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[KodKod]

If it weren't for the US's TSA "pornoscopic examination", complete with manual grope and tickle, I would consider a european vacation sometime.  (That and the absurd costs of international travel...)

They're not that bad, honestly, and I say that as a woman accustomed to travelling to and from America. I've never gotten anything more than your bog-standard security pat down, and that's only if I refuse to take off my jacket, or I've left something in my pockets. The porn machine, well it is what it is, but these people have to security check through eleventy billion people per day; it's little more than a squickier-version of an x-ray, and, whether man or woman, your doctor is going to be doing a LOT worse to you at some point in your life.

As for absurd cost... well I'm used to paying approximately $700 for a return flight to Minnesota, which contains a connecting flight. Not chump-change, but it isn't going to bankrupt anyone. I went all over the world when I was young and had the chance, and I'd personally encourage anyone else to do the same.

Visit Europe, it's the tits.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Elves have better than average mental attributes and disease resistance. In particular, all elves have 5000 (maxed-out) memory. Their mental health is probably ok. They just have a different worldview.

[Eric Blank]

That's even worse! If it's not actual mental damage, we couldn't repair it! They'll have to be removed...

Not chump-change, but it isn't going to bankrupt anyone.

Fork it over.

[wierd]

Perhaps while they are young.  The blood-brain barrier is more hindrance than helpful for neurological disorders caused by thathological organisms, as it also applies to the immune system. (White cells don't enter nerual tissue. The brain has to combat pathogens in different ways.)

A 1000 year old elf, suffering the ravages of multiple infections would be quite scenile, on a good day. Stark raving mad as a hatter with shakes on a bad one.

CJD is essentially the same disease as mad cow, except caused either by inheritance or by ingesting human (or human like) flesh of people afflicted with it.  It causes spongiform encephalitus, which is incurable, and progressive. Elven cannibalism would make them highly vulnerable to this disease.

Trichinosis is spread by blood sucking parasites, like ticks and mosquitos, as well as eating poorly prepared animal flesh that is contaminated with it.  It causes a persistent, endemic infection of muscle and neural tissues with small cysts containing the parasite, which manifests as shakes, pains and aches, loss of strength and stamina, and loss of coordination in the host. (Just the sorts of things predators look for in prey animals.) As such, it tends to bounce between herbivorous animals via insect bites, and high level predators via ingestion. Wild pork, bear, wolf, and weasles are primary vectors for human contagion.

Equine encephalitis is a virus that is spread though insect bites and through contaminated water supplies. It causes menningitis like swelling of the brain and brainstem, causing coma, convulsions, hallucenations, and a whole host of terrible sympthoms.

Rocky mountain spotted fever is a bacterium spread predominantly by tick bites, which causes a characteristic rash, high fever, unendurable pain, hallucenations, and batshit insanity, followed by death.

Elves may have strong constitutions, but repeated exposure to these pathogenic agents would be very debilitating over time, even for a race with perfect natural memory.

[Eric Blank]

Well they also have perfect 5k disease resistance. That doesn't mean they couldn't spread diseases, though...

[RAKninja]

If it weren't for the US's TSA "pornoscopic examination", complete with manual grope and tickle, I would consider a european vacation sometime.  (That and the absurd costs of international travel...)

They're not that bad, honestly, and I say that as a woman accustomed to travelling to and from America. I've never gotten anything more than your bog-standard security pat down, and that's only if I refuse to take off my jacket, or I've left something in my pockets. The porn machine, well it is what it is, but these people have to security check through eleventy billion people per day; it's little more than a squickier-version of an x-ray, and, whether man or woman, your doctor is going to be doing a LOT worse to you at some point in your life.

As for absurd cost... well I'm used to paying approximately $700 for a return flight to Minnesota, which contains a connecting flight. Not chump-change, but it isn't going to bankrupt anyone. I went all over the world when I was young and had the chance, and I'd personally encourage anyone else to do the same.

