Walsingham

Well, we are Euro-sceptic, because traditionally the solitary guiding principle of British foreign policy for about a tohusand years has been to try and avoid a single power dominating europe. Eastern Europe should be very wary of Germany looking east because Germany appears (under Merkel at least) to be aiming to link hands with Russia. If I were running the Czech Republic, or Poland, that would make me bloody nervous. And I don't say that out of some maudlin 'don't mention the war' instinct. Those ations cannot expect any significant indpeendence if Russia and Germany become opposite points on a new axis.

Replayed Stalker: shadow of Chernobyl today. I've got to say that the combat AI, the animal AI, the maps, and the last couple of story levels put New Vegas to shame. And they make Far Cry 2 look like a drooling imbecile. I'm not kidding. How _the ****_ have games got _less clever_ in the last few years?

Story about a young woman who got herself made police chief to fight drugs.

The problem with ALL the apllied sciences is twofold, and you've touched on both aspects: 1. No coherent statement of intent - in this case what 'healthy' looks like, and what we are prepared to do to get it 2. No coherent architecture for organising, collating, sifting all the thousands of technical papers and lab results. I wouldn't be surprised if a million worthwhile results each years are simply thrown away like trash because of the above. It's something which even happens inside big organisations. I know a particular engineering firm who spent three years trying to find an answer to a question which had already been solved by another department five minute's walk away.

As an insurance company. Nobody likes the premiums and you think you are never going to need it. When storm hits the roof, you suddenly realize it is good to have others helping pay the bill. It probably does more to prevent war between member states than any other organization in recent history. Well, I sure as hell don't want to see any more wars in Europe in my lifetime. However, I'm not sure 'insurance' really cuts it. To be an effective military alliance NATO members have to be able to really rely on one another or they begin thinking about insurance within the block. But Europe as it currently stands has too diverse a range of interests to be invested in any common actions. The really worrying thing for me is that Germany appears to be aligning with Eastern Europe and ignoring anything 'over the water'. Although I'm quite encouraged by the way France seems keen to pair up with Britain on various actions, equipment, and training.

I've been reading your comments with interest. I'd suggest the theory that democracy is simply a mechanism. The energy which powers that mechanism is the underlying political culture. Or to put it another way, democracy is the lense through which the light of political culture shines. A key problem (in my opinion) is that many forms of democracy cripple government with constraints and invariably get corrupted by agile and ruthless sub-groups. A further point must be that I can't think of very many countries without serious corruption problems. And the ones where it's not so bad still have problems.

You're wandering off argument, I feel. At least I hope so, because it sounds as if there's a limitless array of 'nastiness' you want to tax like a red-headed country and western singer.

You're pretty much alone in that opinion. NATO as an entity failed to take action on Libya. The Italians actively undermined the embargo by buying Ghaddafi oil! The Germans were against it. Similarly NATO has completely failed to act as an entity on terrorism. Now you have Germany engaged in cosying up to the Russians on security and (much more importantly) energy. The Italians are also seeking Russian gas and capital. How exactly do you see NATO functioning? What is its purpose in the next ten to twenty years?

I wouldn't call it protectionism, in the sense of anti-competitive. In the UK we recently had our only rolling stock manufacturer hard hit by the government buying abroad. Where something is genuinely in the same price 'bracket' it makes huge sense for govt. to buy locally. If foreign companies want to break into the market they simply need to outbid on performance or cost.

*revolting swearwords* How do I identify the motherboard type so I can find the drivers? You'd think ths sort of thing would be easy. But soul-less ****suckers have flooded all the questions boards with links to their malware tastic POS utilities.

I had been wondering about that. I'll give it a try.

Plus it's a very industrial product.

It's clearly a HMMWV

So... structured demolition of failing companies and a land war in Asia. Any other ideas?

Korgan+tome of body puts his constitution to 20. This means he regenerates like a troll. (Nice touch, actually implementing that, BTW. Class) heavy armour, shield, other buffs, rings etc. Just trundle him into traps, set them off, let him heal. I can still picture the little fellah grumbling like a tank engine, with tiny flames dancing on the horns on his hat. Like I'd ever give a tome to anyone but my PC. Systems thinking fail! You play as a party. Your Pc is just part of that. And if your PC has a starting Con of 13 or so, what's the point of 1 more point, really? Compared with a regenerating dwarf mentalist hanging about?

It also has a better markup than crack cocaine. The drinks industry aren't going to simply abandon it. Although equally one could easily tax it more than it is already.

I assume you were cut off there. I can understand your analysis of Turkey, but I think events of the last two years have signalled a significant shift. NATO, as seen in Libya is just a talking shop, and Germany is set against Turkey becoming a Euro member. My guess would be that even a moderate Islamist party will see the future of Turkey as a leading player in 'Islamic' affairs. Couple that to a weak NATO and I can see a logic forming around a concept of Turkey as a key, forthright regional player on its own terms. Such a player could demand and get far more from countries like the US, Britain, France etc. Not to mention the security derived from dominating the local scene. If Turkey became sufficiently strong then it might put forward a 'stall' as a strategic partner to rival the US in companionship with countries like Iraq, Egypt, Saudi, Yemen. Moreover a partner with a long term vested interest who won't cut and run. this would become particularly important for Iraq if Syria aligns with Iran.

I think it's already proliferated. Anyway, as before it's back to this question of "are they evil if it's convenient that they're evil"?

Old thread Cutlock's got a point. New rad animals would be nice. What about Asia? No-one's going to have nuked anywhere like Borneo. Dead rainforests would be pretty goddamn creepy. Think about skeletal triple canopy. Huge centipedes. Rad-apes. Maybe a tech-savvy New Hong Kong with a British Imperial Faction. Card playing in a member's club while a mutie that only has a leg works punkah-wallah. Head hunters in canoes. Communist guerrillas in volcano bases. American sub crews, like in On the Beach. Yeah, baby!

Nathaniel plainly said that he (and by extension PC gamers) wouldn't be interested in playing a game like PS:T if they had Skyrim readily available. Since Skyrim (based on Bethesda's track record), likely won't hold a candle to PS:T in terms of narrative, writing and C&C, I can only assume that Nathaniel thinks that the strongest selling point of any game, no matter it's audience, is "AAA" production values. I would be very cautious about rejecting that notion. AAA production may not govern purchase. But it governs that top dollar release price. And that is worth aiming at. If you want to deliver storyline heavy content, my guess would be to aim at doing so in DLC subsequent to release. Risks are lower.

Would it be worth writing to LucasArts legal team for an explanation. Phrase it as educational and you might get something interesting.

The risk of a developer getting credit for other people's work, and ending up with much more power than they deserve, like a George Lucas of video games. Ah. I see. But they don't have to be a George Lucas. I mean, frankly, I regard Lucas as a one off freak. What about Scorsese or Cameron?

From Stratfor.com again. It's Friday. I'm catching up on lighter reading.

If anything my guess would be they want to move further away!

Ugh. My number one problem with ALL appearance mods in NV is that they make people look like they just strolled off the beach in Cali, ca. 1995 It's the POST APOCALYPSE. FFS. Make people uglier, more assymetrical. Not prettier.