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How come... in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, February 26 2006 20:34 Profile Homepage #6
That's enough.

—Alorael, who would like to remind Canned that there is a Code of Conduct that applies even when you are insulted. TM is a lost cause, but escalation doesn't help at all.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
From the desk of Mitt Romney: in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, February 26 2006 18:12 Profile Homepage #58
That's not even a defined infinity!

—Alorael, who must ponder whether or not the set of all infinite sets is larger than the set of the largest infinite set that is not the set of all infinite sets (if, in fact, the largest infinite set is also the set of all infinite sets). He also must confess that he is less interested in pondering this than saying it out loud and giggling like Thuryl.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Conservative Shift in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, February 26 2006 18:08 Profile Homepage #48
I'm always ambivalent about term limits. Does preventing the eternal counterproductive senators justify removing from office those who could and would continue to serve the people rather than themselves? I don't know.

The biggest problem with campaigns is that they're based on charisma, not policy. Banning television ads would help. Banning campaigning altogether aside from written statements to the press would help even more. Both are a little beyond feasibility.

—Alorael, who remains convinced that most of the best politicians (for the country, not in terms of skill) are the people who are least likely to run. Involuntary election is an attractive concept except for the loss of freedom involved and the fact that it's hard to convince anyone to vote for someone doing his or her best to ensure that someone else is elected.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Request for Chat Logs in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, February 26 2006 10:52 Profile Homepage #16
Crisper/Spider

Or anything involving Crystal Souls.

—Alorael, who does not approve or condone making a million little Spiders even if they are cute and neat.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
walkthrough in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, February 26 2006 10:46 Profile Homepage #47
Not yet.

—Alorael, who considers these boards a walkthrough on request. Besides, A4 lacks all of the real puzzles that made other Avernums difficult. It's just a matter of hacking and slashing, finding the lever in a certain keep, learning how to dodge pylons, and not worrying too much about the Abyss before you can get there.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Where is Portmaster Pirro in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, February 25 2006 13:06 Profile Homepage #2
The portal is closer to Camp Samuels than the Tower Colony. It's in the southeastern part of the Sulfurous Flats between Almaria and the Tower Colony, south of the camp of stuck merchants.

—Alorael, who just realized that the fate of Upper Avernum is never commented upon in A4. Do New Cotra and New Formello simply not matter? Who replaced Commander Johnson in Fort Emergence, and what did the interim commander of Fort Duvno think when the old commander came back to displace him?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
medieval times or modern times? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, February 25 2006 11:00 Profile Homepage #30
Salmon has just improved my day.

—Alorael, who also has been led to believe by somewhat unreliable sources that Japan's paradigm of war was much more oriented around rapid and efficient killing and light armor whereas Europe relied on heavier armor and prolongued bashing. Certainly by the time plate came into fashion it made more sense to have a heavy sword for bashing than a sharp sword to dull on armor.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
From the desk of Mitt Romney: in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, February 25 2006 10:55 Profile Homepage #52
But sometimes two that seem like they shouldn't be the same size are the same size even when they obviously can't be.

—Alorael, whose infinity is bigger than twice your infinity plus infinity.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Name in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, February 25 2006 10:47 Profile Homepage #59
Si escribieras todos los mensajes para Spidweb en español, yo garantizo que mejorarías tu español.

O tal vez se puede aprender de Wikibooks. No me impresionó mucho, pero es gratis.

—Alorael, quien recomienda que no haga lo que él mismo hace. No es ni necesario ni posible comunicar solamente en el modo condicional, aunque muchos lo harían si pudieran.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
noob Mac question in Tech Support
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, February 25 2006 10:30 Profile Homepage #10
No.

—Alorael, who still hopes that someone will come up with a decent form of Classic emulation. Maybe Mac-on-Mac will advance the cause.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
STUPIDEST POST EVER!!! in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 24 2006 17:30 Profile Homepage #70
Don't be absurd. Eggs are abortion, so they're also murder. Unless they're unfertilized, in which case they're just tasty.

