Rostere

Arcanum ruled. I loved that game. The only thing I was disappointed with was the animations. Come on, the running animation just makes you laugh. Otherwise, your description sounds like it would make for a good game.

It's really something that has been going on much before Obama, if you look at statistics you will see that US national debt has increased steadily since 1980 (and become a veritable sword of Damocles!), with the only exception of a very short period the latter half of the 1990s. I remember a quote from **** Cheney: "Deficits don't matter". Obviously that's also the pessimistic mindset of the majority of Americans, or why else would they vote again and again for these people whose economic "skills" leave so much to ask for. I do hope for your sake that Obama raises the income taxes if he is to continue on this spending spree. Also, your investment in gold should probably prove to be well placed if things continue along this road I have not yet placed all my savings in gold, though. The real "dip" is still some time ahead of us. That's actually an understatement, I've lived in Stockholm virtually my entire life, both in a suburban villa and in the the very centre of the city, so I really should know what I'm talking about.

I agree with this. I would also extend it to include all organized religions with some kind of hierarchy. As soon as someone gets authority over others with the mandate of some "higher power", things go wrong.

You do realize that American cities normally consist of the central section, the downtown, with skyscrapers, which are mostly offices, and then the rest of the city is extremely spread out being mostly single family houses? It's true some cities don't exactly follow that pattern, like New York City and San Francisco. I'm pretty sure that's how cities look all around the globe, except for in Sweden where it's forbidden to build high buildings without the consent of 1 million+ bureocrats. There, cities consist of the of the central section, the downtown, with just old buildings, which are anyway mostly offices, and then the rest of the city is extremely spread out being mostly single family houses.

So Stockholm is mostly single family houses? Not the impression I got from Project Gotham Racing 2. Seriously, man. Let's take San Diego as comparison as Calax did (even though his numbers are a bit strange)... This is central San Diego. This is central Stockholm. Now, which one looks to be more densely populated? The one where people live in apartment blocks from the 19th century or the one where people live in skyscrapers? You tell me.

Bad thing they nerfed Hammerdins. I guess we're stuck with just Sorcs and Trapassins in hardcore now!

The best site for digital distribution is gog.com. But they only have old games in stock, so you might want to try out gamersgate.com. But they also have a limited selection of games, so then you're stuck with Direct2Drive. And then there's Steam and Impulse of course, but those two suck, especially Steam. Also, it might not matter to someone living in the US, but I'd like to advise European people to watch out for situations where a game costs 39.99 dollars or 39.99 euro... Always choose to buy it with cheap-ass dollars

Now who's racist? WTF? Stockholm is anything but compact. You could wonder if the person in question has even been there himself. Stockholm is very thinly spread out with almost no tall buildings, especially central Stockholm. This has been the central issue for local politics for decades, it's strange to see someone claim the opposite. Although it is true that Sweden is, compared to the US, a more urban country the cities in question does not have very large population per unit of area.

Google Wave sounds very interesting indeed! Google have proven time and time again that they are an innovative company with interesting solutions, and I don't think they will let me down this time.

That very same cop is the guy who's supposed to catch you if you do not abide by the rules of religious apartheid. So he's being threatened by religious extremists? That is, as you say, truly ironic. Nevertheless I think religious freedom and democracy are quite good things, and Saudi Arabia has neither of these (rather, brutally enforces the opposite). I think no civilized country should supply the arms which the government points at their oppressed population. That is not exactly making the world a freer and better place to live in.

Nobody can ever own land in an absolute sense, perhaps not even have more or less objective rights with regard to a given slice of land. We have to be rational and look at the situation from an utilitarian point of view. The Israel/Palestine conflict also has a much deeper importance than the number of people killed, et.c.. It has arguably served to polemise the entire Muslim world against the US and also in part Europe. Now, I don't think this will have such a harmful impact on the US or Europe (what would that be, anyway?), but you could see it as a game where the US are raising the stakes for the Israelis, who haven't got so much to bet themselves. The US supports guns (about 1/7 to 1/6 of the annual Israeli defence budget, or $2,5 bn a year) with which Israel points at the West Bank and Gaza, swarming with Palestinians living under inhumane living conditions. And things just keep getting worse, and the US just keeps giving more and more, and the Palestinians are just getting more and more desperate. How will it end? I don't think the current state of affairs will be stable much longer. Eventually, one of the sides will fold, and it won't be pretty.

