Zoraptor

Social media accounts are and should always be suspect anyway. In this case it's pretty clearly confirmation bias but in general principle taking stuff from social media as a good source is distinctly flawed. Too easy to manipulate if you have any knowledge of propaganda techniques, too frequently no way to verify who is actually giving the information let alone the info itself. I find the supposed intercepted messages rather... suspicious. Ukraine- and more tellingly, the US- got totally blindsided over the annexation of Crimea because they could not intercept Russian messages, but now they suddenly can? If Russia is actually running agents in Ukraine they certainly won't be doing so en clair, they'll either be encrypting out the wazoo or using other techniques. The editorialisation (X talking to 'unknown terrorist') doesn't help either. Similar thing happened in Georgia as well, conveniently selective ability to intercept military messages, and in that case the 'independent' observers (OSCE) said that the supposed message did not reflect reality even if it were legitimate. Too early to tell who was involved anyway. All the planes the rebels have shot down have been at far lower altitude and it's unclear whether the rebels even have to capability to hit at that altitude- an advanced SAM system is a far different kettle of fish to a shoulder mounted SAM or activating/ using mothballed tanks, even if the rebels had a Buk there's a fair chance they couldn't operate it or maintain it- and if it were run by Russians then... Both the Russians and Ukrainians should be able to tell the difference between a civilian airliner and a military one, even if the Ukrainians have form for not being able to. And I find it difficult to credit that the Ukrainians were after Putin even if it has some logic behind it (it would explain why a civilian transponder warning might be ignored) as that would be utter suicide and I find it difficult to credit that even their current leadership is that delusional.

Against the rules of war too, viz collective punishment "Article 33. No persons may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against persons and their property are prohibited." The whole GCIV wikipedia article is worth a read actually, since it makes it pretty obvious that Israel is not following its provisions much at all. Also the bombing policy is pretty dumb because they claim too much accuracy, and those things always end up with massive holes after meeting reality. We already had a bunch of people with cerebral palsy getting blown up because someone from Islamic Jihad supposedly lived in the building 3+ years ago and groups of militant Hamas operatives who were actually 10 year olds getting blown up on the beach in front of international journalists, too many of those (and assuming they actually get reported) and the whole narrative falls apart rapidly.

Praying is probably more constructive than some of the approaches tried. If the US and Europe really wanted things fixed they'd put sufficient pressure, including sanctions and arms embargoes on Israel, if the arabs/ muslims really wanted it fixed they'd put sufficient and similar pressure on from the other side; and things would be fixed, so far as they could be fixed. Instead you have Obama, Cameron et al tacitly/ openly supporting Bibi and Saudi, Qatar and Iran tacitly/ openly supporting the Palestinians, so both sides think they can win by fighting which actively prolong things and make them worse. At least praying won't make things worse. Besides, there's nothing genuinely constructive any particular random internet person can do.

That's the big thing, the tendency to end up saying stuff you don't intend to. Certainly not just a Bioware problem though, it's a more general dialogue wheel problem as it happened in Alpha Protocol a couple of times. But it is less with full sentence options.

Good game overall, actually found Argentina rather more entertaining than Germany for most of the match. The best team of the tournament won in the end though. Also, the officiating was pretty good overall for a change. Rather annoyed that the start time wasn't the same as the other matches even if I only ended up missing five minutes. And yeah, Messi wasn't player of the tournament. He was very well marked in most of the elimination matches so didn't get many opportunities, but that final free kick really summed it up overall, lots of promise then 5m over the bar.

Yeah. The crowd certainly seemed to be more angry with their own team losing than with the other team beating them, in both the semi and play off they appreciated the other team's play. Can't say that of all crowds. Not sure what the reaction would have been if they'd handed out 4th place medals though, I suspect the burst of booing when Blatter appeared would have been a drop in a thunderstorm in comparison. On one hand I feel a bit sorry for the Brazil team because there may have been inflated expectations, but on the other... the didn't play at all well in either the last two games and worse, at times they looked like they weren't even trying.

