Hello and welcome to the Ballad of Shame and Wasted Lives, the regular hangout for the Best-Looking Bunch of Geeks on the InternetTM.
This board has never had a set topic. Frequent subjects of discussion include video games (both PC and console), movies, video games, fanfiction, video game fanfiction, television shows, video games, funny websites, video games, original fiction, the WWWF Grudge Match, improvisational fanfiction, your mom, pro wrestling, politics, music, hockey, current events, video games about your mom, and so very much more.
servbot #132
discourages the use
of flash photography
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we tend to converse here in casual, unmodified English with occasional forays into volleys of inventive profanity. Deliberate misuse of the English language, unironic l33tspeak, or morons who can't be bothered to look at what they're typing will be, at best, mocked. As a general rule, if what you've just written would result in your death at the hands of your high school English teacher, it is unacceptable here.
one online quiz per person per week. Please. If the only reason you come here is to post quizzes, then get a Livejournal.
get off Kenma's damn grass.
evil twins, sibling masquerades, and multiple personalities are strictly forbidden.
almost against our better judgement, we maintain an IRC channel. Connect to irc.esper.net and join #octagonrumble.
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chibi-gief
has a posse
ADMINS: Wanderer, Nere, Racewing, Arlieth, AoD, Mysterious Stealth Admin X WELCOME WAGON: Racewing
SODOMITE: Darkheart
HERO OF THE PEOPLE: Nere
AMERICA'S FAVORITE LESBIAN: Nash
I expect him to give me a hard time about my age whenever my birthday comes around too. Its only fair, considering that neither Wanderer nor I are younguns anymore. Besides, I could've been a downer and congratulated him on being another year closer to death, but that's no fun. ^_^
But, honestly, you don't need to know what the guy is saying to laugh at him jumping around like an idiot in one of the videos, wearing make-up and an obvious skull-cap which his hair is poking out from under.
The eBay sale can be stopped, I'm sure. But reading the book? In *the privacy of one's home?* Even better, how good is the Googling and notice-serving skills of Ms. Rowling's legal crew to stop dissemination of content? They likely can't serve anyone with notice in the time it takes for the issue to become moot (read: by 12:01 A.M. Saturday). They may hit someone with plagiarism after the fact, but proper reviewing beforehand leaves them little, if no, standing on that front.
In other news, I'll be working that night, and will be interested to see how many guests we draw at my 24-hour retail/grocery store for our book release party. We're not a bookstore, but everybody knows we're open anyway.
While this injunction is unenforcable unless someone tries to spoil plot details or sell the book before the deadline, this seems to give publishers even more control over products after they are sold.
At least legally, this ruling sets precdent in Canada for publishers being able to dictate when individuals are allowed to read their books. Unfortunately, this is typical of the numerous overreaching copyright laws being enacted worldwide.
"Oh snap! Someone's reading a book before everyone else! SEND IN RAINBOW SIX
by Schwere Viper
Because we all know that the security of the nation depends on everyone reading a children's book after the publisher says they can! If everyone started reading books whenever they were ready, there'd be GLOBAL CHAOS AND OUTRAGE!
A while ago, there was a case where Boeing (a defense company) accidentally sent details of its new in-development aircraft to Lockheed-Martin (a competitor). It contained blueprints and plans on the aircraft, as well as planned marketing/development costs, planned release dates, and so on.
This information was not intended to be released to Lockheed-Martin. What are Lockheed-Martin's rights concerning this information? Can they read it? If so, why so? If not, why not?
I was on the Boeing team when I was at Space Camp, and the Lockheed-Martin team always harassed us for being so cheap, so this is just a case of bullying. Now only if they'd give my hat back, and my childhood sheen of ignorance.
Now the British know what we went through on 9/11.
No.
They've known for far longer than we. They endured the Blitz in WWII. Do you not think that nightly bombings by the Germans were an attack of Terror? They've endured the depredations of the Irish Republican Army. No, on 9/11, WE finally knew what the British have been through. Still, my deepest condolences go out to any Londoners lurking on the ballad. I hope that you have not suffered due to this tragedy.
It is my sincerest hope that those who are still lukewarm about fighting Terror in the U.K. will realize that the enemy will not be cajoled, placated, or appeased. The only way to effectively deal with them is to defeat them.
Some people are going to reiterate the notion that an enemy willing to die cannot be defeated. This is untrue. We Americans have defeated such a foe within living, if distant, memory. You defeat such an enemy by making it perfectly, abundantly, and even redundantly clear that you are perfectly willing to kill Every. Last. One. of your foes in order to achieve victory. Once your enemy understands this, you only have to prove that you can kill a lot more efficiently than he can in order to secure victory.
