V Guyver

Well, I've seen many of those cases. From what I've seen, many of them are from parents who constantly over feed their children. Now I understand there are other causes, I had a friend and neighbor in school who swelled up and looked overweight because of side effects from cancer drugs. I understand there is also a rare gene in some cases, and even mental disorders towards food...

The mental disorders with food though can still be treated though, first is a rigid change in diet (and please no diet trends, they fail. It has to be a lifestyle change to succeed) and the second is the medical therapy needed, such as psychiatric help and antidepressants. Correct me if I'm wrong, though I studied obesity as well, and in my conclusions, I find it very similar to Hikimaru's/shutins, and mild drug addictions.

There is usually no need for gene therapy for that problem, just change the diet, it works with 99% of the people. Still, if we could actually manage to be successful with gene therapy, we could solve many problems. Perhaps even regrow limbs for people who lost them in surgery or some other tragedy (or simply transplant limbs with gene therapy by making any limb transferable.)

But the gene therapy idea just reminded me of Designer babies... in the future, will parents be telling docs to genetically alter their kids hair to be naturally pink, have red eyes, to have better lungs, stronger bones, and maybe have increased brain capacity.

It would be great in some cases, but it's also scary, because the kid may suffer from the actions of a parent making such changes. In essence, playing god with your children. Then again, I wouldn't mind have genes that would make me 6'5" and Antonio Banderas's face.

oh, I forgot the name of that horror movie. It was pretty horrible. Basically the monsters (trolls?) were vegetarian monsters, so they often turned people into vegetables by feeding them something, then in turn would eat the person.

Oh and how Darth Vader tortures his victims.

Yeah, it's pretty horrible in some countries. Hell, in India they still have families willingly selling off their daughters (and even babies) for a profit.

Also I remember one international incident between the US and one Arab country. Turns out the princess to the Monarchy ran off with an US soldier stationed in that area. They had been in love and married shortly. But the US and that country tried to find legal loop holes to allow her to get deported out of the US because of the financial ties to the country. I think it happened in the late 90's.

Ahh, found an article

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6628334

LAS VEGAS - The five-year marriage is over between a former Marine and a young Bahraini royal whose story provided the basis for a made-for-television movie, “The Princess and the Marine.”

“It was what she wanted,” Jason Johnson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal of the divorce he and Meriam Al-Khalifa filed for Nov. 17, the day after their fifth wedding anniversary. It calls them “incompatible in marriage.”

Johnson, who had sneaked his beloved into the United States and was court-martialed over the relationship, cast the tale as a “Romeo and Juliet” love affair that disintegrated amid Las Vegas nightlife, opposition by his wife’s family, and at least one death threat.

Al-Khalifa was not represented by a lawyer in the divorce filing. No one answered her apartment door Monday and it was unclear whether she planned to stay in the United States.

Met at a mall

The story started in January 1999 when Johnson was stationed in Bahrain, an island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Al-Khalifa is one of five daughters of Sheik Abdullah bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, a distant relative of Bahrain’s king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

They met at a mall and fell in love, though he was a Mormon and she was a Muslim, forbidden to marry a non-Muslim.

Her family ordered an end to the romance. They continued to secretly exchange letters through a store employee at the mall.

Johnson spirited Al-Khalifa to the United States when his tour of duty ended in November 1999, using forged documents and a disguise including a New York Yankees baseball cap.

Johnson was court-martialed over the incident, demoted and discharged from the Marines. Al-Khalifa sought political asylum in the United States.

The couple married in Las Vegas on Nov. 16, 1999, when he was 23 and she was 19.

Movie, talk show circuit

The story made headlines. Besides the TV movie, the couple made the rounds of television talk shows. They rented an apartment in Las Vegas and lived off money from the movie. Johnson got a job as a parking valet on the Las Vegas Strip.

He described constant tension with Al-Khalifa’s family, and said the FBI once told him they’d intercepted a man who said he’d been paid $500,000 to assassinate her.

Johnson said Al-Khalifa plunged into Las Vegas nightlife, partying with her friends and ignoring him.

About a year ago, Johnson said, Al-Khalifa left him. He lives now in Las Vegas with his stepmother.

“Deep down inside, she knows that I loved her more than anything in the world,” Johnson said. “I can say I enjoyed every minute I spent with her.”

yeah, many people came to that same conclusion. Tons of similar things, sort of how Gundam SEED was practically a remake of the original series.

