metadigital

It is a tough question, because you have to ask yourself that question for that is the only answer! ... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Perhaps that is the best criterion. The ability to ask the Socratic question "who am I, and why?". :cool:

It's difficult, mainly because scientists keep discovering that all the things defined as "intelligent life" are found to be behaviours for other animals, even bacteria! Language? Chimpazees have learnt 200 word vocabularies (sign language: their vocal system is not able to produce human words), and frogs (amphibians) and crickets (insects) used sound millions of years before mammals. Usually some sort of predictive ability and action based on the predictions is stated, but even that is troublesome (see below). Greater love hath no bug THEY might be small, but don't call them stupid. Some bacteria show great concern for their fellows, and now biologists have discovered the social skills of one species may rest on an unusually discriminating palate for a key nutrient. If food becomes sparse, many myxobacteria will commit suicide, and this selfless act releases raw materials that go towards protecting the others. Meanwhile, some become dormant spores that can regenerate the colony when the nutrient crisis has passed. A variety of environmental factors can trigger this collective response, but the most important is the level of phosphates

Yes. Yes you are weird.

How long is a piece of string?

... of

Italian troops offer free pizza to their Austrian neighbours. In a move of brotherhood and man's humanity to his fellow man, the very stylish Italian armed forces risked their lives to provide free commestibles to their favourite neighbour. "It was a great show of solidarity with our European neighbours," said General Raphael Pecodillo, "and was achieved with minimal casualties. Our specially commissioned delivery tanks accidentally injured some civilians who were playing on the road, but apart from that the food fed everyone it was supposed to. "We plan on helping our Teutonic neighbours, next!"

Gold. :D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> 0H N0355!%5!!!!1 He's onto us ...

Who was the big kid that had armoured skin in the second film? ("I can help you!" / "Help them!".)

Hmm....I tossed about the idea of loading up NWN again last night...but the game itself is just so dull...can any fan made content make up for it? What out there is worth downloading? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.HOF

I usually compromised by having seven players, but no replacements (otherwise it is a truly Sissyphean task). Any AI can advance up to the players level at a speed that is proportional to the level achieved by the player; a new AI at 1900 can beat you into space.

... *and raises the virtual ire of every other AI player, becoming the target for all hostilities and the object of all alliances through which the AI civs trade up the tech tree faster than the player can send out a spy*

I don't understand the point you are trying to make. Are you saying that AI opponents sue for peace? My response is: "So?". After the peace their ally, or they will attack again. If I don't wipe out all the AI opponents in the early part of the game, then they overtake and attack repeatedly and continually. I'm not sure why you posted that in response to my comment:

... is the people who play them.

Exactly: congratulations. (No sarcasm.) :cool: Welcome to the fora!

You should try dating a goddess, sometime: it can be very rewarding. Although I warn you now that there is the trade-off ... high divinity = high maintenance. (Then again, you only get out of something what you put in ...)

Depends. If the designers integrate the flash RAM (or whatever nanotech) into a wearable item, for example, like a pair of sun shades, then it will be a "killer app". I remember my father always called them "wristlet-watches", because originally watches were made for pockets ...

You forget, Brother Reveilled, that the Lord God Our Father created all things, even our science, our senses, our minds and our truth. He (for God is a perfect being) has made this as a test of the faithful; those of insufficient faith, who desire evidence and proof (and therefore eschew faith, by definition) are easily found wanting. Every Good Evangelical Born Yesterday Christian knows that God, in His wisdom, created our world and universe; He created it to give us tests and choices, to let us, who are born in original sin, to choose eternal damnation or His salvation and Truth. This is just another example of where what man thinks he understands, God does.

WRT The Longest Yard, the British remade it a few years ago, with the execrable Vinnie Jones starring (he's the ex-soccer-player and violent knob from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch), where they changed the film to be about a game of soccer (a non-contact sport). I remember thinking the original was pretty good, although I was quite young at the time.

When aren't you blaming Bush for everything on the planet? It is quite possible to have a political agenda outside of running for office. I'm sure things could have been handled better, but you single out Bush and blame him specifically to further your political tirade. No one man is responsible for what happened here. The greatest mistake in this whole travesty has been not maintaining the leevies, and several people over the years have been guilty of that. None of them have been the President who doesn't oversee that. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Actually, Ender, they had a (FEMA-run, IIRC) "Operation Hurricane Pam" last year which was this exact scenario, i.e. a category 4 hurricane making landfall at New Orleans, and the results were the verisimilitude of two weeks ago. And the findings were not acted on, just filed away. That's why, when the hurricane was predicted to be approaching New Orleans, the Mayor evacuated everyone; he knew there was a serious danger than the lev

I agree. I also think that the war correspondents in Iraq ought to put down the mic and grab a rifle. Nothing like untrained people in a crisis situation. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I remember seeing a program in which some news guys said that if all the journalists had been armed with guns at Tora Bora in Afghanistan, Osama would have been dead or captured by now. There were more reporters than US soldiers around that mountain. (according to them anyway) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I wouldn't want most reporters to be armed. war is dangerous enough without drunken egomaniacs of suspicious intellect being set loose. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think it's a great idea! We have way too many reporters ...

Why do I have an image of Jags as the monkey? Jags, you're really one of those chimps from the System Shock laboratory, aren't you ...? :ph34r:

How's 2:30 tomorrow afternoon? (I'm assuming asking someone to scratch your back is not counted, even though that is accomplishing your desired goal under the stated conditions, if not the implicit ones. ") At a guess, I would say it will be a time definned as: longer than the time given for Kevin Costner's Waterworld mutant to grow gills (), and shorter than the time it takes the moon to be flung out of the Earth's gravity. Of course, some cybernetic augmentation might help ...

Slashdot: Researchers Say Human Brain is Still Evolving Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday September 09, @02:51AM from the smarter-better-faster dept. Oleg Alexandrov writes "Two genes involved in determining the size of the human brain have undergone substantial evolution in the last 60,000 years, researchers say, suggesting that the brain is still undergoing rapid evolution. The discovery adds further weight to the view that human evolution is still a work in progress, since previous instances of recent genetic change have come to light in genes that defend against disease and confer the ability to digest milk in adulthood." More evidence for the ardent Creationists to dispute ...

What about Eldar's necking friend?