Walsingham

Dunniteowl has a point. The estimate of the Id card scheme is that it will cost 20 billion in order for the state to even know who you are, let alone what you've done. And a lot of people think it won't work even then.

Hold on, you're saying you gave blood while you had a cold? That's not on, mate. It's against regs.

I can't donate blood. Too many weird tropical disease antibodies in there. it's bloody annoying, since I've tried three times to do it, and they remain adamant. It's pretty good blood otherwise, high in sugar, alcohol, and fat. It must be delicious!

*Holds out one chocolate bourbon cream biscuit*

GD I assume that was a freudian slip about Iran funding Al Qaeda? You know Al Qaeda is active in northern Iran attacking the Iranians? As for how to handle Iran I actually think we're moving in a more sensible direction now. We can't force them down in the conventional military sense because they're pretty smart cookies and have some quite nice kit, especially in air defence and shore to ship missiles. They are also quite prepared to launch swarm small boat attacks against the carrier groups that would be very nasty indeed. Nor can we provoke them on unconventional grounds, since any attack on them could spark a massive true uprising in the Shia parts of Iraq that qould make the British retreat from Khabul look like a tea party. Instead we are, and need to continue to, consulting the Iranians about Iraq, and involving them in the process, while trying not to sell the Sunni Iraqis out. They are a proud country with proud aspirations to stand on teh world stage. If we have to give them a bigger part to secure the future of Iraq then maybe we just have to lump it. Gorgon, I agree that it doesn't look good, but this news here is just more proof that while we are suffering so is the opposition. As Kipling said "...Man cannot tell, but Allah knows how much the other side was hurt." Our politicians, and the media may feel they can safely run and blame everything on Bush and Tony Blair but since it is now our decision it is now our responsibility. We have to ask ourselves if we can - in good conscience - abandon a troubled country on the verge of meltdown. Can we knowingly stand aside and permit another Rwanda on a tenfold greater scale. And with the exception of Sand I don't believe anyone here could really square that with who they are.

Walsingham's easy to remember dictum: It's not a RPG unless there is a stuffed cat in it.

When you've got a fire in your belly the best thing you can do is not book learning but get out there and give it a whirl! Book learning is essential, but it can make you disillusioned with the grand scheme. You need small doses of practical success to keep the magic alive. In this respect it is very much like serial killing. I don't know what else to say except that I think if we can't help you get to where you're going then we don't damn well deserve to have a forum! Good to have you on board, sir!

That's not bonding. That's orange squash gone sticky from when you spilled it earlier.

Sorry to hear that. You should take some grim satisfacton from the fac tthat you are looking after your famiy when they need you. Less people have the grit to do so than you might think.

And on that high note I think I can summarise by saying "Dear sweet Jesus, NOOOOO!"

Quickly, Volo, I share your incomprehension about the figures. However, I would suggest this is evidence of the difference between a standard war and this sort of thing. Yes you have bombings, but just as in Northern Ireland you have a lot more 'personal' killings by close range firearm. Remember that in any insurgency it is typically 'enemies of the people within the people' who die most rather than their ostensible enemies. I don't think there is any grand solution to the issue. As Churchill said the answer is simply "blood, toil, tears, and sweat'. Which is to say we need to be clear on our strategic aspiration - a peaceful democratic Iraq. We need to have an operational command that understands the impact of every type of operation on the country, from inoculation drives to high altitude bombing. But at the tactical level there is going to be no substitute for the continued devotion and sacrifice of Coalition and Iraqi troops and administrators. Of course that option doesn't look very exciting next to some flimflam artist claiming all we have to do is walk away whistling and it will magically make itself better. Nor can I knowingly back a plan like GD's (deliberately mendacious ) 'give them all some guns and let them sort it out*. Where GD and I do agree is that Al Qaeda are not going to quit if they succeeed in Iraq. They will be redoubled in strength and will set about doing exactly the same sort of thing in Egypt, or Indonesia, or Pakistan. *Actually rumoured t have been applied once in British Somaliland during the war but let's not go into that now.

I find it interesting that there was a story about chimps doing this to a man last year. Maybe it's some primal reflex, like rodent neck-snapping as an attack tactic in feral rats.

Sounds like a personal problem. No. If my groin got chafed that would be a personal problem.

Is it too late to make the joke about how in my house the games own me!

