Who Are The Libertarians?	May 3, 1:00am
by: IchXVerpasseXSie
topic: Philosophy
Who Are The Libertarians? How many of you know what a Libertarian is? It’s surprising, but a lot of people don’t know what, or who they are. Libertarians are a political party that started in 1972 by David Nolan, and other Republicans and Democrats who were fed up with their political party. In 35 years, they’ve gone from a new and totally unknown political party to the third largest in the United States. Part of its success is due to their unwavering support of the original platform. It needs a 7/8ths majority, from the entire party in order to overthrow their ideals. There are Libertarians in public office all over the country, and they even put up a candidate for President the last three elections, this year’s being Ron Paul. In 2000, more that 250 Libertarians ran for the House of Representatives. In 2004, Libertarians around the country saved Americans $2.2 billion by blocking ridiculous and wasteful legislation. Even with all that, there’s still some confusion about what Libertarians are, exactly. Most times when I try to explain it, people will cut me off, and tell me that I’m an anarchist. I’m not. I’m a Libertarian, and that means I understand the need for government. The easiest way to explain it is a quote from Ayn Rand. “The government was set to protect man from criminals – and the Constitution to protect man from the government.” I am neither liberal, nor conservative, but a mixture of both. Libertarians are republicans in economic matters, but democrats in others, like war, drugs, and privacy. They call their party “The Party of Principles,” because they’ve never strayed away from the Libertarian Statement of Principles, even when it’s not convenient. The Statement Of Principles in part reads, “We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual. We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.” For example, in June of 2001, Libertarians protested politicians trying to shut down Marilyn Manson’s concert. They protested not because they liked his music, or because they were taking their kids to see him, but because the government was infringing upon his First Amendment rights. A Libertarian, Ari Armstrong even said, “Manson’s lyrics are revolting, but using government to shut out messages that some people find offensive is a terrible precedent.” Other cornerstones of the Libertarian belief are a belief that personal freedom should be kept, while personal responsibility should be exercised by all. The government should not be involved in business, personal, and family choices. All Americans should be free to live their lives, and long as they don’t harm anyone else, in doing that. We advocate smaller government, more freedom, and lower taxes. We believe that you have the right to do anything you want without hurting people, provided that you don’t interfere with the right for others to do whatever they want, without hurting people. People should be able to make their own decisions and accept the consequences. We oppose censorship through the government, and believe that even if language is offensive to some people, it does not mean that it should be outlawed. We support a separation of church and state, and no support or attack on religion. People have the right to do whatever they want with their property, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Privacy should be protected in all possible cases. The government should be unable to view private and confidential records. We also uphold the Fourth amendment. (searches and seizures) Gun control laws are unconstitutional, as they limit our right to keep and bear arms. The automatic registration of kids into military service is wrong, and should be eliminated. Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for abortions, but the government shouldn’t force any woman to have an abortion. Government has no authority over defining marriage, which should be a private contract between both parties involved, thus gay marriage should be allowed. We oppose government welfare, but support charity and private welfare. The government should not have debt, and instead pay for goods and services as they get them. Special privileges given to companies by the government form a corrupt, symbiotic relationship, and should be discouraged. Public services should be provided by whoever will do the best job for the least money, instead of by government services. Violent crime and fraud should be focused on more than prostitution and drugs. Drugs should be an individual’s choice, without being illegal. The only prosecution should come if they hurt other people, We should not intervene in foreign affairs, and we should be neutral. Our borders should be secure, with free entry. These views appeal to a wide range of people, and hold more than 200,000 registered voters, an unheard of amount for a third party. In 2006, over 13.4 million votes were earned by Libertarian candidates. Even the media is beginning to understand that Libertarians are becoming competition for the other, more established parties. To quote Hugh Downs, formerly from ABC’s 20/20, “All the really good ideas belong to Libertarians.” I hope you’ve learned something about our ideas. Any thoughts?
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Animal Experimentation is Completely Justified and Necessary Because it is Essential for Medical Progress	Apr 28, 9:05pm
by: my_little_pony
topic: Essays
Could you imagine what your life would be like if you were confined to an iron lung for the rest of your life with your only view being the ceiling because animal rights activists made it impossible to use animals to find the cure for polio? Animal experimentation is completely justified and necessary because it is essential for medical progress. Without the use of animals in scientific research we would not have as many preventative drugs for AIDS patients, nor as many vaccines for terrible illnesses, and also we would not have discovered the Rh factor, a very important issue when it comes to women and pregnancy. Regulations brought in to protect animals' welfare are hindering vital research, research that could possibly find the final cure for AIDS and different cancers. We need animals to test drugs to make sure that they are safe for humans before administering them to our children, parents, and ourselves. There are no substitutes for animals, other than humans, that work as well and produce such conclusive results as they do. AIDS research would be impossible without animal experimentation. In one case the bone marrow of a baboon (baboons are immune to the AIDS virus) was implanted into a human with AIDS in an experimental treatment, after which the baboon was killed painlessly with a lethal injection. Many animal rights activists disagree with what was done, but would have it been right to save the baboons life in favor of denying treatment to someone with AIDS? Animal transplants have enormous possibilities for people with leukemia and lymphoma who go without treatment in a lot of cases because of a lack of donors. Many researchers believe that through animal testing a cure for AIDS will be found, and one states that restrictive animal rights laws get in the way of progress. According to Joseph E. Murray, the 1990 Nobel Laureate in medicine, “Whenever a cure for AIDS is found, it will be through animal research.” Finding a cure for AIDS warrants the sacrifice of animal lives. In 1908, researchers Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper conducted an experiment on monkeys and by doing so changed the way animal experimentation was done. They removed part of the spinal cord of a boy who had died of polio and ground it up, filtered it and injected it directly into the spines of two monkeys. One monkey became paralyzed and both monkeys died. The spinal cords showed the same kind of damage as those of humans with polio. In a very simple way, Landsteiner and Popper had demonstrated that monkeys could be used to model human diseases. Other scientists caught on and in 1911, monkeys were found to be susceptible to measles, in 1914, mumps, and in 1928, yellow fever (Derbyshire). With his discoveries of how monkeys could be used as models of humans, Landsteiner discovered the different kinds of blood types in humans in 1930 and won the Nobel Prize. Landsteiner was particular about the kind of animals that he used and would onlyuse rhesus macaque monkeys, which was important because in 1940, he discovered a blood factor shared by the macaques and humans: the Rh factor. Short for rhesus, Rh factor refers to a cluster of highly reactive proteins on the surface of red blood cells. Most people have these proteins and are called Rh positive. A minority, however, lacks the proteins and is called Rh negative. If an Rh-negative woman becomes pregnant with an Rh-positive child, her immune system will develop an immune defense that will attack any future pregnancy with an Rh-positive child. Her immune system will rip into the fetus' alien red blood cells, jamming them together and exploding them. (Derbyshire) What an important discovery! Good thing that Landsteiner's discovery led to the development of a vaccine that blocked this terrible immune response. It is puzzling that some people would even think of saving a few monkeys rather than having this vaccine. Without animal testing many areas of research would come to a halt and many cures for things would go undiscovered. Thomas Starzl, the pioneer of the kidney transplant, was recently asked why he used dogs in his work. He explained that his first series of kidney transplant operations left the majority of his subjects dead. He figured out what enabled the minority to survive and began a second series of operations; the majority of these subjects lived. A third group of subjects received liver transplants and only one or two of them died. In his fourth group all subjects survived. Starzl remarked that it’s important to realize that his first three groups of subjects were dogs, while the fourth group of subjects were human babies. It is sad to say that some people would favor discontinuing this line of research rather than use dogs to refine the process. If animal rights activists had their way the world would by a very different place, a place which there would be very little pleasure living in. Animal activists oppose all animal-based medical research. If we had listened to their arguments 50 years ago, children still would be contracting polio (the vaccine was developed in monkeys). Diabetics would not have insulin, a benefit of research on dogs. We would also be without antibiotics for pneumonia, chemotherapy for cancer, surgery for heart diseases, organ transplants and joint replacement.