SteveThaiBinh

An excellent answer, with the possible exception of the violence against your younger brother. As a moderator, you'll need to show greater restraint, and should always seek to dissuade transgressors from their path before applying the harsher penalties of warnings and bans. Nevertheless, a strong start. Now, moving on to spelling and grammar, please correct the following sentences: 1. If I'd got there earlier, I would of bought a dice before the shop ran out. 2. An incident occured in university accomodation.

Hmmmm. I'm interested, but I want to know more about your policies before I vote for you. What's your stance on the use of the word 'gay' as a derogatory term, as in the following case: "That picture is so gay! (w00t) "?

And yet despite the wisdom of your words, Cantousent, few serious politicians are calling for the Non-Proliferation Treaty to be abandoned, or condemn it as utterly useless. That's because they, like me, have a very good grip on reality, and they see the value of such treaties, limited though it undoubtedly is. Without the non-proliferation treaty, there is no diplomatic route to keeping Iran non-nuclear. There's no international coalition, either, since most of the countries of the world - those without the US' massive power to defend itself - care deeply about lawfulness in international relations. Without legality, the US is just a global bully trying to weaken a country it doesn't like, and that cheapens US authority and power both over this matter and in matters yet to come. Even if the treaty ends up being nothing more than a figleaf, that too matters, because figleafs are how politicians stomach doing the things they know they have to, and how they explain it to their people once the neccessary deal is done. I never claimed that the non-proliferation treaty solves all problems, or indeed that by itself it solves any problems at all. The threat of force, such as it is with the US mired in Iraq, remains a potent one in international relations. The internal politics of both Iran and the US matter yet more. Yet treaties matter too, because they, like the solution to this crisis, are the stuff of international diplomacy. To further the analogy (if that's useful) the police have been corrupt, inept and ineffective in many places and at many times in the history of the world, yet disbanded and replaced? How, when the factors that led to the corruption and ineptitude remain as before? To the extent that the UN is corrupt and ineffective (depends on what the purpose is, but still), it's because the governments of the world are corrupt and ineffective. Are you going to abolish and replace them, too? Get real! :D Oh, wait.

And as I said before, that treaty requires non-nuclear nations not to acquire nuclear weapons, and it requires nuclear nations to work towards disarmament. If the US lived up to its obligations, even partially, it would look less of a hypocrite when demanding Iran do the same. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, like many international treaties and organisations, the UN included, is imperfect but better than nothing, and will work better the more governments endeavour to make it work. Nothing is perfect. Should we abolish the police because they fail to prevent crime and fail to catch every criminal?

Hmmmm.

Didn't Bioware just merge with U2 or something? U2 have a tower, you know.

The US could reduce the number of nuclear weapons it has and abandon development of new kinds of nuclear weapon, and still keep enough to destroy the world, if that makes it feel safe or happy, and I'm not sure why it would do either.

Radioland Murders. I like it, I really do, but that's mostly because I love radio. George Lucas' limitations as a writer are very much in evidence, though.

The US and the other four 'official' nuclear powers should reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons - I think the US did already, up to a point, when the cold war ended. I don't think they should disarm completely, at least not in the short term, because I think the world needs some stability rather than radical gestures. Total nuclear disarmament is still a worthwhile long-term goal, though. The US can't invade and occupy Iran. It's not strong enough, in all kinds of ways. A strategic military strike on nuclear facilities might work, but might not, and in any case could stir up more trouble and instability that the world doesn't need. The best option is to convince Iran not to develop nuclear weapons. For that, the whole world needs to agree and tell the Iranians the same thing, and to get that kind of coalition together, the US needs moral authority, which it can get in four easy steps: 1. Partial nuclear disarmament by the US and other nuclear powers. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty requires that the nuclear powers work towards their own disarmament. The nuclear powers can't insist that Iran follow the rules by not developing nuclear weapons unless they too will follow the same rules they signed up to. 2. Stop developing new nuclear weapons, these so-called 'bunker busters'. See above. 3. Work for a nuclear-free Middle East, not just a nuclear-free Iran. Iran is much more likely to abandon its nuclear programme as part of a deal in which the Israelis also get rid of their nuclear weapons. The Egyptians and others, too, of course (allegedly). 4. Elect a new US President. It will happen in a few years anyway, but the US has to accept that George Bush is now a hate figure in much of the world, and no meaningful deals are going to be done on his watch. His successor, whether Republican or Democrat, will have a better chance.

I hope you wrote them a stern email. Next thing we hear will be on Gamespot news: Bioware ceases development of Dragon Age - CEO cites in-house research showing 'no gamers own PCs'!

I know! The excitement is building! (w00t) Never really got into the business one for Sims 2, but I'll be picking up the Pets expansion as soon as I've finished with NWN2. That could be a while, though. I'm still in BG2: Throne of Bhaal with my cleric/ranger, and we've hit the boring part towards the end where it just seems to be one difficult battle after another. I'm looking forward to getting it done so I can find out what happens in the romance storyline, and then get on with this new NWN mod I just downloaded.