—Alorael, who labors under the yolk of oppressive diet.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Eep! Christians! (Split from Christian Radio) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 24 2006 17:26 Profile Homepage #166
What can you tell me about how your pancreas works, how it can stop working, and what can be done about it? How about liver? Are you up to date on the lymphatic system? Being human doesn't make you an expert on being human at all. Instincts are fine things, but they are a product of evolution, which has nothing to do with medical understanding.

Of course there are hospital horror stories. They represent a minute fraction of the number of births in hospitals. Humans screw up. Doctors are human. They don't screw up all the time, though, and they certainly don't screw up more than other people who might deliver babies.

In "wise, untouched cultures" infant mortality tends to depend on the level of hygiene and nutrition, much like it does anywhere else. In animals, birth depends on the animal. In some delivery is invariably fatal. In others it's infrequently fatal. Since they aren't humans, that isn't meaningful. Humans alone in the wild don't deliver as well as humans with help.

Anecdotes aren't evidence. Numbers are evidence. (Yes, spirit of Synergy, numbers!) Medical advice is based on probabilities. If you have an infection you might get better and you might die. Your chances of recovery are better with antibiotics than without. One spontaneous recovery, or a hundred spontaneous recoveries, don't make this untrue.

The doctors are the ones who know the numbers are can tell you what is most likely to help you.

[Edit: For the record, giving birth at home has been generally shown to work just as well as giving birth in a hospital for normal births. Both have risks. Hospital infections don't happen at home, and unexpected complications can be cared for in a hospital.]

—Alorael, who could, given enough time, put himself through college, go to medical school, specialize in the ailment he's suffering, and then make his own fully informed decision. Since that's a little inconvenient, he takes advantage of those who have already done it.

[ Friday, February 24, 2006 17:37: Message edited by: No Passion Like Draft Passion ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
From the desk of Mitt Romney: in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 24 2006 17:08 Profile Homepage #47
quote:
Originally written by Dintiradan:

All the people I know delivered Caesarean are SOULLESS!!!
I'm pretty sure birth by C-section is still considered birth. Otherwise I was never born myself.

—Alorael, who would hate to be autoimmune to someone else's genes.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
cats or dogs? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 24 2006 08:51 Profile Homepage #63
I once saw a series of graphs comparing various animals' ages with equivalent human ages based on various measurements of senescence. The relationship was not at all linear, but it did average out to something like seven cat or dog years per human year over the first ten years. Obviously cats who live to be 14, which is uncommon but not strikingly rare, are not like 140-year-old humans.

—Alorael, who would like to know how long needle/ferrets live and how their lives compare proportionally with human lives.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Windows version in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 24 2006 08:43 Profile Homepage #38
How do you cheat in posting?

—Alorael, who knows the answer to that. How does one cheat in posting without abuse of moderation?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
General Chat in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, February 24 2006 08:42 Profile Homepage #18
May a lotus spring forth from your navel and a palm grow from your face!

—Alorael, who may or may not be present. His chances of appearing (and staying silent, in all likelihood) are directly proportional to the resemblance of the chatroom's name to Room 3.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Windows version in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 19:50 Profile Homepage #34
Untrue. If you don't have the connections, your posts are spam and you're banned until your posting rate goes down. Persist and you may have your account banned, leaving you back at 0.

—Alorael, who hopes you're up to date with your guanxi.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
medieval times or modern times? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 19:46 Profile Homepage #7
The topic has become somewhat interesting thanks to Kel, so it can live. The creation of the topic was wholly unnecessary.

—Alorael, who is pretty sure the Middle Ages weren't worth living through. If they weren't worth living after, they were a complete waste of several hundred years. Or... were they a conspiracy?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
From the desk of Mitt Romney: in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 19:43 Profile Homepage #38
If Heaven requires bragging, I don't really want in so much.

