The Spam Thread!

[cpd2009]

Autism $peaks, in a nutshell:
"Give us money so we can wipe you out and endanger the existences of your future descendants! After all, the only cure for autism is to stop autistic people from being born! We don't care about your rights, because obviously you lack empathy for other people because we like to simplify everything to make us sound good. We'll use the rest of the money to make scary advertisements about you being suuuuuch an epidemic soulless burrrrden, and also we will use the money to pay for our own expensive lifestyles. Did we mention we call ourselves a nonprofit charity?"

I'm not sure what to think about Autism Speaks. I have read around a bit on criticism of the organization, and many people don't agree on how they apparently label Autism as a "disease" that can be cured. I also read about some short film they made that portrayed Autism in a negative light.

I also doubt they use the donated money just to fund their lifestyles since there is no proof that I know of that says they do. Im not saying they don't since other organizations have done just that in the past, but I'm saying it's highly doubtful.

At one time, I did like the idea on how Autism can be cured, and how Autism itself was being mentioned more and more in the media than in years past largely in part because of Autism Speaks, but that is all I thought about the organization. I never really researched the organization, and maybe I should do so.

I'm not supporting Autism Speaks though by saying I did like the idea of a cure....I don't have enough information to decide on whether or not I should or not.

I have one question though...how can Autism Speaks "wipe you out?".

[RAMChYLD]

Spent the whole day in public transport getting to Kuala Lumpur to retrieve Violette.

Decided to reformat Violette anyway. Now I have her booting directly from UEFI instead of through the UEFI legacy BIOS emulator. She should be much faster compared to before.

[Evalana]

So I went ahead and got myself an external BD-rom, the LG CP40. So far, so good, though I'm not too crazy about the bundled player. I'll have to upgrade my Corel WinDVD to play blu-ray eventually.
I also picked up the blu-ray of The Lorax (the special from the 70s) in the hopes that it would have something about the upcoming movie in the special features, but no dice. Not even the trailer, oddly enough. But it does include Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (my favorite of the animated Seuss specials).

[cpd2009]

So I went ahead and got myself an external BD-rom, the LG CP40. So far, so good, though I'm not too crazy about the bundled player. I'll have to upgrade my Corel WinDVD to play blu-ray eventually.
I also picked up the blu-ray of The Lorax (the special from the 70s) in the hopes that it would have something about the upcoming movie in the special features, but no dice. Not even the trailer, oddly enough. But it does include Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (my favorite of the animated Seuss specials).

Question time.
What is the name of the BluRay player that comes with the drive, and what makes it not so good?
What store did you buy it from?

There really isn't much information that I can find about the LG CP40 External BDRom drive, and I can't seem to find any info on the bundled player. I would imagine it's a CyberLink "PowerDVD" that comes with other LG drives, but I could be wrong. Isn't PowerDVD supposed to be rather decent though?

I would have suggested the Polaroid BluRay drive from TigerDirect.com, where I got my Polaroid DVD-RW drive for Lilly, but it doesn't come with any bundled software at all. No player, no burning software. But since my Polaroid drive is DVD, I already have a player for that, VLC. Im still looking for better burning software though. The built in burner in Mac OSX is too simple. NTI DragonBurn is good, but it's $40, and I don't have $40 at the moment.

[cpd2009]

What is Audrey folks?

A failed internet appliance by 3Com....or the name of an ostrich that lives at "64 Zoo Lane?"



It's both!! But I prefer the latter Audrey.

Im getting around to my much-neede "64 Zoo Lane" VHS-to-DVD conversion. That means I had to pull out Peppa (the previous DVD/VCR before Kipper) as the show was recorded with that. The VHS-to-DVD conversion of "64 Zoo Lane" is somewhat important due to the fact I got a little....experimental, and recorded the show on a blank VHS tape that was unopened since the early 1980s!! (the tape brand is "Ampex" and I bought a batch of them off eBay in 2005) So while the tape was brand new, it was already a little over 20 years old when I used them!! They are teetering close to 30 now. The tape still plays, but I have encountered playback issues with the tape, so off to DVD it goes.

[RAMChYLD]

Performing image ghosting on Violette now.

Basic installation is complete. All that's left is to recover her games and dropbox connection. Shouldn't take too long for most part.

