tricky77puzzle

Is it a crime to have a mind of my own? To speak for myself?

According to American politicians, it's not. According to the American government, however, it is. (Well, not legally, but you know what I mean.)
I seriously hope that the situation in America does not leak into Canada. It's starting to become more of a good thing for us to connect only through economy and trade, and even then it's through impartial proxies.
You know, that for Canadians to come into America, they need to show a passport, driver's license, or birth certificate, but for Americans coming into Canada, they don't actually need anything? It's weird.

I'm... not really supportive of human cloning, no matter how supportive I am of animal cloning, but I don't oppose it either. If the experiments are unsuccessful and someone dies, it's not really anyone's fault but the person who volunteered, because they volunteered. Experiments being unsuccessful are going to be one thing, but if the subjects were properly warned before the experiment (if they weren't I'd be picketing to shut down that facility) then they should have no reasonable warranty of their life. I don't think many people would volunteer for these things anyway.

 

But animal cloning is to, well, animals. Sure, quote animal rights activists all you want, but we already kill animals for meat, on purpose. It's what we do. Killing off a few by accident as a result of a few failed experiments that wouldn't cause them that much pain anyway doesn't really trump that... I mean, be vegan all you want. It won't change the general opinion. (Well, if enough people do it, then it might...)

Heh... seems you haven't heard of Firefox.

(And no, IE8 is too much like IE7.)

Try Firefox out. No one has given you a download link, but if you seriously don't want to go to Google and press "I'm Feeling Lucky", which should work, then here it is: [link]

So, I recently got the newest release of Kubuntu, with the new KDE 4. What I wasn't expecting was that I'd switch back to using Vista right away.The new KDE 4 is all looks. It doesn't have near the amount of customizability as KDE 3, and the taskbar is way too wide for just one layer. (I can't switch it back to 2 layers.)All right: First, the customizability. Although all the window options are still present, the panel is almost completely automatic, which is okay, but what I don't like is it has no manual mode. You can't even move anything around. I hope this is fixed in 4.01... right now I'm going to stick with 3.Have any of you tried KDE 4? What do you think of it?

Whatever lucid dream I have, I've awoken with that ghost feeling that I really was somewhere else. If I get shot and I wake up, I hurt where I got shot and many other sensations linger after dreaming. This leads me to believe something on the spiritual level happens when I lucid dream. I think that a spiritual part of me, my soul or whatever, goes to another realm and takes part in life in that realm.

That happens to me too! Although it actually can be explained non-spiritually. When something happens to you in your sleeping state in the real world, it comes into your dream. And as well, your sensations are controlled by your brain as well. So when you dream that you get shot, your brain gives a sort of Pavlovian reaction (a reaction before the actual thing happens) and you "hurt" where on the body it hit you.

High school may be pointless for you, but for some people, it's to relax for about 2 years after all that gruelling training you do from grades 1 to 8. I mean, sure the courses are harder, but the pace is different.

 

In Grade 12 you really can't relax, but at least by that time it's easier than Grade 8 was four years ago.

 

I'm in high school right now as well (except that I'm in Canada, so we actually only really learn anything from Grade 9 on, so it's pretty much essential for us,)

The topic starter touches on many issues of import to our day and dire predicament, the first being the controlled media that mesmerizes the American masses with carefully censored news designed to dis-empower the individual. Your average Joe Public might leave the nightly news wondering:

 

"What can I do as an individual do make any change in the world? It all seems so hopeless. Now, I think I'll order one of those unhealthy pepperoni pizzas and Diet Cokes' they just advertised to reward myself for living in this hopeless world, then I'll get to bed early so I can wake up at 5am for my minimum wage job so I can earn enough money to afford a car I don't really want to impress a friend I can't stand. Oh, and I think I'll vote for that Obooba guy because the people who come on TV like him."

 

Naturally, this is the desired response the Man Behind The Curtain wishes to elicit from you. An apathetic, hopeless, depressed, brain-dead idiot who never questions the status quo and the garbage the mainstream media force-feed the masses. But the truth is, you as an individual CAN make a change in both your own life and the world if you'll only turn off the mainstream media and listen to your own conscious. Power lies within you, not without. Seek out uncensored sources of news online and question EVERYTHING. Don't just blindly believe what you hear on the news. As you start educating yourself on what's really going on the world you'll begin noticing patterns on the TV, radio, and newspaper. You'll notice how they push certain agendas and completely ignore important issues. You'll notice how they're always concerned with occupying your mind with sports, sex, useless trivia, and Hollywood trash. Now, you'll see that they're obsessed with "going green" which has everything to do with demonizing the human race and nothing to do with "saving the planet."

