Raithe

Hm, one of my friends is going to a "Charity Curry and Pub Quiz Night" event later this week, and apparently I'm to be dragged along to it.

Heh. Not strictly on the idiot box.. but they're doing a follow on to Firefly / Serenity through the medium of comics. Zack Whedon, the writer of said comic, let this be known on where the crew of the Serenity will find themselves when Dark Horse releases the sequel comic, subtitled Leaves in the Wind, this January: the crew is on the run (of course), the Alliance is still in charge, Jayne is missing, and Zoe is pregnant.

For the thoughts to spark.. Napoléon Bonaparte (he knew what conscription was for) Ulysses Simpson Grant (he invented the American way of war) Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (he knew what railroads and telegraphs were for) Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre (he prevented the enemy from winning what became what I call the Great War[1914-1945]) George Catlett Marshall, Jr. (the architect of eventual victory in the Great War) Võ Nguyên Giáp (he utterly defeated his enemy in the central theater of the Cold War[1946-1989])

http://youtu.be/HMdsEij7S2Q And for the full short feature: Hm, although vimeo really doesn't like to show links for some reason. http://vim eo.com/thuristar/850meterseng

So the state takes a relatively "independent" news service, shuts it down, merges stuff with another, and appoints an ultra-conservative government man in control... Kremlin shuts down RIA Novosti News agency

Phone conversation today: "Okay, we need to set up the proper communication strategy to make this pitch and get a response." "Sure. You nag, I'll whine."

Then we don't have much in common and it would be pointless to have any sort of discussion/dialogue regarding this matter. I really don't know how you argue otherwise. Living standards are immeasurably better now than they have been at any other point in human history by any yardstick that you care to name. Not that there isn't plenty of ****ty things you could point out, but to say that life isn't better now than it's ever been is pretty extraordinary. I'm not sure if this comes about due to the notion that democracy is great, or just that we have indoor plumbing now.

Well, I'd say Dune was a great book. Dune Messiah and Children of Dune are mostly good books with a little weirdness. The rest just go all wibbly-wobbly.

I ran my Agent through Act 1, and have partially sorted out Act 2. Finished off the class piece to Quesh, just trying to decide whether to jump on to Hoth, or actually do some of the Quesh planet missions. Did some of the weekly clear out stuff with my Sith Inquisitor, cobbled together an outfit for Andronicus (ranged dps companion) from the assorted "Starpilot" outfit sets, threw on a Dark Blue/Black dye on it and then mixed spending planetary commendations and my 450 Artifice skill to mod it out with suitable Armour/Mods/Enhancements.. Think I'll focus on my Agent for a little bit more, then take my Trooper to Nar Shaddaa at some point in this Christmas season....

There are worse kinds of uncles to be....

Hm, what was that quote from Putin.. "If minorities prefer Sharia Law, then we advise them to go to those places where that's the state law. Russia does not need minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell 'discrimination".

Finding myself a little bit discombobulated and semi-anti-social this weekend for no particular reason that I can figure.

See, I could see myself developing a bunch of those patch designs for a geeky joke and that no-one really pays that much attention to the NRO.. So I can quite easily understand some amused geek throwing these things together as an in-joke, without thinking that people are really going to take much notice.

I've noticed the same thing. To paste anything in you have to switch the BBCode Mode. Which is a bit of a pain.

Escape Plan Sylvester Stallone's structural security specialist makes a living being inserted into maximum security prisons and then escaping from them to find the flaws and how to deal with them. Then he gets hired to test a black site prison that turns out to have been built according to all of his notes and promptly gets deep sixed there when it turns out to be a setup by some people who don't want him around. He makes friends with Schwarzenegger's fixer character, and suffers the watchful eyes of Jim Caviezel's ruthless Warden and Vinny Jones sadistic guard, along with brief moments with the burnt out doctor played by Sam Neil. Basically an excuse to have Sly and Arnie do a partner up as they figure out how to escape and get payback. They don't push the action, trying to make it more tension and thriller style. It's got good chemistry between the cast, the plot holds together without too much silliness, and even the bad guys don't go over the top campy style like so many can.

I'm not going to explain that one. Seriously. Hey, some news just should have a bit longer for the general taking a moment.. that's all.

That quote would look better.. if it actually had a picture of Mandela.

Actually, I think that's the only FF game I've ever actually played through from beginning to end.

Well I'd really llike for this patch of non-health to cLear up. Spent the night with a stomachache, Awake, kind of haZed into sleep as dawn hit. Been half waking up and fading out with a headache and just realised it turned 2pm

Yup. The first Fallout3 DLC retconned the ending of FE3 so you survived. It also changed it so if you re-played the game from the start, there were options so you wouldn't die.

Heh, did you ever see that quote from Kalishnikov over how he regrets having inveted the AK? After all these years he'd have preferred to have invented something "truly helpful, like a lawnmower."

Heh. That's the trouble I had. I had a knack for producing decent passing grades without ever needing to develop those habits. When I hit university and actually needed those skills and habits, I didn't have a clue. "What do you mean I can't just attend, listen, skim through a book and produce the work?? What are these things called "notes"? What's a...'study plan'?"

Well, from all accounts, he started as a cup-bearer (pouring the wine) and usurped the local King. Got power, stormed around in rather good form and beating all enemies. Then , in the nature of things, suffered the odd rebellion. Which he put down, quite firmly. He had to deal with a bunch when he was getting on, everybody assuming the old man was slowing down. Since those texts were written by the Babylonians a few centuries after he'd kicked the crap out of their ancestors I don't think they were particularly aiming at total praiseworthy. Thus the whole "he was a git who offended our god Marduk and THAT's why they suffered a few years famine." And yup, definite arse. The type of guy who wouldn't only break down your walls, but then capture your leader, put him on a choke chain and collar and leash you to the gates as he marched his army in. Just to make a point. So, the first great Imperial Arse.

Well, we've been focusing on the fairly recent.. So how about we skip back to the times when the Great Commanders, were invariably also the Great Rulers of the time? I give you... Sargon of Akkad Generally thought to be THE first great Empire Builder of recorded history (We're talking around 2300-2200 BC sort of times here). Started out as a servant to the King of Kish (cuniform suggests he was the cupbearer), and ended up with his own state around the city of Agade. Thought to have conquered all of Southern Mesopotamia and well into Persia and parts of the Lebanon. He established a multi-ethnic, multi-region Empire that his successors managed to keep running for about 200 years after his death. According to Babylonian texts:

How about Wendell Fertig? An interesting case, where a guy who was a civil engineer in the Phillipines got a direct commission to become an Army captain as WW2 broke out, rapidly promoted up (fuzzy records, some say just to a major, other to a full Colonel). But he gets up to the general thing... because when the Japanese took over, he started organising the resistance and guerrillas in the area. Due to the local psychology and the importance of stature and the whole cult of personality importance of the locals, he ended up being referred to as a "Brigadier General" by everyone. For most of it, the American's refused to believe in his existence at first, then when they did, a lot of the leading command officers wouldn't authorise support because "if American troops could be defeated so easily, some scrabble irregulars would have no chance" and it would be a waste. However, under Fertig's leadership the locals absorbed other guerrilla groups and harassed the Japanese over the continuing atrocities they committed. By the time MacArthur actually landed, he was greeted by a force of over thirty thousand Filipines under arms and a complete marching band.