It still amazes me that the way is not clear for many in our societies.
This is one of those situations where you're so full of shit that you squeak going into a turn, and I don't have to be the one you're speaking to in order to point it out.
Your clever plan here will do nothing but create a mountain of corpses. Trying to kill all the terrorists--to wage an unlimited war against an invisible opponent, who's prone to hiding inside civilian targets--does nothing but make more terrorists. That would appear to be the lesson that this is teaching.
I'm not advising appeasement, because these are not people who can be appeased, but I am in favor of a more rational approach than "kill them until they get the message." When you're talking about people who consider death a blessing, as long as they died while killing Americans, they will not get the message you want them to. You could kill until Arabia turns red. It wouldn't do any good. It wouldn't teach, it wouldn't inform, and it sure as hell wouldn't stop anything. All you're doing is perpetuating a vicious cycle.
I can't even pretend that I know what to do, either. I don't. You can't pursue peace treaties, you can't attack the movement's leadership, and you sure as hell can't simply declare defeat and pull out, because that'll embolden the enemies in question. The only thing to do at this point may be to attempt to turn things around from a PR perspective, so future generations of Arabs see the West as an ally and friend rather than the place where explosions come from, but it's probably too late for even that.
All I know is that "kill them until they learn a lesson" is the stupidest fucking plan I've ever heard in my life, and whether you were talking to me or not, I had to say something. I know you're more rational than this, but something about military action apparently makes your brain shut off.
That your previous comment was out of line. Since you've already called me a ghoul, is there anything else you'd like to try? How about Godwinning this thread? That'd be really productive.
You think that was bad...then this is going to be...
by TMP
Surprisingly against my character.
I think you're both right. The United States and it's allies need to fight a war on two seperate fronts and seperate them with the biggest swatch possible. Our current administration notwithstanding, this is relatively achieveable.
On the military front, there should be an overwhelming agenda of burnout. We need to let these people know that there's no fucking holes for them to hide in. You're not going to hide in Lebanon, or Syria, or the East End. If you're a terrorist, you will be found, and the prejudice is going to suck.
On the domestic and foreign policy front, the U.S. should be just as aggressive in a strategy to show that we're not viewing Arabia as an amalagation of "Tiger" Ali Singh, Great Tiger from Punchout, Apu, and Saddam Hussein. Also, that while the terrorists are a bunch of idiots, the U.S. isn't going to treat these countries like a giant bomb catcher.
The objective here is to not make these people look like freedom fighters or anti-capitalist heroes of the republic. This isn't that hard - the bin Laden kids are some of the richest on the planet. We need to make these people seem to Arabia what they seem like to us - Terrorists. We have to put Al Queda on an ideological island away from Islam, and then make it really dangerous to even consider Al Queda's ideology.
Without getting off-topic on whether nukes are moral or immoral, there are plenty of reasons why using them to fight this enemy is not a good idea.
As Wanderer pointed out, these people are wolves in sheep's clothing. They don't have a country, they don't have cities, they're decentralized and hide among the civillian population. Using a nuke will make certain that we're responsible for killing thousands of innocent people in addition to creating even more martyrs for the cause.
If the United States is going to make any real difference in the Middle East, we have to lead by example and show that we're there to punish the bad guys and protect the good guys. I agree that we can't take the appeasement route, because you simply can't reason with fundamentalists. What we can do is show the upcoming generations that we aren't the indiscriminate killers that our enemy's propoganda says we are.
Personally, I've always believed that anyone with an IQ under 90 should be put to death, so I can't be too upset at some of the bloodthristy tactics being utilised by all and sundry in this "war on terror".
All I know is that the recent hate crimes against Pakistanis are uncalled for. My best friend's cousin was very badly hurt following the London disaster...
...perhaps, on some level, people who would go out and beat a person just for being the "wrong" skin color deserve to die.
Hm...that's probably not a thought that's going to get me kudos and kittens, though.
...you just ensured the death of the human race, considering that until we can grow superbabies with intelligence from birth no one can be conceived anymore without being aborted.
Which test? If a person's life depends on it, I'd hope you'd have a better measure than any that I've administered (Standford-Binnet, Weschler, Woodcock-Johnson). BTW, I've administred a WAIS-R to a Paranoid Schizophrenic, which was an interesting experience.
I think that I can see where you are coming from and have been there myself. You see so many bad things in the world, which seem to generate from a lack of intelligence. I'm a counselor, so you can believe me when I say that I've seen it all. I have truly wanted to shake sense into people. However, I can promise you that IQ testing and exterminating those without a certain IQ won't change a thing. You'll still see the same stupid things in the world.
