Given how hectic life can get these days, I don't think I would have the time
and energy to be a fan of anything as i grow older, like maybe past the age of
30, 35? I don't think I would have the chance to retire either..
No, it isn't that way. It could had been true in some parts of China, but it
doesn't make sense to kill girls if you're allowed to have as many children as
you will.
It's a cruel fact: China's goverment one-child-per-family policy kills baby.
(some text removed)
Well, it wasn't supossed to make them happy. Even more if that hate is
encouraged by the authorities and the official media.
WE, the other countries that have been suffering economic and job losses becauce
of China's piracy should be making boycott to China's products.
Blind hate? No. Here in different cities of Mexico a Chinese comunity is being
built. They're new. They're welcome. I have Chinese neighbours.
That's the picture.
Please put your anti-china feelings aside for a moment, or you might not be able
to get my point, Thank you.
You have a point that it doesn't make sense, but that may be not in the case to
a Chinese (the ancient china one in particular, and chinese born and living in
other places don't count) it is unfortuante to say that the particular bunch of
chinese might think this way..
"why should I spend my resources on raising a child that would not take
care of me in the future?"
it is unfortunate to say that not all ancient chinese loved their daughters, and
see daughters as burdens.
it is also important to note that Chinese living in different places are
different from each other in the way they think etc.. I did say that the chinese
living around me are quite different from those in China, US etc..
what I had just mentioned may sound screwed to you, but the China people think
differently from the people of your race and That's the picture.
is it possible to boycott China products? lots are things are made in china
these days.
and it seems that the China people had began their protest against carrefour
various parts of China. an outlet in the eastern city of Hefei has its entrance
blocked by protesters using trucks.
the Chinese government do not need to do anything to make the chinese angry over
the torch relay protests, they are educated to naturally response that
way.
it seems to me that the torch relay protests seems to be nothing more the
protesters venting their anger against the Chinese rather that to drive a
message of freeing Tibet. It seems that the chinese are now more intent of
keeping Tibet a part of China. the torch relay protesters might have just did
what the chinese government had wanted.
oh, and the China people might think this way "China is trying to unify
itself, but the westerners are trying to split China up, they are attacking
China, they are harming China."
sex-selective infantcide has exisited far before the existence of the communist
government in China.
This is most likely due to chinese traditions where only the males would carry
the family name, a bride becomes a member of the groom's family when she gets
married, thus males would be favoured over females due to the idea that the
males would be the one supporting their parents since the females will belong to
their husband's families (however this is not such the case in modern times).
while sex-selective infantcide is not a chinese culture, it is however, caused
by chinese traditions.
From what I have heard, all this protests have made the China chinese hate the
western people and it doesn't seem to change the stance the China people had on
Tibet. I have also heard that they (the angered china people) are planning to
boycott western products and Carrefour.
Hey! But is it safe to watch streamings over YouTube and other sources? No one
seem to have answered that part of my question yet! Hahhaha
It seems that it is safe to watch streamings over sites like YouTube, since
streaming isn't exactly the same as downloading, further more, the tracking
company harvests IP address that are visible to torrent trackers, in other
words, it seems that only people who downloaded anime through torrents get
caught.
The quality of ODEX's VCDs are quite similar to that of youtube, and their dub,
which NK05 had described made it worst.. while their DVDs quality is somewhat
similar to that of downloaded fansubs..
as for their pricing, their products are relatively cheap if you compare that
with those in the US..
a 13 eps DVD box from ODEX would cost you about 40+ SGD, while a 4 eps DVD box
from the US would cost you about 29.90 USD...
"In the US, companies that have taken legal action against downloaders have
typically been awarded hundreds or thousands of dollars in statutory damages for
each infringing work downloaded, in addition to recovery of their legal costs
and expenses from these downloaders."
According to the article, Anime downloading: An alternative perspective. The Straits Times (August 16 2007) p 26. by
Andy Ho, Senior Writer, downloading fansubtitled anime may not necessarily be
illegal.
"Under Singapore's law, copying is permitted for educational and news
reporting purposes (as well as other specified ones). But only an unimaginative
reading of the law would conclude anime downloading is clearly illegal.
A 2004 amendment to the copyright law here introduced a new, open-ended
exception to make it possible for copying - in whole or part - to be construed
as fair use depending on five factors.
