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Dimensional Door - Freeople Thread 14

Posted on 11/23/2003 7:50:33 AM PST by Mo1



TOPICS: Dimensional Doorway; Freeoples
KEYWORDS: dimensionaldoors; freeoples
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To: Mo1
Has anyone heard from Letitring lately?
3,801 posted on 12/20/2003 8:45:05 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: sweetliberty
Evenin' back atcha. Have you tried hunting for macadamias on the internet? You could probably get some mailed to you quickly, but it would probably cost a small fortune. I could get some in the mail to you on Monday, and send them priority. I'll be at Trader Joe's tomorrw, and can pick up a fairly good sized back of Mauna Loa brand, for under $6. My treat!
3,802 posted on 12/20/2003 8:49:49 PM PST by .38sw
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To: .38sw
You just might have tempted me. I used to think everybody carried Mauna Loa macadamias...even Walmart, but not in Pine Bluff. Sure, if you really don't mind, that would be great. I know you're pretty busy. (I'll send you back some cookies if you like).
3,803 posted on 12/20/2003 8:55:44 PM PST by sweetliberty (Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.)
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To: sweetliberty
I'm going to TJ's tomorrow anyway, and the post office isn't very far from my house. I can get a package of them in the mail on Monday morning, if you freepmail me your address. I'm not THAT busy! It's not hard to work it in. Since you're baking, I'm assuming you want the raw, unsalted ones. I can't remember how many ounces the cellophane package is, but it's good sized. Maybe 6 oz or so. It's plenty for a big batch of cookies!
3,804 posted on 12/20/2003 9:00:20 PM PST by .38sw
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To: Conservababe; Letitring
No, I haven't heard from Ringy .. but she tends to be pretty busy around Christmas time with visitors and such
3,805 posted on 12/20/2003 9:02:29 PM PST by Mo1 (House Work, If you do it right , will kill you!)
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To: Mo1; lodwick
Loddy is still missing in action, too.
3,806 posted on 12/20/2003 9:14:15 PM PST by ValerieUSA
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To: sweetliberty
You live in Pine Bluff, Arkansas? I have not been there since I was a child.

My great uncle, John Daniel Rust, invented the cotton picker. He set up a foundation to provide college scholarships for sons of tenant farmers before his death. I understand there are some buildings on the campus named after him in Pine Bluff.
3,807 posted on 12/20/2003 9:15:42 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: Mo1
I was just hoping Ringy was feeling well this Christmas season.
3,808 posted on 12/20/2003 9:17:47 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: Mo1
Sorry about your Mom, Mo. But it's good that she doesn't have pneumonia (that word never looks right)
3,809 posted on 12/20/2003 9:18:21 PM PST by ValerieUSA
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To: Conservababe
I've only lived in Pine Bluff a year. People who have been here longer say it used to be a nice town. It isn't anymore. It's very run down, shopping is awful, businesses are steadily leaving and prices are high. And there are some of the most stump stupid people here I've ever run into. I'm not saying they're the rule, but I think ignorance and laziness must go hand in hand, because I see a lot of both.
3,810 posted on 12/20/2003 9:21:24 PM PST by sweetliberty (Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.)
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To: sweetliberty; Mo1; westmex; Darksheare; null and void; All
Lost? Hiding? Your Cellphone Is Keeping Tabs
By AMY HARMON

n the train returning to Armonk, N.Y., from a recent shopping trip in Manhattan with her friends, Britney Lutz, 15, had the odd sensation that her father was watching her.

He very well could have been. Ms. Lutz's father, Kerry, recently equipped his daughters with cellular phones that let him see where they are on a computer map at any given moment. Earlier that day, he had tracked Britney as she arrived in Grand Central Terminal. Later, calling up the map on his own cellphone screen, he noticed she was in SoHo.

Mr. Lutz did not happen to be checking when Britney developed pangs of guilt for taking a train home later than she was supposed to, but the system worked just as he had hoped: she volunteered the information that evening.

"Before, they might not have told me the truth, but now I know they're going to," said Mr. Lutz, 46, a lawyer who has been particularly protective of Britney and her sister, Chelsea, 17, since his wife died several years ago. "They know I care. And they know I'm watching."

Driven by worries about safety, the need for accountability, and perhaps a certain "I Spy" impulse, families and employers are adopting surveillance technology once used mostly to track soldiers and prisoners. New electronic services with names like uLocate and Wherify Wireless make a very personal piece of information for cellphone users — physical location — harder to mask.

But privacy advocates say the lack of legal clarity about who can gain access to location information poses a serious risk. And some users say the technology threatens an everyday autonomy that is largely taken for granted. The devices, they say, promote the scrutiny of small decisions — where to have lunch, when to take a break, how fast to drive — rather than general accountability.

