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Genocide of the Australian Symbols	November 9, 2006, 10:54PM
by: Murderous_Breeze
Recently, here in Melbourne, a 12 year old kid was bitten by a king brown snake, the 3rd most deadliest snake in the world, he didnt die and was treated immediatley, but as usual, our wonderful community spoke out that something must be done to stop the number of snakes nesting so close to home. Australia is home to the 10 most deadliest species of animals in the world, the first being the blue-box jellyfish, we have the most deadliest snake, the Australian small scaled snake (Taipan for the rest of the world), the most deadliest spider, the Sydney Funnelweb, and the most deadliest line up of marine and desert dwelling reptiles. The last reported Australian small scaled snake ever killing anyone in Australia was in 1994,yes almost 13 years ago. Now these people are demanding our local council to start getting rid of our beautiful and unique animals, so as they do not bite anyone again. Now for anyone who knows anything about snakes, its simple, they are territorial animals, they have many methods of warning people before they strike, and if the un-lucky person does decide to accidently stumble accross the striking range, they wont think twice to attack. I believe Australia is losing its beautiful wild life, i mean we have already brought our national animal, the Kangaroo, to near extinction, they are considered a pest and apparentley theirs just to much of them. AWI or the Australian Wildlife Institute estimated that farmers from accross Australia are killing over 3 thousand Kangaroos daily. These are Animals, their beautiful and cant be found anywhere else in the world, they have basic animal instincts to attack and protect their home, but we are defying that, our ignorance is causing hundreds of thousands of our native species of plants and animals to die. Due to the largely overwhelming industrial building, and the clearing of their grasslands and forests, they are forced to be driven into creeks and parks, where they are vulnerable. We have a great number of deadly animals here, as im sure the Americans and the rest of the world have found out due to the tragic death of Steve Irwin by another deadly animal, the Stingray. But these creatures must be understood and respected, not feared. Must we destroy everything in this beautiful country of ours before we decide that we have nothing more to fear?
topic: Current Events
[reply] [4 comments]

Mainstream Persuasions(?)	November 6, 2006, 12:34PM
by: The7thSon
I thought I'd take a few minutes to rant about the general population of this community. I wonder how many DS members have really taken a look at the fine print on the bottom of the login page, where it says that this is a home for those looking for others who aren't NECESSARILY part of the mainstream persuasions. How many people here dance to Shonen Knife in their bedroom at 3 in the morning and rave about the stop motion clay in Frank Zappa's "Baby Snakes" video? How many people think more about photoshopping a picture of Sharon Tate to make it look as if her last hours weren't as terrifying as they were, rather than squeal over Joel Madden's latest "punk rock" hairdo? It seems that no matter what, Hot Topic emo kids will try as hard as they can to voice their juvenile opinions wherever they can. That kind of conversation should be reserved for the MTV chat line. Sure, I listen to Led Zeppelin, I listen to Pink Floyd, I am a fan of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, but my love and appreciation for these artists goes way before today's mainstream entertainment shoved it down our throats as a way of selling them all out to those who don't appreciate the value of the aforementioned bands/personalities. I'll stop here before I get redundant, but I simply would like to conlude these remarks with a suggestion: The next time you see a 12 year old wearing a Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt walking down the straight with his hair in front of his little face, ask him if he knows all the song titles on the album and who wrote the lyrics.
topic: Rants
[reply] [0 comments]

