Chindie

Sorry to hear that mate.

A pardon doesn't mean that at all. It means you've been granted mercy for a crime. I.e. you are guilty, but we like you so we'll just let you off this time. If they were saying 'Sorry, the law was wrong, we completely exonerate you and everyone who ever fell foul of an obscene and stupid law made by fools and offer some recompense to go some way to repay the injustice done to you, and this injustice be struck from the records forever more', it might go some way to being worth anything. Although it's bloody difficult to recompense a dead man. As it is, this pardon rather more says 'You were a criminal, but you had some stature and did some good things, so we're going to say we'll let you off. But you were still a criminal. We're slightly embarrassed that this was considered a crime and have been for donkeys years so we're going to sweep that guilt we hold for you and thousands of others plight by saying, 60 years after you died, that you were alright so we can feel good about ourselves. And moreover, hopefully dupe some of those lesbians, gays and whatnot to maybe consider ever voting for us now we've acknowledged the stick'.

I bought Assassins Creed 4. Already has the wonder back of lovely surroundings and colourful characters rather than the hopeless dreary hole that was 3, and thats only after an hour or so's play. Still has the usual AC foibles as well, mind. Beautiful on PC too.

It wouldn't be meaningless if it were a relative of yours. The correct thing to do and there is no reason not to do it. I think it would be, regardless of whether I was related to him or not. A pardon suggests 'letting him off' of a crime. He never should have been considered a criminal in the first place, he did no wrong and the law at the time was absurd. This pardon is rather more about a) a government hoping to placate a distrusting section of society by pandering to a stick they can be beaten with, and a state looking to forgive itself of a wrong it's known it's committed for years by making little more than a token gesture to a famous example of a great injustice. All imo of course.

It's a fairly meaningless bit of pandering, imo.

Pacific Rim is a great disc for showing off a telly. Film itself is no classic but dumb fun, but it looks so good. Both 3d and 2d pictures are near flawless and blacks and neons. Makes for a great spectacle.

Thought you might

Yeah, the MP44 is basically the father of all assault rifles, but it's complexity made it a difficult weapon to rely on (and also made it hard to make regardless of it using machine pressed parts). The AK47 was stupendously simple, built with enormous tolerances so it will work even if not terribly well looked after and with very simply mechanics. It was basically built around being easy to use and maintain whilst also being a good enough weapon. It's effectively become the engine of revolution because of this.

The weather has lead to the city centre being apparently populated by morons. Usually wielding umbrellas.

It's a digital distribution platform that also acts as a community and digital games library. It's the most common platform and some games require it to install at all. It has a few benefits - regular sales, games generally having some form of discount, convenience, it even has a system in place for easy adding of mods for some games like Skyrim. You can also buy games for the service from other retailers in the shape of Steamkeys meaning you can regularly take advantage of deals away from Steams own sales. On the downside, it is DRM still and it is digital distribution in the main still (although a number of boxed titles utilise elements of Steam, things like achievements or cloud saving, for instance), and it isn't a one stop shop, though it's damn close, since EA and Ubisoft decided to release their own platforms a number of titles from those publishers either don't appear at all on the service (EA) or use both Steam and their own client at the same time (Ubi) which is annoying. If you want to PC game, you pretty much require a Steam account. Now is a fairly good time to jump in as the Christmas sale is on meaning a dozen big deals a day for a week or so.

Work passing out Selection Boxes to everyone

The Star Wars episodes of Robot Chicken are some of the funniest things I've ever seen. And I don't even like Star Wars. The glimpse of what happened when Luke threw the grenade in the AT-AT in ESB always has me laughing like a drain.

Unsurprisingly, these filters are already proving problematical. They block anything with any reference to sexuality, meaning for example that sex education sites, rape advice and support services, and LGBT community forums Gerry blocked.

Such as this modern version of the original hot hatch that started it all? An exciting German car too. On my list of cars I want to realistically own. Alongside a new Scirocco, and a Corrado. ...there's a theme there.

Weapons haven't actually changed much in quite some time. We've made them a bit more accurate and flexible in their uses, but ultimately it's still bullets and explosives.

Also saw the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug last night at the Giant Screen, in glorious high frame rate on a screen the size of a house. I enjoyed it. Not perfect but it's fun, and Smaug is a truly brilliant presence realised superbly. If anything, there needed to be more - Jackson is a bit over indulgent with his action scenes and showing off, but with Smaug I'd have forgiven him for dragging it out. Shame that other scenes feel like the film wants to get rid of them - Beorn is consigned to about 3 minutes on screen (and I'm certainly not sure about the look of his human form...) sadly. But yes, good fun - the first film's ponderous pace is binned in this film, bar a few scenes where it sags a little, this one rattles along. HFR is still a bit weird, mind.

Not good. Hmm. Looks like we're not getting the Hank Pym version then. Then again, it's Edgar Wright, we probably never were, in reality. Must admit that makes that film a curio for me rather than an integral part of the MCU.

Was this thread inspired by a few years of Bolitics threads, or did it used to be interesting?

Finished this earlier. Worst of the series, mostly because it's really lacking in the polish the other games had, but also because it feels a bit tired. Numerous frustrating moments where the combat mechanics let down in a manner the other games in the series never did, less clever applications of those mechanics, less new and interesting environments (it all feels too familiar in truth)... etc etc It's not a bad game but considering the first 2 are some of the best games of this gen this is a disappointment. IT's a shame really because theres potential in the ideas they had, and some things are done very well - the transition to new voice actors has been handled supremely well, for example. Wait for a sale.

Sadly I fear thats the remit any Aston Villa manager right now would face.

A new manager isn't going to make any difference. The players are simply not good enough. Lambert takes some flack there, he's bought in some rubbish. The owner takes flack there - Lambert has been given cash but has had to spread an amount that isn't big enough in the first place across too many players, as well as watch the wages. That money situation is unlikely to change. A new manager might be able to bring in a player or 2 of better standard with a better hit rate than Lambert, but that will not be enough to plug the painfully obvious gaps in this squads ability. So, we are left with a fairly inevitable fate. We're destined to be shit this season, all season, and that will continue until we pull off a miracle by finding an entire team of lower league gems or developing an academy of superstars in the rough. Until we start to invest again, thats what we're trying to do to succeed, and that means we'll be relying on luck and 3 teams being more shit for the foreseeable. Which also means we'll be relegated before too long.

A comatose inducing limp display with a slim Stoke victory.

Who else can he play? That's not my point. I'm making reference to how unutterably shite our squad is.