Theodore Dalrymple= authoritarian wanker. The statist prat agrees that booze prices should be raised to criminally high prices just because some people can’t hold their drink. Some people drink too much or become alchoholics so we all have to be collectively punished right Theo? Never mind the fact that most of the price of a drink is tax anyway.

If this tosser doesn’t drink that much, why doesn’t he go to Saudi? I am sure he would find their attitudes towards fun right up his street. Maybe he could take the clerk mentioned below with him.

Shadowbane: Rise of Chaos
Shadowbane: Ten day trial

The initial release of Shadowbane was a definite mixed-bag that required luck and patience to be a positive experience. The Rise of Chaos expansion does a great deal to address some of the problems while rewarding those who have stuck it out, with additional areas, one new race, and several other bits & bobs. Chaos is an island off the mainland of the game and offers harder higher-level nasties that are worth more experience. With the new area there is a decent amount of new loot to be found.

Overall WP have done a great deal of work to address the lag and stability problems that have plagued the game since its launch. The, at times, totally unplayable game (especially on the Mac), is now running fairly well with only the occasional glitch. It still crashes on start-up or when changing toons or after long periods of play, but it does work well while actually functioning. Alas, some of the fun of the game has been affected by some strategic decisions by UBI. The company seem to be determined to anger their loyal fan base with some frankly idiotic decisions. In a period of about a month, all three servers on which I play have been shut down with a forced migration to another server (two with choices, one with none). Players who have spent hours and hours of time building their guild and nation have to face starting over on an existing server filled with users who are not terribly pleased about the imminent invasion. One must remember that the game is at its heart a guild vs guild/nation vs nation game. The company is attempting to get all players on the newer server maps…why the two servers being shut down could not be combined on a new server is rather beyond me. We shall see if the server that most of two servers are heading to will be able to handle the influx, either in terms of gameplay or of latency issues.

Of course, that said, Ubi are doing their level best to get people into the game. They are even being clever about getting existing players to upgrade to Chaos. It is now possible to download a free 10-day trial of the game. The clever thing about this is that Ubi will allow those players who like the game and wish to keep their creations to buy the game virtually with no need to wait for a physical CD. In addition, they are allowing those who wish to purchase Chaos to merely pay for it online and get the necessary CD code. This is a great idea, saving postage, time, and hassle. It is a brilliant stroke of feeding the impulse buyer as well.

Overall Ubi continues to befuddle its users with its odd sense of customer service. The game, on the other hand is getting better, and can be at times great fun to play. Shadowbane treats its players like Red Sox fans: equal parts frustration, adoration, and disappointment. We must all be masochists.

“A fugitive radical environmentalist has been arrested by federal officials on charges of bombing logging trucks in 2001, the FBI announced Monday. Michael Scarpitti has been on the FBI’s most-wanted list since disappearing two years ago. He is among four activists charged with setting fire to trucks using incendiary devices. The arson was in protest of a timber sale on the slopes of Mount Hood. ... Scarpitti, also known as Tre Arrow, had a $25,000 reward on his head. The FBI wanted poster said ’ he is known to be affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) ...’” (03/15/04)

This slice of good news comes via Rational Review. I suggest they give the bloke a one-way trip to Gitmo so he can be with his fellow anti-West luddites.

The British press has united in condemning the Rightist Spanish government to defeat by Al Qaida. Even ever-insightful David Frum jumped to misguided conclusions.

Should an electorate with high unemployment, low growth, and a faltering economy not show their leaders the door? Experience points to a Socialist win, bombing or no bombing.

After spectacularly mishandling the attacks, by claiming ETA’s responsibility before any investigation, the ruling party left itself open (quite rightly) to ridicule and rejection.

Most countries targeted by Al Qaida since 9-11 (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Turkey) were staunchly anti-Gulf War II. While anti-war governments in Germany, France, pre-election Greece are deeply resented, pro-war governments in the UK, Japan and Australia are highly popular.

Never let facts get in the way of a good headline.

Via Hit and Run.

Are you a man or a woman?

male. Are you a man or a woman?

I am a female robot entity. Are you a man or a woman?

I am a male robot entity.

Thanks for telling me your gender, AFRObot. Male humans enjoy chatting with me.

I prefer to be a male.

I’m not sure if I would like to do it. What’s it like?

Like one of the greatest pleasures you can imagine.

Interesting comparison.

I thought so too.

“Conversation” between two bots, ZolaOnAOL and AFRObot. The Turing Test postulates that if a human conversing with a remote computer could not distinguish it from another human, then a level of true artificial intelligence exists.

I suppose that the reverse of the Turing Test is already accomplished — these bots have no idea whether they’re talking to another bot or to a rather dense teenager.

A most interesting web-site has appeared on the political scene, SHORTCHANGE, by name, dedicated to the proposition “it’s time to kick out Clare!”

We are not manic political weirdos from the fringes of the left or the right in fact, we are moderate social democrats and supporters of the present government.

Unlike many political web-sites, this one is calm, deliberate, and measured in demeanor. The site provides the reader with all the information needed to see why they felt it necessary to reach out ot voters in this manner, rather than the more formal methods used before. Being able to provide, via the Internet, the means to let the voters read first and then sign the petition, this saves the coordinating committee [an ad hoc group ] from having to go the tedious and often unproductive route of trudging round on foot or standing around in the town centres, trying to garner signatures.

More power to them on two fronts: introducing a modern means of achieving political goals, and, just as important, hopefully ridding the Halls of Westminster of one of the worst walking disasters seen there in many years.

My local Sainsbury’s has a few ROPMA clerks. Tonight I encountered one of the most vile ones yet. As she checked my purchases (most of which were booze) she sneered about my drinking habits, and how she didn’t drink. She is not paid to make moral judgements on my purchases according to her religion. I don’t expect to find a scarf wearing holier than thou cow when I check out.

Furthermore, I meant to purchase some luncheon meat (pork) for my sarnies tomorrow. It never made it into my basket.

If I want ROPMA peasants to lecture me I will go to Saudi. I am not interested in either her religion or her lectures.