RationalWiki:Saloon bar/Archive38

ratuibakwuju.com
Has anyone here ever heard of this website, or is waking up at 6 o'clock for the last three days to watch Venus through a telescope getting to me? 18:05, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I haven't been up in time to see the sunrise or have breakfast in a while, but I don't think the sun is up until around 8:30 here. 21:41, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Someone needs to capitalize on that. 22:45, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Typo in domain name? 00:15, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Monster Showdown
This is my favorite time of year. Horror movies, candy, wearing costumes without embarrassment... nothing I don't love about it (except for houses that give away raisins). Anyway, in your opinion, the best monster for horror movies? Think about it. Being seduced by a sexy vampire or being torn apart by a werewolf? Being chased by swarms of zombies or Frankenstein's monster? My vote would have to be evil children, like the Children of the Corn or those creepy ones from Village of the Damned. Nothing says evil more than the gleeful, innocent face of a child as it stabs his or her unfortunate victim.--Thanatos 23:24, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I am well versed in horror (both books and movies) and I enjoy post-apocalyptic. Zombies or The Infected from 28Days Later. That sort of thing. AceMcWicked 23:31, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You know, I was going to answer this question with a picture of Spiny Norman. But then there was porn on the first damn page of the google image results, and suddenly it didn't seem all that important any more. -- 23:36, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm with Thanatos, nothing creeps me out more than a horde of evil children. Also, despite the atheism, I love Satan-inspired horror movies. The Omen is possibly my favorite movie in the whole genre.-- 23:42, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Best two movie monsters - Peter Lorre in M and that guy in American Psycho. 23:58, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Except Patrick Bateman may or may not have actually murdered anyone.-- 00:10, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * If you read Lunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis all but admits Bateman never killed anyone or at least not as many as he thinks. AceMcWicked 00:45, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I told you that years ago Ace and you refused to believe me. It broke my heart. Rad McCool 02:05, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Like my hatred for SciFi, I also fucking HATE Halloween - adults behaving as 7 year olds dressed in costumes is my idea of how to look like a total fucking pillock.  HOWEVER, that was not the question.   I liked the monster in CLoverfield, I thought was quite good really.   But the 28 Days Later thing is much more my cup of tea.   Just don't show up at the Doghouse on Halloween night in a zombie costume or I'll cut your head off.   DogP Marmite Patrol 04:17, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I think Werewolves and the whole Jekyll/Hyde thing is the most terrifying monster. I think the scariest monster is the kind wherein the person who becomes the monster can't control it and has no idea when it may happen.  05:51, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The holywood version of The Ring wasn't too scary on first viewing, but the second time I watched it, it fucked me up for a long time. No idea why. But yes, scary children seem to be the best horror characters. 12:25, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

I don't care if the "movie" in The Ring was cheesy student film material-- it was scary. Plus the scene with the horse on the ferry creeped me out. Who thinks of crap like that? I think the visual style of The Ring and the way they didn't bother to explain the creepy parts made it scary. I hate in scary movies when they go all Star Trek physics and 'splain stuff. Me!Sheesh! Mine! 13:16, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * In answer to the original question: whatever evil lurks beneath/within the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. In other news, M and Ringu = awesome. --Robledo 19:00, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I actually picked up a Japanese horror film, Infection, the other day. Plan to watch it this weekend. The Shining is also my second favorite Stephen King novel. BTW, anyone else see Trick 'R Treat yet? That Sam kid is creepy... --Thanatos 01:17, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Bill Nye vs. "believers"
For those in my generation who remember him, here's a video of everybody's favorite science guy taking on a bunch of UFO believing hacks who then, in the face of skepticism, must turn to personal attacks. It's pretty funny, really. Enjoy. 00:01, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That's classic, thanks. 01:26, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * He is still on. He has a show on Discovery Civilization where he talks about ways to be more green in our everyday lives. It's called Stuff Happens. Although it is not as good as his old show.--Thanatos 01:24, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

More Proof Creationists Don't Understand Science
Reading my Phys Anth book, came across a quote that I think it very ironic considering how so many creationists refuse to accept evolution because it requires that everything happened "by chance." From the Book "Human Biology: An Evolutionary and Biocultural Perspective": "We are especially concerned with the trade-off between adaptation and chance.  Adaptation is often overemphasized such that some biologists have invoked natural selection to explain almost any phenotypic difference, but many biological traits are not adaptive." In short, not only is the theory of evolution not based on chance, but scientists usually UNDER-EMPHASIZE CHANCE when forming their theories. Creationists are stupid.--Mustex 01:59, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd say that a lot of science actually over states chance and possibility. Hence why when they go on about theories being changable creatards use it as a stick to beat them with (and few "evolutionists" debating on the net are fully equipped to respond correctly to this). A lot of mutations aren't as random and chancy as people sometimes state, if they were, a genetic sequence like AGGCTAAGTCGCT could easily jump to TTGCGATATTGAGA just by chance!! (okay, this is extreme, but it's the impression I get from some bad explanations) Alas no, there is a slight amount of control and regulation of them. 20:57, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The point that being made is that scientists tend to downplay the importance of genetic drift in evolution. Alot of adaptive or neutral traits have certainly been lost, just by an unlucky roll of the dice.

Creator of the internet hates backslashes forward slashes
See here. 15:34, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * He did not make the Internet. He made the protocols underlying the World Wide Web. 15:37, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok, maybe I exaggerated a bit. 15:38, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Everyone knows that Al Gore invented the Internet... 15:39, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Foolish Al Gore invented faulty Internet. --194.197.235.240 15:53, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Was it bad that my first thought was "what does Al Gore have against backslashes?"  16:07, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Now apologise for XML, ya fucker. Talk about a waste of characters. -- 16:29, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The article says he hates forward slashes, & says nothing about backslashes. I was mislead by a misleading section header.   17:55, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The pair of forward slashes actually serve a purpose, but the computer-illiterate do not pick up on that. 18:02, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah my bad, I only skimmed the article before shouting it out in the saloon. 18:13, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Er, what purpose? They're totally redundant. The only conceivable thing that could be said about the slashes in the url format it that they serve to distinguish the protocol-host separator from the separator between the username and password in the url, if that section is included. Even that's purely aesthetic, and has no impact on the implementation. A url could perfectly happily be protocol:host rather than protocol://host. -- 18:48, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * protocol:host conflicts with the POSIX convention of host:path. 18:52, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * So does ://, since // is a perfectly good reference to the file system root. If you wanted to distinguish the two, you'd choose something non-ambiguous. In practical terms, this never ever comes up as an issue. -- 19:03, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Apparently, this guy uses his index finger to type these "backslashes". Faux News FTW. &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 21:22, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * At least they know they are forward slashes, as per the last line of the article: "In fact the '/' symbol is a slash, while '\' is a backslash and is rarely used in web addresses." 21:24, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I love the BBC pic of him with the dual CRT monitors. 1990's baller status. &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 21:25, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It's more of a "ah crap, let's get an almost relevant image to illustrate the point!!" 21:47, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually, come to think of it from one line in the Faux News article, don't you not even need the "www" in most browsers these days as they'll automatically go to the web-content if nothing is specified? 21:49, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I think that's a server function - if the "machine" called "www" isn't specified, the server defaults to it. And, yeah, it's been like that for years. 23:51, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Heh! Never knew there was so much in it (\). 21:58, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It's amazing how large the WP articles on punctuation are. But hey, if there are people with a thing for Alger Hiss, you have to figure there is someone with a fetish for question marks. 22:14, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * While in a "Beginners Guide to Linux" course, ht eguy taking it was going on about how linux was superior because it used the forward slash in its file structure, while Windows used the backslash (the Microsoft convention mentioned in the 4th paragraph of the WP article) unnecessarily and just because Gates wanted to be different and annoying (I do wonder about these people sometimes...), but I've always thought of it as them defining where you are. "\" means "in here", or the local computer/intranet/LAN while "/" means "out there" on the net in the world of http and whatnot.
 * Bill Gates choosing the backslash as a path separator is absolutely fine until you start to write programs in, for example 'C' or perl. Writing smb-client scripts on a Unix platform I end up with monstrosities like \\\\\\\\boxname\\\\sharename because of interpretation problems. Bob Soles 08:27, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The DOS (Windows) convention was all a backwards-compatibility hack. DOS 1 didn't have folders so it didn't need path separators. It used "/" as an option switch on programs though. When DOS 2 came out and added folders, Microsoft used "\" because they wanted to avoid using the same symbol for two different things. It would have been much easier if they had switched to "/" for paths and "-" for options but they've always been fanatical about backwards compatibility. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 09:22, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Hannity's idea of peace
Commence facepalm in 5 4 3 2 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTCiBHgl_kk&feature=channel_page &mdash; Unsigned, by: Ryantherebel / talk / contribs
 * Actually facepalmed twice in that short clip. What a douche.   03:12, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * What the fuck. I really hate that man, even more than Beck. At least Beck is totally insane so I can chalk it up to that, Hannity is just...A real asshole.-- 04:45, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Holy crap. Obama deserves the prize just for getting elected in a place where these guys are considered mainstream. Though I reckon Hannity actually means that peace = "just kicking small nations with big bombs in foreign lands far enough away so he doesn't have to see the actual mutilating consequences of 'blowing people up' at all but can feel good that a JDAM makes up for his small penis", my theory, at least. 07:41, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Couldn't agree more. My definition of peace is no more rat bastards like Beck, Hannity, Coulter, and the rest, you know who you are. Rad McCool 07:51, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Buffalax
I'm not sure how familiar you are with this, but taking non-English music and translating it phonetically into English is known as "buffalaxing", presumably by the work of YouTuber Buffalax. Here is an example: There are plenty of other videos of his/hers, and for the most part, they are hilarious! That is, if you aren't familiar with the source language. 03:18, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

I demand context...
So, I came across a rather intriguing mention of mama Schlafly today...



Now I really need to know what the rest of that sentence says, but the interwebs have failed me. Feel free to idly speculate. -- 11:38, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe it's not the Phyllis Schlafly we are thinking of? 11:43, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Erm, that's just wrong. You've given me nightmares now. 11:44, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry, in the context of giant cocks, there can be only one Phyllis Schlafly. -- 11:45, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Surely that can be added to an article to demonstrate something. 11:49, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It must be parody. That's the only way it could possibly be the Phyllis Schlafly. 11:54, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * For those like myself who are wondering just who would use a steam driven dildo the WP:Female_hysteria article explains things. Bob Soles 12:20, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That very same image was conjured up here over a year ago here.  12:21, 15 October 2009 (UTC)


 * très intéressant. So, could it possibly be one of us being a cheeky fucker, then? 12:28, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * My guess is the 26 foot erection is a sculpture. The connection to Phyllis Schlafly was probably opposing the erection of the erection. Just taking a stab in the dark. I do like the Victorian era dildo though. Very steampunk. 12:43, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I've just ran it through Tin Eye and managed to get a few hits, just exploring them now. 12:50, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The only remaining option is to type "steam powered dildo" into Google but like hell am I doing that at work. I'm not exactly watched or recorded or anything but still, it's not exactly recommended searching. 12:57, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You would think 26 foot erection would return some relevant results. 13:05, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * To my lasting shame, I have previously tried both these strategies. Alas, there appears to be neither a full page scan nor summary of that page available on t'internet. I think, therefore, I'm fully justified in believing the full bracketed phrase reads "(as mounted by Phyllis Schlafly.)" -- 14:01, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Star Wars an anti - American screed?
Whether this belongs here or at CP wigo talk is debateable but I don't want the focus just to be around what those fools think. I just read Terryh say; that ""Force" is too impersonal for my taste, and also reminds me just a bit too much of a certain motion picture franchise that I now know was a thinly-disguised anti-American screed in six parts.

