Humodour

While I generally dislike nuclear weapons, in this instance they would be the most effective tool to secure Taiwan's freedom permanently. We need a stable, civil democracy in the region with nukes to counterbalance China's increasing aggression. India has too many of its own problems to qualify.

Canada

Yeah, because it doesn't friggin' matter if Afgani's are dying because of the leaks posted on the web. It only matters that Americans are brutal ****, and Di in particular is a Fox News Junkie, even though she hasn't seen more than six minutes of Fox News in the past five years. She isn't a European, she isn't an Australian, so she must be some kind of right-wing nutcase, despite the fact that she hasn't voted republican in a decade and is an avowed atheist. And God forbid she post an opinion on this forum, because everyone knows that as an American female she must be a dedicated right-winger, despite the fact that she has spent the past decade railing against the illegal preemptive invasion of Iraq as an illegal war based upon lies and deceit. She is Di... she is American, she is a female... therefore, she must be a brain-washed idiot. Your condescending insult of people with your stereotypes and pompous superiority complex because they aren't YOU, aren't from your so-very-perfect societies, make me glad that although I live in an imperfect country with a government I frequently disagree with, at least I don't live in a country that ignores its imperfections in order to scapegoat others to make myself feel important in a world where I know that I don't really matter. What a cruel bunch of xenophobic bullies you are. I'm actually sorry that the internet came to exist. Before that happened, I actually thought that I liked Australians and western Europeans because I didn't know what self-indulgent blame-mongering pricks they were. I have now been enlightened. Um. Unless you're a neo-con, I think you've got the wrong impression. I certainly haven't said anything bad about you in this thread? Not to mention that, touching on the final part of your post, I hardly think you can now say you think all Europeans and Australians are dislikeable pricks just because you didn't like what some guys posted on a message board. Even if I were actually a prick, I'm 1 Aussie out of 22 million - is that really enough data for you to start making assumptions about Australians?

Reminds me more of 6'8" Italian Warlord's rambling hit-and-run style.

Thinking "lefty" is a meaningful political description is even more hilarious. Agreed! Monte's use of the term is obnoxious and designed to insult, but he's spot on about Orwell.

We have had universal compulsory employer contribution to superannuation since 1992. The initial rate was a free 3% of your salary on top of your salary which was raised to 9% (soon to be 12%) with a free government contribution to match any voluntary contribution you make yourself up to a certain level. As a result, Australia has the highest average superannuation savings per capita of any country. Superficially this seems perfect, and it might be, but I was wondering what impact this might have on Australia's economy? It's designed to counteract the old age crisis which will hit all Western countries once the Baby Boomers retire. What I'm slightly worried about is - won't this increase inflation? All that capital flowing around so easily (cumulatively $1.2 trillion dollars atm) once the Baby Boomers retire will no doubt increase tourism, house, food, service and retail prices - aka inflation. And inflation is essentially a silent tax nobody notices. If everybody retires on a couple of thousand grand as is expected, that's useless if, for example, inflation is so high, or becomes so high that a pizza costs $100. I post this here because, as much as I like this policy, I know very little about it yet there's no real debate in Aus about it - it's taken for granted as a good thing by all three major parties. Why? Surely it's not that simple. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superannuation_in_Australia

Did that end up fixing it fully Morgoth?

Hey guys, what do you know about RAID 0? When configuring my new computer I had this option and took it. So that's 2 identical hard drives at 7200 RPMs with 500gb in RAID 0 (performance) configuration. It also says 3gb/s which I presume is to do with speed as well. Anyway, what will be the performance gains of RAID 0 compared to a normal HD (e.g. a single one of these drives)? What about an SSD? Also, how do TV tuners work and what fun things can I do with it?

I have observed the following: 5 stars is 90% or higher. 4.5 stars is 80% or higher 4 stars is 70% or higher. Anything under 4 stars on GOG is generally not worth buying. Anything 4.5 stars or over is usually worth buying.

Dual-wielding mini-crossbows (such as those in Deus Ex) doesn't seem like a problem to me. Why would it be difficult, if properly trained, to wield two of either of these? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Crossbow122.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...ol_IMG_3841.jpg Both are pistol crossbows.

I'm glad Obsidian is doing well as a company again. It tends to improve the quality of the joke accounts we get.

I favour this outlook. It reminds me of opportunity cost - when the government employs a person that's one less person available to the private sector. Obviously this is more revelant in cases of government largesse or excess beauraucracy than when a government is supplying and maintaining public services in a reasonably efficient manner (translation: I do NOT unconditionally support decreasing the size of government).

I love Internode.

The claims that Diablo 3 won't ship in 2011 are unfounded. Source? Blizzard is about to start the Diablo 3 beta. They have also said this week that they are more than half done and have lots and lots of content completed. Beta testing is usally only entered into once a game is close to completion. I think we'll see the game ship late 2011.

How is inflation in the UK? I don't understand how you can persistently hold interest rates at near zero levels and not cause a bubble several years later (this applies to Japan, America, and others too).

I continue to remain open to somebody prosecuting a case in support of a peacekeeping mission to remove a dictator and institute democracy and civil law in a country. As long as such a mission upholds international human rights and does not involve war crimes from the West. I can certainly name some places in the world where I feel the West SHOULD intervene, but until I see evidence the West can do that ethically I can't support any such move.

I was talking to a Chinese immigrant lately. He lives in Canada now, but he moved from China to Australia originally. Then he left Australia because, his words, "Australia's worse than China". I find it quite scary to hear that from someone who has lived in both places for many years. Maybe the western world needs to stop trying to save the poor asians everywhere and fix their own deep **** first. Patently untrue and I would call the guy a bloody **** unless there's some aspect of this story you failed to supply (such as him speaking specifically about cultural attitudes - I can understand why some Asians find it very difficult to adapt to our social norms and personalities - I deal with international students daily at my work). No, I'm not sorry for saying that. Anybody who can visit Australia (one of the top 5 most developed countries in the world) and say with a straight face "it's worse than China" is out-right lying. You're from Canada, so you pretty much know what living in Australia is like by proxy. I think the main difference is you guys say "eh" more than we say "mate". The Chinese LOVE China. They are very nationalistic. I have no problem with them loving China but it always ends up being a case of "China is the best country in the world". Yeah right mate, dream on. Edit: Unless the guy was talking about life in Australia from the perspective of indigenous Australians - this is one glaring gap in Australia's human rights record which we are only just making headway into eliminating.

I just had some wedges with sour cream and sweet chili. Mmmm.

They also said they really want to consider a necro for the X-pack. I think that, of all the classes they'll put in the X-pack, the necro is the one you can bet on most to be in it. And I don't even like playing them.

Wikileaks is not like wikipedia. There's so so much more scrutiny because people EXPECT to find secrets and insights. The fact that the reactions from governments are silence and "this shouldn't have been released!" or "that's a state secret!" are kind of a testament to their veracity.

Maybe one day your generation will work out a way to fight a completely clean war, bereft of any human error or folly. I know war is messy. But how messy is an open question which you have so deftly swept aside. Read what went on - there were clear orders from pretty high up the American chain of command to ignore the tortures and abuses committed by them and their allies - the Afghan police and army. This is was a war which did not require some airy-fairy advanced civilisation to execute ethically. If the Americans had of seriously investigated abuses and prevented their Afghan counterparts from performing such abuses we wouldn't be having this discussion. So why did they permit and often encourage such atrocities?

Do you seriously not know why his name is Deep Throat? I thought that was pretty obvious. Care to enlighten those of us not in the loop like you?

The final class has been revealed, too: Demon Hunter. Diablo 3 is expected to ship in 2011.

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