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| Server Joyride | February 18, 2006, 12:12PM |
 by: eon |
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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] |
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| AIDS cure? | February 16, 2006, 11:48PM |
 by: the phoenix emblem |
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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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| Phase One Migration Is Complete | February 16, 2006, 11:48PM |
by: eon |
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As mentioned in my previous news post, we're migrating to a new server on a new network. The first phase of that migration is complete. Our site's databases have been moved over to the new server and brought online. The next phase will begin shortly. During this time, picture uploads will be disabled, but everything else should work fine. I cannot tell you for how long the picture uploads will be down, because it will be different for every member of the site. Each individual will actually be waiting on their ISP to do a DNS cache refresh. Some ISPs do this every few hours. Others only do it once or twice a week. As soon as your ISP refreshes, you'll be fully moved over to the new server and you'll notice that picture uploads are again available. Now that the database is running on a remote server, there may be a slight lag on loading pages of the site, as we'll be waiting on data to stream across the network. This delay should be fairly uniform, however, and not so bad that it will make it difficult to use the site. Thanks in advance for your understanding and patience as we move forward with this process. | |
topic: Site News | |
[reply] [6 comments] |
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| Religion | February 16, 2006, 12:28AM |
 by: bury_me_in_black1313 |
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First I would like to make sure its clear to the few, sad people who are going to read this that i am unafilliated with any religion. And you all must be warned that this will probably offend lots of people. So get over it. I've denounced my religion, which was protestant, becasue I see religion to be for people who need hope or need to believe that they haven't complete control on everything in their life. I, on the other hand, do have complete control on my life. And so does everyone else if they would just realize it. When I was in the hospital, lieing next to death struggling to breath, god didn't help me breath. I had to force myself to breath. I couldn't sleep, because if I wasn't concentrating on breathing then I would just stop. So it really agrivates me when people say shit like 'God must've been watching over you" or "God must really have helped you". God didn't help me at all. Everything was my own doing. I made myself live. Not god. Give credit where credit is due. The main teaching of christianity is abstinance over indulgance. So in other words, christianity is supressing basic human nature. Why is this the right thing to do? What I believe in is indulgance over abstinance. So I'm fine with pre-marital sex,alcohol before legal age, and so on, and I already know lots of christians already do all of those things, and I know some that did thembefore they were of age, or married. Hypocrites. So if your going to belong to a religion, then atleast follow it properly. Indulgance over abstinance is the teaching of another very well known, and very misunderstood religion. That religion is Satanism.**Note to those reading; do recall I am not affiliated with any religion** Brian Warner, also known as Marilyn Manson, explains Satanism very well in his biography titled "the long hard road out of hell" he writes "The devil doesn't exist. Satanism is about worshipping yourself, because you are responsible for your own good and evil. Christianity's war against the devil has always been a fight against man's most natural instincts--for sex, for violence, for self gratification-- and a denial of man's membership in the animal kingdom. The idea of heaven is just Christianity's way of creating hell on earth." Many famouswell known, and well liked people are in Satanism, such as Dr. Seuss, Dr. Hook, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Sammy Davis Jr., and Tina Louise (Gilligan's Island). Now again I must stresss to you readers that I am not affiliated with any religion. I am athiest,but i am against a few religions,and i do agree with a couple aswell. I believe god is just a creation of man, almost some sort of scape goat, and some sort of hope all mixed into one. Maybe there is a higher power. One that nosingle person can understand. or maybe we were just put ontothis earth by chance and we really are just a cancer of earth. But in the very end, we'll all find out. ______Heretic | |
topic: Various | |
[reply] [4 comments] |
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| The steady decline of the english language | February 15, 2006, 2:39AM |
 by: eyesofdread |
