metadigital

I ws being too subtle?

What's a "slam" attack? BoG: It's a common saying in the UK, even though most people are unaware of its origins. ) (It comes from the African colonisers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when they wanted a part for something they would ask for one of British or German (i.e. high) standard, hence "BoG standard".)

" (I know, I was being sarcastic.)

What do you mean by "other things"? Tolerance?

Of course there is: there were Vulcans of all ethnicities, why in Search for Spock there was a couple of asians (one even looked mongolian). I really don't know how you can make such a sweeping generalisation: there were precious few Vulcans shown in any of the television series. What's your sample space: one? But there certainly were in the films -- IIRC the first couple all had different ethnicities. The racial characteristics would not "homogenise" over such a short period of time, and certainly wouldn't be as uniform as you are implying. For example, there are indeed albino africans, people with all the racial characteristics of africans but with a melanin content far inferior to "white" people. Also, how do you know that the Vulcans haven't specifically kept some racial groupings as well as the "generic homogenisation" that you are assuming? I don't know if your asertion is correct. Even if we assume for the moment that the climate is constant, this doesn't mean that ethnicity would be "bred out"; there would always be localizations. Don't forget that the Romulans are some sort of relation to the Vulcans, too. And there was a specific villain (played by the same actress who was the original security officer on TNG, also known for her playboy centrefold) who was blonde with light eyes, even though all Romulans are normally swarthy with dark hair and eyes. Why does it matter, anyway? Why does it upset your worldview so much? Some people think that all swedes have blonde hair and blue eyes, too.

Yeah, I can just see the "conversation keypad template": 7 : 8 : 9 Short annecdote : witicism : sarcastic remark 4 : 5 : 6 defensive sulk : criticism : baseless flattery & fawning 1 : 2 : 3 teenage girlie scream of salutation : admiration : curt admonismemt 0 : . distracting request : blatant lie with Alt-possibilities mapped on top! Nightmare.

Zackery.

I think Hssiss is singular and plural, kind of like deer. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> and sheep. What's the plural of moose -- meese?

That is a sexist remark -- what about hetrosexual women, they certainly don't want the love of their life to have a vagina. Anyway, many men(!?) are amongst those sufing the new sexual revolution: Thailand's largest export, ladyboys ! Riiiight. Like foreplay without sex. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That implies that Valve will not deliver a plot in good time ... because the sex is necessary, but not the most important aspect of the sexual intercourse. Think instead that the foreplay lasts all night, and the copulation begins in the morning (assuming you don't have to disapear early in the morning, of course).

I understand the idea, and it has merit. I am curious to confirm the "loot" reward, would it be a complete list of what the target character knows, or believes to be true (like a list of facts, e.g. a password)? It would be a little cumbersome for blanket conversation replacement; I would only see it as useful for major encounters (even with hotkeys it would be exceedingly annoying after a while, to the point of banality). I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand, however.

Ahh, I was obviously having too much fun overwelmed whilst burning the little suckers poor enemy combatants. I'll have to test your recommendations next play-through -- purely for scientific research purposes, you understand. Haven't heard it before then? Good (I hate telling old jokes that people have heard before: much better to tell old jokes that the person hasn't heard before). :D

Sure, but the XP / level is static after about late 20s/early 30s, so you don't have to wait until after Dantooine. Also a few thousand XP are neither here nor there when you can kill a bunch of Hssises -- Hssissi?

I like the sound of that. Miniatures always lacked something to my mind ... but Lego! What a great idea -- I never had problems envisioning lego to do anything.

Yeah, screaming for more guards to come and help! (Being truthful, the only qualms I have with that tactic is the dang thing runs out of napalm too quickly ... ) the world may never know.... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm sensing that may be a good thing. (Unless this is a cover for the fact that some people in the world already know ... then again, that may still be a good thing.) Reminds me of a joke (stop me if you've heard it): Sadist and Masochist meet through a newspaper ad (old joke: let's modernise with chat room), and decide to take their meeting to the next level. Going back to the Masochists place, who undresses and stands quivering with anticipation, naked before the sadist, who stands swinging the cat-o'nine-tails jauntily. "Whip me!" says the masochist, breathlessly. "No." says the sadist.

It means you enjoy the inflicting of pain more than the efficiency of a quick, quiet kill ... ... you don't have pretensions to being a Dominatrix by any chance, do you? "

That's true, because your Golems look like BoG standard garden varieties ... until combat!

And some little boys on this forum think that females don't have the killer instinct ... :D

Good for you, because you haven't so far. I hated the UT games, they were just multiplayer frag fests and the singleplayer game was boring. No, I think you're selling them short: the variety of interfaces the PC had with the environment was significant. I take your point that you didn't appreciate the story, and that's too bad. I thought it was clever: a story without a story. And I do still expect more of the narrative to be revealed over time. What is that old criticism? There are only about half-a-dozen plots? Well, basically the sequel is just re-using the main elements of the first game(s) and keeping the differences hidden -- for now. I think that's clever, if only -- as I said earlier -- because the anticipation of a pleasure is a greater pleasure than the pleasure itself.

The burning of fossil fuels has other (read: nastier) effects than greenhouse effect and those are not caused by CO2. Sulphur and nitrogen oxides are more chemically active than CO2 and are responsible for acid rain, for instance. Not to mention metal emissions. But none of that has anything to do with the greenhouse effect or the possible relation between human activity and global warming. Also, there was a thread here about this very topic a few weeks (months?) that provided some interesting calculations about the possible effects of CO2 emissions and global warming. I'd suggest you read it. As for the accuracy of such calculations, judge for yourself. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I be interested to read that thread: any term I can search for (or just "CO2"? ). Actually methane is pretty dangerous, being a factor of 21 times more significant, not to mention NO2 (310 times CO2), HFC-23 (a 11,700 GWP), and SF6 and something called trifluoromethyl sulfur pentafluoride which I don't know much about. HydroFluorocarbons are significant because the UK, for one, has a mountain of old refrigerators (that they are now paying large EU penalties for) that haven't been environmentally managed. And again, China is the largest user of CFCs. But, I am an optimist, I think we'll find some way to circumvent the dire climate issues (and then charge the developing world for the expense " ).

Well, you must have either solved the existing ones in a different, less lucractive manner, or missed some. Intentional. Actually, not all of the wandering monsters respawn in K1 on Dantooine, just one or two (the one near the cave, if I recall correctly).

Or, it could have been a convenient climax plot mechanism to build the narrative around. Kreia is the one true real Prophet.

Here are my stats using d100

The Half-Life ouvre has many and varied flourishes throughout its epic telling; I'm sure we will all find out the narrative in all its glorious detail in the fullness of time. Why did they spend 6 years to produce an "incomplete" game? Even if we, for a moment, take your definition of incomplete (which I don't agree with, but -- hey!), it would probably be because Valve wrote a new engine and then found out how difficult it was to build the new game using it. Remember it was released over a year after it was announced, so they obviously hit some major hurdles. (There was no tentacular thingie in the game, for example, and it appears on the front of the game package!) I am happy because: - what they did release was sizeable and error free - it was immersive and fun - it was long and varied enough to not be dull - it contained enough "in jokes" masquerading as story to keep the interest - there is more to come, soon.

The outcome is not known, but the state of polution and the globe is not. For a while, climate models (because there are so many variables) were unable to determine if the greenhouse gases would create a barrier that prevented solar radiation getting to the Earth, or keep it from escaping. I don't see any governments preparing to re-freeze the ant/artic and Greenland ice shelves if they melt. Just buy some land a few meters above sea level.