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The article claims 97% "consensus", but if you actually go to the referenced study, only ~33% of of the articles endorse AGW in the abstracts, while ~66% were found to have "no position" on it. It is only a 97% consensus when they looked at which amount of authors whose studies endorse AGW... who then also agree that humans are the primary cause of anthropogenic global warming. In other words, do you agree that human-caused global warming is caused by humans? 97% say yes. The author dismissed these observations as a result of authors "not wanting to state the obvious" and abstracts being "valuable real estate". He even threw in an appeal to authority (to himself, ofc), in case you weren't suspicious enough. This kind of numerical misrepresentation shouldn't go unchallenged, even if one agrees with the author's position. This is the kind of stunt you'd expect from FOX and CNN, not scientists.

Blairism is just the British variant of the cancer that has largely killed the European left. A focus on optics, sloganeering and lack of a consistent set of principles outside of strong support of NATO and the EU, with a bit of crony capitalism thrown in for good measure.

Yeah, not just entertaining. It's downright hilarious to see Corbyn talk of "contempt of democracy" while cowering in fear at the prospect of holding an early election. Well, not that kind of democracy, of course! Not even the promise of a four-day working week can save his sorry ass now. And, as usual, the defeat of a trash politician only heralds something even worse: a return to Blairism. Yay politics.

Nah. There's a substantial difference between celebrating someone's death -distasteful as it may be- and endorsing violence against them. Simply because I'm glad that someone can no longer actively do any harm (because they are dead) does not mean I want them murdered. Of course, it would be best if they simply changed their views while alive, but that's kind of a useless thought because, well...

As per the Oxford English Dictionary, sarcasm is "the use of irony to mock or convey contempt." If Skarpen was being sarcastic, that would imply he's playing along HoonDing's sarcastic paraphrasing of far right talking points, and thus, actually mocking the people who unironically use words like "demonrats" and refer to them as evil nazis and such. In light of Skarpen's previously stated opinions, I find that highly unlikely, which is why I asked him to clarify. In any case, I think we can all agree this isn't the place for endorsements of violence towards political opponents, jokingly or otherwise.

I'm not sure you're following the exchange here. HoonDing's possibly paraphrasing some FOX talking head or something -- however your remark seems to imply that murder is acceptable when it comes to keeping Democrats from power. Surely you don't mean that.

Google and Microsoft among others have been slapped with hundreds of millions in fines by the EU. I'd expect second-hand sales on Steam to significantly outstrip the practice on GOG, even proportionally. I purchased the Fallouts there because I wanted to have and keep a digital copy, not out of impulse during a sale so I could try a game I knew nothing about. I might consider selling some of my GOG catalog, but with very few exceptions only what I got as giveaways. I think the real losers here will be indie game makers. Of course, it'll be an issue with overmarketed new releases such as CP2077, but I feel it's a mistake to try and beat Steam at its own game anyway.

I am not even sure what's the point OP is trying to make. Sony successfully twisted their arm into buying their junk because their exclusive games are simply too good to pass up, and since MS doesn't do that... they "don't care"? We don't know. He doesn't know, or care. So, again... the point? I never click on ktchong's videos, so it's possible the clip talks about something else entirely, but it still seems rather out of left field. After recovering from my initial confusion reading the post, this immediately came to mind:

I finally got around to playing DOS:EE. Some things I like better from DOS2, others not so much. The armor system in DOS2 vs saving throws in 1, for example, I'm not a fan. The conversation system involving several players seems more developed in DOS:EE, as well.

I'd like to encourage members to visit and participate in one of the fixtures of the forum: the What Are You Playing Now? thread in C&C. Ten years since FNV was released already? Oof.

Not just Citizens United, but Buckley v. Valeo, where the Court introduced the idea that restricting independent expenditures on political campaigns constituted a violation of the Free Speech Clause, because apparently, any political advocacy requires that money is spent. Ergo, (spent) money is speech. It's a colloquial expression, not a rigorous categorical declaration and I know better than to become entangled in a lengthy discussion of the finer legal points. Which is why I said "effectively" and not "literally". Did super PACs exist in James Madison's time?

Delete, or cut and paste? If the former, it may be a bug that needs reporting. If the latter, I think the forum software is pasting not just the text but things like background and typeface. You can get around that by pasting as plain text (ctrl+shift+v, no idea how to do it on phones). Aside, I'm also missing the quote goto function. Didn't the first iteration of the new forum have it?

So propaganda has no effect, then? History is chock full of examples that you can sell ideas that may range from slightly untrue to complete fabrication to large groups of people simply through repetition. The potential pernicious effects of leading large swathes of population to believe falsehoods are almost as plain to any casual reader of history. Randian mumbo-jumbo and power fantasies notwithstanding, the thought process is generally not governed by volition. And also, like the Supreme Court, you effectively equate money with free speech. That's a perversion, regardless of legal gymnastics. That being said, I agree that it's his money to spend as he pleases. Doesn't mean I have to approve of the ways he spends it simply because he has a right to do so, or regret the death of any individuals simply because they abided by the letter of the law in life. The -externally imposed by the government you so hate- law and my own moral code aren't always aligned.