"It's like a weird thought I get sometimes, like `he definitely knows where I am right now, and he's looking to see if I'm somewhere he might not approve of,' " said Britney Lutz. "I wonder what it will be like when I start to drive."

Still, personal location devices are beginning to catch on, largely because cellular phones are increasingly coming with a built-in tether. A federal mandate that wireless carriers be able to locate callers who dial 911 automatically by late 2005 means that millions of phones already keep track of their owners' whereabouts. Analysts predict that as many as 42 million Americans will be using some form of "location-aware" technology in 2005.

Wireless companies and start-up firms are weaving the satellite system known as G.P.S., or Global Positioning System, which was begun by the United States military in the 1970's, into the cellular phone network and the Internet to sell products and services that provide location information.

After fixing an individual's location relative to a network of G.P.S. satellites orbiting 12,000 miles above the earth — or, more crudely, by the time it takes signals to bounce off nearby cell towers — personal locator services transmit the constantly updated information to a central database, where customers can retrieve it through the Internet, telephone or pager.

Until recently, one of the main civilian uses of G.P.S. was in devices issued by the criminal justice system to track offenders as a condition of their parole or probation. The new generation of tracking devices has moved well beyond that population and now takes many forms, from plastic bracelets that can be locked onto children to small boxes with tiny antennae that can be placed unobtrusively in cars.

"We are moving into a world where your location is going to be known at all times by some electronic device," said Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. "It's inevitable. So we should be talking about its consequences before it's too late."

Some of those consequences have not been spelled out. Will federal investigators be allowed to retrieve information on your recent whereabouts from a private service like uLocate, or your cellular carrier? Can the local Starbucks store send advertisements to your phone when it knows you are nearby, without your explicit permission?

Because the new electronic surveillance services are still in their infancy, there are few answers, but the debate over the boundaries of privacy in a more transparent world is already taking shape. Teenagers in particular tend to be skeptical of the new technology's value.

"Cellphones would lose their appeal if they became tracking devices," said Nate Bingham, 16, of Seattle. "I think if your parents really care that much they should just put a leash on you."

Mr. Bingham's parents use an AT&T service called Find Friend that lets them see his general location when his cellphone is on, based on the company's nearest cellular tower. He said his mother had at times asked him where he was and then used the service to see if he was telling the truth. He admits to turning the phone off occasionally when he doesn't want to be found.

That won't work in the Pratt household, in Garden City, N.Y., where Jason, 13, and Ashley, 11, were given new Nextel cellphones on the condition that they be kept on at all times. With uLocate, Tom Pratt set up his account on the company's Web site to establish a "geofence" around his home and his children's school. Every time the kids leave a 400-foot radius of either place, he gets an automatic e-mail alert: "Ashley has exited Home at 08:18 AM," read a typical message last week.

Jason Pratt said there were advantages to being watched. He no longer has to call his mother to let her know where he is. Instead, she can press a "locate" button on her phone and see for herself. So long as Jason's phone is running the uLocate software, it transmits his location information every two minutes. Jason's 17-year-old brother, Matthew, however, kept his older cellphone — even though it had poor reception — rather than submit to the new deal.

Howard Boyle, president of a fire sprinkler installation company in Woodside, N.Y., presented his employees with no such choice. The five workers who have been given company phones with the G.P.S. feature have not been told that Mr. Boyle can find out if they have arrived at a work site, and whether they are walking around in it or sitting still.

"They don't need to know," said Mr. Boyle, who hopes the service will help him determine the truth when clients claim they are being overbilled for the time his employees spent at their location. "I can call them and say, `Where are you now?' while I'm looking at the screen and knowing exactly where they are, just to make sure they're not telling me they're somewhere else."

But it is not just the unnerving effect of uncovering small lies that has some users of the technology worried. Like caller I.D., location devices lift the curtain on a zone of privacy that many Americans value, even if they rarely have anything serious to hide.

"Think back to when you were a teenager and your mom or dad said, `I don't want you to do this,' and you said, `yeah, yeah, yeah,' because you knew you could do it and they wouldn't know," said Graham Clarke, president of National Scientific, which makes several G.P.S. tracking devices. "Those days are gone now, because they actually can know."

Mr. Clarke recently installed a tracking device called Followit in the Jeep Wrangler of his 17-year-old son, Gordon. It alerts him if Gordon has exceeded 60 m.p.h. or traveled beyond preset boundaries.

Advocates of location-aware technology insist that its safety benefits — like locating a 911 caller or a stolen car — outweigh the privacy issues.

