Bolded by me. No, this is objectively untrue. Vaccines have historically saved millions of people - the only people at risk are the very very rare individuals that have an allergic reaction to said vaccines. And vaccines still save far more people overall due to the danger of herd immunity being compromised.

I do agree that the state should force people to vaccinate their children, but in passive ways (such as denying families state benefits if they refuse, and forcing them to alert other parents if their own children are unvaccinated). I don't agree that criminal charges such as actual fines/prison should be applied because that is a bit authoritarian in my view, but I have no problem with the state denying benefits to unvaccinated families. If you don't like it, you can move to a country where it's not enforced.

I'm pretty sure the OP is a dumb racist.

There are plenty of black + ethnic people that are intelligent and become successful in their fields. 

A popular theory (which makes a lot of sense) is that many black people that live in slums/ghettos/poor areas don't have the resources/money or motivation to get higher education, but this is not because of their skin colour/nationality - this is because they grew up in a ghetto that automatically gave them less chance in life to pursue higher education. This is especially true if you grow up in a country with a totalitarian and corrupt government, like a lot of Middle Eastern and African countries have.

In the West (USA/UK etc.) this has nothing to do with their skin colour, but everything to do with segregation of non-native people in the last 20-70 years into seperate areas in cities with poor oppurtunities. Which was engineered by powerful white politicians and influencers.

While it is perfectly possible for different races to show advantages in different things (kenyans/ethiopians being incredible long distance runners/black people being incredible sprinters [but not so great swimmers]), I think the whole eugenics movement claiming black people are inferior intellectually to white people has some SERIOUS flaws, such as confounding factors to do with lifestyle/location/other people's attitude towards them.

Update: I will be putting these watches on eBay in the next few weeks If there's no interest.

Offers are welcome, on individual watches or the job lot.

I also have a GAC-100 in White/Rose gold that I don't wear atm and want to sell:



This picture is not of mine, mine is in quite used condition, with discoloration on the bezel and strap. Hence it would be worth maybe £30-50, no more. But with a new bezel/strap it would look brand new!

I can totally understand the mindset of people who buy expensive swiss watches (although I personally would never spend multiple thousands on a watch). It's similar to women buying jewellery, a millionare woman would happily spend $20,000 on a ring or necklace; complex, beautiful mechanical watches that are precision engineered and limited edition have the same appeal for millionaire men.

I have a thing for G-Shock watches - I like how their priority is being a tool over a piece of art/jewellery, but they still look cool as fuck on your wrist. Yeah they may be mainly constructed of mostly resin and plastic, and are quartz powered (but if it has remote control to atomic clock signals, like my GWA-1100 does, then it's perpetually accurate to less than a second.)

My two favourites that I wear ATM are my GWA-1100 (Radio controlled, inbuilt compass, world time, stopwatch, timer, alarm etc. And it's all analog which I love), I got a good deal on that at £250:



And my Limited Edition GD-X6900 Casio x Maharishi "Lunar Bonsai" - it's got Moon camo bitches!!!  :



I have a bunch of G-Shocks for sale, mostly older digital ones but I'd be willing to part with the above GD-X6900 MH-2 for a fair price - it's probably worth around £200 but I'd let it go for less with payment in BTC or XMR.

Check my G-Shock sales thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1610064.msg16169552#msg16169552

Interesting opinion. I think the exact opposite will happen, IMO Sterling is up shit creek without a fucking paddle.

Some points to consider:

Significant bear market since Brexit vote.
Number of extreme flash crashes (the most recent a few days ago where gbp/usd dropped to somewhere around 1.15) with little sign of support buying and therefore no significant correction.
Current level 1.22 (down from something like 1.55 a year ago)
The "handouts" you mention are:

A. Still being given out as UK is still technically in the EU, and
B. Basically worth fuck all in the grand scheme of things. Roughly £10B per year I believe is the rough figure we give to the EU? Our GDP was $2.7 TR USD in 2013. Also we import a lot more than we export, take a look at this chart: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/OverseasTradeStatistics/Pages/OTS.aspx

For a country that imports more than it exports, a weakening currency is bad. The loss of revenue from the increasing price of imports will trickle down and start affecting the general population. It's really bad for savers too (if your savings are in gbp of course).