First, is the work copied creative in nature or not (like a phone directory)?
Secondly, how much is copied? Thirdly, is the copying for profit?
Clearly, anime is creative work and fans copy the whole work, but they don't do
it for profit. Even Article 38 of Japan's own copyright law allows parties to
"distribute by wire a work already broadcast for non-profit
purposes".
Fourthly, can the work be obtained within a reasonable time at an ordinary
commercial price? The most popular anime titles take about six to eight months
to be released here on VCDs or DVDs but they are now competitively priced when
they do appear here.
The fifth and final consideration is the effect of copying upon the work's
potential market here. That is, the anime firm must show that future harm is
very likely, not that actual harm has occurred. Local fans say they go online to
buy anime DVDs from foreign distributors. US experience suggests that this is
not all empty talk."
Andy Ho, 2007. Anime downloading: An alternative perspective. The Straits Times (August 16 2007) p
26.
illegal downloaders would face financial claims of up to $5,000.
and recently, Odex had successfully obtained a court order to get Starhub to
disclose the names of up to 1,000 illegal anime downloaders.
$5,000 x 1,000 = $5,000,000 of financial claims
I'd think that hammering illegal downloaders isn't really going to help the
artists. since the illegal downloaders are pictured by Odex as people who don't
buy VCDs and DVDs because they could download them. However, I'd feel that those
who don't buy VCDs and DVDs because they could download them probably wouldn't
ever buy VCDs and DVDs in the first place, they probably find something else to
entertain themselves with, if they couldn't download. I also did like to note
that it seems to me that many of those who buy DVDs (both imports and Odex) are
downloaders themselves, many which are buying the titles that they had already
downloaded. So, hammering downloaders may actually harm the artists rather that
helping them.
well, I'd rather buy Odex DVDs, if they have the titles that I'm looking for,
that is. Why would I buy Odex DVDs? because 1 DVD box has about 12 episodes and
its priced at about 40sgd.
I really hope Odex would stop hammering downloaders, since,
the more Odex concentrates its resources on hammering downloaders,
the lesser the chances Odex would license the titles I want,
which means more likely I have to depend on imports.
importing DVDs cost more than getting it locally,
having to pay more means having to get lesser titles,
which means supporting lesser artists.
Quote by kingray100i just got back
from a small vacation so i dont have time to answer your thoughts,but i will say
is that if religious people are trying to clear your doubts of the religion,then
how is that considered bad in anyway?just wondering
no, no, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people spreading their faith is
a bad thing nor are they annoying..
the annoying ones are the ones who gives you answers like "could you stop
being so narrow minded" and "how could you say the bible is
fake?" when I asked them why, just a single word "why?". And they
didn't tell you anything about Christianity, they just tell you to become a
christian and join their church..
Quote by kingray100and here we go with
the doubtful person again.why do you always insist that people are lying and
cheating all the time?you really think that some guy lied about salvation and
wrote hundreds of pages of nonsense?if you say yes, then you full of nonsense
because you need to realize that everything you see isnt what it is like in
2007.Just because your best friend lies to you sometimes or your parents dont
speak the truth all the time doesnt mean that the bible is fake.you need to keep
an open mind and at least think it over before you come up with a lousy
conclusion like that.
I sincerely apologize that my poor english has led you to misunderstand my post,
so poor that you thought that it was a conclusion, or that it concluded my view
on religion in general.
I'm not insisting that people are lying and cheating all the time, I'm just
literally stating the obvious fact that humans have the ability to lie and
cheat.
Maybe I have used the "what if" incorrectly, I was just trying to say
that I do not rule out the possibility that it could be a form of human
manipulation. Just to let you know how I use "what if'', for example, if I
said that "what if the bible is fake?" it would be equivelant to me
saying that "what if the bible is true?"
And no, I wasn't trying to say that the Bible is fake. I was wondering whether
the 'Bibles' I see today in 2007 are similar to the original Bible. Similar as
in its contents. And I don't think I had mentioned anything about the people who
wrote the original Bible.
And being a doubtful person, I wouldn't be able to take absolute stances like
"people are lying and cheating all the time" and "the bible is
fake" since when I think that someone is lying, I would have this doubt
that he may be telling the truth.
