Ahem. And now, for a historical footnote:
"Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
Three more stanzas actually exist, though they are seldom (read pretty much never) sung as part of the American national anthem. Just as well, as the first stanza alone averages over two minutes in length. Check 'em out at  Link
Interesting historical sidenote: The melody was "borrowed" from an English drinking song, from what I recall. Sort of puts the whole North American spirit into perspective, considering Technician's comments in Post 2418 above. For that matter, call it the colonial perspective in general - the Aussies would probably also love a national anthem whose tune is designed to be hit only while drunk, and that simply CANNOT be sung on key while sober. Witness most American sporting events for proof!
We now return this thread to its regular discussion of hockey.
       
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| The melody was "borrowed" from an English drinking song, from what I recall. |
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Exactly correct. Which, as Ben stated, causes the song to be impossible to be sung sober. I find it hilarious that the most honorable song in America was a Brit drinking melody, and Francis Scott Key (I think) apparently could only think of Brit drunkard songs when the ship he was on was blowing the s*it out of Baltimore. Maybe the crew was drunk at the time... 
    
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| Exactly correct. Which, as Ben stated, causes the song to be impossible to be sung sober. I find it hilarious that the most honorable song in America was a Brit drinking melody, and Francis Scott Key (I think) apparently could only think of Brit drunkard songs when the ship he was on was blowing the s*it out of Baltimore. Maybe the crew was drunk at the time... |
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I don't believe that it was set to that melody until after the fact. I think that after watching the city get blown up, I would be ready for some drinking too...
     
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| ~~puts an apple in his mouth and slowly walks over to the Undead~~ Just make it quick. ~~~drops head in defeat~~ |
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The problem with diplomats is they are essentially politicians. They are hollow inside, full of hot air, have no heart, and are full of gall (stones), nutritionally? ... we get more from eating grass.
oh hell ... Damoose pass the steak sauce will yah! 
  
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I started a game Tiny/abundant/tight with AI set to Crippling last night. I tried out some of the things that I learned the other day about taxes, morale and population.
The game actually ran longer by 4 years than normal but it may have been that the Altarians and Dregin had such great starts.
How I played;
I had only 3 planets in 3 stars in the home system. Earth 18PQ, a 16PQ and a 15PQ.
spending at 100%
Set tax so that moralle stayed at a constant 100% for about 4 years. Had to play with the propaganda slider on 2 planets a couple of times.
Traded tech for money for the first half of the game.
I built all the morale building that I could and that helped keep my morale up while I taxed the population hard.
Set mil to 100% to build 1 colony ship. Then played with social and research to get techs as fast as possible.
Once I had my starting tech researched I switched to military tech.
I use frigates normally and can usually finish a game with only them. This game I had to get Rangers. Although I never research battleship, dreadnoughts or rangers I was potentially in trouble the whole game.
I took out the Dregen,Yor and Arceans, 3 minors. I saved the Torians from potential extinction by sending lots of trade to them.
After that I did a couple of quick strikes and wiped out the Altarians in 3 turns. The torians went to war with me because they were allies. I sued for peace and got all the ship techs that I needed and a pile of cash. Built 4 rangers and 4 missles then wiped out the torians.
The game was satifiying until I realized how much more time I used to end it. I know that I could do it faster and the aliens had a much better start than I did.
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#2441
by Citizen Paguma - 4/28/2004 8:53:50 AM
Tonight or the series? Tonight they have a chance, but I think they're doomed in the series. It's a worst possible match-up following a tough series.
I had some fun times in my game last night. Early in the game I was playing my typical game. No military, building my infrastructure. All of a sudden the Drath got completely beligerent for no reason. They even declared war quite early. Lucky for me, it was just as my economy started to boom. What a lucky occurance for me. The Drath's average military was right next to the Altarians (Strong), Yor (Strongest) and Arcean (Strong)... Hmmm, all this money, three powerful militaries with nothing to do. No Drath ship ever reached my borders. I lost one freighter in the "war". He was scouting around their territory when the surprise war started.
On, my economy was especially strong yesterday, so I took Peace's advice and started buying all the starbases on resources, starting with the economy/morale bonuses. I was filthy rich and taxing my citizens like crazy. At one point I was taxing them at 90% and had an approval rate of 100%!!!! Can you imagine, that's insane!
My empire was getting small (in comparison)so I turned the Altarians and Arceans on the Yor and once his military was turned to mush, I started picking off his planets. I ended up having to be allies with the Altarians because once again, they were far and away the most powerful race in the game, and they had Excaliburs before me, so I just didn't want to have that war, especially since I'd get 60K for the alliance win anyway.
[Message Edited]
  
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| At one point I was taxing them at 90% and had an approval rate of 100%!!!! |
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Oh, yeah. I love doing that. I think I had a 100% tax rate with a 85% morale once. It was 100% at around 92% tax.
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| Don't be silly, we're only taxed at 85%. |
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So what morale level do you have?
  
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Ooh, that's bad. You'll lose the next election, and then you won't be able to declare war on anyone, and Quebec will join the I-League.
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on the win Boss 
~~puts an apple in his mouth and slowly walks over to the Undead~~ Just make it quick. ~~~drops head in defeat~~