The only UK companies this is good for are those that rely heavily on exports, preferably using resources that they buy from within the UK.

OP you have balls of steel making long trades right now, I would be shorting the shit out of GBP if I had the capital...

Nice laptop, but I'm assuming the OP is looking for a desktop.

With a desktop you will get better power for your money, and the ability to choose more specific components for your needs. You can also overclock certain components in a desktop to gain power far more safely than in a laptop.

I have a desktop with the i5 6600K CPU, and a Nvidia (MSI) GTX 970, 8GB of DDR4 RAM (I think it's running at 3000 Mhz). My CPU is modestly overclocked to 4 Ghz with an all-in-one liquid cooler. The system is very stable, and plays most games at high or ultra settings at 1080p, at 60fps. 500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD and a couple of 1TB hard drives for storage. It's just ove a year old I think.

I would class this as a midrange desktop gaming PC, I saved money on the CPU so went for the 6600k rather than the 6700K, and spent the extra on a better GPU.

For gaming, ALWAYS prioritise the GPU, as this will give you the most frame-rate increase for the money. The new "Pascal" Nvidia cards are the way to go right now, you should be looking at the GTX 1060/1070/1080, basically the best you can afford.

CPU wise, if you are building a brand new system then I would go for the Intel Skylake CPUs, either the i5 6600K or the more expensive i7 6700K. Right now there's not much difference in gaming capability between the two, but in the future more games might utilise the multithreading on the i7 6700K  Bear in mind you will need a new mobo and DDR4 RAM for this strategy.

If you have an older mobo and RAM you want to use, and are on a bit more of a budget, then it might be worth looking at the older Haswell CPUs - the 4790k and 4690K. These will use DDR3 RAM, and will be incompatible with DDR4.

The "K" in the processor names means it has an unlocked multiplier, which mean you can overclock it to gain maximum speed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To sum up, for a brand new gaming PC I would recommend an i5-6600K processor, with the best Nvidia 10 series GPU you can afford. Don't be tempted to get a better processor instead of a better GPU. 8GB DDR4 RAM is sufficient atm, but newer games might require 16GB, so I'd be inclined to go for 16GB of the cheapest DDR4 RAM, speed of RAM isn't much of an issue.

Storage wise, go for SSD if you can afford it. You should at least get a small SSD (64/128GB minimum) and then a 1TB hard drive or two for extra storage. This way you can install your OS on the SSD, with a few games too for super fast startup and quick game loading. Best case secenario, keep it all SSD. Don't be tempted by the super fast 950 EVO SSDs, they are quicker but are a lot more expensive.

If these components are too much money (Intel 6600K and Nvidia 1060 minimum) then investigate the older Intel Haswell chips for more of a bargain gaming PC (but less powerful and futureproof).

Good Luck!

I already posted a simple experiment that you can do at home which proves you wrong, in this post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1217246.msg13876352#msg13876352

Have you tried it yet or are you too close-minded to even attempt to prove yourself wrong?

Also you don't understand how turbos work if you think they disprove rocket thrust in a vacuum.

Exactly what I was going to say. I think they're both scoundrels, but I believe Trump as president would have a worse impact on America, and the world as a whole.

Yes this was the main point of my post, these initial posits are highly unlikely. There isn't enough evidence to consider them plausible enough to formulate serious theories around, when compared to the huge amount of hard biological and historical evidence. Even discussing them in a "thought experiment" way is kind of pointless IMO, it's similar to basing theories on the plot of "Star Wars" - fun but ultimately useless.
I didn't say "human intelligence alone", other factors could have been involved, e.g. natural phenomenon such as mutation of plant DNA, environmental change (ice ages/sea level rises), causing natural selection, which could have been exploited through selective breeding by our early human ancestors that were learning to communicate more complex ideas with each other.

