Humodour

Is that American for 'skipping ropes'? Does anybody know how good skipping ropes are for cardio? I heard they're good, and they're rather fun I admit, but what about the knees? Do they cause more or less damage than running, would you say? All that jumping.

You just inspired me to spend my free time making maille. By the looks of a google search, it's doable, but time-consuming and rewarding. Sounds fun... I've always wanted a chain mail shirt. I'll use titanium and have super-strong, light-weight armour.

Hey, just a quick question from somebody who soon plans to buy NWN2/MotB: is dialogue scripted? If so, will it trigger on the first party member the script sees, or the party leader? One thing I hated about IWD2 was having my diplomat sorc at the back to avoid death, but having my dumb barbarian activate all dialogues because he's at the front.

Why not just edit the innate ability you're granted? Maybe change it to a 5% (or 0%) chance or something rather than 100%? To me this seems an easier option.

Excellent news. I look forward to reading your updates.

No I won't; I'll spend two days partying in Canberra and reply when I get back if I ever remember. Ciao!

It's to prevent a recession, not help you. True, but wouldn't it make more sense to give out some sort of voucher that works for the most recession hit industries? Rather than oil? I doubt it will be spent on oil much more than people already intended to spend money on oil. Petrol is one of those necessities people don't really go without or splurge on as such.

It's to prevent a recession, not help you.

Taxis? Cheap? I envy you.

extremes are often the strongest forces for social change, gromnir; they force people out of their comfort zone and tend to make them wonder the 'how' and 'why' of the extreme. nobody is saying Iranians kids will soon all have barbies and dress like skanks, but exposure to something as simple as barbies could be a powerful seed for social change for the better over there.

So my plan to become a school teacher and then switch to the gaming industry after 10 years isn't doomed to failure? Ma, burn the McDonald's application!

Bikes and jogging are awesome. Sucks to turn up to work sweaty though.

gasoline Ah. Owned. BTW, $1.50 AUD is $1.40 USD - or $5.3 USD per gallon. What is it in America?

Somehow, I think your skills and logic w.r.t. computer use are superior to the target demographic of that statement (i.e. casual/average computer users). But yes, gamers are one of, if not, the biggest forces for operating system and hardware progress; they always want the latest, biggest and best.

Indeed, I may in fact be preaching to the converted, and only end up offending the less fanatical libertarians of Obsidian, which is not my intent.

It's around ****ing $1.50 a litre in Aus. I wouldn't care if it were a product of diminishing reserves, but petrol prices are almost independent of crude oil reserves around the world. Prices increases are usually products mainly of artificial inflation, monopolies and inter-business dialogue between oil conglomerates so as to fight off the market force of supply/demand (similar to one giant monopoly). Also, why do Americans say 'gas'? Natural gas is a different fuel (and cleaner) and sees far less use in cars. I imagine it will see more use in Australia soon as our gas reserves become cheaper to tap than our oil (which will likely be left to industry) for consumer use, but I don't think America has significant gas reserves or gas use in cars, does it?

Seems a sound experiment! I could add more tasks that would elucidate but I think that for now that experiment highlights a good basic feature set for developers to help de-mystify. Although in defence, how many people had similar problems when they first installed Vista after having used XP? Everybody would be my guess; even I did, and I'm a windows 'guru'. That said, I highly recommend Ubuntu for all! You get the option to install it as a dual-boot, so you needn't go without Windows. Any questions you can ask here. I believe Ubuntu will be the dominant OS eventually. Maybe 2020. That's Kubuntu BTW. I dunno about the other packages, but KDE seems the best desktop environment (and most similar to Windows Explorer)... is that Gnome in the screenshot? I've never used Gnome.

Will I get to meet a seemingly innocuous hobo talking to himself about how nigh "the end" is (because that's innocuous for a hobo), randomly ask for his opinion on a theoretical conspiracy theory (i.e. the protagonist's main quest) and receive a strikingly coherent and rational political tirade from him because before he was a bum he was a rock musician for a well-known punk band, with a PhD in microbiology?

I support this idea with every bone in my body. BATMAN SAVES THE MIDDLE EAST!

