For those claiming that the fact that he made the statement on the internet shows it was a joke because a terrorist wouldn’t be dumb enough to do that, Please read the following and learn the realities of life.
#1 Some terrorists ARE DUMB! Most terrorist organizations don’t require IQ tests, Medical Exams, or Sexual harassment training before hiring you. A terrorist cell in Iraq used the mentally retard because they ARE dumb enough to strap a bomb to themselves and go BOOM.
#2 Not everyone who commits or threatens to commit an act of violence is what by most definitions would be called a terrorist. Many are lone nuts looking for attention or venting their anger.
#3 For those who still want to hold that a person seriously intent on harming and killing people would NEVER do so on the internet consider this remark made online in Germany in March 2009...
"Everyone laughs at me. No one recognizes my potential. I mean this seriously. I have got a weapon here and tomorrow I am going to go to my former school and give them hell.”
The next day 17-year-old Tim Kretchmer went to school and killed 15 people.
Try this one from 2008 about Christian Mogensen
“A computer consultant killed his wife and then took his own life just hours after posting a grim announcement about the murder-suicide on his website.”
As for this idiots threat there is NOTHING in the message that suggests it’s a joke. If the police had done nothing and next week 22 people were killed when a bomb went off at the airport, how loud would the public outcry of “The police knew this was going to happen but they did nothing!!!”
Have you considered that such measures as lawsuits will fail to deter 2%-10+% of the population. How much money do you actually think you will see from someone making $200 a month. I owned a low end bar in Pomona, Ca in the 89, and saw a yuppy try that with another custumer who was on welfare. . "You even think about hitting me and my lawyers will sue you for everything you own" "-BAMM-" . If you don't have money nor future expectation of it you have nothing to fear from a lawsuit. . Likewise the very rich can also become near judgment proof. Especially if they prepare ahead of time. Look at OJ Simpson who didn't prepare ahead of time. The Goldmans have seen very little money from their lawsuit against OJ, while OJ continued to lead a lavish lifestyle. . While I firmly support free speech in most all cases, intentionally LYING in a manner that DIRECTLY causes injury is one of the area I don't support and saying that Lawsuits would prevent such action is naive. . Random
I would argue that these are not attacks but free speech (as in freedom of expression).
This is also the stance of most Real Terrorists. They justify taking hostages, destroying planes or killing innocent people, so the world will hear their message. Their message might even be a good one. In the end no one might be seriously hurt, as in the case of taking hostages, but releasing them afterwards. But don't try fooling yourself or others into thinking that this is NOT an attack. That's just BS double speak. . If the people had done the same actions but without a political message would you still try claiming it wasn't an attack. Just because you add a political message doesn't make it any less of an attack. . You can even justify the action, as in the case of civil rights protestors vandalizing property, or US soldiers attacking German Soldiers to free Jewish Holocaust Victims. However it is still an attack. Lets stop with the PC BS. . RandomU
Why use this as opposed to simply using the cars odometer? The govenrment better not say fraud (Setting the Odometer back, or disconecting the cable). After all how easy will it be to disconect, or better still shield or jam the attena so the signal doesn't reach the GPS unit. Simply claim you parked your car in a place where the signal couldn't reach.
1) According to your own source there were 150 people demonstrating in the streets in front of there congress. Heck we had over 200 people demonstrating in front of the Sacramento Capital in support of Iranian Freedom and the video from Iran shows 150,000+ people demonstrating in Iranian streets. Thatâ(TM)s 1000 times bigger demonstrations so yes you can expect 1000 times more media coverage and people paying attention.
2) No signs of any real violence let alone deaths so far, at least not in your link. Compare that to Iran where we have 20 or more deaths, video of protesters being gunned down, Women being beaten, Universities being trashed and so on.
3) Their is real fear that the opposition leader in Iran may well wind up having a nasty "accident". By contrast Honduras gave the president a plane ride to another country where he is free to travel to any number of safe friendly countries and to continue broadcasting his position. Heck even he says in your video "He doesnâ(TM)t need any protection." While those who did the coup may very well be in the wrong it's difficult to get riled up when all they did was kick him out of the country and allow him to keep on saying whatever he wants.
