taks

really... by your estimation i'm part of the fox crowd yet here i am, posting a comment about a fox news commenter that condemned the torture and expects people to be prosecuted (actually, the judge expects holder to do his job and prosecute some of the people involved). drop the ideology... it only makes you look foolish in the end. taks

exactly. it was a game to them. really... they (i read primarily uday) had their own personal torture chambers. these guys were sick, sick men that enjoyed torturing people. this was fairly well documented. judge napolitano over at fox had some interesting comments (5 things you should know) about the memos. if he's correct, they're pretty damning, btw. taks

significant, no, but does it happen, yes. saddam's two sons, apparently, did it out of sadism. maybe they were also pushing the propaganda issue, dunno. many, many more than that. the US is the only one that outright admitted to it, probably because it got leaked. and keep in mind, they didn't admit to torture per se, but smoothed it over a bit. taks

that wasn't my point, i.e., i wasn't commenting on whether or not it was right or wrong or how it was defined. rostere was saying that maybe the point was simply to get recipients to say whatever the torturers want them to say, which would presumably serve some propaganda tool. during the inquisition, my example, heretics were tortured in order to terrorize masses into behaviors the church found acceptable (i'm sure there was plenty of sadism, too). to that end, they used torture for propaganda. i don't think that's why it is used by and large now, however, though the threat of torture is probably used in lieu of torture itself rather often "we'll send you over to syria, how about that!" i wouln't doubt, however, if the more egregious abusers, such as saddam's iraq, were using it as a propaganda too to frighten their people, but certainly not the US or similarly "civilized" countries. those, i argued, mostly want information and probably believe it is trustworthy, whether it is or not. taks

family guy is mostly OK for those under 3 or 4, though some of the episodes are bad even for that age. above that, however, the squirts are smart enough to ask questions that you won't be ready to answer. that's partly why i settled on futurama, because most of the jokes are much more subtle (though not all) requiring almost teenage level of comprehension before the kids will even ask the questions you don't want to answer, which by that time, you should be ready to answer. on a side note, my buddy has a son that just turned 17 (in january, john's babysitter no less). he actually had an issue with the kid learning to drive and playing the driving games. i can see that direct link, however, since he was in the process of learning something new and it was getting corrupted by a semi-realistic computer game that required completely different mechanics than the real world learning. he was literally jerking the car around every turn or lane change. that game went away and things improved immediately. the moral of the story: they were paying attention and put a stop to the issue before it became a real problem. taks

i would doubt that. during the inquisition, yes, but not so much now. there are obviously some who think that such methods work - right or wrong, plus some that are simply sadistic (particularly the ones that do "real torture" as the US defines it). taks

do what? prevent reload for half an hour? not that i know of. you had way points as i recall. that's not really going out of your way to prevent certain behavior, though it is annoying. taks

dunno, i haven't played either of the first two much (the BG mechanics spoiled me and i played them first), and probably won't play FO3. i so far like obsidian's style, so i might entertain this coming one, however, hence my posting in here. i'd take it back. i think my only point is that there is no way to prevent this behavior except the milestone saving, which has its own issues when you legitimately need to quit and don't want to replay the last 20 minutes of the game. games that go out of their way to discourage certain behaviors typically don't do as well, at least not in the crpg market. it seems... wrong, anyway, to implement such things. let players do what they want. if they want to reload and get the perfect response every time, so be it. they bought the game, let 'em ruin it for themselves if they want. taks

yes, i knew that because you had a "... i turned 23" or something post yesterday on the what you did today thread. sometimes i can remember things. my brain ain't totally baked from stress... yet. taks

unfortunately, i think this is a strawman, walsingham. most "professionals" that have been involved in torture are not allowed to talk about it, ever. just because a clearance expires does not mean whomever granted it no longer holds your balls over the fire for violating it. this is a basic premise of any act or work done that is otherwise classified. whistle blowers in this regard are few and far between because they signed on the dotted line and have little legal recourse. taks edit: i should add, nearly every expose i've ever read about classified work is either a lie, or intentionally obfuscated to make it seem legit, while it is really not. the former is written by people that probably knew someone that was cleared and figured they knew enough themselves to write about it, and the latter is written by people that were involved, but know not to cross the line for fear of spending their remaining years afraid of bending over for the soap. in any case, at best, most have only cursory knowledge for a variety of reasons, the least of which is the massive amount of compartmentalization that goes on.

