Recent content by Helmutye

I don't think you can take such a mathematical view of morality. Trying to assign numbers of even vague assessments of 'worse' or 'better' or 'X times worse' to horrible crimes like murder and rape seems like a hollow exercise that ultimately won't give you much--whether murder is worse than...

As far as Bethesda sandbox games go, I actually find the more recent ones to be very shallow and limiting. Morrowind was pretty open, and gave you the sense that there really was a whole world out there for you to bang on without fear of finding the edges, but that game is almost 10 years old...

I am a Heavy from Team Fortress 2...with a bullet hole in my head!

"It's not enough that we do our best. Sometimes we must do what is necessary." --Winston Churchill

There would be many problems stemming from the existence of powerful, nigh-invulnerable individuals running around the world pretty much unchecked. They would probably be almost like nuclear weapons--imagine supers appearing in opposing countries and squaring off against each other! In the...

I am a US citizen who is proud of the idea behind my country, but not the reality as it exists today. My read on the situation is that the US is an empire that is desperately trying to cling to the idea of popular democracy. The two are not compatible. To put it another way, I think the post...

I think at least part of the reason is that the whole reason behind marriage in the US and Western Europe has changed. I was struck by this while watching an episode of the National Geographic Show "Taboo," which discussed cultures where the goals of marriage are very different. We in the West...

I'm pretty sure it's a question of fuel efficiency. Matter-antimatter is a pretty high energy, exotic form of power, but it does indeed consume fuel--matter is combined with equal amounts of antimatter, and the two annihilate and convert entirely (or almost entirely) into high energy photons...

Wow. Awfully convenient that someone would so perfectly demonstrate one of my most loathed pet peeves in a thread about pet peeves! Language is about establishing communication, and so long as communication has been established then language has done its job. Is the space in there really that...

This is an absolutely hilarious question--just silly enough to be amusing, and just serious enough to provoke actual consideration! I would argue that the time of total war between nations is over, or is at least in remission, which would make this sort of economic warfare unnecessary and...

There seems to be a lot of hate out there towards motion controls. While I can definitely understand some of the gripes, I feel like they're more problems of execution rather than fundamental flaws, and I think a lot of people miss the huge advantages. Most people seem to think that the only...

This is a tricky question, but I believe there are certain cases where people living today have legitimate complaint for past wrongs, even if nothing overt has actually happened to them. Two groups come most readily to my mind--African Americans and Native Americans. Allow me to explain...

Can you name any studies that actually establish this? Because I know that women have the edge for at least a few types of pain--for instance, women are able to tolerate higher temperatures for longer on their hands than men can (for some reason). And your claim that women have almost twice as...

I think there are too many people in the world, and too much anonymity. A duel, and the honor it supposedly satisfies, are based on your reputation, your standing within the community and the world you live in. But unless a celebrity dueled, nobody would know who the combatants were and nobody...

A good relationship will introduce you to new things, help you discover new things, give you new sources of strength, and help you become the kind of person you hope to become. Unfortunately, many people seem to fall for people that do just the opposite--people who pull you away from things you...