metadigital

Linkie? A biologist found a cane toad mating on the road a few years ago; not much unusual except that he was returning from his journey, and the pair had been locked in flagrante delicto since he had driven up the coast; also both toads were male, and the one being copulated with was dead. In fact it was so dead, that its head was in an advanced state of putrification, having been run over by some previous road traffic.

I think MS are planning to release Halo 3 on the same day as the release of the PS3. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Which was going to be the day they released Longhorn, except they lost all the features on the way to the marketplace, so they called it something more reminiscent of vapourware: Vista ...

He shares Hoover's love of transvestitism.

That sucks. I don't like dumbing down; I think it would make more sense to make the tools even more useful, like a super-effective index to look up stuff in the Civilop

Hmmm ... Jesusland ... is the first part of that pronounced "hay-soos", as the hispanics, or "Yah-zoos", like arimaic ...? Well, in the U.S., the Senators serve for fixed 6-year terms. That provides a certain amount of insulation from the whim of the moment. So would 8-year or 10-year terms. ... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I am led to believe that it is almost impossible for an incumbent senator to lose their seat, though: is that true? Something about 98% of the election budget for incumbents ... I could well be less than 101% correct on this, though ...

Oh, I thought a second person was (well, a second and a third were) involved ... "

I like "misunderestimate", that is a misunderestimated word.

Don't make hippopotami angry ...

I like to roleplay my games of chess. Sometimes I am a Pasha from the Eastern realms, or even Samuel L Jackson in Fresh, but mostly as Deep Blue ...

The DM was another good friend, but he was totally annoyed, perplexed and annoyed by our inextinguishable thirst and continual seraching for wandering monsters, so it was more a police action than a clever tactic for the sake of the game ... still, it did lodge itself deeply in our memories and D&D psyches ... :D I don't think we were too good at seperating the out-of-character info from our role playing, anyway (which probably annoyed the DM even more), so I can kinda understand his annoyance. Still, we were having fun ... (it always seemed like a competition between us, the players, and the DM's interpretation of what was fair in the AD&D world, though).

In praise of Mus?'s sig: This is one of the oldest and most revered of all brand images. The Michelin Man, known as Bibendum, first appeared in a poster by O'Galop in 1896 and instantly became a classic. The artist redrew the poster for an encore in 1913, which is seen here in unusually fine condition. Bibendum is seen proposing a toast of road debris, which has reduced Tire X and Tire Y to deflated sad sacks. The phrase Nunc est Bibendum means "Now is the time to drink" in Latin. Because the French did not understand its meaning, they thought that it meant something like "Here is Bibendum," hence explaining the naming of the Michelin man, which has stuck for more than a century. They surely understand the message of the poster, which is stated below: "Michelin tires swallow all obstacles on the road." linky

It's for sale in the UK for

Do you only know virtual geeks?

Short answer: no. Long answer: no, not yet.

Thanks. She's a fighter.

The Parliament Act is rarely invoked because it's rarely needed. The House of Lords know that they don't have the mandate to oppose government legislation, so in most conflicts with the House of Commons they will eventually back down rather than provoke the use of the Parliament Act. The Parliament Act is rarely used because the Lords are reluctant to stand up to the Commons, not the other way round. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The fundamental mechanism is that the Upper House performs as an Editor-in-Chief for the legislature writers: it is meant to highlight any foreseeable issues and help draw attention to better means to achieve a stated end; it is not there to create new law, or derail any attempted legislation (that function is performed by the judiciary when they apply their gnostic interpretations to the legislation). " Having an unelected group of people doesn't create a problem as they are just there to consult, edit, clarify and revise mooted law, not create it. Really, the Queen should step in and start drafting bills: she's got over fifty years of political experience and more nous than the cabinet put together ...

"Most favoured trading nation" status?

Agreed. The Labour reforms are poorly thought-through and even less-well implemented. When I was listening to an interview with the Norwegian monarchy the other day (HM King Harald V and HM Queen Sonja) they made an interesting point about stability and monarchy: the most stable countries have them. Nice people, those Norwegian monarchs.

A ten gallon hat, visible sidearm and an ornery temper?

I like Karateka (Apple ][).

Sweden? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You aren't wearing your US rose-coloured glasses.

I have a question for you DMs: what do you do if one of the characters is isolated from the group and (for example) ambushed. Do you rely on the players' mighty rectitude to keep out-of-character information from their game playing, or perhaps take the person who is playing the character in question aside and DM them one on one for the encounter? I ask this because it was the cause of an enormous fight for our group: the DM had a doppleganger ambush (and kill!) our party's Ranger (pride and joy of my friend) and then re-infiltrate the aprty and surprise attack them. We were all more than a bit peeved to have the DM rolling endless dice behind the little screen and then pretend nothing had happened until the bizzaro-Ranger attacked the rest of us ... my friend was particularly pissed that he didn't get to determine the character's fate ..! Any thoughts?

Gabs is neither man nor woman: she is a Goth!

My partner was diagnosed with Breast Cancer 14 October (nice birthday present), and has already undergone remedial surgery ...

That is why you fail Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back. Making up words is healthy and fun.