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__THISRES__81653.jpg "Fly... by °Phill 2 months 1 week ago")
^nat
This wallpaper captures the urban essence that proliferated the art of Ghost in the Shell in every incarnation of the series. Phill does an amazing job of capturing a moment of surrealism.
While there are a few, stray building angles and shadows, you find that your eye forgives the minor details and instead focuses on the overall scene that is larger than life, with lights trailing off into infinity.
While there are a few, stray building angles and shadows, you find that your eye forgives the minor details and instead focuses on the overall scene that is larger than life, with lights trailing off into infinity.
ShoutBox
~enma13
1 hour 17 minutes ago
Crayon Shinchan!!
~Youngster
1 hour 23 minutes ago
Shin-Chan
~LenasLover
1 hour 23 minutes ago
You're probably right.
~Roxas
1 hour 23 minutes ago
Well it does doesnt it?
~enma13
1 hour 25 minutes ago
?
~haikoru-sama
1 hour 26 minutes ago
What's that dude again? That dancing one?
$damoser
1 hour 29 minutes ago
Maybe it's just you becca. and as you descend from the normal it seems more strange.
~Youngster
1 hour 29 minutes ago
~LenasLover
1 hour 30 minutes ago
This place gets stranger every day.
~enma13
1 hour 31 minutes ago
Konnichiwa....
Should the US Pay Reparations to Iraq?
1 year 9 months ago
"Is that truly so? The US had been barking up Iraq's tree for years. I have a hard time thinking the world would be upset at the US for not being World Cop. That would be refuting the U.N.'s constant annoyance and objection at the number of such cases the US involves itself in. take a look at the situation in Darfur and other places where genocide and other horrible events are occuring. North Korea's nuclear testing is another example. I think the world would be more upset if . . . say . . . Saudia Arabia did not respond or Russia did not respond to Iraq blowing up countries. It's illogical and (as we have seen) terribly costly for us to police such an unfamiliar and remote area.
Remember that we are not "the good guys". It's not our job to respond to all the perceived wrongs in the world. We can expect our leaders to move when a tyrant threatens the peace and safety of the world, but suspicion of having the ability to maybe one day make a move on a small scale does not a world tyrant make, sir. Granted, Saddam molested Kuwait (our oil) and killed many innocent Kurds for religious/personal reasons. He will pay for that now. The issue, indeed, is the same for us. Should we pay for the destruction of innocent Iraqi towns? Since we, fully knowing the WMD thing was bunk, charged in without any regard for the U.N. resolution . . . Does that give us the right to say "I told you so?" I don't think that's a logical argument.
Regards, Aaron"
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will you believe?
1 year 9 months ago
"*smiles wryly*Well . . . for those of you who do believe in this nonsen . . . err . . . possibility, there are two books you can read.
(For those of you who don't believe in oogy boogy, these are still excellent and fun books to read).
Max Brooks has written two books:
The Zombie Survival Guide -- a not-so-tounge-in-cheek book about what zombies are and how to kill them. More importantly, it gives survival strategies and weapon comparisons. My friend and I have gone through the checklist and are prepared for the zombie apocalypse. (*it was really fun to pretend and drive our wives crazy*)
World War Z -- a mock-u-mentary style book that is genuinely scary and exceedingly well written. Even a hardened zombie film buff like myself had to put it down a few times.
Seriously, read these books. They are great. The Zombie Survival Guide is my single favorite book. I even have it on tape.
Regards, Aaron"
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Should the US Pay Reparations to Iraq?
1 year 9 months ago
"*applauds quietly*
Sir, you have cut this issue to the quick. I have two words for you . . . religious . . . right.
The "holy purging" of the brown folks in the middle east is far more in tune with that agenda than social justice for crimes against humanity and general greed on behalf of those pushing the agenda. It's despicable.
I will get on this boat with you. However, bear in mind that regardless of whether or not the people (Bush, Rumsfeld, etc.) are held responsible for the war (*hah*), it will not heal the wounds or rebuild the houses. Be careful not to let your hopes draw you away from the real solution. We need a change in mind set with regards to the world, not just a coup de etat or token gesture. I think that the US turning the money over to a committee of nations, Iran and Iraq included (as well as a determined amount from the Arab states and other European nations) would do far more to help the Iraqi people. If we just go down there and build a bunch of stuff, it will give the sectarians something to blow up in the name of (insert reason/religious idea here).
We need global unity, and the US needs to make the first move. We jumped in with both feet, and now we need help to get out of it without drowning.
Regards, Aaron"
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Do you wake up in a bad mood?
1 year 9 months ago
"*looks surprised*I never thought that might be the cause! I'm type AB, and I have low blood pressure also. That is so weird. Stella often comments that I'm particularly taciturn in the morning. I'm never grouchy with her, because she's so full of sunshine when she wakes up (type B). I'm gonna have to get some more info on this from my friend in medical school.
