Meet the Forumites

[drw61]

Job: Assistant manager for an Ace Hardware store (Semi retired)
Age: 50
Residence: NE Washington State
Family: Married for 28 years, three sons two in collage one a Latin teacher, two cats and two dachshunds.
Education: Just over two years of collage.
Work: Retired USAF with 22 years, worked mostly American Forces Network (AFN) in Turkey, England and Japan.
Quote: Happiness is found along the way, not at the end of the trail. Noland Hisey A-T trail thru-hiker (my five year goal is to do the A-T trail)
Reading: Destroyer of Worlds by Larry Niven and A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (saw the movie and was curious)

[morganbj]

Job: University Faculty, Statistics and Research
Age: 62
Residence: Galveston County, TX
Family: Wife, two daughters, five grand youngins, dog, five billion ants.
Education: BA, MBA, PhD
Work: Only when the Dean's around, and even then not too much, I'm a professor, ya know. Actually, I only teach two classes a year now, I have substantial administrative duteis to occupy my time, at least 48 hours per week. I'd rather just be in the classroom like these other bums I work with.
Favorite Quote: If everything seems to be going well, you've obviously overlooked something.
Reading: Not much anymore. I'm up to by chalupas reading doctoral dissertations for poor slobs and slobettes who actually think they're going to graduate. Their chances improve in direct proportion to the amount of the gratuity they quietly slip under my door.

[Apathetic1]

Job: Paramedic
Age:43
Residence: Ontario, Canada
Family: Wife, Stepdaughter, 3 Cats
Education: I'm always learning. Just when you think you've seen it all, someone proves you wrong.
Work: As long as there's booze, cigarettes and stupidity I'll always be employed.
Quote: I don't care about a lot of things, but what I do care about, I care about a lot.
Reading: Air War for Burma

[LST Express]

Cap and Mosquito Bite are two of the funniest dudes here at the forums. [:)]

[mazzocco]

Job:employed
Age:34
Residence:Rimni, Italy
Family: girl friend, a boy (4 yo in may)
Education:upper degree in economy
Work:a lot
Favorite Quote:see my signature
Reading: vom kriege (clausewitz) (in Italian traslation of course [:D])

[Califvol]

.

[Puhis]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy
Nah. You're overlooking the most important sex determinant in humans. The heterozygous (well, it's heterozygous ~50% of the time) sex gene (either a "Y" or "X") is invariably donated by the male sperm. Whichsoever sperm wins the fertility lottery will determine the baby sex by it's donation of chromosomal identity to the embryo.

In terms of raw numbers, men (or their 'contribution' to the fertility process) have more to do with the sex of offspring than females. Henry VIII has nobody to blame but himself and the vagaries of dumb luck. Sure, there may be the odd miscarriage to change the numbers a bit, but it's still mostly male contributions.

I know how genetics works and I know all about the X and Y chromosome. The mother carries the child for nine months and the two have a linked circulatory system during that time. Changes in the mother's body chemistry affects the fetus.

One article I found in a quick search: http://www.livescience.com/574-survival-fetus-males-rough.html

Not exactly the same thing I was talking about, but along the same lines. Probably related.

Bill

Without abortion, natural sex ratio is about 103 to 106 male newborn to 100 female newborn. The ratio is slightly different in different parts of the world, or amongst different ethnical groups. This Gender imbalance is a consequence of various natural factors.

Sex-selective abortion and infanticide can significantly skew the natural ratio in some populations, for example India and China.

That article wdolson posted is exception, stressed woman tend to abort a higher percentage of male fetuses. This is actually quite common phenomenon in nature.

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Job: PR company owner
Age: 48
Residence: Within North Korean arty range
Family: None that I know of
Education: BSE Aero Eng, MBA, Professional Brewer's Certificate (UC Davis)
Work: Many various jobs over the decades, from flight test engineer to semiconductor equipment sales to brewer to public relations guy.
Quote: Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -P. J. O'Rourke
Reading: 4th book of the Fire and Ice series [When does it end? No plot threads tied up and I'm on page 750. I blame Greyjoy for this.]
Last battlefied visited: Bataan [not counting Korean War sites]

Cheers,
CC

Don't get your hopes up on him wrapping up ANYTHING in that book!

