Posts made by cteavin

@MrMazda:

I don't think you get points when someone else replies, unless they've changed things recently…

As for the spam posts, the points are awarded right away, however if our forum admin deems that the post was a spam post or was solely for the purpose of acquiring SBP, they can deduct the SBP for the post.

I was told recently that if you post in the forums and no one replies to that post, you don't get the five points. I was then told you only get those five points when someone replies (so I've been replying to a lot of unanswered posts recently – bros helping bros 'n stuff).  :police:

Silenced – I always have my fingers for speaking.

Fix it yourself or have/hire someone fix it for you?

No way. I'm satisfied just being me.

TPBM has well-manicured feet/toenails.

@Zeitgeist:

@cteavin:

Personally, I think a lot of what's out there is crap, especially if you're under 30. All you need is soap, glycerine, some kind of UV protection and exfoliating gloves when you're young.   
 
I used to invest in different skin care lines when I was young and my skin was better when I didn't use them.   
   
Now I'm 48 and I have flawless skin. My secret? I avoided the sun all my life and I drink 4 - 8 liters of water a day. That's it. Now I do use Night Repair by Estee Lauder, more like when I remember to use it. It does help hydrate. I also enjoy the Korean face masks, like once week or whenever I think about it. But the key to good skin is avoiding the sun and staying hydrated and good nutrition: 
 
You are what you eat, if you're eating and drinking junk, your skin will show the world you're made of junk.

What do you mean by "avoid the sun"? Did you just stay indoors all-day? Or did you apply sunscreen/sunblock often?

I always wear sunscreen. I don't go to the beach for a tan (sunbathing). When my partner wanted to go to the beach I rented one of those large umbrellas and sat under it. When there's a choice of walking in direct sunlight or shade, I reflexively chose the shade. That kind of thing.

http://thefightmag.com/2017/10/knowingly-exposing-others-to-hiv-no-longer-a-felony-in-california/

I think is the wrong move. What do you all think?

@Hookum:

I loved that Bruce started learning about acting and disguises.  That being said, "Bruce the Brat" at Penguin's auction was absolutely cringe-worthy.  I had to pause repeatedly so that I could take some time to shiver uncomfortably.

I thought he'd gotten much more fit in the three-month break. You have to cut him a bit of slack because he's still growing, but he cut a fine silhouette.

I'll change it whenever Bruce's head doesn't look too large for his frame.  I don't mean to sound cruel.  David certainly looks a hell of a lot better than I do.  But the difference is: I'm not accepting money to portray Batman.

I'm part of a Gotham community on Reddit and a few on YouTube and you're the first and only person I've heard criticize the auction scene which everyone has, literally, said was the best part of the show so far. I agree. I laughed – I loved it.

I might have said this before but this is the first time a live-action version of the Batman has ever fleshed out the Bruce Wayne character/persona. We're watching it unfold in real time. I feel they're doing a fantastic job in developing him.

As to Bruce's body, what are you expecting?  :bithfight: He's a teenager. His body is being bitchslapped this very moment by puberty.  :nutki: If his head is too big it's because the plates in his head are shifting.  :crazy2:

What do you think they're going to do with Riddler? I was a little disappointed they killed his fan.

Oh, and you're right about Jim. Less Jim, please. Have you noticed he's become the thing he most hated about the GCPD when first arrived in Gotham? In the pockets of the mob. What an asshole. I really hate him. Still, I'm hoping they honor the Damien storyline by having Falcon's daughter get pregnant by him. She would be the Talia to his Batman and we'd finally get Jim a child.

@Frederick:

The most recent data I could find is from 2015.. but the data shows clearly that CO2 emissions = CHINA

also…
Trying to debunk theories that higher CO2 levels cause warming, he cites studies that show CO2 levels following temperature spikes, prompting him to back other scientists who say that global warming is caused by solar activity.

In taking on lawmakers pushing for a cap-and-trade plan to deal with emissions, Steward tells Whispers that he's worried that the legislation will result in huge and unneeded taxes. Worse, if CO2 levels are cut, he warns, food production will slow because plants grown at higher CO2 levels make larger fruit and vegetables and also use less water. He also said that higher CO2 levels are not harmful to humans. As an example, he said that Earth's atmosphere currently has about 338 parts per million of CO2 and that in Navy subs, the danger level for carbon dioxide isn't reached until the air has 8,000 parts per million of CO2.

