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Slithzerkai Sighting! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, June 5 2006 18:08 Profile Homepage #7
Tolkien's elves have more in common with Norse elves than other mythological elves, and I don't think the Celts had elves at all. They did have sidhe, who are reasonably elf-like, but they're not quite elves.

—Alorael, who doesn't think anyone could claim a unique fantasy race anymore. At least not any as simple as animal-people or people with slightly different ears or funny proportions. For originality fantasy has been reduced to adding strange appendages and protruding bits, bizarre coloration, and culture weirdness.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Slithzerkai Sighting! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, June 5 2006 13:43 Profile Homepage #1
Abandoned Realms opened in 1997. The help file became available in February 2006.

Plagiarizing sliths would be illegal, but just having lizard men and calling them sliths isn't really solid grounds for legal complaint. It's probably shifty, but they could call them Thlis and nobody would notice.

—Alorael, who would not like to have to deal with Thlis. Too hard to pronounce!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Red Rain in India in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, June 5 2006 13:23 Profile Homepage #21
According to Popular Science the cells are quite interesting. Reproduction without DNA (or, presumably, RNA) isn't a familiar trait of Earth life and superhyperthermophilia is also unique. On the other hand, the article makes it sound as though the solid-state physicist is doing the biological research. Oops.

—Alorael, who hopes that this leads to the discovery of superheated air pockets in the upper troposphere. Air pockets with magical flying lava kittens!

[ Monday, June 05, 2006 13:26: Message edited by: Fish Backwards ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Shade essance quest difficulties in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, June 5 2006 13:14 Profile Homepage #5
It's definitely easier with a single buffed fighter, but there's no reason to make it a suicide mission. A hasted fighter can escape the shade's clutches. Not that it really matters since you'll be leaving through the city gates almost immediately anyway, but it's a point of pride not to get killed.

—Alorael, who also tried summoning cannon fodder to distract the shade. It didn't work very well.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Doors with X's on them? in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, June 5 2006 13:12 Profile Homepage #2
If you only went through the first test, the next one you want is north of Formello.

—Alorael, who wouldn't worry too much. Backtracking is easy with Fort Avernum, but you don't miss any major (or minor) plot points or even any spectacular loot by missing the tests.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What continent do you live on? (in which the voices take over) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Monday, June 5 2006 13:08 Profile Homepage #49
Multiple personalities are internal. We're all different voices heard by one schizophrenic externally, obviously. Or maybe the multiple personalities make it obvious that we have multiple personality disorder, but we also have schizophrenia and that needed to be explicitly stated.

While it's apparently accepted, I think conversational drift is a better term for what happened here. Analysis paralysis in its slightly more technical application has to do with the waste of resources on examination instead of production. Conversationally, the same could apply if there were a point to the discussion and it got lost in side discussions. There is, however, no real point to the discussion here.

—Alorael, who wouldn't even say that the original census was harmed by continent definitions. It's still perfectly clear what the votes mean and it's quite easy to vote.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
One thing say and ask in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, June 4 2006 14:40 Profile Homepage #7
Actually, all the Avernums, even A1-3, work the same way. The guards who say you can leave your stuff somewhere are a dialogue relic of Exile, where you had limited options for storage.

—Alorael, who can only remember some of the storage rooms now: Silvar in E1 and E2, Olgai in E2, and Fort Emergence, The House on the Hill, and Hawke's Manse in E3. Upon looking it up for his own amusement, he discovered that he was missing The Castle in E1 and E2.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What continent do you live on? (in which the voices take over) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, June 4 2006 08:16 Profile Homepage #35
Again, geologically speaking, a good definition for a continent is a landmass with its own plate. Australia isn't quite alone on its plate, but the small piece of Asia notwithstanding it's the major landmass and therefore deserves continental plate tectonic status.

—Alorael, who wonders if non-continental landmasses are incontinent. Or is that more properly the term for a region of a subdivided continent?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
drad curse in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, June 3 2006 22:11 Profile Homepage #1
Ahonar, the Anama high priest in Shayder on the Isle of Bigail, can cure Dread Curse. He's also the only one who can.

