Zoraptor

Really? I know oby manages to effortlessly troll people (god knows why and how at this point), but do we really want to do that sort of thing, since nobody is going to look good there. What with the Abu Ghraib style "let's photograph ourselves building nudie prisoner pyramids/ urinating on corpses etc etc, what can go wrong?", accusations that Ferguson PD are better protected and armed than units that were in Iraq, complaints about British soldiers having to buy their own bullet proof vests etc etc. Even our own modest little armed forces manages to embarrass itself by having leaked combat and post combat footage that makes them look like a bunch of headless chooks or getting convicted, in court, for sending un(der)qualified pilots out in helicopters they then crashed.

What you need is a good delineation between contracts and projects, which unfortunately nobody really does even when they should. A contract may involve multiple projects, the projects are specific, er, projects or operations like drill long X lat Y; drill long X' lat Y'. Trouble is that people use 'project' interchangeably for both the overall contractual obligations/ operations and for each individual component. And everyone has already admitted that there's one+ projects still ongoing after the cut off date, so disputation there is moot. That Rosneft considers the contract with Exxon still active is primarily relevant to the initial correction I was giving oby, but it has added significance in that any alternative contracts that Rosneft may sign have to take Exxon's stake into account and the find remains a bottom line asset for Exxon- both of which are also 'practical matters', just practical matters that aren't supportive of whatever point it is you're trying to make. So really, you're extending a lot of effort to not actually disagree with me.

Iraq has said multiple times it will not invite US troops (the 'advisers' that are there already notwithstanding) anyway, so the question of boots on ground is moot for Iraq.

Guy on the left looks more Siegfried to me. Don't think that Mr Priestly being at CDProjekt should make any difference (unless it was Jason Priestly and they were going for a 90210 game) as it would not have been him setting the moderation policy at Bioware anyway, he'd just have been enforcing it. Not like the atmosphere over at BSN has changed significantly since Priestly left- not that I really know, I only check it out occasionally. For scientific and research purposes only of course, as a strict policy.

Yeah, so the contract was not cancelled and the project continued (and continues) after the cut off date, ie existing projects are exempt. There are no new projects and no new contracts, but I never said otherwise, indeed I specifically said no new projects. And Rosneft's chief acknowledges that the existing ownership structure- ie Exxon's stake- remains as is. The purpose wasn't to give an overview of the situation in any depth, just to refute oby. Most you can complain about is whether or not it should be project(s) rather than projects, and frankly I can't be bothered checking that.

Forced a policy of no new projects. Existing ones are exempt- obviously- or Exxon would not have been involved up to this point.

Turning popular movements authoritarian is a very old phenomenon, eg the English Civil War, Cromwell turned a theoretically 'democratic' parliamentary revolution into an absolute dictatorship and crapped all over some of his most strident and important supporters- let alone his enemies- as soon as they stepped even slightly out of line because he had control of the army, and the will to use it.

I thought the first ep of Gotham was OK. Too 'bitty' and too many random name drops for it to be good, but that has to be expected in a first episode of that type where there are already a bunch of 'known' characters to establish. Very much an open question as to whether it's going to build on and benefit from the lore and established characters or drown unceremoniously under the weight of the lore and expectations though.

? ? indeed, since Exxon Mobil is Rosneft's partner in that discovery. More like Murica talks the talk about sanctions but won't walk the walk when their economic interests are at stake (Exxon, Boeing, rocket motors for spy satellite launches etc etc), Europeans are ??? as to why they follow what the US preaches but not what it does. US = pragmatic, Europe = stupid.