(Murray) Animal rights activists believe that animals have just as many rights to life as humans do and should be treated as such. Organizations like PETA were formed to protect animal rights. People who support animal rights believe that animals are not ours to use for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other purpose. PETA is right on a lot of their values. Animals should not be used for entertainment, nor should they be used for experiments concerning cosmetics. Do we really need another hairspray? The answer is “No!” But, do we really need a cure for AIDS? The answer is “Yes!” Many animal rights activists argue that a healthy lifestyle can prevent many diseases and ailments which would warrant the need for treatment, treatment which could have been discovered using animal testing. Some animal rights activists believe that medical research altogether could be stopped if people lived healthy lives and did not require treatment for diseases and ailments. This would be nice if it were true, but sadly it is not. My aunt and uncle, Wister and Tom Hart, are people who live very healthy lifestyles. They eat well, exercise, rest well, and are generally happy people. Both have had cancer and survived. If not for chemotherapy (perfected through animal research) they would not have made it. Who would be to blame for their deaths then? Medical research needs to use animals for testing in order to progress. It is not a necessary evil; it is just necessary. Just like animals, humans have the right to further their species and protect it so that it may flourish and not become extinct. When cancer, disease, and ailments arise, it is our right as human beings to find the cure for these things, however possible, without hurting other humans, because surviving is what we are genetically programmed to do. We live in a modern world today free of many of the diseases that plagued our past. Many of us have forgotten or simply not known what a different world it was before all the cures that came of animal testing. Because of this, animal rights activists simply do not see what is needed to live in such a privileged society such as we do, where issues of our survival are rarely worried about in our daily lives. They are sentimentalists, “Save the animals!” they cry out, but when it comes down to it, what they are saying means that they are more concerned about another species than their own, even if they don’t understand that that‘s what they‘re implying. If your child had cancer, would you refuse to use chemotherapy on them because the methods used to perfect it were tested on animals? Would you deny them medicine for pain for the same reason? I think not. Works Cited Derbyshire, Stuart. "Animal Experimentation Is Justified." Current Controversies: The Rights of Animals. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Umpqua Community College. 29 Jan. 2008 http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve& tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010062239&source=gale&srcprod=OV RC&userGroupName=umpquacc&version=1.0. Murray, Joseph E. "Animal Experimentation Benefits AIDS Research." At Issue: Animal Experimentation. Ed. David M. Haugen. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Umpqua Community College. 29 Jan. 2008 http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010002205&source=gale&srcprod=OR C&userGroupName=umpquacc&version=1.0.
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Homosexuals In The Holocaust	Apr 28, 9:05pm
by: IchXVerpasseXSie
topic: Essays
Eleven million people died during the Holocaust. Six million of them were Jews. The remaining five million were minorities of all groups. Some of these groups were Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Slavs, gypsies, disabled people, political prisoners, and homosexuals. The plight of the homosexuals in concentration camps was especially harsh. Before the Nazi rise to power, homosexuals enjoyed relative freedom, and a surprising lack of prejudice. Homosexuality had been outlawed since King Wilhelm adopted Paragraph 175 in 1871. In spite of this, homosexuality and gay culture were predominantly accepted, by gays and straights alike. Der Eigene (The Own) was the first German gay magazine. It was published in 1891 by Adolf Brand and ran until 1929. In Berlin, there were forty gay bars in 1895. Certain political parties even openly supported gay rights. This all stopped in 1907. There was a scandal involving prominent government officials and homosexuality. The media completely blew it out of proportion, and it became a homophobic persecution. Even through all that, the gay community achieved several victories. The Soviet Union abolished anti-gay laws, and Magnus Hirschfeld started the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, a society that was dedicated to destroying irrational fears against gays, and educating society about gays. In 1928, the Penal Reform Bill, a bill that would abolish homosexual crimes was almost passed. But then the Nazis came into power. The National Socialist Party had already released its official view on homosexuality on May 14, 1928. It was as follows: “It is not necessary that you and I live, but it is necessary that the German people live. And it can live if it can fight, for life means fighting. And it can only fight if it maintains its masculinity. It can only maintain its masculinity if it exercises discipline, especially in matters of love. Free love and deviance are undisciplined. Therefore, we reject you, as we reject anything which hurts our people. Anyone who even thinks of homosexual love is our enemy.” The freedom and lack of persecution the common gay German enjoyed was over. It is surprising to find out that some Nazis were gay, knowing the way that most Nazis hated homosexuals. In fact, one of the most surprising things of all was the fact that Adolf Hitler may have been attracted to males as well. Walter Langer and Robert Waite were two leading researchers of Adolf Hitler. While both of them shy away from definitely labeling him as a homosexual, or bisexual, both bring up considerable circumstantial evidence that he was attracted to males. His bodyguards were almost always gay, as were some of his closest advisors. He referred to a gay male friend as “Bubi” which was a pet name for homosexuals to use with their partners. One of his heroes was Frederick the Great who was a homosexual. His prized possession was a love letter from King Ludwig II to a male servant. But even with all that proof, it is obvious that if Adolf Hitler was attracted to males, it was not exclusively. But of his four known relationships with women, two of them committed suicide, and the other two at least attempted. Besides Hitler, other prominent Nazi officials were homosexuals. Ernst Roehm was the leader of the Nazis before Hitler was. To quote a prominent homosexual historian, Frank Rector, "Hitler was, to a substantial extent, Roehm's protegé". Roehm had seen Hitler at a meeting of the Iron Fist, and persuaded him to take over control of the German Workers’ Party. Roehm became the leader of the SA. Other Nazi officials were Hans Frank (Minister of Justice and a homosexual), Walter Funk (Minister of Economics, and Hitler’s private financial advisor and a “notorious" homosexual”), and Hermann Goering (Hitler’s second-in-command and a transvestite). Because of the proliferation of homosexuality within the Nazi party, it is surprising that Hitler supported anti-gay legislation. The explanation is simple, and politically brilliant, if cruel. Hitler began taking anti-gay measures to unite homophobic people of all parties, and to get rid of opponents of his politics, from his own party, and others. Because Hitler understood the invaluable support from homosexuals, the bans were not enforced in all cases. Only anti-Nazi gays were persecuted. In fact, in some cases, very notorious and obvious gays were given Nazi protection. Sadly, not all homosexuals were given Nazi protection. On June 28, 1934, Ernst Roehm was murdered, an event that kicked off The Night Of Long Knives. The Night of Long Knives was spread out over a weekend, and was the murder of many of Hitler’s political enemies. Some of his top political advisors were murdered. He claimed that all the people that were murdered under his orders were murdered for being homosexuals, after it became obvious that he had murdered all the people who were potential political rivals to him. The plight of the anti-Nazi homosexual is different. Many regular homosexuals were arrested under the new, stricter form of Paragraph 175. In many cases, the Gestapo asked for the “pink lists” from local police. These pink lists were lists of suspected homosexuals, and had been in the making since 1900. With these lists, the Gestapo could quickly and effectively round up homosexuals. Around 100,000 men were arrested under the crime of homosexuality, out of the estimated 1.2 million homosexuals in Germany. Only 50,000 were convicted. Most of the convicted homosexuals went to regular prisons. They were the lucky ones. Around 5,000 to 15,000 of the convicted