Walsingham

WTF? $2,000? Just for the pickup? How much did his ears cost?

Since the internet is full of foreigners I would also recommend you speak louder and slower.

While I don't mind a woman with tattoos, those do not look very good. What's wrong with the video? She says at the end she's posting half asleep. Felt motivated to find a still that looks better:

Thought this was interesting to underscore the complexity of the situation for the anti-Assad groups.

Monte I find myself agreeing with you 100%...is something wrong with me? Yes. The same thing that's wrong with all of us.

This.

From history: Confederate prisoners make fried pie. Thought this might interest GD, if he can be torn away from romantic bliss for five minutes.

Wild guess: snobbery.

This. Big surprise in my military training. Week one. RSM tell us NOT to always obey orders. Stressed that we were personally responsible for everything we did. Told us it wasn't easy, and times had changed, but ultimately the basics stayed true: if everyone is professional and doing their job then orders should be good and should be followed 100%. If someone gets confused or angry and orders you to break the law or do something just wrong, then don't do it. He emphasised we'd get in s***, and it wouldn't be much fun. But it would always be better than doing the wrong thing and regretting it. For tohse who don't know, the RSM is, like, somewhere between Pope and Jesus in the British Army. Generals are polite to RSMs.

Just noticed: why 'profanation' in the tags?

Bruce is right. Your English is fine. I was just poking fun at the Americans. They always bash on about how they spell things easier, but they don't. They just make up weird exceptions to the few rules English has in the first place. Like changing aluminium to aluminum, but leaving all the other metals like plutonium etc. Chopping 'a's out of words like faeces. And coincidentally they also make a mess of diahorrea.

And you've been corrupted by yankees. It's spelled faeces.

I don't care. Britain recently found out we have a squintilion tonnes of gas under us. It's in the hard to break rock but the upside is it's more stable. Yay! Energy security!

Be fair, LC. Paper or plastic in a bag - you can just bring a proper bag with you, or load it into a car. Diapers and sanitary stuff strikes me as legit.

I have to agree with Hiro - and this is me speaking having been the cowardly underling on some occasions - not only is it philosophically wrong to excuse people for following dumb orders. It is practically wrong, because it merely encourages the enacting of dumb orders. Huge public condemnation is a helpful aid to counterbalancing all the pressures on an employee when faced with a choice between obeying and refusing. IMO.

I think I've deduced the general strategy: post something technical for us nerds to latch onto, then salt liberally with nearly boobs. You can't deny it's been generating comment.

Thanks. Not sure if that's my thing really. I have never got into any MMOs and I'm not sure it'd be healthy for me to do so. EDIT: On reflection. Not sure why it didn't occur to me before.

Sorry, can't help you there. I did see a mod come up in the PC Gamer news which let you spawn bad dudes. Would that help? http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/06/09/mod-of-the-week-endless-warfare-for-fallout-new-vegas/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

Holy crap. Does securom do things like that often? I mean I avoid it if possible already. But if it does that sort of thing then it can just f*** off. I'm just not buying any games with it ever.

Looks like healthy option for self-defence. Your attacker will be momentarily distracted asking themselves why you have testicles hanging off your gun.

Interesting point. But really it seems to me you're saying the slaves are the logistical support, not the fighting arm. We already have robots doing logistical support.

Steam has a sale on Defiance for the next two days. It's cheap enough that I'm considering buying. Anyone play regularly and do we have a group going yet? Is it worth 19 quid?

Well, I'd respectfully disagree with your dismissal of the hoplite phalanx as an factor in democracy. Slaves don't matter in the equation because they didn't bear the brunt of fighting - even if helots did get used. Equally, war being middle class is exactly why politicians argued the people had to be allowed to own land and generally BE middle class*. That's kind of the point. (Which I thought your last observation was consistent with. ) *There's quite a long discussion of this in Persian Fire by Tom Holland.

I'm being very lazy in my search, because of the OP, but there seems to be some shake at present about Russians getting upset by militant Islam in what they see as their soft underbelly. The Kazan Khanate and the tartars come up. Oby posted some material from a film a while back which was a kind of Apocalypto for the Monghol Horde - called Horde. That's all central Asia blah blah weren't the monghols crap, good thing we're all orthodox Christians blah. So I guess I should award XP for staying in character.

I do like the idea of ringing up her lawyers, pretending to be a firm of no win no fee lawyers and trying to steal their client. But truth to tell I keep remembering that somebody died over this. As I think has been said before, I'd like to see the family sue this cretin for real damages.