Humodour

Look at my horse - my horse is amazing. Give it a lick. Mmm - it tastes just like raisins. Have a stroke of its mane - it turns into a plane and then it turns back again when you tug on its winkie. Eww that's dirty. Do you think so? Well I better not show you where the lemonade is made. Sweet lemonade. Mmm - sweet lemonade. Sweet lemonade yeah sweet lemonade. Get on my horse, I'll take you around the universe and all the other places too. I think you'll find that the universe pretty much covers everything. Shut up woman get on my horse!

Some good artists. Awesome.

Oh! Of course. Awwwesome, it's in summer!

Well it's a nice opportunity for me to visit somewhere in Europe without commiting to a big spending trip. BTW what was 2009's band line-up? The only problem is that it's the middle of winter. Gunna be bloody cold.

Kind of obvious isn't it? Under the premise of course that the resources required to replicate are too scarce to support an entire generation. Only then can you get a selection, be it natural or not. That's not entirely correct though is it? (Which is actually detailed in the article). It's a common misunderstanding that evolution requires natural selection - it doesn't. If mutation is occurring, and even if there are no resource pressures, then if the mutant can survive and reproduce, it WILL (because, well, there's no pressure against it), forming sub-species. Kind of obvious isn't it? Under the premise of course that the resources required to replicate are too scarce to support an entire generation. Only then can you get a selection, be it natural or not. Very obvious. When you think about it, there's really no way evolution can't happen in a self-replicating system subject to random mutation and external pressures. Obvious for us fortunately, but many science lay people should find this interesting.

Cutting back on caffeine intake causes headaches because a caffeine addiction causes more blood vessels to grow in your brain. Both the increase and decrease in blood flow are harmless (except for the headaches) and your brain will adjust soon. What you are doing (cutting those things back or out) is a very smart and healthy move.

Quite simpley, I was stating that the islamic world has fallen from grace. To cut to the chase, in the dark ages, the islamic world could be considered more civil than it is now. I do not intend to tar all with the same brush, I have infact had the pleasure of knowing many moderate muslims. These people give me some hope. By the 'Islamic world' you really mean the Middle Eastern world. And yes, even 100 years ago it was more civilised than now. Wahhabism and similar extremist lines of thought spread like wild-fire in that area the past century. I distinguish 'Islamic world' from 'Mid East' largely because that is the way things are; Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Albania are all clearly Muslim dominated and yet are by and large developed, civilised countries (Lebanon was on that list till Hezbollah got involved - it was the Switzerland of the Mid East). Heck even the North African Islamic countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco) are a cut above what you find in the general Middle East area (Yemeni, Somalia, Pakistan and Iran included). Reading properly, it seems that Visceris already made this point quite clearly, yet you chose to ignore him and push your prejudice instead. Nice. I'm not playing, I'm too tired, maybe tomorrow. I look forward to it. OMG I don't even.

Interestingly the causes for my depression weren't just physical factors, and yet fixing all three of these physical factors you mention cured it. I'm pretty sure physical factors cured it because the underlying mental reasons for being in the depressed state essentially remain.

Hopefully you're referring to others (but I really can't tell who - everyone in this thread seems a separate entity), but because I'm still irked off that a certain moderator accuses me of being LoF (and used the possibility of banning him permanently to try and threaten me - again, go ahead!) I want to clarify that I am not him, and being accused of being him is pretty insulting, because I agree with him (and the way he acts) about as much as I do taks. /insecure rant

No, because faith has never provided any observable, measurable results. Science has. Faith moves men. End of. That could help justify its usefulness but not its correctness.

Most of us (except perhaps some Americans with their weird obsession with Creationism) learnt about viruses in biology class. We learnt about how they are technically not 'alive' but nonetheless came to consider them as 'close enough' due to their similarities to other living things (not to mention that they evolved from living single-cell organism). Well, now kids in biology class are going to have to contend with prions as well - rogue self-replicating protein strands responsible for things like mad cow disease. As was, I guess, inevitable due to their ability to replicate/reproduce, it has been shown that prions also evolve (e.g. drug resistance). Differences from viruses: a) they don't have DNA/RNA because they didn't evolve from an organism (though they ARE made up of peptides like all proteins) b) they aren't cell-based like all known viruses and organisms. c) they reproduce by converting existing healthy proteins into diseased ones one at a time - this is unlike viruses, which can infect their host, create multiple copies of themselves, then leave/die (though often the host is simply fully consumed in the process) http://www.physorg.com/news181466564.html Anyway the reason this is so interesting is that it's a good example of evolution as a mathematical optimisation process rather than a biological process because this clearly demonstrates that you don't need nucleic acids (RNA/DNA) for evolution (as has been obvious to many computer scientists for a while now). Any self-replicating system exposed to randomness in its code will evolve. Note: not just mammals are susceptible to rogue proteins - at least two forms of fungi are as well.

