The Hall of Fire

Hobby, the results of the study are as I quoted. Among fathers who received full custody, 70% had already been convicted of child abuse. I know it seems outlandish, but you have to catch the underlying cause. Most fathers do not ask for full custody. Only something like 30% want custody of their ch...

Cool story.

Here's a really extreme example of someone wanting to pay an old debt:

http://www.readersread.com/cgi-bin/book ... blog=53051

Not very many people would be willing or able to go to such an extreme, but it is admirable.

Totally off topic - Maria, you have to check out this tetris player: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/tetrismaster.html Anyway, I think we have some very different outlooks on life and also on the nature of religion. With all of the suffering in the world (and even people who are materially wealthy are st...

Maria, I actually do "like" the idea of souls being trapped in the wheel of life. I'm not sure "like" is the right word to use there, since it is not a pleasant thought, but I tend to lean more in that direction. It makes sense to me, and it explains the way things are - not nece...

I like your dream, Maria. That's a really cool idea :) I don't really have answers to your questions though. It is interesting that the vast majority of people throughout history have believed in reincarnation, yet the details of how it is accomplished vary greatly according to the specific religiou...

My take on this is that, in creating the orcs, Tolkien tried to reconcile two very different approaches to story-telling. The first is the ancient mode, in which the enemy of Man is the Other, a monster, usually a mythical critter like the Minotaur, or a troll. The Other is a soulless beast, so no ...

I see orcs a little differently than anyone else has mentioned. Not that I'm necessarily right, I'm probably just weird. :oops: Orcs are described first as originally Elves, twisted and mutilated by Morgoth. Later we see the Uruk-Hai being bred from men, but the idea is the same. They have they same...

I've had a longstanding interest in "alternative" healing methods. The problem is, it can be hard to sift through the mixture of techniques out there to determine what is real and what is a scam. I have used various types of stones as well as essential oils for emotional control and physic...

Welcome, Elflover (we can never have too many Elf lovers!). Heh. When I first joined TORC 4 years ago, I had seen and read Fellowship of the Ring. That's it. So I picked an easy username that I thought was fitting. Had I read the rest of the books (including the History of Middle Earth), I'm sure I...

Hello everybody! So here you all are Long time no see.