I like that candian ad.

pretty clever with the skunk liquid.

Not sure if pumping that stuff underground is such a good thing, but still way better then current methods.

Oh and an old article I read about a few years ago.

Child born with Tail hailed as Hindu god Hanuman

nice articles.

1. Yeah it happens, poor gal. But honestly, she should of known better then to wear that to the airport.

2. Speed dial, it's logical the fella had his dearest family on speed dial. With the crash, the phone could of been open and pressured with just a few buttons, constantly dialing any of three or four keys randomly.

3. I can understand them wanting to create their own versions... but it's incredibly silly because it will likely remain public knowledge as to why these new holidays were formed and modeled after western influences to begin with. In other words a needless complication.

hahaha, you can tell because of the way the shoulder and shading are.

As for the rape pic, I would of changed the text to. "When Botox starts leaking."

I never got a chance to read her books, but as a kid I had one teacher who used to mention her name. I looked her up later and found some of her ideas to be ahead of her time and usually attempting to do good, but some things lacked the logical consequences of disrupting societies as they are. Also... her umm fetish's... are a little creepy, this coming from a guy who has researched rape in general of psychology.

I will try and get her books someday, if I remember that is.

By the way, anyone ever read Mein Kampf (My Struggle) by Adolf Hitler? I found the book a bit of a mess to read, but it shows just how disillusioned he was with society. Also how he seemed to want sympathy for his actions... or rather his future actions. Interestingly enough, you can tell he wasn't a real monster when he wrote this, just a horribly misguided human being filled with too much anger and hatred towards people. I don't think he truly became the monster he was later pictured as until after his doctor started to dope him, and he surrounded himself with men even more vile and insane then 10 Hitlers combined. He was however obsessed with glory and war, and wanted to be a hero. He unfortunately was not the type of hero we wanted, and is now remembered mostly as a villain.

those are some great ones, wish I noticed this thread earlier.

I never got deep into the series. I mean, it's a good series, but I stopped watching the Anime after the Manga started to degrade.

The I've read a ton of Star wars novels, they are all pretty good with the exception of the first few in the late 70's early 80's. I love X-Wing's "Wraith Squadron" and "Iron Fist" by Aaron Allston the most. One of the few star wars novels to make me cry and also make me laugh hard enough to wake up people at night. The most alluring things are the blend of humor and tragedy of some characters. All the characters except for Wedge can be considered "defective" people, one is a traumatised form squad leader who's entire squad was killed in an ambush. We got one who's Jedi flunky. A former imperial child actor who was used to as propaganda and later horrified of the truth in the empires actions as well as the results of his work. One is a man who's lost the ability to live life to the fullest because he finds himself losing his humanity over time due to his injuries (No longer able to attract women, incapable of having children, and unable to continue his career) and tons more.

Anything by John Dos Passos is pretty good. He was on par if not better then Hemingway, and not to mention has gained the highest literature awards around at his time. I love both his historical, and fictional works.

Various versions of Kind Arthur's legends and his knights. At age 8 I read a 12,000 page 3 inch thick book, I don't remember who wrote it, but I believed it was titled "King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table" possibly by Roger Lancelyn Green. That book was a to read...

Animal Farm. Probably one of the most enjoyable books I read, it's so incredibly funny with it's horribly dark morbid humor.

Any of the Darwin Award books, good for a laugh, or just go to the website.

As well as dozens upon dozens of historical books like "Europe and Our Nation", "Army of the Potomac", and "Great People of the Bible and How They Lived".

One of my favorites is Plotting Hitler's death. Real life stories about how the German resistance and many others plotted to kill Hitler. Hitler survived over 56 assassination attempts and over 200 plots. The book offers a great deal of detail and an inside view of Germany that most people aren't aware of.

Finally, I suggest you guys read a couple of foreign books. "The Art of War" Sūn Zǐ Bīng Fǎ and "Pack Of Wolves" by Vasil Bykov

I was about ot wrap this up when I remembered more good books. Let's see In "My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer" by Irene Gut Opdyke is one of the most tragic and horrifying books I read. She lost a lot of things, including being raped by a Nazi to save the lives of the Jews she saved, as well as escaping her own persecution from Russians and others, and loosing her first love.

"Summer of my German Soldier" another great read. About a young American girl under an abusive father who houses and protects a German POW in the USA.

"Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge" a real life murder carried out in California by a bunch of teens with such horrible brutality and insane circumstances that you'd think it was a low budget B movie.

"Call of the wild" a must read classic

Mega Driver, cool name... wait, he seems to love using the word "Mega"

Thanks for all the work Durendal, were you really that bored?

starscream is always gold.

Must of been a battle against the undead...

That is the unfortunate compromise of freedom of speech and rights. It's not that the principle is bad, it's just that both idiots and villains can abuse what they have been given. So it's unfortunate that honest people can be ruined in reputation as well as in life due to these abuses, but it's a system that usually does good. Far better then being sent to an early grave because some dictator on a whim sent you to a deadly labor camp, or some monarch that would spend the treasury on jewels instead of relieve for hungry subjects.

I just remembered something interesting, for thousands of years women have always received the short end of the stick when it came to anything such as believing their claims/ideals, to how they choose to live. These days those, if you go to court up against a women for whatever reason, such as child support, she will likely stand to win thanks to he being female. It's mostly because of modern day sympathies to women, a women who wants her children from a rich husband will likely win even if he is the better parent.

I wonder if this view of women in society has effected how certain relationships function. I am of course not factoring into the negative sexist hiphop and rap images we see with diva's an "ho's".

oh well, he was 21, ended up meeting a girl in a rave, and they went on a couple of dates. She told him she was a high school senior and all. He actually wanted to ask her, but apparently he figured that you don't ask a woman, no matter how young she looks, their age. She of course didn't care for the minor detail either, but he had unwittingly broken the law.

Problem with him doing this is that if it were reported to the police and put in court, he would of automatically of been put into the pedophile registry. Be unable to get certain jobs (most actually) be unable to appear anywhere where children may be, such as a school or even a public park. Basically, your life gets screwed over weather or not you are an actual pedo if you get convicted. You can marry the girl you slept with and even of been dating for years and never did anything, but once he crosses that border and the age difference is noted by law, then you would be in serious trouble.

there was another a friend owns, it has a sillute of a woman stroking a cat, and the words "Stroke your (well I'm not gonna say it, but it's another word for cat Ryuki )"

yeah, it's kinda weird to have religious people who go around hating Jews but told to love Christ... who was a Jew. Then there is Muslims who hate none Muslims, but Muhammad was himself a pagan for the first 40-50 years of his life. Then he embraced christian and Jewish ideas and wanted to convert him to his version of God, yet instead many are taught to hate them.

Also, it's kinda interesting that the life of a Cow, Rat (Yes there are rat worshipping Hindu cults out there), mocroorganisms, cats, and other animals... are considered more valuable then a fellow human being. There are people who would rather willingly kill another human being then harm some of these animals.

I can understand why we worship them and all, and the laws forbidding their deaths. Yet, going so far as to kill a person who is similar to you in form over some animal you have no sentimental connection is incredibly unique.

I totally agree with you on this, it's just that Satan was created specifically as a Scape Goat for God and people. I don't think it was ever meant to be the opponent of god. The concept of Satan is broadly designed with many interpretations, and yet very central powerful views around it. They don't know Satan's nature, but are not open to any ideas outside of "Hate his evil ass because he hates God" or something like that.

He's a boogeyman that does or doesn't serve god. If God does something bad in the world, it's not God's fault, it's Satan because he tempted man. If you you are weak of moral strength or give yourself into temptation or vile acts, it is either Satan's fault, or you denied God. In any case, Satan is usually viewed in an unfavorable light, but God isn't.

Jews used to give a duality to God, that he was loving, but also strict and harsh to those who disobeyed his command and ways. If you ask me, this God is the one that makes more sense, but sure as hell confuses me as to why you serve a God that tests humans by telling you to sacrifice your sons, or will kill every human being in the world if he's angered enough, or instruct his people to commit genocide (Ironic that Jews wiped out entire cities of men women and children in the name of god, and left no soul alive.)

That brings me to a point, some Christians blamed the Jews themselves of the Holocaust or claim it fake. They say that the Jews sinned against god for not accepting Jesus, so God punished them. As absurd as it may seem, it's how some people react.

I can understand if people yell at me for pointing this out, especially if it's pretty insulting to your beliefs, I don't intend it to be like that. In my research and search for God I've come across this all and I find it very weird.