Aperson

Propaganda won't be too hard if governments decide to start... The ones who are doing this are... we'll say evil, the ones who arenÔÇÖt, arenÔÇÖt. The ones who condone the actions are A) Lazy and Bastards and the ones who don't, arenÔÇÖt. Labelling a bunch of people because of what a (obviously vocal) minority is doing is inane.

quote: Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, condemned the cartoon depictions in a posting on his website Jan. 31. "We strongly denounce and condemn this horrific action," al-Sistani said. However, the cleric did not encourage any protests and he even placed some responsibility on militant Muslims for the negative way that Islam is depicted, AP reported. quote: Syed Soharwardy, of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, appeared on Canada AM Friday saying that Canadian Muslims were upset but that they were dealing with the situation constructively, by emailing and phoning officials. "The Muslims in Canada, they are outraged," Soharwardy said. "They are expressing their anger through peaceful means they are protesting against these horrible cartoons that have offended Muslims around the world." Link

link quote: A spokesman for the U.S. forces in Iraq said warning shots were fired at the Canadian envoy's car when it apparently attempted to pass an American military convoy. quote: However, Canadian consular official Michelle Cameron, who was travelling in the vehicle at the time of the incident, told a different story. Cameron told CTV News that the Canadian convoy was keeping a good distance and that no one in her vehicle saw any hand signals from the Americans to indicate they were too close.

They're kind of late on that one...

Yep, its a conservative minority. So, in (less than) two years you'll see this thread again.

Well today's the elections and tomorrow (or tonight if you stay up late enough and care) we find out who won, since it can pretty much go any way. Now, does it say anything that the election coverage is preceded by three comedy shows?

quote:Originally posted by Wolferz: ... the players are still paying to beta test a sloppy piece of code. Isn't that part of the defination of any MMO?

I'm of the opinion that character skill based games require different player skills than games that are totally player skill-based. One focuses empahsis on the planning stage, while the other puts emphasis on the actual kill-things stage. Granted, most MMORPGs have be all, end all items that take away any of the planning required.

[qoute]Anyway, there are times when the Earth's orbit takes it closer to the Sun.[/qoute] The variation of the orbit right? If so, how much closer? Because if it is less than the Earth's distance from the sun at its aphelion minus its perihelion (well, maybe a bit less) then we can conclude that it probably has ,if anything, a negilgable effect. However if the Earth's axis of rotation compared to the sun changes (I think it does), then there should be a notciable effect on the seasons. If you were talking about the Eliptical nature of Earth's orbit (which I doubt) then from what I understand, the relativly small distance change has pretty much no effect on the temperature of the planet.

quote:Originally posted by Mordax Blyrr: WoW + red moon rising? I think u got something confused here, as WoW + Ironforge indicates World of Warcraft as far as I know. No offense, just trying to keep this discussion going on two tracks in case WoW means something else to you Darkling. Wow as in the expression, i.e. "Gee wow, that's nifty" type of thing, not World of Warcraft.

quote:Originally posted by Cmdr. GamlnKiller: Merry Happy Christmahaunakwanzaca

quote:Mmmmmm, people stop posting when discussion ends, in other cases people stop posting when they can't make a coherent reply in answer to another post.That's not what I see most of the time. I see them end much like newspaper articles, they just stop.

... This happens with most threads, people just stop posting for one reason or another. Otherwise threads would... never... die.

I doubt it. Irdium-192 doesnÔÇÖt seem like a material that would be useful to kill people with when combined with an explosive.

True... which is why I found it funny that the people wanted the company to call it Christmas. Then again, isn't there proof that Jesus might have been born sometime in March?

