EnderAndrew

Perhaps Firefly will be the new sci-fi fandom of the future.

Neil Gaiman and Pratchet rather. Supposedly it is being made into a movie.

Sweden owned slaves. Thusly, they had slaves. Having is defined as owning. I think that's pretty clear. Whether or not they resided in Sweden proper is another thing. But they claimed ownership of an island, enslaved the population and sold people off. Next, the Vikings kidnapped individuals from other countries they invaded, and used them as breeding stock. That's clearly slavery. Within their own lands they also had criminals who became indentured servents. The definition of slavery is the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another. Serfs meet that definition. It was a slave by another name. In either instance, Sweden had slaves. In fact, they did in both.

My tactic was always to rush for the Pyramids and Great Wall. Then focus solely on science, while ignoring my military. Why waste time on weak units early? With the Great Wall, and a huge population, no one will invade you. Just keep one military unit per city. Then I get gunpowder before anyone else. If I make a quick strike for resources, I do it then. With rifleman before anyone else, I completely pwn the landscape. I think it is the one moment in the game where one small military technology trounces the lack of said technology. I have units with a 10 on attack/defense attacking units with 2s and 4s. After I steal a quick city or two, people are quick to negotiate surrender.

I'm sleep deprived at the moment. I spent the entire day partying, and now 10 hours of work on top of it. I haven't slept in 30 some odd hours. But I distinctly remember my World Civ class mentioning that only one major culture never kept slaves and now I can't remember who it was. When they interviewed George Takei about being the first major Asian character on prime time TV they asked him about oppression he likely ran into. He said something to the affect that he never felt oppressed in the US. He said every culture given the opportunity has oppressed others, and every culture put in the wrong situation has become oppressed. He didn't feel Asians deserved special merit as an oppressed culture, or that Americans deserved special merit as oppressors. I'm not trying to make Sweden or Europe look bad. My point was merely that the US was not alone in the slave trade, but there are many who seem to single out the US for this practice which is historically incorrect. And in case people aren't paying attention, slavery is still practiced in the Middle East and Africa today. Edit:Reveiled, I think it should be noted that when this country was born, only White males had real freedom. We have made strives in freedom, where as the media paints a McCarthy-esque/dystopian outlook on our country today where we have no freedoms. Last time I checked the Patriot Act was being repealed, despite unilateral support from both parties initially. Futhermore, even Kerry stated in his campaign that the Patriot Act was vital to the defense of this country, but because Congress doesn't want to piss off uninformed Americans, it's being dumped now. It included such clauses as giving the government the right to monitor computers they own. God forbid! Citizens can fully monitor their own property, and corporations can do the same thing so far as to fire you for your personal email you send from work. But the government does not have this right. And people also forget the Supreme Court, where any ruling or law that takes away our Constitutional rights can be overturned.

Germany did not invade Poland! We were invited! Tea and cake were served! http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/...lay.cfm?HHID=60 So, the Vikings kidnapped people, wouldn't allow them to leave, and treated them as property, but they didn't have slaves? How does that work again. And not only did the Vikings have slaves, but so did the Swedes. I thought Europeans were supposed to know their history. Also read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_slave_trade http://www.grouchyoldcripple.com/archives/000043.html

Except I believe Labrynth of Evil (the official Episode 3 tie-in novel) contradicts this. Lucas painted himself into a corner and refuses to admit it.

Bush, being the gay-hating bastard that he is, has always preached tolerance of Muslim Americans. On 9/11 he must have given at least 3 statements that day telling Americans not to retaliate against all Muslims for the actions of a few fundamentalists. Yet people judge all Muslims regardless, and then for some reason blame Bush for this behavior where as in reality he has always urged otherwise. Murdock, the guy who did Supersize Me has a new TV show called 30 Days. For a month, he pits someone against a Supersize Me-esque challenge and documents it. The last episode I saw was where he took a Christian from West Virgina and made him live as a Muslim for a month. It was a really good episode. Edit: And for the record, the Vikings enslaved people all the time. That's how I got my red hair, being Irish and all. The Vikings enslaved the people of Ireland for a time, ya' know.

It gets mentioned often here, and deserved so. On the Elder's Scroll series, I must have inferred it when I saw the 10th Anniversary annoucements on Bethesda's website. It only makes sense to release the series and make another buck, unless they intend to rerelease Daggerfall on something like a cell phone or the GBA and don't want to rerelease it on the PC again.

I think the game mechanic is fine because of two reasons. I want there to be a random element to an extent. If you don't like the random element, then reload until you get your desired result, but feel like the rat-bastard cheater you are. I think on the battlefield, superior forces and technology can lose to lesser forces and technology. It has happened many times in history, significantly often even. You also have to take Civ's various mechanics into effect. Certain forces have great offensive or defensive numbers, but may be lacking in the other regard. A spearman is high on defense if I recall, and may be able to sit in a fortitied position in a certain terrain and have a great defensive bonus. Add to that a tank may be moving father in a turn than it should be, and may be losing some of it's strength for over-exerting itself. Add to that experience factors, and a veteran unit is more powerful than a brand new one. A good general/leader in Civ has to take all those variables into account when charging into battle. Honestly, I played Civ 2 as a complete pacifist, and occassionally play the complete pacafist in Civ 3. Civ 3 now gives me many more victory conditions. I only go to war if a country refuses to trade a resource I need, and then war is a quick surgical strike to take a certain city to gain a resource.

