Lucky Bunny

My cat has a strange habit of sitting beside my computer chair (if I'm sitting in it) and trilling at me... a lot. Not only that, but also tries to reach up and claw arms and hands. However, this is only limited to the computer chair. Sitting on the sofa or the floor doesn't provoke this reaction. The only other time she'll claw at me (and even bite my hands gently) is when she's trying to wake me up. It's also not limited to just me, and pretty much applies to anyone who sits in my computer chair.

I ruled out looking for attention, because often she gets attention as a result, and is usually not very receptive to it. Play is also ruled out, as this can be immediately after a long play session. Hunger and thirst are usually not part of it either, since this is most often fairly shortly after her evening meal. I don't really mind, other than having to be wary of where she is and what whether my arms are in reach, but I am quite puzzled and would like to understand so that I can react accordingly.

I have a new cat. She's about 1-2 years old, spayed and female. One of my neighbours has an intact male, who is significantly older. They've encountered each other 3 times now, outside. All 3 occasions were quite a showdown, with both cats watching each other intently, and my cat making quite a lot of noise, like a wolf howling, lashing out and hissing when the old boy came too near, but otherwise not much at all. Except today, when he really got too near and she rolled on her back, lashing out with all 4 paws, before I created a distraction and removed her from the scene.

Is this all part of cats getting to know each other and perhaps one day they'll be good buddies, or is it a sign that I should make sure the old tom isn't around when I let her go out?

A couple of weeks ago, I got a cat. The home I got her from gave me some blankets and a piece of carpet that she had been sleeping in and scratching. They told me the familiar scent of the blankets should help keep her calm while settling in. However, no matter where I put the blankets, she will not go near them. I tested this by laying them out in the hallway, and sitting the other side of them. I called her, and she trilled a few times before eventually cautiously walking over the biggest one, and then only past the others.

I find this all puzzling, because she was resting on these same blankets when I went there to pick her up, and had them in her cat carrier with her on the way home, and showed no sign of aversion towards them at those times. I'm only bothered because I'd like to set up a comfortable and familiar spot for her to chill in, as a decent alternative to the hard window ledge and the shelf under my desk (two early favourites). Putting the blankets in those places causes her to avoid the places until I move the blankets.

I was just commenting on how my employer would probably hire anyone with a pulse, then I realised that this would exclude vampires, zombies, trolls, golems and any number of inorganic or dead people.

My question is would this be disability discrimination or would it be racial discrimination?

According to the Bible, God (Yahweh, the God of War) has a wife, named Asherah, as well as several brothers (Baal, Moloch, Canaan) and a father (El-Elyon). I think it makes a lot of sense to not solely worship Yahweh, but to worship his wife too, in recognition of the holy matrimony between them. Why is this never mentioned or suggested in church?

I keep thinking about money, and how it seems to be at the heart of nearly every social problem in the world. It is the defining factor in poverty, it is a barrier for poor people to access their needs, it causes war, hate and division, and it is synonymous with power and influence. My first answer to all of this was that it is necessary, and all of the negative things I listed there are necessary ramifications of the necessity for a trading medium such as money. Yet the more I think of it, the less necessary I see it to be, the more motivated I am to work for as little of the stuff as I possibly can, and the more I feel compelled to think up a new system in which money and trading no longer exist. Simply put, when I look at money, I see nothing but problems. When I'm paid, I interpret it as an adjustment in my rank in the ever-changing social leaderboard. Speaking of which, I see that leaderboard as being upside down, with the productive and useful people at the bottom, and unproductive parasites at the top. Have I achieved enlightenment, or is there some kind of spiritual sickness affecting my brain?

