Firefox creator Mozilla’s Thunderbird application has been a popular email client for those who prefer the customization and extensions available for Firefox over the Microsoft email clients (MS Outlook and MS Entourage) or popular web-based solutions like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. On top of being an email client, most people don’t know that Thunderbird (and many other email clients) double as a fully-functional newsreader.
Download Mozilla Thunderbird – Creating a Newsgroup Account
Usenet still lives! Webcomic xkcd posted an updated map of online communities, which takes traffic data from a variety of sources and compiles this “to scale” map of the Internet. One of the eldest regions on the map, Usenet remains located in the affectionately named “Troll Bay” in the Sea of Memes.
Former stage magician, skeptic, and beard aficionado James Randi founded a non-profit organization in 1996 to investigate paranormal and supernatural claims, like ghosts, bigfoot, and chupacabras. Since 1996, he has offered one million dollars to anyone who can provide proof of a paranormal claim under controlled scientific conditions, but so far, nobody has been able to claim the prize.
Alt.Paranormal user |-|ercules has applied and has so far been unable to get the Foundation to take his claim seriously. I think he’s a psychic who is claiming that he has the ability to determine a person’s name by their writing or speech. Check out his demo video below in which he demonstrates his amazing ability to point to a word on a random page.
From Alt.Conspiracy/Alt.Paranormal:
The whole Paranormal Claim idea is flawed
Because you have to define an impossible event into a contract, it’s too easy for the skeptics to copout. If they know you might be paranormal, they won’t sign a test protocol and just blacklist you.
The only way a $prize challenge would be fair is to accept the psychic’s terms for a demonstration, which may be revealed DURING the demonstration in front of witnesses and media. This is not a problem as for the test phase it must be repeatable.
I’ve applied to a dozen paranormal prizes. here is my demo video.
Here is the video of a control for comparison.
Any skeptics want to put their money where their mouth is? (shut up Raven)
–Herc
James Randi Educational Foundation – [Link]
List of prizes for evidence of of the paranormal via Wikipedia – [Link]
From alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk
Cheeky post from a guy who is clearly in the know…
I love it when everybody realizes the same thing at the same time and
just cluster****s to death what’s been obvious for quite a while to
the few with half a brain. Advice boards and blogs and online
journals and all that kind of crap are full of cautions about how
hiring managers and HR mutants have figured out how to (gasp!) search
the Web and find out naughty things about job applicants, like films
of them ****ing goats on YouTube, or talking about what a ******** the
boss is on Facebook.That’s why I post right here on the good old Usenet. Nobody knows
what it is and wouldn’t have the slightest idea of looking in it.
It’s like closing the door when you piss.– Bill Cleere
brilliant.
From rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Rest of story here:
User NBates posted a link to this “Hard Times Survival Site” which at first glance looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1995, but it turns out this site is a pretty comprehensive survival guide with tons of great content, like food supply checklists and efficient recipes for survival meals, and requirements for a permanent home, like this tidbit:
You don’t need to move to the unexplored wilderness in Alaska. You don’t need to move into the heart of the Arizona desert. You just need to relocate to an area that is more lightly populated than a big city. The area you select should meet the following minimum criteria:
- It is not on a major freeway or interstate.
- It is at least several hundred feet above sea level.
- It is surrounded by farm land, dairy cows, and other typical farm livestock such as horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens.
- It has a history of good average rainfall (not too much rain or too little rain).
- It has a reasonable supply of trees and forest timber land.
- It has a few nearby manufacturing facilities of any size.
- Its residents still have the right to own firearms to protect themselves.
- It has short mild winters.
via alt.survival [Link]
what should i eat? my favourite food is eggs. that’s right. there is nothing better. i like them fried. i take three eggs, crack them, put them onto a plate. i get the cast iron pan going at medium high. when the pan is hot, i drop down the temp to 2; a good low heat. i then add a tablespoon of butter to the pan. when it’s melted and sizzly, i add the eggs. then i wait until they are done; (note that i put a lid on the pan) and when they are half way between runny and hard, i’ll serve them. with some crappy white bread. prime rib might be a tad better, but for economy and taste, i’ll take the eggs.
Today, I’m just going to post some subject lines. I don’t think it gets much better than this. If you’re ever looking for a good dose of crazy, check out alt.apocalypse.
I don’t even know where to start.