27826
Forum Info / Paypal: I need convincing. . .
« on: May 29, 2006, 12:34:04 PM »
Well, but PayPal has to get money from us one way or another, and a credit card is the only way I know.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
27827
Forum Info / Paypal: I need convincing. . .
« on: May 29, 2006, 12:25:44 PM »
I think yes -- or at least that's all I can imagine. Maybe there are newer forms of banking transfers these days?
27828
Forum Info / Paypal: I need convincing. . .
« on: May 29, 2006, 12:22:02 PM »
PS: What do they ask in the "privacy part"? It was so long ago that I set up my account that I can't remember.
Hi, CIA! Hi, CSIS! Hi, RCMP! That bomb plot -- I was just joking, eh? See the winkie? :wink:
Hi, CIA! Hi, CSIS! Hi, RCMP! That bomb plot -- I was just joking, eh? See the winkie? :wink:
27829
Forum Info / Paypal: I need convincing. . .
« on: May 29, 2006, 12:18:58 PM »
Hmmmn. Well, doesn't eBay now own PayPal? Or something like that?
The thing is, by the time I started to use PayPal to pay for eBay stuff, eBay already had all the news about me, and they have never given me any bother at all (I'd say since 1999). eBay doesn't send out spam, eg -- they don't communicate by email, which is what should tip you off to the phishing scams of people pretending to be warning you about your account.
I don't know -- I trust them because nothing bad has ever happened. That's not so many transactions, but it has been over a fair number of years.
The only irritant is the phishers, and I think you can end up with that spam even if you don't have an account with eBay or PayPal.
The thing is, by the time I started to use PayPal to pay for eBay stuff, eBay already had all the news about me, and they have never given me any bother at all (I'd say since 1999). eBay doesn't send out spam, eg -- they don't communicate by email, which is what should tip you off to the phishing scams of people pretending to be warning you about your account.
I don't know -- I trust them because nothing bad has ever happened. That's not so many transactions, but it has been over a fair number of years.
The only irritant is the phishers, and I think you can end up with that spam even if you don't have an account with eBay or PayPal.
27830
News / Toronto: TTC Wildcat Strike
« on: May 29, 2006, 11:50:14 AM »
Interesting question, the derivation of "wildcat" in this situation. We can all tell what it means -- unauthorized, outside the rules, etc -- but I wonder who first used the metaphor. It is a common metaphor as well in the oil biz, which is about as old as organized labour in North America, so there may be some link there.
As an old labour sympathizer, I will usually stand with wildcatters as well (I can imagine exceptions, but they would be political ones), no matter how few they are and no matter how huge the disruption. In theory, the disruption is the point. What labour supporters want to see is all other workers turning their complaints not on the people who have gone on strike but up, up the chain of command, to the people who could change things.
It's very hard to make this work in North America, though. Labour consciousness barely registers in the popular culture -- people are much more likely to fall for the divide-and-conquer tactics of the elite, who will call attention to other workers who were hurt by a strike (not that the elites want to do much about actually improving the lives of those other workers).
In fact other vulnerable people do get hurt by disruptions like this, and usually to little purpose. That would happen less if workers were more united, but ... they aren't.
It's a miserable day for this to be happening to a lot of people. Any night workers who couldn't get home should be converging on city hall and demanding that the mayor get them transportation home.
As an old labour sympathizer, I will usually stand with wildcatters as well (I can imagine exceptions, but they would be political ones), no matter how few they are and no matter how huge the disruption. In theory, the disruption is the point. What labour supporters want to see is all other workers turning their complaints not on the people who have gone on strike but up, up the chain of command, to the people who could change things.
It's very hard to make this work in North America, though. Labour consciousness barely registers in the popular culture -- people are much more likely to fall for the divide-and-conquer tactics of the elite, who will call attention to other workers who were hurt by a strike (not that the elites want to do much about actually improving the lives of those other workers).
In fact other vulnerable people do get hurt by disruptions like this, and usually to little purpose. That would happen less if workers were more united, but ... they aren't.