The Death of a Language	November 2, 2006, 7:33AM
by: Illuminatus
This article will focus on English only since that is the language I speak. Throughout this article the phrase “English is dying” does not mean that people are not speaking it, it means that English is not as great a language as it used to be.” I’m tired of all the government articles so I wrote one that has absolutely nothing to do with the government. Some people have said that English is a dying language. They cite reasons such as 1337-speak, improper use, and profanity as the main reasons that the English language is dying out. But could not these same reasons also signify evolution? Who is to say that people using arbitrarily deemed “profane” words are killing the language? Maybe these “terrible” things are not so much a sign that the language is dying out. Two of these three “signs” are actually proof that the language is alive, and the other is certainly not a sign of death. “Leet can be defined as the perturbation or modification of written text.” (wikipedia.com). In other words, leet is the kind of typing people are using when they say things such as, 741k |\|3rDY 2 |\/|3. This is not to be confused with people typing “ur” [sic] instead of “your”. Leet was first used around 1980 to get around content filters such as porn (pr0n) and exploits (spl01tz). Leet is also used in computer security. A computer would deny the password “talk nerdy to me”, but would accept “741k |\|3rDY 2 |\/|3”. Leet has found a home in the multiplayer online gaming world where words such as “pwn” “n00b” and “1337” are used very commonly. This perturbation of English has been said to be a sign that English is dying since it was used to get around filters to keep ‘‘bad” things on the internet, and because the words are being purposefully misspelled. But it can also be seen as flourishing life. These people have used English to create an entire subculture. It may not be understood by athletes or adults. But every kid with a computer has probably used, if not at least seen these variations of English. When someone gets on the internet, the broadest, most unrestricted communications network in the world, they will undoubtedly come across this token of the internet gaming subculture. These gamers have changed the spellings and the proper usage of English around to create their own culture and that, if nothing else, is a sign that English is alive and kicking. This brings me to the next point. Improper usage of English is another major problem that people see in America. In another subculture in America, almost the polar opposite as a matter of fact, teenagers have immersed themselves in the rap culture. They say things like, “When is they havin they game?” The same sub cultural arguments can be made for this particular type of speech. But there could be something more to the story. A lot of rappers portray themselves as having had to grow up in the ghetto, never getting educated, and always being, for lack of a better word, a thug. They will try to fulfill this image onstage or in their records. These teenagers, as impressionable as they are, will imitate these rappers. They think it will make them cool when all that is really happening is these kids are forming bad habits that they will have to break when they are older. This may not be the “alive and kicking” sign that you see in the previous case, but it certainly is not killing the English language as a whole. This generation has also begun using words that most kids would never ever use, such as trifling. That is the sign that English is alive and kicking. These kids are bringing back dead words, and using them in a new, albeit not entirely proper, way. But who is to say what is proper? People have deemed words like “shit” “fuck” and “damn” as improper. But what is so improper about these words? Is it the meaning? No, it is not, if it were the meaning words like “poop” “making love” and “dang” should be inappropriate as well, but they are not. So, meaning (connotation and denotation) aside, what else about these words could be deemed inappropriate? Is it the sounds strung together to make the word inappropriate? “Duh-ah-guh” is a string of sounds that means a little animal. “Fuh-ah-kuh” is almost the same, slight variations in the sounds, but it is a string of sounds that makes people uncomfortable for totally arbitrary reasons. These inappropriate words change over time as well. Around 150 years ago, the n-word (I will explain later) was a totally fine word to say in public, now if you say it, people will think you are a terrible person. On the other side of the coin, saying words like breast 150 years ago would be considered risqué. These “cuss” words change with time, even though the meanings do not. So really, the only reason anyone is uncomfortable with “cuss” words is because of the sounds involved, a very superstitious reason. In fact another thing to back up the point I just made is what some people still call these “cuss” words. Some people still refer to these words as “curse” words; words that can harm you just by being spoken. That, my friends, is a very primitive way of thinking. These so-called cuss words are not “agents of death” as said by some crusaders against these words. Saying “I fucked her last night” is the exact same as saying “I had sex with her last night” or “I made love with her last night”. Cuss words are not the sign of a dying language, they are the sign of an evolving language, a language that is again, alive and kicking. Moving right along, I mentioned the n-word earlier in this article, I feel that the n-word is different from other “curse” words because it does have a history, and a very very strong meaning attached to it. It is not just a word that has been decided to be bad. There are some unacceptable words, but they are unacceptable because of the meaning they carry not because of the sounds that make them up. The English language is not dying, as some people put it. It is evolving. It is growing. Every new generation takes the English language and leaves its mark on it. The English language is a veritable history book of English culture full of little artifacts that show how each generation was. Actively trying to erase those artifacts, well, you might as well just forget entire generations.
topic: Essays
[reply] [25 comments]

