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Terrorism? or Sympophy?	March 12, 2006, 7:28AM
by: Murderous_Breeze
Call it bad luck, or call it conspiracy, or even call it racism, but in this day and age every day more and more Muslim people are being portrayed as evil, and either, involved or following the works of such EXTREME groups as Al`Qaeda and Taliban. But what people dont realise is that since the dawning of the Islamic age, Muslim people and followers of Islam have been labelled with such word use as "Terrorist". The only way to get rid of them was to a very well known force back then with the Anglo-saxons, Genocide. If that word sounds extreme for any people, please do so and study about the massacres of the muslims in Jerusalem, or the 200 thousand plus muslims murdered in the name of Christianity in Bosnia, even the African wars of Sedan and Somalia. If that isnt enough evidence, even now George W. Bush going into Iraq to "Liberate" it by destroying hospitals and other potential "Al Qaeda training camps". The world once again has been brain washed by the media machine, forcing you to see images of bearded men wearing "towels" on their heads and holding automatic weapons. And even the recent event with the publishers in Denmark releasing a "humourful" picture of one of Islams greatest symbols if not the most influental, the Prophet Muhammad, with a bomb on his head, while this is funny to most of the world, imagine if i was to draw a picture of Jesus with butter knives through his wrists? that wouldnt be funny would it, but Muslim people have never done that. How can you justify murdering and humiliating another ethnic group? You cant. But the media has surely done a very good job of it. We have lived side by side with Christians for over 900 hundred years, and if you research about history, i guarentee you not once in those 900 years have we had peace amongst one another. We as the new generation can change that, instead of fighting, we can live with each other, dont be drawn into the media with their lies and scandals, the conspiracy of the government is well known world-wide, so why do people still believe it? I dont know, but please do not be the one that does believe in it. Be the one that does something about it.
topic: Life
[reply] [4 comments]

I am Pansexual.	March 8, 2006, 5:58PM
by: colorofnightfall
One of the question I get asked most frequently online is 'What is pansexual?' As defined by an online pansexual community (i_am_pansexual) pansexuality is: "Do you love someone who is androgynous? Someone who doesn't fit into the restricting categories of male or female? Does gender not matter to you when choosing a partner? Then you may be pansexual. A pansexual is one who can love sexuality in many forms. Much like a bisexual, a pansexual can love a man or a woman but a pansexual can also love transgendered, androgynous and gender fluid people, people who do not feel they fit into categories of male or female. Pansexuals come in all shapes and sizes, all sharing one common goal, sexual freedom." Before we all rush to conclusions as begin labeling pansexuals as 'nymphos' and 'just bi kids trying to be different' stop. I am pansexual. I do not believe in genders and that is why I identify most with this sexual orientation. I am not a nymphomaniac and I do not opt to kiss girls(I am girl, for reference) to gain the attention on the male gender (frankly, I don't care, but that is aside from the main point). To me, Pansexuality means attraction and affection to an individual regardless of their gender or lack there of (alpha 5 beta reductase syndrome is recognized as 'pseudo-hermaphrodism' while they individuals with this syndrom do have a genetic definition of gender [xy or xx] ) . Once again I must ask you to pause before beginning to say 'Hunny there is a difference in genders and if you haven't learned it, you need help.' Let me clap for you before saying that yes, I am quite aware of biological differences between male and female but you know what else are biological differences? Skin color, mental retardation (a lack of enzymes is biological), birth defects and missing limbs. Now while I am also aware of bigotry (insert me clapping, once again) most of us will try and completely disregard these differences in people when we view them. To forestall any comments on this point I am aware of ESE programs and racial profiling. I am trying to speak on a deeper, personality level. To me (and with my outlandish opinions I must respect those of others which is why I specify 'me') gender is completely fluid. Gender typing and gender roles are based on the gender schemas people adopt psychologically at a young age. As defined by a psychology textbook 'the knowledge a little boy has that he is a little boy and the knowledge a little girl has that she is a little girl.' So aside from physical differences (which are actually referred to as one's sex, not gender) we have a pre programmed blue prints of what gender is. Or is it subject to change? Can I be right in saying that what is and isn't defining in gender has changed over the years? Are that not producing skirts for men now(although if we look at the pre-revolutionary french...)? Aren't women allowed to smoke and play sports? Aren't a vast number of fashions designers men? Can't women rival men in marksmanship? I am not trying to play the constantly repeated ANYTHING-BOYS-CAN-DO-GIRLS-CAN-DO-BETTER(and vice versa) game. Thats my point exactly. If boys are doing what girls are doing and girls are doing what boys are doing than what is the big fucking deal? Why must we force girls to use dolls and beat boys who do? Why are we trying so hard to overemphasize gender differences? Stop. There it is. My final command (well for this article at least). Stop making such a big fucking deal out genders. People are people. So you have penis? So you have a vagina? Wow, great for you, have fun with that. We are all what we make ourselves. We are born with a sex, but our genders are up to us. This is not an article telling you to go out and become (sparkles and rainbows here) Pansexual. It is an article to inform and then express an opinion on the provided information, which is sort of the purpose of articles so I think I am doing a damn good job. I hope people can read this and gain a little insight.
topic: Various
[reply] [2 comments]

