That one deserves reflection.

@RealHuman as I'm constantly reminded

Lmao Thanks you gave me a good belly laugh.

I bet you had a bunch of energy once you got inside, though. Lol

Yes! I believed this, too.

@Minta79 I was a dick and perpetuated this lie to my kids

@Count_Viceroy I understand why my mom told us that, she didn't want to cut crusts off. My kids called total shenanigans on me when I tried. They also wanted their sammies cut into fun shapes will a cookie cutter (and no crust). So I started giving them a stack of cookie cutters with their sandwiches. Once they had to do the hard work of removing the crust, it started tasting a lot better. Lol

@Minta79 I'm a horrible dad. My daughter believed it into her late teens

@Count_Viceroy my crew love to call bs. They live to fact check me and each other.

@Minta79 I told my son not to throw his gum out the window cause a car could run over it and have it's tire pulled off

@Count_Viceroy I'm gonna try that one on my littles.

The idea that you can benefit from hard work is a lie propagated by employers.

One of the things that I liked about the "fair tax" proposal was refunding a flat "basic needs" amount based on the quantity of people in the household. I think maybe just exempting specific items or services might be a better idea, but a sales tax definitely has the advantage of being harder to evade.

I've been on both sides of that myself. I've been the jerk and burned by someone so selfish she put my bad behavior in perspective. Knowing how it feels made it impossible for me to do that to anyone ever again.

I realise that I am somewhat of an uncouth American, but I brew my tea right in the cup for one and a half minutes and leave the tea bag in whilst I drink.

I drink green tea because it is said to prevent cancer. Few in my area drink hot tea at all—they like sweet iced tea.

@WilliamFleming You had all the benefits of a colonial education and yet you still insisted on trying to make tea with salt water from Boston harbour. I only drink tea made with loose leaves in a pre-warmed pot and from a china cup.
Green tea is associated with a higher risk of mouth cancer as it may be drunk too hot, which proper tea with milk added avoids.

@Gareth LOL. I guess I am just improper and will remain so.

I have a little surge of pleasure in getting you to reply. It’s the child in me.

Unless they're Donald Trump supporters

I can say, my first wife was a mistake. The second wife fell too much into religion and put Jesus ahead of our marriage. Other than that she's a good person.

I loved Ali.

@paul1967 Watch the documentary "thriller in Manilla". Fraziers point of view. Quite an eye opener

I agree. I've never understood how he was able to become such an icon in his old age. He avoided the Vietnam war for pretty much the same reason as Trump but, being black, he went to jail. His immodesty was also Trumpian, although he actually had some substance to back it up.

I met Ali when l worked at the news paper in Louisville. He was the nicest man. He would come up to the Courier Journal/Louisville Times to do interviews at the paper and the radio and TV stations in the same facility. People would bring their kids, and he would spend a couple of hours talking and playing with kids. Don't confuse the showman with the human. He was willing to go to prison for what he believed. Would you. Had he gone into the military he would have never seen a minute of combat. They would have paraded him around like a show pony for recruitment purposes. He new that, he still stood up for what he felt was right.

@Sticks48 Name a boxer from Philly who worked in a meat packing plant that became heavyweight champion. Ended up owning a gym. No not Rocky but Frazier.
He took a very different view. During that time when he (Ali) was stripped of his boxing license. Frazier supported him, gave him money and campaigned to get him reinstated. Then Ali called him an uncle Tom and a gorilla. Imagine just how insulting that is for a black guy? The last fight they had was stopped in the last round because Frazier was taking too much punishment. Asked If he would like to have continued even if it killed him he said "Sure because I did not want to win. I wanted to kill him. See the way Ali is now? Thats not parkinsons, I did that to him." and he was smiling as he said it.
The post asked if there is something I changed my mind about. A lot of Ali`s stance on Vietnam etc. came not from him but the Muslim teachers he had at that time. Not to say that he was wrong or that he was not a hero for standing up but then again not everything is as black and white as we think when we are younger.

LMFAO. It is gross.

The victorians used to call a ladies muff a gooseberry bush, Hence the expression

religions are built not to get along with others

Things evolve, all things are possible...but it won't happen next week...maybe if I live a really long life I will see it.

"The scientists?" You have just dated yourself.
According to Wikipedia, in the 1950's - 1965 support for the static universe was evenly split. (with a slight superior support for expanding universe models.)

I grew up in the late 60's and, until researching your "the scientists" was unaware any any living credible scientist asserted the static universe model as "The scientists" I was aware of in the 60's had for the most part accepted the expanding universe model.

After some research I did find Fed Hoyle, although greatly attributed to born 1915 describes as a "highly controversial" denier of the big bang theory. Even though in 1910 Vesto Slipher and later, Carl Wilhelm Wirtz, determined that most spiral nebulae (now correctly called spiral galaxies) were receding from Earth

@NoMagicCookie The books I had access to were not quite up to date. The astronomy section of the local library contained a couple of books, so my resources were quite limited. This was around 1974-75 and the books were 20-30 years, or so, old. I was constrained by lack of, or up to date info. I didn't know who to ask or write to for answers and no one stopped in their so busy day to point me in the right direction.
It makes me wonder how many great minds have we lost world wide due to lack of information or societal pressures.

@MacTavish Your local library sounds less then fun.

I was lucky as when I was young I grew up (before your time) with a brilliant friend who was a well-read science geek. He taught me more science then grade school. He later went to Stanford to get his PHD in physics.

Questioning how many great minds are lost is a rather profound.

Brings to mind the so-so movie (they did take some historic liberties) based on Hypatia of Alexandria. The movie is "Agora" I ordered the Blue-ray from Germany (don't sell it in the states) and have screened it many times. It always raises your question. My favorite response from an audience member was "This move just makes me so mad I just want to go slap a Christian and tell them how stupid they are." (wonder why you can't buy the Blue-Ray version in the states??)

@NoMagicCookie Before my time? You got a time machine or did you pinch numbers on your birthday? We are about the same age except I'll go +1 in a few days.

"Before your time" - - I was (mistakenly) assuming you referenced the books when you were in third or forth grade (my understanding of an expanding world supported by my freind and literature in the by the school library) before I reached those grades.

I catch myself relying on luck anytime I buy a lottery ticket. It's so ridiculous.

@paul1967 I once asked on a math forum to translate the odds of winning Poweball into coin flips. The anwer I got was flipping a coin and getting 18 tails in a row. Any mathematicians here that can confirm?