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Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Thursday, October 14 2004 17:00 Profile Homepage #23
Are you certain?

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Poetry in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Wednesday, October 13 2004 13:34 Profile Homepage #19
Never write a poem meant to be spoken aloud or speak a poem meant to be written.

If it works equally well both ways, burn it.

[ Wednesday, October 13, 2004 13:35: Message edited by: Fear Uncertainty and Custer ]

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
My Pants! Or an assay into.. The stupidity of MY life in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Wednesday, October 13 2004 12:05 Profile Homepage #1
At times, I have the universal dream: being naked in public.

Whenever I have a naked dream, it involves massive, cheering crowds, though, so...

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
My theory on stupid people. in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Wednesday, October 13 2004 06:52 Profile Homepage #36
This thread is retarded.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Music?? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Tuesday, October 12 2004 17:38 Profile Homepage #60
Emo, corecore, and reggae?

It's like breeding cats and squirrels. Just isn't going to happen.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Desperance = Down? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Tuesday, October 12 2004 15:10 Profile Homepage #7
Weekly backup.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Stem Cell Research in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Tuesday, October 12 2004 14:13 Profile Homepage #15
Abortion is and will remain legal at least somewhere within the United States. That means that enough stem cells to make hundreds of lines daily have two places to go: the lab or the trash.

That you would waste human life like that -- if you consider it life, that is -- beggars the imagination.

As for why we don't use adult stem cells? Different situations. I've discussed the matter with a physician (read: I spoke about it at length with my father, who is an MD), and he told me the following:
First, more stem cell lines WOULD be useful;
Second, the ones we have now aren't all good (mouse cells, stuff like that);
And third, using embryonic stem cells for cures would be wasteful. They are extremely useful for research purposes, because they are undiffrentiated. They can become literally anything.
Adult and umbilical stem cells are more limited, since they are already diffrentiated. Since we have a lot more of those and can get them with a lot lesser costs, it makes sense to use the comparatively rare and versatile ECCs for research and A/UCCs for applied purposes.

You know what's really sad, though? There's a Japanese-born physician who has isolated a chemical he associated with nerve regeneration in rats -- and he's derived the same chemical for people. So the capability exists, albeit untested, to regenerate spinal cord damage. Christopher Reeve was among those who volunteered to test it. The problem? It's a suspected carcinogen, so the FDA wouldn't allow human tests -- even with volunteers. It might give the subjects, who would otherwise spend the rest of their lives crippled from the neck down, cancer.
He doesn't want to do research elsewhere because we have one of the best biochemical complexes, so research done here would come into fruition a lot faster -- also, skipping town to do it would make him seem illegitimate.

A sad case, but a hopeful one.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
My theory on stupid people. in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Tuesday, October 12 2004 14:03 Profile Homepage #20
quote:
Originally written by You get NOTHING:

I did not bother reading this entire thread. However I agree that all people are stupid... That having been said, some people are stupider then others.
Example:
People who have nothing better to do then come up with theories on stupid people...
This theory is incorrect, and was clearly invented by someone who was, themselves, stupid. The old chestnut about Einstein failing math was, similarly, made up in order to make mediocre people feel better about themselves.

There are smart people and there are stupid people. Yes, there are different kinds of 'wisdom', but just because you're attractive enough to get someone into bed with you or you've had the Bible beaten into your head from an early age doesn't mean you're your own special kind of genius. Well-trained or specifically qualified, perhaps, but...

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Music?? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Monday, October 11 2004 15:04 Profile Homepage #56
quote:
Originally written by Kurojutsu the Vampire:

But what other country puts its nubile, spritely feminie in sailor suits and short skirts by law?
Yeah, I thought so.
I find nothing sexier than a grown woman acting as if she is five and being molested in any sort of sexual context, and no one reacting to this as if it is completely absurd. <3

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Music?? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Monday, October 11 2004 13:41 Profile Homepage #51
TM is obsessed with the Japanese. :(

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Ethics? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Sunday, October 10 2004 09:03 Profile Homepage #41
quote:
Originally written by *i:

quote:
The theory of evolution applied to human societies (and morality values!) does lead to a question: if we are evolving all the time, are we better now than ever before? Is humanity getting better and greater all the time? And can we separate people who are more "evolved" from others?
Evolution depends on something called natural selection. This states that individuals who are more apt to survive to the current set of dynamic conditons are more likely to survive and able to pass their genetic material to their offspring.

