Gorth

Thread pruned a bit already, that was quick. Lets stick to discussing the post and not the poster, shall we?

Now I know where I had seen this guy before... check out the avatar in this user profile http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showuser=20394

http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisse "Nisse"

I suspect Alvin got s cameo in NWN2

Dropping the u is stupid. It's part of a general Americanisation to dumb the language down. Exempli gratia: 'thru'. Heh heh heh. Dropping the 'u' from an increasing number of words may cause some confusion down the line. Just imagine dropping it from words like Mourning, Counting, Route, About, Soul etc. Although (with a 'u') it seems like it is more words derived from french that gets the short end of the ou -> o deal. Ungrateful louts not appreciating all the trouble William the Bastard went through to teach the english proper french. Anyway, I am a fan of british humour. I liked series like The Young Ones, Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf and shows like Benny Hill (Hills Angels might have influenced me a bit) and Monty Python

So... are stylish shoes going to be thrown weapons or melee weapons?

As opposed to... anti-society? I'm not a parent, don't plan on raising any children, don't teach any children (unless you count software developers, and that only on rare occasions). I would just assume that the more knowledge children becomes exposed to, from as many varied sources as possible, the better (provided that their parents offer some guidance to what they find right and wrong and especially the "why" they find things right or wrong). Nothing makes me more happy than independent thinking and a questioning mind. Just a thought, isn't the increasing unattractiveness (violence, bullying etc.) of the public school system a result of more and more parents failing at being parents rather than a failing of the public school system?

Publisher: Sega of America Developer: Sega of America Platform: Xbox 360 Category: Role-Playing Obsidian, is there something you aren't telling us?

And sewers... Lots of running around in sewers shooting rats with your 9mm

Moved to correct section

Yes. It's sad that the mod project, converting BG2 to run on the IWD2 engine, died out.

You know that sniggy hasn't been logged on for like 3 years?

A WWI picture

Heh, ignorance of the law is no excuse Three strikes and you are getting school for life buddy!

Ninth sin: Picking on fellow forumites in a not particularly friendly manner... Cut a few posts. Try and keep the discussions about the subject, not each other.

Either you are incorrect or the site is incorrect. I got them off some major WW sites and I doubt they were wrong so its probably you. No offense, of course. Actually, I think he is right. They are wearing american WWII uniforms in both pictures.

It probably, at one time was prudent to eat meat. I assume that being an omnivore gave you a competitive edge (vs. pure herbivores and carnivors), enabling man to go where more specialised behaviour couldn't. Just as the cat example, we don't always understand why we do things, only that doing them somehow satisfies a "need" that we not necessarily understand. Why do we hoard more things than we really need, why do we hunt animals, why do we compete in sports events etc.? Entirely guesswork on my part: Because it satisfies some leftover instincts that in more primitive times gave us an edge. Such conditioning of the mind may take more than just a few millennia of cultural and social changes to "de-program", even though we probably are way more sentient and self aware than when such traits where developed. Same thing goes for love. Why exactly does a man and a woman stay together? If you seriously consider, why would a man really chose to stay together with a woman after he "knocked her up"? A pregnant woman makes a poor hunter, a less efficient gatherer and is in an awkward position to defend herself against predators. The "sensible" thing would be to dump her and move on ASAP. Again, just guesswork: Because it makes sense to have more than one guardian and provider for the offspring. So, men and women get equipped with this unexplicable thing that draws them together and makes them stay together for a while, rewarding them with "feeling good" in each others company. Now, if men and women were ment to stay together forever is an entirely different issue What I am after is this undefinable "feeling good" thing, that people get when giving in to primal needs (which they may be aware of or not). It makes us eat meat, it makes us hunt animals for sport, it makes us do cruel things and sometimes just plain seemingly irrational things.

Ask yourself, why does a cat chase a ball of yarn? Obvious answer is, it must be fun. Less obvious answer, it is honing it's hunting skills, which are necessary to catch prey. Silly humans come up with all kinds of ideas and names, trying to explain basic instincts which they don't recognise for what they are.