Visit Europe, it's the tits.

then again, the intrusiveness of national security in europe is generally far worse than here in america.  kinda weird saying that considering how famously paranoid we've become.

back a few years ago, a round trip ticket from nashville to inchon, south korea cost me about 800$, bought a month or two in advance.  a bit of a layover in seattle, every time. 

i do encourage my countrymen to go out into the world and see how other folks live...  you know experience culture not our own.

that said, i value my privacy.  i no longer fly at all because of the TSA.  they have no right to see me unclothed.  they have no right to even pat me down, except in the situation i set off a metal detector after divesting myself of all objects that should set it off.

i'm not saying international travel should not be monitored, just that we have taken it to the extreme.


on topic, elves are just to lazy to bother with wagons.  they smoke too much rope reed.m  still, that donkey cant be happy carting twelve bins of cloth and a caged giant tiger.

Perhaps while they are young.  The blood-brain barrier is more hindrance than helpful for neurological disorders caused by thathological organisms, as it also applies to the immune system. (White cells don't enter nerual tissue. The brain has to combat pathogens in different ways.)

A 1000 year old elf, suffering the ravages of multiple infections would be quite scenile, on a good day. Stark raving mad as a hatter with shakes on a bad one.

KJD is essentially the same disease as mad cow, except caused either by inheritance or by ingesting human (or human like) flesh of people afflicted with it.  It causes spongiform encephalitus, which is incurable, and progressive. Elven cannibalism would make them highly vulnerable to this disease.

Trichinosis is spread by blood sucking parasites, like ticks and mosquitos, as well as eating poorly prepared animal flesh that is contaminated with it.  It causes a persistent, endemic infection of muscle and neural tissues with small cysts containing the parasite, which manifests as shakes, pains and aches, loss of strength and stamina, and loss of coordination in the host. (Just the sorts of things predators look for in prey animals.) As such, it tends to bounce between herbivorous animals via insect bites, and high level predators via ingestion. Wild pork, bear, wolf, and weasles are primary vectors for human contagion.

Equine encephalitus is a bacteria that is spread though insect bites and through contaminated water supplies. It causes menningitis like swelling of the brain and brainstem, causing coma, convulsions, hallucenations, and a whole host of terrible sympthoms.

Rocky mountain spotted fever is a virus spread predominantly by tick bites, which causes a characteristic rash, high fever, hallucenations, and batshit insanity, followed by death.

Elves may have strong constitutions, but repeated exposure to these pathogenic agents would be very debilitating over time, even for a race with perfect natural memory.

this would be true, if elves were human.

as elves seem to natually exist like this, this would suggest that elves are physiologically adapted to do so.  elves could be more closely related to, say, hyenas, than apes.

[wierd]

I don't care how effective their immune systems are. They would catch CJD.

CJD is not caused by a virus, or by a bacterium.  It is caused by an improperly folded neural structural protein, which causes healthy isomophs of that protein to also refold into the infectious and pathological form.

All animal brains make use of this neural protein. People with congenital deletion for the gene sequence for the protien suffer severe mental handicaps.  That elves are suppoedly so intelligent and social suggests they make heavy use of this biological compound. CJD would probably effect them MORE than it would a human.

[Eric Blank]

Perhaps they ostricize anybody that shows symptoms of the disease? That's their solution to some other issues within their society. Exile 'em.

[KodKod]

then again, the intrusiveness of national security in europe is generally far worse than here in america.  kinda weird saying that considering how famously paranoid we've become.

Hardly. I've been going back and forth to America for years now and I haven't noticed any real difference in the levels of security between there and England. Not at the airports, nor anywhere else. And even then the rest of Europe is generally more lax than we are.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Well they also have perfect 5k disease resistance. That doesn't mean they couldn't spread diseases, though...

Nope.

Code: (creature_standard.txt) [Select]

[PHYS_ATT_RANGE:AGILITY:450:950:1150:1250:1350:1550:2250]               +
[PHYS_ATT_RANGE:RECUPERATION:450:950:1150:1250:1350:1550:2250]          +
[PHYS_ATT_RANGE:DISEASE_RESISTANCE:1250:1500:1750:2000:2500:3000:5000]  +++
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:INTUITION:450:950:1150:1250:1350:1550:2250]             +
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:PATIENCE:150:600:800:900:1000:1100:1500]                -
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:MEMORY:5000:5000:5000:5000:5000:5000:5000]              max
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:LINGUISTIC_ABILITY:1250:1500:1750:2000:2500:3000:5000]  +++
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:SPATIAL_SENSE:450:950:1150:1250:1350:1550:2250]         +
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:MUSICALITY:450:950:1150:1250:1350:1550:2250]            +
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:KINESTHETIC_SENSE:700:1200:1400:1500:1600:1800:2500]    ++
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:EMPATHY:450:950:1150:1250:1350:1550:2250]               +
[MENT_ATT_RANGE:SOCIAL_AWARENESS:450:950:1150:1250:1350:1550:2250]      +


[Eric Blank]

Crap. I coulda swore that's what it was, though...

oh well

[Kaos]

What, they aren't bringing enough bins of cloth for you already?

oh god, no!! only hoping that by having more space they would bring more of the useful stuff, like exotic animals...

