BlueLancer

Where did you find that heap of crap you call information? :| You can't say that he doesn't make a valid point.. At least when it comes to christianity and churchgoers, the tithe is stunningly similar to "mandatory donations" of scientology. You get publicly shamed if you don't chip in a single dime, and you get pressured into giving money to them, heaven forbid if they call old ladies by phone to raise funds, they really wont say 'no'. Just back a few hundred years ago, it was required to pay a bribe to a catholic priest in order to get absolved of sin in confession. (Leading to protests against the church and ultimately, factions such as protestantism that refused to believe such things) Other religions don't really have that concept though. Islam does have zakat, which in the Qur'an is ruled to be 1/40th of your salary that you should give to poor people, but not a lot of people obey it... And I can't find a similar philosophy in buddhism, hinduism, shinto, etc.

Well, as a whole they are getting wealthier, but the real winners are the crooked people, not the ex. proletariat who gains a big payraise. Compare: When it's said USA is getting wealthier/the economy is growing... Still doesn't mean minimum wage is going up or that the average person gets any extra benefits. Really, the only people reaping the true benefits even in the States, are the "top 1%" who just keep getting richer, though with more legal means than in Russia. Check this banker for example... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6262939.stm Doesn't seem like a good idea to oppose money laundering banks in Russia, if you value your life. That's just how things work..

I heard from my geography professor that a lot of millionaires are sprouting up there..is it true? Yeah and for every 25 year old guy who gets to be a millionaire, there's ten thousand 30 year olds working trashy office jobs earning salaries of $180/month trying to support a family and their elders. If you can't utilize the russian "system" (which often involves crime), you'll stay at the lower echelons of society forever. I'm amazed some of the young folk even have motivation to work in Russia, when some punk with connections can just get his 'friends' in a corrupt bank to input a few computer commands & have $100k appear on his bank account as 'business expenses' without second thought. Read this article for further knowledge... http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/89/355 ... ering.html And more banks than just those 10 have been blacklisted even inside Russia after that incident... It usually works this way: Corrupt mobsters/bankers practically insert numbers into bank accounts (from which balances are read) out of thin air, then attempt to send it to a bank account in a reputable country such as Switzerland, then they either use it from that account for their personal Lamborghini's and other personal items, or send it back to Russia where the origin of the transfer can now be traced back to a trustworthy Swiss bank. Russia is pretty rotten, though it has it's good sides too. But it makes you wonder; Riches and money.. Is nothing but digital numbers on a computer screen these days, in 2008. Then you have people working all their lives in a job they hate saving up $100k for a nice boat or stuff they don't need, & some other guy gets it in a minute with a few keyboard strokes.

Nah, the only games I played back 99-2001 were online chess/ minesweepers maybe a few times a week. :P (Only had really played Diablo 1 and some old ms-dos games before that)

Depends how it's taken. I'm not gonna harp on about how "DRUGS ARE EVIL!!!" because I don't believe in that, but that statement is just gross. You'd be pretty stupid to argue that taking Es every weekend is safer than someone who drinks the equivalent of one or two pints in the same timescale. Plus, I can see a drink of alcohol being served and I can see exactly what's going in it. If something dodgy's going on, I can have someone check it out for me. No chance of that with dealers. With alcohol, because you get drunk over a number of drinks, you can gain a more accurate picture of where to stop, while with drugs, it's often all in one shot, and you can't control whether too much is going in. Taking them both at the same time is definitely not the epitome of safe either, which I suspect is something a lot of people would do in a bar, unless it's one of the non-alcoholic ones (re: the real raves, not the fake ones where everyone goes to get wasted on alcohol). I've known plenty of X users and they never developed any kind of long term health problems, went mad, etc... However, I know a lot of people who got into trouble because of alcohol, crashed their car, started hitting people, so on.. Not that I condone drug use, but I don't have anything against people who do. Alcohol can be [bleep]ed with anything, you really can't be sure unless you personally bought the bottle... A dealer's livelihood on the other hand depends on being trustworthy, if his product isn't the best available or someone gets even as much as a nosebleed from his pills, nobody will buy it, he will get into trouble with suppliers or possibly even killed.

Just about everyone here would love AC/DC's new album Black Ice. Pure classic rock awesomeness, just listen to "Rock n' Roll train". I'm really more of a fan of heavier rock/metal, but even after 20 years this band never fails to amaze me. It's also great driving music. Don't worry, hehe, no piracy involved. I pre-bought some of the songs on the album, not to be pretentious, but I appreciate the band a lot and they're worth the nominal payment.

Given the amount of traffic RS.com gets, try more like 10k per week (& more)... Banner ads not just pay $$ whenever somebody views them, but Jagex also gets about $0.15-$0.40 commission every time someone clicks on them. Essentially f2p is not just a demo, every user makes some $ for Jagex without realizing it. Let's say a total of 900,000 unique people play F2P weekly (might be much more)... Out of those people, all view the banner ad, 3% click it. At $0.005 per view, Jagex gets $4500 per week from banner views, and even at the minimum click-payout ratio, $27,000 per week from clickthroughs (over $1M per year) It's a very significant source of income, sure, people will always circumvent the ads somehow, but why would they allow/encourage it given it makes them so much cash?

