WTF

Lol Dean XD. Last night was relatively quiet here. Of course there were sirens going off from time to time but generally London was a lot quieter than usual. Stores were of course shut early. Apparently one of the bigger Sainsburys near me had a few windows attacked during the afternoon but for the most part it was ok. The police did get everything shut down soon. Also Pirandello, they've been authorised to use rubber bullets. However we have had newspapers like the i being irresponsible with the headlines. We don't have guns for a reason and the fact that the police do want to prevent serious violence against the rioters and yeah to not appear heavy-handed sort of slows procedure which at times can be good. However they were quite serious last night and hence it was pretty calm. The thing is there's no more inaction here. Something went off at the recycling plant at Enfield close to 2am (I was awake) and people got worried again but it turned out to be nothing serious. We also had issues of racists coming out in the guise of protection. In places like Eltham we had militia type groups forming because most of us wanted to keep our areas safe and secure. Most of these were eventually dispersed by the police. See we're not totally inactive, it's just that most people didn't expect looter and rioters to form. Once we saw it happen it's changed. However the rest of England has been seeing issues yesterday. Liverpool and Salford, parts of Gloucester, Manchester and of course Birmingham,Wolverhampton and such. They all saw looters. They are just criminals emboldened by the recent actions and trying to take advantage of the situation. In many places it was quite organised too. There's also the issue that while in brum it was quieter there were kids as young as 9 or 10 along with the looters and we sort of have to ask how can these kids be out on the streets with the thugs involved in these activities. What happened was a group of people trying to take advantage of a situation. London is safer for now. There's still tensions but in places like Southhall, Hackney, SE London and even the earlier affected areas people are trying to get on with their lives. It should be ok in a while. There are issues here that are much deeper than race or money. It's disenfranchised youth and a culture of excess where people expect to have things even if they don't have the means. There's many sides to this but most of us are upstanding enough to not be the kind to resort to this sort of stuff. And yeah like both me and Dean have said, the people involved aren't exactly people who don't have the means but perhaps can't afford the excess things they want which they shouldn't expect.

