stemming from the cleese thread, i thought it'd be interesting to hear peoples' personal conspiracy theories. by this, i don't mean "there was no moon landing", but rather a personally-founded conspiracy. kind of an obscure 'recently' thread, but that's only because i've recently formed a conspiracy theory of my own.

..the movie industry.

more and more, it seems that it's much easier to find DVD-ripped bootleg movies online.. this used to be such a rarity and pot-of-gold for pirates, and is now the norm. no more having to deal with shaky cameras, people laughing, getting up in front of the picture. what's changed? why are these movies mysteriously being leaked more? these 'screeners' don't even include subtitles saying "PROPERTY OF WARNER BROTHERS" anymore. it's odd. so, i thought about it, and reached a couple (un)reasonable conclusions:

maybe.. they're 'leaking' the movies on purpose? considering all these huge settlements their lawyers are making with movie downloaders, are they somewhat making up for some of the losses in theater revenue? i mean, making the movies more plentiful and of better quality online would attract more people to download, and thusly provide a better chance to find a vulnerable target for a lawsuit.

OR

maybe.. when brokering product placement deals with, let's say, pepsi, movie producers conspire for a larger payout - the terms being that their immediate audience will expand by the millions once a movie is leaked by the producers! rather than people paying $10 to see a two-hour long commercial for sketchers like 'i, robot', many more people would see the advertised product if unleashed on the internet worldwide. millions of people watching your commercial, not changing the channel, for two hours.. this is an advertiser's wetdream! it's happening more and more - think 'the italian job'. ..that made me want a minicooper. lol

/me fashions a hat made of cat5 and ground beef

its the shielding .. it keeps the movie industry out of my head..

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the players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield

Hmm... interesting post. Just started with marketing in school so this is kind of related.

Another reason could be that the piracy scene has grown in general, and that this means a greater supply of quality sources, such as dvds ect. I'm not very into the whole scene thing, but another reason could be stricter release standards and more regulation, bad releases are nuked ect.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

A local Round Table Pizza has someone stealing credit card numbers from customers and selling them online.

This isn't really a conspiracy theory, because, my dad's account has been compromised twice. He just got a replacement card (new account number) and within a month, someone was using it in Mexico. The first card was used in Tennessee for over $500.

Thankfully, his bank has policies about this stuff and not only calls him up to tell him about it, but doesn't charge him.

To note, there are several places around my area that does this. The sad thing is, it's not really a conspiracy theory (for more than what I'm about to say) because it's real.

I think it should be mandatory that all places have data security when it comes to credit cards and account numbers, so there's no chance at your card number being written down and sold.

About movies being purposely leaked ... by producers no less ... that's incredibly far fetched. If you have movie product tie in's, the studio gets paid ... before the movie is released. That is the only connection. Producers, don't even see that money directly. They get paid by a percentage of income the film makes once it debuts. So it's really a silly thing to say that they distribute their pay check for free.

The people who leak movies are editors, post effects, warehouse workers, etc. They're people who generally get paid regardless of how well or bad the movie does.

If you want conspiracy, how about this, does Microsoft, Symantec, or McAffe (or a slew of other companies), produce viruses and distribute them online to push consumers to buy their later product iterations? While something like that would be fantastic for business, it is a horrible business ethic and is very illegal.

(I don't actually think this, but it'd be interesting in any case)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono: I agree, the security of credit cards is really low. I have two accounts, one connected to my VISA and one with no connection to any card. I have as little money on the first account as possible, and do all payments on the Internet ect through it, and keep the rest of the money on the second account.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Nice thread idea.

I'd say that the number of pirated movies grew parallel to the spread of high-speed Internet. Sometimes it's still... I mean I heard that sometimes it?s still hard to find a quality rip.

Another theory about the power of anti-smoking institutions in the US:
The scene in Schindler?s List, where Stern is typing the actual list, has this very, very weird moment in which Schindler says something like "You shouldn?t smoke so much, it?s bad for my health" to Stern. I mean he?s negotiating the lifes of thousands of people and his main concern in this moment is Stern?s smoking habits? In 1944 or so? Strange. Is there a law or something to force movie studios to put anti-smoking messages in all their movies? Even movies where it doesn?t fit at all?

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Why snark works.

