BlueLancer

Oil is such a powerful political and financial tool, the cartels are no longer illegal. The OPEC is openly called a cartel and nobody takes action against them. It's in the best interests of the oil-owners to set the price as high as possible at any given time and avoid competition. They control so much of the oil supply, buyers have no other choice but to submit to their prices if they want their own economies to stay alive. Cartels exist in other big industry as well like tobacco and raw metals. It's not inherently a bad thing; It's what will inevitably happen when greedy business owners understand what's best for them.

Be careful not to open a pandora's box there :lol: If you only knew...

There are some Goldeneye 007 half-life mods, but not the 'real thing' as far as I know. I still have the original N64 cassette buried somewhere in my stuff though, hehe. Endless hours of 4-player fun when I was way younger... Awesome FPS game.

Funny you mentioned that.. Heard of neo-pagan religions? Not strangely enough, they seem to be popular with racists, ultra-nationalists, white supremacists etc., doesn't mean Odin is actually a racist and wont let black people or samurais into Valhalla, or that Ares really despises greeks and non-romans... Hatred/ignorance and barbarism have little to do with religion and more with the people behind those ideas. I don't agree at all. LTTE is a legitimate resistance front against obvious oppression of minority ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, giant corruption, robbing of natural resources... If anything, the SL army should be labeled terrorist, it's a national army and tortures civilians/hires mercenaries to do bombings in Tamil areas to force them into submission But the other ones you mentioned, agree... (though some people would disagree as IRA being viewed as a terrorist organisation)

Whoops, good call. I used to be 2% in high school (so I just went off that number since I didn't know how to estimate), just rechecked with my roomates, I'm more like 8% now based on their estimates. My bad :). Not sure if that was some inside joke, but you'd be near dead if you ever had 2% body fat for extended periods of time. Even some professionals can't drop it below 5... And they are on extremely strict diets, watching every grain of salt and calorie that enters their mouth

Pretty sure no religion can cause a revolution in western countries anymore, general intelligence and critical thinking has gone past that stage (where it wasn't even back in 1940's when a lot of europeans were still farm workers), unless there's some serious food shortage/surge in unemployment in USA/Eu which will cause people to panic and think irrationally, that will never work.

I assume this thread in general refers to the school environment (most people 'really' grow up at least by age 25 and stop being little kids)... Well I wouldn't know about Australia, but nordic countries/Europe in general... And I spent my early school years in the States.. American modern culture (of the youth) is by definition arrogant and ignorant. There is some diseased obsession with humiliation, sex, appearances... And it's pretty sickening, wouldn't want to raise a kid there right now... Don't think you're going to encounter the same phenomena in other countries, even nearly to the same degree. Really, if someone kept making the same reta­rded jokes about anything anybody said (even if totally neutral and normal phrases), they'd be social outcasts in a school pretty fast in an european country...

Definitely deserved, both of you.. Good job 8-)

:shock: The entire point of bulking is gaining weight... Man, this thread is kind of funny. The article does argue the bulking part of bodybuilding can be left out though, I don't disagree with that seeing as I've never personally used bulk seasons like a few other guys at my gym, it's worth a read.

You know I honestly do like you as a poster, but what the hell are you talking about? College is extremely worth it. Not only do you learn 500x more than you ever will in high school, but your views on life, society, government, and scores of other things change. You learn to be accepting of other people. College life isn't all about partying (although it can be fun to do that, which I do). It's about finding yourself and finding your place in the world. You'll understand when you go, that's all I can really say to you at this point. College is an amazing experience both educationally and personally. I finished college years ago and frankly in retrospective, found it to be a waste of time. If a person is emotionally involved with the mythical "concept" of college, I guess I can't change their mind. And some jobs like history teacher, might actually require a college degree (or even university), so that's a given. But not all people want that kind of jobs... A teacher's salary in the US isn't even astronomical. It's a personal longing to teach others and be a valuable community asset. Not everyone has what 'it' takes to be a teacher. There's countless C++ programmers, art designers, day traders I know personally, who mostly trained themselves after high school and got experience through work for companies, directly. If you have an interest for something or especially if you have talent... A college degree is rarely an 'obstacle'. Above all employers look for what you're capable of doing, and especially EXPERIENCE, not what papers and diplomas you have in your pocket. I can't even start stressing enough how significant experience in a field is.