Profile Verification Now Available	March 8, 2006, 12:01AM
by: eon
Alright... profile verification is now available. You can get to your verification page from a link inside your Control Panel on the 'Manage Pictures' page if you've uploaded at least one picture and have set a default picture and an avatar. The verification link from 'Manage Pictures' will take you to a page that will tell you all you ever wanted to know about verification and the steps to verify are well documented and easy to follow (most people who have already verified say that it was easy). Let me know if you have any questions, though if you read through everything it should be more than self explanatory.
topic: Site News
[reply] [25 comments]

Picture Verification Tests	March 6, 2006, 2:11PM
by: eon
I need volunteers to try out the picture verification upload. Mostly this is to make sure the instructions that are given on the upload page make sense and are easy enough to follow. I don't forsee many technical difficulties, as I've tested it pretty well. If you're interested, leave a comment on my profile letting me know you'd like to help test the picture verification. Please don't leave comments here asking to help, I may or may not read them. Thanks guys..
topic: Site News
[reply] [7 comments]

Web Cam and Digital Camera Resolutions	February 26, 2006, 6:49PM
by: eon
In preparing for picture verifications, I need to get a feel for what kind of web cams and digital cameras the members of this site are using. If you have a cam and you understand the concept of resolution, please take the following poll: Camera Poll If you aren't sure about the resolution of your cam: If you have a digital camera that advertises a certain number of "MegaPixels" then choose the answer of "1024 x 768 or higher" in the poll. It doesn't matter how many MegaPixels your camera features, if it has even 1 MegaPixel then your pictures will all be in 1024 x 768 or higher. If you have a web cam or digital cam you aren't sure about and still want to find out the correct way to answer for it in the poll, then do this: 1. Take a picture and save it to your desktop. 2. Right click the picture and go to 'Properties'. 3. Click the 'Summary' tab and then the 'Advanced' button. 4. You will see a summary listing information about the pic. The first two items on the summary are width and height. "Resolution" in this poll is width x height. So if it lists a width of 640 and a height of 480 then you'd answer the poll with "640 x 480". Please do NOT comment on this article about what camera or webcam you have. If you like, comment on the poll. However, only actual poll answers are of any use. Thanks for helping out.
topic: Site News
[reply] [1 comment]