I think Osama was killed long before the invasion of Iraq. Probably got boomed and they never bother sending anyone the inspect the body/pile of mess (or something along that nature). Reason begin, if it was public knowledge that he was dead, Bush would have never gotten the "support" to invade Iraq. The public would have thought the job was done and probably gave a more resounding response of "NO" to the Iraq thing. Now they can't say they found him because they can't produce a body. Guaranteed someone outside the US administration would ask to see the corps.

I also have a conspiracy theory about Hollywood!
I Think that some of these movies that come out with sex scenes of some kind that have nothing to do with the story line, or are in no way necessary to the plot are only included in the movie simply because the director wants it. I mean, I think that the director wants to see some young women get semi nude and act like their having sex just so that he can get off on it. A disgusting thought: yes, but its the only thing I can come up with in order to explain some of these explicit scenes in movies that are totally not necessary.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

explicit scenes in movies that are always necessary.

fixed that for you. =D

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the players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield

Hey, sex sells.
I think it's for the same reason that everyone and their brother in DOOM had 'f***' in every sentence of dialog. What the f*** was that? Get that f***ing door open! F*** you, Sarge! Etcetera.
If the movie has an R rating, people will think that the movie has all of the blood and gore that should've been in the movie, but was instead replaced with naughty words.
I should get some of those headphones that block out sound to subsidize my hat made out of a popcorn tub.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

More and more digital movie projections are performed. Having the movie in a quick and handy digital format makes it easier to rip right at release.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Vista came out and the local Computer store has 5 different versions of it. Each costing about 50 Euros more than the other. What on earth justifies that pricing?

I'd say that the programming of the core version of Windows took 95% of the time. The difference between the versions are so small, it?s ridiculous.

They?re all features that I would expect from any decent operating system. Features Windows 95 has. I mean "Best choice for laptops"? That?s not a feature that?s a default functionality for any OS. "Experience photos and entertainment"? For 50 Euros more? "Collaborate and share documents"... not a standard feature.

"Have more fun on your PC!
with three new premium games: Chess Titans, Mahjong Titans, and Inkball"

You gotta be kidding me?

I believe the different versions only exist so people feel like it?s their choice that they?re paying too much. I don?t think you?re paying a service or product at all with the higher priced versions. You?re paying the price for MS World Dominace XP.

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Why snark works.

I can tell I probably won't upgrade to Vista (if it even can be called upgrading) in the near future, if ever. Apparently HL2 runs really bad together with Vista. Could be that proper drivers haven't been released.

Who in the world would want an OS that puts more pressure on you hardware then necessary?

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

There is a conspiracy currently running among the peoples of the USA that the minimum wage needs raised. Thats totally bassackwards. There needs to be a cap on salaries.

This is a false belief that poor people need more monies to live on, but the economics of it is, that the more money there is around, the higher prices will be. If the rich were stemmed to a point of realism, the the need for lower income families would be less noticeable.

The real problem with a minimum wage increase is, NOT EVERYONE IS PAID BY THE HOUR!!! The rest of us who are not paid that way have to suffer the higher prices artificially created by a higher minimum wage, without the luxury of any pay increase at all.

However, if the rich were brought down to a more normal income, the difference between the social class would level out, and the prices would fix more stably.

I am opposed to any minimum wage increase.

Seriously, I had a look on on the MS site, and looked at this video of Vista:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/seeit/default.mspx

Are those supposed to be the new, groundbreaking features of Vista? Wtf? So what does it have? A new theme which I could've downloaded for XP, the "amazing" feature that allows me to see the windows in a 3d view, the ability to make the icons so large that only four will fit on the screen at a time. Wow, this is a must have. And doesn't google desktop provide a search function that's far superior to the XP search function (and probably the new Vista search)? And I don't know how many programs there are out there that allow you to put a sidebar with news/time/weather/whatever, probably even a puzzle to solve.

Feels like they're just adding a whole heap of useless, bloated functions.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

On top of that, they're weeding out things that have been done for over ten years thanks to ... well ... them.

They moved the implementation of the sound stack (the structure in memory that manages what you hear and when) to software. This means, something like DirectX doesn't talk directly to hardware anymore.

Oops. EAX doesn't work.

I guess there are "fixes" that people have tossed out there.

