The "DDT is dangerous" has been conclusively and comprehensively DEBUNKED years and years ago. There is NO reason this crap needs to continue, except for the psychological agenda of the enviro-facist movement.
Basically, 'Silent Spring' was based on test data that was wrong. The birds whose eggs were shattering, had been raised on a diet containing less than 20% of the calcium they usually got. Duh. Low calcium = weak eggshells. When the experiment was repeated with a proper diet, there was NO such finding, even in birds HEAVILY fed DDT. Even the original authors of the experiment had, by 1971, turned their investigations more to PCBs, and discounted DDT as an issue with bird populations.
An administrative Judge ruled even at the time that DDT wasn't dangerous. Nevertheless, the administrator of the then-new EPA ruled it would be universally banned...and then promptly went to work for the exact same anti-DDT enironmental lobbying group, after he left he EPA.
But I find that DNR staff, ecological speakers visiting schools, reporters, etc all have cheerfully and unquestioningly swallowed the Kool Aide on this because of its SEMINAL impact and justification of the environmental movement. To be fair, when confronted constructively about it, are rather shocked but eventually persuaded that there MIGHT be some doubt...which is a lot when you're attacking such a sacred cow. However, I have yet to see anyone subsequently change their presentation, curricula, or (effectively) beliefs.
Question that DDT might not be dangerous? That might make people wonder about the validity of the whole "movement", if they could be shown to be such easily-gulled rubes.
Heck, it might even make you think global warming is BS...but no, that MUST be true, right? Scientists say it is.
I've heard repeatedly that the reception to FF:TSW shows that the time is not yet ripe for full CGI movies to be taken seriously.
I saw FF:TSW, and frankly, that only proves to me that a) sadly, Hollywood is right in the fact that when their prices to see a movie run into the $50/couple range, few people will 'risk' that on an unknown, preferring to see Rocky XVIII. b) FF:TSW wasn't that good.
Ultimately, content will win out. The question is, does someone have enough deep pockets and patience to wait to see that happen? Or is it just cheaper to throw money at another empty-headed teen-T&A movie or gay cowboy flick and live with "only" making several million dollars?
Peace, love, and happiness notwithstanding, I'm sure any apparent connection between India and America's "newfound friendship", and the rise of China, is entirely coincidental.
Not that I'm saying it's not a good thing; it is. But once the Soviets folded, it was geopolitically necessary for the India/US axis to form.
You're the smartest kid in the class. Your project is 75% done. The other kids, not from perhaps as nice a home as yours, without your rich parents and ample access to resources, are only 10-50% done.
What possible motivation could you have for handing your project materials over to the others, to help them get theirs done? Note: before you answer, please remember that as far as I know, nobody (no landlords, grocers, car dealers, universities, doctors, etc) let you pay for anything with "good karma".
Because in the real world, people have to have reasons and motivations to do things. This project is progressing on multiple fronts because a multiple of people see that there is commercial/scientific/national opportunity in it. If those are the motivations for pursuing the projects in the first place, how could any of them be advanced by 'pooling' resources (in any way that would be an advantage to the leader).
And lest you cast the US as the sole bogeyman here, I'd be just as interested to see if the people that are second-most-advanced would be willing to share their tech with the 3-4-5th most. (Although there, there is at least the motivation that perhaps together they could be first, and thus gain the benefits of first place, which none of them probably will reach alone....)
"...he is convinced he can put a consumer version of the X1 into production that meets federal safety standards, has a 100-mile range, and recharges in 4.5 hours."
"is convinced" means "can't do it now" 100 miles, eh? So I can go to OR from work, before having to charge my car for 4.5 hours with no other stops?
...and so goes the hyperbole-driven debate, where it's much easier to scream shrilly than to engage in any sort of rational discussion. I mean, it's the internet, so why not? We're both anonymous, so what use is consensus? Anonymity means no consequences for anything we say. It's not like we have to live together, right?
But that's the problem, isn't it? No matter what nom de plume we spew invective under, it affects our perceptions and, if we're successful, persuasive writers, it affects the perceptions of others.
So then we (believe that we) leave our 'internet personas' behind, get up from the computer and enter the social arena of daily life. But we're laden with anger and angst from the unresolved (and unresolveable) hate-filled discussions we participate in, and think that somehow that doesn't taint our everyday social conduct? Our perceptions?
