gylman

Ouch. Some of that hurt my brain. I looked up "neurotheology", which basically is the theory that there is a biological basis for spiritualism. I have to say that I have a hard time accepting this notion, and as far I can tell it is not mainstream thinking. Here is my humanitrianism: We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles & organising it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. Finest words ever written, as long as we substitute "people" for "men". Corny, but true. And I am NOT American. I used to wish I was. And, by the same man, although not as well known: ' No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities

We can define religion as any cohesive set of beliefs that do not require proof, just faith. But humanitarianism is such a set of beliefs, yet does not have the evils of religion . Humanitarianism is based on a view that all human beings deserve respect and dignity and should be treated as such. Humanitarianism is not anti-religion, but a strict adherence to this principle, and to the "golden rule" (do unto others...) would avoid most of the evils of religion. We can all have the "religion" of humanitarianism, with sub-sects that believe in various deities, but respect the right of other to believe in different ones. This is the Western ideal, sadly not achieved by most of the West, and certainly not by most of the rest of the world. Or, we can adopt the "religion" of utilitarianism, in one or more of its many variants, which says that the quantitative maximization of good consequences for a population is the way to decide upon our beliefs. From this principle certain sub-prinicipals arise, most familiar to us, like "don't kill", "don't steal" (rule utilitarianism). These are some of the less destructive means of creating social cohesion, morals, norms, etc. They are religions, of sorts. But why we need a "deity", I do not know. I do know that the very notion of an all powerful god and a divine messenger inevitably leads to conflict and destruction - it is neither humanitarian, nor utilitarian. It will be the end of us. And smart though Mr. Marx might have been, ultimately we have clear proof that he did not really understand human nature, because the society he thought would be the ultimate evolution of human interaction was an utter failure within 20 years (Stalinist Russia), and collapsed of its own weakness and inconsistencies within less than 100 years. I'd say Thomas Jefferson was smarter. Too bad the nation he created has become dominated by the stupid.

Wow. I love the pictures. I just rebuilt my Fort Legoredo and Gold Town Junction sets this weekend, and you really capture the Legoredo spirit (except for that spooky cactus of doom, which is a great concept, but uses parts not used in the Old West series, to my recollection). $170! Holy mackarel! I guess that's why TLC are juniorizing their sets these days. Hard to see where all that money went except some of the figs I guess. Beautiful work. I really must learn to use Photoshop.

I think we agree that the problem is religion. That's what I meant by "hijacked by a social/religious philosophy". The US has always been more religious than other western countries, but they took the separation of church and state very seriously, and really meant it. Now it seems that the social and political agendas are clearly being driven by specific ideas of specific religious groups, and those who can best enlist the support of these groups are most likely to win office. But it's more than just religion. The old American ethic was "work hard, try to succeed, don't expect others to take care of you, live and let live". Now the American ethic is Crispy Kreme and Arby's, Trailer Park Boys, "Sue the Bastards", and "bully whoever doesn't agree with us". That's a society in decline. I don't think, however, that we are seeing the death throes of religion. I wish it were so, but what I see is increasing religiosity all over the world. The religious have faith to drive them, and are willing to make sacrifices to advance their faith. The non-religious just want to be left alone, and aren't willing to fight for their non-faith. Yet. By the time they realize that they should have fought for their non-beliefs, and their right to non-belief, it will be too late. Only China and some of the East seem somewhat immune - in part I think it is the relatively non-aggressive nature of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism (they don't have an equivalent of prosletysing missionaries and jihad to my knowledge), and in part that they have been geographically spared from Christianity and Islam until now. Even the anti-religious stance of communism gets some credit. As the decadent West dies off due to obesity and lack of interest in reproduction, and Islam drags another third of the world down into intolerance and lack of intellectual and social progress, only the East will remain as a place where the next human advances will come from. The fact that the West's reproductive rate is between half and a third of that of the non-developed world is the final nail in the inevitable burial of Western (i.e. European/North America) civilization, ending a 2000 year cycle that began with Rome. The ascedancy of nearly 2 billion disciplined, well motivated, and increasingly educated and confident people from China and India is inevitable. I just hope it all doesn't fall apart in my lifetime or in the lifetime of my children.

Someone had posted a link to a cathedral he built, based on something in Germany (NOT the Venice one). I wanted to show it to a friend.... can anyone post hte link again, for some reason I can't find it. Thanks.

