The Off Topic Topic

[Razgovory]

Yes they would.  Every educated person knows what a utahraptor is.

They are easily recognized for their tendency to baptize fossils of previous dromaeosaurs

[Neil]

Yes they would.  Every educated person knows what a utahraptor is.

They are easily recognized for their tendency to baptize fossils of previous dromaeosaurs

Mormons are stupid.

[Josquius]

That's an absurd assertion.

Well...Knowing exactly what it is- probally not. But I'd think any educated person would guess it was some sort of dinosaur, presumably raptoresque,.

[Slargos]

That's an absurd assertion.

Well...Knowing exactly what it is- probally not. But I'd think any educated person would guess it was some sort of dinosaur, presumably raptoresque,.

I initially thought they were hairless ostriches.

[Admiral Yi]

Ultra-nerd joke from the NYT book review.

A man approaches a shepherd and says "if I tell you how many sheep you have, can I have one?"  The shepherd agrees and is astonished when the stranger correctly answers 83.  As the stranger turns to leave, the shepherd retorts "If I gues your profession, can I have the animal back?"  The stranger agrees.  "You must be a mathematical biologist."  "How did you know?"  the stranger asks.  "Because you picked up my dog."

[Syt]

I know a different version:


A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Broni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd,..........

"If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully-grazing flock and calmly answered, "Sure."

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his IBM Thinkpad and connected it to a cell phone, then he surfed to a NASA page on the internet where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, and then opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sent an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response. Finally, he prints out a 130 page report on his miniaturized printer then turns to the shepherd and says,.........

"You have exactly 1586 sheep".

"That is correct; take one of the sheep" said the shepherd.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and bundle it into his car.

Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my animal?"

"OK, why not" answered the young man.

"Clearly, you are a consultant" said the shepherd.

"That's correct" says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required" answers the shepherd. "You turned up here although nobody called you. You want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you don't know crap about my business.... Now give me back my dog".

[Admiral Yi]

Mine was nerdier than yours.

[Admiral Yi]

Just read an article in the NYT Week in Review on the Kazakh election.  Candidates had to pass a Kazakh language test.  Five ethnic Kazakhs failed the test.  One of 3 remaining opposition candidates (from a original field of 21) admitted that he voted for the current president.

[Ideologue]

Watching a Cinematic Titanic live show (well, it was live when it was recorded), and after more than a decade, Joel Hodgson finally told me how to say "Beaulieu" and "Pehl."  ("Bowl-yu" and "peel" fwiw.)

P.S.: the Alien Factor CT is fucking awesome.

[DGuller]

One of 3 remaining opposition candidates (from a original field of 21) admitted that he voted for the current president.

The other two were unavailable for comment.

[jimmy olsen]

 

http://files.redux.com/images/d7217e61545aca5d05d0f1f8ba7e7f59/raw

[Lettow77]

 Sometimes when I am feeling down in class I will trace a map with an expansionist Confederate vision in mind. The Confederacy universally gains Missouri, Cuba, Kentucky and Maryland, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona in these maps. More open to debate are Kansas, West Virginia, Colorado, and Central America.

The more upset I am, the larger confederate gains tend to be. California, Mexico and all of the central american states including belize, along with the bahamas, once found their way into the Confederacy in one of my maps, along with southern illinois, southern ohio, and southern indiana, lumped together into a state called Washington.

I'd give the Confederacy more, but i'd hate to be implausible.

[Ed Anger]

[Barrister]

Sometimes when I am feeling down in class I will trace a map with an expansionist Confederate vision in mind. The Confederacy universally gains Missouri, Cuba, Kentucky and Maryland, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona in these maps. More open to debate are Kansas, West Virginia, Colorado, and Central America.

The more upset I am, the larger confederate gains tend to be. California, Mexico and all of the central american states including belize, along with the bahamas, once found their way into the Confederacy in one of my maps, along with southern illinois, southern ohio, and southern indiana, lumped together into a state called Washington.

I'd give the Confederacy more, but i'd hate to be implausible.

Why not just give the confederacy all 50 states and be done with it?

[Lettow77]

Why not just give the confederacy all 50 states and be done with it? 

That'd be absurd!  But we have a claim to all of the above in some form or another. I forgot to mention Utah and Nevada, though. Needless to say they go in too in the fullest vision.

  A Confederacy with the northern states in it wouldn't be worth having. Sort of defeats the purpose. But by 1860 there were not so many yankees in California that it'd be impossible to function as a Southern state. I picture it as heavily dominated by Mormons and Japanese.

I should have noted that Nevada and Utah are part of a larger Deseret, which would be its own state. The practice of polygamy is compatible with state's rights, and Mormons would make reasonable Southerners, if they could only find some dash and elan.

I also look favourably on the notion of a California where no gentleman's agreement is ever reached, and Japanese settle in great profusion, with chinese sharecroppers tending their vast plantations.

It is a comforting fantasy and there might be a cute girl with hair decorations in there somewhere.  If the fantasy deviates from plausibility though, it no longer functions.