And lastly, to be more specific on the religious people who I find annoying,
- they are people among religious people (and I believe that they are only a
small group among the religious people)
- they would come up to you and say things like "the bible is true, join
our church"
- and they would say that you are stubborn, shallow, blasphemous if you asked
them why
- they would also tell you things like the chinese mediums are cheats
- while they also tell you that it is a sin and you would go to hell if you
question the bible
and only a few out of the religious people that came up to me are like that..
the majority of them tried to clear my doubts on Christianity
and as the title of this thread implies, it said "religions" so I am not just talking about
Christianity alone, it happens that the religious people I mentioned are
Christians because, so far, only Christians have asked me to join them.
"God created man, but man created religion" am i right to say
that?
what if religion is a tool created to control people?
how sure can we be that the words comming out from the mouth of a man, be as
what as he claim to be, the "words of God?" (i mean, humans are
capable of lying and cheating right?)
and no, i don't find religion annoying, its the "religious" people
that tries to force you into their religion and call you blasphemous if you ever
question them (in other words, they are expecting you blindly believe whatever
they say about God) that are the annoying..
luckily, there arn't that many of them around.. its just that they are so loud
that they seem to be everywhere...
I wonder why, some people see the act of humans killing animals for food a
disgusting act of cruelty, while they see predatory animals hunting other
animals a natural beauty..
and there are times when i felt like asking animal lovers who turn vegetarian
for the love of animals and keep pets... "are your pets vegetarian
too?"
Religion, in the "problems" that you mentioned, seems to play the role
of a tool of manipulation.
After all, those "Words of God" are coming from the mouth of a human.
Humans are within temptation, humans are prone to corruption.
To a person who uses Religion as a tool, a believer of another faith is
considered a threat to his/her power and have to be eliminated either by
conversion, discrimination or destruction.
Maybe, in the first place, Religion does not destroy reason and logic. But Some
people uses Religion as a tool to manipulate and control people. and to use
Religion as a tool, reason and logic had to be destroyed, you can't "In the
name of God" someone that often uses critical reasoning skills.
Religion alone does not destroy reason and logic.
Religion as a tool, destroys reason and logic.
like many posters had said... the problem is with the people, I wouldn't be
surprised if there would be a call for something else to be banned after guns
are banned... i mean, if there are no guns, people would just use something else
as a weapon.. and one day, we may have to ban pillows too..
on whether guns should be allowed in households, it depends on the enviroment
itself, whether how well the criminals are armed etc...
Given how hectic life can get these days, I don't think I would have the time and energy to be a fan of anything as i grow older, like maybe past the age of 30, 35? I don't think I would have the chance to retire either..
Please put your anti-china feelings aside for a moment, or you might not be able to get my point, Thank you.
You have a point that it doesn't make sense, but that may be not in the case to a Chinese (the ancient china one in particular, and chinese born and living in other places don't count) it is unfortuante to say that the particular bunch of chinese might think this way..
"why should I spend my resources on raising a child that would not take care of me in the future?"
it is unfortunate to say that not all ancient chinese loved their daughters, and see daughters as burdens.
it is also important to note that Chinese living in different places are different from each other in the way they think etc.. I did say that the chinese living around me are quite different from those in China, US etc..
what I had just mentioned may sound screwed to you, but the China people think differently from the people of your race and That's the picture.
is it possible to boycott China products? lots are things are made in china these days.
and it seems that the China people had began their protest against carrefour various parts of China. an outlet in the eastern city of Hefei has its entrance blocked by protesters using trucks.
the Chinese government do not need to do anything to make the chinese angry over the torch relay protests, they are educated to naturally response that way.
it seems to me that the torch relay protests seems to be nothing more the protesters venting their anger against the Chinese rather that to drive a message of freeing Tibet. It seems that the chinese are now more intent of keeping Tibet a part of China. the torch relay protesters might have just did what the chinese government had wanted.
oh, and the China people might think this way "China is trying to unify itself, but the westerners are trying to split China up, they are attacking China, they are harming China."
sex-selective infantcide has exisited far before the existence of the communist government in China.
This is most likely due to chinese traditions where only the males would carry the family name, a bride becomes a member of the groom's family when she gets married, thus males would be favoured over females due to the idea that the males would be the one supporting their parents since the females will belong to their husband's families (however this is not such the case in modern times). while sex-selective infantcide is not a chinese culture, it is however, caused by chinese traditions.
