FungalFractoids

Allowed number of quoted blocks of text?!? How fucking lame. Quotes and replies are listed with corresponding numbers 2. Hahaha. God, you crack me up! There are plenty of opposition parties in Venezuela, the largest being Un Nuevo Tiempo, and the 2006 presidential ticket was the largest in history. Here, wikipedia even has a list of all the candidates: And here is a list of parties that endorsed Rosales, the UNT candidate: 3. No, I don't see. Venezuela will have parliamentary elections in 2010, and presidential elections in 2013. It has already proven just how wrong you perceptions have been, don't you think it's about time to stfu and do just a little bit of cursory research before spouting off again? I dunno, maybe you just read headlines and not actual articles but you have shown yourself to be someone who simply regurgitates spin, regardless of the facts, even though they are not hard to find. 4.What is it about you anti-Chavez zealots? What amuses me the most that the stuff you are parroting is exactly yhe same as the American zealots I sometimes have to argue this shit with. What, is there some kind of think tank that has all this crap on a webpage that you go and download? Artificially squeezing prices? LMAO. I don't even know where to begin with that. For starters, that particular argument has nothing to do with oil companies, it's hedge funds and speculators. But, shit, that only affects the short term market fluctuations, overall there is a chronic lag between production and supply. Why do you think America nearly shit itself after Katrina wiped out the Gulf? They were ready to crack open their emergency reserve stockpiles. And even that take on the issue negates the fact that the oil exporting countries and oil companies have been fudging the figures for decades now, every major development promised has turned out to be a boondogle. The oil companies pump and dump, get investment for potential reserves before exploration has established that initial estimates were drasticly overstated. All of these alleged 'next big finds' are a load of crap, like the Caspian Sea turned out to be, and the 'new technology' that is supposed to make old fields more productive is still yet to materialise. We are facing an energy crunch, peak oil or no peak oil, if you think the price of oil is going to drop anytime soon then I have some very nice real estate you might be interested in! All the naysayers and anti-Chavez zealots always mutter away in very serious tones- 'Oh just wait til the price of oil drops again, just wait. Then he';s screwed- Phhh, yeah and I believe in tooth fairies! In the meantime, Venezuela is playing a role in the new dawn for Latin America, for the first time the continent is restructuring itself based on S. American interests. Infrastructure is being built which, rather than being oreiented towaqrds getting resources out to foreign powers (ie. spain and america), infrastructure in now being oriented to support inter-continental trade. New trading blocs and economic co-operation spheres are being proposed. Serious alternatives to the system of western imperialisn that has for so long oppressed South America are finally being raised. New international indigenous movements are being formed, so that Bolivia has for the first time elected a representative of the majority Indian population. This is where future development for Venezuela will come. If they can assist in developing their region then they can help raise eachother up, they will have less need to look abroad for capital investment. The people who write the spin that you regurgitate would prefer to see all of this taken away, that is why they hate Chavez. I don't doubt you have good intentions but you really need to pull your head out of your westerncentric arse and smell the roses, the Bolivarian revlution has been good for most Venezuelans. All your ideals of freedom and democracy mean absolutely NOTHING to people who have to struggle to feed themselves. I don't think Chavez is any sort of messianic figure, and I don't think he is always right and nor do i always agree with his centralsit ideas. But fuck it. It can' b any worse than it has been already in that country. It's about time we stopped interfering in their affairs with our righteous moralising and just let THE most popular VZ government ever try to forge their path forward. 5. But if your so concerned, where are all your posts about your OWN governments increases in defense spending, or the money we are wasting buying bunk jets and submarines from the US. Or is that all ok because we are a good, white nation 6. Hmmm, I dunno? Maybe EVERY NATION STATE ON EARTH! 7. You're the one preying on ignorant, with your gross manipulation of the facts (ie. Chavez is in power forever, Venezuela is a one-party state). Or more likely, some spin agency has preyed on your own ignorance by giving the impression to anyone who doesn't actually read whole articles that the things you have stated are fact, when they are really just gross distortions. But here you go again, trying to compare Ven. with Iran. Either you are very ignorant as to how the respective governmetns operate or you are intentionally trying to obsfucate the issue adn bring in som kid of guilt by association. Poor debatin techniques by any standard 8. PMP! I was right! Which site Do you guys get this BS from?! I've already pointed out above the "artificially inflated" price of oil is not going to drop. Ever. Not in any significant measure anyway. If oil ever drops below $60 a barrel ever again I will personally come and lick the sweat from you arse crack- every day, twice a day- until one of us is dead. 9. Real election? Maybe you should tell us what you mean by "real election". Please, if you have any evidence of elections in VZ being rigged, present it. The 2006 election was declared free and fair by the Carter Center, the European Union, Mercosur, and the Organization of American States. You keep up with this BS insinuation that VZ is somehow undemocratic, despite nearly every example of this has been shown to be fake. How long are you going to continue slandering VZ with vague generalisations and start presenting a few facts? 10. Yeah, well, I know that if I had a choice between growing up in havana or S. Florida I know which one I would choose. Would Cuba be better under Castro's model, or under say the Haitian model of "democracy"

