BlueLancer

Ripleys Believe it or Not, week 44 fun facts: A single memorized line from a total stranger will impress a male/female. Really, I don't know anyone who doesn't think of pick-up lines as a cheesy, semi-joke that mostly circulates in movies or teen comedies. :lol: Think of it from the perspective of the man/woman recieving it. It's a totally corny, non-classy way to open a conversation other than as a prank.

In theory it's also a governmental model just as in China (where the communist party runs everything), but I also agree it doesn't have to somehow contradict democracy. Don't forget that even in China (or an absolute totalitarian state such as North Korea), the politicians are still, more or less, democratically elected. They don't just spawn into political positions (on the exception of Kim Jong-Il whose legitimacy as a leader of North Korea comes from his father) It also slightly annoys me when people say "it works good on paper, not in reality" without giving actual reasons. That being said, communist economies can't function in the current world, thus even China has been forced to 'convert' to the capitalistic form of economy. Communism as an economic model can work if competition, supply & demand all around the world is equal. If there is no incentive to import/export more than necessary, planning-based economy like in the ex. Soviet Union would work just fine (people are out of shoes - stores need 4 million pairs of shoes - order factories to manufacture them). Profiteering and the desire of industrialists, and eventually of private citizens, to become wealthy easily overrides human welfare though. Why should store X in China be content with buying state-manufactured shoes at $25 a pair, when an independent industrialist from Taiwan will provide them at $22.5 a pair?

Happened to me & my friends countless times when we were just little kids like under 10, playing frisbee/soccer in the yard and it flew into another person's garden... If the person was unwilling to return it (as I can remember 1 case), we had no other choice but to enter her garden once she left her home & fetch the ball/frisbee back :lol: Not sure how your community would view that, but where I come from, nobody would've thought of it as illegal, least of all our parents

So is AOC considered rubbish now... :oops: I admittedly just tried the beta, but thought it would be worth recommending... I'm not sure if OP asked solely for roleplaying or just MMO, but Counter Strike Online fits that description, I've been playing mostly fps games in the past few years since they take more skill & less 'grinding'. OfT4A5fql_0 Good side is it was released just last month, it's very new, not many people know about it. The downside is that it's only in Chinese for now, had to ask for friend's guidance but I can try helping anyone with setting up the game/getting familiar with the interfaces 8-) (I'm level 3 so far, 2 V's) There are some entirely new weapons and maps compared to Source. Also the developer/host is kind towards players, just as a thanks for playing, you get a different 1-day promotional weapon every day after logging in.

From a realistic view, it's even better to abstain totally from voting, than to vote for a 3rd party which has no chance of being elected. Really, if it came down to voting for Stalin or Simon Cowell since they spent hundreds of millions of $ on campaigning, had almost equal support in polls... I'd select one, even though I hated both, instead of wasting a vote on a candidate I liked more but had absolute zero chance to win. Think of it, from the point of affecting the outcome as a voter, it makes no sense to vote for Gene Amondson/Ted Weill/ anyone else than either McCain or Obama in the 2008 elections, because like it or not, either one of those 2 will be sitting in the White House come January 2009, and there is no other alternative. You're just throwing away a vote. That's exactly the point I was going after.

"Government" isn't an angry guy who wants to control you. Government means all the legitimate authorities that have control over the population that elected them in the first place (on the exception of police organisations, which have unelected leadership, but the president still appoints high-level staff to intelligence/police agencies). The political hierarchy of power (not including courts of law) in a western country is usually: 3. The cabinet and elected or unelected head of state (Prime Minister/President, King (usually only a figurehead) 2. An elected congress of representatives, chosen by the people 1. The people, from whom all legitimate authority is derived from. Of course, the "people" only have the highest power in theory. Once they elect politicians to represent them, the politicians don't have any actual obligation to hold their word (other than being morally compelled) once they are at the heart of the government. If they betray the population that put them in office bad enough, unexpected events like violent coups or overthrows can happen. Coups against corrupt high level politicians aren't just a phenomena of poor countries in Africa or banana republics, read on Orange Revolution of Ukraine which happened 2004-2005 in direct response to electoral fraud at the highest level (presidential), voter intimidation, etc.