Is this an at all commonly held view amongst Americans held by conservatives, liberals or whoever else - Conservatives disapproving and Liberals approving presumably. Aside from the "with us or against us" quote by Anakin is there any reason to suspect there is any merit to this anti - American screed hypothesis? Just curious for any thoughts on the matter. --DamoHi 04:46, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Methinks anything involving insurrection is too lib-burr-rul for the Conservapedians. 06:23, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That's utterly ridiculous. I'm an American and a Star Wars fan, and I've never heard about it being anti-American. In fact, the director and writer, George Lucas, was born and grew up in California. I have heard the first one had religious themes, with the "Force" representing the spiritual power of God. 12:30, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

It was a cowboy movie in space. What could be more 'mercan than that? Also there was quite a bit about blind faith in the force which some Christian nut job could easily twist into a Christian parable. Me!Sheesh! Mine! 13:19, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I always understood it to be a remake of the Wizard of Oz. Seems I'm not alone either. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 13:25, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Dangerous and subversive liberals use the Star Wars franchise to cloak their identity, therefore it is anti-american hate speech. -- 13:47, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * In my youth I was a member of the British Science Fiction Association. We had a well-known SF author who came to speak to us - just can't remember his name - but I do remember that he described Star Wars as a "fascist romp".--BobNot Jim 14:18, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Working the old memory banks, it might have been Gregory Benford.--BobNot Jim 14:22, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That's nothing, we had the artist of Count Duckula come to our school and show us how to draw him. So there. 15:01, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

There's a pretty common theory that Star Wars was partly inspired by the Vietnam War (with USA as "the Empire"), & Lucas himself has confirmed that some of the "dark side" themes are based on US government corruption circa the Watergate era. There are also a few parallels with the War on Terror etc. . I don't think any of this makes it "anti-American" as such, but I can see why staunch conservative Republicans might think so. 18:11, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Also, the pantheistic religious interpretations of "the Force" are altogether too ecumenical for Conservapedians. 18:14, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I remember seeing a few things from the religious right complaining that Star Wars was a slick packaging of witchcraft and pantheism (read: devil worship), and from the far left that it was monarchist and anti-Semitic (the Jawas, note the name, as peddlers out to make a quick buck at your expense.) I figured if George Lucas was getting it from both extremes he must have done something right.  Ewoks and Jar Jar on the other hand, are pure evil. Secret Squirrel 01:02, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * In typical left-hand/right-hand style over there, I see the "anti-American screed" is also one of the Greatest Conservative Movies for "simple truths about the triumph of good over evil". Go figure. -- Psygremlin  18:48, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Lemark was Right
...or at least more right than creationists. I'm actually going to provide a citation in case any of you don't believe me. Its from an article that Christopher Kuzawa published in 2005. Essentially, this is the gist of it: Individuals have to determine their general developmental trajectory in utero, which will be based on how much energy will be available to them. They're pretty good at this...far better than they should be given only a 9-month period to determine how much energy will be available. The conclusion: Somehow women are able to record information about nutritional availability in utero that goes back several generations, and transmit it to their children.--Mustex 00:05, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I would like to see a link, I'm interested to see where that came from. 00:15, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Lemarkism has always been right for limited set of circumstances. The embryo develops in an environment (for mammals the womb) which itself is effected by external circumstances, climate, nutritional levels of the mother ect. but nothing on the scale he initially proposed. 00:23, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The name of the article is Fetal Origins of Developmental Plasticity: Are Fetal Cues Reliable Predictors of Future Nutritional Environments? It was published in the American Journal of Human Biology.  If you don't have access to any databases that would allow you to access that article, let me know and if you have AIM I'll send it to you.--Mustex 03:20, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Isn't his name spelled "Lamarck"? 03:55, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes. 04:13, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oops, but seriously, I can actually provide the article if anyone wants to test my claim on that (I just finished typing up a take-home mid-term, and I've consumed so much caffeine that I think I literally qualify as high right now, so don't punish me for bad spelling too much). &mdash; Unsigned, by: 76.18.115.64 / talk / contribs
 * Lamarck was partly right. Environmental changes can cause long term changes in gene expression, epigenetics. --Smg87 15:40, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, but the issue here is that its across multiple generations.--130.160.98.126 17:13, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Goodbye and good luck
As has been noted in more than one place I am flying oft to Chicago tomorrow morning for the zoo that is the Society for Neuroscience conference. I will be gone for a one week. The server has been behaving itself well, with no serious incident in over two weeks. I will have very limited internet access, but Nx has access to everything I would have from Chicago anyway. If the worst happens, and he can't recover the site it would have to wait till my return anyway. I am not anticipating any problems, but then I wasn't in August either. If the worst does happen this trip is much shorter than the last and I will be back next week Thursday. tmtoulouse 18:59, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * DID YOU READ THAT BOB?! DIDJA READ IT!!! 20:32, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Make sure to smack Nutty in goolies when you see him. He has been poncing around Chicago like owns the place for to long now. AceMcWicked 20:41, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll put Teflpedia back in the bookmarks section then. 21:35, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No, don't we'd only overload Bob's BW! Let's use AWK this time...  22:13, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I opened an account at ASoK and then I thought to myself "what the hell is the point in me being here? I'm never gonna use it." and in line with that I have forgotten my password. 22:35, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * So open a new one, say, "JuperSosh"? 03:54, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I like, I like... 11:10, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Doolittle...
...by Pixies. I bought it today and it's a blinding album. Apologies for being twenty years late. 23:24, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Don't skip Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, they're both really good too.-- 23:44, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And available on one discount CD as well! Also get the next six or eight or so albums, at least through Trompe D'Oeil.  23:49, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Great album, and contains my all time favourite Pixies song: Monkey gone to heaven. I have an all monkey playlist, based on my theory that all the best songs involve monkeys at some point. The monkey island theme by press play on tape, everyone's got something to hide expect for me and my monkey, monkey steals the drum, etc. etc. etc. -- 23:51, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Interesting monkey theory. I've had Surfer Rosa and Come on Pilgrim for ages, I first heard of Pixies in Fight Club. Quite possibly the only time I've ever watched a movie and not turned it off at the credits for a combination of the song and the most powerful movie ending I've ever seen. Favourite from Doolittle is probably Debaser. 23:58, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Does "Ape Man" by the Kinks make the cut? I'm sure you've got the Stones' Monkey Man already?  00:00, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * How about "Where the Monkey Meets the Man" by Primitive Radio Gods? That's a decent monkey-related song.  I hope "Brass Monkey" by Beastie Boys isn't on the list, they are the worst second worst band ever.  As the Pixies go, I always enjoyed "Motorway to Roswell" from ''Trompe le Monde".   03:09, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Speaking of the pixies, the wife and I are together because of "Where Is My Mind", as she saw me performing it on stage and mistook me for someone cool. 09:20, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * A great song about confusion over fish behaviour and mental illness to bring two people together. 13:00, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

I've always loved the Pixies. They were the first band to make me realize that punk rock doesn't have to sound like the Clash all the time. Aboriginal: who's the worst? 13:54, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * JSL, the worst is Journey. By far.  Every time Journey comes on the radio, I want to huck it across the room.  The Beasties are just tolerable enough that I'll simply change the station.  But Journey.....ugh, I don't even want to think about it.   14:35, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Doolittle is damn near perfect - up there with Bringing It All Back Home in terms of completeness, IMO. There's a lot to love about the Breeders (Kim Deal's band), too: their first album Pod is a real gem. And as for the Beasties, it'd surely take a heart of stone not to crack at least a smile to the No Sleep Till Brooklyn video. --Robledo 19:23, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I think Trompe is also very worth the money - no clunkers and lots of fun. 20:54, 15 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I did my first amateur radio show today and I played Where is My Mind as about the third song, and I ended my show on Debaser while the next presenters came in - one of them singing it haha! 23:00, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Nice :) I haven't heard much Breeders stuff, other than Cannonball of course. I'll have to look that album up. 13:10, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, here you go:


 * 13:12, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I like this. It's going on my show haha! 13:28, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I like this. It's going on my show haha! 13:28, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Grrr
Bloody Jehovah's Witnesses. Totnesmartin 11:44, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I hope you explained to them all the flaws in the bible, or at least that you are a Pastafarian and do they want to join your church so they can have strippers and beer? 11:52, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No, but they insisted that there is war everywhere at the moment, and that it's a sign of the end times (as is the strategic defense initiative, apparently). I asked them where the nearest war to Britain is. "Er... Northern Ireland!". They didn't like me saying the INLA just disarmed two days ago, so they gave me a pamphlet and ran away. Totnesmartin 12:35, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * A friend of mine "adopted a pair of pet mormons" (to use his words) a few years ago. They make very good play things, require only the bare minimum of care and food too. You should try for the whole Biblical morality angle and ask "what if it said paedophilia was okay?". It's always worth bringing up the fact that the world has been "ending" for the last 5000 years and it hasn't happened yet. 12:41, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * We used to get them at my place, until I answered the door one day. I corrected the dates they claimed the scriptures were written, named each logical fallacy as they used them, and highlight pieces of circular logic in their pamphlet. Haven't seen them since. I wish they would come back, I was enjoying that argument. 12:48, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The Jehovah's Witnesses have some very persuasive arguments about some things (eg the Trinity is unbiblical) and some real luny ideas about others (eg giving blood and that picture of a family playing with a tiger that they put on everything).-- 12:51, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I haven't got a tiger on mine, but there's a woman in a kimono patting a bear on the head. And there's some farmworkers, looking as they've come straight from a soviet propaganda poster. Totnesmartin 12:59, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I've never dealt with them, although I've seen them in my road before. The most I've ever got was a campaigner for the Conservative Party in my borough. I said I'm a Labour supporter and that was for the people and then he said "Oh no, the Tories do a lot for the workers! Thatcher..." After pointing out that Thatcher put a couple of million out of work and caused a recession his comeback was "world recessions happen under most government heads." Especially when they privatise industry and sell companies, allowing the workers to get metaphorically fucked... 12:57, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Thatcher managed to fix a situation that was being handled with utter incompetence by Wilson and Callaghan, who could not show a bit of spine and tell the unions to shove their wage increase demands where they belonged. 17:31, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Last time the Jehovah's Witnesses showed up at my door, I met them with some awkward homosexual advances. For some odd reason, they've never come back. &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 17:20, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * A few weeks ago, I was walking out the door to go to work and there were a pair of JWs walking up the stairs. They started to talk to me and I said "I have to head to work, but I think my roommate would love to talk to you guys" then let them in and left. He was pretty pissed, I think I ruined his morning.-- 17:33, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Can't find it now, but there was a bash quote along the lines of "I've been on the Jehovah's blacklist for a while now. 2 Jehovas came to my door one day, an older one and younger, hot one. After their initial speech I said 'Tell you what, the hot one gives me a blowjob. If it's good, then we'll talk'". I feel that might be a good way of avoiding the bother. 21:45, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I just tell them that their church doctrine says that only 144,000 people will be "saved", but that there are 7.1 million "witnesses", which would mean a very low success rate. 11:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Omg, really? That's gold. Do you have a reference for that I can print out next time the twats come knocking? 12:58, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Class, just found this. *hits print several times* 13:01, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I could be wrong, but I thought it was that 144,000 people go directly to heaven, but the remainder of virtuous individuals still get to spend eternity on a paradise Earth.-- 15:00, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * At least JW hell is a big blank timeless nothing, no tortures of the damned. Of course, it's harder to gin up tithe money without horror stories like that.  LinuxGal 17:03, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

The witnesses came a-knockin' when I was about 12 years old. They tell me that if I don't join them, I won't live to see 20 (I'm now 33). I assumed then, as I do now, that they meant Rapture. That may be the first time in my life that I ever cussed out an adult, telling them to "Get the fuck off my porch". 19:15, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

AARGHHH!
So I decide to take a little time out this morning and spend some filthy lucre on a new painting. I wander into a local art dealer, who stocks a painter I like and we start chatting. We're discussing price (about ₤2000) and he says, "Business must be good!" My reply was something like, 'Not bad, but it could always be better." This twit then gets a serious look on his face and says, "Well, if you let God into your heart, then He'll make sure that all things are better for you" and then proceeds to try and save me. Needless to say, he didn't make the sale. And I'm still going to hell. -- Psygremlin  17:26, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Does he try to evangelize all his customers? That cannot be good for business. 17:33, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Goodness knows - first time I'd seen him there. Said he was helping a friend in between telling me he'd spent 9 years with that priest/preacher guy in Nigeria. -- Psygremlin  17:41, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * If he is not the owner of the dealership, you should inform said owner of the incident, stating emphatically that you do not buy from dealerships that try to evangelize you. 17:43, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Nah, too much pt. Let the owner sort out the staff he hires. Besides, it sounds horribly like something Andy would do.  Psygremlin  17:56, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Wow, 2,000 pounds... that's...a ton of money! 21:05, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * If you're going to blow two grand on a painting then you probably deserve hell... 21:36, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I remember when you could get two Raphaels and a Rembrandt for 2 large, and still have change for the bus fare home. -- 22:17, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * How the fuck old are you, anyway? I can only "remember" when one could get an original Basquiat in lieu of being paid for a meal...  06:07, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Psy, I'll sell you one of my paintings for £2k (*goes out to buy a child's paint set*) 12:57, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * lol, @Crundy - at least with those you should be able to knock off a passable Picasso. @Human, probably very close to your age. Anyway, here's what I finally splashed out on. -- Psygremlin  11:19, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