I didn't really want to make a blog post about it or anything personally but I felt like I could share a few thoughts and some stuff I'd observed on what's been going on here lately. I do apologise if it doesn't seem totally coherent. Also I don't really know how many of you guys are in London but if you guys came to the cleanup. Thank You! Personally I'd heard of the shooting on Saturday night but brushed it off sort of I mean we've had protests before. However it escalated quite a fair bit since then. Most of us expected it to die out by Monday. We were appalled by the looting and rioting that happened there but you have to understand Tottenham and even Enfield are generally shite areas. It was expected to be contained to those areas. Of course they are multicultural but it's also an area with high unemployment and other similar issues. The next day newspapers started to report areas of riots in the past and that night places like Brixton which have seen riots previously were hit. Of course now it's going across London on a much wider scale. By the third day they started reporting about the various places of tension from the past. Places like Handsworth which mostly have older people living there now like my wife's grandparents (they are fine) but the area has seen riots last night. The youth are revolting but the looting seems calculated. Most places get fair warnings of about 5 hours before they get hit. While we assume that it's fortunate that there's only been two fatalities in total from the riots, it does seem like this is more gang-motivated and planned. Last night in Clapham you could tell which gangs were involved based on the scarves they were wearing. I work at times in Shoreditch and Soho and Monday people were getting warned in several places from Dalston to Peckham that they would be attacked. Today we hear that Camberwell, Greenwich, Catford, etc are places in the SE that could be hit. We're out to keep our neighbourhoods safe. I live in a pretty smallish yet decent area and I can still hear kids playing in their yards but vehicles are starting to die out. I'm guessing the gas stations would be closed by now. The police advised all shops to close. The pubs were open at 4 in most places but even they started to shut down. I am seeing plenty of bicycles and motorbikes getting mobilised though. Regardless the cleanup bit shows how many of us are visibly standing up against it. We just want to get on with our lives. We're not really going to live in fear from these hooligans. Honestly there's no real point in going out in force to cause trouble. Last night some of the people were forced to assist the police since they didn't want to use violent force in some areas and the kids ran away when they were chased. We just want things to go back to normal. Looking at things as how it is, it seems that based on what happens tonight it probably will possibly get milder. Mind you that most of them are probably between 16/17 to 20somethings (a few in their 30s as well) and they wouldn't want to pay for their consequences. In the meanwhile RIM decides they'll out all data about their users who were present near the riot locations in a bid to assist the police which led their website being defaced and data being stolen. As of now there have been 563 arrests and a little over a 100 charged and should be more than a 100 police injured. There are ambulances and police vans in several areas. I've heard more sirens per 30 minutes now than I have ever since I'd moved here (of course it was always higher in shitty old Islington). Personally in the immediate area where I live I haven't thankfully seen any damaged cars or stores and I hope that it remains that way however I do not have to go more than 2-3 miles to see the damages. Unlike what media want you to think outside of a few incidents it was relatively calm at around 5pm yesterday. Yes store-owners were warned but it was around 730 or 8 that things started to happen and you could see stuff happening in Lewisham, Hackney, Peckham, Croydon etc as well as the earlier affected areas. I was at the o2 till around 930 when we realised it was going to be difficult to get home. We did manage but it was pretty difficult since the areas surrounding ours weren't in the best of states but there was transportation. However those who were driving home were in a spot and past 11 things just got much worse. I'm glad that by 3am someone decided that we needed to cleanup the streets and all you need in times like these is just a little hope.There does seem to be a false dichotomy amongst some of these misguided youth who seem to keen to attack certain residential areas thinking it's either them or the rest of us saying stuff like they're poor and we're not. Fortunately they were stopped in those areas. However there are few notes to be had. What sort of person was Marc Duggan really? Also it's now been found he didn't even open fire in the first place. Not to mention there are supposed eye-witness account that the riots initially started when the police attacked a girl who asked them why he was shot. It was later found that she was 16. There's also irresponsible rumour-mongering on twitter claiming riots where there aren't any. This isn't really helping us sleep at night since we'd like to be sure that nothing happens in our areas. There's more that does need to be investigated into everything. It's not a clear open and shut case. But for now it does seem like the riots here could subside since there's a curfew and people are prepared. However I would be concerned about the other cities since all focus is on the capital right now. Yesterday there were scenes of buses being hijacked and crashed and other things. Today taxis aren't willing to go to all areas. Last night there were several disruptions. I'm not stepping outside tonight unless there's an actual need to protect the area. On a side note thanks to the cleanup in Clapham This isn't my image but I couldn't link the original on the forum. Also if you'd like to follow the riots live http://www.guardian....-four-live-blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14449675 http://www.telegraph...riots-live.html p.s. I could post updates later if needed. The things that need to stop are exaggerations. For the most part they are out to get shops it seems and if you live on a building that has a shop.then you need to worry. Speaking thus there are militia now in areas that are under threat. Further Notes: Some of the charged include university students, graduates, army recruits, a graphic designer, this is starting to seem more planned and organised rather than something between classes. People taking advantage of a situation. Also if anyone feels insulted or anything I apologise in advance.