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In the past couple of years I have noticed a deffinate decline in the way that people (especially teenagers) use and treat the english language. We have the ability to use words in order to express emotions such as love, hate, dissapointment, anger and so on, and it makes me incredibly sad when I see people slaughtering the english language purely to look "cool" or "hardcore". It appears that the once carefully placed words and well thought out sentence structure are being replaced with the SMS abbrieviations of the 20th century. Any one who knows me also knows that this is a topic which I feel quite passionate about, and it is not that I am trying to tell people what they can and cannot say, however a question that I am constantly plagued with is: What are we really losing? If we lose the ability to properly express ourselves with words then do we lose the ability to really connect and understand one another? If we lose the variety of vocabulary do we cease to be able to express the thoughts that are unique to each and every one of us? I hope not. This article does not aim to insult people who "ch0osE 2 speek lyk dis" it purely aims to question what the long term effects will be if we, and future generations begin to discard english as a language of potential beauty. When people look back on what our generation gave the world I fear it shall not be poetry or fine volumes of literature, it shall not be wonderfully constructed pieces of theatre nor will it echo profound words of wisdom from past philosophers. I fear people will look back upon our generation as the one that truly rid the world of the once intricately beautiful english language. I do not want to be part of the generation that began the deconstruction of this language, I want us to leave behind words of beauty and integrity that will be cherished by the generations to follow. I want to be able to express passion and love as well as sadness and anger, and for the sake of us all I hope I am not the only one. | |
topic: Life | |
[reply] [3 comments] |
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| Well Wishes and A Few Updates | February 14, 2006, 10:09PM |
by: eon |
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First, for those of you who care to hear it, happy V-Day. No, this isn't really an important holiday for me. In fact, as most males do, I see this as a shameless staged shake down of the vulnerable love-starved masses by the corporate mind-control machine. But no, really. Happy V-Day. I hope you enjoyed the soft smiles, the kind and fragrant rose petals to hide the thorns of the everyday. I hope you cherished the thoughtful, stolen kisses and sickly sweet confections. --- A new update is on the way. I hope to have it completed either tonight or sometime tomorrow. It addresses what I feel to be one of the worst plagues upon our community; fake accounts. Soon, we'll all have the chance to upload verification pictures according to a very specific set of standards. A given member's verification pics will be screened and once validated, a status message will be added to their profile showing that we can all trust in their identity (at least in so much as the pictures they are using really belong to them and not someone else). I'm divising a system that will be very strict and demanding as far as validation, so I'll need everyone to be patient. If we all work together though, I believe we can eventually have the effect of squeezing out the fakes. I don't believe that anyone who is not who they claim to be will be able to fake the validation. This will only involve taking a couple of pictures of yourself in very specific ways, showing your hands, face and a sign with your profile name on it. My thinking is that since fakes won't be able to pass, hopefully the legitimate members will be eager to validate. Then when we see someone who has been here for a week or so but hasn't validated yet (it will be obvious on their profile), we'll know to be cautious. I may even add extra features such as the ability only to accept messages from validated members or to run profile searches excluding any members who haven't validated--so on and so forth. A way to make sure we only contact people who can be trusted to some measurable extent. Of course, options such as those above won't come into play until most of the site has gone through the validation process, which might take a while. Just trying to give you guys a hint of things to come. --- In other news, we'll be doing a server move, probably sometime this week. Since I'm planning a move to a new host entirely, there will be some lag during the switch over as everyone's DNS updates. Depending upon your host, this may take as shortly as a few hours or as long as a few days. During the transition, there will be a period of time that registration will be closed to new members and photo uploads will not be allowed. These limitations would only apply to people for as long as it takes their ISP to update their DNS. Hopefully, these will be the only limitations during the switch over, I will advise if there are more. My hope is that the new host will provide us with a more reliable, stable server and network. Although, I have to say, short of a few rough patches in recent history, I think that the past couple of months or so have been okay overall. I ironed out most of the major quirks that were constantly bringing the site down in the latter part of 2005. --- Thanks to all just for being here and making this a rewarding project for me to work on. Here's to never looking back... | |
topic: Site News | |
[reply] [13 comments] |
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| What is being a Teenager? | February 10, 2006, 9:53AM |
 by: Twisted_and_Demented |
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mmmmmmm..... what is being a teenager? we whine about everything, if we never get our way. we still whine, even when we get our way. we claim that our lives are soo hard, when all we do is school and socialise. but what i've come to realise is that adults are full of shit! they always tell us that we, as the future generation that will be running their country someday, are hopeless, good for nothing lazy assholes who have no respect for their elders, when really, i'd like to remind adults that hey! they were teenagers too! and their parents and elders would have done the same to us, so why put your own child through that pain? i really don't understand, but what i've learnt lately is that if you say to a teenager "you came from nothing, you are nothing, and you will be nothing" what makes you think that they won't believe you?if you keep telling them that then i'm pretty sure they'll think "hey, i'am nothing so why bother? why try? why live?" and that's where the suicide attempts come in, and when people find out about that, they do nothing but make you heaps better by saying "oh it's just a phase, she/he is just trying to get some attention" well yes some maybe but there are actual people out there with these problems!! and then they become deeply depressed which leads to anti-depressant my good friends! and that's why the vast population of australia's youth are on anti-depressants (according to statisics, in 1996 it was 2.5million youths, but in 2005 it's 9.7million australian youths) just something interesting that i thought i'd share with the world of people whom like to waste time reading my little rants. | |