RW Dreams
Had another one last night. Dreamt I was reading Genghis' blog, which was all about vintage cars. Included a pic of the gentleman marauder who was rather large and florid with a handlebar moustache. I need to get out more. -- Psygremlin  17:26, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Your dreams are disturbingly tame. -- 18:05, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I think an article in the RW space recording dreams would be useful to track how deep into the rabbit hole people are going. "Well, I was dreaming that I was about to bed this beautiful girl, then she turned around and it was Andrew Schlafly's face..." "Dude, oh, snap!"... okay, maybe on second thoughts we shouldn't be sharing and recording this info. 17:40, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Ew. That is possibly the most horrifying mental image I have had all day. 17:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Just had a scare
I went to turn on my PS3 after lending it to my mom (her DVD player is broken) and when it turned on, I got a message that I had to rebuild my database. I thought I was so fucked when it went to my menu and it wouldn't read DVD's or Games. After checking online, I ended up turning it on and off a few times and its back to normal. (WHY DOES THAT ALWAYS WORK?) I thought I had the Sony version of the Red ring of death (something I always made fun of). I have half of my music collection on that thing (I hate Ipods). Anyway, sorry to bitch like this, but I felt I had to tell someone--Thanatos 02:53, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yikes. That kind of thing is the reason I bought an external hard drive. I've got a lot of home recordings and whatnot. 03:21, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * When I read the section title I thought you were going to tell me you found a lump....AceMcWicked 03:28, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * JSL+Thanatos, thanks for inadvertently helping me realize I should have some sort of backup for all my compositions. I use a cheap netbook, and some spilled lemonade would be enough to erase a few years of writing. So, uh, thanks! :D 03:44, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I use my PSP as one. Gave me an excuse to bring it to class back in high school. Plus, it is a great way to hide stuff because no one would look for stuff on a psp. It's not the best, though, as it is only a 2 gig memory stick(I'm upgrading to a 4 gig as soon as I have a few extra dollars) BTW Ace, other than a congested nose that comes from the approaching winter here in The Great White North, I am actually quite healthy. Sorry to give you that little scare--Thanatos 03:57, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Backups are key... always have been. Reminds me, maybe I should run one now out of superstition... Damn hexes!  03:58, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * PS, I thought the header meant the rabbit done died... 04:03, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I get the point. I'll be a little more careful in the wording of my headers from now on. I was more worried because on the forum I checked out, if turning it on and off didn't work, I'd have to buy a new system as my PS3 is secondhand and without warranty.--Thanatos 04:19, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No big deal! Scary headers here are our bread and meat.  We just like to play with the results, you didn't do anything "wrong" at all, in fact, you let us make jokes.  Or something like them. I hear you on the "unwarranteed, unsupported" hardware there.  06:05, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I currently have seven desktop external hardrives, a portable harddrive and a raid NAS. Never can find anything though. My backup program keeps giving error messages because the path name of some firefox extensions is > 256 characters. But in general backups are a jolly good thing. 14:33, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * FFS, man, consolidate. &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 14:36, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm having the same trouble with my group's IT. I've just found two more 500 Gb hard disks to add to the seemingly hundreds that are scattered through the largely ad hoc and strained network. I'll probably nick one or something. 15:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Stop smoking...
I haven't smoked for... I'm trying to remember... let's say this is the fourth day. I think that's right. I thought it'd be best to nip it in the bud and stop smoking before I get older and it becomes a learned behaviour. It started out as a "when-I'm-drunk" kinda thing, and grew out from there so now I'm regressing back to "when-I'm-really-drunk." Hopefully tonight then. FRIDAY! 11:27, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Don't do it Josh. I tried and failed. I still wear patches though...but only because if you wear them over night you get wicked bad dreams. AceMcWicked 11:36, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually, I have quite an annoying cough at the mo, so I'm not going to smoke tonight. Do you actually get bad dreams from wearing patches at night? I wanna try that... 12:35, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No, not bad, wicked-bad. As in vivid as hell. AceMcWicked 12:46, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I smoked up to 30 a day for about 10 years, and I'm only 30. Quit for a while now. The wife decided to buy some fags the other month for some reason and roped me into smoking outside with her once a day. The odd thing is, even though I haven't smoked for about 5 years, and was finding smoking disgusting (the smell, the nausea etc) I had a compulsion to keep smoking. I finally understand why it is so addictive, and I don't think I started purely because of peer pressure. Josh, honestly, just say to yourself that you won't smoke another cigarette again. You will be really proud of yourself every time you think about it, and will save yourself fuckloads of cash. 12:54, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It just takes some willpower is all. First three days suck hard.  Following three weeks such not so hard. After that you're pretty much done. Change your route to work, or you'll discover that at a certain red light you always reached for a smoke and didn't realize it, and the craving will be too much.  Shun your "pals" who still smoke, they will offer you a cigarette to get you hooked again so they can bum smokes from you later. LinuxGal 13:03, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, don't envy your friends who still smoke, pity them. 13:18, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah yeah, giving up smoking is a virtue and all that (And if you can give up long enough, you can be a right royally self righteous cunt towards smokers) but all I can give is my own experience of giving up, which involved quite a lot of sweating and substitutes... Finally cracked after 3 weeks (In the meantime I 'broke' 4 or 5 times when out in the pub or whatever, but I didn't really count that...) Giving up smoking seems easy after day 2 (When the nicotine is out) By the end of the first week you'll notice a constant sense of anxiety and self loathing, after the second week you'll begin to see absolutely everything in the world refers back to smoking, and everything you do will loose its enjoyment value because you'd have associated it all with smoking.


 * By week 3 you'll be back smoking. P.S- I smoke rolly tobacco, usually c. 30 roll ups a day. Even doing that is quite expensive so I do seriously reccomend stopping, if you have the willpower. MarcusCicero 14:23, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Giving up smoking is easy. You need three things
 * To be over 50
 * To have a constant hacking cough
 * To have a close friend have major heart issues
 * That will do it any time. I haven't smoked since 1st July 2007. Bob Soles 14:42, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I blame my ex-gf. She smoked/s and I got into a habit of doing it too. Then we broke up a few months ago and I started smoking daily over summer - not a lot, 2 a day average, and when I was drinking about 5 or 6 in one night, I've never been a big smoker, but I thought it'd be best to essentially stop. My best mate has been smoking for a couple of years now and he has asthma. Big, feckin' eejit. 16:34, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Allan Carr's book "the easy way to stop smoking" is very effective in getting you through the first 3-4 weeks with virtually no will power required. After that you will need to be vigilant in keeping off them, but if you fall just read it again. Eventually you will stop.--DamoHi 22:12, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * If you saw your mother in the intensive care ward of the hospital hooked to machines that not only help her breathe, but also to drain the red shit filling up her lungs, you'd never want to smoke/smell/see a cigarette. To bad it didn't help her.  She's back to 2+ packs a day.   22:26, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I tried with the patches and gave up for five months, but its a slippery slope and I slipped. Ace is right though, those patches give you the most intense dreams.Rad McCool 01:21, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Abbey, sorry about your mum, that sucks. My dad's been smoking since he was about twenty and he's in his early 50s now - he moved over to the "healthy' option of cigars about a decade ago. I did try and buy cigarettes from a machine tonight after coming out of a club, but my housemates - on my request earlier in the night - dragged me away from it. They're great guys. Unfortunately now I'm suffering from a bout of insomnia which ciggies'd probably help, but I don't have any on my person. 03:32, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * If you switch from cigarettes to cigars or a pipe, that is even worse, since cigarette smokers are much more used to inhaling the smoke. 03:41, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I bought a pipe about a month ago "for the lulz" (i hate that expression) and it broke after a week. Fortunately i haggled with the bloke and got it for a tenner. 03:45, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * MC speaks well. If you can, cut it, quit it, before it takes you over.  It's hard to stop, and expensive to do, and really, as much "fun" as it is, it isn't.  04:33, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

9 months in - Grade Obama
1 A 2 B 3 C 4 D 5 F

Discussion
So far, I would give a C/C+ to Obama. He hasn't done a terrible job, but I do feel he is a major step up from the last guy. 13:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * To be fair, you don't have to be that good to be a step up from Bush. I imagine Obama feels like the doctor who took over from Harold Shipman. 15:11, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Considering the state of affairs and US international reputation he inherited, he probably can't do much better. It's not like politicians can magically click their fingers and solve the world's problems in a year. Obama's just currently riding out some bad times, which lends to the theory that the Republicans intentionally lost the election - how else do you explain Palin? - so that the Democrats would have to deal with it, look bad and lose out in 2012. So he's unlikely to score these massive points that people were expecting. Like I don't understand why Gordon Brown is getting a bad rep for "mishandling the economy", surely recessions are inevitable in our fucked-up idea about how to handle money and think that "growth" can be infinite; it's not like he went on live television and threw a switch to kick off a downturn before retiring home to eat a baby... 15:41, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * For amusement, we could post this voting thingy at CP so they can tell all their Fox News friends to come here.  It would be amusing to see 50,000 F grades suddenly appear.   DogP Marmite Patrol 15:42, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The Gordon Brown situation is slightly different. He was the Chancellor of the Exchequer prior to his taking over from Blair, so he was involved in government at a cabinet level, and certainly linked with the financial health of the country. Whether or not he's to blame is another matter, but it seems reasonable to hold him responsible the conduct of the previous cabinets - at least where the finances are concerned. -- 15:48, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, of course. Good point. But I do have the memory of a small, non-sentient insect, or a large crowd or country of people. Who was the Prime Minister when it wasn't Brown again? :P 17:34, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Brown sold off a third of our gold reserves at rock-bottom prices and I have never forgiven him for that. Prudence, my arse! 10:06, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Gross
How do I stop my chickens eating cat shit? Seriously, a couple of weeks ago I had to wash Mabel's beak after she decided to tuck into a little patty one of my cats (who was ill at the time) had deposited, and today I let them out into the garden and noticed them chasing each other. I then discovered they were fighting over a dust coated turd which was swallowed in one go when one of them managed to break away from the other. These creatures are fucking disgusting. 16:20, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * They're chickens. They eat shit.  That's what they do.  Unless you put them on some sort of grating that allows their shit to fall through, they're going to eat it.  They're really disgusting when you think about it, just before you take a big bite out of that chicken sandwich.  Fun fact:  chicken substitute, frequently used by places like McDonalds in their chicken nuggets, is made out of nutra, a rat, that happens to be exponentially cleaner than a chicken, including not eating its own shit.   16:26, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * They don't eat their own shit, only the cat's shit. They eat just about anything, including my plants. Especially my Brugmansia, so I'm surprised their eggs aren't hallucinogenic. 16:30, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Wait, McDonald's chicken nuggets are made out of fucking nutria?! You've gotta be shitting me. My friend's dog got rabies from a nutria not too long ago.-- 16:41, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Careful guys, let's not get into McLibel territory. ;-)   16:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I can't find that "fun fact" about McNuggets corroborated anywhere on the net, although unsurprisingly they contain all kinds of other dubious ingredients.    17:04, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, a Coypu. My dad's friend referred to my childhood dog (a Ruby) as a Coypu, and I never knew what it was. Now I know it's McNuggets. 16:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I have the reverse problem, my dogs like eating chicken crap. 17:34, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, the chickens at my wife's zoo eat their shit, so I assumed it's a chicken thing (she indicated it's normal). Maybe don't let the cat crap in the chicken coop?  As far as the nuggets thing goes, I new a woman who worked for McDs in the food processing department, and she said that whenever you see "chicken substitue", that can be a lot of things, but most of the time it's nutria.   18:46, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The cats don't make it into the coop, they crap in random spots in the garden. The chickens are free range. The eggs are awesome, but the thought of what they've been eating does spoil the taste a little. 21:18, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Happy chickens eat bugs and dirt and worms and whatever crosses their path. See next comment...  04:38, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

"I'm surprised their eggs aren't hallucinogenic" - good happy chicken eggs are hallucinogenic, and you can never go back to the stale crap supermarkets sell... 03:04, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Had to go look up "nutria". In Spanish "nutria" is "otter" and I had a bit of a problem imagining McDonald's putting otter in their burgers.  Still in you've got "nutria" to spare, why not put it in burgers? It's not toxic.--BobNot Jim 08:38, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd prefer an otter burger to a cold one. Totnesmartin 09:31, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Fortunately, I defined nutria in my post, and it's rat, and I have no problem imagining McDonalds putting rat in their burgers.  13:35, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Comedy Collaboration
OK, so there are quite a few funny, witty people here, so how about setting up a collaborative online comedy writing project? Like a Wiki with all protected pages apart from members, and we have a brainstorm to create a comedy show (either a sketch show or a sitcom) and then become all rich and famous and have hot bitches all up on our dicks? 21:45, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I would try checking Wikia first. It's like Rule 34: if it exists, there is a Wikia of it. 21:52, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Some of us don't have built in dicks to have teh hot bitches all up on. (Some of use can spell too) 21:54, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You can still have hot bitches, toast. Provided you tape said act and mail us all a copy. Yes, my spelling is bad, but it may be alcohol related. 22:06, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * We had a small conceptual go at this with the Conservapedia sitcom idea a little while ago. I think I was about the only one who actually considered turning it into a pilot script. The problem is writing of that sort doesn't really work so well as a collaboration, unless it's amongst a few people with plenty of discussion about what's being written rather than just mass editing. Sometime around 2005 Wikipedia had an April Fools day front page news story about Britannica buying Wikipedia. It very quickly devolved into lame joke upon lame joke in an overdone mass a comedy failure. Good writing is rarely done by committee. DickTurpis 22:10, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, Dick, sorry I dropped the ball on that one. But SuperJosh's Schlafly-Doo escapades made me feel better.  Yup, to do this you need a half-dozen or so people sitting around a table all day, day in, day out.  03:11, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * What he said. Just look at Uncyclopedia.  The only really funny pages are the ones that have been monoploised by one or two forceful editors.   23:13, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * A lot of us could probably write for the Daily Show, but I would prefer to work on drama.--Thanatos 23:53, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Good writing is rarely done by committee. Agreed. 01:08, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * There was always Conservapedia: Teh Musical, wherever that ended up. I thought that was a pretty cool idea, and I liked Human's one a year or two ago of a show based on CP. 03:28, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

