Henry Imler April 30th, 2007

It looks like, for the fourth time in history, fire has melted steel.

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Henry Imler April 30th, 2007

“In order for Satan to establish his ‘New World
Order’ and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the
Scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S….The mostly quiet and
unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the
attention of the nations the way open warfare does, but is all the more
insidious for its stealth and innocuousness.”

Not only does Satan need to get behind me, he needs to stop ordering illegal immigration!

Gotta love unintentional humor.

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Henry Imler April 30th, 2007

Anyone know if Steve Chapman is correct with his criticism of a AAUW report?

The Truth About the Pay Gap

Buried in the report is a startling admission: “After
accounting for all factors known to affect wages, about one-quarter of
the gap remains unexplained and may be attributed to discrimination”
(my emphasis). Another way to put it is that three-quarters of the gap
clearly has innocent causes — and that we actually don’t know whether
discrimination accounts for the rest…

The divergent career paths of men and women may reflect a basic
unfairness in what’s expected of them. It could be that a lot of
mothers, if they had their way, would rather pursue careers but have to
stay home with the kids because their husbands insist. Or it may be
that for one reason or another, many mothers prefer to take on the
lion’s share of child-rearing. In any case, the pay disparity caused by
these choices can’t be blamed on piggish employers.

Read the article for the specific issues. I just don’t know enough about the study to know if his criticisms are correct.

* Yea, it’s a made up word.

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Henry Imler April 30th, 2007

Anyone think that Carbon Credits^TM
are a rotten idea that doesn’t have a positive impact on the climate or
the environment? Anyone think that they are simply a money making
scheme by people who have a small “carbon footprint” and are a way for
companies to look better on paper than they really are? I realize that
one can hypothetically say that the company spewing pollution into the
air is essentially paying another one to plant trees that might
counteract the pollution. Shouldn’t the polluting company try to reduce
their emissions?

It’s like a porn company buying “morality credits” and having a Church pass out anti-porn fliers.

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Henry Imler April 30th, 2007

• Give a man* a gun… - A unique case, but interesting, never-the-less.
• Observable Evolution…
• Evangelist Challenges Atheists to Bible-Less Debate (mirror) submitted to Digg - Digg comments explode with pop philosophy
  on both sides. I like the idea of the debate, but given the people that
  are going to be involved and the claims they are making before the
  debate even starts, I don’t have high hopes for this debate.
• The old, but interesting diagram of how naturalistic people view science and religion.
  Notice that there is no, “Does it match what the funders want?” box,
  nor a “Possible revelation from outside observable universe” box
  either. Not only that, but we all know that religion is completely
  static. there have never been any modifications to religious belief of
  all people throughout all time. That would not be a hasty
  generalization.

———————————————————–
* And encourage the women to have them too.

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Henry Imler April 29th, 2007

Last year was too good to be true last. The Heat were swept today by the up and coming Bulls. I am now 1 and 1 for my predictions.

List of Heat Retirees:

• Gary Payton I am faster than him now.
• Alonzo Mourning Could still pull a ‘tumbo for the next few years, but now that his kidney has a ring - hang it up.
• Shaquille O’Neal Old Jabbar w/o the hook
• Antoine Walker I think I can shoot better than
  him, jump higher than him [7 vs 6 inches], and look less like Donatello
  than him. I will accept 1/2 of his yearly salary to take his place -
  its a win-win situation.
• Eddie Jones Thanks for all the great playoff memories…

Members of the Heat to fake retire:

• Pat Riley He’ll retire citing health reasons
  until he can build another team around Wade and Haslem… then he’ll
  undercut the current coach and take the glory.

Plan for the Future:
You know what might be best? Trade all of the guys who should retire to
Minnesota for Kevin Garnet. Throw in some old ‘86 Celtic tapes and
McHale might just throw in his next draft picks - the 2034 and 2035
first rounders he has been saving up.

No matter what - I’ll still be rooting for the Heat in the years to come.

