Zager

What makes you the final word on Islamic scripture? There's a hell of a lot of other scholars out there who disagree with your interpretation, and they study it and other religions professionally. Why should I take the word of an amateur over that of a professional? http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/fe...islammyths.html http://www.islamweb.net/ver2/archive/index...1&thelang=E http://muslim-canada.org/tolerance.htm You're saying this to me? That's a laugh. Acadaemic ivory tower? Are you an idiot? The Club of Madrid is composed primarly of former heads of government. People with real experience in the international political system. The terrorist groups I mentioned exist today.

Cute. Pointless, but cute. Details are everything in politics. Tell me, where did you get your degree in political science from? I got mine from Bishop's University in Quebec. What makes you think there is a common cause? Religion has always been a justification for terrorists, not a cause. You obviously know nothing about Islam. The Qu'ran is quite clear that war is only permissable in self-defense. So let me get this straight. You, an anoymous guy on an internet gaming forum, think you know more about international terrorism than an international, non-partisan organization run by people who have devoted their lives to the study of political science? Twisting meanings of words and phrases, a clear sign of a man who can't prove a point. Which was also a worthless article, as I pointed out.

Such a bold statement. Such a false statement. Every single religion in existence today has extremist members. Christianity, Islaim, Judaism, Hinduism, hell, even Budhism has produced terrorists. Forgetting the crusades, are we? Actually, historical Islam warfare conversions were fairly civilized compared to most other religions. They didn't slaughter civilians, as opposed to Christianity's kill them all and god shall pluck his own from the flock mentality, but merely imposed higher taxes on non-believers they conquered.

Because that sort of behavior is the exact sort of thing that these trials are supposed to be against?

http://www.safe-democracy.org/docs/CdM-Ser...orism-Vol-1.pdf Here's a brief study on the topic, an attempt to understand the psychology and motivations of terrorists. Also, you have a severe misunderstanding of the terrorist life cycle. Nobody joins a terror organization one day, and becomes a suicide bomber the next, the process of becoming a true believer in the cause is a long, and complicated one. You should note that suicide bombing is not the result of religion, but rather, the result of people willing to die for their cause. Oh please. You talk like Islam is the only religion in the world to practice conversions through warfare.

Neither of those articles goes into any of the economic or real social issues behind terrorism that any half-decent student of political studies would be able to tell you goes far beyond Islamic terrorism. Oh, and if you wish to have any sort of credibility at all in the future, I strongly advise that you only post links to articles that have been written in a fair and neutral manner, rather than ones by authors with a political motiviation. You know what your problem is? You want life to be simple. You just want to point to this, and say that this a direct result of that, while decrying those that point out the real issues. I bet you believe that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was the primary cause of World War I.

What you don't understand is that the whole middle-eastern situation is the result of an extremely complex interelation of political, economic and social factors, dating back to European colonialism. Trying to say that the problem is Islam is a surefire sign of someone with no education in political science, and no real understanding of the middle-eastern situation.

I own a Dell. They've known about this for months and months now. It's a flaw in certain batteries, and they sent out e-mails to owners a long time ago about it.

"Captain Tagachi?" a British man asked in Japanese, stepping into the dojo that Sato taught at. "I'm retired," Sato replied, standing up from a meditative position. "But that's me. And just who are you?" He looked the X-COM recruiter over. His bearing and stance indicated that he was a member of the military. "I'm Sergeant Benson sir, I have a proposition for you," he said. "I told you, I'm retired. I'm a civilian now, you don't have to sir me." "Do you have somewhere private where we can talk? Sergeant Benson said. "There's an office in the back. Follow me," Sato said, interested, and led the way. ******************* "So, what's this all about?" Sato asked, leaning against a desk. "I represent an international task force that's been formed to combat-" Sato cut him off. "I'm retired, son. I don't work for the military anymore and I'm not interested in going back. There's lots of military divers out there, talk to one of them." "You're one of the best," the mans stated flatly. "How many bombs did you defuse in that last mission. Thirteen? You're one of the few combat divers on the planet to ever engage in combat activity in the extreme depths." "Fifteen bombs actua;;y. And best, in my business, is generally only by a very slim margin." "Just the read this file, and you'll see how important this is." Sato sighed. "All right, I'll read it, if only to convince you that I DON'T want to go back to active service." Sato picked up the file, and started reading it. Fifteen minutes later "This is for real?" he asked, rhetorically, laying the file down on the desk. Benson nodded. "All right. I'll need a day to tie up my matters here. I'll be reporting to X-COM within forty-eight hours. I'll provide you with a list of what gear I need."

Nope. I find that difficult to believe. Exactly. It's like training, only better and faster. Look, I've read a lot of military and sci-fi military stories, and played a lot of military and sci-fi military games. That's the direction I'm approaching the fiction from.

As an avid reader of military fiction, I can assure you that this is utterly false. Regardless of what you might think, military training does not surpress personalities and make soldiers into identical clones. So Earth is being invaded by really, really incompetent aliens? I assume that the aliens have the equivlant of military training themselves.

Just to interject with my own opinion: Given the nature of this conflict, most of the assigned military personnel are most likely going to be from commando regiments focused on diving. What exactly is he doing in a military regiment fighting an underwater war if he has no experience fighting underwater? Sounds exactly like the sort of situation they invented commandos for. Just to point out, commandos are highly adaptible and flexible. These are key traits, given the nature of commando operations.