Exactly.. Countries aren't rich or poor by 'destiny'. Some countries rise out of poverty by suddenly discovering oil fields. Some countries became prosperous through hard word, blood and tears after WW2 and became very succesful (example: Japan). There are countries where children & innocent people die of poverty, easily curable diseases, hunger... It doesn't happen because they deserve it or a 'God' is punishing them... It happens because they have no sanitation, low access to medication, no clean drinking water, scarce food resources, lack of education to perform abstract work/construct infrastructure/provide medical aid, possibly robbed of natural resources by multinational companies (which, again, are run by humans & not God). Although I don't expect some problems can be ever solved naturally. I've seen with my own eyes what countries like Somalia look like. There's simply too many people, too few resources to live on, and too many people becoming paranoid to control each other to survive... What else is going to happen than religious radicalisation, famines and wars? Heck, it's not even limited to Africa. It can, and will happen anywhere where similar conditions are met. Just look back 15 years and see what happened in Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia during that time after Yugoslavia collapsed and people were driven to dire poverty.

Yep the title might sound confusing for some people 8-) Moving to video games though.. (For non-native English speakers: Game hunting generally means killing animals such as deer, elk, squirrels, wild boars etc. for sport or nutrition in real life) P.S: Try Age of Conan: http://www.ageofconan.com/

WHAT? Research it, he might be too young to put it in scientific words from my 'analysis' but every word he said is true, even the fact that the sun is always at the highest point during noon [1]. Just more reason to read posts and evaluate them for info content even if they might be written without proper grammar or spelling/wording. Throughout the universe, time is relative. I'd like to introduce you to the Hafele-Keating experiment (you might already be aware of it through college/uni physics though), especially gravitational time shifts: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... irtim.html Since the clocks used on every flight in all the experiments were identical as a tool of measurement, it's time itself that wasn't constant in the tests, not the tool.

Heh, I have that on my laptop. Figured it should be put to good use since I use it rarely. + off topic, but Folding @ home reminds me of online poker :lol: Really... Internet hold'em can turn sour really fast even if you do it for pure profit. You gotta throw away 80-90% of the hands to stand a chance with multiple players.

Very nice research warrior, if only everyone just managed to put the extra bit of effort to find the truth.. That's the only thing that does apply both in the States and as of recent, due to anti-terrorism laws, also in the EU. Your internet logs and call info are being saved already thanks to new legislation. For once I agree with those experts. Even though the actual content of the calls and emails aren't being saved (would be a giant bandwidth destroyer anyways), even the header info and location of calls is very useful. Yes, if you live in the States or EU, your ISP knows all the websites you visited, all the emails you sent, all your calls... But nobody will dig up that data & hand it over to the government unless you get drawn into a criminal investigation.

The James Randi Challenge is a bunch of BS, and more or less a total scam. :lol: The money does exist, the foundation has a Goldman Sachs bank statement on the front page.. View the log of applicants.. It's really them who are full of BS, no offence :lol: The requirements aren't that hard to meet: Your 'ability' simply must hold water in double blind testing. All sorts of people claiming to be able to summon ghosts, read letters that are sealed in a box, etc... Have all failed when it was ultimately tested. Frankly, I'm not really surprised that an animal (human) can't bend the laws of nature, some of those applicants need a reality check badly. Some of them have pretty interesting abilities though, like being able to draw a different picture with both your hands at fast speed accurately. Not sure if that's paranormal though.

As said, atheism generally refers to lack of theistic belief (not believing in deities/gods). It's unusual, but not impossible, to be an atheist and still believe in "spirits". I do find it a bit awkward from a logical view, because people mostly become atheists after realizing there isn't enough evidence/concrete proof to support the existence of a God... Yet they would believe in visible (or invisible) ghosts existing when there is no scientific evidence they exist at all (and there is a $1 million dollar reward for anyone who can prove the existence of any paranormal phenomena) :? For all the creeking doors, sounds under the floor, flashes of light... More often than not there's a perfectly valid, non-mythical explanation which doesn't involve 'ghosts' at all. I mean.. It would be interesting as heck if supernatural things existed. I for one think it would make the world much more fascinating.. But it just seems silly to believe in it based on nothing provable.

The link works if you copy+paste it.. And Mythbusters are as thorough with research as is possible. Think I saw that episode. Some people (hint: my father) are firmly convinced, just as they are about the government wire tapping you every second of your life, that the moon landing was fake. As they say: Feel free to believe anything :lol: There is too much fact and physical evidence to confirm it wasn't fake..

Even working 24-hour shifts and using a MiG as his sleigh, his job description isn't even remotely viable by pure math, given the distances he has to cover and manufacture over 2 billion presents every year. He's best left in children's books. :lol: Ghosts could be easier to prove than a God, given they supposedly can make recurring physical manifestations... But it seems very unlikely. How come every piece of evidence on ghosts has been without exception been found a forgery/fraud, or a fraternity prank/grainy YouTube video... Let's just say if they really existed, James Randi would've been bankrupt years ago. Or is there a worldwide conspiracy of vowed poverty amongst witnesses of supernatural phenomena?

