Yet more evidence that evolution is lazy. Damn thing won't get off its butt until it's life or death.

It's good that they're helping differentiate people. The thing about old MMOGs is they've had the time to address even relatively minor gripes from the player base. EVE is in the same boat, having had the time to tweak a lot of things enough to keep old farts like me interested. Other, similar games just won't have…

I'd have gladly watched it a dozen times over to guarantee they never made a musical episode. Thank god it wasn't necessary. Just wish other shows would follow that lead (*cough* Fringe *cough*)

But does anyone but an NPC see you and think, "Cool! That's the guy who saved X village from the raging hordes of Y?" Probably not, because they did the same thing 2 days ago.

This shows up in video games, too. You're often sent out as some kind of "chosen one" or given super-advanced prototype tech that lets you take on wave after wave of new challenges. Feels pretty damn good to pull it off in most cases. You feel powerful, meaningful, and unique.

Gandalf isn't born a wizard so much as he was created a demi-god. If I remember my Silmarillion correctly, he and Saruman are the same order of being as Sauron and the balrog (the apparent power differences are justified in-book). Given what he is, there's nothing that unusual about his abilities.

You're either born with it or not, though. Elitism and inherited privilege often go hand in hand, but they aren't inseparable.

Would it help me carry furniture up the stairs?

Yes, I'm very aware of the early history of the Church, and that it's a frequent stumbling block for Western minds and post-Enlightenment "sola scriptura" sects. What you describe sounds a lot like the recent "Great Apostasy" doctrine found among some American evangelicals. All I can say on that is I have yet to find…

Thanks! I have a correction though: I found Perpetuum, which in so many ways is EVE with mechs. The main ex-EVE corporation now represents a dominating portion of the subscriptions. Some of the biggest names in EVE are in it, and most of the rest are self-exiled bittervets like myself. Teamspeak convos always turn…

C. S. Lewis' scifi trilogy actually touches on some of this. He has an Adam and Eve parallel on Venus, but (I forget exactly how it worked) since they exist post-Christ, and Jesus' life/death/resurrection is posited to affect the whole cosmos, they turn out to be immune or much more successfully resistant to the…

A huge problem with EVE is that it's three main selling points, player-driven economy, open world PvP (not just ship-on-ship, but all aspects of the game ar a form of PvP) with permanent consequences, and the single non-sharded universe, aren't found elsewhere (that I've found anyways). They had, and still have for…

You can measure growth relative to inflation if you like. Most growth-obsessed businesses wouldn't be happy merely keeping up with inflation.

Exactly. PLEX used to only be valuable if you could sell them for ISK and then buy something in-game. Aurum gets the order wrong by turning PLEX "directly" (effectively, though technically it's converted to Aur.) into desired goods. Even if the effect is only cosmetic, the vanity items actually do something. PLEX on…

Another thing I didn't know about Star Wars was that I didn't know these things about Star Wars. So make that 11, I guess. Quite a few more if I get all recursive about it.

VOTE: μTorrent in Windows, Transmission in Linux

For some reason, I can always find some combo of wood screw/bolt, driver/drill and pliers/grips before my wife can find where she left the corkscrew. Works like a charm. But if the screw's too fat, it adds pressure against the neck and makes it a bit tougher to pull. Thin shafts with big threads are best. I should…

Anarchy is a big umbrella. Many anarchists believe that the chaos of a completely lawless society is the only scenario where humans can reach their full potential. Some take the extreme position that *any* normative alternative to legislature, be it tradition or an entrenched moral constraint, is just as oppressive…

The BC coast is swarming with fjords, too. Between BC, N. Quebec and Labrador, Canada probably has more than Norway. Only my wife's been to Norway, so I can't comment on quality, but Norway's are pretty damn spectacular if they top BC's.

Glad to see NCIX getting the attention it deserves. They've been the go-to guys for Vancouver's computing DIYers for ages. The only thing that would improve them in my eyes is if they started selling bulk RAM by the kilo.