Sure you do. Plenty of crappy games with >87 on metacritic. Subjectively crappy, but then if someone says why they (dis)like something you are going to get subjectivity, key is to accept that people may quite genuinely dislike stuff that others like. He gave the reasons for disliking it, that's all that can be asked even if you disagree. I thought Halflife was pretty rubbish, and it got more than 87, for example. Can't convince me it was actually great by citing what its metacritic score, either critic or popular, was or even by saying what you liked about it, any more than you could do so for CoD: Iteration or Bioshock 2. (Have no opinion on DivOS, have to wait for the patching to slow as I'll have to borrow some bandwidth from friendly urban type peoples to get it)

By misleading you mean "they don't show what you want". The statistics themselves simply are what they are and you were happy enough to use them when you thought they showed what you wanted, that they don't actually show what you want is unfortunate, for you, but that's all. There are very good reasons for using stats and maps with properly defined regions; it's far more rigorous and objective than appeal to emotion and what any person wishes was true. If you run around arbitrarily defining demographic areas based on particular agenda you can 'prove' just about anything you want, right down to the Armenian family down the road having an ethnic majority in their area, so 32 Jones Street shall now be known as the Republic of Armenia Really Minor heretofore. Easy, I wouldn't have a partition.

Yep. In PST I would have dispensed with the emo chick with daddy issues and an identity crisis, the emo demon with an identity crisis, the emo gith who was a creepy stalker and had an identity crisis, the emo burning guy who was just a guy who was on fire but at least didn't really have an identity crisis possibly because there was no rain in Sigil but small mercies, the emo robot (!) with an identity crisis, the emo suit of armour who you could actually kill with an identity crisis. And they're all co dependent on TNO, to boot. In MotB I would have dispensed with the bald emo chick with parental issues and an identity crisis, the faaaabulous emo bear with an identity crisis and issues with being a parental figure, the goth guy with an identity crisis and parental issues, the emo celestial with parental issues and an identity crisis and the burning hungry guy who was just a hungry guy but at least seemed relatively comfortable in his identity oh god he manifested as various entities including a child there's identity and parental issues there as well burn it with fire. In Kotor2 I would have killed everyone who was emo and had an identity crisis. Barring returning Bioware characters that leaves... Kreia, maybe? Though she may or may not have had issues with her identity of being a parent, so I guess she has to go out the airlock too.