Thought you weren't going tp 'bother past this point'? No time now but I will be back to point out more factual inaccuracies. Of course, you'll just write it off as sycophantism and try to steer the discussion onto something else.

LOL... What are you talking about? He has consolidated all the leftist parties in the bolivarian alliance in a single party, not a move I necessarily support but it is a LONG way from a single party state. Opposition candidates can still stand, they simply choose not to as part of heir tantrum at the fact they KNOW they can't win an election because they have NO popular support. That is their decision, not Chavez's. Again with the misinformation :rolls eyes: Taking into account Messer Howard's iron grip on the Liberal Party, and their control of the senate, it's not far off it. We put up with three years of that, Chavez is asking for only eighteen months. I'd ask whether you bothered to read the article I posted on constitutional government but it's painfully obvious you haven't. I'll leave it at that. Well there you, at least that's a valid criticism. Although judging by your record so far in this thread I would certainly look into that more before taking your word for it. For starters, I never called you a neoliberal, I said that the idea of Central banks as somehow sacrosanct is a neoliberal sacred-cow. Maybe you're right about them, maybe your not. I'll be the first to admit economics go over my head to a large degree, but I know enough to realise that some of these neoliberal sacred-cow truths have caused no end of pain for ordinary Latin Americans. There is no reason in the world why they would continue accepting neoliberal dogma, so if they want to experiment with a few alternatives then good for them. It is being done democratically and with HUGE popular support, unlike the very undemocratic imposition of neoliberal policies, who the fuck are we to double guess them? I'm not a sycophant, I just keep up with the news. I was reading a thread and I saw you making an outrageous falsehood, which I corrected. You then tried to veer the discussion in another direction, without even acknowledging you very, very basic factual error, and then went on to make even more. It's a pretty poor show to just call me a sycophant then take you bat 'n' ball and go home. Oh well, what can I do? I graciously accept your defeat, I guess

Please, if you have the slightest evidence that Venezuelan elections are anything but free and fair then I would love to see it. If the opposition are to stupid that they boycott the elections in tantrum because they ahd zero chance of winning, then that's too bad. But the electoral process is very above board. Certainly, it is a LOT more transparent than those of some of Venezuela's northern neighbours. That's a nice move though, the moment you get called out for making up utter codswallop you try and shift the discussion and cast more unfounded negative aspersions against Chavez. Don't you think that if you can be so fundamentally misinformed about the supposed undemocratic nature of these reforms that you might question whether other perceptions you have of the Bolivarian revolution may be as equally unfounded?

Ron Paul on the unconstitutionality of the Federal Reserve system

An unsourced quote with dubious translation. That'll show 'em! Where is it written in stone that a private banking institution should have a monopoly over a staes monetary policy? It's another one of those dogmatic and ideological neoliberal principles that has little basis empirical fact. Why should a states sovereign independence be controlled by private interests, that is tyranny plain and simple. Central banks aren't a law of nature, their power can be challenged at any moment. In fact, in the US one of the most popular dark-horses in the GOP primaries, Ron Paul, is suggesting just that, and is garnering unparalelled grass-roots support in America.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2120

LOL... No wonder people think Chavez is the devil incarnate when they are so hopelessly misinformed!