I wonder if it's worth trying to fight it?
Regards, Aaron"
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Sex before marriage?
1 year 9 months ago
"*looks over the top of his glasses, dean pan expression*
That's a joke, right? I'm sure that's a joke. There is nothing in the Buddhist faith that says sex is anything but sex. It's not good to lust after people, because that is a desire which will make you miserable. However, there is no chance anyone screaming about hell and sex sending you to hell could be a Buddhist. I think it's a common tactic to use Buddhism as a convenient "neutral ground" when trying to justify religion. It is neither neutral, nor should be used in a deceptive and uninformed way like this.
This thread is dangerously close to becoming a flame-fest, and is therefore approaching getting closed. Please remember the point is marriage and not a specific religion per se. Any domestic union can qualify for purposes of answering the question objectively. Thank you for understanding. I'd love to see more view points on this before the hammer comes crashing down.
Regards, Aaron"
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Have a problem with my donation
1 year 9 months ago
"Only one person on the site can take care of this for you, which is Bantam, the developer. When you donated, the screen asked you to wait at least 24 hours for your benefits.Since Bantam has been having some trouble with his internet connection lately (look at the 5 or 6 other topics of the same type and title), you might have a bit of a longer wait. If you get impatient, private message Bantam with the Transaction ID from PayPal and a polite message.
That is really all you can do but wait. Take care!
Regards, Aaron"
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Who can we trust?
1 year 9 months ago
"You could always do like I do . . . make friends! I have a friend who is an IT professional, and I always buddy up to the IT department at my workplace. If something goes wrong, I ask them how much it would be to fix it myself, and how much it would cost to upgrade it if possible. Then, I go buy the parts myself. If it turns out to be wrong, I just return the part.Stella got a Gateway computer, and Gateway is amazing about repairs. They send a box the next day, you pack the tower in the box, send it back in for free, and they fix it and send it back immediately. Whole process takes 10 days, and it's totally free with regards to the warranty. Problem is, you get a bare-bones system for a medium-high price with a lot of pre-loaded crap you don't need riddling your HD. I spent more in after markets to get it up to speed than any repair bill would have been for a home modder. It makes the computer easy to deal with for Grandma or the non-tech savvy.
Definitely learn how to take your computer apart and put it back together. A lot of "repairs" involve you re-seating components, and you can get reamed like this video says by "minimum service charges".
Regards, Aaron"
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Theories about the Black Hole, Time Travelling and other dimensions.
1 year 9 months ago
"You mean the thing about Bigfoot wasn't true? What about the show about Hitler and the aliens? He he.
They show the same programs on all their channel, in succession. I saw the Super Massive Black Hole show three times on the Science Channel. They kinda present the show as if its a "Could be . . ." thing. Every scientific fact on that show is presented as if it's "Ripley's Believe it or Not". The theory of showing both sides of an issue is annoying at best and causes bias at worst.
MooMooCow, look for books by Dr. Michio Kaku and Stephen Hawking. Brian Greene has a great book called "The Fabric of the Universe", which goes for the time travel thing. Also, Lawrence M. Kruass has a book called "The Physics of Star Trek", which is an awesome read. Compare and contrast! (^.^)
Regards, Aaron "
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Should the US Pay Reparations to Iraq?
1 year 9 months ago
"*pushes his glasses up and stares blankly*You mean . . . we should pay for all the money we paid to destroy all their money? C'mon, man. The US government won't even pay for University schooling or healthcare! You think they want to pay people we are all hot to kill for killing most of them? Sheesh. You don't know our rotten governmental system very well.
I'm sure that if the Iraqi people converted to Christianity and flew little American flags everywhere, we would give them bountiful aid and love them for all eternity. Sadly, since they are a proud, religious people who believe in the veracity of their god and the traditions of their ancestors, they will not do this. So, we will continue to "police" them and any other people who do not submit to our capitalist/pseudo Christian agenda.
But perhaps I am remiss. George Bush is on the way out, so perhaps the strong tincture of religious right will fade back into the obscurity it richly deserves and humanity will swell up to take its place. I doubt it, but I can still hope. If we were to pay "reparations", I can only hope that we pay them in a way that they can be used. Just throwing money on a bleeding wound does little to heal the bleeding person. Instead, we should cooperate with other countries (*gasp*) by providing healthcare, construction equipment (not paying Haliburton), and of course shipping tons of surplus food into the area, rather than letting it rot to support Con Agra. Of course, a huge influx of aid money to the appropriate organization with a global mission of peace wouldn't hurt, either, but unfortunately board seats in those organizations are held by . . . you guessed it . . . cronies of the very administration that spent about $30 billion blowing the measly hell out of the place for years.
