Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Yeah, where is the Internet-Police when you need them???

@Gargantua:

My turn!

@Cromwell_Dude:

@DarthShizNit:

Yes I laugh at a lot of the decisions the rebs made, almost as much as I cry at some the north made�  :roll:. But even if given command in 64, not sure Forrest would have prevented the eventual fall of the deep south to Sherman’s armies, as I consider Sherman the superior general, who above all had the resources to throw at the south. But if had been Forrest opposing Sherman in Sherman’s March, I think it would wind up being one of the most nail bitting and interesting military campaigns to read about ever�  :-D.

Sherman the superior general? I must disagree.

Feel free. Though I must say, that a man holding the Confederate battle flag in front of the Lincoln Memorial would disagree with me about something Civil War related is truly shocking  :wink:

@Imperious:

I would love to see a video of a chimps playing AA…each wearing the various helmets or caps of each nation in full regalia.

Imagine a chimp japanese admiral or Tojo looking fellow?

I wish somebody here had access to chimps ( other than WOTC).

oh well…

I think you are on to something.  :-D
Remember those Gremlin movies? I could just imagine chimps acting like that getting out of control and turning the game into a live action version where they start blowing each other up. :evil:
You should write and direct it and then get the staff from WOTC to star in it. :lol: :lol:

Alright, here goes.

Let’s assume for a moment that the briefcase does contain Marsellus’ soul.  The combination for the briefcase is: 666.  Perhaps the Devil took Marsellus’ soul (possibly from the back of his neck, hence the band-aid that Jermo mentioned) and placed it into a briefcase.  Tony gets a hold of it and passes it along.  Marsellus finds out that Tony has something of value to him (an understatement) and tosses him out of a window.  The fact that Tony can’t speak properly anymore is the Devil’s way of literally keeping his mouth shut.

And speaking of souls and how beautiful they are, it is likely that Marsellus’ soul is not that beautiful.  But maybe his soul actually is beautiful, meaning that he is actually a good guy, and he just needs it back, so that he won’t be an a$$hole anymore.  When Butch goes to the apartment to get his watch, he shoots and kills Vincent.  After leaving, he runs into Marsellus (with his car) and they end up fighting.  But, after Butch saves his life, Marsellus agrees to let him go, and they call it even.  I think that this is influenced by the fact that Marsellus’s soul had been restored.  Otherwise, he might not have been so lenient.

Now, back to the “Divine Intervention” scene.  Jules and Vincent expected to have been blown away,  But they were spared by “some strange coincidence”.  Again, I think this is God allowing them no harm until they have completed their task.  After the task is completed, they are no longer protected by his will.  (This is why Vincent had no chance when Butch gunned him down.)

Now on to the date between Vincent and Mia Wallace.  They go out, dance, have a great time, she re-establishes my point that no-one really knows why Tony was thrown out of the window, and later she ends up putting a little too much heroin up her nose.  In my opinion, Vincent is in no way to blame for her near-death, but I don’t think Marsellus would agree.  As Vincent puts it to his dealer, “If Marsellus finds out about this, I am a f***in’ grease-spot!”  So they end up saving her life, and Vincent gets off the hook.  What would happen if she had died of her overdose?  Marsellus would probably have had Vincent killed, so then Vincent wouldn’t have been able to help deliver the case, and also wouldn’t have been available to help Jules out in the diner when he was talking with “Ringo”.  And on that note, Pumpkin and Honey-Bunny also learned a valuable lesson when they found out what exactly they were dealing with, and what Jules’ cargo was.  But before all of that, Jules and Vincent were still just talking, and Jules mentioned that he was thinking about the miracle they witnessed.  But carrying something sacred like that is, to me, what convinced Jules that he was living the wrong lifestyle.  And even earlier, when “The Wolf” tells them to move out of the sticks and get a cab, they decide to go and have breakfast.  Once again, this breakfast proved fateful, and Jules learns about what he feels is his destiny.  Not only that, but he sets himself on the path that he now feels is right, and making himself broke by giving all the money he had to the couple, strengthening the love they had for each other, and all the while saving everyone else from being robbed or killed.

I’m sure there may be some details I forgot, but if anyone has any to add, or any criticism to offer, please do.  :wink:

@Chengora:

Thanks, Jen.  I’m still waiting for Tom’s Hardware to update their CPU chart, but my understanding was that Intel initially released only its two top Core 2 Duo processors for testing.  I understand that the other 3-4 lower end processors were also being tested, but I wasn’t sure which if anyone had done it yet.

I probably should just be patient, though, since DirectX 10 cards haven’t even come out.  :-D

I’m going with the 1.83 Ghz Duo in my laptop.  Should be good enough.

As this has been posted with the authors permission, i guess that he will have a look at the forum to see how we react.

