Welcome Class, to Room 666...Again

[The Spawn]

What made you go that route?

[X-Chick]

It's what I took when I was a child. My former sensei was happy to have me back. He even offered to train me in kendo, something I've always wanted to learn, but he never would teach to anyone.

[Fran]

X-Chick! http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee219/RamsFran/crazy.gif

[The Spawn]

How much does he charge?

[X-Chick]

Hi Lucas

$80 a month for most people, $50 for me

[The Spawn]

Sounds like a deal.

[X-Chick]

Yes, but I help him teach the little ones sometimes, so it balances out.

[The Spawn]

What are you studying in school?

[X-Chick]

Currently, nothing. I took the semester off because I don't know anymore. It was criminal justice with plans to go to law school after.

[The Spawn]

Was?

[X-Chick]

Yes, like I said before, I don't know what I want to do anymore.

[The Spawn]

Why don't you?

[X-Chick]

I don't want to be a lawyer anymore and there's really nothing else I want to do.

[The Spawn]

Nothing at all? What electives did you take in high school?

[X-Chick]

I really don't remember.

[The Spawn]

It wasn't that long ago I thought.

[X-Chick]

No, but it wasn't really important enough to remember either.

[Abaddon]

The idea of working towards a degree that'll lead to a job I'll probably end up hating is terrifying and depressing.

[X-Chick]

It certainly isn't much to look forward to.

[The Spawn]

True...damn, I wonder how many people feel this way.

[X-Chick]

Most.

[X-Chick]

Then again, after giving it some actual thought, I doubt many people are that unhappy with their lives. And if they are, it's simply because they don't have enough money or they aren't attractive enough or their son didn't make the high school football team. They never stop to give any real thought to it. And why would they? Society declares that the proper life is to have a meaningless job, get married, have a few children, and die years later.

Nobody seems to have a purpose in life anymore. People just scurry about in their mundane little lives, trying to get a sense of fulfillment from a job that has no purpose other than providing them with a paycheck. Or they preoccupy themselves with materialistic "needs." It's all so ridiculously useless.

The beauty of life is that it is so fleeting. And yet most waste every bit of that time searching for things they never really needed or wanted and die only to realize they never accomplished anything of significance and that they was not one single purpose to the entirety of their existence.

[Abaddon]

We get so many things shoved in our faces because we "should" want them but they aren't any more meaningful than the drudgery that those things are supposed to keep us distracted from. It's all smoke and mirrors, that's why so many people wonder why they're unhappy, if they even able to realize they're unhappy.

[X-Chick]

Yeah, exactly. School, jobs, what's the point of it anymore? Simply to afford things we are supposed to want because we've been driven into a world where possessions are everything and the pursuits of those materials are the only things we have left to strive for.

[The Spawn]

And you can't even take those materials with you after you die...

What do you think about the things in between the conformity of school, work and school, then just a life of work?

The things you see in television...walking in the rain, going to the beach?

[X-Chick]

Everyone needs a reprieve from the life they were forced into.

The only thing that really matters anymore is family and love and both of those have been so ****ed up, they're hardly even important anymore.

[The Spawn]

How so?

[X-Chick]

Love is hardly what it is supposed to be. Now anytime you lust after someone or care about them slightly, you are "in love" with them. Its hardly the powerful emotion it once was and I doubt most people could even handle it in all its true glory.

Family is still important to most, but again, not what its supposed to be. Children are supposed to be sacred, parents respected, looked up to. But now parents do drugs or become alcoholics or just walk out on their families. Husbands decide that they are "in love" with another woman, because love has become such a fleeting emotion, and they leave their wives and kids without a glance back. Children do everything in their power to rebel against their parents' rules, completely disregard their authority and have no respect for them. Then again, the way parents coddle a boy who is old enough to be a man is a bit ridiculous, but still.

[Two-Face]

WhY is it called "Room 666"?

[X-Chick]

Because Spawnie liked that name.

[TNC9852002]

nvm

-TNC

[X-Chick]

My new sensei has a wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Suenaka

Kenpo wasn't working out. I love my old teacher, but it's much too Americanized, focusing more on the body aspect rather than mind and spirit.

By sheer luck I stumbled onto Suenaka-sensei. He's much more of a hard ass, but a true master. Not often you find a Hachidan in two different disciplines. At least not in this country.

[The Spawn]

I always felt that attraction is purely based on looks.

[X-Chick]

What?

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Then again, after giving it some actual thought, I doubt many people are that unhappy with their lives. And if they are, it's simply because they don't have enough money or they aren't attractive enough or their son didn't make the high school football team. They never stop to give any real thought to it. And why would they? Society declares that the proper life is to have a meaningless job, get married, have a few children, and die years later.

Nobody seems to have a purpose in life anymore. People just scurry about in their mundane little lives, trying to get a sense of fulfillment from a job that has no purpose other than providing them with a paycheck. Or they preoccupy themselves with materialistic "needs." It's all so ridiculously useless.

The beauty of life is that it is so fleeting. And yet most waste every bit of that time searching for things they never really needed or wanted and die only to realize they never accomplished anything of significance and that they was not one single purpose to the entirety of their existence.


.............

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I always felt that attraction is purely based on looks.


Ummmm, how did you crack that code?

[The Spawn]

Your sarcasm is not appreciated.

The reason a person approaches someone else is usually because of what they look like, not the beauty within.

[Abaddon]

Sometimes the attraction comes afterward so it isn't purely based on looks.

[X-Chick]

Spawnie, we know that's not true of everyone. But in most cases, it is. People don't walk up to someone they find unattractive because they might have a great personality.

[The Spawn]

Initially it is.

[X-Chick]

No. Not everyone is attracted to someone simply because they're "hot" or whatever.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

No. Not everyone is attracted to someone simply because they're "hot" or whatever.

Yup, whether you want to admit it or not Spawnie (reason for the sarcasm), people are sexually animals. First look is all based on chemicals, pheremones (sp) and physical attraction. Not how great the person is.

Not that personality does not factor in later, even if that is within minutes, but initially, everything is based on looks.

[X-Chick]

Then how do explain blind people being attracted to someone?

[The Spawn]

They're blind.

[X-Chick]

You're being stubborn. And hypocritical. That's unlike you.

[The Spawn]

Being stubborn is unlike me.

[Abaddon]

Spawn has many layers

[X-Chick]

And they're all frustrating. At least he didn't deny being a hypocrite this time.

[The Spawn]

If you read what I said, you'd realize that I did.

[X-Chick]

No, you didn't mention anything about being a hypocrite but whatever.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Then how do explain blind people being attracted to someone?


I did list chemicals and pheromones into the equation. Next you're going to say a blind person that can not smell.

[X-Chick]

Jeez, that was like a week ago and I don't really care anyway. Attraction doesn't concern me anymore.

[The Spawn]

"...but whatever."


Jesus christ...

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Cheese and Rice

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Cheese and Rice

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Jeez, that was like a week ago and I don't really care anyway. Attraction doesn't concern me anymore.


I'm not on everyday to check replies. Don't get your panties in a bunch.

[X-Chick]

Gosh, you're all a bunch of drama queens. :whatever:

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Well that is my major.

[X-Chick]

That's kind of awesome.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Yeah, Drama Queens :up:

[The Spawn]

...

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

What?

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Ah, the SpawnXChickAbbadon Lounge

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Hmmmmmm....so life on Mars?

[X-Chick]

Ah, the SpawnXChickAbbadon Lounge

Hm, yeah, pretty much. We occasionally have other people though...basically only when they need an answer to a question or something.