Saudi Arabia is quite the tyrannical exception among countries in the Middle East. Is that why they get so much military aid from the US? Or was it the other way around?

Why would anyone ban minarets? That's just stupid.

"We don't want to be victims of discrimination due to our race and culture, so we create a state where others are victims of this instead". Great thinking. Oh, I do agree that Israel can not immidiately open borders to the Palestine ghetto and become a single state without unneccesary harm. However, that should be their long- term goal. In Sweden, I have known many Jews and the if any of those ever told me they had been treated badly because of their heritage I would be stunned by the sheer absurdity. After and during WW2 we recieved Jews as refugees and I honestly don't know why some Jews choose to live somewhere they must fight every day against people who are prejudiced against Jews, and I understand even less why yet some Jews want to kill other people for their land! So why did so many Jews migrate to the Palestinian Mandate after the war? Why did they single out a place with a racism so prevalent? With that logic, they could as well have settled Treblinka. Sometimes, there are things so stupid only religion can explain them...

I think this silly sentence snuck into your post which was otherwise by and large factually correct. Again, this thing that people with different religions or people from different races cannot live in the same country is so 19th century. Why should there be something like a "Jewish state"? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. America for example is a country that's full of people from different religions descended from people all over the world and I think the US works pretty well nonetheless, perhaps because people have learned to accept each others differences. If you look at the facts, their strategy could as well be to kill as many civilians and especially to destroy as much infrastructure as they can. Now, I don't know what their official documents say their strategy are, but if their orders are to preserve civilian lives and property, they're probably the most incompetent army in the world, and I really don't think they are.

I think Israel+Palestine should be one state. The whole idea that one "people" shoucl have one "state" is absurd and belongs to late 19th century nationalism. The Israeli and the palestinian peoples must learn to live with each other, regardless of their differences. The separation as it looks now is just a de facto apartheid where the palestinians are locked into ghettoes under Israel's control. You should strive toward unity, not towards increasing already existing differences. The hard thing would of course be to unify the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples without violence. Ideally, I would want this to take place without a single Israeli or Palestinian dying.

Updated list... I think I'll wait one more day for more nominations. Walsingham taks lord_of_flies funcroc Kaftan Barlast mkreku Nick/Llyranor Gorgon Gromnir Killian Kalthorne Volourn Shryke 213374U

I guess the representatives will be elected by the populace once they gain some amount of actual power, probably after another 10 years of costly negotiations in the EU-bureaucracy.

I must say that I really prefer Moskovskaya over Stolichnaya. I know it's their cheaper alternative, but the taste is quite unique. Stolichnaya would probably be better if you're making drinks and want as little flavour as possible though.

That's funny, in Sweden Uni doesn't cost money, you get paid to go there. And if that shouldn't be enough you get student loans with a state-level group discount.

That has nothing to do with fanaticism, the Constitution is what protects our rights as citizens, and when it's violated we lose some of those rights. I don't think it's funny or comical in any way that the US has had basically the same constitution for over a hundred years or that you still keep it, it's just the way some people talk about it. Really, it's just some papers someone wrote some time ago about what they thought would be proper foundations for a union of states. The power of those laws is not withheld because they are in the Holy Book of the Constitution, but because the member states have agreed upon a unifying set of laws and generally also abide by those laws. It's just the way some people talk about it. Why is it so special? (I'm not trying to argue that a union of states should not have some sort of common judicial foundation here) In this context, Americans often use the word "freedom". But seriously, who in **** in the world doesn't have freedom? (Okay, so apparently gay couples in Texas and in Iran does not have all the freedoms of other human beings, but you get the idea...) In addition to that, no other constitution has been tried, so how could anyone know the current one is the best one? Sweden also has a constitution, but nobody here who doesn't study Law knows anything about it, and I've basically never seen it mentioned in the media.

Ok, so nominations so far are: Walsingham taks lord_of_flies funcroc Kaftan Barlast mkreku Nick/Llyranor Gorgon Gromnir If we're going to make it a not too complex quiz, let's narrow it down to about 10. And preferably 10 people who are rather different so that you get some variety. So when you're ready with the nominations I'll try to get down to designing a quiz, if no one else is faster

Seriously, some Americans act like the Constitiution is their ****ing Quran or something.

I want a "Which Obsidian Employee are you?" questionnaire! Anyway, it would be fun to do one about forum members, but perhaps we should first decide on which members. I nominate Walsingham, taks, lord_of_flies and funcroc.