I'd have thought that unless you're seriously in the business of making new engines you should use someone else's. And by 'in the business' I mean - You've worked as part of a team who built one before - You've been part of a maintenance team for an engine, with access to source code. - You've got at least one flunky - I mean employee - to send out for doughnuts, and more like a whole heap of them. - You've got an epxerienced and ruthless project manager - You've got enough money for a few years of the above long before you even consider taking payment for it. Essentially Meta's point about housebuilding is very apt. Unless you have the above you will overrun on time and money, and the end result may be rubbish anyway. As the brothel-creeper say: inexperience is expensive.

I almost completely forgot about this thread. So profuse apologies to Alanschu and Azarkon for my not replying sooner. My interest is not from the game direction, but from the simulation direction. That is that the AI does not have to be fun to play against. But equally it doesn't have to be unbeatable. I'm interested in scripting - or more precisely acting as backup for the guy scripting - a 'human' combat AI. One avenue that particularly interests me is, in order to address some of those tactical questions you raised, Alan, is that of commanders. The questions you asked would be tackled by a corporal or sergeant, while bigger questions would be tackled by higher officers and NCOs.

Taught me everything I know about business. Any time I'm in a client's office I begin stuffing everything I can into a large rucksack in case it is needed later so as to save me going back for it. It's also fair to say that i never ever pass up the opportunity to kill kobolds for cheap XP.

there's a difference between downloading and installing drivers. you need to actually rerun the executable to reinstall the drivers. taks Could his card be overheating or come loose?

Yeah... well... I train squirrels to shoot back around here! You want to be careful doing that. Look at what happened with the ISI and the Talibs! You'll have squirrels turning up demanding you live like them in the trees, and stop dancing. And what's wrong with that? Maybe we could learn a thing or two. I don't know if I could manage shinning up those trees. I expect it would chafe my face.

Reports have been coming in for over a two weeks of a rift between the Sunni insurgency and the (nominally Sunni) Al Qaeda jihadis. Apparently mainstream nationalist Sunni factions are trying to get their factions into a cohesive bloc in order to more effectively bargain at the national level. Meanwhile the international jihadis have been doing what comes naturally and annoying the bejaysus out of their hosts - the regular Iraqis - trhough general arrogance and aggression. Last year this saw several towns cooperate with US authorities to turf out Al Qaeda members to the West of Baghdad. Recent operations suggest the same thing is now happening to the East. Predictaby there have been a number of attacks on nationalist Sunni insurgents which seem to have been carried out by Al Qaeda groups in a counter-productive attempt to cow them into submission. Al Qaeda in Iraq has a very simple strategy - to provoke a civil war of ethnic cleansing that the Coalition will be unable and unwilling to halt. As previously stated, this is beginning to irk the mainstream Sunnis who would quite like to be alive and in possession of more than a smoking pile of rubble when all's said and done. They really can't afford to fall out with their Sunni hosts, because in this 'nightmare' scenario they would suddenly be stranded in a very hostile land. In order to force a reconciliation, Al Qaeda has opted for a pretty bold faced operational campaign. They are putting pressure on the Shias to act in reprisal for a revolting sequence of bombings aimed at mosques and shrines, including the increasingly less priceless Al-Askari shrine (that was blown up about 18 months ago). Regrettably, the reprisals have begun, with at least three Sunni mosques targetted in the last few days. It may be instructive to consider the BBC's chart below, which shows how the last attack on the Al-Askari mosque precipitated serious unrest. I would suggest this illustrates yet again the utterly ruthless and singularly destructive nature of the threat from Al Qaeda, and the importance of making a distinction between nationalism and islamofascism in the insurgency.

Yeah... well... I train squirrels to shoot back around here! You want to be careful doing that. Look at what happened with the ISI and the Talibs! You'll have squirrels turning up demanding you live like them in the trees, and stop dancing.

Sounds like it should have worked. Of course it couldn't be done now. Fething animal rights. EDIT: Way back in the mists of time a 'certain' goblin-kicking dwarf entered a series of caves in search of loot and goblin skulls. Outnumbered he had a number of secret weapons. to whit: 1) Two 5 gallon barrels of lamp oil 2) a brace of chickens with falconry hoods attached 3) Tar 4) Dwarven cigarettes 5) rawhide thongs Suggestions on how these could be usefully employed on a postcard. Eddo ...no webcams.

I always give them a wide berth when I am out running. Filthy tree rats.

I'm sure I remember something about needing a shotgun to go with a rocking chair.

My dear boy, that's just to brighten up the place.