 

Television is without a doubt the most powerful tool of propaganda and indoctrination the Powers That Be have at their filthy disposal. Think of the media as the puppeteer's middle man. It tells the public what to think, how to dress, how to behave - and people parrot what they hear on it. Much of what the media presents is designed to prepare you for the government's next big scam, be it "global warming" or some other ridiculous farce. Oh, and have you noticed that after the incredibly cold winter we had, they no longer refer to it as "global warming," but "climate change?" What a load of crap. We are being psychologically managed, you see - as they herd us from one paradigm to another. Moo.

 

No one can argue America is and has been the world's military superpower for the last two centuries. The greatest might the world has ever seen was foreshadowed when the founding fathers spoke of our "manifest destiny." But as the topic starter alluded to, forces at play (by way of media) desire to destroy America from within. Soon, our loving media will be discussing the virtues relinquishing our sovereignty in favor of amalgamating into the North American Union.

This is why I don't watch TV. lol

 

But in all seriousness, TV is one of the most useful advertising objects. I mean, pretty much 80% of North Americans own at least one, and about 50% own two. It's starting to turn into something like Animal Farm. (I have no idea why I keep on referring to those two books by Orwell!)

Well, although your idea is sound, it's still not feasible. It's human nature to think that worldly things are good. It's kind of like the permanent boot-up ROM that a computer has. You could theoretically remove the parts, but they can still be abused.

About the watch's being 10:10, a friend of mine who studies psychology at college said that wat to make analoug watch's look like smilie faces so that people will want to buy them more, can't say whether thats true or not (altouhg I suspect not). Personally I'd quite like to see a airplane fly backwards (don't really know why it would jusat be cool, I also have strong feeling that one ain't true). Nayway thans for sharing I'm always open to some strange facts.

The 10:10 thing is more specifically between 10:10:20 and 10:10:40. I guess it's just to spread the three hands out. As well, 10:10 is more aesthetically appealing than other positions, especially since it's pointing diagonally upward.

Airplanes can't fly backwards simply because their engines don't go that way. I don't see how small airplanes can do that, but anyway...

PAL movies will got at 29.97 (yes, 30 x .999, which means that in 1000 seconds it will have gone the same as 999 seconds at 24 FPS) frames per second, while NTSC movies will go at 23.976 frames per second.Some formats will let you go at exactly 24 or exactly 30 FPS.The paper is very well written, anyway. A good TV will display at 60 Hz, and a good 1024x768 display screen will display at 75 Hz. (Mine is also 60 Hz only because it's a 1050i 8:5 monitor.)

Let's clean up a few facts in this thread, eh?

 

No right-click blocking script will ever stop someone even half-dedicated to stealing content. Why? It's so easy to get around. I've got a Firefox addon called "Web Developer Toolbar". Awesome little thing being a developer. I can use it to control javascript - which of course controls the "right-click block".

 

Also, "embedding" the file in php as another poster pointed out won't do a thing either - Why? Php outputs html - not php code. It outputs html or whatever other format the developer wants it to. Since it would output the tags required to embed the .swf inside which I can then "steal" this provides no use.

 

You can password-protect the SWF. I don't know how well this will work however. In reality, there's no way to really stop people stealing - especially without compromising on user experience. This is with everything - from real life, art, programs/music, swf files. Sort of a law of nature I guess. A quote (no clue where from) "The more and more you secure your system, the more you'll end up being surprised by some back door you'd of never thought off".

 

Essentially - it's pointless to try. Do a little bit as the majority won't bother and move on if there's obstacles, but it's impossible to stop someone determined.

 

edit: You can spend all year "securing" your swf file, but there'll still be a way around it. Isn't it better to focus on the users who you provide for, rather then lower their experience of the flash meaning more upset clients, plus try fight something which is impossible to win? There's just no sense to that, and I know which I'd pick.

