Either that or this guy hates poon: /po͞on/
Noun:
Any large Indo-Malayan evergreen tree of the genus Calophyllum.

Thank you for the promote and the kind words! Congrats on your gold star!

In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
*promote the knitted awesomeness : You find some cool vids Fusionaut.

Because the Supertanker uses a pressurized dump system it can drop water from 400 to 800 ft as opposed to other water bombers which use gravity to drop the water and must be around 200ft. This video, though, is probably just a test of the system itself, so is flying much higher.
>> ^Zyrxil:
It's hard to imagine how dropping the water from what looks like a very high altitude would do anything useful, as by the time the water reached the ground it'd be dispersed over an extremely large area.

>> ^Skeeve:
Yep, it's an Evergreen 747 Supertanker, the largest aerial firefighter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Supertanker>> ^vaporlock:
Is this a firefighter or what's going on. Anyone know?

It's hard to imagine how dropping the water from what looks like a very high altitude would do anything useful, as by the time the water reached the ground it'd be dispersed over an extremely large area.


>> ^Skeeve:
Yep, it's an Evergreen 747 Supertanker, the largest aerial firefighter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Supertanker>> ^vaporlock:
Is this a firefighter or what's going on. Anyone know?

Yep, it's an Evergreen 747 Supertanker, the largest aerial firefighter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Supertanker>> ^vaporlock:
Is this a firefighter or what's going on. Anyone know?

>> ^scottishmartialarts:
Mithras was a Persian god, not Roman. Although his mystery cult was very, very popular among the Roman Legions. Wherever we have evidence of a Legion presence, we also find evidence of Mithras cult. As I recall Mithras was Ahura Mazda's (the infinitely good god of the Zoroastrian faith) general in his crusade against the devil Ahriman. Darius the Great's conquests were largely motivated out of missionary zeal to spread the Zoroastrian religion.


Well, Mithra was the Persian name. Adding the "s" on the end was just how it was Latinized. But the Roman Mithraic cult doesn't, as far as scholars can tell, have much in common with the Persian cult beyond the name and a few elements of symbolism--a lion-headed "Arrimanus," for instance, a clear Latinization of Ahriman. It's perfectly acceptable to refer to the Roman version of Mithras as a Roman god.

It has to be said, though, that Fry's facts about Mithras are just wrong. In the first place, we don't actually know what the central beliefs about Mithras were. They were Mysteries, not be written down or revealed to outsiders. The doctrines of Mithraism perished with its last follower. Reconstructions of Mithraic doctrine like the ones Fry read are merely speculative interpretations of the images found in the Mithraea--the caves where the Mysteries of Mithras were enacted.

However, some of the things Fry said are just plain wrong even as mere speculation. Mithras is never depicted as being born in a cave or manger, for instance, but emerging from a rock or an egg. He didn't die for anyone's sins or to give people eternal life. The central image of Mithras was instead the tauroctony--Mithras' slaying of a bull, usually assisted by a dog, a serpent, and a crab, clearly astrological symbolism. While there are a few superficial similarities with Christianity--as Fry mentioned, the head of the cult of Mithras was called Papa, just as the Pope is--they do not seem to go very deep.

And finally, it would be very strange for the December 25th date of Christmas to come from the cult of Mithras simply because it was a private mystery religion. Public celebrations just weren't allowed.

However, I'm a little surprised that Fry didn't mention Dies Natalis Solis Invicti--the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. It was celebrated in the late Roman Empire around the same time as Christmas as a public holiday, and so is a prime candidate for being an influence on the date of Christmas.

His quick dismissal of Saturnalia as being only somewhat influential, though, is just plain wrong. Many of the traditions of Christmas clearly come out of Saturnalia--gift-giving, visiting friends, and lavish feasts and celebrations. Many elements of Northern European Christmas celebrations just as clearly come from the pagan holiday "Jol" or "Yule," such as hanging mistletoe as a sign of peace and love, and the ornamenting of an evergreen tree.

I've been looking for the complete list which cites hundreds of covert operations, with column for comprehensive commentary on 'pretexts' for each use of force. http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html

If you find the thing, I'd like to see it. I don't have the googlitude or time...

>> ^yourhydra:
yeah, how can anything that uses light as its source of energy grow in a pitch black lung? not to mention needing nutrients from soil and water.


In order to just START to grow, a plant needs no light. The seed can germinate in pitch darkness. However, the image they showed of the needles and such is unbelieveable entirely. The needles were huge compared to the size of the entire organism. WTF. Evergreens don't grow full-sized needles when they are sprouts in my experience. Someone correct me.

>> ^nadabu:
I do not do these things as worship to my God; i do them as fun family traditions that brighten up some of the darkest and coldest weeks of the year. God doesn't want us to worship him as pagans worshipped their gods, but that doesn't mean we can't do those same things for other reasons.

Yeah, it's not like he brought an evergreen from the forest inside his house and decorated it with the symbolic entrails of woodland creatures on the shortest day of the year when the sun begins it journey back to the south again.

I mean that would be like Pagan rituals, and the one true God clearly wouldn't want that.

Atheists have no reason to be alone on Xmas. The vast majority of winter traditions are NOT christian. Decorating with evergreens, exchanging gifts, singing carols, getting drunk on eggnog and wassail, gathering the family... These are all non-christian traditions that were absorbed into the church as part of western society.