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Henry Imler April 19th, 2007

Now that the 2006-2007 NBA season is over, the playoff seedings are set. What follows is my annual NBA playoff predictions. I did not do too bad last year, going 7-1, missing my spreads by 8 games out of 8 rounds - not too shabby. Enough jibber-jabber
- on to the predictions! I don’t have much time this week to get into
the depths of each series, so short blurbs will have to do.

Eastern Conference

1) Pistons vs. Magic
Pistons in 6.
I hate the Pistons. I hate the Pistons. They make me root for the Knicks.

2) Cavs vs. 7) Wizards
Bulls in 5
No Gilbert, no chance. Would have made for a rematch of the best first round from last year.

3) Raptors vs. 6) Nets
Nets in 7
Does anyone have playoff experience for the Raptors?

4) Heat vs. 5) Bulls
Heat in 6
Funny that the Bulls were this close to getting the 2 seed and they are
bumped all the way down to 5. They will make life very hard for the
Heat but and old Ben Wallace is worse than an old Shaq.

Western Conference

1) Mavs vs. Warriors
Mavs in 5
Sixty-seven wins wins this one.

2) Suns vs. 7) Lakers
Suns in 6
Kobe will score all but 5 points for the Lakers during this series, but the Suns have their center this year…

3) Spurs vs. 6) Nuggets
Nuggets in 7
Yea, the Spurs will get every single call this post season, but AI,
Camby, and ‘Mello should sneak/squeak by… or get crushed by the
basketball machine that is the Spurs… or Manu is balding and aging…

4) Jazz vs. 5) Rockets
Rockets in 5
Sorry Utah fans, the Rockets are healthy for the first time in 27 years
and loaded with two superstars and a whole bunch of good role players.
What happened last time the Rockets had those pieces (one of the best
centers and two guards in the NBA)? David Robinson went commando and
Shaq got embarrassed he issued a 1 on 1 Pay-per-view Challenge to try
and reclaim his honor. I guess a handful rings will have to do. Should
have drawn the Warriors or Nuggets or the Eastern Conference.

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Henry Imler April 18th, 2007

… buy using a plasma cloud trapped by a magnetic field.

It has been known for a while that there are serious dangers posed
by intra-solar radiation for any kind of human traveling outside the
earth’s magnetosphere. They even did a cover article on the topic at Discover magazine.

There might be a way around the problem (update - 2nd team).

Slough says the problem could be solved with just a few
grams of hydrogen in the form of a plasma surrounding the spacecraft.
NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) recently awarded Slough’s
team $75,000 to explore the feasibility of the idea.

The details still need to be worked out, but the basic approach is
clear. A high voltage device on the spacecraft would tear the hydrogen
into its constituent protons and electrons. This plasma would then be
spewed out into space, creating a cloud around the spacecraft.

There would need to be a wire mesh outside the spacecraft and
enclosing the plasma cloud. Electricity supplied to the mesh would keep
an electrical current running in the plasma cloud and help confined it
near the spacecraft.

The plasma’s magnetic field would be a powerful deflector of cosmic
rays, equivalent to aluminium shielding several inches thick, Slough
says.

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Henry Imler April 18th, 2007

Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Abortion Procedure

The majority upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act,
whose very name can set off heated debate. The procedure addressed is
known medically as “intact dilation and evacuation” and “D and X,” for
dilation and extraction. It involves partly removing an intact fetus,
then destroying the skull to complete the abortion. Doctors and other
abortion-rights advocates who challenged the law maintained that the
procedure is often the safest because it minimizes the chances of
injury to the uterus.

Now if they would abolish the death penalty, overturn Row v Wade, and legalize euthanasia. Then we would be on our way to being actually pro-life. Oh yeah, and something about that whole warring business, I am not sure about that….

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Henry Imler April 17th, 2007

Once again comes from Bill Simons, the only thing I read on ESPN.insider, as he ranks the players in the NBA:

287. Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy (tie)
The lesson, as always: Anytime you’re considering a six-player NBA
trade in which you end up with both overpaid white guys in the deal …
you might want to rethink that baby.

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