This is what cradle practice of Chisanbop and snorting amphetamine laced kimchee will get you.

This is interesting, but it raises red flags that the skull is named 'star child' before any real conclusions are made. Where is the alternate explanation of what this is? It certainly seems that the desired outcome is what is driving the interest in this skull. He also keeps referring to science as 'they', without citing any actual studies or inquiries.

I'm not a scientist, but the theory of evolution states that occasional random mutations appear in the genetic lineage of a given species, and when that particular trait is passed on, the development of that species changes. Could the genetic differences in this skull be explained as a mutation that didn't get passed on? Isn't that more likely than "a human mother gave birth to an alien baby"?

Here are some excerpts from the wiki entry:

DNA testing in 1999 at BOLD, a forensic DNA lab in Vancouver, British Columbia found standard X and Y chromosomes in two samples taken from the skull, "conclusive evidence that the child was not only human (and male), but both of his parents must have been human as well, for each must have contributed one of the human sex chromosomes". Further DNA testing at Trace Genetics, which specializes in extracting DNA from ancient samples, in 2003 recovered mitochondrial DNA from both skulls. The child belongs to haplogroup C, while the adult female belongs to haplogroup A. Both haplotypes are characteristic Native American haplogroups, but the different haplogroup for each skull indicates that the adult female was not the child's mother. Trace Genetics was not able to recover useful lengths of nuclear DNA or Y-chromosomal DNA for further testing.

Explanations
Potential explanations for the skull's unusual features include the use of cradle boarding on a hydrocephalic child, brachycephaly, Crouzon syndrome, congenital hydrocephalus, or potentially progeria.

This is kind of like a a real-world Newton's Cradle.

Bought, played (at night with headphones) and beaten.

Just get the negatives out of the way first: too short & I still found Shalebridge Cradle from Thief 3 scarier/moodier/ more atmospheric than anything this game had to offer.

Positives: Just about everything else. I did enjoy this game better than anything from Penumbra. For me it's no Shalebridge, but damn for $20 and so many years after that experience in Thief 3 this was a joy. I'm glad there are developers out there willing to take risks with these kinds of games.

This game was almost canceled several times, for more information please visit the Frictional Games forums. This game seriously nearly died a number of times. I'm thankful it didn't.

Support Frictional, buy this game and enjoy it. Play at night, with headphones as suggested by the development team. Let yourself get immersed by this game, and don't try playing it like an FPS. Support them, and hopefully they continue to make games of this quality at such a bargain price.

Puzzling how the "cradle of civilization" is still as helpless as an infant.

He began:

-- Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: Great was my admiration in listening to the remarks addressed to the youth of Ireland a moment since by my learned friend. It seemed to me that I had been transported into a country far away from this country, into an age remote from this age, that I stood in ancient Egypt and that I was listening to the speech of some highpriest of that land addressed to the youthful Moses.

His listeners held their cigarettes poised to hear, their smoke ascending in frail stalks that flowered with his speech. And let our crooked smokes. Noble words coming. Look out. Could you try your hand at it yourself?

-- And it seemed to me that I heard the voice of that Egyptian highpriest raised in a tone of like haughtiness and like pride. I heard his words and their meaning was revealed to me.

From the Fathers
It was revealed to me that those things are good which yet are corrupted which neither if they were supremely good nor unless they were good could be corrupted. Ah, curse you! That's saint Augustine.

-- Why will you jews not accept our culture, our religion and our language? You are a tribe of nomad herdsmen; we are a mighty people. You have no cities nor no wealth: our cities are hives of humanity and our galleys, trireme and quadrireme, laden with all manner merchandise furrow the waters of the known globe. You have but emerged from primitive conditions: we have a literature, a priesthood, an agelong history and a polity.

Nile.

Child, man, effigy.

By the Nilebank the babemaries kneel, cradle of bulrushes: a man supple in combat: stonehorned, stonebearded, heart of stone.

-- You pray to a local and obscure idol: our temples, majestic and mysterious, are the abodes of Isis and Osiris, of Horus and Ammon Ra. Yours serfdom, awe and humbleness: ours thunder and the seas. Israel is weak and few are her children: Egypt is an host and terrible are her arms. Vagrants and daylabourers are you called: the world trembles at our name.