Of course there's no use trying. But if there's no harm, why not go a little further, eh? Most people, if they don't want your specific flash file, will move on. If they're that determined, then get an IP logger or something.

 

Stealing for learning is not really stealing. Except if your going to make profit out of it or publish it and take credit for it.

 

-reply by xmido

Stealing for learning is considered fair use. And as long as you don't use it for anything else and use proper accreditation, what can they do to you?

 

If you take credit for it, that's not stealing either, except for the actual act of ripping it off the website. It's called "copyright infringement"...

There's no guarantee that Final Fantasy is the best RPG game. It could be Megaman Battle Network, for all you know.

I see as firefox as my main choice but its really up to you on what you choose:

 

Firefox is an open-source (Wired mag) Internet browser, thought up by a 18 year old (completed when 19) after many frustrations with Internet explorer. It has a built in pop up blocker that has never once fail me, and is 100% skinnable. It includes TABS, which is a fature that lets you see more than one page in one window. Because of its new scent, noone has bagan to look for a way to deliver viruses thrrough the browser. It has promoted its service by Spreadfirefox.com, which gives of webbanners and free blongs (i think) to spread the word of its arrival. It just recently made the cover of Wired.

 

I think you all know about INternet explorers life enough so i wont go there.

Happy descisions,

Judson

Firefox was not thought up by an 18-year-old! Well, maybe it was, in its really early days as Netscape Navigator. Remember when Netscape used to have the biggest market share? Then Microsoft started including IE free with its Windows OS, so people started moving to that. Netscape started losing its market share, and it got as desperate as to release its source code and rechristen itself Mozilla. (You can still see that in Mozilla and Seamonkey today. They both still use the original Netscape icons.)

 

Here's where the 18-year-old part might be true: Mozilla then branched off into Firefox and Thunderbird, which were web browsers and email clients. Seamonkey [Could be Iceape, but that's GNUzilla to you] was only released to continue the Mozilla series, but it doesn't get as much press.

I believe it's past 600,000,000 downloads by now... this topic is three years old!

If marijuana was legal I'd buy some and get messed up!Honestly, I think it would take the fun out of it for many young people.
On the upside, young people who smoke weed wouldn't be buying it from drug dealers anymore. Marijuana doesn't lead to other drugs. Buying it and, therefore, hanging around with drug dealers leads to harder drugs. Ruin it for drug dealers and it'll hurt the drug market. They use weed to get kids to try the harder and, more importantly, highly addictive stuff. Once they're hooked on meth or crack, they'll be stealing money from their parents or whatever else is necessary to get together some money for their dope.
Getting kids away from dealers would ultimately help. Legalizing it would also diminish the attraction of it.

Well, finally someone who agrees with me.

I'll say it again. Legalize marijuana except for smoking it (or only illegalize it until you're 21).
If it takes the fun out of it, then that's good; people won't be compelled to do illegal activities anymore.

No religion is bad. A religion is basically a set of beliefs that makes up the entirety of, or a significant part of, a person's lifestyle, and usually involves some spiritual connection. However, in the broadest sense of the term, no spiritual connection is really required.A religion is based on belief, not by rules. The rules are just something that accompany the belief, and are not to be strictly implemented, except for those that are essential to the faith. For example, in Christianity, you have the rules about being kind to each other, but God doesn't hold you to every little thing that he wouldn't hold you to anyway if you weren't a Christian, and he (huh... I still don't use He) forgives you.

That...seems much like a 1984-ish setting. I don't know why I keep on relating it to that...

Yeah, honestly I don't see the point of "system restore". Sure it's there so that "in case of a malfunction we can fix your computer back to how it was" but by experience that's NOT how it works. Nearly any issue I've ever had could not be fixed by using system restore.
Why? Because it only backs up certain files. It would be much, much more helpful if it were to create an encrypted image file of your computer, like on another hard drive. That would keep virii from infecting it, along with allowing you do to a REAL restore.

The one with Windows is just a waste of time and space I feel.

Well, if you feel that way, then get Norton Ghost. It creates an image of your entire hard drive.