[Nikademus]

Are you sure your not talking about the Wheel of Time series? [:D]

[John 3rd]

That too...

[Puhis]

I believe Robert Jordan died before he finished Wheel of Times? [:(]

[Nikademus]

ORIGINAL: Puhis

I believe Robert Jordan died before he finished Wheel of Times? [:(]

Yes but his series continues on as the Litterary Undead.

here's an exciting exerpt from Book 212 "The wagon wheel's copper sheating sweats sweetly"

Dawn.....but not just any dawn, it was really really dawn. The kind of dawn that would be the perfect mosaic for a starving artist begging for coins in the streets of the capital city. That starving artist would glance appreciatively at the dawn, and say...."what a dawn this is" His face, lined with pain and the mark of a long hard life, would crinkle and soften at the thought. The thought........like a thin wafer mint.......if only i just take one more moment to enjoy that thought.....i might get on to the next part of the story.........but alas, the dawn had no comment, thus we are still here, in Chapter one, talking about the dawn. And what a beautiful dawn it was......

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: Nikademus

ORIGINAL: Puhis

I believe Robert Jordan died before he finished Wheel of Times? [:(]

Yes but his series continues on as the Litterary Undead.

here's an exciting exerpt from Book 212 "The wagon wheel's copper sheating sweats sweetly"

Dawn.....but not just any dawn, it was really really dawn. The kind of dawn that would be the perfect mosaic for a starving artist begging for coins in the streets of the capital city. That starving artist would glance appreciatively at the dawn, and say...."what a dawn this is" His face, lined with pain and the mark of a long hard life, would crinkle and soften at the thought. The thought........like a thin wafer thin mint.......if only i just take one more moment to enjoy that thought.....i might get on to the next part of the story.........but alas, the dawn had no comment, thus we are still here, in Chapter one, talking about the dawn. And what a beautiful dawn it was......

You obviously edited out the section about the mint...

[Nikademus]

guilty....i have to work on my run-on sentences

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: LST Express

Wdolson

I had to laugh when I read you have a cat that thinks its a dog. We had a black siamese that lived for 17 years and he thought he was a dog too. Here I thought we had the only one! [:D]

We have a black cat that has a lot of Siamese in him. He IS a dog! [:D]

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: LST Express

Wdolson

I had to laugh when I read you have a cat that thinks its a dog. We had a black siamese that lived for 17 years and he thought he was a dog too. Here I thought we had the only one! [:D]

We have a black cat that has a lot of Siamese in him. He IS a dog! [:D]

And we have a dog that thinks its a cat.[8|]

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Gräfin Zeppelin

And then these wargamers started to talk about pregnancy, no kidding.... BELIVE ME !!!!!

[:D]

Sounds like my wife talking about the computer geek who started talking about animal surgery. [:D]

[LST Express]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: LST Express

Wdolson

I had to laugh when I read you have a cat that thinks its a dog. We had a black siamese that lived for 17 years and he thought he was a dog too. Here I thought we had the only one! [:D]

We have a black cat that has a lot of Siamese in him. He IS a dog! [:D]

I guess there is more confusion in the animal world than I thought. [:D]

[lazydawg]

Job: Consultant
Age: 52
Residence: Raleigh, NC
Family: One wife, 2 dogs (a Border Collie & a Border Collie/Chow mix)
Education: BS Nuclear Engineering (Mississippi State Univ) & ME Nuclear Engineering (Univ of Virginia)
Work: nuclear safety analysis
Favorite Quote: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" General John Sedgwick
Reading: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

[Knavey]

Job: Power Plant tech
Age: 43 (had to do the math. Pretty much stopped counting)
Residence: Sunny Florida
Family: Wife and 1 six year old
Education: USN nuclear program
Work: Only to support my habits
Favorite Quote: IT'S BORKED!
Reading: Wheel of Time series, Moving to With the Old Breed when I finish WOT.