Harvest what you can. http://videosift.com/video/Organ-Donor-PSA-rips-your-heart-out

Green burial the rest -- wrap in a shroud and throw me in the ground. Cardboard box optional. Let what is left of me feed some plants. Circle of life. (The mushroom burial suit would be cool. http://videosift.com/video/TED-Jae-Rhim-Lee-My-mushroom-burial-suit)

A lot of my family is buried in the same cemetery in Frederick OK. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, great aunts and uncles, cousins. A whole slew of relatives, all together. My parents have a double headstone with my brother's and my name already cut into the back, along with the grandkids' names. I figure that is my headstone, no matter where my bits and pieces are buried.

I always thought headstones were gross. But now I do take comfort from going to visit my mom. I never bring flowers. I bring a mini-Snickers bar and a quarter. She didn't care for flowers. She loved Snickers and playing the slot machines in Vegas, back when you actually used coins. So I take great delight in burying a candy bar and a quarter whenever I visit her.

Death is about life. Someone's life. You find ways to celebrate their life.

lol, she's 95 man. Just leave her alone! lol

I actually knew 4 great grandmothers of mine (but only had regular contact with 2 of them, both of them great), and I think I once met one of my great grandfathers.

And fortunately my 4 grandparents are all still alive.

>> ^Lann:

September of 2001 was generally a horrible month for me.
I was a sophomore (2nd year) in highschool when it happened. I didn't hear anything until my cousin Jacob (who was giving us a ride) told us about the first building being hit. We had no idea what happened until we got to school (we lived in the country so it took a while to get there). We just sat and watched the news footage in my first period American History class. No body really said anything we just watched. After that, most teachers choose not to follow and continue with our normal lessons so I was left out until I was able to use a computer for my last class of the day which was data entry.
When I got home no one was there so I called my other grandparents.
The only reason I remember it was on a Tuesday was because exactly a week later my brother's best friend Brandon killed himself. Part of the reason I hate all this "Never Forget" rhetoric is that it reminds me of him.

September of 2001 was generally a horrible month for me.

I was a sophomore (2nd year) in highschool when it happened. I didn't hear anything until my cousin Jacob (who was giving us a ride) told us about the first building being hit. We had no idea what happened until we got to school (we lived in the country so it took a while to get there). We just sat and watched the news footage in my first period American History class. No body really said anything we just watched. After that, most teachers choose not to follow and continue with our normal lessons so I was left out until I was able to use a computer for my last class of the day which was data entry.

When I got home no one was there so I called my other grandparents.

The only reason I remember it was on a Tuesday was because exactly a week later my brother's best friend Brandon killed himself. Part of the reason I hate all this "Never Forget" rhetoric is that it reminds me of him.

I have family members that are Chinese. I like and respect them a lot and don't in general have any issues with Chinese or the culture. I've lived in Vancouver BC (otherwise known as Hong-couver). It is a major immigration destination for the Chinese in Canada. In Vancouver, white people seem to be a minority.

Things I know for fact:
1). Older(often first-gen) Chinese people are racist and don't like white people - We've often been kicked out of stores for being white (not just once, but so many times I lost count.) I know of MANY younger Chinese who have dated or married Caucasian and been disowned from their families.
2). Chinese people are some of the rudest people I know. But only if they don't know you. They are very hospitable to you if they know you. Go to a mall full of Chinese people you don't know and you will see what it's like to be black in the southern US.
3). Yes, the Western Chinese culture DOES gloats over it's wealth.
3a). I know families where the grandparents go without food so the teenage grandkids can have their BMWs and Jags so that everyone thinks they are rich even if they aren't. It's all about impressions. They go out of their way to flaunt wealth.
3b). the most prestigious area in the Vancouver area is Richmond because it translates to RichMan in Chinese. The town itself is below sea-level and exists only because of the dikes holding back the Pacific Ocean. It now has some of the most over-priced land in Canada.
4). Go to a Chinese home for dinner, as a guest, and you will be served chicken, beef, pork and fish often at the same meal. Serving meat to guests shows their wealth. in China they often can't afford meat. Serving as much meat as possible in one meal shows they they are wealthy. It also honors the guest by showing offering a wealth of variety. They generally don't eat a lot of meat as a normal diet but mainly when guests are present.

