BlueLancer

Agreed. It's like the UN on crack. Britain should have stayed out. I like smaller-focus agreements like NATO, but large-scale alliances like this are just asking for trouble. It reminds me of the Robin-Hood system gone wrong. The rich get richer. While I totally agree about the general scale unnecessarity of the EU, it's bureaucracy, etc., the "Robin Hood" system does work... For the new member countries :P They get to leech hundreds of millions of euros a year for free for about 4-5 years, only then do they start paying membership fees. They use those aids to build roads, structures, etc., which is practically financed by the wealthier countries. So it partially works.

A mod should lock this I don't agree, it's like denying "scammers don't exist" or "there is no lag", or in real life, "there is no mafia/crime organisations". Macroers are a significant part of the RS economy which is a reality. I don't advocate macroing, but it's a fact they contribute a huge amount of resources in the markets of RuneScape. Let's take a hypothetical scenario, for example, fishing macroers: Honest users: 1.5 million sharks fished a day Macroers: 675,000 sharks fished a day If every one of those macroers was banned, it would be ultimately good for the community, but with 30% less sharks buyable on the market, the honest sellers will realize suddenly the shark demand has skyrocketed, and they'll start charging, before you know it, about 30-40% more since it's harder to get and people still need it. Not a problem, except to those who rely on raw/finished materials to play the game, such as combat players who rely on cooked food. The fletcher who relies on cut wood. The herbalist who depends on unidentified herbs. Those people may not have an alternative source of money, and by the removal of illegal products, those people become poorer by spending more money on the same thing they were doing 2 weeks ago without any benefit to themselves. Everyone loses out except the raw material seller who becomes even wealthier since he has less competition and he controls more market resources.

If you read my posts, you'd know. It's an agreement between several wealthy EU countries to remove customs checks. Travelers can just go straight to the airport terminal and hop in a taxi or whatever they want to do without having to go through customs. This obviously doesn't work in your scheme because there are no eastern european countries in the agreement. It's very hard to get into it at the moment, and eastern european countries aren't getting inside the agreement anytime soon. The agreement still doesn't stop security checks though, so the problem is not the EU but somebody else.

Yeah, I was online. It was in @ran@: Angel2002 has been banned for bug abuse (or something similar). All in all he was an ok guy, but on scapeboard, he sent me a very angry PM just a few days after dueling was introduced. I won him in a duel by luck, being about 7 levels lower, and he told me to eat **** and other stuff :lol: But I guess that's ok given he was quite young, about 17-18 back then I think.

8-) Account still active, but I'd kill to be able to check out my RSC character for one last time... Currently I can only use RS2 which I don't really like, and don't play. Does Jagex have any plans at all to let, say those who would pay $10 a month, access RSC just for fun?

They could be of any religion, the true motives are socioeconomic. Those young people may have had their homes destroyed in a war. Their family, or some of the family, was murdered. They don't have money to get an education, and they can't get employed. On the other hand, a terrorist organisation will promise to pay $5,000 dollars for the "services" to the young man's family as a compensation in the name of "religion". They just happen to live in an area that was historically islamic. They could be any religion; There are krishna terrorists, hindu terrorists, buddhist terrorists... It has more to do with the society than the religion. You don't hear from christian suicide bombers much because the majority of christians live in stable societies untouched by crisis, hunger and wars. What motive would an average christian have to throw away his life for martyrdom? People don't "blow up stuff" for fun. Tens of thousands of 20 year olds who blew themselves up weren't doing it for "fun" or because they were "mad". Those young people were desperate, and possibly angry in the case of Iraq, towards the country who occupied their land and bombed their homes. You have no home, money, family, or a future. What do you have left to cry for, or live for? Why would you fear to martyr yourself when there is nothing left to lose in life? Don't you think those people are rather easily brainwashed by bloodthirsty preachers and rebel leaders?

Eastern european nations aren't in the schengen agreement, so they went through normal customs and still managed to smuggle the arms. Blame the customs officials, not the EU...

... I don't think you understand at all the meaning of the word "rogue state" :lol: Turkey is a close ally of the United States and is one of the most liberal middle-eastern nations (note: Turkey is officially religiously neutral, not islamic). Turkey also has very close historical and cultural ties to Europe, and the patriarch of the orthodox christian church still resides in Istanbul. Their problem is human rights abuse and the neglection of enforcing EU-required directives. The author Orhan Pamuk was arrested in Turkey for making a book about the armenian genocide, in the EU you obviously can't get jailed for writing a book. That's just the most visible example in the media.

For the same reason the UK doesn't want the Euro system: Mostly pride.. They don't want to give up their own currency, Finland is the only nordic country to take the euro and give up their national currency. The switch to an euro system is decided by a popular vote, Sweden is a most likely next candidate to adapt the system, they could be using it sometime soon. Norway and Denmark wont be using it probably for a long time.

