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Fields of the Nephilim - Nephilim (whole Album) Top. No great fun moments as in their first album (Dawnrazor), but still superb. Listened to it tonight while sitting on the river bank philosophing and drinking beer.

Musopticon?: It's always a pleasure reading from more knowledgable sources, so thx! Though I cannot agree on all points (e.g. medical schools), I don't want to derail this even further. Walsingham: Yes we do. That's why I didn't say that everything would have been better if it stayed the way it was before, but rather that Christianity was not the saviour people think it to be. On topic: Speculation by major banks on US estate values will massively influence the income of our country this year. I wonder what effects this will have economically and socially, in combination with the emeriging of an 'independent' Kosovo, where a rather 'big' minority of immigrants stem from. Further, the influence of major companies on the employment market shows its effects in ridiculously high wage demands by young people in the engineering and banking sector, as well as hire-and-fire shortsighted tactics that leaves younger employees uncertain about their future and older employees unable to find a job once they lose their job. It'll be an interesting year

Ok, agreed. Can I rephrase to: It didn't cause them, it was just one of the bigger parts responsible for the "Dark" part in Dark Ages as well as prolonging the period by aforementioned stuff?

NightandtheShape: No offence meant! I probably just stumbled because I have some linguist background Some random things: The prospering cultures of the Islamic world was repelled and partially destroyed for reasons of 'Christianization'. The crusades cost dearly on any party it touched. Most forms of scientific progress was stifled for being blasphemous, and monasteries held a de facto monopoly on any form of education. Thus, knowledge of previous times/cultures/religions was deliberately lost. The conflict between secular and ecclesical forces and the conflicts inside the church wasted ressources, especially in times when they were scarce already. etc. Concerning "Dark Ages", "Middle Ages": I'm a bit confused; is there a difference in meaning, or just in connotation? Or would "medieval period" be more appropriate/neutral?

As much as I agree with some things you said, I have to contradict that paragraph. Firstly, it seems useless to assume a different "race" as condition for "mongrel" to be an acceptable term, as "human" is a race. Secondly, the cultures and languages between Saxons and Old Norse were already different enough, it's sort of like saying "Italians and French are the same" when backing up that idea with the arguments that the language was "somewhat indistinguishable"* and they have a common cultural background. Yes, the celts do share a common root with them, too, but they split off quite early, so the celtic languages aren't even similar to the ears/eyes of a non-linguists. *it is supposed that the could understand each other to some degree. Europe was in the middle ages because of Christianity, and the "work ethic" as central conception came later, with Calvin and the Reformation.

There wasn't even a wink-smilie or any other slightest hint that it could be a joke. Unfortunately, some others in this thread even consider it a good statement Baawww butthurt That stand has no intellectual basis and you should be shamed just for saying that Probably it was generalizing a bit too much by blaming Christianity as such, but chose some of these or similar topics: if there hadn't been the crusades, the repulsing of the arabs in spain, inquisition and witchhunts, the opposing of contraception, of homosexuality, of freedom of thought (including speech etc within), the proselytization (?) or killing of 'heathens', pagans etc pp... all in the name of Christianity, then I could accept the benefits that this religion brought us without much afterthougt. Like this, I fear that Christianity is to blame for many cultural problems in Europe and all over the world. I agree that it was probably misinterpreted Christianity, but it used this cover. This should not mean that pure scientific or materialist or economic thinking or something like that would have been better. [Edit]To be fair, some benefits: Humanism, however anti religious some parts of it are, would probably not have come to the mind of certain people without a cultural christian background. The ideals of equality and mutual love (weakend to respect) are still alive in nowadays culture and partially in laws.

Meshugger: This is not a mixed message: "Immigrants failing to integrate" is one accusation that is made easily (who would want to integrate into a society that immediately marked you as an outsider? considering this, surprisingly many immigrants are willing to integrate!), "europeans having demolished their blood by mixing with non-white immigrants" is an accusation that fortunately could get you punished by the (weak, but existant) anti-racism laws. So, it's not mixed, as both are ways for "excusing" the ever present, more or less latent racism.

Yes, it's because of the new 9600 GT. The ATIs had to lower the price to make that card even less interesting

Yes, seems like a bad price considering the 8800GT and 3780...

I don't live in the EU, but have a "slightly" closer view of the article's theme. Calling current tendencies a "decline", while the USA are drifting towards a recession (and possibly drawing others with them) seems to be good only for saying: "Hey, it's not as bad here as you might think, look there in Europe, they have it worse". Sorry to quote something that was off-topic, but: this is true for any two parties, be it Europe-US, US-Europe, Europa-Africa... walkerguy:

Try it. Why do you think it could be the soundcard? Anyway, NightandtheShape is right. Huge difference in quality (though newer "codecs" are supposedly not too crappy sounding anymore) and also noticably better performance because load is taken off the processor when using any special features such as decoding of DTS or EAX.

understandable. cool song. the pixies - down to the well

Yes, Switzerland and even tiny Liechtenstein survive like that...

Did you check out the components to make sure it's the mobo that's malfunctioning? (Try starting without PCI-Soundcard, replace Gfx, Ram, Proc...) If it is the mainboard: Check out hardware-price-comparison sites to find a replacement. I can find MSI and ASRock boards being sold here for Athlon socket 939, agp, ddr ram, probably that's true for your area too.

live - white, discussion

Hah Today was DnD day. The party had interesting fights againsts unusual opponents and different tactics, an almost optimal run from the DM's perspective. If only I had also used the grey jester's spells (he had some sorcerer levels). [edited to remove useless and dangerous stuff]

They said hawt, so that description is not bad either.

Not only his comment on the "youtube comment" sounded like a youtube comment...

Diabetes sucks, at young age especially What the heck does that mean? An hour and 18 minutes? "0x" is an often used prefix to indicate hexadecimal notation. 78(hex) is 120, so it is two hours

It has the exact size of an 8800 Ultra, meaning: Yes, it is a damn big card - but it's only as big as the biggest single-chip card

They should be, but I just read that having an LGA 775 socket doesn't guarantee you can upgrade your Penryn to a Nehalem. Can't find the link right now...

Read about Halliburton and wish I hadn't. It's quite depressing stuff. I mean, how far can people go?... :/

The crates!

Heh? Animals are for eating? That's what my grandmother thought. Being a vegetarian is not unhealthy at all, if you can maintain the levels of all important substances, which isn't too difficult, unless you're vegan. Anyway, on topic: My cousin has 'thick blood' too. I don't know the causes, but I do know that he must use blood thinning medication for the rest of his life, as well as avoid smoking and other stuff that causes veins to become inflexible. Also, he has to take care to drink enough (water, not alcohol). That's all I know, because we never talked about this very much.

Sure, rent it first It has quite big requirements to play it with all graphical options turned on. Screenies: My main character, Tree - Danger: Spoiler Alert!, Misty floor, A certain village, Example for the great in-game sequences, Example for "Iso"-Perspective ... Tell me if you need more