On the Jungle Tour, a friend of mine would shoot at the hippo and then say, "Stop, LAPD!" That eventually got him fired when a LAPD officer complained.

I would laugh so hard if I heard this. Geeze.

Are people so OCD/misanthropic that they object to the warmth of other human beings? These same people will appreciate human warmth when they're too old to wipe their own arses and need someone else to do it for them. Besides, the relative warmth or coolness of the seat bears no relation to its cleanliness.

Sounds like the Indonesian supply comes from wild rather than farmed frogs. Since the frogs can be frozen almost anywhere and then shipped, it might make a good business for people in areas where the land is otherwise not suitable for farming (i.e., too swampy).

Uri Geller, eat your heart out.

That is wayyy wasteful

"Death Cult" sounds way cooler.

I live in a large city, but on the edge of a canyon. The loud police helicopters sometimes circle around forever late at night, shining their searchlights around randomly. I've occasionally gone out with my 2-million candlepower searchlight and shined it right back at them. I respect what they're trying to do, but I think that sometimes they forget that they're not alone.

Jesus would only shoot in self-defense. Even the Dalai Lama travels with armed guards when he is in large outdoor crowds. Blackwater just shoots anyone who gets in their way, armed or not.

Oh, well. I became old man!

I'm going with #9 on this one, glad someone already told it like it is hahah

#6 D3: Extra bonus points for cultural heritage sensitivity for you. Moving on, I wonder if they have the porn blockers on?

I would also like to point out that not all FATS are the same either. Right now most of what I eat consists of, well, lots of peanut butter, milk, small bread portions and beans and fish. In my PERSONAL opinion, the only thing wrong with the Atkins diet is that it insists you eat lots of fatty meat, instead of mono and poly unsaturated fat.

And hell, I don't think AT ALL that the same diet works for anyone. The way I feel about what I eat is that I like carbs, a meal doesn't feel complete without them, but I eat small amounts of very low-glycemic bread and TRUE whole grains. I've dropped from 250 pounds with no muscle to a very muscular 180. I would also like to point out though that I'm 19 years old, in an age where it is much easier to lose weight.

I also reject the idea that exercise is useless for losing weight. I am about to listen to the Quirks and Quarks podcast, and I'm wondering: does he address the different TYPES of exercise?

I was recently reading a study that showed strong evidence that while aerobic exercise was of value and helped patients lose weight, much much much greater weight loss was achieved when patients had weight training plus some aerobic exercise. With weightlifting, your body is constantly gearing up your metabolism to help build new muscle (I need to read up more on this, however) and with extra muscle, you're constantly burning more calories per day.

The Colorado River toad and Sonoran Desert toad are the same thing. See Wikipedia on the first entry. It might be possible that Missouri has its own laws regarding it. It is native to western Arizona area, so it must have been imported (mailed, driven, etc.) into Missouri. I went with some people and got a burlap sack with 11 of them in it one night, out in the desert. I didn't use the venom, but several people I was with did. They didn't talk at all for about the first ten minutes.

spoil sport.

Phasor---I agree. Plants containing these anti-cholinergic compounds grow wild all over the U.S. In the NE it's Jimsonweed (datura stramonium), in the SW here it's datura meteloides. These plants are some of the "witching herbs" that include henbane, belladonna, and mandrake. They're all in the solanaceae (nightshade) family, which includes tomato, eggplant and potato. They aren't hallucinogens but rather deliriants because of their toxicity. Your cholinergic neurotransmissions are integral to the storage of short term memory, so if you take these drugs and block it, you make the person forget what is happening to them. Yes, they're nasty drugs.
In small doses, scopolamine is very effective in fighting nausea, but it can't be ingested all at once or you get hallucinations, which is why the transdermal ear patch was developed.

Aw, @#&*^%! I forgot the password to unlock the 20-ton blast door. From the inside.

Yeah....prison is a big, profitable business. Too bad that, according to Human Rights Watch, nearly three quarters of new admissions to state prisons were convicted of nonviolent crimes.

I have one for you: A completely incompetent Bush & Co. somehow successfully masterminds a conspiracy to fly planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The hundreds of people necessary to pull it off manage to keep quiet about it. The people flying the planes and who were talking to people on the ground were merely faked. Bits of flight 77 (both human and metal remains) at the Pentagon are strewn about the lawn to make it look like it wasn't a missile that hit the building. Mhmmm.....

I remember when Mark Pauline (of SRL) lost a finger on his right hand when a rocket motor blew up. Considering the inherently dangerous nature of their work, despite precautions to make it otherwise, I don't know that I'd call any accident "freak" in the SRL realm. I respect their work and hope Todd recovers soon from his injuries.

In an age where images and vicarious experience is perceived as more "real" than reality or direct experience, the concept of the worship of graven images takes on a new meaning. I think I'll go and fly a kite.

Ah, the good old days..... :O(