Hi Rattler, put me down as a player. Wherever is fine.

Christian

I wonder is it was a ratchet kind of thing: getting himself deeper and deeper into lies. Or maybe there is some kind of mental health issue at play... though probably not PTSD   . or maybe he just thought that the whole thing was a victimless crime.

Belated thanks! I haven't been around lately. Being on sabbatical, I thought that I'd have more time for wargaming and personal project, but it turned out to be the opposite. The definition of a sabbatical year in my line of work isn't exactly a year of vacation.

As a result, one of the last things that I feel like doing when I'm done working is to do something with a computer.  For now... slow descent into the land of no fun.

Happy B-day!

The sophistication required for getting H1N1, the old Spanish Flu strain, to become virulent again seems to me to be a really contrived way to do a bio attack. (And without a setup like they have in Atlanta and with a lot of human subject for testing, it makes it pretty much impossible). Already, the CDC and the WHO do not agree with the make-up of the virus, but if I had to choose between the two, I'd go with the least alarmist WHO. The new strain wouldn't be dangerous if it wasn't a mixture of different virus, and in 2009, air travel acts as a planet-wide stir-stick for viruses.

There is much for wannabe terrorist to gain by taking credit for a naturally occuring Influenza A outbreaks, though.

There was one especially vicious attack during a hockey game in Vancouver, Canada, a few years back that ended-up with charges of assault. This stirred controversy as there seems to be a collective delusion that an assault done in plain sight in a stadium can be done without regards to the law in place around the stadium.

For things like this, I've long scratched off professional sports from the list of things that I worry about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz9RE9RGrVY

That I know of, Bertuzzi is still playing in the NHL.

Mixed feelings, I like to look at wargame as another way to study history (and a fun one), regardless whether it is ancient history of history made today. A tactical shooter, no matter how tactical, will not "inform" about counter-insurgency and thus will miss the point of the last 7 years in Iraq. The informational argument smells off to me. I'm fine with gaming current conflict, as long as it is done respectfully and that once the scenario is over, you feel like you understand what is going on over there better. Chances are that you can't get this in a Xbox360 game. Trivializing Fallujah/Iraq by turning it into an action tactical shooter is certain to hurt some grieving American and Iraqi families.

As for banning, well, it isn't going to solve the perceived problem by the peace groups. Controversy was the best marketing tools for Marilyn Manson concerts!

Hi,

    I'm in the playtesting phase for an online-based wargame set in late medieval Italy. I chose this period because I've never seen an operational-level medieval wargame (although it has some pretty interesting problems with medieval ops), and that the 14th century Italy was such an extreme time for warfighters.

    The playtest is close for the moment, but the full game should have about 10-12 players, with factions including the Avignon Pope, Florence, Venice, etc. The tactical battles will be resolved with Medieval II: Total war (http://www.totalwar.com/), and posted as movies.

    You can check out the site here: http://www.opcon.org/drupal/ and the game system manual (in progress, for referees more than players) http://www.opcon.org/~bongo/TOEM.v1.pdf. The game system is meant to work for any time period or game setting.

Cheers,

I'm not sure to which extend I find this creepy (but I do).

In one hand, I couldn't care less whether my government want waste their time mining my electronic traffic. This, especially if this means that it would make life more difficult for real bad guys like pedophiles, human traffickers and real terrorists. The problem is if this power doesn't come with full accountability of the uses for this information.

In the other hand, phone tapping everyone would be excessive...  However, phone access is easier to associate to a person than internet access.

I dealt with a womping 19,000 emails last year, excluding spam and mailing lists: I pity anyone (including myself) who have to deal with this. 

After consulting with his spin-doctor, the minister added to the debate with the following gem:

“We are evolving every year, every decade. That's a fact, whether it is to the intensity of the sun, whether it is to, as a chiropractor, walking on cement versus anything else, whether it is running shoes or high heels, of course we are evolving to our environment."

-Gary Goodyear

That is funny.



Now, the signs were turned down by good ol' public transit in Halifax to avoid the controversy.  That got people reeling on both sides for a few days.  You'd think that people who believe in God wouldn't care if a sign said otherwise, as it should have no bearing on their reality.   As an evolutionary biologist and atheist living next door to a creationist/Baptist Minister (and get along great), I'd rather see a sign that says:

My comment wasn't meant as an anti-conservative statement . I'm really neither liberal nor conservative and believe that the awkward arrangement in Canada whereby they both have to run by coalition is alright. The problem is bigotry: picking on unimportant issues and banging on them senseless. The best example would be the Bush administration's stance on stem cells:  a great example of utopic conservatism gone wrong. Kind of like the Chinese emperor decided that no Chinese would navigate the sea anymore and had all ships and shipyard destroyed. whistle

As for evolution, I am fascinated by creationists as I don't see why natural science should have to be tied down to the salvation of a soul. The other day, I let a Jehova's witness speak as much as he wanted. It was interesting, but not really useful. I wish that the energy wasted denying the obvious was spent on real problems where church communities would do great.

As for the Canadian government, the only thing that they can think of to change science is to turn academic research into cheap R&D for private companies. 

I'm partial to this one, although I wouldn't have found the occasion to use it on this forum (yet): 

Since I'm in the basic science research business, furthermore as I do research related to evolution itself, I feel like I'm on the first row seat of this new national policy. It is really sad to see how the conservatives are quietly and covertly changing the way science works for the worst. 

Skype does conference calls for sure. I've never tried it with more than 3 people.

Hey MR, first of all good luck with the hunt.

I guess that it depend on how the local economy is affected by the recession, but from here it looks like every job sector has a shortage of employees. I've heard that the recession is hitting the US much harder than up here in Canada, so maybe what I see doesn't match your reality.

The resumes in the academic world are so boring: they are nothing more than a shopping list of publications and grants. Trying to do anything else is usually a sign that the author is trying to hide something. I would agree with the cover letter piece: it makes the difference between a thoughtful applicant and someone spamming lots of employers with his/her CV.

With enough oil money behind them, we managed to elect a whole government's worth of them.

Actually, the Prime Minister isn't an idiot, but he leads a herd of them and pushes quietly a very conservative agenda that, had he been honest about it, would have prevented him from being elected in the first place.

It should possibly go in the Serious stuff (because it is), but I can't help it:

http://budurl.com/7nhb

In Canada, we've got a SCIENCE minister who considers geology, astronomy, evolution and archeology as wild theories   . When asked about his science credential (he is a chiropractor), he replied:

“When I was in high school, we were already tweaking with a coil that would wrap around the upper [radiator] hose and it got an extra five miles to the gallon. … So I've been there on this discovery stuff.”

I'm surprised that this project made it as far as prototype testing. What did they wanted to do with this: kill tanks or have the mother of all Infantry support vehicle?

Now, the Maus is a small fry compared to that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landkreuzer_P._1000_Ratte

Note the cruising speed of 40kph for the P.1000 

Hi Jody,
    I don't take this like an attack at all. The experience of a soldier isn't something easy to grasp for "career civilians". Thanks for the discussion.

Christian