Cordeos

This will actually be a big change for me. My strategy in FC3 and 4 was to snipe everything. I assume I won't be able to do that anymore. Racism in the ice age would be impressive since race probably hadn't been socially constructed yet.

I just finished Transparent it is a really good show. The characters are not the classic trope ridden drama characters and the man child character is properly represented as possibly the worst of them. I tried starting Twin Peaks, but oh my the acting is bad, does it get better after the pilot?

Putin gives a speech about fighting terrorism, starts air striking non ISIL targets in Syria. Appears to be killing civilians already. "Syrian opposition activists said Russian warplanes had hit towns including Zafaraneh, Rastan and Talbiseh, resulting in the deaths of 36 people, a number of them children" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34408120

Translators note I like doing unnecessary work. Also gifs may be a danger with the IdleThumbs crowd.

Rich Sommer was just on the Dice Tower podcast. I recognized his voice because I recently watched a firewatch trailer. I am always a little shocked when celebrities turn out to be nerds. Board Games and voicing a video game, madness!

Livestream of the UN General Assembly: http://webtv.un.org/

I have gotten really into the Sex Nerd Sandra podcast. Its has lots of lighthearted discussion of sex and relationships. I do feel super subversive listening to it at work or on the bus. No one has idea that I'm listening to a in depth discussion of cunnilingus.

For some reason I started thinking about Codename Gordon recently. turns out there is still a way to install in on steam even though it has been removed. enter steam://install/92 into a browser and it will download. I hadn't realized the publishes website lapsed and was turned into a scam site, such an odd early bit of Half Life 2 and steam history.

My girlfriend broke up with me last night. Its not a total shock, she has been snippy and distant lately, so I was already a little worried. We have been growing apart lately and really don't share many interests anymore. I am actually surprisingly ok considering we were together for 4 years. I am already looking for apartments and signing up for dating sites. Maybe i can meet someone nerdier.

I didn't mean to imply fiction had no value, I was just questioning it usefulness in understanding the real world. Fiction has huge cultural importance and at worst is a fun escape. I enjoyed Gone Home, but I don't believe its a particularly useful way to understand the struggles of a child whose parents/society don't accept their lifestyle. As much as I dislike Libertarian philosophy and liked Bioshock, I would never hold it up as an argument against. On the other hand many Libertarians were inspired by Ayn Rand's fiction so maybe its more applicable there.

I just find a fictional experience to be completely devoid of value. It is so perfectly controlled by the author that I don't see what can be learned from it. For example the difference between, Child Soldier by China Keitetsi, which is a memoir of a child soldier is, in my mind, far more valuable in understanding humanity than a fictional book on the same subject. I actually get quite annoyed at things like A Beautiful Mind where the movie is factually incorrect and sensationalizes Nash's illness. I majored in history and sociology, I work in IT. Biography is also a look at individual perspective especially autobiography. There is tons of speculative work in history, political science in terms of looking at what ifs and trying to project trends into the future.

Uniqueness is kind of the point. To best understand an even you try and ask as many people as possible about it. I don't see how you can take a single person's perspective on things and expand that to the general without a lot of problems. I remember discussing this in one of my sociology classes. Some researchers interviewed a few students at one school about discrimination then claimed it was applicable nationwide.

I just don't see how useful a single individuals perspective is without any larger data set to back it up. It feels like the anecdote v. data problem.

Not sure how its different from philosophy, I have always been turned off by philosophy because of the purposely obscuring language common in that field. The difference is that other forms of observation, psychology, sociology, history etc have a required basis in reality. They are backed up with evidence, facts, statistics and repeatable verifiability. I don't disagree that its a window, I just think its a very limited one. Didn't mean to imply that. Of course there is that issue with non-fiction, but fiction lacks the kind of checks that exist in the world of academic non-fiction. I wonder if this same effect be possible with biography? "human condition: the positive and negative aspects of existence as a human being, esp. the inevitable events such as birth, childhood, adolescence, love, sex, reproduction, aging, and death" http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/human+condition

I have never understood the idea that fiction is a useful way to understand the human condition. Fiction is a 100% created product and all you are learning is what the author thinks about that topic. Every word of dialog, every action, every event is in there because the author wanted it there. This in my mind severally limits its usefulness. I am not saying fiction cannot have value. There are tons of examples in history of fiction being used to disguise critique of people and institutions. You set it in a far away land or change all the names, but make social commentary.There is much to be learned about the authors times, but I just think fiction has a much more limited value than many people think.

