Gromnir

we were similar confused by oby/lof picture post. seemed to be a suggestion o' fraud by the media regarding locations o' rebel attacks. "To cover it up and in the same time spread chaos and panic among Libyans, a set of Tripoli's Green Square, Bab al-Azizya and several streets was constructed in Doha, Qatar, and videos of successful uprising in Tripoli and its takeover by the rebels were being made. The directors used the same stratagem that their civilian counterparts in Vietnam War movies: to draw their supposed victories. " am thinking that this is oby/lof version o' the moon landing conspiracy... or maybe the jedi mind trick. perhaps convince the world that the rebels were never really in tripoli? HA! Good Fun!

what? you hasn't heard the news that john madden came out o' retirement and is now working as a color commentator for al-jazeera? apparently mr. madden likes qaddafi/gaddafi toughness... compared him to brett favre. given the fact that the loyalists has a strong pass rush and quality dbs, madden predicts that qaddafi will utilize a modified tamap-2 d to keep the rebels off balance. "Bam!" HA! Good Fun!

happened a couple years ago. as something o' an authority on first amendment issues, Gromnir were invited by a local kkk chapter to witness a cross burning (is a surprising number o' kkk members in CA.) our initial reaction were knee-jerk refusal and furious indignation. nevertheless, we ended up attending; curiosity got the better o' us. sure, we had seen cross burnings in film and on tv, but we were genuine curious how we would comport self when confronted by the act, live and in person. you don't see too many catholic, indians at cross burnings, eh? would we be able to watch dispassionately? would we be enraged or maybe even a little frightened? were a fascinating, if obscene, exercise. simultaneous repulsed and intrigued we were. were all pretty boring at start... looked not much different than a kiwanis picnic. slightly fat 40-something white guys in khakis and golf shirts shaking hands and telling bad jokes. then there were some forgettable rhetoric that nearly put us to sleep. etc. fast forward. the guy who lit the cross ablaze somehow managed to set himself on fire. apparently his robe were not flame retardant, and am guessing he happened to get some sorta accelerant on his garb 'cause it were kinda shocking how fast his garment burned. the guy screamed piteously, and flailed 'bout before dropping to the ground and rolling 'bout ineffectually. so much for **** van dyke's advice, eh? a fellow clansman had the presence o' mind to use a precautionary fire extinguisher to abate the flames. the whole fiasco probable lasted less than a minute, and the "event" were quickly cancelled. we found out later that the crispy klaner were not hurt too bad: mostly second degree burns. ... on the negative side, we found out that Gromnir can takes pleasure in the suffering o' others. watching that kkk member burn were possibly the funniest thing we had ever witnessed... and we had a tape o' the event too. on the positive side, we gots finally gots a fond klan memory. the reason why we bring up now is 'cause we looked for our favorite crossburner-burning tape last night. is missing. *sigh* even so, as sick as it sounds, seeing the kkk member accidental set himself on fire at a cross burning were a kinda surreal poetic justice... and it were funny. HA! Good Fun!

huh? follow oby/lof is like trying to read images on a spinning top: even if such were possible, it would result in a serious headache. ssssssooooooooo.... is Q winning or losing? 'ccording to you, Q were doing a bang-up job o' stomping rebellious rats a couple o' days ago, no? how does things look for Q today? HA! Good Fun!

1) history suggests no quick victory 2) he hadn't worked around the internal issues that led to rebellion again, escalation o' violence against people and infrastructure does not signal imminent victory to anybody. give us an example o' the successful despot quickly putting down rebellion AFTER he has had to destroy sizable portions of his own infrastructure. we can think o' only one or two... maybe. is very long odds. and again, if Q couldn't fix the internal problems that led to the rebellion in the first place, what makes you think he would sudden be More capable o' fixing after having had to spend huge resources on mercenaries, military hardware, and infrastructure rebuild? you really ain't making sense. honest. oh, and we do not think the new regime (whoever they is) will have any better chance o' fixing internal problems than did Q... not without substantial western support.... and there is the clincher, no? getting rid o' Q is an end. many people in the west has wanted him gone for a long time. can trace Many terrorist actions over past +3 decades back to Q support. Q were a bad dude with no love for the west, so getting rid o' him is an end in and of itself. furthermore, since the libyans won't be able to fix the problems Q left behind, they is gonna need rely on aid. french and english have positioned themselves favorably for initial support o' the new regime; another win from western pov... although personally we thinks the cost o' maintaining peace will be very high. is still gonna be those antagonistic tribal factions trying to kill each other off for some time. HA! Good Fun!

"I don't think its an exaggeration. I remember a large string of defeats for the rebels up until NATO intervened." ... that is what you base your prediction o' impending Q victory? fighting homegrown guerrillas is NOT like conventional warfare. for chrissakes, how many victories did the soviets have in afghanistan? anybody wanna pick a rebellion in central america, the middle east or aisa where the rebels were better equipped and won more initial victories than the eventual deposed regime? being better equipped and winning "victories" is hardly a measure o' success. Q were ESCALATING the amount o' force and violence 'pon the rebels, destroying his own infrastructure. is hardly indicators o' imminent crushery, eh? "A good question is how far the rebels would have gotten in the first place without outside intelligence support and political support." why is that a good question? not change the fact that they got support. is hardly unusual for domestic guerrilla fighters to gets support from foreign powers. you wanna play hypothetical scenarios o' some kinda complete insular uprising? *chuckle* be our guest. regardless, Q's four decades in power were seriously threatened before the first shots o' rebellion were fired. the widespread housing riots were not gonna get solved by cunning and sneakery... needed more housing. there were no solution on the horizon for Q. Q were a terrorist supporter and despot that were tolerated just so long as he could keep his house in order. as o' 2011, he could no longer keep his people housed. sure, maybe he holds on an extra year or two and destroys more o' his own infrastructure while possibly spreading violence beyond his borders, but eventually he goes and somebody is stuck rebuilding. made far more sense to step in before Q ruined his nation in a vain attempt to maintain power. maybe you think it is immoral for western nations to dictate the future o' the libyas o' the world. maybe you is right. not change nothing. HA! Good Fun!

I wish you luck arguing that Quaddafi couldn't have gotten things stable quicker and more efficiently than anyone else, considering that he almost had them crushed. bit of an exaggeration, no? and in any event, the problems Q was facing before the actual outbreak o' open rebellion were unlikely to get fixed anytime soon. turn back the clock to beginning of 2011 and looks at the housing riots. yeah, "stability" and "revolution" is pretty much antagonistic concepts. even so, once it became clear that Q would not be able to maintain any serious semblance o' "stability," folks in the west decided to step in and let slip the dogs o' war. Q were only tolerable as long as he could maintain stability in a relative unstable region... try to do something serious to remove Q earlier than this year woulda' caused problems in the rest o' the region. well guess what? as o' 2011 the arab spring (or whatever you wanna call it) were already underway and Q were experiencing serious domestic instability. reasons for west to play nice with Q were disappearing quick. HA! Good Fun!

you is very optimistic. as Gromnir, enoch and others has mentioned, libyans gots tribal & familial allegiance rather than a national identity. once Q is gone, no doubt those tribal/familial factions that were not part o' Q's ruling alliance will looks at their "libyan" peers with brotherhood in their hearts and open arms.... or not. ... am not envious o' the french and brits 'cause am seeing no end to bloodshed in libya anytime soon. keeping the formerly oppressed from committing atrocities 'pon their former oppressors is gonna be, we suspect, no easy task. oby/lof is no doubt familiar with post revolution purges, although we bet she/he gots a unique spin. regardless, am suspecting that it will be a while before genuine fighting stops... am just curious to see how the french, brits or nato handle post Q libya. might be smartest to simple let 'em kill each other 'til they run out o' bullets or anger, but that wouldn't be very politic. HA! Good Fun!

I very much doubt it. Unmanned may be fine for the drone's current role of cheap and cheerful ground attack but the idea of some sort of centralised control for air to air combat fighters? Too prone to ECM, too little situational awareness/ more ephemeral 'feel' and instinct aspects, too much latency. Not to mention that the idea of having aircraft basically stop working if their control centre is destroyed strikes me as a terrible idea- damage a carrier and all its aircraft drop out of the sky/ go into some sort of holding pattern/ nuke a chunk of the Nevada desert and suddenly a third of the airforce is unusable/ take out the satellites and effectively ground the entire airforce. And there's no realistic prospect of wholly independent combat robots in the near future (or pretty much ever, imo) as you simply cannot program for all the vagaries of combat. part o' the problem is that the aircraft has finally reached a performance level whereby the pilots is a limit on their efficacy. am not thinking we is talking 'bout wholly unmanned aircraft anytime in the new future, but is more likely than coming up with a new generation o' fighters... is no more great leap in fighter craft design 'cause the pilots simply cannot handle another serious leap in performance; you cannot improve the planes without also improving the pilots. major refinements o' avionics and weapons is gonna continue, but most indicators suggest that this is the last generation o' manned fighters. ... but again, much o' this talk is very familiar to folks who lived during the 70's and 80's. HA! Good Fun!

problematic: "going for the throat" is kewl... pilots like kewl. am suspecting that "pulling her hair," and "scratching out her eyes," will never enter pilot vernacular. HA! Good Fun!

which is why it is so problematic. what keeps the security patrols, and maintenance crews from going all State of Nature on the rich folks in woodside/menlo if an opportunity presented itself? HA! Good Fun!

Notice the use of "Was a dogfighter" rather than "was/is a fighter". Meaning it wasn't called that classification, but was known for dogfighting. I don't think any aircraft currently used is actually referred to as a "dogfighter" and are instead just called fighters. ... then, am not sure of your point. not that it genuine matters. regardless o' nomenclature, the russians ain't built a fighter o' any flavor that could even compete with the west's best since the early 1970's, and the last time the russians/soviet had a clear winner were the mig-15... which were still (technically) a first generation fighter aircraft. heck, the current russian aircraft being discussed is being compared to an american plane that first flew in 1990 and went into production in the late 90's. for those not holding a calender, the current year is 2011. btw, we thinks that the sukhoi pak fa can be an excellent option for india, south korea and others who do not need (or cannot afford) the extravagance o' the raptor. am not sure what kinda profit russia is looking at per unit, but anything they can do to diversify from their current dependence on natural resource export is a good thing. HA! Good Fun!

If the population is sufficiently low I actually think it would work very well.. A large population however and you've got Rapture. am gonna disagree. low #s can be even more problematic. scarcity o' necessary skills creates all manner o' potential imbalances. is an exaggeration, but when your desalinization apparatus breakdown, the guy who can wield a wrench sudden becomes irreplaceable... and he/she is gonna know it. is not like some sci-fi mars mission wherein all peoples work together 'cause their lives is dependent on everybody working together. the Real World is gonna be within reach, and we suspect that the potential for opportunistic behavior will result in humans acting very... human. HA! Good Fun!

maybe the tug volunteers HA! Good Fun! ps we would love to see one o' these bubble society projects get off the ground. am doubting things go as bad as the stanford prisoners and guards experiment, but am expecting that there will be some noteworthy havoc at some point.

is all very harypota from our pov. we got the sat and act for those kids wanting to go on to university... is voluntary testing. the standardized tests and exit exams that all kids in a US school would needs take are, for the most part, minimum threshold tests. SCHOOLS is concerned with the % o' students that pass or excel, but individual students is doubtful concerned with such stuff. that being said, for as long as we can recall, there has been claims that the sat and act were being diluted. also, the sat finally added a new writing aspect to their test some numbers o' years ago. universities were initial dismissive o' this portion until they learned that the writing portion were actual the most accurate indicator o' collegiate success. however, is particular easy to accuse the college board people o' dilution and subjectivity with the writing, no? ... 'pon reflection, em embarrassed to admit that we still 'member our sat, ap, lsat and gre scores. didn't think we were that vain, but there you go. HA! Good Fun!

probable... but we has heard that since f-16 and f-15 days too. nevertheless, we tend to agree with gorgon. that being said, what we knows is a product o' reading too much jane's and some familial relations with current and former navy and marine pilots. btw, for calax, the bulk o' soviet interceptors were fast and less than agile, but keeps in mind that the term gets used wrong frequent. is nothing preventing an interceptor from being agile. is limited mission design that makes for definition o' interceptor. HA! Good Fun!

don't confuse dogfighting with fighter. is not the same. HA! Good Fun!

am happy to observe that we has no idea what your image is 'posed to represent. in any event, replace any soviet/russian fighter designation you wish and you get pretty much same commentary... 'least going back to mig-15. the mig-15 were a genuine superior fighter and it marks the last time the russians had arguably (almost definitely) the bestest fighter aircraft in the world. mig-21 is kinda a special case as it were never designed as a fighter, but rather solely as an interceptor; an admittedly fine distinction. nevertheless, the mig-21 were an impressive aircraft in the pre 4th generation days. that being said, soviet/russian fighter aircraft became increasingly inferior from mid-1970's onward. nothing has changed during the past near 4 decades neither. however, the russians still produce quality airframes and engines.... is just everything else that sucks. HA! Good Fun!

am recalling back in the 80s when everybody in the west were talking 'bout the mig-29. *shrug* soviet/russian fighter planes is, historically, quite respectable. some has been outstanding, but that were more ww ii and korea era. mig-29 is representative o' typical strengths and shortfalls o' soviet/russian fighters with capable engines and american inspired airframes that suffer from a number o' endemic weakness including, but not limited to the following: poor range, antiquated avionics, questionable weapon systems. actual survivability o' the aircraft were difficult to determine as soviet/russian maintenance o' their combat aircraft (across the board) has been suspect. a large % o' mig-29s were decommissioned a couple o' years ago 'cause they were no longer safe to fly... simple corrosion and unaddressed wear & tear. nevertheless, as mentioned already, russians can build quite satisfactory upper-level 4th generation airframes and engines. HA! Good Fun!

Wait, now I'm confused. Who did they arrest, the ones who originally incited the riots or people who were inciting after the fact? I actually did the Jesus thingy, but I don't see how it applies since it was on school property not the Internet. ... you mentioned posters, no? is what we initially responded to after all. "They can arrest people for putting up posters? sick.gif" first you expressed consternation over internet posts, then tangible posters... and no, it weren't on school property in Morse. you didn't actually read beyond some first couple lines of a caption, eh? no worries. in any event, you will learn more if you actual read. as for the distinction of "incite after the fact," am curious where you is going with that? might wanna read that linky too. HA! Good Fun!

fair enough. that not change the fact that it is bad game design to include perks/traits/whatever that requires the player to be foolish or self-sacrificing to forgo. HA! Good Fun!

WOuld you say it was more or less dull than FO3? I'm curious to what degree NV might simply have been hamstrung by the base mechanics of FO3. tough call. am thinking that the writing and quest design were better in fo:nv. however, the setting were used more effective in fo3. fo purists probable not like to hear this, but am thinking dc were utilized better than vegas. yeah, part o' the problem is that vegas landmarks is often commercial, so obsidian couldn't use in their game. even so, for a casual visitor o' both dc and vegas, we were far more engaged by dc. as for mechanics... dunno. we do know that many changes implemented by obsidian did NOT help. initial seeming decrease in skill point pool were not accurate as we overpowered far more quickly in fo:nv than in fo3. raise your hand if you didn't take comprehension perk after reading the description? decrease vats power not matter much if naked head-shots almost invariable result in instakills. etc. *shrug* again, blame who you will, but it took a very short amount o' time to became King O' The World in fo:nv, and tactics never had to change... save that the first time we encounter cazadores we were messed up pretty bad. HA! Good Fun!

ps keep in mind that we complained a great deal 'bout the excessive use o' family drama 'mongst the me2 crew. way too much with the daddy issues and messed up childhood stuff that all gotta sudden be dredged up and resolved before a life and death mission to save intelligent life in the galaxy? yeah. anywho, as silly as were the me2 DRAMA, fo:nv made an even greater mistake by being dull. is not that me2 did well, but rather that fo:nv mostly failed with the writing. HA! Good Fun!