From what I have heard, all this protests have made the China chinese hate the western people and it doesn't seem to change the stance the China people had on Tibet. I have also heard that they (the angered china people) are planning to boycott western products and Carrefour.
lol... waffle crisps.. thanks for sharing..
It seems that it is safe to watch streamings over sites like YouTube, since streaming isn't exactly the same as downloading, further more, the tracking company harvests IP address that are visible to torrent trackers, in other words, it seems that only people who downloaded anime through torrents get caught.
referenced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odex%27s_actions_against_file_sharing
merged: 08-24-2007 ~ 10:37pm
oh, and, in Singapore, importing anime may not be a very good idea either http://shadyone.wordpress.com/2007/01/27/mda/
The quality of ODEX's VCDs are quite similar to that of youtube, and their dub, which NK05 had described made it worst.. while their DVDs quality is somewhat similar to that of downloaded fansubs..
as for their pricing, their products are relatively cheap if you compare that with those in the US..
a 13 eps DVD box from ODEX would cost you about 40+ SGD, while a 4 eps DVD box from the US would cost you about 29.90 USD...
Here's ODEX and the AVPAS side of the story http://www.avpas.com.sg/
and the article claimed that
"In the US, companies that have taken legal action against downloaders have typically been awarded hundreds or thousands of dollars in statutory damages for each infringing work downloaded, in addition to recovery of their legal costs and expenses from these downloaders."
So, such things are also happening in the US?
According to the article, Anime downloading: An alternative perspective. The Straits Times (August 16 2007) p 26. by Andy Ho, Senior Writer, downloading fansubtitled anime may not necessarily be illegal.
"Under Singapore's law, copying is permitted for educational and news reporting purposes (as well as other specified ones). But only an unimaginative reading of the law would conclude anime downloading is clearly illegal.
A 2004 amendment to the copyright law here introduced a new, open-ended exception to make it possible for copying - in whole or part - to be construed as fair use depending on five factors.
First, is the work copied creative in nature or not (like a phone directory)? Secondly, how much is copied? Thirdly, is the copying for profit?
Clearly, anime is creative work and fans copy the whole work, but they don't do it for profit. Even Article 38 of Japan's own copyright law allows parties to "distribute by wire a work already broadcast for non-profit purposes".
Fourthly, can the work be obtained within a reasonable time at an ordinary commercial price? The most popular anime titles take about six to eight months to be released here on VCDs or DVDs but they are now competitively priced when they do appear here.
The fifth and final consideration is the effect of copying upon the work's potential market here. That is, the anime firm must show that future harm is very likely, not that actual harm has occurred. Local fans say they go online to buy anime DVDs from foreign distributors. US experience suggests that this is not all empty talk."
Andy Ho, 2007. Anime downloading: An alternative perspective. The Straits Times (August 16 2007) p 26.
illegal downloaders would face financial claims of up to $5,000.
and recently, Odex had successfully obtained a court order to get Starhub to disclose the names of up to 1,000 illegal anime downloaders.
$5,000 x 1,000 = $5,000,000 of financial claims
I'd think that hammering illegal downloaders isn't really going to help the artists. since the illegal downloaders are pictured by Odex as people who don't buy VCDs and DVDs because they could download them. However, I'd feel that those who don't buy VCDs and DVDs because they could download them probably wouldn't ever buy VCDs and DVDs in the first place, they probably find something else to entertain themselves with, if they couldn't download. I also did like to note that it seems to me that many of those who buy DVDs (both imports and Odex) are downloaders themselves, many which are buying the titles that they had already downloaded. So, hammering downloaders may actually harm the artists rather that helping them.
well, I'd rather buy Odex DVDs, if they have the titles that I'm looking for, that is. Why would I buy Odex DVDs? because 1 DVD box has about 12 episodes and its priced at about 40sgd.
I really hope Odex would stop hammering downloaders, since,
the more Odex concentrates its resources on hammering downloaders,
the lesser the chances Odex would license the titles I want,
which means more likely I have to depend on imports.
importing DVDs cost more than getting it locally,
having to pay more means having to get lesser titles,
which means supporting lesser artists.
no, no, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people spreading their faith is a bad thing nor are they annoying..
the annoying ones are the ones who gives you answers like "could you stop being so narrow minded" and "how could you say the bible is fake?" when I asked them why, just a single word "why?". And they didn't tell you anything about Christianity, they just tell you to become a christian and join their church..
