2641
Other Games / Re: eRepublik
« on: April 30, 2010, 07:40:48 pm »
What 50k issue? The only issue should be how much of it they are giving to me.
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2642
Other Games / Re: Mechwarrior 4 Released for free
« on: April 30, 2010, 07:38:22 pm »
Did they release the base code to modders? For example if someone wanted to modify or add to the campaign. I remember reading someone planned to add more of the other three great houses and the clans to the campaign, and one of his goals was that you could end up working for any of them in the end like how you currently choose either Steiner or Davion. Another person chimed in at the same thread saying he would re-record all the voices so that if anyone mods in new campaign content the voice actors would be the same.
I'd like to see more Solaris missions myself, those are some of my favorite of the campaign.
I'd like to see more Solaris missions myself, those are some of my favorite of the campaign.
2643
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 30, 2010, 05:25:15 am »a troll is actually a magical creature that wanders the internet doing stuff for the lulz, Grakelin probably thinks you don't actually believe the things you are defending, and just do it to make fun of us, because he thinks your arguments are ridiculous. i don't think their ridiculous, just misinformed and insulting, you're no troll, just a victim of a country too patriotic for it's own good.
There is already an international exchange of knowledge, actually it's been happening probably since the first cro-magnon met the first neanderthal, and happened through the ancient and modern times.
My sister is in med school studying under a Cuban teacher on an teacher exchange program, and a few of my teachers (i study fine arts) are on a collaborative project with a brazilian university and a few african villages, not just teaching, but learning from the local cultures. i'm not the kind of person that is into charity so i care little for the stuff they do in africa, but the african folk influence on some of my teachers' works is fascinating.
The american culture could also improve if they increased their importation of international books and films, and the rest of the world could also benefit culturally if the usa actually decreased it's exports of shitty books and crappy hollywood movies.
There are many decent american products, among which is dwarf fortress, and many crappy products from various places, but every year there's a new twilight, or da vinci code, and it's getting really tiresome to have to search among the piles of crap to find anything interesting.
I wholeheartedly agree with your last paragraph. One of my favorite movie channels was the Independent Film Channel before directTV decided to start dropping channels not popular enough to raise an outcry, yet still popular enough to charge extra for in pursuit of profit. For example I watched an excellent Russian epic about the tragedy of WW2 and a young war hero's journey on his last visit to his mother on military leave before being sent back to the fighting and most likely dieing. I can't remember the name but it was a very good movie and well deserving of being called Epic. Also on that channel were various other international films that were of similar quality.
Also I agree with the point you made about decreasing the volume of crappy movies, music, and books. Just because you can crank out material and sell it for the same price as truly excellent works of art that a person(s) spent the extra time to perfect doesn't mean that you should. What I think they don't realize in ignoring this fact is only the truly quality works that people spend the time to craft will be remembered in one hundred years. This is acceptable to someone in it simply to profit in my opinion, but if your goal is to contribute and be remembered for it I believe the only way is through dedication to your product by putting much more work into it than is necessary to release it. I think Toady One is an excellent example of this.
2644
Other Games / Re: HellMOO: Go to heaven for the climate, and hell for the company.
« on: April 28, 2010, 08:15:22 am »If i stick landmines in a toybox will it explode when the box is opened?
HAHAHA. That's the funniest thing I've imagined all week.
2645
Other Games / Re: MECHWARRIOR 5?! - Now known as Mechwarrior
« on: April 28, 2010, 08:14:07 am »
Anyone tried using the dasher? I made a neat design using heavy small lasers playing campaign. Campaign seems harder now on the hardest difficulty. I was playing through Solaris light matches and actually losing a good amount of matches.
2646
Other Games / Re: Team Fortress 2: Drop system update: "Thanks for standing still, wanker."
« on: April 28, 2010, 08:11:43 am »
I've been playing sniper and demoman with some scout the last few days. I got 28 points as my best as a demo.
2647
General Discussion / Re: To venture to 4chan, into hell
« on: April 28, 2010, 07:53:21 am »
How did I not find 4chan when I was a teenager? I feel like that guy from that old show called "The Pretender" He wasn't able to ride a bike as a kid, so he rides it as an adult BUT IT'S JUST NOT THE SAME
I imagine 4chan mods being chained to a computer in a small room with a well paid man with a rifle on the balcony above would be the only solution.
Y'know, in /b/, there are no rules for mods. So, technically, if you wanted to, you could start enforcing any ruleset you liked there as a moderator - including a sensible one. Of course, I have no idea how the hell you could pick mods for 4chan.
I imagine 4chan mods being chained to a computer in a small room with a well paid man with a rifle on the balcony above would be the only solution.
2648
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 28, 2010, 07:16:02 am »Once Duuvian said "I imagine that a book about the Cuban Missile Crisis would be very enlightening to Cubans", I knew for sure that he is a troll.
