June 5th :: Inside D&D 4th Edition

Talk about this week's LRRcast and what you'd like to see in future ones.
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Dominic Appleguard
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Postby Dominic Appleguard » 07 Jun 2008, 21:56

BermudaZucka wrote:Based on you guys' description, I don't just understand how getting a license is hard or annoying. My state (New Jersey) does the same thing, except the second stage is morphed into one year instead of two. But the rules sound exactly the same.

Your mistake was mentioning New Jersey. It's a joke in the US, it really is, with a far easier written test and a lax practical exam. In one particular case, a cousin of mine (guess where he lives!) took his test in a parking lot.
Now, mind you, I'm not saying it's always like that. But take, in contrast, the UK driving test, which includes an exciting multitude of ways to garner an instantaneous failure.
Don't take it personally that I just made a little speech about it. I'm not angry with you...just the Man.
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Red Charlie
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Postby Red Charlie » 08 Jun 2008, 05:34

Ah but in the UK you only have to voluntary put "P" plates on your car. You are LEGALLY restricted to 45 mph but nobody obeys it.

If you living in Northern Ireland though, you have to display your Rs for a whole year and then you may drive at all legal speeds after that.

Still the UK still has a very high mortality rate from 18-25 year olds who crash their cars on a friday and saturday night after coming home from clubbing.... a deadly combination. I believe Northern Ireland currently has 56 deaths so far this year... According to government figures for every road death it will cost the country £1.8 million pounds for a variety of reasons.

I myself have witnessed one such crash when a car in front of me who I had been following the whole way home from Belfast and was swerving and swaying in the road constantly, finally caught the curb when going into my home town and flipped their car crushing the driver and front passenger as they were well above the legal speed limit. After investigations where complete the local paper reported that the driver was over 5 times the limit, he was 20 and he left his parents with a huge damages bill as the car had oblierated two other cars, as I said killed his passenger who was his girlfriend (and their parents made a civil suit against his parents) and finally his parent had to pay for a car that was no longer theres as insurance wouldn't pay out since he was under the influence.

So I mean I'm pretty much all for tighter driving laws but to be honest we need tighter enforcement, if he hadn't been drinking, or he had been caught drink driving he might not be dead today.

(Wether that means I was doing the legal speed limit to witness that is another matter entirely, but lets put it this way... I'm still alive.)
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I give you this instead


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Dominic Appleguard
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Postby Dominic Appleguard » 08 Jun 2008, 11:33

The United Kingdom has a troubled history with alcoholism (of course, so does the Republic of Ireland, so Northern Irish young people don't have any good role models), and I think alcohol abuse should be addressed first, not the licensing system. I mean, they can make the test as hard as they want, but what the hell will that do to stop drink driving?
You can't cure stupid. The smart people shouldn't be punished for that.
Of course, now I'm getting a bit off topic.
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Cake
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Postby Cake » 08 Jun 2008, 11:45

Could always raise the drinking age to 21.
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Dominic Appleguard
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Postby Dominic Appleguard » 08 Jun 2008, 13:00

Cake wrote:Could always raise the drinking age to 21.

I've always been a strong believer that people need to learn their limits with alcohol before they get their licenses. If anybody in the States actually waited until their 21st, it would dramatically increase the chance they'd die on their birthday.
Besides, most of the world has a drinking age at least as low as the UK, and don't have these problems. It's just cultural inertia, really. In fact, a very sudden change in the legislation, no matter which direction, would not guarantee any good results. Prohibition failed extravagantly, and the present legislation in the USA, the internet tells me, is from 1984. How's that going?
People will say that if the drinking age were reduced in the US, there would be an increase in underage drinking. This is probably true in the short term. What would happen in the long term? I honestly couldn't tell you. What I can tell you is that it's only been going up since 1984. In 2006, the number of drink driving deaths rose to its highest level in 14 years.

Oh, by the way. Really, Congress? A federal restriction on people's freedoms, enacted in 1984? You should have waited until '85. I mean, how have you avoided the obvious joke for so long?
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Postby tak197 » 08 Jun 2008, 17:16

I read somewhere that to pass yoru driving test in Egypt, you need to drive 75 meters forward and 75 backward. End of test.

With the whole drinking age thing, I think that the US has the restrictions for a reason, but the timing is just off. How many non-US members here had any alcohol in a private place, such as family dinner or whatnot, before you turned 18? Did you get really drunk?

My point is, the whole "16 for sex/18 for cigs/21 for booze" restriction has made all these things a taboo that applies to teens, and any of us post-teenagers can tell you, teens and taboos are a volatile mix.

Also, fun fact, in Pennsylvania, you must be certified by an acreddited program to be a bartender and serve alcohol, but anyone in the state can open up a tattoo parlor and draw on people with needles and ink.
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Lord Chrusher
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Postby Lord Chrusher » 08 Jun 2008, 17:24

Part of me wants the drinking age to be 16 and the driving age to 18.

I think the Chileans are smart in that you can not get your drivers license until you are 18, the same age as you can legally drink.
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Postby Melendwyr » 08 Jun 2008, 20:33

When drinking is forbidden below a certain age, people tend to drink to excess once they're able to, and for some time before.