The one that Windows uses is only a "DNA migrator"/"system backup", which backs up all your system settings and protected system files. Don't rely on System Restore for documents, because that's not what it's used for. And please don't complain, "well, Windows is stupid for not making one like that". Microsoft can't do everything for your computer, even though it really wants to so it can mess with your computer and your mind.

Democracy is not a perfect system. Not by any chance.But then again, it's the best one we have now. Look at how tyranny, communism, and, well, whatever other form of non-tribal government you choose to assume came out.A system nearer to perfection would be democratic communism, or in other words, socialism. In this system, decisions must reach consensus before passing through. Although absolute consensus is not always possible, here's a referendum system I'd like to see in place:If a 90% consensus cannot be reached for any certain bill, pass it as a referendum onto the people. If enough people okay the bill for it to reach 90%, then the bill can be passed. How this is counted:The percentage of people who consent to the bill in the government house is divided by 2, and then the referendum is passed out. The percentage of people supporting the referendum is then multiplied by (one minus the percentage of people supporting it in the house) and added onto this percentage score. If the percentage is then above 90, then the bill can be passed.So, for example, if 86% of house members support the bill, then this number is divided by 2 to get 43. To reach 90%, 47 out of 57 people (or about 82.5%) must vote yes to the bill.This way, if there isn't a majority in the house, and the majority of people want it, then the bill can be passed.

Forget just reading, how about moving tables? I've moved a Ping-pong table in a lucid dream before.But yes, I remember reading signs and things when I was dreaming. I also remember visualizing a dragon in living colour.

You know, one point some people haven't pointed out is that, if marijuana use was legalized, there'd actually be less usage of the drug. I'm not saying that these druggies will move on to harder drugs, but some people actually do mari- just because it's illegal. Just like if "piracy" was loosened, there'd be less "real" piracy around because people would support the artists directly if they like them.

 

Of course, there's always the problem of smoking it, so I'm going to point this out: smoking marijuana should be illegal. As long as it's not smoked, I'm perfectly okay with it. Just like if people chew tobacco, they can do it all they want, even in public places, and I won't care; they just have to be over 19 to be able to buy it.

 

But then again, this is no reason not to legalize marijuana. Just because smoking it is bad, doesn't mean ingesting it in other forms is as bad.

 

If someone is going to get hard on marijuana, they're an idiot, but that's their choice. Just because 14,000 people die in car accidents each year doesn't mean driving should be illegal. It's only drunk driving that should be illegal. Same goes with tobacco and marijuana. Like I said, as long as it's not smoked, let it be legal!

The Da Vinci Code is a fictitious story based upon real research outlined in the book 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail'. In this book, researchers help to explain the truth of the roots of Christianity. Some key points:

 

1. Jesus was the son of Joseph, who was descended from King David, so Jesus had a legitimate claim to the Throne of Jerusalem.

 

2. To discredit Jesus' claim, Caesar invented the Immaculate Conception, making Jesus the son of God instead of the son of Joseph.

 

3. To further strengthen his claim to the throne, Jesus married a Benjamite woman named Mary from the city of Magdalene. Remember that, although King David was the last King of Jerusalem, God promised the throne to the tribe of Benjamin, who were slaughtered by other Jewish tribes. At the time of Jesus, Jews were divided on whether the next Jewish king should be descended from David or the Benjamites. By marrying a Benjamite woman, Jesus made a strong case that he met both criteria, though it would truly be the son of Jesus and Mary who would be the most qualified.

 

4. To discredit Jesus claim, Rome edited the Bible to paint Mary of Magdalene as a prostitute. Pope John Paul apologized for this before his death.

 

5. At a wedding that Jesus was attending, a house servant came to Jesus' mother and told her that the wine was all gone. Mary informed Jesus, and Jesus magically turned the water into wine.

First, why would the house servant complain to Mary? Because Mary was the mother of the groom! This was Jesus' wedding!

Second, Jesus complained that Jewish weddings always served wine inside the house, but served water to the people outside the house, i.e. the poor who couldn't attend the wedding inside. This indicates that the wedding was of an important person. Jesus thought it disrespectful and snobbish not to serve wine to the poor attendees, so he had swapped barrels of water for barrels of wine outside. Well, when the wine inside ran out, Jesus simply instructed the house servant to fetch a barrel from outside. Thinking those barrels were full of water, the house servant and guests were surprised when they discovered the barrels were actually full of wine! No miracle here, but Caesar was trying to make Jesus seem miraculous, so he had it turned into a miracle in the Bible.