This is something you can do manually and is actually a good strategy some cavalry units are bad at skirmishing but the initial charge does a lot of damage and harms the charged units morale. I often have my cavalry hit a unit, pull back and hit them again, do this a few times and the enemy usually breaks.

I was I was as knowledgeable/articulate about this as you are. I wrote a couple posts then deleted them because I was failing to achieve essentially this post. Well done. Sometimes in a debate where I am in over my head I just hope someone smarter than me on that topic will swoop in and save me

That is a really good point we should obviously not do that. I think part of the issue with her isn't that she is a random person lying about her past, she was the head of a local NAACP branch that lied about her past.

I am fine with everything she did except actively lying about who she was and where she came from. I think she could have done everything she did without pretending to be someone she was not. There are tons of non-black people who have adopted African American culture without lying about who their father is and then lying again when confronted about it. This is a perfect example of someone adopting another culture completely, but being honest about where they came from.

you should probably use some spoiler tags. EDIT. No problem. Welcome to the forums

"she attended graduate school at the historically black Howard University (where, The Smoking Gun reported, she unsuccessfully sued for being discriminated against because she was white) ... She did identify as a black woman when she was not—there’s not much to misunderstand there. For months, she showcased Albert Wilkerson Jr., a black man she met in Idaho, as her father on Facebook" I totally agree with this statement from the article: "Naima Quarles-Burnley took over as president of the N.A.A.C.P. in June, and earlier this month told Spokane’s Spokesman-Review, “I feel that people of all races can be allies and advocates, but you can’t portray that you have lived the experience of a particular race that you aren’t part of.”" Become an ally, participate in and celebrate the culture, but don't lie about your life and experiences.

I guess I am not really familiar with some of the combat discussion for these games, what do you mean by blobbing moshpits and spaghetti line? I don't think they should make units distinguishable by running the aesthetics of the game, like giving them a glowing color aura or ring would make the game look to gamey. I think this will be easier in warhammer because of the highly distinctive races/factions. There is something to be said for simulating the chaos of melee combat. Why do you think generals need more survivability. I have always felt that the general was a tool to be carefully used because of the fact they are just another guy HP wise. I don't think I would enjoy having them be some sort of super unit. Obviously it makes more sense for that to be the case in Warhammer. The issue with having a unit fall back, is that when you turn around in melee combat you are exposed, they are trying to simulate the problems of retreats quickly becoming routes. I am a little confused by these. You want more unit options, and less unit options? I never had too much trouble managing unit abilities, you only have 20 or so. A warning would be nice, but I think avoiding friendly fire is an important part of managing your ranged units well. They can't? Most of the issues I have with the Total War series are related to the campaign map. They have made things needlessly finicky for how simplistic most of the systems truly are. Medieval 2 is still my favorite in terms of the campaign map. EDIT: They just released a pretty in depth gameplay video of a dwarves v. greenskins battle. The guy playing is shockingly bad at battlefield awareness and unit management. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=966&v=kKqaX3NNR28

Elon Musk seems to really like space and appears to be genuinely interested in making getting stuff into space cheaper. There is a ton of money in satellite launches. If SpaceX gets their reusable first stage working they can cut the costs of a rocket launch significantly, thus taking a ton of business away from Lockheed, Boeing etc. and pocketing part of the difference. Elon really wants to die on Mars i guess. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/tech/2013/03/elon-musk-die-mars More generally some of the companies working on space technology looks like pure investor baiting. "Look at us we are such a futuristic company we are doing stuff IN SPACE". Planetary Resources is also a very interesting company. There is definitely an argument for extracting metal from asteroids being easier than from the earth. Might end up being the greener option if we can figure out how to green up space fuel. Also there is this nutty reddit post more in keeping with the theme of this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/2swit1/real_life_elon_musks_ulterior_motive_for/ EDIT: also this: http://www.imotortimes.com/tesla-conspiracy-theory-fliers-san-francisco-claim-congress-manipulation-and-accuse-model-30396

Not sure that sexually frustrating AI is the way to go, that's how you get Machine Rights Activists. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34118482 EDIT: also animals are fighting back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8sPBsR9Lo

Those are amazing.