Everything posted by metadigital
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Smooth way of adding hit locations to d20 ?
Won't vorpal dice decapitate the roller?
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300
One of the historical inaccuracies in the film is that the Spartans weren't wearing armour. A lot of the one-liners are actually historical sayings: the Spartans called themselves Lacad
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Books
Persian Fire: The First World Empire Battle for the West (Tom Holland does an excellent job of compiling a narrative of the historical world under the first Persian Emperor, Cyrus the Great, through Darius and his son — grandson to Cyrus — crown Prince Xerxes, despite the dearth of reliable surviving information, together with more reliable (just) records of classic Greece.) The Myth of Sisyphus (Albert Camus discusses what he thinks is the central dilemma of a godless universe, namely: why not just give up and commit suicide, and get it all over with without all the fuss.) Both EXCELLENT.
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300
Only by people suffering from Pareidolia.
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300
I hadn't seen the film at the time I wrote what I wrote. Having now seen it, I can confidently say that there is NO WAY THIS IS A POLITICAL FILM. It just isn't. It's a (vaguely homo-erotic) muscle-bound men with swords (and spears) killing each other in an graphic-novel inspired arty-noir film. Seriously. It just uses standard film devices (cripple = bad character), not political diatribe (Leonidas = Bush). And there is NO WAY anyone in their right mind would equate Leonidas with Bush. As for the film, it managed to tell a story that didn't overtly break any historical fact (apart from some of the set-up pieces) ... they just omitted some of the more complex parts of the stories to tell a dumbed-down action adventure. (The historical fact is actually more interesting and stranger than the film, believe it or not.) Still, the details of the period and the politics aren't particularly conducive to a film ...
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NWN2 XP 1 announced!
Firstly, it's polite to include a copy of what is relevant in a link, so that the readers know what you are talking about and don't have to follow the link to read the topic. Like this: Secondly, this has already been discussed here.
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The Great England Escape
He's at a castle presently and not answering his calls.
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300
Because I didn't and will not watch those.
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300
I'm not sure why you are taking (or at least emphasizing) this interpretation; actually, the more relevant comparison (and one that has been made previously) is about the hubris of a superpower and the valiant sacrifice (for a principle) of a small group of independents. To quote Tom Holland's Persian Fire, which is the narrative historical analysis of the era (well, this is the marketing blurb on the back cover): About a hundred years later, at the end of the Peloponnesian Wars (with the Spartan hegemony against the Athenians), the Spartans borrowed money, equipment and men from a Persian satrap (in the modern Dardanelles, where the Athenians had a strategic base of operations for their food supplies from the Black Sea). It seems that the idea died with those martyrs ... As an aside, the Spartans were regarded as peculiar by the other Greek city-states not because they had slaves (everyone did), but because they had Greek slaves (the Helots were neighbours they forcefully indentured). That, and Spartan women were equally as free in society as the men (and no chores to do, so they were more administrators of the household). Fixed.
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Constitutional meritocracy?
After carefully considering all the party policies and assessing the management capabilities ... most people vote for the party that their parents voted for.
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Obsidian's third project
I cannot disagree.
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Pictures of your games...
... Like your PC!
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Fantasy Trappings
The acting wasn't nearly so bad as the script.
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What are you playing now?
I am playing as a girl on my first time through. "
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Things to do
Not yet, no. I've heard good things, though. Just about to finish Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, then I fancy a bit of historical exposition: Persian Fire (Tom Holland: not a classic, but some history is also on the wishlist).
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mobile phone battery woes
You could dial by writing out the number ...
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Terminator!
- Things to do
Oh, I also plan to read the classics. All of them. Including the Vulgate in latin and a bit of Homer in Greek.- MIT to offer its courses free online by year end
Me likey.- Business Management Course Help
You might get a better response if you targeted one of the developers via PM ...- Movies You Have Seen Lately
- Books
It's okay ... more a short walk through the History of Science, but if universities can teach history of art, then I think books like this are well overdue. I read a similarly excellent analysis on the subject called Timescale: an Atlas of the Fourth Dimension, but I think it's well and truly out of print now (I read it mid-80s). I didn't find too many errors in the text, just a couple in the first chapter(s) about the beginnings of the universe (lots has happened in the last few years in this area) and towards the end Bryson would have done well to read Deacon's The Symbolic Species to explain the expansion of homo sapiens' brain volume (above that of the superior neanderthals).- What are you playing now?
Playing Jade Empire I can say that Bioware are to game development what pedagogists are to teaching. The game is cleverly compartmentalized so that learning a new battle skill or defeating an EndBoss is logical and proportionally rewarding. I (think I) picked the plot in the first minute ... but that is not necessarily a criticism nor avoidable.- Fantasy Trappings
The third prequel had the fall of Anakin Skywalker; that was well known and well-publicized. - Things to do