Where's all the sisters?? You not bothered by the concept of the Women section? Originally posted by Naden A Lifestyles section could (and should) be open to both genders' health/fashion/relationship concerns since the guys walk in with their dusty little feet into every thread anyway. A good idea indeed Naden!

Originally posted by Mj. bad Cas ^Hey I said I am old, but not That old. All I can remember though is that television sets were still black and white. lol

Brother Khayr, I don't know so much about this brain-chip more than what you have posted. But it seems like this chip is not about to cure the diseased person or prevent the neurodegeneration, but rather to ameliorate the persons handicap, and thus improving the quality of his or her life. Doesn't that make you a Cyborg. You won't have MAN being a reflection of GOD but rather a Deformed and Transfigured MAN that can no longer connect to Divinity and their Theomorphism (i.e. Bani Adam, Man created in the Image of God as God's representative on Earth). What if you've lost one or more of your extremities, are you a cyborg if you choose to have prosthesis? The brain like your heart, liver etc. is an organ, that can be inflicted by damage or disease. As long as the medication, treatment, implantation does not alter the individuals personality I don't see what the problem is? Previously, patients with Parkinson's disease or similar diseases could have a surgery where small region in the brain was "burnt" in order to prevent tremor on one side of the body, which is a huge improvement for someone who otherwise couldn't even drink a cup of tea. Today, the method is sophisticated, instead a chip that is connected to a pacemaker is implanted into the same brain region. This way one does not have to permanently destroy anything in the brain, and the system is adjustable. Just like a wheel-chair or even spectacles make life easier for those who need it, what difference does it make if the helping device is on the inside instead? The statement that the quantity of a human beings life is more in focus rather than the quality of it, in clinical research is really nothing but a bogus claim!! I think you have your arguments a bit skewed brother. It is the pro-abortionists and the pro-euthanasiasts that use those arguments to make their case... rather abort a fetus with a severe disease than letting it suffer - quality over quantity. And what about stem cells Khayr, what's wrong with them :confused: :confused:

Inabti, is there any doubt that I am an old man? I have been in Qurbaha for almost ten years now (will be three yrs. from now), and I was grown up man chasing chicks around in Hargeysa before than, so you do the math. [smile] What was it like back then awoowe...

Okay, enough about you said this and you said that. It seems like we’re arguing for the sake of the argument. I’ve been sidestepping the topic of your post becajse I didn’t want to discuss that subject, but some aspect of the topic did interest me, more precisely the concept of free-will. I most certainly can’t harmonize free-will and the concept of an almighty God that has pre-ordained things, in my reasoning this remains a paradox. The statement I wrote previously and which you, JB, still asking me to consolidate is not something I believe, and I thought I made that clear in the sentence that did follow. Anyway, like you I believe there is a free-will, emphasizing on “I believe”, because I can’t logically explain it. I’m not really sure how I would have religious agenda with this discussion, in that case I’d be arguing opposite case. However, I don’t have any rational arguments to support free-will, so if you do have, please share them. If there is a scientific definition to free-will, I’d love to learn on which principles they were founded!! One might wonder why I’m arguing something which in the end I don’t believe in... well let’s just say I find it stimulating and mind-boggling... and I hope along the way I’ve learnt something from this discussion. Now having said that, what I wanted to argue was that for a free-will to exist there has to be a “free” THINKING, and in my last post I wanted to explain how our thinking is derived from nothing more than physical and chemical responses. Hence, “free” would have no actual meaning. If you don’t agree with this, and instead argue the opposite, with all due respect that this is a bit far-fetched from the topic at hand, what facts and/or reasoning do you base your conclusion on besides referring to that there is a scientific definition for free-will.

what do you mean hot for her age Bixi...I actually happen to know Shukri...

Mj bada Cas, there is at least two generations between Mr Lee and Mr Chan. You're either still a child or had a very looong childhood

What a lovely couple to watch Kaka and Seedorf Just hope they don't drug test Milan... Gattuso looked really high on something.

Paragon, I'm sorry to say it but at the moment not much actually. We, Students against war, did arrange a panel discussion about the US/Ethiopia invasion of Somalia just right after the US bombings. I was surprised to see the number of interested swedish people that did turn up (we had bad luck with a snow storm), and the discussion was really good and constructive. Remember I had some difficulties convincing a somalian website to put up info about the event, at that time, didn't think anyone could support the invasion... guess I was wrong. Unfortunately I wasn't able to include anything about Somalia, which I really regret, in the last peace festival we arranged two weeks ago (with the topic "Who's a terrorist"), and to be honest at the moment I'm to exhausted to initiate anything, not a lot of help can be found out here but you guys are really encouraging!! By the way, have a nice trip Paragon!