Hasta la Victoria Siempre, Querido Comandante!

Is John Howard a benevolent dictator? Many countries have unlimited terms, I can understand an American getting hysterical about the concept but it really is a bit hypocritical coming from an Australian. Shit, Bob Menzies was PM for something like 40 years all up.

Graeme Hancock being interviewed about his book 'Supernatural'. DMT, ayahuasca, entity contact, the roots of religion etc There's like seven parts so link is to search page. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...p;search=Search

ASorry about the bump, just little heads up for folk who might think police are above this kind of thing

Making it WORSE?!?! How can it get any WORSE?!?! JEHOVAH! JEHOVAH! JEHOVAH!

NEEEEIIIIIGGGGGHH!

Hahahaha! No shit (not for him, not for a week or two at least!)

I can't believe people here are buying into this sensationalist bollocks. These theories have been well and truly debunked. It's not 'open minded' to buy into this shit, open minded would be examining the scientific consensus achieved by over 2,500 scientists from over eighty countries on the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change that found a ninety per cent certainty that global warming is caused by humans. If anyone is truly open minded thay will examine the science contained in the IPCC report http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html

My lungs need all the help they can get

Spore, you literally start of as a spore on a microbial level and evolve to the point that you can colonise entire galaxies. Staggering in its scope and the thought that's gone into it. Simply mindblowing.

Some screen shots for peeps whose internet connections can't deal with youtube... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(video_game)

It's so nice that blacks in this country have to sign away their land to lease in order to receive the basic services white australia simply expects

Haha, I sell green energy, it's awesome! And it is for real, if it's accredited that means the company has to be audited on their emission reductions and reinvest into renewable's. Considering 60% of Australia's emissions are generated from residential energy use it really is the best thing a consumer can do at a grass-roots level to reign in the countries carbon output. If anyone in Vic or SA wants to be hooked up just send me a PM and I'll give you a call, I'll even chuck in six low-energy light bulbs, a water-saving shower-head and a green Sherrin football for free! ;)

Rusty brown spores are a real good indication of what not to eat. See the brown stains on the stem?... Throw these away.

Mystery fossil turns out to be giant fungus Tue 24 Apr 2007, 6:01 GMT [-] Text [+] CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists have identified the Godzilla of fungi, a giant, prehistoric fossil that has evaded classification for more than a century, U.S. researchers said on Monday. A chemical analysis has shown that the 20-foot-tall (6-metre) organism with a tree-like trunk was a fungus that became extinct more than 350 million years ago, according to a study appearing in the May issue of the journal Geology. Known as Prototaxites, the giant fungus originally was thought to be a conifer. Then some believed it was a lichen, or various types of algae. Some suspected it was a fungus. "A 20-foot-fungus doesn't make any sense. Neither does a 20-foot-tall algae make any sense, but here's the fossil," C. Kevin Boyce, a University of Chicago assistant professor of geophysical sciences, said in a statement. Francis Hueber of the National Museum of Natural History first suggested the fungus possibility based on an analysis of the fossil's internal structure, but had no conclusive proof. Boyce and colleagues filled in the blanks, comparing the types of carbon found in the giant fossil with plants that lived about the same time, about 400 million years ago. If Prototaxites were a plant, its carbon structures would resemble similar plants. Instead, Boyce found a much greater diversity in carbon content than would have been expected of a plant. Fungi, which include yeast, mold and mushrooms, represent their own kingdom, neither plant nor animal. Once classified as plants, they are now considered a closer cousin to animals but they absorb rather than eat their food. Samples of the giant fungi have been found all over the world from 420 million to 350 million years ago during a period in which millipedes, bugs and worms were among the first creatures to make their home on dry land. No animals with a backbone had left the oceans yet. The tallest trees stood no more than a couple of feet (a metre) high, offering little competition for the towering fungi. Plant-eating dinosaurs had not yet evolved to trample Prototaxites' to the ground. "It's hard to imagine these things surviving in the modern world," Boyce said. © Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN425280.html

^^^