You cannot simultaneously promise the same land to two peoples for their state, that isn't how states work and is exactly how wars start, because both believe they own it. The sole exclusion to the arab promise was stated explicitly as Lebanon, not Palestine. Palestine in toto was clearly included under the putative arab land. It's only later that Britain decided promising the same land to someone else was a good idea to get their support vs Johnny Turk. The Balfour Declaration validating Israel's claims de jure is and always has been a load of rubbish, because the prior claims of 90% of the population had already been explicitly acknowledged and never expunged. While it isn't Israel's fault that Britain did the equivalent of selling the same house to two different buyers it most certainly ain't the fault of the original buyer, and habitual occupant, the Palestinians. And because I believe in enlightening thoroughly plus it should help anyone who cannot be bothered wikiing the stats... Land ownership of Palestine in 1945 by district District Sub-district Arab-owned Jewish-owned Public / other Haifa Haifa 42% 35% 23% Galilee Acre 87% 3% 10% Beisan 44% 34% 22% Nazareth 52% 28% 20% Safad 68% 18% 14% Tiberias 51% 38% 11% Lydda Jaffa 47% 39% 14% Ramle 77% 14% 9% Samaria Jenin 84% <1% 16% Nablus 87% <1% 13% Tulkarm 78% 17% 5% Jerusalem Hebron 96% <1% 4% Jerusalem 84% 2% 14% Ramallah 99% <1% 1% Gaza Beersheba 15% <1% 85% Gaza 75% 4% 21% Here's the percentage ownerships, from the same ultimate source Gromnir's map came from. Again, it's not majority ownership 'in many areas', indeed, not a majority in any actually defined area*- including the area defined by proposed partition Israel. Indeed indeedy, while Gromnir is careful to explain that not all the non coloured land on his map is arab owned he doesn't explain that not all the coloured land are Jewish owned either, the dotted pink appearing zones are actually state owned, just leased by Jews. So, the 'many areas' of Jewish majority are one single area, taken across both demographics and land ownership. The areas of majority Arab population are all except Jaffa, the areas of majority arab ownership (excluding state land, otherwise some are pluralities but then the Jewish share dilutes further too) are, well, every single district. And really, that's about as definitive as the subject gets. Demographics of Palestine in 1945 by district District Sub-District Muslim Percentage Jewish Percentage Christian Percentage Total Haifa Haifa 95,970 38% 119,020 47% 33,710 13% 253,450 Galilee Acre 51,130 69% 3,030 4% 11,800 16% 73,600 Beisan 16,660 67% 7,590 30% 680 3% 24,950 Nazareth 30,160 60% 7,980 16% 11,770 24% 49,910 Safad 47,310 83% 7,170 13% 1,630 3% 56,970 Tiberias 23,940 58% 13,640 33% 2,470 6% 41,470 Lydda Jaffa 95,980 24% 295,160 72% 17,790 4% 409,290 Ramle 95,590 71% 31,590 24% 5,840 4% 134,030 Samaria Jenin 60,000 98% negligible <1% 1,210 2% 61,210 Nablus 92,810 98% negligible <1% 1,560 2% 94,600 Tulkarm 76,460 82% 16,180 17% 380 1% 93,220 Jerusalem Hebron 92,640 99% 300 <1% 170 <1% 93,120 Jerusalem 104,460 41% 102,520 40% 46,130 18% 253,270 Ramallah 40,520 83% negligible <1% 8,410 17% 48,930 Gaza Beersheba 6,270 90% 510 7% 210 3% 7,000 Gaza 145,700 97% 3,540 2% 1,300 1% 150,540 Total 1,076,780 58% 608,230 33% 145,060 9% 1,845,560 (Will the tables copy across properly, I wait with bated breath... No, but I really cannot be bothered pnging them.) *The only way to get Jewish majority 'areas' is to do exactly the sort of things that gives Estonia and Latvia and Ukraine heart attacks when done to them, ie arbitrarily define said 'areas' based solely on the criterion of ethnicity.

If it makes you feel any better/worse, literally moments after the Hand of God goal, Diego Maradona scored the Goal of the Century. The real goal of the century was Michael Thomas for Arsenal vs Liverpool in 1989. Not some fancy schmancy showboating by Diego 'smellybum' Maradona.

This will probably be the first time I'll be supporting the Germans and not with much if any regret about doing so*. While Argentina were dire the Dutch were pretty much identical and played most of their previous two games with 6 defenders. They both lost, but at least Brazil lost in an entertaining fashion. *Plus, I'm still butthurt by proxy about the 'Hand of God'.

It should also be explicitly noted that the British promised Palestine to the Arabs as well, and previous, to promising it to the Jews, in order to incite the arabs to rise up against the Ottomans- the McMahon Hussein correspondence mentioned in the wiki article. The only bit that wasn't promised to them is modern Lebanon. Though the thought of France deciding to have Lebanon be a Jewish Homeland is possibly the only thing that would be more potentially combustible than what we have now, given Lebanon's religious mix. So everything about it being promised to the Jews is also applicable to the Arabs as well, and previous. The wikipedia entry for Mandate Palestine is also pretty decent for giving background to Israel's creation, and has some useful tables about half way through that summarise land ownership/ demographics etc.

