Monte Carlo

I had to stifle a giggle when I saw that freaking awful video, the Final Fantasy comedy swords and Warner Bros blood splashes. It's the apogee of the side-scrolling fighting game made flesh, but without any of the style or humour. Congratulations, Bioware. Bravo.

I'm not being crabby for the sake of it, but re-making True Grit? That's answering a question nobody asked. John Wayne leaves me unmoved normally, but that's an almost perfect movie. I love Jeff Bridges to bits, and he'll do a good job I'm sure but he's not filling those boots anytime soon.

It's probably easier for me to tell you that I don't believe in: miracles, walking on water, water-into-wine, resurrection, prophets, revelations, pillars of salt, apples and serpents, dogma, testaments new or old, pantheons of elephant-headed gods (no matter how cool the iconography), reincarnation, karma, the power of prayer, statues crying, stigmata.... or whose imaginary friend is the most all-powerful. However, I do believe that religion has left behind it as much good (if not more) as it has bad, that the Judaeo-Christian heritage that has forged the culture and society of where I live is a Good Thing, and that people should be left alone to practice their beliefs in peace. But the organised religions of the world are as much an anthropological phase as animism or paganism. Technology is already stretching moral and ethical barriers between the sacred and the profane. This will continue. I'll end by quoting Jesus, who explains why Christianity has been so successful and such a good basis for human development: Jesus said to them,

I accept that when they do find alien life it will probably be as exciting as plankton.

+1

Hmmm. Victorians didn't buy into cars because they honestly thought that humans would literally explode if they travelled at speeds over 30mph. Scientific paradigm shifts, when they happen, are dramatic. I have to defer to your knowledge - I am hopeless at physics - but isn't it slightly arrogant for us to believe that an area of science can never advance because of theoretical recieved wisdom? Imagine telling a medieval scholar that you can travel in the air faster than an arrow and transplant a man's heart into another human being. His response might be a bit like yours, Oblarg.

^ I'm sort of with Morgoth, there gets to a point where several tons of circumstantial evidence starts soaking up the scepticism and makes you wonder what the truth is.

Darth is right, Hurlie you're a teacher, I bet you wouldn't screw up a kid's grades if say they'd given your kids a hard time at school or whatever. Cops can deprive people of their liberty, carry weapons, ruin your day. I'm not sure the guy should be sacked, but some sort of reprimand is in order.

I'd describe myself as agnostic but in a very open-minded way.

'European' has become a pejorative term simply because of the EU. Which is unpopular, unless you are a French farmer. I am proud to have so many splendid European countries as neighbours, friends and allies. It's just that my country has followed an utterly different historic trajectory than them and is different. The core issue, in case you were wondering (and as a lawyer might be of interest to Gromnir) is that they have vestiges of the Napoleonic Code in their legal and political systems and we don't. This makes us less very different, and is why EU law, predicated on European systems that share so much commonality across the continent, is tough a tough fit with the UK.

No, the kid was only doing what young guys have been doing since time immemorial. I'm just thinking that the cop should have used his imagination and kind of created a bit of distance from it all.

I am a sucker for a UFO story, any UFO craziness brings out the Lone Gunman in me. I so badly want there to be aliens. OK, I want them to be friendly aliens, not scary human-eating reptiles, but that's not important right now. So check out this story in a not-very-good UK newspaper. Does anyone here know anything about these guys or are they the real deal? And, if anybody here is of a scientific bent, why might a saucer be an optimal shape for a space-craft? Cheers MC

The cop should have known better. He should also have avoided being caught.

Zorapter, you acknowledge that I haven't accused you of anything. Usually your posts make sense, but this one doesn't.

So you do pirate sometimes? Dude, eliciting the admission is so much more fun, 'K?

No, my friend, because I suspect I'm totally on the money.

^ I shoot and I score. You are talking about a tiny percentage of the issue at hand, more semantics more loop-the-loop. I am talking about the websites where you can merrily and freely steal products you should pay for. You think you are stealing from a faceless corporation, but that company has employees it pays salaries that put roofs over heads and food in mouths. If waking up every day and trying my level best not to steal, to pay my taxes and be a half-decent contributing, non-oxygen stealing member of society makes be obnoxious and self-righteous then that's a badge I'll wear with pride. Go steal some more software and bask in your alternative, I'm-so-cool attitude. It doesn't change what is or isn't theft.

Freaking 'A' I'm not European.

It's simple, I'd guess that the vast majority of piracy apologists are by and large people who dabble in downloading pirated products. They are simply trying to rationalise / validate their criminality.

Copyright is NOT property rights. ****, I would've thought the more Libertarian-leaning people on this board would be the most astute ones on this matter. Guess not. Libertarians respect property rights, it's one of the cornerstones of libertarianism. The copyright / property right argument is also false. You are freely creating something that you would otherwise buy and depriving the creator of the legitimate profit of his or her labour. It's theft, however much semantic loop-the-looping you want to undertake.

Please make a forum post after you've been burgled. Then we will all try to persuade you to feel sorry for the thief, after all your property was just lying there, waiting to be taken right?

No I didn't miss it, in fact the way it was managed and negotiated to everybody's satisfaction is a good example of what I'm talking about. I don't have a dog in this fight - I'm not a games developer nor do I own any of my own intellectual property. But if I were or I did, I would be furious that some lazy SoB was stealing it then whining about his freedom being curtailed simply because the way he was stealing it was on the internet. This isn't a very difficult point of view to understand AFAIC.

He just can't draw. His artistic ability is limited. It meant that I couldn't be bothered to find out more. Comics are tough because they rely on story and visuals, which is why so many comics suck.

^ Well at least you've learnt that your understanding was fatally flawed. This forum is private property and we are guests who have agreed to T&Cs when we registered. The end.

^ Yours is an all-or-nothing argument. The issue is simply people stealing a sixty-dollar product online as tangibly as if they'd walked into a shop, concealed the item in their clothing and waltzed off without paying. You've stretched that into a thin end of the wedge type scenario whereby an army of eagle-eyed IP lawyers are going to chase down kids in Somewhere, Ohio, for making their own Lego Star Wars movies by using voice clips from George Lucas movies. That ain't gonna happen.