Both of your points are pretty much the same thing, and yes I think they are reasonably strong arguments. There are elements of assumption (there always is in science and philosphy), but as I said there's plenty of evidence that humans 20-50,000 years ago were becoming intelligent and sophisticated - fashioning weapons for hunting, forming social groups, making cave paintings (the oldest found is 40,000 years old) and building tools. This link shows the oldest tools ever found (3.3m years) and predate early humans: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32804177

I think it's likely that the changes in human intelligence and society, that evidence shows happened around 50,000 years ago, would have an accelerating impact on the knowledge and skills required to hunt, gather and farm. Information passed on from generation to generation, and being improved all the time.
First of all, I don't think we should be using the Bible in this discussion. Mainly because we are talking about events that happened way before the bible existed, >20,000 years ago. The bible is not relevant here.

Anyhow, you're comparing apples and oranges here - even intelligent people today believe the most ridiculous things. Just look at how the Nazis indoctrinated their countrymen, the same with Soviet communism, people today that believe the Earth is flat. Don't forget that in biblical times there were severe consequences for people that defied the bible - look what happened to the heretic scientists when the suggested heliocentrism.

Clever people often believe ridiculous things. Doesn't mean they can't perform basic observation and communication to their piers, e.g. "keep the seeds from the juiciest plants and plant them next year, throw away the seeds from the weakest plants". It's really not that hard, right?
I agree, that is interesting and it's something I won't comment on here as I was unaware of the research. However I would re-stress the fact that many of the staple grains and fruits farmed 10-20,000 years ago and eaten by early humans could have been freak beneficial mutations, that were then exploited through selective breeding. We are talking on much larger timescales here (~10,000 years) than the 100 or so years that this stuff has actually been academically studied, so obviously less natural mutations could occur.

An example of your confirmation bias (IMO) is basically how your OP rejects looking at the quality of the initial evidence, and then makes too many assumptions that all seem to be trying to provide evidence for a supernatural/alien intervention. Perhaps I was mistaken, however your comments about the Bible/angels etc. (and your belief that atheism is poisonous) led me to believe you were quite a religious/spiritual person.
I'm assuming you believe in some sort of god/supernatural creator? Or do you think it was... aliens?

Anyway, this is irrelevant to the topic, I might consider reading some more into this if any good evidence arises.

I'm not going to get too much into this, but just lay out a few areas where your thinking is flawed.

First and foremost, you're making an initial mistake by using misleading evidence from what seems like a suspicious source (Nexus Magazine (2002)), and then making huge assumptions (Your "Starting Posits") to try and incorporate the views into a plausible theory.

I'll go through some of the questionable evidence:

1. The article states that there is no evidence of an evolutionary connection between flowering plants and their predecessors. This is false, here is an article (with a sourced paper from 2013) showing evidence to the contrary, a 'genomic doubling' : http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/origin-flowers-has-been-discovered/

2. The author has this strange idea that humans couldn't eat wild grains for years because they were too small and hard, he says they managed to miraculously change them 5-10,000 years ago. In fact people were eating wild grains well over 20,000 years ago. He doesn't take into account any rational explanation for how these grains evolved (such as ice ages/climate change/mutation/environmental change etc.), he just jumps straight at the "god/alien intervention" theory, as you have.

3. The article make more assumptions, that what it calls "directed crossbreeding" is an incredibly technical process, that couldn't have been achieved by "primitive barbarians". In fact, this crossbreeding would have almost certainly started in the form of artificial selection/selective breeding, and is actually a very simple and easy concept to observe. I have no doubt that primitive humans that were capable of planting crops could have started selective breeding within a few generations. If a beneficial mutation occurred in a plant (higher yield/larger fruit etc) then this knowledge could have been applied straight away to exploit the mutation, creating huge amounts of crops even within a single human generation.

Another relevant theory (which I think you touch on in your post) is the population explosion and more sophisticated behaviour in humans that occurred about 50,000 years ago. Is it not much more plausible that this increase in population, intelligence and social sophistication allowed humans to start experimenting with plants, noting which ones grew well in certain conditions etc? There is strong evidence for their hunting techniques improving at this time, and if we look at some ancient tribes, they have incredibly specific knowledge about the plants and animals that inhabit their environment.

So to sum up, although your theory is certainly an interesting one, I don't believe there is anywhere near enough evidence for it. You are showing strong signs of confirmation bias, trying to fit selective evidence and theories into what I suspect is some sort of religious/supernatural worldview.

