Agiel

'Tis the season:

That WoW still has a huge audience probably speaks to how Blizzard did something right with the MMO formula. I think the big reason that every "WoW killer" has failed so far is because it has lasted so long and it has been so instituionalised that to ask its players to commit to another MMO means to give up up to nearly 10 years of work and potentially even friends and acquaintances they've made in that time. Not only that, I'd bet you anything that no matter how much EA and Bioware spent making TOR, it was nowhere close to how much Blizzard and Activision spent on making and (more significantly) updating WoW; there is absolutely no game that at launch that could offer enough content to sate most players coming off of WoW. It's a real shame. As probably the biggest MMO-head here, virtually every supposed "WoW killer" I've played had a lot of things that gave them he up on WoW (Warhammer Online, Aion, Rift, Guild Wars 2, Tera) and had most players kept at it I think they could have grown into things that were very special and we wouldn't have a genre totally dominated by just one game.

Interesting visual take on "Get Lucky."

I like the quote about him of "The best and the worst things you hear about him are both true."

Isn't the usual Russian Federation strategy focusing on Zerg rushing opponents? Believe it or not, Russia isn't exactly in a position to do this anymore for a host of reasons: 1. Despite being the "largest" SSR of the Soviet Union, it only comprised half of the entire population of the USSR. Thus, Russia now has a much smaller pool of recruits to draw conscripts from. At the moment, they have an even smaller population than Bangladesh. 2. Adding to this, Russia has had *negative* population growth ever since the break-up of the Soviet Union, a trend that's not set to reverse until 2017 at the earliest. 3. Further adding to this is the fact that they've reduced the obligatory service time in the armed forces from the two years in services that are not the navy (three years) from Soviet times to eighteen months following the break-up to a single year. In addition the retention rate for conscripts willing to re-enlist is astoundingly low, and where voluntary service is seen as a sign of fidelity and dedication for other militaries, contract soldiers (especially NCOs) are viewed with some contempt by commissioned officers and military brass. 4. *Adding to this* is the fact that there exists many ways for those of legal age to get an exemption or deferral (oby) from military service. There being a growing number of Russians getting a college education who have aspirations for other things and the institution of corruption being what it is in Russia, I don't think I have to paint you a picture. All that said, the MiG-29K is significantly smaller than the Su-33, which does mean they can fit more of the aircraft on board the Kuznetsov. With the Su-33 as its sole fixed-wing aircraft, the Kuznetsov had a very small complement of fleet-defense fighters (fourteen at max, as compared to the 64 F/A-18s of varying types normally carried on board a Nimitz)

Actually that would be a hand-me-down Kiev class refurbished into a full-on CATOBAR aircraft carrier. Credit where it's due... to the Indians, they were smart enough not to take Russia's Yak-38s off of their hands, which were infamously Hanger Queens at the best of times and Widowmakers at the worst, and stuck with a testament to British engineering, the Sea Harrier. At any rate, they're in better shape than Russia's naval aviation. With the lion's share of procurement dollars for fixed wing aircraft going to the RuAF, the Su-33 navalised Flanker has been left in sore need of refurbishment as compared to its terrestrial brothers. Instead, the Russian navy has opted to procure the MiG-29K, which is arguably a huge downgrade on a per aircraft basis.

A piece from the Atlantic on America's drone war by Mark Bowden, he of Black Hawk Down, Killing Pablo, and Guests of the Ayatollah fame. Another fantastic piece from one of investigative journalism's most lucid and elegant straight shooters. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/09/the-killing-machines-how-to-think-about-drones/309434/

Back into a little winter blues, I've loaded up Tetsuo: The Iron Man again (No, not THAT Tetsuo, and no, not THAT Iron Man). That movie will never cease to be amazing: It's kooky, it's aggressive, it's challenging to watch, let alone understand. Just what I needed to boot this dogged rut. Spoilers, and *maybe* semi-NSFW.

That line of reasoning seems to imply there's a degree of trolling that's intellectually acceptable

Greeeaat... that first ED-209 scene from Robocop waiting to happen then: http://youtu.be/ubEJAsywG4Y?t=54s

Ever wonder if he will ever respond to criticism, constructive or not?

I don't know about that. When cats lay their eyes upon something half their size, isn't their natural instinct to kill it faster than you can say "Mittens"?

It certainly is a fascinating community, for the reason I give here from the "Weird News" topic in the Off-Topic Forum:

A relevant article from the Atlantic Monthly. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/what-if-we-never-run-out-of-oil/309294/

Boss asked me to take one of the PDF forms we designed and turn it into a Word file, since the localisation firm we're hiring doesn't have Adobe CSS or Quark. Cue me looking up whether it was possible to adjust leading, kerning, and tracking using Microsoft Word.

Something rather interesting for guitar aficionados: Now I want to see one that tunes a guitar with a Floyd Rose tremolo!

Reminds me to re-visit Panzer Dragoon Orta.

I find the Codex to be an interesting website in that for every one thing from there that's very lucid, well-thought out, and dare I say quite persuasive, there's about ten other things that's overly narcissistic, sociopathic, or plain 'ol bigoted. That one thing however for me makes it worth it to visit it once or twice a month to wade through and try and find it.

Itching to see the new Spike Jonze joint, revisited an old classic ad:

Speeding ticket... Apparently "60 MPH" in a 45 MPH zone (could swear I was doing 55 max). Fortunately California law does allow me to go through a "Trial by Written Declaration" which so far as my research has told me means I needn't waste too much time going to court to defend myself and I stand a good chance of getting my case thrown out (it means additional paperwork for the officer, who doesn't get overtime pay for it). That said I must come up with a reasonably good written defense. How does "No previous traffic infractions as well as no alcohol and substance-related charges nor any other criminal history* makes me predisposed to prudent driving as opposed to the recklessness claimed by the officer" sound? * = It's true, honest!

Of course it seems that Marshal Grigory Kulik is Oby's type of general. I swear that guy makes the worst general mentioned so far look like Clausewitz by comparison.

Here's hoping he took my hint to sharpen up his modeling skills by modeling inanimate objects before moving on to harder stuff.

On Wellington, another reason he ranks pretty highly on my list was his concern for his troops as well as his acute understanding of the human cost of war, which comes from my favourite quote about war: "Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won."

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves just yet : http://youtu.be/ZnzhPTpzZ94?t=1h15s

Yup. That would be the emblem of the carrier air wing VFA-31 "Tomcatters." Inspired by Sorophx's screens, I've been collecting a whole lot of screens in preperation for some "stories from the front," accompanied by some detailed word behind them. Wish me luck.