conpiracymonki

[font="verdana"][size="1"]AJeh/AJ2K1 (cringe) here. Damn, feeling reminiscent as hell right about now lol. Red just attacked me in fb chat after literally years of radio silence to let me know of this thread. Just read all the posts and I have to say, it's crazy how I can remember virtually all of you that were around when I was! Makes me realise how much a part of my life this place was when I was 13 and upwards because in all honesty I'd forgotten how long I'd been around for lol. It does seem very strange but OB definitely helped me grow up in hindsight. Chatting to people without knowing what they physically looked like until sometimes [i]years[/i] later I think taught me to see beneath people's exteriors irl at an earlier age than I might have learnt to otherwise. Also James and Sara's reigns as admin/mod made decent English cool back then and I'd say combined with all the random geeky RPGs we'd all participate in back then, my writing definitely shot ahead of my peers at a critical time so cheers lol. I'm sure some of you (looking at Nerdsy lol) can remember my shorthand typing when I first joined v2 in '01, urgh. Definitely still fond of this place. I think a lot of us felt safer to open up to 'strangers' with certain personal things rather than confide in people we knew in person. Remember the whole myOtaku phase? Whatever happened to the Otakupedia? Cant be bothered giving on update on myself atm but if anyone wants one I'd be happy to comply later. I still have a few people on fb, like Juu, Red, Shinmaru, DeathKnight and Lea so it's nice to periodically see that people are still alive. Um just trying to remember some unmentioned people.. Any news from Transtic Nerve? Weh? I remember Zeh got banned for something or other lol. Anybody remember my 'twin' Marc? He was the Manc graphic designer with a big mouth and he'd change his username like clothes. [b] Had to bring back the trademark bold font (random trivia: originally in homage to DesertShadow lol)[/size][/b][/font]

When I first read last week's chapter, it felt like a drastically fanfic turn lol (like the whole Juubi revelation thing). Now it feels a little better after settling with me, but I'm still a little meh at it. - I'm thinking Madara being the 'second Rikudo' probably just means that he's a functional combination of the Elder and Younger sons' lineage, rather than him having the Rinnegan lol - I hope Madara just meant he gave Nagato the Rinnegan via creating his circumstances, rather than operating on him without his knowledge or something retarded but I'm now skeptical with all this newer Rikudo/Senju/Uchiha talk - that image of the Juubi from a different angle is probably the biggest confirmation so far that Gedo Mazo is what it looks like/was. It had the cut-off spikey things on its back in front of the tails - I wonder what Konan tried to do/did before Madara had his way with her. Or maybe she was just busy being metaphorical support to the rainbow bridge behind her and she was making herself a paper halo for some cool-points to counteract the cheesiness lol - 600 billion is a lot - I was kinda hoping Rain would assist Konoha/the alliance in the war before Konan got offed (even if it was just with intel), oh wells. I suppose it's not totally out of the question that Konan somehow survives yet? - It's almost very strange how quickly Madara got some perks (Konan death, Rain village potentially no longer an Alliance ally, retrieval of rinnegan, Kisame's intel) after taking some big L's (Naruto's new upgrade, Kisame's death, loss of Samehada to enemy target) recently. Sasuke EMS upgrade soon? - I had more

^ to Shy, thanks. In response to James, I agree. Was sort of typing as I thought. My post was actually meant to be moreso about some sort of way to literally see (or compare) if there's a slant to the news being told by different groups/individuals online. As for the censorship, I meant more about keeping the language neutral and colour-free without stepping onto persuasive territory. Perhaps company fines for opinions being reported rather than fact? I know the implications are huge and extremely risky. And it wouldnt change what issues, or aspects of issues, channels choose to cover. I suppose as long as the internet stays free though, everything's gravy. [img]http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/article/gravy_article.jpg[/img]

That sounds absolutely fantastic lol. I'm now so curious as to how the original sounds.. .. .. ..*doesnt click*

Is it not possible to legally force a distinction between news and propaganda/clear-cut bias? Are there no independent statistical analyst groups that governments could authorise to look at the reported news for trend developments or something? Perhaps that way we could get a 'feel' for what news channels/segments/individual reporters etc have a tendency to report by viewing details online, I dunno. I dont know whether this already happens to some extent or if it's impossible.. kinda just typing as I'm thinking. Would it slightly help if 'news' reporters were censored from using emotive language to report? I understand that sounds very anti-freedom of speech, but surely to preserve a well-informed citizenry there must be some sort of required access to verified neutral information which stand separate from (and be easily distinguished from) all other free speech?

I just realised we have a possible Naruto paradox in our hands next week. If Madara is fail incarnate, and Konan is female.. who ultimately gets trolled by Kishi? Discuss.

Are we all in agreement that Kisame is hardcore? Dude just let himself get eaten alive and exploded into a bubble of blood... like a zit made of guts or something lol. I was hoping the intel would get back to Madara undetected tbh because now it's a case of 'we know you know'. Like, if the scroll Gai grabbed was a decoy. Or if Kisame actually failed, but then due to no intel Madara assumes the worst and has Kabuto edo-tensei him and get the drop on the alliance in that way. Naruto and co. can probably hide somewhere else, but perhaps it's too late to change strategic plans between the [s]5 and Iron[/s] 6 nations for the most part? RIP Kisame, your 'snitches get stitches' nindo will live on in um.. the heart of Gai.

^to Chibi: It's not wrong, I think that's a perfectly valid opinion and feeling to have on the matter. I fall very much so in line with you and I'm extremely disappointed that these companies/industry couldnt find a better way to attack the problem than using a blunt instrument. I'm no expert or anything, but the random spur-of-the-moment ideas I came up with in my previous post seemed like decent starting points compared to how they've actually gone about resolving things. They may have just potentially killed a thriving community for the sake of a pretty penny when they could've utilised said communities to reap benefits further down the line. Very lazy and potentially stupid solution as far as I'm concerned.

