Wordforge http://www.wordforge.net Wordforge is a discussion forum covering hot topics, current events, politics, science, religion, television, and even popular movies and television. en Wed, 08 Sep 2010 09:26:11 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.wordforge.net/images/misc/rss.jpg Wordforge http://www.wordforge.net Can anyone here recommend a good, reliable external hard drive? http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82005&goto=newpost Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:07:38 GMT Looking for something in the 1-2 terabyte range. I have a ton of video files and music files that I'd like to keep stored away.

I have come to realize that burned data discs (CD or DVD) just aren't a very good long-term storage method.

Plus, having all my media in an external hard drive makes it easier to access... no disc swapping.

So... recommend some good ones! I'm concerned with reliability but I'd like to find something that isn't too terribly expensive either. ]]> Techforge Robotech Master http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82005 So Near, Yet So Far (Passport Problem Derails my London/Amsterdam trip) http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82004&goto=newpost Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:40:46 GMT So, I call up the State Department to renew my passport. Since I've lost track of the old one, they tell me to just apply for a new one. Okay, I says, but I need it in a hurry. No problem, they says. Just bring the application, two photos, a birth certificate, and a check to the post office and apply. Can do, I says.

So I do. Now, there's a big friggin' spot on the application that says TRAVEL DATE. I mark 9/8/10 in it, and even put a little star next to it so they'll know, hey, this guy's travelling soon. I mail it off to them and they go to work on it. Great, I think.

So, I arrange my little layover in London and plan my three days in Amsterdam. But it's getting down to the wire and I ain't got my passport, see? So, I call's 'em up and says, hey, y'know, where's it at? And they says don't worry, you still got time. Like a nitwit, I takes 'em at their word.

So here it is the day before I travel, still no passport and no word. So I calls 'em up and ask, hey, how about it? And they check it out and the guy says it's almost done, like it's some kinda great news. But I says, hey, that's great...I'm almost gonna catch my plane. 'Cause in case you Einsteins ain't noticed, tomorrow is my travel date.

So, I did everything they advised. I even called to check up on them. And even so, they led me straight to catastrophe. Not only that, the ONLY reason I know they're not going to make it is because I contacted them. They would've happily sent my passport off on 9/10 so I could execute my 9/8 travel plans.

And people wonder why I'm so critical of government services...

Edit: all is not lost and I still may go, but it depends on how reliably they can get me that passport on Thursday or Friday. ]]> The Green Room Paladin http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82004 Is it time for a baba boxed-set? http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82003&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:40:42 GMT Discuss. Discuss. ]]> The Red Room Paladin http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82003 US military to replace all pc machines with macs. http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82002&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:28:26 GMT :( :( ]]> The Red Room Baba http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82002 Is Lanzman the second coming of Christ?` http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82001&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:01:52 GMT ? ? ]]> The Red Room Baba http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82001 A Tale of Irony, Retarded Police Policy and a Dead Scumbag http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82000&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:28:49 GMT Oh! The irony! (http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/crime/s/1316152_nochase_bike_theft_suspect_dies_in_crash) ---Quote--- A man... Oh! The irony!

Quote:
A man suspected of being a motorbike thief who police refused to chase because he wasn’t wearing a crash helmet has been killed riding a stolen machine.

Bobby Carl Hodgkins, 24, was one of two men arrested days after a raid at the Motorbike Store in Woodfield Road, Altrincham, last month.

At the time, police were ordered not to chase the thieves seen roaring away on stolen bikes – because the villains were not wearing crash helmets.

Officers saw three crooks fleeing from the scene on bikes worth £20,000 but they had to watch them escape due to fears over the thieves’ safety.

Police defended their actions, saying officers followed the correct protocol.

Now Mr Hodgkins has died after a Kawasaki 450 he was riding collided with a Toyota van. He was not wearing a helmet.

The motorbike had been stolen during a burglary in Audenshaw on August 26.

