salamangkero

Finally! Gloria Hallelujah! Someone else in here doesn't believe in the 10% myth! Allow me to add a rather humorous link to a myth debunking site: http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp Well, seriously, I use all of my brain, thank you. Some parts of it process what I sense, some parts process what I will do and most of it, well, just keeps me alive by signaling me when I should eat, drink, relieve myself or sleep. Anyway, the allure to this 10% myth is the possibility of surpassing our human potentials, more specifically, one-upping our fellow humans with a significant advantage such as alleged telekinetic or telepathic powers, total memory recall, superior calculation speed or an extrahuman analysis skills. While, I have to admit, there are people out there who are smarter than us, compute faster than us or appear to "read our thoughts", I think these have much more mundane explanations than "using the part of the brain most of us don't" I mean, if we really have this certain part of our brain that we don't use, we could just harmlessly remove it, right? Say, we figured in an accident and we get a steel nail penetrating our skull. Do we hear doctors say, "Ladies and gentlemen, don't panic. It just injured that part of the brain he wasn't using. True, he'll never be able to bend spoons anymore but this good chap doesn't seem to be the type who'd have an unusual fetish of eating soup with horribly disfigured spoons." To illustrate how frail the entire brain is, suppose that one suffers a slight hit in some arbitrary part of the brain. From this, it is possible for one to lose any of his five external senses. Even internal senses like propioception could be disrupted. The end result will be impairment in one's daily life. Really, nobody could say that the victim lost something he just wasn't using anyway. I believe that those who exhibit special talents certainly were not able to do so by "automagically" activating some exotic, secret nerve center in their brain. Rather, it is probably honed through years of training. Even "mind readers" (or con men) had to, at least, practice warm and cold readings on their victims to pull of a most convincing gag. I think this recovery has more to do with the adaptability that comes with youth. We can say that they have recovered because their brain is not processing too much yet. In other words, the tasks assigned to each nerve center is not yet "hard wired"... allow me an analogy. Let's say I have a shoe factory. There are groups like the Managers, the Sales Team, the Design Team, the Advertisers, the Public Relations, the Leather Cutters, the People-who-use-Needles and the People-who-use-hammers, even Cleanup Crews, the Treasurer, the CEO and the Human Resources Department. Now, a child's brain is like a shoe factory, only, all the people in there have just graduated from college, or high school. Now, onto the trauma. Suppose a meteorite lands on my factory and damages the are of the warehouse where the Leather Cutters are. Since most of my employees are fresh graduates, we can easily find employees who, with a bit of training, we can re-configure into Leather Cutters. Now, the adult brain, however, is like a really great shoe factory. My Leather Cutters are absolute experts in their field; the Needles-people and the Hammers-people are professionals, the Design Team has already won multiple awards, the Cleanup Crews are the most efficient in cleaning up the most amount of mess in the shortest amount of time. Now, suppose a meteorite annihilates all my Leather Cutters, it will be much harder to find replacements from within the company. Why is that? See my Design Team have devoted much of their time honing their artistic skill they wouldn't know about the consistency, texture or proper handling of leather. (People in the shoe business, bear with me, who's not in the shoe business) My Hammers-people and Needles-people are quite excellent but give them a knife or a pair of scissor and they'd find themselves at a complete loss. My Cleanup Crew, perhaps, could come up with leather in horrid shapes, but absolutely spotless See what I'm getting? It would take a lot of unlearning before any of these idiots could begin learning how to cut leather properly. Same with the human brain. These children recovered from brain injuries not due to any super-brain power but simply because they are children. It's not like they even consciously "transformed" their brain cells so I really doubt they'd be any more superior than other people. As a matter of fact, they could even be more "flawed" since they lack a certain number of brain cells. Unfortunately, we, as humans, have a different idea of necessity compared to our bodies. So we have smokers, alcoholics, druggies, adrenaline junkies, gourmands, sex-trippers or even masochists. Suppose that you did transform your smell-nerves to hearing-nerves. I'm pretty sure you'd be able to really appreciate Beethoven's 9th Symphony or Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Princess but you'd never taste an apple or an orange, foie gras or caviar the same way again. No big deal, huh? Now, consider this. How would you know if a pie has gone bad? How would you detect the scent of smoldering carpet? How would you even be aware of the corpse rotting under your bed? I believe that we are not, as humans, qualified to be absolute judges of necessity. Sometimes, I wonder at the irony of people with congenital defects living happy, almost-normal lives while some of us "normal" people could think only of dissatisfaction over the way the Earth Mother created us and brood about extra-human enhancements. Training the brain or doing mental exercises is not bad, mind you. It has the benefit of pushing back senility and atrophy. I just feel strongly against the belief that we could jump start a, previously inactive, secret part of our brain and, all of a sudden, gain an upperhand over everyone else. It is, simply put, a combination of science fiction, wishful thinking and laziness, in my opinion.

