Dantius

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S I was Slartyphobia once. Also, I didn't realize DOMICILE of A was a parody of HOUSE of S. HOUSE of S is a reference itself, so I'm afraid that DOMICILE of A sort of misses the point. Well, there's no way anyone here could have guessed that, since we didn't have an itemized list of reference possibilities, hint hint wink wink.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S My answer is: 3c/d/h. Ditto.

Originally Posted By: Kelandon My point was that cigarette smokers pollute public air with a foul odor. I don't need to do a study to know that; it's pretty obvious. Would you really need a study to know that most non-smokers find that cigarette smoke smells offensive? This means, at the very least, that cigarette smokers should not be allowed to impose their foul odors on others in a regular and predictable fashion (e.g. in closed-air restaurants). This is not overbearing nannying; this is protecting those who would otherwise be harmed. Cigarette smoke is rather disgusting, but bans on smoking and tobacco apply to all kinds of smoking- including pipe smoking, which I find to have a pleasing odor. So yes, I would say that "foul odor" is a personal feeling, and as such the State probably shouldn't legislate your personal opinions, no matter how strongly you hold them.

Originally Posted By: Trenton the dragon lord May I have to remind you that the closest thing to a gun in avernum is a bow? Crossbows, actually.

Originally Posted By: Sarachim Originally Posted By: Dantius Re both of you: The plural of anecdote is not data. Neither of you are doing your argument any favors by claiming personal experience for/against secondhand smoke as somehow authoritative or indicative that the other side is wrong. Statistical studies with solid methodology is how you would prove that, not blasé personal stories. The claim being argued over is "second-hand smoke is harmful to some people." "Some" is defined as "one or more." Even if Kel's anecdote were literally unique, it would still be sufficient to prove his case. That's funny, I was under the impression that the claim was "Second-hand smoke is harmful to enough people that the government should restrict smoking", which would make much more sense as a topic of discussion naturally evolvng from the prior comments made n the thread.

Originally Posted By: Micawber Yup, he was dazed, and that explains why he woke up immediately upon being attacked at the beginning of Geneforge 5. That's a pretty strong daze. He must have run afoul of one of DV's Agents at some point prior to the game.

Originally Posted By: Harehunter I grew up with two parents who smoked like chimneys. I served in the military at a time there was still a policy of "Smoke 'em if you've got 'em". I married a woman who smoked, I helped clean the tobacco grime in the house. I've worked in offices where more than half the people smoked (this was before laws were enacted that banned smoking in offices). I have never had any medical condition related to all that smoke. In a word, Yes I question the assertion of second hand smoke as a general rule. I can see that there are some circumstances where it may be a valid claim; aircraft cabins for example. But as a rule, where ventilation is adequate, the risk is greater that other pollutants such as H2S or O3 could be the cause. Originally Posted By: Kelandon This is where I think you're indisputably wrong. I don't smoke, and I'm extremely sensitive to cigarette smoke. If I'm stopped in traffic and someone is smoking in a car with closed windows several cars in front of me, I can smell it. If someone is smoking on the other side of the building from me, and I have the window open, I not only can smell it but have to close the window because it is so putrid, and I may have to leave my room for a few minutes for the smell to go away. People who smoke around me are probably negatively affecting my health — I find it hard to imagine that the stuff in cigarette smoke isn't harmful, but I haven't studied the statistics carefully — but they are definitely causing me harm. It would be far worse if smoking were allowed in restaurants, etc., as it used to be, since I would be (almost literally) forced out. Re both of you: The plural of anecdote is not data. Neither of you are doing your argument any favors by claiming personal experience for/against secondhand smoke as somehow authoritative or indicative that the other side is wrong. Statistical studies with solid methodology is how you would prove that, not blasé personal stories.

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba Originally Posted By: Cairo Jim I've got my map saved to my desktop if you want me to send it? No, you've posted your results and that's enough. (Arancaytar just thinks Dantius can magically update his image when he's not online.) Dikiyoba. I magically updated it with paint, because for whatever reason the UI for creating a new chart requires you to re-input every single prior datapoint, and Paint requires you to draw a circle and a text box.

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan But yeah, half the questions are "ehhh, it depends" and the other half are "well, duh". All those questions about multiculturalism as basically asking "Are you Hitler?" That said, the Compass still has a long ways to go before it's as blatant as this quiz. I purposely pick out the Hitler questions and take the "Yes, I am in fact Hitler" options on them in order to counterbalance the shift down the y axis that results from answering all the religious questions with "No, that's stupid". It averages out to a close approximation of my views in the end.

