd get no complaints from me about the perps (if they indeed are the ones) receiving it.

I think the death penalty should be reserved for crimes and criminals where the act constitutes a crime against humanity itself or where the perp's past conduct has demonstrated a permanent sociopathy, a total indifference or hostility to the rules any civilized society must expect its members to live by which is not amenable to any kind of rehab or treatment.

That is someone who kills a cashier during a C-store robbery or kills during an aggravated sexual assault and has a criminal record (including juvenile) consistent with "career criminal" should be eligible for the death penalty .
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 119 (view)
 
Time to Re-visit the Nuclear Power Option
Posted: 9/8/2007 6:29:36 AM
With regards to private insurance and nuclear, I do know every homeowner's policy has a exclusion for losses related to anything radioactive.
To the best of my knowledge Price-Anderson was enacted because the private insurance industry didn't want to cover anything "nuclear".

From the document you cited:from the American Nuclear Society (ANS), an advocacy group whose membership list reads like a Who's Who of the nuclear industry:
http://www.ans.org/orgmembers/list.cgi


The Price-Anderson Act is a consumer- and public-oriented legislation. It provides a
substantial amount of insurance protection paid by the commercial sector at no cost to the public or the government.
The Act has removed the deterrent to private sector participation in nuclear
activities presented by the threat of potential liability claims following a large accident.


And indeed now there are private insurance companies providing some coverage
for nuclear facilities with the Price Anderson fund of $10B as of Nov '05 as a backstop.

And the ANS admits they'll be looking to Congress in the event of a disaster which exceeds the Price-Anderson fund:

In the event of a nuclear incident involving damages in excess of the limits established in the Act, Congress could take further actions, including the appropriation of funds.


I have a gut feeling that if Seabrook Station (Seabrook, New Hampshire) were to have a worst case accident (full core melt with breach of containment) the damages to the super-premium coastal real estate in that part of the USA would be way, way WAY in excess of $10 billion.

And I would classify anything that costs over $10B a "Disaster" rather than an "incident"

Something I've run into with The Nuclear Energy Question is the lack of neutral, unbiased information; this topic has gotten severely polarized with both sides only publishing facts which support their point of view.

I'd really like to see more happen with pebble-bed modular reactors (PBR) as those appear to be a lot safer and efficient than the pressurized water reactors now in use plus the PBR isn't dependent on having a large body of water nearby for cooling.
In general, large bodies of water have large concentrations of people nearby and very high real estate values.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 116 (view)
 
Time to Re-visit the Nuclear Power Option
Posted: 9/7/2007 6:51:49 AM
All corporate/capitalist energy projects whether it's nukes, hydro, fossil or even wind power have substantial environmental "baggage".

However nuclear is the only one with the potential to cause economic losses measurable in trillions of dollars in the event of a worst-case accident..

The private insurance industry have never wanted to touch anything "atomic" or "nuclear" with a 10-foot (3-meter) pole.
In the USA, there's the Price-Anderson Act which caps utility liability for a nuke-plant disaster at 500 million dollars; I suspect anything in excess of that would up to Congress to appropriate money for cleanup and compensation to property owners whose property had become worthless because of radioactive contamination.
I've seen a figure of US$3 billions quoted as the total cost of the Three Mile Island near-disaster, with $500M in taxpayer costs.

Therefore no nuke plants should ever be built within 100 miles of any population center.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 74 (view)
 
Why is this illegal? In relation to Sen. Craig.
Posted: 9/6/2007 1:02:02 PM
"Oppressed society"? Gimme a %%%%in' break!
I consider it MY civil right to be able to use a public men's room without having other men size me up, proposition me for homo-sex or grab my pecker!
Yes, the last deviant behavior was taking place in the Boston Public Library (for some reason libraries tend to be prone to having T-room "activities" :frown: ) until the Boston P.D. staked the place out and cuffed a few perverts.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 14 (view)
 
Barry Bonds: A MAN APART: We're watching slugger's closing act, and what a finale it's becoming
Posted: 9/5/2007 2:28:52 PM
Barry Bonds as a human being appears to be a REAL piece of work!
Put an asterisk before his record noting his usage of performance-enhancing substances.

Charity case? Barry, Barry disappointing
Originally in the "Daily Southtown"
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Ron Kittle is no fan of Barry Bonds --not after his tense encounter with the slugger at Wrigley Field in 1993.