 

6. According to Jewish custom, on the honeymoon of a King, his bride is commanded to anoint his feet with oils. Mary of Magdalene did this in the Bible, affirming their marriage and his status as the rightful King of Jerusalem.

Caesar rearranged these stories to create the impression that the woman was a prostitute trying to gain favor with Jesus. In the Bible originally, Jesus had visited a den of whores to save them. This story was wholly separate from the story of Mary anointing his feet, but by placing these stories near each other in the Bible, Caesar created the impression that it was a prostitute who anointed his feet, and that the prostitute was Mary of Magdalene.

 

7. Caesar commissioned 3 writers to create the Bible. Apostle means 'scribe' or 'writer' in English. The 3 apostles were merely 3 writers hired by Caesar to create the Bible. The word 'scripture' merely means 'writings' in English. The Apostles submitted their writings to Caesar, who then edited the stories to his ends.

 

8. Caesar's issue was this: Rome was conquering many different peoples, each of these peoples having their own religions. Since most of these religions described their Godsent Kings differently, it was difficult for Caesar to keep track of all these religions in his attempt to convince people that he was their godsent king. Caesar dreamed of one religion in the world, with Caesar as the Godsent King. Jesus presented a religion that was universal, with only one God in the world, and one prophet. Unfortunately, Jesus was the prophet. In order for Caesar to be the prophet, he had to get rid of Jesus. But he couldn't. It was Jesus' religion after all!

So Caesar came up with the brilliant idea of elevating Jesus into a demigod, much like the Greek religion. By turning Jesus into the son of god, Caesar eliminated Jesus as a messiah, creating a job opening for himself as the prophet or Pope of Caesar's new Roman Universal (Catholic) Church.

By turning Jesus into the son of God, Caesar also discredited Jesus as a rightful King of Jerusalem based upon his blood relation to Joseph. This was important since Caesar was the King of Jerusalem at the time! By turning Mary into a prostitute, Rome discredited the notion that Jesus was married and might have a son. This son could cause the end to Roman domination in the Mideast, having a powerful argument that he was the blood of both King David as well as a Benjamite.

 

9. This Caesar died before assuming the title of Prophet, or Pope, of his new Roman Catholic Church. The next Caesar was a pagan and had no desire to assume the throne of the Church. So the Catholic Church Cardinals began the long tradition of electing a Prophet from amongst themselves.

 

10. In the time of Jesus and immediately after, there were many people who believed in Jesus' teachings. These people new the truth of Jesus, that he was a mortal man with a family, that he was married, that he did not perform true miracles, but symbolic ones (water into wine, etc). There was evidence of these facts in Jerusalem, so Rome sent an Army to destroy Jerusalem, trying to kill all who knew Jesus and obtain any evidence of the truth. Notice that the writings of Jesus' disciples were omitted from the Bible. This is because their writings contradicted some of the writings by Caesar's apostles. Some of those disciple's writings, now dubbed the dead sea scrolls, were discovered. They confirm that Mary was Jesus' wife and that Jesus did not die on the cross. Jesus actually watched the crucifixion and laughed. Another part of the Dead Sea scrolls has Jesus talking to a new disciple. However, the conversation that they have also indicates that this meeting occurred years after the crucifixion.

11. When Rome destroyed Jerusalem, his brother Joseph of Armathia and his wife Mary escaped to Greece. From there, Joseph traveled to what is now Great Britain. There, Joseph built the first Christian Church, which still stands today.

Mary traveled to modern day France. There, she allegedly lived with her son Jesus and a second son. These were both allegedly sons of Jesus of the city of Nazareth.

 

12. In an attempt to destroy later followers of the real Jesus, the Catholic Church launched the Crusades. During the Crusades all Christians who were not Catholic were killed, their property seized. This was an attempt to kill the real Church of Jesus and to find all evidence that the Catholic Church had distorted the truth. According to 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail', descendants of Jesus were murdered at this time.

 

13. According to the book, the Knights Templar smuggled evidence out of Jerusalem as the Romans were destroying the city. This evidence is presumably the family of Jesus, as well as writings that tell the true story. The truth of the Templar Knights is allegedly known to the Freemasons and Rosicrucians.

