DodgyPhil

Just come up with some exotic eye-candy for your avatar, that way no one will mistake you. I remember there were these two kids in Nursery School who had the same name, and kept going mental about it, so one always carried around a bag of oranges as 'his thing'. So there'd always be Michael, and Michael with the oranges- what a 'crazy' guy. No one spoke to the latter, and I assume he died of loneliness- but regardless: come up with some inane gimmick to emphasize the importance of the "_" after your name.

Eer.. Obvious choice. Being frozen alive is only sore momentarily. By the time you've been in the cold long enough for your organs to start shutting down, your senses will be almost completely numbed. Just before your brain switches off, you'll feel almost nothing at all, other than a gentle warm feeling- as your body escapes the cold through dulled senses.Burning alive on the other hand, is one of the most painful experiences imaginable. Some claim that you're dead within 20 seconds of CO2 poisoning, but that's still 20 seconds of your skin blistering and peeling, and your eyes melting out of your skull. Might've watched that scene in 'The Hills Have Eyes' too many times, but I've got a strong aversion to burning; like any sane human being.

Damn straight. Personally, I love unhealthy food. The greasier and less nutritious, the more delicious! But that's life, and I've grown to accept it- forcing myself to eat salads and soup, when I'd rather be tearing chunks of Donna Kebab from the spindle, and enjoying the melt in your mouth taste. My point is, my parents bought me up on a mixture of good and incredibly unhealthy food. My Scottish grandmother would give me a fry up breakfast, lunch and dinner whenever I came round, whilst my mum would give me lentils and humus. I turned out fine, and could understand the importance of selective eating and health from an early age. You're completely right Sara, parents should start taking responsibility, for everything! Fat people aren't overweight because the American government force fed them lard, they're fat because they're lazy bell-ends who'd be put to better use if they were converted into food for starving children. At the same time, I'm a great one for personal liberty. I'm with the London mayor Boris Johnson; parents should be aloud to give their kids pies over salad, as long as they don't start blaming another source for their child's weight. On the other hand, the parents of these 5-ton toddlers should be arrested. Surely they realized there might've been a problem when their 2 year old weighed over 200lbs?! Satiating a child's needs to that level is just cruelty, and they should be punished. People who overfeed animals: similarly. Animals have no concept of health, and a dog will happily eat until there's nothing left to eat. Nature controls this by making food sources sparse to come by, and forcing the animals to work for their meals.

When I was about 14, the craze for these PTC sites was huge. "Treasuretroopers" had drawn in all my friends, and we'd all follow their stupid links and surveys- hoping to receive easy cash. I came close to the $5 payout, only for them to make payments cheque only.After that, I looked for other similar sites- but only found scams or rip-offs. After about a year of using PTC sites on and off I ended up making around 95p.Personally I don't think the sites are worth it, even if you're pulling in hundreds of dollars a month "Working at home", you'll live a terribly sad life. What would you say to others? Your job is filling out on-line surveys and clicking on ads? It's possibly the most monotonous and repetitive job in existence. I'd rather be filling out tax forms or filing complaints, at least the pay is guaranteed and you can actually feel like you're doing something with yourself.Regardless, best of luck at trying to squeeze money from the internet.

But that's my point. Science can't be racist because true science is impartial. It only focuses on knowledge of the environment and genuine research, without taking in political or social factors. You're right, facts and figures should not relate to true science, but they're often construed wrongly- or for the wrong reasons, but the basic facts and the science should have no political agenda. Researching race x's abilities in track events by looking at the race of track event winners would tell us nothing. The facts would suggest that race x were superior at track events (and this often becomes widespread belief), but it would not accurately gauge an entire race. Were surveys conducted on every member of race x on the planet, then we'd still only have results based on people in the current environment, not taking account of anomalies. Yet this survey would be considered subjective as it took into account all possible sources of results. Because of this, science can of course be faulty- but this is misinformation, not racism. Racism is not subjective. Then again, I don't actually know what I'm talking about, so don't destroy my argument too harshly..

