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Satis
Felix Rex
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 6:01 pm Posts: 16701 Location: On a slope
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 China to stop using executed prisoner's organs
wow... I didn't realize they did this. Not that I'm specifically against it, but it certainly provides a major incentive to execute people. Organs ftw.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8222732.stm
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Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:09 am |
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derf
Minor Diety
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2003 2:17 pm Posts: 7737 Location: Centre of the sun
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They're drastically short of donated organs yet they cut their #1 policy? Weird.
_________________ "Well a very, very hevate, ah, heavy duh burtation tonight. We had a very derrist derrison, bite, let's go ahead and terrist teysond those fullabit who have the pit." - Serene Branson
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Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:12 am |
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Satis
Felix Rex
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 6:01 pm Posts: 16701 Location: On a slope
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Yea, I dunno... I'm guessing the black market thing is a problem, or maybe international pressure. Personally I'm looking forward to the time when we can custom-grow organs from stem cells and the whole transplant thing becomes a moot point.
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Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:16 am |
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Rinox
Minor Diety
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 7:23 am Posts: 14892 Location: behind a good glass of Duvel
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Might not be that far ahead. Maybe a little bit too far to be commercially viable in our lifetime, but even that isn't impossible.
Man, I'm reading a book right now that is mindblowingly interesting, on the possibilities of 'adapting' the human brain. You should really pick it up, cause I think you'd really dig it. It's called "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge.
http://www.amazon.com/Brain-That-Change ... 067003830X
seriously
_________________ "I find a Burger Tank in this place? I'm-a be a one-man cheeseburger apocalypse."
- Coach
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Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:13 pm |
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Satis
Felix Rex
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 6:01 pm Posts: 16701 Location: On a slope
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I'm not reading anything until I finish Ulysses. Which'll be awhile.
Still, looks interesting. I may check it out. Though my boss (and his boss, and his boss's boss) keep pushing similar 'make yourself awesome' books, which kinda sours me on the genre.
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Thu Aug 27, 2009 7:22 pm |
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Rinox
Minor Diety
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 7:23 am Posts: 14892 Location: behind a good glass of Duvel
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Bah, Ulysses is a piece of shit. And that's coming from a lit major (maybe not the most orthodox one, though).  You should try Finnegan's Wake for some really fucked up Joyce stuff. A truly random part of the book:
 |  |  |  | Quote: And she made her witter before the wicked, saying: Mark the Twy, why do I am alook alike two poss of porterpease? And: Shut! says the wicked, handwording her madesty. So her madesty 'a forethought' set down a jiminy and took up a jiminy and all the lilipath ways to Woeman's Land she rain, rain, rain. And Jarl von Hoother bleethered atter her with a loud finegale: Stop domb stop come back with my earring stop. But the prankquean swaradid: Am liking it. And there was a wild old grannewwail that laurency night of starshootings somewhere in Erio. And the prankquean went for her forty years' walk in Turnlemeem and she punched the curses of cromcruwell with the nail of a top into the jiminy and she had her four larksical monitrix to touch him his tears and she provorted him to the onecertain allsecure and he became a tristian. So then she started raining, raining, and in a pair of changers, be dom ter, she was back again at Jarl von Hoother's and the Larryhill with her under her abromette. And why would she halt at all if not by the ward of his mansionhome of another nice lace for the third charm? And Jarl von Hoother had his hurricane hips up to his pantry- box, ruminating in his holdfour stomachs (Dare! O dare!), ant the jiminy Toughertrees and the dummy were belove on the watercloth, kissing and spitting, and roguing and poghuing, like knavepaltry and naivebride and in their second infancy. And the prankquean picked a blank and lit out and the valleys lay twink- ling. And she made her wittest in front of the arkway of trihump, asking: Mark the Tris, why do I am alook alike three poss of por- ter pease? But that was how the skirtmishes endupped. |  |  |  |  |
Um...yeah. That makes sense.  My guess is he was totally hopped on opium when he wrote it. But anyway. The Brain That Changes Itself isn't really a self-help or improve yourself book, more a journey through the advances in neuroscience and how the brain can, with training, adapt itself to overcome sometimes massive brain damage or deficiencies. Of course, these methods are applicable to 'normal' brains too to improve their efficiency, but that's not really the crux of the book.
Good luck with Ulysses, even for all my laming about it.
_________________ "I find a Burger Tank in this place? I'm-a be a one-man cheeseburger apocalypse."
- Coach
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Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:58 am |
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derf
Minor Diety
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2003 2:17 pm Posts: 7737 Location: Centre of the sun
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Ulysses = Odysseus?
He rocks hardstyle. Greek mythology is the balls.
_________________ "Well a very, very hevate, ah, heavy duh burtation tonight. We had a very derrist derrison, bite, let's go ahead and terrist teysond those fullabit who have the pit." - Serene Branson
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Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:25 am |
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Rinox
Minor Diety
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 7:23 am Posts: 14892 Location: behind a good glass of Duvel
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Ulysses is the Latin name for Oddyseus yeah, but in this case it's the name of a very famous novel by James Joyce.  The name is a reference, obviously.
_________________ "I find a Burger Tank in this place? I'm-a be a one-man cheeseburger apocalypse."
- Coach
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Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:45 am |
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derf
Minor Diety
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2003 2:17 pm Posts: 7737 Location: Centre of the sun
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Oh, for a moment I thought Satis was reading something interesting. 
_________________ "Well a very, very hevate, ah, heavy duh burtation tonight. We had a very derrist derrison, bite, let's go ahead and terrist teysond those fullabit who have the pit." - Serene Branson
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Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:49 am |
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Arathorn
Minor Diety
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 10:23 am Posts: 3956 Location: Amsterdam
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I tried Ulysses once, but it was lack of time rather than poor writing that made me stop. I feel I need to read books like that in one turn. From what I did read, the novel is more about people's everyday lives instead of something grand, unless I never got to the part where the story takes off.
_________________ Melchett: As private parts to the gods are we: they play with us for their sport!
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Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:45 am |
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Satis
Felix Rex
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 6:01 pm Posts: 16701 Location: On a slope
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No, you're right, it basically just follows along with peoples' lives. Nothing much happens, though it's got some weirdo crap that goes on too. I think I'm in someone's dreams at the moment... what's happening makes little sense.  Ah well, whatever, I'm around page 475 of 780 pages. 
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Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:30 am |
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Rinox
Minor Diety
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 7:23 am Posts: 14892 Location: behind a good glass of Duvel
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I hope you manage to crawl to the end, cause I found it excruciatingly boring. I'll compare Ulysses to a good Pynchon novel any day. Same degree of craziness (worse probably), grandiose style, much more amusing and interesting.
_________________ "I find a Burger Tank in this place? I'm-a be a one-man cheeseburger apocalypse."
- Coach
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Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:45 am |
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Satis
Felix Rex
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2003 6:01 pm Posts: 16701 Location: On a slope
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Yea, I'm forcing myself to read it. I'm getting close enough to the end now that it's becoming motivational. And yea, it's so completely boring, it's killing me. More boring that Lewis Carroll. I'll definitely be reading modern fluff for the foreseeable future...not feeling like tackling another classic for awhile.
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Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:46 am |
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