homosexuals were sent to the concentration camps. In the concentration camps, homosexuals were the lowest of the low. They were forced to wear two pink triangles, one on the left side of their coat, and one on their right pant leg. They were brutally treated by the guards, and other inmates. They were under stricter camp discipline, which meant harder work, less food, and more supervision. Ruediger Lautmann believes that the death rate for homosexuals in concentration camps was about 60%. After the war was over, and the prisoners were freed from the camps, life should have returned back to normal. It did not. Under German law, homosexuals were technically still criminals. They were sentenced to time in prison, even though they had been forced into concentration camps. They were not compensated for the time they spent in the camps, like Jews and Catholics were. Their plight was totally ignored at the Nuremberg Trials. They were kept on lists of sex offenders. The government supported and kept the Nazi version of Paragraph 175. Very few survivor accounts from homosexuals existed until 1969, when Paragraph 175 was revised to allow homosexuality. To quote Karl-Heinz Steinle, scientific collaborator of the Gay Museum in Berlin, “The persecuted gays were - unlike other victim groups - not encouraged to write down their experiences in the concentration camps. Therefore we have very few publications by survivors today.” In May of 2002, all homosexuals prosecuted under Paragraph 175 were legally pardoned – some fifty years too late. The Nazi persecution of homosexuals, and the government’s turning a blind eye to the horrors and injustices suffered by the gays is a true example of how dangerous it is to be unaccepting of others. If these horrors were only in the past, it might be slightly better. But in 1979, homosexuals were still having lobotomies performed on them to “cure” them of their sexual orientation. This type of ignorance still goes on in the world. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims that "We don't have homosexuals, like in your country." Even in countries supposedly more accepting and liberal, like America, gay marriages are not accepted by the government.
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Dust to dust has a whole new meaning.	Apr 2, 2:35pm
by: Klarth
topic: Philosophy
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It's a poetic term which boils down to 'return from whence you came'. In the book of Genesis, those are the words of God/Yahweh/Jehovah/Whomever to Adam in the explanation that he was made from the dust of the Earth, and when he died, to the dust his body would return. So it occurred to me that this could very well tie into the idea that the first conscious memory is the last conscious memory. I haven't spoken to any dead dude or dudettes lately, so bear with me. When you hear people talking about near death experiecnes, they generally speak of a light. Many believe it's the light of heaven, of the Pearly Gates, guarded by Jesus' best friend and confidant, St. Peter the Apostle. As an agnostic, I believe it is the light of truth that washes over you just before the complete decimation of your being. Different strokes. They say that your first memory is between ages 2 and 4. But what if Birth is your first memory, subconsciously wedged in there as 'I am conscious, I am here, I have begun and it is here that I'll end'. Think about it. You're wrenched from the calming truth of the womb, the wamth and moistness that has been all you knew for a matter of nine months and ejected into the harsh world. Someone snips the cord, and you're aware, awake from that hazy, dreaming state from within, and all around is the sudden glare of light. Unless you were born in pitch darkness, there is a perceptible change in your surroundings, and whether or not your eyes are opened or closed, there's this blinding glare that assaults from beyond, the indelible and irrevocable truth of life. You get used to it. You move on, you get older. You forget. Because in a way, that's what we do as people. We take things for granted. We take the very truth of life for granted, to be blessed with some semblance of a cognitive mind. And that's the truth, because we fear death. We fear death because of the idea that afterwards, there is no consciousness, no us. And rightly so. The light is there at birth, there when you die, from dust you came, to dust you'll return. Don't take it literally, but the bible is full of the samesuch metaphors, and when you start discerning them you can figure out the meaning of life. No master plan. No destiny or fate. Just you, here, now, living, writing history as it comes. Anyhow...That's just my idea on the subject. Dwell on it.
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Continuation of previous, if anyone be interested.	Mar 20, 5:23am
by: NEVETS
topic: Philosophy
Our self-image grew even bleaker with the work of Charles Darwin. His theory of evolution- tweaked slightly now by the neo-Darwinists-is of a life that is random, predatory, puposeless and solitary. Be the best or don't survive. Althouhgh many may disagree, you are no more than an evolutionary accident. The vast checkerboard biological heritage of your ancestors is stripped down to one central facet: survival. Eat or be eaten. The essence of your humanity is a genetic terrorist, efficiently disposing of any weaker links. Life is not about sharing and interdependance. Life is about winning, getting there first. And if you do manage to survive, you are on your own at the top of the evolutionary tree. These paradigms- the world as machine, man as survival machine- have led to a technological mastery of the universe, but little real knowledge of any central importance to us. On a spiritual and metaphysical level, they have led to the most desperate and brutal sense of isolation. They also have got us no closer to understanding the most fundamental mysteries of our own being: how we think, how life begins, why we get ill, how a single cell turns into a fully formed person, and even what happens to human consciousness when we die. We remain reluctant apostles of these views of the world as mechanized and sperate, even if this isn't part of our ordinary experience. Many of us seek refuge from what we see as the harsh and nihilistic fact of our existence in religion, which may offer some succour in its ideals of unity, community and purpose, but through a view of the world that contradicts the view espoused by science. Anyone seeking a spiritual life has had to wrestle with these opposing world views and fruitlessly try to reconcile the two. This world of the separate should have been laid waste once and for all by the discovery of quantum physics in the early part of the twentieth century. As the pioneers of quantum physics peered into he very heart of matter, they were astounded by what they saw. The tiniest bits of matter weren't even matter, as we know it, not even a set something, but sometimes one thing, sometimes something quite different. And even stranger, they were often many possible things all at the same time. But most significantly, these subatomic particles had no meaning in isolation, but only in relationship with everything else. At its most elemental, matter couldn't be chopped up into self-contained little units, but was completely indivisible. You could only understand the universe as a dynamic web of interconnection. Things once in contact remained always in contact through all space and all time. Indeed, time and space themselves appeared to be arbitrary constructs, no longer applicable at this level of the world. Time and space as we know them did not, in fact, exist. All that appeared, as far as the eye could see was one long landscape of the here and now. The pioneers of quantum physics-Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli- had some inkling of the metaphysical territory they had tresspassed into. If electrons were connected everywhere at once, this implied something profound about the nature of the world at large. They turned to classic philosophical texts in their attempt to grasp the deeper truth about the strange subatomic world they were observing. Pauli examined psychoanalysis and archetypes and the Qabbalah; Bohr, the Tao and Chinese philosophy; Schrodinger, Hindu philosophy; and Heisenberg, the platonic theory of ancient Greece. Nevertheless, a coherent theory of the spiritual implications of quantum physics remained beyond their grasp. Niels Bohr hung a sign of his door saying 'Philosophers keep out. Work in progress' There was other, quite practical, unfinished business with quantum theory. Bohr and his colleagues only got so far in their experiments and understanding. The experiments they'd cunducted demonstrating these quantum effects had occurred in the laboratory, with non-living subatomic particles. From there, scientists in their wake naturally assumed that this strange quantum world only existed in the world of dead matter. Anything alive still operated according to the laws of Newton and Decarted, a view that has informed all of modern medicine and biology. Even biochemistry depends upon Newonian force and collision to work. And what of us? Suddenly, we had grown central to every physical process, but no one had fully acknowledged this. The quantum pioneers had discovered that our involvement with matter was crucial. Subatomic particles existed in all possible staes until disturbed by us- by observing or measuring- at which point, they'd settle down, at long last, into something real. Our observation-our human conciousness- was utterly central to this process of subatomic flux actually becoming some set thing, but we weren't in any of the mathematics of Heisenberg or Schrodinger. They realized that we were somehow key, but they didn't know how to include us. As far as science was concerned, we were still on the outside looking in. >>Okay I'll stop for a while now.