I have generally been very pro-american in the past, even as recently as 2 or 3 years ago, but the past few years have been truly depressing. I think we are witnessing the decline of an empire and a once great nation. It does not seem reversible, even when Bush is voted out of power in 2008. Incredibly, creationism is being taught in many schoools in the USA. It boggles the mind, and I can think of no better example of American decline, although it is but one of many. It is sad, because the US has been hijacked by a social/religious philosophy which probably does not reflect hte opinion and philosophy of a majority of US citizens, but which is well organized and cohesive enough to defeat the divided opposition. Sigh. There is no one to replace the USA as a world leader, sadly. All other alternatives are worse. The future of our civilization does not seem as bright now as it did 10 years ago . The roman empire was destroyed by a combination of disease and external enemies, as well as a loss of the "Roman ethic" that created it in the first place. Exactly the same will be true of the American empire. History always repeats itself.

Enjoy :-X http://cgi.ebay.com/CRAZYSHOP-Like-pirate-...bayphotohosting

Truly lovely. A joy to look at. Only suggestion - the light gray window frames (2 2/3 curve top) don't seem to quite fit in colour-wise. Have you considered dark bley?

I have some knowledge of how eBay operates from friends who work there. They are VERY aggressive about pursuing this type of thing, because it undermines their credibility, which threatens their existence. However, look at it this way - they probably conduct several million auctions at a time. I read somewhere that fraud occurs in about 0.2% and is actually less common than credit card fraud (meaning if you use your credit card in restaurants and gas stations 1000 times, you will likely have someone lift your number and misuse it more than 2 times in a thousand). Although it's a tiny percentage, it still means tens of thousands of single fraud events a day. They receive thousands of reports daily. Some are false - they can't just close down every alleged fraulent seller. They have to investigate. They look for patterns of fraud more than single events. It takes a a bit of time for patterns to emerge. It takes time to pursue complaints which span the globe (buyer in US, alleged fraulent seller in UK, very different time zones). However, they do eventually get it, and they do shut down the fraudulent sellers. Also Paypal will usually return your money, and if it does not eBay will return it less 25$. In some cases they return it all, simply to avoid the bad press. I don't deny there is some hassle involved to the buyer, but frankly compared to hte hassle of losing your wallet, or a credit card, it is trivial. Just a bunch of emails back and forth, and a form that needs to be filled out. I went through it once. Given its size, eBay moves reasonably quickly. By comparison, my impression has been that Bricklink does not actually do nearly as well in policing its auctions for fraud (the members do their own policing, which is kind of a vigilante justice that sometimes works and sometimes does not). What amazes me is that givne the nature of eBay, fraud is not rampantly more common.

But if everything goes into the parts bin, wouldn't bricklink be a much better way to get the parts you want?

I'm reasonably sure that for any set worth buying a half-decent box adds significant cost - not only to the price, but also to shipping.. One more reason why value falls on the side of no box, no MISB. Personally, though, I've stopped buying sets without boxes unless they are ridiculously cheap so I use them as parts packs and never build the set. After a while you get tired of seeing shoe boxes or ziploc bags with Lego in them. Lego box art is usually so beautiful.... it's a significant part of the Joy of Lego.

