BlueLancer

Because discrimination based on factors a human can't control (sexuality, skin color, mental capacity, genetics, height, etc.) is repugnant and illogical. By your logic, everyone should've just accepted the nazi's opinions that Hitler is correct in everything he says and does against the jews, because "you have to accept his opinion even if you don't agree"? The entire point of debate is pointing out possible ridiculous false beliefs that don't make sense. If nobody challenged Hitler's discrimination against jews, handicaps, gays, etc... It would've meant death to hundreds of thousands more innocent people. Why do you think there are TV campaigns for "stop racism", but none for "racism is ok"? Because it's a ridiculous belief to support racism. It would be directly banned from even airing on TV. Some opinions are by definition wrong, and it reflects in society. Discrimination is wrong because the victim can't 'change' the qualities he's assumed to be 'bad' for. For example an employer can discriminate based on skill and experience. Those are qualities that can be gained over time. An employer can't discriminate based on race or he can ultimately face jail time/hefty fines and penalties in many western societies.

Well, even if voice is a small part of a game.. *Bad* voice acting ruins the entire atmosphere of the game and can make you hate the characters for being/sounding so corny or dumb. I think the worst cliche in video game voice acting is the "clueless girl on an epic adventure who constantly asks 'what is that' or 'it's not safe in here' 'we shouldn't be here' -.- Seriously, why do developers have some psychological complex over females? Stop making them all weak and needy of protection. They're a part of the adventure, stop treating them like they're a possession of the other male party members. Especially korean MMO devs and american RPG devs do that way too much. Minimal and professional-sounding voice acting like in Diablo 1 is pretty much perfect IMO.

It used to be horrible and repugnant, now it's just.. How to put it.. "R­etarded". The sole user group remaining seems to be 13-15 year olds who have just been introduced to the internet (or specifically, message boards) and think their 10-year old memes and unfunny pictures are still interesting.

I gave it some thought, maybe it's not acceptable in the most high-class restaurant establishments, but I'd have no problem with it even if I had kids and they were eating with me and saw that. It's perfectly natural and IMO there's nothing disgusting about feeding your baby which is hungry and can't really eat any form of food yet... At least I remember while being in France, almost every mother does it, and nobody cares even if it's in a park or a bus etc. It's not a taboo or some freaky thing like in the US that you have to 'hide'.

How can a biological preference be 'introduced', I still don't get some of these points posted. Who introduced it? Was it a big PR conference announcement over a loudspeaker? Like said above.. It has existed for thousands of years, and it even exists in animals which aren't capable of conscious thought. The Bible does openly condemn gays (at least the male ones), right now I can't remember if the Talmud or Qur'an have similar verses.

You could tweak an integrated Intel 64MB card to run 2x AA or low Anisotropic Filtering in manufacturer settings, but it will still lag you to hell. Antialiasing isn't worth the amount of lag if you don't have at least a 128/256MB proper manufacturer card from Ati or nVidia. Driver update for your card (945GM) can be found here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product ... uctID=2301 For comparison, I can barely run 2xAA on a laptop with 2GB of ram and a 128MB Ati card.. It's a feature mostly used for desktops, or extremely powerful gaming laptops like AlienWare. Conclusion: AA isn't worth it on low-end cards and laptops.

I'm a "dude" and I think it's pretty damn disgusting.

Would it give a 13 year old girl "life XP" to be molested by a 22 year old man? Sorry but people's logic makes no sense sometimes.

Judging a BETA as bad because of bugs? Clearly yet another genius who gets what BETA means So how can I play the Non-BETA version? Can I get the unbugged, regular version with non-blury graphics and people with round faces not pointy ones with big ears like rats or Prince Charles that I played maybe 1 week ago? Select normal detail version and check the HD later when it's not in beta-testing anymore. Probably every single game in the history of the world that has been in alpha-beta testing has been buggy or blurry. It changes over time as the devs fix the problems. I played WoW alpha testing ages before it was released, let me tell you, it looked HORRIBLE. The graphics were blocky, you got stuck walking on roads, monster would take no damage, too bright environments/lighting etc... The final product was nothing like the test servers and turned out to be a commercial success.

It's true Europe would have a severe shortage of daily items, electronics etc... If they chose to band against China in a war, the EU would shoot itself in the foot and destroy it's own economy. A huge majority of consumer goods, clothes and other goods used in the EU are made in China. Sort of disagree about food though, Europe only imports a few food items like rice and some other grains from China. Domestic production of food is strongly encouraged and funded in the EU, so even if there was a war, at least Europeans would stay alive (but with a ruined economy).

thats a fairly big thing to ask. and actually scientists do have several good ideas as to what happened. the bible also cant explain alot of things The Bible is more of a spiritual and non-literal book than a definitive answer to how the world was born... Few people *actually* believe the world was made in 7 days, is flat, and only 6,000 years old. You can still be realistic and accept scientific facts, and be a devout christian/muslim/jew etc.