Eh? If you can hire thugs to coercer someone when you normally can't, that's power. ItÔÇÖs just a different way of getting power than other forms (such as knowing the thugs or using force of personality to convince them to do so). That doesnÔÇÖt make it not power. For example, a company could "suggest" another company that they merge or they will use their economic power to bankrupt them. However, most of the time money being power isn't as direct, such as bribing a government official so that they mire someone in red tape or hiring goons to break someoneÔÇÖs leg (for some loose morals examples). Besides, with your logic, a general doesnÔÇÖt have any power because the troops could choose to desert him at any time. Someone who owns several factories isn't powerful? Ever hear of economic power? Note: The fact that power can be evil dosn't automaticly make it evil.

quote:Originally posted by Jaguar: What I found REALLY amusing, is there is a lowes sign. In english, it says that Lowes has "holiday" trees for sale, BUT, in spanish, it says CHRISTMAS trees for sale..... SO I guess if you speak english you would be offended by Christmas, BUT NOT if you speak Spanish. Roger that's proof that English makes people go crazy when not off-set by another language.

Quick question, what is power to you then? Because following your logic, I only really see physical force, kinda.

Wind farms are ugly? That and they are on a course to become cheaper than anything else. Other than that, no arguments.

quote:Originally posted by Soback: Really, what holiday rolls around EVERY YEAR, THIS time of year. It's not Hannukah, it's not any pagan holiday, it's not any muslim holiday, it's CHRISTMAS. What holiday has a tree with decorations? It's NOT any other holiday, so therefore it's NOT a holiday tree, it's CHRISTMAS tree. Eh? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Hanukah and the Winter Solstice are only off a few days from Christmas. quote:Originally posted by Soback: Second, Thrid, and Fourth Paragraph Calling whatever a holiday object is perfectly right, just less specific. ItÔÇÖs an object for a holiday hence holiday _________. But in any case I would agree that getting in a kerfulffle over the name is silly (this would of course apply to both getting in a kerfulffle over it "needing" to be called the Christmas season or it "needing" to be called the holiday season).

quote:Originally posted by Soback: And Aperson, why don't you learn about Rome before you speak how one that knows history can fit it to his views. You don't even know Bread and Circuses saying, and how Roman parlament was looting the nation to keep the unrests down. Why do you think there were so many rebellions in Roman Empire towards the end of it's days, for kicks and gigles? Like I said, I've heard of many reasons for why Rome fell, and people all-to-often pick the one that suits their agrument.

You lost me Soback. Holiday refers to anything that gives you an excuse to not work in practise. And since there are quite a few holidays around this time of year that involve buying stu... err giving each other tokens of appreciation, so itÔÇÖs perfectly applicable. Also there are many religions that have a holiday around this time of year, from Hanukah, to Christmas, to whatever-muslim-holiday-happens-to-land-around-this-time-of-year, to particular pagan holidays that many religions based their holidays on to gain converts. Plus I fail to see the connection where calling something the "Holiday season" instead of the "Christmas Season" equates to losing holidays. Then again, Americans can be quite good a defying common sense sometimes*. * That was refering to that said Americans that arn't making sence to get rid of holidays, not you.

Nomad: Any mercury, indeed any heavy metal*, as too high (or in some cases, too low) concentrations in a person can cause sickness or death. Soback: If vaccines are so useless, explain how they managed to virtually eliminate smallpox and greatly reduced the frequency of a host of other diseases. Also evolution is a very slow process, especially in these cases and given the lifespan of a human, more so given the fact that viruses or bacteria mutate much faster than a human ever will (helped in part due to its lack of error correction or its ability to conjugate respectively). So for that to work, the death toll will be rather high. Also, a person's rights generally end when it infringes on the well being of another individual (which would be applicable in a hypothetical flu pandemic). *Not to be confused with music of the same name.

Fair enough. Then again from my limited knowledge of history, it seems that there are lots of theories of why Rome fell, and the one a person uses seems to be the theory that bests fits what point they are trying to make...

quote:Originally posted by Prez: Nomad: So are you saying that for the good of society, an individual should lose the right to choose what he or she puts in his or her own body? I agree that the mercury would probably be harmless to most people, but it WOULD be harmful to some. Sounds very "big brother" to me. I maintain the right to choose what gets put into me, and I choose no flu shot. Vaccinating the majority is fine; it just becomes a problem when a significant number of people don't get vaccinated (whether by choice or otherwise). That and an individualÔÇÖs actions that could negatively affect the majority is wrong (such as the idjits who ignored the quarantine when SARS was floating around). And mercury is harmful to pretty much everyone if it exceeds a limit (granted, this limit changes with the individual).