I did some reading about this before bed. I found information from different sources which said that China isn't expected to peak until 2020 (or even as late as 2030) and others that said that their CO2 has already started to decline. I'm not positive but I think taken together it's supposed to mean that the population is still increasing so in the coming decades as people start moving to these newly made cities car consumption will increase driving their CO2 consumption up but at the same time, they've already reached certain targets.

Data's a bitch.  :cheesy2:

That you and I could go online and come up with wildly different information shows how difficult it is for one team of people – spread across the globe, no less -- to come to a near-unanimous conclusion that the planet is warming and that there will be dire consequences.

As for "Mark's number trick", this is all I could find and I'm pretty sure this isn't what he had in mind.  ::)

(Happy Thanksgiving to you all) it'd have to be Pumpkin Pie, second only to apple pie.

If they were opening on the same day which would you see first: Justice League or Infinity War pt 1.?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/grooming-gangs-asian-muslim-across-country-uk-girls-children-women-bradford-rotherham-newcastle-a7987381.html

(looking at the group of mug shots on the front page of the article)
Hmm, if there were only something they all had in common. Too bad for the UK that there is no common denominator in these crimes.

What do you all think? I can't see a pattern.

Which person would be cuter? Hmm, all things equal, an ambulance.

You have a box with a big red button. Push it and instantly receive ten million dollars but someone you don't know dies. Do you push or not?

Nope – unless you mean with possibilities.  ;D

TPBM often comments in the forums.

@flozen:

Well, there's a lot that could fly under this banner.  At what age did you distance yourself from organized religion?  In what faith were you raised (if you care to share)?  Do you consider yourself today an atheist, agnostic, freethinker, secular humanist, several of these, or something different?

Well, since everyone seems quiet here, I'll go.

I was born into a Southern Baptist church in Los Angeles. My dad was Catholic, but I was baptized Protestant. I never truly got to understand all the ritual in mass but I appreciated it growing up – it was almost magical, the images of the bleeding Christ touched you the way the words of the preacher did in my other church.

Looking back, I never really believed.

James Baldwin wrote in one of his many books about going up for baptism not because he heard a calling but because it was expected and time was ticking. Church was like that for me, I did what was expected rather than act from belief.

As I grew older I read. I don't exactly know when I knew for sure there was no god, no afterlife but I ran with it. I accepted full responsibility for my life and my choices and I couldn't have born again more free.

Over the years I've wandered into churches. I was in Laos when I got news that my father passed away. It was the first time I experienced death, so I sought out a church and found no solace. I was in India for an extended time and went to a church to pray (I had long been an atheist by this point); I was looking for a connection to something familiar. I found nothing.

Truly, I'm not really an athest. I don't espouse any belief, there simply is no god. Period.

Just curious.

Myself, I'm an atheist. The other day I was talking with my kids (I'm a high school teacher) waxing nostalgic for that community feeling you can find at a good 'ol southern church: You're welcomed by everyone, big smiles everywhere, a generally good mood abounds. Ah, at my old church they started each service by having you go around and meet someone new. It was nice.

I'd guess for some LGBTQ people coming out might mean giving that up, which could be a terrible loss.

Thoughts, ideas, stories?

@flozen:

Of course, glad to escape that mind-fuck.  Jumping forward, I really didn’t seek to define my non-belief until my 30s, after parents were deceased, so no coming out in that sense.  Friends are cool with it – none of them attend church, I would call many of them “questioning.”

… I wish this GT Board had a more inclusive name, perhaps along the lines of “Religion and Secular Issues."  Any thoughts or suggestions in that last regard?

And, of course, anyone else with an experience to share?

Am I understanding you correctly, you're now in your thirties and your parents are deceased, so you're now trying to define yourself in terms of your non-religious beliefs?

My mother's side of the family is from GA. Discussions about religion hit a wall only when I got preachy or get scholastic (the bible was written in Greek so x doesn't mean x but can more correctly be expressed as [insert needlessly wordy answer]). In other words, when I talked down to them.

I'm a firm believer that only discussion can help us articulate our thoughts. To that end, if there is someone you want to "come out to" you might try putting the idea up as a philosophical discussion about existence, evolution, the origin of language, etc. Assuming things stay civil the worst that could happen is you get labeled a deep thinker and at best they ask/discover that you're a free-thinker (the old term for athiest).

Myself, I feel a kind of respect for a true-believer who walks the walk – it's the hypocrites I despise.

I also can't hate a person who genuinely believes and thinks they're doing me a service by praying for me or trying to save my soul. It's hard to explain -- maybe you do -- but they're not being unkind and in their own way, they're trying to help you. It's kinda sweet in an ol' timey kinda way. Those fire and brimstone preachers, though. I've never met one who wasn't trying to fill his pocket.

