metadigital

... and yet she still managed to but in with her irritating opinions, even when she was meant to be safely contained on the Ebon Hawk.

Granted, but Jedi shouldn't hold "grudges"; they should act with regard and respect for all life. Did these terenteks cause a disturbance in the Force when they died? Like the inhabitants of Alderan? I can understand the control and management issues, just not the blood-thirsty genocidal attitude. :D

I seem to recall the war was naval, and off the coast of Canada ... dang, I'll have to look it up (it was published in the last 18 months in the UK). The title of the book was just the year "1852" or something like that.

Well, there's going to be a showdown between China and the US, it's just a matter of when and where. China is not stupid: there has been a civlization there for ten thousand years or more; I'm still reading through "1421", the story of how the Chinese sent out huge (even by todays standards) ships to trade and explore the entire world, then the Emperor decided (about ten years later, when they returned) that the rest of the world had nothing to offer China and destroyed all evidence of the trips. (The only surviving evidence is from those the Chinese fleets visited.) At the coronation of the Emperor in 1418 (IIRC) all the most powerful rulers in the world were invited and attended: none from Europe, because it was an inconsequential backwater, at the time. (Arabs, Persians, etc). Not to mention the Mongolians had an empire twice the size of the Romans at its peak.

The Amazons were greek. The germanic equivalent were the Valkyries. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Weren't they based on a South American culture? (I was watching Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracey in Adam's Rib the other day and Amanda Bonner -- Hepburn's attourney character -- quotes some reference to the Amazons and their forebears.) Hmm, researching a little more: amazon: Word History: In classical legend the Amazons were a tribe of warrior women. Their name is supposedly derived from Greek a-mazos,

Absolutely, "My enemy's enemy is my friend" ... until that particular enemy is disposed of, then we can have a brawl over what's left. Incidentally, the world would have looked a lot different had France won a battle in Canada in the nineteenth century: that was the critical point in history when Britain gained ascendancy and the French civilization was forced to adopt things like Greenwich as the world standard ( :D ). I can't remember the battle exactly, but there was a book I was going to buy and read about it ... sometime after the War of independence in the US, and the French and British were fighting over Canada ...

Seeing as that is a common Greek hair color, Id be inclined to say yes. Also, Hildegard, there were the Witches of Dathomir. They were force users who only trained women and treated men as second class citizens. Granted, they turned evil for the most part...but you see the similarities, I trust? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Greek? I thought it was a Germanic myth ... Yes, well, females, non-whites and left-handers have always been regarded as evil ...

Actually they were forbidden from entering Iraq except to repel the Iraqi forces from Kuwait; the Arab League would certainly have left the coalition and the UN did not sanction the invasion for the purposes of toppling Hussein. It's a pity, because -- as you imply -- it probably would have resulted in a much better outcome than the mess we have now.

Yep, gotta agree with this; looks is only (dead, flakey slough) skin deep. He is a great tank in m

Here's a radical idea: start out as either a non-recognised Force Sensitive or a padawan (or from one to the next, like K1), but chose at the beginning of the game whether you are LS or DS. That way, you can play apprentice to a Dark Master and play the Dark Path (maybe have the chance to be redeemed by some big badass Jedi later in the game) and also replay as a LS padawan (as usual).

It's a very dualistic concept: the universe consists of evil and good matter, and everything is made up of lesser or greater amounts of each. (Very Zoroastrian.) I think this sort of blunt philosophical deliniation is poor morality; also, a Jedi is meant to uphold law and order: surely these poor beasts are able to be contained? Crocodiles would seem to me to be equally "evil". They are certainly just as difficult for us non-Force-Sensitve humans to deal with; they will literally exhaust themselves to death in the process of fighting for their life. I recall a man in FNQ (Far North Queensland, Australia) who has kept a crocodile as a pet for the last twenty years or so. He was asked if the croc was friendly, if it knew him at all. He replied that he would never get in the cage without ensuring the croc had been well fed beforehand; and that he knew the croc would have no qualms about eating him regardless. So the "great hunt" was immoral. (Racist is a little anthropomorphic, though, more like speciesist -- these creatures aren't human!)

You do realise that there is about forty topics about this already, don't you?

Yeah, wasn't that the whole point of William Golding's Lord of the Flies?

Sounds very much like the plot from the fifteenth season of the Doctor's adventures: Underworld (Tom Baker as the Doctor), where the Minyans were a race that were "helped" by the Time Lords and regarded them as "Gods". Until they rebelled and attacked them, through the inevitable hatred this caused ...

I haven't been able to stomache the several days needed to watch the Ring Cycle, so I am not intimately aware of the plot ... but still, being rescued and taken to Valhalla is way better than languishing in a swamp of blood and battle d

Yep, I can feel that funky "Pulp-Sci-Fi" vibe from here. :D

That was more down to Elizabeth I and her decisive leadership. She inherited a total shambles of a Kingdom, practically bankrupt and certainly out-gunned (and one of the smallest populations in Europe). Henry VIII had a penchant for expensive tapastries (costing as much as a battle ship) and he had the largest wrdrobe of fine clothes (no pun intended). (The Mary Rose was sunk in his reign.) The Netherlands were just an upstart Spanish colony, IIRC, until they rebelled (I think England helped them a bit there, but covertly). It was not until the Spanish Armada was defeated that England even looked like being a big noise in the geopolitical arena.

Rpg

"Hard to be a God" Announced Dec 3, 2004 @ 2:26pm Author: David Radd Summary: A game concept from the minds of the Strugatsky brothers, apparently some of the biggest names in Russian science fiction... Full: Akella presents the long-awaited details on its internal project, the "Hard to be a God" RPG based on the novel of the same name by Strugatsky brothers. The "Hard to be a God" game will be a thoroughbred role-playing game affirming all the best traditions of the genre. The storyline is non-linear presenting several story branches with 4 endings depending on the main character's in-game behavior. The game utilizes a 3D-engine with free rotating camera. Wounds, weapons, armor and different equipment are shown on the characters' models. One of the gameplay features is the interference of two epochs in the game universe - the medieval and the alternative future. This provides the peculiar variety of different weapons and armors - from swords and bows to miniguns, from full plates to force fields - and equipment like binoculars and night vision goggles at characters' disposal. The standard RPG equipment "doll" is amplified with slots for sword shoulder-belts and hidden weapon scabbards on wrists and arms. The combat system features many different combos and special attacks (stunning, disarming, etc.) provided by some abilities and special weapon types. During a battle the character can be wounded badly which will diminish his attributes and require long recover, and even lose a limb or be decapitated by a strong attack of the opponent. A player controls only the main character. The rest of the party is managed by orders. The volunteers traveling with the main character can obey or disobey orders depending on the form the order was given in (strict order, persuasion, intimidation, etc.), while the mercenaries will obey any order given in the proper form. The Kingdom of Arkanar is divided into many locations. The party will travel between the locations using Arcanum-styled global map. The movement speed will be influenced with the world relief. The party can also ride mounts to move faster. The new locations can be revealed from dialogues with NPCs. The trading mechanism features selling and buying items for different currencies (universal currency, irukanian gold and so on) or bartering them if both sides are satisfied with the offer. One of the most prominent features of the game is of course the true spirit of the Strugatskys' novel. The game universe, the dark medieval atmosphere, the key figures from the novel, the Kingdom of Arkanar, - the whole world from the book is being carefully created anew under the supervision of one of its demiurges, Boris Natanovich Strugatsky. The great variety of social strata typical to medieval age provides another game feature which can be called "the true role playing". Depending on a situation or an environment, a character can choose a role to play, pretending to be a noble man or a mere citizen or a member of some guild. This allows him to gain trust of NPCs with different alignments. A player can create several legends for each role of his character. The character will introduce himself with this legend to NPCs. If the truth behind the legend is revealed, the player can make up another legend reading books and talking to other NPCs. The corrupted bureaucrats of Arkanar are easily bribed. This provides one more way of completing the game. For example if you need some papers to pass you may bribe the guard who demands the papers. A character can also buy the forged papers or make them by himself if he has proper skills. Many gameplay elements and features are being discussed by the developers' team and Boris Natanovich Strugatsky now. The information on all new features and other details concerning the "Hard to be a God" game will follow in our future press-releases. If they can pull it off without a buggy implementation, then it will be enormous.

The major international issue of the first Bush administration -- just prior to 9/11 -- was the build up of tensions between China and Taiwan in the Taiwanese Sea (wasn't there a plane shot down, or something -- nothing as major as the US "accidentally" bombing the Chinese Embassy in the Balkans ...) It is amazing that the EU is actually considering lifting the ban on selling arms to China, considering they will undoubtably be using them against the West in this confrontation with Taiwan, which will happen soon. Then again, the UK and the US have quite an established history of selling weapons to countries and then going to war against them ...

There's a lot of Sweden vs Denmark/Norway in Scandinavian history, far too many wars than I'm able to list here off the top of my head. But I haven't heard of these Spice Wars before, was this the actual name of the conflict? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Read Nathaniel's Nutmeg for a humerous recounting of the era: it was either side of the coronation of Elizabeth I. Or just go to the Rijks museum. It takes place around present day Indonesia, where these exotic spices were indigenous. (Nutmeg was used as a preservative.) The Dutch were better sailors and traders and such, England just sent a ship every now and then, fluked a single big haulage and lost out big time. (A lot of the English sailors died from scurvey.)

And all the while, the chimps are watching... :ph34r: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> ... and the cephalopods are waiting for their chance ...

An EPROM wouldn't require a battery, the memory is static until deliberately updated or erased. :D (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory)

A division of the United Kingdom, the southern part of the island of Great Britain. Originally settled by Celtic peoples, it was subsequently conquered by Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, and Normans. Acts of union joined England with Wales in 1536, with Scotland in 1707 to create the political entity of Great Britain, and with Ireland in 1801 to form the United Kingdom. London is the capital and the largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Population: 46,220,955. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Blighty: Slang term for Britain. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> blighty <{POST_SNAPBACK}> On the other hand, there's the fact that just about every result "blighty" produces on Google uses it to refer to Britain: Result 1: "...Blighty was the inevitable British soldier

I wouldn't dream of laughing at you ... (well, okay maybe a chuckle) ... seriously, it was something that has interested me from the conceptual pov; i don't recall crying -- or anything except joy and excitement and possibly trepidation -- in games; yet I can cry quite easily in films. It would just mean that the medium of games has started to catch up to the medium of film, so it is a positive thing.