And for Donna Phillips, 66, whose husband, Hubie, has Alzheimer's disease, the ability to lock a G.P.S.-enabled bracelet from Wherify Wireless around Mr. Phillips's fanny pack when he goes out has meant an end to panicked searches when he fails to come home. Now her granddaughter can help her find her husband on the Wherify Wireless Web site, which displays the location information transmitted from the bracelet when an authorized user logs on.

About two weeks ago, Mr. Phillips, 90, boarded a bus near his home in Rancho Park, Calif., and traveled several miles before switching to another bus. Because he was moving too fast for his wife to catch up, she called the police, who were able to pinpoint his location through the Wherify Wireless service to pick him up.

Critics of the new technology do not dispute its usefulness, but worry that it will become ubiquitous before legal guidelines are established.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission turned down a request from the cellular phone industry's association and privacy groups for guidance on such matters. For the moment, the questions of trust and tracking are being raised largely in the sphere of family and personal relationships, rather than in the public arenas of government and business.

Jerold Surdahl, 40, an administrator in a building management office in Centerville, Ohio, said he started using the uLocate service to communicate with colleagues. Now, he is intrigued by the possibility of stashing a location-tracking phone in the trunk of his wife's car.

"I'm not expecting or hoping or wanting to find something, but I would just like to explore the possibilities," Mr. Surdahl said. "I'd tell her about it later."
3,811 posted on 12/20/2003 9:24:41 PM PST by restornu ( "Faith...is daring the soul to go beyond what the eyes refuse to see."J.R.R. Tolkien)
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To: Mo1
OMG. I've seen 3 cat fights, 2 drunks snoring, 5 cars towed, and was afraid to look in the trees for partridges. Good Grief. I am out of practice attending parties.

SMOOCHes FRiends. Hope everyone is enjoying the "Holiday" Season. THROW UP. I've MERRIED CHRISTMASED any and everyone. Even my CHRISTmas cards say MERRY CHRISTMAS. LOL. whew. forgive my rant.

It's late and way past time for me to be asleep. Wanted to drop by and say hello and well, just babbled. Sorry. See ya later. Think I can maybe get some time tomorrow. Hope so. G'nite. :)
3,812 posted on 12/20/2003 9:25:56 PM PST by Letitring
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To: catpuppy
LOL. SMOOCHES Pupster. :)
3,813 posted on 12/20/2003 9:26:43 PM PST by Letitring
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To: Letitring
That's a heck of a lot of merriment. Merry Christmas.
3,814 posted on 12/20/2003 9:44:09 PM PST by ValerieUSA
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To: Mo1; ValerieUSA; westmex; Darksheare; Servant of the 9; null and void; grannie9; ...

A man pulls up to a gas station on a very hot day and the young attendant just happened to glance in the backseat, where he sees two penguins.

He says, “Sir, it is so hot outside. Those two penguins belong at the zoo!

“Yes, you are right,” the man said. “Thank you.”

Next day, the guy comes to buy more gas and the penguins are standing up on the back seat wearing sunglasses.

The young guy says, "Man, you said that you were taking them to the zoo.”

“Well, yes, I took them and they liked it so much that today we are going to the beach.”


Goodnight all!


3,815 posted on 12/20/2003 10:05:48 PM PST by restornu ( "Faith...is daring the soul to go beyond what the eyes refuse to see."J.R.R. Tolkien)
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Posted on Wed, Dec. 17, 2003

GARY BOGUE

Paranormal or just nuts? "CATS see things we don't"

Gary has gone off on vacation until Dec. 23. Meanwhile, here is one of his favorite old columns from Feb. 28, 1982.

THOSE SLINKY BEASTS

Have you ever seen your cat staring across the room, deeply intent on watching something when you know that there is nothing there?

The fascinated feline slinks softly off the arm of your chair, eases around behind your legs while never once removing its eyes from the nothingness that seems to attract it like iron filings to a magnet.

You can place both hands in front of the cat's face and it merely slides its head sideways, intent only on watching that now almost palpable emptiness. You can move it to another room and the instant you release it, it is back to the door and carefully easing around the corner as if expecting attack from any direction.

I recently experienced such an occurrence with the cat of a friend. She was a young Siamese and was sitting in my lap as I was reading a book. I was just turning a page when I realized the cat had moved off my lap and under my arm and was staring -- no, glaring -- into a corner on the opposite side of the room.

Thinking that maybe she'd seen a mouse or a spider, I tried to see if I could find it. I even got up and moved to the corner and examined every square inch of space. Nothing.

But when I was back in my chair, I discovered that the cat had moved to the floor and was flat on her belly, her tail flick-flicking its "I see a bird" beat, her back feet making bread on the rug as she dug in and prepared to charge.

