5017

Decoy:
They put bugs in yah. Scary stuff.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 9:56:13 am)

Detlef Sping:
My arm is going.. boing.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 9:56:56 am)

Detlef Sping:
I'm 97% bugs already.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 9:57:36 am)

Detlef Sping:
$140.00 eh?
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 9:58:29 am)

Decoy:
Thay got that new Ebola vaccine now, that doesn't use bugs. That's cool.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:01:33 am)

Decoy:
You paid $140.00 for a flu shot? That's a lot of Nyquil.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:02:10 am)

bela:
I've never gotten the flu. Not ever I don't think. I hear its awful though. I may get a bad cold but the flu is more a fever and throwing up and body aches?
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:03:34 am)

Detlef Sping:
No, Froupie said she saw one of my singles somewhere for 140.00 and that sounds about right. heh. collectors.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:04:56 am)

Decoy:
Oh yeah, right. That's really cool, eh? Is it the only copy, though?
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:05:46 am)

Detlef Sping:
I think the bugs have been thrown in a blender and chopped up into a bug protein slurrey.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:06:15 am)

Detlef Sping:
No there were 700 pressed and there are about 400 out in the collectors market.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:07:06 am)

Decoy:
Do the Chinese people in Vancouver keep their ducks and pigs together?
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:07:16 am)

Decoy:
700. Vinyl. Thats the real deal. Any schmoe can make a CD.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:07:56 am)

Detlef Sping:
I have a bunch that I sell slowly to rich collectors on my site.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:08:04 am)

Detlef Sping:
ducks and pigs together is unnatural.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:08:39 am)

Detlef Sping:
Back soon.Auf.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:08:55 am)

bela:
I think I don't like Kate Bush because what I've heard of her music is too show tune-y.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:09:05 am)

Decoy:
You control the flow! later.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:09:21 am)

bela:
So I have this strange story tom told me last night. Wanna hear it?
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:09:37 am)

Decoy:
Show tune? I never got that from it.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:10:00 am)

Decoy:
You bet, go ahead.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:10:09 am)

bela:
Yeah, show tune-y. Its not pop. The stuff I've heard anyway.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:16:39 am)

bela:
Ok, so I don't know why but I think this story has some story telling merit becasue it struck me as bizarre. Ok, a few weeks ago Tom was telling me about this stupid dream he had. I can't remember it but something about Cheap Trick busting up a drug ring. I was only half listening at the time but I remember him thinking it was really funny and would be a great screen play. Last night he met our friend JR and his friend visiting from LA. Tom said hes met this guy before - like 10 years ago. Anyway, they were having drinks and somehow Tom got to telling them about this dream he had about the drug ring and Cheap Trick and the great movie idea. Well the guy from LA starts ripping his dream apart, saying it wouldn't be a great screen play and JR joins in and they're sort of ribbing Tom I guess. So then the guy whips out this SAG card he has and shoves it in Tom's face as much to prove his credibility as a film critic - like hes competing with some stupid dream Tom had. So it ended up Tom throwing $100 at them and telling them to fuck off and he stormed out of the place and is pissed off at JR. I just think its sort of a funny story.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:23:20 am)

bela:
I asked Tom if he thinks he overreacted and he said yeah but thats not really the point.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:24:51 am)

Decoy:
Yeah, funny until he sells the option for 5Grand and Tom never even knows about it.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:46:45 am)

Decoy:
SAG card, what a crock for credibility - that made me think of that scene in The Blues Brothers where Jake holds up a crushed upside down pack of cigarettes like an ID and says, "Jake Blues, musicians union."
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:48:47 am)

Decoy:
LA, I keep trying to convice my sister to get the hell out of there.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:51:52 am)

Decoy:
Good story, though. Tom has a very cinematic life, good or not.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:52:53 am)

Chewing Wax:
I want to move there. I love it there.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:53:17 am)

Chewing Wax:
If the Bills leave town, I'm out of hereski.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:53:36 am)

Uh Oh:
Like the plot of a sci-fi B movie, something weird is happening deep underground where the constant spin of Earth's liquid metallic core generates an invisible magnetic force field that shields our planet from harmful radiation in space. Gradually, the field is growing weaker. Could we be heading for a demagnetized doomsday that will leave us defenseless against the lethal effects of solar wind and cosmic rays? "Magnetic Storm" looks into our potentially unsettling magnetic future.

Scientists studying the problem are looking everywhere from Mars, which suffered a magnetic crisis four billion years ago and has been devoid of a magnetic field, an appreciable atmosphere, and possibly life ever since, to a laboratory at the University of Maryland, where a team headed by physicist Dan Lathrop has re-created the molten iron dynamo at Earth's core by using 240 pounds of highly explosive molten sodium. The most visible signs of Earth's magnetic field are auroras, which are caused by charged particles from space interacting with the atmosphere as they flow into the north and south magnetic poles.

But the warning signs of a declining field are subtler -- though they are evident in every clay dish that was ever fired. During high-temperature baking, iron minerals in clay record the exact state of Earth's magnetic field at that precise moment. By examining pots from prehistory to modern times, geologist John Shaw of the University of Liverpool in England has discovered just how dramatically the field has changed. "When we plot the results from the ceramics," he notes, "we see a rapid fall as we come toward the present day. The rate of change is higher over the last 300 years than it has been for any time in the past 5,000 years. It's going from a strong field down to a weak field, and it's doing so very quickly."

At the present rate, Earth's magnetic field could be gone within a few centuries, exposing the planet to the relentless blast of charged particles from space with unpredictable consequences for the atmosphere and life. Other possibilities: the field could stop weakening and begin to strengthen, or it could weaken to the point that it suddenly flips polarity -- that is, compasses begin to point to the South Magnetic Pole.

An even older record of Earth's fluctuating field than Shaw refers to shows a more complicated picture. Ancient lava flows from the Hawaiian Islands reveal both the strength of the field when the lava cooled and its orientation -- the direction of magnetic north and south. "When we go back about 700,000 years," says geologist Mike Fuller of the University of Hawaii, "we find an incredible phenomenon. Suddenly the rocks are magnetized backwards. Instead of them being magnetized to the north like today's field, they are magnetized to the south."

Such a reversal of polarity seems to happen every 250,000 years on average, making us long overdue for another swap between the north and south magnetic poles. Scientist Gary Glatzmaier of the University of California at Santa Cruz has actually observed such reversals, as they occur in computer simulations (view one in See a Reversal). These virtual events show striking similarities to the current behavior of Earth's magnetic field and suggest we are about to experience another reversal, though it will take centuries to unfold.

Some researchers believe we are already in the transition phase, with growing areas of magnetic anomaly -- where field lines are moving the wrong way -- signaling an ever weaker and chaotic state for our protective shield.

Geophysicist Rob Coe, also of the University of California at Santa Cruz, may have even found a lava record in Oregon that charts the magnetic mayhem that ensues during a period of reversal. The picture that emerges may not be up to Hollywood disaster standards, but considering that human civilization has never had to cope with such a situation before, it could be an interesting and challenging time.


(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:56:25 am)

bela:
I couldn't live there.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:56:27 am)

bela:
Yeah tom said that guy was such a dick he couldn't believe it.
(Thu Nov 20, 2003 - 10:57:34 am)