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How about, instead of suggesting that countries just up and start perpetrating crimes against humanity based on the actions of an extremely small minority, you go outside and make an effort to know people of all "classes", cultures and religions? Especially those with views that may clash with your own. Remember that a "country" is an abstract and arbitrary creation and therefore it does not think, feel, or act. Do not hide behind a piece of cloth. I mean, you can always deport a few millions later if you aren't satisfied with the results, right? As for the gun control point, I find it irrelevant in this context. Even if everyone became a concealed carry pro, wackos would just start wearing vests and helmets. Or placing bombs in trash cans. Or running you over with cars. Or crashing airliners into your workplace. "Security" is a myth that has been used through the ages to justify the abuse of power and oppression. Take solace in the fact that you are much more likely to die in a domestic fire, as a result of poisoning, or in a car crash, than in a terror attack, and stop living in fear.

Seems they've been captured. It just occurred to me that this kind of thing is simply the price we pay for free speech. It's not "valiant heroes" dying in some country that half the population can't find on a map, it's not cops hitting a "terror cell". It's just average joes that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they died because somebody didn't like something somebody else drew, said, or thought. No amount of laws or public or private force can completely prevent this. There were armed cops at the scene as the magazine had been attacked previously. They died like the others. Thinking that one could do better from the comfort of his computer chair strikes me as wishful thinking, at best. It's not guns or laws preventing society from crumbling down into a Mad Max-style dystopia. It's the simple fact that most people aren't psychopaths. It sucks when you run into someone that is, though.

I was referring specifically to how the economic effect of the Treaty of Versailles, while being devastating both on paper (per Keynes) and in practice (huge unemployment, hyperinflation, large budget deficit), did not prevent Germany from rearming and rising to challenge all the major European powers (+ the US) 20 years later. Thus casting doubt on the usefulness of economic pressure as a means to strip the material means to wage war from a country. Russia has more in common with Germany than with Iraq or Cuba. If sanctions don't seem to be hurting Putin's popularity and they don't seriously hinder his ability to wage war... what do they accomplish?

Did... did you really copy the citation list from the link I posted? And you talk about "lazy" in the same post? Do you realize that some of those articles either require research or uni credentials to access or are simply not available online, while others are cited but are simply not relevant or do not concern this issue but are cited merely for context reasons such as (1) or (6)? Of course you do, but you are more concerned with looking rigorous and certain than actually discussing merits. Not too subtle. Where the hell are you getting the idea that I was using that quote to refute anything? I literally said "it's not as clear cut", meaning the issue is not as black/white as you make it out to be, a pov backed by research. Specifically, research you linked. And yes, I certainly do expect you to provide "info" to back your theories. This is called the burden of proof, I'm sure you've heard of it? Gromnir's word doesn't carry probative value, sorry! Now, for the meat of the post. Thanks for the link, it was very interesting. You should read it yourself. If you did, you'd discover that it doesn't deal with cop disciplining at all — it studies only the incidence of arrests, violence and searches in police-suspect encounters and what relation there is (if any) between that and officer education. Here, let me take a few quotes "out of context": "Officer education level yielded no influence over the probability of an arrest taking place in an encounter. This was true not only when suspects- and encounter-level characteristics were held constant but also when individual officer characteristics were considered alone." "When compared to arrest and search behavior, there have been substantially more studies that have examined the role of education on the use of force. Much of this work, especially more recent research in this area (Aamodt, 2004; McElvain & Kposowa, 2008; Terrill & Mastrofski, 2002), has found that college-educated officers use force less often than their less educated counterparts. Our analysis indicates similar findings. More specifically, officers with some college exposure or a 4-year degree are significantly less likely to use force relative to non-college-educated officers." "According to these researchers, one advantage to hiring college-educated, as opposed to non-college-educated, officers is that higher education “[permits] the individual to learn more about the history of the country, the democratic process and appreciation for constitutional rights, values and the democratic form of government” (Carter et al., 1988, p. 16). This particular hypothesis may be reduced to posit that higher education positively influences an officer’s appreciation of and commitment to democratic values." - How interesting, this, while not being part of the conclusions of this study itself, is actually consistent with the findings of the study I linked before which showed that BA holders compared very favorably vs BSc holders. "The findings of the present analysis alone do not warrant a reversal of the statement of the National Academics Panel on Police Policy and Performance (Skogan & Frydl, 2004) when it found that there was insufficient evidence to recommend a college education requirement for employment as a police officer. This is not particularly good news for proponents of higher education (although it does not represent bad news either). There is simply not enough quality evidence to determine whether higher education has a desirable effect on police performance." - Ouch! Now, what merits do you want to discuss?