I'd quit school if I was still at your age and offered to earn $400+ a day. Seriously. Especially since you get experience, it might lead to even further jobs after your stint is over. What's waiting for you if you decide to scrap this job, sit in college for 3 years? An entry level office job at $9 per hour for 8 hours a day, including brewing coffee & making reports for your superiors, putting up with abuse, lots of pressure... The only difference to a McDonald's job is that you get to sit around feeling important in a suit while actually doing nothing productive. Seriously, you've hit a gold mine. Take the chance. This is how you can build a good life, you've got extremely lucky.

Great pics and travel record 8-) Thanks for sharing... If anything you could've included even more pictures, hehe... Wish you had fun in those places. Definitely looking forwards to visiting NZ in the future too.

Weather that is true or not, probably is, whenever I feel sore, it is when I most "feel" my muscles. Therefore, that is enough reason for me to make myself feel it :) i will see how I look on monday and try to remember the last, previous, monday... >_> im loosing inspiration/motivation. looking at bubs bouncing while running (threadmill) isn't giving me inspiration anymore :wall: :wall: I don't want to jump on some dumb bandwagon to flame you or bring ego in it. If anything, I genuinely hope you make progress at the gym. But a week of training isn't an indicator of anything. You shouldn't lose motivation or feel down just because you can't see results in a week. Do you know how much pure muscle mass a beginner/intermediate could put on in 1 year with perfect training and diet? About 10 pounds (5kg) of sheer volume. Which comes down to 96 grams per week. It's absolutely unnoticeable. (as you progress and gain mass it will become harder to put on even 5 pounds a year) For progress tracking, take a pic of yourself now, and take a pic 6 months later. By losing fat and increasing your muscle mass by 5 pounds you'll already see a difference. Two years down the road you'll see massive change. You don't even have to post those pics; Just for your own comfort and record.

I can't even comprehend how you could pronounce that fast without sounding like a flattening balloon.

Got a point though, can't say I've seen a pro-stomach fighter lately. But really, lessons in Krav Maga sessions teach anything can be used as a weapon.. Including 1 body part you didn't mention.. The head (specifically, the forehead)

I don't like getting personal, but you have been seriously mis-informed (besides the sleep part obviously). For mass building purposes... - You have to take 30-90 second breaks between high power, low-rep sets, it's an important part of the program (those "jocks" you refer to were probably not 'acting' tired) - If your muscles are allowing you to work more than 3-4 days a week, you're not building mass at optimal level (or not gaining at all due to improper muscle tissue repairing) - Feeling sore is no indicator of mass built.. In some cases it can even be bad if you're not in the beginner phase and suddenly start feeling too sore - If you can actually work out for 2 hours, you're doing 'tone' excercises which has little to do with real working out/bodybuilding, most programs will take from ½ hours to maximum of 1 hour http://forum.bodybuilding.com/ Been posting there for some 5-6 years now, if you want good advice, a lot of pro's and medical PhD's post there as well, you might be able to obtain valuable info...

Just remember Dexter... The army has rigorous psychological tests especially for the more demanding jobs which would pretty much require you to not 'potentially snap' at any time. Killing should only be done if it serves a purpose and as a final resort... Not because of passion or emotional whims.

Being a thief was actually a real profession before 1800's especially in urban cities, and they had guilds, alliances etc... The purpose wasn't getting rich by stealing, the purpose was staying alive. They'd steal crown property like grain storages, flour.. To feed their families. Hard to say without a source, but probably some of them did steal from private bakers, etc. as well. Robbery isn't the same thing as stealing.. As such, even in modern western society, robbery obviously brings much worse consequences than stealing. But obviously it has been always illegal, people would lose limbs or be hanged if caught even in old Europe... Not that many people in western countries steal these days to survive.. But it does exist in slums of many countries. I wouldn't be too quick to judge them even if I was a store owner, if they had absolutely no other chance. Does material come before human life?