[The Spawn]

At least it's not the same old **** as everywhere else.

[X-Chick]

Yep, that's why it's the only place I consistently post.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Area 51?

[X-Chick]

A mixture of fact and fiction, but the widespread theory is almost pure fiction.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

What about....****. What is the name of the place. Base 29 or something located like 30-100 miles south of Area 51.

Which is supossed to be much more top secret and where the "aliens" are really kept? According to Robert Lazar.

[keith_v]

What about....****. What is the name of the place. Base 29 or something located like 30-100 miles south of Area 51.

Which is supossed to be much more top secret and where the "aliens" are really kept? According to Robert Lazar.

Hanger 23? I think it's in Ohio. But I could be wrong.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Well there is another base in Nevada that is supossed to be more top secert than Area 51 and is supossed to be where they keep the aliens and where they reverse engineer alien spacecraft.

[X-Chick]

It probably doesn't exist. There were no aliens. What actually happened in Roswell was that a military prototype crash-landed because they didn't work all the kinks out of before the test flight. The government covered it up because they didn't want the public and other nations to know about their secret projects and because they'd look like dumb asses for losing one of their pilots because their own incompetancy.

One reporter declared it was a UFO with aliens and everyone bit. Area 51 is actually a military base, one were they develop, test, and hide top secret weaponry and aircraft. It's still there to this day. True story.

[Abaddon]

They probably don't refer to it as Area 51 anymore.:o

[EdRyder]

Hangar 18 would be area 51.
Ive never heard of a 'hangar 23" :shrug:

[X-Chick]

I'm not sure they ever did, actually, but it does go by another name now.

[The Spawn]

Aliens...lol.

[X-Chick]

The belief in little green (or any other color) men that travel billions of light years just to visit Earth is completely absurd.

This is neat, though. Unbelievable, but neat.

Atmospheric Beasts

Atmospheric beasts are the strangest of the flying monsters from cryptozoology. According to eyewitness reports, they are things that seem like living creatures, but they break all the usual rules that we apply to living things. They fly without the need for wings and their bodies are only semi-solid, often partially invisible to boot. Many atmospheric beast sightings were originally classified as really unusual UFO reports (in the sense of UFOs being defined as supposed alien spacecraft or machines of some other sort, not in the technical sense of being unidentified flying objects). Noted Bigfoot author Ivan T. Sanderson devoted an entire book to the theory that many UFOs are actually extremely low density animals native to the clouds. One of the most famous atmospheric beasts is the Crawfordsville Monster, sighted in Indiana in 1891, which some researchers classify as a dragon.

For those who believe, atmospheric beasts are very fragile and lightweight creatures who are either native to Earth or are aliens that came from elsewhere. If the latter view is taken, then atmospheric beasts are sometimes thought to have originated in the atmosphere of some other planet, but they can also be thought of as originating in interstellar gas clouds so that they are, in effect, aliens without a native planet, able to "swim" through space. Believers generally consider atmospheric beasts to be non-intelligent, so that even if these creatures did originate somewhere other than earth, they still don't count as sentient extraterrestrials. They're just animals.

In various eyewitness accounts, atmospheric beasts can change their density, becoming smaller, harder masses that are usually metallic in color, or they can become larger and cloudlike, even to the point of invisibility. In some reports, they may glow. Atmospheric beasts may roughly resemble whales and are sometimes called air whales or cloud beasts. Believers think that the atmospheric beasts' normal habitat is high in the air, and they might die if they ever touch the ground. Atmospheric beasts that resemble clouds may engage in behavior that is thought to be impossible for a real cloud, such as squirting a stream of horizontal water at people through "lips" or being far too mobile and animate for witnesses to believe it was just a patch of fog. The more solid kinds of atmospheric beasts may have mouths, eyes, flippers and other features, but these body parts are generally arranged and shaped in a fashion that looks utterly alien, more like an ocean invertebrate's body plan than any animal we are used to seeing on a daily basis.

It is said that when atmospheric beasts die, they fall to earth as a gelatinous mass that may resemble a green, purple, gray or iridescent jelly that evaporates into nothing within minutes, hours, or, at the longest, a few days. This is supposed to explain a type of anomalous event, pwdre ser, that puzzled scientists for some time before they decided that pwdre ser did not exist. Pwdre ser is Welsh for "rot from the stars." This phenomena is also known as gelatinous meteorites or star jelly, and reports of it come from around the world, not just from Wales. Gelatinous meteorites are not always connected with the atmospheric beast theory; they are actually easier to find among collections of Forteana that include reports of many different odd things falling from the sky.

Atmospheric beasts, or things that sound like them, are minor characters in the folklore of many regions. They are often given local names. The English variety is often named "Boneless" or "Shapeless" and resembles a small patch of living, animate fog. Unlike fog, it can be felt as a semi-solid mass. One policeman described an encounter with this creature that had supposedly happened while bicycling. The thing felt like a soft blanket and smelled like mildew. After it rubbed against him, it floated away. It was one of the most terrifying experiences he had ever had. He was convinced that the thing was a living creature. In the Shetland Islands, atmospheric beasts are known as "It" and are thought to be "cloud animals" of some sort. Just as the sea has its own life that is often hidden from view, it is thought that the clouds form a vast atmospheric "sea" far above us, and that "It" is merely an animal that is native to the clouds. Those who report being physically touched by atmospheric beasts often say they felt as if they were being licked by an enormously soft tongue.

In the later decades of the twentieth century, the atmospheric beast theory had been almost forgotten. Serious investigators usually stayed away from it. But, today, interest in atmospheric beasts has been growing, mainly because they now seem more plausible after the recent discovery of what might be a related cryptozoological animal: air rods. People have begun to comb through older reports of miscellaneous random unexplained stuff, a place where a few atmospheric beasts often lurk, and they have also re-examined some of the weirdest UFO reports, which sometimes sound a great deal like the witnesses are actually describing atmospheric beasts.

Since atmospheric beast sightings are rare and the creatures don't have much prominence in folklore either, it has happened that few authors were inspired by the concept and so fiction involving atmospheric beasts is also rare. Two of the most notable films are both Japanese: Dogora is about atmospheric beasts that must consume carbon and threaten civilization, while Space Amoeba is about an atmospheric beast native to Jupiter which hitches a ride to earth and then converts normal earth animals into giant monsters. The American movie The Blob is sometimes cited as an atmospheric beast movie, though the connection is iffy. The Blob is supposed to be loosely based on legends of pwdre ser or star jelly, but in the film the presumed atmospheric beast does not die upon contact with the ground but instead travels over land, growing and consuming. The television show Star Trek: The Next Generation occasionally had things like atmospheric beasts that were native to outer space instead of a particular planet's atmosphere, but these creatures were never very prominent.

[The Spawn]

A-.

[X-Chick]

I'm past the point of getting grades, thanks.

Mythical Creatures=Dinosaurs?

"The dragons of legend are strangely like actual creatures that have lived in the past. They are much like the great reptiles which inhabited the earth long before man is supposed to have appeared on earth. Dragons were generally evil and destructive. Every country had them in its mythology."

Dragons are featured in the ancient Gilgamesh Epic, a Sumerian story from about 3000 BC. Daniel was said to kill a dragon in the apocryphal chapters of the Bible. After Alexander the Great invaded India he brought back reports of great hissing monsters in caves. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia explains that the historical references to dinosaur bones may extend as far back as the 5th century BC. In fact, some scholars think that the Greek historian Herodotus was referring to fossilized dinosaur skeletons and eggs when he described griffins guarding nests in central Asia. "Dragon bones" mentioned in a 3rd century AD text from China are thought to refer to bones of dinosaurs.