I've been round the block on ebay. 5 years+, 1000 purchases more or less, and going strong. Not all Lego, but at least half. Sales too. http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...ame=STRK:ME:UFS 1) use set numbers in searches, not only key words 2) search title and text 3) search whole world, not just your locale. Shipping is not that big a deal. People stress about it, and once in a while there is a problem, but usually it's a few bucks extra for a set that you might not see again at that price. In fact, some of my best bargains have come from HongKogn and Singapore (for genuine Lego). Australian prices are crazy, Lego as well as Shipping - I never buy from there. On average, British, German and US prices are best. Broad generalization of course. 4) use PayPal. Makes life far easier, and everything faster. Frankly I don't trust sellers who don't take PayPal anymore. 5) save your favourite searchs and have the emailed to you daily. This works for searchs that don't have a bazillion matches. Personally, in addition to all of the above, which I do for specific items I want, I also just search on "lego", screening out bionicle, Exo-Force, Duplo, and Star Wars, since I have zero interest in those. This produces about 1000 new listings a day, which I can flip through in about 15 minutes. You get pretty quick at this after a while. The value of this is that some sellers mis-list their items, which means that other people's searches do not capture the auction, leaving you with less competition. Obviously this is time consuming, and probably not worth it on a time/money basis. But it's fun! Regarding value: MISB will double or triple the price of a good set. The only way to get a bargain on that is to find a seller that does not know the value of the set and lists with a low buy-it-now, and BUY IT NOW!. I've snagged some incredible bargains that way, but we are not talking dozens.... maybe about once every 3 months. Moreover, the only way to achieve this is to troll the listings on a daily or multiple times a day basis, searchign for new listed items, with Buy-it-now option. If MISB sets go to full auction the prices usually are not much different than Bricklink, and bricklink is more reliable. There are exceptions to this of course. Value price point is clearly on sets with no box and no instructions. If you are a collector that's not so useful. But if you are a builder, since the instructions are online and the box just takes up space..... What set(s) specifically do you want? Mr. Phes, I am not sure what search you used, but I got 345 matches for Pirate Lego in UK. Most are crap, obviously, but lots of good stuff there too. http://search-desc.ebay.co.uk/lego-pirate_...tZ2QQsofocusZbs

Congrats. This is a big achievement. Now the hard work starts! :-)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=280002578130 :-) X-D

That stuff is so nice it makes me want to cry, and then throw away everything I have ever built. I have copied his little furniture MOCs many times. I am just finishing up a new moving keychain display with a castle / adventurers theme, just need a couple more weeks for some parts to arrive. But, frankly, after seeing his stuff I am embarrassed to show mine.

Boy, almost any one of those sets beats anything released so far in 2006. Being a castle guy, I would choose 6077. Relatively rare blue baseplate, lots of reusable castle and tree bits (although I prefer brown or gray), and 6 minifigs for just 37.50. 6081 was the weakest of the classic castles, and cost 58$ with slightly more parts, only one more fig. Correct me if I'm wrong, was 6081 not the first time a raised baseplate was used by Lego? (other than the low profile space crater ones).

I had the same problem last night. Could not access EB.

Boy, that's a big question..... 8868 - Airtech Claw Rig! Big surprise..... not For system, I have to say 6085 Black Monarch's Castle Since these are all ancient sets.... For the last 10 years: 7419 Dragon Fortress (Adventurers Orient Expedition)

Well, you have successfully attracted a non-pirate to your forum. That library is incredible. The best thing is that it is not one of those huge MOCs that seem so impressive at distance, but are more about how many bricks you can buy and how much time you can spend.... this one has tons of little detail, great proportion, and definitely doable by people other than the idle rich. So many ideas to steal, so little time - properly credited of course :-)

Yep, it will be steep. However, I think we talked about this before. In North Am there is often a "Xmas train" around the Xmas tree. This would be the kind of item that comes out at Xmas each year for a few years, not just one of those sets that gets built and then thrown into the parts bin, so the cost would be spread over several years. The fact that it can be modified each year is a great plus over the standard ones you buy in a toy store or supermarket. Not that I have any special predicting powers, but I would predict that unless this item is horribly priced, it will be the best selling (In North America) train TLC has ever released, except maybe the Metroliner - which has had a decade's head start and two releases.

Well, I imagine it will come to North Americal before too long. Purists may dismiss this, but my kids really took a liking to pictures of this train. Unless its some insane price, it is likely going to be the first Lego train set up in our house. I have already bought a motor and track for it...

It comes apart in sections for transporting and fits in custom made boxes. :-) When not being displayed it remains stored in the garage. Married 26 years this October 4th and she hasn't booted me out yet ;-) Here's a link to my Brickshelf page for detailed pictures of the Blacktron Intellegence Agency now in its 5th permutation over the last 4 years. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=bdarrow Brian LMAO Welcome to EB. That's some work. You have my awed respect.

As a non-Star Wars fan, I have some hopes for the Ferrari set. The Ferrari line has mostly been good so far. The Fiorano looks like a very nice car. I wonder if Lego can make a nice version of it. http://www.rsportscars.com/eng/cars/ferrari_599gtb.asp The F430 Spider was excellent, one of the best sets of 2006 IMHO.

I sure hope not. Besides, what we've seen so far is no doubt only a fraction of what's coming in 2007, probably only the early part of the year.