The only difference between the games is that each contains a few monsters unique to it. Unless you've got a friend/relative who is also buying the game (with whom you can trade the version-specific Pokemon), you can just grab whichever one you find without worry.
The best part is that I'm lucky enough to live 3 train stops from the brewery and gasthaus. I feel so European taking mass transit to go to a pub and get drunk.
Hehe. I currently live a similar distance from the joint. I haven't been there in years, though, because the one time I went the food was just not very good (especially for the price). How is it today?
There's no way to know, of course, until the units are actually in people's hands. I suspect that they'll be fine (probably better than the $50 DVD players, anyway) if only because putting out shoddy merchandise could really kill HD DVD. So, unless they're giving up, just trying to milk a little cash out of the format before throwing in the towel (way too early for that), I expect them to work fine. They could turn out to be incompatible with discs produced 2+ years from now (this happened with one of my early DVD players) but that's to be somewhat expected when we're still in what I would consider the "early adopter" phase.
It can't be compared to such heavy hitters from across the sea as Aventinus Weizenbock, Thames Welsh Bitter, Coniston's Bluebird Bitter, Fuller's Porter, Paulaner Salvator Dopplebock, Spaten Optimator, Affligem Tripel, Caffrey's (sadly gone?), Tetley's, Duvel, Corsendonk, Franziskaner Hefe Weiss, Beamish, etc., etc..
Clearly, these folks don't think the existing laws are adequate (they're probably right). Of course, that's something to take to Congress (legislative) and isn't something over which the FTC (enforcement) has any power, nor should the privacy issue have anything to do with a proposed merger.
It's obvious that Morrowind is probably a harder compatibility job thanks to its complexity. It's only slightly less obvious that Marrowind may be an incredibly hard compatibility job thanks to its bugs. I don't know how patching on the Xbox ended up, but the last time I played the game it still had show-stopping bugs that cropped up. This one may not be Microsoft's fault - except, of course, in the sense that they let Bethesda ship a buggy game.
One thing I have heard is that Buena Vista Home Video (the home video division of the Walt Disney Company) has said they can start producing HD-DVD home videos if the demand is there to do so.
This is true of every studio that has "pledged" Blu-ray or HD DVD support. Both formats support the same set of CODECs so moving content between the two is a trivial exercise. The only potential problem is if a studio has gone crazy trying to fill a double-layer BD, and even then they still have a digital master which can be re-encoded to fit a smaller disc, or a few special features can be trimmed - an overrated part of most DVDs anyway. There would probably be slightly more difficulty on the business side where manufacturing has to be arranged, but nothing insurmountable.
I've got to jump in here along with the above poster. Blu-ray is no more proprietary than HD DVD. In fact, my only issue with Blu-ray is price. If Blu-ray was competitive in that area, I'd be more than happy to support it because it truly is superior in terms of data storage. However, since I consider price a "trump card," my support remains with Toshiba and company - I truly believe that price is the determining factor for mass acceptance, and Sony, et. al. show no signs of trying to compete there.
Realistically, though, I don't think the price of the players matters much. What matters is the movies available. Blu-Ray has a lot more content industry support, and that's not changing.
You're fooling yourself. Families often had multiple VHS players and now often have multiple DVD players. Even the hardcore AV folks are going to balk at spending $500+ per Blu-ray player after their first. Get a player under $200, though, and it looks far more attractive for the masses to replace a DVD player with an HD DVD player.
No, the price of the player is absolutely critical and if Wal-Mart is selling HD DVD players for half or less the cost of the cheapest Blu-ray player, Blu-ray will be looking at a disaster. Blu-ray has had a good few months thanks to [dumb] people buying PS3s but Sony has, in essence, raised the price of the PS3 by $50 (by killing the unit that was $100 cheaper) and still doesn't have great games to sell that system. Even if they can get a $400-500 Blu-ray player on the market, people aren't going to pay a premium for it over an HD DVD player with the same capabilities, and the [non-Sony] studios will follow the installed base.