The Chinese have many stories of dragons. Some of their ornamental pictures of dragons are shaped remarkably like dinosaurs. Marco Polo reported in 1271 that on special occasions the royal chariot was pulled by dragons and in 1611 the emperor appointed the post of a "Royal Dragon Feeder." Books even tell of Chinese families raising dragons to use their blood for medicines and highly prizing their eggs.

It is interesting that the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac are all animals - eleven of which are still alive today. But is the twelfth, the dragon, merely a legend or is it based on a real animal - the dinosaur? It doesn't seem logical that the ancient Chinese, when constructing their zodiac, would include one mythical animal with eleven real animals. "The interpretation of dinosaurs as dragons goes back more than two thousand years in Chinese culture."

Evolutionists have brought forward some bizarre theories for how such realistic depictions could have been made. "Carl Sagan presented the idea that dragon legends are ‘fossil memories’ passed down the evolutionary lineage from our supposed early mammalian ancestors, tens of millions of years ago, who were awe stricken by dinosaurs."

Stranger even is that there have been over a thousand reported sightings of "sea serpents." Sometimes sightings made by a hundred people for hours at a time. Almost all of the witnesses descriptions of the creatures bear an uncanny resemblance to Asian dragons, who also lived or at least spent time in water.

On April 26, 1890 the Tombstone Epitaph (a local Arizona newspaper) reported that two cowboys had discovered and shot down a creature - described as a "winged dragon" - which resembled a pterodactyl, only MUCH larger. The cowboys said its wingspan was 160 feet, and that its body was more than four feet wide and 92 feet long. The cowboys supposedly cut off the end of the wing to prove the existence of the creature. The paper’s description of the animal fits the Quetzelcoatlus, whose fossils were found in Texas.

Could this be thunderbird or Wakinyan, the jagged-winged, fierce-toothed flying creature of Sioux American Indian legend? This thunderbird supposedly lived in a cave on the top of the Olympic Mountains and feasted on seafood. Different from the eagle (Wanbli) or hawk (Cetan) the Wakinyan was said to be huge, carrying off children, and was named because of its association with thunder and lightning--supposedly being struck by lightning and seen to fall to the ground during a storm. It was further distinguished by its piercing cry and thunderous beating wings.

Some cryptozoologists have theorized the ancient Thunderbird myth to be based on sightings of a real animal that has of late dwindled in population. Some skeptics have claimed such a large bird could never have flown, but several flying creatures with huge wingspans are indeed known. The prehistoric vulture-like Argentavis magnificens had a wingspan of around 7 m (21 feet) and was capable of flight. The massive Cretaceous-era pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus northropi was the largest known flying creature in history, with a wingspan of at least 25 but perhaps as much as 60 feet.

Cryptozoologists also pose that the Thunderbird was associated with storms because they followed the draughts to stay in flight, not unlike the way a modern eagle rides mountain upcurrents. Noted cryptozoologist John Keel claims to have mapped several Thunderbird sightings and found that they corresponded chronologically and geographically with storms moving across the United States.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

It probably doesn't exist. There were no aliens. What actually happened in Roswell was that a military prototype crash-landed because they didn't work all the kinks out of before the test flight. The government covered it up because they didn't want the public and other nations to know about their secret projects and because they'd look like dumb asses for losing one of their pilots because their own incompetancy.

One reporter declared it was a UFO with aliens and everyone bit. Area 51 is actually a military base, one were they develop, test, and hide top secret weaponry and aircraft. It's still there to this day. True story.

Yes I know that about Area 61. Athough I did not know about the above Rosewell info. :up:

What I am asking about it another hanger/base that is located several miles south of area 51. It is there, but even less is known about it.

[X-Chick]

I haven't heard of one, but that's not really surprising. But the thing is, if there was another top secret military base there, then it would be just that. Top secret. If it ever was there, it most certainly isn't anymore just like Area 51 isn't used for developing new weapons anymore. It's not very useful to have a secret military base that everyone knows about.

[The Spawn]

Fiesty.

[X-Chick]

You already knew that.

[The Spawn]

Just had to make sure I was right.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I haven't heard of one, but that's not really surprising. But the thing is, if there was another top secret military base there, then it would be just that. Top secret. If it ever was there, it most certainly isn't anymore just like Area 51 isn't used for developing new weapons anymore. It's not very useful to have a secret military base that everyone knows about.

Just curious about one of the comments you made earlier. So what is your opinion on extraterrestrial life forms?

[X-Chick]

It is probable that Earth is not the only planet with life in the entire universe. But it is highly improbable that they would 1. know about our existence and 2. care about our existence.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Hmmmm....well look at it from our stand point. We're trying to find other life forms in the Universe. We're just not evolved enough to do so yet. But if we were I would imaging discovering a species that enjoys killing each other on a daily basis....we would probably stear clear of them, especially if they have nothing to offer us.

This is of course if we were much more highly evolved.

[X-Chick]

We really aren't trying and what reason does any government have to find other life in outer space? It serves no purpose and could potentially hazardous to our entire species and every species that inhabits the planet.

The only planets NASA has even bothered with are ones they know could never support life, at least not intelligent life.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

We really aren't trying and what reason does any government have to find other life in outer space? It serves no purpose and could potentially hazardous to our entire species and every species that inhabits the planet.

The only planets NASA has even bothered with are ones they know could never support life, at least not intelligent life.

A. Are you sure we aren't trying? Because I could swear that all of the radio signals (incoming and outgoing), plotting the Universe, Stars, planets, etc was at least a decent attempt.

B. To prove that NASA has a function beyond shooting humans and monkeys into space.

C. Never and currently do not, are two different things. Life may have existed on Mars millions or billions of years ago.

[Abaddon]

it'd be fun if we discovered a single-celled organism on another heavenly body and brought it to Earth, and it ends up being fatal to us all.:)

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Or kind of suck, but hey I have an immune system :up:

[Abaddon]

scratch that, it'd be cooler if they mutated and learned to live in our environment, then propagated and eventually evolved into beings like us, but better.:)

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

So you mean dolphins?

[X-Chick]

A. Are you sure we aren't trying? Because I could swear that all of the radio signals (incoming and outgoing), plotting the Universe, Stars, planets, etc was at least a decent attempt.

B. To prove that NASA has a function beyond shooting humans and monkeys into space.

C. Never and currently do not, are two different things. Life may have existed on Mars millions or billions of years ago.

They really aren't trying to find life. They are only trying to understand the universe that surrounds us. How would plotting the planets and constellations help us find life? It wouldn't. It's only an attempt to understand our environment and our galaxy. Believe it or not, aliens aren't the only things to be discovered in space. There's also meteors, asteroids, etc.

NASA does have another function. The extinction of the dinosaurs, though it happened millions of years ago, has always plagued humanity since the discovery of fossils. History always repeats itself. By understanding space, by having satellites and shuttles and space stations, we stand a better chance of preventing another catastrophic event of genocidal proportions.

"Never" was meant in the context that as the planets are now, life as we know and understand it, could never be sustained.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Fair enough.

[The Spawn]

I thought you were leaning towards a War of the Worlds thing.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Who me?

[X-Chick]

Never saw it.

[The Spawn]

'addon.

[X-Chick]

You should change your signature.

[The Spawn]

Why?

