JadedWolf

"I'm a self-made orphan. My parents got what they deserved, and now I'm leaving all that behind." That one is brilliant.

Because that's still rampant these days. Besides, what's chancing a little Black Death to have a cuddly rodent to care for and love? http://www.ibtimes.com/bubonic-plague-us-disease-still-present-colorado-madagascar-1729792

Here is a man from Belgium, who was obsessed with penguins. He collected everything to do with penguins, walked through town in a penguin suit, and in the end wanted to be laid to rest with a penguin themed funeral. I like the little buggers myself, but not *that* much. Was he crazy? Maybe. But he was harmless, so people left him alone, and he seemed to get a lot of joy out of it. There are lots of things I don't understand, and find to be "odd", but I am not going around asking for, say, adults who still play with miniature trains to be locked up just because I don't understand why they'd want to do that.

Well, it's not all anti-colonialists. Where I live, we have a street called the Luitenant Generaal van Heutszlaan. Some background on this lovely fellow from Wikipidia: At the advice of an Acehnese noble, he also altered the tactics of the Royal Dutch East Indies Army by introducing small mobile forces which were successful against the guerrilla tactics of the Achenese. Van Heutsz commissioned Colonel Van Daalen with the challenge of breaking any remaining resistance. Van Daalen destroyed several villages, killing at least 2,900 Acehnese, among which were 1,150 women and children. Dutch losses numbered just 26, and Van Daalen was promoted. By 1903, Van Heutsz tactics had succeeded in convincing several secular Acehnese resistance leaders including Sultan Mugammad Daud, Tuanku Raja Keumala, Tuanku Mahmud and Teuku Panglima Polem Muda Perkasa to surrender to the colonial authorities. Having overcome the secular elements of the resistance, Aceh was declared by the Dutch to be officially pacified by 1903. I guess every former colonial power still has relics from former days like this, but I still shake my head every time I cycle through and I see that street sign. There's even a restaurant there named after him, "The General". Heh.

I don't know, I'm not hating it judging it only as a look, but it doesn't seem particularly true to the character to me. The Joker doesn't strike me as someone who can even sit still long enough to have someone tattoo on him, let alone letting them being "badass" tattoos rather than some kind of horrible joke. Looks more like the lead singer of an angsty teen rock band to me.

I like the direction this thread is going!

Well to be fair, the only Dutch history that we were taught in scando-land was the colonizations in Asia and that they sold New Amsterdam for almost nothing Come now, come now. We got Surinam for it. It was a steal! I mean, New York on one side, Surinam on the other... Which would you pick? The choice is obvious.

The trouble with waiting is puberty is extremely traumatic for a person who is struggling with gender identity. It's not an or/or scenario, though. Apparently you can wait with surgery and still avoid at least some of the trauma by delaying puberty with hormone treatment. http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/09/16/3567886/transgender-puberty-suppression-study/ (No, this isn't something I knew beforehand, I just looked it up myself because it is an interesting conundrum.)

Probably depends on a woman to woman basis?

I, for one, welcome our furry cat overlords.

I honestly can't even believe how you could hear that as anything else BUT bugger. >_>

Bugger. 100%.

I have a strong dislike for watches*, and was rather glad to see them go. Aside from people who simply have to have the latest gadget, who has a need for these? * Not all watches. Pocket watches are rather stylish.

"A massive chamber holding enough magma to fill the Grand Canyon more than 11 times over is hiding beneath the steaming volcanic system of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. We knew of a smaller magma chamber closer to surface, holding some 10,000 cubic kilometres of magma and feeding heat upwards. The newly discovered reservoir sits under it and has a volume of 46,000 cubic kilometres. Together, the two form the largest known magma reservoir in the world. "We can't say definitively that this is the biggest magma reservoir in the world, but we currently don't know of any other that has been imaged that is as large as the two we see beneath Yellowstone," says Fan-Chi Lin of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City." Source: http://tinyurl.com/o6ftdrs

Doesn't the rest of you want a job? ... I'll get my coat.

Meowwww. Bit of a cat fight in here.

From Wikipedia: "In April 2015 the TSO cancelled performance of pianist Valentina Lisitsa. It accused her of breaching section 319(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada and insinuated that she would face trouble with Canada's immigration authorities and made threats against her if she revealed the reasons for the cancellation in public. The reasoning behind these actions was that Valentina had publicly criticised the Neo Faschist government of Ukraine, the country of her birth." ... Hmm, I guess someone has been editing that particular Wikipedia page. Tell us, Oby, was it you? You can tell us. Bruce won't judge. He never does.

Interesting article from Der Spiegel about the origins of the Islamic State. Seems the founders of it are a lot less interested in religion than they are in controlling people through fear. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-files-show-structure-of-islamist-terror-group-a-1029274.html Highly recommended reading.

First I was laughing, then I started thinking... Prescription against dyslexia? There's no such thing, right? It's not like there's some magical pill that can cure you. Then I stopped laughing. This is why I am no fun at parties.

Guys I think the Op was referring to valid and accepted languages? Dutch is basically a bastardization of Afrikaans so its not really applicable in this case Ek jy nie verstaan nie.

I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes I start saying something in my native tongue, then I switch without even realizing it, and then suddenly everyone is staring at me like I am some kind of madman. Turns out I've gone and switched to Klingon again.

To be fair, they kind of had to. They rolled really, really crappy characters. And with all that resting, they still lost the mage.