Don't think I've seen anyone say that Hamas is strong at this point. 18 months ago, maybe- potentially- when they had the MB in power in Egypt, but not now. There's even semi serious discussion about whether Israel should not escalate further because Hamas is so shaky, and what may replace them may be worse. As for the situation in Syria, Hamas was pretty influential among the palestinian population there, indeed one of the major battlegrounds has been the Yarmouk refugee camp- where Meshaal, the Hamas head used to be based. Yes, actually it is. Journalists quoting an interested party's spin doesn't convert that propaganda to truth, it remains propaganda- indeed propaganda is almost impossible without repetition from the media since it requires dissemination of the information to its receptive and acritical targets. I'm a generous guy, so I'll help you out as to why*. By default Khdeir is innocent, so him claiming to have been a bystander must be disproven. The beating accusation has close to incontrovertible video and physical evidence. In contrast, while the Israeli Police say he had a slingshot on him and was wearing a mask and was part of a group etc etc there's no evidence of that being true and he has not been charged where actual evidence as opposed to unsubstantiated accusations actually counts, ie in a court of law, despite, supposedly, being caught bang to rights. Until such time as he is charged it is propaganda- spreading of rumours to discredit another party- because the police got caught doing what is deeply embarrassing (but widely rumoured to be standard practice, indeed, relatively mild compared to some responses, Israel stated that those two were part of an active riot and that they had not used live fire prior to the video's release, so also have a recent history of using outright lies as a protective screen to brutality) and they want to blame the victim for being beaten senseless. Which is perfectly sensible from a PR point of view and happens all the time, but it is most definitively propaganda. And really, 'X is too stupid to live' justifications are just so... ridiculous, because you can hammer that into any rhetorical tool you want. The three Israeli teenagers were too stupid to live, hitch hiking on the West Bank and getting into a vehicle with a stranger, knowing that a lot of palestinians on the WB hate them! 1080p rolleyes x100. She was asking for it, wearing that short skirt in that part of town. 1080p rolleyes x100. It's a fundamentally assinine and intrinsically cretinous construct designed to protect the argument's maker from having to defend their own preconceptions when they are challenged, nothing more. *Aye, 'tis ever a thankless task.

Oh Bruce you're too modest, nobody could claim your crown! So as well as an amateur earthquake expert who doesn't know the difference between Mercalli and magnitude moment, you're a lawyer who doesn't know presumption of innocence? (Un)Fortunately it's actually irrelevant, quite apart from said presumption of innocence which tellingly you give to the settlers but not the youth, the US kid not only strenuously denies any involvement but is yet to be charged with any crime and that despite supposedly, per the Israeli propaganda, throwing molotovs and being armed with knives. OTOH, some of the Jewish Nationalists have confessed, and even re-enacted beating the kid and setting him on fire while still alive. Only open question is whether some of those who confessed were my relatives. Hamas and Iran are actively fighting each other in Syria, one of the reasons why Hamas had to make their deal with the PLO was due to them losing all their friends- except, of course, the ones no one talks about in polite circles, those in Riyadh, Manama, Dubai and Qatar. They're fighting Assad and Iran in Syria and the new army gauleiter in Egypt hates Hamas more than the old air force gauleiter ever did, as they're too similar to the Muslim Brotherhood people he's busy getting his appointed judiciary to liquidate en masse and apparently were running Egypt from Gaza to boot.

Yeah, the difference is that while Zuniga's challenge looked quite bad- albeit on repeated slow motion replays, which tend to make everything look bad- it was the sort of thing that does happen all the time in football and usually without significant adverse effect. It's the equivalent of a sprigs up challenge or flappy elbow aerial challenges, they happen multiple times a game but don't usually result in broken legs/ noses and are not necessarily a sign of an attempt to injure, but may be simply reckless- or even so far as purely accidental, I've certainly elbowed one of my team mates in the head when playing football and that certainly wasn't deliberate. I've also accidentally kneed someone in the back playing rugby under circumstances that would have probably looked quite deliberate if there had been replays. Biting someone though is an absolutely deliberate act that simply cannot be accidental under the circumstances Suarez committed it- and it was his third offence.

It's NWNOC that is a dsigarce and evil, and that's pure FACT! r00fles! Personally I couldn't care less about sexual orientation in games or real life, but it is frequently cited as a sign of Bioware's decline, along with increased emphasis on romances in general. Don't really care about romances of any type, except in that they're usually poorly executed.