I know you're postulating a "near" future, but let's be absolutely honest. As much as I despise the whores in Congress and lobbyist(s) du jour in the legislative equivalent of bukkake, people will manage to operate around stupid laws and legislators. We haven't lost any civil rights (much less "all" in your near-future), George Bush is no more a fascist than Kerry or Gore were communists. The FBI isn't even looking at library-loan records, and if the NSA is recording my international phone calls, what do I (really) care?
Is this a fear-driven country? Perhaps. But I find it telling that one person's "irrational" fear (The "War" on Terror, WMDs in Iraq, etc.) is someone else's absolutely CERTAIN "impending catastrophe" (Global Warming, DDT, Bird Flu, etc.). Face it - the media is in business to get and hold your attention so they can sell your eyes to their customers, the advertisers. Fear has a wonderful ability to focus one's attention, so they use that. The Right Wing extremists use one set of fear iconography, the Left uses another.
Neither are valid, because they are both playing to the lunatic fringe. But to swallow the red or blue kool-aide and expect that the world of the near future is going to be a horrible disaster seems like it almost invites itself to be self-fulfilling.
While most governments may not make 100% efficient use of tax dollars, how else do you think roads get made? Automobile taxes; gas taxes; license fees for vehicles.
Police get paid? Property taxes. Income taxes.
Firefighters get paid? Again, local property taxes.
Public Transportation get made? Now you're getting into the realm of fantasy spending; I live in a city where "public transportation" is more than 80% subsidized, and while occasionally rush-hour buses are full, *most* buses you see trundling around the streets are EMPTY. Oh, and did I mention how the city switched to buses when a shady city government ripped up the perfectly-efficient streetcar track and BURNED the cars to replace them with "modern" mass transit buses (the 3 men making the decision were later found to hold silent partnerships in bus dealerships...)? But again, city, state, property taxes, state income tax too I suppose.
Laws get made for the purpose of proecting your own private property? The US GNP is $11.75 trillion. For the point of argument, let's say the average tax on those transactions is 10%. It costs $1.75 trillion to make laws? I'd say we need to hire cheaper congressmen.
Nice effort, but the functions of government are paid for by their specific taxes, at the appropriate governmental level (municipal, state, federal). There is NO justification (aside from government revenue generation) for a sales tax.
Not to sound like a complete radical, but why don't we ask ourselves why the government is entitled to step in and get 'a piece' of a private transaction between two people to begin with? The medium is irrelevant.
If I trade you two chickens for a goat, are they entitled to take for themselves the drumsticks off one chicken and one udder from the goat? That's stupid.
Almost as stupid as everyone taking it for granted that if I pay you $10 to mow my lawn (or $100,000 to build my house), somehow, the government is entitled to a cut of that payment.
The moment they start taxing my 'virtual gold' I'm paying my IRS bill in WoW silvers.
As just another symptom of how lax and sloppy this reporting is, IF this weren't a complete load of bollocks, wouldn't it have been nice if the the internet-posted story would offer WEB LINKS (or at least long/lat) of the coordinates, so those of us with google earth (ie everyone) could look at the satellite pics for ourselves?
No, of course they aren't available.
More interesting would be a psychological paper on the strange compulsion of the Slavic peoples to keep trying to 'validate' themselves, frequently pointing to dubious claims of some superlative or another: the first, the last, the biggest, the tallest, the oldest, etc. etc. They have plenty to be proud about, but it never seems...enough?
Always a good idea: if you can't attack the facts, attack the messenger, right?
If you can't attack the messenger, attack his friends (or in this case, attack books which have absolutely no connection with his, yet were purchased by people who also bought his book)...no, that's not stretching at all, is it?
According to Richard Miniter's book, Disinformation, there has been found:
Found: 1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium
Found: 1,500 gallons of chemical weapons
Found: Roadside bomb loaded with sarin gas
Found: 1,000 radioactive materials--ideal for radioactive dirty bombs
Found: 17 chemical warheads--some containing cyclosarin, a nerve agent five times more powerful than sarin
So you're right to ask: considering 60% of Faux News viewers thought WMDs had been found, and only 20% of NPR listeners thought they had been found, which agency is informing, and which is pursuing an agenda?
