metadigital

It is wrong, and there are no excuses. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> he he. That's a very extreme and fundamental view, Steve.

We are in violent agreement, ~Di.

Phew. That's as contentious as the latest Egg card advert ...

007 was at a loose end for forty minutes ...

Sssssssssshhhhhhhh! Fio will be back soon.

Fizzy Jizzy Numner Five!

What about the foreign policy of not providing aid to countries ravaged by AIDS in Africa without assurances of abstinence, rather than condom use? Or the Catholic Church's role in the poverty cycle in South America because it refuses to endorce family planning methods like condoms, voluntary sterilisation and abortion? Are you suggesting that religions should be rated on a violence scale? Buddhism is okay, they can keep their temples. Islam is too violent, so it must be ... errr ... what? Forced out of the world? What do you propose? A crusade? I have seen the Zionists protesting: they are just as vociferous and violent and extreme in their opinions about Islam and the Arabic peoples. They are the Hamas of Judaism, for they too won't stop until every Muslim/Arab is dead. Or is the violence-o-meter weighted by population? " He he. Fundamentalists are certainly a big problem. When someone thinks they have the divinely inspired truth and all who disagree are heathens to be converted or slaughtered (it was Pope Innocent III who said "kill them all, God will know the difference" when asked about the women, children and those who were not the target his sectarian genocide). But extremists are certainly a big problem, too. And the two groups are not mutually exclusive.

Exactly. And as has been mentioned, above, the sight of Lebanese Imams standing up to the violent demonstrators attacking Scandinavian embassies brings the point into sharp focus. The poor people of Lebanon are sick of Syria using any means to destabilise the country for her own means. It's a pity that Imams in other countries have been unable to portray a similar image ...

It would certainly constitute a Democratic way of doing things.

Wow. You guys do lurk a lot. I am genuinely impressed at your breviloquence. I can be terse. I was larconic in flight school, once.

Zing

I vote Baley for the Obsidian Poet Laureate. I submit this vote on the understanding that this will expunge his criminal spam record. PS AlternaFurkle, one thing Mr Baley is an expert on is spotting SPAM.

"

Very right.

That's a left-field assertion, Eldar! What's the rationale there (first sentence) ? I agree with Launchie. I've done a small amount on research on theology in various forms and, although I'm far from an expert, I have learned more than a little about Sharia and the Islamic continuation of the Arabic disciple of continual critical thought between scholars (in particular interpretation of the Qu'ran). Sharia, much like the Jewish Rabbi, is the accumulated wisdom of previous trial and error experience in the host culture, which helps to feedback into the interpretation of the scriptures by scholars. Well I think there is a gordian knot of the repression of the Arabic peoples by the colonial powers in the M.E. and their broken promises (Laurence of Arabia, King of the Arabs, etc) gives a big taint to the whole analysis. Sort of like how it's a bit difficult to analyse the commonalities of the Protestant Christian faith with Catholics in Northern Ireland. I doubt that anyone would suggest that Christianity is basically a violent repressive dogmatic misogynistic religion because of the troubles in N.I. Further to the points asserted by Launchie, I can agree that the provision for women in Islam actually stacks up pretty well against the fundamental Christian tenets embedded in the male-dominated WASP cultures stradling the Atlantic, especially with regard to wealth (proxy for power) i.e. the right to work and divorce. In Islam, the woman is catered for with marriage containing contractually binding divorce pre-nuptual agreement (what was hers before the marriage is still hers) in addition to half of what the man has. The oft-cited polygamy of Mohammud neglects to put it in context, too. His additional wives were not concubines, they were widows / pecuniarily-challenged / vulnerable / etc women. The veil that is worn by choice in the progressive Islamic cultures, like Turkey or Britain, by willing women who wish to make a preventative effort to prevent men from having the salacious thoughts in the first place. (My partner, for one, is ALWAYS complaining about men AND WOMEN looking at her. Islamic women who share her displeasure at this experience may take the burka.) Out of sight out of mind. So don't just assume it is a symbol of patriarchal misogynistic oppression, it is just as easily used to enhance the freedom of women. It is a tool, like a pistol. (Pistols aren't evil: they don't kill people, people do.) Look at the fundamental lunatics in the US who kill doctors who have families, merely because their moral compass places this as a lesser evil than the many foetuses that he helped to abort. In particular I recall the guy who got the death penalty was convinced, as were all his like minded people, that he was on his way to sit on the right hand side of God. (Let's not get me started on the bigoted use of "left" and "right" that us left-handed people have had to suffer since the dawn of time! ) As has been said before ad nauseam: the true enemy here is FUNDAMENTALISM.