Listen to yourself, US is not the big satan, it never was. Did bad things happen under the US regime in the past? Of- course. But the good by far outdo the worse. Any attempt to to bash the US by demonizing it is an hypocrite attempt and a blatant release of responsibilities of the same countries who call the US the big satan in the first place, Many of those countries would do a lot better if they start to make the life in their own countries better by actually working to make it better. And let me tells you a secret - Wars are never clean, but wars are sometimes inevitable. Sometimes you just have to stand up for what is right (for your society) and make a stand. Yes, the US was never the great satan in reality, because satan is an abstract religious concept. They did however **** unashamably and repeatedly with Iran in their own narrow interests, inflicting thirty years of the Shah's reactionary, supine totalitarianism on them. Any benefit to the country being intervened in from US intervention is wholly coincidental. Look at the last five interventions done, Kosovo, klepto state whose economy is based on smuggling and having lots of NATO troops stationed there, also utterly illegal*; Afghanistan, basket case though at least it was so before intervention, will go back to civil war; Iraq, went from a country with one of the highest education, best health service and acceptance of women in the ME to a poor, strife torn, semi medieval mess under the tender ministrations of the US; Libya, trashed, went from having one of the best education and health systems to a playground for yet more proxy wars between the absolute monarchs of the gulf; ISIS, unknown but the record is terrible and similar programs in Pakistan and Yemen (two more stellar examples) have failed utterly to fix things at all, they've just undermined the states' authority repeatedly. Libya, Iraq, Syria all had problems before interventions but they also had pretty good- for the region- education, health and policies towards women. They still have the same problems of repression and random brutality that previously existed, to much greater levels since by and large keeping your head down meant you escaped notice and now even that doesn't work, but have also lost the benefits Hussein, Assad and Gaddafi brought with no commensurate gains except some nebulous idea of being free to get blown up by whatever flavour of nutbar militant is currently strutting their stuff. Now sure, for someone from Israel the US is a net good for obvious reasons. If you're in a country which has been the target of one of the US's failed interventions on the other hand you're not going to view them so highly at all. *or rather 'legal' per a friendly ruling, but since Crimea followed the same methodology that's been forgotten as has that the precedent was set by the west.

There's more to it than that- assuming that Watson was not aware that it was a hoax. Dirty tricks is one thing, it's pretty low but not anything all that unexpected. And assuming it gets disseminated widely it's also counter productive when caught out, as it was just about immediately obvious that it was a scam campaign (the Apache info, hundreds of smurf twitter accounts sending identical messages etc) so it was both poorly hidden and near immediately exposed, showing they are incompetent as well as nasty. But, once you start using innocent third parties for your dirty tricks it gets to be a whole new type of low as you're involving them without their consent in something that may have bad repercussions, and making a hoax which may cause significant anxiety and worry to that 3rd party. It's that that should really get them sanctioned. Sheesh, if it really were a GG/ 4chan type doing it there'd be all sorts of accusations of misogyny, rape culture and the like; those accusations are exactly as relevant- if not more so- when it's a false flag attack.

Meh, the SJW crowd is worse at that particular aspect. Both sides shout a lot, and some intimidate, dox etc. But there's only really one side that is standing for and enforcing censorship- the ultimate method of shouting down, by ensuring the other side can't even speak- and that ain't the GG side.

How long was Starcraft: Ghost in development as well, that must have been about seven years as well. Good thing Blizzard's released titles tend to well financially...

Not really, or at least not significantly. It's the so- and laughably- called 'moderate sunni states'* (plus Turkey) currently partaking in the bombing that did by far the most training and arming of rebels, and who actively encouraged their own wacky bands of religious nutbars by preferentially arming them. Ironically, they're still fighting proxy wars in Libya against each other even as they 'cooperate' in bombing Syria, but they're the last people- even behind Israel and the US- who should be intervening anywhere in the middle east if you want anything approaching a progressive, inclusive end result. The oil can't run out fast enough so they can be cut loose and go back to being medieval totalitarian irrelevancies. Wonder how long it will take for Saudi tanks to roll into Yemen. They've already bombed shia rebels previous, having them running Sana'a won't be tolerated long given their response in Manama. *Bahrain, a sunni emirate ruling majority shia via oppression and having 6000 Saudi troops on call for any required liquidations; Saudi Arabia, largest exporter and financier of terrorism anywhere, run by Salafi/ Wahhabi extremists (same as ISIS, Al-Q, they just went off reservation and don't recognise KSA's obvious superiority) intent on exporting their medieval philosophy everywhere possible, plus the UAE and Qatar, who along with KSA primarily funded and trained ISIS as well as fighting each other by proxy in Libya. The only moderate state in that group is Jordan, and they've always been compliant in recognition of the Brits establishing the current Hashemite monarchy during the Sykes-Picot years, without that they'd be an irrelevant province in some other country.

