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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
$thewarangel
2 minutes ago
*raspberries every one in sb*
~CrimsonCyanide
12 minutes ago
Pretty much. Postal 2 was absolutely absurd. Great for venting, IMO, but not much elsewise.
^hatesyou
14 minutes ago
Never played it. The only thing it had going for it was controversy
~CrimsonCyanide
15 minutes ago
(In relation..) Postal? I haven't played that game in forever!
^hatesyou
16 minutes ago
Bout ready to go postal
~haikoru-sama
16 minutes ago
Too much kids around.
$acidtreat101
21 minutes ago
Yeah takes a while to learn image programs
~Gatoi
22 minutes ago
Heyo! =D How´re you Nouli and Kath?
`Bernouli
27 minutes ago
Play around in it. Sometimes that's the best way to learn.
~FrozenLaughs
29 minutes ago
I did, its jsut too complex for me
You family lineage...
2 years 9 months ago
"In heritage, I'm about as English as you can get, being an American born of Canadian parents. The family name goes back to when the Angles met the Saxons. It appears on the rolls of landowners from before the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066."View
do you have a pet?
2 years 9 months ago
"I'd call the dogs and cats pets. Other animals, not so much. My horse is a friend and companion. My red-tailed hawk, a friend and partner.They're all family, though."
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Purpose of Life
2 years 9 months ago
"The purpose of life is to understand who you are and why you're here. It isn't hard. Who you are is defined by your relationships to others. The reason you're here is to define who you are.The native Americans had a saying that each person is a house of many rooms: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual. Each room has to be aired out every day, or the house will suffer. Problems in any room will cause problems in all the others. I have always felt this to be very wise, and I have seen it to be true over and over again.
Crush the optimist? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It never fails to amaze me how pessimists think they're so important to anyone but themselves. At best, they're a joke; at worst, merely pathetic. "Oh, woe is me, I am so miserable!" Sucks to be you, huh? Tsk tsk, what a pity. You should pick a better outlook. Or suffer: that's the other option. But understand that suffering by your own ridiculous choice is nothing but inane."
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Ancient Warriors
2 years 9 months ago
"I can see being with Henry V at Agincourt.Or with Bedford at the Battle of Verneuil.
Ah, the longbow of yew is a magnificent weapon. And the broadsword."
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String Theory... do you believe?
2 years 9 months ago
"Believe in it? What's to believe in? There isn't even a completed theory to hang your hat on yet.There are five consistent perturbative superstring theories: type I, type IIA, type IIB, heterotic SO(32), and heterotic E8XE8. Once seen as distinct and competing theories, it's now recognized that they are related to one another by various dualities. The type II theories are related by T-duality, as are the two heterotic theories, and S-dualities relate type I to heterotic SO(32). Type II is intrinsically S-dual. These theories are seen as special limits of a more fundamental theory known as M-theory, which is incomplete.
Two models, matrix theory and string field theory, are seen as partial solutions to the problem of not having any consistent nonperturbative definition of string theory or M-theory. A better understanding of the nonperturbative region of string theory is absolutely essential for solving the inherent problems of the theories.
Excellent. You truly understands science. Bravo! A scientific theory is never an indisputable fact, it is never "proven true" only "not yet disproved." If it is repeatedly tested and remains unfalsified, you can have a high degree of confidence that it accurately decribes observable phenomena.
This is not yet the case with M-theory. There's a lot of work left. But it is a promising avenue for further research. Pursuit of a complete formulation of M-theory is certainly worthwhile."
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Justified War?
2 years 9 months ago
"Of course there is such thing as a just war. It all depends on motivation and behavior. Throwing off oppression, stopping a dangerous regime, establishing one's rights and freedoms, righting a wrong, fending off an unwarranted attack, protecting the welfare and security of people: all these and more are legitimate reasons to fight.For any war to be just, there must be no other option, and the force used should be proportional (limited to that which is necessary to achieve the goal), discriminatory (directed only at threats), and humane (not directed against an enemy who no longer poses a threat).
The only difference between the interactions of nations and those of individuals is one of scale. To say that no war is justified is the same as saying no fighting whatsoever is justified. That's just absurd. If someone attacks me or tries to molest my wife, I'm going to pound the ever-lovin' snot out of him. I would call a person who stands there and does nothing a coward and a fool.