The Eagle Has Landed	February 25, 2006, 12:33AM
by: eon
We have finally completed our move to the new server. I'm sorry that this turned into such a huge ordeal, guys. Sometimes it's hard to tell how things will go, though, and you have to sort of improvise. So that's what we did with our servers for about a week. Improvised. I believe we are now firmly planted in a rig capable of meeting the demands of our community and I'm also reasonably sure that we've seen the last of the major outages and other ultra strange, spooky events (like disappearing profiles, comments, etc.). *knocks on wood* I still have fine tuning to do and I've yet to see how this system will hold up under a heavy load, but signs are finally starting to look... reasonable. I'm in the process of getting the loose ends. LoGD will soon be back up. Mail has gone down again but will also be back up soon. Chat is now back up. As a note for our chatters, if you're used to using mIRC to connect, you'll need to update the server name to: irc.darkstarlings.com Unfortunately we didn't come through this process entirely unscathed. At one point during the move, our databases were copied to a faulty hard disk. Yes, it seemed like god, the CIA and all nine planets were aligned against me for a while there, with no shortage of heart stopping moments along the way. The faulty hard drive did some damage to our database, namely the accounts table, which was sort of cruel and ironic. I mean, why couldn't it of crapped on the hit counters, visitor lists, friend lists, block lists, ip logs or something else... anything else... that was relatively expendable? But no, the faulty drive had to take a chunk out of the big enchillada. Normally there would have been backups, but when you're in the process of migrating a large site across the internet, playing hop-scotch between networks and servers, backups aren't always a luxury that can be afforded. A small mercy, the damage wasn't major. It amounted to a handful of accounts (I'm guessing a few hundred) being dropped. If your account was dropped, you'll know because when you try to view your profile now, it will come up as not existing. You also will not be able to log in (invalid login error) and trying to retrieve your password will not work. If you are in this situation, re-create your account with exactly the same name as you had before. You can use the same email address and everything. You will get back your comments, friends lists, pictures, picture comments and layout info. Unfortunately, you'll lose anything that you had put into your sections such as about me, likes, dislikes, etc. I anticipate that some wise... people... will decide to look for dropped accounts and try to recreate them before the original owners can do so. If this happens to you, contact me. IP logs are still there, I'll be able to tell if someone swipes an account this way (and woe to you if you're caught doing so!). So, okay. I guess that about gets it. All of this ruckus derailed my plans to work on the picture verification system, but I'll get back on that one as soon as I'm able. I'll post an update about that as soon as things are sorted out. A million thanks for the abundance of understanding and patience shown by the community at large.
topic: Site News
[reply] [6 comments]

HIM*Core	February 23, 2006, 6:08PM
by: VanilaScentedRomance
Alright, first off a story. When HIM's CD, Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights came out, I bought it at my local walmart, on accident. Twas a blessing in disguise really, because from that night on, I was obsessed. I bought razorblade romance, Greatest love songs volume 666, and before they came out, I put love metal and dark light on pre order. I now own the HIM decorative flask, HIM buttons, the HIM bedspread and pillow case, three full size HIM posters, Uncountable HIM shirts, A HIM school bag, a HIM neclace, a HIM keychain, HIMs DVD with the collection of their music videos and 104 black & white 8 x 10 picture quality printed photos of Ville Valo. And right now I'm actually ordering a few more HIM items. My story, as interesting as it isnt: Since that CD purchase I have absolutely adored HIM. However there are mainly two types of people in my small gossipy town. Metal Heads/ Punk rockers, and Fake Preps. The metal heads listen to the hardest metal they can find, the punk rockers listen to the fastest most unintelligable bad reputable bands around. and The preps, anything on MTV. From my obsessions beginning, I was made fun of, i wasnt metal enough for the metal heads, not near punk enough for the rockers, and not mainstream enough for the preps. I took so much shit for liking HIM that eventually I had very few friends outside of my tight knit group. Enter the new kid. Some mexican from washington shows up with an imitation ' bamagram ' backpack. this heartagram does not have the circle around it, is far more crudely made, and stands as ville valos friend brandon margeras new symbol for most of the stuff he sells. And suddenly, everone at my school LOVES HIM! ( The new kid, and the band.) it died out after all the preps and punks realised it was not their thing, and the kid and I bonded quickly. However, his fagget was looking for someone thicker around the waist, and started dating a fat scene girl, but i digress. And the amazement continues. I was pretty shocked to see them on something other than fuse, ( which I don't get anyways, because my dad is too cheap for dish. ) and barely there. But then There they are, usually # 8 when I caught the video, HIM's new song, ' wings of a butterfly ' on fuse at my friends house. " Good for them! Finally some recognition. " but when they appear on MTV...I was lost at how to react. It was a double edged dagger through the heart. On one side I should have jumped for joy, they're mainstream, they're making bank, Go HIM! and the other, I knew that every perfect clone in a polo shirt and skirt were going to listen to them now, and soon their genius lyrics that I have worshipped from the beginning will become over used and underappreciated. I have to wonder, did Ville say all the words, and never give a thought to what they all could mean?
topic: Rants
[reply] [1 comment]