Are you attracted to every single woman you talk to? I'm not.. :lol: They're humans too, it's just a preference... It's not like they're crazed animals going for every man they see. Also, The thread title still makes me chuckle. I don't even understand how the OP can ask if it's "right or "wrong". A biological/uncontrollable feature can't be assigned a value like that. You might just as well ask "Is being disabled wrong"? "Red hair: Right or wrong?" You don't select a sexual preference. Why would any person volunteer to like his/her own gender at the cost of social shame/humiliation, maybe even loss of job due to current societal norms? Because they can't control it and it's what they genuinely want. Let them live their lives like any other person, they aren't out there to get you or cripple your moral values. They want to live their life just like everyone else.

Heh, stopped drinking sodas with food at like age 11... You'll find it pretty easy to get free water refills at any place or restaurant. Try it yourself.. Water actually compliments the taste of any good food. You don't need a sugary pitch black calorie bomb down your throat to enjoy a meal. Water rocks. (No, I'm not a hippie/environment nut) Also knowing it purifies your body is mentally assuring. A huge glass of coke doesn't hydrate nearly as good.

Just saw a gamershell article... Apparently there's plenty of fans who are quite disillusioned with the warcraft-esque art style D3 is heading towards, there's a survey/petition that was signed by like 20,000 people asking Blizzard to make the game darker and more gothic. htt­p://p­eti­tiononline.com/d3art/petition.html Meh, I probably wouldn't go as far as making a petition just to place unnecessary doubt in Blizzard staff's minds, but I read the petition and it has a point though. It doesn't quite seem like a Diablo game yet, but a sort of Warcraft-alpha test with a different name tag. People forget that the gameplay video/screenshots are from a very early build. It's not even alpha-test, the graphics and dungeons were probably compiled fast to give at least *some* sort of glimpse to the public about how things are going. Remember that Starcraft II looked like a cheap pile of trash when it was announced, but within months, the textures were made much less shiny and blocky, and it actually looked like a playable game. And it's STILL in development! (Announced last year) They're experimenting with colour schemes. I doubt the bright green light and bulky shoulder armor is here to stay, they just wanted to give a preview.

Could swear on my life I saw one of the ninja turtles, the purple bandage one with the stick, in a shopping mall when I was a kid. I was pretty young, young enough not to be 100% able to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Still it doesn't make any sense so now in my mind I've just wrote it off as an error of perception/ or a dream (or some freak was really walking around in a costume) Another one is at age 5 or so... Woke up in the middle of the night to face a horrible truth, "toothfairy" was actually my father who put money under the pillow :lol: He even tried to make some excuse but even kids aren't that dumb once witnessing such a thing..

Check out this one, nearly perfect for 1 person. $500 a month, and it includes Cleaning Service BS Antenna Broadband Internet Veranda Refrigerator Refrig/Freezer Range Utensils/Cutlery Washing Machine Bath Shower Seems like a pretty slick deal to me, sure it's small, but you're hardly going to find that type of offer even outside of Japan at that price. Cleaning service & broadband access covered in the rent? That's probably the most value that can be found anywhere in Tokyo. It's 7 minutes away from the centre so that explains the low price tag though.

Seems like a very sympathetic apartment to live in :lol: Would be ideal for 1 person though, wonder how those 2 manage. But the vid speaks for itself, even a small, cramped apartment like that costs $1500 a month (155k yen) in rent as the vid says. For many people it's not something they can afford, given they're used to paying rents of about $300 to $700 in western countries.

Not meaning to ruin a beautiful topic and people's dreams, but... People in Japan actually commit suicide over inability to pay the abnormally high bills/mortgage/loans, everything costs a lot and especially if you're old and live alone, you'll have to be constantly on your toes to be able to pay off everything. Japan is great to live in: I've been there for several weeks. You'll just need a big wad of cash to live there even for a year. Even food prices are substantially higher than in the US

It's a common phobia usually formed in early childhood, if you asked almost anyone, they could at least remotely remember 1 person who was scared of dogs. 1 way of getting rid of it is mild 'shock therapy', as in you meet the fears, just like in any other form of phobia treatment (after you're mentally prepared). Starting with petting a peaceful dog that wouldn't hurt a fly, it will seriously change your thinking... Though it's healthy to be afraid of aggressive dogs/certain breeds that have mostly been bred over centuries for the single purpose of fighting. Even a well trained staffordshire-terrier/bulldog could rip apart it's owner for no reason after years of living normally, and it does happen.