Whether it's a person or a nation, when faced with a problem or a threat, you deal with it. Sometimes force is the only possible response."
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Do miracles exist?
2 years 9 months ago
"Miracles? Sure, they sang backup for Smokey Robinson.I know a guy who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It was so bad the doctors said radiation and chemotherapy might extend his life for a few more miserable months, at most.
He decided to forego medical treatment. Instead he prayed, changed his diet and lifestyle, and used other natural treatments such as Dr. Budwig's flax oil regimen.
Now, ten years later, he's in fine physical condition with no trace of cancer. Some may call that a miracle, others may point to the efficacy of natural healing methods, and still others may say it's merely a spectacular case of remission (which just means, "We have no idea what happened, but there you go.")
It all depends on your perspective. A miracle can never be proven empirically. If a presumably supernatural being appeared and gave you some information you could not otherwise have known, you may call it a miracle, but someone else would call it a hallucination or a trick, and the information simply coincidental or perhaps something you already knew but consciously forgot. Any given situation that could be described as a miracle could also be seen as a misperception, a psychotic episode or hallucination, a hoax, or mere coincidence.
The miraculous is, in part, perception: if you cannot perceive the miraculous, nothing will make you see it no matter how direct and obvious the proof. If you can perceive it, you will see that it informs even the most ordinary things."
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Pick: Fame or Fortune?
2 years 9 months ago
"I always remember the advice of Bill Murray. "I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: Try being rich first. See if that doesn't cover most of it. There's not much downside to being rich, other than paying taxes and having your relatives ask you for money. But when you become famous, you end up with a 24-hour job.""View
Space Programs
2 years 9 months ago
"Absolutely. Propagation is simply passing along somethingâ??such as informationâ??whether it's good or bad. What makes it incorrect is the lack of understanding accompanying such an observation. Shadows do converge. They are not parallel, because the world is not perfectly flat. All the more so on a smaller planetary body that has more surface curvature. Also, multiple light sources produce multiple shadows. The lack of understanding these basic scientific facts leads to incorrect conclusions based on simple observations. As I have said, there's nothing wrong with being incorrect in one's observations; only in failing to test your hypotheses to determine whether your conclusions hold up to scrutiny. In order to assist in correctly interpreting one's observations, I present relevant data.
Exactly. Doubting is very good. It takes a clever mind to think beyond the constraints of what you've been told. Simply accepting every bit of information handed you by teachers or authorities is a bad thing. Always dare to question.
Just as you put forth a fun idea for discussion, I joined the discussion with my two cents' worth. When I see incorrect information, I like to present the correct information in response, to add to the understanding of the matter under discussion."
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The Plan of Salvation and Christianity
2 years 9 months ago
"C14 dating is very accurate for about 4000 years. For anything older than that, even experts agree that carbon dating is very unreliable.
Because we have copies of manuscripts that go back thousands of years, and we can compare those manuscripts against the text we have today and determine that there are minimal copyist errors."
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santa claus...
2 years 9 months ago
"I will always believe in Santa. He's a symbol of generosity, warmth and good feeling for our fellow man. He's alive in every one of us when we embody those values."View
Who plays badminton?!
2 years 9 months ago
"I haven't played in ages, but it is a blast. Just thinking about it makes me want to buy a badminton set."View
a christmas gift^^
2 years 9 months ago
"Hmmm. There are some DVDs I wouldn't mind having that I haven't gotten around to picking up yet. Futurama, Firefly, several movies. I could always use some books. Tools, as well. And clothes. A new compound bow would be nice. I wouldn't mind a guitar floor effects processor. And a multitrack recorder."View
The Plan of Salvation and Christianity
2 years 9 months ago
"I almost forgot about another Islamic group, the followers of Hassan-i-Sabbah, the Hashshashin. Our word assassin comes from them. The death toll from this group is staggering.Then there are the Aztecs. Their religion had special holidays each year when thousands of people were taken captive in war raids and sacrificed in a single day. In any given decade they would have killed many more than all Christian persecution combined.
Hindu spiritualism is largely very peaceful and benign, but they have produced many violent death cults centering on the worship of Kali. One such are the Thugee, whose members were called Thugs. Human sacrifice to Kali has been prevalent in parts of India for many, many centuries. Just a couple centuries ago, a boy was sacrificed every day in a Kali temple in Calcutta. Who can number the many, many tens of millions killed by these cults?