You could apply this to human societies, but I give a caveat to doing this. In modern society, people with most diseases survive because of advances in medicine. People with genetic disabilities are, for the most part, able to get treatment (which does not change their genetic makeup) and able to pass on their genes to their offspring.

The real question here is: To what degree does natural selection play in our society today? The answer to this is debatable and there is no general consensus in the scientific community. However, I think there is fairly good agreement that it is not as strong as it used to be ten thousand years ago for the reasons I cited above.

An interesting thought to ponder is that in the next century, we will probably have the ability to control our genetics. At this point all bets are off. The effects of natural selection will probably become minute compared to the human induced selection that we could create.
You fall into a common trap here, old friend: you assume evolution naturally leads to a better species. It does not; merely a hardier one.
Natural selection once weeded out the weak, the unhealthy, and the incompetent. Now we have ways of fixing weakness, poor health, and the results of stupidity (if not stupidity itself).
In evolutionary terms, the only remaining beneficial trait is, in fact, stupidity; they will have more children because they don't seem to either be capable of contraception or the idea that more children will put an excess burden on them.

So the stupid people propagate more rapidly in the gene pool. Sure, in places like Kenya, it makes sense to have 8 or 9 kids -- there's no system of social security, so every extra set of hands is a godsend. But here, it is lunacy.

Just because evolution does not lead to a better species does not mean it's not evolution, it just means what, evolutionarily, 'better' means, has changed. Stupidity is, in Darwinian terms, the most strongly favorable trait in the modern world. Someone as dumb as a sack of bricks isn't going to make a lot of money or leave much spiritual mark on the world, but boy, are they going to leave a genetic one on it.

It must be remembered, thus, that evolution is a process and not a living creature: whoever gets the most kids out, wins. (As long as the kids aren't sterile or sickly.) It's that simple. Evolution DOES apply to a society with free will, just differently, and in a more complex way.

[ Sunday, October 10, 2004 09:14: Message edited by: Fear Uncertainty and Custer ]

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Poetry in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Sunday, October 10 2004 08:37 Profile Homepage #3
I sometimes right poetry. For example, I had to fix a mistranscription of Seth Putnam's 'I Ate Your Horse' to read it to a large group.

As far as writing poetry is concerned, I'm more of a prose man.

[ Sunday, October 10, 2004 08:37: Message edited by: Fear Uncertainty and Custer ]

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
And who remembers me? in Blades of Exile
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Saturday, October 9 2004 22:52 Profile Homepage #3
Sir Robin sucked -- note the past tense.

So do you -- note the present tense.

That is all.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Music?? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Saturday, October 9 2004 17:01 Profile Homepage #25
Ah, but that's not generally what we mean. Chorales are one thing, but the typical run of Christian music is usually pretty inspid, no matter what genre it happens to be in.

I'd say this is because any musician who would have to use Christ as a musical purpose would probably be subpar at best. I tend to view anyone whose songs are exclusively about sex or true <3 or what-have-you with some disdain, too, and I'm sure I'd get tired of atheist music too, if it existed.

[ Saturday, October 09, 2004 17:04: Message edited by: Fear Uncertainty and Custer ]

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Music?? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Saturday, October 9 2004 07:41 Profile Homepage #11
I don't see what's so mellow about Pink Floyd, unless you're talking about exclusively the SB stuff.

My playlist is as diverse, confusing, and terrifying as I am. Artists represented range from Hector Berlioz to Ludacris to UB40, with just about everything in between.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Ethics? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Friday, October 8 2004 20:40 Profile Homepage #31
The Aztecs believed that the ideal form of government was a theocratic monarchy, that the sun was actually a god which required the blood of thousands to have the strength to rise every morning, and that it was socially essential to engage in constant war to capture thousands of captives and sacrifice them to the aforementioned sun-god.

