C W

My wife and I are so sick of door-to-door sales. If the "No Soliciting" sign doesn't work and they try to disturb us anyway at our home, is it illegal for me to squirt chocolate syrup on them as long as I warn them first? It's sticky, but it's not dangerous or anything. Would that fall under "assault" or something, even though I'm defending my home from an unwelcome visitor? Thanks!

I'm trying to assemble a set of golf clubs on a budget. I only play golf once a year at the company golf outing.

I went to the used sporting goods store and found: a putter, a driver, a wedge, and a 7-iron for $8-$15 each. I think I might want one more club. Should I get a 3-iron? a 3-wood? a 5-wood?

I am not good at golf at all, I just want to have a decent selection of 5 or so clubs to choose from depending where the ball is. Thanks for any help!

I'm looking to upgrade my machine in the near future and get Battlefield Bad Company 2 (after reading all the reviews, and MW2 is getting a little old), I have about $300 to work with, and I have a few questions. Any input is appreciated, cheers!

My current system:

Athlon 5000+ 2.6 GHz dual-core

2 Gb DDR2

Radeon 4850 512 Mb (my mobo only has 1 pci-e slot)

Windows 7 64-bit

1. Can I run Bad Company 2 at about 1440x900 (my monitor's max res) on medium settings with a decent framerate, or will I need to seriously dial down the settings just to make it playable (so I'm better off waiting to get the game)?

2. Is it worth $60 or so to upgrade from 2Gb memory to 4Gb for BC2--is there a noticeable difference between 2Gb and 4Gb?

3. All else equal, what would provide the best performance boost:

Spending $200 - $250 on a better video card (Radeon 4890 or GTX 260),

keeping the dual-core Athlon 5000+ 2.6 GHz

OR

Spending $200 - $250 on a quad-core processor + motherboard (Phenom II x4 3.0-3.4 Ghz, one of those, need a new motherboard),

keeping the Radeon 4850 512 Mb

4. Would BC2 benefit from two Radeon 4850 512's in Crossfire? I've heard some games don't use Crossfire. If I upgraded my processor, it would require a new motherboard (I could find one with 2 pci-e slots). I wouldn't have enough money to sink $200+ into a better video card, but I could maybe keep my 4850 and eventually buy another one for under $100, if BC2 would benefit from Crossfire.

Jesus seemed to quote a lot of verses from the Hebrew Scriptures. Being a Rabbi, he would have been familiar with them.

However, I've heard from skeptics that he was just making these up to look like he was fulfilling prophecies:

Luke 24:46 (NIV):

"He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day"

John 7:38 (NIV):

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him"

...Can you find corresponding verses to these anywhere in the Old Testament?

Specifically, verses about him suffering and rising on the third day, and verses about "living water" flowing out of believers.

If believing specific things about Jesus--that he died and came back to life, and his death paid for the forgiveness of your sins--according to Christianity, is the ONLY way to go to heaven, what happened to people who never heard about Jesus when they died?

It's not enough just to be a monotheist who believes there is a God--you actually need to profess that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead, they say.

Often, when the question of "What happens to unbelievers who never heard the Gospel?" comes up, I hear Christians quote Romans 1:20:

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

Paul says to the Romans that people have no excuse for not believing in an eternal, divine God, from evidence in nature.

However, according to much of the New Testament, believing in God is NOT ENOUGH to be saved--you have to actually believe specific things about JESUS CHRIST (his death and resurrection, and how those relate to the forgiveness of your sins).

How would ancient, primitive people 5,000 years ago, (in East Asia or North America, for example) be able to make accurate predictions about Jesus, 3,000 years in advance, accurate enough to believe that, thousands of years into the future, a Man-God being named "Jesus" would come to Earth and give up his life to pay for the wrongs they committed, and that this being would then rise from the dead?

Or, were these ancient people just all unsaved and they went to hell without a chance? Did they just grow up, live, and die without access to the specific information about Jesus that they needed in order to be saved?

I've heard the argument that if something is complex then it must have an intelligent designer (e.g. a clock). This argument is used by religions people to prove the existence of God.

Here's my question...

Most complex things (cars, computers, airplanes, electronics, buildings, freeways) have many, many, many intelligent designers.

There are architects, engineers, computer programmers, construction workers, assembly-line workers, safety technicians, etc.