I do pretty much everything on Xmas that christians do, except pretend it's the birthday of a fictional character who was originally described as being born in the spring.

>> ^ShakaUVM:
>> His biggest act of asshat-ery, though, was when during a legal battle over the existence of the cross on Mt. Soledad, he sneakily booked the site for Easter morning, even though (well, because) a church group had held Easter morning services there every year. So that he could hold a pagan ceremony there instead. Basically, though, just to be a dick.


You do realize that Easter (and "Christmas") is and has been a pagan holiday long before Christianity was invented. Rabbits laying eggs, decorated trees on December 25th, hmm, I wonder where that came from?

The Babylonian goddess of fertility, love and war, Ishtar (which is pronounced "Easter"), descended from heaven in a giant egg, landed in the Euphrates river at sunrise on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox, and turned a bird into an egg laying rabbit. The priests would then sacrifice infants, take the eggs and die them in the blood of the sacrificed infants. Ishtar became impregnated by the rays of the sun-god Baal and gave birth to her son, Tammuz, on the 25th of December.

Tammuz was killed, resurrected and descended into the sky to be with is father. When he died, some of his blood fell on the stump of an evergreen tree and the stump grew into a full new tree overnight.

The name “Easter” has its roots in ancient polytheistic religions (paganism). On this, all scholars agree. This name is never used in the original Scriptures, nor is it ever associated biblically with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For these reasons, we prefer to use the term "Resurrection Sunday" rather than "Easter" when referring to the annual Christian remembrance of Christ's resurrection.

“Easter” is simply one of the names of a woman who mightily deceived the world and whose religion has caused untold suffering and misery. She was clearly an enemy of Christianity, and her son Tammuz was an anti-Christ, a false messiah that ultimately deceived millions.

According to Wikipedia, EIA may refer to:

* Edmonton International Airport
* Electronic Industries Alliance, a US trade organization
* Energy Information Administration, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy
* Environmental Impact Assessment, an assessment of the likely impact of a project
* Environmental Investigation Agency, a non-governmental organization
* Enzyme Immuno Assay, see ELISA
* Equine Infectious Anemia, a horse disease
* Equity-indexed annuity, a financial product
* Evergreen International Airlines, an American airline with ICAO code EIA
* Exercise-induced anaphylaxis, a medical condition
* Exercise-induced asthma, a medical condition
* External iliac artery, an artery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIA

Nice to see Shpongle and Infected Mushroom on your list, dsjunkid, hadn't listened to them IN YEARS, literally! And Saint Germain is nothing to be ashamed of, even with their popularity.

So here's my 10 cent:
1. Bear McCreary - Something Dark Is Coming (BSG Season 2)
Dark ambient. One of the best tracks from _the_ best TV series soundtrack ever created, I shit you not. We're off to a great start; McCreary is exactly what I hoped to see on my list.

2. Joke Society - Morphing Morning
From Cafe Del Mar SunSand. Yes, I confess guilty as charged, I'm one of the Cafe Del Mar obsessed.

3. Faithless - We Come One

4. Awake On A Train - Múm
Their 2000 "Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK" is one of the best albums in the world, period. This masterpiece of theirs is even better than Sigur Ros (they're both icelandic). We're doing a lot better than I expected.

5. Obstacle 1 - Interpol
Again, "Turn On The Bright Lights" was one hell of an album. Thank you, people that helped me sift some of their stuff. This is indie rock at its best.

6. Ace Of Spades - Motörhead

7. Evergreen (Dusted Remix) - Faithless
From Hed Kandi's Winter Chill 3, this is one of my favorite lounge/chillout tracks of all time. Excellent mix, too, a lot better than original, which is definitely saying something.

8. Jumbo - Underworld

9. All Along The Watchtower - Bear McCreary (BSG Season 3)
Best modern cover of this masterpiece. A tune of harps and sitar pave the way for a surprisingly powerful progressive guitar. I strongly suggest you google/youtube it.

10. Knights of Cydonia - Muse

Well, I must say, I never expected this to turn out as well as it did. Thank you, trusty shuffle, I may now actually use more of you in the future. And thanks for starting this experiment, dft

Eric, here are some more of my fixes:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Hip-Hip-Hooray-its-Christmas-Vacation
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Mummy-intro-1999
http://www.videosift.com/video/Grandpa-drives-his-Dragula
http://www.videosift.com/video/Bart-vs-Lisa-Peewee-Hockey-Showdown
http://www.videosift.com/video/Nightmare-on-Evergreen-Terrace
http://www.videosift.com/video/Demon-removal-all-you-need-is-a-mirror
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Beverly-Hillbillies-have-a-Wingding
FF

Nice, where could i find all this? its really interesting!!
In reply to this comment by jimnms:
Most pagan religions had a celebration on or following the spring equinox, and on December 25th. I kinda like this one the best:

Ishtar (which is pronounced "Easter"), the Bablyonian goddess of fertility, love, and war, came out of heaven in a giant egg, landed in the Euphrates river at sunrise on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox, and turned a bird into an egg laying rabbit. The priests would then sacrifice infants, take the eggs and die them in the blood of the sacrificed infants. Ishtar became impregnated by the rays of the sun-god Baal and gave birth to her son, Tammuz, on th 25th of December.

Tammuz was killed, resurrected and descended into the sky to be with is father. When he died, some of his blood fell on the stump of an evergreen tree and the stump grew into a full new tree overnight. Do you see where this is going yet?