Necromagus

It'll be easy enough for us. Last time we faced Argentina was the quarterfinals in '98, 2-1 to us.

I think it's an even bigger overblown panic than SARS was. If you want to make pointless topics, at least make them in the right board...

I guess you're talking about the Best Movie Ever thread... just keep it in there, k?

This topic has been done to death, let it rest. Also, this is Music and Movies, not Off Topic.

I wonder if his parents were really thinking when they gave him that name...

Plenty of examples around. William = Bill, Charles = Chuck, etc.

I think four out of five of those bands are accepted as power metal. Whoever wrote that list probably had very little idea what they were talking about.

I'm sorry, when was it scientifically disproven, would you mind showing me the peer-reviewed scientific journal which disproved it? Every experiment since Louis Pasteur's has shown that life can only come from life. This is a FACT. If random proteins were able to place themselves together in the right order and create life, don't you think scientists should be able to replicate this in their experiments? Pasteur's experiment only dealt with the theory of Generatio Spontanosa (sp?), a popular theory during that time that basically stated that animals could grow from trees or magically appear in garbage bags. However, that experiment holds no relevance to Miller's experiment, since there are roughly 300 years between the two. Pasteur had no idea what DNA was, or how the ancient earth functioned. He didn't even know how old the idea was. While Miller's test might not have been a perfect replica of the circumstances, it did show that amino acids could be formed from the elements in earth's atmosphere and oceans at that time. And don't forget, the Miller device may have had only hours, days or weeks to run. Earth had a few hundred million years.

It might be a good idea to split this up by time period/century, it would make it a lot easier to pick...

I think you're talking about Fahrenheit.

This is a bit different from my previous stories (The Dreamweb and The World Behind The Painting). To fully understand it, you need to know the story of Medea as told in the play by Euripides. It's a dialogue between the two sons of Medea and Jason, between the fourth episode of the play where they deliver poisoned gifts to the princess in name of their mother, and the fifth which I won't spoil for you :wink: Although this is a dialogue, there are no names. This is because the writer didn't name the children, and it didn't feel right to leave them anonymous while everybody else had a name. The characters should be pretty easy to discern for those who do know the play. --- Mama Medea ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅHave you seen mother?ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬ÃâÃ

Wow, my vote for The Godfather just leveled it :shock: Anyway, although I seriously doubt if either movie should be in the finals, The Godfather is just the better movie out of the two I guess :?

Just... leave... :? Anyway, to get some discussion going... American power metal (Iced Earth, Nevermore) or European power metal (Sonata Arctica, Hammerfall, Stratovarius)?

The wind-powered sawmill. The ability to produce lumber at an industrial scale allowed the Dutch to become the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world during the seventeenth century. It also enabled trade and exploration on a massive scale.

In a way I'm sort of dissapointed that you lot felt obliged to turn this into yet another religious discussion in stead of discussing the actual news article - someone getting beaten for what he wants to teach - but I'll play along... First of all, science has provided a very plausible theory for the origins of life, backed up with scientific findings. I don't know if you're familliar with the Miller device, it's basically a replica of the circumstances on earth 3.8 billion years ago, and it proves that the gasses in the atmosphere and the chemical components of the primordial seas, combined with high the high temperatures and high-voltage thunderstorms can create the nucleotides that formed the DNA of the first eukaryot bacteria, who gave earth it's unique oxygen-rich atmosphere and made the rest of evolution possible. As for evolution itself, tracing mitochondrial DNA has provided very clear proof about 'family lines'. Mitochondrial DNA is DNA found in the mitochondria of a cell. Due to the reproductive process it contains only maternal genetic information, and the rate of mutation is extremely low. This DNA proves, for example, that approximately two million years ago the human race almost went extinct.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=140 :D

Well there's a difference between swearing and swearing. Swearing with my parents - Bad food, bad football match - was tolerated at a certain age, but swearing at them will always cost me.

Actually, the Kansas Board of Education made it mandatory for high schools to teach alternatives to the neo-darwinistic theory of evolution.

While I could have happily traded light barbs and friendly insults with my parents, I'd probably be found dead in a ditch, strangled with the controller cable if I acted like that towards them.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/education/13337930.htm A professor of the University of Kansas was beaten by two men because he had planned to give a course on the fallacies of intelligent design and creationism in response to the plans of the Kansas Board of Education to make teaching creationism mandatory. In a country that's supposed to be a beacon of freedom, a man is stopped from teaching his ideas by a violent mob.

During my fourth year we went to a large literary convention for Dutch, lots of famous writers, poets, etc. The teacher had fallen ill at the last moment. To cheer her up I had gotten a book signed for her by one of the most famous modern Dutch writers/poets. It took a bit of elbow work and a V.I.P. pass to get in the writer's lunchroom, but from the moment I gave her the book I never got in trouble for handing my coursework in late again.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and call you the noob. There's more to being goth than just having a female vocalist. The use of synth and the composition of their guitar riffs bears all the hallmarks of (European) power metal.