As far as the designation of cult goes ... well, that just depends on your definition. There's the negative definition of a religion considered unorthodox or spurious. But cult also means simply a system of religious beliefs and rituals, without any negative context. Or it can designate a small group, perhaps a new religious sect, whose beliefs are contradictory to the mainstream. That certainly applies to the early church.
Within the context of Christianity, the term is specifically applied to a group that distorts Biblical doctrine, especially any doctrine concerning salvation.
This is why it's so important to define your terms; otherwise you can't possibly understand the issue.
In the earliest days of Christianity, the followers of Jesus were considered to be just another sect of Judaism. Some felt them to be a wonderful new Messianic sect, others felt they were a dangerous and heretical sect. Many were indifferent.
After a period of tolerance, the Romans came to consider the Christians dangerous. This happened in part because they were identified with Judaism and when the Jewish Revolt of 66 AD brought the hammer of Rome down, the Christians were caught in the middle.
Additionally, every member of the Empire was expected to pledge allegiance to the Roman gods and Emperor, and the Jews and Christians simply would not do that. Christians were considered even more dangerous to the order and stability of the Empire than Jews because Christians converted Gentiles. Lots of Roman citizens and soldiers were converting, throwing their allegiance into question. I can see where they would find that threatening."
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Space Programs
2 years 9 months ago
"There's no problem with questioning the evidence for yourself. But that entails evaluating the evidence to see whether it stands up to your hypothesis.
Creating and propagating scientifically unsound buffoonery is simply inane. Buying into the moon landing hoax absurdity is no different from coming across the Flat Earth Society website and then telling everyone the earth is flat. It's precisely the same thing. It's up to rational people to evaluate the evidence before accepting the position, whatever it is.
No problem. I saw you had some questionsâ??which is goodâ??and thought it would be helpful to provide some evidence for you to evaluate."
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The Plan of Salvation and Christianity
2 years 9 months ago
"As I already said, the Mongols were Islamic. The 30-60 million death toll in the 13th century from that single group is far more than the total for all Christian persecution across the centuries. The jihads that established Islam were responsible for many more. The death toll in Greater India has been estimated at many further tens of millionsâ??more even than the total for the Mongolsâ??though Muslims and Hindus have both been the persecutors and persecuted there. Across the centuries? Who can say?
But what of it? Persecution is committed by flawed people. Christianity seeks to address the problem. Some people learn the lesson, some don't. Can't blame the religion for the flaws of some of its followers. Even many Christian leaders have been horribly flawed people. But Christianity doesn't advocate that behavior.
People are just people. Some are very good, some are very bad. Most fall somewhere in the middle. People can be hypocritical, cruel, greedy, treacherous, stupid, and so on. So can Christians; Christians are just people. Flawed people. They aren't perfect. Not even close. If they're sincere they will try to be better. Many will fall short of the mark. That's just the way people are.
It's important to note here that in the Dark Ages and most of the medieval period, the Catholic church controlled all Biblical information. Most people couldn't even read the Bible to decide for themselves what it said about how to behave. And there were a lot of very bad people in charge of the church heirarchy throughout that period, people who were attracted to the incredible political power of the church rather than the spiritual aspect.
People could be easily convinced that it was right to engage in terrible behavior simply by telling them that the Bible says it's good. How would they know? They can't open the Book and check. That's the reason there was so much bad behavior in that era. Unspiritual, power-hungry leaders in the church, and ignorance of truth in the followers.
The lessons from that period are that ignorance of the Bible is bad, and that unbridled political power attracts unscrupulous people and is bad for the church. Combine the two and you have a very volatile mixture."
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what is the true meaning of 'nerd'
2 years 9 months ago
"Basically, a nerd is a geek without social skills or fashion sense."
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The Plan of Salvation and Christianity
2 years 9 months ago
"What you said was:Some groups other than Christians who killed many, many more people include the Stalinists, Maoists and Mongols. Now you can think of other groups who are responsible for much more death.
The Mongols were Islamic, by the way."
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The Plan of Salvation and Christianity
2 years 9 months ago
"Well, yeah, that's the point. We're comparing deaths attributable to Christian persecution with those which are not. You couldn't think of another group besides Christians so I provided some.