Originally Posted By: Micawber Originally Posted By: Superba the player was already fooled once with a party of psycho outsiders and the same trick wouldn't work twice. Ahem. Geneforge 1: Shaper apprentice encounters serviles with varying political views Geneforge 2: Shaper apprentice encounters serviles with varying political views Geneforge 3: Shaper apprentice encounters serviles with varying political views You forgot Geneforge 4: Servile with varying political views encounters Shaper apprentices.

Originally Posted By: Master1 Originally Posted By: Dantius Okay, fine, I retook it. [6.971, 1.55] for me (in polar coordinates, of course). Do you prefer cylindrical or spherical coordinates for your three-dimensional map? Spherical, since the "r" value for a 2-D plane could be interpreted as the level of political "extremism" (for lack of a better word), so since it's a useful metric it should be preserved into 3 dimensions as well- which cylindrical would not do. And on an unrelated note, what on earth is the "cheerful things" question supposed to measure? I don't understand what that has to do with political orientation at all...

We already had a topic very much like this. My answers still stand: Originally Posted By: Dantius Click to reveal.. (Loooong post)

Okay, fine, I retook it. [6.971, 1.55] for me (in polar coordinates, of course). I think that the best choice for a z-axis would be religion. I mean, most hardcore free-markets worship at Rand's feet, but there' probably a pretty huge gulf between her and her fans in that she was atheist and they are, for the most part, not. It would certainly bump my score up and to the right a bit, and give me the extra bonus of having an entire octant to myself (atheist, free-market, authoritarian). Speaking of having regions to myself, here's the unified plot of all Spiderweb members who have posted thus far. It's a bit messy, if only because apparently everyone here has virtually identical political ideals:

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Originally Posted By: Harehunter And I think that there are too many people put in prison for crimes that only affect themselves. I don't think it is right to try to regulate being stupid. What did you have in mind here? There's around a 90% chance that was in reference to drugs, or it certainly seemed so- the criminalization of drug possession with intent to use is arguably both the biggest and easiest to fix problem facing the criminal justice system.

I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of Hitler on the test. The last time I checked, I was one down, but I might be one down and to the left by now.

Originally Posted By: Trenton the dragon lord I would rather have ten people who are guilty to go free than one innocent person being put to death wrongly. It always annoys me when people voice this view. I mean, it's a noble sentiment, and more power to you if you can actually keep it as a personal principle. But in my experience, the people who wind up saying are the first ones to turn around and condemn someone who was exonerated by a jury of their peers because they want to- or rather because they magically "know" that the person is guilty. "Sure, it's better to have a guilty man free than a innocent one imprisoned, but isn't it obvious that OJ's guilty?" Or "It's clear that Casey Anthony committed the crime, she should be in jail!". Originally Posted By: Harehunter I would just like to see more done to rehabilitate those who are likely to be paroled or set free. Train them in a skill so that they have less reason to re-offend, and instead become a contributing member of our society. As for those who are in for longer terms, they should be able to do something to contribute to their upkeep. Most people go to work to pay for their own food, clothes and shelter. Most people pay taxes to provide services shared by the community, state and nation. I'mm all for this, but it would never work. The problem with this is that as soon as you tell people what it would actually entail they'd freak out. Take sex offenders. They show among the lowest recidivism rate of any convicts, yet are the most heavily punished even after their conviction- but the split second you talk about maybe not publicly making all their information available and forcing them to "register" (seriously, why not just make them wear patches on their jacket if you're going that far), making it almost impossible for them to work or be integrated members of society, people look at you like you're one. It's the same with drug legalization- I've never touched and never will touch an illegal drug in my life, but the second I say that maybe imprisoning thousands of people a year for an ounce of pot is a waste of money and effort, people act like you lit up a joint and offered it to their kids. It's like they're unable to divorce "disagreeing with a law" and "disobeying a law". This is probably just a side-effect of democracy. A politician being "tough on crime" gets an electoral boost (cough Perry cough), but someone who suggest lenient sentences for sex offenders based off of logic and historical data and trends is totally unelectable because the attack ads literally write themselves. It's a shame that things are that way, but I don't think they'll be changed any time soon

