[What's your Religion?]

Don't think I've ever found an official name for it, but for lack of a better name, "Greek Paganism" or "Greek Polytheism" works. I think that the Olympian gods are pretenders, and that the original Titans are much better. My personal gods/goddesses are Oceanos, and Gaia. (the spellings I learned, and there are a few for both)

I would make minor sacrifices to them, but frankly I'm not permitted to. My mom would have an epileptic fit practically. XD

[Any hope?]

Ah for the sake of Gaia, hallowed as she is for me! If SHE saw how uneducated so many of you are due to the hype surrounding CO2, and Humans always being the bad guys, she'd cause a flipping earthquake! The fact is, hype about CO2 and the need for drastic, costly CO2 reductions, drowns out more SENSIBLE, and CHEAPER restrictions. The Kyoto protocol and its clones, while costing trillions of dollars globally each year, would do maybe 4 percent of effect, for, say, .2 degrees taken off of the 5 average expected to rise by 2100.

In the book Cool it! by noted environmentalist Bjorne Lomborg (Author of the Skeptical Environmentalist) talks about these less known possibilities, and how the media has suppressed them. The world Governments, hoping to piggyback on the hype for simple Kudos Points, increased it.

1. Global Warming-Death for us all, or different? Let's face it. Global Warming is a problem with no EFFECTIVE solution that can be done without spending hundreds of billions of dollars. Right? WRONG! The world Governments, backed by Greenpeace, the Media, and various private corporations, are basing their policies on that idea, unfortunately. While CO2 and greenhouse gases contribute, a large bulk of the problem is that we just don't know. The more likely sources, and the ones being blotted out, are that of Sunspot activity modifying the sun's effect on the global temperature, and that we JUST DON'T KNOW as much as we'd like to think. (Our egos are too big for our muscles)

The temperature is rising! Oh no! What shall we do? Well, for one, we have to look at the full story. Deaths related to temperature have gone DOWN, contrary to popular belief. Cold related deaths have gone down by the thousands, and hundreds of thousands, each year, whereas heat related deaths have been rising at a much smaller rate. Such thinking is considered inhumane by many, comparing life and death rates like that, but is it? Isn't it BETTER if less people die?

Now, people are saying that heat will increase droughts, famine, and disease. In all honesty, the increased heat will cause more water to evaporate, and eventually wind up providing more precipitation. Droughts? Not really. The increased size of summers will increase the growing season, allowing even more crops to be grown. Famine? Again, not really. See where this is headed? In a world where we focus on creating functional economies and increase our reserves, and the average person has more cash, we'll be able to afford more treatment for diseases such as malaria, which mainly happen in rural areas rather than concentrated populations. We'll be able to afford better window and door screens, taking that possibility down more. And, in a world where more funding is allocated to scientific research rather than frivolous CO2 cuts, we'll be able to make more effective vaccines and medicines, and more affordable ones, which will again take down the disease-related deaths. Disease? Well, if you read above, you can probably guess. Not really.

Then, there is oil. Oil, oil, oil. Friend of many, enemy of many. Causes strife in this world as well as life. If we can use oil, until we get a fully operational alternative, things should be good. Instead of saying "no oil" then waiting for a few decades for us to get an alternative energy source working properly, we should save our funds that we would waste on frivolous CO2 cuts and put them into research. R&D, Research and Development, again, will do a lot more than the doomsayers of the Environmentalist Community such as Al Gore would allow you to think.

Aren't sea levels going to rise? Yes. But not 100 feet, not 20, not even 10, within the next 100 years. 1-2 feet. Yes. 1-2 feet. Due to the ice cube effect of the melting ice, as it melts, the water it displaces decreases at the same rate as the water around increases. Most of the water increase will be from mountain runoff, which even then won't be as much. So, no massive "Day after Tomorrow" tidal waves, aside from the usual ones. This 2 feet maximum would cause MORE damage with a low-effect CO2 cut than a few smart social policies would. By putting more restrictions of waterfront development, we could've avoided the mass damage caused by Katrina, which, believe it or not, WEREN'T caused by global warming. It was the massive coastal and waterfront developments, which, unrestrained, screwed New Orleans and its neighbors over. The dikes, and such "walls", do little more than increase the effect, and making more wetlands could effectively reduce the damages by billions of dollars. Instead, going with a CO2 cut, the dollars wasted would be many, and the damages even more. A hurricane with the same strength as Katrina, 50 years ago, would do much less damage due to not as much development. There was a hurricane a while back which was worse down there, and it did less damage than Katrina. Why? Less development.