Science isn't capable of racism, any more than facts or figures are. It's only in the context that the figures are used.Black people are generally considered to be stronger than white people, and the old joke about tallywhacker length of different races is completely true. These factors are related to the environment, and how certain races have become adapted.Northern Europeans had the most fertile lands, but had to adapt to survive the cold climate- which required decisiveness and intelligence to create shelter and clothing. Africans did not have to shelter themselves from the environment, but relied mainly on hunter gathering, which relied on strength and instincts.Neither race is superior to each other, but Europeans (I include America) now control the wealth and have shaped the world based on Western ideals. In this way, Africans are less suited to the current environment- having had most of their original way of life destroyed during colonization and attempts to westernize their countries. They're now expected to rely on commerce and business for their source of income, having had none of its progression in their history, and subsequently in their genes.With this said, all races are equally capable of adapting and will soon all share the same assets and have lost their original traits, all becoming European in their way of life.When people talk about racial superiority, they're only talking about it in terms of their standards. So scientists proving intelligence to be higher in some races than in others is not racist at all, until they define our idea of intelligence as an item of superiority.I only compared Europeans and Africans because they're usually the two races involved in heated debates about the subject.

Hello Xisto readership. Two months ago I started a website called 'DuckApple'. It's a pretty general site, and I'll let anything swing whether it's comics, reviews, tales of olde .etc I'm seriously interested in getting writers together, and giving them a place to post of their 'hilarious' antics. I decided against starting a forum right away as viewing figures are limited (like two people, maybe?) and I've yet to properly advertise. At the moment I'm just interested in a getting a general appraisal of the site so far. Any suggestions (or praise, please let it be praise) would be muchos appreciated. The site runs on Joomla 1.5, which I chose after remembering my experiences of other less usable CMSs came to mind. I used the 'jb_ruins' theme as a template, and simply added my own graphics on top. I also scraped out most of the crud that accompanies Joomla, and replaced the few useful modules with custom ones. http://www.duckapple.co.uk/ Also, in anticipation of getting zero replies to this topic, just have a look around the site anyway; that way I can sleep easy for all of the three hours that school life has allocated me. It's also Christmas, the time of giving.. Dankesch?n. - DodgyPhil, the cool kid. <

Heh, it's good. It's a nice change to see a site practically overflowing with content and not trying to charge crazy money. I really like your use of SMF to create an article database, I bet it makes editing much easier. Usually my heart sinks when I see another free program based site, but the audio-editing section caught my eye. I got hooked on your post about Songbird, everyone's been talking about that bloody application; but you're the only person to simply list all of its merits. Assuming that you're doing the modelling for Santa, I must commend your beard. Perfect attire. On a visual note, the colours are quite garish. I'd personally recommend using a monotone theme, such as this. That way you can keep the bright visuals without clashing. Best of luck. If only I lived in S.California I could capitalize on your free gifts.

Pleased to meet you. That sounds pretty much like my website life. I remember the day I was introduced to the 'div' tag, it made me realize how much of a fail tables were. I'd be interested in hearing what your site's about, I'm a nosey bugger.Just remember, it's easy to mix crazyness and web design together; if you get too smashed at a party just whip out a laptop and flaunt your HTML abilities to the crowd, it goes down a storm- although it's failed to attract any women.. (Strange huh?)

Indeed. I'd say using an animal from a certain region in religious ceremonies of that region is perfectly acceptable. As long as no one is profiting because of the elephant's presence, and as long as the elephants are born into captivity (sounds bad, but it's much better to be born domesticated than to be moved into an alien environment) then they should be used in festivals.

