PFuller

Does anyone have an equity stake in any of his businesses? Are any of his businesses partnerships or publicly-owned? I wonder if he's just talking about people who've loaned him money or licensed his name.

Trying to make sure I understand one aspect of the Heartbleed vulnerability correctly... For your information to get compromised, you need to actually have used the site while the vulnerability existed, right? It's not my password stored in a database that's exposed, but the traffic created when I visit the website? In other words, if I registered at some website 3 years ago and haven't returned since, I've got nothing to worry about from that site?

Thanks.

Does anyone know the shipping & handling charge on a MagicJack Plus purchased from the MagicJack website? They make it less than obvious on the site that there even is a charge - if they document the amount anywhere, I can't find it.

I've seen references from a few years back that the S&H on the MagicJack was $6.95. That would be a stiff premium over buying it in the store if the only benefit to buying online is the current 30 day free trial, which gets you less than $3 in free service (unless they still start charging you for your year of service based on your purchase date, in which case the free trial is worthless to anyone who keeps the device).

I'm reading "Madame Bovary" in the new translation by Lydia Davis and am wondering about the meaning behind the italicizing of many words and phrases. They don't seem to relate to the end notes, and I can't see any meaning to them in the context of the story so it seems unlikely that they come from Flaubert's original. The book makes no mention of them that I can find; it may be in the introduction, but the author warns you it contains spoilers and not to read it if you've never read the book before. It's certainly not the only translated work I've read, but it is by far the newest, so if it's a convention used in translated works, it may just not have been around back when the others I've read were published. Thanks for any light anyone can shed on this.

In the "Six Feet Under" episode 'Brotherhood' from season 1, there's a scene where Claire fantasizes about her math teacher's head exploding. The actress playing her teacher looks very familiar, but is uncredited. Anyone know her name?

I currently have a new-ish TV with no tuner whatsoever. I'm already getting digital TV from a DVD recorder which contains a digital tuner. I was considering buying a digital converter, thinking that for $10 or so, with the coupon, it would give me the ability to watch one program while recording another. Any reason this wouldn't work? Does the converter box need to send its signal into an analog tuner to work, or will it work with my tunerless TV?

I think there's a lot to like about Obama. I'm a moderate, and contrary to his voting record he certainly sounds like one of us when he's debating. Does anyone else with no axe to grind against Obama get a little freaked out by the thought that his veto pen might be the only thing standing in the way of a bunch of legislation written by Pelosi and Reid? Anyone who'd feel more inclined to vote for him if the House would "stick a fork" in Pelosi and declare her "done"?

What's the point in blocking a user when some idiot like "Is this Real World or Exercise" seems to be able to create innumerable IDs with the same screen name, avatar, and bigoted content, and I end up having to block them one at a time?

Since all our recyclables get thrown in together they have to be sorted at some point, so I've never thrown shredded paper in there figuring it would just become so many pieces of litter at that point. Is this true? If I put it in a sealed paper bag would it get around the problem? If processes vary from place to place, I live in Southern California.

The following quote from the BBC is their description of Obama's clarification of his remarks on small-town life: 'He said he believed many voters were indeed bitter about the economy and that he had meant to say that "when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on".' So now he's saying "antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment" are good things? Things you can count on to solve your problems?

Maybe he should have gone with "OK, maybe I am elitist sometimes. None of us are perfect. That's why it's important to surround yourself with advisors who are willing to call you on something like that and not a bunch of yes-men (like in the current administration). That's what I've done and I only wish one of them had vetted my statement."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7344532.stm

Just read that Hillary blamed her Bosnia/sniper gaffe on lack of sleep. So who do you want taking the 3 AM phonecall now?

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm...

Hillary has hinted at the possibility of a combined ticket with Obama at some point. How could Obama possibly respond to this except to deny unequivocally that he'd take the second spot? If he didn't, she'd become the person to vote for if you wanted a combo ticket. Now, if he nixes that idea and stays ambiguous (a special talent of his) about whether or not he'd pick her for VP, suddenly HE becomes the best hope for a combo ticket. Admittedly, he can't be so vehement that it looks like he's putting his own personal feelings ahead of the good of the party, but that shouldn't be hard for a seasoned orator.

Thoughts?

Any thoughts on a cheap way to see season 3 of Battlestar Galactica before season 4 begins? My usual route, the public library, won't get it in time. I could join Netflix or Blockbuster (I plan to sometime anyway) but I figure I'll get stuck at the end of a long line. Could buy it on Amazon for $39 and sell it back to the local video store, but they'd only give me $12 for it - net cost $27. If I watch the last 5 episodes online, I'd presumably only have to rent 4 of the disks at the local video store (?) which comes to maybe $18. I'll do the last if I can't come up with anything else, but any other cheap, legal alternatives?

To those of you who claim that atheism is simply a lack of belief in god(s), as opposed to a belief that no god(s) exist, since when does lack of belief in something warrant its own "ism"? Is my toothbrush an atheist? It doesn't believe in anything as far as I can tell. Your position is also contrary to both dictionaries I've been able to scrounge up. In case you hadn't heard, dictionaries are often used to document how the majority of people define a word - it helps make sure we're all talking about the same thing.

Is there anything in law to prevent a single state from using instant run-off voting (IRV) to determine who will get its electoral votes in a presidential election, even if other states don't follow suit? For those who don't know, IRV allows voters to indicate a first choice, second choice, etc. This would allow someone to, for instance, indicate Nader as their first choice and the Democratic nominee as their second choice, if they wanted to, so they could vote for Nader without worrying that their vote would contribute to throwing the race to the Republican. Since I might well vote for McCain myself, my interest is more about the principle that you'd have to get 50% of a state's voters to support you, at least at some level, to get the state's electoral votes.

I've heard Obama use this phrase in a speech in Madison and Chuck Schumer (a Clinton supporter) used it twice this morning on "Meet the Press" in about as many minutes. Does this irritate any other independents the way it does me? Of course as fellow Republicans McCain is going to agree with Bush on some issues, but he's hardly complicit in the incompetent way this administration has been run, which is certainly its greatest fault by far and not its (also problematical) stands on issues.

It's especially irritating in Obama's case, as this kind of thing seems to put the lie to his claims about being a unifier and being above all the dirty political gamesmanship. Maybe that's just talk for the primaries?

I'm hearing things this week that make it sound like the superdelegate issue is confined to the Democratic Party. My impression was that the Republicans had an equivalent type of delegate, in smaller proportion to the number of voter-selected delegates, and possibly going by a different name, but still equivalent. Anyone have a source of info on this? Thanks.

"Being There" is a Peter Sellers movie from 1979 in which a man enters society after spending his entire life in isolation and even though he knows about nothing but gardening, he gets elected President. Seems everytime someone asks him a question, he responds with some irrelevancy about gardening, and everyone assumes he's speaking metaphorically and must be very wise.

As I listen to Obama speaking and try to pinpoint the substance, it's hard not to think of the movie. He talks about hope and people seem to be projecting their own hopes on him. That's not the same as him actually sharing your hopes. I'll still vote for him if someone can convince me he's more than a sharp talker in a nice suit, but it's getting a little late in the day for that.

Serious question. I'm ashamed to admit I don't know much about McCain-Feingold (campaign finance bill). Republicans seem to get worked up over it. Can someone tell me if their objections are principled, and if so what they are, or if they just don't like it because they feel the rules negatively impact them more than Democrats? Thanks.