While We Wait: Writer's Block & Other Lame Excuses

[bonefang]

??

wut ?

 

[Crezth]

I've read it and skimmed the abstracts for his papers. :3

o poppycock

 

[Symphony D.]

symph I request a hot take on Edge of Tomorrow

Haven't seen it. Did want to, no idea what its review state is right now.

Apparently still good. I'll probably try and see it sometime soon.

 

[Kozmos]

I've seen it, wasn't bad except for the ending which was a bit too tidy and Hollywood happy-endy. Just one point for those who have seen it:

Spoiler :

Why wouldn't they have simply written off Europe and nuked it and the Omega to oblivion in case of obvious invasion failure?

 

[Shadowbound]

Because the Omega is a save-scumming bastard. You're not going to saturate Europe so that every inch of it dies: you're going to try to target Mimic concentrations and leadership. And every time that happens, the Omega just resets and moves them somewhere else. The result is that it appears that nuclear weapons have no effect on the Mimics, and so they're discarded.

There's a reason it's hiding under the Louvre: it's not likely to be a nuclear target, and even then it can probably stay underground and survive the worst of the attack.

 

[Kozmos]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking but then they would get trapped in a loop, people would just think they are not targeting their nukes accurately enough because obviously you cant hide them all.

 

[Symphony D.]

There's a reason it's hiding under the Louvre: it's not likely to be a nuclear target, and even then it can probably stay underground and survive the worst of the attack.

The Louvre isn't exactly hardened against a ground level nuclear strike.

 

[Shadowbound]

The French should really get on that, then. It would be in America.

 

[Symphony D.]

Just like how we raised the Yamato and turned it into a spaceship under the Smithsonian!

 

[Symphony D.]

This is a pretty good expression of why everyone who was (and is) concerned about the NSA while still leaving their entrails spread over the corporate internet and corporate servers, and by extension people who fear things like national IDs, is a foolish fool.

The Company knows you. The Company has plans for you. Stand by.

 

[Azale]

Yea, there's a reason corporations have few scruples in cooperating with the NSA. They were already doing the same stuff.

 

[Lord of Elves]

So I watched one of the ISIS mass executions videos and I've suddenly acquired moral convictions about events in Iraq. But watching someone being beheaded with a kitchen knife will do that.

#baq2iraq

 

[Symphony D.]

You should look up arc flare videos and develop moral convictions about electrical safety.

 

[Tycho]

So what does everyone think regarding ISIS and the situation in Iraq? Intervene, or not to intervene?

 

[Crezth]

You should look up suicides and just think about that for a little while you know maybe.

DISCLAIMER: ATTENTION MODERATORS OF THE CIVILIZATION AND FANATICS CENTER'S FORUM: PLEASE BE ADVISED: THIS POST IS A JOKE. IT IS ONLY A JOKE. IN NO WAY DOES IT CONDONE, ADVISE, URGE, ADVOCATE, FACILITATE, NOR INFORM AS POSITIVE THE ACT OF SUICIDE. THE IMPLICATION VIS A VIS FORUM USER "Lord of Elves" COMMITTING SUICIDE IS NOT A SERIOUS SUGGESTION. IT IS THE TRUE OPINION OF FORUM USER "Crezth" THAT FORUM USER "Lord of Elves" SHOULD ACTUALLY NOT COMMIT SUICIDE, AND THIS POST IS THUS MEANT AS AN EXPRESSION OF "VERBAL IRONY" AND SHOULD BE REGARDED AS SUCH. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AND WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THE JOKE.

 

[Lord of Elves]

That's some harsh irony for someone who was legitimately offended by me facetiously comparing him to the architects of the Vichy French regime.

EDIT:

So what does everyone think regarding ISIS and the situation in Iraq? Intervene, or not to intervene?

Drones. Drones everywhere.

 

[Symphony D.]

Drones are an incredibly stupid solution to massed forces. That's why God invented the B-52.

 

[Perfectionist]

They wouldn't stay massed: ISIS, al-Douri, and co are WAY too smart for that. They'd disperse, go to ground, and disappear, just like they did back in August when we were gearing up. Airstrikes aren't enough. Maybe they stop the momentum, at least until we get bored, but it doesn't do anything to address the causes of their support; probably only strengthens their support, really, what with collateral damage and Maliki having to count on Shiite militias.

The only decent way forward is reading the GCC the riot act (GCC media characterises recent events in Iraq as a 'popular revolution,' you know; the contradictions of our ME policy are simply too glaring to ignore anymore) and pivoting so fast to Iran that Bibi's head explodes; Qassem Soleimani is now our best friend if we're at all serious about preventing the collapse of Iraq. We won't do that, of course, because Kissinger and the Dulles boys were the last American foreign policy types with any damned imagination, but we should.

 

[Symphony D.]

Yeah, you'd think a hegemon wouldn't go "You were mean to us 35 years ago so we're not talking to you or cutting deals!" and would instead be realpolitiking it up, but no.

Anyway, to take cities spread out across a mostly flat desert/river plain, you gotta form up into convoys and attack conventionally (no matter how asymmetrical you otherwise are; guerrilla warfare always transitions to conventional warfare on conquest) across long, open, linear roads, and that's when airpower is maximally effective on a normally dispersed force in the form of air interdiction and could killbox the whole movement. (Like it did in both prior wars there, esp. Highway of Death.) Unfortunately, ISIS has already taken so much territory that unless they actually push on Baghdad, this opportunity won't really present itself again, so the window has already passed.

Drone strikes on urban targets are, of course, about as practical as just carpet-bombing the cities.

P.S. Did you know Iran offered to stop supporting Hezbollah to the Bush Administration and they said "No?" What a smart group of Vulcans they were.

 

[Terrance888]

Nuke them from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.