Orpheus

Sucks for you guys, I finished my semester three weeks ago.

This is probably one of the bigger examples of correlation not equating to causation I have read today. There are a metric ton of factors here that haven't been factored in, like education. There's just not enough data to support such a conclusion. Or deny it. There's no real way to tell based on the data you linked. Hell, let's do a quick google search of sorts: South Africa has a population of ~49 million, and the United States has a population of roughly ~300 million as of 2009, for simplicity's sake. According to Avert (On US statistics), there's an estimated 1 million or so with the virus. This obviously isn't exact, and it could be a lot higher or lower. That's roughly an infection rate of 3% Now, as for information on South Africa, a short and simple summary is that in 2008, a national survey was conducted where roughly 90% of households involved took part, 89% of that agreed to answer the survey, and 64% agreed to take an HIV blood test. If we multiply those percentages, we get a rough picture of 50% of the population, and their infection rate was much higher, going as high as ~27% in the 31-35 age group. It decreased below that for other ages, but it never quite dipped below the 3% estimate in the United States. There is some obvious variance for the SA survey, as we aren't sure about the other 50% relatively. The rate could potentially be half or double. The conclusion of sorts: Circumcision wasn't factored in, but I'm not sure if that's as large of a factor as a lack of education on the matter. As for the higher rate in the United States, that honor actually goes to South Africa assuming infection rates stay roughly close to the same as they do now. And besides, South Africa does have a higher infection rate in males AND females. Huh, I might have accidentally verified your point instead of disproving it. But education is a much larger factor than penis skin, and there's no way to tell if circumcision affects HIV rates. Not ethically anyway.

Maybe try posting a HiJackThis log? Maybe something in there is conflicting.

Except for, well, his 1994 prediction failing. Hard. Otherwise we wouldn't be posting here.

And it's being forwarded by religious fanatics. Give me a good reason to think they're right. If there's some earthquake coming, where's proof?

I thought it was ~7000 people that wanted to vote on the issue. When it comes up on the ballot, we'll know who how many in the bay area want to control this aspect of other people's lives. Fair enough. But yeah, it's a small part of the population trying to vote on this matter. And as for it being less painful when you're a baby, I don't remember a thing about it whereas it'd be a lot worse getting it done now. @Fool: Yeah, it's easier to clean if circumsized apparently.

Off-topic as a whole has suffered in the past few years from a nasty case of Cerebus Syndrome.. I think we just need a change of pace to having a more light-hearted board. Meaning more silly/fun posts.

To be fair though, getting circumsized earlier is a lot less painful than doing it at the age of, say, 18. And from what I gleamed from the article, a petition of ~7000 people signing it means that a small part of the population of SF is trying to push this law through for everyone else.

If you're really interested in dating her, ask her. Do not dwell on this, better to go in and get smashed to bits than not try at all. In any case, if there's one thing about me I've noticed, it's that I get something going, but it just dies off after that. No idea why.

Didn't see this one coming.

Most of the discussion about drugs on this thread centers around weed/psychedelics/ecstasy, the lighter drugs. It's pretty much agreed that the heavier drugs will [bleep] you up and aren't worth discussing. Fair enough. I just can't use the stuff because it crystallizes, so I've had to stop since it's caused me problems.

Took me until my 4th time. Gotta properly inhale and hold it. It should burn you lungs (it doesn't actually burn, but it feels like it does.) And you should hold it as long as you can, not 5 seconds. I was afraid my first few times so I took 2 seconds inhales and I held it for ~3 seconds. Now I inhale until there's nothing left / no room, hold until you need air. You well get REALLY high, and it's awesome. Apparently for just about everyone you won't feel too much the first time around, since your system needs to acclimate to it. Also meb, I don't care what anyone thinks, so roll your eyes all you want, half of that [cabbage] still isn't good for you. Do drugs of your own volition, and I'd argue that weed is fine as it really is with not much in the way of drawbacks, but none of the heavier drugs have any benefits to them that are even noteworthy.

Saying the drug part as a constable or something? In any case, long story short, this topic is a "I do drugs/drink so I think I'm cool" thread. Minus drinking being under that, since just about everyone drinks.

Go to that cave near Chargestone Cave. It's over if you surf East of the south entrance. Go there, clear that cave, and free Cobalion. gg as well.

I'm curiouse. Why was it a "necessary evil"? Sure it provided a big labour pool but you still needed to feed, water, ect slaves and keep them healthy or risk the spread of disease. So any gains made by having a bigger labour pool to tend crops build buildings ect might have been negated by the resources needed to maintain them. It might have, but what's happened in the past is done, we can't quite change what's occured, only what's ahead. If there were records of the amount of food and resources used for slaves vs the amount accomplished, we could figure that much out, but alas, records probably don't exist anymore. Also, before we hit that tangent like topics tend to roll off into: Affirmative action. It's gotta go. I don't care if it's to "make up" or whatever. No one should get an advantage just because of how they were born, it's completely unreasonable. Hell, one of the MIT admissions members actually outright stated somewhere that using affirmative action in an admission essay wouldn't work.

With your sense of morality, I hope you mean. Any sense of morality that devalues any subset of humans to the state that they can treated as animals and thus become slave is highly flawed and does not deserve status as "morality" in modern times. And who the hell are you to determine what "morality" is? Do you know what's universally "right" and "wrong"? The key word is universal here.

I see it as a necessary evil for countries that are developing, as it's unfortunately a need. Think about it: Without slavery, America would not have gotten this far, nor would other major civilizations. Afterwards, there's no reason to treat another human being as property. Human lives are not priced the same as objects, and never will be. Even then, I'd prefer slaves to be treated as human beings. Back then? Morally, probably wrong but a necessary evil. Now and in the future? Wrong entirely as there's no need under that definition.

I have to say I fully agree with you. Pokemon Online is full of hax, most of the time is detrimental to me. I've just gotten lucky for my 2 tournament matches. You don't have to withdraw from this tournament though. :sad: It was just meant for fun, rather than for glory. That's why I do a round robin, it gives everyone the same amount of matches, meaning you have less of a chance of having horrible hax against you. But I'll take you out of the tournament if you want. Though, I'd suggest venting on something first before posting a confirmation. I'll stay in for now. I just rage so badly at hax it's ridiculous.

I'm quitting out of the tournament. Hax keeps making me lose. No point in playing a game where odds are HEAVILY stacked against you. I've kept logs of the amount of total turns, battles, hax chances, etc. Turns out it's really goddamn stacked against me whereas I only see a crit in one-in-fifty moves for instance. Nevermind the fact that a 60% paralysis chance is effectively 0%. [bleep] that [cabbage]. I have gotten into heavy arguments with the guy who made PO over the fact that hax really is prevalent as hell to where it's nowhere near 6.5% for a crit, much less 60% paralysis chance. "Oh, you're going to switch in something to take an Ice Beam? LOLOLOLOL FREEZE HAX LIKE A [bleep]. Oh, you're going to try to boost on my special hitter? LOLOL CRIT BEFORE YOU COULD HEAL NEXT TURN" There's a reason I hate luck in competitve games.

Yeah that's [cabbage]. [bleep] this game. Stupid [bleep]ing hax. Load of [cabbage].

You there now? Yeah, smogon server. Name is Nonary Game.

Mask, contact me when you get the chance.

Congratulations.

Puntastic.