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alexgndl

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Everything posted by alexgndl

  1. alexgndl

    TF2 Ettiquite

    Well, usually they're going to get the kill anyways if you explode (the bs "finished off thing), so what's an extra second? Plus, that extra moment might distract them long enough for a teammate to avenge you.
  2. alexgndl

    TF2 Ettiquite

    If you've only got a few hp left and you're certain to die, don't be a jerk and press the key that's bound to explode/kill. Let your enemy get the kill fairly.
  3. alexgndl

    TF2 Ettiquite

    Unless you're playing Scout.
  4. alexgndl

    The Memorable Quotes Thread

    "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."-Douglas Adams, in "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"
  5. alexgndl

    The SPUF/SPUFPowered 2012 Saxxy Awards Project!

    Yeah, I vote that we wait until we get word on if the rules have changed or not. We could still plan, sure.
  6. alexgndl

    The Memorable Quotes Thread

    "I just wish I had time for one more bowl of chili"-the reported last words of Kit Carson.Also, I was going to use the one about Teddy Roosevelt, but Scamp took it :(
  7. I always thought that Playdoh tasted pretty good...that's probably one of the main reasons why I'm the way I am today.
  8. I was never allowed to have tracks for Hot Wheels, but my little brother had a ton of them...yes, I was jealous.
  9. I'd just like to point out here that Muslims have always practiced freedom of religion, they simply taxed those with different religions more. Going with the theme of horrible things Christians have done, let's think here:-The Spanish Inquisition (weren't expecting that, were you?)-All that Protestant vs. Catholics shit in England-The mass genocide of American Indians in the 1500s-on. This was church sanctioned, and what the clergy pretty much said at the time was "Get them to convert, even if you have to baptize their corpses". Which happened quite a lot.I'd also like to point out that the dogma of the church states that the Pope is infallible, which means that he cannot be wrong. So in saying that, you're pretty much saying that everything popes did throughout history, including Galilleo, the Indians, etc. was TOTALLY CALLED FOR. Just sayin.
  10. alexgndl

    TF2 Ettiquite

    Scouts should, under no circumstances, take a teleporter.If you're on a Not serious server, and someone calls a truce, honor that truce until the other team starts shooting.The person with the best hat gets to take a teleporter first. Unless they're a scout or the engie that built it.
  11. And there's no false evidence supporting creationism?
  12. alexgndl

    What's your role in a team game?

