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I enjoyed listening to the speech (I didn't read it, I think it would've been hard to read). Jason Scott presented a some good arguments, and had a few funny jokes within. He might be making it into a bigger issue than everyone sees it, but he also might be right. He said that Wikipedia is just a warning of what is to come in the future, an information war. One of the dangers is that Wikipedia becomes source material for people's beliefs. Hopefully one couldn't turn in a paper that cited Wikipedia and get away with it easily. The speaker said that Wikipedia is great when it's for fun, for a quick reference to go to other things if you need it to be concrete. As long as you understand that at any point in time you may be eating someone else's Buologne Sandwich, you are good to go when using it.

He's supposedly the executive producer.

That game sucks. What system are you running it on?

Don't worry Pixies, it's not as great as people say it is. Actually, I'm just saying that to make you feel better.

I'm playing Oblivion. The thieve's guild plot is pretty fun, and the main storyline is compelling also. I agree with Walsy that there is a great lack of choice and substance in dialogue choices, but because the rest of the game is a big sandbox, it is excusable in my eyes. As for the enemies leveling up with you, I pretend not to notice, and it works for me. Playing this game brings up another concern I had though. Hades expressed it earlier, but basically I am wondering why the system requirements for NWN2 are higher than Oblivion, when Oblivion seems to be the more graphically demanding of the two. I haven't seen the action in NWN2 really, but I don't see how it would need more CPU power either. If anyone discovers the answer to this, please tell me.

Mus? wins teh internets.

Balthy, think of it as a copy. The copy is not the original. It is a copy. The copy cannot be the original, no matter what you do to it. In this case, you are destroying the original, which is a separate entity, and replacing it with a copy. Are you okay with you (the original) ceasing to exist, and the copy (that is not you, but an elaborate impersonation) taking your place? I think I see where you are coming from, I just disagree I guess. It'd be a matter of personal preference anyway if it ever existed.

Actually, with this uber-advanced machinery, one could probably clone parts of their body if reconstruction is needed, or clone healthy blood, or clone eyeballs that got ripped out. Medically, this would be great. As long as it's not the whole body, because it would be morally unacceptable to rip new-me's face off and put it onto old-me. What if you cloned the body without the brain? I'm pretty sure people would object, but if there is clearly no soul... then it's like ripping off pieces of a liquidy bag and placing them on you.

I think you're right.

Well, I can't think of many ways the US could go about things now and have Iraq benefit. The best I could think of was having the troopers protect humanitarian aid endeavors. Make sure good things get to where they need to go. Other than that, I mean, establishing a democracy can't be that great: if you took the mindset of every Iraqi, and put it in to one person, that is, if they voted on a president who they thought embodied their interests, the US is going to be hated as an infidel nation. But how the US is seen shouldn't matter, what should matter is getting the democracy to actually work, so that hopefully all Iraq's citizens will be in a better condition (or progressing toward a better condition) than they were in before the US invaded, because they collectively should be able to vote themselves into that position. However, their intentions might not be for the benefit of every citizen.

Plan is to fail and hope u haven't made too big a mess. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Right... We're screwed.

So what's the plan, chums?

I agree. Most of the Iraqi people don't give a rip about what the US is doing. And now that they have a "democracy", they'll just vote in somebody who hates infidels, because that is their religion. Democracy won't change them, if anything, it'll show their true colors, that is, what they all think. What is the worthwhile thing? Tell us, and maybe we'll join your cause. The ten commandments are not the only thing that matters in Christianity or Judaism. I'm not really sure what you are getting at when you said this. The bible discusses intentions a lot. You say your statement in a manner condemning of the ten commandments. Are they bad? If people were to obey them perfectly, would there not be a great change for the good? We aren't the deciders, but we are over there now (we won't have to blast our way in right now), so how can we help make things better?In your eyes, the best thing that the US can possibly do right now is take every military trooper out of Iraq? Neither does anybody, you just made that up. Bush thought Hussein was a threat. It ends up that Bush wasn't justified to go into Iraq. Nobody is saying, "bombs are actually good intentions." You made that up to rag on something. You obviously think the US should leave Iraq immediately because we can't help any bit by staying. That might be true, but it might not be true. Why can't help be given? Could the US troops be redirected to protecting food supplies that were not getting to where they needed to go? I don't know. I'm not the decider. And neither are you. You're just ranting and not helping as much as I am.

A woman of many words.

Sure, so like I said, we'll assume it's like star trek, not instantaneous, but pretty fast, within seconds.

Right, this is starting to sound like one of those physics problems... The best I can do is tell you geometrically if we are sinking when we go on a cruise.

Pixies, for conversational purposes, we'll say this is an exact replica of Star Trek's teleportation system. It might be a fuel saver, and in turn, a money saver. Time is money in some people's eyes also, so those 4, 5, 4, 5 minutes all added up is money.

You know, getting to school takes 15 minutes, work 30 minutes, home both times 15 and 30. Travelling ends up sucking a lot of time when you could just teleport. It might save fuel and time depending on its efficiency. The thing that stops me from liking it is that there are two simultaneous me's, so I'm still in one spot, but another, newly invented person is in another spot. I wouldn't want to be a clone, so I know what my clone would think, he wouldn't want to be in existance.

That's like committing suicide and reproducing my ugly self all in one. No for me. And assuming it is even possible to make an exact replica of somebody, would they have a soul?

I agree with these statements. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Tell that to God when you see him. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think I'll be too busy worshiping Him. Anyway, God knows what I've said, so I won't need to tell Him later. If you misinterpreted what I meant, then I will expound: I agree with Walsy that we need to focus on the future of Iraq, not the mistakes that were made before now. Of course we will remember and learn from those mistakes, but that's not where the focus needs to be right now. There's a lot of junk that needs to be sorted out. Like Hades said, just leaving abruptly now might not be the best course of action.

I agree with these statements.

Your words are in italics, so they seem insincere, but I'm not sure. To make matters worse, your avatar is giving me strange looks, like it wants to eat me.

Hasta luego.

Thanks meta, I enjoyed reading that.