Rostere

Dark Alliance = **** game.

Technically it wouldn't need to be a single-party government or even a majority government (see for example the government of the late Yitzhak Rabin, but correct me if I'm wrong), although that would obviously make things easier. What do you mean with "finessing and delivering on a detailed settlement plan"? What we could still hope for is a shift in public opinion. Similar things have happened before. What comes to mind first is the independence of Algeria. The political background is eerily identical, except for the point where a civil war occurs and a majority of the native Algerians are driven out of the country. The situation in Israel today would be quite like Algeria if all Palestinian refugees were magically teleported back to their homeland again. We should ask ourselves exactly what happened around 1959 which changed the French popular opinion on the Algerian question. With the military coup and the following reinstatement of Charles de Gaulle, and the brutal military conflict in Algeria, people must have thought in 1958/1959 that the Algerian conflict was as unsolvable as today's conflict in Israel/Palestine. De Gaulle realized that while France could easily achieve a costly military occupation of Algeria, the problems would only get worse. Atrocities committed by the French Army changed the opinion at home, while Eisenhower crucially made clear that as a NATO ally, France could not keep it's army occupied with hopeless colonial ventures. We must also remember that in the 1980s, Reagan and Thatcher were criticizing the South African apartheid government while at the same time in practice being irreplaceable supporters of it, in way which exactly mirrors the current treatment of Israel by the EU and the US. ANC was labelled a terrorist organization, and people were told that they were fundamentally unfit for political leadership (please note that I'm not suggesting that ANC were political geniuses when in power, only that democracy proved a better alternative, also, compare the treatment of the ANC to the treatment of the PLO). Eventually, the Western community grew more cosmopolitan and the apartheid system of white supremacy became indefensible. I still don't think people realize how close we were to peace before Yitzhak Rabin died. During his three years in office, he changed the entire game. When Netanyahu took over afterwards in what was to be his first term in office, he effectively killed the peace process, his pro-settlement bloc gaining popularity due to attacks by the organization Hamas. In hindsight, the Oslo accords should have been discarded there and then when it was clear the PLO no longer had a partner for peace. Instead they were inexplicably kept until only recently, which has effectively stalled the peace process for almost 20 years. If you look at Israel/Palestine's interior politics, I would indeed say the future is bleak. However, a change in international opinion might change things entirely.

The real outrage here is not the taking of a photo, but the attitude it reveals. Another time he might have pulled the trigger. Since 2009, 336 Palestinian children have been shot or bombed to death by the Israeli army (and let's not forget that in the same time, 6 Israeli children have also been killed in the conflict by the other side). There is a fundamental disregard for human life which is not contributing to solve the conflict. The reason for this is the racial prejudices deeply embedded in the society. (To be honest though, I don't know of a single country which has been capable of punishing their own soldiers who step out of line in a sensible way anyway, so...) For example, I watched an old episode of The Young Turks where . That's pretty extreme by civilized standards. This article however mentions a far, far worse reality in Israel where for example over 50% of Israeli Jews believe that interracial marriage is equal to "national treason". I feel very sorry for the Israelis living in the relatively cosmopolitan Tel Aviv area who will have to deal with sharing their democracy with the fast-growing demographic group of ultra-orthodox Jews with these kinds of extreme views.

I'm really enjoying Avellone's commentary. However, I don't remember the UI being that hard to learn. Maybe he should play around a little and learn the UI before the next update?

Agreed, those two organizations are probably (among) the most important working for peace currently. You all might have read the latest news from Israel, about an Australian- Israeli who allegedly committed suicide in a high- security prison in Israel (where he was held under a false name), a suicide which was later censored from Israeli media due to orders from the Mossad. Read a thorough analysis here and here - or just search for "Prisoner X" on the internet. Turns out he was an agent of the Mossad (which reveals why it was so important not to disclose his name, since other spies might fall in danger). From what I've read about him in the links above it seems likely he was just a clumsy, tad zealous Joe Average who made a mess as a spy, which in turn led to his persecution and suicide, and not that he was murdered as some articles seem to suggest. The real question is what "serious crimes" he was suspected of. What do you think this is connected to?

You guys wouldn't believe how easy it is to assemble an (crude) atomic bomb. Making it 100% safe and reliable is a bit harder though - but the real problem is the infrastructure behind obtaining the fissile materials. To be honest, I have no idea about NK's technology level or resources in that area. I don't give much for NK's army either. I guess their artillery and rocket artillery pointed at SK is the only real military threat. The real threat they pose to the world is the flood of refugees and the humanitarian crisis they will trigger if a war starts. The North Koreans barely have enough food as it is. In the case of war, expect hundreds of thousands of civilians to die and a flood of refugees and North Korean deserters. I don't think North Korea will ever start a war though. As soon as it is started, Kim Jong Un and the rest of the NK leadership will probably have less than a week in power left. They're not suicidal.

You can have great investigations without the result needing to be the same every game. See

... and who is surprised..?

I didn't think it was particularly funny myself, actually. (On the other hand, I think you could make a great sketch about that situation) I also watched the Super Bowl sketch which wasn't very funny either. Maybe SNL just isn't a show for me...