Well this isnt so good for people like me lol. I like to randomly check out a whole bunch of stuff and then decide what I want to buy based off that. So long as they dont knock down Mangastream though, I'm good. But I doubt they'll bother with them so much; they only keep a 4 week backlog of issues. If the companies decided to be a little less lazy, I'm sure they could've reached some kinda partially beneficial middleground with these sites. Like perhaps adding a registration requirement which allowed each user a maximum number of free previews per week/month without rollovers, and then a 'BUY VOLUME/ISSUE' button for those volumes available in their set country. And then maybe OneManga (or whatever site this gets incorporated into) would also get a share of any earnings to help with hosting and for the marketing/hype they create via the site and forums etc. The companies could use the forums to monitor and gauge users' interests (hell, they could make contributing after reading new mangas/new issues compulsory to some small degree, like a survey or something) in various countries/markets/demographics etc. But oh well. Viva piracy!

[b]to Gav:[/b] A masked ANBU guy didnt steal Naruto, it was Tobi. We've seen that mask before in Itachi's flashback of when he first met Madara: [img]http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/naruto/images/e/e3/Tobi_Mask.jpg[/img] - It was satisfying to finally see the bastard physically kill someone. Holding them under water and then letting them float up has a certain personal sinister touch to it, especially in a story with haxx eyeball-flame powers. Phasing through the wall instead of teleporting in was also cool. Tobi/Madara's just further solidying himself as my fav character in this manga lol - The 'former' Land of Whirlpools is EXACTLY where the Land of Waves is from the Zabuza arc. I think it's kinda fitting that Naruto bridges Konoha with it, literally. Methinks Madara may have had a hand in its destruction during his stint at shadow-Mizukage or whatever. I'm still very curious about the whole Yagura/Mist backstory situation. - Minato developed his haxx seal jutsu from Kushina's Uzumaki knowledge [strike]and Jiraiya's mentoring[/strike], I guess. Hiraishin and the Deathgod summon are super-seal techniques we've seen nothing else even compare to and I find it too convenient now that Minato married a seal-famed clanmember. - I've seen people suggest that Sasuke's mother Mikoto conveniently bumping into Kushina might be key in the Konoha elders' interpretation of the Uchiha clan having a hand in Madara's Kyuubi situation. Might be a stretch imo, but I guess it's worth noting. Personally I just think it was just more 'awww Naruto and Sasuke coulda been friends' shtick. - I've also seen people mention Tsunade's grandmother Mito's forehead mark, which looks exactly like Tsunade's chakra storing seal technique. Possibly where she derived/developed her look-young jutsu from, considering the Whirpool was also the village of longevity? I really liked last week's issue actually. Not for what it directly said, which was probably not that revealing or obvious. But more for all the confirmations and insinuations. Great stuff, woulda replied earlier but was on holiday

I just [i]knew[/i] Kushina was going to turn out as the previous Kyuubi jinchuuriki soon as I read that comment a few weeks back about them generally selecting Kages' family/[b]spouses[/b]. Not saying she's a jinchuuriki because of her relationship with Minato, because I personally think it might've been something she received from the former Whirlpool country (which would explain the Kyuubi inactivity in Konoha for so long, prior to the incident and also the blaming of the incident on the Uchiha by the Konoha elders).. but I hadnt entertained the thought before until I saw the word 'spouse' lol. I'm calling it that the seal weakened due to childbirth, and Madara was possibly anticipating this and acted on it to manipulate things. Is no one else blown away by the Rikudo Jesus-aura panel shot of Naruto? That might be my favourite Naruto manga panel ever.

[quote name='gallowsCalibrator' date='10 June 2010 - 04:42 AM' timestamp='1276141336' post='694980'] [font="Comic Sans MS"]blah blah boring Hansel and Gretel plot Kushina's hair is a terrible analogy for an old Japanese proverb.[/font] [/quote]I'm actually curious, could you please elaborate on said old Japanese proverb? lol

[size=1] I actually liked the new issue, as sappy as it was. Minus the whole 'knight in shining armour' shtick, it just felt like the right combination of sensitivity and silly. And Kushina is actually pretty endearingly written (for a female lol, in fact might be the best so far). I hope Kishi makes good use of this 'long talk' opportunity to explain a lot of things. Good to see Naruto behave more and more like his old self each week (but now without his personal issues I guess).[/size]

[size=1] Well that was pretty anticlimactic and abrupt, "motha*****a"! I wouldnt have minded the way it was resolved so much if Yami Naruto came out with some real dark thoughts first. I guess if Naruto is going to be this super-pure hero-figure though this was meant to show how little repressed darkness he has within him but [i]still[/i]. Also that area behind the waterfall looks intense lol.[/size]

[size=1] I'm not really fond of the idea of Naruto developing a sweeter relationship with the Kyuubi like Bee and Hachibi. I really really hope they dont do that. I'd rather Naruto take the chakra of the Kyuubi from it by force, since it's meant to be this creature of pure malice in chakra form. In that sense, I'm very interested in how this waterfall thing ends up turning out moreso than anything else. It's a great opportunity to look a little deeper into Naruto's mind but I'm kinda scared it's just gonna be squandered on some kinda mental (physical) fight between his two halves lol. I like that they're going into Bee's history, but not really anticipating it or anything either. Raikage looks super-badass in the past though. I wonder what's up with Kisame though. He has intel on the location of both remaining Jinchuuriki (which might not become relevant cos it's so shortcut-y) and also Raikage's war gameplan. If he dies without relaying some of this info back to Madara, his whole fake-death is gonna be pointless :/[/size]