—Alorael, who believes the easiest answer to the unborn baby question is that souls don't appear until birth. That has interesting implications for legislation, too.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A4 Hidden Skills [SPOILERS] in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 12:30 Profile Homepage #36
There is no lava. There are no damaging floors of any kind.

—Alorael, who missed lava too. Swamps still appear, although as an inconvenience rather than a threat. There's not even cosmetic lava, and Avernum isn't the same without it.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
What Movies Are You Looking Forward To? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 08:46 Profile Homepage #32
Originally, yes. It was picked up by Knopf and turned into the phenomenon it is now.

—Alorael, who supposes he can understand why. It is, after all, a brilliant success for Knopf. It just doesn't deserve it's success! (So go the whines of literary critics throughout history.)
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Signatures in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 08:40 Profile Homepage #18
My signature is a spontaneous innovation of mine, although convergent meme evolution has reproduced it in several places online.

—Alorael, whose only regret is that he has no way to conveniently provide plugs or save quotations that deserve remembering. Buzzwords and pants come to mind.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Eep! Christians! (Split from Christian Radio) in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 08:29 Profile Homepage #160
If everyone survived, we'd overpopulate even faster and cause disaster. Really it would be lovely to eradicate disease and Malthusian exponential population growth. Two children per couple with no deaths would be lovely, except I don't think the Earth can support its current human population at first world levels even without growth right now.

quote:
Originally written by Bruce Mitchell:

Some points for consideration-
Yes, I am very invested in my viewpoint. I see how much suffering there is in modern birthing, for example.
This is rather true for ancient birthing, too. Extremely true, actually. Or did you miss the fact that the Bible apparently considers childbirth a curse of sorts?

quote:
As far as I know, the more matriarchal and undiluted the culture, the less likely the mother would die in childbirth.
Cite, please. What cultures are "matriarchal and undiluted," and what are their childbirth mortality rates?

quote:
I doubt that government information (including therefore websites) are that reputable – whether intentionally or not.
Then we have no way to debate, because you refuse to accept our sources and we refuse to accept yours. Since federally funded organizations are usually considered the best sources for unbiased medical information, though, I think you're the one putting on blinders here.

quote:
[b]Get advice from doctors (and many other sources) rather than trusting them - then trust your instincts/gut.
[/b]

[b]No![/b] You get advice from doctors or other professionals becauses they are trained to have valid reasons supporting their judgments. They know more than you on medical issues. You have a right to choose, but choosing based on something other than medical advice is absurd.

If you're going to go on gut reactions, don't bother going to a doctor at all. You're wasting your time and the doctor's.

quote:
The pathogens in the hospital that I am concerned about are the doctors and their domino-effect interferences and the hospital policy.
If nothing is wrong, a good doctor won't do anything. If something is wrong, the doctor tries to fix it. The worse things are, the more likely intervention is to bring up further problems, which require further interventions. This is not the fault of the doctor or the hospita. Isn't it better to undergo this "domino effect" than to just die, as people did before modern healthcare?

—Alorael, who recommends looking at the NCCAM site. Poke around for a few minutes. Read some abstracts. This part in particular is appropriate to this debate. It is, sadly, an unreliable and biased government website, but what can you do?

[ Thursday, February 23, 2006 08:32: Message edited by: Uc ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Windows version in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 08:11 Profile Homepage #32
We're just like the rich and the poor!

—Alorael, who is glad to know that he controls far more than his fair share of Spiderweb's blabber economy.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
cats or dogs? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, February 23 2006 08:07 Profile Homepage #35
I have known cats who would jump on the table for attention, but if you don't give your cat meat your cat won't try to steal your meat.

—Alorael, who has very fond memories of a rather placid feline who was given a slice of ham. The cat was unsure about the ham, but he gamely picked it up and walked away. Then a toddler ran up, tore the ham out of the cat's mouth, and ran away. The cat's major reaction seemed to be relief that it didn't need to worry about strange foods anymore.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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