Radio and the Almighty Dollar	February 20, 2006, 12:57AM
by: Saturnalia
Why does everything on the radio sound the same? Why must they play that same damn song a billion times a day? Why does it seem like the music industry is slipping into a never ending void of mediocrity? The answer is very simple and can be summed up in one word: Payola. What does "payola" mean? Essentially, it's a bribe, it's illegal and it's exactly what causes all those radio stations to churn out all that carbon-copy mediocrity day after day. Gone are the days when a DJ would get to pick and choose what was played on the radio simply on a whim. These days, radio DJ's have no power whatsoever. Everything is determined by the station program directors or station managers, who dictate to the DJ what is to be played and when, based on the play lists the director receives from the record companies. Here's how it works: The record companies are always looking to get their songs played on the radio. They figure, the more the song travels over the airwaves, the more CD's they'll sell and the more money they will make. They pick a song that they think will be a money maker and pitch it to the radio station, usually through a middleman. The radio station is offered a "promotional fee" between $1000 and $6000 for playing that one song. Eventually, this means that most of the songs on a station's play list are bought and paid for by the record companies. Then, if the record company wants the song to get played more frequently, they will give the station a little extra cash. It's all a big marketing machine. From music videos to magazines, the machine works to influence the consumer. The machine's main function is to create mindless consumer zombies who will give away all their money for a chance to own a piece of whatever they've been told is trendy/counter-culture/unique. If a programmer or DJ at a radio station refuses to work as part of the machine, then they will be replaced like any other rusty cog. This is one of the reasons why there are so many radio DJ's who engage in this activity; they don't want to be replaced. This is not to say that there aren't programmers who aren't more than happy to accept a few kickbacks from the record companies. There is nothing wrong with a radio station accepting money from a record company for playing specific songs, according to the FCC. However, it is illegal if the station does not inform its listeners that this transaction is going on, which is exactly the case most of the time. Radio stations would rather maintain the illusion that they are tirelessly searching through thousands of artists and CD's, seeking out the very best to be played on air for their listeners. Only 3 broadcast companies own over 60% of the radio stations in America, the largest of these being Clear Channel. This is mostly caused by the government back in the 1990's deregulating restrictions on media ownership, causing certain companies to create monopolies. All of these companies receive some sort of payola or another to play whatever the record company dictates. This makes for very few options for the average radio listener. The overall percentage of radio listenership has gone down in recent years. Most people are getting tired of hearing the same old shit, day in and day out. This has caused many music enthusiasts to seek out new venues for gaining access to new and original music, such as local shows, internet downloading or satellite radio. The cold fact is that a lot of music that's played on the radio these days isn't there because it's actually good quality music. It's there because someone was being greedy. It is highly unlikely that artists like Jessica Simpson, Good Charlotte and My Chemical Romance (all known to be part of the payola scandal) would have gotten so popular so fast and have as much air time as they do if it wasn't for some record executive paying off the radio stations. So the next time you're listening to your favorite radio station and you hear that same song for the millionth time, ask yourself this question: Does someone there at the station just really love this song, or is there a station manager out there somewhere buying his bratty kid a new car with the extra cash he got from selling out to a record producer?
topic: Current Events
[reply] [16 comments]

Server Joyride	February 18, 2006, 12:12PM
by: eon
Sorry for all of the unpredictable behavior the past few days. I'm talking about the servers, of course, not myself. ;) There are some problems with getting everything moved over to the new host and so for the time being, we're sort of stuck "in between" two networks. It might be a few days before this will be resolved. This simply means that for the next few days, new registrations and picture uploads will not be available. You may also experience intermittent loss of your profile and/or comments. It shouldn't be often at all, please do not panic when this happens, anything like that will only be temporary and usually just for a matter of minutes. This simply happens when I am making changes to the database server and restarting it, etc. I know... *plugs ears in anticipation of collective site-wide moan* Doing the best I can, sorry for the turbulence. Andromeda members experienced a disruption in the DS email service. All is operating as it should now, though you'll need to actually type in this address to check your mail: http://mail.darkstarlings.com Your regular control panel link might be broken. Other than that, email is working as it should. Thanks again, guys.
topic: Site News
[reply] [9 comments]