Besides, I've worked with MR clients. You would not believe the beauty that these kids bring into the world. No, they will never be great thinkers, but they have such amazing gifts. One girl I can think of was so amazingly loving toward others with such forgiveness in her heart.
We could have the debate about the flaws of intelligence testing until we were blue in the face. One thing that springs to mind is after watching some of the shows like West Coast Chopper, OC Choppers, etc. Many of these guys probably would do poorly on a standardized IQ test, but they are brilliant in their ability to design and create bikes.
If you are angry about the state of the world, I understand. I'd advise you to do something about it. Help others around you. Treat others with kindness. Give to those that need. Show mercy to those who don't deserve it. Love your fellow man even though he does have flaws. Volunteer at hospitals or nursing homes to help those in need. Help feed the homeless.
"Oh brave new world that has such people in it..."
by Dr. SilverRose
Oh, all right.
We won't kill off all of the stupid people...just the Republicans. ^_^
>>If you are angry about the state of the world, I understand. I'd advise you to do something about it. Help others around you. Treat others with kindness. Give to those that need. Show mercy to those who don't deserve it. Love your fellow man even though he does have flaws. Volunteer at hospitals or nursing homes to help those in need. Help feed the homeless.<<
Whoa! Silly, you must have me mistaken for a nice, non-lazy person.
Actually, I'm glad to see there are some people out there who still care about these sort of things and want to do what is "good" and "right".
Is killing 3,000 people in a coordinated attack merely a crime, or an act of war? When someone says that they want to kill every American and that they are at war with the "Great Satan", are they expressing criminal intent, or are they openly declaring war?
Islamic extremists have been openly declaring their hatred of the West for at least 30 years. The reason why I say 30 is because that's how long I've been on this planet and they've been doing it my entire life. The real number is probably higher.
So what is it, a crime or a war?
If its a crime, then there is absolutely nothing we can do about the plotting and the threat until they come into our territories and jurisdictions. If its a war, then we have an obligation to stop them before they can inflict terrible injury upon us.
Neither side can completely win this conflict by attempting to erase the other side; I'd want to make their position and ideology look absolutely repugnant (and probably unholy, if I was to really go down that route) to those would could potentially join them.
I believe that you at one point recommended trying to flat out exterminate any of these radical elements, which struck me as not really adressing the underlying problem.
Again, I'm not saying either one of us is correct, I'm just trying to see how you came to your conclusions, and how it adresses all the problems inherent in this clusterfuck of a foreign relations issue.
We're getting closer to the root of our disagreement.
by A.o.D.
>I believe that you at one point recommended trying to flat out exterminate any of these radical >elements, which struck me as not really adressing the underlying problem.
Sometimes to solve a problem you have to treat a symptom. However, what I'd really like to know is what you think the underlying problem is. Please be clear and specific, as you'll be revealing your understanding of the history of this problem. Yes, this is a test.
>Again, I'm not saying either one of us is correct, I'm just trying to see how you came to your >conclusions, and how it adresses all the problems inherent in this clusterfuck of a foreign >relations issue.
If you're not saying either one of us is correct, why are you voicing an opinion? Why are we even having a discussion. Damnit man, show some courage in the strength of your convictions! If you disagree with me, you should damn well mean it. Don't feel your opinions, know them!
As for how I came to my conclusions, I must admit that by no means am I unbiased. I am an American who believes strongly in the sanctity of our Union. Do not construe that to mean that I believe strongly in our government, as it is filled with frauds, charlatains, and murderers. The terrorists did not attack a government deserving of comeuppance but rather the people of this nation. While they may shout 'Death to Bush!' they more often, and for far longer chant 'Death to America!'. By inference one can assume that this includes to the inhabitants of the country they'd wish to kill.
As for it being a clusterfuck of a foreign relations issue, I simply do not care. Neither France, nor Germany, nor all the rest of the world combined should have veto power over whether or not a sovereign nation should have the right to defend itself if attacked. This doesn't apply just to America, but to any nation threatened by an armed foe. They can squeal and squirm all they want but if someone is trying to kill me, I'm not going to first check to make sure that my neighbor is okay with what I'm about to do.
If they hate me for defending myself, then they probably hated me before I made that decision. In the case of France, this should be patently obvious. In the case of Germany, their most recent Chancellor (or whatever he's called) campaigned before 911 on an anti-American platform. In the case of other nations, they are either openly hostile to us, have an social ideology opposing ours, or wish to establish a world hegemony of their own.
