You missed off Meet the Feebles (imo). That's got to be one of the most fucked up films I've ever seen and certainly the only one in which a walrus and a rat driving a Fifties mobster car burst out of the anus of a giant whale (or something). There was also a film called Beautiful Creatures starring a young Kate Winslet which wasn't too bad.
It was Beautiful Creatures' mix of really heavy personal/emotional issues combined with an imaginary land, that convinced me that Peter Jackson was the right person to do LotR. And in many ways he was. The attention to detail was staggering, and there are some really powerful scenes in there. But the flow of the movies wasn't right, too much attention to big action scenes, and too many unnecessary changes to the story. But still, many really good, really powerful scenes. Some bits sucked, some bits were awesome.
From where I'm sitting (far away in Europe, I admit), the difference between Democrats and Republicans is mainly that, while they're both authoritarian and repressive, they disagree on the issues on which they should be authoritarian and repressive. Democrat ideals do seem slightly more in line with the way things are usually done in many European countries, but they really suck at how to implement those ideas.
Mind you, I think many European countries are also way too authoritarian and restrictive. But I'm a flaming left-wing libertarian.
It's only what bad unions do. Good unions (and there are many of those in the better organised countries in the world) represent their members like they're supposed to (and may even help non-members while they're at it) without forcing anyone to join. They're open to all, but you're free to join a different union or not join a union at all.
compared to u.s., europe does indeed live in an utopia.
Not really. I live in Europe, and while I wouldn't want to visit the US because of their recent draconian limitations to civil rights, things have been going seriously downhill over here too.
Maybe I'll move to Sweden some day. They seem to be taking civil rights and freedom pretty seriously over there.
I don't think it's entirely the same game. The word "pod" existed long before the iPod did. But I think the word "droid" was actually invented by George Lucas, so it makes perhaps slightly more sense that he owns it and people need a license if they want to name their products "Droid".
Of course if "droid" was an existing dictionary word before Star Wars was made, LucasFilm wouldn't have a leg to stand on, and anyone could name their products Droid. At least as long as nobody else in the same market was already using that name.
Some rapiers were *very* stylized (the ridiculous blade lengths that became popular among courtiers, for example).
While it's true that the popularity of rapiers was more a matter of fashion than effectiveness, the ridiculous length did have a practical reason. The rapier was a completely offensive weapon, which meant it's all about being the first to make an effective attack. A long sword meant more reach, giving you an advantage.
Later, the rapier got replaced by the much shorter and much more defensive smallsword.
How do you want the balance to be? For a well-balanced sword, the center of gravity is near the cross guard. It has to be, if you want to swing it around easily. And swords are just not intended for chopping through armour. When people started wearing more and more armour, knights started using axes, maces and warhammers, and foot soldiers started using halberds and various other polearms.
Personally I don't see what's wrong with the balance of Sir Terry's sword (as if you could tell what the balance is like just from looking at it). It's certainly a bit of an odd design, and probably not the most effective sword ever, but it definitely counts as sword. It even looks properly double edged (which is what used to distinguish swords from long knives and sabres in medieval Europe, though not in other parts of the world).
Amsterdam's layout is the result of two things: trade and the swamp. We didn't need city walls because armies couldn't cross the swamp anyway. But we needed lots of canals to ferry goods between warehouses and the sea port, and then more canals and even more, moving the port around a couple of times, and all of this around the curvy Amstel river and in the middle of a swamp where some parts need more drainage than others. Later parts of the city follow the lines of roads that went through the swamp.
There's just no way you're ever going to get anything gridlike out of a situation like that. We only have grid structures in the very newest parts of the city, and more gridlike they are, the more boring they are. Irregularity is fun.
A camera is not the same as seeing it with your own eyes. I would love larger windows in planes. A completely transparent hull might be a bit too much, though.
While that was definitely questionable, it's so much not what the real problem is with that article.
