Hamtaro

For North America, there was 1 Costa Rican and 1 Mexican. I grouped those from Quebec into Canada. [spoiler=Graphs]

This is really all coming down to personal opinion (i.e. Who is to decide what is and isn't a major update?). For instance, introducing Nex into the game didn't affect me at all. I don't boss hunt and I will never be able to afford Torva. Therefore, I have no reason to even consider it an update, let alone a major one. Was it actually a significant update? Perhaps, perhaps. Was it worth noting in an article? Probably not, seeing as it would only affect extremely high level players who can fight Nex and afford the armor and lower levels who "merch." However, the article written was an Editorial. That is, it is the author's opinion in the article (in this case, what is and isn't a major update). That whole discussion is rather pointless, though. Instead of discussing what was included in the article, the discussion has branched off into what wasn't in the article. Unless you want to get into semantics (which I won't because I'm not a pedant), that has absolutely nothing to do with the article that was written. In hindsight, perhaps more things could have been included, but it would be senseless to include every single update in 2011 into the article. If that's what you're looking for, this is the link for you. Otherwise, try giving your opinion like this: Instead of this: The first choice I gave dictates a person's personal preference with their own justifications (how this thread should be going), whereas the second choice is just short of an ad hominem attack (how this thread is going). With that second type of response, it doesn't take into account what was written, but only what wasn't. That's not how these threads (that are, you know, supposed to be about the articles that were written this week) should be going at all. I'm a little disappointed that the discussion has come to this without moderator intervention, but come on :| . Agree to disagree if you must, but please try to keep the further comments relevant to what was actually written.

I lol'd so hard at your comment. Thanks for that. On Topic: I say we start a movement to vote out every politician who votes for this bill, PIPA, or SOPA next November. Enough is enough. This is America where we claim to be the pinnacle of the free world, yet we're becoming the very thing we hate most more and more every day. I don't think I have ever been so disappointed with my country until these past few months. Also, living near the unofficial Muslim capital of the US (Dearborn) and knowing the stereotyping that will stem from this bill, I have an especially bad feeling that the bill would be particularly harsh around here.

...and my Lions win with an uncalled facemask. How embarrassing to be up 21-0 and go on to win on a BS play. Lions look like they have one more win left in them (probably against the Chargers) for a positive record, but I don't expect them to make the playoffs...

Official new NHL alignment, including a home-and-home with each team guaranteed: I expect Ontario/Quebec to get a team in Conference C and another team somewhere along the east coast. I figured Wisconsin should be getting the next team, but apparently not, as Conference B appears to be "full."

The Euro 2012 Groups were drawn: Group A- 1. Russia 2. Czech Republic 3. Poland 4. Greece Group B- 1. Germany 2. Netherlands 3. Denmark 4. Portugal Group C- 1. Spain 2. Italy 3. Croatia 4. Republic of Ireland Group D- 1. France 2. England 3. Sweden 4. Ukraine Looks like it will be an exciting tournament. Group B looks to be the toughest of by far. Looking forward to the Germany/Netherlands match already.

On the stretch of road I was referring to, there really is a bike lane. The only excuse the guy might have had was avoiding puddles. On normal roads, I make sure to give bikers plenty of room.

I took the liberty of illustrating part of my drive home today: [spoiler=2 lane road changing into one lane while driving on the right side of the road ('merica)] -Poorly drawn orange thing = cyclist riding in the road instead of the bike lane -Scattered blue dots = rain (riding your bike in the rain, really?) -Pink = idiot lady on her cell phone -Red = obnoxious guy who cut me off, only to turn 30 seconds later Michigan drivers are pro

Generally when the editors review an article, we read it as a whole instead of skimming it and taking one line too literally :)

Congratulations to both of you. Thank you for keeping me in line those times I got out of hand :lol:

I love Original Six match ups. That Wings/Bruins games was one of the best games I've watched all season and there have been quite a few good ones. Datsyuk's puck-handling skills were absolutely incredible and Howard actually had a few great saves (2 close shots from Chara in overtime and one from Seguin in the shoot out).

But which of those populations has the greatest concentration of rs players? Pure population isn't the main point here, it's sheer amount and location of rs players. I don't know, I only have data for Tip.It :shades: . Just counting those from North America and Europe, not Australia/NZ, about 62.5% of active TIFers (from 92/298 replies) are from North America. There are whole communities outside of Tip.it on their own websites from people all over the world. The fact that pre bot nuke there were dedicated worlds for so many European countries surely should prove that there is a huge player base outside of the USA. I wouldn't argue with that. I'm not arguing for the USA (or anyone else) here, if that's how I'm coming off. RuneFest wouldn't be my cup of tea to begin with, even though Chicago is only 5 hours away (by driving) from me (and even that would be too far). My waning interest in RS is the only real issue for me.

But which of those populations has the greatest concentration of rs players? Pure population isn't the main point here, it's sheer amount and location of rs players. I don't know, I only have data for Tip.It :shades: . Just counting those from North America and Europe, not Australia/NZ, about 62.5% of active TIFers (from 92/298 replies) are from North America.

