Thursday Next

In the books the magical link is pretty clear. Production of Wildfire is slow and difficult but increases dramatically with the arrival and growth of the Dragons much to the pyromancers' delight. Everything in the series, The Wall, the White Walkers, the Dragons, Wildfire, all seem to be linked to magic. Not sure if one of them is causing the magic levels to increase and thus affecting all the others or if there is some external force like a solar flare increasing the magical background radiation.

But zipping up powerlines is ok? Also Cole totally has a super jump. I agree that Prototype cheapens the feeling of traversal. You just pretty much run in a straight line to your destination going over anything in your path. It makes your character feel omnipotent, which is cool, but the payoff is that it makes the city feel flat. Of the three I've tried, Assassin's Creed I like for the feeling in the back of my mind that I could do (most of) what he does if I got off my arse and got training. inFamous has a great balance of being superior while grounded in some measure of reality. Prototype is just batshit craziness. I tend to prefer Assassin's Creed, but inFamous is a close second. Prototype takes the fun out of traversal my making it too simple.

Assume Hotty is joking because no one uses QR codes? Or is taking the Michael out of the article that calls it a secret.

Cole plays like Ezio compared to Mercer. Love the inFamous franchise (in fact I prefer it to Prototype), but if you're going for effortlessness of traversal, you can't top Mercer.

Understanding why someone prejudges you is one thing. Trying to understand why a group that you are not a part of prejudges another group that you are not a part of is different. 1. It invites you to think about the victimised group in a negative light. 2. Self reflection presents the opportunity to affect change. If you are American and think, "Maybe people in the Middle East prejudge Americans because we as a nation gifted land that wasn't America's to people who had no right to it, displacing an indigenous population, and continue to back the settlers in the face of mounting atrocities while our leaders shrug their shoulders and insist that their hands are tied because they can't afford to lose the Jewish vote." then you can affect change by voting for leaders who pledge to support the UN in maintaining that no one has sovereignty over Jerusalem and that the borders agreed on by Israel should be adhered to. 3. A non-Jew reflecting on why people might hate the Jews provides no such opportunity. As an outsider to the Jewish community you will at best have your criticisms or observations taken under advisement. And at worst be branded anti-semetic. I would have no issue with the question if it were issued by a Jewish School to Jewish pupils. I'm all for self reflection. A multifaith organisation asking this question to children of various faiths (or no faith at all) could well cause Jewish children to feel like prejudice against them is inevitable and justifiable, and for non Jewish children could reinforce any cross faith segregation. Basically I think it's a crap question that is more likely to get children thinking about how Jews are different than how religious prejudice works. If no one else here feels the same way, I'm cool with that.

How do you quicksave? Never mind, I googled it. F6 to save, F9 to load. Goodo. May have another crack at them this evening. P.S. Never meant to imply that I don't like the map. Just that the difficulty spike at the end plus the lack of checkpoint was frustrating. I think the two maps I've played are well put together.

There is no reason to single out Jews or any other one religious group. If you want it to be about religion, then ask "Why are some people prejudiced against religious groups?" It's absolutely about the phrasing. If the word had been Muslims or Buddhists or Scientologists it would have been pulled up just the same. Well, maybe not scientologists...

It invites people to list why some people dislike Jews. "Some people are prejudiced against Jews because they think Jews are money grubbing Christ murderers." If the question is looking to test the students understanding of prejudice, then it could (maybe should) have said "Why are some people prejudiced?". To which the obvious answer is along the lines of "Some people are prejudiced because they are ignorant of the wider world and have an innate fear of what they don't understand. This fear leads them to be prejudiced against other groups." The question leads the student to focus on the role of the victim of prejudice, rather than what actually leads perpetrators to act in a prejudicial fashion. Basically, it's a poorly worded question. It's not a case of mollycoddling the Jews born out of some twisted collective guilt harboured over the past 60 odd years.

Your second one, the drop? The bit where you have 4 pillars with turrets on. Is bastard hard. Is it possible to put checkpoints in? Because a checkpoint just there would be great. Otherwise I have to go through the whole thing again. Which is frustrating. I liked the first one, with the lasers. That was some good puzzling. Didn't get to the third one. Because, well, you know. Checkpoints.