Mr Hodgkins suffered serious head injuries in the accident on Greenbrow Road, Wythenshawe, at 2.40pm on Saturday and died a short time later.

He had been due to answer bail for the Altrincham theft on September 10. He had been arrested on August 13.

Mr Hodgkins, from Wythenshawe, was banned for dangerous driving in 2005 and had to re-take his test to get his licence back, but had not done so.
More at the link.

1) Karmas a bitch!
2) What kind of stupid elf'n'safety policy stops police chasing criminals?
3) :rofl: ]]> The Red Room ecky http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=82000 Blame the JOOOOOSSSSS http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81998&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:53:13 GMT http://bostonreview.net/BR34.3/malhotra_margalit.php Evidently, a statistically larger percentage of democrats than republicans blame the Jews for... http://bostonreview.net/BR34.3/malhotra_margalit.php

Evidently, a statistically larger percentage of democrats than republicans blame the Jews for the financial crisis - despite Democrats being a core component of their party.

Quote:
State of the Nation
Anti-Semitism and the economic crisis Neil Malhotra and Yotam Margalit


The media coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal made extensive reference to Madoff’s ethnic and religious background and his prominent role in the Jewish community. Because the scandal broke at a time of great public outcry against financial institutions, some, including Brad Greenberg in The Christian Science Monitor and Mark Seal in Vanity Fair, have reported on its potential to generate a wave of anti-Semitism.

This concern makes good sense. In complex situations such as the current financial crisis, where the vast majority of us lack the relevant expertise and information, biases and prejudices may play a significant role in shaping public attitudes. To evaluate just how large a role, we conducted a study (part of a larger survey of 2,768 American adults) in which we explored people’s responses to the economic collapse and tried to determine how anti-Semitic sentiments might relate to the ongoing financial crisis.

In order to assess explicit prejudice toward Jews, we directly asked respondents “How much to blame were the Jews for the financial crisis?” with responses falling under five categories: a great deal, a lot, a moderate amount, a little, not at all. Among non-Jewish respondents, a strikingly high 24.6 percent of Americans blamed “the Jews” a moderate amount or more, and 38.4 percent attributed at least some level of blame to the group.

Interestingly, Democrats were especially prone to blaming Jews: while 32 percent of Democrats accorded at least moderate blame, only 18.4 percent of Republicans did so (a statistically significant difference). This difference is somewhat surprising given the presumed higher degree of racial tolerance among liberals and the fact that Jews are a central part of the Democratic Party’s electoral coalition. Are Democrats simply more likely to “blame everything” thus casting doubt on whether the anti-Jewish attitudes are real? Not at all. We also asked how much “individuals who took out loans and mortgages they could not afford” were to blame on the same five-point scale. In this case, Democrats were less likely than Republicans to assign moderate or greater blame.
Interesting part in the last paragraph - Dems also seem to think people taking out loans they couldn't afford had little to do with the financial crisis. ]]> The Red Room Demiurge http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81998 <![CDATA[Wow. Google's Home Page is Particularly Annoying Today...]]> http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81997&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:21:47 GMT ...It's almost like they are trying to see just how much they can suck and still be better than Bing. :cylon: ]]> The Red Room Volpone http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81997 Man-Law Ruling... http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81996&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:52:27 GMT One of the ironclad man-laws is you do not fuck with a person's car.

That said, there's a douchebag at the office who takes two parking spots. It is almost impossible that he's a really shitty driver, because he does it virtually every day--smack-dab splits one of the parking lines.

It isn't even like it is a particularly nice car. It is an '00-06 Chevy Tahoe. Looks to be pretty much stock.

So my question is, in this case, where you get a self-important douchebag who not only drives a huge SUV, but thinks he rates two parking spaces so no one will ding his precious baby is it not justified to key him?