As for the board, I don't think people are going to come to discuss if the name is changed. I think people gave up communication after the election with all the fighting. People seem exhausted here. I'm hoping that will change. I have faith it will.

I'm not sure if you're aware but for every topic you make in the forums that gets a reply, you earn five bonus points. You also get one bonus point for each reply to an existing forum post (which may or may not exclude spam posts).

Being active in the forums can quickly add up.  ;D

@Jason287:

There are a few possible explanations for this that go deeper than just “the U.S. won’t publicly support LGBT people.” There’s a clause in there condemning the execution of mentally ill people—executions the U.S. carries out on a routine basis. But the more likely explanation is that our good pals in Saudi Arabia objected specifically to the resolution. It’s one of ten countries where same-sex relations are still punishable by death, and it’s not just an obsolete old law that remains on the books—two transgender people were recently tortured to death by Saudi police. (Also worth reading—this Atlantic piece on homosexuality in Saudi Arabia.)

Saudi Arabia, along with Russia and Egypt, tried to introduce amendments that would “dilute” the impact of the resolution, but these were voted down. (The U.S. supported or abstained from each amendment.) The U.S. has a longstanding strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia, who, along with Israel, is our best ally in the Middle East. Per Nicholas Kristoff in the NYTimes, Saudi Arabia is currently conducting a “war” that amounts to a series of heinous war crimes—the purposeful bombing and starvation of civilians among them—with the support and weaponry of the United States, and we’ve turned a blind eye to their domestic civil rights abuses for a long time.

There’s another explanation, which is that the U.S. simply didn’t want to vote for any bill that criticizes the death penalty in any way. But that would be strange, since although the resolution “recognized” that many states found the death penalty to be a form of torture, it didn’t call for outright abolition—just a humane application in those nations where it still existed.

Regardless of the true reason behind the vote, it’s yet another callous shoulder-shrug by a representative of the Trump administration toward a minority group in the United States.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/10/the-un-floated-a-resolution-condemning-the-death-p.html

The headlines derived from that story were really misleading giving the impression that the US was okay with extending the death penalty for homosexuals. That feeds the current narrative about the Trump administration.

If you go online and actually read the resolution, you'll see that it condemns the death penalty itself and describes it as a form of torture. THAT is why the US and Japan didn't sign it. That six countries still execute people because they are gay had nothing to do with why several countries chose not to sign. To me, the resolution was an attempt to shame countries into abolishing capital punishment and using a UN resolution in that manner is wrong.

He really was the best man then.  ::)

@Frederick:

In regards to gay stuff in the bible…
There are various references of possible gay behavior with Jesus and John, Jesus and Judas, Jesus and some naked guy who was stalking him, and Noah's own sons raping their daddy.     
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_of_Jesus
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/apr/20/was-jesus-gay-probably
http://www.evidenceunseen.com/bible-difficulties-2/ot-difficulties/genesis-deuteronomy/gen-921-25-did-ham-rape-noah/

Then there is the practice of rabbis to this day which I won't describe because nobody would believe me.. instead, read about it yourselves…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzs-09Of99I
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304793/Two-babies-stricken-HERPES-ritual-oral-blood-sucking-circumcision-New-York-City.html

The key word is possible gay behavior and the first two links omit that those passages would have been written in either Greek or Latin, both of which have multiple nuanced words for love/sex which are completely lost when translated into English. And gay would have only referred to some kind of sex, not what we mean when we use the word to refer to homosexual behaviour today. Those kinds of arguments are always tedious because the people arguing for a pro-gay reading are doing so for political/dogmatic reasons.

Either way, the RC's version of The Bible is The King James version where those questions don't come up.

Your analogy about computers is a perfect way to state the problem.

@Frederick:

As long as the population continues to grow exponentially, any measures taken to try and reduce carbon emissions are futile.  I have one amusing and true story about that.  In some places there is a carbon emission tax put on cattle because they fart so much!

That's demonstrably false. Energy-related carbon emissions are falling across the globe, notably in developed countries and China (and I believe India, if not, they've been fast at work putting the infrastructure in place to do so).

You might be thinking of poverty. Macron said as much, that there can be no answer for poverty as long as undeveloped nations continue to spew out more people.

@JohnAllenson:

No two nations, though, in the whole world are as integrated, economically and socially, as the United States and Canada..

Roll Eyes

Ukraine and Russia come to mind.

I wonder, do the Ukraine people resent Russia for their forced inclusion in the USSR?