Try Venezuela.. 12 cents per gallon, or 3 cents per liter (compared to, say Finland with 1.6EUR/liter which is $2.56, 85 times more expensive). Venezuelans practically drive their cars for free. You can easily see by the local prices that in reality, oil is a worthless substance in monetary value. It's price is only driven up sky-high because a handful of nations control nearly all the oil production in the world and can run cartels to determine prices (such as the OPEC). That+ shipping costs. When other forms of energy become popular and cars running on non-petrol energy sources will become common, the price of oil per barrel will come crashing down too. Maybe some day western countries will have gas at 10 cents per gallon too.. But by then gas wont be the most popular source of energy anymore.

Heh, my parents told me as a kid not to kill spiders, because it brings bad luck. I never was really superstitious but the habit stayed, I just let them be. And it's not like the smaller variety of spiders can hurt you.. Anyways, I don't think I'm scared of anything. I try to be as rational as possible and discard mythological/non-fact based beliefs swiftly. But... Sometimes I just grow paranoid and think I'm cursed by some outside force. Especially in competitive situations of any kind (like card games, picking numbers, or anything involving money/odds), the worst possible outcome keeps happening to me year after year. Multiple times. I try to tell myself it's just a statistical distortion and will fix itself in the long run.. But it just keeps happening :? God forbid I bid on sports.. Just during the European championships, I made 4 bets on the better team & they suddenly lose.. Made a single bet on a tight game to have less than 5 goals.. You guessed right,, on the '93rd minute it gets the 5th goal. Heck, I bet on Boston Red Sox to win over Cincinnati (which was at the time the worst team in the entire league) and Sox lost by like 10 runs. My thoughts were just pure 'what the heck' :lol:

One of the few cliches that's actually very accurate... Yes, Vodka is everywhere, especially when it comes to people over 40 years of age. Yes, they do drink even in churches. Been exposed to russian culture pretty much since I was a kid, russians can really be pretty intense drunkards sometimes (fine people otherwise) :lol: Can't blame them though, most russians still have it pretty bad in life (was way worse about 10-15 years ago though), plus the climate isn't very forgiving anywhere north of St. Petersburg.. Moscow isn't the pretty snowy wonderland the tourist pictures let you imagine either. It's ok during the summer but after autumn it's a freezing hellhole, and many average apartments don't even have warm water/heating.

.. When I was younger and started RS, I thought having the best possible material possessions (be it online, or the real world) is an end-it-all ultimate meaning to life. Do everything in your power to wear expensive clothing, rolex watches, a big mansion and a Ferrari, then you're set for life and 'finished'... In RS, always have the latest 'expensive' items and equipment even if they only give a marginal edge. As I gain age I see how pathetic it is to be obsessed too much with materials, especially PIXELS in a little 2mb java game. Ok, money, currency matters everywhere you go (including the online world, heck, you can't even be online if you don't pay for access, unless you're in a library all the time)... But money is just a tool, it's not a god you worship. And in real life, you'll see sooner or later.. Yes, richness does count, but you as a human define yourself. A person with 10 lamborghinis and no 'essence' (he does nothing in life except spend money, to rougly compare.. Like Paris Hilton) will be viewed as less interesting than a person who has actually done something with his/her life.

Heh, Finland doesn't even have it THAT bad. Turkey: $13 per gallon. You'd think that by geographical association, they'd have cheap oil and thus cheap petrol, but they don't. Seriously, if gas cost as much in the USA as it did in Turkey, the vast majority of american society would collapse overnight. Almost EVERYTHING in society relies on petrol availability at affordable prices.

North Korea is one of the weakest countries in the world. Being secretive is one thing, but disguising a large, strong and prosperous nation as a severely deprived and weakened one is downright impossible, not to mention stupid. Unrealistic to say it ranks even near any of the truly weak countries that can't defend themselves if their life depended on it (like Haiti, Togo, Madagascar, etc). It might be poor as heck, but that's exactly because their paranoid little madman leader chooses to divert over 30% of the GDP into the military. North Korea has the 4th largest military in the world, despite being geographically quite a small country. The only outdated thing about the NK army is their airplanes. They're mostly rusty soviet jets. But they have excellent anti-air batteries, insanely disciplined infantry, proper assault helicopters/tanks, proper machine guns... And nuclear warheads. North Korea is weak as an economic power, not as a military one.