4) Reporting "seems" to still be going on in Honduras, Compare that to "Reporters without Borders" reports of dozens of Reporters arrested and hundreds kicked out of the country.
5) Iran has charged British employees with crimes. Iran has kicked people out of embassies and Iran has condemned other nations and made threats towards countries around the world.
6) Iran "could" build nuclear tipped missiles capable of hitting Western Europe within a matter of a few Years and starting a World War. Honduras "could" build an Iced Mocha capable of giving me a good caffeine buzz. Yea for some reason people pay attention to what goes on in countries that have a potential to kill them.
For these and many more reasons Honduras is not as news worthy as Iran.
Posted in response to "How come nobody talks what has happened this past week and is still happening in Honduras [youtube.com]?"
The military is currently funding research into a drug that removes the negative reactions to bad memories. Thus in theory reduceing or eliminating PTSD.
Show me some evidence that COH could make millions a month off of advertisers. Give me some hard data showing what Adertisers ACTUALLY PAY that supports your view.
Likewise NC soft making a bad decision on a nebulous and new area of business as program updates is far different then advertising which has been taught and studied for hundreads of years. Advertisers can figure out Cost per viewer and the affectiveness of their ads well enough to relize that $1.3 million dollars can't be justified for the same 60,000 viewers.
But by all means cry DOOM and PARANOIA everytime something changes in your world. I guess if you expect the worst you will never be disapointed.
City of heroes has 150,000+ players who pay $15 a month. If they loose 60% of their players that's $1,350,000 a month. That means Advertisers would need to spend over $20 a month per person just for NC soft to break even. Look at advertising campaigns, they are measured in Pennies per viewer. Not dollars.
You can try saying, "But they'll get thousands of advertisers". It doesn't work that way. The more saturated the advertising medium the less response you get and the and advertisers know this. A game like COH would be lucky to support a few dozen ads.
I used to be in business and can tell you that we were able to get Full page/Back cover full Color adds in papers that had 60'000 viewers for a few thousand dollars, Not $1.35 MILLION.
Many of you think that no one wants advertising. Good advertising will get a sizable number of players to keep the feature turned on.
This can be done with
1)Humor (Look at the number of people who go to YouTube and watch the from the super bowl). If there is a really good ad up and people are laughing and talking about it then other players may well activate the add feature.
2) General Interest Ads that provide information that COH players by in large want (Ohhhh look, the new Batman Movie is coming out with special trailers at...)
3) A diversion from the same 3 Year Old in game fake adds (Yea Ive seen that Crey Industries Billboard for the 15,345 time now for the love of god give me something new to look at.)
4) Non advertising information on events that is available out of game, but this makes it more likely that I will remember to get the time off work for DOUBLE XP WEEKEND.
Further more if the players see evidence that they receive benefits (More game features added faster) they will have even more incentive to keep them on.
Keep in mind The Ads are Optional. Contrary to what some here are saying there is NO reason to assume they will become mandatory. As it is if the Adds dont work NC soft looses NOTHING. Why does anyone think a profitable company would risk loosing 20, 40 or even 60% of their player base so they can make a few extra bucks with MANDATORY ads?
lol, I'm not a conservative.
The Bias is probably liberal (portray the failure of the current party in power) or (Portray how bad the school systems are so we need more money to fix them), however it could be conservative (Portray the failure of the public school systems, thus pushing Private school funding).
Either way the addition of the word ONLY and the selection of the most negative statistic shows a bias.
Random
The title itself shows bias.
"Only 1 of 2 students graduate high school in US cities: study"
Adding the word "Only" down plays the US Education system.
If some one said "He is ONLY a high school Graduat." or "He Only makes $20,000 a year" the bias is apparent.
The US ONLY graduates 1/2 it's students shows bias.
Bare in mind it says 52% ofstudents in Cities graduate. A more Accurate though biased in the other direction would be to add the positive word OVER.
