Walsingham

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.

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.

From Stratfor.com This comes on the back of a mobilisation to the border with Syria. Not to mention all the recent kerflap about Turkey and Israel. Looks like they're really trying to set themselves forward as a regional power. This strikes me as hardly surprising, with Syria and Iran moving into alignment, and Lebanon going completely Iran-tastic. Which is worrying in itself. Iran would reap huge strategic rewards if it could bring Syria onside, both in terms of Iraq and in terms of 'controlling' Hezbollah. Happy days.

We've got a on here, so I thought it was worth pitching some ideas in. See what we get. ~ It occurrred to me this morning that the central problem we have is that we're only exploring two options: we either pump money into the system, or we let it crash. My take on why neither option has been taken is that both are bollocks. We can't pump in capital without fixing the structural problems. And we can't crash because the cost is too high. It further occurred to me that what is in fact needed is a method for allowing defunct portions of the economy to crash without the impact of those crashes being communicated onwards. Controlled demolitions, if you like. Now, I'm not remotely financially astute enough to suggest how such controlled demolitions might work. but I thought it was an interesting idea. What think you, boffins?

If it was possible to push bees into a person's tearducts over the internet that's what I'd be doing to you right now.

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. Yeah, baby!

Had my hair cut yesterday. It never ceases to amaze me how good it feels to get hair off one's ears.

1) I am going to charitably assume that the Frech are attacking soda so that more people drink wine. 2) Funnily enough I'd already given some though to the dividing line and reached the same conclusion as GD. Or at least very similar. The key point is a combination of a prolonged period of affect, combined with multiple sources of affect. Obesity, heart disease, depression. These are all things which take time and its hard to lay blame at a single source. Indeed removing a single source is likely to be completely ineffective. Although I'd also give some thought to the feasibility of prohibition (obviously, given my OP). Having sex is a major factor in STIs. But try banning it!