I find it heartbreaking that a woman her age has absolutely nothing but her sanity and the most fundamental necessities. I shudder just thinking how she was reduced to that condition. Are her parents dead? Probably; she's 58 years old! Did she have a husband? Perhaps he died in a far-off land, buried in earth, gunpowder and debt? Did she have children? Did they leave her or had they gone astray and brought about their of destruction? Well, I could list more reasons, mundane or fantastic, ordinary or romantic but, suffice to say that I feel really sorry for that woman.Needless to say, I, too, would not have pressed charges if I were that man. I liked the previous poster who would have offered her a job as a cleaning lady. Then again, the paranoid in me could just as easily conjure other scenarios.Is she a spy? A ninja? An assasin, perhaps?If it's of any comfort, I'll be sure to check my closet tonight. For monsters... or old women

I think it's not a good idea to use your name in Internet articles, unless, of course, a copy of the same article can be found offline. The trouble, as far as I can see, is that putting your name on online articles associates your identity to that article. If ever, by chance, new breakthroughs disprove your theories or your opinions happened to change, as humans are wont to do, you might find it difficult to retract what you have said. People who know you and your online article might quote your past mistake. "Oh, weren't you George, the guy who made an online paper discussing the possibility that the moon might be made of 8 different kinds of cheeses? Oh, sorry, my name is Neil Armstrong. Pleased to meet you" Well, I never had much faith in humans, as a species, so I don't believe anyone out there has an intractably permanent opinion on anything. Put your thoughts down on paper and they could serve as evidence for people in the future to take you down with. Post it online and put your name there and you have pretty much dealt the same degree of doom upon yourself. If you really are serious about what you write, why on earth would you even be concerned with popularity? So what if you're popular only by your pen name? Would it hurt you a lot that you're not that popular offline? That is, of course, if you are really serious about what you're writing. Ah, yes. This was what I was talking about

I've also experienced a breakup. Yes, it does hurt but, if I remember correctly, I intentionally swamped myself with work back then to deliberately forget about him. Well, I didn't do too good work but, I suppose, 70% is a lot better than moping around and doing nothing. In time, though, I suppose my mind (and heart) has moved on enough that I no longer think of him all the time, which is, I suppose, what you're aiming for :DIn any case, it wouldn't hurt to busy yourself with stuff. Go get a hobby, or take the extra time you suddenly had to pursue something you always wanted to do. In my case, I started blogging and, eventually, building a meager, personal website.I would also agree with the suggestions that you call up your friends, chill and hang out like you used to, before she came Who knows? They may provide the emotional support you need during you, ah, dark moments in life.