Favourites: http://www.maddox.xmission.com (especially the old archives) http://www.thehungersite.com (trying to visit it daily if I remember & have PC access)

Well you have a point that enjoying life should probably come first... But if you really want to buff up, there's a few things you can't really miss... -You have to sleep enough for recovery. -You wont progress if you work out every day for 2 hours.. Real bodybuilding programs take about 45 minutes and are every 2-3 days giving your muscles enough time to recover from the stress -Diet is just as important if not even more important than the workout itself. If you keep having a pizza here and there, ice cream/chocolate bars after dinner, it's not gonna do your body a whole lot of good. If you work out every single day for 2 hours, I assume it's stuff like push-ups, treadmills, running, etc.. That's good for general health and staying within normal weight (along with eating properly), but that's usually not what the term 'working out' refers to

It is not reckless if the parents have the common sense to actually hammer the safety rules into their skulls and never let them have a gun without adult supervision, and it is the parents fault for the lack of teaching the kid common sense. Kids these days would probably do less stupid [cabbage] if parents would start using physical punishment, aka smack their kids [wagon] once in a while. Teach kids right from wrong by using violence against them. I like it! :roll: I gotta admit it works as a parental method though, if not administered at least occassionally, the kid will often grow into a wimp, nosey, and possibly questioning every little detail about what their parents do, making it into a "power struggle" (them being your parents should be enough reason to take out the trash if they ask you to). Didn't personally get much physical punishment as a kid, whatnot with the occassional pull of hair by my mother, and occassionally some spank by the father... But I don't hate my parents at all. They did what they thought to be best. Talk doesn't always work with a kid, although I have to admit I'd have a very hard time using physical punishments personally.. Sometimes it has to be made clear they have to take note of rules laid down by the parents.. If nothing else works, by physical punishment

That really doesn't make sense though.. How would a deaf person hear the phone ringing in the first place :lol:

I have a friend who swears blind that the moon-landings never happened. We were away on a holiday when the argument happened so we couldn't check the internet to back up our arguments so it didn't really go anywhere. Conspiracy theories always sound so compelling because it's much more interesting to believe it's all a coverup. If I could get a link it would be help ful... by the way guys we can also discuss conspiracies from governments outside of the u.s.a. :twss: International syndicate of maple syrup smugglers connected to canadian UN aid programme? Cmon, besides middle-east, USA and Africa, nothing interesting happens in the world of corruption and political crime. :cry:

Heh, no joke, I almost forgot Biden still exists anymore. He gets next to nil media attention these days, even the teddy bear of Palin's youngest daughter gets more air time... American politics has been all about mud-slinging since Kennedy if you actually look at the election campaigns. It's rooted in as a dirty part of american culture... Don't think there's turning back on this one. Not a huge fan of Obama, despite what his election crew does, he's not the kind to provoke personal attacks, props for that. McCain is quite the polar opposite, he reminds me of Hillary... Willing to do anything and say anything, even if it's the ultimate degradation of the opponent, to force their agenda through.

Pedophilia? 19 year old boy, 16 old girl. I'd say that's pedophilia, but is it wrong? I don't think so. A pedophile is like a 30-40+ year old trying to get it on with an innocent 5-8 year old. In the scenario you mentioned, I wouldn't even mind, if it was my own daughter. The age difference isn't that big (3 years).. They are mentally nearly at the same level. You follow politics? Palin's daughter is 17 but her boyfriend is 18 soon 19, and they're having a kid. That's not really something most people would condemn. I think you're misunderstanding the world pedophile. It's the kind of person that deserves worse than the death penalty if that would be at all possible.