jerry81

I used to play it a lot (a year or two ago, I think). I had a pretty fearsome necromancer, but I never finished the game- somewhere in the third land, I simply lost interest and deleted it. But then again, I've always been more of a Monkey-Island-type-adventures person .

Sorry for the pm I sent you.

Isn't that exactly what they are? Pawns that can be moved around by those with enough political power? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a good soldier one that doesn't question orders much? One that accepts the fact that others will decide about his life and that every battle he is sent to might be his last, whether he deems its cause noble and worth dying for or not.

Ah, but it was written by an American, was it not? Also, the last verse does imply this is an American soldier- flag with a capital F implies this, the burial ritual described implies this and last but not least, flag-burning in a protest does also imply it's an American flag. I study communications. Analyzing message content has become second-nature to me. Do not fuck with me on this subject! j/k

Ah well, at least you had a girl to hold in your arms for Valentine's. The only person I got to hold in my arms that evening was a friend who got so wasted (I'm assuming being dateless for Valentine's Day had something to do with it) I had to hold him straight while others dressed him, then hold him up while he barfed, then pick him up when he literally slipped out of my hands (can you say 'complete loss of muscle control'?) and finally overpayed the taxi driver so he would actually take the guy home, not just drop him in a gutter somewhere. But I had fun nevertheless, so perhaps this doesn't qualify as a horror story...

Actually, it was the French who gave you those things. At least the theory. And pray tell, when was the last time the United States had to fight an enemy who wanted to take away your constitutional rights?

Stopping bad things before they happen is generally a good and noble idea. Starting a war with another country- not replying to its direct acts of aggresion, but actually starting a war- now that is what defines you as the bad guy in my book.

There was approximately the same number of people marching for peace in my hometown, the only difference being it's about four times smaller than San Diego, population-wise. (But we're in Europe and we hate the USA, so it kinda makes sense. j/k) There were people of all ages present, with a surprisingly large number of seniors among them, as well as some protesters from other countries and even a squad of nazi-skinheads. We marched through the old part of our city, most people holding candles, but some were also waving rainbow-colored banners with the word peace or pace (Italians) on them. There were very few signs being carried around. As we made a complete round of the old town, the organizers wanted to steer the protesters back into the square where the march began, and encountered problems for the first time, because a considerable number of them wanted to march past the American embassy. Approximately half of us went past the ten guys in charge who were trying in vain to convince people that we had nothing to say to USA that would matter. When we reached the barricades, which were erected by the police about 100 meters from the embassy, the behavior of the crowd was, a bit surprisingly, very calm. A lot of people left their candles there (others left them in front of our parliament, which was on the way), some songs were sang and only once or twice was shouting anti-americanism taken up. After about an hour, most of the people simply went home (it was freezing). The whole thing lasted approximately four hours, with the performers and speakers being overlooked, partially because of the cold and mostly because people felt, and rightfully so, that the message has already been expressed without words.

Ross; I looked through my copy of the Kuran, but couldn't find what you describe. There are verses in which Allah is telling Moses to attack and claim the Holy land and there are numerous mentions of the suffering that awaits 'nonbelievers' in the afterlife, but explicit instructions for killing non-muslims are nowhere to be found. Can you tell me which verse of Surah 5 did you find them in, so I can look again?

Better get your facts straight... So, did I understand this the wrong way or are you actually saying the US did not fund the mujahideen and their leader, Osama bin Laden (who was in that time called a freedom fighter), in their battle against the Soviet army? I do agree that someone needs to get their facts straight

I don't think ethical and legal responsibility are so easily interchangeable. While a student does sign a waiver and accepts legal responsibility for his actions, his instructor will still without doubt feel an ethical responsibility to prevent the student from harming himself because of his lack of experience. If someone I look up to regarding skydiving tells me I'd be fine on an elliptical 105, I wouldn't listen to them, but would consider such an advice ethically questionable. Yes, in the end, every individual is responsible for their own actions and I agree this should be emphasized regarding everything, not just skydiving. But every individual's action is a result of interactions with other individuals, and if a certain action causes death or injuries to our individual, the partners in those interactions that led to this action are, according to my ethical system, partially responsible, even though the crucial part of responsibility (that is, the part over which lawsuits are fought) belongs to the dead or injured individual.