@El:

Aftermath of War: A Lesson from History
–------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Nick Robertson

…

On May 28, 1453, two of the greatest armies in the world ended an epic 52-day battle on the border of Europe and Asia. On one side the 100,000-man army of Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire and the forces of Islam were attempting to capture one of the world’s greatest cities — Constantinople (now Istanbul). On the other side, behind the supposedly impenetrable walls of the city, were the defensive forces of the west — the 10,000 man force led by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI.

Well, i think the description here is over-exaggerated. Byzantine was kind of a “vassal” of the Ottomans for about 200 years at that stage. Its empire was the city. The city was historically and culturally great, but the number of citizens has been declining, from plague sweeping over it (AFAIR twice), from being raided by Venetians (who then imposed the “Latin Empire” and looted it thoroughly), and other internal struggles.
The forces of the “west” never were forces of west, they were forces of the east: non-catholic, greek instead of latin etc.

Dragases. The battle for Constantinople is considered one of the greatest and most important confrontations in history.

Constantinople was one of the most vital possessions of the Christian world. The city was the capital of the East Roman — or Byzantine — Empire ever since the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great selected it as his new capital in 324 AD. Constantinople was the gateway between Europe and Asia, Christianity and Islam.

It was vital as a symbol, and still had some meaning for trade, though Genoa and Venice were more important, using the Mediterranean Sea for trade (while Constntinople was important for land trade).

Though, Constantinople was a “buffer” between teh Latin Christianity and Islam. As long as it stood, the westerners cared not too much (except in the Reconquista (sp?)). After it fell, Islam found its way to the borders with the west.

The city rested by the Bosporus, a watery straight which was the most important artery of international trade. Trade ships from Venice, Genoa, England, France, and much of Europe traveled past Constantinople to the eastern Black Sea ports which connected the European continent to the major trade centers of India and China. The wealth that traveled on this route built the economic power of the Western world — a 15th century version of today’s globalization of trade.

The main shipping trade routes did not go through Constantinople anymore. It once was important for the city, true, but in 1450 it already had changed. It still had importance in the trade with the Black Sea (and thus, with part of the Rus), but it did not control the trade routes, as it did a few hundred years ago. The black eastern sea ports were not important for the trade with India/China after the Varangians had been defeated there, that trade went through Arabia.

As the battle for Constantinople began, the Ottomans unleashed man’s newest weapon, artillery, to breach the city’s massive walls. Shortly after the shocking breakthrough, the Ottomans accomplished what had been deemed impossible for over a millennium — the fall of Constantinople. There was horror and disbelief as the forces of Islam routed the Western army. Panic swept across Europe. The vital trade routes to the East were now under enemy control, and an alien army with strange beliefs threatened to march through Europe.

The “shocking breakthtough” was a small unguarded unclosed door called “Kerkaporta” or “Kerkoporta”. “alien army with strange beliefs”, well this is after the Crusades and Reconquista, the Europeans probably though they knew what would come.
A very emotional writing style all the way up to now, something that i feel inappropiate here.

Was this the end of the Western world? Quite the opposite. What seemed at the moment a knockout punch to Europe ended up causing great change. It literally forced the discovery of a new world.

the conclusion “forced” is discussable: “helped” would be better IMHO.

Constantinople had been Europe’s center for intellectual studies for centuries.

For centuries long past, when it finally fell. It was non-catholic, looted by catholics. Even then, it still had amassed a lot of historic valuable scripts and other things. Most that we know of the Ancient Greek had been saved by them. So, it was not hte center for studies, but a main archive, which the west didn’t care about to visit or use for its own good.

…Many who lived inside the city’s walls devoted their lives to studying and preserving history’s classical past. When the Ottomans conquered the city, many of these intellectuals fled to Italy. This flight from war was directly responsible for the acceleration of one of the most important periods in Europe’s history, the Renaissance.

Correct.

Classic ideas, locked inside the walls of Constantinople for centuries, broke free and spread out across Europe. Isolated city-states began to gradually dissolve. For the first time in history, nation states — like Spain and Portugal — emerged. The Renaissance brought Europe into an age of light after an age of darkness.

Not fully correct: Portugal and Spain (that is Catille and Aragon) existed for about 100 years by then. The Renaissance did not happen in nation states, but in the Italian city states.
I would not support this way of concluding that tghe fall of Byzantine lead to the rise of nation states. Not without further explanation that is.

Since Constantinople’s fall blocked overland trade routes to the spice markets of South and East Asia, the emerging nation states needed new routes to the riches of the East. The Great Age of Exploration began. Brave men such as Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan circumnavigated the globe to find new routes across vast, unknown oceans. In the process they discovered the world — and many of its secrets, treasures and mysteries.

Notice that above it’s “trade ships”, why Constantinople is important, here it is overland trade routes. Again, memerging nation states are mentioned, which is discussable. The rest is correct to my knowledge.

…

i skipped the rest of that discussion, my only comment: far stretched :)
The only thing in common is the loss of a war. The important (for the west) fled of intellectuals and access to old sources and the change to the commerce system are not present in Iraq.