If you have to make a non-empirical system of morality, base it on people, not dogma. Morality based on dogma comes out retarded and wrong 99.99% of the time.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Non-SW game recommendations in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Friday, October 8 2004 14:13 Profile Homepage #55
Filesharing client.

Took me several weeks with a cable modem (separate sessions, but still); don't do it now and expect to have a copy before the debates are over.

[ Friday, October 08, 2004 14:14: Message edited by: Fear Uncertainty and Custer ]

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Politics in Exile? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Thursday, October 7 2004 15:14 Profile Homepage #30
There are several types of anarchism and communism, each different. Anarcho-socialism falls under both communism and anarchy, anarcho-capitalism under anarchy only, Stalinism-Leninism falls under communism only, and democratic socialism can fall under both if you define them very loosely, or neither if your definition is more strict.

Ideally, the end aim of communism is a state of anarchy: government, when just, exists for the very purpose of preparing humanity for a socialist utopia and, when no longer needed, will wither away, leaving a peaceful state of anarchy.

Note there is a difference between anarchy and caustocracy which is not often made -- specifically, because the situation which arises from the sudden death of government -- or even the survivable instability of government -- is called 'anarchy' where it is really more of a caustocracy: rule by fire. Whoever can take power will, and will face no opposition, because the people WANT a government. In a truly anarchist system, no government is needed or wanted, thereby making the sort of warlord-state scenario found during major succession crises impossible.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
THE ABOMINABLE GENITAL PHOTO THREAD in Richard White Games
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Thursday, October 7 2004 05:06 Profile Homepage #0
GENTLEMEN, YOU MAY COMMENCE

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Politics in Exile? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Wednesday, October 6 2004 13:45 Profile Homepage #23
quote:
Originally written by Corrigere:

Valorim is an anomaly- remember, it's under quarantine.

Avernum is also, quite obviously, not the same as the Empire- in many ways, it too is a frontier. (I wonder, then, what the caves would be like during E3? Not that I care much- they'd probably be Free and full of Liberty anyway. Far be it from Jeff to take a concept somewhere interesting.)
A more interesting concept: the Imperial Civil War that almost certainly broke out after the assassination of Hawthorne. Garzahd pretty clearly was the eminence grise in the Empire, but Prazac was so young that there could easily have been dozens of eligible princes and princesses, even up to and including a Crown Prince -- who might have been by the same mother as Prazac.

If the war hadn't ended with Garzahd's death, you could have expected his regency to end with some kind of foul play and him becoming Emperor. There's all kind of room in Exile for alternate history, really.

Also for politics. The problem is that Jeff's political intrigues are simplistic and unrealistic, and it takes a lot of reading-in to get anything good done.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Books! What're you reading? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Tuesday, October 5 2004 15:12 Profile Homepage #52
Just finished The Stranger, the American translation. I plan to pick it up in French eventually.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Non-violent solutions in the Geneforge Series in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Tuesday, October 5 2004 15:10 Profile Homepage #3
Fallout is playable all the way through without lifting a hand in anger. Geneforge? No.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
How to raise money? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Monday, October 4 2004 15:56 Profile Homepage #78
It's called strength of schedule, you invincible dunderhead. No one wants to put an overmotivated underachiever into college, and a straight-A diploma loses some meaning if there's not an honors class in the lot.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Books! What're you reading? in General
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Monday, October 4 2004 14:36 Profile Homepage #32
Practicing to become a Catholic, I see. Good show. Your persecution complex is already doing great.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
A Recreation in Blades of Avernum Editor
Custer
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
 written Sunday, October 3 2004 18:09 Profile Homepage #14
I am certain that, in spite of the polite admonitions of the best and brightest of the community, you will be able to complete this project anyway. I mean, what does more people and better people failing on a project half this scale and twice as useful as this mean to you? You're magic.

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The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest.
Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00

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