Are you sure it's not just wishful thinking? I mean, hoping, or wishing, for something can make us see things, events or signs that are not really there.Ah, no. I don't mean to be overly negative but, uhm... just consider this a reality check

I've been watching DVD's the past few weeks now and I'm glad to have come across some superb movies El Orfanato (The Orphanage) From the director of Pan's Labyrinth, El Orfanato is a horror/drama movie that revolves around an orphanage (duh) Far be it from me to spoil any more details than that, I'd say El Orfanato is, to me, quite disturbing. Remember those times of old when horror movies were more like thrillers, what with their sudden GAH!-inducing sound effects? Remember those classic B-movies where everyone simply has to navigate a house by candlelight, probably because the power's out? Now, remember those Asian horror movies that spook you with the "what ifs" after the movie? "Gawd, what if I'm gonna die in 7 days? What if that was THE movie?" Now, imagine all those come together and you get El Orfanato. It's not much like Texas Chainsaw massacre; it is almost devoid of blood and gore. It actually re-awakened my childhood fears of something... disembodies. Y'know, spirits taking on corporeal form? After the movie, I couldn't sleep, not because of spooks... well, not entirely because of a bad case of the spooks but I was wondering... what if I were to die like that? And my corpse was to be left undiscovered for 9 months? Or, worse, 25 years? Ugh, anyway, just watch it. You'll probably call me a wimp... well, yeah. Blame El Orfanato for it Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) From famed Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away is, with all honesty, an Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass movie. The story is quite simple, the heroine enters a strange realm, has a couple of adventures and, eventually, returns to the real world. It is a story of growing up, of moving into a new environment, of childhood memories and, uh, purity of heart (sorry for being so cheesy) Well, that's pretty much it for the similarities. I do like, however, the surreal environment of that other world. Faceless shadows riding on a train, a wraith-like creature with a Noh mask, frogs working in a bath house, floating sorceresses with large heads, river gods and a rather festive atmosphere every night; what's not to like? It also touches on other themes such as the importance of a person's name (or identity), greed and gluttony, the dumping of junk on rivers and the disappearance of water forms to make way for "civilization" These themes are, I found, rather close to my heart. Well, it may also be that I am just easily fascinated by magic. Either way, I think Spirited Away is a great film. The heroine is rather whiny and irritating at first but bear with it. It's all worth it, I assure you

I'm perfectly aware that the topic was about drinkable recycled wastewater, not "drinking from a potty" Really, it is amazing how people could so easily make horrifyingly inaccurate analogies. As said countless times before, water always undergoes treatment whether it's "raw" water from nature or sewage fluids. Personally, I'd like to stick to the issue and consider the possibility of recycling sewage water. If we always considered politics and corruption, or, worse, assumed such circumstances, we'll never get anywhere and we probably won't be able to send people to space. I am sure that our friend, "Sally" would not be too elated to know that the water she is drinking has, at the very least, trace amounts of chlorine. Some water distribution facilities also mix fluorine to the water, which is, quite contrary to Ms. Sally's concerns, perfectly safe and harmless. Y'know what, I think I'm tired of repeating myself so why don't we just go ahead and assume that, the moment we turn our faucets, all the filth and grime of the heathen world will come pouring out? I mean, what part of water treatment is unclear to the people of this planet?

As far as I can see, there are at least two issues that need to be overcome before we go about driving hovercrafts. 1. Weather immunity/resistance When I was young, I was proud to have drafted a blueprint of what could have been a fine hovercraft (it relies on a set of high-speed fans) until a classmate asked me, "What if a wind blows?" See, we may be able to accelerate hovercrafts up to a hundred kph but, when a moderate wind blows, bam! We have a highway full of crashed hovercrafts simply because some people just couldn't drive in their own lane 2. Traction When Dr. Robotnik raced against Sonic, he used a hovercraft to eliminate friction. That way, he was able to reach high speeds in a short amount of time. However, his contraption was rather difficult to manage when he comes to sharp turns. See, for a hovercraft that has no friction, there is also no traction! Maneuverability is rather difficult, braking, even harder. Well, aside from these two, there's the problem with energy sources, but I'll leave that to our planet's brilliant physicists