Oh yeah, and if by "a lot more content industry support" you mean Sony and a couple other companies that haven't produced much, if any, Blu-ray content, then you're right. To me, it looks like the companies that have paid lip service to being on the Blu-ray bandwagon are still waiting to see how things shake out.
I might have agreed with you had the same thing happened before GTA3, but, really, they don't need to do anything (apart from releasing the trailer) to get this kind of press. So-called gaming "journalists" are more than happy to run around looking for quotes such as these once they have anything (such as the trailer) on which to base their questions. Between now and the time GTA4 comes out, there will probably be a story like this at least every other week and Rockstar won't have to do anything but continue working on the game.
PS: It's still a little early to tell but IMO the PS3 is in a much better position. It has better graphics capabilities than the 360, its disk's hold more data and it's still selling reasonably well. Because the PS3 has better base hardware the 360 is going to need to start the next cycle even sooner or play second fiddle for 4+ years.
All but the disc space argument could have been made for the Xbox over the PS2. It's entirely about the games and PS3 is far, far behind in that area with every chance that games formerly exclusive to Sony's platform(s) will be made multiplatform. Unless something really magical happens by the end of this year, the PS3 may end up in a hole it can't dig its way out of. Sony could win one war (Blu-ray) at the cost of losing another (console gaming).
There's one significant problem with all the comments that Microsoft is making a mistake with their pricing compared to the PS3: They can drop the prices anytime if they believe it's necessary. If they're currently losing money per console (I haven't seen recent estimates), they're losing far less than Sony is right now, which means they have pricing flexibility. They could drop the whole lineup from $480/400/300 to $400/300/200 and probably still be losing less per console than Sony.
To my way of thinking, this just means that now is the wrong time to buy either a 360 or PS3, going perhaps with a Wii to hold them over until Q4 - I think it's a given that 360 prices will drop before the end of the year.
Sure you could plug in a usb mouse and keyboard but would it be all that practical but I'm not sure Blizzrd wants to cut sony into it's cash cow.
Besides, though it's not doing nearly the business that WoW is (nothing is), Sony is still in competition with Blizzard in the MMOG realm with Everquest/Everquest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies. They would have no interest in propping Blizzard up further, any more than Blizzard would want Sony to have a piece of their WoW pie.
I should also note that we, as consumers, should not be rooting for Sony (or Microsoft or Nintendo, for that matter) to get exclusives. We should be encouraging developers to make their titles multiconsole so that we don't have to be locked into one console because we can't do without a particular game.
Exclusives are only good for console manufacturers. They do little for developers (apart from saving a relatively small amount of money in porting their game[s]) and they outright suck for consumers...
Actually, there are books that continue the story (an "8th season" of sorts) of Bajor, DS9, the Gamma Quadrant, etc. in some pretty cool ways. At the end of the first "arc" (that's as far as I've read) they even managed to get everyone back on Bajor in a way that made sense (at least in the context of DS9). I won't spoil any of it for those who might be interested in reading the books and I'll give a reading list/order below for anyone who cares:
1. Avatar 1-2
2. Section 31: Abyss (haven't read)
3. Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness (haven't read)
4. "Horn and Ivory" from Gateways: What Lay Beyond (haven't read)
5. Mission Gamma 1-4
6. Rising Son (haven't read)
7. Unity
8. Worlds of Deep Space Nine (three books - haven't read)
Again, from the list above (cribbed from a post on trekunited.com by "wildcard1377") I've read seven of the books and only missed a few references while still enjoying the primary arc of the story. I'll get to the rest at some point when I have time to get down to the "big bookstore" and grab them up, but I definitely recommend the ones I have read to DS9 fans.
You're insisting on proceeding from the assumption that somehow, despite not having data to support it, getting chicken pox "naturally" is more effective at preventing re-infection than the vaccine. Since there are cases of adults contracting chicken pox despite having had the disease as a child, that is, so far, an assumption not supported by fact.
You're right, though. Chicken pox isn't the worst thing in the world for a child, and I'm not going to lose sleep at night worrying about outbreaks. However, I'm also not going to believe the vaccine is ineffective over time just because that possibility exists.