Yes, I don't necessarily believe Gromnir's conclusions simply because Gromnir believes them to be self evident, or w/e. I'm sure you understand. I posted a quote because... it's exactly the same you have done yourself in previous posts. Only I have actually afforded you the courtesy of providing a link. And I did read the links I posted, thank you very much. Is there any particular point you want to discuss or are you just having some Good Fun?

Having been part of a group exactly like the one you're describing, I'm sorry, but I can't agree. Putting a misunderstood concept of loyalty to your comrades before (or even at the same level as) the deontological code one is sworn to and especially self-respect is precisely the kind of thinking that leads to people enabling the abuse of authority or force. And I say misunderstood because loyalty is something that shouldn't be granted automatically, it should be earned instead. Also, I'm not certain where loyalty ends and herd mentality begins. Acting decisively against bad apples sets an an example to others who may otherwise lack the strength of character to break away from "the group". Then again, I was basically kicked out, so what do I know... Also, who cares about Volourn. Discuss me. I'm sexier too. edit: WHY THE **** DOES THE FORUM RANDOMLY CHANGE THE FONT SIZE!?!?

And another one. From reports it looks like this one was an armed robbery gone wrong, doesn't look like it matters to people on the streets, though. Unless Gromnir produces the actual study so we can see if it really supports his theory, we'll have to make do with summaries. (1) (2) While that seems to support his idea, it's not as clear cut, apparently. Stuff like age, experience and even the kind of degree are all factors. (3) "But possessing a four-year degree at the Saint Paul Police Department does not necessarily correlate with positive work habits."

Point taken.

"Cops get paid more than teachers, so cops get paid more than all college graduates" is a ridiculous fallacy because you refuse to acknowledge that teachers are an anomaly and not representative of what a college grad can expect to make. I can do that too: "chemical engineers almost double an average cop's salary so there is no way in hell you'll get college grads to apply for a job in law enforcement". Bleh. Also, do you have any figures for cop turnover rates? Because what I could find varies from 5 to 20%, comparable to teacher turnover. In addition, I've read that turnover is also in part due to performance reasons, that is, they just aren't good enough. A higher education requirement may or may not result in better performance, though I'm inclined to believe it would. Prohibitive, really? I could bring up defense or intelligence budget figures, but you'd just say that those are fed spending items and the fed can't do anything about local and state budgets or some other bureaucratic cop-out. The point still stands that there is more than enough money around to do it should there be a political will... same for programs aimed at getting minorities through college. For some reason your spending priorities are all ****ed up though. The issue is indeed complex, and as this (chapter 2 in particular) shows, police staffing problems aren't fixable magically in a single stroke, though I'm not sure where I suggested that. I was just commenting on an idea of yours... which amusingly enough you deemed unfeasible, to manufacture a disagreement as soon as I agreed. Good Fun indeed!

As LC says, it probably got installed into Program Files(x86)/Black Isle/etc. Do a search for baldur.sav if you still can't find it, that should point you to the folder where the files actually are. edit: search again -> custom (assuming you have W7, I don't know squat about that abortion known as W8, nor do I want to)

I don't think I'm getting through to you here. Cops earn good money, for someone without higher education. However, someone with a college degree will be an underearner if they get into a career in law enforcement*, so why would they? You said it would be a good idea to have only college grads carry a gun and a badge, and I agree. In order to have that, you must first raise the entry requirements, and then raise the pay grades (not just entry level) to make it worth a college grad's while. You think this is unfeasible? *According to the gov't, a law enforcement worker's mean annual wage is $54,990. Barring early education-oriented degrees which, as you noted, pay badly, someone with say, a secondary math and science teacher degree who actually works as a teacher will earn more ($58,170), while still being far below the average of college grad earnings. As an aside, gotta love Americans' obsession with statistics. You can find a ton of data regarding just about anything.

Yeah, I checked and wages for cops are higher than the national average, and high in relative terms considering that there is no higher education requirement... but that's kind of the point. An increase in job requirements must entail an increase in wages. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000 That doesn't solve the demand for more black cops in black neighborhoods though. Are there programs to help police officers get through college? Like in the military? I really don't want to hijack this thread, but he's right. Formally the monarchy is powerless, but in reality the royal family is still very influential and their word carries a lot of weight, especially with business circles. A member of the family has been accused of money laundering and fiscal fraud in one of the many high-profile cases of corruption we have going on, and the whole process is a disgrace. The prosecutor acting as a defense attorney, pressure being applied on the judge by higher judiciary organs, etc. Consider that the previous king was appointed by Franco before his death and as such a lot of the social and political elite have seen a sort of continuity of power, that is evidenced by the fact that the party currently in power is the heir of Franco's single party, after some facelifting. We really are a much more backward country than it would seem (if that's even possible).

