Recent content by Thomas Hardy

From my perspective, this looks less and less like "pushy atheists" and more and more like "atheists pushing back". For example, take many Christian groups lobbying several U.S. States to change the science curriculum to teach "intelligent desigh" rather than evolutionary biology. Maybe I'm...

If you're writing a story about tanks and you're already a reader of TV Tropes, I'd suggest you look up "Literature: Bolo" and the Bolo wiki at bolo.wikia.com. The "Bolo" tank is actually a concept going back to the 70's that is part of a shared Universe now. It might be worth looking into...

1) we don't know what the upper range limit on the plasma cannon is. It might only be good for a hundred meters or so. 2) God only knows what kind of damage that would do to a CITY if they missed the kaiju 3) You lose a hand to fire it. Permanently if the cannon gets damaged. 4) the...

I had a layover in Detroit once on a long trip so I went for a walk around my hotel trying to find an open convenience store or all night grocery. This guy came up behind me and asked me if I was "looking for fun". I said "isn't everybody?" and then asked him for directions so some place...

If it weren't for the fact that the reactor was basically unshielded Coyote tango would be the ride for me. Two shoulder-mounted artillery pieces for sustained long-range engagement and a well rounded close quarters combat frame. I always thought Guncannon had the lock-down on the vanilla...

For myself I like to try and explain things "in universe before bringing up anything that may be an allegory to the real world: 1) Remember the line "Jaegers are being destroyed faster than we can build them" and Stacker's line "we put those things together in 14 months"? A Mk. 5 Jaeger...

It's been about 12 hours and already people are starting to move on. Two brothers, a pair of Muslims originally of Chechen extraction who immigrated as children are the primary suspects. One is in hospital and the other is dead. Open and shut right? What about the SECOND bomb? Both of...

I just found out about the bombing ten minutes ago. I'm with Pebkio: guessing which group or trying to find explanations in this mess... ...it's just too damn SOON! What would make everything clear is identifying a clear motivation for the bombing. I can't say anything for certain...

I can't believe nobody has mentioned XCOM: Enemy Unknown yet. Most of the missions are randomly generated "enemies on a map" with a few scripted Council/Terror missions thrown in. What takes place IN those missions as your small squads are relentlessly whittled down by alien forces acting...

One of the arguments I despise is when things are falsely reduced to some kind of black-and-white relativism: i.e. If it were a male torso would the "zombie bait" statue still be sexist? THAT'S NOT THE POINT! The argument is about the treatment of women in media/games/etc...

The trillion-dollar coin thing is a way to circumvent the U.S. Debt ceiling. Its stupid but it would work. Shotguns and bolt-action rifles can be loaded a bullet at a time, and some don't even come equipped with magazines. a single-shot bolt-action rifle is more than enough for hunting...

Its not just the DRM to me. Its the whole mind-boogling corporate logic behind it. Virtually all the games in my library are second hand. From ten games and my second NES to to Mass Effect 3 about ninety percent of the games I have in my house were bought, borrowed, or gifted...

Pygmalion http://www.thanasis.com/pygmal.htm 'Nuff Said

One of the things I find funny is that "The Legend of Zelda 2" and "Mario 2" here in the west were essentially games from other franchises who were repackaged into the brand to make them sell better. Hence the utterly different mechanics and style. The first 2 Shadow Hearts games were...

For my money ED-E for sheer lethality. For companions who actually Talk, Veroinca and Cassidy are funny, quippy, and feel slightly more developed. Arcade isn't so bad provided: --you plan on being the sterotypical "Good Guy" --you use a walkthrough to get through his whole story without...