The thing that pisses me off about these different versions is if you want any kind of "security" you have to get at least the Business or Ultimate version, either way it's over $250 USD. (Ultimate is $400 USD)

I have a conspiracy theory. The higher price of the Ultimate version, which has a selling point of being the "Games for Windows" platform, costs so much to drive up sales of the X360. After all, a premium, gonna break down faster, version of the 360 costs less than the Ultimate version of Vista.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Indeed, their main feature is a new skin and probably a less vulnerable Internet connection (which will be broken soon because they can?t resist building in remote desktop controls so everyone can move your files around if he breaks the passwords).

It?s pathetic. "Wow, now you have a clock in your SIDEBAR! (not in the TASKBAR anymore!)".

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Why snark works.

Awesome thread! Here's a conspiracy for you:

Build-up:
I work at a phone-interviewing company three nights a week for some extra cash, and we randomly call people all around Sweden and ask stupid commercialistic questions and now and then you end up with some pretty interesting people who like to talk.
Yesterday I was in the middle of an interview and one of the questions was "How concerned are you with the climate change?". The guy I was talking to said "I'm extremely concerned, and now that the Chinese are going into their industrialism it's all gonna come down.". I've thought about this myself, but his theory was way more advanced. What he said was basicly:

Theory:
China will go into the industrial ages, which happened here (western Europe) in the early 20th's, and having that said, China is one big freaking country. The aftermath will be triple the amount of Europe together. This will intoxicate all the fresh water in China after which they will start cutting down the polar ice, ship it back to China and sell it as fresh water. When all that water goes into the system, the seas will rise by (I forgot the number...) a hell lot and half of the earths landmass will be put under water.
Adding to that, China is currently producing a huge amount of crappy products being sold cheap over here. Only 1/4 of them actually work as they should which allows the producer to sell 4 times the products he would if they all work, since these things have a warranty of 3 years and are replaced for free to the customer. Them being so god damn cheap allows the middle-hand to still gain profit from the deal, and therefore it will have hazardous consequences in shape of enormous mountains of electronic garbage which never gets recycled.

Cool-down:
So yeah, that was 30 minutes on a phone interview that usually takes 8 minutes. At least the guy was OK with it, since it was his fault it took all the time it took.

About Windows Vista:
These features look more like a joke than anything I've ever seen from Windows before. I mean, what the HELL?
Looks like they're only adding more s**t that'll slow you're computer down instead of simplifying the entire thing, like removing some of the 30 processes you need running at all times. They don't have any idea, do they?
Great move dickwads.
Oh, and what does it say; "One look and you'll know it's time". A watch does that as well you incredibly ho-bags, or is that "one look and you'll know THE time"... I'd rather know THE time than IT'S time so from now on I think I'll just use my wrist-watch.


-azelito

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"Azelito, stop being a f**king bitch. All I see you do is complain and insult people in your recent posts. We don't care, go find a razor you emo pansy..." -Windows98

It's probably a lot more economical to purify polluted water than it would be to ship the amounts of ice you would need to supply the enormous population of China with clean water.

Global warming-
The polar ice caps are going to melt, decreasing the salinity of the ocean which will completely halt the deep ocean currents that circulate water around the world. That'll have a huge impact on the world's weather, eventually triggering the next ice age and then New York will be under a mile of ice.

Edit:
Also Vista is bloated crap, and I'm not going to buy it. Everything that makes Vista 'the most advanced operating system' has nothing to do with the actual operating system, it's just crap in the interface. It's basically XP that asks you for permission every time you tell it to do something.

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o

Yeah, the shipping ice part doesn't make any sense.
Global warming will surely cool Sweden down as well, stopping the gulf stream which is basically the only reason this place is not covered in ice, but it will also drastically raise the water levels around the world. Here's a quick quote I found:
"Rising seas would severely impact the United States as well. Scientists project as much as a 3-foot sea-level rise by 2100. According to a 2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study, this increase would inundate some 22,400 square miles of land along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, primarily in Louisiana, Texas, Florida and North Carolina."


-azelito

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"Azelito, stop being a f**king bitch. All I see you do is complain and insult people in your recent posts. We don't care, go find a razor you emo pansy..." -Windows98

I just found this video (disable adblock, it could be in the way) of what an OS interface should look like: "Multi-touch"... simply amazing

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Why snark works.