Nope, what makes someone gay is, well, being gay, that doesn't matter whether you're poor or rich. But a reasonable amount of money is a factor that makes someone more likely to be 'socially aware'.

She was imagining you were Vladimir Vladimirovich- and he wouldn't care about any puny scratches. ('Scratched the **** out of me' might explain some people's intense butthurt about things Russian though...) I don't think that issue has anything significant to do with information overload type stuff, it's far more likely that most Russians just plain don't care about LGBT issues much at all, and most of those who do are anti rather than pro. Russia is both conservative and not particularly rich, the average Russian is unlikely to spend much time being a SJW on the internet because they're busy doing other things and caring about other things, don't access the internet etc. The only play it has is with regards to a 'decadent west trying to subvert brave Russia' narrative, and anything can be spun that way; though in this case it is certainly counter productive to give direct ammunition for such an interpretation. But overall social activism is very much a fundamental of being rich (relatively), bored, 'liberal' and middle class.

Buy Victoria II, install PDM, never go back to EUIV. Problem solved. Or not, as Tigranes says abstraction is inevitable and there's plenty in Vic II as well. EU is a game that unfolds over hundreds of years, if it were possible to achieve goals in fifty years people would end the game in 1500 rather than 1800 because if there's one thing that really is boring in an EU game it's having a large, unassailable empire and nothing much more to do with it. If you sweat the amount of in game time something takes it probably is not the game for you whatever else, it's simply a slow game in terms of in game time. I always found it annoying that so much of the modelling of important stuff was abstracted and that things that happened historically were effectively impossible to achieve in game, and they were typically the really big and significant ones like the Ottos conquering the Mamelukes in a couple of years and thus becoming the power in the eastern Med for two centuries or are handled by unique mechanics that don't apply elsewhere (typical for something like the Burgundy succession, though more often found in mods). There is a choice between determinism and mimicing history because it happened and a more organic approach, both have disadvantages- I still remember well in EU2 a single province Poland sacked Moscow because that is what happened historically. The whole thing is also not helped by Paradox's current obsession with catering to the 20% of their customer base that has ever played MP and balancing things for MP only (or not balancing/ testing at all), which is where the super long truces come from.

I'll let you into a secret- I'm not even slightly worried about disagreeing with you as I don't value your opinions at all. I call it trolling because telling someone they should 'appreciate'- your word- their country being bombed is trolling, plain and simple.

Not at all, you just bitter because NATO bombed some sense into Serbia. But this prevented you guys from committing even more acts of genocide. You really don't seem to appreciate what NATO did for your country, imagine what would have happened if the Bosnian war had been to allowed continue? Imagine how many additional Serbs would be facing war crimes in the Hague, trust me Sarex NATO did Serbia a favour by ending the war. It may not seem like it but NATO intervention was the best long term strategy for stability of the whole region Trolling is bad enough but telling someone who may well have had friends or relatives 'liberated, from life' by your good friends in NATO and telling them that they should be grateful for it- again, and again, no less- is bad taste at best and is- absolutely- the definition of trolling for a response. It's also boring, lazy and- sadly- utterly par for the course, for you.

Read Shirer's book (indeed, it's on the bookshelf), not sure that that will surprise too many. Lol, I know that capitalists like deflecting their wrong doings away from themselves and have to insist that nazis were socialists as a desperate crutch to hold off the inevitable tide of reality- still waiting for a defence of the capitalist utopia of drug pushing starvation ridden Raj India, btw- but what they call themselves is utterly irrelevant*. I also wouldn't describe myself as socialist (nor do I come out as one on the various political compass type tests, way too far on the libertarian scale), I just like accurate descriptions and picking holes in the arguments of True Believers. Sheesh one nazi successor state was the German Democratic Republic, so by the same logic I've just 'proved' that democracy and Republics suck hard vacuum.