Not quite the Eurofighters likely have RWRs so if you are using radar guided missiles they will likely detect your search, and targeting radars. So even with the newer harder to detect radars installed on the F-22 there is still a chance that they detect you from your radar emissions.
In the theorized engagement where an F-22 is engaging 3 fighters (Eurofighters or not) from behind, undetected, there would be several ways to arrange the attack in such a way that would reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of the defenders' RWR systems. One would be to launch AIM-120s (even beyond visual range, though the optimum aspect for such an attack wouldn't be a tail shot) using data from an AWACS. In this scenario the Raptor would never use its active radar system and the AIM-120s wouldn't use their built-in radar systems until the terminal phase, where any evasion or spoofing would be too little, too late (supposedly, once the missile closes to this range unmolested by countermeasures the chances of a kill approach 90%). Another option would be to close in and use AIM-9 Sidewinders which, again, would permit virtually no time for any countermeasures to be effective.
Of course, even if the first volley didn't take care of the situation, the single F-22 would still have the advantage as long as the battle isn't allowed to become a close-in, visual dogfight where are more maneuverable fighter could gain the advantage. Considering the speed of the plane (particularly its ability to "supercruise" past Mach 1 without afterburners), the F-22 could likely still survive such an engagement, living to fight another day when, hopefully, its missiles work better.:)
Here's a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicating a [statistically] significant reduction in the number of deaths due to varicella [and its complications] since the vaccination program began. Note the highest rate of reduction (92%) was in children ages 1-4. This study indicates that while breakthrough cases can happen in vaccinated individuals, such cases are typically of the mild variety and that the vaccine had a high (97%) effectiveness against moderate to severe infections.
I would also note that, so far, the possible need for booster shots of the varicella vaccination in early adulthood is still not certain. While there is evidence that an effective late-childhood (13+ years) requires two vaccinations four weeks apart, we've had only 11 years with the vaccine. Besides, part of the reason such a concern exists is because the vaccine does have a reduced effectiveness after the first year - a reduction that does not seem to continue throughout childhood. If the data becomes available supporting a significant attenuation in the effectiveness of the vaccine (represented either by testing the varicella titers of vaccinated individuals or by adult varicella outbreaks) over such an extended time, then steps can be taken at that point. In the meantime, why put children at increased risk unnecessarily?
As for your faulty, and somewhat desperate IMHO, comparison to riding in a car, I would say that the goal is never - and can never be - to eliminate all risks to a child's health. That's obviously impossible. If, however, a health risk can be reduced significantly by a vaccination, it makes zero sense not to do so.
Unfortunately, the idea is out there that only adults can suffer badly from infection with chicken pox. That's not accurate. Children can suffer significant complications, or even die, from the infection as well. It's rare, but it happens. Further, if a parent of a current small child is concerned that the future 18+-year-old might not get a necessary booster, well, then keep track and have the minor child get the booster or re-vaccination at 17 before s/he leaves the house - I can't imagine a doctor not being willing to do the administration.
The truth, though, is that if the vaccinations are given universally (or at least close to universally, since 100% compliance is likely an unachievable goal) then we have a chance to end the disease - at least in our country. It's been done before. Why wouldn't we want to try to accomplish that?
So here is my question about this...If it was such an important wonder drug. Good for everyone, amazing perfect shining happy world where we manage to wipe out a relatively rare form of cancers linked source. Why the hell wouldn't people be lining up for this without some government mandate?
Good question. Why the hell do some idiot parents refuse to vaccinate their children at all against diseases like diphtheria, pertussis, varicella, measles, mumps, rubella, etc. despite requirements by public schools to do so? Answer: Because they're either stupid or ignorant. As such, they decide that their misguided, misinformed prejudices against vaccination are more important than not only their children's health but the health of the rest of the public. This is exactly the kind of place where the government needs to step in.
In this case, we've got a double-whammy backlash. First, you've got people who are just against vaccination because they're stupid, and then you've got another group of idiots who somehow think that disease prevention will lead to more minors having sex. As a bonus, these tend to be the kind of people who don't even want their children educated about the facts of sex in the first place.
