Cats are desert creatures. They like the heat. Just keep his/her water bowl filled. Sounds like a good idea for you too.

Keep smiling homey. You don’t know how you are driving some of us to become “pride workers” and pull 70hr weeks to just pay the minimums.

uh, could you send some of that hot air over this way, Les?  After one record-breaking 95 day here at the end of May, it’s gotten colder and colder, with mornings around 42, getting up to about 50 during the day.  I had to heat in my workshop yesterday! In June!

Few trees… that’s not real storm! (unless it’s compensated with excellent lightning, like 20 hits inside kilometer radius)
http://www.myrskyharrastajat.fi/main.site?action=siteupdate/view&id=114&menu_open=1/1/7
No… it’s not encrypted, it’s in Finnish language but everyone should know how to click thumbnails. (if language looked too easy try these)

could you send some of that hot air over this way, Les?

And send those thunderstorms here…
This year has been even lousier stormchasing/spotting year than last, now there haven’t been even single thunderstorm when last year had few small ones in May until weather changed to similar to current.

It almost looks like Gulf stream wouldn’t work well and there’s cold air mass coming from Arctic reaching to Atlantic side of Europe which in turn causes erratic (and colder) weather here…
Like triple rainfall in last month.
Also all hot air masses seem to go too much east..
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsavneur.html

“Good weather is question of taste”

And considering thunderstorms here’s some hardcore material what real storms look: (&magnificent looking radar echoes)
http://www.extremeinstability.com/thedream.htm

You think your weathers wacked! Up here in NewBrunswick CANADA Ey’ The wathers been real cruel. Gives us a few nice days and then snaps to COLD and then Humid and rainy. This time of year is usually quite comphy.

And as far as your cooling system.. Here’s something I think you’ll like to try.
I call this a swamp fan. I have several 2L bottles of water that’s frozen in the freezer (what other form would it be in the freezer?)
And I have this fan I place on the floor that points up into the center of the room. So what’s so great about frozen water in your freezer and a fan blowing your celing you say?
Well let me finish… Take a plate and place it in front of the fan and take two bottles of frozen water from the freezer and place them on the plate in the path of the blowing air from the fan. Trust me the few degrees of coolness is worth it.. (What’s the plate for? Trust me, you’ll know why if you don’t. Unless you like wet feet)

Well down here in Oz it’s getting colder and colder, as this weekend is the official beginning of the ski season.

Natural snow is nowhere to be seen, of course, but that has more to do with the current drought than with any unusually warm temperatures.

Ah crap...I was going to post a link to a funny article about Christian threesomes, but forgot I couldn’t do that. Not only am I off topic again, I’m just fu#$ing up in general.
If anybody cares to read it...you can find the link on the home page of the latest eBaum’s World home page.

Re Climate Change...
Although i live on a lake’s shore near Cape Cod, i pretty much live in a jungle-like area of Mass—and it can get extremely humid.  The combo of high bushy trees and lotsa ground foliage and ferns in addition to the water from the lake (and the reflected sun) equals a seasonal-jungle.  (I also get a lot of snow during the winter, but that’s another issue eniterely (like, which window to climb out of to shovel)).

I lived in this area around 25 years ago and, interestingly enough, it wasn’t this green or so jungle-like as i describe.  And i don’t remember having so much snow either.  Annecdotal evidence, i know.  But it’s something that probably has something to do with climate-change (manmade or cyclical).

Re: Cats & Heat...
I’ve been lucky enough to own cats for almost all of my life and travels.  Right now my two indoor-bound Californian Spangle Tabbies (Shlomo(m) & Osi(f)) are out on the tree-top-level deck cackeling at birds and squirrels.  But, come the high-noon, they’re down on the lower, cooler levels of the house.  (I HATE air-conditioning.  I work mostly out of my house, so cargoshorts and boxers and an optional t-shirt usually suffice.)

In MidEast i always noticed how cats were more active (in hunt mode) during the morning and evening, as the sun rises and sets.  During the day i’d usually see them under a bush or on a cool tile floor inside.  Sure, they like heat—but my cats would only be caught dead on my upper-deck at 12noon on a summer-day.

Interesting factoid i’ve always found cool:
Hebrew for cat:  Ch’atool (hard-H)
If you sound it out, it’s easy to see where Europeans got the word “Cat.”

Interesting factoid i’ve always found cool:
Hebrew for cat:  Ch’atool (hard-H)
If you sound it out, it’s easy to see where Europeans got the word “Cat.�

Maybe, and maybe not, rob.  More likely, English and Hebrew both got it from closer to the source of domesticated cats: according to the online etymology dictionary, English “cat” is from Latin “catta” from protogermanic *kattuz:

Probably ult. Afro-Asiatic (cf. Nubian kadis, Berber kadiska, both meaning “cat").

Any real linguists out there?

