2003

Aaron <kem_tekNOSPAM DeleteThis @hotmail.com> writes:

>I once saw a school at a military base in CA that looked like a
>small house. A small house with two tall barb-wire covered fences,
>with cameras, mean looking patrol dogs between the fences, and
>very armed guards at the gate. You could have been there.

At least you could see that the house existed. Around the DC area you've
got not only the heavily-guarded (and publicized) facilities, but also
the ones tucked into a relatively obscure setting where there aren't
any obvious signs that Great Secret Things are going on inside.

....or even not-so-Great Secret Things. For years it was common knowledge
that the CIA's personnel office was in a nondescript office building in
Rosslyn, VA, in the same building as a church widely known as the "Church
of St. Exxon" because the lower ground-level floor (the street slopes
sharply) was a gas station. There wasn't much real effort to keep
the facility secret, since unmarked blue busses with US Gov't plates
stopped in front of the doors and drove directly to the CIA compound.
(The busses were fondly called the "Bluebirds".)

Joe Morris

Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes.
Galileo: No, unhappy the land that _____needs heroes.
-- Bertolt Brecht, "Life of Galileo"
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 14:40:11 +0000 (UTC), Joe Morris
<jcmorris RemoveThis @mitre.org> wrote:

>...or even not-so-Great Secret Things. For years it was common knowledge
>that the CIA's personnel office was in a nondescript office building in
>Rosslyn, VA, in the same building as a church widely known as the "Church
>of St. Exxon" because the lower ground-level floor (the street slopes
>sharply) was a gas station. There wasn't much real effort to keep
>the facility secret, since unmarked blue busses with US Gov't plates
>stopped in front of the doors and drove directly to the CIA compound.
>(The busses were fondly called the "Bluebirds".)
>
>Joe Morris

Ummm...Joe, did you ever look at the nameplates on those buses?

Bluebird Coach Corp had a long standing GSA contract to provide
'school buses' for the Government....

ck
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

> <snip>
>
>>>>>Well, there is one. But it is a buffer zone maintained
>>>>>for security purposes, and people with guns would be upset
>>>>>with me if I entered. Pepper likes walking next to it.
>>>>>I think. Hard to tell with all the bouncing and barking
>>>>>at the squirrels - safe on the other side of the fence -
>>>>>but I think it's happy barking.
>>>
>>>>Where are you, Lawrence Livermore Labs?
>>>
>>>How did you guess?
>>>(Ok, not the world's hardest guess.)
>
>>I could not think of any prisons that needed computer geniuses
>>(genii??)
>
> You flatter me. I take the view that I went into research
> because I'm not very good at programming. Researchers get
> to sit around and brainstorm and read papers a lot.
>
> Some prisons, at least, do have computer geniuses around -
> those prisons that hold convicted Black Hat hackers. :>

The difference being they are 'guests', not employees.

> (I figured you "guessed" by Google'ing on my name.)

I literally guessed; but I also had applied there for employment
when I was getting out of the navy in 1987. I guess they did not
need ex-navy radiation techs.

>>I once saw a school at a military base in CA that looked like a
>>small house. A small house with two tall barb-wire covered fences,
>>with cameras, mean looking patrol dogs between the fences, and
>>very armed guards at the gate. You could have been there.
>
>
> I could. But you actually need teaching certification
> to teach kids under 18; I haven't got that. :>

I think the school was to tech navy personnel the 'practical'
applications for nuke weapons. And how to take them apart and fix
them.

> Megan

--

I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

Hemidemisemideity of Anonymous Eponymity
Holder of a provisional pedant licens/ce
(limited to the area of physical sciens/ce)
Member of ABMLNCSC - Base singer, very base
"Mommy, make daddy stop singing"

Remember, a day without radiation is like
a day without sunshine.
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

>>>"... too pedantic"? IS there such a thing????
>
>>>The Bookwurm
>
>>Is you is or is you ain't a pedant?
>>Dere ain't know in between!
>>--
>
> OUCH!!

At least you did not pedant me for grammar. 8 )
And since when is pedant a verb?

> The Bookwurm
> --
> Goddess of Libraries ™,
> Pedant in Chief
> Keeper of the BotRoM
> <spam trapped - remove the fish from address>

--

I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

Hemidemisemideity of Anonymous Eponymity
Holder of a provisional pedant licens/ce
(limited to the area of physical sciens/ce)
Member of ABMLNCSC - Base singer, very base
"Mommy, make daddy stop singing"

Remember, a day without radiation is like
a day without sunshine.
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

Aaron wrote:
>>>> "... too pedantic"? IS there such a thing????
>>>
>>
>>>> The Bookwurm
>>>
>>
>>> Is you is or is you ain't a pedant?
>>> Dere ain't know in between!
>>> --
>>
>>
>> OUCH!!
>
>
> At least you did not pedant me for grammar. 8 )
> And since when is pedant a verb?
>

"All this pedanting is making me dizzy."
"Go pedant somewhere else."
"There is too much pedanting in this NG!!"

You mean like that?

yc
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

>>>>> "... too pedantic"? IS there such a thing????
>>>
>>>>> The Bookwurm
>>>
>>>> Is you is or is you ain't a pedant?
>>>> Dere ain't know in between!
>>>> --
>>>
>>> OUCH!!
>>
>> At least you did not pedant me for grammar. 8 )
>> And since when is pedant a verb?
>
> "All this pedanting is making me dizzy."
> "Go pedant somewhere else."
> "There is too much pedanting in this NG!!"
>
> You mean like that?
>
> yc

That's better than "The Pit and the Pedant-ulum."

