fastortoise

The fact that you nitpick at certain arguments in my long post instead of posting opinions on my point of view is pretty annoying, but I'll make another post because the topic interests me. Sure you could argue that one single point in my argument can unravel it entirely, but bare with me. Read this post as an opinion post, reflect upon it, don't bother yourself with questions about how well you can refute certain aspects of it. Back in my first serious post, I mentioned how humans are more animalike than we all think. Since my point didn't get across because everyone is arguing whether animals are more humanlike and not the other way around, I'll write it out again properly. Animals react instinctively because that's all we expect from them. As animals evolved, they acquired new techniques for hunting among other things. Kill faster, use time more effectively, eat and share with family more, the natural pressure on developing better killing methods is obvious. We've reached a point where humans among other animals have too much time on their hands. If we were constantly forced to acquire food by killing animals, we wouldn't have time to develop language past "there's a hawk overhead" or "go wait in that bush". If you and I would face dire consequences for lazing around in a chair for an hour, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. It's by spending our time effectively that we can easily spread our power over all other animal species. This point is important because it's reflected by other animals, too. Give an elephant the luxury of a three meal day and an environment where it doesn't have to worry about droughts or predators, and it can paint a painting. Cats that aren't hungry because you feed them twice a day still have an ancestral killing instinct, but don't necessarily do it for survival. This is a problem - why kill unnecessarily if you don't have to? If cats do it, then surely we shouldn't have any guilt either. This isn't a counter example, it makes perfect sense. You'd never find a cat in the wild being given constant care, enabling it to do whatever it wants. It's an anomaly of nature. We aren't the only ones who can develop techniques for improving life. Monkeys create their own anvils and hammers to crack open rock hard nutshells. Crows, given a rock and a bowl of water with the water level just out of reach, will figure out it has to drop the rock in the bowl to make the water level rise. Do you see how we're just an evolved version of animals, with insanely effective living techniques? We've figured out that instead of running in large plains to hunt buffalo, we can just raise them in farms and murder them there with ease. We've obviously cheated our way out of the great scheme of natural ways, I don't need to give examples on this point. Now that we have extended our power over all creatures that resemble us in more ways than you would have first thought, what would be the point in unnecessarily harming them? I'm sorry if this sounds naive of me, maybe I have seen too many movies where the good guys win, but if a ruling group takes over power and has absolute control over everything, I'd want that group to do some good instead of harm. Yes, we have a responsibility for being the most powerful species on this planet. That's why cruelty to animals feels extremely wrong to me - even more so when it involves primates rather than humans being hurt, precisely because they cannot express themselves to us properly. In my books, cutting off the arm of a human baby or a young monkey is equally appalling, and now you know where my feelings are coming from.

That's defeating your own argument. Animals make other animals suffer all the time. If we're the same as them, then doesn't that mean it's no different when a human makes an animal suffer than when an animal does it? Animals make other animals needlessly suffer? I don't know which Discovery Channel programs you watch, but I know for a fact that any mammal predator goes straight for the neck, and gives it such large whiplash that they prey's neck snaps and is instantly dead. Bears kills fish by simply closing it's jaws on it... it does not half deep fry and poke it with a fork, still living. Every animal kills as efficiently as possible, any other technique would be a waste of energy and will never arise in the evolutionary scale of things. I feel like going "URP DERP DERP" at the end of all my posts, to make you guys understand how that's what you sound like half the time.

Deciding what can be needlessly tortured and what cannot is where you're in the wrong. Think about it. Fish, chickens, cows and grizzly bears only express themselves instinctively because that's all we expect from them. You can't just separate humans and animals on such a large scale based on what little we know about animals. I'm not saying animals are much smarter than we think - I'm saying that humans are more animalike than we think. [bleep], for centuries everybody thought humans were the only animals with souls and the only ones able to go to heaven. More and more scientists are breaking the barrier between the all powerful human and regular animals, people just decide that none of the experiments (elephants painting pictures, crows making tools, monkeys' advanced linguistic communication ect. ect. ect.) relates to anything. If you punch a puppy in the face, it probably won't come near you again. You think it's because it has a built in circuitry "instinct" that drives it to avoids the puncher, I think it's because the dog can go "this guy is an [wagon] and caused me pain, I'm going to stay away from him". No, in fact, I'm saying that both are the same. Since they are the same, they are both equally negative reactions to pain, and thus unnecessary abuse is sickening, no matter the species harmed. =D>

weeeee as of today i can bench my own weight! i only did 2 reps and i'm sure i didn't go as low as i should've, but i don't care :thumbsup:

My favourite scientist, Kary Mullis, pretty much thinks global warming is bogus based on the fact that he thinks scientists are misinterpreting their results. I remember him talking about the fact that the temperature measuring instruments are all in or close to cities, and those cities are always in expansion, adding more cement which sucks up more energy from the sun, making it hotter. Something like that. He's a brilliant guy, and that argument alone (which I only vaguely remember it's arguments) makes me weary about the legitimization of global warming. But even if global warming was a sham, one of the main goals of all the "green" protocols involves becoming independent of oil. Since the planet is obviously going to run out of oil sometime in this century, it's a good idea to start finding other, smarter energy sources before we walk into a huge problem, regardless of the motivations for the protocols.