[Evalana]

Question time.
What is the name of the BluRay player that comes with the drive, and what makes it not so good?
What store did you buy it from?

There really isn't much information that I can find about the LG CP40 External BDRom drive, and I can't seem to find any info on the bundled player. I would imagine it's a CyberLink "PowerDVD" that comes with other LG drives, but I could be wrong. Isn't PowerDVD supposed to be rather decent though?

I got it from BestBuy. Yes, the player it comes with is CyberLink PowerDVD, and it is decent. Really, the only problem I have with it is that when I'm in fullscreen, it brings up the toolbar every time I move the mouse, and doesn't get rid of it until the mouse has been still for ten seconds or so. Not a huge problem, but since I've been loyal Corel WinDVD anyway, I'd rather stick with that.

[Stella Grapes]

I am sewn up like a rag doll...

My insides impress me for coping this well.

I also read about some short film they made that portrayed Autism in a negative light.

Autism Every Day wasn't that short. It was 45 minutes of children wailing and parents complaining. There were also shortened versions. In all versions, one woman said right in front of her autistic daughter that the only reason she didn't drive off the George Washington bridge with her was because of her daughter's non-autistic sister. They made other "documentary" films as well, of similar nature. I Am Autism portrayed autism as this scary monster voice saying, "I am autism. I know where you live, and guess what? I live there, too. I will take away your hopes and dreams and make your marriage fall apart - " yadda yadda yadda. Another film that I forget the name of had a father saying, "Autism is like if someone ripped your child's soul out and replaced him or her with someone impossible to relate to."

You get the idea. They try to make themselves sound positive to the public for money! If you dig below the surface, just a little, you'll see what they are really like.

I also doubt they use the donated money just to fund their lifestyles since there is no proof that I know of that says they do. Im not saying they don't since other organizations have done just that in the past, but I'm saying it's highly doubtful.

But they do. It's in their financial reports every year. Only 4% of the money actually goes to helping anyone. Most of it goes to their car furnishings and air fare travel and such. Most of the rest goes to scientific studies to detect autism in the womb, which leads to

I have one question though...how can Autism Speaks "wipe you out?".

If you think most autistic people will not be aborted when the day comes that autism can be detected in the womb, you are sadly mistaken. For every disability and abnormality that can be detected in the womb, the abortion rates are frighteningly high and parents who will not abort usually give their children up to their government. That is how I have two of my children, one who was given up for an abnormality shared with me (an extra female chromosome that in essence makes females taller and increases likelihood of disabilities) that isn't even a disability by itself.

Disability advocates who have disabilities that can be detected in the womb say they feel like endangered species. It is predicted that autism will be detected prenatally within a year to three now, at the most, and I do worry for possibly inevitable drama surrounding my future niblings. I know they would not be aborted, but do I think my sister-in-law will be pressured to give them up? Absolutely. She would not give in, but she would be called willingly irresponsible, just like the "normal" parents of so many of my friends who brought them into the world knowing they were different. As for a number of my grandchildren and great-niblings, ugh, endangered species indeed by those years.

At one time, I did like the idea on how Autism can be cured, and how Autism itself was being mentioned more and more in the media than in years past largely in part because of Autism Speaks, but that is all I thought about the organization. I never really researched the organization, and maybe I should do so.

Oh for the days of obscurity. The media has a long way to go to getting us right. It gets us best when it doesn't say autism by name, because then autistic characters can actually act like people instead of walking symptoms with no personalities beyond "rude for no reason"! Documentaries are the worst. They tend to be either "look at what a burden this person is" or "TWO AUTISTIC PEOPLE FELL IN LOVE! LOOK, EVEN SOULLESS MEANIES CAN FIND LOVE WITH EACH OTHER!" If half of the couple isn't autistic in the report, she is always the female half who is portrayed as a saint for dealing with her husband. I am super erased. [strike]Plus I was a saint first and autistic, har har har. Where are my extra points? Ah yeah, either denied or turned down. =p[/strike]

Anyway, this is how you cure autism:

1. Remove autistic person's brain.
2. Congratulations. The person is cured. No longer living, but cured.

Sorry for this gloomy, gloomy response. This is in essence the most serious issue of my life at the moment.