--

I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

Hemidemisemideity of Anonymous Eponymity
Holder of a provisional pedant licens/ce
(limited to the area of physical sciens/ce)
Member of ABMLNCSC - Base singer, very base
"Mommy, make daddy stop singing"

Remember, a day without radiation is like
a day without sunshine.
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

<mct.TakeThisOut@no.more.spam.cs.berkeley.edu> wrote in message
news:bjnl4q$2thb$2@agate.berkeley.edu...
> Joe Morris scribbled:
> > Mummy Az <manth.TakeThisOut@ozemail.com.au> writes:
>
> >>*The correct phrase is, in fact, The King's English, despite the fact
> >>that those of us who live in the Commonwealth are currently reigned
> >>over by a Queen. There was an official panel on the matter, and it
> >>came down to the Chairman's deciding vote. His decision was that,
> >>since the phrase originated at a time when the Monarch was male, the
> >>phrase should remain as "The King's English" regardless of present-day
> >>realities.
>
> > And "E*R" stands for "Elizabeth Rex"?
>
> Couldn't it also stand for "Elizabeth Regina"?

I always thought it was Regina.
--
TTFN
Paige
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

>That's better than "The Pit and the Pedant-ulum."
>
>--
>
>I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
>That's what everybody calls me.

Oddly enough, I watched that last night. For a bit of light
entertainment before bedtime. <g>

The Bookwurm
--
Goddess of Libraries ™,
Pedant in Chief
Keeper of the BotRoM
<spam trapped - remove the fish from address>
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

"Tristaan" <tristaanus.RemoveThis@yahoo.com> wrote

> On Tue, 09 Sep 2003 00:10:45 GMT, Rhino 7 stomped through my

> >... then there's that nasty business with the "." vs. the "," for
> >separating thousands and decimals. <G>

> Oh, the problems that has caused. Being that our software works
> primarily with monetary calculations, trying to make sure that we
> calculate and store properly when using those "weird"
> configurations was a challenge for our poor Americentric
> programmers.

You would have really *loved* pounds, shillings and pence

- Dave
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

"Tristaan" <tristaanus DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote

> I guess my point is that I was taught that there is a "correct"
> way of verbalizing a numeric, either in writing or in speech.
> This is not to say that there aren't other "accepted" ways of
> verbalizing the same, but that there is a "correct" way.

It might also depend on who your teacher was. I was
taught that the correct way of expressing a decimal
was [whole number] point [part of a whole number].
Saying [whole number] "and three tenths" would make
it a fraction, not a decimal.

> <shrug>
> Ah, well. Guess I'm too much of a math pedant, eh?

Divided by a common language, probably...

- Dave (who still finds it easier to think in feet and
inches, never mind that his country has been metric
for almost thirty years...)
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

In article <bkc102$srt$1@lust.ihug.co.nz>,
"Dave Joll" <davejoll.TakeThisOut@es.co.zn> wrote:

: It might also depend on who your teacher was. I was
: taught that the correct way of expressing a decimal
: was [whole number] point [part of a whole number].
: Saying [whole number] "and three tenths" would make
: it a fraction, not a decimal.
:
: Divided by a common language, probably...

No, not in this case. I learned the same system you did, saying the
"point" for the decimal.

Edna


---|)--- Edna Huelsenbeck (ehuelsen@earthlinkDOTnet) ------------
---|---- Goddess of the ABML Out-of-Practice-Musicians Band -----
--/|---- Member, Brute Squad, Mommy Division --------------------
-| |')-- Provisional Member of the Sisterhood of Mess -----------
--\|/----Official Bard of the Book and Bridle -------------------
|
'
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

"Tristaan" <tristaanus.DeleteThis@yahoo.com> wrote

> Tristaan (found it bad enough trying to convert Japanese Yen into
> Euro...a currency with no decimal places to a currency with 2,
> discounting by percentage, applying taxes, disbursing revenue
> generated into multiple account numbers both by fixed amount as
> well as by percentage of the whole...all the time properly
> rounding the stored values to the nearest yen)

You probably don't want to know this, but yen do have
decimal places... up until the 1950s Japanese stamps had
zeroes for sen (hundredths of a yen) on them. Back about
the turn of last century a handful of stamps were issued
denominated in rin (thousandths of a yen) and the very
first Japanese stamps were denominated in mon (ten-
thousandths of a yen)...

- Dave (who is rather worried that he knows this from memory...)
--
Lowering the tone of Usenet since 1997...

Please send replies to New Zealand instead of Zanzibar.
Sorry, but the spam is just getting a little too much...
 >> Stay informed about: 2003 

>>>Of course, it just so happens that said orangutan had a mouth
>>>full of bananananananana at the time....
>>
>>I knew there was a reason I wanted to resist...
>>
>>Blech. Worse than early-morning dog breath.
>
> Not just breath...but have you ever tried blowing a raspberry
> with a mouth full of bananananana?

Seems you have invented Banana-Raspberry Orang juice, just one
letter away from a breakfast drink.

> The mouth typically doesn't have as much banananananana in it
> afterwards.
>
> Tristaan (handing Megan a towel....)

--

I'm glad my Mom named me Aaron,
That's what everybody calls me.

Hemidemisemideity of Anonymous Eponymity
Holder of a provisional pedant licens/ce
(limited to the area of physical sciens/ce)
Member of ABMLNCSC - Base singer, very base
"Mommy, make daddy stop singing"

Remember, a day without radiation is like
a day without sunshine.
 >> Stay informed about: 2003