Dumbfound with Aesthetic Sound	October 29, 2006, 10:46AM
by: EverybodyRunNow
Dumbfound with Aesthetic Sound What are answers? Are they interpretations or factual analyzations? How can one prove that facts are factual? Written events aren't verified, they're merely documented articulately and believed by the general public, supposedly rendering them as socially acceptable. So if mass publications suddenly decided to print that skinny girls are unattractive, fat girls are unintelligent, black men are untrustworthy, white men are a guaranteed meal ticket, virginity is a automatic depreciation of one's social worth, loss of virginity is an automatic depreciation of one's social worth, blonde hair equals sluttiness, and Hitler was resurrected by a chronologically defiant time chamber and was seen bussing tables at various Italian restaurants in West Virginia, you'd accept it as the truth? Why? Because it was written by an overpaid elitist jackass with a thesaurus? By now I assumed we'd be mentally independent enough to form our own opinions. But what we fail to notice is our mental abilities are gradually depleting. Not because of age, but because of what we choose to let our minds consume. An excerpt from Fahrenheit 451 illustrates my point perfectly: "It’s perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did. . . . It’s a mystery. . . . Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. Clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical." Here, the character speaks about fire endearingly just seconds before his death. Ironically, his demise was inflicted by none other than a flame thrower. Metaphorically, it refers to the beauty we find in media. Television, radio, and magazine columns provide us with stencils for perfection. We believe we need stencils, however, because we've become too lazy and nonchalant to draw them for ourselves. We've come to think that our opinions are "wrong" because they're not what's being fed to you. You submit to outward influences exclusively. Consequently, you're compromising your own individuality. This beautiful, manipulative device we call media is apparently the flame thrower here.
topic: Rants
[reply] [6 comments]

Love to our Life; Life to our Love	October 28, 2006, 11:21PM
by: Kitsen_0
"What is Love?” I was asked this by someone very close to me, a long time ago. I answered them best I could at the time- but young, and inexperienced as I may have been, my answer seemed not sufficient. I have gone back, and re-evaluated what I told them, and have decided on a more in-depth answer. So, I will now tell you what -I- believe Love to be. Love simply is. It happens to you without willing consent or even a true warning. Love is the greatest feeling in the world- and the worst pain you will ever feel. The feeling itself is a joy- your heart feels even physical sensations that are hardly describable. You want to be with this person every second of the day- they occupy the majority of your thoughtsk, and even if in the back of your mind their memory is ready to spring forth through any reminder. You wish to be there for them in everything they do- feeling joy in reaction to their joy, hurt in reaction to their hurt. You want to protect them from every fallibility of the world and never let pain touch them. Yet this also makes you vulnerable- for in falling in love- you hand over a piece of your heart to this person, never to be received again. They have every power over you in joy and sorrow- you emotionally belong to them. This, in part, explains our reluctance to voice our attraction to one another- we fear the rejection. We fear that with those words as we offer up our hearts to the ones we care for they will be rejected and crushed in an instant. And it is not only the person you care for that has an advantage over you- suddenly everyone in the world has the power to use your love against you- anyone determined enough can tear you apart from your lover- which in turn tears you apart from the piece of your heart they hold. This may be the most agonizing emotional- and sometimes even breaching to physical, pain that anyone may experience. But in love- no matter how mistreated your heart may be you can never truly leave that piece of you behind- so despite the pain it causes you, you still cling to false hopes and contact with the one you care for. You would force a smile every moment of your life just to be in their presence. We do move on- our hearts heal- but will never be whole again. The wound remains as constant reminder. This is the main difference between True Love and the proverbial ‘crush’. True love is dangerous territory where your attraction towards anyone but the person you love dwindles or completely disappears. You can only see them, and others are merely company. You don’t -want- anyone else. In a crush you do not truly hand over your heart- you are always looking for ‘the one’ even while your in a relationship with this person. You may be pursuing many at once even, to have a plan if your main ‘crush’ rejects you. However- do not get me wrong, a crush may turn to love over time. The same applies to friendships. Love at First Sight is a rare- almost extinct occurrence, so these methods of getting close to one another are used to determine any underlying feelings you may have for them. Love only exists when you are truly devoted to this one person- denying all others, and willing to put your heart in their hands. True love is painful- but for the amazing joy that is possible through the pain, it is worth it. These are my feelings on this subject. My own- meaning I’m not expecting anyone to believe what I believe- but I like to share my ideas with others- SO if you choose to take this to heart- then I’m glad I’ve made an impact, but if not then I am not phased. I hope you at least enjoyed reading it. Please leave a comment/response before heading off. I send love to everyone who has read all of this. Take Care. ~Kitsen~
topic: Philosophy
[reply] [8 comments]