That was an interesting dump, looks like someone unloaded nearly 100,000 XMR at market, dropping the price to about 0.0184.

I'm no expert but maybe someone wanted to squeeze out some long margin positions and/or use scare tactics to get some cheaper coins?

What a rip off.

Ladies of BCT, I will offer my services to you for a fraction of the price. For the small fee of only £29 per year I will personally creep into your room every morning, at the time of your choosing, and proceed to fingerbang you until you awake, fresh as a daisy and ready for a productive day ahead! I will even offer to supervise the making of your breakfast (Unfortunately I can't actually make breakfast, my fingers will be sticky and unsuitable for culinary activities).

Please contact me at fuzzy_clam_buzzer@cunnilingdingdingdingus.com

No offence, but I hated Batman v Superman, for me it seemed like just another generic superhero movie cashing in on the current trend.

However Ex Machina was amazing IMO, good shout on that one. It really makes you think about the philosophical implications of AI, and is very well directed with some tense moments and interesting cinematography. Interesting that you would recommend such different movies!

Some of my recommendations would be:

"Oldboy" (Original Korean version)
"Tokyo Gore Police" (Totally OTT Japanese action horror, not for the faint-hearted)
"Birdman" (Satirical take on the superhero genre, incredible acting and cinematography, quite arty and not a superhero movie)
"Akira" (Classic anime film, amazing soundtrack and crazy storyline)
"What we do in The Shadows" (Hilarious mockumentary film about a group of vampires living in New Zealand)

Also check out my "Arthouse/cult/classic movie thread" for some strange and wonderful movies, feel free to discuss or add your own recommendations!

Thanks for the info dEB, will be investigating your links regarding paper wallet.

And regarding the recent dump, I just threw my last 0.5 BTC (of trading allowance) into my first ever margin long at 0.02 - lets see how it pans out!

Thanks, sorry forgot to mention you in my big ups! Very much appreciate your posts and guides. Follow up question, for a 'conventional wallet" would I need to download the whole blockchain to sync the wallet (I am using 4g mobile internet atm so that wouldn't be possible atm, I would have to create paper wallet if that is the case).

"Under The Skin" (2013)





Directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Scarlett Johansson, this film is pretty damn weird, but I absolutely loved it. The pacing is slow, and it's certainly not the sort of film you would expect Scarlett Johansson to be acting in. If you're expecting a Hollywood style spoon fed narrative, with multiple action sequences and breakneck editing to hold your attention, you probably won't enjoy it. But if you think of it more as a haunting art-piece with disturbing imagery and metaphors on the human psyche and society, you might be pleasantly surprised, if a little creeped out.

Basically, Johansson plays an alien being that assumes a human identity (possibly to research humans and their customs and society?), and while in Scotland, attempts to seduce unsuspecting men on the streets of Glasgow, which she then lures into a strange void (possibly another dimension) where they are engulfed in a black liquid where very bad things happen to them. Many of these scenes were unscripted, and filmed with hidden cameras, which gives them an unnerving degree of realism as the male victims are unaware of the cameras and act totally naturally. Johansson's performance is excellent in my opinion, she doesn't overplay the part and really gives a credible impression of an alien who is trying to learn the strange customs of this strange race of Earth-dwellers.

The score is excellent and very unnerving, it really adds to the atmosphere of the film. This film creeped me out a lot, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who is willing to give it a chance. I can understand why some critics found it boring, but the I found the sustained shots and slow pacing really intriguing and the symbolism made me question the base instincts of humans and society. Love it or hate it, this film is well worth watching, preferably at night with no-one else home. You also get to see Scarlett Johansson naked (but in the most unsexy way you can imagine, so don't get your hopes up!)

protokol rating - 9/10

You're describing the method of "transit photometry", which you correctly state can only be observed if the orbit of the planet is aligned with our viewpoint.

However, there are many other ways of detecting exoplanets which do not rely on this alignment. For example, "Radial Velocity", which detects the wobble of a stars movement which is determined by planets orbiting around it. There is also "Gravitational Microlensing", which a closer star magnifies and distorts the image of a distant star - this effect is affected slightly by an exoplanet orbiting the closer star, allowing measurements of the exoplanet to be recorded. Yet another method is "Direct Imaging" - literally being able to see directly the radiation output of the exoplanet itself.