 

14. According to rumors, descendants of Jesus still live, and soon they will come forward. Whether this will happen, and whether anybody will believe it is hard to guess. According to other rumors, these descendants will be exploited by the world's elite to create a global govt. which strengthens their grip on the world's wealth and resources. The "New World Order".

 

Leonardo Da Vinci was a member of the Freemasons. It is rumored that he placed clues about Jesus in his art. The book, "The Da Vinci Code" is a fictional guess as to what might happen if descendants of Jesus emerge. It would harm the Catholic Church, so they might try to assassinate them, as they did long ago during the Crusades.

1. Don't you think God would have given Jesus (Joshua, or Yeshua in Hebrew) a legitimate claim? Even if he was descended from Joseph, I'm pretty sure that the Throne of Jerusalem was nonexistent at the time.

 

2. Why would Caesar make up the Immaculate Conception? If anything, if it makes Jesus the Son of God, that only elevates his status even higher up compared to Caesar. So what motive did he have?

 

3. Isn't this a reference to "The Lost Tomb of Jesus", which made that claim that Jesus married the Magdalene? Anyway, how do you know that Joseph wasn't of Benjamite descent as well as Judaist? How do you know if one of the wives in those 30 generations wasn't a Benjamite? Then Jesus would have no motive to marry a Benjamite woman, or marry at all.

 

4. [no comment]

 

5. Did he now? Where in the Bible does it say that he complained? (Maybe I'm missing something...)

 

6. Well, how did you know that the Magdalene (I'm not saying Mary for either the virgin or the Magdalene because I might mix them up) did that of her own will? And is the King of Jerusalem the only person whose feet can be "anointed" with oils? Seems kinda fishy...

 

7. Didn't the letters and gospels come from more than seven authors? (Let me count... Matthew, Mark, Luke, John wrote the gospels... I know Paul and Peter wrote a lot of stuff... John wrote Revelation, so that doesn't count... but I'm pretty sure there's nore than 7 authors.)

 

8. Huh... you seem to be supporting Christianity? Are you sure someone else didn't create the Roman Catholic Church?

 

9. So Caesar wanted to be pronounced the prophet of God? I didn't know he was religious...

 

10. Well, if he only performed symbolic miracles, then what was the point? Unless the miracles were genuine, then they would be interpreted as tricks. The people back then weren't stupid, you know. They would most probably discredit Jesus if he was prone to playing those tricks, and they wouldn't be welcoming him into every city that he was arriving in.

 

11. Are you sure Joseph went to Britain? They were Catholic for an awfully long time too, you know...

 

12. I thought the Crusades were to claim Jerusalem for the Catholics against the Muslims. Anyway, all your evidence (notice I'm not putting it into quotes, unlike some people...) comes from the book. Don't you have any other sources?

 

13. Are the Freemasons still alive today? (And the "Rosicrucians", for that matter...)

 

14. [no comment]

 

Not all your stuff is pure bull, but some people will think it is.

In the times I've used it, I've found it to be considerably slower than a comparable XP system, the UAC is incredibly annoying, and there are a few issues with applications which worked fine in XP that now either have annoying bugs or fail to run completely (or at least did when I tried to set them up. This may have been fixed now).

...and that's why I turned UAC off. Sure, I might be more susceptible to viruses, and Microsoft nagged me about it a few times, but that was it. There weren't even any viruses on the programs that I was registering.

Linux does really have the balance right. You only need to type the password once when you're going to install a whole bunch of programs on Adept or apt-get. And most of the time, you'd install those programs using the terminal anyway, so the graphical box isn't a problem.

Oh man, am I a hypocrite. I need to start up again... I got to about Exodus 6 before nodding off on the Bible-reading.I still ahve yet to post stuff on my blog. My original plan was to post something every week, or every chapter, whichever came first. I haven't been doing that lately, though...

Damn it, it has to be the white man again.If both parties picked someone who wasn't a white man, we'd have historical firsts either way.Why can't we, like, have something different for once? It's always white men... I don't see why it still has to be that way. (I mean, I know Canada's prime minister has always been a white man, but Canada has problems too.)Obama has my vote, if not Clinton.