Solitair

Solitair

Joined Member # 177844
0 Posts 8 Replies 26,676 Reputation
Reply to Torture in Politics JoeUser Forums

Dabe, you should re-edit this and take out the personal attacks on people. Anger against those who would try to deny humanity is understood, but personal attacks or naming of such people is wrong. Your post is strong and clear enough without naming names. Paul.

1 Replies 1,882 Views
Reply to What is Torture? in Politics JoeUser Forums

I love your use of a dictionary definition of the word torture. Interesting attempt to deflect critism from the real issue. Why is torture wrong? Because the US has signed legal documents forbidding it's use. What documents? The Geneva Convention. What does it actually say? To this end the fo

145 Replies 36,917 Views
empire direction / government in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

One possibly interesting change to the game would be to revamp the government system to be based on sliders as oppossed to defined government types. Something similar to the system in Europa universalis 2 comes to mind. So for example, you would have sliders relating to freedom of citizens (ranging from slave of emporer, to standard freedoms, to anarcists

49 Replies 56,136 Views
Reply to String Theory in Pure Technology JoeUser Forums

No way to test it? Not quite true. No way to directly measure strings due to uncertainty principle and the fact that string lengths are of thje order of the planck lenfth. There are plenty of predictions that the theory can make which can be tested though. The most obvious one is the super symmetry, stating that strings which carry force have corresponding particles which carry matter. Find those particles and it helps prove string theory. The

25 Replies 5,907 Views
Reply to From Washington Post: Tech Firms Aim to Change Copyright Act in Politics JoeUser Forums

Actually I'm all in favour of a change in the law. It's illegal to handle stolen goods so why should it not be illegal for ISPs to handle stolen goods? Because that is exactly what they are doing. Rather than them becoming liable though, I'd rather see the law changes so that there was an information police service responsible for protecting copyright and patents online. They would then be responsible for stopping and prosecuting ille

7 Replies 3,478 Views
Reply to If we weren't so stingy, we'd be broke. Disaster relief in Politics JoeUser Forums

terpfan, you can indeed dispute this statement. It is the stated belief of the US government though, as shown by Powell making it. I personally believe that people are far less likely to support anti US terrorism if they recall friends and family who are only alive due to US assistance. The important thing is for it to be aid to help with a problem, and not a long term support. Paul

12 Replies 2,984 Views
Reply to Shi Lanka declines Israels offer of aid in Politics JoeUser Forums

Moderateman, Let me say it again, Sri Lanka refusing the offer of Israeli troops had nothing to do with them being Jewish. They were very grateful for the medical personel and aid which they accepted. Stop trying to turn this into an anti semite slight, it wasn't. Even worse, this is a country with only 7% muslims. There are more muslims in Israel! So to suggest this is a muslim country refusing Jewish aid is very very wrong. Paul.</f

39 Replies 10,154 Views
Reply to America Saves the World- Again in Current Events JoeUser Forums

There's no point in counting aid at the moment. It will be months or even years before the true costs come out. The UK government expects to spend hundreds of millions UK pounds (x2 in $) in aid for the disaster over the next few months, but as it points out only $14M has already been spent and there's no point setting ceilings or agreeing totals now. Paul.

41 Replies 6,731 Views
Reply to If we weren't so stingy, we'd be broke. Disaster relief in Politics JoeUser Forums

I can, but I won't as critising the US response was not the purpose of my response. If you really want to bean count and see who contributes more you can, but it will be months before the actual costs come out. The UK governmnet for example has said that only £7M ($14M) of it's initial £50M ($100M) pledge has actually been spent so far, but it expects the final cost to the UK government over the next year to be 100's of million UK pounds in aid. Who gi

12 Replies 2,984 Views
Reply to Shi Lanka declines Israels offer of aid in Politics JoeUser Forums

You're blowing things out of proportion here. Sri Lanka has accepted the Israeli aid but has asked them not to send 60 soldiers with the aid. Indonesia turned down some British Gurka aid from Brunei as well. The reason being because it needed the helicopters (which it accepted) but not the troops (as it had lots of it's own). Do you see the UK government getting upset or accusing Indonesia of being anti British? Sri Lanka has done the

39 Replies 10,154 Views
Reply to A Trek Through the Desert in GalCiv Journals GalCiv2 Forums

game with variable planet size (both in different sized planets on the main screen and different number of total tiles). Would add to the visual appeal and the strategy, but obviously not something needed now. Paul.

12 Replies 37,646 Views
Reply to laser beam in pilots eye patriot act in Current Events JoeUser Forums

No this is indeed a true case. Link The baffling thing is that anyone with knowledge about such things would know the difficulties and much easier ways to blind pilots at important points. Not really a viable terrorist threat and certainly not the most serious. A laser designed to launch in a fibre cable will not be powerful enough to permanently blind someone at such a

7 Replies 3,509 Views