It's a miserable day for this to be happening to a lot of people. Any night workers who couldn't get home should be converging on city hall and demanding that the mayor get them transportation home.
27831
Environment / Throw out the Teflon
« on: May 29, 2006, 10:47:24 AM »
I still have a couple of very cheap non-stick frying pans that I wouldn't be sorry to junk, but ...
I also have this quite neat "non-stick" square grilling pan -- with the raised ridges, y'know? I don't grill meat that often, but when I do, I like the effect of using that pan IF I can use it on high heat. I mean, what's the point if you can't really sear?
I don't think it's flaking, but it is definitely discoloured where I have seared things, so it is at least absorbent, even if it looks hard.
Drat. I keep trying to talk self into believing it is safe, but it probably isn't.
I also have this quite neat "non-stick" square grilling pan -- with the raised ridges, y'know? I don't grill meat that often, but when I do, I like the effect of using that pan IF I can use it on high heat. I mean, what's the point if you can't really sear?
I don't think it's flaking, but it is definitely discoloured where I have seared things, so it is at least absorbent, even if it looks hard.
Drat. I keep trying to talk self into believing it is safe, but it probably isn't.
27832
Environment / Throw out the Teflon
« on: May 29, 2006, 10:39:25 AM »
Nottatall, as 'lance would say. Great idea.
27833
Forum Info / Initiation: Body Hair
« on: May 29, 2006, 10:38:20 AM »
There is, of course, the related if somewhat more sensitive issue of -- what do they call them? bikini waxes?
Me, I just cannot imagine having that done. Even when I was wearing bikinis, I never did that. It wouldn't have occurred to me to shave my public hair, and it sure wouldn't have appealed to me to have someone else remove it.
I don't mean to sound critical -- it just came as news to me that so many younger women had come to consider the bikini wax standard practice.
Me, I just cannot imagine having that done. Even when I was wearing bikinis, I never did that. It wouldn't have occurred to me to shave my public hair, and it sure wouldn't have appealed to me to have someone else remove it.
I don't mean to sound critical -- it just came as news to me that so many younger women had come to consider the bikini wax standard practice.
27834
Author, Author! / What's your blahg?
« on: May 29, 2006, 10:32:58 AM »
The Hand! Be afeard! Be very afeard! :shock:
Seriously, vickyinottawa, yours is still the most cleverly designed blog I've ever seen. The fingers make me laugh. And those are my kind of colours.
I should go and check for news on your kitchen. I always want to know that the built-in antique blender (blender, yes?) is well.
And your campaign. Go, vicky. :)
Seriously, vickyinottawa, yours is still the most cleverly designed blog I've ever seen. The fingers make me laugh. And those are my kind of colours.
I should go and check for news on your kitchen. I always want to know that the built-in antique blender (blender, yes?) is well.
And your campaign. Go, vicky. :)
27835
Archive / Rules, questions, answers
« on: May 29, 2006, 10:28:57 AM »
Me too.
Debra, some bloggers have little PayPal link-thingies at the top of their sidebars. I don't know how that's done, but I'm sure PayPal is happy to explain, and you would understand better than I how to import the thingy.
I've used PayPal a number of times to pay for things on eBay, and I've never had a problem.
Debra, some bloggers have little PayPal link-thingies at the top of their sidebars. I don't know how that's done, but I'm sure PayPal is happy to explain, and you would understand better than I how to import the thingy.
I've used PayPal a number of times to pay for things on eBay, and I've never had a problem.
27836
Environment / Throw out the Teflon
« on: May 29, 2006, 10:22:33 AM »
Did anyone else read this story in today's Grope and Flail?
One thing that bothered me about the big play given this story today is that I have been hearing these warnings for at least twenty years. At least that long. Perhaps not the specific science, but reports about birds dying in homes where things are cooked in Teflon. (There's a related story you can click through there that mentions the dead-bird reports.)
