majestic

Did people actually consider the eu anything other than fanfiction? Maybe very early on but at some point, given the volume, I'd expect people to wise up. Lucasarts merely opened the flood gates to rack in licensing revenues. Lucas Arts had an entire department dedicated to nothing but keeping the EU in "check" and to develop storylines with the publishers and authors. I suppose they still do, considering that current Star Wars novels are once again considered canon. Officially sancitoned fan fiction, in other words, like Rogue One. Considering that there are Star Wars novels by respected (and popular, although that says little about quality) fantasy/science fantasy authors like Michael Stackpole I'd also argue against it all being awful. Of course Stackpole isn't in the same ballpark as Clarke or the aforementioned Jules Verne but he's a far cry from being a terrible writer and far away from fan-fiction level of awful. If you want awful check out E. L. James or Anna Todd.

Well that didn't happen in the Netherlands, at least not from an outside point of view. Do you have many heroin or coke addled junkies in the streets that started out with a hash brown from one of your shops*?

Last year around this time I started my Star Wars Expanded Universe (formerly "canon" now shat on by Disney) project. I figured I could read all the novels that ever came out, not counting the young adult entertainment ones, now that there are no new EU novels coming out. Oh boy. In terms of the old SW timeline I'm done with everything from the New Jedi Order series onwards to the end (up to and including Troy Denning's Crucible) and I have, in the past, read the more popular entries like the Solo trilogy and Timothy Zahn's books. Most of the books are surprisingly entertaining, obviously not high-brow literature but not nearly as pulpy as I expected them to be. I figured I'd simply roll around and start with the books on the other end of the timeline, but Into the Void was such a chore to go through and after 52 different Star Wars novels I think I... uhm... need a break. Thought it would be a good time to try and finally get through Ulysses. I don't like leaving books unfinished, even if it takes me years, but I'm really close to giving up. Ugh.

The way I see it legalizing drugs would have a host of positive effects. Enforced quality standards, new sources of taxable income and hey, the DEA could stop spending all your money on an unwinnable War on Drugs . The police would no longer have to deal with small time drug runners and the courts would have much less work and could focus on more pressing issues. Even the cartels would profit, assuming that the taxation doesn't exceed the current money spent on palm greasing. *shrug* Sure its not healthy, but neither are cancer sticks or drinking yourself to death - and people who really want to do drugs get them anyway. People drink perfume and die if they have no other access to alcohol, so really, any point by the "pro-control" faction about the dangers of drugs seems... ridiculous. The same applies to prostitution. As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, what's the harm? Disclaimer: Obviously even legal drugs have smuggling problems, there is a lot of sub-par alcohol floating around and I've seen people buy cheap cigarettes from shady people just because they're half as much as regular ones, but the dimension of the problem is not nearly the same.

Yeah, indeed. The article focuses on the most basic and most readily available form of consuming cannabis, and of course smoking weed has the same issues that smoking regular cancer sticks has. Well, duh. As for its medical properties I always thought it would be prescribed in lieu of other medication for the same purpose that is potentially even more harmful, like morphine for pain. But good to know that BioWare has another agenda, besides enforcing social justice by making all women look like men.

It's not even that far fetched. Some time back Steyr came up with a prototype AMR that actually used a couple of features usually found in artillery.

Who says they don't get them? Might depend on the location but a quick googling reveals that e.g. Greece and Austria let refugees participate in their vaccination programmes as long as they want to (vaccinations not being mandatory and all), and there are vaccination and health recommendations by the WHO for the ongoing refugee/migration crisis. So, in other words, can't say that there are no medical professionals that aren't concerned with such things. They just write papers and deal with real life issues instead of making videos on YT... Still apples and oranges, especially when the topic was an Australian anti-vaxx rally.

Not that I want to drag politics into the comedy thread but the people triggered here are clearly not "SJW liberals" (can't be because all SNL writers ARE obviously liberals and SJWs). It's mostly our heroic defenders of free speech that are triggered and outraged here, going by the comments.