[Abaddon]

it's like a reverse War of the Worlds type thing.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Why?

Because the WELCOME part of your sig, the video is no longer there.

[X-Chick]

Oh, for real? I just figured I had the superior chaos signature.

[The Spawn]

I think I had the word "chaos" in my sig before you.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Oh, for real? I just figured I had the superior chaos signature.


Fho Shizzle :up:

[X-Chick]

Yeah, but I like mine better. And yeah, "welcome" link is broken. :o

[The Spawn]

The broken "welcome" link is a much better reason.

[X-Chick]

Then let's go with that one.

[X-Chick]

Mine is still better though. Just saying.

[The Spawn]

Keep saying it...

[X-Chick]

You're using another chaos one just so I will...

[The Spawn]

I honestly thought you already saw it when you made that "Mine is still better comment".

I'm gonna let it go only cuz you're hot.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

The loch Ness Monster

[X-Chick]

I did.

And you don't know if I'm hot or not.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Chupacabra?

[X-Chick]

:huh:

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

You know the animal they supossedly found that was killing cattle in Texas near the border of Mexico...

[X-Chick]

Yeah, I know what a chupacabra is. It was just the randomness of it and the absence of reason you had for posting it.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

And.........?

[X-Chick]

And the :huh: was more of a "what about it?" than a "what are you talking about?" :o

[The Spawn]

Cloverfield?

[Abaddon]

So Spawnz, whaddaya think of the story about the young woman involved in the McDonalds lawsuit? http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051009/NEWS01/510090392

I'll highlight a few things I found interesting about the case:

Hard to believe

At first, scam seemed too bizarre but then the reports kept coming in

The first report of such a call came in 1995, in Devil's Lake, N.D.; another came later that year in Fallon, Nev. The caller, usually pretending to be a police officer investigating a crime, targeted stores in small towns and rural communities -- areas where managers were more likely to be trusting.

Most were fast-food restaurants, where the male and female victims were young and inexperienced, and assistant managers were likely to be working without supervision.

At first, nobody believed store managers when they insisted after the fact that they had just done what they were told to by someone they believed to be police.

"Did the manager tell a whopper?" a newspaper headline in Fargo, N.D., asked after the manager of a Burger King there insisted that he thought it was a police officer who had told him over the phone on Jan. 20, 1999, to slap a 17-year-old employee on her naked buttocks.

"It's just not conceivable to me that there's any reasonable justification for what happened," a North Dakota state judge said as she sentenced the manager to 30 days in jail for disorderly conduct.

Restaurant owners and police often said they assumed the caller and victims were in cahoots in a bizarre scam to extract settlements from individual franchises.

But the hoaxes continued -- by the end of 2000, there were more than a dozen. By the end of 2003, there were nearly 60.

Detectives eventually would conclude the calls were the work of one man because the methods of operation were practically identical, with only slight deviations:

On Nov. 30, 2000, the caller persuaded the manager at a McDonald's in Leitchfield, Ky., to remove her own clothes in front of a customer whom the caller said was suspected of sex offenses. The caller promised that undercover officers would burst in and arrest the customer the moment he attempted to molest her, said Detective Lt. Gary Troutman of the Leitchfield Police Department.

"We asked her why she hadn't called local police, and she said she thought it was local police who had called her," Troutman said.

On May 29, 2002, a girl celebrating her 18th birthday -- in her first hour of her first day on the job at the McDonald's in Roosevelt, Iowa -- was forced to strip, jog naked and assume a series of embarrassing poses, all at the direction of a caller on the phone, according to court and news accounts.

On Jan. 26, 2003, according a police report in Davenport, Iowa, an assistant manager at an Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar conducted a degrading 90-minute search of a waitress at the behest of a caller who said he was a regional manager -- even though the man had called collect, and despite the fact the assistant manager had read a company memo warning about hoax calls just a month earlier. He later told police he'd forgotten about the memo.

On June 3, 2003, according to a city police spokesman in Juneau, Alaska, a caller to a Taco Bell there said he was working with the company to investigate drug abuse at the store, and had a manager pick out a 14-year-old customer -- and then strip her and force her to perform lewd acts.
Knuckling under

Perceived authority carries much power, studies show

Psychological experts say it is human nature to obey orders, no matter how evil they might seem -- as was illustrated in one of the most famous and frightening human experiments of the 20th century.

Seeking to understand why so many Germans followed orders during the Holocaust, Dr. Stanley Milgram, a Yale University psychologist, took out a classified ad in 1960 and 1961, inviting residents of New Haven, Conn., to take part in what they were told was a study of the relationship between punishment and learning.

A man in a white lab coat introduced the participants to a student, and told them to shock the student each time he made a mistake, increasing the voltage with each error.

In reality, the machine was a prop, and the student was an actor who wasn't shocked. Yet nearly two-thirds of Milgram's subjects gave what they believed were paralyzing jolts to a pitifully protesting victim simply because an authority figure -- the man in the white coat -- had commanded them to do so.

"With numbing regularity, good people were seen to knuckle under the demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and severe," Milgram wrote of his results, which were later replicated in nine other countries.

Milgram died in 1984, but his biographer and protege, Dr. Thomas Blass, said in an interview that the behavior of the people duped in the strip-search hoaxes would not have surprised him.

"Once you accept another person's authority, you become a different person," Blass said. "You are concerned with how well you follow out your orders, rather than whether it is right or wrong."

'Scared for my life'

Youthful victim endured physical, emotional abuse

As his fiancee had requested, Nix showed up at the Mount Washington store.

"She told me there is a girl in the office who was caught stealing," Nix said in a court deposition. Summers also advised him that "Officer Scott" had accused the girl of dealing drugs -- that police at that very moment were searching her home in Taylorsville.

Nix, 42, a father of two and an exterminator by trade, attended church regularly and had coached youth baseball teams in Mount Washington. He is a "great, super guy, a great community guy," his best friend, Terry Grigsby, said later in a deposition. "He was a great role model for kids. … I don't think he'd ever had a ticket."

Summers handed Nix the phone and left the office. The caller told Nix he was a detective. For the next two hours, Nix later told police, "He told me what to do."

And Nix did as instructed.

He pulled the apron away from Ogborn, leaving her nude again, and described her to the caller. He ordered her to dance with her arms above her head, to see, the caller said, if anything "would shake out." He made her do jumping jacks, deep knee bends, stand on a swivel chair, then a desk.

He made her sit on his lap and kiss him; the caller said that would allow Nix to smell anything that might be on her breath.

When Ogborn refused to obey the caller's instructions, Nix slapped her on the buttocks, until they were red -- just as the caller told him to do, Ogborn testified later.

Each time Summers unlocked the door and ducked back into the office, Nix handed Ogborn the apron back so she could cover herself -- as instructed by the caller. When Summers left, the abuse began anew.

Ogborn said the caller sometimes would talk directly to her, demanding that she do as she was told if she wanted to keep her job and avoid further punishment. She said she believed she was trapped. Nix outweighed her by 145 pounds and stood nearly a foot taller. "I was scared for my life," she said.

Master of deception

Caller described as 'a freak who plays God'

The caller was unusually persuasive, according to workers across the country who talked with him.

He had mastered the police officer's calm but authoritative demeanor. He sprinkled law-enforcement jargon into every conversation. And he did his homework.

He researched the names of regional managers and local police officers in advance, and mentioned them by name to bolster his credibility. He called some restaurants in advance, somehow getting names and descriptions of victims so he could accurately describe them later.