I'll be the first admit that, since I'm not a doctor, and particularly not a doctor specializing in gynecology, oncology or infectious diseases, I can't make an educated evaluation as to the short- or long-term efficacy of this particular vaccine in preventing HPV infection and the concomitant increased risk of cervical cancer. But, the outcry against it hasn't been rooted in medical science. For the most part, it's been rooted in religious beliefs - be it a religion that is against unmarried sex or a religion that is against vaccinations.
I doubt that it's a question of "how they think" but a question of objective criteria the ESRB is looking for, based on their established standards. For example, in order to determine the amount of profanity, it's a pretty matter of establishing the words and phrases of most concern and then listening/looking for them. If the person playing the game has a question (like "Is ass-munch a problem?") then they ask it.
Admittedly, setting the standards is subjective, but once they're set then the job of the person playing and rating the game becomes mostly an objective one. Setting up multiple offices would just be wasteful since the standards can be set up and reviewed by your "cross-section" of people with tools like teleconferencing, e-mail and the occasional meeting in-person.
Of course, if your proposal is just an effort to make it easier for people outside New York to get a job playing games, then I'll agree with you and hope they choose Portland.:)
I couldn't find anything in the linked article that says Skype wants to use the cellular system "for nothing," anymore than, say, a DSL ISP links up to the Internet for nothing. "Opening" doesn't equal "make it free" as in beer but rather "give us a way to access your system with our software." In fact, that would be a bad thing for Skype because if the system was open and cost nothing to use then industrious open-source people could create their own software (given the necessary "open" hardware/OS) to allow people free phone/data service. That would pretty much put Skype AND the companies maintaining the cellular infrastructure out of business.
Unfortunately, the anti-mercury (I think they're really anti-vaccine, just using the hip reason of the moment) people will then tell you that doctors are still using the old vaccine because they have it lying around. Then, in the bonus round, they'll claim that we're trying to hurt the third world by sending them vaccines with mercury preservative in them (I'll buy that attempts are made to hurt people in the third world, but not in quite so sinister a fashion).
Unfortunately, once an idea like this gains traction, usually promulgated by the media (from news programs to Oprah and all the small stops in between - in this case, mainly from one guy trying to sell his book), it becomes almost impossible to control. This is why many modern myths persist despite reality - one example would be people who still believe that HIV can only be transmitted through homosexual sex. It's often too late to educate these people because the media moves on to some other topic - after all, real science is boring compared to conspiracy theories - and so the believers remain misinformed.
He didn't say you did. What he asked is where "all those Internet people" are that claim to have the disorder and caused your little rant about it. I'm in his boat, where I've not come across anyone (on the Interwebs or in real life) who claimed to be afflicted with Asperger's. You've implied that it's some sort of Internet epidemic, and I guess GP and I would just like to know where your exposure occurred.
Slashdot Mirror
The only difference between the games is that each contains a few monsters unique to it. Unless you've got a friend/relative who is also buying the game (with whom you can trade the version-specific Pokemon), you can just grab whichever one you find without worry.
There's no way to know, of course, until the units are actually in people's hands. I suspect that they'll be fine (probably better than the $50 DVD players, anyway) if only because putting out shoddy merchandise could really kill HD DVD. So, unless they're giving up, just trying to milk a little cash out of the format before throwing in the towel (way too early for that), I expect them to work fine. They could turn out to be incompatible with discs produced 2+ years from now (this happened with one of my early DVD players) but that's to be somewhat expected when we're still in what I would consider the "early adopter" phase.
Sweet Jeebus! Somebody wants to get blotto!
Clearly, these folks don't think the existing laws are adequate (they're probably right). Of course, that's something to take to Congress (legislative) and isn't something over which the FTC (enforcement) has any power, nor should the privacy issue have anything to do with a proposed merger.
It's obvious that Morrowind is probably a harder compatibility job thanks to its complexity. It's only slightly less obvious that Marrowind may be an incredibly hard compatibility job thanks to its bugs. I don't know how patching on the Xbox ended up, but the last time I played the game it still had show-stopping bugs that cropped up. This one may not be Microsoft's fault - except, of course, in the sense that they let Bethesda ship a buggy game.
