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Scent of new-mown hay in Richard White Games
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 20:08 Profile Homepage #54
We already know that mice can manage mazes. I think even a language-lacking human could manage it, and I'm not sure how well the results would correlate with intelligence. Otherwise I'm sure we'd all stop with the absurdity of IQ testing and just send people through mazes on cheese hunts.

—Alorael, who would actually consider cheese a much better reward than a number of two or three digits which one can bear as a mark of shame or pride forever. You can't eat shame and nobody wants to eat pride, but cheese can be delicious.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Would you rather play Homeland or... in Richard White Games
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 20:05 Profile Homepage #48
We still don't know exactly what we're saying yes to...

—Alorael, who is unable to translate "just say yes" into Spanish verbatim because, to the best of his knowledge, there's no one-word equivalent of "just" in this sense. Does anyone know enough Esperanto to give it a try?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Were we prepared? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 19:38 Profile Homepage #95
You're right, the Five Books of Moses are wholly or partially written by Moses. The rest was left to bunglers, and now we have things like Buggere Alle This Bible.

Besides being able to cry "Slippery slope!" over biblical literalism and pi, which is silly, I'll concede that the pi is a moderately absurd way to disprove the Bible by counterexample. I'll also note that most sites I can find seem to justify it by extreme means up to and including localized distortions of space and time to permit pi = 3. Lovecraft was in the Bible, apparently. Rounding the number makes a lot more sense to me, especially since the target audience probably wasn't too familiar with decimals, let alone transcendental numbers.

Allah linguistically means "god," I believe. Their God, your God, Zeuss, Thor, or the Almighty Dollar, they're all Allahs. However, since the Koran specifies that the Allah of choice is the same Allah as Abraham's and Jesus', I think denying that to Muslims, at least, it's all one God is ridiculous.

—Alorael, who is at least willing to accept that if God stopped the sun and performed other feats that might have dire consequences, he kept those dire consequences from happening. If you're God, the easiest way to stop the sun in the sky is probably either to move the sun around the Earth for a while or to start doing funny bendy things to incoming photons to make it look like the sun is standing still. Or maybe you drop the Earth into an alternate universe in which the sky is actually only a mile overhead and is made of a large canvas upon which blue skies, clouds, and the sun are painted. God doesn't have to play by the rules.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Scent of new-mown hay in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 19:22 Profile Homepage #52
Of course sign language is a language. My deaf comment wasn't meant to suggest that the deaf can't think, but that someone who hasn't yet learned language can't (since a deaf child is more likely to grow up without learning language: babies learn spoken language because they grow up with it, but some deaf babies must not be constantly around sign language). (That was a long parenthetical!) Anyway, the wolf children make a better example, because they show that after some critical age language cannot be learned. Has anyone determined how they think? If they are capable of the same level of thought as a linguistic human, then thought is independent of language.

I can't think of any good ways to test this, myself. We have enough trouble defining thought and types of thought. What kind of thinking or reasoning requires language and what kind does not? How can you tell if someone is thinking but unable to communicate those thoughts or not thinking as we are at all? Besides, I still believe, with no evidence, that even those who are entirely unfamiliar with interpersonal communication have some kind of thought process. Would various scans back me up?

—Alorael, who could see the thought-language connection as a clear advantage for the deaf. They are often obliged to learn two languages: some form of sign language for obvious reasons and the written form of the local spoken language for equally obvious reasons. Since sign language and written language need not and often do not have any linguistic ties, such a person has two entirely unrelated languages in which to think. Moreover, for what it's worth, the languages aren't even similar in medium. SWH proposes that predisposes you to stupidity.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Just say no in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 17:33 Profile Homepage #96
Which I didn't do and don't do unless the post really needs it. Masked profanity doesn't merit such heavy-handed treatment.

—Alorael, who can't edit posts everywhere. There's Tech Support, and there are two Blades and three Geneforge boards. Even Nethergate and SubTerra are still unconquered!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Were we prepared? in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 17:24 Profile Homepage #90
Ash: Yeah, that's pretty clear... but how do you know it wasn't Satan pretending to be God? Okay, I'll stop now.

Ben: The Koran is what God says according to those who follow it, and saying "Allah" is not God makes as much sense as saying Adonai doesn't mean God, or Dios doesn't mean God. They do. They're literally words meaning God in different languages.

The Old Testament is wholly or partially, depending on how literally you take Exodus, dictation by God to Moses. (Did Moses write "Moses died" along with everything else? God must have had a mean streak.) The New Testament is not.

