Valsuelm

Something tells me that if it were 2003, you would be arguing that the UK and US government officials wouldn't be lying about the 'WMDs' in Iraq and would buy the manufactured hogwash that Saddam was the antichrist of Arabia and the greatest enemy on earth of freedom and democracy who must be 'stopped'. And yes, if you forget, at the time, there were people, myself being one, saying they were lying and going to war under completely false pretenses. How many times do you need to be lied to before you stop believing the source?

I guess your ability to use proper grammar wanes when you're in a vitriolic tizzy? What conclusion did I make that was ignorant? I never said there aren't a lot of factors why crime happens as you seem to think. I'm not a kid, kid (you certainly act like one if you aren't one by age), and I don't use google. If you really need some folks with a PhD to tell you what's what, you're never going to see the light on this issue or any other. You're beholden to others to do your thinking for you.

Where on earth do you think you're going to get more reliable statistics on crime in Australia than the Australian government? And do you really need someone to read the statistics for you and write a 'paper' or 'study' spelling out what those statistics say? I don't use Google.

Much of what I've stated recently in this thread is a tangent, yes, but it is related and that tangent grew out of discussion being had. You'll see that if you read back. Umm... anyone who thinks the stock market's daily wobblings or even it's yearly wobblings is a sound indicator of the health or unhealth of any economy fundamentally doesn't understand economics or has a very narrow view of what economic health of a nation's economy is. Of course I realize that's what most talking heads on TV would have you believe, but stock portfolios is not a good indicator of what's happening to everyone else. For one of the most blatant examples of this: ever hear of the term 'bubble'? I put forth that just how many people are brainwashed to believe this is one of the stronger indicators of how precariously sitting on a ledge over an abyss the western economies are. Regardless, even if sanctions take their toll on Russia or anyone else, the effects of that won't be seen in meaningful statistical numbers for awhile. But really, when the only sanctions I've seen implemented so far are aimed at a couple individuals and a bank or two, it's certainly not something that is going to affect any nation's economy. Someone please link what other sanctions have been implemented, if any, as I haven't seen any others. So basically, so far the only sanctions even implemented are just a bunch of hot air, that in the long term will accomplish absolutely nothing as the individuals and banks sanctioned will just go around them (if they even want to).

'Gun nuts'? You certainly have an unbiased objective view of the situation. Look it up yourself. The various statistics for such things are not hard to find, especially U.S. statistics. About the only stat I've ever had any trouble finding is how many people are gunned down by police every year in the U.S., as even though congress has asked it to be done the FBI and other governmental agencies have ignored their request. Oh here, since I know you're lazy (because if you weren't you'd have already looked this stuff up and wouldn't use the term 'gun nuts'): http://www.aic.gov.au/statistics/violent%20crime.html Find the rest yourself.

Ayup, they do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29 Not that these numbers really mean all that much in regards to sanctions except to partially point out that Russia is one of the nations on earth that can self sustain if need be. Not only that though, Russia isn't playing the great 'central banking / convert our nations into fiefdoms based on debt slavery' game that the Europeans and the U.S. are anywhere near as much as those pulling the strings in the EU and the U.S. would like. Which not only shows how little Russia is under their thumb and how little sanctions will likely matter, but also how good a position Russia is to thumb their nose at the Euro and Dollar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt Any sanctions probably will hurt the west in the long run more than Russia, as they will just push Russia even more in the direction of dropping the Euro and Dollar all together. Whether they do or don't though they are downright stupid. Sanctions on Russia over this is pretty much the equivalent of a prepubescent spite over not getting their way, and will have about the equivalent outcome such spite generally does.

Considering most modern scientists seem to think that somewhere around 98% of your DNA is 'junk' (because yea, if we don't understand what it is it must be junk right?), it's not too surprising they think we're half bananas. It wouldn't surprise me if they thought we were half eggplant, half snotball, or half toejam too. I certainly believe they are at least half bananas, and I think the case could be made that most people in modern times are at least half bananas, my personal experiences certainly validates that argument, so maybe they're on to something with this.

Chances are high there's some mistranslation going in one direction or the other in regards to some of the words that definitely are not profanity, either that or the words sound/appear like a profane Mongolian word. The authors of those articles give way too much credit to the Urban Dictionary and must not get out too much. There's not a word on that list I wasn't familiar with decades ago, long before the Urban Dictionary and it's legion of prepubescent and college aged entry suppliers. Just about all of the words are words you'll find bantered about a Jr. High lunch table in your average school in the U.S. for half a century or more. I could have supplied a more robust list of profanity than that myself, my 13 year old self of yesteryore even more.

Not looking too likely since they've made it clear they're running with a skeuomorphic GUI. File me in camp pro-skeuomorph. In other news, I'm glad to see that as the proud owner of a set of declining eyes, I'll still be able to enjoy PoE. Edit: No pun intended. Why would a skeuomorphic GUI mean that all aspects of the UI couldn't be scalable or movable? Personally I'm more than alright with a skeuomorph GUI, unless it means I can't scale it up/down or move it up/down/right/left as I please to best fit my preferred resolution on my monitor and my sadly ever slowing increasing myopia. The very reason I wish to be able to do this is to make playing easier on the eyes, and more efficient for the way I prefer to play the game. So I'm with you on wanting a UI that someone with declining eyes can use as well. ie: Minimap or Character Sheet a little too small on your screen for your liking? Just scale it up, and move it somewhere it's easier for you to see. The UI is extremely important to the experience, and giving players options I think would be ideal, as that way pretty much everyone can be happy. Really, it blows my mind how many games don't allow for this these days, as well as have really bad UIs at many resolutions.

