Messages

Ok, I'm going to be frank but I'm going to do it as a

Spoiler

When I was 13 I used to get an erection if I touched a girls hand. I think I damn near creamed myself when I had my first kiss. I can't say I've been that out of control since I was 14-15. I don't really think it'll come back when I hit 30. You could be right SSH, but if so I'll bet you have the stamina of a dolphin so the joke's on you! 

[close]

Shbaz:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fornication

I bring this up because there are still places in the U.S. that have a fornication law on the books, just not enforced.

Awhile back (10 years maybe?) The Idaho town I live in actaully tried some younger folk for Fornication. All it got was people on talk shows and a shovel-full of shame....

He said rape though, which is a completely separate issue.

After the Supreme Court decision over Texas Sodomy laws I really doubt it'd hold up long if it were enforced. That decision could be loosely interpreted as also striking down fornication laws, since two men cannot be married in Texas.

This was a much easier matter 200 years ago.

Yeah, back then they could just kill the woman altogether and there was no way to prove fatherhood so women could often be written off as harlots while the fathers retained their public standing.

But at the age of 14 the father and mother should both be legaly charged. Cause its still illegal so both should I dunno be charged with rape or something.

You're confused. Statutory rape is when an adult sexually abuses a minor who may or may not know any better. The ages of consent vary from 14-18 in the United States. If two minors have sex it isn't a crime, they don't know any better. If an adult has sex with a minor it is a crime, the minor was taken advantage of. Why in the hell should two kids be charged with rape for having sex during the period of their life where they have less control over their sexual urges than they ever will in their future? Do you think they should also be charged for masturbation, etc? It's just unreasonably stupid.

I started by getting the feel of a guitar neck playing single note theme songs and such, then moved on to power chord songs. The reason I think that it was a good idea is that it kept me interested in guitar while I gained the hand strength and coordination to be a better player. Sure, you're not learning a lot, but you can play a lot of rock songs only knowing power chords.

When I really learned to play guitar, however, I started learning chords and scales. That's when you get to the point that you can play something decent without even thinking about it - and it's really what makes playing an instrument fulfilling.

When I was about 16 (1 year after getting my first electric guitar) I started to notice something - my amp sounded like shit compared to those on the radio. That was because I had a transistor amp and most professionals use tube amps or really expensive tube emulators. I couldn't afford either, so I learned to build one at ampage.org and ax84.com. I ripped expensive parts from old army equipment and eBay so it didn't cost much and used mouser.com for my electrical stuff. Built it in an old burned out transistor amps box for less than $120. Building your own amp really makes you feel more connected to your equipment and there's no substitute for even cheap tube amps.

Lately I've been thinking of building a guitar again. I've wanted to do this for a long time, but it's a difficult task and I don't have the tools. I stumbled across a cigar box guitar site recently though and that might also interest you, if you don't mind playing some more folkish stuff.

It's her body, but the baby is half mine. Do you see where I'm going with this? Totally wrong for any woman to do that, especially when married. That's the real kicker.. (this is all hypothetical, I'm not married)

I was friends with an older woman who'd had an abortion back in the 70's when it was relatively new. She said it was pretty much advocated and they didn't really tell her about all of the things involved with the process before and after. It was regretted, though make no mistake about it, some people don't regret it.

I think the problem is that we're too obsessed with being supportive of people no matter what. If people want abortions, fine, but we don't need television ads for it and people advocating it. If it were allowed but heavily discouraged I wouldn't be so discontented with it.

Then there's the other argument oft unnoticed, when does life really begin? I certainly don't feel bad for not using my sperm to make babies. When is it OK to take measures to end or stop a pregnancy? The day after? A month after? Many people don't even believe in contraception for moral (not necessarily religious) reasons. In especially early stages, like a week, I definately don't think it's wrong. After that, it gets foggy. Hearts start beating, brains start forming.

You say that the news media has shifted to an entertainment news model and then go on to blame half the US public? You've basically absolved the news media from THEIR lack of responsibility (they are, after all, called The Fourth Estate) and then focused ALL blame on members of the general public.

You are right to suggest that a mainstream news organisation needs an audience to survive. And is there a better way to capture an audience than talk of war? Regardless of whether it has a liberal or conservative bias, news is sensationalist. The more dramatic the news and footage, the better the story.

Fundamentally what I'm saying is that they've also avoided taking a bias knowing that it'd cause them to lose audience to other media outlets that were biased more in the area of what the audience wanted to hear. Both sides were reported, and yes one happened to have more dramatic characters because the President speaks with stronger words than did the U.N. representatives. The press weren't responsible for that. I vividly recall forming my opinion that Bush was full of it based on what I saw on the news - and other unbiased minds surely did the same. By "entertainment news" I mean they're looking to capture the largest audience. McDonald's makes its burgers bland because any strong taste would be liked by some, indifferent to others, and hated by some. If they take the middle road, they cut out the chance of being hated.

I don't want to see a conservative/liberal news split in my country because then we'll have the even worse problem of people watching whatever news they feel suits their ideology best (and if you think the present news is Bush's bitchpool, you don't want to know what a conservatively biased news corp. would promote). Most people already think the news is liberal right now. A lot of people have switched to Fox (openly conservative) because of it.

The article you've posted isn't very convincing to me because of what has happened in the past when the media picked up stories without "offical" sanction or acknowledgment. A certain high-profile anchorman of several decades destroyed his career by relying on a memo that turned out to be completely fabricated. I can completely understand the medias unwillingness to pick up poorly verified stories about prison abuse, it ruins their reputation as a reliable source of information if they turn out to be wrong.

