Gorth

It's a result of pettiness becoming socially acceptable. A lot of people go 'Baah Baah' like the sheep they are and do it because the neighbors do it. Independent thought has become a rare commodity in today's instant gratification society.

Have you tried the X games? X2 and X3 are quite decent 'Elite' derivatives.

Pulp Fiction. Had forgotten how great a movie it is.

Obviously, if it cost less there would be no coal energy plants and windmills would be everywhere. So how is this exactly news? I assumed the theory behind wind energy was that it fed back into the grid, thus lessening the need for coal fired plants to produce the same amount of energy. Not that it would actually cost more than coal produced electricity. You need to adjust your sarcasm detector to the Finnish frequency band

I don't know if they are right or wrong. I know the weather has changed the last 3-4 decades (heck, I've been there and felt it on my own body). I don't even doubt that humans contribute to it. What I do doubt is that it is all man made and question what part of the change is human contribution and what part a result of naturally occurring cycles. When somebody who is on CSIRO's payroll step up and say 'Oh no, the sky falling', I question the objectivity (because her salary depends on research grants that assume the research is necessary). Likewise, I would laugh my butt off if some Haliburton sponsored scientist stands up and claims 'The sky is firmly in place'. The 'mock translation' thing I posted previously was popular already when I went to the university a couple of decades ago, which was about when I decided that I cared more about finding answers than formalizing and documenting the method that lead to the answer. Too much pompousness and pretentiousness in science back then, doubt it has changed much today, where scientists scramble for research grants offered by institutions and corporations with ulterior (and not always obvious) motives and scientists have to market themselves as if they were some kind of sport stars. I miss the days of idealists who wanted to find answers for the answers sake

To answer your question...

All this talk about 'facts' with no hint what soever as to what they base their viewpoint on... "We should expect now..." "The scientific basis is very sound" "we can expect to see..." "Despite the variability from year to year, there will be..." The writing style reminds me of this classic: [b]GLOSSARY FOR RESEARCH PAPERS[/b] THEY WRITE |THEY MEAN It has long been known that... |I haven't bothered to look up the original reference ...of great theoretical and practical |...interesting to me importance While it has not been possible to |The experiments didn't work provide definite answers to these |out, but I figured I could at questions. |least get a publication out of it. The W-Pb system was chosen as |The fellow in the next lab had especially suitable to show the |some already made up predicted behavior... High purity... |Composition unknown except Very high purity... |for the exaggerated claims of Extremely high purity... |the supplier Super-purity... Spectroscopically pure... A fiducial reference line... |A scratch Three of the samples were |The results of the others chosen for detailed study... |didn't make sense and were ignored.. ...handled with extreme care during |...not dropped on the floor the experiments Typical results are shown... |The best results are shown... Although some detail has been lost |It is impossible to tell from in reproduction, it is clear from the |the micrograph original micrograph that... Presumably at longer times... |I didn't take the time to find out The agreement with the predicted |fair curve is excellent good |poor satisfactory |doubtful fair |imaginary ...as good as could be expected |non-existent These results will be reported at |I might get around to this a later date |sometime The most reliable values are those |He was a student of mine of Jones It is suggested that... It is believed that... |I think... It may be that... It is generally believed that.... |I have such a good objection |to this answer that I shall |now raise it. It is clear that much additional |I don't understand it work will be required before a complete understanding... Unfortunately, a quantitative theory |Neither does anybody else to account for these effects has not been formulated Correct within an order of magnitude |Wrong It is to be hoped that this work |This paper isn't very good but will stimulate further work in the field |neither are any of the others |on this miserable subject Thanks are due to Joe Glotz for |Glotz did the work and Doe assistance with the experiments and |explained what it meant. to John Doe for valuable discussions. (Source: C.D. Graham Jr. Metal Progress, 71 pg 75 (1957)) Yeah I know... forum software sucks at formatting tab columns.