They don't make the 93R anymore. The three round burst option was just a toy, anyway. You couldn't possibly hit anything at any sort of range with it. It also happens to be obsolete.

Frankly, I'm pretty impressed by the FN Five-SeveN. 20 rounds of 5.7mm AP ammo.

Here's a possible solution for Zrbite: The base alloy is worthless as a power source, only being used as a decorative metal by the Gill men (as noted in Plato's description of the use of Orichalcum), until the aliens arrived. Infusing Zrbite with a certain alien bio-material that is activated by the MC network controlled by T'Leth gives it the capability to sreve as a highly effective power source in a refined state.

I'm not saying they should head out tommorow, but interrogations of captured Gill men should eventually give X-COM enough information about Atlantis that the expense of finding it can be justified, especially if it would lead X-COM towards more information about the alien threat. Frankly, the path towards the endgame has always been a bit disappointing to me in X-COM. Just interrogate a couple of commanders, and you get what you need. I just think there should be a bit more to it. An arcehological expedition to Atlantis seems to be more fitting as one of the steps along the path towards T'Leth.

Well, if Plato's writings are real in the game history, and we use Zbrite=Orchialcum, then there would be a massive quantity of Zrbite located in Atlantis, used primarily for ceremonial purposes and decoration. That would be something worth tracking down. Hey, AT. Do you have IM? Think you'd be up for doing a joint post sometime on your recruiting guy recuiting Sato into X-COM?

Name: Sato Tagachi Age: 36 Description: A Japanese gentleman, standing at about five feet five inches tall, with black hair and blue eyes. Deceptively strong for his size, Sato is in very good shape, a combination of constant exercise and a healthy diet, as well as rigorous practice in half a dozen different styles of martial arts. Background: Sato is a professional military diver and underwater demolitions expert formally working for the Japanese Defense Forces. He's mostly had to deal with terrorist attacks from Chinese supernationalists, as well as the increase in general terrorist activety in the world as a result of the seperation of Alaska from the United States. He's very good at what he does, and works as a weaponsmith off duty, happily maintaining, building, repairing and customizing a wide variety of firearms. While technically against military policy, his squadmates, the recepients of his special customizations, never reported him. After all, they were heavily benefiting from his work. The highlight of his career was four year ago, when he and his squad entered a Disney vacation cruiser that had been taken over by a radical Chinese terrorist group, and neutralized the terrorst, while disarming over a dozen bombs that had planted on the exterior hull of the ship, saving over seven hundred lives in the process. A good soldier, he retired two years previously to spend more time with his wife and children. He runs a fishing boat now, as well as teaching a diving class and assisting at a local dojo in order to pay the bills. However, given the sudden, urgent need for experts in underwater combat, it's very likely that certain recruiters are going to be paying him a visit in the near future in his home in neo-Japan.

And Cthulhu isn't? Why? In real life, we know what Atlantis was. It was a story Plato made up based on the Thera erruption and the collapse of Minoan civilization. Anything else is just wild conspiracy theory. I say we make Atlantis the center of the Gillman civlization before, and at a pivotal moment, locate it and somehow use it to free the Gilmen from the aliens and form an alliance with them. And on further note with Cthulhu Mythos, I say we have the workings of the Cult of Sirius resemble Lovecraftian cults, to further enhance the Cthulhu mythos connection. Sacrafices, strange rituals, direct contact and control by aliens, etc.

That's where my idea came from, actually. I like the idea of having Atlantis being originally inhabitated by Gillmen, who were then enslaved by the aliens. One thing we could have is Lovecraft being a latent psionic who had unconciously tapped into the aliens MC network, resulting in bizare dreams which would serve as the basis for his stories. What's your problem with it? It fits nicely into the plotline established by the series.

Hey, here's a suggestion. Given that the general plot of TFTD is based off of Cthulhu Mythos, how about we add some Greek legends too? What I'm saying is that let's have the refined state of Zrbite be that of coppery beads that glisten like red fire. I'm referring, of course, to Orichalcum from Plato's writings on Atlantis.

Yes, but if we're sticking to the games, then elerium and zrbite are the only power sources strong enough to reliably power plasma and sonic weaponry, and synthetic elerium isn't going to be around for another twenty or so game years.

Extortion and soliciting bribes would probably run contrary to the charter of X-COM.

Why would it be crippled? Terror attacks in TFTD, IME, aren't that common, and they're just as likely to hit a port or an island as they are a ship. It might be hurt, yes, but it's not going to stop, especially if there's so much money in it, like you say there is. With the increase in corporate power over the next forty years, that would become extremely risky for nations like China. If they pull stunts like that, corporations stop doing business with the country, wrecking its economy Aquaplastics don't require alien technolgoy, and they have the potential to be the biggest earner.

I don't think it's in X-COM's charter to fund resistance or terrorist movements. X-COM should restrict itself to fighitng aliens. Why sell the gear that we can manufacture like guass guns or aquaplastics? Why not just simply register the patent, and contract it out to manufacturing corporations? We'll get a reliable stream of cash, and free up our own engineers to work on important projects.