I have two home pages. At home, I use Google Klingon Advanced Search (or, more appropriately, Google tlhIngan Hol nejwI' 'Itlh) At work, I use Blackle, the energy-efficient Google search. There was a brief period, though, when my home page was youfail.org. Well, that was until I grew tired the TSO's Wizards in Winter theme

I know of some people who refute the idea of hell. For example, a friend of mine is a Jehovah's witness and, in their religion, there is no such thing as hell. It makes no sense, according to her, that sinful people, would go to a special place where they shall be tormented by devils when they're both on the same side! Actually, this is a rather tricky matter. If we claim that there is no such place as hell based on empirical evidence, does it also follow that there is no heaven either? I'd also like to point out that, just because something does not make sense, does not necessarily mean it doesn't exist. For example, m'learned friend pointed out that it does not make sense to send sinners to a place where they will be tortured by their allies. Likewise, there is no sense in attempting the total genocide of certain religious groups, like Jews, for example, yet the holocaust happened, didn't it? Reality does not always have to make sense. Similarly, just because... ...does not necessarily mean that hell does not exist. The veracity of the above statement is also subject to conjecture and is as proven as the existence of hell... or heaven, for that matter

If it was my last day alive, I'd probably begin the day with a good old fap too, heheh. Well, it's gonna be somewhere in there but, mainly, I'm going to ask the one I love out on a date, probably movies and dinner. I'd tell him how much I love him, despite knowing that he will never reciprocate the same. I'd ask him if I could kiss him, just once, or hug him, or hold him close. It's gonna be my last moments and, even though I usually say I'm ready for death anytime, I still can't help feeling scared, not of what lies beyond this world, but of leaving him and, possibly, never seeing him again. I'll also probably leave something behind for my family, perhaps a note of thanks. I don't own much, so I doubt I'd really need a last will and testament. Oh yeah, on the final hour, I'd be sure to purge every last bit of NSFW material on my computer and external storage. Well, that or give 'em to another friend Anyway, I don't want my family discovering anything particularly incriminating Then sleep. If I still wake up alive next morning, I'll do as I usually do and just wait for death to smite me. Then, at least, I'd have known perfectly well that I am ready to die. (Geez, this is a rather disturbing thread. Now I'm thinking, what if I'm gonna die today?

I'm pretty much content with my current black eyes (Well, I could do with some adjustments to cure my myopia, but that's beside the main topic) but I could will my eyes into a different color at no cost at all, I would like different colors. My right eye would remain black but my left eye would be a lighter shade of gray.I dunno, but I've always been awe-struck by people who have different colors in each eye

I'll be greedy here and say I'd like to manipulate the flow of energy. Y'know how an object has to fall from a high place for potential energy to be converted to kinetic energy to heat energy? Well, imagine that object teleported down. I'd end up with some extra, unused energy, which I can then use to heat a cup of water.Also, since that strange-haired gentleman, Einstein, has proven that matter and energy are equal, imagine converting an atom to heat energy. Bill Bryson, in his book A Short History of Almost Everything, once wrote that an average adult human body has enough energy to level three cities, if one so wishes to make a point :PConversely, I can absorb the heat trapped by greenhouse gases and safely deposit it back into space.Oh yeah, I remember telling my siblings once, "If I had any superpower, I'd eradicate all these billboards first of all." Well, I'll do just that. I'll turn a few atoms in their legs into energy that will, hopefully, give me enough power to defy gravity and pull them down out of harm's way. Or I could just as well be a murderous jerk and bring it down with a crash.Basically, I want to do anything I can imagine. I only included the "this superpower needs energy" clause as homage to our great scientists who never had the opportunity to explore a world without superheroes.I, too, have thought about manipulating time and space but the fabric of spacetime is, to me, such an unstable power for us, mere humans (or even superhumans) to mess with. Imagine stopping time. How would you breathe if the atoms of life-giving oxygen cannot enter your nostrils? Imagine slowing down time. You wouldn't be able to do much since the very air itself, the dust in it and the molecules of whatnot will hamper your movement. It's like trying to run while submerged in mercury. Imagine speeding up time and you'll have combusted objects with nothing more than Brownian movement. Imagine teleportation. Remember that the planet zips across space millions of miles per second. There's no way to accurately lock onto a target destination. You could end up in space, in water, in the core of a star, in blackhole or, worse, inside a mountain.Anyway, I still want to do everything I want. No, I don't need a name change. I'll use my power to alter people's minds, tricking them into thinking that I have the coolest name on Earth. Maybe I'll go dark wizard and call myself: The-impossibly-named-he-who-has-dared-name-he-who-must-not-be-named. Or something of the sort :POh yeah, someone once said, "If I were Hitler, I'd kill all the Jews and one clown." Maybe I'd do that too, hehe. Go figure

