^LOL. No, that's new to me. "Waad waalantahay" is now starting to lose its sting.

^If that's a cookie, Layzie likes hers pre-chewed.

^Oh she knows, just refusing to follow trends. For example, she will suggest you put on a sweater and stop whining if you say "it's cool".

^Now I finally understand this: Headrests are used by both Somali men and women while resting or sleeping. It is popularly believed that the headrest serves a protective function by elevating the head off the ground during sleep, thereby preventing any possible attack by snakes or scorpions. Men's headrests, such as this one, generally feature a smaller base that makes them somewhat unstable to sleep on, while the rectangular bases of women's headrests are usually more stable. Scholars suggest that this instability is purposeful as it prevents the user from falling into a deep sleep while guarding the herds at night. It is in this sense that the headrest itself has become a symbol of vigilance among Somali nomads. In this example, the surface decorations of both supports are identical and feature interlaced rope motifs on the top and bottom interrupted by a honeycomb-like relief in the middle. The patterns on this and many other Somali headrests probably reflect the Islamic influence in the region. Some scholars interpret the patterns and iconography as a "form of shorthand for a prayer," to ensure God's protection of the sleeper. Headrests also play an important role in the nuptial ceremonies of Somali nomads. On his wedding night, the groom places the tubash (a sum of money) under the bride's headrest. The morning after the marriage is consummated, the bride will use this money to purchase an amber necklace, the symbol of her new status. The headrests are carved from a single piece of fine-grained wood known as hagar in Somali, or also yucub wood. The wood is usually left its natural color, but is sometimes painted red or black by its owner. Somali nomads also make use of another type of headrest with a single cylindrical supporting column. It appears that the different styles are for men of different status, with the single-columned variety for young men and the double-columned variety, as seen here, reserved for elders. At the Met!

Yeah, it's not. *Nods uncertainly*

^Are you in remission now?

Ummm, no.

^True, you wouldn't have to worry about dying of prostrate cancer at 85 years when there are so many other things to die of before then. But I also think the 600,000 thousands figure might be a bit exaggerated. That comes out to every American dying of cancer twice each year

Nice Pictures But The Sloganeering Is a Bit Distracting, A Proud Hard-Working SOler.

^Actually, it's been a great success. So far no men have commented on here

Che, do you think your namesake is hiding something with that tight-lipped look then?

Geniuses of the Year By Rachel Zelkowitz ScienceNOW Daily News 23 September 2008 "Do you think this is a prank?" developmental biologist Susan Mango recalls the voice on the phone asking her, "because I assure you, this is not a prank." But Mango, whose lab at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City studies how organs form, could be forgiven for thinking so. She and nine other researchers received a call last week with the news that they were among the this year's 25 winners of the so-called genius grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The awards, given out annually since 1981, come with $500,000 over 5 years and no strings attached. The foundation conducts a private search to identify people who have demonstrated creativity and the potential to make major contributions to their respective fields. Mango, a 47-year-old single mother of one, believes the award sends a message to other women, “especially women pulling their hair out about trying to have a family and do science." Stephen Houston, a 49-year-old anthropologist at Brown University, has spent decades deciphering the Maya language and studying how that civilization perceived the human body. He plans to plow the prize money back into his research. Marin Soljacic, a 34-year-old optical physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, admits he has some "far out" ideas to extend his work on nanophotonics, the study of light at minute ranges, and its applications for wireless computing. But he's not ready to disclose them. The other scientists on this year's list of winners are: Kirsten Bomblies, 34, a plant evolutionary geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany. She studies how new species of plants originate. Andrea Ghez, 43, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the evolution of star systems and galaxies. Alexei Kitaev, 45, a computer scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He seeks to apply quantum physics to computing. David Montgomery, 46, a geomorphologist at the University of Washington, Seattle. He researches how Earth's topography changes over time. Adam Riess, 38, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who studies geometry of the universe. Sally Temple, 49, a neuroscientist at the New York Neural Stem Cell Institute in Rensselaer, hopes to develop treatments for central nervous system damage. Rachel Wilson, 34, an experimental neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Her work focuses on neural activity within fruit fly brains.

Ibti, that is sad, I hope you are able to get her some assistance at least. And if anyone can whip bureaucrats into shape, it's you I was going to confess this in the Please-Kill-Me thread but it got deleted before I could post it and I simply must get it off my chest: I'm a kleptomaniac, but I steal worthless things, like welcome mats, TV antennas, billboard sign letters, airplane seat cushions, etc. It's no picnic if you're not a Hollywood starlet What am I going to do with 347 restaurant dinner plates?

LOL @ Faynuus. On top of which she can reliably supply sons, eh? You know, she might just enjoy cooking for its own sake, for all you know her husband only eats chicken sandwiches Cabdiyo, have you tried layering paper towels in between, maybe soak up the oil that way? I used to hate burshiil because just sometimes there's one with a raw center. Makes them all suspect after that.