I wanted to wish a happy birthday to our fine nation, with whom I have a love/hate relationship. However, when I really think about it, it borders on love more than hate. I hate how ignorant Americans can be, but then again the media never reports real news here. We know intimate details of every celebrity boinking another celebrity, but we're in the dark if there is genocide in Rwanda. Is this sadly indicative of a capitalistic society where sex sells more than genocide? Probably. We have a rather conservative leadership today, which I have some issues with. We're discriminatory towards gays in particular, for instance. Yet in following foreign affairs, I see sexism and racism are still rampant in many parts of the world. I don't think the civil rights movement is over, far from it really. However, our country has been the bastion for freedom for the past 200-some-odd years now. And while our country is seen as being responsible for some horrid acts, such as slavery, the truth is that the entire world was guilty of slavery. Every culture on the planet pretty much had slaves, and the African slave market was instigated by Africans slaving other Africans and selling them to Europeans. America embraces some of our mistakes and attempts to make ammends for them, where as many nations gloss over history as simply being history. I like many of the ideals our nation stands for. I stand behind the Constitution as a great document, even at over 200 years old. And while it is a shame many of our leaders forget the rights guaranteed by said document, I don't believe the sky is falling, or that our country is nearly so bad off as people would like to make things seem. If the media can paint the current administration in as bad a light as possible, surely the American mass will revolt and demand change in the next election! Screw facts, issues or platforms. Ironically enough, by beliefs I am a Democrat, but it is precisely these tactics that drive me away from most Democratic canidates. I honestly would have voted for Dean in a heart-beat, but never for Kerry. And on this day I am left to ponder the merit of nationalistic pride. Is it bad to feel proud to be an American? If there were no concept of nation, would we have fewer wars? Some have suggested that, but I think wars would still remain on the principles of lifestyles. Wouldn't people fight for the right to a capitalist lifestyle versus a communist way of life? Wouldn't people fight for Christian beliefs versus say Muslim beliefs? Wouldn't people still fight over East Coast rap versus West Coast rap? The belief that your way of life, or nation is superior often leads people to foolish notions that we can only demonstrate our superiority by killing members of the other idealogy. This is the notion that leads to war, not the love of country, or way of life. In that, I have no reservation in saying that despite the flaws our country has, I still love this land. I can only hope though that we as a people, the united people of this fragile little Earth can come to realize that human rights to freely follow our own creed, whatever it may be, should be guaranteed anywhere and everywhere. If you wish to live with Goats and rub midgets on your nipples, then so be it. So long as you don't violate the rights of others, we should be content to enjoy our way of life without feeling so threatened by other's ways of life. "Insist on yourself; never imitate. You can give your own gift with the accumulated power of a life's work, but of the adopted talents of another you will have at best an extemperaneous half-expression." - Ralph Waldo Emmerson

How about Wisdom or Charisma? How do you quantify Wisdom?

Actually there is new news here. AMD also is suing Intel in a seperate suit in Japan over similiar lines. Japan has very strict antimonopoly laws, perhaps the strictest in the world. I firmly expect AMD to win their case in Japan.

That was fairly disturbing.

George Lucas studied archealogy, and film. He knows nothing about science, as he demonstrated with his use of the word parsec. Who really compares science and Star Wars?

Nightwalker is an astute pun, as the latest rumor is that Steph X, or some mutant hooker is being tossed into the movie. I kid you not. The lowdown straight from the Marvel honcho. July 01, 2005 - The IESB conducted a 40-minute, multi-part video interview with Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad, who discusses Marvel's entire upcoming slate of comic book film adaptations, including X-Men 3. Marvel Gateway has posted a summary of the Arad interview for those who can't or don't want to download all the video segments. Arad confirmed that Maggie Grace has left X3 due to scheduling problems with her TV show Lost. Official casting of Kitty Pryde could be known as early as Tuesday July 5th. He also confirmed that Alan Cumming will not reprise his role as Nightcrawler, and that the character has been completely dropped from X3. The reason, said Arad, is that Nightcrawler didn't serve the story and, with so many other characters in the film, he had to go. Arad also reiterated that the small role of Gambit has yet to be cast but that a strong actor is needed since they may have to carry a movie down the line. So does that mean there is going to be a Gambit spin-off film?! Arad added that Daniel Cudmore will be reprising his role as Colossus after all, and that Kelsey Grammer's Beast will be a hybrid of CGI and a suit. In other X-news, The New York Post claims that director Brett Ratner wants to include a minor character from X-Men lore in the film, a mutant hooker known as Stacy X. The paper reminds us that her "super power is that she secretes a pheromone that helps her to seduce men. She can seduce anyone." Unknown thesps Kate Nauta and Aya Sumika are reportedly in the running for the role.

Orson Scott Card is a devout Mormon, but he is a great storyteller. His Homecoming series is quite bad, but he has put out so many great books like the Wurthing Saga, the Alvin Maker Series, etc.

Don't forget the cod piece and nipples.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4646185.stm - 3,300 ft column of steam emerges near the island of Iwo Jima. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1678707,00.html - Britain using GPS technology as a speed regulator.

My only interest in Bastilla was Jennifer Hale's voice. Her personality was a huge turn-off for me. And there was the fact that she was a fictional character to boot.

Technically drinking urine isn't that bad for you. Urine is the cleanest substance leaving your body.

Look ma! No hands!

The Battle of Waterloo wasn't a great battle, and vermillion isn't nearly as great as saffron. So clearly, Hans is the winner here. I prefer The Little Prince over The Prince, and self-examination is more fun on other parts of the body. Again, clearly we have a victor in the half-life of Carbon-14.

I have the ink on my forehead. Sho' nuff!

Sadly, Sifo was an interesting plot hole that I thought might turn into a nice twist in Episode 3. Instead Lucas ignored it and asked a novelist to quietly fix said problem.