um, think about this for a minute. these are the exact same things. all you have to do is save, quit, reload, try your option, quit, reload, etc. taks

how did i guess that you would be unable to actually understand my comment. you're simply a moron, krezack. show me where i supported torture, krezack. really, show me. stop acting like the ideological fool that you are and try to think rationally for a change. taks

it depends. he's good with "fantasy" violence and related. it was the realistic stuff, particularly uncharted, that seemed to have the effect. at first he was not allowed to play it, but he was handling all the other games fine so i gave in a bit. obviously i had to change my mind. IMO, except for a few racy scenes (all pre-pubescent drool worthy stuff), i wouldn't rate DMC4 an M game. maybe he curses, too, and that's why... i don't remember. the violence in uncharted, however, involves real people and plausible situations, not some fantasy world with monsters (well, as far as i had played). i don't know, actually, if it was truly the games or not (there is more to the story than i've told). that was simply our first response in hopes of solving the problem. i grew up playing cowboys and indians with "real" guns, and it was never a problem. times are different, of course, so when a kid is "shooting" an imaginary gun in school, it is considered a bad thing. if you think about it, even the lego games are violent: you're running around with a blaster or light saber whacking things. they aren't realistic, however, so maybe that's the difference. depends. most, no, some, yes. he likes horror flicks (vampires), oddly enough, though i don't think he's watched any unedited. i don't let him watch family guy because their jokes are not subtle, but futurama's jokes are. if there's actual blood and guts i'll probably switch channels. listening to me talk is an R-rated movie by itself, and the boy regularly chides me for it (my moral compass is 6 now). either way, whether cutting out the games helped or not (it was not the only change in our lives), he has basically gotten over all of his issues. taks

most games that do this have pre-determined milestone points but do not allow you to simply quit where you are, at least, you have to go back to the last milestone. kung fu panda on the PS3 does it this way. well, much to my son's dismay, we have been unable to figure out any way to actually save where you are other than pause and come back later. taks

That's not necessarily the contract with Bethesda. There have also been hints of a fantasy project, and Pete Hines said they've been working with OE on FONV for 'quite a while now'. yeah, i have yet to see confirmation that the aforementioned contract and this project are one in the same. JE seems to like to hint so maybe his twitter posts are indicative of a project they started a while ago in hopes of winning the contract? taks

no, i don't simply because, contrary to popular opinion, this is probably what's really been going on for a very long time with nearly every country in the world. indeed, the methods employed by the "civilized" countries pale in comparison to those of the third world. i'm curious how people know such methods don't work? the movies? the journos that talk about it on tv? former agents? taks

actually, you have a player draft in both fantasy football and fantasy baseball, i.e., your team is not randomly chosen, you get to pick your players. you also have to pick who from your roster to play each game since, like in the actual sport, you have more than actually play at any given time. generally you turn your roster in before some deadline prior to game time. taks edit: ^gorth: the deflection bonus from a codpiece works similar to a shield or a buckler, e.g., a +3 codpiece of vigorous agitation. the "ahhhhhh" that comes with this particular item has no known benefit to the game, however.

his was the 18th. taks

the gurus i work with won't even attempt to install flash, 32-bit or 64-bit, period. i believe that is because many (if not most) security holes that have been uncovered in linux OSes ultimately have something to do with flash apps. if they happen to come across a website the requires flash, oh well. drove me nucking futs, too. however, if you are using your box for business purposes (well, business that doesn't require high-end 3D rendering), nvidia graphics solutions and drivers really aren't even necessary. no loss for me in particular, at least, not at the office. taks

i think so. not sure since most of what i've used is either red hat or fedora. red hat at the office because the tools we use aren't supported for any other system, and i prefer fedora for any box that doesn't require fedora, particularly at home. of course, i also have a gentoo at the office, which i curse daily (it is different enough to be confusing and i refuse to learn because i plan on wiping it soon). i haven't used linux at home for a while, however. taks

sigh... i got bored with my umpteenth time through the BG saga. M&MIV gets kinda dull at the tomb of varn (big pyramid toward the end of the game - next to last dungeon i think). tedious is a better word - even john got tired of helping me with it, he normally runs the mouse, and left in the middle of our last session. in fact, looking back, i'm not sure i ever finished that damned game due to this particular dungeon. yawn. i got tired of the witcher, too, and SoZ was meh after a while. i guess i've got MoW to look forward to. DA in the fall. i hate to say this, but maybe it's time to... exercise? aaaaahhhhhh! taks

indeed. i'm curious, how does the new fallout connect with JE's hint: me trees? has it actually been confirmed that THIS is THE contract that was being discussed in the other thread? taks

believe it or not, he actually began to act out the more violent games at school. in particular i think it was uncharted, which is "real" people shooting "real" guns. we just leveled everything at E10 or below for now. there's plenty of violence in many of these games, but it is cartoonish, and he does seem to know the difference. taks

because i want to. he's finished, or nearly finished, all of his other video games. read my post above. because it isn't 1990, and the gaming industry is much larger. i didn't play my first real video game till i was a teenager because nothing other than pong existed till then. he has all that, too, and plays with his other stuff on a regular basis. no more than 1 hour a day on video games. he's also an only child with no prospects for friends in our neighborhood, so he doesn't have the luxury of playmates outside of school. playing all the other things by himself gets a little boring after a while. john gets some outdoor time, but not enough in my opinion. we have him in soccer on M/W, and i think he'll be starting some form of karate this summer. he's going to be in various outdoor day camps all summer long as well. in general, outdoor time is difficult to muster in CO through the winter other than skiing, which we do rather often - next season he's going to be skiing twice a week probably for most of the year. once the summer rolls around, we'll get to bike more (i need it, too), and there are plans for a few other sports. should be a good time. taks

grandma shirley gave john marley and me on dvd for his bday. haven't watched it yet but probably will sometime in the next week or so. taks