A new form of junkie	October 28, 2006, 1:23PM
by: Murderous_Breeze
Recently on the news their has been a great deal of talk about the new big thing, and personally i feel its a very dangerous and extremely potential health risk to countries such as America, Australia, Europe and Asia. This new form of drug has claimed already 100s of lives, and also is to blame for suicide and job loss, it has single handedly indoctrinated a entire populous. The online game epidemic! A 13 year old chinese boy jumped of a building last year after playing 36 hours straight of the number one online game, World Of Warcraft. He even compiled a letter saying "I leave this world to join the heroes of the World of Warcraft". Blizzard, the company that made World of warcraft is stating that they are not to blame for this incident as it was unfortunate, this is ridiculous, ofcourse they are to blame. Their are currently 7 million people worldwide logging in the World of warcraft, and the numbers are growing, and on average, 45% of these players are playing for more then 6 hours per day. I like a good game just as much as anyone, but when is it time to say "Ok thats enough"? This new "epidemic" as Melbournes channel 10 yesterday called it is increasing rapidly, and at a pace that is frightening. The last thing that Australia and America need (As they are the 2 most overweight countries in the world) is millions of teenage youth sitting at home on a video game. These gaming companies never take the blame for any sort of incidence, why would they? Their raking in millions of dollars monthly from players who pay $30 dollars monthly to play their products. Sadly we live in a very unfit generation, technology advances, and next generation gaming products such as X-box 360 and the PS3 is not helping the situation either. I cant be a hypocrit and say that i do not support these companies and so forth, because i do, i own a 360 and i really enjoy it. But is it really our blame and not Blizzards? And other large gaming companies. If anyone has ever played a online game, you would know that it is actually a very addictive game, their are endless things to do, from beautifully rendered worlds, to joinings guilds, making new friends and clans, to hundreds of different items and enemies to kill. Its easy to be addicted to such things, as it is easy to take it serious. But as i said earlier, their is a time for enjoyment and then their is a virtual "sickness". But we are to blame as much as these industries, for we are the ones being sucked into this, the marketing machine and strategies to suck us in are un-questionable, because where the idiots that buy it >.<
topic: Current Events
[reply] [13 comments]

ARE SOME PEOPLE BETTER THAN OTHERS?	October 21, 2006, 9:27PM
by: life_on_1st_and_7th
Some people seem to go about in their lives with a strong feeling that they are for some reason better than the others around them. Some people have the nerve to stand up and say they are, and give reasons such as being christian, white, straight, wealthy, well educated, or any number of other reasons. These people honestly believe that someone living a different lifestyle or having different beliefs than them makes them inferior. This is not true. How can one person simply on life their life in their way on the same earth as someone else be inferior or superior to another person? Some people choose to be humanitarians and spend their life trying to improve the lives of “less fortunate” people in third world countries, and are regarded as better people than someone working the corner to feed their kids. Why? the people theyre trying to help are used to their life and are probably happy, so what makes them so great? I’m not trying to base this on humanitarians, in fact I support their causes, but people base their lives on a higher scale. killing a cop is automatic life in prison, but killing a homeless guy is maybe 10-25 years. killing anyone, in my opinion should be life in prison, at least if you meant to do it. Human life is precious, is the most valuable thing I can think of, but no one life is worth more than another. In that view, how can anyone be better than another person? They can’t. Everyone’s just on this planet living their lives the best they know how.
topic: Life
[reply] [1 comment]

Peer pressure at school; Insecurity redefined.	October 20, 2006, 8:08AM
by: Turbulence-X
Hello mates! Well you’re not really my ‘mates’ because you all hate me, and it’s probably my abhorrence of this, that’s brought me to the point of undermining your entire way of life. I’m going to discuss peer pressure at school and its main cause – insecurity with oneself. Throughout my life so far, I’ve lost more convictions than I will have gained if I live to be a hundred years old. Nowadays I’ll be debating with someone only to ask myself ‘Does he really think he’s right? Is he just arguing with me because it’s expected of him by his peers? Would he agree with me if I were one of his friends?’ See, I don’t fit in anywhere! In my old school, when it was found out that next year I would be coming into this school, I had to go through the agony of watching my friends drift into hostile territory, because now I was seen as a ‘posh boy’, and that was unacceptable to them. So, I came here a refugee. because my old friends had a deep hatred for anything that wasn’t them. I came to this school as an outsider, with one friend out of nine hundred pupils; that friend was me. For me school wasn’t a positive learning experience. It was a place where one masters one’s fears. So I came in with guns blazing, and lost all chance of friendship. I was instantly different. Without knowing it, I’d let myself in for three years of misery. I remember living in a world where open eyes meant suicide or agony. By having my own opinions, I had somehow threatened the very foundations of the peer group system, and was therefore made a scapegoat. The Romans had the Barbarians. The Barbarians had other Barbarians. This school had me. I was made an example of what would happen to you if you didn’t conform. Then, in my fourth year at this school, I came to the conclusion that those who practice peer pressure do so because they believe they can’t stand on their own two feet. THEY ARE INSECURE! And this is what baffles me at the moment. Why can’t people survive without a big group to help them along? I have managed, even with what seemed like the whole world turned against me. Why cant people just be individuals, and respect one another as individuals? Ask yourselves that. Ask yourselves WHO YOU REALLY ARE. We all can stand on our own two feet; it’s just a matter of getting up.
topic: Various
[reply] [1 comment]