Here's an excerpt from Kittle's book, describing how he approached Bonds with a couple of Bonds' game-worn San Francisco Giants road jerseys, asking him to autograph them for an auction for Kittle's charity for children with cancer:

"I paid about $110 of my own money for them, so they could be auctioned off at the golf outing. I did that all the time for stars like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter and Roger Clemens. When I tell them how their autographs help the cause, every player gladly signs --with one exception.

I walked up to Bonds at his locker in the Wrigley Field visitors' clubhouse, introduced myself and said, "Barry, if you sign these, they'll bring in a lot of money for kids who need help."

Bonds stood up, looked me in the eye and said, "I don't sign for white people."
If lightning hits me today, I will swear those were his exact words. Matt Williams and other Giants were in the room and they heard what Bonds said.

I stood there for a minute, and the veins in my neck were popping. I've only been that mad a few times in my life. I was going to beat the (heck) out of him, really kick his (butt), but Williams saw what was happening, so he came over and got between us. Matt said, "Ron, that's just the way he is."

I said, "White guys aren't the only ones who get cancer," but Bonds had turned his back on me and walked out of the clubhouse. Somebody must have run in and alerted Dusty Baker, who was the manager of the Giants then.

So Dusty came out of his office, put his arm around me, gave me a big old hug and said, "Aw, Kitty, he's just got that (bad) attitude again." Dusty gave me an autographed team ball for the auction, but I never got the Bonds jerseys signed. Later, I gave one of them to Scott Paulson, the Wilson sporting goods representative, and shredded the other one. But that day, I drove from Wrigley Field at about 150 miles per hour and sat there, fuming.

I'll never forget what that man said. So if Barry Bonds is looking for a breath of fresh air to live and I'm the only one who has to give it to him, unfortunately, the man will die. I just don't like guys like that."

Asked about the incident, Kittle replied, "It's a true story. How could I make up something like that?"

Bonds' spokeswoman declined comment on Kittle's story. A Giants team spokesman also declined comment.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 163 (view)
 
Michael Vick to Plead Guilty
Posted: 8/28/2007 2:14:55 PM
Just a little perspective is in order here ...

Much as professional dogfighting is abhorrent to quite a few people and a couple of very noisy pressure groups there are a few points which get lost in the noise.

First, the pit bull as a breed was designed for the purpose of prize-fights.
If the Federal government is going to inject itself into suppressing dogfighting,
it should go the next step and outlaw interstate commerce in pit bulls.

As far as the NFL is concerned, if a team thinks Vick has any value to it after he gets out of the slam, good luck to them.

I think a lifetime ban should only be for an offense against the game or the league itself such as point-shaving or game throwing for the benefit of gamblers, dirty play which ends the career of another player or habitual dirty play or committing a felony against the team or any NFL employee (aggravated assault, terrorist act, collusion/conversion /embezzlement etc) or something which is really disreputable such as homosexual activities with underage boys attending games or official NFL functions.
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 1 (view)
 
More Real Republican Family Values! (Sen. Craig (R-ID))
Posted: 8/28/2007 4:15:41 AM
Yet another Republican hypocrite caught being a pervert!

From the Idaho Statesman:

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct this month after his arrest in a Minneapolis airport men’s room by an undercover officer who said Craig was sending signals that he wanted to have sex.
[...]
Craig agreed today to resign as the U.S. Senate co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Craig served as co-chair with Robert Bennett of Utah. “He did not want to be a distraction and we accept his decision," said Romney’s communications director, Matt Rhoades.

The Statesman did a 5-month investigation on Craig's secret life.
Full story at: http://idahostatesman.com/eyepiece/story/143517.html
(Take note links from newspaper sites tend to expire in 1-4 weeks).
 herb1953
Joined: 10/13/2005
Msg: 46 (view)
 
PAROLE DENIED AGAIN FOR MANSON FAMILY MURDERER
Posted: 8/28/2007 3:31:29 AM
I myself am not a great fan of capital punishment; however for the kind of crimes the Manson family did, if I were on the jury I'd vote to execute them.

Now I'd be more in favor of CP if the well-to-do and well-connected (such as the late John Gotti) got death sentences.

I certainly hope the Mansons do get to spend the rest of their lives in prison;
kind of sux for the taxpayers of California though .

I wonder if anyone has tracked the group of condemned prisoners who got their death sentences set aside by the Supreme Court of the United States in the early 1970s - how many of them are still in prison, how many made parole - how many of the parolees re-offended?
 
Show ALL Forums