I have many stories on Chinese culture experiences. The culture is VERY different from ours. I don't want to sound racist towards Chinese or Asian cultures because I'm not. Most of negative things that can be pointed out originates from the older family members and is filtered down. Most 2nd & 3rd generation Chinese are very Westernized and mix easily with our culture. Age has nothing to do with it, as young immigrants bring with them unwarranted arrogance and racism. It's not the people I blame but the culture they bring with them that is both fascinating and frustrating at the same time.

*Yes, I know you can't paint everyone with the same brush. there are some very forward thinking people immigrating to Canada and are here to experience the Western way of life but there are many traditional, often wealthy families that come here to raise themselves up and don't want anything to do with western culture or the people that live here.

I also believe it is mostly these first-generation immigrants, young and old, that give Chinese and Asian people a bad name. They are not aware of western customs and the friendliness/respect that is offered amongst Canadians. They bring with them age old customs that are distasteful and outdated without even knowing they are doing it. I must also mention that at the rate of current immigration, into the Vancouver area, they no longer need to mix with cultures other than their own and few ever need to learn English. In fact, it has gone so far as to encourage them to hold on to the customs and reject western culture all together, which seems to defeat the reason they immigrated here in the first place. This is unfortunate because we all have things to learn from other cultures. I wish more of them would share more of their culture with us and we could let the better practices of both cultures sift to the top.

Things like Shark-Fin Soup and Bear-Poaching could be eliminated in Chinese culture while I'm sure they have many fixes for our errors.

>> ^dannym3141:


Ok, speaking as someone who has very recently been to china for an extendad stay, and i've met and had extensive experience with young and middle aged chinese;
How did you get the impression they were horrible people? Every single person i met in china was generous and selfless and went a long way out of their way to make sure i had a good time and to make sure i was completely taken care of. Their culture almost DEMANDS them to be respectful and polite to strangers. Self centred is a word which i could not apply to a single one of the several hundred chinese people that i've met.
Show off their wealth? Do you realise that the chinese people are extremely poor? The government may be fucking rich but the people certainly aren't. They work their fucking arse off in a shit job they get given and they get paid pennies, PENNIES, and they work fucking hard at it and fucking long hours because guess what they'd get if they didn't? Fuck all. I have never met a more humble and polite people, the chinese people seem to me like the british were 60 years ago (of which i am proud and sad we're not like that anymore).

Cool. My grandparents just turned into the Lawnmower Man.

come on winston!
anecdotal evidence does not an argument make and you should know better and whats with the name calling?
this is not a political ideology problem but a greed and corruption problem which is more a personal flavor than a political one.
leftie,rightie,neolib,spendocrat,rethuglican...
who cares? they are all paid whores for their corporate and wall street masters and by the looks of your previous comments you have bought their line of tripe hook,line and sinker.

the fact of the matter is that after WWII america became a manufacturing juggernaut (mainly due to other manufacturing countries being leveled from bombings).our government dealt with the public in a pretty straight forward manner (relatively speaking of course).the unionized american work force set the standard and helped usher in the middle class,a hard fought standard i might add.this was the first appearance of the "middle class" and it was not just handed over but fought for tooth and nail by our grandparents and their parents.

the 60's were a time of great changes,not only politically but socially and marked a definitive change how our government dealt with the people and thus began the slow march we find ourselves in today.
consider this:
1.in 1972 the dollar was worth .78 cents on the dollar (22 cents interest per dollar)
in 2011 the dollar is worth .03 cents on the dollar.that loaf of bread didnt increase in price but rather the purchasing power of your dollar decreased.
2.in 1968 the phrase "for the public good" was removed from the corporate charter.hows that been working out for us?
3.in the 60's the middle class was roughly 48% of the american population and controlled 72% of americas total wealth.this was unheard of on a global scale,this sharing of wealth and was one of the main reasons why so many wished to come to america and take a swing at opportunity.fast forward to the present the "middle class" is roughly 11% of population and controls less than 10%.
4.while america still outproduces the rest of the world,has the largest and richest economy (yes,we still are the biggest).now lets consider the fact that the american worker produces more,works longer hours (on avg),yet receives less benefits in the forms of health care and retirement and the wages have stagnated since the 80's and when you factor in inflation,american workers are actually making LESS than their counterparts from 40 years ago.

let us all be clear on one thing.
capitalism,socialism or communism are NOT political ideologies but rather ECONOMIC systems and right now the system is rigged.
lowest tax rates in 40 years right along with interest rates.
this is NOT a coincidence.
you are being robbed.
at least the blacks KNEW they were slaves.
you on the other hand...remain clueless.
the fox is in the henhouse and people waste their time waxing poetic about political perfunctory.