I beg to differ. Is animal cruelty an event solely in China that it warrants a thread of its own, one where we should "focus" on China? Like you said, there is animal cruelty in most countries, so why should we "focus" on China alone? I know perfectly well that, relative to the original poster's intentions, we are getting sidetracked; I admit that. However, it is my strong opinion that we should get sidetracked from, pardon my terms, "bashing" China alone. Oh yeah, I'd also like to point out that we, as humans, mind animal cruelty a bit too much, I believe. We eat cows, pigs and chickens. Are we to make special arrangements to make their stay in this temporal world a pleasant one? Are we under any obligation to pamper them, to give them silken sheets, powder their noses, flavor their water or feed them caviar? My mom used to say, "Don't play with your food." Do you see a lion or cheetah "mercifully" killing an antelope by "putting it to sleep"? How about vegetarians? Plants are capable of feeling too, y'know? How come not too many people are raising hell over that issue? Aren't we supposed to wait for the fruits to fall down instead of picking them from the branches? Are we supposed to not eat fresh lettuce leaves? Just my two cents. This is life, that's how living goes for all organisms. Live with it

Astrology is very entertaining, I certainly agree with that. However, from where I'm standing, it has little difference with fortune-telling because there are a lot of "studies" and "facts" to be "analyzed" yet yield results of little or no accuracy for the simplest confounding reason that "we really cannot know for sure" I'd like to point out that, despite the flaws of science, I can, with more than 98% accuracy, at the very least, extrapolate the relative location of a tennis ball, given its initial velocity and direction (of course, assuming it was thrown inside our planet) Anyway, what I'm saying is that astrology should be taken with a grain of salt. It has little difference with fortune telling, despite what some think. Oh, lemme guess, card-reading is not to be confused with fortune-telling, which is not based on cards, huh? Sorry, I know I'm kinda out of line here but I really don't care much for proponents of astrology

I could say the same of fossil fuels; where do we get the power to drill/pump them? Really, we can't have infinite energy but, I suppose, won't it be better to split water into fuel cells using power from hydroelectric stations, windmills, geothermal plants and solar cells instead of fossil fuels? Anyway, I don't think we can "recycle" water for power within the same vehicle. I mean, we can't just have a splitter waiting by the exhaust... unless that same vehicle has solar cells or a nuclear reactor within. So... it's kinda feasible for ships... or trucks, but I don't think we'd have a fuel cell and water splitter combo in cars anytime soon. Now, about its side effects, I'm pretty sure there'd be changes on the climate. I mean, we're transporting water here; there's bound to be changes in the water cycle. Then again, there may be insignificant ones, since we've been moving water around (along pipes, open canals, down drains, in gutters or on streets) for a long time now. Just my two cents

Edited April 18, 2008: Sorry for the wrong post. Yeah, I did post on the wrong thread; Apparently, it is inadvisable to reply to multiple threads on different tabs Sorry for the mistake, mea maxima culpa Anyway, about DotA, I used to take STR-based heroes for their HP. Now, however, I'm getting harassed early game pretty much so I've switched to ranged heroes or melee spellcasters. At the moment, I've been playing Invoker, Doombringer, Dark Seer, Lightning Revenant, Netherdrake, Twin Headed Dragon and Ogre Magi. Favorite item, hmmn... I'd have to say Eye of Skadi, although it looks more like a skull than an eye, dontcha think?