I'm trying to figure out what sort of role money really plays in society, and whether it's necessary. Although it appears on the surface to create freedom, enable advancement and reward effort, it can also be seen to do the opposite. It limits the freedom of poor people, by acting as a barrier between them and their needs and abilities. It limits advances in technology and science, because people strive to make maximum profit, so low quality, short lived goods are produced instead of putting expensive research into durable and innovative goods. As for rewarding effort, this question serves to ascertain whether it truly applies, although it seems that the jobs requiring the most effort usually get the least pay. A theoretical society without money would distribute resources to all people, regardless of their job, but would still require work to be done. So my question does have a conditional... In such a society, would your job still exist, and if so, would you still do it without pay, as long as you still get all your needs met?

I recently (last Friday) bought a new computer, and tonight it just died out of the blue. No pops, no smoke (that i noticed) or anything like that, just suddenly powered off, never to come back on. The weird thing is, my pc speakers, that are powered by USB still switch on, and my phone still charges from the front USB port. But no activity inside the case at all, not even a fan twitch. At the time of the power down, my CPUs were all running at about 35 to 40 degrees celsius, and my GPU had just nosed over 50.

PSU: 550W

CPU: AMD FX 6100 Bulldozer 6-core CPU

GPU: NVIDIA GTX550 Ti

Motherboard: Gigabyte M68MT-S2

I've looked everywhere online, and the release date says the 9th of May on a lot of websites, but from what I can see, it's not available in the games marketplace.

I theorize that poverty isn't something that can possibly be gotten rid of. At least not without a fundamental change to the way things work. Poverty has many definitions. Most consider it to be something that's exclusive to the developing world, however, there is also poverty in the developed world, just a different type of poverty. My theory is that as long as there are haves, there absolutely necessarily has to be have nots. If you find yourself given a million of your currency, then you are a million better off than someone who had the same as you before. Compared to you, that person is now poor, and cannot afford to support themselves as well as you can. The only equality would be if you shared half that million each, which certainly wouldn't be equality if you worked for and earned that money. So I think that, in the current system, equality cannot be achieved, so poverty is impossible to eradicate.

However, could there be any sort of alternative that doesn't create inequality?

I started a small online community for people on the spectrum a while back. So far, its growth has been limited to a mere chat room, but however tiny, the chatroom appears to be well-established now, and close knit. However, with the userbase being autistic, often there are discussions that come up where nobody really has the relevant skills to adequately provide the support the chatroom is known for. This is where I feel a specialist would be an advantage. They would be able to bring the sum of their studies and have a kind of prior knowledge of what kind of situations people may be facing, and also be able to learn from us. Sadly, volunteers in this field are, as far as I'm aware, completely non-existent. However, I'm here to pick the brains of the wider world and try my luck.

I have searched around the internet and found nothing that is exactly like what I seem to have. I get these tiny bumps, usually in clusters, on the palms of my hands and fingers. They are only ever on my palms and fingers, and I usually find them when I wake up. In terms of being painful, I only notice slight irritation (itching) until I actually touch them or if I'm unfortunate enough that they're located in a fold.

Usually, they disappear in a matter of hours if I leave them alone, but there's always more another day.

My newest phone is due a firmware upgrade, and there's no way I can do it on my own computer. I have very little understanding as to why this is.

iPhones come with software for Mac. Of course they do. They wouldn't exist without Apple, who make Macs.

Windows phones come with software for Windows. Of course they do. They wouldn't exist without there first being Windows CE, the platform they are built around.

Android phones do not come with software for Linux, despite Android being based on the Linux kernel.

Does anybody know why this is? Wouldn't it be a lot easier for the manufacturers to release source code and allow ports to be made, if they are unwilling to stump up the resources to make native applications?

I am heading to New Jersey for 10 days. I do not need to worry about accommodation, as I will be hosted by a resident there. The 10 day stay will include visits to New York city, although I do not plan to really do a lot there other than sightsee.

I have the total of $1000 already. I am fairly confident it will be enough, but I was just looking for a few second opinions.