In any case, 40% of the US has access to broadband internet and the internet news isn't lacking in variety or truthfullness. I'm not worried at all about the press, but about the will of the people to care. You know what our voting turnouts are, how can you not understand my point in that respect?

It's interesting that you bring up 9/11. With regard to that cultural phenomenon I don't know what to say. The media did a little simmering to test the waters initially, bringing up issues like "Why didn't this administration stop this?" and found that going that route would basically be shooting themselves in the face due to the extremist patriotism evoked with an attack on that scale. The press were powerless - if you've ever read "The Fountainhead" this is akin to the newsman there trying to defend Howard Roark blowing up a building. For that I place the blame squarely on the president who, knowing that the people would stand behind him in their confusion and fear, twisted those events to his bidding with such sickly efficiency that it boils my blood.

IMHO asking a question specific to your nation in an international forum is a bad and senseless idea.

I'm an atheist. I celebrate Halloween, Christmas, Easter (insofar as I go home to eat dinner with the fam), Thanksgiving, etc. I consider it a national tradition more than a religious holiday. What child relates Halloween, Christmas or Easter with religion unless specifically told to do so? The truth is that they're about getting lots of candy from strangers, getting and giving lots of gifts to people you care about, and getting lots of candy from a giant fictional bunny, respectively. The religious connotations are lost outside of the Sunday mass/sermon and so far removed from the real world that they can't really be regarded as Christian holidays anymore, just holidays with Christian origins.

Do you even know what you're talking about? The hydrogen spectrum is easily analyzed because it's such a simple atom and only has one electron to jump orbitals. EVERY atom can emit light. What does this have to do with ghosts? You think that some yet undiscovered "ghost" atom emits light as well? Hmm.. well, we know every atom up to (and past) plutonium that won't decay in less than a second, and theoretically every one past the artificially created ones will decay too fast to practically stay around, so does this ghost atom have negative amounts of protons or what? Just so you know, antimatter explodes on contact with regular matter, so don't start that.

Everyone I know loves cake, sweets, etc. I'm a good confectionist and I often bake people pimped up cakes for their birthdays/etc. Most people really like it 'cause nowadays most people just buy them at the supermarket.

I don't really feel like that's the case. American news hasn't been playing "Bush's Bitch" but rather they've shifted to entertainment news corps. People here didn't want to hear that Bush was wrong, so the news said a lot about what Bush was saying while casually mentioning the U.N.'s take on it all along. This allowed die-hard conservatives to say that those pansy U.N. idiots couldn't find a bomb or a hole they fell into while those of us with any sense knew all along that this war would be based on false presumptions.

I don't blame the news, I blame the current attitude of half the American people. The news channels have to balance reporting with profits to survive, and while that may seem to you like a lack of balls, their balls don't mean much if they don't have any blood left to fill them. If any slant still exists (except for FOX) it's usually slight to heavy liberal. I was watching the news heavily at the time leading to and immediately following the Iraq war and I always saw mention of the U.N. hearings and inspections in my very conservative state of Oklahoma. I don't know if you as an Aussie can say that it wasn't there with any accuracy.

Is it possible to hypnotise yourself?

I do this regularly when I have trouble sleeping or when I won't have long to sleep (because it makes for a deep sleep).

Basically you walk yourself through the steps of hypnosis, relaxing everything and then relaxing it again until you feel like you're sinking into an infinite abyss. Then it's like a dreamworld.. you can walk your mind through all kinds of outrageous scenarios (dreams) and some people claim out of body experiences. I rarely remember my dreams but I very very rarely remember my dreams after hypnotizing myself.

Actually I didn't see much of anything... Just ran from mortars, and fixed computers (my job).

I'll never forget that IRC tidbit that went something like:
<Alynn> AFK - being shelled

I think we should be careful about jumping to conclusions - given how the press were duped in the run up to the occupation of Iraq.

They weren't duped - all along they kept saying, "While Bush and his administration claim this.. the UN search crews find nothing and say that the US claims are absurd."

It wasn't a needle in a haystack.

Iran surely sees a perfect opportunity now to take on the US while it's down after being outraged at the "axis of evil" comments. I don't know that they'd be willing to fight on their own territory though, which would obviously happen.

There really isn't a good 3d game making program that is easy to use,  if you are averse to coding 3DGS may be one of your only options, but your games will look bad and play bad.

Crystal Space is going to replace Blender's internal game engine. I know how everyone hates Blender but one neat feature has always been its really simple game engine.. though the game engine sucked because it was slow and ugly. Crystal Space, however, is awesome. Putting it in Blender will mean being able to use it with zero necessary coding.

There are beta releases out right now, though I've not toyed with it. I'm too busy making an arcade game with transistors, which is a step below assembly... grumble.

I see you've finally decided to adapt to the avatar limitations.. 

There are cameras at every filling station I've ever been to with an automated credit card system not requiring pins. To get away with this relatively small amount of extortion you'd need to use fake plates and a disguise every time, and you'd risk felony charges.

I wouldn't say the risk is worth it, nor would most people, so it's a relatively benign security flaw. Besides, when a card is lost you'd be an idiot not to cancel it ASAP. You're only liable for $50 of unauthorized transactions, no matter how high, in the US. and according to that article, in Britain too.

Step one: Post on AGS forums, ask if anyone wants to join your team of artists, story writers and animators. Don't forget to mention that you will be too busy leading the team to do any of the afforementioned items. Offer each team member 5%, unless there are a lot, then a lower number like 3%. This plan is foolproof.

Step two: Lead team through the game-making process, use an iron fist to assure deadlines are met.

Step three: PROFIT!!

I used to fantasize about girls like that in highschool.

Bear this responsibility well.

FYI, if you're from the USA the law says you must be 13 to post or chat on the internet without written permission from your parents.

so pretend you're 16