The most recent movie I have seen is Spiderwick Chronicles. Over-all, it's a kids' movie, quite fantastic, sensational, even. Personally, it unnerved me to consider that there may be things out there that we just don't know. No, I'm not referring to the goblins or the troll, I was more scared of the faeries, who can disguise as flowers, and sprites, also disguised as dandelions.The SFX was just fine, nothing too spectacular. From the title, we were expecting it to have sequels. After all, The Chronicles of Narnia had more than one movie, didn't they? However, I was disappointed to find out, on Wikipedia, that the movie had finished the tale of five books. No sequels, nunca, nada.Oh well, c'est la vie

I, too, have poor views on today's generation. Just recently, I got a shock when I found out that my younger brother (currently 9 years old) does not know of Rumpelstiltskin. Quickly running through a mental list, I was appalled to find out that today's generation goes through a different childhood.My younger brother, for example, knows a lot about units in Warcraft 3, Ragnarok Online or Final Fantasy. He is knowledgeable of techniques and characters in Naruto or Bleach. On the other hand, he has no idea of Ali Baba, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, Firebirds or Rapunzel. No, wait, he does know of Rapunzel, but only from that horribly inaccurate CG movie by Mattel.When I was young, our mothers often complained every sunset that our afternoon play made us all stinky and sweaty. Now, my mom is ranting about our power consumption as two TV's and a PC were on.In a way, I do recognize that I do share the blame in the "corruption" of my younger brothers' childhood. Such is the reason why, nowadays, we once again play badminton every weekend and I drop fairy tales from time to time.I also see that technology has made people (not just children) quite impatient nowadays. Back then, people passed the time with talk and simple stuff. We relished the products of slow cooking and "barbecue" meant grilling over low heat. Now, people are in a hurry that waiting for elevators has blown many a man's fuse. We ate fast food and, even in restaurants, complain when our orders take a while. Quite terribly, "barbecue" now meant quick firing at high heat in a furnace. I can taste the horrible difference while my younger brother relishes the ersatz barbecue with gusto.Back then, our place wasn't so populate so in the summer, we'd catch dragonflies, play in the streets and fly kites. In the evening, we watched fireflies. In the rainy season, we took to the streets and enjoyed the world's largest shower. We supped on warm broth and played board games while we snuggled in our blankets During power outages, we light candles, spook each other and play with our hands' shadows on the walls.Now, in the summer, young people flock to the airconditioned malls where they play arcade or online games, people watch or flirt, perhaps checking into a motel In the evening, we had TV. Granted, we had TV back then too, but now, we have cable TV. There's always something to watch for every hour! During rainy days, we have the Internet, cable TV, Playstation, Wii or iPod. On power outages, most would cuss about how hot it is. The few who are better off would crank up their noisy, gas-powered generators, the exhaust killing the fireflies :DAll in all, I'd say technology has changed us, as a race. When the few remaining people of yesterday finally die, we'd be left with nothing more than dreams, stories and memories of a past we never experienced.