"OVER 52% of city school students graduate"
Notice how adding ONLY a single word changes bias.
Just as important they chose the Worst catagory to headline. City schools, Not suburban schools. They could have run the following headline and been just as accurate.
"Over 74% of students in suburbs Graduate."
Random
Buying power better NOW then in 1965, NOT worse.
on
Has Ron Paul Quit?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Your comparing apples and oranges. A gallon of gas, a car, a home, and many other things in the 60s are NOT the same as they are now. Lets take your gas and car analogy.
In 1960 a low end car the Chevy Malibu was $2156 It got about 15 MPG (Average car in 65 achieved a little less) A low end Kia can be purchased for 13K in 2007 (Average mileage now is 25MPG). (6 fold increase)
Gas then 30 cents a gallon. Gas now $3.00 a gallon. (10 fold increase)
Now lets look at the real cost
Cost to drive 75 miles in 1965 = 1.50 cost to drive in 2007 = 9.00 Only a 6 fold increase not 10 fold as it first looks. Additionally cars back then used large quantities of Lead, Sulfur, etc which was put into the environment. Gasoline is far cleaner, one of the reasons it costs more.
The money you paid for cars back then got you a car with no pollution controls, no airbag, no safety speed tests, Im not even sure if seat belts were mandatory? You were lucky if you had an AM/FM radio (No CD, MP3 or tape). AC was definitely extra, seat comfort on many was atrocious.
Sure Wages have gone up 4.7 fold while the gas to drive somewhere has gone up 6 fold and a car has gone up 6 fold, yet the quality and comfort of that drive as well as safety has sky rocketed. If we said to car manufacturers, No regulations, make a car of the quality and standards of the 60s Im sure we would have them for less $9000, the cost of inflation vs minimum wage.
Other comparisons. Milk 99 cents a gallon in 1965 Milk $3.00 a gallon now (3 fold increase) Eggs 60 cents a dozen in 1965 vs 1.50 a dozen now (2.5 fold increase) Computer in 1965 LOL 1975 ($1000) Now $300 A DECREASE of 3.3 fold (Quality. Dont make me laugh) Color TV 23 inch Manual channel changer 1965 ($160), Now 24 inch with stereo, remote, timer, etc $199 (1.3 increase) 9 cubic foot fridge $200, Now 20 cubic foot fridge $500 with auto defrost far better energy efficiency (2.5 fold increase)
Before you compare minimum wage 1965 to 2007 also compare how good the products are in safety, features, energy efficacy, convenience, etc. All thing that ADD to the price.
If you want to live with 1965 technology I bet we can do most of it for only 2-3 times the price we paid then, meaning our dollars go twice as far.
We can make planes capable of doing 14 Gs but it doesn't make any sense if the pilot blacks out and crashes at 10Gs the limit for most humans.
Random U
I keep seeing people claiming that China will own everything, Or all the cultural center will move to China, In this thread.
As an old timer, I was hearing the same thing in the 80's but instead of China it was Japan. The same shrieks of fear of the yellow peril were cried. Americans business was told to learn Japanese. Books on how to emulate the successful Japanese companies were all the rage. People were terrified that the Japanese were buying up all are assets. No I am not making this up. Just watch some of the movies from that time and look at the setting or back drop "Rising Sun", "Die Hard","Gung Ho" to name a few. 1/3 of Shadowrun and RPG that was developed in that time period has Japanese takeover of Corporate America as a major back drop.
Everyone was afraid in the 80's that Japan would own everything by the year 2000. (OK they own the Manga and cute Catgirl Market here). The reality is quite a bit different.
I predict in 2107 that we will be running around talking about how the Martian colonies are buying everything, and soon we will be just a little backwater country with everything owned by them damn Mars Colonists.
Slashdot Mirror
For those claiming that the fact that he made the statement on the internet shows it was a joke because a terrorist wouldn’t be dumb enough to do that, Please read the following and learn the realities of life.