Well hello. The cool breezes are wafting in through my open window and my brandy glass is refilled. What better way to spend an evening than talking about myself to strangers? My name is Alex, I'm 16 years old and I live in London. I've been hosting websites on and off until about two years ago when I thought 'This is getting silly'. I started a forum when I was 11, and managed to pull the sum total of 28 friends to post there. Pretty ranchy stuff, which lead the forum to be shut down. My friends started messing around with Flash, so I started a site to post the creations (each one more lewd than the last). Eventually everyone got bored and I shut up shop. I then went on a two year bender(?) making meaningless websites that focused more on looks than content. Literally there was nothing on them other than a logo and some hair-brained concept. (I'll admit that two were hosted on Xisto) Three years later I turned 16, and within a month I decided to start up a proper site. 'Proper' meaning actual content and proper advertising. I've already written some humorous (They were funny when I was drunk) articles, and I'm interested in ringing together other people to write. I'm also mad keen on art, and spend at least an hour a day drawing gratuitously violent pictures which inevitably get me into trouble at school (on one occasion I drew a friend being ripped in half by a naked baby and some genious decided to thumb-tack it to the notice board in the school's main hall). Anyway, enough about me, it's you I'm interested in. If you're interested in writing articles of a debaucherous nature then please PM me post haste- otherwise just have a look around. My site is on another host, but I'm planning to switch here because of the lively forums (no jokes, my other host is full of spammers and adbots). Thanks.

It sounds like you killed someone! What did you do before that warrants an 'again'?I hope, for the sake of whoever you maimed, your second coming is far more eventful. I hope you enjoy your stay at this, possibly the greatest forum in the world; or at least on the server.

1) Nick Drake - River Man2) King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King3) Can - Sing Swan Song4) Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride5) Camel - Snowgoose6) Aphex Twin - Girl/Boy Song7) Scott Brown - Elysium (Cheesy cheese, but I love it)8) Aphex Twin - Avril 14th9) King Crimson - Red10) 10cc - Worst Band In The World

I know this isn't the argument at hand but.. It's the older generation's fault. I'm 16, and I'm aware that I'll sound like an ungrateful child, but I didn't choose how to be raised. Neither did I choose how my generation was bought up, or how the world was sold to us. We didn't ask for electronics- greedy corporations and a swathe of lazy parents handed these things to us and said, "This is fun".I currently work around three hours a night in preperation for my GCSEs which have apparently been 'dumbed down'. I didn't ask for them to be made easier, but the British government- averagely aged 50- decided it would get more kids into University, and send them off to unsuspecting employers with Mickey-Mouse qualifications in a vein attempt to boost the economy.The only time I see my family is when I share a 30-minute meal with them whilst watching television. I was raised well, and my parents are madly keen on old-fashioned 'ideals', but with the workload and the temptation to use electronics as a release, I don't have the time for them or conventional 'fun'.Children of the sixties, hang your heads in shame. Just kidding, we're cool.On an unrelated note, I enjoy being told that "Drugs are bad" by people who probably smoked dope more than me. I know for a fact that my mum and dad smoked constantly through University in the 70s, and Jacqui Smith (the god awful government worker who reclassed Cannabis as a grade B drug) single-handedly consumed the world's weed supply during her school days.

But the teenage years are the best time to get high!Seriously though, I'm for Marijuana legalization but am completely skeptical towards medical marijuana. Let's face it, there are far more effective painkillers designed to 'kill' 'pain' without giving you the munchies and making you listen to three hours of Phish (true story). Also, if it were legalized I'd like to see it controlled in the same fashion as alcohol- making it difficult for teenagers to purchase (I'm going to kick myself for this later, I'd kill for the drinking age to be lowered to 16). Cannabis is a lifestyle choice. People say that all weed smokers are hapless layabouts, but cannabis is far less debilitating than alcohol. Weed wears off after two-three hours, but drinking alcohol before 1PM will turn the rest of your day into a groggy pisstake. It's only because the majority of weed smokers are people stupid enough to break the law for their release, without ever truly appreciating the plant- making it a part of their daily lives, rather than an after dinner mint to relax with. For example: I have a Scottish friend who swears by smoking two joints on the way to school, one after, and "three bowls" before bedtime. To be fair, this sounds awesome, if not excessive to the extreme.