As much as I hate to say it, we should care of those we have wronged . . . but we won't. As in every other war and "police action", when we finally do leave Iraq, the power vacuum will create an even more menacing hatred than we could possibly imagine.
Regards, Aaron"
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Theories about the Black Hole, Time Travelling and other dimensions.
1 year 9 months ago
"*rubs his hands together excitedly*I should be working right now, but this is a perfect subject for me. I love studying this sort of thing, and it's a great topic for reading about.
Black holes and such: Stephen Hawking "A Brief History of Time" or "The Universe in a Nutshell", Michiko Kaku (any of many)
String Theory, Time Warping: Brian Greene - The Fabric of the Universe
Scientifically speaking, entering a black hole would essentially rip your body into quarks and consume you completely. No part of your body would escape except for a stream of x-rays (your subatomic particles being fired out as energy), and it's universally accepted that your life would end with merciful speed. The reason for this is simple. A black hole is an amount of mass that approaches infinity being crushed into a "singularity" or spot whose density approaches zero. This creates a gravity flux that is literally inescapable by any known particles other than X-rays. Not even light is fast enough to escape, and nothing goes faster than light. Past the black hole's "event horizon", which is the point at which light is trapped, your body would literally be pulled atom from atom in a "spaghetti" effect. Your feet would be moving faster than your knees, which would move faster than your hips, and so on. Dead. The good news is, you would theoretically not know it, because your brain wold no longer be transmitting the electric pulses that register pain or life.
On the subject of time travel, Brian Greene touches on the one major problem that physics presents with time travel. Imagine that time is a loaf . . . that the universe moves forward with an inexorable certainly called "the arrow of time". The easiest way to test this is to drop an egg. Splat. Now . . . un-splat the egg. Hard to do, eh? The reason for this is that as we move in three dimensions, we are simultaneously moving in the fourth dimension of time, hurtling through space as time marches by. To leave this march is fairly easy, from what we can tell. We just have to propel ourselves at a speed that approaches light speed. This is not out of our ability to observe. The thing that is interesting about this is the closer you get to light speed, the slower time goes for you while everything else in the universe continues to march at the same speed. Instant time travel! It's observable that you can go "forward" by making time slow for yourself. The problem is, there is no observable way that you can go backward. You can go as slow as you want in space, but you are still moving at the same speed or faster as everything else in the universe. Essentially, there is no "reverse" in space, so you can't take yourself back in time. So . . . if science wants to develop a way to jump forward, we just have to be sure we are ready to not come back.
Regards, Aaron"
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Pirates or Ninjas
1 year 9 months ago
"*snort*Jeez Marie. What the heck kinda topic is this?
"Pirates" were primarily English seafarers that stole things, and "ninjas" are highly trained martial artists or tacticians. To attempt to compare the two is beyond insipid.
*EDIT* Also, read this --> http://www.animepaper.net/forums/General-Discussion/42158/
It's the sticky clearly posted at the top of the forum that has a specific restriction on "vs" threading. Read it before creating another thread to prevent it from being locked.
Regards, Aaron"
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Sex before marriage?
1 year 9 months ago
"Shut up, man! My wife is in the room! It most certainly IS a permission certificate! Sheesh! (^.^)
Anyway, just to give this topic a bit of perspective from both sides . . . My wife was not my first. I thought I had met my life partner early in my life, and she was very interested in having sex. Few young men that I know would pass up the opportunity to have sex with someone they are attracted to, much less with a person that is supposed to be your "lover". I only slept with one other woman, other than my wife, so I can say to my credit that I wised up.
Stella, on the other hand, waited until we were married. Her grandmother was extremely strict and kept her on a very short leash. As a result of that, and the fact that she was terrified of getting pregnant or worse, she didn't have sex (even with me) until she was married.
Now, not to give too much information, let me just say that I am grateful that I knew what I was doing for her sake. I'm sort of honored that she waited for me, but I would have loved her just as much either way. It's not who you've been with, but who you ARE with that counts.
But if you do have sex, wrap it up. If you can't for some crazy reason . . . get yourself tested for HIV. It's free in most places, and it can save your life. There is really no reason to have unprotected sex in this day and age. Condoms are cheap and plentiful.
Regards, Aaron"
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Life
1 year 9 months ago
"*pushes his glasses up, grim expression on his face*I would pray that the world would finally be at peace, with mankind no longer needing to value itself with paper and gold. I would pray that we would all come together to protect, feed, and provide as our ancestors did. I would pray that the fire would warm and the sword would be a plowshare again. I would pray that the grass would be our pillow, and the morning dew would be our alarm clock. I would pray that love would be the coin of the world.
