Hurlshort

Really? I mean we still had segregated schools in the 50's. I know Leave it to Beaver and The Andy Griffith Show make it seem like some idyllic wonderland, but it was really a terrible time for civil rights in the US.

I think Beth generally knows the shortcomings in their games. Remember Emil Pagliarulo's acceptance speech for the GDC Best Writing award? "This is ridiculous" The question is, do they think those problems are major enough to warrant putting resources into fixing them? Well, they are never going to please everybody. They will try to make as many happen within reason, I suppose. They really did an amazing job improving aspects of their games from Oblivion to the expansion to Fallout 3. But at the end of the day, these are sandbox games that follow a certain formula. They can tinker with their writing and characters, leveling and mechanics, but they aren't going to ditch the formula that has brought them success. I wouldn't want them to.

That's an interesting question. It is easy to get lost in the moment and say we are plummeting downward, but if you study history it is pretty amazing how far the entire planet has come. Our quality of life is tremendously different than it was a mere 100 years ago, and it does continue to improve even in third world countries. Of course there are still a ton of tragic cases out there, but there is also opportunity and resources available to make life better.

Yeah, they are clearly overpaying you Tigranes. You don't deserve that corporate car and helicopter. Don't ever express your opinions or suffer from bad acne again!

Maybe Bio doesn't believe in the death penalty?

Wikipedia is great for pop culture info, pc games and music/movie info. Any topic of substance is suspect. Especially ones of hot button topics like religion, science or history. Edit wars, bias, and ignorant folks editing articles they have no idea about are rampant. I have seen such myself more then once. Wikipedia is all about the mob collective, the facts/truth come second. I went to an education conference this summer and there was an entire seminar devoted to using wikipedia in the classroom. Of course it isn't a good primary source, that is pretty much common sense, but as a secondary source and a research platform, it is pretty much unsurpassed. There are inaccuracies everywhere, not just in wikipedia. My textbooks contradict themselves, my encyclopedias miss entire chunks of content. The only way to get close to a clear picture is to examine as many sources as possible, and wikipedia is a great starting place for that.

I felt Rome wrapped up nicely, as did Deadwood. I think it actually would have been bad for them to continue any longer.

After patching Mirkwood into LotR Online, I only had time to play for about 30 minutes. I turned in a bunch of quests I had been sitting on, and then toyed with my legendary weapons. They are looking pretty sweet, the changes in the expansion are very nice so far. Hopefully I'll get to Mirkwood pretty soon.

I'm happy to accept, but there is a stipulation that we be allowed to build an Indian casino on your land to make up for the transgression.

WTF? What? You don't hate a billion people on general principal?

As Lare said, it is spread by blood, not just sex. But it is not nearly as fatal as it used to be in developed nations, the treatments are fairly advanced and people are able to live fairly normal lives with it today. That is great, but there is an unfortunate side to that in the lack of exposure it receives, which is important for raising money and awareness.

This is like volos 'I like pie' reply. About as much substance as such. Who said not to enjoy thanksgiving? I felt I implied clearly lets not also forget the backs of the people this holiday, indirectly, represent. You are taking what I said to the extreem and the fact is you know you are. Making implications I never said and putting words in my mouth. If you want to live in a candy coated bubble and never acknowledge anything but while light, love and bunnies then all the power to you. *shugs* Ignorance is bliss. I'm just surprised at how committed you are to riding the bitter train. It's also odd that in your Samhain celebration post, you failed to mention the prevalence of human and animal sacrifices in druidic and pagan religions. It's just the kind of hypocrisy that has forced me to change my opinion of you.

Harlequin, I apologize for enjoying Thanksgiving with my family and friends. When I broke the wishbone with my daughter, I should have explained that it represents the hundreds of broken treaties with the American Indians. On Christmas, I will sit her down and explain that Santa is just a made up character to push the capitalistic greed and consumerism of our nation. She is almost three, it is time for her to wake up and see the lies perpetuated by the Xians. Thank you for bursting my bubble, you've done a great service and we all have been enriched by your knowledge and wealth of experience in the world.

Aye...it doesn't look terrible or anything, very watchable. It's just not anywhere near HD on PC (don't know about the 'direct to TV' using boxes etc options). I think the aspect of Netflix I'll like most is being able to re-watch favorite films (or check out ones you weren't sure you'd like) almost as much as I want, when I want, without having to pay $3-5 for each one ala retail rentals. So it's a great bargain in that regard. Very new releases I'll probably still just order them on cable's HD on-demand instead. I feel like they've been adding new stuff at a pretty rapid rate. Granted, the newer movies aren't on there, but there are a great bunch of older films and TV shows. But you need a pretty high end connection to get a decent picture. It'd be nice if they let you adjust the quality and buffer rate yourself, I'd wait a little longer to stream a better picture myself.

Managed to finish Book 2 in LotR Online, just in time for the expansion hitting Tuesday.

Bruno - Pretty graphic, like just serious **** action all over the place. Still, it was hilarious throughout, although I think I liked Borat better. It was also a lot more depressing to watch, the homophobia was hard to see. The best part was watching it again with the director's comments and hearing how they pulled off everything. It was amazing what they managed to do.

Everyone makes political demands. That's the point of democracy. I draw a very rigid and fierce distinction between muslims who argue moderately for their conservative values - which they are entitled to and who can say if they're wrong - and fascists who happen to also be muslims. If only more people would draw the same distinction. Millions of Muslims also manage to practice their religion without being terrorists.

This is pretty ugly. Why couldn't they be smarter about it, like limiting the height of buildings that fall under certain zonings? In my city you basically can't build anything over two stories without super special permits, and even in larger cities there are a fair amount of restrictions on tall structures. This is the kind of stuff that is going to lead to an all out religious war. I really see no positives here. It's not like the Muslims are going to stop practicing their religion, there is just going to be more pissed off Muslims around than before.

I'm not quite sure where the Qu'ran or the Sunnah say that, but I think I see what you are getting at. I'm not a big fan of any ethnic group leaving their culture and heritage at the door when they enter the US. I think it can really enrich a community when they embrace new cultures as well. Obviously there are some traditions that need to be left behind, such as the subjugation of women, but realistically no country, ethnic group, or culture should consider that a badge of honor. So there are a lot of levels of assimilation, and I think it's a bit of a vague argument here.

Great, Dark Raven is back and she has created an alt to banter with.

Indeed. Wonderful holiday built upon the decimation and exploitation of the native american peoples... ermm wait.. Thanks for ruining a thread where folks were expressing their thanks for one another. What a ray of sunshine!

It's gotta be a joke.

It sounds like it has some Mount and Blade similarities as well.

Yep, I mean that's how I always win Civilization and Masters of Orion, so it must be the right strategy in the real world.

If you are over 23 or so, and you've been dating for three years, **** or get off the pot. Seriously, you know if she's the one at that point, if you have doubts then move on. Just my .02 cents