This is true of every studio that has "pledged" Blu-ray or HD DVD support. Both formats support the same set of CODECs so moving content between the two is a trivial exercise. The only potential problem is if a studio has gone crazy trying to fill a double-layer BD, and even then they still have a digital master which can be re-encoded to fit a smaller disc, or a few special features can be trimmed - an overrated part of most DVDs anyway. There would probably be slightly more difficulty on the business side where manufacturing has to be arranged, but nothing insurmountable.
I've got to jump in here along with the above poster. Blu-ray is no more proprietary than HD DVD. In fact, my only issue with Blu-ray is price. If Blu-ray was competitive in that area, I'd be more than happy to support it because it truly is superior in terms of data storage. However, since I consider price a "trump card," my support remains with Toshiba and company - I truly believe that price is the determining factor for mass acceptance, and Sony, et. al. show no signs of trying to compete there.
You're fooling yourself. Families often had multiple VHS players and now often have multiple DVD players. Even the hardcore AV folks are going to balk at spending $500+ per Blu-ray player after their first. Get a player under $200, though, and it looks far more attractive for the masses to replace a DVD player with an HD DVD player.
No, the price of the player is absolutely critical and if Wal-Mart is selling HD DVD players for half or less the cost of the cheapest Blu-ray player, Blu-ray will be looking at a disaster. Blu-ray has had a good few months thanks to [dumb] people buying PS3s but Sony has, in essence, raised the price of the PS3 by $50 (by killing the unit that was $100 cheaper) and still doesn't have great games to sell that system. Even if they can get a $400-500 Blu-ray player on the market, people aren't going to pay a premium for it over an HD DVD player with the same capabilities, and the [non-Sony] studios will follow the installed base.
Oh yeah, and if by "a lot more content industry support" you mean Sony and a couple other companies that haven't produced much, if any, Blu-ray content, then you're right. To me, it looks like the companies that have paid lip service to being on the Blu-ray bandwagon are still waiting to see how things shake out.
I might have agreed with you had the same thing happened before GTA3, but, really, they don't need to do anything (apart from releasing the trailer) to get this kind of press. So-called gaming "journalists" are more than happy to run around looking for quotes such as these once they have anything (such as the trailer) on which to base their questions. Between now and the time GTA4 comes out, there will probably be a story like this at least every other week and Rockstar won't have to do anything but continue working on the game.
I'm pretty sure that it's just Uma. Her weapon? My Super Ex-Girlfriend
All but the disc space argument could have been made for the Xbox over the PS2. It's entirely about the games and PS3 is far, far behind in that area with every chance that games formerly exclusive to Sony's platform(s) will be made multiplatform. Unless something really magical happens by the end of this year, the PS3 may end up in a hole it can't dig its way out of. Sony could win one war (Blu-ray) at the cost of losing another (console gaming).
There's one significant problem with all the comments that Microsoft is making a mistake with their pricing compared to the PS3: They can drop the prices anytime if they believe it's necessary. If they're currently losing money per console (I haven't seen recent estimates), they're losing far less than Sony is right now, which means they have pricing flexibility. They could drop the whole lineup from $480/400/300 to $400/300/200 and probably still be losing less per console than Sony.
To my way of thinking, this just means that now is the wrong time to buy either a 360 or PS3, going perhaps with a Wii to hold them over until Q4 - I think it's a given that 360 prices will drop before the end of the year.
Besides, though it's not doing nearly the business that WoW is (nothing is), Sony is still in competition with Blizzard in the MMOG realm with Everquest/Everquest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies. They would have no interest in propping Blizzard up further, any more than Blizzard would want Sony to have a piece of their WoW pie.
I should also note that we, as consumers, should not be rooting for Sony (or Microsoft or Nintendo, for that matter) to get exclusives. We should be encouraging developers to make their titles multiconsole so that we don't have to be locked into one console because we can't do without a particular game.
Exclusives are only good for console manufacturers. They do little for developers (apart from saving a relatively small amount of money in porting their game[s]) and they outright suck for consumers...
It's probably a fundamental aversion to a game where you're in the employ of "The Man."
Actually, there are books that continue the story (an "8th season" of sorts) of Bajor, DS9, the Gamma Quadrant, etc. in some pretty cool ways. At the end of the first "arc" (that's as far as I've read) they even managed to get everyone back on Bajor in a way that made sense (at least in the context of DS9). I won't spoil any of it for those who might be interested in reading the books and I'll give a reading list/order below for anyone who cares:
1. Avatar 1-2
2. Section 31: Abyss (haven't read)
3. Gateways: Demons of Air and Darkness (haven't read)
4. "Horn and Ivory" from Gateways: What Lay Beyond (haven't read)
5. Mission Gamma 1-4
6. Rising Son (haven't read)
7. Unity
8. Worlds of Deep Space Nine (three books - haven't read)
Again, from the list above (cribbed from a post on trekunited.com by "wildcard1377") I've read seven of the books and only missed a few references while still enjoying the primary arc of the story. I'll get to the rest at some point when I have time to get down to the "big bookstore" and grab them up, but I definitely recommend the ones I have read to DS9 fans.
You're insisting on proceeding from the assumption that somehow, despite not having data to support it, getting chicken pox "naturally" is more effective at preventing re-infection than the vaccine. Since there are cases of adults contracting chicken pox despite having had the disease as a child, that is, so far, an assumption not supported by fact.
You're right, though. Chicken pox isn't the worst thing in the world for a child, and I'm not going to lose sleep at night worrying about outbreaks. However, I'm also not going to believe the vaccine is ineffective over time just because that possibility exists.
In the theorized engagement where an F-22 is engaging 3 fighters (Eurofighters or not) from behind, undetected, there would be several ways to arrange the attack in such a way that would reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of the defenders' RWR systems. One would be to launch AIM-120s (even beyond visual range, though the optimum aspect for such an attack wouldn't be a tail shot) using data from an AWACS. In this scenario the Raptor would never use its active radar system and the AIM-120s wouldn't use their built-in radar systems until the terminal phase, where any evasion or spoofing would be too little, too late (supposedly, once the missile closes to this range unmolested by countermeasures the chances of a kill approach 90%). Another option would be to close in and use AIM-9 Sidewinders which, again, would permit virtually no time for any countermeasures to be effective.
Of course, even if the first volley didn't take care of the situation, the single F-22 would still have the advantage as long as the battle isn't allowed to become a close-in, visual dogfight where are more maneuverable fighter could gain the advantage. Considering the speed of the plane (particularly its ability to "supercruise" past Mach 1 without afterburners), the F-22 could likely still survive such an engagement, living to fight another day when, hopefully, its missiles work better.
Here's a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicating a [statistically] significant reduction in the number of deaths due to varicella [and its complications] since the vaccination program began. Note the highest rate of reduction (92%) was in children ages 1-4. This study indicates that while breakthrough cases can happen in vaccinated individuals, such cases are typically of the mild variety and that the vaccine had a high (97%) effectiveness against moderate to severe infections.
I would also note that, so far, the possible need for booster shots of the varicella vaccination in early adulthood is still not certain. While there is evidence that an effective late-childhood (13+ years) requires two vaccinations four weeks apart, we've had only 11 years with the vaccine. Besides, part of the reason such a concern exists is because the vaccine does have a reduced effectiveness after the first year - a reduction that does not seem to continue throughout childhood. If the data becomes available supporting a significant attenuation in the effectiveness of the vaccine (represented either by testing the varicella titers of vaccinated individuals or by adult varicella outbreaks) over such an extended time, then steps can be taken at that point. In the meantime, why put children at increased risk unnecessarily?
As for your faulty, and somewhat desperate IMHO, comparison to riding in a car, I would say that the goal is never - and can never be - to eliminate all risks to a child's health. That's obviously impossible. If, however, a health risk can be reduced significantly by a vaccination, it makes zero sense not to do so.
