SteveThaiBinh

There are different sets of recognisable facial features and skin pigmentations, but while 'race' has cultural meaning, it has no scientific basis. Using your terminology, take two Mongoloids and a Caucasoid. How much of their DNA is shared, and how much is different? You might expect Mongoloid A to have more DNA in common with Mongoloid B than with the Caucasoid. However, it's actually equally likely that Mongoloid A shares more DNA in common with the Caucasoid. It's 50-50 (assuming that the two Mongoloids are not from the same small region with recent common ancestors). Therefore the idea of race is false. Common features or skin pigmentation are exactly that and nothing else, and there's no scientific reason for choosing these characteristics for classifying human beings rather than eye colour or the shape of the fingerprint on the left index finger. So race is a cultural idea, not a scientific one. News to me, that 'African American' is 'out'. A sign of our vibrant and ever-changing language and cultures. True multiculturalism, and something that I hope we can achieve here in the UK, too. There are places where it's working, but sometimes communities can end up too isolated from each other. An outside view is often useful and interesting. Teenage girls are supposed to rebel against their parents' values, and I honestly can't think of anything better for them to rebel against. I hope they get started soon.

I thought it was funny. I'm easy to please, though.

I'm feeling really impatient about this game - I want to play. I'm trying to resist the urge to get out Civ3 for a day or two, because I want to go to Civ4 fresh and open-minded, but it's hard.

This is ridiculous. Is there a thread for each moderator now? Can't we merge them? On the other hand, none of them have descended into vitriolic abuse, which is quite an achievement on this forum.

Forever.

The version I've heard is "Everyone's a little queer save thee and me, and even thee's a little queer." Fionavar has a style that works quite well, in that he closes threads and so on while giving relatively little offense. Good on him.

There's no evidence at all for that, or for any plans for Kotor 3. Obsidian can probably say anything they want about Kotor 2, if they're happy to gain a reputation as 'difficult' developers, probably not something a new company wants to do. Throughout the mini-scandal of the cut-content, there was absolutely no public disagreement or tension between LucasArts and Obsidian. That probably won them some respect.

I know a few games that have two sets of forums, one at the developer's website, one at the publishers, or somesuch. It wouldn't hurt Obsidian at all to have forums here as well as over at Bioware, and in fact would probably result in a modest increase in interest in the game. There surely have to be people who are put off by the Bioware forums - they're very slow, to me at least. So perhaps Bioware insisted on exclusivity? The pictures are pretty, more so than I expected - I only hope my GeForce FX5200 will run the game Have these pictures been released officially? Why aren't there links on the Obsidian homepage?

The smiling Hitler face is rather hypnotic, isn't it. It took me a moment to believe what I was seeing. Aryan was always an odd concept - I remember reading that Hitler declared the Japanese to be 'honorary Aryans'. And the idea of race is unscientific, as I understand it.

Defacing coins and bills, thus turning legal tender into waste, reduces the amount of money in circulation and should therefore be counter-inflationary. So it's actually good for the economy, and the people who do it should get medals, albeit small ones.

What was wrong with her? Was it just that she was a crony from the Whitehouse?

http://hdr.undp.org/ The Human Development Index rates countries using a selection of indicators representing the population's wealth, education and health. It was created because too many people were using GDP as the only measure of a country's success or failure, and incorporates GDP but also infant mortality, literacy and so on. It's a reasonable ranking system, and the top countries switch places every so often.

The 2005 Human Development Index rates the Scandinavian countries as follows in its global ranking: Norway: 1st Sweden: 6th Finland: 13th Denmark: 14th So Norway is the best, but they're all very good places to live. Certainly better than the UK (15th).

I wonder if Fionavar is any relation to Puff, the magic dragon. In any case, thank you Fionavar. Without your efforts, this forum would be a steaming cesspit of spam, a playground for fools, devoid of all meaning or purpose.

The next stupid war is officially Reveilled's fault. Using the 'People vs. Larry Flynt' defence, the President can't complain because no-one would seriously believe that he was endorsing The Onion. If you put it on a regular product like a packet of biscuits or, say, a barrel of oil, genuine confusion might indeed arise. As it is, it's obviously satire, so ought to be protected.

The new citizenship test for the UK requires that applicants listen to two people having sex through a wall, then take tea with them while avoiding all mention of it.

Perhaps it's an investment - he can split it up and rent/sell individual lots, like a shopping centre? Or make it a really popular place for on-line people to gather, and then sell advertising. I mean, presumably he has a plan. I wonder how long it will be before atlases have to start including all these virtual worlds.

Capital punishment for petty theft? Some people would consider TVs an essential. Who decides? Perhaps we should draw up an official list of lootable items in preparation for our next breakdown of law and order.

Dane Cook? Is that like the Swedish Chef? Maybe this should be in the Scandinavia flame thread.

Of course it is. I can't believe I didn't recognise it. I have an uncle who's a blade golem.

An Estonian told me.

Norway: Grieg Denmark: Nielsen Finland: Sibelius Sweden: Abba? By the way, isn't Estonia supposed to be part of Scandinavia?

He's probably too old and ugly to get roles in big bland blockbusters, but he might do well in more serious productions. Like many big name stars, he can act well, yet often fails to do so. It's sad to hear about a new Rocky movie - it looks like desperation, and probably is.

That's right, I saw that, and he was pretty good. So why isn't he getting good parts? There always used to be plenty of roles in Hollywood for geriatric men to star alongside actresses in their twenties. I wonder why he doesn't just finance an independent production himself. I saw that, too. Shame about that.

I haven't seen any of the Rocky movies, but I think I've seen others with Stallone, none good that I recall. What was the last movie he was in where he actually gave a good acting performance?