Yes, there is evidence directly refuting the Bible. Pi is a transcendental number usually approximated as 3.14. Pi is not 3!

[Edit: Pi isn't 4 either, but that's irrelevant.]

—Alorael, who is sure archaeologists have found evidence against other specific passages of the Bible. The problem is that while archaeologists can find evidence that's there, they can't find evidence of what didn't happen. Finding nothing means either it didn't happen or there's no evidence to be found, so it's not conclusive. You can only find positives.

[ Thursday, July 21, 2005 17:28: Message edited by: Electorael ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Scent of new-mown hay in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 14:38 Profile Homepage #48
Can babies think before they understand language? What about the deaf? Are those who are deaf and blind entirely unable to frame coherent thoughts until someone teaches them communication?

—Alorael, who finds this to be a dubious prospect indeed on no particular psychological basis.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Just say no in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 14:27 Profile Homepage #92
This is at least your second warning for masked profanity. Don't post it.

On the other hand, it means that everything is going according to plan. Watch your beans. I mean back.

—Alorael, who returns you to your fnord regularly scheduled conspiracies.

[ Thursday, July 21, 2005 14:31: Message edited by: Electorael ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Would you rather play Homeland or... in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 14:20 Profile Homepage #44
Verelor, stop spamming. The GCC is just fine without bumping.

—Alorael, who will give away one secret and only one: the "Just say yes!" topic has become "Sag einfach Ja!"
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Waste of Time? in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 14:14 Profile Homepage #12
Why do you do anything besides eat, sleep, and earn a living? I happen to find the forums fun, the people interesting and entertaining, and the interminable arguments enlightening. There are worse ways I could spend my time, and forums are much cheaper than building model airplanes.

—Alorael, who has also learned all kinds of things he'd never otherwise know. The many magnificent melons, fluffy turtles, why squirrels are evil, and never to click links without checking the URL first are only a few of the lessons Spiderweb has taught him.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Were we prepared? in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 14:10 Profile Homepage #85
According to the Church (before it was Catholic), using saints as a relay to God was perfectly reasonable. I don't know what the Vatican has said on the subject recently, but kindly do not apply your brand of faith to questions about other denominations.

quote:
Originally posted by Ben[b]

quote:
Originally written by Drakefyre:

Muslims and Jews can say equally insulting things to Christians and be just as correct. By 'not acceptable,' what do you mean? Aren't you taught to be loving and accepting of all God's children?
Their religion is not compatible to what God says. They are still acceptable to God, given they turn to him.
[/b]

Unless you're denying the Old Testament, Jews are doing what God says far more literally than Christians are. I know less about Islam, but the Koran is also what God says. You're exactly as right as the other religions for exactly the same reasons.

Note that the Old Testament is the word of God. The New Testament is the word of humans. As far as I know, none of it is even written by Jesus himself. It's all secondhand at best.

Actually, forgive my ignorance of the New Testament here, but what makes Jesus so inarguably not a minion of Satan using powers gained by consorting with demons to produce "miracles" to lead the faithful astray? Did God ever verify with His own Voice, complete with Extra Capital Letters, the status of His Son? If not, the New Testament seems very flimsy to me. It's written by humans about a human with no corroboration. Maybe all those warnings about sorcerers in Leviticus aren't so much wasted ink after all!

[Edit: ""]

—Alorael, who recalls that Omlette could provide a fair amount of evidence supporting a global flood. There's also a fair amount against it, too, so take it as you will. Anyway, most of the most spectacular events in the Bible would leave no archaeological evidence anyway. The sun stopping, the parting of the Sea of Reeds, people turning into pillars of salt, and all the rest are all impossible to prove or disprove.

[ Thursday, July 21, 2005 14:15: Message edited by: Electorael ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Official Election Final Round Voting in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, July 21 2005 13:46 Profile Homepage #166
Congratulations, Thuryl! Congratulations on making Thuryl sweat, Stugie!

—Alorael, who was going to edit his vote into his first post in this topic and then demand a recount. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to access Spiderweb at all in time for his supposed last minute vote, and then it didn't matter anyway. That's probably what he deserves.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Huzzah in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, July 20 2005 18:18 Profile Homepage #12
Congrats, Drew! The Fourth Sign of White's Ascension has come!

—Alorael, who will let the unbelievers tremble in fear as he goes in search of the next e^441 Signs.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Favorite Movie in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, July 20 2005 18:01 Profile Homepage #39
That's what they always claim.