RAF Airmen
Yo, what up bloods and shit. A quicky for y'all and stuff or something or nothing. 00:03, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

This message is brought to you by the NZ Police...
Wise words, pay heed. AceMcWicked 02:09, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That is so the Kiwi Police though. I remember getting busted once for pot and they were less concerned about the weed than about the quality. Their main concern seemed to be how much I paid for it rather than the fact I was in possesion.Rad McCool 02:52, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

urgh/insomnia
i just coughed and flecks of saliva went onto my screen. i'm going to go and try to sleep again as it's 5am. night night. 03:59, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Discworld fan population
Am I imagining it, or are there a lot of Discworld readers and/or fans on RW?-- 22:01, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Enjoy Discworld

 * One here -- 22:21, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * ditto -- 22:25, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Another one. Totnesmartin 22:36, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * 22:41, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah (in moderation).  22:45, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Addict from the first. 23:20, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Guilty. Can't get enough.  23:43, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Me. Been reading since I was 13 (now 34, at least physically) and can't get enough. Seriously, if you haven't read Pratchett then you should.  This guy is Rationalwiki looooong before Rationawiki was born.  If nothing else read Small Gods (AndyPandy is Vorbis) and tell me you aren't hooked.  Plus, of course, you get such bonuses as:


 * "The Wizard's Staff has a knob on the end"
 * "Where has all the jelly gone? (Custard just isn't the same)"
 * "The Hedgehog can never be buggered at all (If you're that kind of fool, and you have a long tool, Do it with a giraffe, if you stand on a stool)"
 * plus, of course, the Ankh-Morpork National Anthem "We Can Rule You Wholesale (We own all your helmets, we own all your shoes, We own all your generals - touch us and you'll lose. Morporkia! Morporkia!  Morporkia owns the day!  We can rule you wholesale,  Touch us and you'll pay.)"-- 00:19, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Andy is nowhere near badass enough to be Vorbis. TK, maybe.  Andy is more like the Cenobiarch.  -- 01:28, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I was thinking along the lines of Vorbis never hearing the Word of Om, only his own words echoing endlessly in the steel shell of his mind, and never needing any other justification than those words. Plus, of course, if you aren't with him, then you're against him and bound for the Quisition.  Whereas TK believes in bollocks all.-- 01:40, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And of course there's the whole Science of the Discworld set, which do a damn good job (IMO) 01:54, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * 00:38, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Read 'em all more times that I'd care to admit. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 07:48, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Read them all. Some several times. Listen to them as well. Excellent series.--BobNot Jim 08:18, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I've read The Light Fantastic and Mort (the latter of which is a true masterpiece). I would like to read more but tend not to read many books. My father has all but the first Discworld books in first edition, signed. 12:18, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, and I've played two of the discworld games ("Discworld" with the voices of Eric Idle and Tony Robinson, and "Discworld Noir") on the PC. Awesome games if you like point-and-click adventures. 12:20, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I've got and read the lot,including the ones for younger readers - the Tiffany Achin series is superb - but I feel the standard is slipping recently. Thud, Making Money and Unseen Achedemicals are all sub par. Mind you Nation is maybe his best ever. Bob Soles 13:49, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Really? I thought Thud was brilliant. Just goes to show. I'm sure we'll find somebody who thinks The Last Continent is good if we wait around long enough. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 13:53, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It is full of Australiana, therefore full of win. 22:44, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I didn't even know Unseen Achedemicals was out yet *runs to bookstore*. 22:42, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * 14:03, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh hell yes. 21:04, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes (although he runs a distant second to Jasper Fforde). Death and the Patrician have to be two of the greatest fun fictional characters created. -- Psygremlin  13:50, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Pratchett's books about Death and witches are amongst my favorites... the rest is cr*p.--Earthland 09:07, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * One of my favorite writers. --Gulik 07:52, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Sickened and disgusted by fantasy and sci-fi fandom

 * AceMcWicked 22:37, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Discworld is one exception. I fucking hate Star Wars, Star Trek, pretty much anything with star in the title and basically any tv show where people are in spaceships. 22:41, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Agree with Π. I do enjoy Alien, Predator etc but they are action and gore. AceMcWicked 22:45, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I've gone of Star Trek recently, some of the fans online are just 10 billion shades of special. 21:06, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * 22:46, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Hate films & TV: Book good; not-book bad. 23:23, 13 October 2009 (UTC) (Solaris, Alien & 2001 excepted)
 * Official Soothsayer of SciFi Haters Club. DogP Marmite Patrol 04:13, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Like sci-fi, never heard of Discworld

 * 22:48, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * --Thanatos 23:16, 13 October 2009 (UTC) esp if there is giant robots
 * 23:22, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * 23:35, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Secret Squirrel 00:23, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Never heard of it before people mentioning it here. 00:25, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * 01:24, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Heard of the author though for some reason Rad McCool 07:01, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Sterile 22:42, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Indifferent to Discworld, but discovered that if one is going to watch a movie stoned, The Sky One adaptation of The Hogfather surpasses both Zardoz and Russian Ark

 * DickTurpis 23:03, 13 October 2009 (UTC)
 * 00:46, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Has no idea what the hell you are talking about

 * 01:55, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Editor at CPmały książe 06:57, 14 October 2009 (UTC) (but I kind of liked Russian Ark)
 * --DamoHi 11:56, 14 October 2009 (UTC)  I am intrigued though, I won't be ignorant for long

Read Sci-fi and Fantasy as a child and young adult--not so much anymore

 * --Me!Sheesh! Mine! 13:08, 14 October 2009 (UTC) I don't think I ever read Discworld, though. I remember the moment when I realized what a douche bag Robert Heinlein was though. It was half way through my second reading of "Farnam's Freehold."

Discussion here
Personally I hated all the screen adaptations of the Discworld novels. There's a humour in the narrative which is impossible to screenwrite, and consequently a large portion of the depth is lost. 12:23, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm with you on that one. I've seen a couple of the stage adaptations done, and they were pretty good because they weren't too ambitious.  I've also enjoyed some of the 'talking book' versions.  Nigel Planer is pretty good, but Stephen Briggs does a fine job.  13:48, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * There are screen adaptations? I need to investigate.--BobNot Jim 14:12, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Don't bother. If you've read the book(s) then you'll be disappointed at the missing humour, and if you haven't read the books you'll be wondering what all the fuss is about and probably never read a Pratchett book. 14:59, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Still ...If there are several - which is the least worst?--BobNot Jim 18:34, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Ignore the purists, the two screen adaptations are actually pretty good, and although I've only seen the one cartoon (Soul Music), I enjoyed it quite a lot. Movies and books do and achieve different things, and as far as adaptations go, these just bring Discworld to the screen, they don't try to do the same humour as a book because that's impossible and it's silly to even try (LOTR has to practically rearrange everything to make it work as a film). Fanboys and purists going on about how the "films aren't as good as the books" are just missing the point entirely; by all means review them as films but to review them negatively in the context of comparing them to a book is quite immature and just plain wrong. At the very least they certainly could have been much, much worse. 21:14, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The thought just occurred to me that I have blindly accepted Discworld as "sci-fi" by the definitions of this discussion. It's not. It's far more swords and sorcery than science fiction. I don't want to get into the whole science/fantasy vs science fiction debate (Asimov vs Clarke, for instance), because that's a whole other thing, but the "Like sci-fi, never heard of Discworld" voters are really saying "I like cheese but I don't like chalk". –SuspectedReplicantretire me 21:32, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Of course, I'm no genre-nazi by any stretch of the imagination so don't take this as gospel or serious, but Discworld does have some SF qualities to it (at least considering it started as sort-of a parody of High Fantasy and then gradually evolved almost into it's own thing). Pratchett has said that the whole magic thing is just boring compared to the "reality" of something; hence stuff like the clacks, the feeling that Ankh-Morpork really is a living, breathing (or at least spluttering) city and he likes to go into how things work rather than leave it to "magicdidit" as you'd expect in run-of-the-mill swords and sorcery. And this technological progression you see throughout the series makes me almost consider the later ones to be a bit "steampunk". 21:58, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Damn you sir for being far more eloquent than I. I think Discworld has evolved, and while it started out as fairly straight fantasy/parody, it has become far more SF oriented, while retaining a fantasy quality.  It's actually quite an achievement.  00:40, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Word games
While wrestling with a cryptic puzzle, I noticed that "champs" and "chumps" only differ by one letter, and are yet pretty much polar opposites. I invite/challenge all the bored brainiac language and puzzle addicts here to present even better examples! 03:43, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * "hand" and "sand" - eh? eh? eh? 03:46, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't think that one is full of win, sadly. But thanks for playing!  04:27, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I learn most my interesting facts from webcomics, specifically Dinosaur comics. Dust has two meanings that are the exact opposites. Such as to dust a crop, or dust the mantelpiece. Or the joke I came up with in third grade.
 * Q. What does a car put on it's toast?
 * A. Traffic jam (it was destined for a laffy taffy)
 * 06:47, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Not exactly in the spirit oh Human's challenge, but I've always been interested in the fact that "sanction" has a couple of opposite meanings in one word.--BobNot Jim 08:25, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You need to get out more, Huw. AceMcWicked 08:30, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Furthermore, while champs and chomps differ by one letter, they both mean the same thing. So, while chumps chomp champs is a perfectly cromulent sentence in all its meanings, and champs chomp chumps is too if a little weird, chomps champ chumps is gibberish. -- 08:59, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Marital arts and martial arts? 10:13, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm going to die for this one: polish and Polish. -- Psygremlin  11:24, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The "World Foods" section of our local Tesco is basically just Polish food. 16:37, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

"hell" / "help" 16:53, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * "grave" / "grove" 16:56, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * None of these are polar opposites but: shoe/show, letter/better, math/bath, beer/bear, game/dame 17:01, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Hero and zero is a popular one. Basically a cliché, in fact. DickTurpis 17:04, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Hey!  17:07, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Hey, here's a thought: what about word chains with one letter differences? For example: beer --> bear --> wear --> wean --> weak (and so on) 17:06, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

You guys aren't even trying ;) Not that it matters!  01:11, 18 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Here's a challenge: think of combinations of letters which make a proper word (avoid abbreviations) when used with each of the five vowels - e.g. bag, beg, big, bog, bug. Or: pat, pet, pit, pot, put.   09:32, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That comes up a lot in crosswords. It's amazing how many 3-4 letter words it will work with.  Bag beg big bog bug bat bet bit bot but (wait, is "bot" a word?), gal gel Gil gol gul (pushing it a bit there, might not be real words!)... have to think of more now...  20:13, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Bot is a word, it's a parasitic fly that does this. Totnesmartin 20:45, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Junkyard Prophet
Anyone besides me ever heard of/know anything about this right wing indoctrination front group known as "Junkyard Prophet/You Can RUn But You Cannot Hide"? I'm just curious, because I have been organizing to expose their deceit for about 2 years, ever since I ran into them at the Minnesota State Fair. 16:17, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh dear. a "Christian Rap/Metal band" with music "touching on a number of issues including government, constitutional rights, and world events."  I haven't heard of them, but this reminds me of a band I have heard of, Allentown, Pennsylvania's own Pokerface.  Promoting New World Order conspiracies, 9/11 Truth, and all thing Alex Jones.  Pokerface was dis-invited from the Libertarian Party convention a few years ago, I assume for their 9/11 Truth wingnuttery.  On the country music side of the same paranoid territory can be found Carl Klang.  Well I guess there's a fan base out there for that kind of stuff.  Secret Squirrel 18:50, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, the thing about the Junkyard Prophet is that they pretend they are just a motivational speaking group for youth, then use that rouse to infiltrate school assemblies and hock an agenda nuttier than Pat Robertson to high school youth. Quite dangerous, if you ask me. 18:56, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * We had a band like that play in our public school auditorium back in 8th grade. (This was a looong time ago...)  I suspect they passed themselves off to the school administration as a comedy/teen motivational/encourage kids to say no to teh drugs act.  They did a very funny comedy show of Weird Al type spoofs of popular songs, but it was a hook to promote the "free concert" they were holding that evening at a local Baptist church.  (Baptist church = instant red flag).  I didn't go but those who did said the band played two songs and then The Two Hour Hell Fire And Damn Nation Sermon began.  Secret Squirrel 19:31, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Repton 2
Hadn't played this in years. Had forgotten how much of a total, unforgiving, pain in the arse this game is. And yet somehow, also the most awesome game ever devised. I wonder if anyone ever completed it. -- 21:12, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Something like only two or three people anywhere completed it. Repton 3, & it's themed variants, was much more fun.  (Around the World in 80 Screens; Repton Through Time; Life of Repton).  + You could create your own levels.   16:00, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

More garden experiences
I spent this afternoon digging my mother-in-law into a bed of daffodils. 18:29, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Err, you beast? Was she at least sedated before you started burying her? 18:51, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Shouldn't you have your daffodils up by now? If you leave them in they new bulbs form clumps and don't flower so well. Totnesmartin 19:40, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Cremated rather than sedated and they were new bulbs. 20:20, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh dang. You weren't kidding on either front. What kind of daffodils are you planting? I just got a new shipment of daffodils, tulips, and narcissus from White Flower Farm. Last time I tried this the effin' squirrels ate $200 worth of bulbs, and a bunch of other roots and corms I planted that Fall. Bastards. I need a pellet gun. But at least I don't have to divide bulbs this year. 22:22, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Researcher for bureaucrat
I hereby nominate Researcher for bureaucrat, since they have been here for over two years, made numerous, helpful edits, and because they are, overall, an asset to this wiki. 04:42, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You mean he/she isn't one already? Blimey, what a shame!  06:21, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I know! I was shocked, myself. 06:22, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I wandalized RWW, I'm not sure if it was coherent or on the right page. But it was fun.  06:34, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Hahahahahahahahaha!!! I love what you did to my page there. Man, that's great! 06:36, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Win :) 06:40, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I oppose this on the ground he/she italicises rather than bolds article titles. Clearly the sign of a sick mind. 06:45, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Does she? Hell with her, let's promote her to user!  She's a witch! Burn her!!!!  06:51, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Holy crap, activity on RWW!! What next, you'll be telling me someone posted in the forums. 10:25, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Our turn for winter
It's snowing big gobs of white clubber right now and has been for half an hour. Probably won't stick, though. 21:21, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Kinda the opposite over here. We've gone from like 12° the other day to expecting 29° on Friday, looks like winter is over. The bushfire season starts in a few days, they've been on TV for about a week telling us we're gonna die. Such being the case, is it okay if I have a drink? 21:41, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The guy from New Hampshire says it's getting cold. The guy from Australia says Winter is over. Perfect. 22:24, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And from New Jersey, USA, I say WHEN THE HELL WILL IT STOP RAINING?? It's been pouring for like 3 days straight and its supposed to go on several more days. In America, that's like the equivalent of the Flood. Not winter yet though. 23:07, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * We've had a frosty night here in AAAAARRGGGHHH WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE FUCKING WEATHER!!!!! Totnesmartin 23:19, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And in Central Qld (Australia) we're saying WHEN THE HELL WILL IT START RAINING?? No real rain since April and dust haze and smoke from bushfires everywhere. RagTop <font color="teal" face = "Comic Sans MS>Gone sailing 00:22, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Just saying', I've never seen snow before Halloween before. Eh, weather always make new records, that's why it's fun.  And stupid.  03:42, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Heh. Here in Colorado, we had snow last weekend.  This weekend, we got t-shirt weather.  --Gulik 08:07, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I've seen snow before Halloween. Last February. Totnesmartin 08:45, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Further proof that Al Gore's global warming myth is hogwash! <font color="#00F0A20">DogP <font color="#993300">Marmite Patrol 15:45, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Damn the liberal university professors!
Answering a question on the Korean War, and asked to look at two histories and explain how they differ in their treatments. I get one book by a Korean who seems anti-America and to balance this out I get a book by a professor at Princeton, hoping for some bad-guys-obliterified style stuff. But he hates the war too. Filthy liberal. EddyP 16:39, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Just an evolved form of the people's history; whine at the "imperialists," drool over the Red nutters. 16:50, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

So, farewell, then...
Ludovic Kennedy, who did more to get capital punishment abolished in Britain than anyone else. E.J. Thribb Totnesmartin 17:28, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah, you beat me to it. A great humanist, secularist, campaigner against legal injustice as well as a writer and broadcaster. 17:55, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And another of the great, slightly eccentric Liberals like Clement Freud. It was people like this that made politics interesting. Now we get blank, faceless people in suits. No fun. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 20:20, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Too weird to WIGO
Is nature using time travel to stop the Large Hadron Collider creating a "God particle"? Who needs the Weekly World News? Totnesmartin 20:19, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * This has already been WIGO'd twice, actually. 20:22, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Beat me to it. I wish more people would read WIGO World? Not so many laughs, but it's the most informative WIGO. IMHO. LOL. BBL. ORLY? –SuspectedReplicantretire me 20:26, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Jeez Totnesmartin, get with the program. Or you'll be out. AceMcWicked 20:27, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Heh, yeah. I remember that one. WIGO:World is awesome. Though in this case I think it's just two physicists doing some philosophical musings. I think the reports are implying that it's far more serious than they're actually taking it. 20:29, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry - didn't mean to sound so critical: I mean it's full of good stuff so you're missing out if you don't read it. The whole idea sounds to me like two physicists throwing ideas around over a few tequilas and then thinking "Well why not?" Coverage of anything to do with the LHC always gets overblown with phrases like "God Particle" and "Black Hole Creator" being thrown around. If any of you heard the BBC Today radio program's coverage of the switch-on I think you'll agree that "overhyped" gained a new definition that day. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 20:33, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

WTF?? Israel spies on NASA
I just saw this bizarre turn of events. It's probably not WIGO-World worthy, but WTF?? NASA?? 21:35, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It was an FBI sting. Broccoli 23:09, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Look what I found in my garden this morning
I have never seen one sleeping on the ground before. Just thought I would like to share that. I wish I had some decent pictures of the one last week that had a baby with it. 03:26, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Is that a Koala?? Man, why can't I live somewhere with cool animals.-- 03:35, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * We've got squirrels in England haven't we? Be happy with those Pitch black! 03:38, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Cil teh skwrl! Fucking squirrels, they're lots of fun until they get into your house.  At least mice don't break things.  I had to re-screen two windows after those magic fucking flying mammals were done with making new escape routes. I have seen them walking (or whatever it is) across a vertical wall on their way to do whatever their nefarious business might be.  03:41, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I have never seen a squirrel. I remember when we had some new neighbours from England a few years ago. The guy lost his shit when he found a koala in his yard. He was just standing out on the street pointing saying to anyone going past "look, a real life koala". I had never seen anyone so excited in my life. 03:43, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I would definitely react that way if I saw one. A few years back a friend of mine from Mexico totally lost his shit when he saw a squirrel sitting in a tree. Started shouting "ardilla, ardilla!" and running and pointing. High comedy.-- 03:52, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I've literally got a whole folder on my phone dedicated to pictures I've taken to squirrels. I think it's called "squirrels" or something to that effect. 03:57, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Being and ADD afflicted person, I love squirrels. I have two of them living in the tree outside my window, I'm sure I've lost at least 7 or 8 hours watching them scamper around.  06:17, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I love the little red fellas but have only ever seen them in East Germany. Here we have the despicable American grey imports who are vermin of the highest order. They have cost me many £££ by gnawing through supposedly "squirrel-proof" bird feeders, eaten all of my hazel nuts before they were ready to be harvested and destroyed umpteen birds nests. 10:12, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I've never been diagnosed with any kind of mental disorder or anything of that sort, I think I just have a short attention span. According to Andy, that's a sign of closed-mindedness. 13:23, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Recently, two squirrels tore up some of my front yard halloween decorations. Pretty soon there's gonna be some squirrel pelts up on the wall.   13:33, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I like the fact that koalas spend most of their lives spaced out on a eucalyptus high. 16:40, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I hate squirrels. We have dozens of them living all around my house. The little fuckers eat my tomatoes. I will confess to taking pictures of different varieties of squirrels while traveling because I thought they looked exotic. I would absolutely lose my shit if I saw a Koala in the wild. <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 22:39, 17 October 2009 (UTC)
 * On a trip to California last year, I was really excited when I saw a raccoon in Golden Gate Park. I followed it for a minute or so, trying to get a good photo, til it hissed at me & disappeared into the bushes.  I'd never seen one before, except maybe in a zoo, but I guess people in the states probably see them all the time.   09:25, 18 October 2009 (UTC)


 * We have a neighborhood in Pittsburgh called Squirrel Hill. Guess what lives there?  On a recent trip to California 2 years ago, I saw a wild seal in the Pacific.  That was my "Holy Shit, its a (insert animal name)" moment.   15:34, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Head for the beaches north of San Diego & you'll see hundreds of seals, often several basking together in a heap.  15:44, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You off night clubbing tonight then? Talking of squiggles, I saw quite a few black ones when in Toronto. Exceptionally cute, quite fluffy. I'll see if I have a photo 08:11, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * For some odd reason, we have lots of white squirrels where I live. &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 15:10, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That's a lot of seals! Seems like seals are to California as white-tailed deer are to PA.   21:00, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * We're overrun with white-tailed dear as well. Cocky bastards, too. 15 feet away, eating your tomato plants like you weren't standing there yelling at them. &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 21:22, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * We just send out all the Elmer Fudds of the state to take care of them. Or hit them with cars.   21:34, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Mmm, free venison. 07:59, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Canada Geese are another thing that over runs the Sheesh! abode. There's a lake in the back of my house and I've discouraged them from coming into my yard en masse with my trusty pellet gun. My sister came to visit this spring and we were outside and she was like "oooh! How beautiful!" and I was like "Wha?" and she was like "The geese! They are so majestic!" and I was like "The Geese! They're like rats with caustic shit!" and she was like "You have no soul" and I was like "so?" <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 22:42, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Pretty!
Here. EddyP 13:37, 19 October 2009 (UTC)


 * "EddyP" (what a ridiculous name!). None of those pictures are pretty as none of them feature Autumn Foliage, which more people think is pretty than believe 2+2=4. Please make more substantive contributions or your account will be blocked. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 13:42, 19 October 2009 (UTC) (yeah - they're very pretty and well worth a look)
 * Wow, the one with the shopping trolley is hauntingly beautiful. The last one looks like Hogsmeade from Harry Potter, nice to see they finally got the electricity connected. 15:18, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Is it just me or are a lot of those done in HDR? 15:26, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, the color outdoors shots do look like HDR. Nice ones at that. My digi will do bracketed shots however I want, but I rarely bring the tripod necessary to get them all properly registered. Therefore I object to HDR photos that aren't disclosed as such as cheating. Cheating. I said it. 18:20, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That's what I was thinking too. I mean, when you know what it is, it's fine. But people who don't will look at them and think that the photographer may have done something special, been exceptionally lucky or talented to capture an image that vivid. But of course, it's just an effect that anyone can do with the right equipment and knowledge. 18:25, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I have always found that a wide angle lens helps with the sharpness and range of colours. As for the last image it is Hebden Bridge for which we have a CP spoof article. 19:14, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

WHERE'S THE FOLIAGE? &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 19:20, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, since you ask... apparently, the wet two months that passed for the first half of summer here caused a blight of some sort to infect our maple trees. Result:  They didn't turn red this year, they just went sort of yellow then brown then fell off the trees.  Imagine, a New England autumn with no beautiful foliage to prove god's existence!  22:37, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Am I the ONLY one who was dissapointed these weren't the boob shots I was quite reasonably expecting from a link labeled "pretty?" <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 22:47, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No, but there have to be better words than "pretty" to describe those kind of pictures. 22:49, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

So......
I'm sick and tired of being screwed over by every bank I've ever dealt with, so I'm going off the banking grid.... Anyone else try this? if so, how'd it work out and what should I expect? 19:21, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Stop being black? &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 19:22, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You don't need to do that, you just need a good bank. I'll help you find one if you're honestly interested - it's part of what I do for some of my consumer clients in my law practice. 19:23, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * So you're switching to the Bank of the Dirty Old Sock Stashed Under the Bed, then? 19:24, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually I was thinking of the bank of incredibly fucking heavy safe in the corner. Neveruse, I tried to go the Eddie Murphey route and color myself up, but they had some watermelon in the lobby and I gave myself away.  And to you Nutty, I have given up on finding a good one, they all screw you over, they don't care about you unless you have a multi-million dollar account and they won't care less whether or not they have my business.  I actually have a business proposal for a not for profit bank I wrote up for a class once, maybe I should try and raise some capital.  19:28, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * What problems specifically have you had with your numerous banks? 19:39, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The same as always reported, excessive fees, manipulation of deposits, horrible customer service..... you name a complaint, and I've probably experienced it somewhere along the line. 19:50, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I have not had any trouble with banks at all, probably because I have stuck to the local ones, like TCF. 19:56, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