Rather good question, that. What's your answer, actually?
in the first case 5) remain immune/invisible to litigation and persecution by the MPAA and RIAA for piracy
in the second case 5) be declared an international pariah contributing to the wholesale destruction of the entertainment industries because of your mp3/movie player, be sued by xxAA shills in every civilized state, and eventually have the black helicopters hunt you and your family down as "pirates".
Seriously, though - they're 'diiscovering' that record companies are using predatory pricing, collusive behavior, and generally refusing to recognize that the 'costs of distribution' in the digital age doesn't really explain their bajillion-percent markup?
It's probably too late for you to ever see this reply, but I have to point out:
(from TFA) Twenty-five, transsexual, swinging long shifts as a showgirl at a gay nightclub in Nashville, and self-described as "usually quiet and reserved until [she gets] to know you,"
Not that there's anything wrong with that, you just might have missed a point that may be significant later.
It doesn't help that the role-playing game industry is in a slump and going through a transitional phase.
Hmm, 'transitional phase'?
* Moment of Death:
1} The heart stops
2} The skin gets tight and grey in color
3} All the muscles relax
4} The bladder and bowels empty
. . ..4a - Men will get an erection. No, I don't know when, exactly. I really didn't feel like calling up the local mortuary and asking this. And there's people on my mailing list I could have asked, I bet, but it's kind of weird popping up and asking that. No pun intended. I'm not sure my parents know what erections are, so I can't ask them. I did read that this was one of the reasons hangings were so well attended by women, back in the old.days. Big Laffs, seeing the Hung, hung.
5} The body's temperature will typically drop 1.5 degrees F. per hour unless outside environment is a factor. The liver is the organ that stays warmest the longest, and this temperature is used to establish time of death if the body is found within that time frame.
* After 30 minutes:
6} The skin gets purple and waxy
7} The lips, finger- and toe nails fade to a pale color or turn white as the blood leaves.
8} Blood pools at the lowest parts of the body leaving a dark purple-black stain called lividity
9} The hands and feet turn blue
10} The eyes start to sink into the skull
* After 4 hours:
11} Rigor mortis starts to set in
12} The purpling of the skin and pooling of blood continue
13} Rigor Mortis begins to tighten the muscles for about another 24 hours, then will reverse and the body will return to a limp state.
* After 12 hours:
14} The body is in full rigor mortis.
* After 24 hours:
15} The body is now the temperature of the surrounding environment
16} In males, the semen dies
17} The head and neck are now a greenish-blue color
18} The greenish-blue color continues to spread to the rest of the body
19} There is the strong smell of rotting meat
20} The face of the person is essentially no longer recognizable
* After 3 days:
21} The gases in the body tissues form large blisters on the skin
22} The whole body begins to bloat and swell grotesquely. This process is speeded up if victim is in a hot environment, or in water
23} Fluids leak from the mouth, nose, eyes, ears and rectum and urinary opening
* After 3 weeks:
24} The skin, hair, and nails are so loose they can be easily pulled off the corpse
25} The skin cracks and bursts open in many places because of the pressure of Internal gases and the breakdown of the skin itself
26} Decomposition will continue until body is nothing b
I'm a definite target-demographic for HD DVD. I don't watch TV, I watch DVDs instead - probably 20+ movies per month via Netflix. I don't have cable/satellite.
I have a HD tv that I've been dying to see HD output on, and have an income level such that I could buy an HD DVD player without really batting an eye financially.
But you know what? Until it seems to be resolved which HD format is going to finally be THE ONE that the market settles on, I'm not buying any hardware. Furthermore, since I'm not buying hardware, I'm not signing up for the Netflix HD-DVD service so I'm (microscopically) reducing immediate demand for HD DVD.
Congratulations you bunch of selfish, greedy, dumbasses. Your pissing match over 'whose format is better' is no doubt causing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of otherwise early-adopters like myself to wait to spend our cash on your equipment.
I'd disagree with you. I hve precisely the same time issues as the original submitter, and Oblivion is great. Yes, there are probably HUNDREDS of hours of content there, but if you only have a half hour you can jump in, find a wilderness dungeon, and have a great time doing it.
