With over 500 messages a day (no spam), my email is pretty much useless. What I need is a "default block" option, where I have to grant someone the ability to send me email. There are about 10 people who actually send me useful email. and the list I would have to sort through would be much shorter.

You do realize of course that 87.6% of all statistics are completly made up on the spot.

We had something like that at our datacenter a few years ago. When I first toured the datacenter, I was pretty impressed by the big Cat backup diesel generators. I was even more impressed by the battery room which reminded me of something I would find on a diesel-electric sub. Well, one day we lost utility power and the generators didn't startup in time, and the load was transfered to the batteries. The batteries couldn't handle to load by themselves and caught fire. I am surprised the building didn't burn down.

A few months ago, our building manager decided to upgrade our bathroom with the latest Cyrus Cybernetics Corporation sinks and toilets, which can see dimly into the future, thus turning on the faucet and soap dispenser just before you went to the bathroom. Of course this upgrade took 2 months and the bathroom was closed. So I had go to a different floor if I need to take a dump.

I got into the elevator (apparently also upgraded by Cyrus Cybernetics Corporation) and pushed the "up" button. I started going up as expected. All of a sudden, it stopped, all of the lights came on at the same time and it started falling as fast as it could (the normal rate but when you are going down instead of up, it seems like a lot faster). The elevators were actually called down by the fireman where they sulked on the bottom floor for a few minutes before returning to normal service.

You would not believe how creepy it when something like an elevator starts acting weird for no apparent reason. For a few seconds, I thought I would buy it splattered at the bottom or if I jumped like Bill Cosby, with my head sticking through the top:)

1) Lift weights

I agree. Machines are useless. Free weights exercise your body more naturally. One of the best full body exercises is the parallel squat. Nobody likes them because done properly, they are hard. But you will feel the difference if you do them right. A great book which I used for many years is Super Squats. If you don't know how to squat properly, another good book to get is Starting Strength.

Avoid sit down restaurants, especially the sit down ones. Outback Steakhouse, Ruby Tuesdays, TGI Fridays, Friendlys, etc. Most of the food served in them are calorie bombs - 1800 calorie salads, 2500 calorie burgers, 2500 calorie fish tacos, 1200 calorie grilled chicken spinach spaghetti, 1700 calorie veggie subs, etc. And avoid milkshakes from any restaurant at all costs - every single one of them has at least 800 calories and some are close to 3000. Read those Eat this, not that books. Believe it or not, McDonald's and KFC are some of the healthiest places you can eat.

I first heard of Linux in 1994 and the local computer store had slackware on floppies.

It is amazing to hear that your servers are that old. You should put up a paypal link. With the donations you get, you should be able to pick up a few of these.

Apparently dropped himself.

But in Afghanistan? The opponent is a grassroots organization that has practically no power projection capability outside of its borders;

There are a few people who might disagree with that assessment. We needed to go into Afghanistan after that and kick their asses.

After we kicked the Taliban out in Nov 2001, the war was mostly over. It wasn't until recent years that it became "the right war". Iraq and all of the other "Security theator" is bullshit.

Mach 20 happens to be about orbital velocity. Assuming they can improve the materials somewhat, being able to do that in a plane instead of a rocket would be pretty useful.