A dumb belch of hunger cleft his speech. He lifted his voice above it boldly:

-- But, ladies and gentlemen, had the youthful Moses listened to and accepted that view of life, had he bowed his head and bowed his will and bowed his spirit before that arrogant admonition he would never have brought the chosen people out of their house of bondage nor followed the pillar of the cloud by day. He would never have spoken with the Eternal amid lightnings on Sinai's mountaintop nor ever have come down with the light of inspiration shining in his countenance and bearing in his arms the tables of the law, graven in the language of the outlaw.

He ceased and looked at them, enjoying silence.

Also: Molly Bloom.

Forgive a new guy for his 2 centavos, but don't forget (or try to wrap your idyllic heads around) that the US has been run (into the ground) by design, by a good-ol-boy network of picked and privileged players for at least the last 100 years. So has Europe's, so have all the whitest countries' empires.

The mess the US is in has very little to do with the votes for one or the other can'tidate at this point, both parties being heads from the same oligarchic hydra. The Ultra-wealthy and their sympathetic familiars, the corporations, own you and your children, all governments and clergy, cradle to grave-

The deficit will continue to grow, wars will continue uninterrupted, as power and control become increasingly centralized, until the masses unite against the tyranny of disinformation (national media), slave-like toil, and the absurdity of the instillation of fear in order to achieve complete control through surveillance and bullshit, make-everyone-feel-cozy-and-safe laws, obligations, requirements, etc.

¡Todos despierta y huele el café!!

Sorry to read that you were shot at there señor-This is a very frightening experience even when the bullets hit nearby-Treat the experience like a lightening strike, a freak occurrence-

-Unless you did something to provoke the mystery man on the motorbike, this should not happen to you again until the gobierno collapses and anarchy or worse begins. Maybe get out of L.A.
-Kansas is cool. The doves there are as fat as chickens!

The accusation that America is 'becoming Greece' is not unfounded. Greece is foundering because it has billions in unfunded liabilities and no effective way to pay them. This precise malady is already happening in the US. California, NY, Illinois, and other liberally controlled states are bankrupt because of huge social obligations they can't possibly pay for.

The U.S. has been headed this way for decades in a slow way, but it's ramped up rapidly under Clinton, Bush, and Obama. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social security are plummeting into insolvency. The Health Care plan increases federal obligations by billions. Cap & Trade constricts energy supply while increasing costs. Every act the federal government takes is one that pulls money from the private sector into the public sector.

The warning cry that America is heading towards a "Greece" style fiscal meltdown is blatantly obvious and even laypersons can easily see that unbridled, unchecked social spending is what has ruined Europe's economy.

This is - of course - exactly why left wing koolaid drinkers like this video guy are in a state of panic. The European collapse strips away the lie that they have been living in for decades. It proves cradle-to-grave liberal socialist states are only 3 hairs and some air away from collapse, and that capitalism is the solution. "Austerity measures..." What a nice left wing whitewash of the fact that they are being forced by necessitiy to use (GASP!) conservative economic policy in order to prevent themselves from absolute self destruction. So to save it's @$$, Greece is having to privitize health care, as well as cut bloated, unsustainable social spending. Gee - where have we heard that before?

So it's no surprise that leftist hacks like Krugman are in denial over this. The entire approach they've believed in their whole lives has been proven to be a total sham.

@blankfist, well, we need to start trying some new systems on for size, first and foremost, and that's not going to happen as long as people like you, Kubric, and the ultra rich and the trans-national finance institutions that they own are more than willing to strangle those new systems like babes in the cradle.

I don't want to hear any malarkey about "creating jobs" when that is the last thing that rich people or capitalists want to do. You weren't going to hire people to create jobs, you were going to hire people to do your work for you and make you richer.

Where capitalism does create jobs is in the sweatshops of the hell holes that dot the Pacific rim of Asia.

You've retreated into this cocoon of idealism that has completely skewed your view of reality. You've gone so far as to resurrect antiquated definitions of political and social movements and rebrand them to suit this idealistic, and very unrealistic, view of the world.

You've gone so far as to call yourself a liberal and to accuse GW Bush of being a leftist.