IMO this is one thing that the MMO games haven't yet come to grips with. I played WW2OL for 4 years straight, and loved it (still do, actually) but as the realism and fidelity to the actual military experience increased, it became less and less possible to accomplish anything alone (ala Rambo). This, to me, was a good thing but it meant that not onl couldn't you accomplish anything alone, capturing a hard-fought town became a 4-hour+ event. I simply don't have blocks of time like that.
So I drifted to the other MMOs, and WoW suited me for quite a while because 1-59 and even level 60 content can be solo'd (no spending precious minutes trying to get a group together that might disintegrate at any moment), and 'progressed' in fits and starts according to my schedule. But now I've HAD to start alts because my main is nearly UNPLAYABLE, because the only thing for long-time, accomplished, geared 60s to do is massive, 20- or 40-player instances that take 3+ hours at a sitting.
So having bought Oblivion, I'm delighted that I can fill a spare 30-45 minutes having fun, not spamming Ogrimaar or IF "LFG".
I feel his pain, but I'm not sure I buy his message.
"Innvoative" does not necessarily mean good.
I agree with him that a lot of cool indie games (Nethergate might be an example, King of Dragon Pass another similar one) get 'missed' because they simply don't have the exposure to the market stream - for this I largely blame the gaming press, who'd apparently rather review the umpteenth incarnation of the Sims or Civ or Generic First-Person Shooter X, than to invest their precious reviewers' time in exploring some of the indy games.
In Nethergate's particular case it DID get good press - but not very wide coverage. * 4 Stars - Computer Games Online * Computer Games Magazine RPG of the Year - Honorable Mention * Vault Network Shareware RPG of the Year so it's a damn shame that it didn't do better. It WAS a decent, if not stellar-quality game. You had one media outlet (CGO=CGM) giving it rave reviews and that's it. Where's PC Gamer? Where's Byte? It was a while ago: was Gamespot around? Gamespy?
In the end, I'd have to answer his questoin "Why didn't Nethergate do better?" with "You DID get pwned by the competition. Not for your excessive innovation, just that you were swamped by other great titles. 1998 was a good year for gamers, suckage for Indy developers."
For the/. audience, other games from 1998: Thief:Dark Project, RRTycoon2 Grim Fandango Unreal Baldur's Gate Tribes Starcraft Half Life Rainbow 6 Fallout 2
(holy crap was that a bad year to intro a new game)
Slashdot Mirror
The "DDT is dangerous" has been conclusively and comprehensively DEBUNKED years and years ago. There is NO reason this crap needs to continue, except for the psychological agenda of the enviro-facist movement.
http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm
Basically, 'Silent Spring' was based on test data that was wrong.
The birds whose eggs were shattering, had been raised on a diet containing less than 20% of the calcium they usually got. Duh. Low calcium = weak eggshells.
When the experiment was repeated with a proper diet, there was NO such finding, even in birds HEAVILY fed DDT.
Even the original authors of the experiment had, by 1971, turned their investigations more to PCBs, and discounted DDT as an issue with bird populations.
An administrative Judge ruled even at the time that DDT wasn't dangerous.
Nevertheless, the administrator of the then-new EPA ruled it would be universally banned...and then promptly went to work for the exact same anti-DDT enironmental lobbying group, after he left he EPA.
But I find that DNR staff, ecological speakers visiting schools, reporters, etc all have cheerfully and unquestioningly swallowed the Kool Aide on this because of its SEMINAL impact and justification of the environmental movement. To be fair, when confronted constructively about it, are rather shocked but eventually persuaded that there MIGHT be some doubt...which is a lot when you're attacking such a sacred cow. However, I have yet to see anyone subsequently change their presentation, curricula, or (effectively) beliefs.
Question that DDT might not be dangerous? That might make people wonder about the validity of the whole "movement", if they could be shown to be such easily-gulled rubes.
Heck, it might even make you think global warming is BS...but no, that MUST be true, right? Scientists say it is.
...that the /. header is entirely MISleading.
RTFA. The header says "Costs Exceed Benefits" implying a fact.
The article is about industry execs telling the SEC that they don't think it's worth it.
That's about as opposite as you can get.
But this is slashdot, this is like -1, eternally redundant.
