Omg... David Carradine died? I didn't even know that... he was the Kung Fu guy =(

Thanks Elara for the info.

RIP for all those who died this year, celebs or not.

Regardless of the nuke's size, it's still a nuke. My hometown could be among the many west coast targets. I hope not, but it's still nightmarish...

North Korea does care about the future of their people, whether this is apparent or not. They wont go into a suicidal war without provocation. Unless of course, they are so isolated, they actually think they can win.

I hope Obama gets his act together and launches a campaign against N. Korea. The collateral damage to S. Korea will be considerable, but if we don't hit them now, countless lives could be lost.

If we attack before they have the ability to launch long distant nukes, it will eliminate the need to use nukes ourselfs. So, we could even save many innocent N. Koreans.

It's kinda like the rules of engagement...

U.S. Military ROE:
Level 5: Assaultive (Lethal Force). The subject usually has a weapon and will either kill or injure someone if he/she is not stopped immediately and brought under control. The subject must be controlled by the use of deadly force with or without a firearm or weapon.

Something to think about.

In most states you're allowed to "lend" copywritten media for 24 hours.

To me, MJ died many years ago.

Now he can really do the thriller dance!.. The last part was offensive, I know.

RIP King of Pop

Binary

01010100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 00110001 00110000 00100000 01110100 01111001 01110000 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00101101 00100000 01010100 01101000 01101111 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00100111 01110100 00101110

(There are 10 types of people in this world- Those who understand binary and those who don't.)

lol get it?.... oh nevermind =/

Hard choice... Both have their pros and cons. So i'll split them up and see how they do.

____________________________________________________________
Offline gaming-

Offline gaming is the product of legendary games. But online games haven't been out long enough to call any of them legendary (with some exceptions).

The music that intensifies each moment, the characters that develop through the vicissitudinous plot, and the story that drives us. These are all elements that can only be captured in a carefully orchestrated offline game. We experience each moment as if it were our own. I'm still pissed I couldn't avenge my father's death and kill Lan Di... Oh well... Back to "You Arcade".

The end gives you an extreme amount of satisfaction. You feel like you've accomplished something great(except cliffhanger games like Halo 2 and Shenmue 2).

Pros: The in-depth personal story, the music, art, character development. Sense of worth while playing as the the main character.

Cons: It ends at a point, and the characters are limited.
____________________________________________________________
Online gaming-

Online gaming is the supplement for offline gaming's con. In the online world... the story never ends. It may not have carefully planned stories, characters, or moments. But it doesn't lack'em completely.

You meet many people, and share countless experiences with them. You and your best mate can explore new worlds together like you dreamed of as kids.

You may not be the main character, but you feel like a part of the world. A world teeming with other gamers and their own characters. The moments are random, but they are still meaningful in their own right.

Pros: Never-ending story (TM), you make your own way with infinite outcomes, meet a lot of good people with similar interests, and self-accomplished worth in your character.

Cons: Addictive, no real plot, misplaced motivation (questing for the wrong reasons), grinding, too many idiots,
and monthly fees (most of the time).

____________________________________________________________
Final note:
Online gaming and offline gaming each have perks. But I will tell you this; I would rather see online gaming disappear, than see online gaming take over completely.

I vote offline

The simplistic democracy is best described in the book "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. This book was mainly directed toward settlers of the "New World" and opposed British Monarchy. As a result of releasing this book, Paine was exiled from England.

The US government system is now a game of stacking cards. We need to refine the system to it's simple roots. "Knock the cards over" and start anew.

Geeogree explains this best-
"Every 10 families in a community would get to elect a local leader that would oversee those 10 families and would be accountable to them."

This was Thomas Paine's idea of democracy. The leaders would have a certain term, then they would be recycled back through the system. Leaders would never make bad choices for their people because they ARE the people.

Nowadays, leaders (like presidents) never really go back to a civilian life. They pretty much stay above their "peers" until they die. They never have to bear the consequences of their decisions.

Thanks for the clarification geeogree. My bad =P
I agree with you. Like the meteor that killed the dinosaurs... Would we be here without it?

Oh come on guys. There is way to much evidence supporting a planned attack by Al Qaeda. Iv'e heard all of the conspiracy theories and I have to say; they are all uneducated assumptions.

One of the theories is that the Towers fell in a controlled demo style method. But my father works for Nuprecon and I can assure you- These were far from controlled. In a controlled demo, the building breaks apart at the bottom and the weight presses down in a vertically balanced free-fall. But towers 1 and 2 broke apart approximately where the impact was (floor 96 of WTC 1 and floor 75 of WTC 2).

Another theory, supporting the last, (one that bugged me most) is the secondary explosions heard throughout the building after the jets struck. Extremists believe these are demo charges going off, destroying the steel reinforced, cast concrete framework.

The towers were airtight, and when the jets hit, the wings severed the core structure, and jet fuel poured into the ventilation systems, elevator shafts, exposed lower floors and stairwells. The fuel was quickly ignited (most burning up in the initial explosion). But even ignited fuel is still a liquid to some extent and kept spilling throughout the structure.

Every time a window breaks, oxygen feeds these fires, causing the sudden explosions. This isn't a rare event- it happens everyday, in every structural fire.

