Erebus the Black

I have a feeling this discussion reoccurs regularly every 3-4 months. How do you know that the three factions don't represent for example the hindu-budha-tao(if I'm not wrong that's Confucianism) triangle? Or the seal- polar bear -penguin triangle ? (Oh I'm so very tired )

Originally Posted By: Harehunter Originally Posted By: waterplant Originally Posted By: Lilith it's a word for librarians named Bert yay - free books! You know I'm going to get blamed for this. My thought exactly

Originally Posted By: Born and Bed ... This discussion is becoming increasingly un-kiddy safe, so I've decided to stop replying. To each his own opinion. Originally Posted By: B.J.Earles However, if you're going to make the argument that voter fraud is a false issue I'm going to have to ask you to back that up. I did a little bit of digging (and I do mean little; it's 1:40 in the morning over here) and found a very interesting article that argues the opposite (note: the title of that article is not meant to be a be a slight against anyone, so please do not take it as such)(note2: I did find that article to be biased, but still found the argument to be valid). An interesting little factoid I found through that article is that in most states you don't even need to be a citizen of the United States of America to register to vote. I don't know about the US, but where I'm from there was a big scandal when it was discovered that a political party sent people to vote on behalf of a few thousands of the deceased.

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith What health benefits does alcohol provide in moderation? Originally Posted By: wiki A 23-year prospective study of 12,000 male British physicians aged 48–78, found that overall mortality was significantly lower in the group consuming less than 2 "units" (British unit = 8 g) per day than in the non-alcohol-drinking group. Greater than 2 units per day was associated with an increased risk of mortality. However there is also a slightly increased/elevated risk of cancer because alcohol is one step way from being a radical, but from what I could find from my shallow search seems to form mainly from abuse and not from moderation. Also fair disclosure: I don't usually drink alcohol, I just dislike the taste of all beverages, but given the way my life is going I might as well start.

Originally Posted By: waterplant The argument, as it appears to me, is whether a government should have jurisdiction over how people conduct their private lives - within reasonable parameters. I'm not sure how introducing thousands of young pot smokers into the criminal justice system every year is of benefit to anybody. The war isn't on drugs but, unfortunately, on drug users. There is no magic solution here, unfortunately the first rule of wizards applies here with force major. If people after being shown what addictive drugs can do to a person still insist on trying out for (and on) themselves, nothing short of killing them will stop them from trying. (and of course killing them will be counterproductive). And of course there is the part where people are coerced into becoming an addict (and I don't mean cajoled I mean coerced).

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Having a holiday for voting day is a great idea, actually. I bet that would increase voter turnout tremendously without making anyone feel forced to do anything. We have those here. They also decided to stop counting white ballots because so many people used them, so people just stopped coming. White (blank) ballots should count for something, when over 50% of the votes are white ballots there should be a mandatory chairman seat change across all parties.

The reason alcoholic drinks have such a fore over marijuana in all cultures is because alcohol is a strong anti-septic while marijuana is a mild anesthetic. From antiquity up to the industrial age drinking water from any source was very likely to get you terminally ill (of course you could boil them, but who would want to keep a boiling vat of water for 12 hours on and there was no ice so you had to wait until it cooled down after you pour it, which if your'e not trying to drink tea or coffee isn't very handy) so drinking any type of alcohol, from mead (Norse if you believe The Settlers) to sake (Japanese) (even Arabs had their own forms of alcohol before Islam set in), was the best way to keep yourself saturated and healthy (and pseudo-warm due to the alcohol's vein expanding effect). That alcohol has extremely adverse effects is well known, IIRC in 15th century Britain there was a great christian upheaval over a case where a mother tried to sell her baby in order to be able to buy another bottle of gin or rum, which caused many a priest to call it things like the devil's drink and yet it persevered because it had such an important role (even though western medicine took a wrong turn for a time and decided boiling pig fat was a great anti-septic, when Napoleon's chief medical officer admitted his mistake he was promptly executed ). Another thing is IIRC it's not the nicotine which causes the cancer but rather the tar put in by the tobacco manufacturers to thicken the something or the other of the cigarette, so according to that logic if you make joints legal you'll find very soon that they also induce cancer. Why are cigarettes legal? One word Lobbyists! There is a general movement of phasing cigarettes out of the law by different health associations but they just don't stand a chance without public support. (Just like in Britain they were able to pass a law that prohibits junk food companies from advertising their wares during shows or periods of time that are known to be designated for kids which succeeded because of enough public awareness). The bottom line is alcohol in moderation is healthy, pot in moderation not so much (it just dulls the pain) and cigarettes in moderation not at all but they don't distort people's perception and don't set them out on a murderous rampage to find the next fix. Lets not forget chocolate, white sugar and caffeine are also considered addictive. (Now I'm also making your point for you )

Oops, wrong forum again, I thought this was the A1-3 forum.

What about razordisks in the Vhanatai lands?

Add in that legal purchase will only be allowed through registration that will be accompanied by a presentation trying to dissuade you from starting and if accepted will be accompanied by a social stigma akin to mental illness (but of course without the same legal premise that mental incapacity makes a person unaccountable for his actions) or an ex-con. And again there will be no import outside of medicine, only the narcotices that will be seized from illegal distributors will be given out (which at the moment I believe is several megatons). Import will be illegal, if you decide to be an addict you should know there might be a time when your addiction will not be satisfied. Problem is what would you do with all the crack addicts aching for another fix to the point they are willing to kill for it when the stockpiles run out?

