Profile for Or else o'erleap.

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Field	Value
Displayed name	Or else o'erleap.
Member number	335
Title	Law Bringer
Postcount	14579
Homepage	http://www.polarisboard.net
Registered	Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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Favorite Words in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 21:30 Profile Homepage #22 In Hebrew, "et" is a great word. It's the best linguistic intron I've ever encountered Spanish has many wonderful words, especially those borrowed from the Aztecs. —Alorael, who loves encountering words in other languages that express something much more difficult to express in English. He then tries to refrain from using them constantly (and meaninglessly) in conversations with with English speakers and often fails spectacularly. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Technical question in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 17:30 Profile Homepage #1 Yes. There's no transfer involved, because registration is just putting in a code that makes the game allow you to access the parts of the game that are blocked off when you haven't registered. —Alorael, who would be annoyed if Spiderweb games allowed you to play through roughly 25% of the game and then made you do it again once you registered. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Power Corrupts in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 17:28 Profile Homepage #99 The greatest of all possible things must possess the greatest of all possible characteristics. It must thus be omnipotent and omniscient. From those two, you really have all the characteristics necessary for a Judeo-Christian God. —Alorael, who has trouble with the leap from the conceptual to the existing. He can't articulate why this is logically false, but the proof seems as though it should only prove the existence of a conceptual God. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
"Policing" ourselves? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 17:20 Profile Homepage #58 "Just a theory" bothers me a great deal, because most of what is scientifically "true" is still just a theory. A "wrong" theory doesn't bother me nearly as much, because theories differ only in the accuracy with which they describe observable phenomena. A theory is right when we cannot measure any deviation from the theory, although it may well be that we either lack sufficiently sensitive tools for measurement or access to a situation in which reality deviates from the theory's prediction. A theory is wrong when another theory is more right. This doesn't account for degrees of inaccuracy/wrongness, but it still describes the theories, albeit with incorrect terminology. —Alorael, would be very tempted to call a theory technically as well as colloquially wrong if it were able to predict real-world events 0% of the time. "Any mass exerts a force on all other masses directed radially outward from the first mass" is a theory of gravity that can really only be described as very, very wrong. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Power Corrupts in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 16:55 Profile Homepage #97 God could spontaneously cause us to believe that he exists, and to believe that we had always believed that he exists. He doesn't. There's really no explaining without trying to understand the mind and limitations of God, which is impossible by our working definition of God. I think Alec's point still stands. There is no faith that does not believe in a benign greater power. It may not be the only power or the greatest power, but it's always there. Ben, that defense of ID can be true but still doesn't mean anything. Evolution is not directed except on a moment to moment basis by selective pressures, which are the result of circumstances, which are dictated by everything in the area. God may fudge with the probability numbers, but he doesn't do so do in any detectable way, so he might as well not be fudging. He could have set up the universe to result in life as it exists now, but that's both a possible violation of free will and definitely back to the problem that the existence of our universe is no more or less explicable than the existence of a god who coudl create it. Positing the existence and power of God does not resolve any questions. He may have created the universe so that evolution would be directed to what we have now, or he may not exist at all, and the two cases are utterly indistinguishable. The existence of evolution, independent of God's existence, is verifiable (and to a large extent verified) and useful. —Alorael, who has no problem with intelligent design as a theological question. It doesn't conflict with measurable reality, unlike young Earth creationism. It just doesn't add anything to scientific knowledge, so it's not a scientific question. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