The damages were caused by the following, mostly: Increased waterfront population due to its "beauty," better state of life, with more cash around, means more expensive stuff, which means more cost in damages.

With a few effective social policies, even the worst hit places wouldn't have very much to deal with, but if we wasted even MORE cash on a CO2 cut, you can bet your @#$% those same places would get largely wiped out.

Now, I've gotta go to sleep. I will complete my post some more tomorrow. If you post questions, I will respond to them tomorrow. Thank you. Please, do not flame my facts.

[70% Of Americans Don't Know Plastic Is Made With Oil]

I swear, this thread made George Washington turn over in his grave. The stats may be true, but still, aren't we ABOVE America Bashing like this? Please, people. I know that our current leader makes Michael Moore seem smart, but seriously, enough is enough. XD

[Why, hullo thar!]

Well, I'm Trevor. There are multiple Aliases that I call mine, my current being Politus Aquila in most places. I enjoy... hmm... I'd say what I enjoy, but I'm afraid that the servers that hold up this forum may not have the capacity to keep up so much info.

To sum it up, though:

History

Writing

3D Graphics Creation

Strategy Games (Turn based and Real Time)

Role playing

Pardus (Screen name on the Artemis server: Camun Haja)

XBox and its accoutrement.

Target practice with my BB Gun.

Lotsa other stuff.

I come from the mysterious GMT -5 Time zone! OOOOOOH!

And, finally, from what I've seen of 0AD... if it were a human being, I'd kiss it. XD

[Questions about Editor]

From what I know, Nessalk, they're starting it from scratch, like their engine and coding. No copy cat for the 0AD team!

[If you could help progress 0 A.D. in any way, would you?]

Note: I've been observing and learning about this game for darn near to 2 years now. Only recently have I decided to USE my forum account.

I'd LOVE to help. I can write really well, and am good at finding out historical facts. Heck, I consider myself a treasure trove of knowledge about the various Mediterranean states, and everything I forgot, I have the material around to find again.

I'm pretty good with Photoshop, and even know some cool tricks, such as imprinting a set section of a picture into another shape, e.g. a side of a bus, and stuff like that. I can pick up on computer languages easily and know SOME J#.

So, to organize my functions:

Writing: I am quite able, have the highest marks in my class, and have a thing for writing long, informative essays.

History & Facts: Me+My Dad=Able to fit your needs. I, personally, have studied a lot of history from around that era, as I really like the Greco-Roman time period and its contents. I have also studied a little bit of Egyptian history, and very much Indian history, culture, and social social structure, both from the Indus Valley civ., the Hindu time period, and the Muslim time period, in case you have need for information on those cultures.

Programming and AI: If given, say, a week to experiment and learn on my own, I can pick up on the methods you use to program certain functions and AI. While not my strongest point, I wouldn't call it my weakest either.

Plain old number crunching and Math: To say the least, I simply rock here. I play games where number crunching, and the ability to do complicated math, are REQUIREMENTS for efficient use of the action points available.

Graphics, Imagery, and the like: I have extensive experience in DoGA L3 (A 3D graphics program), Photoshop, Paint (woohoo!) and though I wouldn't call myself an Artist, if you give me some pictures I'll be able to make pretty banners and stuff

Music: I <3 Garageband. Give me some clips to use, and you can bet your rear I'll have a beautiful track in no time. I have made multiple songs using Garageband, all from the preloaded tunes, that my friends have said I should try and get onto iTunes.

Overall awesomeness and stuff: I'm learning Latin, have awesome dance moves, and can sing. Why wouldn't you want a strapping young lad like me?

I'd say that my only problem, really, is lack of resources. That meaning: Computer programs, and computer hardware. No Mac, unless you can magically tell me that Garageband can be for windows, means my music capability is effectively crippled unless I use the school Macs in study hall, which is where I make all my other tracks.

Contact me @ Elciddecompeador@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading!

Politus Aquila Primus

P.S., Long and winding,right?

[In-game Taunts]

I can not believe no one added this:

"LEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!"

"You fail. With a PH."

"Ugh, what was that stuff I just stepped in? Oh, my, it seemed to be your entire economic infrastructure... sorry!"

[Additional Civs you'd like to see?]

I <3 the Dacians... a shame those Romans had to erase any trace of them, as much as they could. The Dacians also sat on a rather LARGE gold mine... literally! Also, maybe toss in the Goths, or some Norse faction. That would rock, hard.