But she never moved. It was as if she had become frozen in time. An ivory sculpture forever posed in the beginning of a leap.

And then I heard it. A high-pitched chattering sound, like frightened teeth at the midnight creak of a haunted house. And the back of my neck and all across my shoulders got prickly, and I felt a surge of adrenaline through my body.

The sound was from the cat. Her bottom jaw trembling frantically as if she were staring at a flock of birds through the kitchen window. And she was staring hard into that opposite, and empty, corner of the room.

I got up again and went once more to the corner. As I moved past the cat, she mewed plaintively, as if she were trying to tell me something. But look as I might, I could find nothing there.

If you are a person with half the imagination I have, you'll understand how I felt. The dark corners of my mind were telling me that maybe I should jump into the car and take in a movie. And my logic was telling me that the idiot Siamese had a screw loose.

What does a cat see when there's nothing there?

Surely, if you own one of these slinky beasts, you have experienced such an occurrence. It's quite disconcerting.

And what if there is something there that only a cat can see?

I read a science-fiction short story once that said cats can see into the future and they are watching something that has yet to come, or maybe something from the past that has already been. Or something that might never be.

Mysteries such as this have followed cats from the very beginning as they slink down the hallways of time. Their toughness and ability to survive seemingly insurmountable problems have earned them their mythical nine lives. Black cats are said to consort with witches, and books have been written about the superstitions that fill their paw prints.

With all this swirling around my head, I did the only logical thing to be done under the circumstances. I locked the cat in the bathroom and sat down to write this column.

Funny thing, though. I keep having the creepiest sensation that something is reading this over my shoulder.
3,816 posted on 12/20/2003 10:21:09 PM PST by restornu ( "Faith...is daring the soul to go beyond what the eyes refuse to see."J.R.R. Tolkien)
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To: restornu
Oh my gawd....you have given me the chillbains.

My cat does this.
3,817 posted on 12/20/2003 10:35:56 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: ValerieUSA
Thanks Val .. there never seems to be a dull moment with mom these days.

Still no word from Loddy huh?? .. wow, he must have really done a number on his computer
3,818 posted on 12/20/2003 10:55:59 PM PST by Mo1 (House Work, If you do it right , will kill you!)
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To: sweetliberty
John Rust

John Rust, the man who was ultimately credited with the invention of the mechanical cotton picker, personified the popular image of the lone inventor working in his garage. As a boy, he had picked cotton himself, and he dreamed that he could invent a machine that would relieve people of one of the most onerous forms of stoop labor.

John Daniel Rust was born in Texas in 1892. He was usually associated with his younger brother Mack Donald Rust, who had a degree in mechanical engineering. Mack did the mechanical work, while John was the dreamer who worried about the social consequences of their invention.

John was intrigued with the challenge of constructing a mechanical cotton picker. Other inventers had used spindles with barbs, which twisted the fibers around the spindle and pulled the lint from the boll. But the problem was how to remove the lint from the barbs. The spindle soon became clogged with lint, leaves, and other debris. He finally hit on the answer: use a smooth, moist spindle. As he later recalled:

"The thought came to me one night after I had gone to bed. I remembered how cotton used to stick to my fingers when I was a boy picking in the early morning dew. I jumped out of bed, found some absorbent cotton and a nail for testing. I licked the nail and twirled it in the cotton and found that it would work."

By the mid-1930s the widespread use of mechanical cotton harvesters seemed imminent and inevitable. When in 1935 the Rust brothers moved to Memphis, the self-styled headquarters of the Cotton South, John Rust announced flatly, "The sharecropper system of the Old South will have to be abandoned." The Rust picker could do the work of between 50 and 100 hand pickers, reducing labor needs by 75 percent. Rust expected to put the machine on the market within a year. A widely read article in the American Mercury entitled "The Revolution in Cotton" predicted the end of the entire plantation system. Most people compared the Rust picker with Eli Whitney's cotton gin.

3,819 posted on 12/20/2003 11:02:01 PM PST by Conservababe
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To: Letitring
OMG. I've seen 3 cat fights, 2 drunks snoring, 5 cars towed, and was afraid to look in the trees for partridges. Good Grief. I am out of practice attending parties.

LOL!! .. The Boys are back in town ???

Sorry I missed ya, I had a bunch of emails, cards and whatever to catch up on .. plus searching the phone book for local pre-schools for Carly .. the child is always wanting to clean the house with me and well ... I'm thinking she needs a life . *L*

Hope to see ya around tomorrow .. Sweet Dreams Ringy

3,820 posted on 12/20/2003 11:05:50 PM PST by Mo1 (House Work, If you do it right , will kill you!)
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