Well worth reading:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Wouldn't a rising sea level increase the total surface area of the world's oceans? Water does have that wonderful tendency to spread out. The increased surface area would cause increased evaporation, and work to counteract at least some of the rising levels, since, on average, more water would become ice because of the water cycle. Of course that wouldn't make a lick of difference if the rise is caused by increased temperature, since less water would become ice because of the higher temperature. It would only make a difference if the rise were caused by something like cutting up the polar ice caps for drinking water.

Global warming theories are all bunk, anyway, the world's heating up, and it's not our fault. It's not like this is the first time this has happened.

I'm going to avoid Vista for as long as I can. I may get a second computer to run newer games with Vista, and keep this one for practical use. I'm never the first kid on the block to get the newest technological goodies.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

An increased ocean surface area would make the planet have less temperature extremes, since there'd be more "retained heat" in the oceans. I don't think more water would evaporate at all, it'd probably be less, since there'd be more water to heat up to cause evaporation, especially on the surface.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Several scientist say in 2000 years the poles of our planet will have died out enough to let all of earths water blow out into space. Turning earth into the new Mars.

Scientists are wrong a lot.
There's evidence that a lot of things could happen, but most of it wont. To say it is "definite" is ridiculous, since they're just following statistical information and current trends. The planet is a little more dynamic.

Mars has a thin atmosphere and as a result barren wasteland for a surface, because it's a smaller planet. The Earth doesn't exactly have that problem.

I'm also not sure how the poles switching will cause the momentum to stop.

I would also imagine, that, there's a better chance of the Sun dying before the Earth destroys it self in the manner you're speaking. But, I'm sure that there's some evidence supporting the idea.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

It's not the poles switching that causes it, they say.
They say they have been keeping track of there strength for the past hundred years (not long at all, i know). Will it happen, i don't know. but i did see it on the Discovery channel. So ya it must have decent backing.

What is there, like 5 billion years left before the sun engulfs us?

No, it will burn out. I'm pretty sure we'll freeze to death before it starts phase changing (or whatever). I think it's more like 40 Billion or 40 Million ... I know it's a 40 something illion.

My point is, it's a long time, far longer than our existence as a species even.

The stuff on the discovery channel is cool and everything, but I've noticed things wrong about the way they show information. For instance, they always show things like they're proven fact, when a lot of times that isn't the case. They'll also talk to scientists in the field a lot, but you know the problem with that is that the scientist is obviously going to say "this is a problem" if it's the source of income for her/him!

I remember watching part of a special on AI on the discovery channel and I haven't seen such a misconstrued concept of AI outside of regular news channels (Not counting normal entertainment). It's just silly what some of these people say.

They have this guy who's suppose to be a "leader" in the field of AI (though I've never heard of him before) and he's saying it's so advanced and you can do this and that and they can kill us if they want to.

Well, guess what. The makers of the documentary/special hunted this guy down because he not only has a degree in the field, but has an opinion (yes, that's right, opinion) that fits into their already focused goal that it's possible. But, according to this guy, it's not only possible, it's likely!

Neither are very likely to happen in a long time.

The last thing I'll say is something specific about the special, which is that they used IBM's Deep Blue as an example, like "Computers are so smart now that they can beat us at chess" .. yeah .. uh no. It's all heuristics. I know how they made the deep blue program and it's technically not even AI, but solving logic equations (wffs). It's not terribly advanced, hard to implement, but the machine it self is fairly stupid still.

AI, in general, is only successful if it retains the illusion of intelligence. Because, it's almost always not real problem solving.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I was never impressed by Deep Blue ether.
I've knowisted them pushing for entertainment values as well. Currently my favorite tv show is "How it's Made". So if u know what i'm talking about, tells u a little about me.

I took a fruit bat, skinned it, and used its hide as a hat, I think it will keep the "scientific" evolutionism crap out of my head.

It's because bats, with their sonar system, one of the most complicated and amazing adaptations in any species on the planet, have no similar ancestors in the fossil record. Yet most "scientists" still cling to the theory of evolution like its the gospel truth sent down from almighty Science herself. They just dismiss any alternative theory like, oh I don't know, punctuated equilibrium.
All so they can make a buck ridiculing all religious people as nut jobs. Why are they nut jobs? Because they completely believe in something that hasn't been explicitly proved. Sounds familiar... :rolleyes:

It does explain some things, but it doesn't explain everything, that's why its scientific theory, not scientific fact.