There are many other ways of detecting exoplanets, but these are the main ones I think. The wikipedia page goes into a bit more detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_detecting_exoplanets
Here's an article describing the methods I just talked about: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-do-astronomers-actually-find-exoplanets-180950105/

You're an idiot. The reason that Mohammed is such a popular name is because a huge majority of Muslims call their children Mohammed. Most western people have a much larger range of names they call their children, therefore the overall percentage of people named "John" or "Dave" is much lower, becasue there are so many other names that Brits call their children.

Yet another example of the right wing media twisting statistics to fit their agenda. Wise up.

Just wanna say how much I enjoy reading this thread, it reminds me of the good old days when I first discovered this forum around 2011 and was learning a great deal about blockchain tech, Libertarianism/Anarchism, Austrian economics and the mathematical wonders of public/private key encryption, from like-minded and intelligent posters. While many of the old-schoolers seem to have gone AWOL, the posts by you guys in here are inspiring and educational. Compared to the majority of BCT which has basically turned to dogshit, this thread rocks.

Big ups to Aminorex, Anon136, TrueCryptonaire, Risto, nanobrain and of course the dev crew (deBruyne, fluffypony?). Plus all the other posters I've forgotten that post informative stuff here. I don't post much because I haven't got a lot to give and don't want to decrease the S/N ratio. But I'm always lurking (mwahaha  ) and try and add my 2 XMR when I have something to say.

As far as trading goes, I'm still holding some from buying at 0.0035 before the rise, but just threw in a couple of BTC worth at 0.021. Seems weird getting almost 10 times less XMR for the money, but I really believe in this tech so what the hell...

One question: What is the maximum amount of XMR one should safely hold in a mymonero web wallet? I have most of my holdings in there and now they're worth a reasonable amount, I'm getting a little sketched out. Transfer to paper wallet maybe?

Finally, shameless plug - I am selling some nice Casio G-Shock watches for XMR, I know this isn't the place to advertise goods but I'll just link the thread one time and then never speak of it again. PM me for more info/offeres etc:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1610064.0

I was a collector of G-Shocks but I'm leaving the country soon so I'm trying to sell the ones I don't wear. They were all bought new and been worn a couple of times, but all are mint condition with no scratches or wear whatsoever. 100% genuine.

I will post an imgur link here incase the photos do not embed: http://imgur.com/a/LM43P





First we have a new GB-6900B-1ER Bluetooth Smartwatch, with box, tin, manual and full documentation/warranty. Bought new on 21st Aug 2016 ( I will include corresponding invoice with date), warranty unregistered. RRP is £160, but you can get them for a bit less if you're lucky. Warranty can be registered to recieve standard 1 year guarantee.



Selling for 15 XMR.

Next we have a DW-6900AC-2DR, Blue x Red series. Tin, manual, warranty docs marked "Dubai 20/12/2014", so warranty is probably expired but as anyone knows G-shocks never die. Ever.




Selling for 10 XMR.

Last we have a real beauty, the Limited Edition GD-X6900MH-1ER Maharishi x G-Shock "Lunar Bonsai". This is a seriously sick looking G-Shock with the Maharishi lunar camo pattern and a reverse display, It's a chunkier, more aggressive version of the standard DW-6900, also has extra features over the DW-6900 such as World Time and Auto Light Switch (light comes on automatically when you tilt your wrist). I seem to have misplaced the manual/other docs, but it includes tag and tin (which is also adorned with the Lunar Bonsai camo). Manual is of course available online.




Selling for 25 XMR

There is some dust visible in some of the photos, especially because I've taken extreme macro close-ups with flash used on some. I will give the watches a thorough clean before posting - rest assured they will look 100% mint condition.

I am open to reasonable offers, including offers for the job lot. Post here or PM me if you want any more photos, of the sides or backs of the watches for example.

Perfectly happy to use escrow with a trusted member here, I will be posting recorded/signed for delivery to avoid scams - I am based in the UK and would include UK shipping free of charge, please PM me in regards to international shipping - I would need to get a quote and buyer would pay shipping.