Walsingham

I don't run by postcounts. If I want to judge someone I shall do it the fair way. By sneaking up behind them in the parking garage, chloroforming them, spiriting them away to my island home, releasing them into a dungeon filled with monsters and puzzles, then bringing them before me and my chainmail clad female leader of the guards, seeing them fall in lust, then possibly escape from the island on the back of a cybernetic dragon.

Ah, the forums are a good place to laugh, today. I'm not proud of myself, but I was wondering if the problems in the immigrant communities in France and the UK are caused by having too many new faces crammed in too quickly. There is a practical and unavoidable 'terminal velocity' of integration. There is no magic wand to create new well-paid jobs. There is no magic wand to make some Maghrebi fit in like a three of four generation Parisienne. Hell, in the UK I read on the Beeb that the rioting was caused by tension between Afro-Carribean immigrants from teh 50s and Pakistani immigrants from the 70s and 80s. I welcome immigrants for throwing in interesting bits to the mix of our culture. I remark on all this because I don't think anyone wants burning housing estates. Maybe the solution is to relax, but equally maybe the solution is to tighten control.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> (w00t)

Star Wars was corrupted by the dark power of Hollywood. Or something. And the fact that G Lucas is a weiner. An actual weiner. An Oscar Meyer weiner. With mustard. And onions. And salsa relish. Wait, no that was my dinner. I apologise.

Shoot. Always happy to help a student.

I am going to kick off a new conspiracy by saying it was started by the CIA.

Do me! Do me! +100 points for Markov chains, btw.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4401670.stm This coming after riots in the UK I'm reallly starting to wonder about our species. Reason for UK riots: A pirate radio station announces that an immigrant girl was raped in a local beauty salon. Police investigation exposes the fact that the salon has local competitors trying to put it out of business. Police also fail to find a victim despite a massive search. Or, indeed, any evidence of an offence whatsoever. Locals riot in protest at the police not punishing the perps. Reason for Paris riots: According to locals, two young men die by electrocution after deciding to hide from police in an electricity substation. This totally boggles me, since the cops _by definition_ were not in control of the boys actions, or the boys would have been under arrest. Locals riot anyway. Somebody give me the missing info that makes sense of all this.

I should like to point out that armed with my DVDs of Firefly I have converted five people into fans. Two were very hostile to begin with. I think watching the show in order adds something.

Testosterone fight!

I keep telling you. That wasn't the Lady of Pain. That was simply my mother. She had been drinking. And I say it's a damn good solution. That way YOU get to have even more fun.

My advice wold be to let the guy play as this munchkin thingamajig for a bit. People munchkin for simple reasons. One of them is they wonder wheat it would be like to ULTIMATE POWER even for a little while. Once the short fun phase is over, have every powerful nutjob on the planes come after him, wanting his nutsacks for rare spells. Lie back and think up even more powerful oddnesss. Should be entertaining for the other players who will be in absolutely zero danger since they won't warrant even a glance from teh people chasing him. It could even become amusing. The munchkin will be so busy fending off the Lady of Pain he won't be able to enjoy his powers or skew the rest of the campaign.

Agreed, the original rescue was a little silly in the film. Far more believable in the series. Plus his honesty in the film illustrated how much he knew about the privilegde of his upbringing. The fact that he was aware of it then sacrificed it for loyalty. That's good bakin'.

Defacing coins is actually treason. Is in most countries. But noone cares.

Perhaps if they built a giant wooden badger...

They could always not buy the gruddamn games for the kids in the first place.

I can see that it would be a complex enough problem space to be entertaining. provided the AI is better, and can't cheat. But I can think of many things I could spend that much money on I'd enjoy more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4369674.stm Anyone think maybe some people defied the evac order precisely so they could loot? I have to say it looks pretty bad if this thing is going to happen the exact same way as NO. On the subject of looting being reported maybe the media simply decided they caught too much flak last time and are staying well away from the subject? I have to also say, hand on heart, that I would have a hard time not making off with some stuff if it was from a big store that certainly had insurance, rather than a small personally owned one. I'm not saying its OK, or the cops shouldn't stop people doing it. I'm just saying I'd probably do it under the right conditions.

True said, Enoch. You also highlight the inherent nonsense of the military sim in Civ with year long turns. At only five turns long ww2 doesn't seem so bad anymore...

He did have a point at the end about Schindler's list. My friends and I were kicking about the notion of a game set in a prison like a gulag. You haveto survive your time inside. You have to live, but to live you have to work, and if you really want to live you have to do things for the guards like rat out other prisoners. Or you can fight the system and get tortured. Bung in some sub-plots about how you got ratted out in the first place... Would work best if you had sanity as well as health. In any event, now the development budgets have gone up for consoles forget any innovation. Teh industry will become risk averse, and shiny seeking.

I was under the impression that WotC were partly responsible for us losing BG3. Because they havered over the license they were going to grant to Black Isle. If that is true then by God they suck. Even if it is not true they gave us MtG, and can pod off.

The spearman v tank issue only bothers people who know nothing about military history. The scale in Civ is strategic, not tactical. Technically advanced formations can and do get tonked by 'inferior' opponents on occasion, provided the opponent fights smart. And smarts aren't a function of tech or industrial base. It also bugs me that Civ completely ignores logistics. Warmaking on land, at sea, and in the air is about force maintenance and control. Things like ox-yoking, the telegraph, and the combustion engine have done at least as much to change warfare as guns and steel pokey sticks. For example, cavalry are dashing about all over the place in Civ, but in real life they needed so much feed they rarely moved beyond the strategic pace of their feed wagons, drawn by cows. Tanks in teh modern era are similar. Then you have the organisation of armies. For example, we didn't have standing armies in the West until comparatively recently. We didn't have meritocratic armies in the West until last century. These would be interesting new concepts. It does intrigue me, but I don't think I shall bother. I'm still mardy with them over Civ3.

I don't see the point in owning more stuff on my HD than I can possibly ever have time to watch. Hence why have 900 gigs of stuff? Just delete some already!

I see a whole bunch of other posts by them. However, since in one they said "Mmos are brilliant, the friendships you make and the fun of playing as part of a team make this genre the best gaming experience there is, imo." I back the ban!

You nutsack! Spoilers!