Oh boy, four locations I would never travel to :thumbdown: . Maybe if it were held in Michigan, Ohio, or western Pennsylvania I'd go, so I'm not going to bother voting. Also, it's more like 300m US + 35m Canada vs. 700m Europe, not just 60m UK, so London will likely win.

Relevant: http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/worst-days-to-drive-1.jpg and http://www.cracked.com/blog/9-bad-drivers-nobody-complains-about/

Back in the days when my brother drove me home from school (we went to a private school ~30 minutes away), we were almost [bleep]ing attacked once. Back then, my brother used to drive with his left index finger and middle finger together on his cheek when we weren't going all that fast. Then some middle aged guy cut off my brother, sped up in the left turn lane, and then proceeded to back up in the left turn lane as we stopped for the red light. This guy apparently thought my brother had flicked him off and got out of his truck to try to attack us (trying to rip my brother's door off while screaming at him). Luckily, the only causality was the moon-roof on our car, which he smashed shut. As soon as the light turned green and the traffic cleared, we sped away without the guy's license plate number. I don't know if the police ever found the guy, but that was by far the scariest experience of my life. Michigan drivers are terrible in general because we have a lot of new immigrants here and even more people who think they're professional drivers because they work for a car company. It makes for a dangerous mixture of drivers when half the people want to go 10 under and the other half wants 10 over the speed limit. Then on top of that, throw in the snow/ice 6 months out of the year. So other than the daily people who make left turns from the right lane, run stop signs, turn out in front of you, etc., I've only had one other particularly bad experience. I was driving to a hockey game last winter in 3 feet of snow (no big deal in my SUV) and I started to drive up a hill when a mini van started sliding down the hill toward me in my lane. I barely made it over into the wrong lane to avoid being hit when I was almost hit by a guy backing out of his driveway. Granted, the car sliding down the hill wasn't really the lady's fault, but I'm sure you can imagine how shook up I was after that. So yeah, [bleep] Michigan driving.

To its purchasers, the +4 strength bonus isn't insignificant solely because of the increase in DPS. They want to kill monsters faster and don't really worry about damage taken because they have food.

The individuals who wrote up the Constitution intentionally left the wording of the First Amendment to be vague in order for future interpretation (because there's no way they could presage the advancement of technology and a politically changing world) : It's not strictly inhibiting free speech, but rather over exerting the reach of copyright law, which would fall under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 : My point is that this isn't really a First Amendment case. The problem that arises is that the individuals making this decision are, for the most part, members of the Baby Boom generation who grew up without access to personal computers and have no real understanding of how the internet works. Generations X and Y are really underrepresented in the House because of the current Republican majority (generally pro-business, but much younger members in the House) there. Essentially, if the bill manages to pass in the Senate controlled by the Democrats (generally anti-business, but much older members in the Senate) somehow, it should easily pass in the House and be sent to the President. Obama's decision on the bill may directly influence whether I vote for him in 2012. I've already written a letter to my Congressman asking him to vote against the bill's passage. It was probably unnecessary, though, because he's a musician himself and isn't a technology-phobe like most politicians his age. My state's senators, on the other hand, are completely incompetent morons and I have no faith in them whatsoever. I wrote emails to them, but they were probably ignored because they don't give a [bleep] about anything other than their corporate sponsors' special interests. They prove that by constantly voting against their constituents' wishes with the sole exception of our automotive labor union (to guarantee all their votes). That's a different topic altogether, but the corporate influence on our politicians is going to be the deciding factor on this bill, not what's right for America.

Terrible decision. I don't see why they can't just split the high scores or remove inactive users from the list if it's such a big deal.

I was a huge Halo 2 fan back in the day, but I really hated Reach. The campaign was mediocre and armor abilities ruined the multiplayer for me. I also enjoyed Halo CE, but I won't be purchasing it, seeing as they ruined it with armor abilities.

Don't blink? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFKa9tQqzrs It's probably been posted before, but still a great scene from Doctor Who.

I'm jealous that my parents went to the Wings/Oilers game with 4th row seats for Veterans Night. Neither team played that well imo, but I guess I'm happy with the result... Also, how about that Lightning/Flyers game? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjXclnt1wAI Anyone have any thoughts on the 1-3-1 defense?

I'm indifferent about the issue. Pro-life people are fine with adult stem-cell research, but I think the argument that the pro-life people (in the US) are making is that embryonic stem cell research is legal in Europe and many other locations (including my own state of Michigan, actually) and hasn't been able to produce any tangible results yet. Allegedly, many cures have been found through adult stem cell research, but few, if any, through embryonic. I don't know enough about the issue to comment on that, but that's what I've heard from being surrounded by Catholics all day, every day (so that's probably extremely biased). I don't really agree with the pro-life here, but I can't say I like the idea of using aborted fetuses.

^ is my usual outfit, unless I'm skilling.

Write a 600+ word piece on a current issue/topic/idea or a fictional story with formal spelling and grammar. Following that, submit it to anyone with an Editorial Badge via a Private Message on Tip.It. From there, it will be reviewed by the Editorial Panel to see if it would be a good candidate for a guest editorial. If so, you would see it appear in the Tip.It Times the next time a slot is available. Pro Tip: Don't discuss bots.