Sur la Scène Passant II

You know what that title means (I mean, I assume you do; it's just French, not Hungarian or something).

• So remember how I said I have some secret evil projects, possibly reminiscent of the one River was in, in my book? Yeah, well, recently, I decided to give one of them a name: the Janissary Project. It involves kidnapping psionicists and conditioning them, through monstrous means, to be as strong as the aliens' psionic school. It's funded by a billionaire "philanthropist" whose "charities" are actually pretty evil, à la the Ford or Rockefeller Foundations.
  
  In my third book, I'm pretty sure some of the ex-members are going to kill him; I'm trying to figure out how to work in the phrase "tribute in blood must be refunded in blood".


• Incidentally I initially wanted to call it the Agoge Project, but I didn't want people to think it was a TakeThat at Halo. Halsey being a war-criminal is pretty much recognized by most people in the setting (the AIs suspect she's an undiagnosed schizophrenic), but her evil project does save mankind. 'Sides, Carter gives her an epic burn, at the end of the ONI Sword Base level ("No, ma'am, just offering some reading suggestions").
  
  I also liked how he basically implies Jun is supposed to kill her rather than let the Covenant capture her. You wanted super soldiers, lady, you got 'em, only the IIIs don't worship you.


• It occurs to me, you know what proves individualism is erroneous? Spartacus. Specifically, the fact that he was eventually defeated because his Germans broke ranks, and tried to fight one-on-one, for individual glory. And were summarily cut down by legionaries, whose glory, remember, was attached to their legion, not to their name.
  
  And then Ayn Rand goes and says civilization consists in maximizing individualism. As they say in French, hein! Because French has an onomatopoeia for a derisive laugh.


• The only case for individualism I've ever seen that wasn't simply Pollyanna dogmatizing was, actually, that individualism is better precisely because it's less efficient. That is, while a communitarian or collectivist society might kill millions if something goes wrong, an individualist one only allows its members' fail to affect them and their immediate associates.
  
  That is, the only real case for individualism is that man is a diseased creature and must be quarantined, a half-witted slave who must be hobbled. Stirring, isn't it?


• Is it just me, or is it nuts that the Automag in Halo uses rimmed bullets, at least if the silhouettes of the rounds are to be believed? There are automatic versions of magnum rounds, .357 SIG or .45 Winchester Magnum for instance, but they're rimless; rimmed casings are a problem in an autoloader. Also, casings, period, in the 26th century, but that's a different discussion.
  
  On a related topic, what's with the GURPS handbooks giving 9mm rounds almost the same damage as .45 ACP (with, I believe, slightly smaller wounds)?


• Which reminds me, how come RPGs don't usually have rules for over-penetrating? Just the other day I accidentally shot my brother in Reach co-op, because the sniper rifle's rounds go through targets; why don't the combat rules of tabletop games reflect that?