George Aar

Mr. Strange, Nope, just plain old rails. They're electric though. And the ties are all concrete. They build stuff to last in Nihon (Japan). The "Shinkansen" (the bullet trains) are very streamlined. The newest one they're currently testing looks kinda like the batmobile.

Dave, That's just it though, it's BECOME a nostalgic relic. It shouldn't have. In Japan 20 million people in the greater Tokyo area alone get to work on time, and in a timely manner, on the train. Meanwhile, in the States, there are several times that number of people stuck in traffic on freeways that become parking lots for several hours everyday. Wasting their lives away, creeping home at 5 miles an hour. I know that traffic isn't nearly the concern in Duluth that it is elsewhere, but believe me, it's a major deal in any large, metropolitan area. Currently in the Seattle area, our esteemed leaders have constructed an absurd concoction of heavy-rail and light rail trains that go nowhere anyone wants to go, located in places that noone lives and they can't for the life of them figure out why nobody's using them. The current fiasco, the "Seattle Sounder", has a ridership of about 150 roundtrip passengers/day. The taxpayers in the Puget Sound area are subsidizing this dinosaur to the tune of $131.00 per rider per day! And that's just the operating budget. That doesn't even address the BILLIONS spent on the construction. For decades we did nothing about mass-transit. In fact, with the help of General Motors et al, we actively avoided it. Now the consequences of all those years of inaction and no planning or vision are coming home to roost. And instead of biting the bullet and building a system that would actually do something, we're still trying to find a painless way out of the mess by building second-rate systems in areas, that maybe easy to build on, but are totally unsuitable locations for travel (i.e. places nobody goes to). So when I travel to Japan and see how efficient and pleasant it is to use a rail system that was planned-out and implemented for over a century, yeah, it makes me a little envious. Personally I've had breakfast in Kobe, attended a late-morning meeting in Tokyo, went sight-seeing, had dinner in Kyoto and still slept in my same bed in Kobe that night. A roundtrip of over 800 miles. And it was EASY. And comfortable. And I was never more than a twenty-minute WALK to a train station. A car really is not a neccessity. Maybe take a cab ocaissionally. Travel by rail just works, at least there...

We ain't got nuthin' when compared to Japan. Everytime I go there I get mad as hell that don't have ANYTHING close to the train system there. 180 miles an hour in quiet comfort. A cute little Japanese girl comes through the car every few minutes with a cart full of snacks and drinks. Big, comfortable seats and great lighting to read by as well as great views out the windows. There are no intersections of surface streets with the rails. They go over or under the roadbed. So there's no delays, accidents, or missed signals to worry about. There's a track for each direction the train goes so there's no way of trains colliding either (at least head-on). I've been told that the rail system in Japan has never had a fatality accident in it's history! Currently they're testing a train that travels at 530 K./hr.! This is a working, full-size model, not just a drawing-board pipe-dream. Why can't WE do that? Yeah, I know. They have the density of population that makes the numbers work, yada, yada. So we make do with 19th century technology, while Japan has a 21st century train in operation. Something ain't right about that... Anyway, I'll be on that train again next week. I'll let you know how it is...

Indeed, we were unknowing participants in a cruel charade. Now that we're aware of that fact, how do you look back with fondness at the time when you were being actively duped, being played for a sucker? Seems like denial to me, but then, whadoIknow?... geo.

Diazbro, One's got to wonder about the validity of this one study when compared to the numerous others that found no such link: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/moon.html A pertinent quote from that link: "Some experiments do show that on days with a full moon there is more abnormal behavior. However, many of these studies have been criticized because they were not performed properly. For example, some of these experiments: tested only a few people over a short period of time. did not analyze the data with proper statistical tests. did not take into account the day of the week on which the full moon occurred did not take into account whether the full moon occurred on a holiday or a weekend" geo.

Ah yes, the naked "groucho walk". That's one of life's beautiful mysteries. (I don't think we were meant to understand)... geo.

