pirana

Here's a good general article that came up in a quick Google search. Not a scientific paper, but a good overview of the ideas. http://blog.imultisport.com/2008/02/11/risk-taking-instinctive/ (Wiki has a good entry on dopamine that gives a good summary of all the good things dopamine does for us). " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I'm pretty certain it was something I found via a a trail of links that started in one of these forums. I'll try a little searching. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Then of course, there is always . . . Torturing Small Animals. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

. . . that explode. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I read the summary of a study that found we are actually quite calm and level-headed on average (as opposed to being highly susceptible to addiction, which is more of a trading-gratification-for-safety thing). Turns out the average person drawn to super-stimulating things like extreme sports tend to have significantly different brain chemistry balances. In short, they concluded it takes more to get us juiced up (we tend to be markedly less likely to panic) so we seek activities that really up the ante. So where the average person might get all anxious and sweaty from going around a corner at more than 20 MPH (my wife braces as if we are about to roll over), we NEED to fall from the sky. Sounds plausible. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Found the geritol commercial on You Tube. It looks like the one someone else described earlier in the thread, the totally bushed housewife that becomes the Stepford wife after Geritol. From 1967 I think the site said. Couldn't find the before and after red blood cells. I think that one was a bit older. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

BBC. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

It was for sale for $200 and you offered $250. That's no way to haggle. Haven't spent any time in a straw market have you? " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Thje search for excitement, THE rush, no doubt attracts a lot of people to the sport. My observation though is that if that is all they find, they eventually move on. Those that stay mostly appear to me to be appreciative of the surreal nature of what we do. It is downright maniacal when you think about it, almost defying explanation. A couple interesting quotes that try to give insight to why we do it: “. . . some of them had gotten themselves absolutely determined about that mountain. You wouldn’t believe it, use or no use, life or death, these people had got the habit and they now spent their spare time and all their energies in chasing the clouds of their own glory up and down all the steepest faces in the district. And one and all they came back uplifted.” – John Menlove Edwards, Letter from a Man. “The more improbable the situation and the greater the demands made, the more sweetly the blood flows later in release from all that tension. The possibility of danger serves merely to sharpen awareness and control. And perhaps this is the rationale of all risky sports: You deliberately raise the ante of effort and concentration in order, as it were, to clear the mind of trivialities. It’s a small-scale model for living, but with a difference: Unlike routine life, where mistakes can usually be recouped and some kind of compromise patched up, your actions, for however brief a period, are deadly serious.” – A. Alvarez, The Savage God: A Study of Suicide. “If anything goes wrong, it will be a fight to the end. If your training is good enough, survival is there; if not, nature claims it’s forfeit.” – David Roberts, Moments of Doubt. “There are many shades in the tales of adventure and gales, and it is only now and then that there appears on the face of facts a sinister violent intention – that indefinable something that forces it upon the mind and the heart of a man, that this complication of accidents or these elemental furies are coming at him with a purpose of malice. With a strength beyond control, with an unbridled cruelty that means to tear out of him his hope and fear, the pain of his fatigue and the longing for rest; which means to smash, to destroy, to annihilate all he has seen, known, loved, enjoyed, or hated; all that is priceless and necessary – the sunshine, the memories, the future; which means to sweep the whole precious world utterly away from his sight by the simple and appalling act of taking his life.” – Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim. Pretty certain I got these from Into thin Air. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I checked a couple of those links. They seem to support my contention that the typical American diet is not very healthy, but not because it is lacking vitamins. It is because it is loaded with salt, sugar, and grease. As much as I do not consider CNN a good source of information on this topic, even the few statements there summarizing studies did not say taking vitamins was necessary. The closest the article came was 4 doctors giving anecdotal opinions on what they personally do. Hardly scientific at all. The stuff about junky food is all too true, but relatively meaningless in a discussion of whether or not vitamins and suplements are necessary. The companies that peddle them count on people not being able to make that distinction, instead relying on emotional appeals based on our horrible eating habits, etc, etc. For example, 1/3rd of the average person's diet is junk food. Great headline, but irrelevant. I'll bet if you ate 3 meals a day at McD's (oh the horror); an Egg McMuffin with sausage, hash browns and OJ for breakfast; a 1/4 pounder, fries, a shake and apple pie for lunch; and a big mac, one of their salad thingies in a cup, fries, and a fruit parfait for dinner and dessert; you'd be right up there close to or past the daily requirements for most stuff. Now I really am not a fun of McD's (understatement of the year), but facts are facts. To say their food is horrid and gives healthy people the shits and defies the very definition of good nutrition is all good and well; but to use that as a reason to take more vitamins is just plain irrelevant. It's 2 different things. All the vitamins in the world will not help you if you eat shit like that full time. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

