Zoraptor

Science isn't faith based. It doesn't matter if you don't believe in gravity, because gravity believes in you. On the other hand, there's this thing floating around in space, you can notice its effects but you cannot observe it directly. Two groups of people believe in its existence.

There is plenty of stuff in the Koran that can be used to justify violence- it's a product of its time and Muhammad was a miltary as well as spiritual leader. Then again, plenty of people use the Bible as justification for violence and that's (NT at least) about a guy with mottos like "turn the other cheek" "love thy neighbour" and "render unto Caesar". Basically people like to dress up their power fantasies in some sort of 'legitimacy', be it religious, nationalist or a UNSC and will do so irrespective of the actual intention by seizing on the bits that support what they want supported.

The Pakistanis can just blame it all on Musharraf who is already loathed by much of Pakistan. I don't think there's much goodwill amongst Pakistanis in general towards either the US or their own government to be lost in any case.

Yeah, it's there for both, I forgot that you had to select a sound card first. Selected sb16 and its irqs/dmas etc and the option for a Roland came up. I can't guarantee that the option will actually work in practice though as I've only ever used the default dosbox set up. But the manual install files do all seem to be there and working.

The install files are there- I can screenshot what you get if it would be helpful. Note though, when I ran setup.exe the Roland was NOT listed as a sound card option. Not tested on the steam version but as Nightshape said, all the re-release xcom versions available are identical. That's also why them not being on GoG is so weird.

Not Sandy Bridge, it's out already. I think it's the next iteration (Ivy Bridge) that is using the smaller size, at least according to wiki. Not 100% sure but I think ARM may already have a 22nm chip released, as they're big on the energy saving side.

The dog story was on here, and was sourced from a main US TV network news- ABC, I think. Might have been slightly different from ~Di's one though as it had the dog and handler parachuting rather than rapelling from a chopper.

I think your Walsingham alt may be getting a bit tired Monte, time to retire him.

Yeah, early c2ds are easy to overclock. My e6400 is slower at stock than an e6600 and I've run it at 3GHz. Didn't make much practical difference, then again at the time I had a very weak graphics card I was trying to compensate for which was probably the main bottleneck.

I always thought the mage Triss was talking to in the mirror in the chapter 2->3 transition in TW1 was Eilhart, but she was blonde. They might have been using a generic high class hooker model rather than a unique one perhaps.

I was answering what the ultimate practical result of antimatter research would be- why it could have as much use in future as a mile highway, if you like. I agree that there's little realistic chance of anyone driving antimatter powered cars anytime soon but if you don't have a particular (hoho) interest in the subject there isn't really any great reason to care other than the potential to get an excellent energy source further down the road. Personally, I think (as with most knowledge) it's interesting for its own sake and because it has the potential to explain interesting theoretical questions, but I'd have difficulty going beyond that in explaining why anyone else should really be concerned about it.

Any advance on "it's OK when we do it because we're the good guys" No? Didn't think so. Wasn't expecting anything else, haven't been disappointed.

Theoretically and in brief? Matter and antimatter annihilate each other releasing a lot of energy- far more than fission/ fusion do- and it would be an excellent energy source. There's also a bunch of theoretical stuff around exactly why matter exists but antimatter (largely) doesn't.

It is technically illegal to either order a physical copy or buy a refused classification game from overseas; or anything else requiring classification that has been refused for that matter. Until the Great Firewall of Australia comes online just isn't a way to enforce it. But that is why some DD outlets (Steam) will autoconvert uncensored games to censored based on IP, and irrespective of which version was actually purchased.

Doesn't answer the question, unless you're saying that while the Fallujani were (all) jihadists* (and thus Got Wot They Deserved) the Chechens weren't and didn't. Strip out the rather obvious hyperbole and the question comes down to: Why is the US use of MLRS/ Shake 'n' Bake/ Bombing etc in Fallujah OK, yet the Russkies doing the same in Grozny is not? I ain't really expecting an answer anyway, I'm just amused by the double standards from the Moral Clarity brigade. *they weren't, Fallujah was such a hot spot because the US killed a bunch of people there under very dubious circumstances about as soon as they arrived, and it all went downhill from there.

That the wife was used as a human shield has been debunked, some time ago and by none less than the White House itself.

Well, since you brought up Chechnya elsewhere a nice explanation of why Chechnya/ Grozny = horrible crime against humanity by bestial russian savages while Iraq/ Fallujah = wonderful restrained terrorism fighting by apple pie eating blue eyed liberators which doesn't rely on some sort of "it's OK that we did it, we're the good guys" as a justification might be in order.

Do we really need another discussion on the difference between shipped (sold in) figures and sold through figures? No Ryu, you don't owe your friend a copy of ME3 as for all anyone knows up to a million out of those 2 million DA2s are sitting in inventory or on store shelves gathering dust and haven't actually sold.

Monte hammering a "libtards and hippies KEEP OUT" sign on the treehouse is hardly the most conducive thing for rational reactions either. I do agree with numbersman on most 'targeted killings' as they are often based on flimsy intelligence and have the worst sort of hypocricy in saying that foreign civilians are simply the currency for keeping US civilians safe. ObL though was pretty conclusively self confessed.

I can't really see any disputation over legality and such- ObL certainly considered himself to be at war with the US. Everything we know of him suggests that this is, somewhat ironically, just about exactly how he would have wanted to go out and that the very concept of being captured would have been anathema to him. The real question is whether people would apply the same principle in reverse. So long as the people celebrating would not get upset about the horrendous terroristic illegality of it all if Obama or Cameron or Petraeus got whacked there really ain't any inconsistency.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with sending a kill team after ObL and anyone who says there is... hopelessly unrealistic. He knew what he was getting into and he knew what would happen if he ever got caught I seriously doubt that. What law would we be breaking? The newspapers have obviously been publishing Wikileaks materials for some time now. It's if you're a federal employee (or expect to need a security clearance) and not really applicable for general citizens- they are still considered as classified documents by the US government.

For some reason the quote attributions are getting deleted from this post- to avoid confusion first quote is from Wals, second from pmp10 I did suggest a UN 'Supreme Court' as a balance some time back. It would get ignored by the really big players (anything inconvenient gets ignored by them anyway) but it would stop those who have invested lots in the UN as the sole remaining bastion of their relevance- France and the UK- from dressing anything they like up in a facade of legitimacy. Personally I have a very strong antipathy towards the idea of the UN as any sort of actual world government as it would inevitably end up like the EU, nice theory, crap implementation with decrees and levies issued from on high with little regard for reality. Why should we in the first place? Propaganda has proved itself to be a invaluable tool in directing policies and attitudes of other people so giving up on it for the sake of moral standard seems rather unwise. In this case there was a bit more at stake than just propaganda for domestic consumption. It may be far more difficult to get the BRIC types on board for (or at least not actively oppose) further actions if they think that their forbearance has been abused and that the resolution sponsors cannot be relied upon to do what they say. There's also the issue that the longer propaganda runs the more difficult it is to sustain and the potential for collapse under its own weight. Gulf War II for example, the propaganda did its basic job fine but the blowback from all the WMD/ AlQ links/ Mission Accomplished rubbish left a whole lot of stink in its wake which still hasn't fully cleared.

There are several 'odd' things, mechanical failure is at least plausible since any mechanical issue would be taken very seriously given historical lessons. And they'd probably have some justification for claiming mechanical problems in a situation where minor but otherwise repairable damage from enemy action had occured and a safety first strategy adopted. That you could carry out a 40 minute raid within a kilometer of an officers academy (roughly equivalent to raiding Sandhurst or West Point, and even without considering that one of the most heavily militarised 'borders' in the world is only a few more km away) without the Pakistanis knowing about it is rather less plausible, though it's an understandable thing to lie about given the internal situation in Pakistan. I'd expect a soldier to be able to walk 800m inside ten minutes let alone if there are unexplained choppers and gunfire going off as encouragement.

They did lose a chopper, though I cannot imagine that was a huge concern in the circumstances.

Strangely enough Wals, one of the things universal justice is supposed to prevent is domination of the weak by (and impunity of) the strong. Sadly I can't say I'm surprised that you (1) cannot see the difference and (2) need to pull the straw man of saying that I think the powerful should be excluded. The whole point is that everyone should be included and abide by the same rules. Then again, my point it's that Ernesto Guevara didn't get further than Cuba. Call me when one of these revolutionary groups fighting for independence actually has the mettle to give the US pause If I ever get around to building a time machine I'll be sure to give you a call from 1975. Might even see if I can get Mr Ho (dunno, maybe Vietnamese don't use typical asian name structure and he's actually Mr Minh) to give a call. And while I would not regard Cuba as particularly important in the grand scheme the US government and sections of its population has for much of the past 50 years. In any case it is not solely an issue of winning an armed struggle, which is setting the bar far too high if your 'enemy' is the US*, just the capacity to do 'damage' of various kinds is sufficient. *Doesn't have to be the US, of course, plenty of countries may 'reap what they sow' at some point in the future- Russia and the North Caucasus for example.