Sorry, I really shouldn't do this (you should be doing your own homework) but I couldn't resist. It's been quite a while since I've undertaken exercises like this #include <stdio.h>#include <string.h>int main();void repeat(char c);void check(char c);char input[] = "MMDCLXVII";int indx = 0;int main() { repeat('M'); check('D'); repeat('C'); check('L'); repeat('X'); check('V'); repeat('I'); if (indx < strlen(input)) printf("Not a Roman Numeral\n"); else printf("Roman Numeral\n");}//advances the indx up to three times for this charactervoid repeat(char c) { int i; for (i=0; i<3; i++) { if(input[indx] == c) indx++; }}//advances the indx only once for this charactervoid check(char c) { if (input[indx] == c) indx++;}

I'm not sure drafting militia amongst prison inmates is a good idea. For one, they are human and, more likely, the prouder ones will probably see things as though the state (or nation) owes them. If ever they get into the military, what will prevent them from defecting to the other side, divulging tactical information and bringing down the state that has "wronged" them?Also, think about this. Would you, as a sane person, place a firearm at the hands of a convicted felon? Would you really think you can keep them on a leash with promises of freedom when they can free themselves now that they are armed? Would you, as a law-abiding citizen working for the government, trust them to watch your back in the battlefield?There has to be a way, though, to keep them on a short leash but I'm sure people in the humanitarian organizations will have a lot to say about it. Seriously, though, if we could implant remote-controlled detonators in their abdomen, that'd be great, though, I must point out, any jamming equipment will either lead to the ka-blam of an ally or a defection of a soldier.Overall, no. I don't think it's a good idea. We need to reform these... scum of the society; probably the last thing they'll need is a violent environment

Too often, I have been at odds with pro-life people every time I make morbid jokes or when I laugh upon hearing a terrible news regarding the loss of human lives. They, too, agree with me that there simply are too many of us humans here but, as my experience taught me, people will always have different ideas, arriving at completely different solutions. Personally, I repeat, this is just my opinion, I find the Catholic church over here annoying. They are, to me, a meddlesome lot who, in the past, have actively prescribed against the use of contraceptive technologies like condoms, spermicidal cream, intra-uterine devices or vasectomy. Instead, they exhort their parishioners to resort to the rhythm method, which is not a universal solution since some women do have irregular monthly periods. Also, it would also mean that couples "in the mood" will, possibly, have to wait for "a better time of the month" when they could likely have fallen out of the "mood", if you catch my drift. Too many arguments have been made against the use of contraceptives: 1. The use of contraceptive technologies are unnatural just as eyeglasses, airplanes and cooking food is unnatural. 2. Using contraceptives will promote pre-marital sex in the same way seatbelts encourage people to take to the streets and the invention of fire extinguishers turn people into arsonists. 3. "Natural" intercourse has been around for ages and hasn't changed at all; black people are still slaves, women still cannot vote and there is no such thing as KamaSutra. 4. The objective of intercourse should always be the creation of life, which is why homosexuality, infertility and single people are to be ostracized from society until they "correct" themselves. 5. Sex for pleasure is a sin, thus, God made our mating rituals quite painful. Didja know female mantises decapitate their partners after mating? That's probably the way God intended it to be. 6. Anyone who engages in intercourse should seek to form a functional family, that is, a mother, a father and their children. In other words, there's something wrong with single parents and it is totally wrong to adopt from the orphanages. 7. Contraceptives are not supported by God. As you all know, we may be Catholic, Hindu, Moslem, Jewish, Protestant, Buddhist or Moslem; there are different ways to accepting Jesus Christ as our savior. 8. Taking contraceptive measures is no different from murdering an unborn child. For that reason, men are not allowed to masturbate and women are forbidden to menstruate. 9. To take pleasure in what can only be seen as abortion is a sign of sadism. People in the right frame of masochistic mind would rather have AIDS, herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis or fifteen hungry, neglected children than kill an unborn child that never existed. 10. The Church does not recommend contraceptives and, as we all know, we live in a country under the rule of a clerical government. Okay, now let us talk about euthanasia and suicide. I'm pretty sure those people have their reasons: depression, insanity, preservation of honor, protesting, whatnot. The way I see it, if they really want to go, let them. Don't we have books about the "art" of letting go? The world could sure do better with less of such people. Those too depressed to function as an element of human society are very welcome to leave. Those who, in their current mental or physical state, also cannot function are more than expected to expire peacefully. Those who, in their minds, have already fulfilled their purpose in life cannot be expected to hang around for nothing; let us allow them a graceful exit. Those who wish to make a point by extinguishing their flame are free to do so... just don't set yourself on fire, we really need all the oxygen we can get. Lastly, those who wish to make a strong point with the death of a thousand or so innocent individuals... don't. Huh? You may ask why, if I am so much in favor of death, do I have reservations against acts of terrorism? Because I'm not after the complete extinction of the human race. Nature must have some purpose for us, which is why we're here. Only, we have lost sight of that purpose. Did not your gods place you as the stewards of his/her/their creation? Fulfill your duty, human. I mean, I still have ethics. Let there be death where death is needed by the dying individual, but to prematurely extinguish the lives of other people so needlessly is nothing short of sheer stupidity. Note that this also applies to abortion. I do not support people making babies only to have them scraped off the uterus simply because they made a mistake and forgot to use contraceptives. I do, however, understand that, sometimes, the mother is endangered by her delivery of the child. Sometimes too, the child has no hope of a good life, say, its mother forgot her Rubella vaccination at the time of her conception. To save the life of a much more productive life form, like the mother, one must sever the life of the child. To spare the child of a grim future, sometimes, one must put it to rest. A villain-turned-good character in the movie, The Incredibles, once said valuing other people's lives is not a weakness. I do agree, to an extent, but let me add that to value human life above all else is nothing more than our hubris as a species.