#1 Some terrorists ARE DUMB! Most terrorist organizations don’t require IQ tests, Medical Exams, or Sexual harassment training before hiring you. A terrorist cell in Iraq used the mentally retard because they ARE dumb enough to strap a bomb to themselves and go BOOM.
#2 Not everyone who commits or threatens to commit an act of violence is what by most definitions would be called a terrorist. Many are lone nuts looking for attention or venting their anger.
#3 For those who still want to hold that a person seriously intent on harming and killing people would NEVER do so on the internet consider this remark made online in Germany in March 2009...
"Everyone laughs at me. No one recognizes my potential. I mean this seriously. I have got a weapon here and tomorrow I am going to go to my former school and give them hell.”
The next day 17-year-old Tim Kretchmer went to school and killed 15 people.
Try this one from 2008 about Christian Mogensen
“A computer consultant killed his wife and then took his own life just hours after posting a grim announcement about the murder-suicide on his website.”
As for this idiots threat there is NOTHING in the message that suggests it’s a joke. If the police had done nothing and next week 22 people were killed when a bomb went off at the airport, how loud would the public outcry of “The police knew this was going to happen but they did nothing!!!”
Random
Have you considered that such measures as lawsuits will fail to deter 2%-10+% of the population. How much money do you actually think you will see from someone making $200 a month. I owned a low end bar in Pomona, Ca in the 89, and saw a yuppy try that with another custumer who was on welfare.
.
"You even think about hitting me and my lawyers will sue you for everything you own"
"-BAMM-"
.
If you don't have money nor future expectation of it you have nothing to fear from a lawsuit.
.
Likewise the very rich can also become near judgment proof. Especially if they prepare ahead of time. Look at OJ Simpson who didn't prepare ahead of time. The Goldmans have seen very little money from their lawsuit against OJ, while OJ continued to lead a lavish lifestyle.
.
While I firmly support free speech in most all cases, intentionally LYING in a manner that DIRECTLY causes injury is one of the area I don't support and saying that Lawsuits would prevent such action is naive.
.
Random
I would argue that these are not attacks but free speech (as in freedom of expression).
This is also the stance of most Real Terrorists. They justify taking hostages, destroying planes or killing innocent people, so the world will hear their message. Their message might even be a good one. In the end no one might be seriously hurt, as in the case of taking hostages, but releasing them afterwards. But don't try fooling yourself or others into thinking that this is NOT an attack. That's just BS double speak.
.
If the people had done the same actions but without a political message would you still try claiming it wasn't an attack. Just because you add a political message doesn't make it any less of an attack.
.
You can even justify the action, as in the case of civil rights protestors vandalizing property, or US soldiers attacking German Soldiers to free Jewish Holocaust Victims. However it is still an attack.
Lets stop with the PC BS.
.
RandomU
Why use this as opposed to simply using the cars odometer? The govenrment better not say fraud (Setting the Odometer back, or disconecting the cable). After all how easy will it be to disconect, or better still shield or jam the attena so the signal doesn't reach the GPS unit. Simply claim you parked your car in a place where the signal couldn't reach.
Try the following differences.
1) According to your own source there were 150 people demonstrating in the streets in front of there congress. Heck we had over 200 people demonstrating in front of the Sacramento Capital in support of Iranian Freedom and the video from Iran shows 150,000+ people demonstrating in Iranian streets. Thatâ(TM)s 1000 times bigger demonstrations so yes you can expect 1000 times more media coverage and people paying attention.
2) No signs of any real violence let alone deaths so far, at least not in your link. Compare that to Iran where we have 20 or more deaths, video of protesters being gunned down, Women being beaten, Universities being trashed and so on.
3) Their is real fear that the opposition leader in Iran may well wind up having a nasty "accident". By contrast Honduras gave the president a plane ride to another country where he is free to travel to any number of safe friendly countries and to continue broadcasting his position. Heck even he says in your video "He doesnâ(TM)t need any protection." While those who did the coup may very well be in the wrong it's difficult to get riled up when all they did was kick him out of the country and allow him to keep on saying whatever he wants.
4) Reporting "seems" to still be going on in Honduras, Compare that to "Reporters without Borders" reports of dozens of Reporters arrested and hundreds kicked out of the country.