What most Americans eat is a long, long way from any kind of decent diet. Even celebrities mock green vegetables, and Americans laugh with them. The SAD (Standard American Diet) is so far beyond decent, that pills and drugs are about the only thing keeping many of them alive. Wrong. Do some research, google some journal articles. Even though our diet may seem atrocious, even junk food is not all that bad. The worst part is that there is so much salt, sugar, and grease - not that it is totally lacking in vitamins and minerals. Not as good as fresh, but far from completely empty. In order to need the BS places like GNC peddle you would have to be subsisting on cardboard and gravel, or maybe White Castles and Bud. Put it this way, if GNC, and Watkins and all the places and people like them went away overnight - there would be no increase in rickets, berri-berri, scurvy etc. Modern diet, even our real shitty modern diet, gives us what we need. Only exceptions are people with certain diseases and shit. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

No, don't remember it. How old is it? Do you (or anyone) have a link to still images or video? It sounds like a great illustration w/r/t appropriating science, imo. /Marg Good question. I'll have to remember to try you tube it when I get home. I have found that site to be quite the treasure trove. I was explaining to the kids that every generation has it's version of pretty much everything they are familiar with. They challenged me with Tele Tubbies. So I You Tubed the Banana Splits for them and gave them my best City Slickers version of "Come on, push me." " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Ha ha; you're dating yourself. And have made it this far without ever taking supplements, vitamins, "herbal remedies" or any of that other snake oil bullshit. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Sure it isn't an April Fool's gag? They can't be serious. BTW, I've escaped any gags so far today; save for the wierd stuff I ran into when I had cause to visit Wiki. But I suspect when I get home to the kids there will be some sort of goofy stuff waiting. Nothing like this though. Truly devestating. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Word. I never thought about tipping as an AFF student. The idea seems a bit wierd if the plan is to continue jumping. Tandems, that is different. Beer is always good. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Hmmm... so what would your answer be if it was an irrational husband not "letting" the wife jump? Uh oh. Here comes the what-does-a-woman-really-want-when-she-asks-if-she-looks-fat discussion. But seriously, for people of integrity, the answer does not depend on gender. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I think a forced pairing comparison on the following list is called for: Marijuana Guns Alcohol Sex Rock & roll Skydiving Gambling Taxes Censorship Birth control Flag burning Nascar (just seeing if you're still reading) Do people who want to eliminate gambling support censorship? Are those that want a lower drinking age against birth control? Is a gun control advocate more or less likely to take up skydiving? " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

It's a long established fact that the whole vitamin & nutritional supplement business is BS. Very very very few people need them. If a person eats any kind of decent diet at all, the pills are a total waste. Remember the old Geritol commercial; with the microscopic image of blood cells before and after Geritol. If your blood cells looked like the before picture, you would most definitely already be dead. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Sounds like a skydiving maxim: Any number divided by joy equals joy. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Thanks Gato & CDRINF for the historical perspectives. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

The Mini is a winner. But please, tell me you did not get it with a "racing" stripe that goes any further back than the hood. A stripe that covers any area other than the hood exposes you to anybody who knows about such things as a poser. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Sport sandals are way cool, as long as they use a tradional method of retention. Buckles are best (real metal ones, not those plastic squeeze clip things), velcro would be right out. Elastic is acceptable, if you HAVE to. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Depends on how frequently you use it's full utility. If you frequently use at least half it's capacity, cramming it full of people and/or stuff then it is functional related to your physical needs. If it mostly tools around with one or 2 people in it - then it is a showpiece satifying your emotional needs; most likely related to social status. We all want to be something. What that is can usually be ascertained by what we do with what we have - not by how much we have. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

They are incredibly, terribly, horribly overpriced. Strictly from a utility perspective of course. From a performance perspective, they are still overpriced. There are simply too many cars that cost considerably less and deliver the same or better performance. Humans being basically emotional creatures though, and allowing for differences in taste, I forgive and understand the need. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I know. I just like to fun around on the topic of class distinctions and how uptight so many people are about them. And you are spot on. There is a reason the uppermost crust of society is called Top, Out of Sight. They take great pains to not be noticed by the masses while the wannabees below them think that if they can just accumulate a little more shit and show it off they can break thru the ceiling. Poor misguided creatures don't understand that the group they are trying to join finds them the most vulgar of all the social classes. " . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley