Zoraptor

He's actually from a post soviet country, iirc. Mor, bro, you always go to great pains to say that western media is inherently better. It isn't, because freedom of the press means nothing at all practical for the end user if the freedom is not actually used. Willingly parroting government propaganda is actually worse than parroting propaganda because you're forced to, precisely because you aren't forced to and have an at least implied duty towards balance and fairness. In equally practical terms, western media is not monolithic so you do get some who question what they are fed, and the quality is also variable depending on which issue is being examined, but on the Ukrainian issues the western media's coverage has been- in general- a rubbish laden litany of circular sourcing, acritical repeating of governmental releases and cold war style "Russian's are coming" jingoism. Nobody should be surprised that there is unrest in the east, because the west's 'democratic' revolution unseated the actually democratically elected leader they elected. The western media though, appears baffled almost to a man that it is happening because they've convinced themselves that everyone in Ukraine supported Maidan or at very least don't care enough to take action. I'm not particularly keen on getting into a pointless argument about a wholly subjective issue of which is worse with someone whose typical response to contrary views has been to accuse people of being Russian, paid shills, or conspiracy nuts though*. If it makes you feel better, simply describing both russian and western media as bad does not actually mean they're directly equivalent and equally bad, as you seem to think. It just means that neither is good. *I rather suspect a lot of that comes from being right about the predictions of the consequences of Maidan, typically the more correct you are the less cogent and more ad hominem the rebuttals become because that is all that is left. Pretty much every single prediction made by the 'conspiracy theorists' has come true- from the Russians not standing still and just taking it, to the IMF/WB/EU imposing strict austerity with gas prices etc rising and pensions collapsing, to the Ukrainian army being at very best unreliable; to the new government making stupid triumphalist decisions to appeal to its support base whatever was best for the country and the desperately needed reconciliation, handing power to their tame oligarchs, being unable to control their nationalist defence groups, and the easterners not just taking the westerners' putsch sitting down. That's an exceptionally good hit rate for people detached from reality, indeed the pro Maidan types with their road to the EU paved with gold, frankensense and myrrh have had a somewhat worse strike rate.

NOBODY IS CLAIMING THAT RUSSIAN MEDIA IS GOOD. That's the argument you wish people were making because it'd be an 'automatic win' for you and it is an absolute classic straw man, constructing the argument you wish people were making, not the one they actually are- also hence why you think everyone who doesn't agree with you is 'deflecting'. The only people saying that it's good is whoever you're arguing with in your own head. It is saying there's zero point implicitly trusting either sides' media- if you're refuting stuff/ making accusations with incorrect western propagated information it's exactly as bad as someone doing the same with Russian sourced stuff, it isn't fundamentally better just because West=good Russia=bad FACT! Indeed, it's utterly pointless getting a 'balanced' view from 'multiple sources' when they're all uncritically using exactly the same ultimate source*. How many media outlets pulled USAToday up on their mistranslation? How many didn't simply repeat it as gospel? Sadly true my fellow cantabriensis, though at least in this case it was definitely any, even if it still wasn't many and the same, incorrect, accusation was still being repeated days later. Yet it wasn't exactly difficult to actually check the facts. Use your multiple sources there and you come up with a perfectly reinforced supposedly checked yet completely incorrect view because they all go back to the same, wrong, source, and very few bothered to check because USAToday is, supposedly, proper unbiased western media. Just wrong proper unbiased media. *That's particularly ironic on a gaming forum, because one of the biggest complaints about gaming journalists is how they uncritically regurgitate press releases from games companies and other site's speculation as if it's factual news and won't dissent from PR releases because they may lose access. But when the news media does the same thing...

NJO brought the world Vergere, and thus Kreia, so we should all (except Volo who should shake his fist) be thankful for that as Star Wars was far more interesting with a bit of moral ambiguity rather than with GL's incomprehensible and arbitrary moral absolutism. The quality of the writing was wildly erratic but it did manage a reasonable number of books that were genuinely worth reading.

We aren't taking the coordinated misinformation put out about Russia as if it were remotely credible, that is however something the other side of the debate does repeatedly by accepting anything anti Russian as gospel, by default. Like (mistranslated/ misattributed) stories about anti jewish pamphlets in Donetsk- the record of the western media in terms of disinformation promulgation has been dreadfully bad, the record of anti Russians accepting it automatically because it fits preconceptions equally so. The implication that because RT may be worse in the disinformation stakes everything is peachy with western media is, well, intellectually lazy. I don't really care whether NWN OC or Oblivion is objectively the worse game, they're both terrible and everything else is degree. Seriously though, go back a few pages and see how many links to RT there are which doesn't come from oby. Go back further. See how many you can find- not many, if any, to quote the great philosopher Scribe. You're tilting at windmills.

It's not a matter of Russian media scoring higher, that's a false comparison because there's no one here saying that Russian media is good. We seem to end up at this point pretty much every time, with a lot of issues. The argument should be that the Beeb is objectively good, not just better than something which you say is dreadful. We've gone through the reasons for why people think western media coverage has been of very poor quality extensively and I cannot be bothered repeating it again, you either agree or disagree at this point- and there have been a distinct lack of RT or equivalent links in the refutation as well. For what, the failure in Iraq or getting worse? I hardly think that the failure in Iraq needs much more information- the press breathlessly reported the mobile labs, the "we know where they are" comments and the rest, did very little to counter them at all, and simply have not learned from the experience as they're doing the same thing. For the Beeb in particular they were utterly cowed by that execrable hatchet job known as the Hutton Report- a report that put maintenance in the Mediterranean region back a year it used so much whitewash- and threats of funding cuts. As for why you should trust me, there's no inherent reason to trust me at all. I don't claim to be an ultimate authority on matters and have extraordinary weight. But at the same time I've provided plenty of sources for the whys and for disputations with those claiming more authority, and not a single one has been RT or an equivalent, indeed I go out of my way to use western sources to rebut western sources precisely because it shortcuts the "OMG RT link, automatic fail" kneejerk reaction- hence mentioning Mr Beardy alleged Russian Special Forces guy being at a wedding in Slovyansk as shown on the BBC itself. I just wish I could find a short circuit for the "BBC/ CNN says something so it's automatically true" kneejerk reaction as well.

'Cross checking sources' is utterly useless if all the articles, ultimately, have the same source. That's why "US spokesman says" articles are exactly as useless as "Russian spokesman says" articles from the other side, and the current horrific trend of asking 'random' people on the street for their opinions and giving them inordinate weight. I can cite dozens of articles saying that Russian jets invaded Ukrainian airspace for example- and they all have exactly the same source: "US/ Ukrainian spokesman says", full stop. There is no proof, there isn't even any evidence offered, beyond the raw statement. No times, no places, nothing. It's unprovable, and it relies entirely on 'trust us' for any weight. It is understandable that they don't offer anything else at this point as they have had a pretty appalling strike rate with anything and everything refutable- the beardy man pictures, who I see popped up again on the Beeb at a wedding, plus the incorrectly translated anti Jew letters in Donetsk just over the last few days- almost certainly because they're taking whatever Kiev says at face value, and quite possibly because they know that even if they chuck false stuff out there it'll be parroted blithely and most people won't ever see any corrections that may be made. That is, essentially, exactly what happened with the WMD issue as well, they had a very bad strike rate with anything involving concrete evidence and refutable stuff (like the plagiarising from a public record Master's Thesis) but got better results the more vague and "trust us, we know where the WMDs are" they were- and the media tended to do the classic circle jerk where because other media outlets report whatever "US spokesman says" it gets an inordinate amount of weight because they point at each other as reinforcement. And, as we know now, they had a truly appalling accuracy when relying acritically on tame sources which said what they wanted to hear. The western press failed hopelessly with Iraq, and it's only got worse since then.

Yeah, can't be too sympathetic with the observers- sending a team which is almost all NATO (and one token 'neutral'- ha ha, very funny- Swede) and a bunch of Ukrainian Army Officers into rebel held territory is an... odd decision, if you actually wanted to avoid provocation. I can't imagine Ukraine allowing Russians under the OSCE banner into their areas. Still, maybe they'll be able to do a swap for some of the many political prisoners the non democratic self appointed coup rump junta regime etc etc government are currently holding so something good can come from it. And I'd bet the reported Russian overflights of Ukrainain territory, about which no info has been provided, are over Crimea. That's exactly the sort of pseudo fact I've come to expect from the western propaganda machine. I also note, with little surprise, that the person who took one of the critical 'proof of Russian troop presence' photos has confirmed it was taken in Ukraine and not Russia as Ukraine and their buddies have claimed, and that he was neither asked for permission to use it or asked where it was taken.

What will get people upset is that SW was just about unique in that just about everything (excluding, ironically given what the current press release says about referencing 80's stuff, Marvel's previous comic run replete with giant anthropomorphic rabbits and spandex budgie smuggler wearing pirates) was considered canon unless contradicted by the films and there was no Star Trek or comic like reboot system. Plus, I don't think there's much confidence at all that whatever replaces the current EU will actually be better, despite quite a lot of the current crop being not the highest quality.

I always preferred the Vintorez because it's far more flexible than the SVD, usable as a sniper rifle (never had much problem with bullet drop either, if you're not of a bullets=laser beams mindset from the outset it isn't much of an adjustment) and in close quarters, plus it is lighter and easier handling. The second is less important in CoP where there's generally less close stuff, but if I'd had an SVD for the brian scorcher or Chernobyl assaults in SoC instead of a Vintorez I'd have run out of bullets- I used a G36, Groza/5.45 and Vintorez to cover the three common high damage bullet types. The thought of trying to use a big sniper rifle in close quarters even as a last resort does not appeal. Even in SoC the SVD did have some good uses though such as the Red Forest road, and it was pretty useful in most of CS and CoP since they had less general emphasis on confined spaces.

While I generally try to avoid most of the SJW trollbaiting stuff on principle bad statistics are without any doubt far far worse than no statistics at all. No statistics give no authority whatsoever so people can make their own minds up, right or wrong, bad statistics give the wrong impression and give that wrong impression a sense of authority it does not deserve.

As Socrates* (iirc) once said: If you insist that people should not use the term bossy are you being bossy yourself? : philosoraptor : Evidence suggests that that is the last thing the US wants- after all, the self appointed non democratic coup putsch junta etcetc regime has (re)commenced their "anti terror" operations the day following visits by the CIA chief and Joe Biden. Hardly seems that they have been urging restraint... *Could have been Zico or even Pele, not sure

It's just a theory, in that case literally just a theory, it's a hypothesis to fit a base observation. There are any number of other explanations for why we haven't been contacted by (or detected) Greys- eg we've only been broadcasting detectably for a century or so, plus the more planets we find the less interest anyone else would have in ours and in making contact with us (Terra_Sol_3 registering on the equivalent of intergalactic twitter has little impact if there are 5 million other users who've all upgraded past the gauche noobness of using EM waves, and are heartily sick of each any every new user thinking they're super special, and nobody will tramp light years across the galaxy to grab our planet if there are plenty of easy access alternatives nearby). Funny though, I always rather suspected someone from Bioware was familiar with it as The Reapers from Mass Effect were a Great Filter, just one placed after the event of interstellar travel.

Bruce is far more likely to be Oby than Mor is, since the shtick is pretty much the same- find topic(s) that generate butthurt and that people cannot resist, then try replacing the haemorrhoid cream with linament*. "Deflections" is just shoving anything that challenges one's set beliefs no matter what into a nice big safe box with a big "irrelevant" label on it, then burying it. Far easier than reading or trying to understand, no need to consider than you're wrong or that your side may not be squeaky clean and you can keep repeating things as if they haven't been rebutted multiple times with a renewed sense of moral superiority for being on the side of right. *And it looks like I generated some butthurt without trolling once :smug:

How are you supposed to judge from that pic anyway, you can't even tell if her elbows are too pointy. (looks like she's had some ME3 type Ashley-isation, and a lot less like BG2 Imoen. Do I care? not really)