He complains about something, but completely fails to explain what the problem is. Why is it impossible to play for a leftie? What does a "left-handed" switch on the DSi usually do? I'm left-handed, and have never had a problem playing games and never needed to switch anything. I don't have a DSi, so I'd love to know why this is such a crippling issue on the DSi. But TFA completely fails to explain what the fucking problem is. He just whines.
If I played this game, liked it, and thought the DLC added anything of value, I'd happily pay $6. I like to support people who do stuff that I like. Besides, I clearly fall into the category that can afford $6, and I waste more than that on the silliest trivialities.
But what about the innocence of the original owner? Losing your home is really not funny, even if you get money with which you could buy a new one. (Well, apparently this guy had at least two houses, so it's not quite as bad for him, but the principle still holds.)
Having just read that it was "investment property", the guy was apparently a real estate investor, so he didn't lose his own home and I'm not feeling quite as sorry for him anymore. Still, better checks to prevent this kind of thing would be nice.
It's a funny idea, but I suspect it's pretty hard to customize the search for every kind of believer. Some Christians have far more extreme standards than others in what they consider appropriate, for example. And they have very different ideas on what's "consistent with the bible". I notice that this search engine only returns results from icr.org, cristiananswers.net, gotquestions.org and apologeticspress.org. Might be useful in some circumstances, I guess, but I think most Christians will just use Google for their regular search needs.
Slashdot Mirror
It was Beautiful Creatures'
It's called "Heavenly Creatures", of course.
You missed off Meet the Feebles (imo). That's got to be one of the most fucked up films I've ever seen and certainly the only one in which a walrus and a rat driving a Fifties mobster car burst out of the anus of a giant whale (or something). There was also a film called Beautiful Creatures starring a young Kate Winslet which wasn't too bad.
It was Beautiful Creatures' mix of really heavy personal/emotional issues combined with an imaginary land, that convinced me that Peter Jackson was the right person to do LotR. And in many ways he was. The attention to detail was staggering, and there are some really powerful scenes in there. But the flow of the movies wasn't right, too much attention to big action scenes, and too many unnecessary changes to the story. But still, many really good, really powerful scenes. Some bits sucked, some bits were awesome.
From where I'm sitting (far away in Europe, I admit), the difference between Democrats and Republicans is mainly that, while they're both authoritarian and repressive, they disagree on the issues on which they should be authoritarian and repressive. Democrat ideals do seem slightly more in line with the way things are usually done in many European countries, but they really suck at how to implement those ideas.
Mind you, I think many European countries are also way too authoritarian and restrictive. But I'm a flaming left-wing libertarian.
That's what unions do....
It's only what bad unions do. Good unions (and there are many of those in the better organised countries in the world) represent their members like they're supposed to (and may even help non-members while they're at it) without forcing anyone to join. They're open to all, but you're free to join a different union or not join a union at all.
compared to u.s., europe does indeed live in an utopia.
Not really. I live in Europe, and while I wouldn't want to visit the US because of their recent draconian limitations to civil rights, things have been going seriously downhill over here too.
Maybe I'll move to Sweden some day. They seem to be taking civil rights and freedom pretty seriously over there.
I don't think it's entirely the same game. The word "pod" existed long before the iPod did. But I think the word "droid" was actually invented by George Lucas, so it makes perhaps slightly more sense that he owns it and people need a license if they want to name their products "Droid".
Of course if "droid" was an existing dictionary word before Star Wars was made, LucasFilm wouldn't have a leg to stand on, and anyone could name their products Droid. At least as long as nobody else in the same market was already using that name.
SMAC was great, but I think I still love Civ2 more. Or do I? Hm... SMAC was really great in some ways.
Has anyone ever invented a polearm that goes boom? Then you'd have all 5 functions in a single weapon.
Some rapiers were *very* stylized (the ridiculous blade lengths that became popular among courtiers, for example).
While it's true that the popularity of rapiers was more a matter of fashion than effectiveness, the ridiculous length did have a practical reason. The rapier was a completely offensive weapon, which meant it's all about being the first to make an effective attack. A long sword meant more reach, giving you an advantage.
