Gorth

Thanks guys My best birthday present today ? My work permit (w00t) Watch out all Aussies, here I come :D

While it's not exactly state of the art, my old SB Audigy2 with a 5.1 speaker set is sort of nice. But then, I also occasionally use my computer for watching DVD movies, TV, playing CD's besides playing the odd game with good sound/music, so I couldn't really imagine having a computer without at least "good" audio capabilities

...it wasn't even fully paid off yet!...

I wouldn't trust a civilisation that didn't have the number zero (thats like 50% of all binary figures missing)

The Orcs won. Watch this space next year for Eurivision - The Two Towers.

Wasn't Dune II the game that made the "RTS" way of playing popular ?

What did you expect ? It doesn't freeze over that often

So what, ever heard of "The Dead Sea" ? My dad killed it! Now, if they could just combine horse riding with flying, then I could have a pegasus. Flying horses FTW

(w00t) Congratulations Finland

Not to mention a plethora of dedicated dragon slaying weapons in circulation makes for an endangered species. For comparison, try listing the top 5 longswords of centaur slaying ?

Aw come on, that fully automated gun turret definitedly needed those meditation gloves

A pro actor couldn't have handled it better than the poor guy, and yes his expression at the beginning is priceless. I would still prefer BBC as my news provider over any other news service in the world though

Well look at that... Lordi made it to the finals :D

Lucky me managed to try HoMM 4 before shelling out the money for it. I still feel a bit sorry for my little brother who bought it though, but such is life :D

I was having visions of a US lead international occupation army with soldiers forcing danes at gunpoint down to the election booth and vote or face "removal" to that gulag thingy on Cuba for working against the interests of democracy :D I've only voted once in my life (and that was a "No" to the Maastricht treaty, a referendum, not an election), so I would probably be summarily executed for being a terrorist, actively undermining the system by withholding my vote(s) I seriously can't remember a politician, that I in any way felt deserved my approval through my vote I forgot to mention something in my previous post (sorry), but I wonder if it really is the "will of the people" which is reflected in the results ? What I'm getting at is media and the control of public oppinion and how much of a free will people really have. You actively (I suppose, correct me if I am wrong) information about events, candidates, what they represent etc. I did that too, that is, until I realised what a bunch of dirty rotten scoundrels were available to choose between and then decided that none were suitable leaders. However, how much effort does the average voter devote to keep themselves informed and enlightened ? In a pessimistic estimate based on my own prejudices, very few does and becomes voting cattle for those who control media, giving the power of government to those who controls the media (Italy being a good example). I don't have a fix for it, but I think the "system" is broken as it currently is. If you try to impose limits on who can vote (income requirements, written tests, forced indoctrination/education whatever), it no longer qualifies as a demokratia (no idea how to create funny greek letters...). In it's current form, I don't acknowledge what people seem to swallow raw as democracy as what it pretend to be, just another control tool. You just need voter booth babes, like at the E3 I think I just described my own feelings (in my own "blunt" way) above, the difference isn't really that big if you withhold your vote or you place an uninformed/misinformed vote. In both cases, it's not truly the voice of the people being heard. I don't mind compromises just out of some obscure princip, but when done habitually, it makes the available choices seems bland. Depends on the age of your culture. I remember when my highscool celebrated it's 800th birthday in 1985 (I think that was the year). Browsing through all the old books, lots of them predating Gutenberg, there was very little "democracy" in there. For some, it may be all they know, for others, it's just a recent social experiment where the outcome is researched and added to the library :cool: Thats where your personal thresholds goes, other peoples mileage may vary however. Examples of this has been seen for decades in Europe where terrorist organisations have worked against elected goverments since the early seventies in countries like Italy, Spain, UK, Germany etc. I would definitely trust you to be a member of a democratic society I'm less sure about other individuals :ph34r: Yet people voted for Hitler and disposed of democracy after WWI. I guess I'll always have difficulties trusting people to do much beyond what they are trained for :"> The resident cynic has spoken Not that I really disagree with you on what is good and bad, but you know i appreciate your point of view on interesting subjects

I got a question for you then, as your system "seems" relatively simple once the voting is done. The one of the two parties with the most votes is the "winner" and will "rule" until next election. Where I grew up, it's more like a "democratorship" where you have a zillion small parties representing a lot of occasional odd interests (one party once get a comedian elected for promising more wind in the back for bicyclists, I'm not kidding). In such a system, it's not really a majority rule, but largest minority who gets to to do it. Since the ruling minority is rarely able to get anything through parliament then, it's mostly a bunch of watered down compromises that gets passed. It also means, that you have to go back a 1890 election or some such, to actually find a politician who kept his promises and didn't compromise 90% of his program away. The end result of this is, people has grown increasingly disinterested in "democracy" and politics, as it is often like punching a pillow when trying to change things. Let's take a hypothetical example and say people lose interest completely, would it really be a "democracy" then if few people even care where they put their 'X' or would they be better off with a different kind of government ?

Rich on minerals

Isn't both earth and glass silicate based ? Not much of a difference then. It's all a matter of taste, with or without the carbon based, organic add-ons to the food

Waiting for some feedback and responses from initial buyers, then probably rushing out and getting it myself :D Heroes has been TB since HoMM II (I haven't tried the original, so I can't say)

A custom bred american hound variant. Not very likely to see one where I live

I think I'll have to look "coonhound" up somewhere. No idea what it is.

Pretty close :cool:

:ph34r:

Enforce it is an interesting choice of words. I'm not sure how things are in the UK, but in Denmark, it's generally accepted that being a democracy requires the power to be split between three entities (law making, law enforcing and the courts). For one reason or other, the military enforcing laws doesn't figure in there as part of it, being normally considered the domain of theocracies, oligarchies, banana republics, what have you Once you start delegating things away from parliamentary control, you *might* start down a dangerous slippery slope.

I wonder if Bush would sign a "consolidation of American ethnicity" ? :shifty:"