Litter Bugs	October 16, 2006, 8:43AM
by: morbid_princess
My school yard is a rubbish dump. People just drop their rubbish on the ground, because they are too lazy to walk even as little as two steps to the bin. The teachers have finally decided to do something about this problem and have suggested, to reduce the amount of rubbish in the school yard that we should all come up with a suggestion, and vote on it. The highest two ideas from each class will come together, and the whole school will vote on which action to take about this rubbish problem. My class came up with: More bins around the school Bin it Punishment for littering Designated eating area Bin placement Pay the students to clean up Most of those greedy buggers in my class voted ‘pay the students to clean up’ number one. ‘More bins’ being voted number two. We need more bins around the school. Because even though some students only have to walk two steps, some have to walk to the other side of the school. If there were more bins, then the rubbish would have a better chance of finding a resting place in there, rather than on the ground. There are holes in the tops of our bins; if you left the lid open the birds would pull the rubbish out, looking for food. And the holes have a rubber covering that you push the rubbish through. Most students don’t wish to touch that, so we could also benefit from having the holes in the tops to be larger, so those who don’t wish to touch the tops, don’t have to. While ‘Bin it’, does sound like a good idea, it hasn’t worked so far and most likely wont, unless something else is being done in conjunction with it. I must say, the students that attend my school are incompetent little bludgers, who would much rather drop something than even contemplate taking the effort to walk across the corridor and put it in the bin. When students litter, is it not a bad thing in the eyes of others? Another one that most do nowadays (not excluding myself) would be the use of profanities. These are condemned as unacceptable when in front of others. Littering is condemned as unacceptable outside of school, as one can even gain a fine from doing so. If students were punished, just like if they were to do the same out of school, then I believe the amount of rubbish left on the ground would lessen to some extent. If you were to be caught littering, and receive some sort of punishment, I believe most would stop littering as much. The idea of a ‘designated eating area’ would be a very good idea if we were still in primary school. We are growing up, and should be learning to take more responsibility over our own actions. For goodness sake! Most of the culprits are 13-16, you might have gotten away with it in primary school, but this is high school. Grow up. I might also add that the student that came up with this idea, however smart she may be in school, she isn’t very smart when it comes to the real world. Having a certain area in which you can only eat, will just cause more problems and rebellion within the school community. More students would be littering in other areas, because if we’re not meant to eat anywhere else, there would be no bins anywhere else. This might also cause more fights for areas within the school grounds, or rather the eating area. Yes this does happen. Bin placement is a great idea! Very similar to more bins. Many students said they would like a bin in the middle of the oval. Well that’s a bit impractical. What’s going to happen when they want to play footy? Or the PE teacher wants to use the whole field? If you’re in the middle of the oval, I think you’ll have to learn the word pocket, or walk to the edge and back. Why should the school pay people to clean up the mess they made? Honestly!!! It’s like moving out of home, and then getting pocket money for keeping your own house clean!!! They are just greedy little children asking to get payed to clean up their own mess. This wouldn’t work in any case, because people would still be littering, and people would still be cleaning it up, which is exactly the system at work now! The best way to go, in cleaning up the school, short of locking up all the greedy lazy children that attend there, would be to add more bins, and in better positions around the school. Also anyone caught littering would be punished with a detention or something similar. If littering continues, not just around schools, than this country will become a very nasty place to live in.
topic: Essays
[reply] [0 comments]

Site Invitations and Picture Limit Increases	October 9, 2006, 6:14AM
by: eon
A new feature has been added: Site invitations. If you go to your Control Panel, you will now find an 'Invite Friends' link. This page will let you send out emails (10 at a time) to invite people to the site. Special links will be used in these invitations so that when the people you invite join up, you'll automatically be added to their friends list (and vice versa) and will also receive a notice in your comments letting you know their profile name once they've arrived. Try it out. If you'd rather not send out emails, you will find links on the same page to copy/paste anywhere and get the same features. Also: Picture upload limits have been increased for all members. Starlings may now upload a maximum of 15 pictures to their galleries. Andromeda may now upload a maximum of 60 pictures to their galleries. Golly, that was such swell news, I just had to share it with you... *feels much better*
topic: Site News
[reply] [21 comments]

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