TD Bank seems pretty decent, Chuck, although they are "east coast only" so far. They even used their "naming rights" to call the Boston Garden the Boston Garden again - OK, the TD Bank Garden", but still... Also, my hairdresser does not use a bank account.  Don't know how well it works for her, but cashing her customers' checks is easy for her because she lives or works near a branch of every bank in the region.  My biggest worry would be that cash can be lost or destroyed and then it's gone forever.  You might want to go hybrid and use a prepaid debit card if you can find one that is relatively feeless, for convenience.  22:45, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Chuck - you're wrong and I suspect that you won't admit what you've been taught for years in negro school is wrong. But seriously, I know a lot about banking resources. Email me. 23:08, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * CNIB- The bank for blind people--Thanatos 01:34, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Human, I have also worried about that.... But I have some good ideas about how to minimize that risk. I figure if it all gets stolen at once or if it's slowly pissed away through the banks it's all the same really.  07:36, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * to my mind banks are a necessary evil. The safety and convenience of a bank card, versus a money roll make any hassle worth it. I'm nor sure of your situation but having a small cushion in your checking account makes most of the hassle go away. Roll your change or something to get that cushion. <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 14:16, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

If you're interested in learning how to work around all the crap banks dish out, you can shoot me an email; I work for a bank, so I know all the tricks, and it's really not that hard. The cash under the mattress routine is really something you shouldn't try. 17:06, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Folklore Documentaries
Ok, every Halloween they come out with a bunch of documentaries claiming that "folklore" says this or that about vampires, werewolves, ect. Sometimes this is just to creep people out, other times its to promote a movie or something, but I know many of them are just plain wrong. The most extreme case I've seen is "Fang vs Fiction" which was essentially a documentary claiming that there are actually ancient documents claiming that vampires once enslaved werewolves, and they ended up rebelling and fighting a major battle, and attempting to imply that their war continues in secret to this day (it was to promote the movie Underworld).

I was wondering, if I wanted to fact-check any of these documentaries for how close to the actual folklore they are, how would I go about it?--Mustex 03:51, 20 October 2009 (UTC)--Mustex 03:51, 20 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Finding books that collect old folklore would be my guess. It seems odd to "fact check" something which is fiction anyway. 03:54, 20 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, and I wouldn't try to fact check a movie or novel by any means, but alot of these documentaries claim to be factual. I've heard some claims that sound reasonable (ie various beliefs about vampires and how to destroy them) ones that sound a little fishy (there was an old belief that you became a vampire if you left the Eastern Orthodox Church, which the real Vlad Tempesh actually did, meaning Bram Stoker's novel is suddenly justified by actual folklore), and some that are absurd (see above).  Its not that I believe the folklore, its that it pisses me off when people basically commit fraud by claiming to present historical fact, and lying through their teeth.  If I told someone that St. Augustine believed Jesus was the first vampire it wouldn't be right or wrong based on whether I or the person I was talking to believed St. Augustine was right, it would be wrong because I would be lying about history, and trying to spice it up to sound cool.--Mustex 04:03, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Blair Witch Project sucked ass. I had to say it. I would prefer to check out cases of ghost hauntings. See which ones may have a legitimate story and which are in for the publicity.--Thanatos 05:08, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, but in the case of Blair Witch at least they eventually came forward and said it was fake, and they didn't claim to have historical experts and (pseudo) scientists on supporting their views. Here's an instance of one of the documentaries I'm not sure about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqTOTIrfMrM
 * It's really pretty impossible to fact-check this, because these stories have no basis in fact - which means that anyone can claim that anything used to be believed. I could tell you right now that "medieval Bulgarians believed that long exposure to garlic could turn one into a werewolf, which would later combine with the idea of garlic repelling vampires and giving rise to the notion of the opposition of the two supernatural beings."  That sounds pretty reasonable, even though it is a blatant lie off the top of my head.  But dozens of crappy little books in the bargain bins at bookstores are filled with only slightly less blatant lies.  It would take a professional folklorist to say that people didn't believe such-and-such, or a specific expert in each related field (like a historian of the Orthodox Church for your provided example, or in Bulgarian lore for my lie).
 * To get a good idea of what some people did certainly believe, the easy go-to would be medieval Church lore. They wrote manuals on witches, vampires, and werewolves filled with the known "facts."--<font color="#000066" >Tom Moore fiat justitia 05:17, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You fools! Zombies are real! You won't be ready for the coming apocolypse <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 14:19, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * As with many subjects, Wikipedia is a pretty good starting point: their werewolf & vampire articles have folklore sections, which look fairly well cited. I can't view the YouTube link you posted (copyright restrictions in my country), but TV documentariess on these kind of human-interest history/folklore things tend to be badly researched & oversensationalised.  They give a lot of airtime to people pontificating about the subject (often enthusiasts rather than real academics) rather than presenting much in the way of primary source material.   19:19, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The National Geographic channel has some hilarious content in this regard. First you have the voice of god narrator doing this hyperbolic dooms day shtick: Some Scientists Believe That The World Could At Any Second Be Destroyed By a Meteor! Then they cut to some real mild mannered scientist:Thousands of meteors strike the Earth every day . . . BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH . . . conceivably a big enough meteor could be really bad Voice of god narrator: DOOOOM! Schleppy Scientist: There are some really interesting facts on the topic with a small chance of doom <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! '<font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 20:46, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Weaseloid: That particular documentary just happened to be what I was watching last night, and it was one of the borderline cases. It came across as highly sensationalized, but there were some things I could have accepted had they come from a more reputable source. It basically boils down to this: There was a chapter Bram Stoker left out of Dracula that included reference to another, female, aristocrat vampire who was Dracula's rival. Her name sounds alot like a real-world Noblewoman who drank wolves milk to try to have a son, and finally had one in her early 40s. Later, she started to get sick, and used a massive number of folk remedies. Her symptoms, combined with the large number of potions she was using on herself, may have caused some people to suspect she was a vampire and/or witch. She was autopsied, which was unusual for aristocrats at the time, and the doctor was paid an abnormally large sum, which may have been to keep him quiet about the fact that he was performing rites to keep her body dead. Someone seems to have repainted the head in a portrait of her, possibly as a symbolic beheading. And her grave was sealed in an unusual way, which may have been to keep her dead. (yeah, sensationalized, but less absurd than some. Aside from the painting thing, I'd be willing to buy they thought she was a vampire from another source)--Mustex 01:19, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

FUCK
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! FUUUUUUCK!!!! <font color="#00F0A20">DogP <font color="#993300">Marmite Patrol 06:36, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And a fine fuck to you as well, sir. 07:06, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Well based on the above I think fucks all round.Rad McCool 07:10, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * From the capitals, I'm assuming it was aggressive salesmanship rather than a request... –SuspectedReplicantretire me 07:22, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed, that outburst is the "fuck" of an angry, frustrated, man.Rad McCool 07:35, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Nah, the dog pound showed up on his doorstep. 08:03, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, I think I'd be rather startled if I opened my door and there was a whole dog pound there; usually when I open my door I see my driveway. *Insert segue here* wait, we're already talking about dog pounds... segue achieved! Check out the first picture of a cat in this article. No wonder the damn thing hasn't been adopted with those claws. 10:04, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * "Emma" on that page has a face like my eldest. 10:36, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Naaaaaaaawwwwwww. You know, that sound people make when you show cute things to them Would you like to swap cats? Mine attacks the dog, gets attacked by the rats that's what she gets for sitting beside the cage then goes outside and gets attacked by the birds; I think she's broken or something. 11:52, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Have you tried turning it off and on again? Wiki tends to come and bug me in the evening, when he demands affection no matter what. The other two are a bit less "cuddly", and won't sit on your lap. Cats are funny. 12:07, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

One of my cats also demands attention for an hour or so in the evening. On the weekend he also does it in the early afternoon. The same cat also wants my wife to wake up around 4:45am, after which he doesn't care what she does. He is highly regimented in this regard. Is Wiki or Wikeh or whatever a male (or formerly male) cat by any chance. I've a theory that boy cats are more social.<font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 14:25, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, Wicket is male. So are the other two though, so I guess it might be a breed thing. 15:38, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

church sign humor
I don't mean to paste too much internet humor on the Saloon wall, but this picture just made my day. 21:09, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Should read "First Reformed Church of Pwnage".  21:14, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Whats fun is to go around and slap these stickers on church signs. &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 21:20, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Is that out of the Church Sign Generator, or is that an actual picture? 21:21, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Actual picture. It's almost as scary as "reason is the greatest enemy that faith has." 22:08, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

<-It reminds me of this classic. 21:34, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I've always wanted to add giant "Caution: May contain nuts." stickers to church signs. -- 00:17, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * On a slight side track, there is the Official God FAQ. Sterile 02:03, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, that is good.  02:08, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Superfreakonomics and global warming
Wow--the blogosphere is abuzz with commentary about Superfreakonomics and the authors' denialism about global warming. Sterile 22:30, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I saw that - in fact, Levitt and Dubner had written an article about it for my local newspaper. But I suppose they are looking at it from a statistical point of view - they basically ignore any climate models or predictions and are just looking at the average temperature over time. 22:38, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Wow, they wrote an article for your local paper? Or was it just syndicated by AP or Reuters? 10:53, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't remember, but probably syndicated. I doubt famous people like them would write for a paper in New Jersey. 13:01, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Unclean! Unclean!
My housemate informs me that he has worms, and that I might have to go on worm pills too as the worms "spread like wildfire." I am not happy. Totnesmartin 19:42, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds like fun. Like the time my roommate had head lice, and, as a result, I had to use RidX and tea tree oil as well, even though I never actually got lice. 19:44, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * When I came back from a 3 month backpack around South America my doctor suggested I "de-worm" myself just to be on the safe side. He gave me this de-worming chocolate which I am sure he also gives his dog. It tasted foul but I got it down me and then went drinking. Now apparently you are not supposed to drink on worming chocolate and I was horribly vomitous but my doc said it was OK because within my vomit there was probably a ton of dead worms. Charming. AceMcWicked 20:23, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds wrong to me, worms are intestinal parasites, you can't puke them up, you kill them and poop them out. 03:26, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * It depends on the worms. Some can get caught in the stomach as well. (Time to go on a tangent).... I remember my grandpa (a medic during WWII) telling me about when his entire company had tapeworm from drinking contaminated water, and the only way they could get the main worm out in those conditions was to give ipecac to the soldiers and, then, when they'd start to puke, the medical personnel would reach in their throat and grab the end of the worm to pull it out. His detail were a lot more disgusting, unfortunately, and it was the only story he ever told us about his 1 year tour of duty in the Pacific. 03:34, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yum, worms. 06:19, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * On of my colleagues on my horticulture course found a white stringy thing on the ground and picked it up show me, asking what it was. I held it and looked at it for a bit and then realised what it was...a tapeworm lying in a pool of vomit, probably from a fox or a cat. I have never washed my hands so thoroughly in all my life. Totnesmartin 08:49, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I remember waking up one morning with a tickle on my rear thinking it was a hemorrhoid because I thought I knew what they were from hearing my mother's pro prolix Irish immigrant mother complain about them all the time. Turns out everyone in my house had pinworms. They are a nightmare to get rid of and really make your asshole itch. Conservapederast 15:35, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh they're not that bad. All you need is a flashlight, a pair of tongs and a trustworthy friend to help you out. 15:41, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, it's all good. Try damn near intentionally giving yourself amoebic dysentery because a local national in Iraq offers you a drink of their water... Their unfiltered water that they just drew from the canal. You can't refuse because that's disrespectful. You can't disinfect it beause that is too. So you just smile, gulp it down, and then shit your brains out for the next four days... It's GREAT! The Foxhole Atheist 23:54, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

