confused04

I find it nearly impossible to have any sympathy for this kinda criminal. I for one am a strict interpretor of the Constitution and a bastion of moderate thinking at my university and I usually would say things along the lines that restricts the overbearing judicial arm of the government (or any arm for that matter). However wrong it may seem to enforce selective laws on this person to keep him in prison, the government is caught in a catch 22 and they are only taking the least risky way out. You guys are claiming that we are putting him in jail for crimes yet committed, but lets weigh the solutions. There are only two out comes of releasing such a fiend at 21, he murders or he doesn't. If he doesn't murder, than all is well and forgotten. If he does murder, however, then the government is blamed for a lack of foresight knowing this person's condition. We all want to make sure the government doesn't overstep its boundaries into our lives, but we are all failing to take into account the ONE undeniable purpose of government, to protect the citizens it represents, a central theme to the constitution. By letting such a risky fellow go, we are just asking for trouble and in the end more money spent on another trial and perhaps civil suits if any new victims' families decide to sue the government for negligence. This move is logical and, in my books, right. It might be fear, but I bet if its your kid, your mother, your brother, you will NOT feel the same. Its one thing to take the "constitutional" or "political" road, but if this happens to you, its unlikely you will feel the same. This is basic risk assesment, the risk is too great. I for one don't believe in the immediate release of minors at 18/21 regardless of the crime. I think this law should be scrapped from the books, at the very least for crimes such as murder. All kids in this country are taught that harming someone physically or ending their life is wrong from day one, there is no excuse for murder and claiming "immaturity" is a joke. Throw out this archaic law. Judge each case on an individual basis and decide that for this kinda murder, maybe 20 years isn't enough. Sorry, the kid screwed up his life, I'm not willing to allow him to screw up another innocent persons life. Call it fear if you wish, I call it right.

I'm only worth $4140 as a corpse ...

I remember when we had to use sand baths to heat solutions in O-chem (orgo) just a few years ago. I had an absolutely brilliant lab partner and she was very intelligent... but this one day she must have missed a few hours of sleep because we were cleaning up and we had JUST disconnected the sandbath from the power source and she tried to take the 200 C sand and MANUALLY remove it from the apparatus. She instantly pulled her hands UP (and not back) and threw this scalding sand STRAIGHT up in the air. Although it was not safe, no one was injured and the idiocy of the situation was just so funny. We left class 20 minutes late because we were laughing to so hard.

It ceases to amaze me that we HAVE to say "no pipetting by mouth." I mean... come on Thankfully my lab experiments are relatively benign and I have a greater chance of hurting my experiment than vice versa but as people have said, safety comes first. There is enough laughter in the lab from Murphy's law. Thats all I need for entertainment.

LOL... this ranks near the top of threads where discussions do not match the title... I like coffee, strong, black, sugar and cream/milk free. Yummy

Anyway... I don't really care for mountain dew. But I've noticed that many European youths can't get enough of it...

We have 8 inches of snow on the ground and its dipping below 0 tonight. Right now its "-0". Supposed to get 2-3 inches tomorrow and another round comes in on Saturday.

I'm from the 410 (although Salisbury is almost two hours away ). Anyway, its a huge disappointment what Baltimore is going through. I was hoping that Schaeffer's efforts to clean up Baltimore would have been more successful in the long run. I'm not too familiar with Baltimore, particularly because I don't like its skyline... but I don't like to see cities in this shape. Minneapolis went through a similar phase (although the raw magnitude was much lower) where it was called "Murderapolis".

This morning was a balmy 5 F (-15 C)!!! Wee!!

Originally posted by: Ratieya455 I live in Fargo, North Dakota, which is located in the middle of the continent and literally 20 miles from the nearest hill. Summer Generally not too bad, it will slowly become warmer and more humid over a period of a week or so then there is a big ol' thunderstorm to drop it back to cooler temperature. It really only ever rains during a storm, but it comes down hard. It usually hits 100°F once per year, over 90° about ten times. Fall There are long stretches of nice days with a few cold, rainy days spread between. Temperatures have a big range, they can drop into the 20s quickly and can top 90° as late as October. Winter Cold and windy. There can be stretches of 5 days or more where the temperature stays below 0°F (-18°C) constantly, even during the afternoon. A few days later it might be 45°. The wind is the worst part of it, though. The average January wind speed is something like 16 MPH. That is an average, there are plenty of 30+ MPH days to make up for the calm ones. There are so many blinding blizzards they had to install gates on the freeways to make it easier to shut them down. Wind chills of -50° are not uncommon and not fun. Spring Much like the fall, but more rain. When it gets into the 40s, convertibles and motorcycles come out of hiding and lots of people wear shorts and a t-shirt.quote> Similar in Minneapolis-St.Paul, just somewhat warmer in the winter, somewhat cooler in the summer for the most part.

Originally posted by: GingerBlokey god this thread is so old because I cant belive I thought Chicago was in "Michigen" Chicago, Illinoisquote> Sounds like my British friend. We gave him a book on the American states and we quizzed him. He got Minnesota right but then we pointed at Wisconsin and said lacking complete confidence, "Wichigan?" I bursted out laughing so hard. Only fair cause I made myself look like a donkey when I said "Yorkshire" as "York-SHY-er". Oops... Its funny to hear British accents say Native American names like "Minnehaha" and such.

This game is really fun. I do feel like they kinda took the free form exploration away and now just a 3-d linear platformer. Thats my only gripe. If you have a friend and a second wii, it makes the game EVEN easier. Your buddy can press and hold A to shock the enemies and if they keep the cursor on them, they won't move! Its like cheating,... but NOT! Oh, and the second person can shoot star bits too and help mario jump higher. I don't mind playing second player. I'm usually sitting their watching anyway.

Originally posted by: Joesocwork Unless we're talking a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia (seeing, hearing, believing things that aren't there) or mania (extreme emotion), which I strongly doubt here, I don't believe that it is dementia or lack of wisdom or knowledge in cases like these. We are talking about youth who do what they want because it pleases them and they don't care about others. That's pretty much what I call evil, regardless of the cause.quote> PET scans of brains have shown a distinct predisposition to violence in murderers It doesn't require severe mental illness, just a few short circuits that prevents activation of critical portions of the brain ranging from anguish control to problem solving to lack of emotion from disturbing stimuli. This has been documented many times. You don't need to have some debilitating mental illness to still have mental/psychological factors become the dominate cause of murder. If these kids did it for "the thrill", there is SOME brain deficiency. Granted, this is only a PREDISPOSITION, but a major one none the less. I'm not excusing the murders by any means. I was merely suggesting that we can't always blame the parents if kids have congenital mental issues. I really don't think that saying "youth who do what they want because it pleases them and they don't care about others" is a fair statement cause you are insinuating that this is a predominately youth problem. Replacing the word "youth" with "people" makes much more sense as to decategorize the murder problem. Finally... off to bed...

I'm not sure if apathy is growing in this country, I think its more likely that its disillusionment. The idea of the individual can change the world seems to be fading in the realm of politics. It seems you HAVE to play the game and pander to the political elite in order to get into power and to maintain it. There is no room for idealism in such a system. When you feel you can't do anything, there's no reason to not become apathetic. Edit: Its amazing how much ONE letter (than --> to that) changes the ENTIRE meaning.

This is quite disturbing. To think that people want "the thrill". I don't blame anyone. I'd be inclined to blame the parents, but there are many cases where parents do everything in their power. Murderous behavior has been linked to some psychological disorders related to disconnects in the brain. Almost all people tested who were convicted murderers showed that the emotion center and the visual center are uncoupled allowing them to view images of rape and murder without disgust. In a way it MIGHT be genetic if this disorder is inheritable. But I am not sure how common this is or if this is the case, but anyway.... In terms of games, I do not think its related at all. Just cause you partake in killing in a video game, it doesn't make you more likely to kill. If that were the case, why don't we see more violent stuntmen and actors? Also, this hasn't been addressed yet and I find it disturbing but lets put this crime in perspective. Many of you cry, "This youth is horrible, deranged, twisted, demented, etc". Why is it that the ENTIRE young generation is characterized by this. Murders of this calibre of existed for far longer than the media that reports this. Do not say this generation has some how lost morality, civility and humanity. That is NOT the case. This generation has seen the greatest decline in the murder rate and in fact, more adults murder their own kids than vice versa, despite the common stories of rotten apple kids that murder their parents. But yet it is the youth that is corrupted. It is indeed know mystery that youth are involved in more crimes, but that has been true of all generations and compared to previous generations, the murder rate hasn't been that high. The ready availability of news around the clock and especially the internet (i.e. we're talking about it), makes these stories more visible, not more common. So lets not assume that there is something wrong with this generation, that video games are to blame, or that parents have lost the ability to raise children. Not much has actually changed, its just more apparent how stupid humans can be.