@marbles
right on man.

Also Glenn Beck thinks Obama is a secret Non-American Muslim Fascist Communist that wants to legalize forced abortion and kill all of our grandparents.

>> ^kulpims:

I am>> ^DerHasisttot:
Looks good, but I'm suspicious. Gonna hafta do some research.
Maybe I'm just biased because my grandparents had to flee from there.
Any Ex-yugos here?



I know you promoted, but what's your opinion? Did it ring true? Or did it distort and exaggerate at some points, which I thought.

I am>> ^DerHasisttot:

Looks good, but I'm suspicious. Gonna hafta do some research.
Maybe I'm just biased because my grandparents had to flee from there.
Any Ex-yugos here?

Looks good, but I'm suspicious. Gonna hafta do some research.

Maybe I'm just biased because my grandparents had to flee from there.

Any Ex-yugos here?

My dad built one of these years ago for my grandparents to enjoy. He dubbed it the Squirrel-O-Whirl.

I'm not sure how you see yourself as any less dogmatic than I am..and Im sorry for making you sad. I hope that you haven't wasted too many kleenexs on me, but save them for yourself..you'll need them when you figure out evolution is wrong.

Here is the key portion of your wiki article:

"Ideally, this list would only recursively include 'true' transitionals, fossils representing ancestral specie from which later groups evolved, but most, if not all, of the fossils shown here represent extinct side branches, more or less closely related to the true ancestor"

What we see in the fossil record is that when something new shows up its all at once and is fully formed and then never changes. Ie, no true transitionals have ever been discovered. What has never been witnessed in the fossil record is steady progressive change of one kind of thing into something completely different.

You think this is a gap? It's a super massive black hole, and the vacuum may be in your head if you believe it. Here's some info:

John Bonner, a biologist at Princeton, writes that traditional textbook discussions of ancestral descent are "a festering mass of unsupported assertions." In recent years, paleontologists have retreated from simple connect-the-dot scenarios linking earlier and later species. Instead of ladders, they now talk of bushes. What we see in the fossils, according to this view, are only the twigs, the final end-products of evolution, while the key transitional forms which would give a clue about the origin of major animal groups remain completely hidden.

The blank spots on evolutionary "tree" charts occur at just the points where, according to Darwin's theory, the crucial changes had to take place. The direct ancestors of all the major orders: primates, carnivores, and so forth are completely missing. There is no fossil evidence for a "grandparent" of the monkey, for example. "Modern gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees spring out of nowhere," writes paleontologist Donald Johansen. "They are here today; they have no yesterday." The same is true of giraffes, elephants, wolves, and all species; they all simply burst upon the scene de novo [anew], as it were.

I think you're the one who needs to re-evaluate your beliefs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6EiN-3uWak




>> ^Skeeve:
>> ^shinyblurry:
the bar is still incredibly low..one of the best transitional forms out there is based on a whales nostril..i would find that embarassing if i believed in evolution. show me something convincing. also, give me an example of mutation that increases information in a genome while you're at it.
You've said that you aren't ignorant of science, yet you ignore the science that proves these things. You, and people like you, are not really interested in the facts, you are interested in finding all the gaps so you can point and say "aha, there is a god!" I am truly saddened by people like you - it breaks my heart that you can be so smart and so blind at the same time.
But you asked for yet more proof so I am at your service.
A (comparatively) short list of transitional forms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transitional_fossils
As for the claim that mutations not increasing information in a genome:
"We have observed the evolution of
increased genetic variety in a population (Lenski 1995; Lenski et al. 1991)
increased genetic material (Alves et al. 2001; Brown et al. 1998; Hughes and Friedman 2003; Lynch and Conery 2000; Ohta 2003)
novel genetic material (Knox et al. 1996; Park et al. 1996)
novel genetically-regulated abilities (Prijambada et al. 1995)
If these do not qualify as information, then nothing about information is relevant to evolution in the first place."
You can look up those scholarly articles if you actually don't want to remain ignorant. They are listed here: http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB102.html

Makes me laugh when you check and find out popping and the robot are 40 years old. Those guys grandparents could have been doing that "dance".

Ah, well, it's kinda all good. I haven't lost anyone I'm close with yet. Just grandparents, uncles, friends' parents and grandparents. I just don't like that people die lol. Guess I'm a baby that way.

>> ^gwiz665:

My condolences, mate.


>.<