Rosbjerg

And that sounds very very similar to the explanations that ISIL & co give to defend what they're doing. That may sound strange at first, but here's the thing: The founder of the Christian religion was* a hippie who walked around barefeet and encouraged/hugged/healed people, and steered clear of wordly geopolitics. The founder of the Muslim religion was* a warlord who conquered nations with military might, and engaged in murder, genocide, slavery, torture, rape. That's a really tough pill to swallow for many on the left, who prefer the a-priori answers that postmodernist relativism gives, to those yielded by the evidence. But if we are to understand & deal with ISIL and the like, I don't think we can afford to not explore that context, no matter how politically incorrect. And to preempt the obvious rebuttal: I know, I know, Christians throughout history found all kinds of rationalizations for murder, genocide, slavery, torture and rape, as well. But a call for "Let's go back to the origins, to the example of our religion's founder!" tends to push Christianity into a more benign direction - whereas it shouldn't be assumed to have the same effect on Islam. ---- *)According to the respective religion's own 'authoritative' sources. Only partially (at best) confirmed by actual historians. You haven't studied history I see - taking modern conceptual understandings and extrapolating those backwards is generally one the most common historical fallacies. And gives rise to countless misunderstandings.. like yours. The earliest Christianity was a warrior sect of jews and extremely militant (see Alexandria ca 391 AD), however as the years progressed it became increasingly separated from state as secular rulers didn't want to give up power to the Church. The reformation was a political tool for contemporary rulers to take power, especially landed property, away from the church.. There have been countless Muslims calling for a similar reformation and ironically the Muslim Brotherhood even started as a very progressive movement back in 1928, founded by very secular minded people. ISIS would be more similar to the Templars and other Christian sects around the time of the super militarization of Christianity in the beginning of the first millenia. If we were to extrapolate from that (which we shouldn't) your analogy is 500 years off. For a great synopsis on the development of the Arab identity and use of religion read Eugene Rogan's "The Arabs, a History".. or for a more contemporary look you could see Rutherfords "Egypt after Mubarak" .

Comparable how? Or are you counting your native population birth rate as a collective or your genuine native population. Because last time I looked, the only reason most European countries have a positive birth:death ratio, is because the immigrants have several children and make the overall stats look better. And where did you get 850 million, EU has about 500. I get my numbers from the World Bank and UN websites, as opposed to the time honored tradition of pulling the numbers out of your ass. The UN sets a cautious estimate of the population of EU at 738 million. Source. While other projections are almost a billion when Russia, Turkey and other countries some times affiliated with Europe are counted in, so I went with a nice middle ground. Do you also need help with finding sources on population growth?

We're 850 million and all of the middle east is 400.. If every single man, woman and child moved they would still be a minority. Besides their birthrates are comparable to ours now, so they can't even outproduce us if that's your worry (which it really shouldn't be). In conclusion: Stop being so dramatic.

Yeah, 'cause dogmatically calling someone a fanboy when they disagree is such a more level headed approach. "rolling eyes"... Lets stick to beating the topic and not so much each other.

Yeah I think its related to too little physical exercise and/or lack of diverse stimuli. If Ive been sick or indoors for too long I get that exact feeling. Also crusader kings 2 After The End mod (post apoc America). As reformed Norse republic run by the Rossmount dynasty.

I sincerely hope its a lie... Especially since that would indirectly place GoG in EA hands *shutters* I'm surprised, you often defend good sales as an indicator of quality and success. By that logic Witcher 3 is literally a masterpiece.

I'm mildly annoyed by the fact that they are removing/streamlining features that actually made the other games awesome to play years after release and not just until the next expansion. I get it of course, if they can make it fun enough to last half or year or so and ride you along until they then sell you a new game - its a better business model. It just means I won't buy it as I start getting bored 2 weeks in like I did with Battlefield 3. I never got the sense I was part of something bigger in the later games - vaguely in Bad Company - and not at all in 3. The instant spawn on any team member, the removal of command structure etc just made it really really lonewolf arcadey. In 2142 you had to work together to be effective, it forced the commander and squad leaders to strategize and the point system rewarded team efforts more than kills.. I just miss that and its a little sad to see them focus development on all the things I feel are detrimental to good and interesting team play. Edit: and nostalgic aide, I'm certainly not saying that those games weren't without flaws of course.. that's just a much larger discussion

I wish they'd learn that it wasn't the constant menu popups, points for everything and unlocks that kept people playing.. They are slowly and boringly turning the formula into a mobile game. Nothing to figure out, nothing to do outside of very linear and defined parameters.. Even how they tackle the Walkers and big threats was basically just do A, then B and C blows it up. They were so close to mastering it with Battlefield 2 and 2142..

Oh yeah, on that note I got the final clear from neuropsychology the other day. Absolutely free of major and detectable lingering effects. So now I don't have that excuse any more when trying to get out of responsibilities

Since we're 1upping, Meningitis is probably the worst I've tried.. It caused me to puke and almost completely pass out from pain. It was such an intense burning sensation in the brain and spine that I very literally wished for death, for 20min until my fever burned so hot I lost consciousness.

I had 3 that I would switch between. One all rounder and 2 specializing in either pure damage or pure crowd control / debuffs. That worked fairly well for almost all encounters.

Of course in a Westphalian sort of way. To each their own, on a grand scale.

Given the choice? Not odd at all, very basic human instinct to want to explore new places.