So, the greatest consensus is on that we like objectives to be focused on discovering something, finding someone or finding answers and information - while another feature of the quest should be to give you some new information about the game world, main plot or other quests. That's cool with me. Take note Obsidian!

So apparently SNL made a sketch about the Chuck Hagel hearings (which focused almost exclusively on Israel), which was withdrawn from screening in the last minute. Here's the sketch: As for footage of the actual hearings, you can find it everywhere on YouTube. What do you Americans think? Is it OK to make jokes about the US' relationship with Israel? From what I gather from what Hagel has been going through lately, it seems like not criticizing Israeli policies is a very sore top issue for many politicians.

Except DS3 was "clean" at the expense of the PC release which was one of the worst port jobs I've ever seen in a game. Wat

Squad- based military sims are great for LANs.

Why is that? (The argument about size, not the one about the US being composed of several smaller states?)

Just read this: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-land-without-guns-how-japan-has-virtually-eliminated-shooting-deaths/260189/

On the importance that Israeli Palestinians go to vote: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/30/why-arab-parties-are-excluded-from-israeli-coalitions.html The peace process could really use a centrist Israeli Palestinian party.

Hopefully not, that would mean chaos. Actually, there's not a chance in hell that it would happen, with the US position on Israel being what it is. But I think the hypocrisy is obvious.

Now this is a lesson in doublespeak: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/01/2013131101929493601.html When a UN inquiry says that Israeli settlement of occupied land must cease immidiately, Israel boycotts the decision by not showing up, becoming the first country ever to do so in the UN. The practice of land grabbing/ ethnic cleansing/ transfer of civilian population is clearly and without a shadow of a doubt forbidden by international law, and the settlements are also illegal in Israel. Now how could the Israelis possibly be so upset, and how could their GOVERNMENT announce the construction of additional settlements? Sometimes I'm baffled the UN hasn't thought of sending peacekeeping troops to the West Bank to protect the rights of the people living there.

The story about the black Israeli Jews who were given contraceptives without their consent I wrote about earlier has surfaced again when a journalist made interviews with a group of women who stated they didn't know the drug they had received was a contraceptive, or that they were coerced into taking the drug (they were told they could not immigrate to Israel if they didn't take contraceptives): http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gave-birth-control-to-ethiopian-jews-without-their-consent-8468800.html

There's a lot of **** thrown on the concept of DLC, but I find myself hyped and interested every time new DLC for CK2 is announced. I think the idea of DLC is brilliant. Developers continually making new content for the game you love? Sign me up. http://www.crusaderkings.com/buy

So far there seems to be a conceptual focus on the gods themselves rather than the role of religion(s)/worship in the world. I like the FR approach to gods but I don't want PE gods to be a "cargo cult" imitation of those. A lot of concepts are mentioned in this update, like "portfolio", "pantheon" and "manifesting in the mortal world" could have very different interpretations compared to those which apply in the FR setting. I urge Obsidian to ask themselves critical questions about everything when designing gods. Why would you believe in "true" gods? If the gods don't regularly prove they exist, there should be a number of non- believers, as well as followers of false gods (gods who do not exist). Why would you worship a god at all? They don't grant spells, but apparently they interfere in mortal affairs and even kill people. What's in it for the believers? Why would a god want to be worshipped? How did the gods communicate what they stand for to the mortals? In other words, how do we know that an unknown strangler is really the god of law and vengeance? How do people know anything about the gods at all? What does it mean to "have a portfolio"? If gods are real, are there any conflicting faiths? We already mentioned "followers", but if all gods are real, why is worshipping one over another more than a Pepsi vs. Cola fight? Exactly how powerful are gods, and why don't they appear in public all the time? If gods can strangle people when they're alone, why couldn't they do it in public when everyone's looking? Especially if a deity is "good", why don't they help people all the time?

In other news, the typical fan of Obsidian on Facebook is between 25 and 34 and from Melbourne. Keep it up Australia!

Conrad Nomicos from "This Immortal" by Roger Zelazny, do similar things. Through actions such as the deconstruction of the pyramids, Conrad makes the Vegans see that Earthlings would rather destroy the planet's riches than see them fall into the hands of others. On other side, nobody interests these texts before, but when they are destroyed all begin whining about them. Actually you can easy find medieval sacred texts in Internet and read them. But you don't do this, because you don't want read boring texts written by primitive ancestors. Do you worried about this loss, only because your media say do this? I have no idea what the Timbuktu scrolls contained, however I have a great interest in archaeology (although primarily the ancient Middle East). In my personal library I have both the epic of Gilgamesh, the Enuma Elish (translated into Swedish by the brilliant Ola Wikander), a smaller number of more obscure texts, and a great number of treatises on excavations and such. Speaking of which, I can REALLY recommend the book "The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land" by Mogens Trolle Larsen to anyone interested in history and the region (which sadly goes for $150 on Amazon...). EDIT: In short: I don't like documents from past cultures to be lost, but be made available so that we can enjoy our global cultural heritage.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/mali/9832061/Mali-French-troops-encircle-Timbuktu-as-fleeing-Islamists-burn-ancient-scrolls.html

I thought Anomen was fun. I definitely want a character who is a pompous ass.