Walsingham

You're just being a troll now. Trolls love Taylor Swift! It's official!

Linky

I'm hoping we'll have to go back to using wood. I loved all those old wood things. Grow trees, trap carbon, turn it into stuff. Genius.

OK, I think you almost have a valid point, but I lost interest when you brought up 'organised crime' in a thread about, essentially, individual ignorance/laziness. Fair enough. However I wasn't alleging that bittorrent is organised crime. By definition it isn't.

Boo, I'm not sure what to make of your insistence that the Iranian leaders are sensible just like us. I disagree, and following the internal power struggles from outside the country is like watching three kinds of seabird in a sack. You are aware that history is replete with disasters caused by assuming that the leaders of X are basically sensible? Look at America dealing with Chiang Kai Shek, or for that matter France dealing with Medieaval England. Not everyone is rational, particularly people who have risen to the top of a game based on ruthless mix of revolutionary rhetoric and physical violence. These aren't postal inspectors from Tunbridge Wells. These are men who have often personally murdered and tortured people during the revolution. But if thinking they are sensible fellows makes you feel all warm and cosmopolitan then why not continue. At least you're getting something tangible out of your attitude. cronicler, I have to like you because you like the Guard, but I appreciate you're at least trying to break things to me gently anyway. I actually agree with much of what you say. I think we made a lot of mistakes, and I think we should be very suspicious of corporate corruption of our democracy. But that doesn't make everything we've done wrong, and it doesn't make it impossible for us to do right. I believe strongly that to do nothing is often far worse, because it surrenders the initiative to the constant intrigues of the bastards you recognise as existing. As an aside, if it was all about oil we wouldn't have invaded Iraq. We'd have invaded Nigeria. The stuff is far more concentrated and it's quicker to get to market AND less vulnerable.

Regardless, I think we must face the fact that what this case primarily says is that policing is a responsibility which currently is not present on the internet. There is a huge multi-billion dollar problem with crime that mostly operates through or even in the internet, and at some point it will need to be tackled. The absence of action ... oh who am I kidding? Nothing is going to happen, any more than serious action is taken to tackle organised crime in the physical world. We persist in pretending that all criminals are equal when they blatantly aren't.

Boo's a ****ing ray of sunshine, isn't he?

Travelling at 90 mph, these jiffers should do London to New York in around 36 hours. In far greater comfort. Presumably also with less jetlag.

I'm being rather simplistic, but Iran is a greater threat because they are a theist autocracy. A theist autocracy with some rather peculiar notions, and some very volatile power structures. It's teh difference between seeing a policeman with a pistol, and a junkie with a pistol. EDIT: I'm not replying to the usual suspects about Bay of Pigs etc. We can post-analyse as much as we like, but the fact is that the USA is the single reason we aren't either speaking German or Russian. I'm sick of people trying to make me ashamed of our alliance with them to satisfy abstract intellectual perfection in an imperfect world. The USA is not Iran because it has nukes and invades places any more than a surgeon is a mugger because he cuts people open and takes their money.

I was laughing at that page from the newspaper until I realised the sinister aspect which is they're all white. That cat picture is going to stay with me. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegal...ruary-2010.html This gallery of photos includes a variety of ultra cool pictures, from chained children, to jumping monkeys, and some otherstuff I can't remember, but pure gold.

It's a LOT like star wars... there are cases where the author just sucks (CS Goto for example) and others where you're wondering about the guys vocab (In the space wolf series, they always use bolter PISTOLS...) I'm confused, I thought bolt pistols were standard for assaulty types. Sounds like those damned fools in the Wolves. In any event, you can't possibly tell me that the Gaunt's Ghosts series don't kick the pants off most fiction full stop. It's like military history for the far future with some excellent human elements and mysticism thrown in.

