Im_CIA

Most elitists and fedora tipping contrarians would undoubtedly answer "yes". And their opinions are pretty justified. How else would you explain things like Trump's popularity, the state of Congress, ISIS, Michael Bay etc? The world has to be 95% retarded for those things to happen and exist, right? Only those few, that do their own research and tip their toes in almost every topic known to man, are considered to be a cut above the rest, right? Well, recently found a counter view point. Our combined knowledge far exceeds our individual capacity for retaining knowledge, so *all of us*, without exception, are completely ignorant about most of what is really going on the world. I mean, how can we not be? Behind every simple sounding concept is heavily nuanced mess that only real specialists in that field can make sense of. What difference does it make if one person reads more than the next, if our level of ignorance is almost universally the same across the board, except for the fact that we may personally specialize in some things? Here's a great excerpt from "A Study in Scarlet" to illustrate my point : His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth traveled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it. "You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it." "To forget it!" "You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." "But the Solar System!" I protested. "What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work." Now this doesn't imply that there are no dumb people. A dumb person is someone who lacks the capacity to learn any useful skill. Most people on Earth have at least one trade or specialization... can we honestly say that one is smarter than the other just because s/he has acquired a bit more superficial knowledge about the world?

Some people are actually pants-on-head retarded, but most just focus on what really matters to them personally. Also, there really wasn't much "hope" to begin with (unless you believe in immortality implied by the Quantum Suicide thought experiment) , so why squander your life force worrying about what others are thinking and doing? Question for Ross : Do you think entertainment(with the bounds of games movies, not so much books) has gone/will go drastically down in quality? It seems that the big dogs, like Disney and [insert AAA game studio here] are taking a lot less risks with their projects in order to maximize audience and profit. On one hand, a business is first and for most a business, and they are getting better at generating money by playing it safe. But on the other hand, it feels like we the audience getting the shit end of the stick in the long run. Maybe in twenty years going to the movies will be like chow time and the Nebakanezer : everyone gets serving of bland, homogeneous goop...but at least it's filling, and more importantly, predictable.

This game does not like my VPN. Couldn't even access the website.

Man, when Ross mentioned that he was going to review an epic space strategy? (can't remember the exact words), I thought it'd be Homeworld. This is pretty cool too, I guess. At least the OST is.

History in the making is as subtle to us as the rotation of the Earth. So we're all gonna end up as poor an hungry proles... who cares? We'll get used to it within a generation.

Lol. Looks like low-res Orthodox Icon Ross.

Hmmm, you're probably right, but who really knows what goes on in these people's minds. In 2013 you would've put in a straight jacket if you predicted that Russia would annex Crimea.

RIght, but they are part of NATO and everyone is obligated to help them out if they are attacked. By invading they would appear as the aggressor attacking a sovereign nation, and thus NATO article 5 won't apply. BUT, Obama and the gang have been more or less saying that Assad is no longer legitimate, so they may do some realpolitik gymnastics to justify coming to Turkey's aid. After all, Turkey is still the biggest partner they have that's geographical a thorn in Russia's side.

SAA & allies have recently cut-off Aleppo's main supply route. The opposition seems to be loosing militarily on all fronts. Will Turkey step in to save their proxies? If so, how will Russia react. Follow up: will Turkey have the right evoke NATO article 5 if Russia retaliates. Discus UPDATE 02/13/16 Turkey shelled kurds. SAA shelled Turkey. Turkey shelled SAA (can't confirm 100%) Saudis are throwing their hat into the ring as well. Things are getting pretty heated. How high will this escalate?

Fucking shit. I forgot my headphones, and I still have three hours to sit in the tutoring center. Guess I'll turn this on and listen to the voices in my head.

No it doesn't. That's "twit." No, you're thinking of twix

What's with all the 9inch love? It's like a running theme here. b1FFaPx4ENE

Having multiple writers will almost guarantee "cohesion" problems with the story. How come you don't want to sculpt everything yourself in order to keep in perfect line with the vision and direction? It's not like you're George Lucas. “ ' The team threw a Hail Mary to George, saying the game would have more credibility if the apprentice had a Darth title,' a Force Unleashed team member says. Lucas agreed that this situation made sense for Sith royalty, and offered up two Darth titles for the team to choose from. 'He threw out "Darth Icky" and "Darth Insanius." There was a pregnant pause in the room after that. People waiting for George to say "just kidding," but it never comes, and he just moved on to another point.' "