I would argue that a keying would be completely justified in this case. :cylon: ]]> The Gold Room Volpone http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81996 Dragon age two will let you import a save game from dragon age one http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81995&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:47:52 GMT Seems your decesions in dragon age one will effect t he one in the next game like mass effect series. Seems your decesions in dragon age one will effect t he one in the next game like mass effect series. ]]> Press Start Baba http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81995 Trapped Miners to get help from NASA http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81994&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:46:11 GMT http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americ...ex.html?hpt=T1
Quote:
NASA to share tips to maintain trapped miners' mental and physical health

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* A four-person team from the space agency is advising the miners
* They say organization and nutrition are important
* Officials say it could take months to rescue the 33 miners trapped underground

Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- NASA teams usually use their knowledge to help astronauts many miles above the earth's surface. But on Tuesday, a group of experts from the U.S. space agency will share their advice for the 33 miners who have been trapped 2,300 feet underground in Chile since August 5.

"It's an opportunity for us to bring the space flight experience back down to the ground," Dr. Michael Duncan, the deputy chief medical officer at Johnson Space Center, said before NASA's four-person team left for Chile last month.

The team includes two medical doctors, a psychologist and an engineer.
Who knew that the trapped miners were muslim? :lol: ]]> The Red Room Demiurge http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81994 Welcome to our newest member, wuweiwei http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81993&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:58:13 GMT Damn. Wish I'd picked that name first. :garamet: ]]> The Red Room Jenee http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81993 <![CDATA[Apparently NYC isn't the place to live after all...]]> http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81992&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:01:35 GMT SOURCE (http://SOURCE) ---Quote--- NEW YORK—At 4:32 p.m. Tuesday, every single resident of New York City decided to evacuate the famed... SOURCE

Quote:
NEW YORK—At 4:32 p.m. Tuesday, every single resident of New York City decided to evacuate the famed metropolis, having realized it was nothing more than a massive, trash-ridden hellhole that slowly sucks the life out of every one of its inhabitants.

With audible murmurs of "This is no way to live," "What the hell am I doing here—I hate it here," and "Fuck this place. Fuck this horrible place," all 8.4 million citizens in each of the five boroughs packed up their belongings and told reporters they would rather blow their brains out with a shotgun than spend another waking moment in this festering cesspool of filth and scum and sadness.

By 5:15 p.m. there was gridlock traffic on the outbound sides of the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, and the area's three major airports were flooded with New Yorkers, all of whom said they wanted to go anyplace where the pressure of 20 million tons of concrete wasn't constantly suffocating them.

"I always had this perverted sense of pride because I was managing to scrape by here," said Brooklyn resident Andrew McQuade, who, after watching two subway rats gnawing on a third bloody rat carcass, finally determined that New York City was a giant sprawling cancer. "Well, fuck that. I don't need to pay $2,000 a month to share a doghouse-sized apartment with some random Craigslist dipshit to prove my worth. I want to live like a goddamn human being."

"You see this?" added McQuade, pointing at a real estate listing for a duplex in Hagerstown, MD. "Two bedrooms, two baths, a den—a fucking den—and a patio. Twelve hundred a month. That's total, not per person."

According to residents, the mass exodus was triggered by a number of normal, everyday New York City events. For Erin Caldwell of Manhattan, an endlessly honking car horn sent her over the edge, causing her to go into a blind rage and scream "shut up!" at the vehicle as loud as she could until her voice went hoarse; for Danny Tremba of Queens it was being cursed at for walking too slow; and for Paul Ogden, also of Queens, it was his overreaction to somebody walking too slow.

Other incidents that prompted citizens to pick up and leave included the sight of garbage bags stacked 5 feet high on the sidewalk; the realization that being alone among millions of anonymous people is actually quite horrifying; a blaring siren that droned on and fucking on; muddy, refuse-filled puddles that have inexplicably not dried in three years; the thought of growing into a person whose meanness and cynicism is cloaked in a kind of holier-than-thou brand of sarcasm that the rest of the world finds nauseating; and all the goddamn people.

In addition, 3 million New Yorkers reportedly left the city because they realized the phrase "Only in New York" is actually just a defense mechanism used to convince themselves that seeing a naked man take a shit on a park bench is somehow endearing, or part of some shared cultural experience.