5) Iran has charged British employees with crimes. Iran has kicked people out of embassies and Iran has condemned other nations and made threats towards countries around the world.
6) Iran "could" build nuclear tipped missiles capable of hitting Western Europe within a matter of a few Years and starting a World War. Honduras "could" build an Iced Mocha capable of giving me a good caffeine buzz. Yea for some reason people pay attention to what goes on in countries that have a potential to kill them.
For these and many more reasons Honduras is not as news worthy as Iran.
Posted in response to "How come nobody talks what has happened this past week and is still happening in Honduras [youtube.com]?"
RandomU
I can't even get those chumps at home depot to give me a copy that works when they're using the original, much less a photograph.
Send me a picture of the key and your address and I'll make you one :)
Random
The military is currently funding research into a drug that removes the negative reactions to bad memories. Thus in theory reduceing or eliminating PTSD.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6264530.stm
Random
If you want realtime 24/7 adds you can buy REAL billboard advertising for less then $3000 a month.
http://www.gaebler.com/Billboard-Advertising-Costs.htm
Not 1.3million needed to just brake even.
You can buy 24/7 Advertising on MAJOR web comics which have 2-3 times as many readers as CoH does for less then $1000 a month.
http://www.projectwonderful.com/advertisehere.php?id=8073&type=1
Show me some evidence that COH could make millions a month off of advertisers. Give me some hard data showing what Adertisers ACTUALLY PAY that supports your view.
Likewise NC soft making a bad decision on a nebulous and new area of business as program updates is far different then advertising which has been taught and studied for hundreads of years. Advertisers can figure out Cost per viewer and the affectiveness of their ads well enough to relize that $1.3 million dollars can't be justified for the same 60,000 viewers.
But by all means cry DOOM and PARANOIA everytime something changes in your world. I guess if you expect the worst you will never be disapointed.
Random
Random
City of heroes has 150,000+ players who pay $15 a month. If they loose 60% of their players that's
$1,350,000 a month. That means Advertisers would need to spend over $20 a month per person just for NC soft to break even. Look at advertising campaigns, they are measured in Pennies per viewer. Not dollars.
You can try saying, "But they'll get thousands of advertisers". It doesn't work that way. The more saturated the advertising medium the less response you get and the and advertisers know this. A game like COH would be lucky to support a few dozen ads.
I used to be in business and can tell you that we were able to get Full page/Back cover full Color adds in papers that had 60'000 viewers for a few thousand dollars, Not $1.35 MILLION.
Random
Many of you think that no one wants advertising. Good advertising will get a sizable number of players to keep the feature turned on.
This can be done with
1)Humor (Look at the number of people who go to YouTube and watch the from the super bowl). If there is a really good ad up and people are laughing and talking about it then other players may well activate the add feature.
2) General Interest Ads that provide information that COH players by in large want (Ohhhh look, the new Batman Movie is coming out with special trailers at...)
3) A diversion from the same 3 Year Old in game fake adds (Yea Ive seen that Crey Industries Billboard for the 15,345 time now for the love of god give me something new to look at.)
4) Non advertising information on events that is available out of game, but this makes it more likely that I will remember to get the time off work for DOUBLE XP WEEKEND.
Further more if the players see evidence that they receive benefits (More game features added faster) they will have even more incentive to keep them on.
Keep in mind The Ads are Optional. Contrary to what some here are saying there is NO reason to assume they will become mandatory. As it is if the Adds dont work NC soft looses NOTHING. Why does anyone think a profitable company would risk loosing 20, 40 or even 60% of their player base so they can make a few extra bucks with MANDATORY ads?