It's Labour day tomorrow and I assume that there will be major demonstrations arranged in London. Why not join the demo with with your own banners, hand out flyers with short info and facts about what's going on in Somalia, and also info about your coming demo... I see you've contacted muslim organisations, why not also include organisations of other faiths. I've had some good experience of a christian organisation called Broderskapsrörelsen...I think they might be an international organisation, so in english they'd be called the Brotherhood movement. Anyway, there must be lots of other christians for peace out there one could contact. Paragon, Xanthus, peacenow, I'd love to give you guys a hand, but I'm miles away... all can do is say "keep up the good work!" I think someone already suggested it, but why not move this topic to the General section?

Oh I just did post my 100 post!!! Finally I'm a nomad again... calls for celebrtion!

Nearly 3 years and haven't reached 100 posts... that must be record.

I think a demonstration is a good idea, but only if you're sure you can mobilize a good number of people, if not you'll just get disappointed. Make contact with people or organizations that might support you and can recruit people to join your demonstration. If there are people with various background (ethnicity, religion, gender etc.) the impact will be greater. There are many peace organizations you could contact, and well known organizations such as amnesty, political parties, politicians. When presenting to non-somali people, perhaps it's good to put the aggression on Somalia into a bigger picture - Ethiopia being USAs henchman (TFG being nothing but puppets) in USAs war on terror. Put it also into a historical context starting from the cold war. I think this is important since not that many people actually understands what this conflict is about, and we need to make them understand it's not just an internal Somalian issue... we need to educate people, so they can join our protests. You probably already know all of this... it's just a reminder

Northernerphobia - Fear of Northerner posting a long list of phobias

There is no such thing as a modern midwife... although I like Che's idea with the drive through It was a lame respons to rooblehs odd conclusion that if I handle liquid nitrogen I must be working on a fertility lab.

Originally posted by JB Lol....there you needed to go to details, at least for the sake of clarity and openness,to be frank you even needed to define what a free will is in your context, but now that you intentionally/unintentionally skipped, let me make take a shot. Free-will in scientific context is different from free-will in religious or theological context,in science the concept of free-will is at odds with the concept of Determinism(all current and future events are necessitated by past events combined with the laws of nature). Lets skip the theological context, I’m only interested in the scientific one. Lol JB, I don’t have any agenda to this discussion, whatever the outcome of this discussion may be I’m satisfied, I don’t have any ready-made answers to you, I’m open-minded as long as you have convincing rationality or facts to support your arguments and so far I’m not convinced. If you could help me come to the logical conclusion that we in the end do have a free-will... whatever the definition might be – I’d be glad. If not, nothing has changed. Well JB, I’m arguing, that if I use rational thinking, there is no free-will/choice whatsoever, so I don't think I have to define? You wanted details about how I came to the conclusion about you having red hair... I really wanted to skip this part to keep this discussion on more abstract level (at least avoid to make it boring), but okay. I can see the words on the screen thanks to the light being reflected and when this light reaches my eye, the photoreceptors of the retina (rods and cones) transform the energy in the light into chemical energy which on the biological level will result in the firing of action potential in a certain pattern. This activates a certain network of neurons that will travel horizontally to the occipital lobe (our visual center that is) which is in the back of the brain. Here the information will be processed and trigger many other neural networks, and at least one signal is sent to somewhere in the frontal lobe. The signal to the frontal lobe triggers in turn many other areas in the brain to get information (mainly from our memory) on how to respond to this input . Finally signals are sent to the periferal nervous system, in more precis to the nerves controlling my finger muscles. So I type “red curls” because that’s the thought the words on the screen generated in my brain. Now I explained my point of view how a thinking process occurs. Now I’m interested in you explaining how a thought without any chemical or physical properties initiates a chemical response, which you at least agree on is needed for the thought process. I think you need to explain it because of your previous statement Originally posted by JB Wait a jiffy abayo , the answer to that 'probably to be' sarcastic question is a BIG No, what we think is not the product of mere chemical reactions in our brains,it is the product of our thoughts. chemical reactions are what take place during our thought processing,we decide what we want to think about,we don't decide what chemical reactions that will take place in our brains, How on earth do we decide what to think??? Again you said Cause & Effect describe a relationship between chain of events,while a thought is the product of a thinking process,what causes us to THINK in the first place is totally different subject. To claim that we're conscious beeings should suffice for now. Well, I think I did a pretty good explanation for how a thought process could be generated... but perhaps there are different definitions to what it means to “THINK”, and you say it is a totally different subject, what subject does it belong to?? JB, du är kanske förvisso gammal men kanske är jag äldre och därmed mindre dum Jag är som katten runt het gröt, pratar om allt annat än vad du hade tänkt dig... men det gör väl inget

Why not Xanthus

I consider myself to be the modern version of midwife...