Years & years ago I was at a friend and was just about to leave since it was late... But just before opening the door and leaving, I went to my friend's room and asked "what are you playing", he said it's a new browser based game called RuneScape which got released a few days ago I don't see him often, and if I hadn't asked & left instead, I'd never gotten into RS, tip.it, my grammar/english skills would be poorer, god knows how many future contacts/friends wouldn't even exist for me that I first met on related forums/subjects/games... Wouldn't even be writing this post or moderating at all.

Yeah. And are you like me and really killjoy and sarcastic when people knock on your door? :P When random kids ask "trick or treat" expecting easy candy, I always reply 'trick' and shut the door. Most of the time they have no imagination to actually do a trick or egg my house/etc... It's not that I hate kids, I love them, but it makes for good entertainment. Maybe if I'm in a good mood I'll buy some chocolate eggs this year to disperse :lol:

No, you either believe Jesus is the son of God, or you don't. It's as simple as. Religion is not hereditary, unless it's forced upon you, which doesn't strike me as particularly American anyway. Heh.. How many years I kept trying to pound that into my fathers thick skull back when I was younger... Religion is not hereditary. But he kept insisting it's an inevitable part of who you are and will never go away. I know parents mean your best, but my old man was seriously lacking in the logic department sometimes. You aren't inherently born a christian, muslim, wicca, jew, buddhist... You're born a human being. Choose whatever religion you want or none at all once you're old enough to make the decision.

Sure, it's a sweet thought, but the stupidity of the average human is stunning. The entire point of the spam-story writer is to play on the fears of gullible people to spread the useless spam. Why would the comment section of a video site effect reality and spawn a ghost in your mother's room... Cmon.. And what if your mother was already deceased? Talk about useless scare

Could you name good brands please? The brand I usually drink has a little smell though, but is still pretty good. Buy Smirnoff :thumbup: Though dragoonson... Even strong 40-60%, well-distilled vodka has smell, a strong one at that, so I don't really know where you're getting that 'odourless' from. It's not even a very pleasant smell, except if mixed with lime/schnapps/redbull/some other fitting liquid. Try smelling 96% moonshine close-by? You'll nearly burn your nostrils just by having a sniff, let alone your throat.

I barely ever get chain letters anymore, but I still get Nigerian 419 scammers and their variations every now and then to my email, sometimes it's a chinese variant, even had a french one. It's fun to befriend the scammer & waste their time, asking for instructions on how to send them money without the intent of paying :lol: Some people even bait them for sport, and get them to send like $20-$30 for "Western Union fees" and counter-scam them, I just stick to replies though..

:lol: That site gave me 26.6 BMI & claims it's overweight.. But just a week ago I electronically measured my body fat % and it's 10.5%, so that really doesn't add up... It must be broken or miscalculating.. Edit- nevermind, it has a disclaimer... Explains the inconsistency, been using the gym for some 8 years now..

Russia itself is badass. You wont know what I mean unless you lived/stayed there enough to understand the culture. It's a bizarre country which is actually rogue, you can get anything with money, position/authority don't mean anything (even your teacher can be a huge movie pirate and sell DVD's to his students, they'll happily buy it & parents wont object) USA prides itself on freedom, but I say Russia is the ultimate semi-anarchy full of freedom, yet enough protection to keep people from just killing each other for sport. It's more free than the US in just about every aspect, except press freedom (and sadly it's lately becoming more racist). Everything in Russia only works through force, or money. But it's a working system & they're getting wealthier every year.

No, there isn't, you're right about that. Still I'd rather somebody pocket my 13 year old's money than provide him with cancer sticks and alcohol, less of the two evils...

For a belief to be valid, it has to make at least some sense. Look at the facts objectively: [*:18monrdm]Hubbard is a scifi author. [*:18monrdm]"Xenu" brought billions of people to Earth, but our planet apparently had too many people, so he dispersed the excess ones on volcanoes by a spaceship and then destroyed them with hydrogen bombs, making those people's souls into 'thetans'. [*:18monrdm]"Xenu" called some psychiatrists, who paralyzed all the leftover people in the world after injecting them with glycol and alcohol. Sure, anyone can believe whatever they want, but that theory has no factual basis, zero historical accuracy & it never happened anywhere else except Hubbard's little world inside his head. Not just that, but his organization charges people money to believe in his ridiculous theories. Why any sane person would believe in scientology's core premises is beyond my comprehension. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism don't even remotely compare to scientology in the scale of ridiculous assumptions or claimed miraculous events. I wouldn't say it's bashing to look at an organization for what it is. Rightfully so, Germany and some other countries refuse to acknowledge scientology as a religion. [1] Feel free to believe anything, but you cross a line when it starts affecting other people negatively.