Please, for fuck's sake, let this thread die. It keeps returning like a spilt drink that no one can be bothered to clean up and damnit, I'm getting sick of it. Let the matter lie, people.
I remember you saying a long, long time ago that cel-shading originated from a particular mod for Quake 3, and was subsequently ripped off by every game company under the sun. Do you know what year or who the author was of that mod...?
However, I'll try to find it. It wasn't a cell-shaded mod, but a clever use of the Q3 shader tool on a particuler custom player model. In fact, the first instance I can find of cell-shading on a Q3 model was in July of 2000. A couple of Dreamcast games had already tried that, and the author of the Q3 model in question specifically references them as an inspiration.
As for the Q3 model in question, it was "Honey" by Connor O'Kane. It's <a href = "http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/info/quake3/honey/honey.shtml">here</a> on polycount's archives.
I think Fear Effect may beat all of that because it was cel shading over full motion video for the graphics and released 1-31-00 according to Gamefaqs.
Do you like cheering on the bad guys? If so, then War of the Worlds is the movie for you. The reason why I say so is because I haven't seen such a detestable bunch of protagonists ever. I didn't even hate Anakin the Whiny as much as I hated the group in this flick. Seriously.
Fortunately, Stephen Spielburg still knows how to use a special effect. The Aliens and their Walkers have a very real presence and impact on the screen. Their weapons are terrifying, and their grim forms are menacing. Honestly, the aliens are what make this movie watchable.
Instead of writing in depth with what's wrong with the acting in this movie, I'm going to type the word hate 100 times.
Although, I must admit that I fear that I haven't yet made my point about how low my regard is for the acting in this movie.
The last bit is a spoiler, but only to those of you that haven't read the H.G. Wells book, the Orson Welles radio play, or the later movie. Since those of you that don't know how this ends are uncultured bastards, I really don't care whether or not I spoil the movie for you.
As you might have guessed, germs kill the unstoppable martians. Of all the things to keep faithful to, you'd think that they'd have gotten away from this. If someone has a million years to plan for something, you'd think that they'd at least take into account what is essentially an environmental hazard. I can suspend my disbelief for the earlier versions, cuz you know, they might not have though better or have known enough to really consider it, but today? Come on, you can do better. Heck, they even introduced an alternative method of destroying the tripods.
Finally, there is one last fun bit at the end of the movie, but only to those of you that have played through Half-Life 2. Towards the end of the movie, there's a scene where some infantry take out a tripod. That could have taken place in City 17, if you know what I mean.
Anyhow, the final verdict of this movie is: A real teethgrinder except when the martians are on camera.
...namely, the Philippines. We had a Toy Convention last Sunday and there were some pretty good cosplayers... and a severe lack of Ragnarok Online cosplayers thanks to the simultaneously held Ragnafest (yey! XD)
Anyhow, in case you friend cares, I can identify a couple more costumes. The blue fellow, who she thinks might be from Voltes, looks to be the Balck Magician of Chaos from Yu-Gi-Oh. God help me if I got that right. The Nazi fellow further down is Karl Ruprect Kroenen from Hellboy. Nick already got the other three characters I knew.
... so, yeah, it's DH. I suppose it would be fair to give a small heads-up.
-Still obsessed with anal sex.
-Playing Guild Wars. MY TIME WASTES AWAY.
-Also playing Namco x Capcom while waiting for SRWAlpha 3. Glee.
-Sis-in-law had twins. They cry alot. I heard babies do that, but to see it up-close is a horrifying thing. Their bottom lips... they quiver. Like death.
Hold me.
-My shiny 120-gig USB HD semi-died. Send me tenta-porn.
You've seen this movie before. Three times to be exact. To be exact, a movie with slow, stumbling zombies acting as a smokescreen for the none-too-subtle social commentary throughout the film. That's not to say this movie isn't entertaining, because it is, it just isn't very good at being what it tried to be.
What's Fun:
Dennis Hopper is great, man. From the scene where he picks his nose and says "Zombies, man, they creep me out" to the scene where he kills someone, only to be delivered news just seconds later that causes him to regret that action.
The zombies got smarter for this movie, as you might already know. Nothing earth shattering here, just them remembering some of the skills they had when alive. However, the decapitated priest zombie is a special treat. You'll know it when you see it. The main thing though is that you'll get what you came to see a zombie flick for. That's right, blood and guts in heaping amounts. Romero may not be the best gore artist, but that doesn't mean he doesn't try.
