Colrom

Hmmm. I just walked around my living room and my attic and my basement checking to see how many history books I might have read. Certainly hundreds. But maybe I didn't learn anything! Really. I have a bunch more I still need to read. It is so very difficult knowing what it all means. LOL Anyway, regarding interpersonal relations and national and international politics: When I was going to Columbia during the Vietnam war the Anti-war folks sort of took over parts of the school. Early one morning I went to the physics building to do some lab work and found a protester blocking the door. He said "you can't go in there." I said "Why not?" He said, "It's nothing personal." I said, "Hey, look around. The birds have just woken up. There's just you and me and some sleepy birds here. How much more personal can it get?" In the end we agreed that I would sneak in through the freight loading dock. It always comes down to the personal level. I think personal folks sometimes wrap themselves in national flags and even in the valor of heros so that they will look good while proposing psychopathic agendas which often benefit them personally. Speaking of history - I take some small comfort that the same personal attributes that drive people to propose and carry out violent programs of domination limit their abilities to be successful in carrying out those programs. Reference WWI the German Schlieffen attack - undone by the pride and insecurities of the generals and teh Keiser. Reference Hood's attack at Gettysburg - undone by his innability to mark time and his eagerness to engage. There are lots of other examples. Heh! :D

I haven't read all the posts. I will in a while. I notice that some folks seem to believe that the nuclear nonproliferation treaty forbids nuclear enrichment. It doesn't. Iran claims to only be enriching nuclear materials for nuclear fuel - about 5% enrichment. There is evidence that they have conducted a small scale enrichment of exactly that type. There is no evidence or reason to believe (aside from the paranoid angst and rantings of various psychopathic killer leaders here and there) that they have the intent or the capability to enrich to 95% as required to make a nuclear weapon. Of course most folks would probably suggest that the Iranians may want to go ahead and make nuclear weapons if they can - since it may be the only way for them to deter the US/UK and rest of the smiling Killer Crusader Movement from bringing "Democracy" and the peace fof a well tended graveyard to their little neck of the woods. Talk about terrorism! We here in the US are the best at Terrism! Naturally! But whether the Iranians would be well advised to go ahead or not there is no evidence that they have actually even begun. Ah. Paranoid psychopathic behaviors are becoming the norm. I heard an interview of a psychopathic killer a long time ago in which the killer explained that he was in the right to kill a business man because the business man was not strong enough to stop him. I thought that was an interestingly sick and crazy point of view. I never realized it would become public policy and be popularly put forward in places like this. Go figure. I guess the crazyness of the Nazis is not so unusual after all!

Americas new foreign policy! Brought to you by the Program for a New American Century! Based on proven principles! Confirmed over and over again. Never fails to give a memorable result! "Nothing is so peaceful as a well tended graveyard." Now to be applied to Iran and Syria! Gott mitt uns!

GROO THE WANDERER!

Korsun Pocket - The Battle "By January 1944 the Soviet Army had forced the Germans back from the river Dnieper everywhere except for the area between Kanev and Cherkassy, south of the Ukrainian capital Kiev. This area formed a bulge in the German line and was an obvious target for a battle of encirclement. On January 25th two Soviet fronts under Generals Konev and Vatutin launched attacks at the base of the bulge. Three days later they closed a ring around two German army corps and formed the Korsun Pocket. Unwilling to allow an immediate breakout, Hitler ordered panzer divisions moved to the area and counterattacks made. From February 4th to 15th the Germans struggled unsuccessfully to break into the pocket, engaging in swirling battles with Soviet armor. Finally, on February 16th the order was given for the trapped men to break out. In a hellish night battle 40,000 Germans broke through to their own lines, but lost half their number on the way" Korsun Pocket - The Game Korsun Pocket - Strategic Studies Group, Matrix Games Supposed to be good Gamespy, 2003 Game of the Year - PC Wargame "Korsun Pocket is arguably the best traditional hex-based wargame of all time."

Have you tried Korsun Pocket? What did you think? I thought it was beautifully too complex. But maybe I just timed out too soon.

Didn't someone say something like - if you have a character in your mind you can write a story - but if you have a point to make you would be better to write an editorial. I thought that Icewind Dale II had a nice little story involving politics and some stories involving religious and/or ethical behaviors too - mostly tragic. I didn't know that there were supporters of the war at Obsidian. I guess they are everywhere. That could explain all the killing.

For example, walking can be viewed as repeated controled collisions with the Earth. :D Some iterated computer simulations can lead to messed up results especially for energy because they fail (due to truncation errors in the calculations) to handle the action/reaction bit right. In a related way some numerical calculations produce leading edge artifact results which propagate faster than the speed of light because of the physical and time dimensions of the computational mesh. (w00t) Such Fun! Especially when executives take it seriously and imagine that they are on to something great! (w00t)

How does conquest of the Aegean look to you? Let us know how it goes when you start playing. I'm replaying BG2.

I think Josh is very good at project management. There is a rumor that he has no soul and feels no remorse hacking things from a project in order to finish on time. Some folks have suggested he actually enjoys the screams of agony of earnest developers, artists, programers and such as he casts months of their hard work in the trash heap of forgotten history with a cold snear and a bold flourish! So, if he is happy with just a modest delay - that will be OK.

If Josh got what he wants in terms of more project zots - then that is a good thing. You know the old project management wisecrack. Good, fast, cheap. Pick any two!

JE Sawyer said: "Valve's Portal demonstration, ever watched the portal demo...on weed?!" A teenager around here got some weed with PCP in it - or something like that. Weed is not FDA approved, you know. Sometimess the punk who sells it is not exactly socially conscious and responsible. Anyway the kid who used this stuff got so hyped he ran around like a maniac. Eventually he ran right through a plate glass window. Broken glass and blood everywhere! He died right there - in a pool of blood in somebodies living room. He probably could have used some of that portal technology. Or maybe just stayed off the weed.

In most cases "we" Americans are the deciders of who "we" are enemies with - and it changes over time depending on what "we" want vs what is happening. Watching the situation in the middle east is like watching the crucifiction of Christ. The roles are played by different characters. But the script is the same. There is nothing that we as individuals can do. The crucifiction will occur and then re-occur and re-occur. Over and over and over. Until - if ever - the "decider"s decide to stop it. It's kinda like hell.

He seems completely a bad guy based on your description. What is his authority for the murder's he commits? I have't been able to determine that.

FOX, ABC, CNN, BBC will do well - or just go right to the source AP and the GOP.

I seem to remember theories that work better than other theories that can most easily be understood as involving higher dimensions than three (or four if you include time). Abstract theories tend to show up in practical applications - although ordinary users of the associated technologies don't usually think about it.

I would go even further and say that in the normal course of doing science the kinds of things you might say about a theory are such as: * This theory cannot be tested for falseness and is therefore useless in practice. * I can't tell this theory from another one. * It seems to work pretty well in the cases we have considered so far. * It seems to work well in this case but fails in that case. * It does not work well enough and is best replaced in practice by another theory.

Also Nice! :D

So far as I can tell after searching the web the third season starts in October. There are some spoilers about the third season out there.

The first half of the second season has been out for quite a while. The second half of the second season (kinda catchy - "the second half of the second season de dah day") from iTunes. Not expensive. What is this about the third season starting in July - I thought it was October. Is this true? Must check NOW.

Nice!

Clearly this is not true, otherwise we would not have prisons for folks who have relinquished their right to freedom by committing criminal acts. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I believe you were talking about "heaping scorn on my beloved land" as an action that would make a person undeserving of freedom. Don't go pretending that you meant violent acts which require restraint of the perpetrator as self defense. By the way what hundred people were you talking about?

Eldar that was more than complete BS. All people deserve freedom. How would you know if you were a patriot? Who would decide? The men I knew that we sacrificed wanted to live. Bah. (Edited)

"On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. First published under the title

There are interesting claims in the Loose Change case. Never-the-less, I believe there was an actual foreign terrorist attack on the WTC. I suppose it might have been preventable but allowed to go forward. Perhaps it was leveraged by a misinformation campaign after the fact. On the other hand, the Anthrax attack seems like a Psych Op.