Is that seriously in doubt? Hmmm, handheld games. I wonder where I put my tamagotchi.

If you live in Europe even normal versions come on DVD... Which is a good thing IMO; since I hate disk-swapping... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm surprised - is the penetration of DVD-drives really so much less in the US? It's unusual to buy a standard PC without DVD in the UK, and has been for several years now, I think. Disk-swapping does have a limited nostalgia value - I remember playing Hero's Quest on a PC with dual 5.25 floppy drives and no hard drive, and swapping floppies again and again each time I moved to a new area. But otherwise, yes, it's much better to have it all on one disk.

It's fair to say that the study of history in the twentieth century saw more historians taking a narrower focus, either in terms of topic or of timescale, and there was much bemoaning the lack of writers willing to look at, and try to make sense of, the broader sweep of history. However, this was an important development in the improvement of our understanding of the past - a serious problem with some of the great narrative histories of the past was that they focused on the deeds of great men and ignored many of the other forces at work in history: economic, social, environmental or otherwise. They were incomplete. Now, greater diversity in a discipline is probably a good thing, and there have always been a few great writers who have taken a broader view. It's a while back now, but have you read AJP Taylor? I believe that history occupies a unique position between the arts and the sciences. It relies on scientific methods for reliability of the evidence it presents, yet it also demands skill in writing in the construction of a narrative. If the twentieth century was too relentlessly scientific, it may be that previous eras weren't scientific enough. The best histories balance the two to great effect. I will have to go back through my notes and pull out a few authors for you to try, but thinking of the Americas, my favourite was probably Piero Gleijeses writing on events in Guatemala before and after the CIA-sponsored coup. Give it a try.

Certainly, and that's the inherent problem in school textbooks. By their very existence, they purport to be neutral and to give equal prominence to all points of view. However, their authors are probably sincere in trying to create the best textbook they can, and if the government isn't prepared to fund state education so that each school can have a decent library, it may be unavoidable. I imagine the internet provides interesting opportunities, as more and more material is made available online, but that depends on the school having computers and internet access for history classes as well as the quality of material available. I don't really know what academic circles you're talking about, but I don't see how history can be constructed as anything other than a narrative. When I studied history, I remember reading plenty of modern authors who wrote with passion and conviction on their subject, with bias, certainly, but with proper historical care of the evidence as well.

The same sense of humour is there, but a lot of the humour of Discworld Noir comes from parodying the film noir genre. There are still a lot of inventory-based puzzles, but it doesn't get quite as far out of hand as in 1 and 2. It's just as long, and features voice acting as good as or better than the first two. If you enjoyed the first two, I think there's a good chance you'll love it.

Mostly for me, too, but I think that's because I don't tend to do unexpected things or explore every nook and cranny. If BG2 is more stable on your machine, have you tried BGTutu? I guess you probably have, but I'm new to it and I love it.

I absolutely loved it. Very funny dialogue. You have to turn off your twitchy impatient game instincts and really let yourself enjoy the long, absurd, and hilarious conversations your character has, and bizarre situations he gets himself into. In gameplay terms it's a fairly standard point-and-click adventure, but extremely well written.

That's a good way to increase the chances of enjoying it, I think. I don't think most people here will be disappointed, though, unless there are serious stability issues or something of that nature. The fact that we're on an Obsidian forum probably means we're predisposed towards liking their games. Like everyone else, I have preferences for one thing over another in terms of gameplay, graphics and so on, but I'll take my second or third preference if it's well done, or if other aspects of the game make up for it. Really looking forward to this game quite a lot, now.

Hmmm, I might give it a try then. It'll have to wait until my cleric/ranger reaches the end of Throne of Bhaal. I'll go download it now though, just in case.

Ooh, you guys are making this really hard. Should I reinstall Neverwinter Nights to play this mod, and run the risk of overdosing on D&D and ruining my appetite for NWN2? Or should I wait until I've exhausted NWN2, in which case will I really want to go back to NWN1? Perhaps someone will be nice and convert it to NWN2, although I've heard varying reports as to how difficult that's likely to be. Of course I'm playing (and still loving) BG2 at the moment, but the rules seem very different to NWN. The best game for killing rats is Theme Hospital.

It's going to be hard now looking at the characters without thinking, 'Ooh, he's doing a combat fidget'. But I'm glad that you've got this working, and I'd love to see a video too, though I suppose that's up to Atari. Could we not murder the mods, please? Honestly, don't we get through them fast enough as it is?

Futons are amazing, if you get a good quality one of course. They're comfortable and good for your back, plus if you have proper cupboard space you can roll them up and put them away overnight, clearing up lots of space for other things. I miss my futon. Sometimes I put my mattress on the floor, but it's just not the same. I completely agree with the foot-in-beanbag experience. Great fun!

It's very nice, and much better than my Kreia tattoo.

Indeed. It's the Royal Bank of Scotland. We occasionally get students coming in with English emails they've received telling them they've won the UK lottery by email or somesuch. Because they lack the language skills or cultural awareness to see the scam, a few have been caught out.