I have absolutely no idea where you're going with this Krezack. Parents are always craming their dogma into their children, it's a natural effect of children living with their parents for some 18 years. Also as Guard Dog said, religious fundamentalism rarely stops at the family level and will always try to do like any other ideology and try to affect the rest of society through the government. Reading that article makes me want to get my brain scanned just to see where I fit in. Sorry, I meant that a school has no right to decide to cram detrimental religious dogma down a child's neck, in terms of abstinence instead of contraception (not religion in general). Parents can do as they please (within the law) precisely because it is not feasible (or ethical) to control what a parent does. Will reply to Guard Dog's post later today. He misinterpreted me on a few points, and on others I'd like to discuss.

I also find it funny when people claim that America shouldn't have better (read: decent) social welfare because it 'violates' an individual's right by increasing taxes (the UN disagrees BTW). Funny how Iceland, Australia and Canada have some of the best quality of life in the world as well as some of the lowest taxes of any OECD country (including less than America). In the case of America, upgrading social welfare would "simply" mean telling the libertarians & conservatives to take a hike for a while and replacing the current system. The welfare state replacing it would acquire all those funds - you wouldn't miraculously need to pull them out of thin air and run the old system as well. Any initial tax increases due to infrastructure change and such would be relatively minor if taken over the span of a few years, and the benefits would far outweigh any supposed cons; social welfare combined with workfare* is an upskilling system which closes income gaps, raises the national mean socio-economic level, and increases mean national health and fitness. Workfare/upskilling is thus a feedback loop which means ever decreasing pressure on the welfare system over time (to a critical limit), meaning the system soon pays itself off and then some through the increased economic potential the above benefits create. With all those millions of people living better, healthier lives through good social welfare, you're honestly going to say that libertarianism grants you the ability to deny them this because you perceive you have a 'right' not to have your taxes (which you seem to have little control over anyway I might add) go towards empowering the rights of others? That's not securing civil liberties, that's raping them. It spits in the face of the utilitarianism which liberal democracy is founded upon. Hopefully Hillary or similar gets elected. I know she visited Australia and tried to pass policy to emulate our compulsory universal healthcare scheme back in the 90's when her husband was in power. It'd at least be a good start for the US in the face of such pressures as an income gap that has been ever widening for at least 40 years now... the bottom 50% of income earners haven't even kept up with the inflation rate! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:United_...n_1967-2003.svg *workfare means you get social welfare if you are 'upskilling' (actively seeking to improve your socio-economic status); actively looking for a job, have a job, have a volunteer job such as social work, or are in further education... all contingent on you not currently having an income source that takes your out of the at-risk target group (progressively decreasing subsidy the higher one's income until $0 subsidy), of course. America has a basic system of 'workfare' but is more designed to 'weed out the trash' than take from each according to his ability, and give to each according to his need (again, only until they are out of the at-risk income bracket; this isn't communism, this is designed to uphold basic human rights).

This is the first time they've ever shown him being clearly manipulated by an invisible entity though. In season 2 (en episode with 'six' in the name), he gets slammed against the wall by an invisible force (six in his mind). The direction/angle of force, the velocity and the movement of the rest of his limbs in response pretty much rules out the possibility his neuroses caused it. I believe he also gets choked by her, which is again shown as an invisible constriction around his neck as well as upwards movement of his body seemingly without downwards force on his part... it was pretty clearly not his doing. But yeah, this is the biggest confirmation yet that Virtual Six is a real entity (well, besides Shelly, the physical incarnation of Virtual Six in season 2 who mysteriously disappeared into thin air even though a marine detail was 30 seconds behind and had her boxed in).

tl;dr Although I'll add that rape is one of the most abhorrent crimes imaginable. AFAIK it's not a common occurrence here, relative to other countries, but it's still bad enough that all first year male university students must attend a compulsory one hour lecture about rape (including pointing out the obvious such as "she asked for it the way she dressed" or "I was drunk" is in no way acceptable validation, as well as giving disturbing data about how many rapes are perpetrated by 'friends'/acquaintances of the victim), while the females attend a lecture about how to defend themselves and such.

And as such I am yet to truly decide if I am for or against it. I can safely say I'm against the American implementation of it (as with most things, much as I admire America at times).