I started smoking when I was 14 years old. I started because I was 'intrigued' and wanted something to do whilst hanging around with friends. I went from one cigarette every two weeks to two a day (before and after school). During the Summer holidays last year I found the majority of my friends were abroad; leaving me with little to do. For some reason I decided that buying some Rizlas and some Golden Virginia would solve the problem of my boring Summer. Damn. I started smoking 20 a day, and a friend of mine who returned from his holiday in Greece announced that he'd started smoking 40 a day (the stuff of Macho men)- meaning that I'd never be without a cigarette. I decided to stop six weeks ago when a series of painful canker sores developed in the back of my throat after a day of not smoking. Within two days I found that I couldn't control myself and looked for things to take my mind of it. That's when I found Snus, a popular form of oral tobacco taken mostly in Sweden and the more 'redneck' parts of America. I tried it and found it was far stronger than regular cigarettes, at least give times as much nicotine in a single hit. Another plus point was that a tin of around 40 uses cost only ?1.30, whereas a packet of rolling tobacco that could make 40 *BLEEP* (forgot that the British slang for cigarettes is American slang for homosexuals...) cost around ?7. I won't deny that Snus definately has bad side effects (chronic bad breathe, mouth cancer and all that good stuff) but when compared to the dangers of smoking it's but a drop in an ocean of poison. With that said, I have no hard feelings against smokers. I'm shocked when I see young women puffing away at bus stops, but it's a lifestyle choice, and being for the legalization of Marijuana I believe in personal liberty. Snus power.

Funnily enough I set out looking for an Ableton Live alternative on Ubuntu (just because I wanted to do some recording whilst on holiday) but couldn't get on with any of the software.Rosegarden was the only thing that came close to creating music, but it lacked so many features: functionality for a start. Unlike most other linux programs it felt like a constant battle against the laptop. Songwrite (a guitar tab app that claims to rival Sibelius) had no where near the amount of features or ease of use. It not only sounded clunky, but refused to let me select any time signature other than 2/4, even though 4/4 was on the list- but greyed out.It's just not worth it. Music software is one of the few places where being cheap doesn't get you far, unless you (like myself) have found a reputable source of free software (don't taddle, it's totally secret).

Please, I'm a hardstyle connoisseur. If you want to see pure techno-induced madness you should visit Holland, the birth place of most styles of hard dance. Malaysia is also strangley connected to the techno world- just look up the "hardstyle republic" and take a look at 'Moonboy', a 9 year old Malaysian boy shuffling his *bottom* off in his living room. Personally I'd say Progressive Rock was, and still is the pinicle of musical innovation. I'm talking pre-80s. From all the big names like King Crimson and Genesis (but not 'Yes', I HATE 'Yes') to the smaller rural bands such as Camel (currently my favourite band). But the greatest innovators of Progressive Rock were the Germans who created the 'Krautrock' movement (aptly named by the British press), drawing elements from all types of music to create some of the most sinisterly beautiful sounds of the last 50 years. Best Krautrock band were 'Can'. King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Camel - Supertwister: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Can - Sing Swan Song: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Another honorable genre for me would be Folk-Rock. Not that Indie bollocks they're producing now-a-days, but the raw aerie faerie stuff from way back. Much like most of my musical finds, whenever I ask my parents about them it turns out they were listening to the stuff in University (probably whilst smoking copious amounts of the good stuff). Fairport Convention - Now Be Thankful: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ Nick Drake - Riverman: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

That's my name. More importantly though is the idea of what evolution is. Far from animals adapting to their environment, it's simply survival of the fittest. Those born with mutations best suited to their environments survived the longest and bred with others of a similar disposition. With humanity now caring for those people too weak to survive on their own, and the most successful breeders not necessarily being the healthiest; human evolution is suggested to take a turn for the worst. More importantly though: Johnnytracker- stop resurrecting 5-year old topics! Seeing as the original link is now down this whole conversation makes no sense..

Yes. It's better to grasp at the few straws you'll have in life, than wind up with a woman with no labido. More importantly, when you say 'freaky' do you mean that as in 'Lady Gaga freaky', or just strange? I'm interested to know what'll happen, ask her out and then post all the details up here, the gorier the better. Also, I don't see how this is a huge problem?! Surely the fact that you cop a little 'peak' indicates that you're interested, and all this flirting is a good thing? Just man up and do us proud.

Well, I had a look at two of your avatars and I can safely say they were both amazing feats of design! The ghost: simply yet striking imagery. 8/10 But the guy manically lashing out at the screen with the head of what I presume is a baby, oh sweet Jesus. It's burned onto my Cornea and I know I won't be getting to sleep any time soon. 10/10 for 'WTF' factor.