Originally posted by: manticorefan I would argue with you about Chicago, Cybernetic. The system as a whole can get you almost anywhere. NY is obviously famous for its transit system but I would bet that Chgo is a pretty good match. The subway and el connection is top notch, you can go from north suburbs to deep south side in an hour and a half on 1 train. The Metra heavy commuter rail covers the 6-county area pretty extensively, and with a wealth of alternate routes there's a sure way around traffic. The el even takes you right inside O'Hare's terminals (are you listening, modders?). Add the South Shore Line electric trains to Indiana, and you have a true interstate transit system. Portland, OR has a nice light rail system that is currently being expanded, and they keep a pretty good on-time record for both rail and bus. BTW, I took Amtrak from Vancouver WA to Chgo, the Empire Builder. I thought it was awesome! The staff seemed genuinely nice, and helpful. No gov't employee snottiness at all, they acted as if they really loved their jobs and serving people. Also, the coffee was fantastic, which I did not expect.quote> You must have stopped in the Twin Cities! My friends take the Empire builder and I've heard they've upgraded and cleaned up the train so that its even better. Too bad it takes forever because of the vast distances (which I think many Europeans have trouble imagining). Originally posted by: Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the futre Japan's bullet train and Frances TGV is good. Amtrack sucks. THe Noreast corridor is the only highspeed rail in amrerica. I know Chicgo or anywere eles in the US has nothing on New Yorks subbway quote> What makes you say that Chicago can't compete with NY city subways? Its one thing to just say it but I've taken both and they are quite frankly pretty comparable. I personal found Chicago's elevated more enjoyable. Amtrack sucks because no one wants to sit on the train for 15 -48 hours and fast rail from coast to coast is currently economically impractical. Not even Europe has a highspeed line 3,000 miles.

I heart Portal. Such a good game! The humor is SO funny that I would sometimes NOT advance just to get the computer to say something. Is it just me or are a LOT of good games coming out now when I have no money!

Originally posted by: saltandsauce nothing i havn't heard before lake baikal was drained for irrigation same with lake chad it was emptied for irrigationquote> I must have missed something, but Lake Baikal to my knowledge has not been drained, nor does it have any mass agriculture demands for water in the region that would threaten it being drained. Lake Baikal to my knowledge only has some oil pipelines and some paper industry stuff to threaten it environmentally. On top of that, it has some 1/5 of the worlds surface freshwater so I do not think its that easy to "drain". Are you thinking of the Aral Sea perhaps that was used for the cotton industry?

I agree with manman99. What he's saying is that the system of government is not horrible, its just the TYPE of people (or the party in control). But thats another whole can a beans. I support the US constitution, just not how its interpreted (and the whole campaign finance thing).

I have beaten the Epilogue on Vet, it took me like, ten tries, but I did it. The trick is using the flash bangs correctly and bum rushing them with killer accuracy. It was frustrating but doable. I have not beaten Gaz's record for the training mission yet though.

That sniping mission is so intense! My heart was beating when you were in the field crawling avoiding the troops and tanks. I mean they were only inches from stepping on you.

Just beat the game on hard (veteran). I've gotta say, awesome game... just awesome.

It just snowed for the first time in Minneapolis-St.Paul this year about an hour ago . It was nice to see it. Tomorrow we'll struggle to reach the 40's (4 C) and our night temps will drop to around 24 F ( -4 C). WEEE!!

I think I've had several dreams like this with me concluding with the exclamation "Did someone slip me something last night?"

A friend of mine and myself at a bowling alley. A night out on the town with my roommate on her 22nd. My roommate and I again, just chilling. My roommates and my English friend at a party. Minneapolis from the Lightrail. Minneapolis up close from I-35 W. This is the former I-35 W Bridge