That really isn't very good at all. Why? Well, this article from the Beeb does exactly the same thing that they complain about, at such an almost exact point for point level that I'm not sure it isn't actually an Onion hijack. Article 1: vague unidentifiable uniforms == Blackwater, don't make me laugh! Article 2: vague unidentifiable uniforms == Russians, yes, a sage point! Article 1: NATO weapons used == clear propaganda statement! Article 2: look at all the Russian weapons! Russian weapons! Yes, so the asterisking Taleban, the Ukrainian military and every tinpot revolutionary in the world uses AKs (and Dragunovs too, for the better funded), but still, Russian weapons! Article 1: crisp $100 notes and Yarosh's business card, clear set up (well, yes, far too convenient, but...) Article 2: A group called the "Sabotage reconnaissance group" of the "Russian Intelligence Directorate" takes group photos with identifiable individuals. Know how many identifiable pictures there are of serving New Zealand SAS officers on the internet, let alone group photos? Zero. Because covert ops groups do not take group photos and post them on the internet- much like the other Ukrainian agitprop in a similar vein, finding ID cards with (poor Russian syntax and) Occupation: Spy written on them. Who would have thought it though, ZZ Top was a Russian front group. Or maybe it's Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart from the Hart Foundation? Article 1: Russians make ludicrous nazi accusations and allege that fake flyers handed out- in an article just after actual fake fliers were handed out in the east, complete with widely reported 'accidental' translation error making them appear to be legit? And somehow the BBC article still manages to spin that anti Russian too. Article 1: Russians claim sacrilege. Yes, and Ukrainians claim they'll win because 'God is on their side' and that Russians are evil. And yes, the Beeb did report on that as well, though Mr Ennis seems to have missed it. Yeah, the Russians are using propaganda, but it most definitively ain't like the other side aren't. I eagerly await Mr Ennis's balance providing follow up articles, which I am sure will follow.

Not really- the estimates of those Stalin killed were massively over what the documents say and have been revised down hugely following release of documents. See this, from the author of Bloodlands (a pretty rubbish book, but he cannot be accused of being pro Russian). That leaves the rather odd situation of having a (supposedly) monolithic academic establishment putting Stalin high on its love in lists while simultaneously having him be 10x+ the mass murderer he actually was. It's almost like they aren't quite as monolithic as they're made out to be. Besides, FDR does very well on non academic based public opinion lists as well.

He's leader of the Liberal Democrat Party (of Russia, he's not Nick Clegg's alter ego; rather a bizarre name considering they are whacked out detached from reality ultra nationalists). It's similar to how in the Westminster system you'll usually have speaker from the ruling party and deputy(-ies) from the smaller parties.

To illustrate that point, the troops that lost the APCs rather publicly a few days ago were paratroopers, about as close to elite soldiers as Ukraine has and they ought to be the most reliable too- that, presumably, is why they were sent into a difficult situation. It's the same problem Yanukovich had, despite all the 'anti terrorist' rhetoric the soldiers know they'd be fighting their own countrymen and in some cases their own comrades, and simply (and sensibly) don't want to. OTOH, the government probably could rely at least theoretically on some of the armed militias, though sending them in would be at very best a double edged sword since one of the big rallying points for the separatists is fear and dislike of the Right Sector types.

Yeah, and quantum mechanics has stuff with mass moving instantaneously/ faster than light as well. That's one of the reasons I dislike physics, they have all these theoretically immutable laws but if you look closer they tend to be more advisories than actual laws. Stuff cannot travel faster than light (and neither can we), except, of course, when it does. 'Blah' is a constant, except when it isn't. 'X' doesn't fit our models, so we'll just make something up to fix it. Physicists, truly the tarot readers and old gypsy ladies of science.

What always confuses me about light speed is how the observable universe can be 46 billion light years across but only 14 billion light years old. Where does the extra 18 billion ly diameter of the universe come from if light speed cannot be passed?

