Zoraptor

Carth is a true multidimensional character, far more than Kreia. Carth exists in the D&D dimension (Anomen), Jade Empire dimension (Sky), SW dimension (well duh) and the Mass Effect dimension (Kaiden). How many more dimensions do you want? Kreia only exists in the D&D and SW dimensions. Thus Carth > Kreia FACT! or QED, for the cerebral who like a nice discussion of the finer points of Kant, Goethe, Descartes or Mathers in their RPG.

Warning: If you work for the US government DO NOT click the link below http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-...TS-MEETING.html Goes to the cable (presumably, it's of little interest to me)

You can read the Steamworks brochure, if you want. It's somewhat relevant to a PS3 type as it's supposed to be 'ported' to PS3 at some point and with the PS3's own DRM being irretrievably compromised now chances are Sony will try and implement something similar at some point. It won't be a problem for pirates in any case, Steam DRM hasn't stopped cracks since the game it was first used in, though it does stop pre day 1 piracy (as does every online verification system). There are a truly vast number of potential reasons to dislike it but most would probably cite it being a DRM- you're handing over access control of your software in this case to a 3rd party who can arbitrarily rescind it and whose software must be installed, running and monitoring your system if you want to play the game- as being the most significant. Personally, while I have no problem with Steam itself- there are no circumstances under which I'd ever buy from them but I'm happy for others to if they want- I'd be ecstatic if Steamworks fell into a dimensional vortex and got retroactively deleted from reality.

Shrug Three indictments all (if we're going to believe 3rd hand reports) Hezbollah types with maybe some more down the line is a far cry from the overt top level support and backing Syria was supposed to have given. If you're interested you can check out the Mehlis Report which was the original UN report on the matter and was pretty definitive that Syrian Intelligence was responsible. Those mentioned in the report as being arrested were quietly released in 2009 after four years detention without trial as the key witnesses were "no longer considered reliable". Mehlis' successor actually recommended they be released in 2006. Basically the UN handling of the investigation has been a shambles right from the start.

Heh, I'm not the one stating as fact that Hezbollah killed Rafik Hariri when there's no indictment, no conviction and not even any publicly available evidence to back it up, just third hand leaks. Pointing out that there was exactly the same pattern previous with respect to the Syrians and the "facts" eventually turned out to be... not exactly facts is hardly a misstatement or distortion. If you insist, though: BBC (2010): Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has said he was wrong to accuse Syria of assassinating his father - former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. He told the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the charge had been politically motivated. FoxNews (2005): President Bush called on the U.N. Security Council to meet as soon as possible to hold Syria accountable for the slaying of former Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri (search) on Feb. 14, saying U.S. officials were talking with U.N. officials and Arab governments about what steps to take. I can provide more if you like, it isn't exactly difficult to prove. I'm a bit perplexed here. Are you really saying that Nasrallah expecting some HB members to be charged proves they are guilty?

Dunno what happened to tank man. He's one of the people I've always wanted to meet, if only because that would mean he's still alive. You're the one who made the first accusation of bad faith, not me, so it's a bit rich you getting all huffy now. (youth unemployment estimates in Yemen pretty much start at 50% and go on "up to" 80%. That's way higher than either Tunisia or Egypt. The estimates are only slightly lower for Jordan. also, massive protests in Yemen? 20k, in a city of 2 million and a country of 24 million vs Egypt with roughly 3x the population where estimates go "up to" 2 million, or 100x that number, and even the authorities seem to accept half a million. Plus, Syria next domino to fall as day of rage attracts... well, no one, apparently. Or in other words, there are still lots more people in Yemen and Jordan with "nothing to lose at all"/ more of a "lost generation" yet they are relatively quiescent. There's clearly something else at work and, well, I've shown the evidence to back my thoughts up and they correspond with what has been observed, not some sort of perceived wisdom.)

Um, no. I never said that living in squalor was necessary and sufficient for revolution, nor that that risk of revolution is a function of poverty that can be analysed and whose inflection points can be used to make predictions. You either misunderstood or are twisting my original statement by introducing a notion I didn't talk about and then attacking that. Bad form. I replied to exactly what you wrote, I even quoted it, twice, now thrice. Yeah, you need the oppression too but I never forced you to say that "people don't stand in front of tanks -or bayonet charges- unless they don't have much to lose", reinforcing "reasons for the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt are consistently reported to be the high unemployment rates and skyrocketing food prices" two things which effect the poor far more than the middle class. I did two things. I pointed out that the stats indicated that Tunisia and Egypt were relatively well off and had relatively well developed middle classes, which supported my assertion about a decent middle class being important. I pointed out that they also severely weaken any assertion that those rebelling "don't have much to lose" (now four) as it's clear they have a lot more to lose than people in similar situations who aren't rebelling to anywhere near the same extent and would have far more difficulty actually feeding themselves and getting jobs, the two things you cited as "reasons for the revolts". Since the level of oppression (the main factor in the west being smug and self satisfied being the lack of oppression- it's hard to be complacent if someone's got a jackboot rammed into your spine) is roughly the same in all the countries I cited... I don't blame you for trying to back out of a losing argument, but trying to do it by implying I'm deliberately misinterpreting you? Now that's bad form.

I understand the situation pretty well, for an outsider. Hezbollah does not have all the guns. Everyone has guns, from the itty bitties on up. They may not still have formalised militia but they certainly can reconstitute them quick and they'll get their stored hardware and the central military's hardware (which H will get none of as they have their stand alone militia) if anything kicks off. Everyone knows it and that is largely why things don't restart. Also, Jumblatt was one of the more strongly pro-Syrian leaders in the Civil War. A year or so ago 'everyone' "knew" Syria killed Hariri. And Lebanon is deeply, deeply hostile to Israel. They may not be willing to fight a war they know they'll lose (border clashes on the other hand- and with that nice pro western government in place) but it doesn't come from Hezbollah alone, it comes from a history of extremely unpleasant Israeli actions that have systematically managed to ... annoy just about every group in a staggeringly complex ethno-religious mix. Even their erstwhile allies on the loony maronite fringe hate them for betraying the SLA.

Nah, I was responding to the part I quoted "reasons for the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt are consistently reported to be the high unemployment rates and skyrocketing food prices" and "I'm sticking with my idea that people don't stand in front of tanks -or bayonet charges- unless they don't have much to lose" especially. If either were true you'd expect revolutions to have kicked off somewhere hopelessly despondent (or if you prefer, the place with the poorest living conditions) like Yemen, not in relatively affluent Tunis; and moved to poor Jordan rather than not badly off Egypt. The oppression part I'd agree with, with the proviso that IMO the sort of overt and systematic corruption practised routinely by the Arab Kleptocracy certainly qualifies as a form of oppression. The poor living conditions though... not supported by the evidence.

Hezbollah didn't take over Lebanon, its ethno-religious based constitution (which enshrines over representatioon of Christians and under representation of both major Muslim sects) makes it impossible for them to do so short of military coup which would restart the civil war. They simply got enough people to agree with them- primarily, iirc, General Aoun's Christians- to get 'their' US educated, Sunni, candidate into the Prime Ministership exactly (well, 'exactly') as would happen in any other democracy. Israel would be right to 'worry' about Lebanon getting AT missiles anyway, and not just because of Hezbollah destroying tanks live on TV in 2006. If there's one thing nearly everyone in Lebanon can agree on, from their former buddies in the Phalange to itty bitty players like the Druze and Alawites it's that no-one likes Israel.

There is this. It could just be a misunderstanding/ miscommunication as wholesale canceling seems a bit extreme but then it also has been available for importing (or buying from GG) to those in NA/ UK for months.

Well yeah, but those 500k+ were as I (rather bluntly) described them "coddled, smug and self satisfied", something the average arab is not. If even the Irish, Greeks (it seems) and Icelanders are willing to put up with the stunts their governments, bankers and associated others have pulled there really isn't much hope for meaningful change in Europe as the population is just too apathetic to do anything much beyond pay lip service and can be safely marginalised and ignored by those in power.

And somehow, reasons for the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt are consistently reported to be the high unemployment rates and skyrocketing food prices. It's no coincidence that the increase of the prices and shortage of bread is one of the oft-cited reasons -along with disproportionate taxes on the bourgeois class and the king's unwillingness to listen- for the breakout in Paris. So I'm sticking with my idea that people don't stand in front of tanks -or bayonet charges- unless they don't have much to lose. And yet it really kicked off in perhaps the arab country with a well developed and well educated middle class. While there are rumblings in the far poorer Jordan (GDP $5300, poverty rate 14.2%, unemployment 13% (30% unofficial)) and especially poorer Yemen (GDP $2100, poverty rate 45%, unemployment 35%) disturbances there are nowhere near the scale or seriousness of Tunisia (PCGDP $9500, poverty rate 3.8%, unemployment 13%) or Egypt (PCGDP $6100, poverty rate 20%, unemployment 9.7%). All figures from the CIA factbook. The pattern of revolution appears to be going from richest to poorest, rather than the reverse.

[citation needed] <insert links on the AKP's struggle against the judiciary and their constitutional reform work> There is an ongoing effort on the part of the AKP to dismantle if not secularism, at least Kemalism, as embodied in Turkey's constitution. This is not an either-or between a return to a less secular Turkey and simply greater powers for the executive, it's actually both. Most of their reforms are aimed not at turning Turkey into an Islamic Republic though, but at reducing the power and influence of the army, with some cosmetic sops to their voter base which is largely conservative. IIRC reducing the power of the armed forces was actually one of the things Europe wanted from them as a condition for EU membership. While I'd agree that a lot of Islamic authorities have been pathetic supine lickspittles to a succession of woeful Arab leaders over the past sixty years the record of Christian denominations has hardly been exemplary over the same time period. That religious authorities tend to bend to the will of authoritarian regimes is hardly surprising. I do find it interesting that much of the recent religious resistance to central government authoritarianism has come from Buddhists in Burma and Tibet (albeit Tibet was as much ethnic as religious resistance).

And where's our in depth critique of AP as a deconstruction of global capitalism and its inevitable failure?

[citation needed] Israel had effectively told the Turks to go four-asterisk themselves well prior to that. Pretty dumb, and probably a consequence of having Avigdor L* in the Foreign Ministry, since Turkey simply does not need Israel. Not that it would have mattered long term due to the flotilla but it was hardly one way traffic in the insult flinging prior to that. You could probably have a good argument with that guy who was talking about Ataturk's "secular dream" earlier. *That mere fact is a **** you to Israel's neighbours. Read some of his policies then compare to those of the AK. One's certainly more extreme than the other, and it ain't Kalashnikov.

There are entirely too many DS acronyms around. Dead Space announces Ser Hawke armour and enemies pack? New screenshots of Dungeon Siege? Good thing the last URL has the name in it.

No, that's not evidence, it's merely correlation, and not a particularly strong one either, as most Western democracies can still pull all sorts of crazy stunts and file them as "classified". Again, the main point is that they can pull- and get away with- less crazy stunts than a more repressive regime can, not that it's a panacea. The US has made plenty of attempts to block 'unpalateable' information by various means yet things like Abu Ghraib and The Pentagon Papers got out and once out were widely disseminated. While everyone in a country like Egypt 'knows' that torture takes place there you won't find it being discussed formally in detail (or at all, really) and pictures published in the papers. I'd say that the relationship goes beyond mere correlation to being intertwined almost inseparably. Though I would accept that they have the same or similar root causes the maintenance of both 'free' democracy' and 'free' speech rest inextricably on each other. Not the case in either Tunisia or especially Egypt as the majority of the early protesters were middle class- hence having good internet and informational access, and much of the organisation taking place via facebook and twitter- and relatively well off with the poorer classes only joining in once it had well and truly kicked off. That's a historically consistent pattern too, going back to the American or the French revolution it wasn't the slaves or peasants who started the revolt, it was wealthy property holders and the middle class. Europeans and westerners in general are pretty coddled, smug and self satisfied. But even if you live somewhere like Greece where there is a lot of corruption (and a lot of resentment, too) you're still very much likely to be better off than a given person in Tunisia or Egypt. You too.

The chief sponsor of Hamas is who it always has been- radical Sunni Gulf States. Hamas gets a lot of their weapons off Iran but their other stuff- social programs/ education/ wages etc- is still overwhelmingly funded by countries that are theoretically US allies. In the end Iran and Hamas are allies for precisely as long as they are useful to each other and for precisely as long as they have a common enemy. The MB or similar having power in Egypt would almost instantly make Iran superfluous to Hamas as they could then simply get arms off them.

Wals- I agree with you on the fact that a large proportion of any given population simply won't find information, won't care if they do and wouldn't know what to do with it. But in the end you should not design such things on the premise of the lowest common denominator as you would be depriving those that do have the ability as well. And that's a fundamentally poor analogy because seatbelts can't kill (well, in the proper hands...), but freely disseminated state secrets can. Therefore, the risk needs to be balanced vs the "right". Seatbelts certainly can kill- a jammed/ locked seatbelt in a sinking car, for example. In any case, I think we can both accept that analogies aren't perfect or they wouldn't be analogies. Which is a relationship that fundamentally cannot be disproven by anecdote because, as you have noted, government and people ain't perfect. It's also a relationship that is fundamentally difficult to prove positively in any absolute sense either- the best evidence is that, by and large, the populations of countries with 'good' freedom of information laws tend to also be countries which aren't 'tyrannical' either. Ultimately most revolutions start because the tinder of accumulated resentments, ideas and information hits the spark of some immediate, proximal cause. I don't think whether it actually succeeds in improvement is a good metric for judging whether it is worthwhile trying. Sure, it could be similar to the Prague Spring where its short term net effect is getting a bunch of people killed and more repression, it could be like the Russian Revolution just with Tunisian Tariq instead of Georgian Joe, or it could be like the end of Ceacescu's Romania where you end up with something that ain't prefect but is a definite improvement or something approaching actually 'good'. When it comes down to it I can see some reasons for being positive in the example of Indonesia which is a huge, ethnically diverse (and fairly religiously diverse too) nation with a traditionally powerful military which transitioned from dictatorship to a pretty good approximation of 'liberal western democracy'. If they can manage it there's no reason why Tunisia or Egypt cannot, but they certainly won't if they don't even bother trying.

That's a fundamentally poor argument as it is analogous to saying "because a seat belt didn't save someone in this accident seat belts are useless". All that has to be proven to refute that is that a seat belt saved someone in any accident. Such as the Tunisian people being saved from the accident of Ben Ali's wife's corruption by the seat belt of wikileaks' freedom of information or any other similar dissemination of information that has helped to root out corruption or bring accountability.

It ain't absolute freedom of information. As was intimated the freedom of information is that required in order to make an informed decision. In a democracy you need to have access to accurate information about what candidates and the government are and have been doing. There's no public good or need in knowing what Joe Bloggs down the street has been doing but there is in knowing what Joseph Bloggs, MP/ Representative/ Senator/ President/ Prime Minister has been doing especially if what he has been doing doesn't match what he says he has been doing.

There's no way Iran is involved. They don't have the capability and there's no prospect of a MB government (or any other really) being friendlier to Iran than Mubarak is. Yemen is a different story as it has a sizeable shi'ite population some of which is already in open revolt, and is next to one of Iran's major enemies. It isn't a question at all. The kefaya movement, so far as I can make out, is a reaction without any political point, and there's no obvious successor to Mubarak. The Brotherhood have an open goal, and all they have to do is make moderate noises and wait. The army won't back the MB, and the MB know it. If there's one thing Mubarak has really done well- not surprising given the fate of his predecessor- it is to make sure that the army is loyal, well paid and definitively not a hotbed of religious zealotry. Shame it's also corrupt as anything, and runs a fairly sizable chunk of the Egyptian economy as its own private cash cow. Some of the media outlets seem to be pushing El Baradei as a possible successor. Peace Prize winner (so he'd have something immediately in common with Obama, haha) who has had enough disagreements with the west not to be seen as a stooge and gives a reasonable impression of not being corruptible. Whether he has any real support within Egypt though is a bit of an open question.

1) One basic tenet of democracy is freedom of information (theoretically at least, practically most 'democratic' politicians loathe freedom of information since it can act against their own political self propagation). 2) One of the major causes of the 'Jasmine Revolution' (dumb name) was the Wikileaks revelation of exactly how corrupt Ben Ali's wife is. Thus WL = supporters of democracy, forcing leaders to be responsible for their actions, partly responsible for liberating Tunisia from tyranny etc etc. Really though, that sort of editorial control is not in WL's brief as their aegis is, basically, freedom of information with the absolute minimum of subjective editing. Plus, they would be withholding something which shows the US in an essentially positive light which would therefore be more ammo for the WL hates the US crowd. Damned if you do, damned if you don't... Palestinian negotiators = two faced is far less of a revelation- it's not really a revelation at all, except for the extent to which they are willing to abrogate their responsibilities to their own people. That it basically confirms the extent to which the Israeli narrative of Palestinian intransigence is a smokescreen to enable establishment of 'facts on the ground' as the PA was willing to accept just about every single demand Israel made (except, to their credit, the transfer of Israeli Arabs to a new 'Palestine') is certainly worth knowing.

It's a vacuum/ utility suit for a guy who has a slightly more important form of Space Janitorship than Arnold Judas Rimmer had. Not even a hint of cyborgness about it- if he had glowing red eye sockets no-one would think the red meant he was The Terminator, would they? How it probably did happen: Marketing Manager: We've got some games coming out close together. Can we get a cross promotion going? Intern: How about putting Isaac's suit from DS2 into Dragon Age? Maybe combine it with a pre-order bonus? MM: Excellent work that man. .. MM: OK Dragon Age producer, we want to do this cross promotion. DAP: Fine, should take five minutes to set up. DAAD: And our new art direction means we've got plenty of armour that looks that silly already in the game! fin