Why am I always wary of something that is supposed to be announced in an April issue? [/cynic]

Unlike Khazakstan, this thread appears to have has filed for bankruptcy. Doesn't look like a settlement is going to save the day

Economy - overview: Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves and plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also has a large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain. Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of these natural resources and also on a growing machine-building sector specializing in construction equipment, tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defense items. The breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse in demand for Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products resulted in a short-term contraction of the economy, with the steepest annual decline occurring in 1994. In 1995-97, the pace of the government program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in a substantial shifting of assets into the private sector. Kazakhstan enjoyed double-digit growth in 2000-01 - 8% or more per year in 2002-07 - thanks largely to its booming energy sector, but also to economic reform, good harvests, and foreign investment. The opening of the Caspian Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised export capacity. Kazakhstan in 2006 completed the Atasu-Alashankou portion of an oil pipeline to China that is planned to extend from the country's Caspian coast eastward to the Chinese border in future construction. The country has embarked upon an industrial policy designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the oil sector by developing light industry. The policy aims to reduce the influence of foreign investment and foreign personnel. The government has engaged in several disputes with foreign oil companies over the terms of production agreements; tensions continue. Upward pressure on the local currency continued in 2007 due to massive oil-related foreign-exchange inflows. Aided by strong growth and foreign exchange earnings, Kazakhstan aspires to become a regional financial center and has created a banking system comparable to those in Central Europe. GDP (purchasing power parity): $170.3 billion (2007 est.) GDP (official exchange rate): $95.47 billion (2007 est.) GDP - real growth rate: 9.5% (2007 est.) GDP - per capita (PPP): $11,100 (2007 est.) GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 5.7% industry: 39.5% services: 54.8% (2007 est.) Labor force: 8.156 million (2007 est.) Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 20% industry: 30% services: 50% (2002 est.) Unemployment rate: 7.1% (2007 est.) Population below poverty line: 19% (2004 est.) Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 3.3% highest 10%: 26.5% (2004 est.) Distribution of family income - Gini index: 33.9 (2003) Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.5% (2007 est.) Investment (gross fixed): 30.1% of GDP (2007 est.) Budget: revenues: $21.49 billion expenditures: $22.31 billion (2007 est.) Public debt: 11.8% of GDP (2007 est.) Agriculture - products: grain (mostly spring wheat), cotton; livestock Industries: oil, coal, iron ore, manganese, chromite, lead, zinc, copper, titanium, bauxite, gold, silver, phosphates, sulfur, iron and steel; tractors and other agricultural machinery, electric motors, construction materials Industrial production growth rate: 7.1% (2007 est.) Electricity - production: 64.23 billion kWh (2005 est.) Electricity - consumption: 57.99 billion kWh (2005 est.) Electricity - exports: 3.978 billion kWh (2005) Electricity - imports: 4.552 billion kWh (2005) Oil - production: 1.338 million bbl/day (2005 est.) Oil - consumption: 234,000 bbl/day (2005 est.) Oil - exports: 1 million bbl/day (2005 est.) Oil - imports: 113,600 bbl/day (2004) Oil - proved reserves: 9 billion bbl (1 January 2006 est.) Natural gas - production: 25.39 billion cu m (2005 est.) Natural gas - consumption: 29.2 billion cu m (2005 est.) Natural gas - exports: 7.269 billion cu m (2005 est.) Natural gas - imports: 11.09 billion cu m (2005) Natural gas - proved reserves: 1.765 trillion cu m (1 January 2006 est.) Current account balance: $-4.643 billion (2007 est.) Exports: $44.88 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.) Exports - commodities: oil and oil products 58%, ferrous metals 24%, chemicals 5%, machinery 3%, grain, wool, meat, coal (2001) Exports - partners: Germany 12.4%, Russia 11.6%, China 10.9%, Italy 10.5%, France 7.6%, Romania 4.9% (2006) Imports: $29.91 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.) Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment 41%, metal products 28%, foodstuffs 8% (2001) Imports - partners: Russia 36.4%, China 19.3%, Germany 7.4% (2006) Economic aid - recipient: $229.2 million (2005) Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $19.25 billion (31 December 2007 est.) Debt - external: $92.08 billion (30 June 2007) Stock of direct foreign investment - at home: $29.82 billion (2006 est.) Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: $2.374 billion (2006 est.) Market value of publicly traded shares: $10.52 billion (2005) Currency (code): tenge (KZT) Exchange rates: tenge per US dollar - 122.39 (2007), 126.09 (2006), 132.88 (2005), 136.04 (2004), 149.58 (2003) Fiscal year: calendar year Overall, not so bad as some other countries...

It must be a lean season for writers

You are a citrus fruit. You do the bees and flower thing.

Yes... maybe we should give people a chance to sober up a bit. And give this subject a rest a bit, as it seems be getting a bit personal

Yes, it would appear that you are enjoying the wine... The howling heard through out the cold, dark winter nights in Finland isn't caused by wolves... but by hangovers