I sincerely apologize that my poor english has led you to misunderstand my post, so poor that you thought that it was a conclusion, or that it concluded my view on religion in general.
I'm not insisting that people are lying and cheating all the time, I'm just literally stating the obvious fact that humans have the ability to lie and cheat.
Maybe I have used the "what if" incorrectly, I was just trying to say that I do not rule out the possibility that it could be a form of human manipulation. Just to let you know how I use "what if'', for example, if I said that "what if the bible is fake?" it would be equivelant to me saying that "what if the bible is true?"
And no, I wasn't trying to say that the Bible is fake. I was wondering whether the 'Bibles' I see today in 2007 are similar to the original Bible. Similar as in its contents. And I don't think I had mentioned anything about the people who wrote the original Bible.
And being a doubtful person, I wouldn't be able to take absolute stances like "people are lying and cheating all the time" and "the bible is fake" since when I think that someone is lying, I would have this doubt that he may be telling the truth.
And lastly, to be more specific on the religious people who I find annoying,
- they are people among religious people (and I believe that they are only a small group among the religious people)
- they would come up to you and say things like "the bible is true, join our church"
- and they would say that you are stubborn, shallow, blasphemous if you asked them why
- they would also tell you things like the chinese mediums are cheats
- while they also tell you that it is a sin and you would go to hell if you question the bible
and only a few out of the religious people that came up to me are like that.. the majority of them tried to clear my doubts on Christianity
and as the title of this thread implies, it said "religions" so I am not just talking about Christianity alone, it happens that the religious people I mentioned are Christians because, so far, only Christians have asked me to join them.
I hope you could understand this.
"God created man, but man created religion" am i right to say that?
what if religion is a tool created to control people?
how sure can we be that the words comming out from the mouth of a man, be as what as he claim to be, the "words of God?" (i mean, humans are capable of lying and cheating right?)
and no, i don't find religion annoying, its the "religious" people that tries to force you into their religion and call you blasphemous if you ever question them (in other words, they are expecting you blindly believe whatever they say about God) that are the annoying..
luckily, there arn't that many of them around.. its just that they are so loud that they seem to be everywhere...
I wonder why, some people see the act of humans killing animals for food a disgusting act of cruelty, while they see predatory animals hunting other animals a natural beauty..
and there are times when i felt like asking animal lovers who turn vegetarian for the love of animals and keep pets... "are your pets vegetarian too?"
maybe, homosexuality is one of nature's birth control methods..
lol.. what an interesting coincidence..
wonderful! Thanks for this tutorial.. its really useful...
Religion, in the "problems" that you mentioned, seems to play the role of a tool of manipulation.
After all, those "Words of God" are coming from the mouth of a human.
Humans are within temptation, humans are prone to corruption.
To a person who uses Religion as a tool, a believer of another faith is considered a threat to his/her power and have to be eliminated either by conversion, discrimination or destruction.
Maybe, in the first place, Religion does not destroy reason and logic. But Some people uses Religion as a tool to manipulate and control people. and to use Religion as a tool, reason and logic had to be destroyed, you can't "In the name of God" someone that often uses critical reasoning skills.
Religion alone does not destroy reason and logic.
Religion as a tool, destroys reason and logic.
like many posters had said... the problem is with the people, I wouldn't be surprised if there would be a call for something else to be banned after guns are banned... i mean, if there are no guns, people would just use something else as a weapon.. and one day, we may have to ban pillows too..
on whether guns should be allowed in households, it depends on the enviroment itself, whether how well the criminals are armed etc...
cool.. thanks for sharing these great pics...
#12 is cute and #1 lol...
wallpapers
1 Full of Sheep and Candy by eternallegend
2 Welcome To My Darkness by enchantment
3 Last Dance by eternallegend
vectors
1 cheers ; party time~! by midsummer
2 My Entity by entity1660
3 Until we meet again by rika23
doujinshi
1 ***Of L.O.S.T. -MEmorIeS*** by tydaisuke1
2 *.* Sweet Chocolate *.* by Chiaki-chan
3 *.* Autumn in My Heart *.* by Chiaki-chan
erm... midsummer's vector, the duet; is not on this list, while it is on the freeweb's list..
#14 seems to be from ToHeart2
Thanks for sharing all these great scans