So if an instructor forgets to attach the static line, would the student be completely responsible for whatever happened to him/her? (True example from around where I come from. The student later complained that her parachute took a long time to open and did not realize the aad had popped the reserve...) There was a discussion in the incidents forum not long ago that had something to do with radios on students- while I firmly believe you should be able to land a parachute yourself the first time you jump, the best argument for radios was "because they're students". It takes some time to get used to jumping out of an airplane and the psychological shock of it can cause newbies to do foolish things. Which does not mean that students are completely irresponsible for what they do, I just want to say that in such cases, the responsibility is, imo, divided.

So you're assuming we skydivers are rational people, eh? Guess again ! We jump out of airplanes simply because IT FEELS SO GOOD. Oh, and most of us probably believe firmly in the equipment we use, the knowledge we have about what we're doing and that if we apply this knowledge correctly, we won't die. Unless, of course, a big wad of bad luck should come our way, in which case we will die. But that could happen anywhere and anytime, and the only thing you'll get from worrying about it is an ulcer.

Not in the UK, but will be marching tomorrow... It will be interesting to see how close to the US embassy we can get- the last time I was in a street protest that wasn't even against USA directly (it was against NATO) the fences and cops stood 100 meters from the actual embassy grounds- you'd have thought we were planning to tear it down with our bare hands. Edited to add; Swarley, you were trying to help Kosovo- you attacked Yugoslavia. And even that wasn't very nice...

I thought the correct instructions for women on how to make men happy were "Show up naked and bring beer." Works for me

Since you're French bashing, why don't you bash that French chick in NY Harbor? You know, the one holding a giant torch. Seriously, the way she stands there, people might think the French have had something to do with the way your country is organized.

Who cares!

Here's another question; should USA complain if Iraq makes a pre-preemptive strike against it?

You Americans have one of the highest limits for drunk driving in the whole world! Here, the limit is .05 (0.00 if you're a proffessional driver or have had your license for less than 2 years) and for 0.15 you go back to driving school. On the other hand, the fees aren't nearly as high as yours and driving under influence is something of a national pastime. Also, if my boss (that is, if I had a job and a boss to go with it) learned of me being caught dui , he'd probably say "Tough luck, gotta hate those pigs" and then launch into a detailed description of the last time he nearly got busted.

Hmmm, that's nice. Is there a best-case scenario as well?

If you have time, go to a library and try to find the book The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. There are a few chapters that should cover the plants part of your project, and the book as a whole is quite an interesting read as well.

Can I take this discussion in a slightly different direction? While I'm sure that most of us realize that what we're doing can kill us, I'm not entirely comfortable with the "You can do everything right..." argument. Does anyone know of an accident where the general consensus was "Yes, this guy/girl did everything just right, but died anyway."? The way I see it, skydivers usually die after doing something wrong and I'd really like to hear some opinions on this.

Two cars start 60 miles apart, each driving towards the other with a constant speed of 20mph. At the same time that they start, a fly starts flying from one car to the other with a speed of 60mph. When it reaches the other car, it turns and flies back to the first car and so on. What will be the overall length the fly has flown by the time the cars meet and squash it between them?

Hey, I got a total of 105098! (At the shit-flinging game, not the one with the spaceball) I wonder what that makes me? A Shit-master? A Pro-shit-flipper? A monkey?

Actually, mescal/mezcal is a lot like tequila- both are made from agave plants, but while any kind of agave can be used for mescal, only blue mexican agave is used for tequila. Also, the agave pulp used for mescal is dried over smoke which gives it a distinctive flavor. But the name itself comes from the mexican-native word for agave and has no connection with mescaline. So don't go trying to open those doors of perception with tequila.