A short story this time, only 1.000 words, shorter than any part of The Dreamweb. It's a rewritten version of the opening of a quest on an rp thread on another forum. I hope you're not too fond of happy endings. The world behind the painting Deep in the dead of night, Simon was woken up by the sounds of laughter and soft music. It drifted through the room, although he had no idea where it came from. He slowly got out of bed and lit an oil lamp. He didn't let it burn too bright, afraid that he'd wake up Natalya, who was still sleeping peacefully. Slowly he began to search the dimly-lit room for the source of the disturbance. He was just about to give up when his eyes passed over the painting his wife had bought him for his birthday. He wasn't sure at first if his eyes were playing tricks on him in the dim light of the oil lamp, but when he took a closer look he saw he wasn't imagining things. Wispy green humanoid things were dancing and running among the trees, barely larger than his fingernail on the canvas. Still, they were moving, making soundÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâæ As he took a closer look, he noticed that runes were trailing along the inside of the frame. Some of them he recognised, because he had used them in spells. He knew how they were pronounced, although he didn't understand their meaning. Slowly he read the runes along the bottom side of the frame, and when he finished he saw that they had begun to glow softly. Surprised, he read them a second time. For some reason the laughter and music seemed to become much louder, but when he looked over his shoulder he saw that his wife was still fast asleep. He let out a sigh of relief before he read them a third time. The rush of wind made Simon instinctively close his eyes, and when he opened them again he saw he wasn't in his bedroom anymoreÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâæ he was standing among the gigantic trees depicted in the painting, and the laughter and music were so loud now that they had to be real... He started walking, the feeling of dry leaves under his bare feet eliminating the last doubt that this might be a dream after all. Soon he stumbled across a clearing where about two dozen green-skinned women dressed in what seemed to be woven leaves, grass and tree bark were dancing. He realised that they were dryads, and he wondered what they were doing inside a painting. He vaguely remembered something about dryads being extinct for centuries, but for some reason he couldn't care about it anymore. Within seconds he was mesmerized by the dryad's magic and all he could do was stand there and watch them dance. Soon they had noticed him, and they shifted their dance so that they were now moving around him. For hours Simon just sat there, staring, completely entranced, until he suddenly noticed the sun beginning to rise. The dryads noticed it too, as they stopped dancing and walked towards him. Before he could react he was lifted by two of them and carried off effortlessly. They ran along the trees with their sisters, as if to outrun the sunlight. As he looked around, he saw that one by one the dryads collided with a tree and disappeared, until only the dryads that were carrying him remained. Then they too collided with a tree, still holding Simon between them. Instinctively he first tried to break away and then brace for impact, but the dryads wouldn't let him do either. He closed his eyes and prepared for a blow that never came. When he opened his eyes again he stood in what looked like a cavernous room carved out of the heartwood of the tree they had collided with. It was well-lit, although he didn't see a light source. Then he heard the dryads calling out his name, and when he looked around he saw them both stretched out on a pile of furs in a corner, and they beckoned him to join them. Completely dazed he walked over to them, but at the last moment something seemed to stop him. He wasn't sure why, but instead of lying down with the dryads he just picked up one of the skins and rolled it out across the room. The dryads seemed almost insulted by this, but soon they both curled up and slept, leaving the space they had reserved for him open. He didn't sleep however but just sat there, staring at the dryads and wondering where they had came from. As Simon thought things over he realised that he couldn't even tell where he had come from, it was as if he had always been here to watch the beautiful tree spirits dance. Still, one word seemed to tug at him, as if to remind him that he wasn't supposed to be thereÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâæ NatalyaÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâæ he realised it wasn't a word but a name. It was all he had to hold on to, even though he had no idea what it meant. For hours he just sat there, trapped in a painting of millennial trees among tree spirits that were supposed to be extinct for centuries, clinging to what remained of his memories and fighting against the dryad's mesmerizing charm. In the end, all resistance crumbled. Every now and then, some thoughts of resistance would still rise in his mind, but they were always quickly suppressed. He simply sat and watched for days, years, centuries. The mere sight of the dryads quenched his thirst, sated his hunger, dulled his mind. At night he would leave the tree to dance along with the tree spirits if he had the energy, or simply watch them if he didnÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢t. During the day he would seek the comfort of a dryadÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s embrace, bathing in their warmth, their comforting touch, their mesmerizing presence. Never would he leave the canvas again. His young wife was all but forgotten. She would spend the rest of her life in voluntary solitude. The wound left behind by the sudden disappearance of her husband would not heal. In the end she could not find it in her to forgive him for leaving her. She died bitter and alone, her unmarked grave unattended by children or grandchildren. The painting passed hands several times before ending up in a forgotten corridor in an old museum. Up to this day, nobody has managed to unlock its dark secret, although to this day some visitors claim to hear faint music when they watch it long enough.

Thanks, I guess :)

:? What then?