Not because they regarded themselves as socialist though, it was a branding exercise entirely aimed at attractinglower socio economic people. And again, the socialist wing of the nsdap got liquidated faster than any other group. And again, Democratic People's Republic of Korea shows how what people call themselves has no relevance. No they didn't. They were opposed in some circumstances based on being authoritarian and not wanting challenges to their power, and from being a racist and supremacist ideology. They were not philosophically or practically opposed except to those they didn't like for those other reasons. A rich Jew was at risk of having his stuff seized, a rich German- so long as he didn't rock the boat- was fine and could accumulate wealth to his heart's content. (Somehow I expect I'm going to be told that authoritarianism is a fundamentally leftist tenet, Pinochet et alia be damned) There ain't a single 'capitalist' society that doesn't do that, only the extent differs. Mostly with agriculture rather than industry, but there's tons of pork barrel politics everywhere. In any case though, that was primarily to do with nazis being authoritarian and running their economy on a permanent low grade war footing than being socialist.

Meh, that's exactly right when you have people insisting that nazis were socialists because their world view demands everything evil must be socialist and everything good must be capitalist. Extremists going to extreme, and will always insist that they're not. You'd think that the nazis were redistributing wealth from Jews to poor people rather than just seizing it for themselves or selling it off to cronies and that Ferdinand Porsche et alia were just code names for collectivist communes given the way some go on. Watching dedicated -ists pat each other on the back and agree that they see things clearly is always amusing though. (Still waiting for someone to spin selling dope to China while the people growing it starve as being all due to socialism. I'll give you a hand guys- if only those Indians had worked harder and educated themselves, put themselves through college and established their own businesses they'd all have been fine...)

Oh yippee, someone who thinks the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is democratic, has to be they called it democratic NSDAP was socialist because they call themselves that, it's been at least six weeks since the last one. What next, using Vladimir Zhirinovsky's/ Russia's 'Liberal' Party as the case study in liberalism, or RSA's Conservative Party as the study in conservatism? Anyone with a skerrick, a smidge, an iota of actual knowledge not mired in deliberate ideological head-in-sand obtuseness knows that the first thing Hitler did once power was secure was liquidate the socialist arm of the NSDAP (SA/ SturmArbeitlung, Ernst Rohm et alia) in the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler hated socialists, much as with Stalin he was willing to tolerate them short term to achieve his goals but then, as with Stalin, he stuck the knife in as soon as he could. Board veterans know what is coming next: Famines perpetrated by Britain in India while pushing massive amounts of drugs to China, in the name of 'free trade'. I await with anticipation the long list of justifications for why They Just Don't Count (but inevitably things like holodomor do, because teh socilaism!!!!).

I have to admit, I find people who believe that the flaws of capitalism are all because of its imperfect implementation and that if it were perfectly implemented everything would be Great as amusing as people* who say that the flaws of communism (or any other -ism really) were all about its imperfect implementation, and that if it were perfectly implemented it would be Great. They're both circular/ sophist arguments- by those metrics any flaw has to be due to implementation, rather than being an inherent problem. The only effect is the rhetorical one that it makes the concept itself impossible to criticise (theoretically, if accepted) since any criticism is aimed at the imperfections and not the perfect concept. But it is pointless outside of rhetoric, because you can do the exact same thing for any concept, as above. *put oby on temporary hiatus and bring back Lord of Flies, just for this thread and as an illustration.

... If that's really an IMF letter I'd suggest they go back to school to learn how to write proper formal correspondence. Plus it has the most pointless redactions ever, I spent literally no time wondering who Ms X Lagarde head of the IMF and Mr Arseniy Y_k 'PM' of Ukraine were. And I see that those fine democrats in Kiev, not content with disbanding rival political parties are now moving to have 'loyalty and corruption tests' for 'government employees' (oddly enough targeting anyone suspected of being sympathetic to the Communists or PoR; sure it's a coincidence that their kleptocrats like Tymoshenko are exempt), passed after the guy who disbanded the opposition party by fiat, ex putsch 'President' Turchenov, said he wouldn't allow members to leave the Rada without it being passed. So nice to see democracy in action, purges, disbanding parties- for being 'too small'; the Communists got more votes than Svoboda so go figure- lock ins, and the complete lack of triumphalism and total focus on reconciliation. Oh, and for some odd reason the beeb et alia keep reporting that the east has been offered autonomy or devolution or something without mentioning it's for three years, rather than being permanent. Must have got some of those Polish weapons though, they're talking up the military response again, just like after the last ceasefire. 'Democratic and western orientated', roflcopters.