My favorite is the tower 7 free-fall. Even my dad says it looks like a controlled fall. But he also knows what happens to the structural integrity of buildings near a demo site- It's one of the many factors that come into play when planning a fall.

When a building falls, it creates downward pressure and when that pressure hits the bottom it spreads out 360 degrees around the base. Most of the offices and floors were still airtight, making the pressure more intense. The second this pressure hit the concrete it went outward, throwing emergency vehicles like they were toys. This same pressure caused extensive damage to the columns of tower 7. Debris from the collapse of the north tower caused fires to rage out of control in the lower levels of 7. Fire crews could not get the water to the tower in time and finally a support column on the 13th floor gave way, causing the whole building to collapse on itself.

All of these towers seem to have been demolished manually and intentionally, but we cannot relate it to another instance because this has never happened before. When a high-rise gives way, it will fall vertically, not tilt or snap to the side like in Hollywood... The skyscraper will just free-fall with it's own weight stabilizing it. So it's easy to see why people think they were controlled... And who is to blame? Of course...the government... America's favorite black sheep.

I'm sorry, but anyone who can use this to blame the government is looking for anything and everything to do so. They want to feel as if something was planned.

And about the video, JigSaw- So what if the NWO jumped in after 9/11. Isn't that it's purpose? To maintain peace worldwide? I think it was very appropriate to hold that press meeting after those events. It's better than shutting up and biting the bullet.

No offense to anyone, but this debate strikes deep. I'm sure if the US government (like it's one person or something) has many other methods of motivating our country for war instead of killing 2000+ people in some outrageous, highly organized plot.

Much love guys. Don't hate me, hate my opinions.

Even though it's a theory, there can be no other explanation.
Einstein's General Relativity shows us how gravity works, but doesn't quite explain what gravity is. The conclusion is inescapable- there must be some type of matter holding it all together.

Although we cannot detect dark matter, we still can detect it's effects. But in the end, how do we know for certain it exists without actually "seeing" it.

I read something a while back talking about gravity being a relatively weak force, much more weak than what it should be. The Graviton apparently jumps dimensions and appears weak because it is spread out.

Perhaps we cannot detect Dark Matter because it is out of our comprehention. We may only be able to detect it through math or effect.
But, just because we don't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there.

Good talk Neyro, I can learn a lot from you I'm sure.

Yes... I gotta see that movie. I seem to always miss disaster movies when they are in theaters, so now is my chance. =P

From what I remember, "off the top of my head" dark matter is kinda like the anti-matter. It's the "stuff" that ties time and the universe together. But dark matter is a theory isn't it? Have we found the graviton yet?

The world will indeed go on, and so will life (most likely). The human race is a "two planet" species. We are capable of visiting other planets, and eventually we will be capable of sustaining the human race with or without Earth or our sun.

5 billion years from now, the sun will expand... Imagine what tech we will have by then. Hell, we could feed it Jupiter to buy us a couple of hours lol.

To geeogree: Yes, death is a major part of evolution. But the human race has stepped away from natural evolution and is now in the game of self-evolution. But nature does have a way of reclaiming it's own right.

If a select group or civilization is in dire need of help- other "better off" humans help them. And by that type of action we step beyond "natural selection" and pave our own fate. I'm not saying that evolution isn't still a factor. I'm saying that it is less and less a factor for us as we evolve.

I have "Aftermath" and "Them" of the Remnants series, hoping to get more.

Peace out mates, off to bed for the night.
Aethel

The theory is that 2/3 of Earths life (mainly coastal) will perish. And remember, these are just theories, whether I believe them or not is a different story.

My belief is; if you take a theory and run it through a bunch of intelligent minds, you can debunk them.

"You may know of matter, but have you heard of the SECOND type of matter?"

Are you referring to dark matter? If not... Please tell.

I'm relieved to know the black hole in the center of our galaxy is relatively weak. Thanks for the info Neyro. But the emittance of gamma rays along it's equator is a proven fact.
Gamma rays from super massive black holes

Our solar system isn't in a perfect rotation around the center of the Milky Way, thats why we haven't been exposed before... Well, in recorded history.
Galactic Equator and Our Solar System

As I said, the sun could be held responsible for the heating of our planets. As it looses hydrogen, the core shrinks and heats up. Simultainiusly, the outer layers of the sun expand, due to this heat.

The planets are indeed heating up, not just Earth. The overall size of the sun hasn't changed noticeably. Many factors could be in play to cause this heating.
Mars Warming
Pluto Warming
Jupiter Warming
Neptune Warming

Like I said, the sun can easily be the explanation for these occurrences, but current solar models contradict this rapid increase of solar energy. So, I keep my mind open.

Fun debate so far =P

7, 8, 55, 80, and....umm 1

*rubs hands together rapidly* Show me the money =P

"Name's Barf. I'm a Mog, half man half dog. I'm my own best friend."

Originally posted by gtwalq

---

Some of these stereotypes are a little ridiculous and it's not like someone has officially gone out and measured all these dongers from all these different races so how would anyone know that for sure unless they're a meat packer who's packed a lot of meat.

---

Professor JP Rushton did. lol
He literally went around the world measuring ... (cough)... "male extremities".

Con-Air
Great movie. Would have been better if they replaced Nicolas Cage with Benny Hill or Bruce Lee. But we can't have everything.