Bay 12 Games Forum

Th'poverty's actually a pretty good point. Rough searching is showing that the poverty level in Japan was around 16% of the population in '09 (going by the government figures, near as I can tell). Jack the raw population that applies to up. Hell, lowball it to 10% and then apply it to a concentrated population in the tens of billions (or much lower. Say 100 mill!).

Wanna' know what happens when you have a sufficient number of destitute individuals concentrated in a particular geographic area? It's called societal destabilization and it freaking wrecks things.

Urbanized living, especially in supercities, is a problem with issues far exceeding those on the resource level. We can build the housing and we might be able to supply the power and food. That doesn't mean we're actually capable of supporting a serious increase in supercities, or that we're actually supporting the ones we have now (instead of, say, wrecking a bunch of other crap to keep them running). Population is more than a resource and engineering issue, and that "more" part isn't something I've heard much about fixing.

...again...why is this a problem? I agree that if you build a city over a natural environment, you lose the natural envirorment. But I don't see that as a good argument against building cities.

It's a problem because... y'know? The cities kinda' need a huge chunk of natural environment to support 'em, just like every other human endeavor. Environment as a whole needs th'robust ecological systems that currently only occur naturally if it's going to support human life. A sharp decrease in those robust systems (caused, say, by an even greater upswing in urbanization, or a even heavier increase in artificial monocultures) is one of the apocalypse scenarios that get bandied about when dealing with global warming and increased urbanization. There's actually pretty big issues with an extinction event, some of which that extend strongly into th'human arena. We're already violently murdering biodiversity to keep our cities running, and that loss isn't a trivial issue. Not further aggravating that problem is actually a pretty solid reason to try and slow the urbanization process.

To jocular things up a bit, we can technology it all up this in joint, m'fellow monkey boys, but at the end of the day we're still jumped up monkeys and we kinda' need the trees and th'more humble monkeys.

Or is this a purely aesthetic consideration?

This being another issue. I've seen a good chunk of stuff in passing suggesting that the "purely aesthetic" part of it's actually kinda' important, particularly in regards to human mental health and general stability. Might be something we could supplement via oversized parks or somethin', though.

Quote from: bukitodinos on August 11, 2012, 09:10:56 pm

Spoiler:  Whoever does this, BURN IN A FIRE(Big image) (click to show/hide)

imgsnip

that is all

I assume you mean ironically, because it is a life-size image of that-which-shall-not-be-named, and not because it's black paint on a white wall.

Would be funny to watch a believer's reaction when they stumble upon it in the middle of the night.

S'not actually paint -- you can see the shadow it's giving off. If I had to guess, I'd say black paper, maybe taped to the wall.

Which makes it all the better, because you could take it down, fold it up, and use it somewhere else

Wall quilt thing's a'ight. Good for reducing echo or something along those lines, iirc.

Not so much the conservatives being out of touch as the rich in general -- which almost entirely composes the political leadership of the country. S'a problem endemic to the entire political spectrum right now; those who have the resources to assume positions of political leadership simply don't comprehend the lives, lifestyles, and problems of the people they're ostensibly representing. They've lived in what amounts to a near total social disconnect with the less fortunate, who comprise the absolute and vast majority of the country.

Until we find a way to bridge or shorten the gap -- lessen income disparity and the problems, especially social ones, involved with it -- then those who are able to govern in a democratic system (i.e. have the resources to run a campaign) will as a rule be out of touch, because they were never connected to begin with, nor did they really have reason or opportunity to connect.

It's not as bad on the local level when you're dealing with very small populations, but even in heavily rural areas you see that the most economically able individuals are almost entirely what comprises the governing positions -- and often, they simply don't understand the lives of the worst off in their community. They haven't been there, they haven't worked with the people that have, and -- conservative or not -- most of them simply don't have any sympathy, empathy, or understanding of the issues and problems most of the country's population are troubled by.

Why use a sword when you can equip your atlas with a hatchetman or something? No need for weapons when you can just pick up the light mechs and beat things with 'em.

Or at least tear off an arm. Improvised melee weaponry is so totally in these days.

Incidentally, if they ever let you strap urbanmechs onto the back of your atlas, I will totally spend money on this game.

Just... just watched a fellow go 0/13 on Ashe... vs beginner AI.

It's times like this that I realize that, as terrible a player as I am, I'm not even close to the bottom yet. It's a strange, somewhat fuzzy, feeling.

COLOR SPRITES HAVE INFESTED HIS BRAIN! Express them and imortallize them, or else they will be applied upon even less savory surfaces.

You have been given the gift of form! Burn it into the desk with ink!

Barqs makes decent-ish tea, once boiled. Gojiberry/barqs is very interesting. Quite sweet, unsurprisingly.

I don't know what else you'd call the green tea (and varying brand-related permutations) you get off a north florida grocery store's shelves, a'ight?