The feelings and the "I just know" type of evidence given here is precisely the reason that in REAL science, a great deal of energy is expended in the design of an experiment. The experimenter wants to isolate his preconceptions, biases, and unconscious prejudices from contaminating the results. That is why so much effort is spent to "blind" the one performing the experiment from the actual conduct of it. It's just too easy to skew the results if there's a "I just knew it!" conclusion lurking about in one's head. Take a look at the definition for "confirmation bias" from the skepdic website - http://skepdic.com/confirmbias.html This is EXACTLY what's been presented as proof here, confirmation bias, selective thinking, and ad hoc hypothesis. But then, such is the nature of "belief"... geo.

O.K. I tried my best to stay away from this again, but... Looky, despite all of the "Don't tell me, I KNOW!" type of testimonies, the statistics simply do not back up the assertions. There are NOT more births, accidents, murders, suicides, earthquakes, or "Ice Capades" performances during a full moon. How about this: The moon is full, or appears to be so (how many of us actually check each month as to what day the actual full moon is?) for several days. You could stretch it just a bit and still sorta kinda call it a "full" moon for maybe as much as a week. That's 1/4 of the time! Now, just add a little "confirmation bias" and then whenever a weird event happens and you notice the moon appears full, "Well, look at that! That pesky moon is doing it's thing again!" On those occasions where the weird thing happens and you don't notice a full moon, well, do you remember that? No, I wouldn't think so. And for those of you still convinced of the moon's mysterious effects, what pray tell, is the power that it is exerting? Gravity? Have Zixar explain to you how much gravitational pull the moon works on you (it ain't much). I guess beliefs are wonderful (so they tell me), but how can one continue to believe in something when all the evidence points to the contrary? I don't get it... geo.

I don't have time to relate it all right now, but the thing I've been "working" lately is P.T. Barnum's last teaching "lost for 117 years". It'll blow yer mind I tell ya. If only we had remained faithful... geo.

I read some statistics a few days ago - 10% of the population believes that Elvis is still alive. 5% of the popluation believes that they've been abducted by aliens. I guess it's not so incredible that some still think that the Vickster was some neo-John the Baptist 'er something. As our beloved "Orange Cat" opined some time ago - "It's a shame we didn't spend our money on getting a real education instead of taking Doktor's 'classes'"... geo.

Oldies, "But I'm glad you still believe the bible...maybe?..." Uh, don't hold your breath. Sorry... 'Course on the "positive" side, I also don't believe in: Astrology, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Wiccah, Islam, Sunworship, ESP, Bigfoot, Crop Circles, Mormonism, or Avacore Baldness cure. I try not to be sucked in by any superstitious nonsense, if I can help it. Unfortunately a goodly portion of the rest of the world still likes to cling to absurd, unproveable, specious tenets of "faith", and as a result we're still suffering from the madness that such beliefs culture. Religion really sucks... geo.

Oh, and maybe the Bible isn't B.S., but the Vickster's version of it certainly was, i.e. "The Law of Believing", "The Law of Proportional Giving" (HA!), "The Unforgiveable Sin", etc. etc.... geo.

dmiller, Sorry for the confusion, I should probably give up irony. I'm not that good at it. Oldies, Well of course they didn't think that at the time. It took a few years of seperation for reality to sink in (for me anyway)... geo.

To expand a bit on my MLM analogy, here's a quote from "The Skeptic's Dictionary" re:MLMs "This is not to say there is no benefit to MLM membership. You get certain tax write-offs. You get to buy products, some of which you will be happy with. You get to go to inspirational meetings, some of which will make you feel good. You may meet new friends and you may even make a few bucks. But more than likely you will end up alienating some family and friends. You will probably end up buying more stuff than you sell. And you will learn a lot about deceiving yourself and others. You won't be allowed to tell anyone how you are really doing, for example. You will always have to think positive, even if that means lying." That's the structure of WayWorld. It's simply an MLM that uses Bible B.S. as it's product. It could have been anything, soap, vitamins, oil additives for your car - anything. Only with Bible B.S. the Vicster correctly figured that, not only would he make a whole bunch of money, but he wouldn't have to share any of it with anybody! Nope, no percentages going to the "downline" or incentives or consignments. In fact, you had to pay for the "privilege" of selling his crap! How cool was that (for him)? geo.