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The Coming Revolution	Mar 17, 11:21am
by: NEVETS
topic: Philosophy
We are poised on the brink of a revolution- a revolution as daring and profound as Einstein's discovery of relativity. At the very frontier of science new ideas are emerging that challenge everything wwe believe about how our world works and how we define ourselves. Discoveries are being made that prove what religion has always espoused: that human beings are far more extroadinary that an assemblage of flesh and bones. At its most fundamental, this new science answers questions that have perplexed scientists for hundreds of years. At its most profound, this is a science of the miraculous. For a number of decades respected scientists in a variety of disciplines all over the world have been carrying out well designed experiments whose results fly in the face of current biology and physics. Together, these studies offer us copious information about the central organizing force governing our bodies and the rest of the cosmos. What they have discovered is nothing less than astonishing. At our most elemental, we are not a chemical reation, but an energetic charge. Human beings and all living things are a coalescence of energy in a field of energy connected to every other thing in the world. This pulsating energy field is the central engine of our being and our consciousness, the alpha and the omega of our existence. There is no 'me' and 'not-me' duality to our bodies in relation to the universe, but one underlying energy field. This field is responsible for our mind's highest functions, the information source guiding the growth of our bodies. It is our brain, our heart, our memory- indeed, a blueprint of the world for all time. The field is the force, rather than germs or genes, that finally determines whether we are healthy or ill, the force which must be tapped in order to heal. We are attached and engaged, indivisible from our world, and our only fundamental truth is our relationship whith it. 'The field,' as Einstein once succinetly put it, 'is the only reality.' Up until the present, biology and physics have been handmaidens of views espoused by Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics. Everything we believe about our world and our place whithin it takes its lead from ideas that were formulated in the seventeenth century, but still form the backbone of modern science- theories that present all the elements of the universe as isolated from each other, divisible and wholly self-contained. These, at their essence, created a world view of separateness. Newton described a material world in which individual particles of matter followed certain laws of motion through space and time- the universe as machine. Before Newton formulated his laws of motion, French philosopher René Descartes had come up with that was then a revolutionary notion, that we- represented by our minds- were seperate from this lifeless inert matter of our bodies, which were just another type of well-oiled machine. The world was composed of a load of little discrete objects, which behaved predictably. The most seperate of these was the human being. We sat outside this universe, looking in. Even our bodies were somehow separate and other from the real us, the conscious minds doing the observing. The Newtonian world might have been law-abiding, but ultimately it was a lonely, desolate place. The world carried on, one vast gearbox, whether we were present or not. With a few deft moves, Newton and Descartes had plucked God and life from the world of matter, and us and our consciousness form the center of our world. They ripped the heart and soul out ofthe universe, leaving in its wake a lifeless collection of interlocking parts. Most important of all, as Danah Zohar observed in 'The Quantum Self', Newton's vision tore us out from the fabric of the universe. >>>That's my input for the year, I'm outie.
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Hail to the Fast Food Worker!	Mar 14, 9:04pm
by: Mooncradle
topic: Rants
Now firstly it must be added that I in no way agree with any of the practices of the fast food industry but sadly due to unfortunate circumstances I ended up working in a fast food restaurant. This only gave me a more horrifying view of what the industry is truly like, especially the reality of what work for the fast food worker is truly like. It has to be said that the employees of the restaurant where I worked changed a lot throughout my time there, however most of the time everyone got on with each other. Most of the staff unhappiness came from the actions of our dear old manager and his bosses. Though of course, there was another factor, one that inspires me to write this article. This other factor was our customers and the rest of the public. In the time I have worked there I have been threatened, sworn at, spat at and physically hit at work. The managers there merely shrugged this off. These excuses for humanity are paying customers! They are allowed to damage the staff! We are given a very loud and clear message, we are disposable and the customers aren’t. And of course the favoured shift managers aren’t disposable either. Once we called the police because one of our managers didn’t want some kids in the restaurant and they wouldn’t leave. The reason she didn’t want them there is because they were being loud, no louder than a certain customer who told me I was a “f***ing whore” who should “Go back to her pimp” and should “Wash her c*** for once.” But of course that customer was treated with the utmost respect, meanwhile these relatively innocent kids got locked in the restaurant and had the police chuck them out. The worst thing is our restaurant manager asked us to lie to the police if they asked us any questions, to say we heard them swearing at the shift manager. They had sworn at us for not letting them out, so both me and my workmate agreed we’d just tell the police exactly what we’d heard, rather than lie. This same manager was allowed to bully certain staff members, including my own fiancé as well as many of my friends, despite having many written complaints, with witnesses, up until she left. Fast food restaurants are masters of breaking the law. They don’t expect the employees to know any better. For example for a while a 22 year old was being paid £4.60 an hour, nearly a pound under the minimum wage for over 21’s. They make under 18’s work past 11pm, up until 1am in the morning. This is also completely illegal as well as putting these people onto longer than 8 hours shifts. Why this industry feels it can do this to people I don’t know. Mostly they presume the employees are too dumb to know. The fact is I’ve met some of the most articulate and smart, if not educated people while working in the restaurant. I find it sickening that they pay below minimum wage and hold people over longer hours than they should. They don’t investigate claims of bullying and allow the customers to bully the staff to the degree that customers are allowed to hit the staff. Fast food workers are people too, and from what I’ve heard it’s the same whatever place you work in. Throw away your assumptions about fast food workers, boycott the places if you can, or maybe just give the person who serves you a smile and a “thank you.” (UK employment rights can be found here: http://www.direct.gov.uk)
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Social Inequality in the United States	Mar 8, 1:59pm
by: KLOKWERKAOS
topic: Essays
Though many argue that social inequalities of minorities and sub-culture groups only have as much stratifying impact on a person’s life as they are allowed, it is clear that outside of the best educated regions of the United States that prejudice and discrimination are a continual problem for those societies on a macro level. Further, it can be reasoned that so long as there are identifiable differing characteristics between humans that some form of subjective bias and level of prejudice will continue to be present and generate some form of conflict. Initially the capitalist environment of the United States was set up with the assumption that personal greed would motivate the economy and the system was set up so that the rich would be taxed heavily to help maintain overall greater societal conditions. In a way this was wildly successful as well as proving to be a dramatic failure. Indeed, today’s standards of living and economic conditions are far superior within the United States that those of the year 1776, however the failing of the capitalist system was to realize that there is no maximum capacity for human greed. On this Jacobs writes: “Expansions in the size of minority populations threaten the power of ascendant groups, who respond with efforts to maintain their dominant position”. Eventually individuals able to “get ahead” economically found that they