—Alorael, who recommends not angering the Anama if you anticipate any curses in your future.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Red Rain in India in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, June 3 2006 22:10 Profile Homepage #10
My eschatology was never good to begin with, but I'm pretty sure we can't manage a big A Apocalypse. That requires miracles or magic, and our technology is not sufficiently advanced.

—Alorael, who will just have to settle for apocalyptic mass annihilation.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Bunker problem in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, June 3 2006 19:36 Profile Homepage #4
To clarify: the item helps you not have to fight, but you can also just run. Winning the fight is possible and maybe fun but counterproductive in the long run.

—Alorael, who does not spoil. Don't spoil.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Peer Review Process (was Evolution Stuff (was What is Religion, exactly?)) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, June 3 2006 10:49 Profile Homepage #188
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

quote:
Originally written by Khoth:

You wouldn't say "from a scientific perspective my front door is blue, but from a religious perspective it's green".
Well, unless you believe in bleen and grue. To return to the original topic for a moment, would believing that your front door is actually bleen count as a religious belief? :P
That's one of the most common religious beliefs, really. A messianic figure is nonexistent or at least non-corporeal before time t and arrived, usually with great fanfare, after time t, where t is Armageddon or an analogous event.

—Alorael, who believes that RW will have existed after t and before t', where t is after t'.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum V ideas in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, June 3 2006 10:40 Profile Homepage #28
I've never had enemies run in Exile. Outdoor wandering encounters disappear without a fight if your level is high enough (like high Cave/Nature Lore in Avernum) but you can never shout boo and watch your foes panic.

—Alorael, who doesn't understand how one could wear bracers and gauntlets. Unless gloves and bracers get one slot each and gauntlets fill both, which would be a pain, it's not really worthwhile. And there aren't any bracers in Avernum anyway. Changing sprites for equipment are simply too expensive to happen.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Peer Review Process (was Evolution Stuff (was What is Religion, exactly?)) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, June 2 2006 23:11 Profile Homepage #179
He can't because no creationism or ID are published in peer-reviewed journals. ID says that they're being repressed. I think maybe they're missing the message.

—Alorael, who just renewed his subscription to The Scientist and who just recycled an enormous stack of Lancets (not originally his).
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What continent do you live on? (in which the voices take over) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, June 2 2006 19:24 Profile Homepage #17
Jamaica shares a tectonic plate with North America. Zimbabwe and Egypt do not share a tectonic plate with Great Britain. And what on Earth, literally, is a "part of the world" supposed to be? I've heard of five political continents (America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia) and seven traditional continents (add Antarctica and divide the Americas) but both are arbitrary.

—Alorael, who concludes that everyone is really just a displaced Pangaean anyway.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
resorting party? in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, June 2 2006 14:45 Profile Homepage #6
It's good information to have in the thread, but please don't double post. If you have more to add you can use the edit button.

—Alorael, who might as well mention that it took him a while to stumble onto party reorganization.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What continent do you live on? (in which the voices take over) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, June 2 2006 14:43 Profile Homepage #10
Calling the Suez Canal a division of landmasses makes about as much sense as saying the Americas were one continent until the Panama Canal divided them. You can say that, but I still think you're crazy for it. Continental plates (and very small land bridges that allow for canals) make a better case.

—Alorael, who can see keeping the politically useful continent definitions. Fuzzy borders aside, Europe and Asia and Africa are pretty different places.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Peer Review Process (was Evolution Stuff (was What is Religion, exactly?)) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, June 2 2006 14:37 Profile Homepage #169
The "naked gene" model of biogenesis points out that RNA is capable of forming ribosomes and thus self-replication. In that case, molecules thrown together randomly formed both the language (GAUC) and the arbitrary meaning (RNA) simultaneously. I'm not quite sure what it means, but it's interesting.