What the...? :? That's too true, think of anything you do. As a 6 year old kid you go to school, because some old people decided it would be a good thing for you. The reason originates from them. Still, in some countries, kids don't go to school for a variety of reasons (mostly poverty). Going to school itself is not a reason. You work a job, for a supposed reason. To make money to pay your bills. But really, you just pay those bills to "see another day". To have fun with your family, a sport or whatever your genes and environment molded you into liking. You can give your life any meaning you want, just don't take it for granted. You created your own reality with your choices.

The EU is a very integrated system from my experience. They even passed a law which allows any member country to collect, for example, speeding ticket fees from a member who is in another EU country, then pass it to the country of the offender. The EU parliament has very powerful legal authority. Their directives must be obeyed in every member nation (on the penalty of heavy fees, in the tens/hundreds of millions of euros) Also, in the european Schengen-area (currently only includes fairly wealthy countries) you don't even need a border check to enter another country.

*Cough*TheGiver*Cough* :P :o :o :o That's a really stupid policy. ... When you're on pension, you're just a strain on the system. I don't know if I'd want to live for the sole reason of taking resources from the society. Of course, the idea of killing them is ridiculous, but at least make them do something productive, or live on their own savings. Social security in america will probably not cater to people aged 18 today in the year 2060. What's a good example for todays youth? I'll try to make it very obvious... Program: Social Security Year 2060 Seeders: 34,503,595 Leechers: 63,295,237 Bandwidth status: low (0.5 ratio) Pension doesn't come out of the blue, it comes from the current young people who pay taxes to supply pensioners with money.

It's funny how people on other forums whine about online "game hackers" and "glitchers", look at what some teens are ready to do for amusement. Sick little [puncture]s, willing to kill human beings, ruin their own entire lives by spending life sentence in prison and depriving an innocent human of his life. Don't ask "why some people do" __This/___That. Just accept some people are disturbed, morons, or plain dumb since birth. There are so many outrageous things in the world you shouldn't be surprised at anything. Teens killing homeless people is just the tip of the iceberg in human cruelty.

Ive used debit cards for years. They are my preferred form of transaction and never had any problems buying stuff online. Sorry, I should had mentioned exclusively debit Visas. Mastercards and others probably work fine even outside of the US despite being debit.

He apparently made this forum account just to advertise his amazon referral link, but you can still continue discussing this if you want to 8-) (Ref link removed)

Debit cards just about never work properly online. Your only shot is a Visa Electron that says 'Verified by Visa'. Then you may have a slight chance of uploading funds into a PayPal account. If you're under 18 and try using a debit card online, it will say "Your card issuer/authorizer has denied this transaction"

Believe me, you wont turn $1k, even $10k into anything you can live on if you do it on the stock market. You'll need more capital to invest if you really want to live without "being a slave". And to get more capital, you either need to be lucky or work.

Normal is the sum of social averages; The closer you're to the average person, the more normal you are. The average american earns $55k a year in an office job, has 3 kids, a picket fence house and a dog called Rusty, drives a shared farmer car with his wife, likes hollywood comedies and prefers pizza and hamburgers as a favourite food. The closer you're to that the more chances are you'll be considered 'normal'.

No, I didn't choose a normal life and career like most people, and like my parents suggested and family expected. "Normal" life sounds pretty damn boring, but I don't want to judge people who choose that path.

...The future generation is disappointing.

USA isn't an English nation, it was also inhabited by dutch, germans, scandinavians, italians, spaniards, irish, scottish, asian, north african... It's not self explanatory, hence the USA has no official language. Sure, it's today the most used language in the US. But it's never had legal status, just like there is no official state religion in the US.

..No :lol: But it may be comforting to live in such a belief, growing up in a western country that is...

Soul is your thoughts and morals, not a purple yin-yang ball inside your heart. It could be difficult for some animals to have a "soul" without being able to think for theirselves, relying purely on instict. Humans don't necessarily have to only rely on instict. If you experience a very positive thing, your "soul" may become more positive. If you kill a person under extreme pressure, your "soul" may become corrupted. Your thoughts and morals could change based on what you do or were forced to do in life.

No, actually some very intelligent people are a part of a religion. Even hundreds and thousands of years ago, the wisest scientists and mathematicians obeyed Islam and it's teachings. A lot of medieval philosophists were devoted christians. Today, still a lot of professors and scientific researchers are religious, maybe not the majority, but some. I wouldn't say "anyone" who follows a religion is a moron. I do think a person is a fool who thinks his religion somehow ranks higher in the eyes of a supreme being than another religion. There are countless religions, what makes yours better just based on faith? Believe what you want, just don't put others down based on your 'evidence' gained by praying, wearing orange robes, eating mushrooms or whatever your religion does.

For all I care they could take the ancient egyptians and make them fight the neighbouring nations and give them cellphones to communicate with. It's a movie. I appreciate history and documents a lot. But 300 is not meant to be either. Yeah, the 300 spartans had a position advantage in an unpassable mountain region. They were against hundreds of thousands of persians. They did slaughter tens of thousands of them. Who cares if the details on their swords are incorrect or if the accent of a person in the film isn't historically accurate? You watch movies to spend time and have fun, not bicker about meaningless things like "look at his sword belt, it's from the late-roman era, not greek".