I could have sworn this discusion was posted in the regular Geneforge forums not too long ago. Letme check... Yeah, it totally was. Here's what I said: Originally Posted By: Dantius Click to reveal.. It mainly stems from text in the game scripts that doesn't appear in the game itself about how the PC was found wandering around in the ruins near Drypeak, where G2 took place. Obviously, this person was clearly powerful enough to interest Rawal enough to have him capture, subdue, and transport said person to the Whitespires. Arguments against the PC being from G3 or G4 are much stronger- both Alwan and Greta removed ANY mention of the G3 PC from their journals, strongly indicating that said person was an embarrassment to both sides- so either a Trakovite or somebody who opted for the KILL EVERYTHING EVER solution, like Monarch. Plus, G3 canonically ended in favor of the rebels, so clearly said PC was pretty hopped-up on canisters like Monarch was, and in G5 IIRC Litalia states that she was to her knowledge the only person who managed to reverse the effects of the canisters, and she would DEFINITELY know if the G3 PC was able to do so. So the only remaining option is that the G3 PC went stir-crazy and became Monarch, since it fits all available evidence. Now, Rawal is crazy and power-hungry, but he's not stupid. He knows damn well that even the combined resources of the most powerful Shaper and Rebel generals were only able to fight Monarch to a standstill, so he'd be incredibly foolish to try and recruit him, since there's no guarantee Rawal would be strong enough to contain him without relying on the control tool- and he'd have to know that Monarch was a intelligent enough researcher that's he be able to remove the tool at some point or other. In that light, he'd never put the PC in a position where he'd be far enough away long enough to remove it- aka he wouldn't leave the Whitespires. This also makes sense because Monarch's greatest strength would be creating hordes of creations to serve him- so he'd be more valuable as a last line of defense than as a far-reaching covert agent of Rawal. Similar arguments also forbid the G5 PC being the G4 PC. Canonically, the G4 PC releases, or at least allows the release, of the Unbound, kills Miranda, and grievously wounds Alwan. This is the same Alwan, I'd remind you, that you personally meet later in the game. If you were the G4 PC, he'd recognize you, and either a) kill you, or imprison you and probably torture you. Rawal would again, probably know this, and he's not about to send you into the lions den to get a book if he knows that Alwan exposing you for who you are could cost Rawal his council seat and possibly life. However, the G2 PC would be totally unknown, not hopped up on canister, and perfectly sane albeit very powerful. If you subtract their recollection of events from G2, they'd make an ideal field agent, having already proved their competence before, and by already being loyalist to the Shaper cause. Furthermore, anyone who could recognize them is either dead or in one of the two provinces that conveniently can't be accessed in the center of Shaper power. There are powerful IC reasons for Rawal to use you, no compelling counter-evidence, no legitimate alternatives, and some decently hefty circumstantial evidence to boot, making the fact that G2 PC = G5 PC pretty obvious.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S What was so triumphant about the 90's, Alorael? Economic boom propelled by massive growths in the blue dress industry the Internet, communications, and computing? Increased globalization? End of the Cold War?

Originally Posted By: Lilith is a troy davis equal to 1.09714 avoirdupois davises No, but it is equal to 31.1034768 Louis XVI's.

Originally Posted By: Duck in a Top Hat Originally Posted By: Flame Fiend Even if he was guilty, prison would have been better than the death penalty because he could get out if they find out he was innocent. I agree with this. IMHO, no one should ever be executed unless it was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were guilty and that they could never change. And even then, it should be used sparingly if not at all. It's also possible to argue that you can execute persons whose incarceration would directly cause deaths, such as Osama bin Laden, even if you only have a preponderance of evidence instead of beyond a shadow of doubt.

Originally Posted By: Tyranicus The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal. He will be executed. There is no stopping it now. Times like this make me utterly ashamed to be an American. No, not really. Doing things like pointlessly invading a Middle Eastern country because you fell like it, causing hundreds of thousand of deaths, destabilizing the region, creating terrorist threats to the US and US citizens abroad, instantly expending the quite substantial post-9/11 goodwill towards America, and running up a bill in the trillions of dollars makes me utterly ashamed to be America. Wrongly executing one person, or even wrongly executing ten thousand people, doesn't even come close to that.

Originally Posted By: Flame Fiend So there we go. Exile wins! n=7 is hardly an appropriate sample size for a poll o a forum with thousands of registered members.

A G1 Geneforge user could steamroll just about any opposition in their path, no contest. Plus, it's made quite explicit that Avernum/Exile is a magic-poor area, without that many magic or enchanted items, whereas Geneforge has magic all over the place in a vast variety of forms and functions, making it was more tactically complex and more useful in combat.

Eh, use of the death penalty is perfectly justified and acceptable if it's clear beyond the shadow of doubt that the person was guilty, which was clearly not the case with Davis. My beef with the case is pretty much the manner of the evidence that lead to the conviction. IIRC Davis was convicted on eyewitness testimony, which any psychologist would tell you is horribly inaccurate, since people can easily convince themselves they've seen something that didn't happen, but is still widely accepted as authoritative by juries. So you wind up with people convicting on flawed testimonies that are taken as fact by juries. Not a good situations.

I just played Jade Empire, and it's pretty much one of the top 3 games in the Bioware cannon as far as I'm concerned. If you can wait, TES V: Skyrim comes out in 52 days, and it's certainly one of the biggest franchises in the RPG genre. I can't think of many others that weren't covered in the previous thread already, though I'm sure I'll think of one as soon as I hit the Submit button.