Back when I lived in New Zealand, my colleagues tried to persuade me to become a "golfer". No luck since I agree with the last part of that line Even having lived for years less than 100m from a beautiful 18 hole course, overlooking the park lands with a view down to the river, I was never tempted. The only thing I can get myself to join every now and then is a game of mini golf

Go back and read your history books 4X gamers were old when Civilization was released. Reach for the Stars is at least 7 years older. Sid Meyer was worshipped long before Civilization, not at least as part of Microprose classic 'simulation' games. I think I still have F15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service and Nato Commander lying around somewhere. If anything, Civilization heralded the end of Sid Meyers creativity and the work became sequel after sequel after... etc. A pox upon Civilization

I remember people complaining about Kotor2 not running reliably on xbox360... it was written for the original xbox I have the controller (bought it for 'Dead Space), but I use it rarely, as a number of games gets confused when it is attached and fails to acknowledge my main game stick (Saitek X52 Pro).

Ye Gods, they are throwing even more resources at those horrible mini games Btw. I wonder if anybody living in Scotland or nearby can tell me what the average height of Scotsmen is?

Yup. Want to bet that way more people recognise the name 'Lara Croft' than 'Toby Gard' (who created her)?

Hollywood has been around for how long? Not sure I would classify most of the stuff that comes out of there as "mature" these days. I actually think the video gaming industry is doing a frighteningly good imitation of the movie industry, being formulaic, predictable, market analysis driven and often catering to the lowest common denominator in the quest for disposable income.

Bought Divine Wind exansion for EU III. Of course my current game in progress isn't compatible. Need to finishish it before installing the expansion. Tried multiple installs, but deesn't work since expansions don't ask for the game location. So, move over world while the descendants of Timur Khan rape, pillage and plunder on 4.5 continents (counting India as 0.5)

Getting for sure: Possibly, depending on several factors: Mass Effect 3 (will probably wait for the catchup thing with exp/dlc though) Dungeon Siege 3 (to satisfy my curiosity) The Witcher 2 (depending on how horrible the qte, minigames and twitch factor is. If they go all "cinematic", I'll drop it) Dead Space 2 (need to dig out a lot more info on that one) Might get myself the new Bloodbowl game next (although it already out).

Justin Cherry 2560x1600 Wallpaper concept art or it didn't happen

Reminds me that I need to beat Messiah some day. Never could beat Evil Bob in the end battle >_

Say wut?

Got too much interesting stuff going on in my life atm. Mixed up the dates and forgot it was the 24th today I'm not a Christmassy person. Haven't really "celebrated" it for decades. Might buy a good bottle of Cognac and have a double serving, but otherwise too busy for all the stuff that seems to excite people so (i.e. worry about about gifts, decorations, more gifts, all the usual consumerism stuff). Gave a chunk of money to some salvation army guy collecting for the needy. That'll will have to do for Christmas presents.

Which is sort of the iffy issue for me. When do you know it is informed consent and when it is peer pressure? it's a system that asks to be abuse by relatives who don't give a damn about paying the retirement home fees for uncle Anton anymore. Why don't you just save us all a lot of trouble and lay down and die?

Thread getting a bit long... new era of discussion here

Start of old thread End of old thread My opinion is put in storage until further notice

Why? Jacob: Whinge, Whinge, Daddy! Whinge... Miranda: Whinge, Whinge, Daddy! Whinge... Thane: Whinge, Whinge, I'm a failure as a Daddy! Whinge... Samara: Whinge, Whinge, I'm a failure as a Daddy Mommy! Whinge... Jack: Whinge, Whinge, I need no Daddy! Whinge... Zaeed: Whinge, Whinge, Who's your Daddy? Whinge... Tali: Whinge, Whinge, Will you be my Daddy? Whinge... Garrus: Whinge, Whinge, Red Tape! Whinge... Mordin: Whinge, Whinge, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds! Whinge... Legion: Whinge, Whinge, We are all Whinging! Whinge... Grunt: Whinge, Growll? I'm Weak! Rawwrrrr! Smash! Kill! No More Whinging! You may have a point Some (family) dramas are just more fun than others then.

I once got lost in Sydney, ended up in what looked like a predominantly asian part of the inner city. I couldn't read most of the signs, but the food (whatever it was) was awesome.

The player shouldn't have to aim in a crpg, your character should do that to the best of his skill when you instruct him to Edit: For the record, I hate QTE's almost as much as mini-games. Second Edit: (because I'm all for recycling) The shooter mechanics in ME2 weren't particularly fun, merely felt as a filler not a selling point. My excitement or not for ME3 depends on whether the party members I invested a lot of time and effort in helping makes a re-appearance. Particularly Grunt, Mordin and Samara