Summers said "Officer Scott" in Mount Washington knew the color of Ogborn's hair, as well as her height and weight -- about 90 pounds. He even described the tie she was wearing.

Around the country, many detectives initially assumed the caller had to be watching the stores from across the street with binoculars. But later officials would say he simply was a master of deception and manipulation.

For example, when the 17-year-old victim at the Fargo Burger King started crying, the caller told her to "be a good actress" and "pretend like it doesn't bother you" so the manager wouldn't "feel so bad" about what he was having to do.

Allan Mathis, the manager of a Hardee's in Rapid City, S.D, who strip-searched an employee in June 2003, said in an interview: "I didn't want to be doing it. But it was like he was watching me." Mathis spent 40 days in jail before he was acquitted on rape and kidnapping charges.

The caller wasn't always successful; phone records show he sometimes called as many as 10 stores before finding one where managers would take his bait.

Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo, who conducted a renowned prison experiment in which college students assigned to play guards became so sadistic that the experiment had to be aborted, said the caller was "was very skilled in human psychology -- he may have even read about Milgram."

Zimbardo, who is a consultant to one of the restaurant chains targeted by the caller, described him in an interview as a "skilled confidence man."

The lawyer for Mathis, the Hardee's manager, told the Rapid City Journal that his client was a victim of "a freak who plays God."

Prizing obedience

Employees are trained to think, `Can I help you?'

In her book, "Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan into the Fryer," Canadian sociologist Ester Reiter concludes that the most prized trait in fast-food workers is obedience.

"The assembly-line process very deliberately tries to take away any thought or discretion from workers," said Reiter, who teaches at Toronto's York University and who spent 10 months working at a Burger King as part of her research. "They are appendages to the machine."

Retired FBI Special Agent Dan Jablonski, a Wichita, Kan., private detective who investigated hoaxes for Wendy's franchises in the Midwest, said: "You and I can sit here and judge these people and say they were blooming idiots. But they aren't trained to use common sense. They are trained to say and think,`Can I help you?'"

Even supervisors at fast-food restaurants made ready targets, said Milton Prewitt, national editor of Nation's Restaurant News, a trade publication. "You dot your `i's, cross your `t's' and push the buttons, and after a year of that," he said, "you might be an assistant manager."

Quick-serve restaurants — as they are known in the industry — also may have been vulnerable because managers are trained to cooperate with law enforcement, said Gene James, president of the National Food Service Security Council, an industry group.

Ultimately, of the 70 confirmed locations where the calls triggered strip-searches, 53 were fast-food stores and nine were sit-down restaurants.

Escalating demands

Sexual abuse steps up as some are eager to obey

Some managers cried as they carried out the caller's orders. But court documents show that others performed with great zeal.

At a Burger King in Pendleton, Ind., a supervisor was so intent on finishing a search of a 15-year-old girl in December 2001 that when the girl's father arrived to pick her up from work, he had to jump over the counter to end her humiliation.

And in Dover, Del., a Burger King manager who was strip-searching an 18-year-old employee in March 2003 fought off the worker's mother and boyfriend so strenuously that state police had to be called.

Court records also show that over time, the demands in the hoax calls grew more perverse.

At a McDonald's in Hinesville, Ga., in February 2003, a 55-year-old janitor was told to put his finger in the vagina of a 19-year-old cashier, supposedly to look for contraband, according to court records. In Joplin, Mo., according to a police report, a caller in May 2004 persuaded a 16-year-old girl who was managing a Sonic restaurant to strip-search and perform oral sex on a 21-year-old male cook — and then got the cook to strip-search the manager.

Duped or stupid?

Some see how hoax worked, others shocked

Across the United States, at least 13 people who executed strip-searches ordered by the caller were charged with crimes, and seven were convicted.

But most of the duped managers were treated as victims — just like the people they searched and humiliated.

They all "fell under the spell of a voice on the telephone," wrote a judge in Zanesville, Ohio, in an order acquitting Scott Winsor, 35, who'd been charged with unlawfully restraining and imposing himself on two women who worked for him at a McDonald's.

Chicago lawyer Craig Annunziata, who has defended 30 franchises sued after hoaxes, said every manager he interviewed genuinely believed they were helping police.

"They weren't trying to get their own jollies," he said.

Many of the supervisors were fired and some divorced by their spouses, Annunziata said. Others required counseling.

But the duped managers have been condemnedby others.

"You don't have to be a Phi Beta Kappa to know not to strip-search a girl who is accused of stealing change," said Roger Hall, the lawyer for a woman who won $250,000 after being strip-searched at a McDonald's in Louisa, Ky.

A Fox-TV commentator asked how the managers who went along could be so "colossally stupid."

While the incidents were triggered by a "perverted miscreant" wrote a federal judge in Georgia, the managers "still had a responsibility to use common sense and avoid falling prey to such a scam."

Though the Milgram experiment may help explain why supervisors went along with the caller, even Milgram's disciples say it doesn't absolve them of responsibility.

Just as one-third of the participants in Milgram's study refused to shock the subject, some supervisors refused to go along, including a supervisor at McDonald's Hillview store, who hung up on the caller the very night of the Mount Washington hoax.

"Nobody held a gun to their heads," said Blass, whose book about Milgram is titled, "The Man Who Shocked the World."

"They had the critical ability to decide whether to carry out their orders."


Now at first the case made no sense at all and seemed like an incredibly stupid thing to happen. But it happened several times. So how do you manipulate people into doing things they know are wrong?

[The Spawn]

When I was a kid, I use to skate this parking all the time. Every year, the town had a parade that marched down the main street for Halloween. The parking lot belonged to a bank, a bank that sat on that main street.

Now...we all know how hard it is to find parking when a parade is being held and you want to leave your car somewhere, go out on foot, and stand point blank next to the mobile mirages created by Pre-schoolers - high schoolers.

On his day, the bank parking lot was getting packed. I didn't need the whole parking lot to myself...not the spots themselves anyway...all I needed was one spot.

So, before this one last spot could be taken, I placed an orange cone I confiscated from the parade and placed it in this one last spot....and you know what?

No one took that spot. No one got out of there car and moved the cone...an orange cone has a lot of power...it's not organic, or living...nor does it breathe or speak.

Humanity has been molded into an inanimate object that comes to life only to follow rules and be hamsters.

That's how.

[Abaddon]

Symbols are powerful.

[The Spawn]

More powerful than words.

[Abaddon]

Words are symbols too.

[X-Chick]

You two are boring up the thread.

lol. Have you noticed there's a lot of people complaining about the Hype now? Most of the people complaining have been here for like 5 minutes. And it's like the others have failed to noticed over the past three years or so the Hype has sucked. Really, we should find a way to contain the idiocy before it contaminates every single thread there is.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Hmmmmmmmmm

[The Spawn]

I didn't say words weren't symbols.

And my position on the current status of The Hype is thus...most of my time here, I've been the 'victim' of tatseless jokes and mockery that never really phased me.

I think anyone who comes into my threads just to talk **** are just trying to seem like they are the ****.

I've never started any arguments here. Not as of late anyway...

Then you have the posters everyone loves...I won't name any names but you know who they are.

How about this...post a list of things Hype related...posters can be on there too...and I'll tell you what I think.