Quite simpley, I was stating that the islamic world has fallen from grace. To cut to the chase, in the dark ages, the islamic world could be considered more civil than it is now. I do not intend to tar all with the same brush, I have infact had the pleasure of knowing many moderate muslims. These people give me some hope. By the 'Islamic world' you really mean the Middle Eastern world. And yes, even 100 years ago it was more civilised than now. Wahhabism and similar extremist lines of thought spread like wild-fire in that area the past century. I distinguish 'Islamic world' from 'Mid East' largely because that is the way things are; Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Albania are all clearly Muslim dominated and yet are by and large developed, civilised countries (Lebanon was on that list till Hezbollah got involved - it was the Switzerland of the Mid East). Heck even the North African Islamic countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco) are a cut above what you find in the general Middle East area (Yemeni, Somalia, Pakistan and Iran included). Reading properly, it seems that Visceris already made this point quite clearly, yet you chose to ignore him and push your prejudice instead. Nice.

What university you went to means **** all compared to the skills and qualities you can physically demonstrate. AFAIK they don't hire based on the university you went to (does any employer these days?). Unless maybe if it's Digipen!

I'd better finish up buying the stuff I want on Steam and GOG. Hopefully the cheque has cleared in my account by now.

The correct phrase is actually "correlation doesn't always equal causation", because it often actually does equal it. Still wrong. The correct phrase is "correlation does not imply causation." *sigh* Yes.

Any sane person who get angry at home and forget about it, not protest in the street and cause destruction of property.

The correct phrase is actually "correlation doesn't always equal causation", because it often actually does equal it. I highly doubt it. It's well known that lack of sleep, and displaced sleep patterns mess up neurotransmitter levels in the brain (especially serotonin). In fact, serotonin imbalance is why people often get migraines, auras, and tension headaches when their sleep patterns are disrupted. Guess which neurotransmitter is the main one implicated in depression? It would be easy to test whether it's correlation or causation by deliberately depriving a healthy individual of sleep, and I imagine they've already done this. Honestly people who read a brief summary of a study and then spurt out "correlation, not causation" annoy me (and no offence to you, smart arses on Slashdot do it all the time). One thing I will point out is that while it's fairly clear (and this isn't the first study) that sleep deprivation often causes/triggers depression, it isn't the only thing that does so, and thus good sleep patterns (8 to 9 hours each day always in bed before midnight), will always help those who are depressed, that doesn't mean it'll make it go away. No, but if you did it consistently (i.e. every day) your body would grow used to it, mitigating the negative effects. I imagine you're like me, though, so I doubt you keep that sleep pattern consistently. You also have an elevated risk of heart attack being awake that late/early in the morning (in the period when the body expects sleep), although that shouldn't bother a healthy individual much.

This is obvious to me from personal experience. Bad sleep patterns like this are also strongly correlated with a wide range of diseases later in life (even after accounting for other factors like fitness, smoking, etc), effectively knocking a decade or two off your lifespan.

You think BG1 is a grindfest but think Mass Effect isn't? Something does not compute.

I think it's potentially what the original Baldur's Gate was - a prequel and a prototype to a brilliant game. A good game in its own right, but hardly flawless. Based on what I've seen of ME2, it will be relegated to the same role BG1 had, having played it makes you appreciate the sequel more and fondly remembered, never booted. It cost me a lot more than 4 euros, and I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of it over the last 6+ months. It's funny because BG1 was better than BG2. Story-wise, yes. In technical and design execution, no. I found BG1 more free, less angsty, and prettier. BG2 lost its soul.

i don't care what plato argued, classical greece was not a period representative of what i originally proposed. do some better research, find a different period to prove your point, this one ain't it. i did, and i have. i suggest the same to you. it lasted through the classical greece period which pidesco claims refutes my theory about absolute power, the period in which greece is known for its intellectual advancements. not the period referred to as "classical greece." this is easy to find out, had you bothered to look. this is not unlike that comment in the windows7 thread where you failed to actually read the article, right? knowledge is the enemy of tyranny. you, and many others that post in these silly threads, however, are not. taks If we go back and look at what you originally said - that any one group being in power is the enemy of progress (citing ancient Greek democracy as a deceptive example to back this up) - you were clearly wrong, and that is what I was referring to. The social, intellectual, and technological progress that came from Rome and Greece was done mostly under various forms of authoritarianism and dictatorship, not democracy. I don't like this reality any more than you do, but unlike you I'm not going to bend the truth to suit me. The benefit of democracy isn't (just) progress - it is freedom. Implying otherwise is disingenuous and ultimately detrimental to your cause, since when applied to something like modern day China, a misguided Chinese person can then turn around and say "but we don't need democracy for progress - we're doing fine with authoritarianism". Reference: that's actually what happens when any one group has absolute power, be it religious or otherwise. that's where the whole concept of individual rights is derived, as a means to protect people from such groups (particularly the state). taks

It's also funny because it costs me $4 USD which is $4.5 AUD, whereas 4 Euros is $6.5 AUD. I'm glad there's no regional currency version of Steam for Australia. This sale has been amazing. Half-price discounts from Steam sales, and half-price 'discount' again due to the AUD being near parity. So much <3

I think it's potentially what the original Baldur's Gate was - a prequel and a prototype to a brilliant game. A good game in its own right, but hardly flawless. Based on what I've seen of ME2, it will be relegated to the same role BG1 had, having played it makes you appreciate the sequel more and fondly remembered, never booted. It cost me a lot more than 4 euros, and I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of it over the last 6+ months. It's funny because BG1 was better than BG2.