The universe is way bigger and more complex than anything humans have built.

Doesn't it seem likely that the universe has many, many, many intelligent designers?

I have a hard time seeing how a person can get to monotheism (only one god) from the intelligent design argument.

Assuming both had equal motivation to kill the other, who would win in a fight--Jesus or Superman?

On one hand, Superman possesses far more strength, speed, etc. Plus laser vision and freezing breath. If the Romans could kill Jesus, Superman could kill him faster.

But Jesus could just keep rising from the dead whenever Superman kills him.

Is Superman mortal? I don't know the life expectancy on Krypton. If so, Jesus could just keep rising from the dead long enough to outlast Superman.

Also, if Jesus can take 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and create enough food to feed five thousand people, could Jesus create so much food it literally "drowns" Superman?

Does Superman have a chance of beating Jesus?

I'm looking to buy a used car, $9k - $12k range.

I don't want to pay full sticker price if the dealer will give me a better deal, but I definitely want to have my mechanic inspect a car before I buy it, in case there are any major defects.

If the car costs, say, $10,000, would there be anything wrong with offering $9,000, negotiating, and accepting somewhere in between, with the stipulation that I can back out of the deal if my mechanic finds any major problems?

I don't like the idea of making an offer and then backing out, but at the same time, I don't want to have to pay $75 for a mechanic inspection on every vehicle I'm seriously considering before I even know whether the dealer is willing to compromise on the price.

Or, if the car is worth $12,000 to me, just barely within my price range, but it's priced at about $13,500, I want to know right away if the dealer is willing to reduce the price to what the real value is. If he won't compromise, I can't buy the car. But I'm not really comfortable with the idea that I might offer to pay $11,500, get a two thousand dollar discount, and then back out of the offer I agree to because my mechanic found too much wear & tear.

It seems like it would be bad form for me to reneg on an offer I already agreed to after he's been willing to reduce the price, but at the same time, I wouldn't even consider making an offer if I first didn't know whether he was willing to reduce the price by a reasonable amount.

Maybe it's safer to get an inspection first, but then I'm spending several hours driving back & forth between the dealer and my mechanic, and paying $75 each time, knowing that I like the car, but not knowing whether the final price will be worth it.

Is it normal to talk about a selling price before getting a final inspection?

That's my dilemma. Any input is appreciated.

My Tetras (8 of them: 2 Black Phantom, 3 Serpae, 3 Lemon, in a 10-gallon tank) are accustomed to eating flake food.

I'm going on vacation and need to know if this TetraWeekend 5-day slow-release gel feeder will work okay.

I put one in yesterday to test it out, and haven't given them any flakes yet, and so far I haven't seen them nibble at it at all.

Will they recognize it as food? Is it just a matter of them getting hungry enough to try it out? Has anyone used one of these before?

Thanks for any input!

Is there a chance the Lions could franchise and trade Roy Williams after 2008? Or would they just want to release him?

I understand franchising him is the only way to keep him short-term without offering him a big-money long-term deal, but would any team trade for him if he was franchised?

What is the rule for trading for a franchised player? Suppose Dallas wanted Roy and Detroit put the franchise tag on him after 2008. Would Dallas just need to offer a first-round pick to Detroit, or would there be more involved?

And is Roy worth a first-round pick? He's not the greatest receiver in the league now, but he is a proven one-time Pro Bowler with lots of experience and many years left to play.

I can usually find a one-day one-way car rental from Grand Rapids to Chicago for about $60, but the one-way rentals from Chicago back to Grand Rapids are about $180 at the cheapest.

Anybody know why this is?

I'd love to be able to make the 3.5-hour drive to the airport and drop off the car without paying for airport parking on my own car, but at $180, I'd still be better off taking my own car.

Where can I find a statistical comparison of airline historical records of on time departure and arrival information?

I'd like to compare departure and arrival information, for individual arilines, such as:

% of flights on-time

% of flights with minor delays

% of flights with major delays or cancelled

I'm looking for a good adults-only all-inclusive honeymoon resort for this coming October, and I think I have it narrowed down to these two. Has anyone been to both? If so, which one would you recommend more, based on serivce, room quality, extras included, environment, stuff to do, etc?

Excellence does seem to be a lot cheaper on Expedia; I'm wondering if it's not as good as CSA, or if the Dominican is just cheaper than Jamaica.

Thanks for any input!