topic: Rants | |
[reply] [2 comments] |
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| How Amphetamines Would Help the Workforce | February 5, 2006, 1:17PM |
 by: DJ_WinPhreak |
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This article is chiefly concerned with mixing ideologies. The ideology of your average american worker and the ideology of a stimulated (chemically) student. By infusing Amphetamines into mainstream society, we would further the progress made by a noticable amount. As mentioned in my previous article, amphetamine will cause the user to feel euphoric, focused, attentive, and, for males only, 'anti-libidoistic'. For the average worker, it is one of many distractions. Many people do not feel confident in their work and often do it just to get the paycheck and leave. For the small variety that do find a good career they enjoy, they have no problem working on a problem outside of the workplace. Unfortunately, since it is a small amount who enjoy it, the other majority that do not enjoy it are often stressed, anxious, or miserable. By mixing a controlled substance into this life, those who were once miserable are now at the brainpower of their manager. The possible euphoria can help to overcome those with a social anxiety disorder, or just help to, for a bit, leave long-term depression. Along with this ability to be content in work comes the actual mental improvement. Many workers would be focused, instead of quietly paying attention to many different things. They would be able to concentrate on, say, a TPS report, instead of the annoying woman one cubicle over. It would have profound effects for the rescue and EMT squads, all of them going faster then they were trained. And, for an average worker, it would mean simply things would get done faster. For the male workers, however, another great improvement: lack of libido. Men who could possibly be 'studs' or 'pimps' would continue working, regardless of what co-worker they may lust for (if any.) The chance of having an erection (though it decreases after teenage years) at work or school would decrease to near zero. Blood is too busy flowing through the active heart and brain to worry about a flap of skin down below. Every stimulant has negative effects as well. Because the heart is working so hard, the circulatory system is unable to live out the "average" century. Of course, since a person enters the 40-49 year mark, the body begins to loose it's prime. The brain and nervous system are unable to develop further, and the chance of childbearing grows slim as well. So, in exchange for living fast, we would literally die young. Improving the speed we work at would ultimately speed up our existance on this earth. Court cases would take much less time, meaning less clog in the judicial system, thus making pleas easier and quicker. Everything would speed up, and, from my point of view, that's a good thing. | |
topic: Various | |
[reply] [1 comment] |
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| our future | February 4, 2006, 6:44PM |
 by: inhuman |
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I was browsing through one of my friends writings, article, poems, etc. and I came across this article which really made me think, and im hoping it will make others think about it as well "Ignorance is bliss. Although most don’t care enough to realize it, this is the unspoken motto of the majority of teenagers in America. I am detached from teenage society. Sometimes it makes me feel old beyond my years. I do not understand what is so difficult about buying pants that fit well enough that they don’t sag around the knees. Maybe a belt would do? I can’t comprehend the power that shows like Laguna Beach seem to have over the weeknight of teenaged socialites. I gawk at conformity. Why would someone shop at a place like Hollister, the sole reason being that their friends do? Without thought, giggling girls lay their dollar bills on the counter for a too-short skirt. And they didn’t even have to earn that money. I am an outsider looking in when it comes to the world of teenagers: my world is more than X-Box and Unlimited Call-Me Minutes. I spend my evenings watching the news. I asked for a newspaper subscription for Christmas. I don’t like President Bush, and I can give you a list of reasons to back up that statement. And that is more than most teenagers can say. With one of the most commercial holidays of the year fast approaching, teenagers across the country are itching to know what kind of holiday cheer they might be unwrapping this year. Might it be an iPod Mini? Or maybe season one of Desperate Housewives on DVD? What these kids really should be concerned about is whether or not their parents will have jobs for the new year. Dear Santa, please don’t let mommy and daddy’s jobs get outsourced…Or maybe, they should stop by and see poor Billy who lives two blocks down. His holidays won’t be merry even if he gets the new laptop he asked for. Ever since his dad was killed while serving in Iraq last month, he’s been too tired from trying to comfort his grieving