Let's stop feeding him.
I thought a troll was someone who comes into other people's topics and then tries to steer the topic away from what is being discussed? Explain to me why it harms you for this topic to be active? Like you said, if people don't want to participate it is their choice, but why try to keep them from discussing it? Do you really feel the need to interfere with me so badly that you are willing to be a hypocrite by ignoring YOUR OWN ADVICE? If your definition of "trolling" is starting a topic and asking for people's opinions then I guess I am. From this point grakelin I am going to ignore your blatant attempts to derail this thread. I'm afraid as long as people are interested in this thread and want to talk about it then I will continue to participate. If you seriously have a problem with this thread to the point you continue to attempt to derail it through petty namecalling then by all means take it up with a moderator and we'll all have an honest discussion about it.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
You are right, I was honest when I said it only took me about 10 seconds to find those links. It's also true the internet doesn't belong to America. I thought about this topic and the form it's taken and I think maybe assuming it would have to be the American government that distributes books in such way was a major mistake on my part. It is also very true there are things other countries have more knowledge of, and your example of Cassava or Mihogo is an excellent one because other countries have more experience in raising it as a crop. If that is true then surely there also are a great many things American can teach developing countries that we have more experience in. However, I think it would be best if we dropped America from the picture altogether.
Lets just take a hypothetical developed nation that has the capabilities to print a large number of books for distribution in poorer countries on topics such as agriculture, basic medicine, and manufacturing. Would distributing the books be a good idea or not? Would it benefit both the country receiving the books and the country distributing?
The problem I see with books is that America isn't really well liked in the rest of the world. people smart enough to read the books will feel additional disdain for America and people who can't read would use them for fire fuel.
edit - the above statement about books would refer to fictional or historical books. manuals and guides for relevant things such as farming would probably be cherished in low tech communities. They would have to be edited by someone who knew the language really well to make sure the average person in that country could interpret it correctly.
I agree. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
2649
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 27, 2010, 11:12:55 am »And yea, I know those phrases.
This conveys your message better, if its what you originally wanted to say.
Oh yea, blocks of texts are annoying to decipher, just so ya know.
Sorry, I just like to make sure I have everything correct as I can when I post, I know this could be an inflammatory topic and it's easy to be misunderstood over the internet with a poor choice of words or by being wrong as I'm sure I've demonstrated several times
Does that book take into account the climate, soil, weather, whats growable, and whatever tools an African in X location would typically have access to?
I don't see why not. Since this book is still theoretical lets assume it's actually very well planned and thought out for whatever situation it's printed for.
EDIT:
Well, I've got to get off of the internet for today but I really appreciate the discussion. You guys are really helping me think about this and clarify the idea and especially exploring the possible downsides. That's something I'd especially like to hear your opinions about. I've been going off about how it's a wonderful idea but there is always a hole in the bucket. Something to think about might be how other world powers, namely how you think Russia and China would react to such a shift in foreign policy by the US now that we are hopefully extracting our country in the next few years from these two embarrassing (from a foreign and domestic policy standpoint) wars (occupations?) we are embroiled in. I'll try to respond to anything you'd like next time I'm on via quotes, but I can't promise it won't be a whole block of text if it's something I find interesting.
2650
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 27, 2010, 11:01:20 am »the US has nothing to teach to the rest of the world, and you american papa knows nothing about mihogo cultivation
also, swahili is not a country nor a region, there is no "in Swahili"
That's absurd about the US having nothing to teach the rest of the world. Swahili is a language in Africa. I think I was probably saying we should print books in Swahili. Could you quote what you are referring to please Askot in my previous post?
EDIT: Also, I'd say he could know quite a bit about it if we grew it. Maybe not my American papa, but my African papa would certainly be interested in reading books about growing mihogo. The US knows a lot of facts about mihogo that could help my African papa. It took me ten seconds on the internet to search for this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava
http://www.springerlink.com/content/bpw1020281026631/
http://webapp.ciat.cgiar.org/ciatinfocus/cassava.htm
So your telling me that if an American printed up a book filled with things like this and gave it to poor people to free in their own language that they wouldn't read it and more importantly benefit from it?
2651
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 27, 2010, 10:58:54 am »I'm not sure I see the point in what your suggesting. Initially I assumed it was to try and help other countries but if it's not about the literacy rate what are you trying to improve?'Merican e-con-no-mi by book exports?
Seriously though, it does sound like "we are better, so we should give em our cultural makings". ... Then we can assimilate them more easily down the line.