Quote
The first public inkling that the chemicals might pose a danger emerged in May of 2000, when 3M unexpectedly announced that after 40 years of production, it was phasing out PFOS, used in Scotchgard, its well-known stain and water repellant. The company also said it would stop making PFOA, which has a similar chemical structure and is also used to make non-stick, stain-resistant coatings.
In explaining the action, 3M said it was because PFOS was starting to be found in the environment at low levels. Nonetheless, it said its products were safe and that “all existing scientific knowledge” indicated exposure at the levels being detected wasn't an environmental or human health hazard.
Mr. Wiles's group began studying perfluorochemicals after 3M's announcement.
“It just seemed to us not plausible that a company would drop its signature product or chemical, if there weren't a really big problem right in plain sight,” Mr. Wiles said.
The same day 3M made its announcement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency quietly notified Environment Canada and other governments around the world that the company acted because PFOS “appears to combine persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity properties to an extraordinary degree.”
One thing that bothered me about the big play given this story today is that I have been hearing these warnings for at least twenty years. At least that long. Perhaps not the specific science, but reports about birds dying in homes where things are cooked in Teflon. (There's a related story you can click through there that mentions the dead-bird reports.)
27838
Forum Info / Initiation: Body Hair
« on: May 29, 2006, 09:43:12 AM »
The only thing that ever slowed me down in shaving my underarms was mere sloth, and I first joined a women's lib group in 1968.
I guess I was aware that some women considered leaving their armpits hairy a sign of political virtue, but I've always felt very live and let live about stuff like this. It's like taste or sexual attraction -- there's a healthy dollop of irrationality in our feelings about what is attractive, and I don't like mucking about in other people's irrationality. I don't much like mucking about in my own. :wink:
If I had hairy legs, I probably would shave them, but I'm one of those fair-skinned persons who barely has leg hair, so I just don't bother.
I've known men who have gone through periods of intense self-consciousness about how hairy they were/weren't. I'm not sure how general that is among men, but I know it can be hard for some of them when they're young.
I guess I was aware that some women considered leaving their armpits hairy a sign of political virtue, but I've always felt very live and let live about stuff like this. It's like taste or sexual attraction -- there's a healthy dollop of irrationality in our feelings about what is attractive, and I don't like mucking about in other people's irrationality. I don't much like mucking about in my own. :wink:
If I had hairy legs, I probably would shave them, but I'm one of those fair-skinned persons who barely has leg hair, so I just don't bother.
I've known men who have gone through periods of intense self-consciousness about how hairy they were/weren't. I'm not sure how general that is among men, but I know it can be hard for some of them when they're young.
27840
Weather / Summer: the gloaming
« on: May 29, 2006, 07:01:32 AM »
Much of the residential parts of mid-town Toronto is rows and rows of red brick semi-detached houses, two and three storeys. They're mostly pretty plain, especially from the back, which is what most of us see a lot of in the summertime -- long rows of red brick walls.
There is a moment in the evenings, though, no more than ten minutes, when those walls suddenly begin to glow, as if they were lit from the inside. If you just sit and watch the walls, you can see that glow becoming more and more intense.
I suppose something similar may happen in the winter months, but I never notice it then. For some reason, the light at dusk in the summer is different, and the very bricks seem to like it. :wink:
For the first time this year I noticed the gloaming last evening (I'm slow, though -- others have probably noticed before). It started just before 9 p.m. and ended just after. I think the sign that it's going to happen is that any wispy clouds about will slowly be tinted pink -- that's the time to watch the bricks.
There is a moment in the evenings, though, no more than ten minutes, when those walls suddenly begin to glow, as if they were lit from the inside. If you just sit and watch the walls, you can see that glow becoming more and more intense.
I suppose something similar may happen in the winter months, but I never notice it then. For some reason, the light at dusk in the summer is different, and the very bricks seem to like it. :wink:
For the first time this year I noticed the gloaming last evening (I'm slow, though -- others have probably noticed before). It started just before 9 p.m. and ended just after. I think the sign that it's going to happen is that any wispy clouds about will slowly be tinted pink -- that's the time to watch the bricks.