Santa is a fairy tale designed to keep kids in control during the year TRUE/FALSE
Santa is St. Nicholas, a Catholic Saint. Therefore, FALSE. If you are a Catholic, you can pray to St. Nick (just don't get confused and pray to Old Nick, that would be bad.)
Certainly, the bizarre elements of the Santa story, such as his castle on the moon and his maniacal, laughing mechanical reindeer were added by fabulists. However, he's a genuine religious figure with supernatural powers, like Jesus, Amaterasu, Mao Tse-Tung, Prince Philip or Baron Samedi, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Therefore we shall put you under that highly urgent and imperative kind of hypnosis which, in the parlance of warlockry, is known as a geas. And, obeying the hypnosis, you will go down to the Cavern of the Archetypes...
I don't like supporting shit software any more than the next guy, but IT is a service industry.
In some businessed, that kind of software causes maiming and death. (see, for example, Therac-25) My previous IT job was for software for hospital networks. If the doctor didn't get the information on patient medical allergies in time for emergency room treatment, well, so sorry, patient dies. Explain to his family that your bosses wanted to cut corners in the software development.
Sure, I suppose there is some genuinely unimportant software out there, but even that can provide an exploit hole for viruses and other nastiness. Truth is, there's no good excuse for creating garbage software, period.
In social anthropology, polygamy is the practice of marriage to more than one spouse simultaneously. Historically, polygamy has been practiced as polygyny (one man having more than one wife), or as polyandry (one woman having more than one husband), or, less commonly as "polygamy" (one person having many wives and many husbands at the same time). (See "Forms of Polygamy" below.) In contrast, monogamy is the practice of each person having only one spouse. Like monogamy, the term is often used in a de facto sense, applying regardless of whether the relationships are recognized by the state (see marriage for a discussion on the extent to which states can and do recognize potentially and actually polygamous forms as valid).
Don't blame the grand-parent, the article refers to a "monogamy gene" but I doubt prairie voles are getting married. (If I'm wrong, please post video of a prairie vole wedding, because that sounds neat.)
So, he's misusing "polygamous" the same way the article misused "monogamous."
NHK is good, because the guy in NHK has serious psychological problems before he ever even thought of trying an MMORPG. In fact, his goal in life is to never, ever leave his apartment (even to go shopping, etc.).
The appeal of gold-farming is that he hopes to gain an income that would allow him to stay inside 24/7 and never have to deal with the real world. (To put this in perspective, one of the people in the suicide club he joins temporarily in another episode is the one who gives him a free pass for the MMORPG.)
So, rather than blaming MMOs for the problem (his relatively well adjusted next door neighbor is able to take it up, have fun for a bit, and quit easily with no ill effects) the show tends to look at damaged people (especially the main character) and see why they become obsessed with various things.
Besides the suicide club, other things that prey on the weak, such as multi-level marketing are also explored.
The show is very dark, but it is kind of neat.
Oh, and plenty of things are exagerated for darkly hurmorous effect, but I think the author is genuinely trying to get his mind around this idea of hikikomoris (in English, we'd call them agorophobic shut-ins... ).
We're talking about the New York State government here. There is no difference between the government and the Mafia. (I'm dead serious about that, not joking really. I mean that the actual Mafia controls the actual government.)
Hmm, New York has always been a bit bizarre about taxes. I remember when they were sending people to New Jersey shopping malls to photograph the license plates of people who were buying things in New Jersey to avoid the high New York state sales tax.
When I first started buying them, it was because I had played a few times. Still, I once had every available supplement I could find for Call of Cthuhlu and I think I played that once when I talked a couple of people in my D&D group to try it out.... madness! (Note, we mostly didn't play D&D in the D&D group, either, it was mostly people arguing with each other...)
Okay, time for some ancient history. Let's begin. Who remembers back when our beloved New Zork Times was running articles about something called Cornerstone a completely worthless database program that nobody was ever going to use? Hmm... it's possible some aren't familiar with the story, so I present: Down From the Top of Its Game. Long story short, Infocom lost huge amounts of money, got absorbed into Activision and disappeared into the ether. Why? Because of destructive, incompetent meddling managment.
Closer to home for a D&D story, remember when TSR started publishing The Honeymooners boardgame and Rocky and Bullwinkle? Put it another name, has anyone here heard the name Lorraine Williams or wondered why Gary Gygax stopped being involved in D&D?
All I know, is that there have been some... well... odd things coming out of Wizards lately. A ridiculous new alignment system, obviously created in the 9 Hells (the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince people that Lawful Evil doesn't exist). A new D&D system that seems to want to replicate MMORPGs on the tabletop, and a concerted attempt to utterly kill the OGL which someone over there must think was a huge mistake. Well, we'll see where they go. I had some dire predictions following the OWOD apocalypse, but I think White Wolf is still chugging along....
Of course, I'm an odd duck anyway. As a kid, I collected RPGs but hardly ever played them. A deranged monomania that has never made any sense to me. Still, I'm fascinated by watching gaming corporations die... or even subsidiaries.... so I'll be keeping my eye on this.
Which games did you buy for it? I can give you a top five list:
1. Gates of Zendocon: I really like this shooter, it's both relatively mindless and pretty creative.
2. Chip's Challenge: I think this is probably the best puzzle game for the Lynx.
3. Zarlor Mercenary: Well, if you like Shoot 'Em Ups, this one is a good one.
4. Ninja Gaiden III: It's a duplicated of the NES version, if you liked the NES Ninja Gaiden games you'll like this one.
5. Xenophobe: There are a few different choices I could put here, but I choose Xenomorph, just because I like it.
Honorable Mention: Ninja Gaiden (arcade beat 'em up, not like the NES games), Slimeworld (Alien world exploration, fun game, it was tough for me to choose between this an Xenomorph), Dracula (For fans of point and click adventures), Batman Returns(Okay beat 'Em up, high difficulty), Electrocop (Awkward controls, but it has Asteroids and Breakout minigames)
Hmm... well, that depends, some of these scams play oddly with a persons sense of right and wrong. For instance, a while back I got a typical Nigerian scam letter from someone pretending to be Yassar Arafat's widow, who, the Email claimed, was trying to steal money from the PLO. That was pretty smart (the theatricality of the 419 scam occaisionally impresses me), because a lot of people in America probably would see that not only as not a crime, but a good thing to do, depriving the PLO of money. of course, I think that some people might be afraid to steal money from the PLO, so I think that was a problem, but they probably still got some people on their hook.
As to greed, meh, I suspect most of the people falling for these things are relatively poor. I mean, if you can get scammed by 419, what are the chances that the credit card companies, cash advance companies, adjustable rate mortgage banks, Dell computer (watch out for "deferred interest") or one of the many other legal scam artists in this country haven't gotten to you first? Heck, even a simple cash advance company is a lot more sophisticated in their scams than the typical 419 scam.
Stupid, yeah, but if people weren't stupid there would be no state lotteries. The sad thing is almost every time I explain the odds of the state lottery to someone, they say, "Well, someones going to win." People just want to believe that they have some social mobility, which most people don't have and never will.
ID4? ID4!!! They paid for that! What! Have they lost their minds!
.
That's like a Comic Book Guy pick for a stupid science fiction movie scene!
[Comic Book Guy Voice, sneering] "Oh, I suppose Jeff Goldblum was just a super genius who could reverse engineer an alien operating system, running on alien technology, on a Mac in just a moment to create a virus to kill their space ship!!!"
The yodeling weapon in Mars Attacks! has more credibility and that was intended to be farcical! (In fact, if that was product placement, I'd call it money well spent.)
As to the Mac
[Comic Book Guy Voice] "Worst Product Placement Ever!"
I was hoping Seinfeld was going to "plug" Vista, as in, "It's curtains for you, Vista! Blam! Blam! Blam!" Then he could plug Gates, and Kramer could say, "You were going to be the Vista Boy... Vista Boy... sob..."
Ok, that's a really, really good post, very thoughtful and realistic. Obviously you've got some good historical knowledge of Iran which you've been kind enough to share with the readership of Slashdot. You've looked at the situation in such a way so as to not make the Iranians into cardboard cutout villains from a Hollywood movie and to challenge people to look at the complexities of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.
So, my question is, will you be modded Flamebait, Troll or the ever popular Overrated?
I'm actually hoping you won't be, but I'm pessimistic given some of the other posts I've read in response to this story.
Alan Moore and DC had a contract that was good for the time. As soon as Watchmen goes out of print, all the rights revert to him. However, as long as DC is publishing the comic, the rights belong to DC. Obviously, it hasn't ever gone out of print, and likely won't until it falls into the public domain. I read somewhere that DC has the Devil on retainer to help them with their contract writing.
Slashdot Mirror
Santa is St. Nicholas, a Catholic Saint. Therefore, FALSE. If you are a Catholic, you can pray to St. Nick (just don't get confused and pray to Old Nick, that would be bad.)
Certainly, the bizarre elements of the Santa story, such as his castle on the moon and his maniacal, laughing mechanical reindeer were added by fabulists. However, he's a genuine religious figure with supernatural powers, like Jesus, Amaterasu, Mao Tse-Tung, Prince Philip or Baron Samedi, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Well, I just bought Marvel Trading Card Game for my DS.
.
Who's the Jaunty Jackanapes with Moxy and Pizazz?
Well, it's obviously not a true story.
In some businessed, that kind of software causes maiming and death. (see, for example, Therac-25) My previous IT job was for software for hospital networks. If the doctor didn't get the information on patient medical allergies in time for emergency room treatment, well, so sorry, patient dies. Explain to his family that your bosses wanted to cut corners in the software development.
Sure, I suppose there is some genuinely unimportant software out there, but even that can provide an exploit hole for viruses and other nastiness. Truth is, there's no good excuse for creating garbage software, period.
Don't you mean Singapore?
That's easy. The legends are wrong.
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy
It's irrelevant what the dictionary says in this case, because the etymology is obvious.
Don't blame the grand-parent, the article refers to a "monogamy gene" but I doubt prairie voles are getting married. (If I'm wrong, please post video of a prairie vole wedding, because that sounds neat.)
So, he's misusing "polygamous" the same way the article misused "monogamous."
NHK is good, because the guy in NHK has serious psychological problems before he ever even thought of trying an MMORPG. In fact, his goal in life is to never, ever leave his apartment (even to go shopping, etc.).
The appeal of gold-farming is that he hopes to gain an income that would allow him to stay inside 24/7 and never have to deal with the real world. (To put this in perspective, one of the people in the suicide club he joins temporarily in another episode is the one who gives him a free pass for the MMORPG.)
So, rather than blaming MMOs for the problem (his relatively well adjusted next door neighbor is able to take it up, have fun for a bit, and quit easily with no ill effects) the show tends to look at damaged people (especially the main character) and see why they become obsessed with various things.
Besides the suicide club, other things that prey on the weak, such as multi-level marketing are also explored.
The show is very dark, but it is kind of neat.
Oh, and plenty of things are exagerated for darkly hurmorous effect, but I think the author is genuinely trying to get his mind around this idea of hikikomoris (in English, we'd call them agorophobic shut-ins... ).
Ten years ago / In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.
The Black Viper... he'll tell us what to do! (Note: This is a Windows based memory improvement site.)
We're talking about the New York State government here. There is no difference between the government and the Mafia. (I'm dead serious about that, not joking really. I mean that the actual Mafia controls the actual government.)
Hmm, New York has always been a bit bizarre about taxes. I remember when they were sending people to New Jersey shopping malls to photograph the license plates of people who were buying things in New Jersey to avoid the high New York state sales tax.
When I first started buying them, it was because I had played a few times. Still, I once had every available supplement I could find for Call of Cthuhlu and I think I played that once when I talked a couple of people in my D&D group to try it out.... madness! (Note, we mostly didn't play D&D in the D&D group, either, it was mostly people arguing with each other...)
.
Okay, time for some ancient history. Let's begin. Who remembers back when our beloved New Zork Times was running articles about something called Cornerstone a completely worthless database program that nobody was ever going to use? Hmm... it's possible some aren't familiar with the story, so I present: Down From the Top of Its Game. Long story short, Infocom lost huge amounts of money, got absorbed into Activision and disappeared into the ether. Why? Because of destructive, incompetent meddling managment.
Closer to home for a D&D story, remember when TSR started publishing The Honeymooners boardgame and Rocky and Bullwinkle ? Put it another name, has anyone here heard the name Lorraine Williams or wondered why Gary Gygax stopped being involved in D&D?
All I know, is that there have been some... well... odd things coming out of Wizards lately. A ridiculous new alignment system, obviously created in the 9 Hells (the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince people that Lawful Evil doesn't exist). A new D&D system that seems to want to replicate MMORPGs on the tabletop, and a concerted attempt to utterly kill the OGL which someone over there must think was a huge mistake. Well, we'll see where they go. I had some dire predictions following the OWOD apocalypse, but I think White Wolf is still chugging along....
Of course, I'm an odd duck anyway. As a kid, I collected RPGs but hardly ever played them. A deranged monomania that has never made any sense to me. Still, I'm fascinated by watching gaming corporations die... or even subsidiaries.... so I'll be keeping my eye on this.
You know who I thank for that? Hank Scorpio!
1. Gates of Zendocon: I really like this shooter, it's both relatively mindless and pretty creative.
2. Chip's Challenge: I think this is probably the best puzzle game for the Lynx.
3. Zarlor Mercenary: Well, if you like Shoot 'Em Ups, this one is a good one.
4. Ninja Gaiden III: It's a duplicated of the NES version, if you liked the NES Ninja Gaiden games you'll like this one.
5. Xenophobe: There are a few different choices I could put here, but I choose Xenomorph, just because I like it.
Honorable Mention: Ninja Gaiden (arcade beat 'em up, not like the NES games), Slimeworld (Alien world exploration, fun game, it was tough for me to choose between this an Xenomorph), Dracula (For fans of point and click adventures), Batman Returns(Okay beat 'Em up, high difficulty), Electrocop (Awkward controls, but it has Asteroids and Breakout minigames)
Hmm... well, that depends, some of these scams play oddly with a persons sense of right and wrong. For instance, a while back I got a typical Nigerian scam letter from someone pretending to be Yassar Arafat's widow, who, the Email claimed, was trying to steal money from the PLO. That was pretty smart (the theatricality of the 419 scam occaisionally impresses me), because a lot of people in America probably would see that not only as not a crime, but a good thing to do, depriving the PLO of money. of course, I think that some people might be afraid to steal money from the PLO, so I think that was a problem, but they probably still got some people on their hook.
As to greed, meh, I suspect most of the people falling for these things are relatively poor. I mean, if you can get scammed by 419, what are the chances that the credit card companies, cash advance companies, adjustable rate mortgage banks, Dell computer (watch out for "deferred interest") or one of the many other legal scam artists in this country haven't gotten to you first? Heck, even a simple cash advance company is a lot more sophisticated in their scams than the typical 419 scam.
Stupid, yeah, but if people weren't stupid there would be no state lotteries. The sad thing is almost every time I explain the odds of the state lottery to someone, they say, "Well, someones going to win." People just want to believe that they have some social mobility, which most people don't have and never will.
.
That's like a Comic Book Guy pick for a stupid science fiction movie scene!
[Comic Book Guy Voice, sneering] "Oh, I suppose Jeff Goldblum was just a super genius who could reverse engineer an alien operating system, running on alien technology, on a Mac in just a moment to create a virus to kill their space ship!!!"
The yodeling weapon in Mars Attacks! has more credibility and that was intended to be farcical! (In fact, if that was product placement, I'd call it money well spent.)
As to the Mac [Comic Book Guy Voice] "Worst Product Placement Ever!"
I was hoping Seinfeld was going to "plug" Vista, as in, "It's curtains for you, Vista! Blam! Blam! Blam!" Then he could plug Gates, and Kramer could say, "You were going to be the Vista Boy... Vista Boy... sob..."
Happy ending, the end.
Ok, that's a really, really good post, very thoughtful and realistic. Obviously you've got some good historical knowledge of Iran which you've been kind enough to share with the readership of Slashdot. You've looked at the situation in such a way so as to not make the Iranians into cardboard cutout villains from a Hollywood movie and to challenge people to look at the complexities of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.
So, my question is, will you be modded Flamebait, Troll or the ever popular Overrated?
I'm actually hoping you won't be, but I'm pessimistic given some of the other posts I've read in response to this story.
Alan Moore and DC had a contract that was good for the time. As soon as Watchmen goes out of print, all the rights revert to him. However, as long as DC is publishing the comic, the rights belong to DC. Obviously, it hasn't ever gone out of print, and likely won't until it falls into the public domain. I read somewhere that DC has the Devil on retainer to help them with their contract writing.
Hmm... the Author didn't sell his rights to Fox or Warner, he sold them to DC, under a very specific contract, that he now regrets. DC sold the rights to various film companies. Of course, if the author had his way, there would never be a Watchmen movie, and he is refusing to accept any profits or residuals that are rightfully his because he hates the idea of this movie coming out at all.