By the way, I'm still trying to figure out how this thread got derailed into wines, Europe travel, elf meat cuisine, and the whole plethora of diseases an elf could hypothetically catch... 

[RAKninja]

I don't care how effective their immune systems are. They would catch CJD.

CJD is not caused by a virus, or by a bacterium.  It is caused by an improperly folded neural structural protein, which causes healthy isomophs of that protein to also refold into the infectious and pathological form.

All animal brains make use of this neural protein. People with congenital deletion for the gene sequence for the protien suffer severe mental handicaps.  That elves are suppoedly so intelligent and social suggests they make heavy use of this biological compound. CJD would probably effect them MORE than it would a human.

what is the incidence of occurrence in scavengers such as vultures, hyenas, etc?  as elves seem to subside entirely on carrion and the flesh of sentients, it would be more fair to compare them with other natural scavengers, than to something that is definitely not a scavenger.

also, elves lack [MUNDANE], so they are not hampered by real world limitations.  you know why elves dont get CJD?  magic.  its the same reason dragons breath fire, the dead shudder and begin to move, and the simple fact of the existence of giant sperm whales.

then again, the intrusiveness of national security in europe is generally far worse than here in america.  kinda weird saying that considering how famously paranoid we've become.

Hardly. I've been going back and forth to America for years now and I haven't noticed any real difference in the levels of security between there and England. Not at the airports, nor anywhere else. And even then the rest of Europe is generally more lax than we are.

you may not have noticed it because of the ubiquity and placement of the means.  we here in america are not too far behind, so you may not have noticed that way.  anyway, next time you are out and about, look up, and count cameras.  i dont know about england or europe as a whole, but i do know london and surrounding is saturated with cameras.  furthermore your customs laws (mainly due to bans and such in effect domestically) are slightly ridiculous.

but hey, at least neither of us are as bad as australlia.

[KodKod]

you may not have noticed it because of the ubiquity and placement of the means.  we here in america are not too far behind, so you may not have noticed that way.  anyway, next time you are out and about, look up, and count cameras.

You mean the ones on public transportation, in parking lots, and on the streets of major cities? Well I can’t say they’re particularly intrusive since I’ve never fancied committing any crimes. If I had one staring into my home I might object, but since I have to drive sixty minutes to find the nearest one to me I can’t say I’m particularly bothered by it.

I know from experience that they're more common in London, but then like any capital city London is a wretched hive of scum and villainy, so they can put up more cameras for all I care. Only an obsessively paranoid vocal minority of people over here give a crap because they don't affect anyone.

It could be worse. I’ve had quite a few problems with identification in America, now that’s a real intrusion.

[RAKninja]

It could be worse. I’ve had quite a few problems with identification in America, now that’s a real intrusion.

no kidding.  i feel sorry for any foreign national abroad in america who has lost their "proper identification".

granted it never comes down to it, but the law allows the government here to lock you up indefinitely without trial or representation for that offense.  preferably in a holding facility not located within our boarders.

i can understand that you dont care about being recorded, because as you say, you have nothing to worry about.  you are not a lawbreaker.  my position on the matter is similar.  i am not a criminal, so therefore i have the right to not be recorded in a public place without any consent other than "implied consent" by just being present.

furthermore, there is incrementalism to consider.  if they can videotape me without my consent, why not tap my phone, search my house, search my person without my consent?  its just a small jump from step to step.

and a final point about cameras - they do not reduce crime.  for example, walmart prides itself on how much surveillance they have in their parking lots.  ask a cop in any city with a walmart about the volume of crime in that parking lot.

and like the international travel thing, i am not saying that all cameras are bad and there needs to be no surveillance or anything.  it is just governments putting up cameras in public places that is a breach of rights.