The original quote was actually "not just a quirky Hollywood religion" reflecting the topic content.. Anyways that's beside the point.. Christianity was treated as a cult, and did get persecuted.. But the beliefs were basic enough to help people get through their hardships and everyday common lives. People don't really devote themselves to religion in big masses unless it makes sense. Blame me for being biased, but the core basis of the Xenu god, thetans, etc.. Don't make any sense at all.. For further reading/understanding of what they believe in, consult http://www.encyclocentral.com/19901-Xen ... Bombs.html Really, I don't know if I should feel sorry for Hubbard's followers, or burst into hysterical laughter. I occassionally opt for the second sometimes while reading about SL. You have to be desperate to believe in the core scientology beliefs & pay money to advance to 'next levels' (or Thetans, as they say) Then again that stuff isn't so surprising if you consider Hubbard himself was a sci-fi author. It just seems he takes his followers for complete morons.

At least in my books that wouldn't even be immoral. If I had a kid & you did that to him/her, I'd just compliment you. You did them a favor especially if they're like 12-15, and profited from it. Nothing wrong with moderate smoking/drinking as people do it anyways, but when you're too young to know the risks/are highly vulnerable, it's bad. I agreed at first.. Because it's something I'd never do myself, when I was 16 I'd definitely just flat out refused, or helped the kids out, depending on my mood, but never would I stolen the money to make a point. But all people are different. When krank pockets the money, he teaches a lesson to the kids who want to get drugged up with nicotine/alcohol (even if lightly) plus saves a small chunk of their health.

Blind people do use computers... Use your imagination. I've met such people even 10+ years ago when there was barely any help-software available for them. It's not that hard to understand how a computer functions even if you don't see the monitor. You obviously can't see any video output, but people do listen to YouTube videos, have dotted QWERTY keyboards, voice recognition software, etc. Really the only thing you can't do with a computer as a blind person is useless things like gaming (no matter how much you think they improve your coordination, unless you game for sport, it's a waste of time)... And well, you can't do graphics like paint/photoshop. You can still listen to mp3's, listen to movies, download audio books, read/send emails, news, (text gets turned into MS Sam voice), maybe even play some games with rich audio/surround sounds so that you could navigate. hehe. Now that you mention it, the sound has a similar distinct 'emotionless' cold tone.

Anything should be freely criticized in a constructive matter, even religions (that includes christianity, islam, hinduism, buddhism etc) to find an objective truth. Fortunately finally by WW2 and nazi Germany, the world finally learned that... If a belief system is way out of place and starts hurting people, it has to be questioned and/or fought. I don't really oppose scientology, but it has despicable operating patterns which include coercion, sabotage of people unwilling to ascend to "higher" levels of scientology (in the forms of massive, even up to $100k's payments), I wouldn't even classify it as a religion so much as a philosophical cult. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven's_Gate_(cult) Just another example some of you maybe even heard of years earlier... Ok, freedom of religion by nature allows people to believe in anything (anything at all, no matter how ridiculous) but when the leader persuades & brainwashes innocent human beings into taking their lives to ascend on a non-existent spaceship hiding behind a comet, that's when the ridiculous excuse of a belief system has gone too far and someone should shut it down before people die.

*cough* Pittsburgh Pirates *cough* Heh, to vaguely quote a pissed off commentator... "A bet against Washington Nationals is a bet for winning " Nats and SD Padres are probably the most horrid teams up in MLB. Sure they can score occassional wins like every other team, but they're so unreliable it's.. Unbelieveable. Sometimes their bullpen players seem like high school beginners.. Just download some of their 2008 season matches.

Well now that you mentioned it, freshens my memory.. Back in HS, I was handing out small loans (for extra lunch items, movie tickets, bus fare), like from $5 to $20, charging $2 interest for 1-10 dollars, and $3 for 11-20 dollars or more, with a week to pay. I'd also pay 3 other guys (friends) to collect the money & give them the right to keep the full interest for every 4th loan. It's not enough to attract attention, and a perfect amount to turn a profit with. I wouldn't even say it's illegal or loan sharking due to the small sums of money circulating. I had some $500 to start with but it grew fast... Very few people didn't pay back (but then, their gym bags might've been 'lost' until they paid) That strawberry idea isn't bad either. It's awesome there's still some entepreneur-minded, non spoiled kids today :

Not really a big television fan, but after watching the best TV has to offer, like 24, Sopranos, Oz, Prison Break, House, Lost, Dexter... I just can't watch soap operas and "reality" shows. It's so eye burning & boring. But if they didn't have an audience, they wouldn't exist in the first place.. So I guess some people still do like those hideous pieces of TV trash..

Yeah it can, because effects are individual. What might get one person drunk wont affect another person at all... What gets another person psychologically hooked on nicotine or pot, is just a recreational substance for another person who can drop it at any time. I think everyone knows cigarettes contain toxics and are generally bad for your health. It still doesn't mean it will cause YOUR death or give you lung cancer (while it may do so to another person). Watched the olympics? Chinese athletes were directly advertising cigarette products. Sounds ironic, but really it isn't. If their general health is good, they have a balanced diet, a few puffs of smoke wont kill them.