mother. But thoughts like these won’t cross the minds of many teenagers this year. These are the holidays. To most, it’s about me getting mine and nothing more. Apathy is leaving most of America’s youth sorely near-sighted, and this fact makes me nervous. I had a talk with a friend of mine a while back. He’s fifteen and seemingly invincible. I asked him a question about the war in Iraq. His response was quick and frank: I don’t care. For some reason this shocked me, although I suppose it shouldn’t have. That’s the answer I would have gotten out of almost anyone else. I further inquired how he could be content with not caring about world events that were affecting his life and country. He said he didn’t have to care since he couldn’t do anything to change the situation. I then asked whether or not he planned on becoming more politically aware and involved when he was an adult. He said no, that his vote wouldn’t matter, and that he would leave things up to the “smart people.” I ended the conversation there. I was becoming angry. Sadly, this sort of flawed logic, that one vote makes no difference and that things will turn out for the best if left to other people, is common among a staggering number of people. Why else would over 50 million eligible voters not bother to show up on election days? The seeds of such reasoning are sown in the teenaged years, and that makes for a grim picture of future America. One day my generation, a generation influenced more by gangsters rapping about murder and prostitutes than world politics, will be the life-blood of the most powerful country on the planet. One day my generation will have to help elect a president and will have to carry the weight of a world power on its shoulders, and I’m not sure that we’ll be ready to do it. As I see it now, the future of the world will end up one of two ways. Perhaps this apathy, so rampant in teenagers today, will linger long into adulthood and the young people who once swore that MTV and clubbing were their lives will become mechanical drones working nine to five jobs without a single unique thought in their heads. And because things had worked out all right before they could vote, they don’t see the point of bothering once they’re old enough. It takes energy to stay informed, anyway. And the small minority of those who care and want to make a difference in the world will not be heard by the majority who have lost their hearing through a life of not caring. With that, our political landscape, the cornerstone of our democracy and the source of power that is the United States, will die out, and with dying politics, a downfall is bound to follow. But it might go the other way. Maybe the “I don’t cares” are just a stage which will be remedied once teenagers are old enough to vote. Maybe the newfound power of the ballot will start a change in those who up until then had lived in a sheltered, narrow world. Perhaps in the years yet to come in the lives of those who now stand as ignorant, there will be some event that hits close to home and causes them to stand up and take notice. Then, with their attention caught, their eyes might be opened to even more, and this new information might lead to personal connections with the events of the world, and that might bring on a new sense of caring hitherto lacking. And it is only with the involvement of caring, informed citizens that America will continue to exist. But it still takes energy to care, to cast a ballot, to stay in touch with the issues, and sometimes I worry that the world is going to be left in the hands of teenagers who are too lazy to turn in their math homework." written by Aimee Garcia. If you think about it, it almost sad how a 16 year old cares more about our nations future than most adults and politicians for that matter. most just think about what to do in the now and present, and what will boost there public image. our nation's downfall is inevitable, unless we change the way its progressing, and open up our youths eyes, and minds to except the fact theat they will one day have to run our country. | |
topic: Current Events | |
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| Teens living with with Bipolar Disorder | February 3, 2006, 1:26PM |
 by: pain_is_not_a_game |
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There is many teens in the world today living with Bipolar Disorder. Infact I am one of them. The symptoms aren't always seen in teenagers and when they are adults see it as normal teenage behavior. Adults are more likely to show symptoms of this disorder. One out of five people with Bipolar Disorder will take their own life. There is many symptoms of Bipolar Disorder. One of the symptoms is racing speech. There is many medicans people can take to help control the symptoms. One of them is Abilfy.The other is Trileptal. One thing Bipolar people should not have is caffine. Caffine can cause their moods to change without warning. Bipolar Disorder is also known as Manic-Depression Disorder. Its called this because Bipolar people can show signs of anger and of depression. Everyone has mood swings but not like those of a Bipolar person.The life of a Bipolar person can change from day to day. Always having to take medican can be a hard thing to remmber got a Bipolar person. School is hard for everyone but its harder for a teenager living with with Bipolar. Also just communcating with friends and family isn't so easy. Alot of times Bipolar teens face alot of name calling. I personally have faced alot of problems. When people find out I am Bipolar I hear names like freak.weirdo,and loony. I hope this article will make people see that people with Bipolar disorder are the same as anyone eles. They just have a chemical imbalance that makes it for hard Bipolar people to control their anger all the time. | |
topic: Life | |
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