Why would you want to be cured, though? This isn't like being in a wheelchair. Too many faucets of our life are colored by it. If you cut out long hair for tangles that could be combed, you end up bald, so to speak. Assume for the sake of the metaphor that the tangles in question start at the scalp.

[cpd2009]

If you think most autistic people will not be aborted when the day comes that autism can be detected in the womb, you are sadly mistaken.

To be honest, I wasn't thinking that exact thing when I asked that question. I was just curious because the phrase "wipe you out" sounded really vague to me. I sometimes have issues understanding such vague responses, either because I DidNotDoTheResearch, or because I wasn't thinking hard enough at the time. But wow.....I honestly didn't know sick things like abortion happened to babies who have had a disability detected in the womb.

Perhaps you could PM me some articles that talk about this, and other issues that you brought up. Or I could just take a couple hours and search Google myself for them.

Oh for the days of obscurity. The media has a long way to go to getting us right. It gets us best when it doesn't say autism by name, because then autistic characters can actually act like people instead of walking symptoms with no personalities beyond "rude for no reason"! Documentaries are the worst. They tend to be either "look at what a burden this person is" or "TWO AUTISTIC PEOPLE FELL IN LOVE! LOOK, EVEN SOULLESS MEANIES CAN FIND LOVE WITH EACH OTHER!" If half of the couple isn't autistic in the report, she is always the female half who is portrayed as a saint for dealing with her husband. I am super erased. [strike]Plus I was a saint first and autistic, har har har. Where are my extra points? Ah yeah, either denied or turned down. =p[/strike]

That has me want to do something....analyze various documentaries about Autism, and seeing which one is most realistic. It will be tough, but Im sure there is a very positive documentary on Autism out there if you look hard enough. I seen all too well on how Autistic people can be portrayed in various other media, especially prime time animated cartoons like Family Guy. I used to watch Family Guy, but now I don't anymore because I simply lost interest. IIRC, I never really laughed at the segments that did not portray Autistic (or as they call, "special") people as being stupid. It's been so long I can't really remember, but if I did, I am horribly sorry. I don't think I ever did though since I have Autism myself, but it's hard to remember simply watching a TV show. Whenever I see some form of animated media treat us as being stupid or "special", or commenters on YouTube or some other website be insensitive to Autistic people, I get a little upset inside.

Sorry for this gloomy, gloomy response. This is in essence the most serious issue of my life at the moment.

Why would you want to be cured, though? This isn't like being in a wheelchair. Too many faucets of our life are colored by it. If you cut out long hair for tangles that could be combed, you end up bald, so to speak. Assume for the sake of the metaphor that the tangles in question start at the scalp.

That's okay. You did explain to me how such organizations can be evil under the surface. This will enable me to go around and research more about Autism Speaks, as well as analyzing some TV shows on how the treat Autistic people and how realistic they do so.

As for that cure question...I don't know why. I guess at the time I thought it was cool, but that was about five or six years ago, perhaps more and I didn't know what I do now.

But, what if I did laugh at negative portrayals of disabilities on TV before? Like I said, I can't really remember, and I doubt if I ever did, but what if I did do so? That would make me a terrible person.

[cpd2009]

Question time.
What is the name of the BluRay player that comes with the drive, and what makes it not so good?
What store did you buy it from?

There really isn't much information that I can find about the LG CP40 External BDRom drive, and I can't seem to find any info on the bundled player. I would imagine it's a CyberLink "PowerDVD" that comes with other LG drives, but I could be wrong. Isn't PowerDVD supposed to be rather decent though?

I got it from BestBuy. Yes, the player it comes with is CyberLink PowerDVD, and it is decent. Really, the only problem I have with it is that when I'm in fullscreen, it brings up the toolbar every time I move the mouse, and doesn't get rid of it until the mouse has been still for ten seconds or so. Not a huge problem, but since I've been loyal Corel WinDVD anyway, I'd rather stick with that.

I have looked at PowerDVD a bit, and Im going to go ahead and try it out for awhile. I find some of it's features to be of interest to me (mainly the integrated music, video, and photo abilities) and they offer a free trial.

As for Corel WinDVD...you should keep using what software you are familiar with.

I never used Corel WinDVD before. I heard of it, back when it was known as InterVideo WinDVD.