GorunNova

Too bad the US's apparent plans in that direction might start World War III... -_-' The question is... is de-facto enslavement of the proletariat any better than blatant enslavement? ... and that doesn't change the fact that quite a few humanitarian treaties have dissolved, or at least have been vetoed / unjoined by the US... and the fact that the US hasn't ratified the International Criminal Court means that much of international law doesn't apply to them. It is the countries with the strongest militaries that have to be watched the most... don't think that I like China better than the US, or think they're on par in a social sense... but there are distinct signs that the US's military supremacy are getting to some heads... and a massive conflict will likely be the result. I should point out that the last democratic government in the US was impacted to a large degree by character assassination, and the unfortunate choice on the part of Bill Clinton to give them something real to lock onto (i.e. the Monica Lewinsky case). When another democrat president is elected, I fully expect to see another massive character assasination mechanism put into place. ... Rome started conquering the known world due to exactly the same fears. A barbarian raid ended up with Rome being burned, and thus Rome began to take over places that were, could be, or suspected were a threat to the safety of Rome. There are more ways than military conquest to control other countries, and the US has used them all. To say otherwise would be to deny facts. Heh... it might explain why Immigration Canada's website got a HUGE burst of hits from US IPs after Bush's last election ^^ The only real solution to the problems down there are for people to VOTE. Almost half of the country doesn't vote, and the other half is made up of special interests, religious block-voters (who were VERY enamoured of Bush, I might add), and supporters of corporate interests (Heh... makes me think of recent tax cuts in that sector...). Oh, yeah, and generously mixed with good citizens who DO care about their country ^^ The world is NOT just made up of the US... they have to start keeping the world in mind, or we WILL have World War 3, sooner or later.

'good' is an abstract term that means different things to everybody... so what makes the 'greater good' any easier to nail down? -_-' Instead of babbling about the 'greater good', a maybe a statement of principles focusing on improving the situation of humanity in specific and in general might be in order?

Ummm... the fact we're talking intelligently on a forum does kind of disqualify us from being 'average', last I checked.

I look at this as the first step towards creating artificial brains that are anything like our own... and possibly an important step towards the backing up of human brains mentioned in another topic. Using the blueprint to grow a copy brain, in case someone has massive head trauma, maybe? ^^'

It's not that the Japanese are the only ones that have imagination... it's just that it's the only country with corporations willing to fund imaginitive ideas these days... -_-' Edit: Most other corporations are suffering from 'Roman Empiritis' (i.e. work for self gain, play it very conservative by sticking to and encouraging the status quo, adopt new things developed by others but don't create them ourselves... that sort of thing.)

"Captain! An Ook bananaship is approaching! What should we do?"

Oh, yeah... -_-'... most of the climatologists in the world are now screaming about global warming, and the Bush administration is dancing around with fingers in ears singing something or other... I suspect "I'm in the Money", myself -_-'. Triple post avoidance edit: Sure... but in the US, how much influence does the average person really have, especially since all a government needs is 51 people out of 100 in any particular state to support them? The other 49 people don't even get opposition representation on a federal level... unless I'm mistaken about the US electoral system.

Actually, I should have said, "Hell, in the US they can report that everybody in the world is happy" or some other rediculous statement ^^'... the point I was trying to get across is they can blatantly lie on the air, fire/pay off reporters that don't want to lie, and it's all legit in the courts. Edit: ... and since virtually all the news outlets are owned by five (or some small single digit number around there) big media companies, they can all agree to say the same lie, keep the ratings up, and squish the careers of anyone who disagrees, since they do have a habit of having a collective blacklist.

Heh... 'The Apocalypse Element' is kind of what made me think about it... it basically leads the way straight through to a Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords ^^

It's a pity the Big Finish stuff isn't canon... or is it? If it's not, as I said, it's a pity, because there's quite a lot to those audio plays ^^'

It's just funny that the grizzled master chief steps up to ensign... an upgrade to Wesley? O.o...