An example of beneficial gene addition can again be found in antibiotic resistance. One bacterial strain develops resistance and then others pick it up through transformation, transduction, and conjugation. In fact, entirely unrelated species can and have become resistant by laterally picking up the gene. This isn't evolution in the tree of life sense, but it's evolution in the sense of genomic change.

—Alorael, who actually should mention on the subject of the tree of life that Creator's "29 Evidences" article seems to be confusing phylogenetic trees with evolution. Phylogenetics are a descriptive tool based on the validity of evolution, not an observed truth used to bolster evolution. There are plenty of known problems with trying to slot all life, particularly prokaryotic life and some plants, into a tree in which evolution goes only one way and never jumps around.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Upgrading from OS 9 binaries to OS X in Tech Support
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, June 2 2006 12:25 Profile Homepage #2
Someone posted this before, I think.

—Alorael, who also definitely recalls reading it and thinking that someone obviously possessed a healthy helping of common sense combined with ingenuity.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
My God can beat up your God! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, June 1 2006 16:36 Profile Homepage #185
No, because the Qur'an is pretty clear about Allah being the god worshipped by Abraham. Abraham is generally accepted as a worshipper of the god mentioned frequently in the Old Testament.

Actually, there's a great deal of agreement that Allah is a good translation of "God" in Arabic. It's good enough that translations of the Tanakh and the Bible into Arabic use Allah.

—Alorael, who can see a case being made for Islam co-opting an existing deity to spread monotheism much like Christianity absorbed pagan holidays. And much like Elohim might be an evolution of an early God. That doesn't make the Judaism to Christianity to Islam progression any less true.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Peer Review Process (was Evolution Stuff (was What is Religion, exactly?)) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, June 1 2006 16:08 Profile Homepage #125
quote:
Originally written by The Creator[b:

quote]Originally written by Kel:
absolutely anything whatever would be consistent with special creation. Which is just another way of saying that special creation theory makes no predictions at all.
Many would say the same of evolution.[/b][/quote]That particular criticism of evolution is new to me. IDers make a big deal of ID not being evolution, and the theory of evolution very obviously makes predictions, some of which have been verified and some of which are a little more difficult on a limited timescale but that haven't ever been contradicted.

—Alorael, who is splitting hairs a bit with the last statement. ID denies evolution, but it doesn't actually provide evidence of evolution not happening. It simply provides evidence (using the term loosely) of evolution not being feasible.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Final Challange Rehnton Ihrno A3 in The Avernum Trilogy
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, June 1 2006 13:43 Profile Homepage #1
Make sure you've turned on all ten lasers below the keep. Also make sure you're really pressing the right buttons. I can't remember the locations, but you want to load slime, refocus beams, and begin the process. The remaining button will cancel all your hard work.

—Alorael, who wishes he had the locations of the right buttons and the very wrong button.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Custom Names - images inside in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, June 1 2006 13:39 Profile Homepage #49
"of" is not a verb.

—Alorael, who has identified a new pet peeve. Huzzah!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Peer Review Process (was Evolution Stuff (was What is Religion, exactly?)) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, June 1 2006 13:33 Profile Homepage #118
Two small points:

I know nothing about information theory, and I'm fuzzy on what "genetic information" might be, but genetic code I understand. Genetic code can increase. Genes duplicate in chromosomes regularly. In fact, chromosomes duplicate often as well, and that's on of the major causes of plant speciation. Even if the only mechanisms are genetic duplication and loss or substitution of base pairs, all it takes is one long gene and you can eventually get every possible shorter gene.

If we're looking at the origin of the universe, we can start with the assumption that it was a singularity that exploded in a Big Bang. I'm not an expert in singularities, but I could see how it can be considered a state with zero degrees of freedom. That would make it highly "ordered" so that the Big Bang increases entropy. (How does that agree with the Big Crunch?) We can argue about Creationism vs. the Big Bang, but we aren't. We're arguing about the origin of life, which certainly didn't start out in pure chaos. Prebiotic Earth had plenty of "order," whatever that means.

—Alorael, who thinks Pythology, Kibology, and His Noodly Appendage count as two religions and one count of divine inappropriate touching, respectively.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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