Later, the rapier got replaced by the much shorter and much more defensive smallsword.
You live in a windowless apartment?
I'll give you a hint. "Does this dress make me look fat?"
The only safe prediction is that you WILL give a wrong answer. Which wrong answer, I can't predict.
I figured out the correct answer: "It's not the dress."
Wouldn't the more obvious response to leaning forward be to enlarge the part of the screen you're looking at? That could be quite useful.
How do you want the balance to be? For a well-balanced sword, the center of gravity is near the cross guard. It has to be, if you want to swing it around easily. And swords are just not intended for chopping through armour. When people started wearing more and more armour, knights started using axes, maces and warhammers, and foot soldiers started using halberds and various other polearms.
Personally I don't see what's wrong with the balance of Sir Terry's sword (as if you could tell what the balance is like just from looking at it). It's certainly a bit of an odd design, and probably not the most effective sword ever, but it definitely counts as sword. It even looks properly double edged (which is what used to distinguish swords from long knives and sabres in medieval Europe, though not in other parts of the world).
-1 is a bit harsh, but he's more wrong than informative.
Amsterdam's layout is the result of two things: trade and the swamp. We didn't need city walls because armies couldn't cross the swamp anyway. But we needed lots of canals to ferry goods between warehouses and the sea port, and then more canals and even more, moving the port around a couple of times, and all of this around the curvy Amstel river and in the middle of a swamp where some parts need more drainage than others. Later parts of the city follow the lines of roads that went through the swamp.
There's just no way you're ever going to get anything gridlike out of a situation like that. We only have grid structures in the very newest parts of the city, and more gridlike they are, the more boring they are. Irregularity is fun.
A camera is not the same as seeing it with your own eyes. I would love larger windows in planes. A completely transparent hull might be a bit too much, though.
While that was definitely questionable, it's so much not what the real problem is with that article.
He complains about something, but completely fails to explain what the problem is. Why is it impossible to play for a leftie? What does a "left-handed" switch on the DSi usually do? I'm left-handed, and have never had a problem playing games and never needed to switch anything. I don't have a DSi, so I'd love to know why this is such a crippling issue on the DSi. But TFA completely fails to explain what the fucking problem is. He just whines.
Having flat feet is no longer the impediment it once was. Being bad at math is now more of a hindrance than it used to be.
Is it? I was under the impression that people who are good at math tend to have a harder time reproducing than people who are bad at it.
(Everything else you said was spot on, though.)
Their IMAP works fine for me. I hate webmail, so I rarely use gmail's web interface.
Exactly. Unencrypted email is just shouting something into a crowded party and hoping only the person you're addressing listens.
A DVD is a tangible good, no different than a book.
But DRM doesn't prevent anyone from shoplifting DVDs.
If I played this game, liked it, and thought the DLC added anything of value, I'd happily pay $6. I like to support people who do stuff that I like. Besides, I clearly fall into the category that can afford $6, and I waste more than that on the silliest trivialities.
But what about the innocence of the original owner? Losing your home is really not funny, even if you get money with which you could buy a new one. (Well, apparently this guy had at least two houses, so it's not quite as bad for him, but the principle still holds.)
Having just read that it was "investment property", the guy was apparently a real estate investor, so he didn't lose his own home and I'm not feeling quite as sorry for him anymore. Still, better checks to prevent this kind of thing would be nice.
It's a funny idea, but I suspect it's pretty hard to customize the search for every kind of believer. Some Christians have far more extreme standards than others in what they consider appropriate, for example. And they have very different ideas on what's "consistent with the bible". I notice that this search engine only returns results from icr.org, cristiananswers.net, gotquestions.org and apologeticspress.org. Might be useful in some circumstances, I guess, but I think most Christians will just use Google for their regular search needs.
Of course, if you go so far as to "do Italian", the only way to counter the general gayness is if the dish involves raw beef (carpaccio),
Good gods man, what are you doing? Don't call it carpaccio! Raw beef sounds far more masculine.