Gorth

Some people like attention.... judging buy the constant tabloid style posts.... Which Tabloid Lies Sell the Most Magazines? Edit: I guess an existing thread on the subject of Anthem already existed. Merged and renamed.

Stem cells strike back! Better than snake oil apparently. Now curing Cancer and HIV at the same time! Well, it does look interesting. I guess next question will be, can they make it affordable? https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47421855

Speaking from personal experience, England and Germany both had some rather outrageous taxes that are not included in the "official" tax rates if you check google for what their respective tax rates are. England (possibly the UK, not sure) has this thing called Council Tax, which is calculated on the councils estimated monthly rent value of a property. Germany has compulsory health care insurance, calculated based on your monthly income. Adding an extra 250-500 Euro (yes, for one person) monthly tax to the officially listed national tax rates. No idea what the monthly medical insurance is in other countries or how they are calculated.

Saying I love you Is not the words I want to hear from you It's not that I want you Not to say, but if you only knew How easy it would be to show me how you feel More than words is all you have to do to make it real Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me 'Cause I'd already know What would you do if my heart was torn in two More than words to show you feel That your love for me is real What would you say if I took those words away Then you couldn't make things new Just by saying I love you More than words La di da, da di da, di dai dai da Now I've tried to talk to you and make you understand All you have to do is close your eyes And just reach out your hands and touch me Hold me close don't ever let me go More than words is all I ever needed you to show Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me 'Cause I'd already know What would you do if my heart was torn in two More than words to show you feel That your love for me is real What would you say if I took those words away Then you couldn't make things new Just by saying I love you La di da, da di da, di dai dai da More than words La di da, da di da, di dai dai da More than words La di da, da di da La di da, da di da, more than words La di da, da di da, di dai dai da La di da, da di da, more than words (oh uh uh uh) More than words

I've been playing some Borderlands 2: The Pre-Sequel lately with 2 friends. The Handsome Jack clone is just hilarious when trying to act with the real Jack's charm. His flirting attempts are worth a good laugh at times.

At least the latest breed of spammers leaves a trail of 'Edited by...' when retroactively updating approved posts with commercial links sprinkled in there randomly.

Guild Wars 2 has a number of seemingly weird (and not so weird) achievements. Besides 'Chairs of the Realm' where you have to try sitting in 42 (made up number) different chairs all over Tyria, it has a master diver achievement where you have to find both obvious and well hidden diving goggles, put them on (yes, your character actually strips down to their underwear when putting them on) and survive a dive to a spot somewhere below you. At higher levels, the dives gets harder, not just to find the goggles, but to hit the intended target. In this case, half a kilometer down at the bottom is a Greek style amphora where you have to hit the opening. Just about large enough for a character to slip through.

Speaking of timeless... they don't seem to make music like this anymore

Not quite as old as Strauss' music, but some things are timeless.... like rock and roll. I *think* Chuck is around 70 on the video. Not bad for a old guy, Bruce Springsteen has the look of a flabbergasted teenager in the company of his idol...

Mistake #2.... assuming that "Iraqis" had a sense of national identity. I do think that one goes on the account of countries like England and France though, when they divided the old Ottoman Empire according to their own interests. If not of any interest, then the proverbial "lines in the sand", drawn straight with a pen and a ruler on a paper map, disregarding local history, religion and ethnicity. I'm not a fan of nation states and much less of nationalism, but the assumption that everyone else would think the same way was just old world arrogance (I think Gromnir explained the shortcomings of such assumptions better in one of his posts a bit further up).

Post war mistake #1 (second Iraq war) was a complete ignorance of how much Shia and Sunni hate each other. I know people love hating on Iran these days, happily ignoring the very same shortcomings in Saudi Arabia, because one has been labeled an enemy and one a friend. How does the saying go? With friends like these....

Space Marine Occulobes next!

Trump should just put up a wall with lots of "gaps", where people can pay with Visa or Mastercard to pass through. It will be as effective as a solid wall, yet result in "Mexico" paying for it. Win/win Sorry, it's Friday and it's been a long week.

I guess I'm technically "Ancient" although I really only feel like an Immature Adult

He was probably studying the deterioration of hyperlanes when exposed to prolonged solar flares and electromagnetic radiation when close to massive astronomical objects.

Steam is my go to platform for multiplayer games, but having the Bioware games on Origin doesn't really bother me to be honest. Where I did get pissed off a lot was when I literally had no internet for weeks and it wouldn't let me play any of my old, bought games. As mentioned, in DA2 the characters were the saving grace for me and it's probably, together with BG2 the games I keep replaying once or twice a year. ME3 was a mixed bag with some very high highs and low lows. Overall I liked it, just quit your game before the end :D Never bought Andromeda and failed 3 times to get into DA:I, failed less than an hour each time. I'll still see if I can't get an actual game going in the latter though, although it is up against some stiff competition in Witcher 3 for my limited spare time.

One of those European things I miss occasionally... watching Bundesliga matches on the weekends on TV

Nooo... I has an identity crisis! Good to see you again Allan and good to hear you not running around with a bullseye painted on you I don't generally share what people on my friends lists do

I feel this applies to both ME2 and DA2. I.e. a step forward and two step backwards from the original games. DA2 offered better characters, but completely gimped game mechanics, narrow corridors instead of semi-open areas and don't get me started on the rather obvious and heavy handed asset recycling. I still love Varric and Isabella though.

Aren't you a little short for a... erh, never mind. Maybe a durable, dirt resistant fabric that is marketable to settlers on remote colonies without laundry facilities.

A bit of background story for the (Guild Wars 2) pictures... The nation of Orr was once a significant human realm. The Six (human gods) lived there until they departed the world. Left to their own devices, humans succumbed to constant internal wars and weakened themselves, so when the Charr wiped out the realm of Ascalon and headed towards Orr, the Orrians despaired and a Vizier Khilbron did a big no-no. He used one of the artifacts left behind by the six and let's just say it backfired spectacularly. Cutting a lot of stuff about who manipulated events that lead to it all. Suffice to say, the cataclysmic release of magic not only wiped out the Charr High Legions, it literally caused Orr to be swallowed by the sea and the Island realm was now part of the sea floor. Much later, the Elder Dragon, Zhaitan used similarly powerful magic to tear Orr from the sea floor and raise it, building it's lair in the ruins and commanding the hordes now undead inhabitants. it's part the reason why this area looks like it sort of belongs on the bottom of the sea. When Orr was raised, the resulting Tsunami destroyed the human capital of Kryta and the humans built a new one, somewhere far away from the coast, calling it 'Divinitys Reach'. Thrifty refugees from multiple races rebuilt in the ruins of the old city and created a new free city which is sort of the de facto capital of the world, where all races meet and ply their trade. The 5 playable races have a local capital and a shortcut gateway to this city, Lions Arch. Anyway, Orr is still a comparatively dark and gloomy place with undead of all sizes and shapes haunting the place Just my necromancer girl trying to strike a suitably heroic posture, fiddling around with camera angles to use the light (which isn't sunlight, just an eerie glow from a magical source)

I still have him on my steam friend list, so I know he's online, alive and kicking every now and then. and for the record, Baldurs Gate 1+2 were Biowares best ever games!

Pictures... or it didn't happen!

Pretty much this. If a company (in this case EA and their Bioware subsidiary) is convinced their way forward is Battle Royale game and micro transactions, the only way to go forward is to do what they did. The market, being just as ruthless as any corporation, will then decide whether that model will stand the test of time. There are of course classier ways of commenting on it than just simple minded gloating and wishing people out of work.

My parents keep telling me it's a life time job...