That is an amazingly stupid argument that if accepted invalidates pretty much every argument for anything ever, including your own. Perhaps you meant to phrase it differently. The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War (a more apt name) which is really just an extension of the First Indochina War was about a myriad of things, almost all of which boil down to imperialism and resources. The exceptionally uberlucrative drug trade (namely opium), oil, having Indochina under the western capitalist umbrella (which was dominated by the U.S. and U.K.), acting as a check to growing Chinese communist power that was gobbling up resources in Asia, expanding the Anglo-American empire at the expense of the French and the Vietnamese (French were no better there, they just got wrestled out), and Vietnam's strategic location near the very economically important Straights of Malacca to name a few.

Nationalism is an ideology Bruce... and it's not why wars are fought in modern times. Anyone who thinks that buys into the manipulations and propaganda of those who are behind the war. I don't know if I agree to that definition...but I could be convinced? For me the Cold War was a war of ideology but for example the Bosnian War was about nationalism The 'cold war' was not an actual war, however yes, that had a lot to do with economic ideology: Capitalism vs. Socialism/Communism, which could itself could easily be argued to be fundamentally about resources. The Bosnian war was divide and conquer war about resources where the Bosnians, Serbs, and other locals lost, and some powerful economic interests of Germany, U.S. U.K., and other NATO powers won. It's fairly well described in the video Sarex posted that you refused to watch. It was also about isolating Russia economically and NATO took advantage of the fact that Russia was down for the count and under bad leadership for a bit, it paid off for them. They tried it again with Ukraine, but this time Russia was no longer down for the count and no longer under bad leadership (Putin's evil, don't get me wrong... but leading is something he is good at).

I have bridges I'd like to sell you.

Nationalism is an ideology Bruce... and it's not why wars are fought in modern times. Anyone who thinks that buys into the manipulations and propaganda of those who are behind the war.

There are exceptions to what I stated, hence me writing 'almost never' but they are rare in modern times, and absent from most if not all major conflicts western nations have been involved in. Ideology/religion have played almost no role in almost all wars in the last half century other than to galvanize some support amongst the masses. Most of the folks who are calling the shots in this world at this point really don't give a poop about the peasants and are motivated by greed and power, things such as ideologies and religion are just tools for them to manipulate the peasants into doing what they wish. Most of the exceptions to this can be found in Africa, but even there it's often outside interests (usually European) manipulating the locals in a divide and conquer fashion to gain access to resources.

There's also the little issue of Crimea having large deposits of gas and oil. Like eastern Ukraine. Now guess where "ethnic Russians" are campaigning for a return to the motherland... I hadn't actually realised it was the old oil and gas game, like with Chechnya. Natural Resources and who gets to exploit them is behind the majority of conflicts in the last half century. It's one of the first things one should look for when looking at a brewing war situation like Crimea. Cui Bono and what from? Nationalism, ethnicity, 'spreading democracy', etc are generally just casus belli manufactured for the general public, they almost never are why any nation is actually doing what it's doing.

There are worse places to be stuck. And new wave is good too. A lot of my favorite music is classified as that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qx1XDATyBI

Ooof. I feel like a physics professor that got something from a student that says F= Emc2 / a2 + b2 and 2 + 2 = 7. You know some things, but they're quite jumbled and more than a bit off. As far as physics goes: E=mc2, F=MA, a2 + b2 = c2, and 2 + 2 = 4. As far as what you wrote above goes, that will take quiet a bit more. All but the last two of your bullet points could easily have a much longer post than this response fully disputing what you think many times over. The last two, easily could have long posts explaining to you in detail what's what about them. I don't have time for that, but I'll see what I can do in brief in the next day or two. In the meantime, do us all a favor and go read the U.S. Constitution in it's entirety, the Federalist papers, Anti-Federalist papers, and somehow become more familiar with U.S. history than you are, in particular what lead up to the American Revolution, why what's in the Constitution is there, and why it's important. Doing that should shed some light on some of what you're wrong about above, and why and under what circumstances Obama could and should be impeached, tried, and convicted. Because like him or not, he has purposefully broken a number of laws, Constitutional laws, and big ones. Thinking or saying otherwise is either naivety, ignorance, or delusion. In very short though, the girl is mostly right about what you think she's wrong about. She, an American, has a bit better understanding of what's gone on in her nation that you do. Not to say plenty of Americans also don't have a clue what goes on, many don't, and some foreigners have more than a good idea of what goes on here, you're just not one of them. Anon. I'll follow up later.

I'm guessing you weren't around and listening to music in the 80s? Quiet Riot was not a one hit wonder. A number of their videos got heavy airplay on MTV in the early/mid 80s (the golden age of MTV) and they were a pretty big presence on the metal scene. Here's one of their other hits.

So do I.

How do you watch such a video and come away thinking she has an 'utter lack of understanding'? What exactly does she say that you think indicates she doesn't understand, and what is it she doesn't understand? Enlighten me, as I'm finding it hard to not think most of what she said and presented flew right over your head. That girl is no sage by any means, but she's a helluva lot more with it than most. More awake than most of the folks in this forum, Obama likers or dislikers both. You, and most of the people here could learn a lot from her. Edit: Congrats on watching a video! I'm glad you did. It's a start!

Is there a badge key anywhere that explains what all the badges mean? I've missed it if there is. and /salute stryck9 and any other lurking watchers.

Haven't ever heard of her or seen any of her films. Definitely easy on the eyes. Got a film recommendation?

Who was that hot chica anyways? She certainly wasn't a lego creation.

Alas, Woldan has morphed from a hot chica to a mad lego jester.

Thank you very much for all of your clarifications BAdler, I think you put the concerns raised at ease. I'm glad Obsidian was able to find a company you guys felt was a good match. I look forward to the results.