I for one am glad Sadam was routed. As for the war on drugs, it truly is folly. If the US truly wanted to stop drugs from being brought state side they would have gone with a simple break the market technique of selling drugs so cheap it would no longer be worth wile to import it. For example 1Kg of heroin must be sold for 1 dollar (and 10 grams for 1 cent) or all piles will be confiscated with an automatic search warrant for the dealer's quarters for the search and patriotization of any illegal substance found (if for example they find a bloody knife they can't seize it or enter it into evidence for a murder trial) and a 5 year sentence. Any person not licensed to redistribute the drug caught with an X amount of drugs which today comes with the mark of "intent to sell" will be punishable. Build distribution centers for the substances captured (distributed after the trial) so users would rather go to the government than to the dealers. This will create a harmonic state where dealers constantly try to restart their business only to find out the government confiscated all their valuables and is now selling it dirt cheap. (Drug addicts will still have no rights for any claim for legal import as what they are doing is still viewed by the majority of the populace as wrong or immoral). Of course they will never dream of doing anything remotely like this because many of the substances that are considered "illegal" are in fact used by medical companies in the manufacturing of "legal" drugs. Sure this sounds harsh and might bring with it its own level of corruption but it will severely reduce the profitability of drugs and the number of drug plant growers. Simple legalization will just cause the States to look like 18th century China (re opium wars). There has to be a clause making trade unprofitable which bypasses people's nack for corruption.

@Diki: congrats on the new avatar, it reminds of a game I used to play (can't remember which though)

This might have been asked here before and I missed it, but is it possible for the democrats to decide that they are fed up with Obama as president and run someone else instead of him to the president office turning him (Obama) into the third party candidate if he still insists on running?

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba Originally Posted By: Randomizer If you can't [take] the pun, stay out of the forum. Are you trying to compete with Harehunter for the rank of worst comedian? Because if you are, that certainly puts you in the running. Dikiyoba's greatest technological fear is that Dikiyoba will grow old and be completely unable to handle the newfangled technology of the future. Of course, Dikiyoba's biggest fear is that Dikiyoba won't live long enough to become old, so being befuddled by technology doesn't seem too bad in comparison. The full onset of technophobia comes as age brings your eyesight to a level where no amount of prescription glasses can help you read small letterings without a headache or a lot of squinting.

On nanobots: we are still a long way away from nanobots, for one let alone making a media several molecules large to create a programmable memory, we can't even keep them going (i.e. a sustainable nano fusion power core). It is more sensible to talk about autonomous micro-bots at our present time as they have existed in nature for millions of years with a single program: survive. They are bacteria. On AI: has anyone seen the special about the US army robotics development and the dilemma about when is it OK for a robot to kill a biologic machine (i.e. anything from bacteria via plant and animal up to human) (robots make decisions faster than men, so having them await confirmation for each kill reduces their effectiveness, at least that's what the military top brass thinks)

Originally Posted By: Geezer Unless I hear further I believe your closing statement about Jeff is correct and will try "returntostart" just for the heck of it. Yeah, if that is true then the only way to prevent them from being taken away is messing with the scripts and as you don't want to do that, you'll just have to game on without them. (no sarcasm or snideness meant) Don't be disheartened the game is still good even without them. You still have the pit of abominations and the lair of bel-shamaroth to go through (or is it the other way around? or are they both pits?)

Originally Posted By: Death Knight I don't ... roleplaying wise. Well, I stand corrected. Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S ... Originally Posted By: Othar Trygvassen: Gentleman ... Serves me right for trying to be a mitigator. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.

Originally Posted By: Geezer Using the game map that you provided, Harkin's Landing should indeed be safe being 7 zones to the right, but it wasn't! I got there empty handed...What am I doing wrong? I go through the tests with an eye to collecting the three articles and once I've got them, head back to the one below the very first test. It's the one with the land mines on the way to the centre, gets me every time! Now, when I get there I'm wearing all 3 articles and through the tests I've made use of the cheats "ouchouchouch" and "leetbuffz' to be able to survive that far. Comments? Wait, What? No. The carrying character must be dead before you cross the glowing runes at the end of the test, and keep him dead until you leave the cats and the 8 zones around them. p.s. Randomizer, didn't jeff add something in the last updates to take the items away whenever they are dropped or unequipped (without relation to where you are)?

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S *blinks* An extra feature makes it unplayable? Can't you just ignore battle disciplines entirely, then? I mean, I get that we all have our pet peeves, but you can literally just never press the battle disciplines button and this one will be irrelevant. I'm not taking sides here ,BUT, what you seem to be missing from his point is that monsters also use battle disciplines, so just ignoring them on the player's end doesn't solve the playability problem from his point of view. For me it's the ritual of the beast which really toughens the game (especially for smaller groups).

Or you can destroy the script file for that zone after you exit it with the weapons so you never have to worry about it until the next game. (and by destroy I mean move the file to another directory)

Originally Posted By: Randomizer still have their VCRs blinking 12:00. I still have my VCR (and my stereo) blinking on 12:00 because it resets every time there's a blackout, and there are a lot of blackouts.

Originally Posted By: Randomizer God taking the easy way out in punishing humanity. Everything I currently learn comes from the comic pages. wow, this thing has its origins in february 1992, have you really been following this long?

Is anybody taking the comedy central nomination seriously? Originally Posted By: Death Knight It's a very risky election and i dont know if i will even vote at all. You can always vote for Herman Caine *cough*Colbert*cough*. Wink wink nod nod

I bet all the pron sites are also joining in, that should really make a dent

Originally Posted By: Yuna Corne But I really hope Google/Youtube joins that blackout. It will effectively shut down the entire internet. The only way that will work is if Bing, AOL, Yahoo and whatever search engine apple runs on its iPhone join them, otherwise Google will just lose a portion of its market share and income.