costard

Hmm. Jgstrick, I'm not sure the US does have an ineffective officer corps or general staff, but if your economy is significantly based on the maintenance of Empire and the manufacture and sale of arms (as the British was, as the US is), you can expect the domestic political agenda to lean towards convincing the populace of the worthiness of conducting wars, whether those wars are justly fought or not. This leads you to the point where you're fighting wars you really shouldn't be, on occasion at least. Most populations are rightfully mistrustful of military rule for themselves - they understand that the incidences of abuse of power are quite likely more frequent and generally terminal in nature: witness Burma and its junta. The populace ends up either in slave-like submission, hardly fertile ground for enterprise or innovation, or in active [armed] opposition. A national culture that doesn't recognise going into the military as the most rewarding of careers is unlikely to attract better than average ability to its officer corps - I think this is why you perceive the US military efforts as below par: people of average ability are being asked to perform with near perfect execution of their duties.

Doesn't this already happen - a new red (or blue) triangle appearing on the edge of the screen in the direction of the spotted unit? Sure, you have to keep an eye on things, but you do anyway. Maybe first time appearance, three times flash sort of thing?

Some of us are lucky enough to lecture nubile young females on politics. I don't recall you providing us with the pictures either, Mr Affentitten. Grumblegrumble - he's right tho': think of all the things you can't possibly imagine and couldn't see even if you could. Pictures of that sort of thing.

I think most of the taboos based around sex are about the prevention of disease. Certainly when syphilis came back from the New World with Portugese and Spanish sailors there would have been an epidemic noted by the learned people and doctors of the time - officers of the Catholic church. Other factors lending weight to some sort of imposed discipline from above would include the need to foster some sort of responsibility for progeny, something that I suspect doesn't come naturally to populations experiencing hardship as a direct result of their too great growth. With behavioural curbs in place, a society can look forward to having children supported to maturity and the wealth of the society expands with their able contribution. Without the curbs, children grow up unsupported and disadvantaged, with the society needing to impose a tax regime to ensure a minimum amount of assistance able to be provided. Take your pick. Of course, it being the era of the modern state, we can have our cake and eat it too - support your own kids, and pay taxes. Be a good Christian. Violence - well, it pays just as well, and in some circles it is seen as less of a social problem than willy-nilly sex: generally those circles able to afford hired protection and are pretty hot on knowing that a person is a legitimate heir. Strangely, it is the members of these circles that collect the profits from the depicted violence, but if the market didn't exist there would be no profits. So you can only conclude that people, in general, like vicarious violence and will happily pay for it. Pretending that a benefit can come out of deliberately curbing our natural behaviour in one area, but no other, is a ludicrous proposition.

By rote is a good start, if you can be bothered and have the time. Or if you need the mathematical tools he describes and develops. But it seems you don't need that sort of in depth handle on the work, you need enough of it to compare his constructs with later developments. If you can see how Newton (for example) developed his ideas and tools (including calculus) from this base you have the start of an idea of how the language for describing the physical universe has developed and, perhaps, a better idea of how we think and how our thinking and perception can change. Why wouldn't you study all space, given the opportunity to study any? With enough of an analysis in depth you may discover a space that cannot be perceived except by means of an understanding of how perceptible space behaves. You might be able to describe gravity, for example. Convincing someone else of the fact of such a discovery is a little harder - for that you might need to study politics.

The best you can take from these histories of the development of human thought is the knowledge that there have been a number of extremely bright and hardworking people who have gone before you. Dismiss them at your peril. It also provides for an understanding of the possibilities of further development (provided you are prepared to work hard at it), and gives you a chance of arguing for your additions to the field, and against those who will test the same with ardent and arduous rigour. I'd suggest you go for a gestalt of the book first up - skim it, note those passages that catch your interest (if any) and see if you can come up with an idea of what it is he was trying (or successfully managing) to convey. See if you can provide yourself with any context from your own life where his principles are applied. Wading through the density of high philosophical writing is a turn off, fer sure. Wait 'til you get to "Les Mots et les Choses."

Why is the first rung on this ladder leading me down? Aah, the stench of the cesspit. Anyone need a hose-down?

You gotta pay at the market - pinch them from the side of the road and all you have to do is dodge the shotgun pellets and wash off the chook poo. Down Werribee way... If I'm gonna tell fibs, they might as well serve a purpose. I wear the SSN badge with, um, pride, the right sort of pride, displaying for all to know of my scum sucking newbiness. Michael displays the sort of pride you can purchase for the price of a self-help tome and the pretense of literacy. Having a conversation with the fellow is like trying to play music on lead bells.

I would say that being criticised by Michael is somewhat akin to being flogged with lettuce leaves. In the interests of maintaining my well deserved reputation for veracity I shall endeavour to carry out the comparison. Off to search for volunteers... and lettuces.

I think, but I'm not certain, that the problem is one of the version of the game the scenario was made under. So CMBB 1.03 (i.e. base game patched to version 3) can't run scenarios made with patch 1 or 2. A lot of scenarios would have been made and submitted for play, but not necessarily updated. Again, I'm not sure that this is the problem - hopefully someone else will confirm or deny?

Collect your $200 Brew Madly. Then buy me a beer. As for motorcycles, Mechial Yerms, years ago I decided I'd be getting thrills out of them until I was dead - about two weeks after I started riding. One of those life choices I might have made correctly.

Beer. Girls. Fast cars. That just about covers it.

Yes. Surrender is a good option.

I think it's more of an attempt by the nation's educators to keep their populace thinking in base 12, 16, 24, 60 - anything other than ten (which is the result of the first conspiracy, and not about the number of digits on our hands and feet). Get well soon John.

15-2, 15-4... Release the hippos!

Hi nbracco. Copy your original scenario folder, give it another name and keep for in case. Copy all your downloaded scenarios into the scenario folder. Each scenario has an extension - .cmb, .cmg, etc. - which is relevant for the version of CM you're playing. Should be good to go.

No real discussion of the economics - why we pay for the somatic experience generated by viewing violence. Too close to a taboo topic, probably, but the parallel examples in history are obvious: circuses, gladiators, people being roasted alive as dinner entertainment. Power, sex, the illusion of risk. I liked the mention of the fact that South Africa had banned tv until 1975 - really difficult to believe.

I doubt it. More likely that women are accepted in the British military to the point where they're taken on combat patrol to give them the same opportunities of experience and advancement that the men get. It also sends an extremely loud message to the populace of the occupied culture - one that isn't obviously hypocritical.

What, Marines are nice and polite, aren't they? All of them. Very nice and unusually polite I hear.

Nah - the sciatics are flaring in sympathy with seismic tensions in central Asia. Watch out for the next big quake.

I return from the wilds of Warrnambool, home of the Dirty Angel, a high proportion of amazing looking sheilas and Fat Yak, a goodly beer. There also I have feasted upon the carcass of a halfwit, his bragging of sacking people so offending me. There's nothing like the public execution of a paid lecturer to enliven a day, let one feel that all is well with the world. I fed the fish, one pipi at a time. Didn't catch anything but a cold - the little buggers have the stealing of bait down to a fine art. My hot pink rod good for little more than a weak double entendre. Noba, how many times have you been booked so far? Come to think, I drove past an abandoned rex on the freeway this morning. Nabbed under the hoon laws, were we?

Sadly, nothing they're doing is illegal - yet - though it is generally recognised as outright theft. The dangers of the worship of Mammon haven't done more than show a fin. The general populace of the west does have to shoulder some of the responsibility for this mess: a recreational drug can be a society destroyer if not properly managed and debt is much the same. Things are getting pretty shaky around the world - and the title of the thread has been shown to be a true statement. It might be a case of the war arriving just in the nick of time, though in this case the cause of the devastation will be ultimately shrouded from popular perception, lost in the foreground noise of the pundits calling for sides to be taken. Whatever you choose to do, remember that it is the little guy that gets it in the neck: this is the way of any political system.

You are, of course, correct Bugged. And the assumption that I am not a mutant is comforting. Thanks.

Five fingers to a palm. Anyway, I have a headache. I just gave this a little thought - how could a narcissist get himself off if he has to imagine himself as someone else giving him pleasure? Comments from the peanut gallery welcome.

Nah - more like a fight in a family. sad, not happy.