I would also be sorely disappointed. Without the valuing power of money, and the appeasing qualities it has for the world, we would fly into chaos. People would kill and steal and grasp at whatever they could to increase their personal value. Without "money", we would just find another value system . . . food . . . clothing . . . slaves?
I would pray for man to give up their dependence on money . . . but my own desires would make a hypocrite of me.
Regards, Aaron"
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Have you ever been scolded for watching too much anime?
1 year 10 months ago
"*frowns pitifully*My wife yells at me sometimes. Well, she doesn't yell. But her attitude yells at me.
I can't say I blame her. She is an executive for an anime company, so getting home and having to endure more "work" is tough. Especially when I watch some of her company's anime. I can tell when she's having one of those days, and if I try to keep watching it until the end, she kinda whines and tries to block the screen or get my attention.
Regards, Aaron"
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AntiVirus
1 year 10 months ago
"When on a PC, I use NOD32. It's sooo tiny, resource wise. Whereas the other programs will slow your system down and give you a lot of stupid warning screens and such, NOD doesn't.The file size is ridiculously small, and it has won awards for being the best "wild" virus stopper (killing a new virus even without an update). You can download the free client and see for yourself.
Enjoy!
Regards, Aaron"
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Megatokyo Walls
1 year 10 months ago
"*nods in agreement*I would have to agree with Odeena. While they are a good start for a wall, Taters and Pink in particular have given specific examples of walls that are "too simple", and sketch negatives on a letterboxed BG with stock fonts qualifies as very simple.
Using a stock image of some kind, or perhaps doing something fun like adding a drawing board and some pencils, eraser shavings, etc. would make a great wall. Also, I would have at least changed the color scheme. It seems kinda meh to just go green for all three.
Good idea, though! MT is great. I only read two web comics, and that is one of the two.
Regards, Aaron"
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Suggestion:Pending Wallpapers
1 year 10 months ago
"You might wanna check the thread titled "Your AP", which is about this kind of suggestion. Check and make sure no one has done it already, though.Regards, Aaron"
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change name on profile
1 year 10 months ago
"You can't change your username, as far as I know. What does it matter, anyway? Some people with really weird names are actually great people to talk to!Regards, Aaron"
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about saving
1 year 10 months ago
"*thinks for a minute*It doesn't let you choose what file format you use? Hmm . . . mine always downloads as a JPEG regardless. Of course, I have a Mac.
When you download it, make sure that there's not a drag box under the file name that will let you change it to JPEG format.
Regards, Aaron"
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Insects
1 year 10 months ago
"*nods in agreement*That beetle macro owns. It's a attractive shot. Well done. I find insects and smaller life forms to be amazing. On Discover Channel in the US, we recently had a show about ants. It's incredible to see how such small creatures can do so much.
Thanks for sharing your talent! Have a great day!
Regards, Aaron"
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Byebye uTorrent
1 year 10 months ago
"*rubs his hands together happily*
Mac version? No more Tomato Torrent? WHOO HOO! I prayed for this moment. Thank you, SmkViper. You have made my night.
Regards, Aaron"
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Byebye uTorrent
1 year 10 months ago
"*curses and fumes*Son a of a dirty . . . Is nothing sacred? This is the only torrent program that haven't bollocks-ed up yet. I share your silent tears.
I'd just keep using µTorrent for now, since they can't reverse engineer the program from your machine. Some day, an "update" will come down the pipe and it will suck. BitComet is too dang bulky to jump to until you have to. It's just got a lot of crap going on an the memory usage is teh suck.
Good luck, and I will be using it with you. If you go down, I'm going with ya! ;)
Regards, Aaron"
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Will u guys do something stupid???
1 year 10 months ago
"*blinks with confusion*I assume you mean when we are "bored" rather than boring. Well, I'll get this in before they lock the thread ( http://www.animepaper.net/forums/General-Discussion/42158/ specifically mentioned).
When I am "bored", I try to focus on the feeling it gives me. You'll find yourself being less bored if you employ your mind to discovering how your mind works. I don't do anything crazy or stupid, because that would certainly break the monotony! How could you be bored when also being crazy?
Regards, Aaron"
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Crimes against humanity
1 year 10 months ago
"*snickers*Kurokaji . . .
Maybe those guys are doing the "Temple of Doom" badguy look. Makes me want to pull out my pistol and bull whip and go to work. Fat load of good those things will do against nerve gas / tear gas. I know from experience that that greasy tear gas smoke goes right through cotton. Living in New York has it's disadvantages . . . like walking through tear gas on the way to work.
Regards, Aaron"
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What is your fav. name?
1 year 10 months ago
"Uh oh.http://www.animepaper.net/forums/General-Discussion/42158/ (re: does not encourage discussion)
I think this one is gonna get closed soon. Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Numantinus, which is an actual Roman name (fairly important fellow, as well) is a pretty good one.
Regards, Aaron
"
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