Walsingham

Quite so. *puff puff*

That seems logical. What happened to your avatar, btw? No pipe?

Now that's a different thing entirely. You don't actually see in full colour until you've seen Africa. The people are tremendously vibrant, and the food and fruit (bushmeat notwithstanding) are bursting with flavour. It's a true adventure. You should consider yourself unfortunate if you DON'T go.

Lax Russian security at weapons stores is felt to underpin the greatest threat of a terrorist nuke.

Roll on the Butlerian jihad!

You are not wrong. The lyrics essentially are a very plaintive "God, you seem to have wandered off. Come back to Africa. We're in quite a bit of pain." Good lord! I just started crying. How peculiar.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6992670.stm Good heavens, how handy. The BBC have written an article on this subject. Enjoy.

I'm all in favour of giving weapons proper names again. I mean what kind of name is FRES anyway? On your left you can see CHALLENGER, great big tank. Next to it is WARRIOR, nippy bastardmobile. Then we have FRES, er.... Anyway. More Putin-related news: Two Russian activists from the Yabloko opposition party set themselves on fire in protest of what they call "Operation Successor," the Russian practice of allowing the president to appoint his successor, as President Vladimir Putin seems likely to do. The protesters, Ilya Yashin and Aleksandr Shurshev, were driven to a Moscow hospital by ambulances stationed at the demonstration. They suffered minor carbon dioxide poisoning, according to Ekho Moskvy radio. Aramil, I hope you can shed some light on all this.

Outbreak, but they found a cure! And mocked Hoffman's nose, which he clearly permitted with a gun to his head. I thought Donald Sutherland was great in that movie.

I believe you simply need a certain effect on the fissile material. We've come a long way since the days of putting sub-critical masses in a pith helmet and giving them a shake. You can achieve a lot with high yield non-plastic explosives. The thermobaric (and mysoginistic) FOAB weapon strikes me as a little excessive. Thermobarics are almost exclusively for busting bunkers, caves, and urban rubble. A use the Russians found great utility for in Chechnya. The principle (but obviously not only) effect of a thermobaric is against humans. You have a high overpressure followed by an underpressure. Victims of such a weapon are often found with their lungs on the outside. Which is nice . Fuel air mixes are exploited by the Russians in the RPOA 'Shmel' launcher to great effect in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda franchisees tried to use the same principle recently in the UK. They made a number of mistakes leading to incomplete/improper detonation. Which the press helpfully pointed out to them so their bombs would work next time. I don't think the FOAB signifies anything in particular, besides being a PR exercise to go one up on the Americans.

How does it actually spread in the meat? Wasn't there some film with Dustin Hoffman where Ebola is thought to have become airborne? I do wonder what would happen if someone got it and started sneezing.

Summary: New leaders, new units, new tech, new buildings. these things are welcome but secondary to the re-jigging of the subtler aspects of gameplay, including the civilisation domestics, and combat. Particularly air combat. In addition the expansion includes some kickass mods and scenarios that show the potential of the game. If you enjoy Civ at all you should buy this expansion.

One theory is that Putin is serious about cleaning things up a bit before handing over to the next tenant. Another theory is that he simply wants someone he can trust to be totally compliant if he decides to quit.

I agree. And I say that with the greatest respect for troops. I should say that I mean by this that there are a host of potential sources of courage in the line of fire. Self-protection, rage, fear of punishment, training. I fancy that reaching out to someone dying of ebola must stem pit nothing but empathy against every natural urge to run off shreiking.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6990759.stm The crucial things to keep in mind about Ebola are: 1. It often arises in communities which eat 'bush meat' - monkeys, endangered species and so on. 2. The infection is quite possibly one of the most ferocious and painful in the world. 3. There is not known treatment besides wait and see 4. The mortality rate is 90% I'm sure the WHO and aid agencies will keep it under control, but spare a thought for these poor people.

Ned's! That brings back memories.

I think it's worth pointing out that in the time of Buster Keaton no-one took movies seriously.

http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=48003

blah blah blah

I think it's rather harsh to criticise PS:T as pseudo-intellectual. If it had been a genuinely formal intelectual philosophical work it would have sold like frozen rock cakes at the Kalamazoo winter festival. I thought that for the ime, and the genre it was tremendously philosophical. I Have replayed it at least once just to get more into the books, and backstory of the characters. I think it is worth adding that for me - someone who is interested deeply by such things - the presence of this philosophical material sicked me far further into the game than quests to rescue a stuffed cat.

"Shortly after accepting the "resignation" of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and his Cabinet on Sept. 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed politically obscure Viktor Zubkov, currently chair of Russia's anti-money-laundering watchdog, as Fradkov's replacement. The rumor in the Kremlin is that Zubkov himself did not know about the promotion until the day it happened. Zubkov has no independent base of power, and though this technocrat does have considerable economic and political contacts, his only real qualification for the No. 2 job in Russia is that he does anything and everything that Putin says without question."

But M&Ms taste far better ... because they're not tainted with dead baby! *WARNING THIS PRODUCT MAY CONTAIN NUTS ...AND CARRY CULPABILITY FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY*

*Peers at Calax as through a glass, darkly*

In which case we should have it framed. Well put, sir.

I try to do a rottentomatoes.com approach. Read a bunch, trying to get people who thought it was good and people who thought it was bad. EDIT: I also rely on the buzz round here, because I know the background preferences of the peopl here.