Well, imagine if you could just make a decent living out of brewing your own bourbon and selling what you can't drink yourself over the internets. And maybe helping out at a local dog shelter a few hours a week. Perhaps conducting energy efficiency studies from the comfort of your home. The only reason why that's not a "valid career path" is because current market conditions may not allow you to make enough money to support yourself doing that. But markets change, and what is valuable today may be worthless tomorrow as socioeconomic conditions evolve. How valuable would be a squire today? How valuable do you expect a commercial pilot will be in 30 years? Should everyone whose jobs are being overtaken by automation be blamed for not retraining into AI programmers and mechanical engineers?

You say that now, but six months into retirement you'd be bored out of your mind. I got this crazy idea that you'll love: it's all just a scheme to drive you deep into alcoholism, so the problem the Democrats have with your guns kinda solves itself. In any case, it's sad that you can only imagine putting yourself through the drudgery of wage labor until you can no longer physically do it -- or reach the arbitrary age for retirement. Because that's perfectly natural, right?

Yeah, doesn't sound so bad. Except he mentioned that it's in the ghetto (I suppose he's referring to one of those no-go zones that made the news a few years ago) but there are still 300 people in line.

Wargame: Airland Battle. Looks fantastic. Historical, realistic, micro-focused RTS. No learning curve to speak of -- it's more of a cliff. I get quickly overwhelmed and destroyed even on easy. Took several hours to complete even the tutorials. I am complete garbage and I wouldn't even know where to start, if I wanted to improve. Does every non-browser strategy game nowadays require a hundred hours of watching gameplays and reading treatise-length guides not to suck massive ass?

Certainly the media have no legal obligation to paint a complete, unbiased and relevant picture, but I would argue that there is at least a deontological imperative for them to do so. I've often heard the argument that the media is just a business and as such the only strict obligation they have is to make money, but that thinking is at the root of patently harmful ideas like market fundamentalism and shareholder primacy, both of which are factors in many of the problems facing us. Not to mention that it's a useless tautology. Just remember next time you see a politician, a cop or a gov't worker do something unethical yet technically legal -- they are simply operating along the lines of that idea. Their own (pecuniary) interests trump everything else and the only red line is the letter of the law. No values or principles other than maximizing profits. Is that OK too?

Yes, I remember that. I also remember that Ubisoft provided zero proof that the removed keys were obtained via credit card fraud -- they just put out a statement that said the affected keys had been obtained generically "fraudulently" and that was that. I have no doubt that keys purchased with stolen credit cards are sold on those websites. What I am not so sure is that they are a majority or even a significant fraction, as the constant chargebacks would make operating such a business difficult, at best. Not to mention, the threat of law enforcement intervention at some point if sufficient complaints from consumers or publishers were filed that it's mostly an outlet for stolen goods. The fact that G2A offers insurance is proof of nothing by itself. Amazon does too for stuff bought from their marketplace, but that doesn't make it the internet's biggest fence. I agree, though, that purchasing a key from a reseller site is a bit of a gamble. The same can be said of the likes of eBay.

Yes, that's what I've read. However, in case of credit card fraud, doesn't the publisher render the purchased keys invalid? How often does that happen? If that were a frequent occurrence, G2A and Kinguin's reputation among even unscrupulous buyers would tank by word of mouth, one would think. Who would purchase from them if you had a coin-toss chance of getting a bad key or the game could be randomly removed from your catalog?

It seems Corbyn himself doesn't believe that -- else he wouldn't have balked at the prospect of an early general election, twice now. I do believe there's a chance that he'll be the next unelected PM though. If Boris quits or is removed, the absurd scenario of Tory rebels and LibDems throwing their support behind comrade Corbyn to avoid a general election and postpone Brexit indefinitely is not much more far-fetched than what we've seen so far. And by the time Labour is ready to go to an election on their own terms -which could be years- Blairites will have recovered control of the party, with Corbyn and his supporters having been kicked to the curb. I must confess that I'm disappointed that nothing came out of the threat to have the anti no-deal bill filibustered to death in the Lords. That would have been fun.

I think the only important decision in that arc is whether you off the traitor or not, and by default the decision is no. So you can safely autocomplete it if you don't feel like doing the flashpoints. I swore never to go back to Umbara after having to run it eleventy billion times for the schematics and the stronghold.

Yes. Unless you intend to do serious raiding or Ranked PVP, don't worry about gear at all. It's just not worth it subjecting yourself to the absurd RNG grind, and there's bolster for group SM instances. Also note that all NiM ops except for GFTM are tuned for 248 so what you have is more than enough. Speaking of RNG grind, the current system on PTS makes the Galactic Command crate system look fair and efficient. While also destroying the viability of crafting. You can come out of a round of MM flashpoints and VM ops with just about nothing to show for your trouble. I'm thinking some of it has to be bugged and the numbers need serious adjustment. As it stands, it's a repeat of the Anthem loot fiasco... on a game that isn't being given the benefit of doubt by players. It's insane and the criticism is overwhelmingly negative, and I just can't imagine why they would go in this direction. It's a very, very good thing that they delayed the launch, but BWA doesn't have a great track record of listening to feedback from PTS players and making meaningful changes before expansions. So I think we're looking at a repeat of 5.0.

Oh, right. I thought I'd heard something about a new Saints Row game and maybe there was some news on that front. edit: wait, Malc posted about it a few days ago. Good to know I'm not going bonkers yet.

Rage is one hell of a drug. Also: what Saints Row game?!