New Year
Oh, I forgot. Sal mubarak to everyone for yesterday. Remember, whatever you were doing yesterday, you will apparently be doing for the rest of the year. I was drinking. 15:49, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Fuck. I was having a massive sneezing fit brought on by emptying the hoover. 15:50, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Don't snort hoover dust, it doesn't get you high. 15:52, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, good. I get to watch The Misfits play over and over again.  I can deal with that.   15:53, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I was buying carrots. The future's orange. Totnesmartin 16:03, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I hazd a cheezburger. The future is pink and juicy on the inside, and yellow and melty on the outside.  23:19, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And will get stuck in doorways by summer. Totnesmartin 15:40, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I saw a pink flamingo, but it was black and eating cheese. The Foxhole Atheist 00:01, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Sims 3
Anyone else play The Sims 3 and have any amusing tips for things to get up in the game? I've already rummaged around in the neighbor's bins and found an "unknown seed", which I'm led to believe might be a money tree. Anything else weird and wonderful which skews from the norm? 15:56, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Dunno. I usually just stick the money cheat in, build a massive house and then get bored. 17:40, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * EA Games boourns! EA is a blight on the gaming industry, I hope you downloaded it. Personally, I will never, never forgive EA for what they did to SimCity. It was template EA MO from start to scratch. 1. Acquire company with well-known games 2. Create the worst, cheapest piece of shit we can, knowing that people who like the brand (SimCity, in this case) will still buy it without knowing EA owns it now 3. Sell the game at the same cost as games that were made by competent engineers 4. Point and laugh at all the people we screwed over. Everytime I hear another studio has been bought out by EA, I die a little inside. Please people, boycott EA. PS: Yay! here's this. 19:06, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * As I write this, I am currecntly letting a small sea-side town develop in Sim City 4, the superior Sim City game. 19:44, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I quite agree, I hope you're taxing the fuck out of polluting industries, we want moar high-tech! I should reinstall SC4, but it's such a time-sink. If I install it, I'll be gone until at least the other side of the weekend. Besides, last time I played I got annoyed at my sims and lowered all the funding, causing property values to sink, and starting a massive recession which pretty much killed my region, was fun though. I'm pretty hardcore with SC4, because it's the sort of game that lets you play hardcore if you want. More bitching: Yes, I am aware EA has owned Maxis for a while, but they've always left Maxis games alone until recently. Sad. Of course, we knew it was coming when everytime the Maxis logo appeared it would say "A subsidiary of EA". Seriously, look at any EA game ever made (especially NFS games), how in love with themselves are they? You can't have 30 seconds pass without having the EA logo jump out. God, how I hate them so! 19:58, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, for the first while you have to let dirty industry develop if you want a quick developemnt, or you have to hoarde agriculture to get enough jobs for the middle class to move in, which takes longer. I generally do the agriculture route, as it is not as insanly difficult to clean up when transistioning to a large town/city. 20:03, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Polluters can be taxed to an extreme degree and still have demand. I can't remember the rough % they can be taxed, but a quick fiddle with the budget will sort it out. You're right, you either need polluters or agriculture to begin with. I go polluters and usually the toxic waste dump just for the fun of it - it's funny, zoom in on the protesters at the toxic dump, they scream and run away when a truck goes by. Also, did anyone else notice that if you build all your crap (schools, hospitals, library etc) at the beginning, you can balance the budget pretty easily, but if you start with only basics and try to build up later it's a lot harder to balance? Or is it just me? 20:12, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh... you-drive-it is awesome. I still remember Streets of Sim City, back when you could drive around in a city you made and blow it up... mmmmmmm *goes off and has an nostalgic orgasm anyway... where was I, oh yes, I tend to provide services in this order, fire protection, water, police services, education, health. Usually, medium and high arrives shortly after education is provided. And I rarely have trouble balancing the budget, because I only build what I can afford (Credibility, a medium tile city, 250,000 or someat people, started on hard). 20:18, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Is Credibility the name of the city or the mayor? I only do my cities on the biggest tiles, I usually dodgy up the files so all the tiles are large ones, except the ones around the very edge. I'm not a fan of you-drive, although I did like Streets of SC, not quite as much as SimCopter though. If you never played it, it's the same as Streets, but with helichoppers - flying around my old SC2K maps smashing into arcologies, yay!
 * Interesting technique, I must be far too nice in keeping health top notch from the beginning. But I'm yet to go through a city intentionally being evil and building up a wretched hive of scum and villainy. 20:39, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

I do indeed remember SimCopter, I never really liked the missions so much as flying around the cities you build. Sim copter was a good game though :D 20:41, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Back the the Original Question
Supposedly sometimes when you move into a new house you can have a disaster strike your lot, like a meteor strike. Cleaning up the mess will give you loot.<font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 20:32, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I haven't got Sims 3 yet and I don't intend to until the first bundle pack comes out. What pisses me off was most of the expansion packs for Sims 2 were the expansion packs in Sims. Seriously is it that hard to include pets in the original game? 21:58, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Lemme think... Sims 2 university... nope. Sims 2 Nightlife, yeah, Hot Date.... Sims 2 Open for buisness, arguably Superstar... Sims 2 Bon Voyage, yup, vacation/on holiday... Sims 2 pets, yeah, Unleashed... Apartment Life and Seasons... no, not really, no.
 * So where does that leave us, 3.5 expansions original, 3.5 rehashed from Sims Classic. (The .5 comes from Open for Buisness) 22:04, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * (EC)Seasons was the biggest joke. The actual weather was something that was suppose to ship in the original game but they didn't get it done in time. They added gardening, which came with in the pets in Sims, so it was almost a repeat again of the same expansion. The Sims is just one giant cash cow. 22:10, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * (You bastard, you EC'd me)Yeah, people are willing to pay for the same thing twice (probably three times) so they release the same garbage over and over again. I noticed that when Sims 2 came out as well, all the expansion crap from #1 was gone; it didn't escape my notice that they stripped the game down again for #3. But you know, we are dealing with EA, and there's profit to be had! Besides, if people are desperate/fanboy/stupid/rich enough to pay for the same damn thing three times, I say let them. Now I have to add something interesting to do in the game, because I'm in the original question section... Um... have you tried getting someone's mum to walk in on their son with another guy? Oooh! An ex-boyfriend of the mother, that'd go down a treat! 22:07, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * In the Sims 2, whenever you sims goes stargazing/stares at the sky, there is a chance a sattalite will drop out of the sky and kill the sim. 22:15, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That happened to me once. It bummed me out. Then death went to the toilet before he disappeared, I shit you not. 22:17, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You people lack discipline <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 22:35, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * My sim in the first game got abducted by aliens because he spent too long using the telescope. Also, I seem to remember having a bearskin rug, and a random bear (with a bow in her hair) walked into my house and started sobbing (???). I completely missed the sims 2, but am getting back into the sims 3. The expansion packs are a rip off. Tehmizzus bought me one of them (pets? hot date? I think I had both) and for £20 each (or maybe £15, can't remember) they added bugger all. I'm not going to buy any expansions this time unless they're worth the money. Oh, and I didn't pay full price for the game. I bought the download code off a mexican guy who buys the game from his local store, bins the box, and emails you the code. The game cost me £12 instead of £40 :). 08:23, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I played the original a lot and so did my then flatmates - to the point we would actually talk to each other in Simlish. I also played and really enjoyed Sims 2 and even shelled out for several expansions. Sims 3: I played it for about a week... and then totally lost interest. It doesn't grab me as tightly as the earlier games. I can't put my finger on why, but a lot of it is to do with the massive lack of objects. The earlier games came with a lot of stuff and then expansions added even more. This one comes with sod all and you have to wait for the expansions or spend real money in the store. And I did, and it's expensive. I don't know if you already know about Zero Punctuation and I'm just the last person on the planet to find it, but I found Yahtzee's review of Sims 3 sums up my feelings pretty well. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 08:33, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You can download shitloads of free stuff from the website, including matching furniture, if you're lacking stuff. I did find all the original sim games recently in my special cupboard, and it seems a shame for them to just sit there. Therefore if anyone wants them for free drop me a line on my talk page. 09:44, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * ...Why do you have a special cupboard, and what's so special about it? I agree with the criticism re: the lack of crap in #3. After about an hour, you've earnt (yes, earnt is a word) enough money to buy anything that's marginally interesting. And whoopee, we can go down the street without loading screens now so my sim can play chess at the park instead of at home! I do remember once that my sim was abducted, much like yours, Crund (except I'm 90% this was in Sims 2). When they came back, he was pregnant. His baby looked just like him except it had big, black eyes like an alien. I called it Al. 09:57, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * O_o that's scary. Mine just had his traits changed. My cupboard is special because it has loads of awesome stuff in it (see a previous entry regarding my Barcode Battler). 10:02, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * All mine are in a draw that doesn't open properly, as those plastic boxes are about 3 or 4 mm wider than the draw is tall and so it catches on the second row of games (sad but true). 10:10, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I've started putting mine on a bookshelf in my library/office a couple of years ago. I hope no one ever sees them. I actually like the Sims 3 quite a bit. I played it for about a month after release. I dig the multi-generation thing and building a honking big house mini-maxed for Sim life and minimal UI related frustrations. I'll revisit the game when the expansion comes out next month<font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 16:33, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Film game
what if films had their main actors playing characters they'd played in other films? (for example imagine Trainspotting with Ewan MacGregor as Obi Wan Kenobi, or Charlton Heston playing Moses in Planet Of The Apes, or Johnny Depp playing Edward Scissorhands in Pirates Of The Carribean) Totnesmartin 18:35, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * This sounds like something that was thought up after 12 bong hits, but the thought of Obi-Wan slamming a big shot of dope is pretty funny.-- 18:44, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Oooh! Teacher, teacher! Here's mine, I did them all by myself, honest. 19:14, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I like to think of Johnny Depp playing Raoul Duke but in PLatoon. AceMcWicked 19:14, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Well that isn't creepy in any way, shape or form at all... 19:19, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * How about an ensemble cast film where all the main roles are ones they played in other movies? Platoon might work well... there's the Bird, and all those other people... er...  19:21, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Tom Cruise always plays Tom Cruise. Does that count? <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 20:29, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No, because some times he plays Tom Cruise Being A Twat and other times he plays Tom Cruise Being A Wanker, they're totally different. 20:36, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * He totally gets a pass from me (as an actor) because of Magnolia. As far as Scientology goes, not so much. L Ron Hubbard was a first class sociopath and his organization bears that mark. Plus, it is pure woo of course. <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 16:36, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * As an actor, yes, Magnolia took balls; he was also good in The Color of Money. Most other movies, yeah, he plays Tom Cruise, and that guy jumped the couch ages ago.  03:20, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Evolution Toys
At the risk of being accused of advertising, I just found this place that sells evolution toys for kids. My question is: do I buy that mat (say) for the daughter of my god-bothering sister or is that being a bit... confrontational? –SuspectedReplicantretire me 06:47, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Some time ago I bought this (hope that link works). Its a block of plaster with (apparently) bones therein. You're given a knife, brush & glue. It was in our local £1 shop & I just couldn't resist. 07:13, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Excellent! Too old for the daughter in question (she's only 3) but I'll have to see if I can find something similar in 5 years. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 07:45, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * If we're still around in 5 years I'll send it to you. I bought it last winter, dunno why really. (it does say age 8+) 07:53, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah I saw the 8+. At the moment she'd probably eat the plaster. And the bones. Her dad is an archaeologist so he might just be happy with that kind of toy. Thanks for the offer in any case! –SuspectedReplicantretire me 08:14, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * An archaeologist creationist? Wtf? 08:30, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't think he's a YECcer. We've never had a full conversation on the subject but I think he's an Old-Earther although truth be told, he's such a nice guy that if I told him I genuinely believed that the Earth rested on an infinitely tall tower of turtles he'd be happy to talk about it with me. He (and my sister) are the sort of Christian that makes you think they can't be too bad after all. Then I go back to read Conservapedia and wake up again. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 08:51, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Most Christians aren't bad people. CP just represents the exception. 09:22, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You've been reading CP too much if you think it reflects anything other than the rantings of 7 mad Americans.-- 10:22, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Would that it were so. I'm afraid I held a pretty low opinion of most (committed) Christians before I even heard about CP. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 10:52, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * There's a difference between comitted Christians and Christians who should be comitted.  10:56, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I whole-heartedy agree with Kriss. Conservapedia and Andy have very little to do with conservatives or Christians. Andy is just a hateful, half-crazy guy screaming obscenities from his fortress of solitude, i.e. a lifetime of wealth and privilege. <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine!
 * Fine. I shouldn't have implied that they're a typical example. Let's just say that an incident in my early life left me with a life-long antipathy for Christianity. Knowing one or two counterexamples isn't going to change that. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 14:29, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You don't need to apologize to me. I live in the bible belt where "Jesus loves me" or "I'm right with God" generally comes before or after some shitty behavior. My own brother is a prime example. I truly believe he was "savedtm" simply as an excuse to be superior, cranky and awful to other people. true story: He had a screaming fit at the rehearsal dinner for my wedding because we did not pray before the meal. He repeated more and more loudly:If you don't pray, you don't eat! We were at my home. The party was put on by my (then future) wife and I without any help or input from him. He left in a huff. My entire point was that Andy and Conservapedia are a whole separate and distinct form of awfulness that comes from some cocktail of wealth, naivete, dishonesty and stupidity. Having said that, many Christians are decent people if you discount the whole irrational and sometimes destructive beliefs thing. Also, I suspect that most/many self-professed Christians just believe in believing, but they'd never be crazy enough to apply that crap to real life. My sister is an example of this: Sweet person; Active in her church; doesn't let it skew her perception of reality.16:23, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Stephen Hawking
So Cambridge is going to appoint a new Lucasian Professor of Mathematics soon. I just wanted to point out that saying Stephen Hawking "stepped down" from the post at the end of last month might not have been a perfect choice of words. That is all. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 07:47, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Heh! Rolled down rather? 07:53, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The Lucasian Chair, that is just some paid for professorship given by a rich donor, doesn't mean anything. 08:40, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * " The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics is widely regarded as one of the world's most prestigious academic posts." "One of the stipulations in Lucas' will was that the holder of the professorship should not be active in the church." WP. 08:48, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Just an atheist giving an atheist a job with no real achievements. 09:05, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And we all know about Professor Values anyway. Plus Hawking probably voted for Obama and wouldn't be alive if he lived in a country with socialised medicine like Britain. –SuspectedReplicantretire me 09:12, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Exactly. Rich professors jetting around the country with their trophy wives at the tax-payers expense, only doing half a days work for half a year. 09:18, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * He can't step down if I've not seen him yet! EddyP 10:58, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Do we know if Hawkins is a "real professor"? Has Andy checked him out?--BobNot Jim 16:54, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * "Hawkins"? Is this another crazy genetic experiment by those godless liberals? 19:48, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Hahaha ^ Nice one. +5 clever - Clepper