[Abaddon]

No, you're boring up the thread!:cmad:

Hype has always been more or less the same. Eventually the novelty wears off, friends leave, people get banned, rules get stricter, etc. and people get all indignant about it. People act like whiny girlfriends. "Why don't we go out anymore? You never want to do anything fun. What have you done for me lately?:mad:" It's stupid.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

No, you're boring up the thread!:cmad:

Hype has always been more or less the same. Eventually the novelty wears off, friends leave, people get banned, rules get stricter, etc. and people get all indignant about it. People act like whiny girlfriends. "Why don't we go out anymore? You never want to do anything fun. What have you done for me lately?:mad:" It's stupid.

Yeah to be honest I haven't noticed much of a change in the hype itself, just me and my posting habits have changed.

[X-Chick]

Hype hasn't changed much in the past year. It changed the most with the addition of all the mods. We used to just have two and things were a lot smoother then. Most of the cool peoples left around that time and then newbies invaded like crazy and now here we are.

Really though, I don't care much about it. I stick around here because I know you three are decent and I've known Abaddon and Spawn for a while and stuffs. As for the other threads out there, I just don't bother with them.

And Spawnie, some of your threads might lean towards the stupid side, but yeah, if they don't like it, they don't have to ****ing read it. They just think they're "cool" by "flaming" people on an internet message board. Though very few remember how to deliver a verbal *****slap with efficiency and just end up looking like a bunch of idiot noobs...which is what they are.

[The Spawn]

Stupid side???? Which one?

[X-Chick]

The one about toilet paper.

[The Spawn]

I have to make sacrifices to do my research.

[X-Chick]

Of course.

[The Spawn]

Instead of posting I hit Alt-F4.

[X-Chick]

Number lock? That wouldn't even do anything for me.

[The Spawn]

Closes windows.

[X-Chick]

You're funny.

Are there any good movies playing now?

[The Spawn]

The Kingdom.

[X-Chick]

Eh, it sounds good, but not exactly what I'm looking for today.

[The Spawn]

Own the Night this Friday then.

[X-Chick]

I need one today. Something with a hot guy in it or something like that. What do chicks see when they go to the movies?

[The Spawn]

1 The Game Plan (2007) $16.6M $43.2M
2 The Heartbreak Kid (2007) $14M $14M
3 The Kingdom (2007) $9.72M $31.7M
4 Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) $4.52M $43.7M
5 The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (2007) $3.75M $3.75M
6 Good Luck Chuck (2007) $3.66M $29.3M
7 3:10 to Yuma (2007) $3.22M $48.7M
8 Feel the Noise (2007) $3.19M $3.19M
9 Mr. Woodcock (2007) $2.33M $22.6M
10 The Brave One (2007) $2.32M $34.4M

[X-Chick]

Wow, those all look/sound terrible. I guess it will be The Kingdom.

[The Spawn]

The Brave One is right up your alley.

[X-Chick]

Eh. I do condone revenge, when it's warranted, but it's not a very original plot.

[The Spawn]

Good Luck Chuck had a lot of sex in it. I wish I had known that before taking my kid to it. Resident evil was mindless violence, have to see it if you've seen the first two. I want to see The Kingdom. 3:10 to Yuma I heard was good.

[X-Chick]

You see a lot of movies. Chuck looks stupid. RE is something I've never cared to see and probably never will. We might have to find something else to do.

[The Spawn]

How about each other?

[X-Chick]

Gross. No.

[The Spawn]

? Movies back then weren't really gross.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031602/

[X-Chick]

You're a riot.

[The Spawn]

A riot who has to go take a shower now.

Real time conversation on a message board is fun.

[X-Chick]

Fun but rare.

I should go do something productive. Probably shower too. Then go meet my friend for that movie or something.

[The Spawn]

The Kingdom, ahem.

[X-Chick]

Yeah, maybe. We'll have to do this again...though it'll probably like 6 months from now or something. Later.

[The Spawn]

I don't know why you didn't just go on AIM.

[X-Chick]

I thought you were leaving?

AIM doesn't seem to be very effective with us and this was working out okay.

[The Spawn]

AIM while it's my cell.

I was leaving to take a shower. Got out. Now I'm naked and have to get dressed. Now I am dressed. Now Elvis is leaving the building.

[X-Chick]

You take too long on your cell. Actually, we both do. And 90% of the time you don't bother to reply.

You're quick.

[The Spawn]

One moment I'm slow and the next I am quick.

[X-Chick]

Yeah, I realized the irony.

[The Spawn]

I'm a "G" like that.

[X-Chick]

A what?

[The Spawn]

See?

[X-Chick]

No.

[†~AntiChrist~†]

.................???????

[X-Chick]

Someone explain to me why people like porn.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

? Well if you grow up in American society sex in general is a very hush hush and taboo topic itself.

Add to that people are sexual beings themselves, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out why people like porn.

Chemical reactions in the brain, etc.

[X-Chick]

No, it still doesn't make any sense. Humans have an unrelenting desire for sex, an actual biological need for it. If we didn't, our species would have died off long ago. So sure, chemical reactions in the brain force us to want sex. They do not force us to want to watch other people have sex.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Ummm....really the whole being sexual repressive here in America should be enough, at least for people here in the states.

When something is withheld from you and told to you for the majority of your early life that it is a bad thing or only for adults. It makes you curious and inquisitive about it. Wanting to seek it out and discover what it's about, and for most youths that is through seeing a porn.

Plus I am sure there are many physcological reasons here that I could not begin to explain.

[X-Chick]

Not really, no. Your early life, you shouldn't care about sex at all. When you're older, you get curious and you might watch porn for that reason. That's understandable. It doesn't explain why the 30 year old man who is married and has an active sex life watches it.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Like I said there are plenty of reasons why people would want to watch Porn, but I am not a sexologist nor a psychologist.

Fantasy, escapism, many others.

[The Spawn]

Humbug handled the question quite right.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Thank you Spawn, don't really know what more I can say on the subject.

[X-Chick]

Well, it was better than what you said.

But still not very clear.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

What I said is clear, but just because you don't understand the need or desire for people to watch porn or based off of what I said does not mean that my explanation was not clear.

It could be more detailed but as I stated I do not posses degrees in human sexuality or psychology.

[X-Chick]

Well, its just like I know people who have great sex lives, don't particularly enjoy watching porn, and still do. All three of them are men, too. Two married, one engaged. I don't get why they bother with it if they don't really like it and don't need it as a replacement for sex.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Well, its just like I know people who have great sex lives, don't particularly enjoy watching porn, and still do. All three of them are men, too. Two married, one engaged. I don't get why they bother with it if they don't really like it and don't need it as a replacement for sex.


What I don't get, is why you're concerned with it? I mean if you don't care for porn, why do you care that others do?

[The Spawn]

Better than what I said? I don't recall saying anything.

[†~AntiChrist~†]

You didnt say anything...

[X-Chick]

Because I don't understand it. I don't like not understanding things.

You did and you didn't.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Well it's really not all that hard to understand. If you need more explanation than mine find a shrink or a sexologist and talk to them about your need to understand it.

[Abaddon]

There are dozens of possible reasons.

[Wilhelm-Scream]

That's understandable. It doesn't explain why the 30 year old man who is married and has an active sex life watches it.You sound funny because:
1) It sounds like you're trying to, disprove the idea that people enjoy porn.
I know you're not, but it sounds like you are. heh.

2) You sound like you're actively trying to be difficult, resistant to the obvious answers...possibly because of a very common jealousy and feeling of insecurity regarding the fact that, yes, people like to look at pornography, naked people, that they aren't in a relationship with.