I'm thankful for PFAL too, and Amway, and "Dare to be Great" (Oil of Mink Cosmetics). MLMs truly are of God... geo.

Gosh, I haven't been keeping up on my WayWorld trivia. Who the heck is Jean-Yves DeLisle? What happened to John Reynolds? Did he wake up and smell the decade? Did anyone else find it ironic that the site has a "What's New?" tab? Maybe I'm getting goofy in my old age (always a possiblity), but seeing that just cracked me up. What's new? HAH! Not much, guys (tee hee)... geo.

What if the Way called me on the phone?(!) Uh, boy that'd be rich. But I think they'd hang up on me before too long. It'd be fun while it lasted though... geo.

One of my personal rules for living: Beware of anyone on a mission... geo.

I read "Quackwatch" from time to time, usually to check out the most recent health claims of some "alternative" medicine advocate. They don't have much good to say about Atkins, though, curiously, the only studies they referred to were more positive than negative. Case in point: "Effect of 6-month adherence to a very low carbohydrate diet program. Westman EC, Yancy WS, Edman JS, Tomlin KF, Perkins CE. Division of General Internal Medicine, Duke University, 2200 West Main Street, Durham, NC 27705, USA. ewestman@duke.edu To determine the effect of a 6-month very low carbohydrate diet program on body weight and other metabolic parameters.Fifty-one overweight or obese healthy volunteers who wanted to lose weight were placed on a very low carbohydrate diet ( Publication Types: Clinical Trial PMID: 12106620 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]" Yeah, "further controlled research is warrented". I guess that says it. Personally, I've lost a few inches in my waist, though the diet is boring as hell after a while. Funny how everybody is so convinced of it's efficacy or it's inherent danger, without really knowing much of anything about it. I think the key to the success of those that do lose weight on it, is simply from taking in less calories. The idea that you can fill the gastank and magically burn it all up without going the usual amount of miles is kinda silly. But the idea that "you're all gonna die!" (from doing the diet), is equally bogus... geo.

What if you make love FOR a twenty-dollar bill ... geo.

And if I may continue "3-cents'" thought a little further, this "good or evil" simplistic thinking is what makes me crazy when discussing religion with any true-believer type. Is anything in life (other than your religious tenets) so clearly delineated? Does the real world really divide into such neat compartments? That's certainly not been my experience. At least since leaving the mental confines of Christian theology, I've suddenly discovered of veritable rainbow of colors along with numerous shades of gray, where formerly, only black and white were present... geo.

And "The Mclaughlin Group"... geo.

And, if I may, you don't owe WayWorld - or any of the people there - a damn thing. NO explanations for your actions, no accounting of your movements or what you do with your money. It's YOUR life. No one has any business telling you how to lead it. The influence TWI had on many of it's followers (myself included) was lightyears out of proportion to any good they did for them. The entire ministry is set up, not to be of help or benefit to it's followers, but rather to provide a life of ease for it's leaders. It's a bitter pill to swallow once you realize that you've been the victim of a horrible conjob, but life gets immeasurably better on the outside. It really does... geo.

You can put me in the "wish I never did" column as well. My life would no doubt have been different had I not squandered my youth on such dubious B.S., and I'm not entirely sure it wouldn't have been a whole lot better. Who can say? At least I wouldn't have spent all that time living a lie. And sacficing my future so Herr Doktor could live a life of self-indulgent excess. It was a pathetic waste... geo.

Evan, That reminds me, when I was a kid I thought it was major cool that my grandfather was a "rumrunner" during prohibition. Tres chic, no? geo.