"MSN shutting down" is a part of a fake chain-email, as old as the Nigerian "419" scam letters. They just make variations every now and then.

That figure likely includes people of 'only' white heritage. Really couldn't care less about the statistics though; Was just providing them to him since he seemed so militant about it. I got friends from every ethnicity since childhood... & find it funny how prejudiced/hateful some people are.

It's hard to find the difference between a spirit and a ghost, but I'd say a spirit is a much more religious concept than a ghost. Some indigenous people in Asia/Africa still worship natural spirits, ghosts on the other hand are often seen as 'cursed' or 'haunting'. Good find on Socrates though 8-) Didn't remember reading that.

can i have some of that crack that your smoking pretty please? Im caucasian and let me tell you, WE are the majority,EVERYONE ELSE is the minority,IF blacks weren't A minority they would be the majority but they are not..... Let me explain it to you in small words Whites= majority of population Everyone else= minority of population Get it? By the time you've grown up, according to US census bureau latinos and black people will constitute the majority of the US population. Not to mention, in the world as a whole, white people constitute only around 8% of the world population, which means 92% of other people alive currently are *not* white. Also, other nations will probably want a share of the wealth in the future, seeing how disproportionately it's distributed in the world; white people are a small minority in the world, yet besides Japan/China and a select few oil sheiks, control nearly all the important wealth and resources.

Do you pray to ghosts? I'm just saying how ghosts are existant because they never 'passed' to the other side. 'The other side' is religious imo. That's 2 indirect assumptions; That 1. there are ghosts, and 2. there is such a place as "the other side". A debate doesn't really work by stating something as fact which can't be verified (not that this is really a debate though). Personally, I wouldn't even equate belief in ghosts to belief in a God. Countless people stop believing in ghosts as they age by a natural process, just like other stories their parents tell them, the usual Santa Claus and whatnot... A 'God', while it can't be proven either, is a deeper running concept which also regards the origins of the universe/life.

Why? The universe, if not the multiverse, is a pretty big place. I don't see why unicorns couldn't exist somewhere. Which is exactly why I'm not an atheist: based on pure logic. Think of it, you live on a single, puny planet. You haven't explored, or have knowledge of, about even a small minuscule % of the possible things the universe can contain. Unless proven otherwise or explored first; Anything can exist in the universe, even something deviating from our natural laws. What I mildly dislike is people who are *strongly* convinced they "know" a God exists somewhere without any concrete evidence. A belief is not synonymous with knowledge.

Strictly speaking, like the above poster said... Atheism itself means the lack of theism, as in not believing in a god. It has nothing to do with ghosts. Atheists usually only believe proven things with verifiable evidence though, so they more often than not, wont believe in ghosts either. 'Ghosts' aren't a theistic phenomena, there's also lots of religious folks who don't believe in ghosts (if not the majority)

I got to agree that's one reason why I never liked government talk mostly on other forums... The people believing in ridiculous, unplausible government conspiracies to 'get you' are so convinced it's even more difficult than talking to an absolute conservative religious nut who insists the world was never round. Yep one of my favourites, "they monitor ALL emails". Yeah, and it's as if the real threats will actually use words like 'terrorist'. I dare you, think about it. Who the hell isn't going to speak in code and very likely, their native language's specific dialect if sending electronic messages to servers located in the US? :lol: Filtering for any keywords is counter-productive, because everyone knows what to avoid. They don't have resources to monitor 300 million phone lines and countless emails/text messages every second of the day. The government (or as mentioned, more like 20,000 paid staff) will spend wire tapping resources on people it already suspects of crimes, not on a suburban middle class guy who works at Burger King and thinks the world is conspiring against him.

When I was way younger I bought that along with Sun Tzu's AOW on Barnes & Noble. Unlike Art of War which is largely philosophic and focuses on strategies, Book of Five Rings concentrates pretty heavily on sword-fighting techniques, which have little practical value in today's world. It's a fascinating read though, being a literary work of an actual samurai, and it does contain deep philosophy and intelligent advice. It's also available for English online reading by a translator @ http://samurai.com/5rings/

I don't ask for much, hell, not even that much for looks (as long as she's not a total ogre). Just that the girl shouldn't be a psycho. I don't mind crazy personalities, but there's a fine line between positively crazy and plain out mad who keeps calling you at 3'am for trivial things like asking your favourite color, or gets suicidal & thinks you abandoned her if you don't call her every few hours. Yes, I've had some bad luck.