The bounty board = faaaast exp. All you need is a party of 3+ people. You're assigned 10 monsters to kill, but each kill by a party member counts towards everybody's killcount. So you get something like 18exp for each kill, but 1500 exp for each assignment, which lasts about 2 minutes :thumbsup:

Yay, i'm finally done with the New Player regions! Time to explore :D If anyone wants to add me, my chars name is Kid Shiver level 10 mage with resurrect of course :)

*curious* Care to share? :D I'm itching to tell people about it, but it's really not appropriate for the forums. I can see myself getting banned if I told you guys any stories it's that bad.

I tried doing wide pull ups, palms facing away from me instead of facing themselves. I can only do 3... To compare, I can do around 15 "pansy" pull ups (with my palms facing each other)

9 hour long hang-over... and I was expecting some Thanksgiving special shows on TV. I couldn't hold anything down all day... not even water. I mustve puked atleast a dozen times already. Sadly I only just remembered that drinking Coke was my cure for mild alcohol poisoning, and now i'm slowly eating things. It was worth it though... the things I did and stories I heard last night will be forever remembered. Some things that happened were so crazy I honestly wasn't sure if they had happened or if they were part of my dream.

I draw the line at primates. The things people do to them.. it's just wrong. Animal cruelty to other animals doesn't go down well with me either, but it's only with primates that a little part inside of me wants me to hurt the bastards

^ No, running is very important. Eric was right, you need to do cardio every 2 days if you want a strong heart. The only way to properly do cardio is be exercising for at least 20 minutes (bare minimum!), with your heart rate in a certain "target heart rate zone". The best ways to do that is either by running or biking, since both use the biggest muscles of your body (legs). Just walking up stairs for 5 minutes won't improve anything, it'll just leave you breathless. Paw Claw has a point about nutrition... but I think what Eric was trying to get across is that one can of soda is already too much. Nobody eats fruits & vegetables anymore, and I found that just by eating a LOT of those gave me a big advantage over people I work out with.

[hide] Q1:What is something you write down to remember? A: password Q2:What is something you hear on the radio besides music? A: commercials Q3:Why might a taxi driver say he had a bad day? A: annoying wife Q4:What is something you're likely to forget in your car? A: wallet Q5:Name an item you would find in a 3-day survival kit. A: toilet paper Q6:What is something you may find on top of a mountain? A: snow Q7:What is something you would hate to find in the food your eating? A: hair [/hide]

This is actually pretty fun. Anyone know if there's pvp, and does anyone want to start up a clan?

upper arm = forearm? if you want some forearm strength, grab light dumbbells in your fingers (don't use your palm!) and let your arm dangle. then just move your wrist up & down as far as possible. the farther the weights are from your rotating wrist, the more effort and muscle you'll gain.

dude, climb accross the crumbling wall that's to the west of fally west bank. i havent ranged blue drags in over a year and i still remember this :thumbsup:

Really? I have 2 options for you : 1. Stop whining about your social life or 2. Grow a pair

Deep powder requires way too much effort to keep your nose up, but once you've got the muscles and the endurance.. there's nothing better. Not many mountains here have any unless you're lucky, I'm hoping to take a trip to Banff this winter holiday though :thumbsup:

I've done nothing for the past 4 days... I don't exercise when I have a cold (even if it's only a slight cold, I get dizzy too easily).

I'm a medical biologist. I did a bit of research which resembles the article that is discussed in this thread. Cool. What organism were you using as a model in your research? I want to do stuff like this :smile:

Meh, my experience with machines is positive. Especially for my triceps and back muscles.. Not to mention hack squats are much easier on the knees. And the calve machine. All good stuff.

You guys pay 55% of your salary to taxes? Let's not exaggerate here... cause us canadalanders pay around that amount (well, not students like me) and we all have health care.

my friend has the exact same "freeze" and "blue screen dumping" problem as you... he studied 2 years in computer tech and has no idea what any of it means, and he's just waiting for his copy of windows 7 to arrive. He'll then wipe his HD clean and install 7

Six hours after I got the vaccine I was chilling with some friends at somebody's house when I started feeling funny, and I suddenly go extremely cold, like a really bad fever spell. Luckily two girls volunteered to lay on top of me as I was shaking on the couch, but it passed in 10 minutes and I was perfectly healthy and drinking again 2 hours later. I could only imagine the state I'd be in if I actually caught the flu... I don't like being out of commission for a week unlike a lot of people here.

probably one of the most hilarious things on the internet. Where do they say it was a swine flu vaccine? I remember watching this months ago, when the vaccine was still being developed :shame: