Gorgon

I need some kind of tanglible evidence to believe in an immortal soul. Now, I haven\t seen any UFOs, ghosts, any Santas not paid by a department store, so I guess i\m waiting on that. Can\t rule it out though, I don\t know for sure that these things don\t exist.

Given that Wikipedia has a very poor protection against special interests it manages reasonably well I think.

Or that everyone has a cell phone camera which makes headlines out of bylines, especially if theres gore and sorrow.

That is very fiercely disputed. The apostle Paul: "Let the women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection" 11 Corinthians 14:34f This is what the Christians use to claim that women, according to the bible, should not speak in public. However you put it, taking either the bible or the koran literally on all issues, which is the definition of a fundamentalist, is mostly entirely incompatible with modern life.

What a moron.

This is an outrage, or something.

I don't feel I have to apologise to anyone if I state that the people who initiate these protests, and the practice of muslim law in Saudi is wrong on so many levels. That may actually be discrimination, if it is it's discrimination against a sub set of a much larger group of people. Same as saying, for instance, that Osama Bin Laden deserves to be hunted down and killed. I should hope we are all adult enough to know that not all countries with muslim population practice law like they do in saudi, or make any broad sweeping statements about Islam based on the worst it has to offer.

Micron Die technology doesen't necessarily make it faster though, it makes the ciruits smaller.

Apparently stirring up the natives with a story about an insult to the prophet is really good political currency. It's something everyone can agree on.

Macs are nice, they just cost way more than they\re worth. But hey, if you want to pay a lot more for some animated menus and a slick design goright ahead. By the way, Macs were indeed traditionally the graphics professional's weapon of choice. ... .. .... .. in the 80s.

MotB like NWN2 has practically no exploration. 3 or 4 doors to use in a city, thats about it it, coffe break time every time theres an area transition doesen't exactly make me want to use too many of those doors either. Torment had just enough. I also loved all the torment npcs, I just finished MotB and I can't even remember the names of the principal party members. Both had good stories.

The games sites need readers to get ad revenue, and the readers need trust to read the game site. Nahh just dazzle them with screenshots and video and get it out before anyone else, the game companies don't even release demos anymore, too big a risk, it could show everyone what a POS the game really is. If there are no sites anywhere that can really be trusted, there is no competition on quality and honesty. I take more stock of word of mouth, or word of forum than a review. Of course there are plenty of wringers in such places as well, trend setters who hype from behind their keyboards. It's all the hype in advertising nowadays, a way to get to the chronically distrustful, such as myself.

To me it serves to reafirm what I have always thought. The games companies need the reviews for the release spin, and the games sites need interviews with designers, and the ad revenue. Not much incentive for straigth talk there, a microcosmos of how political reporting works most of the time. Compare with food critics for instance, there the resturants need the reviews, full stop, no interdependence, which is why the reviewers merciessly butcher resturants they don't like.

Xbox is prone to overheating and crashing as well. Hardware issues dating back from the first production runs. I've got nothing against consoles for certain game types, they seem to dumb down traditional PC type games though. And by the way aiming, with a controller. Hello ? Can anyone say mouse.

I don't think any of that is in dispute, to put it simply, the Viet Cong wanted to win more than the US wanted to stay. The US public may or may not have bought into the commie scare, but they weren't willing to accept the casualties and the lack of any end in sight, so Nixon bombed the crap out of North Vietnam and hurridly declared a victory.

The anti domino effect theory, nice one The communist won remember, and likely they won where the conditions existed for success and failed where they would have failed regardless. Communism is nowhere near as exportable as doctrine would have you think, it's an easy way to get weapons and aid if you want to fight an insurrection however. Just ask Robert Mugabe. Moreover communist countries can hardly be said to be a united front, a healthy dose of suspicion is a better characterisation than a united front on a mission to liberate the world. In a time of sattelite wars you had to pick a team, whether you had that much in common or not. The US has a better track record stamping out democratic socialism on their own continent.

We would have had to do without disgruntled bavarian corperals, namely one Adolph.

The US propped up a corrupt immitation of a democracy against a popular uprising. We are assuming a little much to say that Ho Chi Minh would have instantly turned his attention towards conquest of his neighbours had he not been bogged down at home, and more so that a communist movement would even have succeded in Thailand which has strong nationalist and royalist ties, as well as entrenched religion, all of which are at odds with communism. Communism may have even been preferable to the people, of course the problem there is that once you do away with basic freedoms, they don't just return on their own.

Specifics are nice. Lets have some.

I assume by hogwash you mean some sort of fantastic aromatherapeutic, citrus and cinnamon concoction for bathing magic pigs. Even with the USA fighting for Vietnam the communists went on to topple Laos and Cambodia. If Vietnam had been uncontested give me a couple of reasons why Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia would have survived? When you can think of reasons why the rest of Southeast Asia would have survived, can you then explain why Northeast india - a place still suffering a communist insurgency - would have been OK. I sure as hell can't, so I'll be very impressed if you can. Firstly, Vietnam is a tremendous success story for the communist takeover, Ho Chi Minh is second in fame only to Che Guevara, who also happens to be the most well known individual in the world according to several surveys. The greatest military in the world sent home beaten, people demonstrating in the street all over the west for the rigth of the Vietnamese to take his fate into his own hands. Were a second communist insurgency to follow the withdrawal from Vietnam, the US would have been completely powerless to stop it. Where exactly is the deterrant here ? Secondly, the way to lessen the chance of two superpowers figthing a war too terrible to imagine is to fight less satelite wars, not more.

I thought it was alright. The flashbacks ruined the continuety a bit for me and I found it more annoying than intriguing, and of course there is the feature of any TV show to go on so long; the more you watch the less sense the plot makes.

I thought Deus Ex 2 was awful, mostly engine and gameplay trouble though. Hopefully an experienced studio can do a lot better.

We are to assume that without Vietnam a giant domino effect would have ensued and half the countries in Asia would have spawned communist style rebellions, untill the west would be forced to act. You know 'World Communism' Utter hogwash

Prior to the end of WW2 the US was phobic about not involving ourselves in European affairs (I am sure I am not the only one who wishes that were still true).\ Seems to me history is doomed to repeat itself. Or rather, people forget the levels of sacrifice demanded by war. The Vietnam syndrome ran out, now theres a brand new Iraq syndrome, that should at the very least make decisionmakers think a little harder. I hope it lasts.

I think you were on to something earlier Walsh, England has somehow managed to retain the expectations of a word cup winner for decades on end, despite very meagre international championship results, every single time everyone was convinced that now surely is the time. National teams are not the big clubs, they can afford the long perspective. No need to sack a coach for missing a qualifier if doing so negates any chance of his long term plans paying off. The England team demands success and keeps starting over from scratch.