I wear glasses too. I have these somewhat dorky-looking ones I've been wearing for over 6 years now. Yeah, I know, I should see an optometrist to see if they need recalibration, or whatever term they have for it, but I'm just too lazy to pay a visit, although I would have preferred the excuse, "I don't have time" :lol:One disadvantage of wearing glasses is that I can't wear just any shades, unless I'm willing to compromise my vision. Actually, my eyes hurt when I go outside between 10 AM and 4 PM so I usually wear shades, which, unfortunately, are just plain spectacles without grades. As a result, I can't read signs from afar but, commuting to and from work day after day, I don't find the need to be reading road signs like a tourist. That and I don't drive :DAnyway, I got soft (hydrophillic) contact lenses once. They really are quite nifty; I can wear my shades and I can still recognize people's faces I can read; I can see, oh good lord, I can see! Gloria Hallelujah! They're kinda uncomfortable after a while, though. I found that I can only use them when my eyes have been relaxed by a good night's sleep. Considering that I'm losing sleep recently, I don't get to wear them that much anymore.Also, those contact lenses last for up to three months. Actually, they last much longer than that but my friend, who's studying to become an optometrist (how convenient, huh?) advised against it. That said, I ditched the lenses and, now, I'm back to wearing these not-trendy style-cramping glasses.Wait... on second thought, I've had a few guys flirt with me because of my glasses. I suppose some people out there like people with glasses If only there were more of them *wistful sigh*

I like Yahoo! better. I know a lot of people prefer GMail for its simplicity. I, on the other hand, abhor this simplicity; I prefer Yahoo!s many features, even though I'm not using all of them. I have a Gmail account myself, though.One thing I noticed, though, is that I can access my Yahoo! mail faster than my GMail. If you're on dialup like me, you'll notice the difference. It would seem that clean and simple Gmail ain't so simple after all

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the idea is that of a plane with a transparent body, not necessarily one of glass. The posters above me have already re-iterated that glass is thoroughly unsuitable for planes due to the forces acting on the plane itself. If, however, we could have a really strong, transparent compound capable of withstanding such stress, tension and pressure, we have, as mentioned, a "glass" plane.It would be interesting to be able to see all that sky and space. It'd be even more thrilling to look down as the plane is in the air. However, it would be a really awful place to be in when the sun is shining oh-so-brightly. This would be suitable only for night flights, methinks