If you let people drive just as they gain the ability to drink, it probably won't end well. Letting them learn to handle alcohol first is probably a wise move.
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Matt
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Postby Matt » 08 Jun 2008, 22:56

Timelady wrote:Those driving restrictions sound really familiar, except they time out at age 18 where I live. I don't know if that's because they expect 18 year olds to be more responsible, or because they can be legally tried as adults. Do they have the "x amount of classroom time" requirement up there? That's what drove me crazy.

Happy birthday, Graham!


no, no classroom requirement, because the statistics say that an accredited driving school will typically turn out a worse driver than a homeschooled one (or at least not a better driver). The reasoning being that it's supervised driving time, not theory and instruction that determines your quality as a driver. People coming out of driving schools tend to be over confident, and less experienced than those who learn the slower way.
Believe me when I say that finding didn't go over well with local driving schools.


Lord Chrusher wrote:A silly thing is that they do not how long you have been driving not just how long you have had you license. For instance you could do nothing for 11 months of your L stage start driving and learn in a month then pass the test.

Part of the problem with graduated licensing is you are trying to deal with two things - teaching people to drive and that teenagers are stupid.


The idea with the 3-year duration of the learners licesnces is that by the time you're able to drive, and mix alcohol into the equation, you're at least 19, and probably 20, so you're no longer as stupid and risk-taking. even if you only dorve the absolute BARE minnimum during your learners and novice stages, you're old enough to know not to be a stupid fucking cunt on the road, because you're now a responsible adult. Or that's the idea, anyway. (Which, again, the stats support.)

it should also be noted that BC has pretty harsh driving restrictions on youth because, well, car accidents are the leading killer of people aged 16-25 in BC. not one month goes by in Victoria where we don't hear a story of a car full of drunk teens going 7 trillion kilometers an hour careening off a road and barrel-rolling into a tree killing everyone on board.

we have in memoriam markers in school zones.

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Postby Red Charlie » 12 Jun 2008, 02:31

Matt wrote:it should also be noted that BC has pretty harsh driving restrictions on youth because, well, car accidents are the leading killer of people aged 16-25 in BC. not one month goes by in Victoria where we don't hear a story of a car full of drunk teens going 7 trillion kilometers an hour careening off a road and barrel-rolling into a tree killing everyone on board.

we have in memoriam markers in school zones.

-m


Exactly the same reason over here that our driving test has instant fail conditions on it. Since I posted my last blurb our road deaths have increased by 58, 4 teenagers all between 17-19 died whilst doing 100mph around a blind bend. They crossed the line and smacked right into the front of a tractor that was traveling into opposite direction. Driver and front passenger instantly died, the 2 rear passengers went to ICU in hospital and died a day later.

I never passed my driving test til I was 19. The main reason was because my Brother had already crashed my mums car in the most dumbass way. (Drove into the back of a stationary car). And that had put me off driving til I was older and practice more. Needless to say I spent about 6 months learning to drive, then did 4 driving tests before passing.

I would not argue I'm a good driver. However I would argue I've seen worse drivers out there than me.
It was really too big:



I give you this instead





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Postby Bob The Magic Camel » 12 Jun 2008, 11:26

Lyinginbedmon wrote:I would have liked to hear Graham's unbitten opinion on D&D 4E.From what I've been told repeatedly, Britain invented the curry. The concept seems fishy at first but that's what I thought too.


We invented the Tika Massala, because we're too wussy to eat real curry.
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Postby Graham » 12 Jun 2008, 13:24

Britain subjugated India.
India gave them curry.
Britain gave back their independence.

Everyone called it even.


Enjoy this sketch on it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PFlNyqeeifA
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Dominic Appleguard
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Postby Dominic Appleguard » 12 Jun 2008, 13:44

Graham wrote:Enjoy this sketch on it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PFlNyqeeifA

NtNOCN was an awesome show. I love their parody of the infamous Life of Brian interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykN-00i7VVs

It's interesting, really, because all these 'emotive issyews' are still being talked about today. Huge sections of the Tory platform are based on immigration (what with the asylum seekers) and young criminals (and if you've met the chavs, you know why).
I cracked up at 'nigger-loving'.
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Postby Lyinginbedmon » 28 Jul 2008, 05:42

On the note of earliest memories, my memory is really bad in general but my earliest memory is actually pre-natal.

Again things are fairly poor for my memory but I distinctly recall the insides of my eyelids (Because my eyes hadn't opened at that point), floating around a lot, the distinct sound of both my mum's heartbeat and her digestive system, and then my brother kicking me in what I guess were my kidneys. This was pretty late in the term obviously, but that was about the time I actually opened my eyes for the first time and they were still opening and closing (As in a post-natal person's eyes blinking) when I was born.

It's uncommon for babies to have their eyes open in utero but my excuse is my brother kicked me in a place where being kicked hurts. Fortunately my memory is blurred such that I can't really remember the actual degree of pain that caused.
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