Huh, never new Latin developed before the Semetic languages.  I learn something new everyday.

Hey, rob, not only did Latin come after the “semetic” (sic) languages, but English came even later.  Learn to read.

Hi´

I have a question… What do you think about natural distasters - like the Tsunami? Or “evil” in general??

I have a question… What do you think about natural distasters - like the Tsunami? Or “evil� in general??

Just don’t start telling that end of world is coming because of Sumatra’s quake!

Quake of that magnitude was long overdue and there hasn’t been any increase in amount of earthquakes, it’s just that information travels now so much better than even 20 years ago.
Other thing is that quakes are reported subjectively, even big quakes can go unnoticed in world media if it happens in remote area while much smaller quakes are widely reported if they happen in densely populated area.
For example there was 8.1 quake between New Zealand and Antarctica just little before Sumatra’s (it was second strongest of last year) but that went almost unnoticed if you followed normal medias… and same time even 6 Richter quakes are reported widely when those happen in cities. (even though energy release of those are just one thousandth compared 8 Richter quake)

And tsunamis ("harbor waves") are nothing new, it’s just that human is stupid animal. (pretty much all other animals survived from it)
Areas around flanks of Hawaii islands are full of subsurface avalanche deposits so there has been quite a lot tsunamis in Pacific for example.

Atlantic has its own tsunami risk, western flank of Cumbre Vieja (volcano forming whole southern part of island) in La Palma has cracks which might lead to collapse of it in future eruption… also Canary islands have avalanche deposits in bottom of ocean.

http://www.benfieldhrc.org/activities/issues/issues2.pdf

And if you think Sumatra’s tsunami was record high you’re wrong.
In Lituya Bay, Alaska earthquake triggered avalanche to narrow sound and following wave rose to a height of half kilometer when it hit mountainside.
http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/alaska/1958/webpages/
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/web_tsus/19580710/narrative1.htm
http://www.extremescience.com/BiggestWave.htm

So do not mess with “mother nature”.

“It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.”
-Albert Einstein

WTH, your question implies that tsunamis are evil and I’m not one who tends to think in that way. Tsunamis are a natural phenomena devoid of any inherent intention toward good or evil themselves. The results of them hitting a populated area are unquestionably negative for the folks living there, but that doesn’t make tsunamis evil anymore than the sun is evil for giving you a sunburn if you stand outside too long without any sunblock.

For a tsunami to be evil it would have to have come from someone or something capable of having evil intentions which would presumably be supernatural in nature leading us to some form of God or Demon at which point the tsunami itself becomes blameless and you have to question the intentions of the intelligence behind it’s creation. Seeing as I don’t believe in such creatures this is an exercise in speculative silliness.

I’m having problems with my cable connection too but I’m with Comcast. I’m lucky if my connection stays active for 10 minutes before I have to unplug the modem, replug it and “repair”. It’s a new modem too.

I can’t even think of playing online games right now. *sigh*

Stay cool or consider stirring at night and sleeping all day. That would be the option I would choose if I could.

When Melvin lived at the group home I was pretty much his only buddy, but he was constantly in the air conditioning in the summer.  He wouldn’t even come out of the basement until after dark.

E.T, thank you for your comment!

I am not so much thinking about natural disasters… but why do bad (or evil) things happen to “good” and “bad” people. Are there good and bad people? What makes people good or bad? - Then where does evil come from; are we as human beings evil, or do you think there is neither evil nor good?! And if there is evil - why does it happen? Is it unfair? If there is a “God” - does he/she use evil things for punishment?? And does this mean that this “God” is evil?? Or can a purely good God “send” evil??

Hope that helps a bit more to understand where I am comig from…

Thanks! WTH1

Hi LES, thank you for your response!

Have a look at what I wrote to E.T as well… Yes, you are right - I am more talking about where evil comes from and why it happens - is there some supernatural being that is in control?? You said that you don’t beleive in such a thing - but is it just nature that happens to kill thousands of people? Or why are the people on this earth that kill just because its “fun”?? Do you think that is normal? Or do you think that’s not evil???
Do you think evil (or good) exists at all??

I understand what you are saying that nature can not be evil in itself - but the consequences I think are bad…

WTH1

More likely, English and Hebrew both got it from closer to the source of domesticated cats: according to the online etymology dictionary, English “cat� is from Latin “catta� from protogermanic *kattuz: ...

Actually, i think is incorrect.  English (or Latin) most likely learned this word via the Greeks and they from the Romania/Yugoslav/BlackSea region, and *then* they from “Afro-Asiatic” languages.  Especially a word for Cat, which the Phoenicians gleefully stole from M’tzrim/Egypt.

I can indeed read, i just think the idea your put forth, no matter where documented, is incorrect.  I trust the wider body of evidence.

Things generally flowed in a backwards-C, lower to upper direction, including things like market-manners, law, writing and language, and slang.

i just think the idea your put forth, no matter where documented, is incorrect.  I trust the wider body of evidence.