Ah, fair enough. Didn't check the time-stamps. My apologies.

Yes, of course. I'm assuming that RIAA had more than just this figure on the books.

Did you read the full story? They didn't specify damages. That number is just what shakes up if you apply the maths of the claim strictly. If you sue someone for your car being written off, you go for the maximum value of a car of that age etc at that time. The judge will then look at how you arrived at your figure and make an adjustment as he did in this case. So you might as well go for the big score.

You're talking about the same stuff. FDS seems to be suggesting that you could / should be somehow restricted in what apps you can access on your iPhone. Not sure if that's a possibility or not. With Siri built in though, and it being unlikely that you'll be able to disable it, it seems like for security concious companies, iPhone use should be restricted to the very lowest levels of the company. Personally, I would never take a work phone unless forced to. Even if it was the latest smart phone. A gilded ball and chain is still a ball and chain.

That's just because those things are ubiquitous.

Then again, Bond has always been a product placement-fest. Dom Perignon, Omega watches, Aston Martins. They've been around since the 70's. Recently he's gone a bit more down market. (Driving a ford? Really?) but it's not a new thing. For some reason I don't mind it in Bond.

I suppose the UK must do them for other countries. I bet it's wall to wall red jackets, bearskin hats and old buildings. Now here's an odd one... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17755552 Should the NHS fork out for gluten free food? I mean, coeliacs will argue that they need it for medical reasons, but then, I need food for medical reasons too, if I don't eat, I die. Personally, I think it is right that the NHS provide for people with specific dietary requirements, but the implementation here is all wrong. This should be handled by subsidising purchases of applicable foodstuffs in supermarkets, not by having the NHS source and deliver a pizza.

Haha. Yeah. It's often referred to as Punch and Judy Politics. Lots of jeering and hoots from the back benchers. Edit: Do you get the god awful cheese-fest advert that is the American tourist boards effort to persuade us to come visit you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcfbdiiEQDM

Depends on how you are leaving. I can give you a bit of a run down on your rights but it is very dependant on your situation, and may be a conversation better held in private... You might find this link useful as well: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/employment/redundancyandleavingyourjob/dg_10026688.

Haha, I'll take that as a no then. Should anyone decide to fall into my obvious trap, I'm on Frostclaw.

The torch itself. There's a couple of news stories floating about where people are auctioning off the torch. If you are a torch bearer you can pay £199 (I think) to keep the thing. I think most torch sellers are doing so for charity, which I guess is a "good thing".

Anyone here still playing this? I'm just getting around to it now. As my first MMO, company allegiance aside, I'm finding it rather enjoyable.

I don't know if I just notice product placement more these days or what, but MI:4 felt like a really expensive, very slick, BMW advert. Entertaining as hell, but the advertising seems to be really in your face these days. It was up there with I Robot.

Simple, it's not the government's job. You said your parents would never dream of accepting welfare or food stamps, but they did take the church foodbasket. Your parents had a choice, take a welfare cheque or take from the church. They chose the church. Me, I'm not about encourage the church unless I have to so I'd take the welfare cheque. That said, if it was starving to death or setting aside my principles, I'd swallow my pride and take the church basket. If the choice was not there are you really trying to tell me that they would have starved rather than take a government handout? It is very much the government's job to keep their citizenry alive and kicking. Also, have to say, I'm not Jonny's biggest fan and I've never made a secret of that. But what you said was bang out of order. There was absolutely no call for that sort of personal attack.

A misplaced sense of pride? Nope, just not lazy people who sit on unemployment for years and do nothing to better their situation. Yes, everyone who's ever accepted any form of state assistance whatsoever is a lazy asshole who's never worked a day in their life. That certainly is an intelligent and reasonable stance. Battra, how can you say that they would never use food stamps when there were "times when the church food basket kept us fed"? Your parents clearly aren't above taking a freebie when it's offered.

He denied that a focus on parenting and childcare was a diversion from "big issues" like the economy. Since when is parenting and childcare not a big issue?