Swearing does add to limited vocabulary of course. It's more than a symptom. Take the case of history throughout the ages, swear words have changed over time. But excessive swearing is always a symptom of those who haven't tried to encourage their cultural minds be it in any society. I know several swear words in several languages and those whose vocabularies are limited to those simply because of the refusal to think. I beg to differ on the fact that swear words are not inherently different from any other word. If you look at the history of languages the alphabets and numbers have evolved from basic symbols. The devanagri script has the oo sound that pertains to a cow and it's symbolised by what looks closely in the numerical script as a 3. This sound comes from the sound that a cow makes and in fact the origin of the letter was basically that. Every language is a translation from a pictorial representation to symbols so to say that a word is inherently not good or bad goes against human recognition. Most words can be recognised as foul or nice just from the sound. Look at the phonetic similarity between the word for mother and father in several languages even those unrelated and you'd find that yes words do inherently have a meaning and representation. It may not be obvious to us today but it exists. I'm not advocating language sanitation, but you should curb the excessive usage of any swear word or any word for that matter. People today are not penalised for excessive use of articles in an paragraph. There was a time when repetition of even non-swear words would not be credited in an essay. It's the leniency of education by focussing on other aspects that have brought about that change. However repeated usage of a set of words is detrimental and repeated usage of swear words even more because it prevents you from articulating excessively. The issue here is that you do assume that most people have been educated and possess a decent enough vocabulary to use whatever language they deem correct. However in order to use swear words appropriately one must have completed that level of understanding. Excessive usage at a stage when they are still learning is just detrimental. I'm not sure if you've worked with people learning other languages to understand that the first thing people pick up are swear words. Some of them try not to learn more because using a swear word in some contexts helps to get a point across (which is ultimately their goal). But that does limit their vocabulary. I'll get into the discussion of memorisation on a different thread as this discussion itself is derailing the thread. However while complaining about retention is as old as Aristotle the amount of information we get today is far greater than the amount that's retained and there's no stop to the flow of information. In all this noise memory retention becomes more important.

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/06/addictive-addicting.html I'd refer you to that. There is no right and wrong there and it's not an issue of English vs English but rather something that props up in both places due to changing times. Of course it might sound annoying but it is correct and the OED (some versions at the very least) does have an adjectival input for addicting. However the thing is addicting sounds like it should be the present participle of addict which is a noun in modern English. So in short it isn't wrong, despite the fact that it sounds wrong. About my tea thing, you know I forgot the whole process of sieving in that write up I had... I do believe lads is common in the North as well? But chaps is quite antiquated in modern society.

As far as trailers go, this is done quite decently in a narrative context.

is inevitable. I hear that the fact that there would be DLC episodes to the game has been leaked though not everything is finalised on that as yet.

Not a Deal but The Old Republic costs £45 for the regular version. Most retailers have it for £39.99 except coolshop who currently have it for £27.99 but that price will change soon. In actual dealio news NFS:The Run costs £25 on Amazon.co.uk on the PS3. NFS is a series that despite having a good gaming rig I justs don't buy on the PC anymore. Shopto have Child of Eden 360 for £19.85, PS Move Heroes for £15ish, Darkspore for £8.86 which isn't a bad price if you like that sort of game. Front Mission evolved 360/ps3 is 7.99 at play.com

People who use chaps outside of a system of payment are rarer than you'd think. Mates though it's common enough. But even I'll admit the other chaps is a bit too cheerful XD

Yeah I do recall subsequent playthroughs on Uncharted to be shorter mostly cause at some point I skipped cutscenes. It was fun the first 2 times to see the dialogue. Not so the third time. I've realised that lately I always go with the hardest difficulty on offer mostly because in all honesty games today aren't challenging enough with a few exceptions. This actually increased my love for some games and enjoyment a whole lot. Now I like a good explore and backtrack in games but I also like it to be challenging. I like some frustration and I like difficulty. Games today are a lot easier than games even 4 years ago. The only problem is once i finished a game on the hardest difficulty on offer for the first time for some reason i opt not to try that again for most games as they're not worth it. I always say yeah I'll go back to it and try to finish it but usually don't. I still have have to finish the 5th difficulty setting of DS2 I will at some point. The issue today is with oversaturation of games, if you're an adult you simply do not have the time to play the same game several times and if you're younger you don't have the money to buy all the games. Not to mention these days every game is exposed and it's hard not to know about a game unlike 10 years ago when unless you lived in certain markets you'd not know about most of the games that came out in Japan or Asia. The oversaturation does have an impact on game length but truth be told if the game is compelling people will play it and enjoy it and even finish it. The issue is that it seems like 10% of games have a compelling experience for over 50% of the gaming population when you look at sales and completion rates. (Of course those stats are made up but I wouldn't be surprised if it were close to that)

Oh God I do need to know about this thread. I still hate Final Cut Pro X because it was just a stupid product that wasn't aimed at professionals. I mean yes it has it's pluses but god this is not what I wanted. I'm reminded of the whole Not like this, not like this line from the matrix. At least I do have good old AVID. Still I am sad that FCP7 is dead now... Speaking of which I need to buy OSX Lion but my safari and QT have updated and I see they have reading lists incorporated on safari now which isn't too bad.

