Viktorkrum77

Yea, I never realized what sort of repercussions this will have. Floating hotels are ugly, they are giant boxes like Freedom of the Seas. Now, the Queen Mary II, that's a strikingly beautiful ship. That's how ships should be built, but alas, transatlantic/transpacific isn't very common now-a-days, and it's all about fitting everything you can on the ship, instead of making a beautiful looking streamline liner. What? Lol, I just love mass destruction especially on that sort of scale, and in that sort of familiar backdrop (mostly the capsize).

While I agree that the electoral college should be abolished, it's not that easy. It will lead to candidates like those for the 2008 Presidency only traveling to highly populated states and cities. This will lead to a lot of smaller states being ignored. It's a loose loose situation.

44,824,000 pounds!?! I know cruise ships are massive, but that's just insane. Insane? That ship is tiny compared to the 148,528 ton Queen Mary II and 154,407 ton Freedom of the Seas. Here's some additional info:

I would assume since it was near and island that the reef was pretty big, so I'm sure it's ok. Yea, they're looking for possible terrorists and interviewing the captain and his assistants and such.

I myself cannot believe this, a real modern cruise ship actually sank. The Sea Diamond struck a volcanic coral reef while on a cruise around Greece, and all the passengers have been rescued except 2 French passengers who are unknown. The ship sank 15 hours after taking on water sometime this morning. When the ship struck the reef it tilted half way to 90 degrees, and passengers evacuated amongst flying glass and furniture. Full article here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04 ... index.html This for me is hard to fathom. I mean, this cruise ship is full of modern technology, TV's, computers, a night club full of expensive lights and DJ equipment, restaurants, shops, a casino full of money :P, numerous cabins, lounges, a professional galley, etc, and all this flew everywhere with the tilt, and now it's all underwater. What an eerie site that must be. It'd be like looking at your house underwater rotting and rusting. The whole ship actually capsized while half way above water and half way under, meaning everything went UPSIDE DOWN, that's crazy IMHO. The idea of it all is actually pretty cool. Like the movie Poseidon. :D

In normal circumstances I would agree with you, however I feel that it is dangerous to be making posts like Viktor is. To sum it up, he is making up his own theory and passing it off very confidently on this public message board until someone questions it. A "theory" that is as loose as it turned out to be should never have any place in a real discussion because it throws off any chance at intellectual debate. Nothing against Viktor personally, I just believe that such speculation should never pop up like it did. It just doesn't make any sense. Actually, the hormone part is from a report filed by some religious Baptist leader, and the maladaptation came off Wikipedia.

Which is a first... :P

You agree that your own theory doesn't really make sense? Does that make sense for you to do that? I agree that my own theory is incomplete and needs major reworking.

I agree, but I cannot respond any further. I'm sure scientists know for sure the answer to that question regarding heterosexuality.

So it is your belief that people are born straight, and then during puberty a hormone is triggered that makes them homosexual? I really can't answer that question. I would assume no, but I haven't the knowledge to give it the thought it's deserving of. Magekillr, the problem is, (and you wouldn't know this) but homosexuality is more tempting then any sexual immorality. It's a preference, not acting on it is almost pure torture, I'd rather be stabbed in the back and left to bleed to death in an iron maiden then resist these types of preference.

My experience with people who are homosexual is that they knew they were at around age 6-7. The only confusion they felt was from society telling them they were supposed to think differently. 6-7 is long before puberty would have even begun starting. Hmm, my experiences were around age 10, or US sixth grade.

1. It can't be shown it is genetic. 2. If it was genetic then every pair of identical twins that had one homosexual member would mean automatically that both of them were homosexual. That isn't the case. 3. They can't find a "gay" gene. 4. People have reverted from being homosexual which wouldn't be possible if it was genetic. I personally think people are born with natural inclinations but these natural inclinations are not written in stone which is what would happen if it was purely genetic. Just because someone had the natural inclination to have a short temper and want to beat their head against a tree when they got mad doesn't mean "God made them this way so we should just accept how God made them and let them be." It is the same concept. I think we can remove genetics from the question. As I said before, it is most likely the result of a hormone triggered around puberty (which explains why people are confused throughout puberty before coming out of the closet, and can also explain bisexuality). And this hormone would be the product of a maladaptation, look it up.

I'm studying Hinduism, currently reading the Bhagavad Gita. And I'd like to read about other Dharmaic religions, as well as Islam.

The UN has a survey each year that ranks the best countries. http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/soc ... report.htm You could also look up the UN's Human Development Report (HDR), but all I found on the UN's website was 100's of links to PDF's and the such, and I didn't feel like searching through them all. However I do know that Norway has been ranked the best for 6 consecutive years as of 2006.

This is the UK. :wink:

Hands down Steven Colbert, followed by Carlos Mencia, and Jon Stewart.

I want to emphasize Nadril's point. Would you do this Serephurus?

You have nice friends. If my friend was bleeding from his eye I'd be on the phone with the ambulance in seconds, or trying to find someone and offering all the assist I can. I've never broken anything. The worst I've done is gouge my hand with a corner of glass.

Yeah, teenage boys (unlike girls, who are comfortable mostly even touching other girls) get afraid in the site of gay guys because they for some odd reason think the gay guy finds them attractive, despite they're straight. This often makes you think, why are they worrying about that so much. :-s For the record: flamboyant is way not my type.

Actually that is a theory and not a fact at this point. Unfortunately, yes, it is just a theory, but is most likely linked to a hormone triggered around puberty as the result of a maladaptation like left-handedness.

What do they sing at sporting events?

Nosefire FTW?

In short, I like a National Anthem to be about the country. Plus, I don't like the tune to "God Save The Queen". It's like a funeral dirge. It's a bit better then Germany's National Anthem, "Deutschland, Deutschland ÃÆÃâÃâüber alles! ÃÆÃâÃâ¦Ã¢â¬Åber alles in der Welt!" (Germany, Germany above all! Above anything in the world!)

However it was, I was just trying to show that I do not make blind judgments.