    Rammite, the more I get to know you, the more weirded out I get, because we're pretty much almost exactly alike. I can totally see myself as a catalyst too, only I play more pyro than soldier. The scout part still applies though. I'm almost always the guy who'll make suicidal runs to the cart/intel, hold it for a few seconds just to keep the counter there. I do find that oftentimes, especially if my team's crappy, I take the role of "lone wolf"-running around the outskirts of the battle, picking off stragglers. But for the most part, I just try to be as disruptive as possible in order to spur my team on.
  13. EXACTLY! These are often life-threatening issues, too. The appendix is good for absolutely nothing, until it gets infected and sometimes explodes, killing you. You mean to tell me that someone put that in there INTENTIONALLY? Here you go! Note: 3 links there.
  14. Ok, so I finished earlier than expected, so here goes: Alex's guide to dating the Earth! (Not that way)So while Wombat was correct about using radioactive isotopes to date things, he used the wrong isotope. The main thing about radioactive shit is that it decays from a parent element to a daughter element. In any given sample, the time it takes for half of the parent element to decay is called a "Half Life". Not to be confused with the video game. The most commonly-pictured isotope that people think of when they hear about radioactive dating is Carbon 14, which has a half-life of 5,730 years and decays into Nitrogen 14. Now, this is actually used, primarily in anthropology, as it's useful in dating human settlements. It can also be used in certain late Ice Age fossils. Notice how I'm not saying anything like Dinosaurs, as they lived 65 million years ago at least. Scientists generally use Potassium 40 for fossils like those, as it has a half life of about 1.3 billion years and decays into Argon 40, a semi-commonly found element. Now, if you wanted to date the Earth, which we do, you're going to want to use Uranium 238. This decays into Lead 206 and has a half-life of 4.6 billion years. So to date the rock, you take a sample of rock and figure out the proportion of U-238 and Pb-206 in it. Then by going off of the known half-life, you can figure out how old the rock is. It just so happens that in every sample you'll take of this, the proportion will be about 50-50, meaning that U-238 on Earth is having its half-life pretty much right now. This sets the age of the planet to 4.6 billion years, give or take. QED.Source: "Earth System History" by Steven M. StanleyNow, I'd just like to make a few other points about intelligent design/creationism, if I may. I was discussing this with a friend of mine, who's a biology major (I'm a history/geology major, btw-so I know this stuff). He brought up a very good point, which is this-if humans were consciously created by someone/thing, then whoever did it did a horrible, horrible job of making us. The aorta, one of the major blood vessels, wraps around the heart which can cause blockages. The sternum, or the breast bone, if you will, has a small point at the end of it that, if snapped off, can penetrate the liver and cause a fatal hemmorhage. There's also the fact that we have organs that don't work-the appendix, for example. We also have a vestigal remnant of a nictitating membrane (that "extra eyelid" that many reptiles have) in the corner of our eye-that little triangular thingy. Then there's the coccyx, which is all that remains of our tails. If we were made by something, why do we have these things?EDIT: Raison, you're actually bringing up quite a lot of good points, for someone who claims not to be versed in geology...you're making me jealous.EDIT EDIT: I keep forgetting to post this-a cryptozoologist is someone who tries to prove the existance of mythical/semifictional creatures, such as the Loch Ness Monster, or Bigfoot.
  15. Damn it Raison, I had a whole post about how Carbon isn't used to date the earth, blah blah blah. Way to steal it. I'm working on a paper right now, I'm going to take my geology textbook and pretty much copy every way that we can use to estimate (notice how I said estimate there) the age of the earth to within a few million years.
  16. I'm sorry, but how are the methods used to test the age of the earth flawed?
  17. But that's the thing, Wombat-creationism isn't considered science. Evolution has years of theory, experiments, and results to back it up. We can literally see things evolving before our eyes. There is tangible evidence, and a LOT of it too, that backs up evolution. With Creationism, all we have is an ancient text saying that a supernatural being created everything and that nothing ever changes. Even though we can see species adapting to their environments and changing every day. As for the thing you said about creationist scientists being mocked by the scientific community, yes. They are, I'll admit that. But let's be real here-we also mock Cryptozoologists (sort of), astrologers, fortune telling, and that guy with the crazy hair on that ancient aliens show. So...I forget what my point was, but it was going to be a good one, trust me.
  18. Well, there's that little detail about how even though he's a harsh critic of evolution, he refuses to theorize about the origin of life...and he's also a big proponent of the Intelligent Design movement, which states that something must've been consciously making the world as we know it, because if one little detail was off, there would be no life as we know it.This, if looked at closely, is really just creationism without the Big Guy, masquerading as "science". It's pretty much saying that the world was tailor-made for us, as opposed to evolution saying that we were tailor-made for the world. Doesn't seem like a big distinction, but it's there and it's a HUGE one. Also, only one of them really logically makes sense (HINT: It's not creationism).EDIT: Gonna keep playing devil's advocate here, mostly because it's fun. I looked at the list you gave us, Wombat, and I was absolutely astonished to see how many engineers there are on it. In fact, from just a cursory glance, I'd say that the physical scientists/engineers outweigh the biological scientists probably around 3 to 1. And I'd never heard of a single one of those people, sorry.Now, I'm going to name just a few of the most famous and influential people in science in the past 30 or so years: Carl Sagan (Agnostic) Stephen Hawking (Atheist) Douglas Adams (Atheist) Bob Bakker (Ecumenical Christian, but expressly does NOT believe in creationism) Albert Einstein (Agnostic). I'm sorry, but I searched the internet and could not find one well-known scientist (and I consider myself very well-versed in current scientifical events/people) that advocates creationism. It honestly looks like to me that if you want to be famous today in science, you CAN'T believe in creationism. I found a website that listed "Famous creationist scientists". Not one of them was from after the 1920s or so. Sorry, man.
  19. To paraphrase Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, "Well-behaved people rarely make history."
  20. Ah, ok. I feel much better now...I can handle that.
  21. I've never actually heard that, but it sounds quite intriguing. I'd be very interested to see what you find.
  22. After a bit of research (Wikipedia), you're right-my bad, I was thinking of the calendar used during the Roman Republic. However, the day names were still all weird-like, and it didn't have a leap year, meaning that it got derailed (much like this thread) very easily. So the point still remains-Christians don't actually know when Jesus was crucified, and pretty much arbitrarily picked a day. In my opinion, at least.
  23. I'm James the Preacher, no fun allowed! In all seriousness, I feel that in the second Skyrim thing he did bring up a good point-it IS rated M, and 10 year olds do play it. But all that stuff about it being an affront to God and all that...complete bullshit. Hell, this game practically proves the existance of God, because nothing this good could have come from humans. Hands down.
  24. SOMEBODY GET THIS GUY PLAYING TF2."Get behind me, Doctor!"*Head explodes*
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