From the world of Cracked...
5 forms of black magic science is making possible. Go knock youorselves out. I particually like the "telekenesis" one. 12:46, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * According to that site, I'm straight. I learn something new every day. There are all sort of bullshit regarding determining someone's secksyooal leanings. Apart from the whole "which finger is longer" shtick, gay people apparently always crescendo (for want of a more work-safe term) with their eyes open, have their thumbs pointing forward when they put their hands on their hips, have large noses, big feet and all manner of crazy "tells". Interesting article nonetheless, I seem to recall hearing about the telekinesis one a while back, didn't they end up giving the same thing to some quadriplegic dude a few years back? I seem to remember seeing footage of him trying to draw a circle on a computer screen, but this was back when I was a full-time stoner, so it may not have been real. 13:20, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Redback's post caused me to Google this guy, Cesare Lombroso, whom I dimly remembered from indoctrination my undergrad courses. Those were the good old days when you could tell a liberal criminal by the texture of their hair. <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 13:45, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Great, a link to Cracked. There goes my evening. I'm already on my 6th article in a single spree... 16:27, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * In the comments section, I found the single greatest spambot message ever:

My friends recommend me a very interesting spambot filter__http://www.surferbeware.com/spam/spam-spambots.htm__It's a nice and free place to get rid of annoying s**t. From the makers of Spambot! -- 02:16, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Germany's answer to Al Jolson
Other than Spiegel being an interesting web magazine I know jack about Germany but I suspect, based only on the photo montage, that this guy was treated the way he was not because people thought he was black but because people thought he was some jack ass walking around in black face. What was he thinking? He totally does not pass. <font color="#ff0000">Me!<font color="#649CD6">Sheesh! <font color="#6ff6633">Mine! 18:18, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

And while we are on teh funnies...
FunnyJunk calls. 19:59, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Hehe, that is funny. 20:22, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I always thought if Satan was really as deceitful as people say, then he'd have written a book filled with all sorts of crazy stuff, and get people to believe God had written it. Sure, the idea of the world being created in a week, some obscure rabbi being raised from the dead and God being his own son are pretty wacky, but humans are good at believing bizarre shit, aren't they? --Kels 20:47, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Huh, something funny on funnyjunk. Well I never. 08:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Deface Neveruse513.
Cratship. Lets kick this guy down the stairs. Someone get the can of tar. Where are the damn feathers?! 21:54, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I can't believe no one else voted for Goat!! 22:30, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

<multi poll="Neverusecrat"> 1. Neveruse513 for Crat. 2. No. 3. Goat.
 * Don't we usually do the name signing for the express reason of actually building a consensus? The voting can be easily rigged, I can usually vote several times day. 22:41, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Javascap, you shoulda just cratted him and no one would be any the wiser. I was made crat about 2 months ago and no one's any the wiser... 23:15, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Too bad "neveruse" left and is never coming back. Much.  06:08, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Race Relations
Did anyone catch John Safran's new show last night? I couldn't find any YouTube videos of it yet, but there is a scene attached this article. I am looking forward to the squealing on TV to by the unfunny networks about the use of taxpayers' money to have Safran masturbate to a picture of Obama. 23:31, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll have to add it to the article. 12:10, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Kok Boru
We definitely need an article on this ancient sport from Kyrgyzstan. (Not that it's anything to do with me of course.) A shame that we can't use the pictures. 06:06, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I always thunk most sports arose from agricultural activities. Oh, and war, of course.  But mostly throwing things at each other and trying to block the thrown objects.  With a stick. Or by kicking a pig's bladder, the general (inedible) stock in trade of agricultural life.  06:18, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I know people have been known to do some crazy things out of boredom, but why oh why would you do that? 58.163.175.132 07:25, 22 October 2009 (UTC) (rebbacks iPhone)
 * I'd include hunting in your main origins of sport but where does one put novel writing? 07:38, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Waste of a perfectly good goat if you ask me. What do they do with the head, or shouldn't I ask? Totnesmartin 07:55, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You'd be looking for this, I think. 08:53, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I shouldn't've asked. Totnesmartin 10:15, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Hit and run
Lol, my work colleague watched a show called traffic cops last night and pointed this out to me: What a tool. 10:17, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And just think, without all that "human rights abusing and privacy invading CCTV", the guy would be eating up medical resources in hospital and police resources looking for a car that didn't exist... 12:00, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll still take the privacy, thanks. &mdash; Sincerely, Neveruse513 / Talk / Block 13:28, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

James Arthur Ray
There's this guy who has been all the rage in "self help" circles the past few years, Oprah Winfrey has promoted him, writes for the Huffington Post, has had books on the New York Times bestseller list. Turns out he is a major creep and egomaniac, with obvious Jim Jones tendencies. Has anyone else been following this? The articles speak for themselves: MSNBC,  Baltimore Examiner. And what does this creep do after the tragedy? Holds a conference call with the survivors where he tries to hypnotize them and tell them to "remember your teachings" and "surround yourself with healthy harmonic minded individuals". And deletes tweets he made during the ceremony referrring to death. Secret Squirrel 12:00, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Animal Farm
I bought it yesterday started reading it at about 11.15 this evening (Tuesday) and finished reading it at about 2.20 this morning (Wednesday) without leaving my bed. Even for a piss break. I've never read it before and it was an amazing depiction of how the Soviet Union must have been under Stalin. Unfortunately, I remember Human mentioning a while ago about things in real life which remind you of Conservapedia, and several motifs in Animal Farm made me think ANDY ANDY ANDY! Most of all the general idea of being a mindless slave and not being able to think for yourself. 01:47, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No that is how Andy wants his editors to be. 02:05, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No conservative shall take idiot-pills to excess. 02:21, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I like that you namechecked me.  Hi :)  03:59, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No conservative should block another user without cause. Hi Human! :) 13:05, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I recommend 1984 next. Corry 00:07, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I thought 1984 was much better than Animal Farm, since Orwell is slightly more speculative in 1984, whereas in Animal Farm he is just trying to pound the message into your head. 00:11, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Follow it with Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451. AceMcWicked 00:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And also A Clockwork Orange. 00:16, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I bought 1984 when I bought Animal Farm the other day and yes, it's next. I want to start reading it now, but it's 1.45AM again (i'm turning into an insomniac at uni) and I just want to watch a DVD. I also had the opportunity for a cigarette earlier (over a week smoke free now) and my stupid shitting pissing fucking bastarding housemates physically blocked me from the beautiful Irish girl offering me one. 00:45, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Couldn't you have have just said "Oh I only smoke after sex. So I guess you can offer me one later"? 08:16, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Ah DUDE what a line haha! That's gonna get me slapped tomorrow :) 20:01, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Farrakhan and swine flu vaccine - oh good grief
Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam is at it again. H1N1 swine flu vaccine was designed to kill people and cull the excess population: "The Earth can't take 6.5 billion people. We just can't feed that many. So what are you going to do? Kill as many as you can. We have to develop a science that kills them and makes it look as though they died from some disease". Secret Squirrel 10:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * "EEEEEE-EFFICIENCY AND PROGRESS IS OURS ONCE MORE... NOW THAT WE HAVE A NEUT-ER-ON BOMB... IT'S NICE AND QUICK AND CLEAN AND GETS THINGS DONE..."  20:06, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

You UKers
I wrote a section on the aSK Support for creation and evolution talk page wondering about what it would be like to live in Iceland (the highest country surveyed for acceptance of evolution). But, you UKers are right up there. What's it like living in a country that isn't 40% whackos (i.e. nutters)? 12:41, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Bitter at coming second to bloody Iceland. Bob Soles 12:48, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * (EC)Pretty sweet; lovely churches everywhere (wouldn't swap them for the world), it's nice to think of vicars as an integral part of village life (even though having lived in villages all my life I haven't had much to do with them), but I don't think anyone really cares about Christian/atheist, including the vicars; for instance, the vicar at my college graduated in Phys Natsci and recently threw a buffet for the Natscis including the biologicals. Which reminds me, he hands out free donuts and tea on thursdays.... EddyP 12:49, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The hell? Canada's not even on the list? --Kels 12:58, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Generally I try and stay out of the whole creation/evolution debate as I don't know all the facts, but I think it's for the reason that we don't have religious bigots shoving Christianity down our throats that I myself am relatively tolerant of religion. The rightwingers in America are just too extreme to be taken seriously which is why there seems to be a much sharper divide between religious and nonbelievers. 13:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * That's true, but it depends on where you live. In middle America, the people are kind and respectful but when religion and evolution are discussed they can get nasty. Middle America is also where most of the real crazies live. In the more secular side of America, people actually acknowledge that there are multiple religions, and religious bigots are looked down upon. But, as teh Andy proves, crazies live there too. 14:19, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Turn it on its head and ask, "what's it like living in a country where 40% of the population are wackos" heh. But seriously, it's pretty alright. Can't say I've experienced the "other side" enough to draw a valid comparison, though. I suppose the main difference is that the English, by and large, consider stuff like televangelism to be vulgar, street preachers to be crazy, and the whole culture wars thing brought up by fox to be hot air. The UK public seems to have this in-built cynicism that I think acts as a defence against any form of hype, particularly the religious hype that has to go with evangelism and creationism. 14:36, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Not having lived in the US it's a bit hard to answer. I sometimes talk about creationism in the US in my classes in Spain and my students simply don't believe me when I tell them that some 50% of the US believes that the world is only 10,000 years old. For them it's like claiming that the world is flat.--BobNot Jim 14:41, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * What you have to realise is that whatever answer people give in a survey of that kind, it only actually affects the day-to-day life of a tiny, tiny minority. Most people just don't think about it that much. The raging controversy in the US, with court cases and demonstrations and people up in arms, seems really alien to me as a Brit.-- 14:47, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * PS There is this one guy who stands on a soapbox in the town centre on Saturdays and shouts about the falsehood of evolution. He is American, coincidentally, and most people tend to just ignore him. Except once when someone else turned up with a microphone and speakers and started arguing with him, but I don't think the discussion really resolved anything much.-- 14:50, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The problem with Iceland is the elves. See here.
 * Awesome! Article needed!-- 15:04, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Even an Elf school--BobNot Jim 15:20, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * "Middle America is also where most of the real crazies live." That is the South, actually... 15:49, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * And in California they're just crazy in a different way. 16:00, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I forgot California. Proportionately fewer of the kooks out there do not go about picking fights with the State, hence are not noticed so much. 16:03, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

UD) if memory serves there was a Bishop of the CofE who didn't believe in God. Durham? Jenkins? memory going! 16:04, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * link 16:06, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Only an atheist would swear in a sermon! 16:11, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Shortly after he (Jenkins) was bishoperised or whatever, York Minster was struck, & badly damaged, by lightning. Wrath of God? (again it's only my memory - I might be wrong. 16:16, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I would be more likely to stick it to Thor, going off at the Archdiocese of York because they had not been preaching enough about the Thunder of God, or something along those lines. (The term is "consecrated.") 16:23, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It's a great irony that the UK is a largely secular society where religion isn't involved much in political issues, despite having an official state church which is still involved in government, while the USA has constitutional commitment to separation of church & state, but can't debate any political or scientific issue without it getting muddied with religion. 21:59, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Just imagine if the USA didn't have a constitutional separation of church and state. *shudders*  22:10, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
 * What would probably happen then is that the State church would be a moderating factor; dissenting churches have always been more radical (which means, in the case of Christianity, crazy). The former State churches here (Congregational and Episcopal) are today among the most liberal denominations.
 * There is much talk of State churches spouting State interests from the pulpit in the place of sound doctrine; one can see this as a failing, or they can see it as a way for churchmen to keep their heads out of the clouds. 04:10, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
 * You're right about the irony Weasloid, with a separation of church and state we end up with a free market in religion, which is probably why it is so successful. Here in the UK we have a state religion which is largely ineffectual, because as free-marketeers know the government can't run anything. 06:51, 23 October 2009 (UTC)