A 30 year old woman who is extremely happily married and has a creative and fulfilling romance with her husband......
Do you honestly think it would be "weird" or hard to understand why she would enjoy watching "When Harry Met Sally", or "You've Got Mail", or any one of the thousands of very popular chick flicks about a couple meeting and engaging in a romantic, lovey-dovey relationship.


She has a chemical mandate to procreate and foster stability for the raising of her young via "romantic feelings" for the father, but these Chick Flick movies do not fulfill that.

She already has the contentment with her lover, so she can't be using these romantic Chick Flicks as a substitute for a lack in her love life.


But, whether we accept it or not, happily married Chicks really, really, really enjoy watching other people, that they don't know, being romantic and in Love.

Same with Porn.
It's something you like, and you like to get a glimpse into a version of that thing you like that you'll never actually get to enjoy since we all have only one life to live.
So you watch it play out on a screen as an escapist fantasy.


It's super clear and understandable. :o

[Showtime]

Post of the day.

[X-Chick]

Wil's the awesomest. :o

[Wilhelm-Scream]

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/Wilhelm-Scream/HYPE/sombrero.gif
.

[The Spawn]

So...are you saying I said nothing or something?

[X-Chick]

Wil, your new avatar is terrible. I miss the tiger. :csad:

You said something that amounted to nothing.

[Wilhelm-Scream]

That is the tiger, as seen through my eyes, as it was always intended to appear, only computer-retarded Me didn't know there were such good and free approximations of photoshop when the first incarnation was created. :(
The trippiest I could get was to invert it in Paint, and then, I....believe Duende Verde? was nice enough to strobify it.

It's supposed to be like you're talking to a Space Tiger God, unable to tell if he is about to commend you, or eat you.
But I dare say, if I'd started with the current Royal Purple one, and then switched to the more primative, seizure-inducing one, everyone would be saying the change sucked pale, hairy ass and commanding me to bring back the purple one, I'd wager. :)

[The Spawn]

Something that amounts to nothing > nothing that amounts to nothing

[X-Chick]

Yeah Wil, you're probably right. I suppose I only miss it because for as long as I can remember the flashing tiger = you. When people stick with one avatar for a while, most automatically associate the person with that avatar. Of course then you have people like me that change them constantly.

Spawnie, you're such a silly person.

[X-Chick]

And how come you haven't been on AIM all day? It's really weird when one of the three people who are constantly online suddenly aren't. It just throws everything off.

[The Spawn]

I have 32 screen names.

[X-Chick]

Yeah, but the one I know is always on. :o

[The Spawn]

One moment I'm off, next I'm always on.

[X-Chick]

You always have to **** with me, don't you?

[Arkady Rossovich]

I have 32 screen names.

You only need one.

[The Spawn]

My last comment was in reference to how you flip flopped with what I do again.

[The Spawn]

I'm not a business man, I'm a bussiness, man...so lemme handle my business...damn.

I need 32.

[X-Chick]

I know. Its of no importance.

[The Spawn]

Everything in life is important.

[X-Chick]

We don't have enough time in life to make every little thing important.

[Darren Daring]

Rock em sock em robots!

[The Spawn]

I make time.

[Abaddon]

you lie.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

We don't have enough time in life to make every little thing important.

Are pessimistic by nature?

[X-Chick]

No. Realistic. Do you really think 80 years is long enough to add importance to every little trivial matter?

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Well it's all relative, depending on how you look at your life and interpret it. And who said I am only going to live for 80 years?

[X-Chick]

Who said you'd live 60?

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I did.

[X-Chick]

You could die before you even finish reading this post.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I could, but I won't. Mind power baby.

[X-Chick]

If your heart failed due a previously undiagnosed genetic disorder, your mind would stop it?

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

A. Nothing even close to that runs in my family anywhere on either side.

B. I don't believe something like that will happen to me, sorry I mean I know it won't.

C. Yes my mind would stop it. :D

[X-Chick]

How can you know what will or won't happen in the future?

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I can not predict what will happen with the world, but I have a strong belief that you create your own reality. The power of the human mind hasn't even begun to be understood.

I can not control everything that will happen to me, but that does not mean that I have to accept certain things that are told to me just because the media tells me or experts want me to believe it.

[X-Chick]

lol...the human mind is just an organ. its not some extraodorinary magical device that can alter reality.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

That's because you don't believe. I am not saying that the human brain can actually warp reality and turn a person into God with omnipotent powers. But the human mind is much more powerful than modern science can possibly understand.

There are hundreds if not thousands of cases all over the world of the human body/mind doing things that modern western science can not explain or were just down right disproved.

[X-Chick]

to each his own, i suppose

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I am not going to try to convince you but just think about this for a second and this is only a small part of what modern western science can not understand.

There have been many well documented reports of people being diagnosed with terminal illnesses and with no medial treatment they recover all on their own. Some people would credit this to faith in religion. Others would say it was a miracle and doctors have no explanation what so ever. Same goes with people that have been told they will never walk again and they have.

Two examples.

1. I can not remember the man's name but he was an olympic gymnast that had suffered a fairly devastating injury to his neck. Doctors told him he would be lucky to walk again and would never be able to compete as a gymnast for sure. He went back to the olympics in a few years.

Of course Dr.s often do not want to give false hope so that could explain some of these situations but not all.

2. Doyle Brunson, if you follow poker he is considered the best poker player in the world. Was diagnosed with a terminal tumor and given roughly six months to live. When he went back to the Dr. a few months later the tumor was gone. The Dr.s had no explanation for this at all.

There probably are logical explanations for these that science does not yet understand, but that does not mean that the logical explanation could not be the human mind's ability to heal ourselves at will or mentally project and affect outcomes directly linked to us concerning us.

As you said, to each their own, but I personally believe that the human mind is much more powerful than we give it credit for as are we.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I am not going to try to convince you but just think about this for a second and this is only a small part of what modern western science can not understand.

There have been many well documented reports of people being diagnosed with terminal illnesses and with no medial treatment they recover all on their own. Some people would credit this to faith in religion. Others would say it was a miracle and doctors have no explanation what so ever. Same goes with people that have been told they will never walk again and they have.

Two examples.

1. I can not remember the man's name but he was an olympic gymnast that had suffered a fairly devastating injury to his neck. Doctors told him he would be lucky to walk again and would never be able to compete as a gymnast for sure. He went back to the olympics in a few years.

Of course Dr.s often do not want to give false hope so that could explain some of these situations but not all.

2. Doyle Brunson, if you follow poker he is considered the best poker player in the world. Was diagnosed with a terminal tumor and given roughly six months to live. When he went back to the Dr. a few months later the tumor was gone. The Dr.s had no explanation for this at all.

There probably are logical explanations for these that science does not yet understand, but that does not mean that the logical explanation could not be the human mind's ability to heal ourselves at will or mentally project and affect outcomes directly linked to us concerning us.

As you said, to each their own, but I personally believe that the human mind is much more powerful than we give it credit for as are we.

[X-Chick]

but those examples don't necessarily have anything to do with the human mind. the biggest theory behind doyle's case was that their was a fluid buildup around his brain which looked like a tumor on the mri, but in fact, was not and the fluid cleared over time.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

As I said there are hundreds if not thousands of other cases like this around the world.

Science barely understands the human mind. We use anywhere from 10%-50% of our mental capacity.

Again, the human mind will not given us superhero like abilities where we can instantly teleport or make ourselves invisible.

But what's so crazy in thinking that the human mind can do much more than we assume it can?

You say it's just an organ, but what about all of the questions about the spirit and the soul? What is it like to not exist if there is no soul or after life or reincarnation?