God clearly changed his mind between the OT and the NT. All the rules changed. OT: I'm going to punish, kill, threaten, destroy. NT: I'm going to send my son, and he will spread love, peace, and magic mushrooms for everyone, and I'll also be nice to everyone.

Two very different ways of dealing with things. Perhaps he realised the 'Old Law' wasn't working, and needed to make some changes. If the old law wasn't working, then surely that means it was a bad idea in the first place, and would thus mean God was wrong.

I am an atheist. However, I'd like to offer a logical common thought between myself and theists. Theists believe in an all-powerful entity who controls the entire world, apart from human decisions (free will). I do not.

However, through logical reason, I find that should such an entity exist, he would be in control of what conditions people live with. I am a member of the autism spectrum (not an ASD 'sufferer') and also very much in favour of neurodiversity. I believe that the future of people on the spectrum should be left solely to the decision (free will) of people on the spectrum, and therefore I am personally against research into a cure for autism and its related conditions. I reason that if a cure were found, the decision whether or not to use it would be taken away from the people directly affected, instead made by the parents before birth.

The common ground I seek is that where people continue to be born with autism spectrum disorders, this (in the view of theists) would have been either caused by, or at least anticipated by, God. Where he would have chosen to allow people to be born this way, and be required to (as things presently are) attempt to adapt to the difficulties autism presents, I too agree there that ASD is at least a partial benefit, even though life with it is laden with challenges.

So I theoretically agree with God, and would assume that those who believe in God would agree with him anyway, and therefore I think the verdict is already unanimous. However, I'm interested to hear more thoughts on this.

*fair enough, I'm an atheist, and don't believe in God. You may wonder how I reach an agreement with something I don't believe in. It's very simple, and the same way people relate to characters in films. People do not believe film characters are real, yet they can choose to set aside their beliefs and enjoy the film plot, because they find a small sense of realism in it. This does extend to sci fi and fantasy, which is far removed from realism. I see no reason why there is so much debate about the validity of the Bible, because it is my opinion that those who believe it give themselves extra momentum to learn from it. Those who don't should still really see there is much to learn from fiction. You could be a Jedi (yes, some people do actually follow the Jedi religion), or you could be a philosopher who watched Star Wars once and ponders what the Jedi religion is without wearing any robes :P

I may soon be looking to buy a new desktop, and I think it's likely I'd be approaching an internationally well-known vendor. However, I have been looking around the market, and have so far not seen a brand new desktop that isn't packaged with Windows (with the exception of Macs, of course). As I have no intention of using either of those operating systems, and don't want to pay extra for an operating system that I'm never likely to use, I'm looking for a good, powerful computer that is shipped running Linux, preferably Ubuntu. Can anyone help?

I am currently using an NVIDIA GeForce 2 Ti, but I also have a Matrox MGI G45+MDHA32DB.

I know they're both old, so people may be tempted to suggest a brand new one, but out of the two, which is better?

Myself and my partner (long distance) are dying to meet. A lot of people we know online know this, and many have offered to help. We both have complicated problems with this, because if we accept any one offer of help, we will feel pretty guilty about accepting offers. We are already saving anyway, but both of our efforts combined are not going to get us together within a reasonable time frame. It has been a year already.

I have realised just how many offers of help there have been, and wondered about perhaps setting up some sort of online pot that our friends are welcome to anonymously add to. I am just completely unaware of how to go about this. We'd both have to be able to access it, and there would need to be some sort of public page showing a target amount and amount raised so far. Also hopefully with some sort of temptation-killer function, preventing anything from being withdrawn until the target is reached lol

I have googled along the lines of fundraising, but all results I've looked at so far have been about charities and non-profit organisations. With this being a private endeavour, and not a charitable organisation, I decided those results are not what I was looking for.

The UK government have plans in the early stages to overhaul the benefit system.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2010/21st-cent...

I have a few problems with it, and I can't reply to them. The chance reply to closed on the 1st of October. So I'd like to hear opinions from others