Random
lol, I'm not a conservative. The Bias is probably liberal (portray the failure of the current party in power) or (Portray how bad the school systems are so we need more money to fix them), however it could be conservative (Portray the failure of the public school systems, thus pushing Private school funding). Either way the addition of the word ONLY and the selection of the most negative statistic shows a bias. Random
The title itself shows bias. "Only 1 of 2 students graduate high school in US cities: study" Adding the word "Only" down plays the US Education system. If some one said "He is ONLY a high school Graduat." or "He Only makes $20,000 a year" the bias is apparent. The US ONLY graduates 1/2 it's students shows bias. Bare in mind it says 52% ofstudents in Cities graduate. A more Accurate though biased in the other direction would be to add the positive word OVER. "OVER 52% of city school students graduate" Notice how adding ONLY a single word changes bias. Just as important they chose the Worst catagory to headline. City schools, Not suburban schools. They could have run the following headline and been just as accurate. "Over 74% of students in suburbs Graduate." Random
Your comparing apples and oranges. A gallon of gas, a car, a home, and many other things in the 60s are NOT the same as they are now. Lets take your gas and car analogy.
In 1960 a low end car the Chevy Malibu was $2156 It got about 15 MPG (Average car in 65 achieved a little less) A low end Kia can be purchased for 13K in 2007 (Average mileage now is 25MPG). (6 fold increase)
Gas then 30 cents a gallon. Gas now $3.00 a gallon. (10 fold increase)
Now lets look at the real cost
Cost to drive 75 miles in 1965 = 1.50 cost to drive in 2007 = 9.00 Only a 6 fold increase not 10 fold as it first looks. Additionally cars back then used large quantities of Lead, Sulfur, etc which was put into the environment. Gasoline is far cleaner, one of the reasons it costs more.
The money you paid for cars back then got you a car with no pollution controls, no airbag, no safety speed tests, Im not even sure if seat belts were mandatory? You were lucky if you had an AM/FM radio (No CD, MP3 or tape). AC was definitely extra, seat comfort on many was atrocious.
Sure Wages have gone up 4.7 fold while the gas to drive somewhere has gone up 6 fold and a car has gone up 6 fold, yet the quality and comfort of that drive as well as safety has sky rocketed. If we said to car manufacturers, No regulations, make a car of the quality and standards of the 60s Im sure we would have them for less $9000, the cost of inflation vs minimum wage.
Other comparisons.
Milk 99 cents a gallon in 1965 Milk $3.00 a gallon now (3 fold increase)
Eggs 60 cents a dozen in 1965 vs 1.50 a dozen now (2.5 fold increase)
Computer in 1965 LOL 1975 ($1000) Now $300 A DECREASE of 3.3 fold (Quality. Dont make me laugh)
Color TV 23 inch Manual channel changer 1965 ($160), Now 24 inch with stereo, remote, timer, etc $199 (1.3 increase)
9 cubic foot fridge $200, Now 20 cubic foot fridge $500 with auto defrost far better energy efficiency (2.5 fold increase)
Before you compare minimum wage 1965 to 2007 also compare how good the products are in safety, features, energy efficacy, convenience, etc. All thing that ADD to the price.
If you want to live with 1965 technology I bet we can do most of it for only 2-3 times the price we paid then, meaning our dollars go twice as far.
Random Unicorn
We can make planes capable of doing 14 Gs but it doesn't make any sense if the pilot blacks out and crashes at 10Gs the limit for most humans. Random U
I keep seeing people claiming that China will own everything, Or all the cultural center will move to China, In this thread. As an old timer, I was hearing the same thing in the 80's but instead of China it was Japan. The same shrieks of fear of the yellow peril were cried. Americans business was told to learn Japanese. Books on how to emulate the successful Japanese companies were all the rage. People were terrified that the Japanese were buying up all are assets. No I am not making this up. Just watch some of the movies from that time and look at the setting or back drop "Rising Sun", "Die Hard","Gung Ho" to name a few. 1/3 of Shadowrun and RPG that was developed in that time period has Japanese takeover of Corporate America as a major back drop. Everyone was afraid in the 80's that Japan would own everything by the year 2000. (OK they own the Manga and cute Catgirl Market here). The reality is quite a bit different. I predict in 2107 that we will be running around talking about how the Martian colonies are buying everything, and soon we will be just a little backwater country with everything owned by them damn Mars Colonists.