That is a disconnect with reality that I think you would do well to reevaluate.

I can't give you a better system than capitalism, but that does not mean that one does not exist, that one can not be found, established, perfected. Things are better for the people of Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia since they've moved to a more socialistic system. Few could argue otherwise.

There is a better way. It's out there, waiting to be born.

At least his anti-military idiocy is consistent no matter who is in office... It isn't the war making us poor. It is the government. Before we cut the military - which serves a Constitutionally mandated role - we should cut our social spending (which has no constitutional justification) before it breaks the bank like it's doing to Europe.

This article from the NY Times pegs the issue perfectly...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/world/europe/23europe.html

Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net

Even IF we cut military spending it wouldn't help. Government would just take the money and pour it into a whole new set of social spending entitlements. And of course these entitlements would be just like all the others we currently have... Bloated bureaucracies that help almost no one, accomplish almost nothing, and strip away freedoms.

Europe is right now in the process of showing the world just how ineffective and destructive the 'big government' Kenseyian socialized approach to governance is. And it is this failed model that the American left is seeking to emulate with Obamacare, Cap & Trade, bailouts galore, huge unions, and unfunded liabilities. Before one cent of the military gets cut there should be a 50% cut in the budgets of every U.S. social program across the board. Bar none. The answer is small government at the state, county, and municipal level.

Lost in the pile of rubbish most monkeys offer as infotainment here, deserving of more votes than the wiki leak of civilian slaughter, infinitely more important than the bull-shit cradle-to-grave concerns the health care hawkers whine about here-Fundamental to human survival, is the death of satanic corporations like Monsanto-kill them all, burn their corporate headquarters to the ground.

Yeah, cus we see how well the free market is currently handling the problem. None of you were around during the days of steel towns, and the railroad baronies. Where a town was effectively controlled by the Company. From cradle to grave, you were essentially, a slave. The Company owned EVERYTHING, including the 'police'. They typically used fear as a weapon to keep workers in-line, un-unionized, and unable to protest for better wages and working conditions.

Its really to bad, so many Americans don't know their American history.

>> ^cybrbeast:
I thought choggie was a radical free market person, I guess not.
I really see no big problem with there being fast food. It's the responsibility of parents to eat well and feed their children well. But I guess most people are just to lazy, poor or uneducated.


I am radical free-market cyberbeast-the world of the now resembles nothing akin to a free market economy, the definition most wankers understand it as is a theoretical concept at best, as every country on the planet has been groomed to march in lock-step to something completely removed from such a noble idea. Supply and demand can only work when masses of monkeys are not constantly indoctrinated by corporate fucks and bombarded with lies and deceit by a geopolitical machine which works to concentrate resources and labor to benefit the few-The so-called new world order or future of mankind or whatever the fuck you wanna call being herded into cattle cars involves a few people controlling the vast majority of well-groomed imbeciles, who have been taught from the cradle to follow orders-The only country who is not willing to necessarily follow the European Aristocratic/Corporate model is China, but they have a small group of criminals there who would that they be worshiped as gods as well-it's simply not occidental.

In an actual "free market", there is no bullshit-I give you a "dollar" or some service, entertainment, or product, you compensate me in-kind. I can deal in arms, cocoa, opium, cotton-candy, pussy, or whatever the fuck I care to taking whatever risk or leisure there is is involved, and I answer to no-one but natural law-more of a free-market anarchist if you will.

By all means, make as many laws as you care to regarding commerce or the exchange of goods and services: The wise man will prosper who is willing to risk all or nothing to accomplish his will within any system-only abrupt changes from outside of contrived systems will help the individual at this point in history...like maybe a comet or some worldwide upheaval.

Thanks for this very long response! I think this was my favorite line: Take away everything someone has to live for, and he'll find a cause to die for.

I will remember that line, because I think you are absolutely right.



Thanks.

In reply to this comment by kagenin:
>> ^Avokineok:
I live in The Netherlands. Everytime I'm on Videosift, I get a sense of how bad it must be to be an American.
I see some great entertaiment with all the late night shows, but I feel bad for all of you who have to live in a country that has so many people taking everything said at Fox "News" ("Gossip" might be more appropriate) so seriously..
It seriously makes me said and makes me believe Amerika is not the land of opportunities; it's a land where people with a lot of money tell other people what think.