"Policing" ourselves? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 13:43 Profile Homepage #56 Newtonian mechanics are wrong, and we know they're wrong. They're also an extremely good approximation for the cases you're likely to come across in everyday, macroscopic, low velocity life. Newton is perfectly good for predicting how things will act with the imprecise measurement tools you are likely to have at your disposal. In other words, Newton's theories, however wrong, are right enough for a great deal of useful work. Intelligent design does not provide any useful building block. Nothing can be done with ID. Things can be done with evolution, mostly in theory but sometimes in practice, and they generally turn out to work. That means ID is not a useful theory and evolution is, regardless of which is right. It also means evolution has more empirical rightness. A better comparison would be Einstein's theories and evolution. We don't know that Einstein has the full picture, but the experts in the field overwhelmingly can't find anything missing. We don't know that evolutionary theory is completely right either, but the experts in the field overwhelmingly can't come up with a better theory. —Alorael, who is entirely guilty of bringing up an unresolvable issue that could have been avoided. He should be tried, convicted, drawn, quartered, and locked. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Power Corrupts in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 11:41 Profile Homepage #87 quote: Originally written by radix malorum est cupiditas: It reminds me of the "if Hitler did God's will, is he in hell?" question. Yes. That is not to say that what he did wasn't God's will. Whatever anyone does falls along the lines of God's will. But God did not will that Hitler and only Hitler was the one to kill 11 million people. That was done of Hitler's free will. If not him, then someone else would have done it. And that person would be the one suffering his existence away. That argument doesn't work. Everyone could choose not to enact God's will if everyone has free will. Therefore eventually God has to step in and make people do what he wants or some people aren't people and don't have free will. I don't like the idea of God having meat puppets very much. I like the idea of God deciding that ten million innocent people must die by one hand or another even less. —Alorael, who may have to create a new sect. Jews for Meat Puppets of God is kind of catchy, isn't it? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Xylgham udwlnit skretcko!1!! in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 11:37 Profile Homepage #29 The Jack who is not Donner, of course! —Alorael, who has a sudden curiosity as to Major Major Major Major's college major. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A new low: in this thread, we hold a conversation using images in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 11:35 Profile Homepage #19 —Alorael, who [ Sunday, April 23, 2006 13:30: Message edited by: Parody of Oneself ] Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
does any1 like in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 11:26 Profile Homepage #11 I have tea and scones with them on alternating Saturdays. I have to say, while some are simply delightful, most have no refinement at all and can't follow a conversation for more than a minute before going off on some flighty tangent. —Alorael, who perversely refuses to provide a lock. Sometimes the bullet must be bitten. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Guess What in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 09:40 Profile Homepage #15 A boy, obviously. A boy named Ed. That's the only possible connection. —Alorael, who apologizes for the stretching. It had to be done. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Favorite Words in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Sunday, April 23 2006 09:30 Profile Homepage #6 "Posting game" is two words that aren't my favorite. This is very close. —Alorael, who likes most words. Words are often very nice. Overspecialized words are even better, as are unnecessary bits of jargon. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Power Corrupts in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 22:51 Profile Homepage #77 But you still have to account for the other universes, Starturtles, or Slartuckers who create our universe. —Alorael, who can only resolve this with time travel. Universes A and B collide and form C and D, which then collide backwards in time to create A and B. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Spidweb Community Xbox Live Party! in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 22:46 Profile Homepage #68 $300 easier? —Alorael, who is happier having things on a computer than on a console. It's a visceral thing. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
G.W.B.W.O. in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 22:40 Profile Homepage #9 —Alorael, who entirely agrees with VCH. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Spidweb Community Xbox Live Party! in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 12:46 Profile Homepage #66 As long as the games for the previous-generation consoles are compatible with the current console, that fails to justify buying the old instead of the new. —Alorael, who invested a few minutes in researching the mentioned titles. Two Oddworld games are Xbox exclusives. Fable 2 hasn't been released yet. That seems to be all for the RPGs. Everything else is also on PC, Playstation, or both. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Statistically Yours, on the First Anniversary in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 10:07 Profile Homepage #67 I have had 697 monikers, and I'm missing around four of them due to file corruption. The rest are duly recorded. As always, a very nice cookie to anyone who can name them all. —Alorael, who has been at it for some time now and who is starting to get moniker fatigue. Oh, if only relief were to come! Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Power Corrupts in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 09:58 Profile Homepage #71 Two quick comments on Job: 1. Satan (or the Adversary) in Job is not much like the New Testament Satan. He is, as I understand it, an angel. He is definitely a servant of God. 2. The Adversary inflicts boils on Job along with all the other doom and gloom. Everything else is somehow undone (new wife and kids, etc.), but not the boils. Yes, Job gets a new life, but he's still horribly scarred and probably in pain. Moral? The source of the universe can't be used to support or deny the existence of God. The universe coming into being is a problem, because either it always existed, which is difficult to imagine, or it came into being spontaneously, which is even more difficult. God could bring the universe into being, but he would have to come from somewhere too. None of the events are obviously more or less improbable than the others, so there's no basis for believing one over the others. We could even have a series of gods creating each other until the last one makes the universe, but it doesn't help clarify anything. I don't see the problem with having an omnipotent and omniscient being, as far as we're concerned, who didn't self-created. Even if God 1 created God 2 and God 2 is in the Bible, he's still the absolutely superior being in any frame of reference relevant to humanity. We're firmly stuck in our own universe. —Alorael, who pins his hope of free will on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. It's not really a productive worry, though, because whether or not free will exists the world has to operate as though it does. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
items you'd like to see in The Exile Trilogy
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 00:07 Profile Homepage #19 It's not called the sword of power, though. It's called the Master Sword, which means it's not really more original in content but more uniquely phrased. —Alorael, who can't imagine it going through an awkward youth as the Apprentice Sword. Maybe it was the Apprentice Metal Bar. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Av1, 2, Total inept +plus brittle bones rocks in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 00:04 Profile Homepage #1 Luthien, who isn't around at all and hasn't been for years, played through A2 with a Totally Inept and Brittle Bones singleton as a challenge. He was successful. —Alorael, who believes Luthien claimed that Avatar, the Divinely Touched Elite Warrior (or was it Natural Mage?) was a more difficult character to play with. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Tower Colony Gate in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Saturday, April 22 2006 00:02 Profile Homepage #5 The creators of magic spells realized how disastrous letting adventurers blow holes in everything would be. Instead, they decided that all easily learned damaging spells can only affect animate beings. The real wall demolishers can only be learned after years of intense study in the Academy of NPCs. —Alorael, who is also quite certain that business competition would mean that all the best doors have to be made by those who can produce very, very durable work, what with all the adventurers running around and all. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
"Policing" ourselves? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, April 21 2006 14:15 Profile Homepage #37 What's interesting is that we can have a three way comparison of Hitler, Stalin, and the Jews. Two are leaders who wielded more power than any leader should ever wield, and one is a group of fairly disparate people. Even if you restrict it to Jews in Israel it's still a very odd group. A fair comparison would be the Germans, the Soviets, and the Israelis. That isn't a meaningful comparison, so we can ignore it. —Alorael, who isn't sure who wins the worst person prize between Hitler and Stailn. Both men had goals, both men chose evil ways to try to accomplish those goals, and both killed millions of their own citizens. Stalin had a higher body count, but Hitler was more morally repugnant. Throw Mao into the mix and you get even more ethical fun. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Power Corrupts in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, April 21 2006 13:54 Profile Homepage #13 That lacks an antecedent and probably begs the question. But I don't really follow (note point 1), so maybe not. (This is deliberately poorly stated. Figure out why!) Aran, you've failed as a moderator if you're experiencing anything as petty as guilt. Remember: "No hesitation, no regrets, and no mercy." —Alorael, who takes God to be uncorrupted by definition. Then the limit as human approaches godly is corrupted, but human(godly) = divine. Strange, isn't it? Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Does anyone use thrown weapons in AV4? in Avernum 4
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, April 21 2006 07:49 Profile Homepage #9 Most of my best sniping was done by casters who didn't have enough strength to lug around javelins and razordisks. Bows are perfect for them. They also require less management. —Alorael, who concedes that throwing is effective, although you won't find many specialty thrown weapons like some of the nice bows. The downside is effort. If you're lazy, avoid throwing and stick with simple infinite arrow bows. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Money, before or after? in General
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, April 21 2006 07:42 Profile Homepage #37 In the UK it is a common practise to spell practice with an S. —Alorael, who practises practically all the latest practices. Posts: 14579 \| Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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