The most dangerous projectile weapon is a rifle with a good sight, and wielder with a good aim. Best for long distance target practice imho ^_^

... well, the fact that a huge chunk of people working in North America are too busy slaving at minimum wage jobs to think, and those that have money are too comfortable to care what the hell is happening outside their bubbles... ... also, when's the last time you've seen an honest government? They don't want to take anything approaching a moral stand unless driven to it by force. And the news... these media corporations want to keep people happy and supportive of the status quo and their interests... 'Will stories like that boost our ratings?' they ask themselves, and decide (for us) that we're not interested in seeing this stuff. Hell, in the US they can report that everybody is happy, and fire or buy off protesting reporters with no problems, thanks to a case for unlawful dismissal that got overturned in appeal just over 10 years ago. As long as they can keep a veneer of integrity to fool people, they can air anything they want, accurate or not, meaningful or not.

Heh... the US has broken or at least not ratified a disgusting number of international treaties on bioweapons, mines, nuclear weapons, and space-based weapons platforms since Bush came into power... why should any of the smaller countries honour them if the US won't? These and other actions by the US Gov't are making the world enormously unstable -_-'... ... the US never ratified the International Criminal Court, either...

Sonic Screwdriver! Measurements: about 7 inches long, 2 inches around the waist. Likes: Opening, closing, locking, unlocking, scanning, and other interesting jobs! Dislikes: Terileptils and sonic guns (they cheat!)

I can see it now... Project... Blue Orb! ^^ (point intentionally missed)

Heh.. tell the Midianites about the Bible's morality -_-'... or a witch. Edit: The Christian Gnostics had it right when they wanted to ditch the Old Testament... well, until the Catholic Church wiped them out as heretics. Edit 2: "Not their love of men but the impotence of their love of men keeps the Christians of today from -- burning us." -- Freidrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

BLEAH! I've heard about that cult -_-'... that's all they are, by the way... a cult wrapped around pseudoscience and alien-god theology. They claimed to have successfully cloned humans, yet didn't supply any proof that they weren't bulling everyone... Have you heard about Raelian communes? Bleah... -_-' Edit: If you didn't know, their claim of successful human cloning is a hoax.

People do stupid and crazy things to fit into their society's norms. If such stretching made you look 'beautiful' in a particular society, of COURSE mothers would bind their young children to look 'beautiful'. That's just social morality. Every society has examples of this sort of stupidity... even our own.

*sigh* The smoothness of the transition is easily explained. No binding lasts forever. When you put on a new one, maybe after a few days to a week, it'll be in a slightly different position. Eventually, this will result in a smooth change in shape (but you may notice that not ALL of them have the smoothness of that particular skull...) Over the years, bones can be coaxed into radically different shapes... this is merely a variant on those people with the golden hoops around their necks, and Chinese footbinding... except with a skull. Throw in a low-calcium diet, and bones will be more prone to distortion. Also, when compared with the structure of a normal human skull with the same sort of facial bones, the face is normal sized, while the back part is longer and thinner... but not larger in total volume. That explanation isn't a stretch... not as much as immediately assuming they're aliens. Besides, I've heard about those headbinders before. I wonder if such distortions of the skull lead to healh problems or brain damage? Edit: Haven't seen that 'boy tut' picture before.. Edit 2: I won't even get into all the diseases that result in deformed skulls... -_-'

What it is, is that the US government is saying one thing and doing another... as usual. They want everyone else to leave space alone while they stick their foot up there. I have long since stopped trusting the motives of the US Government... if I ever really trusted them at all. I'm not very sure things will work out if the US has weapons in space... With the diminishing rights of US citizens, the overt callousness of the US government, and their obvious pushing of multinational corporate interests over those of their own citizens and normal people around the world... Let's just say I hope -nobody- puts weapons in space yet... things are WAY too unstable right now for that to be a good idea, regardless of who happens to be behind the controls. Edit: We're already marching headlong into World War 3... if the US puts weapons in space, that march will turn into a sprint.

An interesting quote (that I may or may not agree with)... "Saying computers can think is like saying submarines can swim!"

Waitamin... the BBC's 3D 360 degree pic of the Doctor's TARDIS has only one door... outside! http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/making/360/full.shtml ... there IS no internal door, so how can you get to the wardrobe etc? :mad:

Wouldn't BG be more effective as a warning about the Black Guardian?... then again, 'Bad Wolf' looks better than 'Big Gerbil' scrawled on things, I suppose...