could use their wealth to maintain itself and accumulate greater wealth through oppression (though this was by no means first developed in the United States). Once this policy of expansionism and dominance was coupled with a few generations of inherited money, the initial drive and intellect that created the wealth very well could have been, and frequently was, completely absent in the individuals that possessed the wealth. This caused all kinds of breakdowns in the American governmental system. The initial ideal was that voters would be land owners and thus be wealthy and deemed in possession of the wisdom to vote in adequate representation elections as they had proven themselves able to rise above their neighbor, but as power and wisdom became less and less synonymous through generations of inherited money an increasing decentralization in government occurred as the ideals of the past were found to be bankrupt. Over time a variety of different fears such as loss of wealth and differences in culture among other things allowed those of like traits to band together in social networks to work to maintain power over other individuals. Historically certain aspects such as race and gender and religion were used to determine societal caps to wealth levels and other measures of success within the United States. Discrimination and prejudice became the norm and stratification became exaggerated due to many various factors. Wilkinson writes: “In 1944, Myrdal, Richard Sterner, and Arnold Rose wrote that ‘segregation is now becoming so complete that the white Southerner practically never sees a Negro except as his servant and in other standardized and formalized caste situations.’ Both ecological separation and racial distance were entrenched in the fabric of the nation's beliefs, values, and social class hierarchy. All housing, private and public, was segregated by custom and by law.”(1995). Though this segregation was once federally endorsed, over time racial biases were eroded due to other changes in the sociological environment concerning feminism and other decentralizing movements which called for even greater restructuring of society. These movements even began to challenge not merely the work force ideal, but the traditional family unit itself, which in turn had religious ramifications as well. As women gained more and more rights within society those in power focused less on differences such as specific ethnicity and started to broaden their discrimination zones to more generic terms of skin color. Religious affiliation was also accepted on broader terms as well, being more commonly separated through major associations rather than specific denominations. As technology increased and information became increasingly more accessible, valuable and a more common form of currency, recognition of skin tone and gender became less focused but was still an identifiable problem within the United States. To combat this, early efforts included Affirmative Action policies which caused large amounts of controversy in all directions. Affirmative Action was both supported and denounced by both advocates and assailants of discrimination as it posed an exploitable system that could be used to fight for or against discrimination depending on how it was used. Affirmative Action allowed that certain minority groups would be allowed exaggerated opportunities in concerns to work and education over that which was typically available in the past. The system was far from perfect but overall today discrimination is less of a concern than it was before affirmative action but the degree to which Affirmative Action helped or hindered the current state of affairs concerning social inequality concerning minorities is largely a matter of opinion based on selective fact analysis. Eventually efforts to create a blind system were implemented by placing restrictions on government collection of data concerning race in several instances but were determined to be inadequate. The spirit of such efforts was to denounce the idea of forcing people to even identify themselves as Black, White, Hispanic, Asian or otherwise as it would only perpetuate the idea of existence of the concept of “minorities” to begin with. Such efforts are shown to prove inadequate as although Federal policy no longer endorses discrimination that the United States has not yet completely outgrown the concept of racial inequality on cultural and class levels. Much like Affirmative Action, the post-analysis of such anti-affirmative action movements continues to show improvements in eradicating social inequality for minorities but it is unclear to what extent the movements themselves helped or hindered the cause of decentralization. One of the most important aspects to keep in mind when addressing these issues is that once Federal backing of discrimination is ceased that the ideal of discrimination based on race should have disappeared (in theory) but it didn’t. Based on information technologies increasing a lingering sense of the past is allowed to have a societal voice more than ever. As is the case, certain issues of culture and class are very often confused as issues of race or even reverted to issues of race within a given system. Although the lingering voice of the past requires that we recognize it, it does not require that we adhere to it as modern doctrine. As such, efforts are being made to utilize sociology studies to focus on broader issues that are actively effecting stratification. In this regard Downey writes: “Environmental inequality is a relatively new concept that gained national attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to the efforts of grassroots environmental justice activists and professional researchers. Calling into question the mainstream environmental movement's assumption that environmental degradation affects everyone equally, environmental justice activists and researchers argue, among other things, that the poor, the working class, and people of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards.”(2005). Downey’s statement offers a more high powered look (and at the same time on a look on a broader scale) at the issue of minority segregation and offers that if we can take into account the factors that cause stratification, such as ethnic concentration and class hazard and learn to stop and prevent such factors on a larger level, such as eradication of class orientation, that we may be able to further decentralize society. In theory, like those that came before him, Downey’s statements seem like a nice cure all blanket statement, but as we’ve seen in the past with Affirmative Action and Anti-Affirmative Action movements as well as other decentralizing efforts that there is always an inherent backlash that pulls in all directions. Specific decentralizing efforts appear to cause both harm and good to varying degrees depending on how they are applied to the current paradigm as well as their post-interpretation results. It seems then, that decentralizing efforts could only be effective on the macro level problem if they were applied with an even macro level influence, though this is a very difficult ideal to achieve. Those in power have had generations of breeding to learn how to centralize and increase and preserve their power to create further stratification so potent that the wealthiest one percent of the United States controls 98% of the nation’s wealth. Historically such stratification has only been corrected through violent outbursts of the masses, though this becomes less likely as the standard of living increases and generations of increasing conditioning towards apathy through various media (both obvious [television and radio propaganda] and not so obvious [busy work deterrence methods and artificial accolades]) are put into place for the lower classes. As such apathy exists one has to begin to even question the validity of challenging the bureaucracy at all especially when challenging the system generally earns one some sort of miscreant label such as misfit or anarchist. As one questions the nature of the system of centralized power it becomes evident that the system works in a cycle of expansionism followed by integration and then decentralization efforts. That being the case it appears that the whole system is working its way slowly toward a universal harmony where distinguishing characteristics and identity are no longer present. Some sociologists have argued to the contrary of the bureaucracy that the stratification efforts of the ruling class may even develop a sub-human servitor race within several generations. Even still we can safely assume that given the nature of statistics that over the length of a given length of time a probability constantly approaches singularity in some fashion or another. That being the case it seems that social inequalities becoming eradicated and power decentralization is an inevitability, though the question then becomes: “In what wisdom do we trust to expedite the process?”