Unfortunately, the idea is out there that only adults can suffer badly from infection with chicken pox. That's not accurate. Children can suffer significant complications, or even die, from the infection as well. It's rare, but it happens. Further, if a parent of a current small child is concerned that the future 18+-year-old might not get a necessary booster, well, then keep track and have the minor child get the booster or re-vaccination at 17 before s/he leaves the house - I can't imagine a doctor not being willing to do the administration.
The truth, though, is that if the vaccinations are given universally (or at least close to universally, since 100% compliance is likely an unachievable goal) then we have a chance to end the disease - at least in our country. It's been done before. Why wouldn't we want to try to accomplish that?
Good question. Why the hell do some idiot parents refuse to vaccinate their children at all against diseases like diphtheria, pertussis, varicella, measles, mumps, rubella, etc. despite requirements by public schools to do so? Answer: Because they're either stupid or ignorant. As such, they decide that their misguided, misinformed prejudices against vaccination are more important than not only their children's health but the health of the rest of the public. This is exactly the kind of place where the government needs to step in.
In this case, we've got a double-whammy backlash. First, you've got people who are just against vaccination because they're stupid, and then you've got another group of idiots who somehow think that disease prevention will lead to more minors having sex. As a bonus, these tend to be the kind of people who don't even want their children educated about the facts of sex in the first place.
I'll be the first admit that, since I'm not a doctor, and particularly not a doctor specializing in gynecology, oncology or infectious diseases, I can't make an educated evaluation as to the short- or long-term efficacy of this particular vaccine in preventing HPV infection and the concomitant increased risk of cervical cancer. But, the outcry against it hasn't been rooted in medical science. For the most part, it's been rooted in religious beliefs - be it a religion that is against unmarried sex or a religion that is against vaccinations.
I doubt that it's a question of "how they think" but a question of objective criteria the ESRB is looking for, based on their established standards. For example, in order to determine the amount of profanity, it's a pretty matter of establishing the words and phrases of most concern and then listening/looking for them. If the person playing the game has a question (like "Is ass-munch a problem?") then they ask it.
:)
Admittedly, setting the standards is subjective, but once they're set then the job of the person playing and rating the game becomes mostly an objective one. Setting up multiple offices would just be wasteful since the standards can be set up and reviewed by your "cross-section" of people with tools like teleconferencing, e-mail and the occasional meeting in-person.
Of course, if your proposal is just an effort to make it easier for people outside New York to get a job playing games, then I'll agree with you and hope they choose Portland.
I couldn't find anything in the linked article that says Skype wants to use the cellular system "for nothing," anymore than, say, a DSL ISP links up to the Internet for nothing. "Opening" doesn't equal "make it free" as in beer but rather "give us a way to access your system with our software." In fact, that would be a bad thing for Skype because if the system was open and cost nothing to use then industrious open-source people could create their own software (given the necessary "open" hardware/OS) to allow people free phone/data service. That would pretty much put Skype AND the companies maintaining the cellular infrastructure out of business.
Unfortunately, the anti-mercury (I think they're really anti-vaccine, just using the hip reason of the moment) people will then tell you that doctors are still using the old vaccine because they have it lying around. Then, in the bonus round, they'll claim that we're trying to hurt the third world by sending them vaccines with mercury preservative in them (I'll buy that attempts are made to hurt people in the third world, but not in quite so sinister a fashion).
Unfortunately, once an idea like this gains traction, usually promulgated by the media (from news programs to Oprah and all the small stops in between - in this case, mainly from one guy trying to sell his book), it becomes almost impossible to control. This is why many modern myths persist despite reality - one example would be people who still believe that HIV can only be transmitted through homosexual sex. It's often too late to educate these people because the media moves on to some other topic - after all, real science is boring compared to conspiracy theories - and so the believers remain misinformed.
He didn't say you did. What he asked is where "all those Internet people" are that claim to have the disorder and caused your little rant about it. I'm in his boat, where I've not come across anyone (on the Interwebs or in real life) who claimed to be afflicted with Asperger's. You've implied that it's some sort of Internet epidemic, and I guess GP and I would just like to know where your exposure occurred.