Who do you think were those first pilgrims from Europe were? Puritans - People who wanted nothing more than to lecture others on the poor choices they made. (If you've ever been to a good Renaissance Faire, they're the street actors wearing almost all black, and almost always carrying their bibles with them. Hang around one long enough and you'll want to tell them to go take a long walk off a short pier too, if they're in good character. That's basically how they made everyone else living at the time feel. Look at modern day puritanicals such as Pat Robertson.) The ones who colonized America had enough money to sail half-way around the world, which isn't terribly cheap.

Paying for the sins of our forefathers is something every culture does. Just look at television and video games. Here in the States, you can put some pretty violent imagery on TV and maybe even some drug use in your video games, but holy hell if you show a nipple, or touch on ANYTHING of a sexual nature. Releasing a game in the three major English speaking markets (US, UK, and AU) means subjecting your content to three different review boards, with differing notions about what is good and decent for the consumers of their country. Sex, violence, drug use - the disparity between opinions on what is acceptable for only adults to see, even among countries with common language, can mean what get's a Teen rating by the US's ESRB can get an "Adult Only" in the UK, and even be banned outright unless edited for an Australian market.

Despite all this, I remain hopeful because of the fact that those like ol' Noun-Verb-9/11 Rudy are in the minority. The fact that he's so focused on using terms like "Islamic terrorist," or "islamist" displays a blunt ignorance, and could be interpreted as flat out racism. Let's remember that he put the NYC Emergency Command Center, setup after a failed World Trade Center fertilizer bombing in the 90's, was picked by Rudy to be put in the World Trade Center, a place that had recently been the target of a terrorist attack (by attackers who were brought to justice within the same judicial system that handles our parking tickets - we didn't need the post-9/11 military tribunals then, and we don't really need them now, despite certain anti-American Right-Wingers who lack requisite faith in the system they serve). It's like he refuses to learn from history or something, and unfortunately it's not an uncommon condition among modern conservative talking heads here in the states.

The fact that our president didn't use words like "islamist" or "islamic terrorist" or any permutation thereof is because he understands that the greater threat to our nation is a foreign policy that takes away everything from poor young brown-skinned people living in the cradle of civilization and gives them nowhere to turn to but bombed out countries, crumbling infrastructure, and eager suicide bomber recruiters. Take away everything someone has to live for, and he'll find a cause to die for. Dealing with the symptoms is one thing. End the root cause, and then you have the potential for peace.

Take the issue with rampant piracy around the waters of Somalia. Sure, everyone's talking about the latest tanker to be overtaken, but how many stories have delved into the root cause? The polluted waters that have killed off all the fish in the region? The fish who fed the people on the land? The fish that drove the local economy? All dead. The Indonesian Tsunami caused a tidal wave of wretched filth to wash up ashore, tainting the land and water supplies, causing pestilential illnesses. If you're a poor Somali 20-something with your family boat, and you can't make an honest living with it, what are you going to do? Grab some weapons, recruit a crew of close friends in the same situation you're in, and take your chances on the shipping lanes within striking distance... yeah, that would seem like something someone EXTREMELY desperate would do. It's happening right now. The Somali Government can't do jack, they can barely govern an area the size of my rural hometown. Sure we can bust out the snipers when someone important gets kidnapped, and we can applaud the heroes who put their lives on the life to ensure the safety of others. But that won't stop the next motley crew of fishermen with nowhere else to turn but terrorizing the high seas.

I've only spent about 4 days total in the Netherlands. What I saw was beautiful. Amsterdam was breathtaking, both figuratively and literally - man, those canals can really wreak in the summer . I hope to visit again soon. Didn't get to check out much of the television, but what brief moments I was allowed rest in front of a TV on that trip was pretty cool. A lot of stuff just wouldn't get past the FCC here without some serious fines being levied for sexual content, and that's a damn shame...