I recently came to the conclusion (which I may have already mentioned) that to me women are as mountains to a mountain climber. One loves them, one strives for them, one will go to tremendous lengths to be near them. But the mountain climber does not live on a mountain.

in my experience it is a vast mistake to try and cross apply tabletop maths to a computer environment. On the tabletop we make result generation exciting through human interaction. On computer, we make result generation natural and exciting generally by going beyond the obvious and into complex algebra. Exposing that would be pretty much of interest to rules lawyers only. However, I accept that the descriptions should be far far better in Dragon Age. I never took Arrow of Slaying because it looked totally pointless. Why waste a feat on something which gives you a critical hit when crits aren't that great? Assuming I am remembering it correctly. As an aside, it's worth remembering that obscure maths must still remain clear to the designers. I just finished kotor2 in record time because I dual wielded light sabers as opposed to going down the single melee route like last time. I wasn't meta-gaming on the previous occassion but it's obvious on reflection that this would be the case. Unless each of the dual weapons is half as powerful as the single weapon then you deal out more damage. But that's before you get into loading up those weapons with bonus packages which add dexterity etc. Learn flurry of blows and I was killing (on the hardest difficulty) enemies in the last level with one attack. Ok, it's pretty cool, but not much to make up for the days I spent on it previously slugging away with a single ordinary buffed sword.* *I felt this was roleplaying someone with an ambivalence towards the Force. Damn my eyes.

A good morning so far with plenty of work done, so fully charged I went back and re read the break up letter I had from my ex of last year. It's something I'd been meaning to do largely because I don't like not doing things for emotional reasons, and I hadn't been able to face it. All was as I remembered, and just as mad as ever. Lots of typical woman stuff about how complete accidents proved I didn't really love her*. But as if this wasn't enough to maintain my faith it was for the best I noticed something new... the entire thing was written in comic sans font. No one has EVER used comic sans to good effect. Ever. *For example, my phone broke at New Year's which is no-one's fault but Sony. This proved I didn't want to be with her. Apparently.

I agree that the Warhammer 40k novels have really gone from strength to strength over the last few years. I think they deserve far more exposure than they get.

I think Brdavs is right to adopt his stance. Because Iran, a significant military power with huge oil reserves, sitting athwart the greatest concentration of oil in the world, soon to be armed with a nuclear bomb, and official sponsors of terrorism in at least four countries, and run by people who think God is talking to them is CLEARLY as dangerous as Taiwan.

Weirdly I was just reflecting how the 'homage' they do to other sources enriches it. But each to their own.

I'm listening to the Brightonomicon, by Robert Rankin on the BBC. This full length adaptation is a credit in the style of all good adaptations. Apparently the cast had a whale of a time. Think a lead character who's a duffer and a time travelling mystic gentleman agent of provocation and legging it from expensive restaurants.

I'd suggest a variant on this. Long range 'sneaking' by virtue of the survival talent. Call it 'sauntering' for the truly cool post-apocalyptic hep cat. You basically radiate the right vibes for anything near by which might otherwise consider nailing you. For added cool make the PC physically change how they are moving. So if there are ghouls nearby then they shamble, if there are yao guai they lumber, if there are soldiers then they march. That way you could see what was nearby as soon as your skill kicks in.

I really didn't like the Grey Warden tower thing. I hate to say it but

I know it must seem strange me being so realpolitik, but there it is. Actually, I just emailed a couple of lawyer friends of mine about this. Given the official status of Taiwan, I was wondering if any military action after an ninvasion would be 'technically' illegal. Just recalling the Tony Blair witch trial.

A LOT of credit card internet fraud down your way, mate. I used to work in countering fraud.

Alpha Centauri. For old skool civilisation combined with some of the darkest subtext ever.

I suppose the only practical aspect would be a succession of 'evil-neutral enemies to fight. POssibly the servants of other gods. That would promote a tactical alliance. *thinks* I don't suppose it would make sense to have the party being forced to work with him because they get blamed for his past murders alongside him? *gasp* What a muredr he didn't actually commit?

I went out with an Albanian girl once. She was foot taller than me, had a face like a cat's and drank pure grain alcohol. She dumped me when I got domesticated. Happy days. Anyway, all this rubbish about who a country belongs to. Countries have always belonged to whoever had the strength to take and control them. We can certainly be interested internationally in whether those people are supported by popular vote, and SHOULD be in my opinion, but there is no law on the subject because *fanfare* there's no policemen. If China invades there would probably be a rattling of sabers, a short and totally ineffective embargo, followed by the usual debate of engagement, and back to normal.