Er, call me naïve, but wouldn't this be solved by having cops earn more than a pittance? Encourage smart, hard-working, committed and motivated youths to pursue a career in law enforcement, instead of recruiting just about anyone that can pass a drug test. Societies have the police forces they pay for, like everything else.

Illegal to record the police? Where was this abhorred law passed? Spain. At the vanguard of unemployment, social inequality, and retrograde, stupid-ass lawmaking. Yes, this is the EU (if only barely). (for a less inflammatory perspective than Alex Jones')

Unfit individuals shouldn't be cops, regardless of sex. Still, it's a 2v1 situation. When attempting to subdue violent and corpulent individuals, it's common to see 4 or 5v1. Wrestling is hard. Fitness helps, but training and numbers trump that by far. My personal reaction to that is "meh", though. Two weeks ago we had a new "Public Security Law" passed that makes recording cops an offence with fines up to 30.000€, and insulting a cop now carries a penalty of 600€. Contempt of cop is finally in the letter of the law. There is no judicial review for any of that, and the word of a cop is evidence enough.

Actually, during the recent 12x Class Mission XP event, people were going 1-55 in a matter of hours, with the record being like ~8 hours last I checked. That probably includes spacebarring through dialogues so double that number if you want to get a fair representation of the actual amount of content. Everything else are MMO time sinks designed into the game to sustain, as Althernai surmised, the subscription model. Not that I disagree that a SP game with 8 different (but tangential at some points) stories each lasting ~15 hours could work — many people, myself included, took advantage of this event to go through class stories as a single player game.

Yep. Some of that stuff will work you in ways you aren't used to, especially your core stabilizers, and much shaking and panting will ensue. I've stepped once or twice into a Pilates class, and I came out humbled. There I discovered that my hip flexors were weak and that caused my knee and hip extensors to be shortened, which decreased lower limb mobility. And yes, I can deadlift 2x my bodyweight. Funny how that works. The problem with that sort of activity is that you will adapt relatively quickly, and as there is no increase in resistance or session length, progress stops, and it's hard to stay motivated.

To be honest, I don't take Metacritic seriously at all. But from what I've seen, DAI hasn't received "mostly positive" feedback. Rather, mixed, lukewarm with some people loving it and some people hating it. Pretty much like every other AAA project these days, I guess. *shrug*

Reasons not to block you: your random pic posting sprees sometimes contain hot Eastern women. Reasons to block you: they also sometimes contain disturbing pics of our new lizard overlords. Decisions, decisions...

Yeah, they commented on this in the Michael Brown thread. Not much to say. At best, cops will be more on edge than usual, possibly leading to further violence. At worst, militarization of police forces will pick up, laws will be stiffened, and what have you. Not sure what cops being scum or shining, selfless examples of modern virtue has to do with random murder either, but... please continue?

Bodyweight training? Oh, you are one of those. If you are even moderately strong, and by no means a power lifter you should be able to do many exercises with FAR more weight than your own body weight. An average gym goer should be able to dead lift two times their own weight, bench press at least (1 rep max) 1.5 times their weight, barbell row (1 rep max) their own body weight. Not to mention chin ups with body weight should be doable for every average joe, a person with good overall fitness should be doing weighted chin ups. This is... an exaggeration. Strength standards would put someone doing what you say in the advanced or elite levels. That's someone with multiple year strength training experience, with clear goals, periodization, and on point nutrition and rest. No, an average joe cannot perform chin ups, and the average gym goer cannot DL or squat twice their body weight. Not outside of Austria, anyway.

You are going by the literal, 50%+1 definition of "mostly", right? I haven't played DAI, but from what I've read, it doesn't really deliver on promises made, it's buggy as hell (a hallmark of Bioware products) and the PC controls aren't very good. This doesn't necessarily make it a bad game, but nothing that "restores faith", whatever that means. I'll get around to playing it if I see a good bargain or in a few years, and I'll probably like it enough to finish it, much like every other Bio game, except JE. However, I reserve my worship and faith for stuff that is actually important in my life, such as peanut butter and bacon sandwiches.

So, by your own admission, the main cause of the Russian crisis is the oil prices drop. But six months ago, you were able to secretly predict that the Russian economy would be devastated by sanctions... and an oil price crash which hadn't happened yet. Let me guess: you are a wsj subscriber.

Ughhh... I'm not even going to touch the "Russian intransigence and predation" bit. Pointless as this is, what, the fourth iteration of this thread? w/e Regardless, it looks like I was wrong. Oil prices are being manipulated, as openly as the nov OPEC meeting. btw, thanks for the "unbiased" wsj sales pitch... bad afternoon at work so I needed the laugh.