Originally posted by JB quote: Originally posted by Elysian: However, coming back to my question... lol JB , hey I'm the irrational person here remember, and I've made so far no attempts to rationalise the conflict between faith vs free will. Elysian, walalo, you're not necessarily the irrational one of us , and i absolutely see no conflict between faith and free will, One can both have the free will to have faith or the free will to not have faith. I meant to say fate not faith... my mistake. Originally posted by JB Perhaps the whole idea of wondering my stance and wrapping it regardingly is slightly tedious, maybe we'd do ourselves a favor if we discussed the subject matter , namely Prayers and related matters, thus , atleast we'd skip some wild assumptions and make unnecessary loss of space. Lol... I’m overwhelmed by your humbleness. You are right I’m diverting from the subject, but I can’t help to wonder about certain things and I was hoping you’d help me to sort them out ... if you have some space to spare that is. Originally posted by JB chemical reactions are what take place during our thought processing,we decide what we want to think about,we don't decide what chemical reactions that will take place in our brains, to realize that, just hold on a second , stop reading this and think about JB's hair color, see? voila,you just did think and inso doing of course caused a chemical reaction in your brain. Well first of all I could easily explain this in terms of cause and consequence. Without going into details... the cause would be the text I read “think about JB’s hair color”– visual input, triggering a thought process which resulted in a mental picture of JB’s hair – red curls that is So my thought did not come from nowhere, your writing caused me to think about your hair... there was no free-will involved here, only physics and chemistry. Originally posted by JB Wait a jiffy abayo , the answer to that 'probably to be' sarcastic question is a BIG No, what we think is not the product of mere chemical reactions in our brains,it is the product of our thoughts. Honestly, JB I’m not trying to be sarcastic. It’s just that I use logics as a tool to understand this reality, but not for explaining existential questions (so calling me irrational is in place), while you come across to me as someone who relies entirely on logics to understand everything, and if not possible fence-sitting is a good resort. So when you say a big no to the statement that our thoughts are only the product of chemical reactions, I simply don’t see the argument for your conclusion... that our thoughts would arise from nothing, as an isolated event, that initially triggers the rest of the thought cascade. I’m wondering then where and of what the “original” thought was made, if chemistry is not involved? Originally posted by JB If you meant to say that our thoughts and actions are all derived merely from the chemical reactions in our brains, hence, they,per se lack genuine meaning , so is your thought that there is a God that answeres your prayers, or even more concretely , so is your very thought that this is the case. I most certainly don’t believe it, but if I would use logic thinking isn’t this the rational conclusion? Originally posted by JB What we're is generally termed as Human beeings, and again unlike you i'd sit at the fence till i could cincerly and certainly tilt, instead of concluding as you did and call myself a product of the natural laws that govern everything. there is no knowledge known to mankind that says we're the product of those natural laws, the humble knowledge we've tells us that we're ruled by those natural laws. I must say I’m a bit shocked to hear this from you. I thought you were a true evolutionist... you know the kind that argues we originate from a cocktail of amino acids without even blinking. You’re starting to sound religious JB. You know there’s this swedish saying “när fan blir gammal blir han religiös”... are you getting old sxb

Mj bad Cas I knew there was nitrogen in the tank, I just didn't think it was full. Now the skin is black roobleh, advise... be careful. If you want special effects use dry ice, works just as good to make the clouds. Oh, you could put dry ice into a small tube, close the lid and put in your friends pocket... make sure your friend doesn't have a weak heart! I know... this is what geeks do at the lab to have fun :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Paragon There is a degree to weirdness and the Scandinavians seem to have the lead on it. I strongly object to that Paragon!! My fellow Swedes are not weird... I mean besides being a people that need 1.2 per millage of alcohol before they attempt to be social, or that they during the midsummer eve men, women, children, grandparents jump like frogs around a huge phallic symbol, or that they love to eat traditional rotten fish, doesn't mean that...hmmm... forgot my point :rolleyes:

Xiin, I don't have any other arguments than what has been said many many times, and I don't think repeating them again will do any good. However, let me put it this way, you are right, the arguments for a greater Somalia are valid and that's why it was formed in the 60s. But how long did it last? How long did the people of Somalia feel united, where they ever patriotic or was their loyalty clan based... was there ever a "somaalinimo" transgressing qabiilnimo? The arguments for a united Somalia today are still the same, but history has taught us otherwise, and reer Somaliland are acting according to their experience... Is it really that difficult to understand (not saying you have to agree)?

lol... just getting started you say. You really think you'll convince Centurion, xiin and the others? Why not just be honest and say their arguments are legitimate, but not convincing enough for a united Somalia?

You could say that, it's about -200 degrees celsius... can't really use my right index finger at the moment really angry with myself

Lol maad isku xiiqdeen... have you agreed on anything? Otherwise, why not settle with, agree to disagree