What's not so great:
The MESSAGE. Yup, like most Romero movies, this movie has one. Y'see, the Evil Hated Rich (who exist only to be the Evil Hated Rich) live in this ivory tower in the middle of one of the last bastions of humanity left in the world. What these evil, hated rich do is left nebulous and completely unexplained. Unlike everyone else, they're well dressed and well fed. They got this way by keeping the common man down. The common man of course lives on the street, is hungry, sick, and shoddily clad. Their purpose is to raid the countryside to provide the Evil Hated Rich with the things they desire.
What is it that the Evil Hated Rich have that makes the common man do this for him? Why, money, of course. Never mind that money won't put a bullet into a gun so that you can kill a zombie, nor can you eat money so that you can stay alive, nor can you build an effective wall out of money. Yet, for some reason, green rectangles of paper still run a society that, like most other imagined post-apocalyptic societies, has almost completely fallen apart.
The city is 'protected' by a collection of booted, camouflaged thugs who spend more time keeping the common man down than actually being vigilant against the zombie threat. Furthermore, the populace is kept completely disarmed, never mind the ever persistent threat just out side their fence. Finally, the security guards of the tower of the Evil Hated Rich are dressed like THE FUCKING GESTAPO. This movie fails the Godwin test before the half hour mark.
Through the course of this movie, the city is brought down by the greed of both a few of the people that provide the EHR (I'll stick with the abbreviation for now) with what they want, and the leader of the EHR (as played by Dennis Hopper).
At one point, the disgruntled Common Man who was screwed over by EHR Dennis Hopper takes control of the super 18 wheeler and decides to go jihad on their ivory tower. The subtext here is that the EHR deserve it. Any parallels between this and a factual event from 4 years ago are left as an exercise for the viewer.
Anyhow, the social commentary, by this point already pretty lowcontinues to roll downhill and at the end of the movie the protagonist chooses to not obliterate some of the zombies because "They're just looking for a place to go, just like us." What, huh?!? They're fucking zombie's man. They won't feel pity for you when they eat your goddamn brains, or eat the brains of someone else who's fucking alive!
Then there's the city defenses. City defenses consist on two sides a river, and on the other two a flimsy electrified fence that probably wouldn't hold up to a press of hundreds or thousands of bodies. Yet, we're led to believe that the return of the dead from the grave happened at least several years before the movie. You'd think that a group of people who were in very real, imminent peril would take their own survival a little more seriously. Not only that, but you'd think they'd take the time to develop some marksmanship. Not the case. When presented with some zombies even in ideal circumstances, most of the knuckleheads spray bullets wildly, and very rarely bother to line up the by now cliched headshot.
In summation, the movie was entertaining, but completely failed to engage the brain even though it clearly intended to do so. I'd suggest catching it during the matinee, so you at least won't have to pay full price.
Maybe one day someone will remake this movie, and it'll REALLY be worth seeing.
This message has been edited by TvsWanderer on Jun 26, 2005 7:43 PM
As of yesterday, you now only own property insofar as your local government doesn't feel the need to take it from you, pay you a pittance for it, and give it to some other private interest who will pay that local government more in taxes for the privilege of its use.
I rest assured that even this bad decision cannot go that far.
by
ICANN is the international body in charge of Internet-related issues, including domains. They are the people that develop anti-cybersquatting rules, for example.
They also are, as an international body, working with property that often is outside the Supreme Court's control.
Furthermore, Reno v. ACLU noted the large expansion potential of the Internet, which allows it, among other things, the largest amount of First Amendment protections (as opposed to newspapers and radio, which the FCC can impose some level of censorship upon). I would argue that the Fourth Amendment protections would be just as expansive for the same reasons.
is that it only states "property" and not "real property" or even real estate. So eventually, it is completely possible that some local, state, district, or appellate court could back some local government's play to seize some item that isn't land, as if seizing land wasn't bad enough.
This could potentially be a way to raise revenue and yet bypass the taxation system.
The new element consists of what "public use" means. With this decision, it was extended to mean "use of the land that will bring the city more taxes".
It's frightening to see just how they are interpreting the law. I guess Jeffereson felt the same way about Marbury v. Madison.... Really, we should be contacting our Senators/Representatives, requesting them to set some boundaries with the court.
From the latest episode of Justice League Unlimited, which has only aired in Canada. A scene so badass I had to upload it and share. It spoils some major stuff, so be wary:
Sometime around *now*, one Miss S.D. Ryukage is supposedly being handed a high school diploma. She now enters the grown-up world....
...wait, nevermind. I almost forgot she had read the entirety of the Sailor Moon section of the Sakura Fan-Fiction Archive before she showed up here. At least it's more legal now. ^_^ Congrats, Shady!