Okay, rob, I will admit that I don’t know any more than what I read about the etymology of “cat”, so you could be right.  Please tell me where you got your “wider body of evidence”.  Unless you can document it, etymological speculation is fun but fruitless.

This was brought forcefully home to me (since we’re talking about cats), when I pondered the derivation of English “ocelot”, that Central American jungle cat with the eye-shaped spots.  What could be more obvious, I thought- from Latin “ocellatus”, meaning “with little eyes”.

Nope.  From Nauatl “ocelotl”, meaning, you guessed it, “ocelot”.  Since then I’ve been a lot more careful about saying that such-and-such a word must come from so-and-so.

The earliest seaborne traders of the “backward-C” region were the Phoenecians.  Prior to Helenism and Rome many things, from goods to technology to ideas, flowed up into the Blacksea Region and the Greek area from the MidEast via land and seashore.  This is a widely accepted theory.

I doubt that the Etruscans, or the Romans after them, were the first trading partners with Upper Egypt or the Nubian, Kush areas.  I’ve never learned of such.  (But, i could be wrong.) I always learned it were the Greeks and Phoenecians.

What seems more probable, and in sync with current knowledge of history, is that the first sea-traders of that region were the first to come in contact with cats—and to spread the word and animal outward, out from Africa.  The earliest and biggest traders in the region were the: Greek and Phoenecian trading hordes.

The core semitec languages were redacted long, long before Latin, or classical, much less common, greek.  And Cats were pervasive in the region long before Latin was redacted.

I just doubt Kushti traders and speakers were running around influencing the eventual redaction of Latin.  I think it more likely semetic traders were, however.

As to citations, this is basic ancient history.  But, if you want some, lemme know.

PS.  Interestingly, i once worked with a guy from MIT whose doctoral thesis ran along the lines that language is largely phisiological in nature.  For example, he could recite a whole slew of words that were similiar accross disparate, non-connected languages.  So, it is possible (according to his theory) that our sounded-name for those cute little mini-bears (e.g., cat, chatool, etc.) has more to do with the structure of our brain’s wiring than it does flow of cultures.  (sorry, if the spelling throws you, but i write phoenetically in most languages for speed.)

Or why are the people on this earth that kill just because its “fun�?? Do you think that is normal?

Because religions give permission for that.
Same religions which say that if you don’t repeat their holy BS you’re not good.
Just like what Dubya is doing.

“Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand . . . . My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.”
-Bertrand Russell

“Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from religious conviction.”
-Blaise Pascal

“Everything Hitler did to the Jews, all the horribly unspeakable misdeeds, had already been done to the smitten people before by the Christian churches. . . . The isolation of Jews into ghetto camps, the wearing of the yellow spot, the burning of Jewish books, and finally the burning of the people - Hitler learned it all from the church. However, the church burned Jewish women and children alive, while Hitler granted them a quicker death, choking them first with gas.”
-Dagobert Runes

“Since it is no longer permissible to disparage any single faith or creed, let us start disparaging all of them. A religion is a belief system with no basis in reality whatever. Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.”
-Martin Amis

“Religion is what the common people see as true, the wise people see as false, and the rulers see as useful.”
-Seneca

“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider godfearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.”
-Aristotle, “Politics”

“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
-Thomas Paine

Interesting stuff, rob, but I was wondering if anyone could document the etymology of “cat”.  Of course, maybe no one knows.

As far as the physiological origin of words goes, there’s lots of speculation.  But aside from baby words such as “mama" and “papa” (sorry I couldn’t tinyurl it, but “sussex” is blacklisted!), ejaculations like “ow”, and interesting commonalities such as closed vowel sounds for near, open for far (me/you, here/there, across many languages), I seriously doubt there’s much to it.  Resemblances between languages are mostly phyllological (cognates) or accidental.  I will bet a silk pajama that “cat” ("go-yang-i" in Korean, for instance) is not physiologically derived.

And E.T- while I share your cynical views about what religion has done and does, and also believe that religion is irrational, that’s not the whole story.  Religions are a way of organizing societies, and they’ve got us where we are today, for good and ill.

Since there is no absolute “good” and “evil”, just more or less overlap about what we naked apes want, any laws or morals are to some extent irrational, be they political or religious in nature.  This is an unescapable consequence of a) our disagreements about what is “good”, and b) our necessarily imperfect knowledge of what consequences follow from what actions.

So we should cut religion some slack- it’s just another memeplex evolving in the ideosphere, doing the best it can to organize society.  Of course, all this godstuff is nonsense- it has evolved as a carrot-and-stick for the credulous.  But any opinions about “good” and “bad” are, to some extent, equally irrational.

Sussex isn’t blacklisted, but Sex probably is. I’ll check the blacklist and fix it.