..."Trail - And - Error"... Anyone out there in the scientific community.........?
Does that say anything to you? This is a method that prevents you from having to to really know WHY things work. You just learn perhaps over several generations what combination works the best. So you're not going "Hey I know the exact chemical properties of this and that materal. Ergo- If I combine such and such, the chemical molecular result must be X = useful", but you learn perhaps from your grandmother that she had this neat trick with dirt she had from that creek and the sap from that tree. And she mixed it, perhaps said some enchantment and it worked. And then your mother had by accident discovered that if you put that mix for some time in ...a cow's stomach, it got even better. And then after some years doing it like that with the dirt from that creek and the sap from that other tree and by singing the enchantment and storing the stuff in a cow's stomach, YOU discovered that it also worked if you forgot the enchantment and you stored the goo behind the homefire. And then your daughter discovers that the goo works best if you use the sap if it is harvested under the first full moon after the buffaloes have migrated...And so on....After a fwew hundred years the concoction is the best you can get and it has become part of the tribal knowledge, without anyone really knowing why or how it works- it just does if you do it like that. And that's all that counts. In that way you can amass lots of really good working practices and even products without really having any knowledge on HOW it works.

...Let's put it in another way- I can use this computer. I can use this internet to communicate ith you. But really I am not an inch more intelligent than any stone age person- I do not have the foggiest idea on how to repare my computer or my internet-link if it dissapears. And at the same time, as a city-dweller I would perish within a few days (okay, perhaps weeks) when they would drop me in some far off wildland.

I just got a textmessage from my wife who's currently halfway around the world- Just :-) X!
... That's all I need today... :-)

More than often I've wondered if houseflies -especially when they are big- and other flying insects that surround us, could be used by aliens to spie on us- You don't need UFO's and fancy potentially visible flying stuff- Just tap in to the already abundant flying insaectworld and you get to know every nook and cranny of our worldly existance...

So now humans are starting to dso the same with the ultimate critter-cam. Hm, high time to buy myself the best and ultimate fly-swatter there is, or to invent one myself...

Bruno's a Winner- Thanks for sharing. This does'nt need any pictures- your words tell it all.

This morning a complete stranger genuinly smiled at me while was waiting on my bicycle at the trafficlights.

Some years ago I asked a kid of then 7 years old why he was always so relaxed, happy, smiling, even with parents that had dissapeared in a raid by rebels and every day hunger and sickness and violence in the camp where he stayed. How did he do that. With all the wisdom some kids of that age can have, he told me that at the end of the day, he tried to remember what good things had happened to him that day- even in the things that perhaps at first glance were bad. And so he always slept well and he always woke up smiling and he knew that the future always would be better.

I'm over 40, but I'm still completely amazed about such wisdom of a kid in such utterly harsh circumstances. Since then I completely stopped complaining about anything...

I personally never have experienced my woolen clothes as itchy scratchy. I find it highly comfortable and very good in the temperature regulation- a bit cooling or at least heat-retardent in summer and warm in winter.

...But to go about like these Woolies... Nnnnnahh... This is reason to take another VERY critical look at my own woolen socks, 2 or 3 woolen sweaters and caps... :lol:

I re-enter relevant parts of my comment of april 29 in the topic of the Swine-Flu t-hirt:

The Central Buro of Statistiscs in the Netherlands where I come from, states that yearly about 80.000 people get sick of regular flu and about 1.000 to 2.000 persons die. Most of these people are above 65 years old.
The first month of 2009 saw on average an extra thousand deaths caused by the normal flu.

...

The Netherlands is a well developed country with an excellent healthcare system and a population of a little over 16 million people.
It is my estimate that there will be comparable numbers in the US if you even out the numbers. And in that case how will the numbers for that ordinary flu stack up worldwide?
--- So here those US- figures are given and they confirm what I already said.

So again I ask- Only about 160 worldwide for this new kind of flu and then all the panic… compared to our yearly normal flu problem? I still don’t get it.

@Dalucero - At the point that you can call it a complete replica. A model has less copied details than the original. If I saw correctly, this model ony fired its 1st stage? And it has a standard model-grade solid fuel engine?

I know that where I live, you need permission for even far smaller rockets. This mastodont would never get permission to even be built up, let alone that it also would be launched...

Yeah North Korea eat your heart out!!! :-P

Ah thanks aan- Now I begin to understand something:
If it is unpredictable, then there is reason to worry bigtime, but as long as the situation is predictable, we can sit back...?

@CQ-
The Central Buro of Statistiscs in the Netherlands where I come from, states that yearly about 80.000 people get sick and about 1.000 to 2.000 persons die. Most of these people are above 65 years old.
The first month of 2009 saw on average an extra thousand deaths caused by the normal flu.

In the Netherlands, in 2008 we had 750 deaths in traffic. And we have very good trasckrecord compared to other countries in Europe where we has about 43 deaths per 1 million inhabitants. Compared: A country like the United Kingdom has about 50 and Belgium has about 101 deaths per million.

The Netherlands is a well developed country with an excellent healthcare system and a population of a little over 16 million people.
It is my estimate that there will be comparable numbers in the US if you even out the numbers. And in that case how will the numbers for that ordinary flu stack up worldwide?

At the same time, worldwide yearly there are about 12.00.000 deaths in traffic.

So again I ask- Only 152 worldwide for this new kind of flu and then all the panic...? I still don't understand.

@GQ- As far as I see it, there is virtually no communication about car crashes...!
Is that why there are also no shirts on car victims...?

So many deaths but it is deemed non-important in the greater scheme of things while at the same time the common flu under the old and the very young on yearly basis worldly still kills far more than this new Mexican flu?

Only 152 sofar...? Yes Amen Eric the Red-

To meg and all the others that go chicken on this virus: Why so much fuss about this sofar potential killer?
In the meantime we humans alone in the US, but generally all over the globe kill FAR more of our own kind in traffic in traffic alone. But also because of pollution, because of stuff like violence and smoking.

Those statistics hardly reach page 3 of the papers, we read them, make some ts- ts -ts noises, we sigh and mumble words like "there goes the neighborhood...", we take another sip of coffee or tea and we move on and forget about those numbers.
Yet the moment you get out of your frontdoor you stand FAR more chance of getting killed in a traffic-accident, by random violence, by some other natural phenomenon or by slowly getting killed by pollution than you'd get caught bij some deadly virus.

And that also applies when you live in Mexico- At the same time people get killed by that virus, more people get killed in crime-related violence and by traffic accidents.

So how is that possible? What am I missing here?

Glad that you mention that here, Matt M ;-)

Some way to die if you only like wine. :-P

I specially like the part where there's the riot in the hospital because they all think free beer is handed out to some patients- Come up with that in our modern hospitals where the only alcohol served is to desinfect your skin before getting injections.

I pity that guy.

I mean, I know that you can be excentric.
But to get lost as much as Michael... What went wrong with him apart from his bad parents and his screwed up youth...? Why couln't he keep his sences and stay within reasonable boundries istead of going ballistic on wackyness?

I'm no fan of him whatsoever. I have respect for his musicual talent, but I don't like what he made. I completely don't understand his personal mess.
I hope for him that he'll still have some time in life that can be called "normal", tranquil, quiet, without fuss.

Somehow I hope the picture is fake- otherwise soon we could read that the best man had Bride and Groom chop for Wedding-dinner...