. Historically reviewing social inequality shows us that a system of control, no matter what kind, (be it ethnic, monetary, religious, class, sex or whatnot) is an illusion that is shattered at a moment of realization. In an effort to aid such realizations of decentralized power it seems wise to administer education as the preferred alternative to restrictive systems of control, however, with such education requires the understanding that at present we recognize a need for certain restrictions for those that are not adequately educated to prevent loss of resources for humanity as a whole (assuming the goal is the universal genetic inclination to preserve humanity) until such a time as we have unlimited resources available (if such a thing is possible). Sadly this still leads us to inevitable flawed use of subjective judgment calls as we must allow that while certain regions of the United States may be technologically and sociologically ready for a totally blind system in which applications for jobs is done through submission of a social security number and a verification that minimum job requirements are met, other communities may still have such an exaggerated imbalance by contrast that trying to apply such tactics to the area would cause a large resistance and system collapse, and thus be a drastic waste of resources. In conclusion, if we are to eliminate social inequality we must be constantly striving towards appropriately educating each individual to capacity in an effort to remove defining individual characteristics and decentralize power. Until such a time as this is possible it seems appropriate to accept that conflict and inequality will remain as constants and that we can only continue to make efforts that we have no way of accurately directly accounting for the contributions of, though with increased education we can spend less energy on maintaining an optimistic view and more energy on making sound contributions to decentralization efforts. References Downey, Liam. "The unintended significance of race: environmental racial inequality in Detroit *." Social Forces 83.3 (March 2005): 971(37). General OneFile. Gale. Apollo Library. 28 Feb. 2008 . Gale Document Number:A132872696 Jacobs, David, and Richard Kleban. "Political institutions, minorities, and punishment: a pooled cross-national analysis of imprisonment rates *." Social Forces 82.2 (Dec 2003): 725(31). General OneFile. Gale. Apollo Library. 28 Feb. 2008 . Gale Document Number:A112645453 Wilkinson, Doris Y. "Gender and social inequality: the prevailing significance of race." Daedalus 124.n1 (Wntr 1995): 167(12). General OneFile. Gale. Apollo Library. 28 Feb. 2008 . Gale Document Number:A16783180
[reply] [38 comments]

Freeganism: An Anti-Consumerism Lifestyle	Mar 6, 12:56am
by: Princess
topic: Philosophy
Freeganism is a lifestyle in which people use strategies that allow them to participate as little as possible in the conventional economy and consume a minimal amount of resources. They often are in tight-knit communities that help each other reach these goals, such as having community gardens where everyone is free to take from and help grow together.The lifestyle even includes salvaging discarded goods, such as unspoiled food from supermarkets and bakeries (often in dumpsters). This isn't a lifestyle just for the poor or homeless, as often very wealthy people participate as well, to avoid feeding in to a society in which they feel has become controlled by a consumer lifestyle. By dumper diving, they can feed people and animals who might otherwise go hungry, and prevent edible food from being added to landfills. Although it is often practiced in legal ways, such as wild foraging, gardening, dumpster diving, bartering and plate scraping, it also can include shoplifting and employee scams from the more extreme followers. Many do not promote lawless activities, preferring to stay as peaceful about their practices as possible. "Really, Really Free Markets" are another example, as it is a social event in which individuals give away their belongings instead of discarding them, and teach each other their skills. Other examples exist in many types of festivals, where people learn from each other and have free workshops. In my local area, we have a Tangerine festival where many gardeners, whole food shop owners and organic growers come together and give away free food, free seeds and teach how to properly plant everything from trees, fruit and vegetables. There also biking events where people give away their old bikes, so that they may be fixed up and given away to children and young adults, as well as lobbies the state and federal government for funding that allows more biking trails and safety to cyclists. They try to avoid the use of automobiles or planes as often as possible, choosing to walk or ride bicycles instead, both being more eco-friendly than the pollution caused by burning petroleum. They often carpool when they need to, train hop, skate or hitchhike when they must. Voluntary unemployment is a common trend in these communities. Many doctors, lawyers, real-estate agents, artists and people of every trade give up their regular forms of employment, or begin to work only part-time, as to no longer contribute as much to a society they do not agree with, and instead give their services for free to those who cannot afford it, or at extremely discounted rates. Rent-Free Housing is important to freegans, who often begin squatting. From a freegan website, they believe, "housing is a RIGHT, not a privilege. Just as freegans consider it an atrocity for people to starve while food is thrown away, we are also outraged that people literally freeze to death on the streets while landlords and cities keep buildings boarded up and vacant because they can’t turn a profit on making them available as housing." They often convert old, unused buildings into community centers and homes. It's easy to reduce waste in our society, to even reduce the amount of people we spend on material items and food. There are many free cycle communities online, where people can pick up items and they are given away for free. These items can range from anything such as clothing, furniture, TVs, entire bedroom and kitchen sets, food, baby items, books, music - anything you can think of you may ever need to buy, people are often giving away as they no longer need them or buy new ones. You don't need to be as radical as other practitioners to live a more mindful life, where instead of just throwing something away, you can find someone who needs it. You're keeping things out of landfills and saving money! In 2004, the University of Arizona estimated that forty to fifty percent of US edible food is wasted per year. Every year, approximately $43 billion worth of edible food is estimated to be thrown away in the US (Food Navigator). For more information on freeganism or freecycling, please visit the following sites: Freegan Info Oprah - 6 figure salary to Freegan Freeganism - Wikipedia Freecycle Network Reuse It Network Free Sharing
[reply] [38 comments]

Discordianism	Feb 23, 3:07pm
by: KLOKWERKAOS
topic: Essays
I'll preface this by saying I am registered as a Discordian THE TRUTH ABOUT DISCORDIASMS!!!!!111leetlolzomgwtfbbq!11one Invented by a geek and a couple of hippies in the 1950's as a cheap substitute for marijuana, Discordianism not just a seriously old meme; it is in fact a rather sneaky Illuminati trap designed to look like a religion to some, and like lulz to others. In this manner it seduces the unsuspecting based on their greatest weakness. Like all novelty religions, it is extremely unfunny and most of its adherents are friendless autistic drama club nerds who quote endlessly from Monty Python and Douglas Adams when not in the comfort of their personal hugbox. They think that by endlessly repeating a bunch of 50-year-old in-jokes they can prove how hip and original they are. Serious business angle: Discordianism is a modern, irreligion founded circa 1958–1959 by Malaclypse the Younger with the publication of its principal text, the Principia Discordia (read it here, not page 3 is intentionally left blank, it's about 50 pages and worth the read if you are a schollar). It is widely regarded as a parody religion, and has been called "Zen for roundeyes", based on similarities with absurdist interpretations of the Rinzai school. Discordianism recognizes chaos, discord, and dissent as valid and desirable qualities, in contrast with most religions, which idealize harmony and order. Eris, the Greek mythological goddess of discord, has also become the matron deity of the religion Discordianism, though such rarely regarded with any credence as it would debunk the faith. It is hard to describe Discordianism as a religion because Discordians do not have any specific beliefs or dogma that would set them apart from the practitioners of other religions. Many of the practicing Discordians believe that humanity suffers from the "curse of Greyface" (i.e, takes itself too seriously) and thus needs to be saved from this grave outlook on life. Thus the Discordians seek to reverse the "curse of Greyface" by teaching the people "to laugh at themselves and their problems/lives." This, the Discordians believe, would solve most of the problems of the world. While Discordianism is separate from modern neopaganism, a number of neopagans have incorporated elements of Discordianism into their beliefs. In addition, Neopagan author Margot Adler discussed Discordianism in her book, Drawing Down the Moon, while religious authority J. Gordon Melton lists Discordianism among various Neopagan groups in his Encyclopedia Of American Religions. (Melton claims to have excommunicated all other Discordians, based on the fact that he is a Discordian Pope. Being Popes themselves, they then de-excommunicated themselves and/or each other.) It is difficult to estimate the number of followers and correctly identify Discordian groups. The anarchist ethic that pervades Discordianism[3] is reflected in an encouragement to form schisms and cabals.