I'm actually much more depressed at how the political situations is here, than how it is anywhere else in the world. A lot of the people here should know better, yet still act like they have a medieval education. From liberals to socialists, it always saddens me when education fails to dispel ignorance and narrowmindness.

No I feel optimistic and hopeful, Africa is most importantly; doing better. Nigeria had a great election, birthrates are dropping, Boko Haram is widely exaggerated as a threat and is mostly operating in a small part of the country and can be combated with better education. Which is it... On a personal level, a good friend of mine is funding a hospital in Tanzania with his business and supporting/managing a bike shop that makes ambulance bikes for areas with low infrastructure. All being run by Kenyans and Tanzanians, taking the business in the direction they want as the marked is evolving. The mobile marked is really interesting in Africa, circumventing the cubersome banking system and developing at an incredible rate, making micro loans possible from the local middle class to the poorer working their way up. Great for a developing entrepreneurial system. Which is historically how almost all countries have gone from developing to industrial to digital. Stop believing the bull**** out of context halftruths the news are feeding you, for some reason they believe that misery sells - I stopped watching TV 10 years ago and it was one of the best decision I've ever taken. Misery out of context is depressing, but when you realize that this is the most peaceful, most healthy, most equal and generally best possible time to be alive - how can you be depressed? Go do the research yourself, for instance (although always remember source criticism) FN, WHO, the IMF etc and see the data for yourself. Things are going in an optimistic direction Of course we can do even better, but isn't that really a good thing?

I think Rpg gamer today prefer Witcher 3/Fallout 3 style budget, openworld and scope - which is an awesome scale and experience true, but it also seems to leave them with rather unrealistic expectations when playing indie games with a fraction of the budget, actual people working on it and scope. Or at least I've noticed said trend with newcomers here and on the RPG codex, that everything needs to be interwoven and open to player agency. If a game in any way doesn't conform to player agency or story reactivity, they tend to get a bit upset. Which again, is fair - it's just that the old kinda games were not really like that, or catered to that audience. The critique against trashmobs and boring fights however is more valid I think, as that was a pretty integrate part of BG, Icewind Dale and the other games PoE took inspiration from. It is however Obz main weakness in my opinion and I don't think they are gonna get much better at it.

I know what's best for me and I assume it's all right for most other people too, ain't got nothing to do with nationality son. The right to choose for yourself and master your own fate. I'll just like to help them do that, if that help is essentially backing off, then fine.

Yes, I would support entrepreneurial approaches - starting small businesses in Africa, using local management and understanding that work ethics take a minimum of a generation to form - and that they have to make and build an African approach themselves... Also remembering that this is a development we went through, painfully. Sending machinery and building infrastructure which requires a highly skilled and educated workforce is obviously an idiotic approach and so far we have only really rewarded laziness and corruption. To the point where I'm beginning to wonder if that's our goal. We should instead try to blaster them and our own population with high quality education. More so than any military budget - then you'll see world development.

A fair point, but also too dramatic with the spilling over of course, especially seeing as birth rates are dropping across the world. http://www.prb.org/publications/datasheets/2014/2014-world-population-data-sheet/data-sheet.aspx And as you can see, basically we just need to help Africa now with literacy and development now. No need for hyperbole, no need for exaggerations, lets take this discussion at face value - there is no "crisis", but we certainly benefit a lot more by helping nations help themselves. Especially because he's right in the fact that its basically the better offs that leave, which is a huge problem for the country they flee from.

I think this illustrates the point very well Swedish professor and TED speaker Hans Rosling. Using apples to visualize his facts, Hans Rosling explains the current situation in Syria. Edit: hmm, it won't embed youtube videos for me now. But do yourself a favor and look up his videos on youtube, he's a master of explaining statistics in a way that modern media seems incapable of.

" The way it is now its like a part of the game they didn't finish in time for the initial release..and that's probably the truth....." I'm saying 'citation needed'...

It's perfectly all right to not like things, even when you invested in 'em. No need to invent justifications - the game is finished, its not convoluted or messy ... and why does character size detract from immersion? They're even bigger than in the old Infinity engine games. Don't buy the next game if PoE didn't click with you, that's a perfectly good explanation on its own. Taste is subjective after all.

I just wish the political discussion was more nuanced than "We should put them all in camps and ki.. I mean deport them" or "we must open our borders to everyone at once! If you disagree you're a racist!!" Perhaps taking some of them in for now, educate and then return them with tools to build a functioning democracy and try to stabilize the region. Destroying our "enemies" from within, by befriending them.

If you haven't played Knights of The Old Republic 2 - The Sith Lords, then get it (and the restored content mod) and enjoy one of the better RPG stories since Planescape. Obz is thankfully not afraid to throw ambiguity in your face and Chris Avellone's general approach of "what story clichés annoy me the most in this setting - and how can I turn it on its head". Especially the ever so black and white morality of Star Wars really shines when critically and intelligently criticized.

I don't know, I always felt the dragons in BG were too easy - I insta-gibbed one with disintegrate in one fight, that felt very anti-climatic. Here I really fear them, so much that I actually didn't fight the adra dragon the first time. That feels a little more "realistic" than my complete disregard for them in BG, where they were basically just a little tougher fights with great loot. I even had more problems with the Drow than the silver dragon.. Suppose they are pretty tough fight to balance. They have to be epic hard, but having to cheese also ruins the experience.