"I was sitting on my stoop, drinking coffee, and out of nowhere this crazy-looking woman just starts screaming, 'I am inside all of you,' over and over," Bronx resident Sarah Perez, 37, said. "Then, we both had this moment where we looked at each other and realized, okay, we have to get out of here."

"This place sucks," Manhattan resident Woody Allen, 74, told reporters. "It just fucking sucks."

When fleeing New Yorkers were asked if they would miss the city's iconic landmarks, most responded that Central Park is just a pathetic excuse for experiencing actual nature, that the Brooklyn Bridge is great but it's just a fucking bridge, that nobody goes to the Met anyway, and that living in a dingy, grime-caked apartment while exhaust fumes from an idling truck seep through your bedroom window isn't worth slightly bigger bagels.

"This is no place to raise a kid, that's for sure," said 32-year-old Brandon Rushing, a lifelong New Yorker. "I grew up here and I turned into a giant asshole. Why would I want that for my son?"

"Plus, we're the place most likely to get nuked by a dirty bomb in a terrorist attack," he added. "So that's great. Also, it smells like shit here, and I'm not exaggerating. You'll just be walking around and it starts smelling like human shit, and it just fills your nostrils and you breathe in shit for like 20 seconds."

Before departing by private helicopter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke with members of the media to address the situation.

"You know what the greatest city in the world is?" Bloomberg asked reporters. "Scottsdale, Arizona. (:techman: EDIT: It's really Tempe, but Scottsdale still beats NYC) It's clean, it's not too big, it's got a couple streets with shops and restaurants, and the people there aren't fucking insane. This place is fucking insane. And by the way, that's not a reason to like it. Anyone who says that is a delusional dirtbag."

By Tuesday night, New York was completely abandoned. At press time, however, some 10 million Los Angeles–area residents, tired of their self-centered, laid-back culture and lack of four distinct seasons, and yearning for the hustle and bustle of East Coast life, had already begun repopulating the city.
:lol:

I found this funny. ]]> The Red Room Chaos Descending http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81992 <![CDATA[I guess it isn't just the average American...]]> http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81991&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:30:32 GMT ...who thinks Obama might be a little too cozy with Islam. :loltears: http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4337606 ... ...who thinks Obama might be a little too cozy with Islam.

:loltears:

http://news.in.msn.com/international...mentid=4337606

Quote:
Pak Minister wants Obama to be ''leader of all Muslims''

Islamabad, Sep 2 (PTI) A Pakistani minister wants US President Barack Obama to offer Eid prayers at Ground Zero in New York and become the "Amir-ul-Momineen" or Caliph of Muslims.

Minister of State for Industries Ayatullah Durrani, who belongs to the ruling Pakistan People''s Party, said the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr festival, expected to be observed on September 11, would be a "golden opportunity" for Obama to offer Eid prayers and declare himself the leader of all Muslims.

"In this way, all the problems of the Muslim world would be solved," Durrani told The Nation newspaper.

Durrani, a former member of the Pakistan Ideological Council, contended that the Muslim world is in "dire need" of a Caliph and occupying this distinguished slot would provide Obama "exemplary titles" like "Mullah Barack Hussain Obama" or "Allama Obama".

He said: "The time is approaching fast. Barack Hussain Obama must act now. This is a golden opportunity, Muslims badly need it."
Obama''s elevation to the Islamic Caliphate would be the "key to success, he claimed but did not offer any explanation for his remarks.
]]> The Red Room Demiurge http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81991 Sooooo http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81990&goto=newpost Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:21:25 GMT I was browsing the internets, looking for funny stuff and you will never believe what I stumbled upon.... Image:... I was browsing the internets, looking for funny stuff and you will never believe what I stumbled upon....





and I burst out laughing....everyone looked at me like I was on crack.....



Made me LOL and miss you guys, so i thought i'd share :) ]]> The Green Room Mandi http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=81990