People often credit their faith in God or religion as to what cured them or saved them. The power of prayer has been touted to heal people. What if that belief is right, but just in the wrong place, what if the belief should be in people themselves?

I just don't think calling the human brain an organ and saying that it does nothing more than run out body like an engine is a limited and narrow view point.

But to each their own.

[Wilhelm-Scream]

I can not predict what will happen with the world, but I have a strong belief that you create your own reality.Create a mountain of gold in your backyard and an exciting troupe of dancing Triceratops that can fly to Palestine and broker peace in the Middle East. :o

thx

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Stop being an ass Wilhelm. :)

[Wilhelm-Scream]

Stop believing strongly that we create our own reality and I'll consider it.
Better still, you should create an improved reality where I'm not being an ass! :eek:

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Stop believing strongly that we create our own reality and I'll consider it.
Better still, you should create an improved reality where I'm not being an ass! :eek:

So what's the alternative? We are just helpless little ants that can do nothing to change the outcome of what will happen to us, where our lives will head and who we will become?

Our future has already been written and that's it? You tell me I have to stop believing that people can affect and change their lives and yet would you tell someone to stop believing in religion?

[Wilhelm-Scream]

So what's the alternative? We are just helpless little ants that can do nothing to change the outcome of what will happen to us, where our lives will head and who we will become?
We are TOtally helpless ants.
Above all else, I don't want to die.
Tough crap. No matter what, no matter WHAT, I'm going to die, and there is no drug, procedure, prayer or affirmation that can prevent my death.
Totally powerless where it counts.
None of us asked to be born into a cold, painful world, but, regardless of our will, we were.
We glean what pleasure we can, but we're helpless to effect real change with regards to human nature and limitations, the nature of physics, gravity, the fact that we're all plopped onto a giant, round rock and can't soar through the cosmos at the speed of light and live on the sun, should that be our desire, etc.

Our future has already been written and that's it?Yes.
Spoilers ahead:
at the end, we all die


You tell me I have to stop believing that people can affect and change their lives and yet would you tell someone to stop believing in religion?I am an alcoholic and I've just completed the Intensive Outpatient Alcohol Addiction Treatment Program I was in for 9 months, and here I am, finally free to drink again without getting caught and fired, but I'm a different person than I was before and I have, if anything, an even stronger desire never to drink again than I did in the earlier stages.
So I'd be the last to say that we can't change our lives.

Of course we have power to change and create, but we have no power over reality.
I can work diligently at staying sober and improving my life, but I can't make alcohol unaddictive. I can't create a reality where alcohol is good for you and makes you a shiny-toothed, enlightened millionaire who lives to be 120 yr.s old.
I can't create a reality where pleasurable intoxication comes from the six glowing glands on my bat wings.

We can create a log cabin. We can create a budget or a schedule. We can create a beautiful piece of art, or a second start on life.
But all of the things we create are TOtally confined, constricted within the boundaries of the greater reality, over which we have ZERO power.

And, I'd definitely tell people to stop believing in religion. :huh:
Religion is a disease. The arrogance required to think you know the one true will of the Creator of the Universe is pathetic at best/dangerous at worst.

[Abaddon]

Reality is just based on how we perceive it. So if you change your perception, you can definitely change reality. It's just your own, and not really anyone else's.:o

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

We are TOtally helpless ants.
Above all else, I don't want to die.
Tough crap. No matter what, no matter WHAT, I'm going to die, and there is no drug, procedure, prayer or affirmation that can prevent my death.
Totally powerless where it counts.
None of us asked to be born into a cold, painful world, but, regardless of our will, we were.
We glean what pleasure we can, but we're helpless to effect real change with regards to human nature and limitations, the nature of physics, gravity, the fact that we're all plopped onto a giant, round rock and can't soar through the cosmos at the speed of light and live on the sun, should that be our desire, etc.

Yes.
Spoilers ahead:
at the end, we all die


I am an alcoholic and I've just completed the Intensive Outpatient Alcohol Addiction Treatment Program I was in for 9 months, and here I am, finally free to drink again without getting caught and fired, but I'm a different person than I was before and I have, if anything, an even stronger desire never to drink again than I did in the earlier stages.
So I'd be the last to say that we can't change our lives.

Of course we have power to change and create, but we have no power over reality.
I can work diligently at staying sober and improving my life, but I can't make alcohol unaddictive. I can't create a reality where alcohol is good for you and makes you a shiny-toothed, enlightened millionaire who lives to be 120 yr.s old.
I can't create a reality where pleasurable intoxication comes from the six glowing glands on my bat wings.

We can create a log cabin. We can create a budget or a schedule. We can create a beautiful piece of art, or a second start on life.
But all of the things we create are TOtally confined, constricted within the boundaries of the greater reality, over which we have ZERO power.

And, I'd definitely tell people to stop believing in religion. :huh:
Religion is a disease. The arrogance required to think you know the one true will of the Creator of the Universe is pathetic at best/dangerous at worst.

I never said we would or could live forever.

I'm at work right now so I don't have the time to fully reply to this, but I think you are misinterpreting what I mean by change our reality.

[The Spawn]

I knew a juicy debate would spark on page 100.

The body does what the mind tells it to.

I was shot in the chest once...but instead of doing what people who usually get shot in vital areas do (think about death as it happens in the movies), I thought about living.

Thus, my body did not fade into darkness....thus, here I am today.

And moments before I die I will always think about living.

[Abaddon]

did you taste blood?:csad:

[X-Chick]

You people are all crazy. :csad:

[X-Chick]

Except Wil.

[The Spawn]

Yes I tasted blood.

My blood tastes like cherries.

Does anyone know what happened to my "On a scale of 1-10" thread?

[X-Chick]

Oh also, the only reason people think about dying and say their life flashes before their eyes is because that is the physical feeling accompanied by the brain shutting down. As your brain prepares for death, it replays all the memories it has created and floods with serotonin and endorphins, which explains the warm fuzzy feeling and the bright lights everyone sees. It's an odd feeling.

And I don't remember any 1-10 thread.

[The Spawn]

Explain the 21 grams then.

[X-Chick]

What?


Do adults do anything for Halloween anymore? :huh:

[X-Chick]

Also, if any of you know any answers to these, I would love you forever if you would PM them to me.

1) What does Matt do for a living?
2) What is Matt's wife's name?
3) What does Liza do for a living?
4) What is Matt's political affiliation?
5) Who is Matt supporting for the presidency in 2008?
6) Who did Matt WANT to run for president that did not?
7) Name one of Matt's other user names on the Hype (aside from "Matt", there are 2)?
8) Name his other user name aside from Matt and the above name.
9) Who is Matt's favorite poster to ever grace The Hype? (He is now retired from the Hype)
10) What poster did Matt have his badliest feud with?
11) Who made Matt's avatar?
12) What is Matt's favorite O RLY picture? (Hint: its the only one I ever post). Please post it in your answers.
13) What is Matt's favorite TV show?
14) What is Matt's favorite movie?
15) What is Matt's favorite episode of The Simpsons?
16) How many children does Matt have?
17) Who is Matt's favorite baseball team?
18) What college did Matt go to?
19) What useless major did Matt obtain from said college?
20) What sport did Matt participate in on an amateur level during high school and college?

Thanks :yay:

[The Spawn]

They give out candy.

[X-Chick]

Is that it?

[The Spawn]

It differs

[X-Chick]

I loved it when I was a kid...now there is nothing for me to do.

[The Spawn]

You can go trick-or-treating.