AIDS cure?	February 16, 2006, 11:48PM
by: the phoenix emblem
I was going on my daily visit to www.ebaumsworld.com and came across this when I was reading it(this was taken from the Salt Lake Tribune): Researchers, including a BYU scientist, believe they have found a new compound that could finally kill the HIV/AIDS virus, not just slow it down as current treatments do. And, unlike the expensive, drug cocktails 25 years of research have produced for those with the deadly virus, the compound invented by Paul D. Savage of Brigham Young University appears to hunt down and kill HIV. Although so far limited to early test tube studies, CSA-54, one of a family of compounds called Ceragenins (or CSAs), mimics the disease-fighting characteristics of anti-microbial and anti-viral agents produced naturally by a healthy human immune system. Under a study sponsored by Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals, Savage and his colleagues developed and synthesized the compound for Vanderbilt University's School of Medicine. In his Nashville, Tenn., laboratories, Derya Unutmaz, an associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology, tested several CSAs for their ability to kill HIV. While issuing a cautious caveat about his early results, Unutmaz acknowledged Monday that CSAs could be the breakthrough HIV/AIDS researchers have sought for so long. "We received these agents [from BYU] in early October and our initial results began to culminate by November 2005. We have since reproduced all our results many times," he said. "We have some preliminary but very exciting results [but] we would like to formally show this before making any claims that would cause unwanted hype." What studies to date show is a compound that attacks HIV at its molecular membrane level, disrupting the virus from interacting with their primary targets, the "T-helper" class white blood cells that comprise and direct the human immune system. Further, CSAs appear to be deadly to all known strains of HIV. That would be a welcome development for the estimated 40.3 million people now living with HIV/AIDS globally, including nearly 5 million newly infected in the past year alone. "We have devoted considerable resources to understand the mechanism of these compounds. We think this knowledge will enable us in collaboration with Dr. Savage to design even better compounds," Unutmaz said. In addition to being a potential checkmate to HIV, the compounds show indications of being just as effective against other diseases plaguing humankind - among them influenza, possibly even the dread bird flu, along with smallpox and herpes. Savage said he and his BYU research team had been studying CSAs for eight years, noting the compounds' value against microbial and bacteria infections. It was only a year ago they saw that CSAs killed viruses, too. "They kill viruses very effectively and in a way paralleling our own, natural defenses," Savage said, noting that beyond the obvious use as a weapon against the AIDS pandemic, CSAs could help many others with non-HIV immune deficiencies. Further, the compounds appear to have few limits on how they are delivered to patients. Although early indications are for application of CSAs with an ointment or cream, pills or injections may also be developed - if the compound gets to market. BYU and Vanderbilt have jointly filed a patent on CSA technology, which has been licensed exclusively to Ceragenix. Ceragenix CEO and Chairman Steven Porter said only further research will tell, but he was optimistic about the application of CSAs in the war on HIV/AIDS. There are indications that it could help battle antibiotic- and antiviral-resistance strains of disease as they manifest themselves. "We are encouraged . . . that CSAs may provide a completely unique family of anti-infectives, potentially active against a wide range of viral, fungal and bacterial targets, including those resistant to current therapies," he said. Assuming continued positive test results in animal and eventual human trials, Porter estimates it could be three to seven years before the compound is available by prescription. That transition could be accelerated, however, if the Food and Drug Administration should decide to fast-track the drug. That day is still a long way off, though. First, researchers plan to publish their results in scientific journals, seeking peer review and independent confirmation of their findings. Assuming no flaws are found, several rounds of testing would follow. Most of the nation's leading AIDS experts were attending the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver on Monday. The event's policies prohibits on-site news conferences or releases during the conference, and efforts to reach scientists there were not successful. Of the few AIDS research luminaries reached, all said they preferred not to comment on the Vanderbilt tests until full results are published. bmims@sltrib.com l Paul Savage and his Brigham Young University research team have invented CSA-54, a chemical compound that holds the promise of killing the HIV virus. l CSA-54 is one of a family of compounds called Ceragenins that mimic the disease-fighting characteristics of a healthy human immune system. l Tests at Vanderbilt University indicate the BYU compound also could be effective against influenza, small pox and herpes. l Assuming continued positive results, CSA-54 could be available in three to seven years.
topic: Life
[reply] [1 comment]

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