almost the opposite reaction. for all that me2 were hardly a crpg and its shooter mechanics was lame, at least it had a handful o' characters and quests that kept us involved through the better part o' an entire play-through. fo:nv... honestly, the gameplay stopped being intriguing after the first couple hours... tops. blame on bethesda, obsidian or interplay for all we care, but combat were fundamentally the same at low levels and high. skillz and special were broken at least as bad as me2's quasi character development although fo:nv had all the trappings o' a crpg so we expected more. with comprehension and a high int, we were able to make virtual every noteworthy skill check in the game by 10th or 12th level... and with how pointless vats were, am wondering if we ever genuine needed to put points in energy weapons or guns (although we eventual maxed those out too.) we never genuine had to change tactics, save for how we went about trying to keeps various party mates alive. some o' the joinable npcs woulda'/coulda' been intriguing, but they weren't developed much, and they were mostly insular... save for arcade complaining 'bout robots. oh, and don't get us started on luck and gambling in fo:nv... more busted than original fo gambling. am s'posing that obsidian tried to give the players hard choices... moral ambiguous choices. fail. first you gotta make Gromnir care 'bout a faction or person, and obsidian were so wedded to the sandbox that they forgot the raison d'etre. also, it sure as hell woulda' made far more sense to has the caesar legion be the protectors o' civilization-- maintain dam and generate power, but with a commensurate human cost o' slavery and tyranny. as it were, although the ncr clear were not good guys, the legion were bad guys. waste. maybe loyalty to the setting forced obsidian to adopt a lame triumvirate o' house/ncr/legion, but we gots no sympathy for a developer whose slavish devotion to cannon results in bad writing. vegas setting were surprising uninspired. generic. am not caring if it were feeling accurate to locals, 'cause it just didn't evoke no sense o' wonder. now am sure that peoples gots equal numbers (more criticisms) o' me2 than we has identified for fo:nv. those criticisms is no doubt valid. even so, we found the setting and characters o' me's universe to be far more compelling than what we got from fo:nv. if fo:nv gameplay woulda' been more engaging, then perhaps the sandbox approach coulda' worked. sadly, fo:nv were just kinda... drab. boring. aside-- dead money actual were a marked improvement for fo:nv as we got some actual focus. failed with the horror, but at least we were genuine curious to see how the story would eventual unfold. sure, chrisA again went with wacky concept over meaningful development, but take away the bald girl's scars, and annoying muteness (am not certain how many times we missed her "dialogue" 'cause we were avoiding speakers or poison clouds,) and she were intriguing enough. god/dog mostly got on our nerves, and the dialogue (especially at the end) were full o' hokum, but we could deal. dean were groovy. *shrug* too bad dead money gameplay were so terrible. no spooky or scary... tactical reload. use your own character as a pmd? stoopid. even so, we enjoyed dead money even if the poison clouds and hidden speakers shtick were lame. honest hearts sucked. am not gonna waste additional breath. haven't played owb, but it sounds interesting. boring? fo:nv were the game that got far too dull too quick.... other than the ghouls in the rockets. lots o' choices. lots o' quirky. HA! Good Fun!

hmmmm our wishes include stuff such as the following: cure for cancer renewed serious human space exploration in our lifetime solutions to the endemic problems o' the third world etc. more simple and personal? a really good bigos recipe that don't require +20 ingredients and +2 hours of prep for don delillo to gets back to his 1982-1991 form a second season of wonderfalls ... you know, nightshade/shape (whatever) don't rate anywhere on our wish list. go figure. "Why would you think that? " well then, perhaps we give you too much credit. in any event, am gonna note that your bridge jumping analogy gots a serious flaw: folks didn't jump off the bridge. people in london did riot as directed and prompted. again, is a different standard here in the US, but even we gots stuff such as hate speech and incitement. there is a general prohibition on prior restraints, but that ain't an issue once criminal behavior has occurred. brandenburg v. ohio has the test you is looking for... includes immediacy and likelihood o' action by audience. with the riots you got actual action. nevertheless, none o' this changes the fact that we bets that if you put your mind to it, you could come up with examples of posters and online posts that goes beyond free speech protections. btw, am guessing you didn't follow our suggestion with the Bong Hits Jesus thing, eh? HA! Good Fun!