Yeah, could write a point by point but meh, it'd end in a pointless back and forwards, so I'll deal with only a couple of points only. Besides, what is or is not a great power is a peripheral issue anyway. While not directed at me this question illustrates perfectly why it isn't economy uber alles. The USSR did not collapse primarily due to economic factors, it collapsed because Gorbachev was a decent guy who took the lid off the pressure cooker and initially lacked the will and eventually lacked the power to deal with what came out. If it had not been Gorby but had been Stalin, or even Putin, then the USSR would not have collapsed because they would have had the will and ability to hold it together whatever the economy. Personally I'm glad it was Gorby, and he bears no responsibility for the execrable incompetence of his successor- the worst leader of any major country in the past fifty years with daylight in places 2-10, a drunken incompetent sot fondly remembered in the west precisely because he ran his country into the ground. We probably wouldn't even have the mess in Ukraine if Boris had been competent, Kravchuk was happy enough for Crimea to go to Russia prior to the USSR's dissolution and Yeltsin said no. Really bro, that is exactly what they have been doing the past 5+ years because that is exactly what 'quantitative easing'- printing money- is. The US can get away with that to a greater extent than others because it is the reserve currency, but that is what they are doing. Try telling anyone with savings that their money has not been inflated away when they've been getting zero percent interest for five years. Point is, the whole system on which western economics is based seized up when one bank went bust five years ago, and has not been fixed. It's a horrible, unbalanced system that currently favours lunatic bubble economics like buying properties in London with no intention of living in them or even renting them because other speculators push the price up 20% p/a, instead of the former lunatic economic bubbles of loaning money to people who have no hope of ever paying it back and relying on eternal property price increases to recoup the principal from a mortgagee sale- because both of those rely on mythical, eternal property price increases. Banks are still too big to fail, they just know now that they can take risks for profit, safe in the knowledge that Joe Taxpayer will bail them out. It's a classic pyramid scheme, and like all such things it will inevitably implode spectacularly at some point under its own weight.

Yeah, Russia knows the separatists are not going to trust the westerners/ coup government in any case, since they reneged on the deals made during the February crisis including those involving EU mediation- before the ink had dried, even. And Russia won't genuinely pressure them to, as the separatists ignoring their pleas plays right into their "we're not involved, honest!" hand. Massive diplomatic victory for Russia, as with Syria, and the US at least knows it by shouting about more sanctions from the rooftops to try and make tough prior to the mid terms. The only bright spot for the Kiev government is that they now have an excuse to avoid further embarrassment and abject failure from their 'anti terror' operations.

And for anyone who read that article earlier they have now fixed a rather significant, but assuredly completely accidental 'translation error' where they originally had the Donetsk Republich leader admitting his group was behind it- when he actually said the exact opposite and it was distributed under his organisation's name but was not authored by them. Still, I'm sure it was an honest mistake. (To be fair, at least they did fix it, more than we'll get from certain other parties who leapt on it like a Pavlovian conditioned Kangaroo expecting a tasty morsel.)

I rather like the combat in the Stalker games, hits a sweet spot between the autism of OpFlash/ Arma and the pewpewplinkplink of most other shooters. Never had a problem quickly dropping mooks with headshots either. On the other hand I really didn't like aspects of CoP, not least that I ended up with a Vintorez and plenty of ammo very quickly whereas achieving decent kit was a long but ultimately rewarding experience in SoC it felt like the stuff was handed out like lollies in CoP. Plus, for some reason they stopped doing the extremely atmospheric and utterly awesome underground levels like the X labs after SoC, and that was very disappointing. grrrrrr Seriously bro, use a real names mod. I beg of you.

The essence of butthurt is taking something oh so very seriously, and oh so very personally. That's a bit harsh, I'm sure the argument would be that the EU wouldn't be foreign once they'd joined- though the domination part is pretty accurate... Meh, at least the easterners don't want to force the western parts into a union with Russia that they don't want and only want the right to do so themselves, which puts them a step above the westerners. Who don't have the same consideration when forcing their eastern brethren into an EU process that they don't want. No, at least on the illegal part. The ICJ judgement on Kosovo established that it is not illegal to outright secede under the complete military occupation of an external power. And while it would be nice if '(un)ethical' meant anything in politics, it doesn't.