Don't know about fun and entertaining, I'd probably describe it as an absorbing tactical battle or similar, but CRC most certainly weren't under any obligation to do anything other than play to their strengths and play to a plan that maximised their chances of winning, which is exactly what they did. Doing otherwise would be stupid. They played well, beat several far more fancied teams over the course of the tournament and did their best to beat the dutch as well, all by playing to their strengths. Good on them for doing so, it's one of if not the main reasons they did do better than England, Italy and Uruguay.

Yeah, EA forced Bioware to make KOTOR/ JE for consoles and do dlc for NWN and make NWNOC an utter disgrace and have bisexuals in Jade Empire (and tried to have Juhani as well), all before EA even bought them. If there's one accusation that is outright ludicrous it's that EA forced any of that stuff on Bioware. Greg and Ray were perfectly able to do all the usual cliché bad stuff perfectly fine with not a whit of input from EA. There never were the Good Doctors, bravely fighting for Incline against Decline. That's outright myth. Personally, I consider the NWN-KOTOR-JE era to be by far Bioware's worst, and that was pure Good Doctors. Or maybe EA are just so evil they travel back in time to retroactively afflict companies with teh suck?

Being one of the creators of the Pop Demand Mod (only found that because of a twitter response to one alanschu) for Victoria 2 means that Dave Gaider is and always will be Awesome in my book. Really though, there's some truly terrible writing in video games and while Bioware has some hiccups they're far, far, far from the worst- unless you're worried about being infected with the gay or general liberalism or something, and I'm reliably informed you can't catch either by osmosis.

There are plenty of pictures of current phase insurgents/ rebels with tanks in both Syria and Iraq- not many tanks, but that's what would be expected since they aren't buying them. They're most likely out and out prizes from captured bases rather than refurbs, but in both cases (and Ukraine for that matter) there have been significant defections from the formal armed forces so there will be people with repair and maintenance experience. ISIS in Iraq wasn't using tanks much because they were moving so fast and that is their main advantage, apart from the general incompetence of the Iraqi Army. For genuine insurgents knocking out tanks is more psychological than anything, they aren't looking to win in a conventional 'destroy the enemies army' sense, they're aiming to make the whole process too expensive in all senses for it to be maintained. Taking a tank or a plane out is saying that no one is safe despite any technological advantages, to both the enemy and to your own side. The 'Invulnerable Abrams' myth being dispelled on live TV was a great fillip for insurgent morale in Iraq, even if realists on both sides knew the Abrams was never invulnerable and militarily it meant little.

Vega's big problems are that he wasn't in the earlier games so didn't get any following there and is used largely as an intro/ info dump for new players as he doesn't know the rest of the team/ wasn't part of the action of the past games. As a consequence he was just kind of there, not good, not bad, slightly cliche but not offensively so. His voice acting was decent enough though.

Such scepticism and cynicism! CDPR is bringing their gamer friendly attitude to the MOBA genre, the game is not pay-to-win, they said so! Despite avoiding MOBAs like the plague I'm sure that's totally different from the usual attitude!

Good news, everybody! New Witcher game announced, and apparently due in 2014! At least I now actually know what MOBA stands for, I couldn't quite force "Inexplicably popular genre that I have zero interest in" into the acronym. I have to admit I do rather like the concept art banner though.

While Dragon Age lore is highly derivative (though honestly, what RPG isn't at this stage?) it isn't especially derivative of ASoIaF- which is itself derivative and based on various historical incidences, minus the supernatural stuff. There's a lot of Tolkien and other borrowing going on as well, so stuff like genlocks/ hurlocks being generated from different races is exactly the same as Melkor generating Trolls and Orcs from Ents and Elves. Sames true for TWitchers, lots of real world and standard fantasy tropes there, and TWitchers are thematically a whole lot more similar to ASoIaF/ GoT than Dragon Age is, if only for the decidedly non PG13 approach taken. Then again, I do tend to roll my eyes slightly at the fleurs-de-lys or Polish Crests in Twitchers, while most people simply wouldn't recognise their historical context. Oh, and zee uxcent fransays on the person from Beauclair, maker of fine wines...