I'm sorry A&T, I didn't realize! <--Backing away and hoping it's not contagious.

Aw-guuriyo @ Nuune. You no longer qualify as a troll. Trolls are strictly forbidden to be pilots or have other glamorous professions. Lily had to turn down the CEO position at her company just the other day.

Dhulqarnayn, you're a little too stuck on this rape thing methinks. Just let it go, it doesn't make anyone less of a man if other men do terrible things without his consent. Sayid, I'm divorced AND older than you. I can't be given away in marriage like a kilo of sugar dear, that's for the young and beautiful. You better go back to Ngonge and co and demand your down-payment back. They took advantage of your desperation. Thank you for finally telling us what democracy means to you. Now tell us what "Islamic way of governing" means to you.

What JB, is it hard to recognize her from that end? Get a mop, you were slow with the towel. A&T, don't start your usual melodrama now. We all know SOL has been barwaaqo iyo nus for you where the honeys are concerned. There are at least 3 SOL ladies who have confessed they find you irresistible. It would shock me if they haven't told you themselves by now.

Oh dear, it looks like umushu waay foolan rabtaa. JB hand me a towel will you A&T, for all your bluster, I think you're firmly in the "runs a marathon to support breast cancer research" category. Good luck @ Ibti. Sounds like fun.

Ngonge's right. After the experiment, there will be a chart with squiggly lines. The physicists will be beside themselves with excitement, careers will end and others will take off, but for the rest of us it will be all ado about nothing. On the other hand, if the world does end tomorrow, I KNEW IT ALL ALONG.

^Is that due to the lack of refineries? Interesting article. Wasn't there an article from the Economist a few months ago that said African nations make up 5 of the 10 fastest growing economies? I think either Angola or Equatorial Guinea were number 1, with a ~20% growth rate, more than double the next country on the list. Flush with cash from high oil prices and with an eye on elections, the Angolan government has embarked on a multibillion dollar rehabilitation of the country's war-ravaged infrastructure on a scale that is often breathtaking. That is heartening.

CPU usage is through the roof. Even when it's running in the background, Chrome will freeze all other programs, for at least 3-4 seconds. I'm too afraid it will crash and eat up my meager output as it is. Geeljire, you suggest I go back and edit--let's see--one thousand nine hundred and twenty one SOL comments?* I don't think the head honchos will let me. *March 20th to 23rd someone stole my account.

^That was the reasoning of Muslims who voted for Bush/Cheney in 2000. Conservatives favor less taxes for the very rich, not your average Joe or Xaliimo. Most of the tax cuts they propose are geared towards corporations, or clearly intended for wealthy people (eg estate taxes). Income and sales tax rates don't change all that much between one party administration and another. It's funny how any measure by which to judge conservatives comes up short, even for areas you would think they have some strengths. In the States, the economy is in the sh!thouse, unemployment has hit a 6 year high (and that high was also unseen when the Democrats where in power), and "socially conservative" has come to be associated with picking up men in airport restrooms. Yet some people still fall for the same bullcrap. Amazing. And I don't know what planet you're living in, but "less government assistance" has never been a rallying cry of Somalis

^The key is padded, adjustable straps for me. I like Targus laptop bags: inexpensive and not too many crazy pockets on most of their bags. Chauvinists less unnerving than ambiguous men CHAUVINISTIC men can be petty and infuriating, but that might be as far as it goes. Women are more unnerved by not knowing a man's views than by overt sexism - so much so that they perform worse in exams. Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton at the University of California, Berkeley, asked 170 female undergraduates to take a written test. Before the test they were randomly assigned to one of three empty offices, which they were told belonged to their male examiner. The fictional offices were furnished in one of three ways to allow the students to infer the examiner's view of women. They either had "progressive" decor such as a breast-cancer awareness banner, overtly sexist posters of women, or neutral objects such as a stack of papers. Students who were sensitive to sexism, as measured by a separate questionnaire, scored worse if they had been in the supposedly neutral office. They were not fazed, though, by the chauvinist office, scoring better than less-sensitive peers (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.017). "Ironically, if you 'know thy enemy', you've got a better chance of dealing with it than if you are constantly wondering if you will be judged unfairly," says Mendoza-Denton. Indeed, previous studies suggest that black people prefer dealing with overtly racist whites than with those who behave ambiguously. Because overt racism and sexism has become socially unacceptable, prejudice has become more subtle, he concedes. Link

I have a cure, but my payment is $25K and the warm appendix and spleen of the customer's first-born son. The organs HAVE to be very close to body temperature, mind you. You have no idea how many disappointed men were turned away because they proffered tepid viscera.