Incidentally, advocates of political correctness seem to, in general (from I can see), are also advocates of evolutionism as doctrine. Maybe they wouldn't like the less that politically correct full title of Darwin's The Origin of the Species. :rolleyes:

Well I thought it was funny, anyway. :razz:

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

That's because religion has very little scientific backing of any kind, and evolution is all scientific backing. That's the simplest most obvious explanation. That, and from what you've posted lately, you're a retard.

I thought I implied that science without scientific backing wasn't science.

Well, I'll say it explicitly now, then:
Science requires logical and conclusive backing of facts with evidence.
Guessing doesn't cut it.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Every sort of knowledge we have has stemmed from some sort of guessing.

What you're talking about is more or less science as a religion rather than a means of exploring things, which is just silly. Most scientists don't actively research ways to get at religion because it's a futile argument. Religion is based on BELIEF, through whatever means, factual or not. Science is based on observation and is expressed through ideas that try to explain that observation.

"I'll get you next time, Religion. Next time!"

Come on.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Science damn you, sea otters!

That's exactly my point, I'm seeing more and more pseudo science being publicized in place of actual science, and people believing that crazy promises of pseudo scientists. I suppose if you try hard enough, you can turn anything into a religion, non-belief-based things included.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Have u herd the one with the gay goats yet? I don't know who conducted the study or what they found, but i'm fairly sure media has misconstruen it badly.

If I understand you correctly, I doubt it. There are many animals in the wild that naturally will form homosexual relationships. Geese, Penguins, Sheep etc.

Of course the religious rite is up in arms about it.

RedWood said:
Have u herd the one with the gay goats yet?

Gay is a frame of mind, and located in the head, not the sexual organs. There are no Gay animals since it would require thinking. Fortunately, animals cannot yet achieve thought as it would seriously reduce my dietary menu. I find it comforting to know that a goat wouldn't know his destiny with regards to my eating habits.

Anyway..

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Not really Orph, because homosexuality is really not much of a choice. It's all about various levels of chemicals and hormones in the brain, and there are many species that have gay couples. See my above post.

If you still think that homosexuality is entirely a choice, then there's no point in me getting into this debate with you.

French Toast said:
If you still think that homosexuality is entirely a choice, then there's no point in me getting into this debate with you.

Progress. :eek:

We finally have made a connection Frenchy. And to answer your statement, Yes, I most emphatically believe its a matter of choice.

At least we won't need to discuss it further.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Progress. :eek:

Well g'day sir.

Opinions can be wrong. That?s all I?m saying.

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Why snark works.

If your gay, your gay. You don't have a choice. But i do think if u are gay, your emoshinaly damaged. Most of the time.

TMI guys, way to much.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

emoshinaly damaged....

is that the japanese spelling? ///runs :heee:

Doc B... :dodgy:

I had to get to work. Didn't have time to look it up. but rely you should be thanking me. Maybe some time i'll post without spell checking it and let u decipher it. Could take you all night. :smile:

"don't forget the -tion suffix."

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

Stadric- Ive noticed you've cited alot of wikipedia links. While
wikipedia is a great resource for information, by no means is reliable.
Anyone from anywhere can edit that information. So anyone without any
cridentials can write what your reading. And ultimately it could be
someone's opinion. But I do recognize that geeks are geeks, and they'll
argue over and over until they get the info right, bt they're still not
experts on the subject =P.

Also lets not get off topic with homosexulaity.

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Posting And You

omega is right! If you aspire to University Stadric, it's time to break
the Wonkypedia habit while you can. It's an admirable cause and
excellent for giving a basic overview on the theme of a topic, but when
used to back up any serious argument it's rubbish. In fact use of the
internet should altogether be treated with suspicion if you're trying
to make a good argument (unless its like website of The Economist, New
Scientist etc or peer reviewed journals)

I believe God and all His heavenly host conspired to make me the handsomest motherf**ker who ever lived.

Cass, I think you bought into that crap your momma told you all your life.
pinches cheeks
You cute little dickens you.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Well, I suppose I did that in the John Cleese topic, but the two times I've done it in this topic, I've only used it to relay information I already had: the Medieval Warm Period and the Origin of the Species. It's more convenient to do it that way, but I can see how it reduces credibility.
But for the record, the Medieval Warm period did occur, and the Origin of the Species does actually have that title.

I guess I'll have to break out the ancient Chemistry book and look up the melting point of steel, and the burning temperature of polyurethane, though.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying