Here is how I look at difficulty or how I would like it to be. Anyone can beat the game and have fun doing so, but make it so that when I take the harder routes or perfect harder combos, inventive problem solving, etc. I get rewarded by seeing my character do acts of absolute badassery. Ever watch a REALLY REALLY EXCELLENT player go through Ninja Gaiden Sigma? My character looks like a boring old movie extra in comparison, there guy is covered in gore, doing backflips, and generally looking like one bad-a$$ mofo. I can still complete the game AND enjoy it, but it's much less impressive doing it, personally I enjoy adaptive difficulty to a point. I like games that make me change my tactics as well, Call of Duty is ocassionally excellent at this on Veteran, if you sniper for too long the enemy will flank you and come around from behind, the same way real live players do. Now sometimes I just want to kill some Nazis, I drop the difficulty down, same thing I do on Rock Band/DDR. It all comes down to how impressive do I LOOK while doing this, making a pro LOOK like a pro is VERY important. It loses it's shine if anybody can play through looking like a God, I enjoy showing off my skills so when people watch me play they go, "How did you DO that?" Then again, that's just my opinion. The crux of this is why I HATE racing games, there is little middle ground, easy is too easy and I always win, but on expert I have to be consistently perfect lap after lap to even have a CHANCE of winning. One more example before I go, Metal Gear Solid 4, watching a first time player go through that game on Liquid Easy and watching somone on Boss Hard is a completely different experiance, as it should be, again the key is making a devoted and skilled player LOOK superior because he IS.
Yes, I have. I apologize I am somewhat harried today and probably shouldn't be posting in the first place./. Just happens to be a great place to calm me down...sometimes.
Except Obama HAS accomplished an incredible amount considering the short time he has been on the public scene. Look I am not a blind follower of the left OR the right but there is no denying that two years in the Senate and nine months as president have been some of the most politically active of ANY politican, since, well, ever! No there is no lovely little list of all of his accomplishments how about you look at some facts instead and do some research. For starters:
"ECONOMY
Progress
The President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The President announced the "Making Home Affordable" home refinancing plan.
The President launched a $15 billion plan to boost lending to small businesses.
The President and Secretary Geithner announced the details of the Financial Stability Plan.
President Obama played a lead role in G-20 Summit that produced a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis.
The President signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act which gives the federal government more tools to investigate and prosecute fraud, from lending to the financial system, and creates a bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the financial practices that brought us to this point.
The President signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, expanding on the Making Home Affordable Program to help millions of Americans avoid preventable foreclosures, providing $2.2 billion to help combat homelessness , and helping to stabilize the housing market for everybody.
The President signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act to protect Americans from unfair and deceptive credit card practices.
DEFENSE
Progress
Renewed dialogue with NATO and other allies and partners on strategic issues.
Announced a plan to responsibly end the war in Iraq.
Developed a comprehensive new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan and authorized deployment of more than 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
Announced creation of a Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record for members of the U.S. Armed Forces to improve quality of medical care.
DISABILITY
Progress
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included a number of provisions of particular concern to people with disabilities.
The Act included $500 million to help the Social Security Administration reduce its backlog in processing disability applications.
The Act supplied $12.2 billion in funding to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA);
The Act also provided $87 billion to states to bolster their Medicaid programs during the downturn; and,
The Act provided over $500 million in funding for vocational rehabilitation services to help with job training, education and placement.
CIVIL RIGHTS
Progress
The President signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers.
EDUCATION
Progress
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invested heavily in education both as a way to provide jobs now and lay the foundation for long-term prosperity.
The Act includes $5 billion for early learning programs, including Head Start, Early Head Start, child care, and programs for children with special needs.
The Act also provides $77 billion for reforms to strengthen elementary and secondary education, including $48.6 billion to stabilize state education budgets (of which $8.8 billion may be used for other government services) and to encourage states to:
Make improvements in teacher effectiveness and ensure that all schools have highly-qualified teachers;
Make progress toward college and career-ready standards and rigorous assessments that will improve both teaching and learning;
Improve achievement in low-performing schools, through intensive support and effective interventions; and
Gather information to improve student learning, teacher performance, and college and career readiness through enhanced data systems.
The Act provides $5 billion in competitive funds to spur innovation and chart ambitious reform to close the achievement
I kid you not, my great grandmother, who was 93 when I was five, FORCED all the men in my family to wear hats outside and she made everyone come into the entry hall to remove their hats BEFORE she let us in the inner door of the house as it was "Highly improper," to take your hat off in front of a woman. She was dead serious that this was the way things were done and I never saw my grandfather, father, brother, or cousins outside without a hat until she died. She was delusional, sure, but this lady kept a loaded shotgun beside her rocking chair, she used to keep a pistol but declared that since her eyes were going she need something with a bigger spread. What she doesn't know is that for the last year we replaced it with a peice of pipe mounted to a wooden stock and painted. I loved that woman.
That sums up the stance taken by every single parent generation since the dawn of mankind. The problem is an absence of LOGIC, it is perfectly fine to take a practical and fact based opinion and tell it to others. The key here is to tell it to others, not force it on them. "We threw mud balls until Willy got his eye taken out by one that had a rock in it, so our parents made us play with nerf guns instead." Sound and reasonable, "We threw....so our parents made us never play anywhere near mud again" is much more in line with the JT line of thinking. All things fade or change in time, who cares if in thirty years a whole generation of adults are shaking their heads wondering what the blue hell they were thinking with that tattoo, it doesn't really matter in the end, unless you get a tattoo of someones name, now that's idiotic. Like my grandfather said to my mom when I was playing Resident Evil and she said it was "Too violent," "Deb, in WWII I killed two Japs with a peice of piano wire in the dead of night because my gun jammed and they came running at me, at sun up I realized one of them was a kid, THIS is NOT violent." Of course he then took a long drink of homemade hooch and told us all about the first time he found out what Ben-Wah balls are....same day.
Went straight for the "everyone is spying on me!" ploy a little quick there. Seriously, if anything my neighbors request to see LESS of my movements. This may be due to the fact that I have a clear shower curtain and my bathroom doors lines up to a big bay window facing the road...took me two months to realize that one.
Except you are making a false analogy here, if you decide a grocery store charges too much for milk and go somewhere else to buy cheaper milk, or buy a $.99 single serving you ARE voting with your wallet. I play PS3 demos, if I like it then I might just buy it, hence voting with my wallet. I buy used games instead of direct from the manufaturer if I don't feel the game is worth 59.99, I wait a month and pick it up for 30 at Gamestop/Ebay/Craigslist. You can quite easily vote with your wallet if you so choose, but the parent is right in that it is often counted as piracy, if the video game industry had it's way it would BE piracy to buy a used game. I love Call of Duty: WaW, and buy every map pack that is or will be released. I spend plenty on Rock Band 2, but little on anything else. My biggest issue is that I can get a PC copy of the game, unlimited map packs/user generated maps, for the retail price. On a console, I am FORCED to buy them, so if I truly deem it to be price gouging I buy the PC version instead, easy peasy man.
Re:is there any other way to prevent crowd dispers
on
Revisiting DIY HERF Guns
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
"Sometimes, voting is not going to change anything."
Whoa there sparky! No offense but this is EXACTLY the sentiment that keeps the corrupt in power. Especially in a country like the United States, the ability of congress, or elected officials in general, to infringe on your rights is proportional to your willingness to accept it. I am from a small town in North Carolina, our local government was using federal authority to condemn property along a projected water works project. It was supported by 80% of our local elected officials. Our High School took it upon ourselves to put an end to this because two of our teachers were losing their family homes because of it. We found candidates who were qualified and AGAINST the use of eminent domain and campaigned for and with them. We managed to replace 75% of our incumbents in a single election, in my town all officials are elected for two year terms, including our mayor. We held public rallies and carnival like events explaining how the government was stealing "Your land" and caused the mass replacement of elected officials. The waterworks project was canceled, and my ex-teachers are still in their homes. The point of this rant is this, the day we stop exercising our right to a democracy is the day we lose it. Sitting on your couch complaining about what is going on achieves nothing! As long as a large section of the population is uninterested corruption becomes ever more common. Democracy works but it requires you to care. Anyone that does not get involved with politics but complains about the outcome is simply asking for others to make decisions for them and do all the leg work, if you want a country where you don't have to worry about being involved with politics try Iran. It seriously sickens me to hear "Vote? What's the point?" Your FREEDOM is at stake fool! Governments rarely destroy liberty overnight, they do it peicemeal, as in "The came for the eggs, they came for the tobacco, they came for the money, they came for the land..." eventually you wake up under a dictatorship. Don't believe me? Look at world history, dictators don't come to power overnight they build a strong political base of loyalists first and THEN take over. Wake up, get off your couch, and make a difference before you have no say at all.
I have always done the customer service thing first, I am not talking about literally carrying the child up and down each aisle, what are the odds of a kid standing next to customer service? You always take them to CS, but as I lack the ability to teleport there directly...You are correct on the stranger danger myth and most child abuse being done by a member of them family though. Actually as for teachers, they suffer the same fate. How would YOU feel if your daughter came home and told you the boy teacher takes them to the bathroom? Most people would freak before asking if he walks them TO the bathroom and stands guard outside the door. Treating children as human beings is oftern overlooked and I applaude you. The thing is that when I find a lost child I am not going to leave them there since I KNOW I'm one of the good guys. At the same time how do you KNOW the person taking the child from you is the parent? I'm not sure there is any easy way to be but so safe. Maybe that is the whole point of this, you teach your children all the warning signs and you protect them the best that you can, at some point you HAVE to trust another human being with the kid. I just despise these articles stating that it is a "male" problem with aggression and violence. Tell that to MY ex, girl was bad about causing others physical harm by tossing heavy objects. I have found the "gender rules" to be utterly useless. I may kill spiders, snakes, and home invaders; but if there is a turtle under there, no freakin' way. Put simply, there are nice people and horrible people, it is very hard to tell which is which MOST of the time, I always instruct kids that if they feel weird about a person to find an adult they already know, is it foolproof? Not one bit, but nothing is.
I find it rather humorous that it is considered so taboo to say that maybe, just MAYBE, men are discrimnated against as well. Don't believe me? As a male, also kinda a large guy I'm 6'3" and 220, I also happen to LOVE kids. And not in the have some candy and get in my van way, in the oh my God have candy and a pony and if you smile I might just steal a space shuttle and go to the moon to get you moon rocks, kinda way. Living in America if I so much as "Oooh, awwww" over a small child, especially if it is female, I am treated as a pervert. Not just sometimes, but 99% of the time. I found a lost crying child in Wal*Mart and I bought her a sucker and put her in a stroller going aisle to aisle to find her parents. I was tackled from behing by security with no verbal warning what so EVER. It hurt like hell and busted my nose. I am now terrified to so much as smile at a child, even my own small cousins. The thing is that every male habit is viewed as bad from the get go and we have to fight to prove it is useful. I work two jobs, my father is dying of cancer, my mothers mill was outsourced, and neither of them graduated High School. I support me, my parents, my ex wife, putting my oldest cousin through ACC, while taking guardianship of his sister while she completes school because both of her parents are now in jail. I come home, I cook, I clean, make sure everyone is okay, laundry is done, homework is done, medication is taken. If I decide to spend two hours shoving bayonets in the throats of other dudes in Call of Duty what right do you have to say I shouldn't? It is a stress reliever. Am I addicted? It depends, it doesn't interfer with my life so I would say no, but I do enjoy it very much. It is time to put aside our "beliefs" about what is male and what is female and look at it from a completely open point of view. Let us start all over with new ideas and create a new comprehensive study using double blind standards, then find out is it male/female, is it race, religion, upbringing, or does it simply vary wildly from person to person? I am thinking it is the latter, I find demographics studies to be prebiased and largely absurd.
Is it actually a problem with anyone that EA pulled off an incredibly clever marketing stunt? Unadulterated evil is pushing the bounds of hyperbole, surely. They are making a game about the Seven Deadly Sins and exploiting Christitan groups and portals of informartion at the same time. Personally I find it brilliant, and it has definetly gotten me hyped about the game. Writing a final on Dante's Inferno in college was one of the most awesome literatry challenges of my life, I can't wait to see someone attempt to take it past the written medium into the interactive, it was impossible enough to work as a play! I wonder how they are going to go after the others? Pride, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Wrath, Envy, and Gluttony. Hiring beautiful women to attend parties for their CEOs? The possibilities here are ENDLESS. I would love to be handed a slate this large to market. I am also curious if they have the balls to include modern figures in their depection of the punishments in Hell? So many possibilities for endless enjoyment!
Or, you know, we could stop wasting trillions playing games with nature. Things like building below sea level or trying to force the planet to accomodate us instead of trying to adapt ourselves to the enviroment.
Actually no, you are wrong. I happen to view myself as incredibly sane. I have a double masters in astrophysics and geology and I would trade everything I own for the chance to live even one moment on Mars. The point is not, "What can we gain from it?" it is "Can we do it?" Innovation drives hope and I would calmly ask you, what is more important than hope? Have you ever placed your boots somewhere that no one has ever been? Then you have no idea the joy that it brings. Be cynical if you like but don't you dare try to question the power of hope.
I realize that this is a risky assignment; but, in the name of science I will volunteer to undergo the rigors of space-sex again and again and again until we have a pregnancy or I will die trying, so help me God!
Exactly, it reminds me of the "green flash" phenomenon. For the longest time it was regarded as your standard drunk sailor tale, akin to mermaids and vanishing islands. Hell, even Columbus reported seeing it on multiple occasions, and no I am not a fan but the guy did write everything down which is good, and it wasn't until the 1980s that it was taken into serious consideration. You really can't place a monetary value on the nature of discovery and that is the problem with the majority of people not of the inquiring persuasion. Discovery in and of itself is a beautiful thing, we should always look into reports simply to further our understanding of the nature of the world. Besides, if everyone was busy trying to figure out the answers to the many questions in science we would have little idle time which would take care of an entire host of other problems. Use your brains people! Otherwise a Voodoo priest might send a zombie slave to eat it, and frankly it would serve your right for not paying attention.
Well, the true analogy of a water company handing out a free water filter to all of their customers due to their acknowledged water contamination issue probably wouldn't have gotten the "Micro$soft Sucks!" crowd riled up enough. Honesty, we could all use a little more of it. Oh, and to those of you suggesting Microsoft should just "Fix Windows," they would if ALL third party vendors would work with the Evil Empire and submit all code for review 12 months before releasing it for bug testing AND if virus writers would stop writing new exploits every five minutes, getting the point here sparky?::Not a fanboy, converted his entire local office to open source and writing this on Fedora::
Slashdot Mirror
He OR She, before I get flamed!
Here is how I look at difficulty or how I would like it to be. Anyone can beat the game and have fun doing so, but make it so that when I take the harder routes or perfect harder combos, inventive problem solving, etc. I get rewarded by seeing my character do acts of absolute badassery. Ever watch a REALLY REALLY EXCELLENT player go through Ninja Gaiden Sigma? My character looks like a boring old movie extra in comparison, there guy is covered in gore, doing backflips, and generally looking like one bad-a$$ mofo. I can still complete the game AND enjoy it, but it's much less impressive doing it, personally I enjoy adaptive difficulty to a point. I like games that make me change my tactics as well, Call of Duty is ocassionally excellent at this on Veteran, if you sniper for too long the enemy will flank you and come around from behind, the same way real live players do. Now sometimes I just want to kill some Nazis, I drop the difficulty down, same thing I do on Rock Band/DDR. It all comes down to how impressive do I LOOK while doing this, making a pro LOOK like a pro is VERY important. It loses it's shine if anybody can play through looking like a God, I enjoy showing off my skills so when people watch me play they go, "How did you DO that?" Then again, that's just my opinion. The crux of this is why I HATE racing games, there is little middle ground, easy is too easy and I always win, but on expert I have to be consistently perfect lap after lap to even have a CHANCE of winning. One more example before I go, Metal Gear Solid 4, watching a first time player go through that game on Liquid Easy and watching somone on Boss Hard is a completely different experiance, as it should be, again the key is making a devoted and skilled player LOOK superior because he IS.
Yes, I have. I apologize I am somewhat harried today and probably shouldn't be posting in the first place. /. Just happens to be a great place to calm me down...sometimes.
Except Obama HAS accomplished an incredible amount considering the short time he has been on the public scene. Look I am not a blind follower of the left OR the right but there is no denying that two years in the Senate and nine months as president have been some of the most politically active of ANY politican, since, well, ever! No there is no lovely little list of all of his accomplishments how about you look at some facts instead and do some research. For starters: "ECONOMY Progress The President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The President announced the "Making Home Affordable" home refinancing plan. The President launched a $15 billion plan to boost lending to small businesses. The President and Secretary Geithner announced the details of the Financial Stability Plan. President Obama played a lead role in G-20 Summit that produced a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis. The President signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act which gives the federal government more tools to investigate and prosecute fraud, from lending to the financial system, and creates a bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the financial practices that brought us to this point. The President signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, expanding on the Making Home Affordable Program to help millions of Americans avoid preventable foreclosures, providing $2.2 billion to help combat homelessness , and helping to stabilize the housing market for everybody. The President signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act to protect Americans from unfair and deceptive credit card practices. DEFENSE Progress Renewed dialogue with NATO and other allies and partners on strategic issues. Announced a plan to responsibly end the war in Iraq. Developed a comprehensive new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan and authorized deployment of more than 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Announced creation of a Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record for members of the U.S. Armed Forces to improve quality of medical care. DISABILITY Progress The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included a number of provisions of particular concern to people with disabilities. The Act included $500 million to help the Social Security Administration reduce its backlog in processing disability applications. The Act supplied $12.2 billion in funding to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); The Act also provided $87 billion to states to bolster their Medicaid programs during the downturn; and, The Act provided over $500 million in funding for vocational rehabilitation services to help with job training, education and placement. CIVIL RIGHTS Progress The President signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers. EDUCATION Progress The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invested heavily in education both as a way to provide jobs now and lay the foundation for long-term prosperity. The Act includes $5 billion for early learning programs, including Head Start, Early Head Start, child care, and programs for children with special needs. The Act also provides $77 billion for reforms to strengthen elementary and secondary education, including $48.6 billion to stabilize state education budgets (of which $8.8 billion may be used for other government services) and to encourage states to: Make improvements in teacher effectiveness and ensure that all schools have highly-qualified teachers; Make progress toward college and career-ready standards and rigorous assessments that will improve both teaching and learning; Improve achievement in low-performing schools, through intensive support and effective interventions; and Gather information to improve student learning, teacher performance, and college and career readiness through enhanced data systems. The Act provides $5 billion in competitive funds to spur innovation and chart ambitious reform to close the achievement
I kid you not, my great grandmother, who was 93 when I was five, FORCED all the men in my family to wear hats outside and she made everyone come into the entry hall to remove their hats BEFORE she let us in the inner door of the house as it was "Highly improper," to take your hat off in front of a woman. She was dead serious that this was the way things were done and I never saw my grandfather, father, brother, or cousins outside without a hat until she died. She was delusional, sure, but this lady kept a loaded shotgun beside her rocking chair, she used to keep a pistol but declared that since her eyes were going she need something with a bigger spread. What she doesn't know is that for the last year we replaced it with a peice of pipe mounted to a wooden stock and painted. I loved that woman.
That sums up the stance taken by every single parent generation since the dawn of mankind. The problem is an absence of LOGIC, it is perfectly fine to take a practical and fact based opinion and tell it to others. The key here is to tell it to others, not force it on them. "We threw mud balls until Willy got his eye taken out by one that had a rock in it, so our parents made us play with nerf guns instead." Sound and reasonable, "We threw....so our parents made us never play anywhere near mud again" is much more in line with the JT line of thinking. All things fade or change in time, who cares if in thirty years a whole generation of adults are shaking their heads wondering what the blue hell they were thinking with that tattoo, it doesn't really matter in the end, unless you get a tattoo of someones name, now that's idiotic. Like my grandfather said to my mom when I was playing Resident Evil and she said it was "Too violent," "Deb, in WWII I killed two Japs with a peice of piano wire in the dead of night because my gun jammed and they came running at me, at sun up I realized one of them was a kid, THIS is NOT violent." Of course he then took a long drink of homemade hooch and told us all about the first time he found out what Ben-Wah balls are....same day.
Aluminum Oxide on the inside, Lead paint on the outside, huzzah you live in a microwave oven!
Went straight for the "everyone is spying on me!" ploy a little quick there. Seriously, if anything my neighbors request to see LESS of my movements. This may be due to the fact that I have a clear shower curtain and my bathroom doors lines up to a big bay window facing the road...took me two months to realize that one.
Except you are making a false analogy here, if you decide a grocery store charges too much for milk and go somewhere else to buy cheaper milk, or buy a $.99 single serving you ARE voting with your wallet. I play PS3 demos, if I like it then I might just buy it, hence voting with my wallet. I buy used games instead of direct from the manufaturer if I don't feel the game is worth 59.99, I wait a month and pick it up for 30 at Gamestop/Ebay/Craigslist. You can quite easily vote with your wallet if you so choose, but the parent is right in that it is often counted as piracy, if the video game industry had it's way it would BE piracy to buy a used game. I love Call of Duty: WaW, and buy every map pack that is or will be released. I spend plenty on Rock Band 2, but little on anything else. My biggest issue is that I can get a PC copy of the game, unlimited map packs/user generated maps, for the retail price. On a console, I am FORCED to buy them, so if I truly deem it to be price gouging I buy the PC version instead, easy peasy man.
"Sometimes, voting is not going to change anything." Whoa there sparky! No offense but this is EXACTLY the sentiment that keeps the corrupt in power. Especially in a country like the United States, the ability of congress, or elected officials in general, to infringe on your rights is proportional to your willingness to accept it. I am from a small town in North Carolina, our local government was using federal authority to condemn property along a projected water works project. It was supported by 80% of our local elected officials. Our High School took it upon ourselves to put an end to this because two of our teachers were losing their family homes because of it. We found candidates who were qualified and AGAINST the use of eminent domain and campaigned for and with them. We managed to replace 75% of our incumbents in a single election, in my town all officials are elected for two year terms, including our mayor. We held public rallies and carnival like events explaining how the government was stealing "Your land" and caused the mass replacement of elected officials. The waterworks project was canceled, and my ex-teachers are still in their homes. The point of this rant is this, the day we stop exercising our right to a democracy is the day we lose it. Sitting on your couch complaining about what is going on achieves nothing! As long as a large section of the population is uninterested corruption becomes ever more common. Democracy works but it requires you to care. Anyone that does not get involved with politics but complains about the outcome is simply asking for others to make decisions for them and do all the leg work, if you want a country where you don't have to worry about being involved with politics try Iran. It seriously sickens me to hear "Vote? What's the point?" Your FREEDOM is at stake fool! Governments rarely destroy liberty overnight, they do it peicemeal, as in "The came for the eggs, they came for the tobacco, they came for the money, they came for the land..." eventually you wake up under a dictatorship. Don't believe me? Look at world history, dictators don't come to power overnight they build a strong political base of loyalists first and THEN take over. Wake up, get off your couch, and make a difference before you have no say at all.
In Soviet America, Slashdot trolls You!
On /. YOU are the troll, jerk off.
I have always done the customer service thing first, I am not talking about literally carrying the child up and down each aisle, what are the odds of a kid standing next to customer service? You always take them to CS, but as I lack the ability to teleport there directly...You are correct on the stranger danger myth and most child abuse being done by a member of them family though. Actually as for teachers, they suffer the same fate. How would YOU feel if your daughter came home and told you the boy teacher takes them to the bathroom? Most people would freak before asking if he walks them TO the bathroom and stands guard outside the door. Treating children as human beings is oftern overlooked and I applaude you. The thing is that when I find a lost child I am not going to leave them there since I KNOW I'm one of the good guys. At the same time how do you KNOW the person taking the child from you is the parent? I'm not sure there is any easy way to be but so safe. Maybe that is the whole point of this, you teach your children all the warning signs and you protect them the best that you can, at some point you HAVE to trust another human being with the kid. I just despise these articles stating that it is a "male" problem with aggression and violence. Tell that to MY ex, girl was bad about causing others physical harm by tossing heavy objects. I have found the "gender rules" to be utterly useless. I may kill spiders, snakes, and home invaders; but if there is a turtle under there, no freakin' way. Put simply, there are nice people and horrible people, it is very hard to tell which is which MOST of the time, I always instruct kids that if they feel weird about a person to find an adult they already know, is it foolproof? Not one bit, but nothing is.
I find it rather humorous that it is considered so taboo to say that maybe, just MAYBE, men are discrimnated against as well. Don't believe me? As a male, also kinda a large guy I'm 6'3" and 220, I also happen to LOVE kids. And not in the have some candy and get in my van way, in the oh my God have candy and a pony and if you smile I might just steal a space shuttle and go to the moon to get you moon rocks, kinda way. Living in America if I so much as "Oooh, awwww" over a small child, especially if it is female, I am treated as a pervert. Not just sometimes, but 99% of the time. I found a lost crying child in Wal*Mart and I bought her a sucker and put her in a stroller going aisle to aisle to find her parents. I was tackled from behing by security with no verbal warning what so EVER. It hurt like hell and busted my nose. I am now terrified to so much as smile at a child, even my own small cousins. The thing is that every male habit is viewed as bad from the get go and we have to fight to prove it is useful. I work two jobs, my father is dying of cancer, my mothers mill was outsourced, and neither of them graduated High School. I support me, my parents, my ex wife, putting my oldest cousin through ACC, while taking guardianship of his sister while she completes school because both of her parents are now in jail. I come home, I cook, I clean, make sure everyone is okay, laundry is done, homework is done, medication is taken. If I decide to spend two hours shoving bayonets in the throats of other dudes in Call of Duty what right do you have to say I shouldn't? It is a stress reliever. Am I addicted? It depends, it doesn't interfer with my life so I would say no, but I do enjoy it very much. It is time to put aside our "beliefs" about what is male and what is female and look at it from a completely open point of view. Let us start all over with new ideas and create a new comprehensive study using double blind standards, then find out is it male/female, is it race, religion, upbringing, or does it simply vary wildly from person to person? I am thinking it is the latter, I find demographics studies to be prebiased and largely absurd.
Is it actually a problem with anyone that EA pulled off an incredibly clever marketing stunt? Unadulterated evil is pushing the bounds of hyperbole, surely. They are making a game about the Seven Deadly Sins and exploiting Christitan groups and portals of informartion at the same time. Personally I find it brilliant, and it has definetly gotten me hyped about the game. Writing a final on Dante's Inferno in college was one of the most awesome literatry challenges of my life, I can't wait to see someone attempt to take it past the written medium into the interactive, it was impossible enough to work as a play! I wonder how they are going to go after the others? Pride, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Wrath, Envy, and Gluttony. Hiring beautiful women to attend parties for their CEOs? The possibilities here are ENDLESS. I would love to be handed a slate this large to market. I am also curious if they have the balls to include modern figures in their depection of the punishments in Hell? So many possibilities for endless enjoyment!
Or, you know, we could stop wasting trillions playing games with nature. Things like building below sea level or trying to force the planet to accomodate us instead of trying to adapt ourselves to the enviroment.
Actually no, you are wrong. I happen to view myself as incredibly sane. I have a double masters in astrophysics and geology and I would trade everything I own for the chance to live even one moment on Mars. The point is not, "What can we gain from it?" it is "Can we do it?" Innovation drives hope and I would calmly ask you, what is more important than hope? Have you ever placed your boots somewhere that no one has ever been? Then you have no idea the joy that it brings. Be cynical if you like but don't you dare try to question the power of hope.
I realize that this is a risky assignment; but, in the name of science I will volunteer to undergo the rigors of space-sex again and again and again until we have a pregnancy or I will die trying, so help me God!
Exactly, it reminds me of the "green flash" phenomenon. For the longest time it was regarded as your standard drunk sailor tale, akin to mermaids and vanishing islands. Hell, even Columbus reported seeing it on multiple occasions, and no I am not a fan but the guy did write everything down which is good, and it wasn't until the 1980s that it was taken into serious consideration. You really can't place a monetary value on the nature of discovery and that is the problem with the majority of people not of the inquiring persuasion. Discovery in and of itself is a beautiful thing, we should always look into reports simply to further our understanding of the nature of the world. Besides, if everyone was busy trying to figure out the answers to the many questions in science we would have little idle time which would take care of an entire host of other problems. Use your brains people! Otherwise a Voodoo priest might send a zombie slave to eat it, and frankly it would serve your right for not paying attention.
Well, the true analogy of a water company handing out a free water filter to all of their customers due to their acknowledged water contamination issue probably wouldn't have gotten the "Micro$soft Sucks!" crowd riled up enough. Honesty, we could all use a little more of it. Oh, and to those of you suggesting Microsoft should just "Fix Windows," they would if ALL third party vendors would work with the Evil Empire and submit all code for review 12 months before releasing it for bug testing AND if virus writers would stop writing new exploits every five minutes, getting the point here sparky? ::Not a fanboy, converted his entire local office to open source and writing this on Fedora::