While I'm not going to discuss about Kotaku since my view on the site is neutral and my view on any gaming website is neutral since it's gaming enthusiast press and not journalism (sort of like the automotive or knitting magazines, it's not really news per se) the discussion on language does draw me here . Profanity always does limit vocabulary and I know I must have seen the F word flash video years ago. Atomsk and Phallus have it right that children and the youf often use profane words in place of regular words. Now that always limits the expansion of their vocabulary and your memory retention is stronger when you're younger than you're older, the brain getting crystallised in memory terms by the time you're 26-27 and what not. Kids do need to be taught to exercise their minds and profanity gives them the excuse to be lazy. It's a bigger issue today than before because while people do read a lot, they do not care to retain anything. Google or rather search engines are to blame for that when people just say oh wait I'll google it since I can't remember it. People do not try to remember anything which is why if society were to crumble and technology became inaccessible we are highly likely to lose a vast amount of culture due to sheer ignorance and laziness on our part. This appals me mostly because I like to be a reservoir of information and I like to retain it permanently rather than just know where to look for it. While some words are meant to sound obscene because of the way they are pronounced, there are words in other languages that are obscene but sound far less ugly. Ugliness of sounds is really a cultural thing unless you're talking about nails grating on a glass panel. Swearing of course needs to be used appropriately. The old adage 'everything in moderation' applies perfectly to most cases including this. We do have a responsibility for whatever comes out next considering that we'd be living well into our late 90s to 110s and those in power and control around that time would mostly be people who aren't even born yet and won't be for the next 2 decades or so.

If I recall correctly, Uncharted 2 seemed much longer than could be finished on a single setting. I'm sure Uncharted 2 on crushing took some time (though easier than Uncharted 1 on crushing). But it's been a while I recall platinuming the game in barely 7 days since it was a lot of fun. One of the first to platinum it in fact for some reason. I remember some people were surprised that I was done so fast. I agree that MP isn't a bad thing at all. it's just some games do not implement MP in an engaging way. If you plan to bring Multiplayer to a game then you should think about it from ground up and not just some random hobbled rubbish which annoys players and prevents a community from forming. I do agree about your points on MP though that it's not all just a bro thing. I'd like to think that AC's multiplayer was done well because they had the concept down for the iPhone and all they needed to do was implement it for HD and it worked for them.

Really? Are you talking about the UK? I've never known that to be the preference in my experience. I would prepare it that way anyway, just in case, but I am usually around carpet fitters so it will usually be your typical builder's 'milk, two sugars'. I guess it's cause I had to work with a lot of people a lot older than me when I started out that the whole black tea thing stuck. When I was a kid while my parents prepared tea that way no one really drank black tea as much and I thought it was just something my grandparents did. As I grew older, it seems to be ridiculously common. I think this generation is probably more lactose intolerant than previous ones. Not to mention as people get older they become lactose intolerant and thus prefer black tea once they realise it. You're right in that it wasn't common when we were growing up but it seemed to just become fairly common in the last 10 years or so. Anyway due to these industry people some of whom shall not be named I learnt that you are 'supposed' to make tea black and honestly it's common today. But personally after the tea prep I too prefer milk and sugar (2-3 depends on the type of tea). At least we've not gotten into tea ceremonies or learnt 'to drink cha from an empty cup'. Which oddly reminds me, chai tea is an annoying double word. It literally is tea tea. Now if chai tea was a different name for masala chai or masala tea that would make sense I suppose but it's not.

DS2 online was just not compelling enough. Hey we're a bunch of engineers, hey we're bunch of zombies. FIGHT! I mean really there can be mindless MP but if you can't relate you can't relate. As for Brink, it's a bomba so you can buy it for dirt cheap or a steam sale and see how it goes if the community is still active by then.