But, like I said, I'm still hopeful. Wow, that was long If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

>> ^Avokineok:
I live in The Netherlands. Everytime I'm on Videosift, I get a sense of how bad it must be to be an American.
I see some great entertaiment with all the late night shows, but I feel bad for all of you who have to live in a country that has so many people taking everything said at Fox "News" ("Gossip" might be more appropriate) so seriously..
It seriously makes me said and makes me believe Amerika is not the land of opportunities; it's a land where people with a lot of money tell other people what think.


Who do you think were those first pilgrims from Europe were? Puritans - People who wanted nothing more than to lecture others on the poor choices they made. (If you've ever been to a good Renaissance Faire, they're the street actors wearing almost all black, and almost always carrying their bibles with them. Hang around one long enough and you'll want to tell them to go take a long walk off a short pier too, if they're in good character. That's basically how they made everyone else living at the time feel. Look at modern day puritanicals such as Pat Robertson.) The ones who colonized America had enough money to sail half-way around the world, which isn't terribly cheap.

Paying for the sins of our forefathers is something every culture does. Just look at television and video games. Here in the States, you can put some pretty violent imagery on TV and maybe even some drug use in your video games, but holy hell if you show a nipple, or touch on ANYTHING of a sexual nature. Releasing a game in the three major English speaking markets (US, UK, and AU) means subjecting your content to three different review boards, with differing notions about what is good and decent for the consumers of their country. Sex, violence, drug use - the disparity between opinions on what is acceptable for only adults to see, even among countries with common language, can mean what get's a Teen rating by the US's ESRB can get an "Adult Only" in the UK, and even be banned outright unless edited for an Australian market.

Despite all this, I remain hopeful because of the fact that those like ol' Noun-Verb-9/11 Rudy are in the minority. The fact that he's so focused on using terms like "Islamic terrorist," or "islamist" displays a blunt ignorance, and could be interpreted as flat out racism. Let's remember that he put the NYC Emergency Command Center, setup after a failed World Trade Center fertilizer bombing in the 90's, was picked by Rudy to be put in the World Trade Center, a place that had recently been the target of a terrorist attack (by attackers who were brought to justice within the same judicial system that handles our parking tickets - we didn't need the post-9/11 military tribunals then, and we don't really need them now, despite certain anti-American Right-Wingers who lack requisite faith in the system they serve). It's like he refuses to learn from history or something, and unfortunately it's not an uncommon condition among modern conservative talking heads here in the states.

The fact that our president didn't use words like "islamist" or "islamic terrorist" or any permutation thereof is because he understands that the greater threat to our nation is a foreign policy that takes away everything from poor young brown-skinned people living in the cradle of civilization and gives them nowhere to turn to but bombed out countries, crumbling infrastructure, and eager suicide bomber recruiters. Take away everything someone has to live for, and he'll find a cause to die for. Dealing with the symptoms is one thing. End the root cause, and then you have the potential for peace.

Take the issue with rampant piracy around the waters of Somalia. Sure, everyone's talking about the latest tanker to be overtaken, but how many stories have delved into the root cause? The polluted waters that have killed off all the fish in the region? The fish who fed the people on the land? The fish that drove the local economy? All dead. The Indonesian Tsunami caused a tidal wave of wretched filth to wash up ashore, tainting the land and water supplies, causing pestilential illnesses. If you're a poor Somali 20-something with your family boat, and you can't make an honest living with it, what are you going to do? Grab some weapons, recruit a crew of close friends in the same situation you're in, and take your chances on the shipping lanes within striking distance... yeah, that would seem like something someone EXTREMELY desperate would do. It's happening right now. The Somali Government can't do jack, they can barely govern an area the size of my rural hometown. Sure we can bust out the snipers when someone important gets kidnapped, and we can applaud the heroes who put their lives on the life to ensure the safety of others. But that won't stop the next motley crew of fishermen with nowhere else to turn but terrorizing the high seas.

I've only spent about 4 days total in the Netherlands. What I saw was beautiful. Amsterdam was breathtaking, both figuratively and literally - man, those canals can really wreak in the summer . I hope to visit again soon. Didn't get to check out much of the television, but what brief moments I was allowed rest in front of a TV on that trip was pretty cool. A lot of stuff just wouldn't get past the FCC here without some serious fines being levied for sexual content, and that's a damn shame...

But, like I said, I'm still hopeful. Wow, that was long If you made it this far, thanks for reading.