[4] Additionally, few adherents hold Discordianism as their only or primary faith. Instead, Erisians tend to adopt Discordianism as a complement to other faiths. MOAR ACTUAL TROOFZ!!! Followers: Adherents of the propaganda and other crap associated with this religion/joke/ploy, notably the roll of toilet paper known as the Principia Discordia, fall into five distinct groups. It is theorized by some that these are phases that each Discordian must go through on their path through life; these theorizers are sometimes known as Wicca and are ruthlessly mocked by actual people. *Fanboys treat the words of their Discordian betters as actual, honest-to-Goddess catma, and go 'round talkin' smack 'bout No Hot Dog Buns (Hail Eris All Hail Discordia,) 23 This, 23 That. They usually do this on the Internets, since if they did it IRL they would immediately be struck senseless by how unfunny they are. *Dilettantes are able to apply a dose of Hipster Irony to their now tastefully Discord-flavoured post-modern worldview, chuckling over what were once worrisome logical contradictions in their thinking and in so doing transforming them into self-effacing badges of coolness. Many join NAMBLA at this point; other, less fortunate, ones become liberals. *Chaos Magicians spend most of their time in their parent's basement drawing nonsense symbols in the air, playing with action figures, and generally retreating from reality. Which is a good thing, because if they were forced to interact with it at this point they would be raping every man, woman, and inanimate object they could get their hands on in the ass in the name of Nazi anarchy. *Rutabagas, about which nothing fnord needs to be said. *Robert Anton Wilson. Universally regarded as the Uber-Discordian King. RAW is what all true Discordians aspire to one day reincarnate their sorry asses backward through time into. Once they have died and been reborn as RAW, the Uber-Discordian King's aspiration/fate is, quite naturally, to meet John Titor, travel even further back in time to the Philadelphia Experiment and murder Ayn Rand to test the Grandfather Paradox. Potential for Drama: Disgruntled or bored Discordians are sometimes known to perform "jakes", which is essentially a form of trolling IRL. The primary drama quotient among Discordians themselves, though, revolves around the one and only Discordian Sin; that is, Being Bothered. Discordians are required to mock any other Discordian they sense Being Bothered, and to encourage them to "just let it (all) go (permanently)" on the basis that the lack of philosophical underpinnings is a small price to pay for a feeling of self-assurance, or maybe just numbness. Anonymous??? Anonymous is said to have the answers for what Discordianism lacks and operates largely on the same principles but to a completely different effect. Where as Discordianism allows for identity (which is a sociological innevitability at this time) Anonymous requires a complete lack of defining characteristics in order to be counted among it's ranks.
[reply] [125 comments]

New Feature: Site Themes	Feb 20, 6:23pm
by: eon
Check out your Control Panel under 'Edit Profile' for a new option: Site Themes. It's pretty straight forward. Pick a color you like and all of the site backgrounds, links, borders, etc., will be changed to suit your taste. This is good if you'd like a break from the site layout we've had for the past... oh... 3 years or so. Currently available: Original, Green, Blue, Orange, Pink and Grey. You might find some sections of the site that are not covered by the themes. IE, you might select the 'Green' theme and at some point find a page somewhere on the site that has not been changed to green (it would still have the original look). If you find such pages, let me know. There are quite a few I've had to link up and I've covered most of them but I'm sure I've missed a few. Thanks and... Enjoy.
[reply] [68 comments]

Site Poll: Tools or Rules?	Jan 13, 3:40pm
by: eon
The poll I'm going to link here addresses an issue that has come up many times in the history of this site, starting with the introduction of our forums and then continuing with the addition of Groups. Although this poll asks a question about the way groups and forums are used, the answer could have an impact site wide. So I'd like everyone to please take a few minutes and help out in settling this long time, hotly debated issue. The poll pretty much explains everything, so please carefully read the background section of the poll and give it some thought before voting: Take the poll: Tools or Rules? Again, I think this is something that could effect everyone, so I would encourage you all to vote! Thank you for making your voice heard.
[reply] [27 comments]

CSS Changes Affecting Groups	Nov 18, 12:21am
by: eon
In working on new features for the site, I'm having to update the CSS a bit. Some of these changes will affect those of you who have done customized group layouts. I'm going to keep an ongoing log of my changes in the following forum thread: CSS Changes Affecting Groups In the end, I hope this will make the CSS a bit more flexible and also a bit more organized. I'm not for sure how long I'll be making changes which will affect groups, but the above thread will be the place to go if something changes in your layout and you want to get a quick idea of what to do about it. Thank you for your patience . . .
[reply] [9 comments]

Happy Halloween... and stuff.	Oct 31, 11:36am
by: eon
I believe the recent server troubles have finally been resolved, as we've held steady for a few days now. *knocks on wood* As a side effect of all the work I did in tracking down the glitch, some helpful refinements were made in the code and in the way the server is set up. Ultimately, this has resulted in slightly smoother operation of the site. So smooth, it's scaaaaaary! Eh hem. So I hope you guys have a great Halloween. Have fun, keep it safe and watch out for the zombies and rabid chipmunks which are almost certain to be on the prowl tonight . . . Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!!
[reply] [21 comments]

Outages	Oct 14, 10:21pm
by: eon
The site was intermittently accessible and extremely slow for much of the day, today. This was due to a network failure at our webhost that has been addressed. They've informed me that we should no longer be affected by the issue. However, this issue was not related to the series of outages we've had over the past few days, which have run anywhere from a few hours to many hours in length. These outages are due to a problem actually somewhere on our server that I am still tracking. Basically, something is hanging the server up at random times, seemingly every 24 hours or so. I'm addressing this by setting up log files to monitor different things that might be related. After each crash, I'm going back through log files, looking for the cause and potentially setting up new logs to track other potential causes. Unfortunately, since the crashes happen without warning and at any given time, there's always the chance one will happen while I'm away. In which case, the server will be down for X amount of hours. Bear with me, I'm trying to check more frequently to reduce downtimes (though I do have to sleep occasionally!) and hopefully I will be able to track down the source of the failure soon. I'm also looking into some automated process to monitor the server and automatically reboot when it crashes. Additionally, I will be running some maintenance soon, sometime in the next few days. This will tie things up for hopefully no more than 2-3 hours. Thank you for your patience.