There are a bunch of master file transfer clients that can be loaded to manage file xfers. (HTTP 1.1 allows for picking up prematurely terminated transfers, whereas HTTP 1.0 doesn't, so check your browser's options to make sure of this too.)

The Queen would be proud. Back on topic somewhat, what do bunnies have to do with Sith? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> See Sig, acquire wisdom. :cool: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yin and Yang working in perfect harmony.

So Thief and System Shock 2 are irreproducible (by your argument) in other media? Plus, they contain a poorly defined charismatic quality that draws the player into the virtual universe better than, say Torment mimicks the immersiveness of a good book. Ergo they are an artform. The primary duty of art, after all, is to give innovative revaltions about the ordinary world.

If it's good, they will. (Apparently) the game has been finished for months: the devs are just play testing and doing all the clean-up that doesn't seem to be a high priority for a lot of other publishers ... " *pregnant pause* ... 1UP: Wait, wait. You guys are working on Duke Forever? GB: [Laughs] And ever and ever. 1UP: And when's that due out again? GB: [Laughs] I think it'll be out when pigs fly. But it's definitely going well now. Things are together; we're in full production. We're basically just pulling all the pieces together and making the game out of it. There's a lot that's finished. All the guns are finished. Most of the creatures are finished. And as I said, we're just basically pulling it all together and trying to make it fun. We've kind of got all these disassociated elements that make up a game, and you put them together and things happen. And then you just tweak it and polish it until it's fun, and that's kind of the phase we're in now, just trying to make something that is really fun to play and interesting. ... If it's a good game, and the competition isn't ferocious, then anything is possible. I haven't read the links yet, but I don't expect the game to be a throwback, I expect it to be as fresh and groundbreaking as the first Duke, which was a runaway success that originated as shareware! Lara. Star Wars. Star Trek. Yep, franchises don't have any marketing momentum.

Of course it could be done. You've watched The Omen, I trust? (If not, go and do so.) Any good director is able to covert the subjects and moods of the written word (arguably the richest and most vibrant medium, though I am happy to note that this is the target of the fiercest competition by the best and brightest of all media: cinema, television, audio, theatre, etc). Witness for the defence: Max Payne. Is your main cross-examination that it borrows from an existing genre (film noir) and therefore fails to be art because of unoriginality? (Or did I misunderstand your critique?) I think that is specious: art is continually re-inventing and re-discovering old forms and re-interpreting them in different ways and means. Photography was originally regarded as the antithesis of art; for the second witness for the defence I draw your attention to luminaries such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and the recently departed Lord Litchfield.

Summon Epiphany (Conjuration/Summoning) Level: 10 Range: Computer and Console Duration: 1 thread/level Casting time: Instantaneous Saving Throw: None By casting the Summon Epiphany spell the poster calls into existance a beserked demon from the Elemental Plane of Bullsh1t - The Epiphany. At first glance this appears to be some sort of troll, but upon closer examination this gibbering mass of foul vapor moves with a life of its own. Drawn towards the XBOX like a moth to a flame, Epiphany feeds on the energies surrounding and used by the thread participants. When summoned the Epiphany will go on a rampage attacking everyone in the area, including the caster. Anyone Protected from Microsoft will not be targeted by the demon. The Epiphany has no logical or rational attacks at all. However, it can be hurt by logical attacks. Each time Epiphany quotes a target poster and wraps its tendrils around him there are two major effects: First, all PS2 memory cards that the target poster possess will be drained by one block, destroying them if only one remains. Second is it causes the poster to lose one PS2 game. This is chosen at random, however, it will consume the newest title possible. The Epiphany is completely immune to ridicule, and not only that, but flaming will actually heal this creature. Only desperate or suicidal posters use this spell. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Brilliant, but in the wrong thread: this should be here.

WoW has a nice realistic historical basis, methinks. Like the colonial powers in conflict with the indigenous peoples of the lands that they conquer, there are at least two sides to every story. Speaking of ambiguous moral characters, what about Civilization? The player is free to invade, slaughter and commit genocide equally as apalling as anything the Nazis, Pol Pott, Stalin, Milosovic, Hutus, even the Romans, did. Might makes Right. Interesting morality tale for the kiddies there ...

http://www.steampowered.com/Steam/Marketing/DODS_fw_notice It is still a silly name for a game, though. Who wants to play a game where you lose? They should have called it "Day of the Turning Point in the War", or "The Day that Mattered". ...

But don't you want anisotropic filtered window panes with wordprocessor and spreadsheet documents floating in real-time on your virtual desktop?

I take it this was a "lost in translation" type of comment, because I wouldn't expect people to be "dismissed" for completing their projected work ...