He actually became General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1922. He achieved total control after a struggle with Trotsky in the 20's. But yes, he did a lot of killing in a very short time.
The death toll from all the Crusades combined is estimated to be about 1.5 million. So those deaths inflicted by Christians would be roughly 750,000. Witch hunts, about 50-60,000. The Inquisition, maybe as high as 32,000, though some of those would be duplications of the witch hunt total.
Some claim higher figures, some lower, but these are the figures that the majority of historians agree to. That gives us a total of 842,000. Just to be on the safe side, let's bump that figure by 50% for a total of about 1.26 million.
With one notable exception to consider in a moment, these deaths by far account for the majority of those that can be attributed as persecution by Christians. Nonetheless, let's triple that figure in order to err on the conservative side in considering a total. That would give us a figure of 3.8 million.
Then of course there were the French Wars of Religion between Catholic and Huguenot factions that were responsible for 2-4 million deaths, but that's hard to account for. Much of it was purely political in nature. The Huguenots were certainly the persecuted faction, but not all their deaths could be attributed to religious persecution. Considering other such internecine conflicts, we should probably add a couple million to the total for about 6 million.
By contrast, those deaths attributed to Stalinâ??excluding WWII war-related deaths, which could hardly be considered persecutionâ??range from 20 to 30 million. From Mao, totalling the deaths from purges, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the labor camps we get an estimated figure of 40,000,000. Remember, these happened in a matter of decades, compared to the centuries considered for the Christian total.
The Mongols were responsible for 30-60 million deaths in the 13th century."
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Superstitions
2 years 9 months ago
"I like the one about how walking under a ladder is bad luck. Well, yeah, especially if there's someone up there. You wouldn't want to accidentally get hit on the head by a dropped can of paint or a hammer."View
what is the true meaning of 'nerd'
2 years 9 months ago
"It's amazing how usage changes the meanings of words. A geek is now an extremely intelligent person, usually associated with technology. It used to be a sideshow performer who bit the heads off live chickens."View
The Plan of Salvation and Christianity
2 years 9 months ago
"The regimes of the Nazis, Stalinists, Pol Pot and Mao. Any one of these groups were responsible for far more deaths. If you just use the category of totalitarian Communists for the latter three, the figure is staggeringly huge. The Mongols. Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution."View
what is the true meaning of 'nerd'
2 years 9 months ago
"The word nerd was invented by Dr. Seuss. It was a creature in the book If I Ran the Zoo.The most common usage is someone who is intellectual but lacks a sense of style and is socially inept."
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Space Programs
2 years 9 months ago
"The idea that the lunar missions were faked is an absurdity based on misinformation and a complete lack of scientific knowledge and understanding.Scientists routinely collect data by bouncing a laser off the corner cube reflector arrays placed on the moon by the Apollo astronauts. The Laser Ranging Retro-Reflectors are an indisputable scientific fact, verified by scientists around the world.
The imaging that we have of the moon's surface would be impossible without having been in orbit around that body.
Then there's the matter of 841 pounds of moon rocks that astronauts collected and brought back to Earth. They are completely different from any rocks on Earth. Their unique mineral content and clear, distinctive evidence of exposure to solar wind, high-energy cosmic radiation and meteoroid impacts show clearly that they don't come from anywhere on this planet. Hundreds of trained geologists the world over have verified this.
I can't wait to see the high resolution moon mapping images from Japan's SELENE (SELenological and ENgineering Explorer) Project in 2007."
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Is there a "Selfless Good Deed"?
2 years 9 months ago
"This is a very good point. It's not a strict dichotomy between black and white, not a binary situation. A given act falls between degrees on a scale from absolute selflessness to absolute selfishness. Absolute selflessness is so rare in part because extreme situations calling for such an act are very rare.
If doing good things makes you feel good, you're a good person. It's as simple as that. A bad person is one who doesn't care. Doing good things doesn't make such a person feel good.
That feeling is a built in part of being a good person. If that's all your motivation is, that's a positive thing. If doing good makes you feel good it just means that you are a compassionate person. Otherwise it would not make you feel good. You simply wouldn't care. Feeling good about doing good is not so much a reward as a measure of your values."
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