These concerns are pretty irrelevant for most web programming.

Please don't be so *frumple*.

Being ridden by a dinosaur, ridden by a mowhawked undead playing electric guitar.

Wrong.

Pandarans were in the running to be the new Alliance race in Burning Crusade, but they were supplanted by the Draeni.

The last expansion was rehashing an old raid boss.

Ehh? The end boss of this expansion is Deathwing, who hasn't made a significant appearance since Warcraft 2. Perhaps you're referring to Ragnaros? Honestly, how many current subscribers were around to fight the Vanilla Ragnaros when he was relevant?

Do the math: Every year, there is a certain probability that a world with nuclear weapons will use them. Given enough time, nuclear war becomes a statistical certainty.

You are aware of what causes war, right? If a nation runs out of resources, or worse, food and water, they will often send their armies in to take these resources from a neighbor. This isn't some theory from "gutless moderate lefties". This is a fact backed up by thousands of years of recorded history. Now, instead of nations of a few hundred-thousand armed with bronze weapons, we have nations of billions armed with nukes. Economic instability sets the tempo of the march to war. You want to roll the dice to see what happens when China no longer has oil to feed its growth?

I'm sure you know this :) but the song itself was inspired by the Doomsday Clock. We reached "Two minutes to midnight" when both the US and USSR had successfully detonated the H-Bomb.

The mere existence of nukes does not mean there will be nuclear war. If the global economy collapses, it will majorly suck but humanity survived the fall of the Roman, Greek and Ottoman empires. I think we can pull off this one too. I'm not even convinced that the worst-case climate dooms could be the end-all. Life on this planet has survived some pretty gnarly stuff. Maybe it'll never be the same but I'm inclined to believe that life will go on. Maybe not ours but is life really defined by humans?

Yes, even in the event of a nuclear holocaust, some humans will survive. Ironically, they will be the same bastards who started WW3 in the first place. :(

Mad fanboi is mad.

This is a fight that first generation fans had been waiting for for nearly 30 years, and you complain that it was "too long"? Sorry, if you're so jaded in old age that you can't enjoy this, then it might be time to turn in your geek card.

And don't blame your lack of knowledge about the characters on how the fight ended. Anakin was the more "powerful" swordsman, while Obi-wan was more "experienced". Obi-wan took a tactical advantage (the high ground). In Anakin's overconfidence and arrogance, he pressed the attack anyway.

Yes, I have. Was at the theaters at midnight for each of them. My mom took me to see ANH in the theater for the '79 re-release (I was only 3 in '77). I had every action figure up until the last RotJ release. Some figure cards show a picture of Boba Fett with a "working" backpack. I was introduced to the concept of a "spoiler" prior to the release of RotJ, when a Topps Trading card let loose that Vader was, in fact, Luke's father.

Yes, I've been a Star Wars fan since my first memory. And guess what?

I like the prequels better. :P

Am still bummed that they killed off two good characters halfway through the first movie. Qui-Gon woulda' made a great 'loose-canon' cop type of figure, that could have shown Anakin an alternative to the monkish, "stand back and watch" Jedi council. Anakin could have been the young guy who, following what he see's an older guy do, goes to far and then begins the slide to dark side.

And Darth Maul was the sickest villain since Vader. What a shame. Lucas really needed an story editor who could stand up to him.

Sorry, these ideas suck. Qui-gon _needed_ to die. With him dead, there was no-one left among the Jedi who trusted Anakin. His own master didn't trust him until the beginning of Ep3, and Mace Windu took even longer. Yoda _never_ trusted him. If Anakin had a true advocate throughout the prequels, how the hell do you think he'd be so sweet-talked into buddying up with Palpatine? Palpatine used the jedi's distrust of Anakin to open up "another way" that he could follow. Qui-gon's "rebelliousness" towards the Jedi Council showed that there was weakness in the system. A Sith Lord moved in right under their literal noses. Dooku shows this rebellious streak, but corrupted.

