North Korea and missiles

Apparently, North Korea is getting a missile ready to launch... http://www.google.com/news?ncl=http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx%3Ftype%3DtopNews%26storyID%3D2006-06-20T153912Z_01_N20434315_RTRUKOC_0_US-KOREA-NORTH-USA.xml%26archived%3DFalse&hl=en

At last count, there were 2100 articles linked on Google News. Most are likely rehashes of the Rueters feed, one of the articles http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-20T153912Z_01_N20434315_RTRUKOC_0_US-KOREA-NORTH-USA.xml&archived=False

Not sure what to make of it. It is a sovereign country. They like to sabre rattle. Their last "missile" was actually a rocket and attempted (and failed) the dasterdly deed of putting their own satellite in orbit. If they want to launch a satellite, I say let them. I think they could better spend their money (but I think the same of the US and they way our government spends our money). And hey - I have played MOO and MOO2, and sometimes the people have to suck it up for a few years so you can get that battleship ready for the Antarens. But I digress.

As one pundit put it, they are not a threat and he believed we were over-reacting by putting our missile defense to "operational." He was subsequently pummeled and accused of being a tree-hugger. I happened to read that article (being the first link on google news for a few moments), so I am sure there are other pundits who are saying it is a completely valid reaction (or even not enough), and those people are being pummeled by people calling them war-hawks.

If I lived in Japan or Alaska (or West Coast) I might be more concerned, as that could actually reach me. However, I do not believe that North Korea really wants a war. They are so far down the Axis of Evil that I do not think that the DoD thinks about them that much. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel v. Palestine. Plenty on our plates to worry about. North Korea also seems woefully ill-prepared for anything other than a grand show.

I am not one to believe everything I see, but every report and news article I have seen regarding the DPRK seems to indicate that its economy is in tatters and they can barely feed the populace. As it used to be a Communist country, I am sure some of the history is distorted by us and there is likely a bias in the news as well. Now it seems to be just a flat out dictatorship with a German-based civil system and "communist-like" economy (thank you CIA). I am not sure what that makes it in reality, but I know some political type people who can respond and let me know.

In the end, we can banter all we want, but I am not sure yet of what to make of it, and I need to wait and see what happens. If you are a journalist, you have to talk about it. If you are a politico, you need to at least appear to be doing something about it. I have the luxury of just having my opinion. I can wax philosophic and state that I believe it to be a Bad Move given the anxiety of the US right now, but maybe they just saw their Axis of Evil ratings slip, and they need a Poochie for an episode or two.

Dr Who Audio

I have finished Volume 1, courtesy of a friend not to be named as i am not entirely certain of the legality of said audio compilation. I really enjoyed The Sirens Of Time. I did notice a major difference in the last one on the CD - the Macra Conspiracy. It had narration, but I don't recall that in any of the others. Onto volume 2 tomorrow (i discovered my work machine played them very nicely).

Deicide

Ok, another beta. Another bad korean mmo. Yes, like Lineage 2 with shades of WoW. I think they used the same base code as RF Online and possibly the original Lineage. Standard unmodifiable GUI. Better word wrap though (it actually does it). 800x600 fixed resolution. Don't those Korean's have decent monitors? Same crappy unchangable font. Few character models per gender (3-4 faces, 3-4 hair, 3 clothing color sets). As usual, everyone starts the same (oh, wait, in this game you can assign 5 stat points between 3 stats). Totally strange Nav/Camera system. Move by mouse, and the normal movement keys (wasd) are camera control. Different take on the action bar. You can load 1-8 with skills. Instead of activating when you hit a number, that skill becomes your active skill. You use the active skill with your right mouse button. So not a whole lot of specials. And lots of clicking. You start with Ranged, Close, Black Magic, Light (or white) magic. White magic isn't what you think, it is a weaker version of the black magic spell (think air bolt as opposed to fire bolt). Somewhat decent magic effects, although you will be bored of them in about 3 minutes. You skill up by using that skill repeatedly. Want to focus on Black Magic? Kill everything using that. But get your loot immediately, as there is zero control of the loot. Once the critter is killed, the loot is on the ground, and it is open to everybody. It claims Ranged and Close (Bow and Sword) are autofire, but I found that does not work all of the time (remember the lots of clicking comment?). Beta, neh? Also, as it is still beta, CtD fun. Nice that it leaves the PC in 800x600 mode when it dies (OMG icons HUGE). Result: 1 hour, uninstalled. Now back to waiting for the WoW patch.