Well, when I first started this topic I was thinking the government should eventually branch out to more culture oriented after distributing things like farming, technical or manufacturing books and the like. I really don't mean it in an aggressive sort of way, but you have to understand that cultural blending is what happens all throughout history and explains why a Frenchman is different than a Spaniard who is different from the English who is different from the American who is different from the Norwegian. I'd like to think that the American South is different from the American North in some (small?) ways due to their respective proximity to Mexico and Canada due to the cultures blending in addition to the obvious factors in American History such as the Civil War and the two region's economic backgrounds. If you think about it that way, also think about how it might be in 100 years. It's hard to forecast the future but I'd imagine the southern US will continue to be influenced by it's proximity to Mexico and also vice-versa.
2652
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 27, 2010, 10:44:22 am »
Have you ever heard the phrases "knowledge is power" and "knowing is half the battle"?
Lets take my father for example in my previous post. Let's say he still has a farm, but this time he's African. He still has the same farm, but he doesn't have the books that he read as a young man that told him he should be hauling seaweed to his sandy garden with poor topsoil and starting to compost in cheap plastic barrels. Now our farm is already fertilized and ready to go. Go to the present day, where his basic techniques have allowed him sustenance to the point where he his ready to expand. In my father's case it isn't because of crippling poverty like the African's but because he was working and didn't have time to spend expanding the farm.
Anyways, my American father will soon reach retirement so he now has the time and money to work on the farm. My theory is, what if my AFRICAN father had read those same books and managed to eke out the same living, because we did live off of our garden in America because of my father's books, and now was reading the same books my father is reading about solar energy and other modern farming techniques in the current time to expand his garden and make a profit from it. These books claim to increase yields by incredible percentages over conventional farming. I can dig up some figures from the books if you'd be interested in learning some quick farming facts from them. Even if the African farmer had the money to expand his farm like my father does, however, he can't because he simply DOES NOT HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE because there is no Solar Energy book in Swahili or whatever. On that same note there is likely a similar lack of books about even the most rudimentary farming techniques in Swahili (or whatever). Does this make sense?
Lets take my father for example in my previous post. Let's say he still has a farm, but this time he's African. He still has the same farm, but he doesn't have the books that he read as a young man that told him he should be hauling seaweed to his sandy garden with poor topsoil and starting to compost in cheap plastic barrels. Now our farm is already fertilized and ready to go. Go to the present day, where his basic techniques have allowed him sustenance to the point where he his ready to expand. In my father's case it isn't because of crippling poverty like the African's but because he was working and didn't have time to spend expanding the farm.
Anyways, my American father will soon reach retirement so he now has the time and money to work on the farm. My theory is, what if my AFRICAN father had read those same books and managed to eke out the same living, because we did live off of our garden in America because of my father's books, and now was reading the same books my father is reading about solar energy and other modern farming techniques in the current time to expand his garden and make a profit from it. These books claim to increase yields by incredible percentages over conventional farming. I can dig up some figures from the books if you'd be interested in learning some quick farming facts from them. Even if the African farmer had the money to expand his farm like my father does, however, he can't because he simply DOES NOT HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE because there is no Solar Energy book in Swahili or whatever. On that same note there is likely a similar lack of books about even the most rudimentary farming techniques in Swahili (or whatever). Does this make sense?
2653
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 27, 2010, 10:18:24 am »
Ok, well the main thing wouldn't be to raise literacy rates and just supply the books, and I didn't look at the numbers after reading what you wrote, so yes, you are correct. Would you despise me if I edit my former posts to not look like a tard for not seeing what I wrote in the several pages this has gotten up to now? Also, I'm not your enemy, why are you turning this from a productive discussion into something else?
EDIT: Also, Shades, thanks for pointing that out to me though, I am going to remove that about encouraging literacy rates in other countries in the OP. That should probably be their own responsibility. It will probably happen naturally, I'd imagine an illiterate person seeing people around himself becoming literate while he wasn't would encourage a him to try to teach his kids their letters.
EDIT: Also, Shades, thanks for pointing that out to me though, I am going to remove that about encouraging literacy rates in other countries in the OP. That should probably be their own responsibility. It will probably happen naturally, I'd imagine an illiterate person seeing people around himself becoming literate while he wasn't would encourage a him to try to teach his kids their letters.
2654
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 27, 2010, 10:12:27 am »
Huh? I never proposed raising literacy rates, I just said they are going up on their own and we should take advantage of them and then you proved my point with your neat facts.
Basically America's literacy rate relates in no way whatsoever whether this would work. Especially not in the absurd sense that there is a 3% difference or whatever.
EDIT: I'm also not saying we should try to take over people's culture, just that we make friends with them by teaching them stuff. To generalize it down to one sentence.
Basically America's literacy rate relates in no way whatsoever whether this would work. Especially not in the absurd sense that there is a 3% difference or whatever.
EDIT: I'm also not saying we should try to take over people's culture, just that we make friends with them by teaching them stuff. To generalize it down to one sentence.
2655
General Discussion / Re: Affecting the Future
« on: April 27, 2010, 10:03:14 am »
No, you've got it backwards, literacy rate is for reading the books, not producing them.