Maul being a returning antagonist? Please! Maul's purpose to the narrative was to be the first sign of a resurgent Sith. He was little more than a disposable pit-bull to Palpatine. Do you honestly think Maul could've been the "face" of the Confederacy like Count Dooku was? Of course not. Sith Apprentices are, by nature, disposable.

With the huge exception of the Palpatine/Sam Jackson fight in Ep 3 (which was a f-ing disaster)

Just out of curiosity, what didn't you like about it? I can see how, from a technical sword fighting perspective, it wasn't that realistic - it was more of an "artistic" fight. But this did not cheapen the emotions of what was at stake during the duel.

But what you get in Eps 5 and 6 is a sense of story to the fight. In 5, when Luke fights Vader, he's clearly lost the fight before it even begins. He's distracted and off-balance. Vader's the older, smarter and more skilled fighter. Luke tries gamely enough to begin with, but every swing he takes is turned against him. Vader's not going all out; he doesn't want to kill, so he bides his time and breaks down his opponent before going for a disabling blow.

You need to watch the fight more closely. At the beginning of the fight, yes, Vader is toying with him. He holds his saber loosely with one hand. He simply sizes Luke up as being no threat at all. "All too easy. Perhaps you're not as strong as the Emperor thought." Shortly after this, however, Luke escapes the Carbonite chamber, gives Vader a face full of exhaust gas, and kicks him off the platform. By the time we reach the gantry, Vader is going 'balls out' in his fighting. Even then, Luke connects a swing with Vader's shoulder, which is only saved by his armor.

By contrast, the eps 1-3 fights have very little sense of story to them. They're more concerned with "wow factor" and, to put a cynical hat on for a moment, with making sure that everybody gets a chance to look cool to boost the toy sales. I never got a sense that a character's emotional state is being reflected in how they fight.

You had your "prequel blinders" on. :) Episode 1: Recall the scene where Obi wan, Qui gon, and Darth Maul were separated by the force fields. Obi wan stood pensively and anxiously. Separated from his master, he's unsure what to do next. Darth Maul paces in his chamber like rabid animal locked in a cage. Qui gon... sits down and _closes his eyes_ in meditation. Everything you need to know about what these three characters think of this fight is right _there_.

Episode 2: Obi-wan versus Dooku - Watch the look on Christopher Lee's face as he mocks and taunts Obi wan. He clearly has the upper hand, and isn't afraid to show it. Dooku vs. Anakin - I liked this fight because it spent more time focusing on lighting and shadow than it did on the swordplay. Very indicative of the blurry line that Anakin is walking between the light and dark sides. It's the outcome of this fight (Anakin's dismemberment) that feeds his growing desire for revenge that he'll unleash in the next film. Yoda vs. Dooku? Come on! What fanboy who saw ESB when he was 6 in 1980 _didn't_ feel it was worth the 22 year wait to see him kick some ass. Best of all, as soon as the fight was finished, he reached for his walking stick. This simple act shows the nature of how a "true" jedi uses the Force.

Episode 3: You get _five_ saber battles here. Pick your favorite. My favorites were Mace Windu vs. Sidious (Come on! The head of the Jedi Order vs. a Sith Master? How much more "story" do you need to fill in the blanks here? Plus, as the event that finally pushes Anakin "over the edge", it's importance to the narrative cannot be overstated) , and Obi wan vs. Anakin. What needs to be said about it? Obi wan busts Anakin joining Sideous, murdering hundreds of Jedi (including children), and nearly murdering his pregnant wife. How much more motivation does Obi wan need at this point to turn to fisticuffs? Plus, you have the entire mythological narrative involving the Descent to Hell, eternal damnation, and attempted redemption. This fight, more than any other, shows two combatants who are pretty much evenly matched throughout the whole fight.

One thing that's always amused me about the SW saber fights: almost all sword swings are dodged, parried, or blocked. But a punch or kick (or carbonite exhaust pipe to the face)? Connects 100% of the time! Bonus points if the hit happens on a ledge.