Well the thing with tea is it's soil dependant so the best way to make tea is of course dependant on where it was grown. Generally I prefer tea granules (basically dried tea leaves sort of granulated) which is then heated in a vessel/pot along with water. Once it boils enough to start rising nicely I leave it to cool and then comes the rest. Sugar for those who like it with sugar, milk for those who like it with milk and both for those who prefer both. The basic preparation of tea should always be that way since there are more people who prefer black tea to tea with milk. Not to mention builder's tea. My preference for tea is generally Darjeeling tea which actually tastes good and is probably best consumed in higher altitudes or lower pressure situations. As for coffee, generally it depends on what you're making. If you are making latte you can forgo the process of water plus beans and do it water plus milk (there's a ratio that needs be in this case or you'll be left with a mess btw). However when it comes to instants and since most people prefer coffee with milk generally to give a richer taste what you need to do is heat milk and add about 2 tablespoons of coffee (at the least) to give it more flavour. Coffee-chicory mixes are best consumed this way if you like milk in your coffee. And Phallus your friends are weird. I mean what the hell, teabag milk and then water? Bleh it's tea not coffee or anything. Man there's so many different kinds of tea in India and Sri Lanka. Generally I hate Turkish tea but their coffee is good. edit: I meant to say pot and not teapot (corrected) wtf I must be tired. Also Dean you're in an English vs English thread and though you're not talking to us specifically you know that we'd respond to tea . On the topic of tea - do you guys dunk your biccies or not? I'm not even going to start with the biscuit - cookie thing since I have that discussion with my friend almost everyday. That and 'titbit' vs 'tidbit'.

lol oh yeah. That probably explains why I couldn't do it after a while.

Hmm. that's not uncommon but it should disappear if you have a save that's 5-10 turns before. I ran into quite a few bugs but almost always loading 5-10 saves before resolved them. (Usually keep 25 saves just for safety in civ due to time investment).

Honestly very few 60 minute features run and if they do, they'll stretch it to 72 with credit sequences and some random footage. Thing is if its really 60 minutes then it's not usually a major studio film these days unless it's arthouse or even indie so it won't run in the cinemas for too long. And running in the cinemas for arthouse and indie films is just advertising. The bulk of their money is made through the longtail distribution which was DD was coming in till they inflated the prices and isps charged for bandwidth and people stopped buying them and just started streaming them but that's getting OT here . However honestly if it's a 60 minute film, unless the content is that unique they aren't really expecting a lot of cinema tickets to be sold. It playing in the cinema is just advertising since a film that gets played at one is heard of by people and thus gets some much needed attention.

lol well I came across it via gamespot during my numerous tab sequences and yeah I usually have 200 tabs open which is fine since I do not edit on that machine most of the time. And to be honest, even Oblvion and Fallout the sidequests are a bit shite. I do like New Vegas and liked Morrowind but Oblvion psh it was just whatever with the quests and stuff (long time TES player and I feel that it peaked with 3 and went down with 4 will see how 5 stats up). And yeah most of them do have filler quests just to buffer up length but it's not really needed so long as it can be enjoyable. Honestly I found most side quests in RDR to be extremely annoying but I did finish them off in LA Noire despite them being similarish.

I'm trying to finish Enslaved and get over my apathy for the game. I reached a lot and quit it because the story was convoluted tripe and I couldn't take it anymore. I find it sad that people hailed it for its storytelling when that story has been told better before. But still I bought the damn game and DLC and will finish it soon (I hope). Outside of that Bloodlines, Eschalon, Shogun 2, New Vegas DLCs and LoS DLCs.

Basically when it comes to film length anything that is 45 minutes and below is a short. 45-60 minutes is the weird space and 60 minutes plus is a feature. Sure it maybe short but it is a feature classification. Also any film between 20 minutes and 45 minutes - good luck with screening that anywhere. It's an odd time frame and very hard to actually air even at festivals.