—Alorael, who is interested in seeing what happens to the Lions of Al-Rassan movie. (He's also interested in knowing why anyone would basically pay for the rights to use El Cid, but that's not entirely relevant.)
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
It's been a long, long time since I played Exile III... in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, July 20 2005 17:47 Profile Homepage #2
If you email Jeff Vogel with the name and address you registered the games with and your new registration number, he will send you new codes.

—Alorael, who will warn that nobody official from Spiderweb habitually reads these boards. If you want a response, email is your best bet.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Just say no in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, July 20 2005 13:36 Profile Homepage #84
Then you have failed the test. The answer is always volunteer, but choose what you volunteer for most carefully. Unless you're volunteering someone else, of course, in which case you should gleefully ignore anything and everything regarding the sub-organization in question.

—Alorael, who does advise some caution so that disliked coworkers do not become ill-tempered, mutant, and even irascible needle/coworkers. They can kill quickly and silently in 73 ways using only paperclips and string beans.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Official Election Final Round Voting in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, July 20 2005 13:27 Profile Homepage #115
If you can maintain two accounts, both as respected (or at least tolerated) and regular members of the community, without ever using the same source of internet access for both, you deserve twice as many votes.

I'm going to regret saying this at some point.

—Alorael, who still holds the tie-breaker. Checks may be made payable to. Ahem. Private messages are being sent. No need to make corruption public.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, July 20 2005 12:52 Profile Homepage #182
Actually, it's only appropriate to pull it out at the table if the meat is very rare.

—Alorael, who now wonders if concealed knives are covered by concealed carry laws. It seems at least possible that it's more legal to hide a gun than a knife.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Regrettable But in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, July 20 2005 12:47 Profile Homepage #172
Elections don't belong in the Code of Conduct because, as far as Spiderweb is concerned, they have no legal standing. An election is only as official as Drakey and *i want it to be. This means that instead of campaigning to us you should campaign to them, but that's another issue entirely.

—Alorael, who believes double spacing at the end of a sentence (not after any period!) is a legacy of monospaced "fonts" on typewriters. When closed caption went out of favor and automatic spacing became the norm, single spacing also became the norm, at least in theory. In practice, there are staunch defenders of both spacings.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Down with RWG! in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, July 19 2005 19:29 Profile Homepage #37
No. RWG is filled with posts that are somewhat relevant, if viewed at the right angle and in the right light. Let's keep it that way.

—Alorael, who would be perfectly happy to see a new Homeland board for the Homeland Historical Society. Or SubTerra could play host. Even ET, AT, or a Geneforge board! It could be like the Olympics and boards could bid!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Recommended Reading in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, July 19 2005 19:28 Profile Homepage #73
quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

Well, the series is limping. It seems to run on reviving various Taken and making them out to be a whole heck of a lot harder to kill than they ever were in the original trilogy. Warmed over villains, yech.
A series that has been limping for a decade has something going for it. I can't pretend to know what, but something keeps them selling.

—Alorael, who doesn't quite agree with the analysis anyway. It's more like two series. One was fine and one limped from the outset but didn't really become any more crippled along the way.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
hi in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, July 19 2005 19:25 Profile Homepage #73
quote:
Originally written by Ash Lael:

Do me! Do me!
Sometimes you really need to make sure that you give context.

—Alorael, who would be especially mindful of this on Spiderweb. Just a friendly warning...
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A long-expected Parting in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, July 19 2005 19:22 Profile Homepage #51
It would be interesting to study how much effect you can wring out of posting statistics. If they were tabulated and posted twice a month, would there be two spam sprees per month? What about weekly? If there were daily post counts posted, would there be a constant barrage of spam or would everyone give up and ignore the information?

—Alorael, who can see this either as a test of will and stamina or a test of how often information can be viewed before people start tuning it out. And either way, it's not something that shoule be tested on Spiderweb. Spam is bad.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Where in Valorim is Dispell Barriers??? in The Avernum Trilogy
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, July 19 2005 19:20 Profile Homepage #1
You can buy Piercing Crystals in a number of places if you join the Anama. Otherwise I think one of the lighthouses on Bigail sells them, and you can pick up a few more here and there.

You learn Dispel Barrier by helping the mayor of Sharimik with his troglodyte problems.

—Alorael, who will mark another tally for this question. It's close to the most popular A3 question, if not the most popular.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Down with RWG! in Richard White Games
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Tuesday, July 19 2005 15:30 Profile Homepage #34
I have a virus scanner and a disk defragger on my Mac...

—Alorael, who doesn't have a virus remover. He's never had to worry about it.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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