[reply] [14 comments]

Down In The Mill...	Aug 10, 2:22am
by: eon
In keeping with the times I've been advised to increase the maximum allowed pictures to upload. I was told that many of you who toil in the mills are losing fingers, toes, noses and other such appendages and felt that the job required better compensation. And so here you have it: The wealthy and privileged Andromeda may now upload 100 pictures total. The less wealthy and priviliaged (but better looking in the face) Starlings may now upload 25 pictures total. I know, updates have been a little thin. As always, I never have as much time for R&D as I'd like, what with the realities of life keeping me busy aside from here. Yes, there are things in the works. Of course, everything I do is black-ops, so that's all I'll say (as ever). Just letting you know I haven't outsourced my development to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Yet. I know, our numbers have thinned, too. Does this worry you? Please, don't let it. Mostly, it's my fault for not keeping pace with development. Other sites continue to add improvements while I continue to juggle my time. But let's remember what this place was founded for to begin with: This was supposed to be a haven for us. Something a little more sane and real than popularity contests and the typical three-ring-commercialized-circus-side-show that describes most of the internet. I think that we've accomplished that if nothing else and as long as you guys want to hang around and haunt this place, I will too. If you get lonely, invite some friends. I know, I've done only a slight more than fuck-all to ever promote this place, but I wouldn't go so far as to discourage you from doing so if more people would make you smile. I've never held contests or anything of the sort to drive promotion. To me, it seems insincere. As it stands, in the nearly three years we've been here, no one has ever invited someone else to join DarkStarlings because they were getting something out of it. Period. And I think that's an awesome claim to make. But maybe I should be more realistic. There's nothing sincere about advertisement anyway and I should decide whether or not this place should be advertised in earnest. So, I definitely haven't ruled it out. I'll think about it, okay? Anyhoo, thanks again to everyone who makes this place what it is. Thanks to everyone who keeps this place alive. And truly, over the past months, that's been every one of you--and not so much me. *tips imaginary hat*
[reply] [39 comments]

Update Roundup	Jun 9, 10:56pm
by: eon
I've done a number of little updates which I'll list here. 1. Group Applications. Now when your group is set to require applications from new members, there will be a comment box where applicants can let you know why they want to join. Go to the 'Manage Member' page for your group and look at the top of the menu. Here, you can provide instructions that will be shown to all of your applicants so they'll know what you're looking for on their application. For instance, if your group was about books, you could ask them to list their favorite authors. 2. The group applicants who are waiting for your approval will be listed along with the first 250 characters of their application to make everything easier to browse. Each applicant will link to a special page where you can review their entire application, see their picture, link back to their profile, approve or deny the application, etc.. 3. Staff Threads in Groups. You now have the option of creating topics in your groups which will only be visible to Moderators and higher. This will make it easier for group leaders to conference in private, just check the 'Staff Only?' box when you create your new topic. A special symbol (yellow star) will appear next to staff threads on your forum lists. 4. Comment Private Profiles. Andromeda members who have set their profile to private may allow blocked visitors to leave a comment. To enable this feature go to: Control Panel -> Experience -> Profile Privacy Message Box Thanks, guys...
[reply] [10 comments]

T-Shirt Update	May 10, 9:30pm
by: eon
Well, I ordered one of the t-shirts that I announced in the last news update and it seems to be a fine product. My only minor gripe would be that it's 100% cotton and shrinks quite a bit in the wash. So if you order any, consider buying a size or two larger than usual. Other than that, they look good. Soon I'll be adding another design, that being a plain DS "D star" logo on the front center and the familiar "(D)arkstarlings.com" logo on back. A bit plain, but still a basic, almost obligatory design that a lot of people are understandably interested in. I mean, we're talking about prints of the logo. Also I plan on doing some kind of contest for a t-shirt design in the near future with andromeda time (and maybe other stuff) as prizes. I have no specifics on that at present, but it's a definite at some point in the future. So if you have any creative inclinations, any time whiled away in photoshop or elsewhere won't hurt you one bit. Order t-shirts in confidence: Our First T-Shirt Design Discount: As a promotion, I've marked the price down by a couple of dollars for the next week, so be sure and snag yours at the promo price while you still can. The $2 mark down is already figured into the prices displayed and applies to all shirt sizes and styles. Expires 5/18/07, 11:59 PM Central Time. As always, thank you kindly and your fine support is greatly, greatly appreciated.
[reply] [17 comments]

New Features and T-Shirt Preview	Mar 16, 4:14am
by: eon
Two new features have been added to the picture galleries: Re-Upload: You will notice a 're-upload' link that appears under each of your uploaded pictures when you manage your pictures in the control panel. Using a 're-upload' link will allow you to replace a picture without losing any of the comments that have already been posted to it or any other picture information (such as it's order number and description). This would be handy, for example, if you had a new version of a picture to upload but people had already added a ton of comments to the old picture that you didn't want to lose. Picture Comment Replies: Clicking a 'reply' link under a comment on one of your pictures will let you write a note that will appear directly under the picture comment. For example: Suppose someone posts a comment on one of your pictures that says, "OMG U R SO EFFING FAT!!" You can now reply and your words will appear directly underneath their rude remark, allowing you to tell them off succinctly, "OMG I AM SO NOT FAT! I ONLY ATE 9 CHOCOLATE CREME BURRITOS AND A FEW CHEETOS THAT DAY SO STFU!!! AND MAYBE LIKE HALF A THING OF FRIES BUT THAT DOESN'T COUNT SO STFU!!!" Your answer will show up underneath their comment as "[your name] replies:" Up to this point, hitting the 'reply' link on a picture comment just sent a reply to that person's profile. Not really as useful in my opinion, since it's doubtful that anyone else would actually see what you had to say about their comment. If you do want to reply to someone's profile from their comment on one of your pictures, just click their avatar. T-Shirt Preview: I'm trying out a new place called Good Storm that does on demand t-shirt printing and delivery for a very reasonable price. Kind of like Cafe Press, except they charge in dollars and cents instead of in arms, legs and left nuts. I'm still thinking about different designs but I do have one posted up that I think looks pretty snazzy. If you're so inclined, you can check it out and tell me what you think. I am not yet recommending this product until I receive the t-shirt I ordered myself for inspection. Here it is if you'd like to take a look. Thanks, guys and gals. You make it happen.
[reply] [58 comments]

Update: Group Activity Logs	Feb 15, 10:02pm
by: eon
One problem that has emerged within our groups is the task of keeping track of who is doing what. When a group has too many people with access to it's admin features, it's sometimes hard to tell why certain posts have been deleted, why certain members were kicked out, etc.. With this addition to the 'manage members' page, group leaders (successors and higher) will be able to see an activity log showing them precisely who was responsible for doing what. I've taken some reports of groups that have been vandalized by unknown persons who managed to gain promotions to higher ranks. Hopefully this feature will act as a deterrent, or in the very least, allow group leaders to take appropriate action when this happens. The logs will store the previous 500 actions, including: broadcasts, promotion, demotion and deletion of members, approval and rejection of new applicants, updates to the group page and changes to group settings. They will also record deletion of posts when the posts are deleted by someone other than the author. As always, report any bugs and... enjoy.
[reply] [21 comments]