Watched War Machine. Was pretty bored, the film isn't bad but it's nothing special. The biggest disappointment was that one can easily see the movie it could have been lurking behind a screenplay revision or two (and maybe a different lead actor). *sigh*

Muahahaha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi06BRTBc7Y

Bruce is just unhappy that oby stole his Qis right from under him.

Finally found an Okkar Frigate in Everspace for that final achievement. Done with the game now except for a few locked perks on the gunship (and no desire to play that thing).

Those are all good points but if you're living in a society that corrupt then they don't need your DNA to "get you". Also, the pattern of your DNA existing in a database does not provide anyone with the actual physical DNA.@ Sharp_one I can understand your concern but dont confuse corruption and incompetence that exists within the police force where you live as a global standard. This wont be used to frame innocent people I can assure you I side with Sharp. Brucie, it doesn't even have to never illegal or attached to corruption if people buy your data. Remember the NSA spying on you? Remember that law that your browsing history can now be bought and sold? Same thing, Brucie. Would you be comfortable with that? That people can essentially buy who you are? "This won't be used to frame innocents"... how can you possibly ensure that? Bennie the NSA is our friend, they are an invaluable instrument in the war against extremism There decisions need to be accepted in the interests of the greater good, Here's the ultimate truth of this forum: When Ben agrees with Sharp (and/or Guard Dog) on that your position is wrong... you're dead wrong and should stop immediately.

Hey, the game is still around and playable. The playerbase is spread a bit thin across all the servers and free shards, but otherwise it is servicable enough for an MMORGP that's going to have its 20th anniversary this year.

MMORPG gaming communities got demonstrably worse in recent years. This is a real case of the past being much better: In EQ there was nothing to do without a group and being a punk landed you on the server's blacklist so quickly the only recourse was to quit or straighten up fast, and the type that would needlessly berate others in a game was more likely to beat you up at the school yard for playing games (let alone MMORPGs) in the first place.

Finished an Everspace run on hard. Took some doing but hey, well, it isn't called hard for no reason. Almost messed up the run when the sector 5 jumpgate ended up being inside a minefield covered by a frigate. What a rush.

Veto power over new federal laws is quite significant power, although Germany's presidents usually use it only to prevent laws that they think are in violation of constitution and it has been only used eight times total by all the presidents I think. Good to know. Is the president usually of the same party/extremely cooperative with the Prime Minister, or is not too infrequent that they're from a different party? The German president is elected by the Federal Convention which includes members of the Bundestag and the federal parliaments. I think that's supposed to actively reflect the current political climate in Germany but the whole system is just confusing. Anyway more often than not the government candidate wins the presidential election and even if not the president is supposed to act in an unbiased fashion. The underhanded deals and backstabbing that precede the elections are kind of fun though. From an outside perspective it does appear as if finding a suitable candidate that wants the job is, uhm, actually hard.

If you ever find yourself stuck in a swamp dying of boredom amongst respawning hordes of annoying but ultimately harmless enemies keep in mind... it ends. Eventually. Don't let the swamp bog you down. Haw haw. How exceedingly clever.

Of course it always comes back to the vocalists. Anyway, something different this time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I84bgJmtmhs

I've been playing Everspace, now that it's out. I have serious issues motivating myself after 70+ hours spent on the alpha and early beta versions. Managed to finish the game after a reset on my third run, uhm, and the first two only failed because I had no idea that the ancient defender thingy spawns a singularity on death and on the second run I died after thinking I could reach a credit transport even though the game told me to turn around for a while. Still, great game. Interesting take on storytelling in a roguelike-ish game.

Evanescence is carried by Amy Lee. It's one of those cases where I wish a band's vocalist would just join up with some other talented musicians (another example woul be Elize Ryd from Amaranthe). Speaking of Gothic*: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c4MhVz4_Yo I enjoy a bt of In Extremo every now and then. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCM-3Qg_mXU

Sorry Tale.

I want muh scannin' probes back, dammit. Mimimimimi.

That's disturbing enough to warrant a backing and I'm not really going to miss those 20$...

Thanks Gorth.