I've heard repeatedly that the reception to FF:TSW shows that the time is not yet ripe for full CGI movies to be taken seriously.
I saw FF:TSW, and frankly, that only proves to me that
a) sadly, Hollywood is right in the fact that when their prices to see a movie run into the $50/couple range, few people will 'risk' that on an unknown, preferring to see Rocky XVIII.
b) FF:TSW wasn't that good.
Ultimately, content will win out. The question is, does someone have enough deep pockets and patience to wait to see that happen? Or is it just cheaper to throw money at another empty-headed teen-T&A movie or gay cowboy flick and live with "only" making several million dollars?
You guys do know what happened to the idea of separate "486" and "486sx" lines, right?
No, I don't see anyone trying to sell us "x86 math coprocessors" any more either.
Peace, love, and happiness notwithstanding, I'm sure any apparent connection between India and America's "newfound friendship", and the rise of China, is entirely coincidental.
Not that I'm saying it's not a good thing; it is. But once the Soviets folded, it was geopolitically necessary for the India/US axis to form.
Well, I'd look at it this way.
You're the smartest kid in the class. Your project is 75% done.
The other kids, not from perhaps as nice a home as yours, without your rich parents and ample access to resources, are only 10-50% done.
What possible motivation could you have for handing your project materials over to the others, to help them get theirs done? Note: before you answer, please remember that as far as I know, nobody (no landlords, grocers, car dealers, universities, doctors, etc) let you pay for anything with "good karma".
Because in the real world, people have to have reasons and motivations to do things. This project is progressing on multiple fronts because a multiple of people see that there is commercial/scientific/national opportunity in it. If those are the motivations for pursuing the projects in the first place, how could any of them be advanced by 'pooling' resources (in any way that would be an advantage to the leader).
And lest you cast the US as the sole bogeyman here, I'd be just as interested to see if the people that are second-most-advanced would be willing to share their tech with the 3-4-5th most. (Although there, there is at least the motivation that perhaps together they could be first, and thus gain the benefits of first place, which none of them probably will reach alone....)
EXACTLY.
"...he is convinced he can put a consumer version of the X1 into production that meets federal safety standards, has a 100-mile range, and recharges in 4.5 hours."
"is convinced" means "can't do it now"
100 miles, eh?
So I can go to OR from work, before having to charge my car for 4.5 hours with no other stops?
Meh, thanks but no.
...and so goes the hyperbole-driven debate, where it's much easier to scream shrilly than to engage in any sort of rational discussion. I mean, it's the internet, so why not? We're both anonymous, so what use is consensus? Anonymity means no consequences for anything we say. It's not like we have to live together, right?
But that's the problem, isn't it? No matter what nom de plume we spew invective under, it affects our perceptions and, if we're successful, persuasive writers, it affects the perceptions of others.
So then we (believe that we) leave our 'internet personas' behind, get up from the computer and enter the social arena of daily life. But we're laden with anger and angst from the unresolved (and unresolveable) hate-filled discussions we participate in, and think that somehow that doesn't taint our everyday social conduct? Our perceptions?
I know you're postulating a "near" future, but let's be absolutely honest. As much as I despise the whores in Congress and lobbyist(s) du jour in the legislative equivalent of bukkake, people will manage to operate around stupid laws and legislators. We haven't lost any civil rights (much less "all" in your near-future), George Bush is no more a fascist than Kerry or Gore were communists. The FBI isn't even looking at library-loan records, and if the NSA is recording my international phone calls, what do I (really) care?
Is this a fear-driven country? Perhaps. But I find it telling that one person's "irrational" fear (The "War" on Terror, WMDs in Iraq, etc.) is someone else's absolutely CERTAIN "impending catastrophe" (Global Warming, DDT, Bird Flu, etc.). Face it - the media is in business to get and hold your attention so they can sell your eyes to their customers, the advertisers. Fear has a wonderful ability to focus one's attention, so they use that. The Right Wing extremists use one set of fear iconography, the Left uses another.
Neither are valid, because they are both playing to the lunatic fringe.
But to swallow the red or blue kool-aide and expect that the world of the near future is going to be a horrible disaster seems like it almost invites itself to be self-fulfilling.
No, that just means I'm jealous of him.
While most governments may not make 100% efficient use of tax dollars, how else do you think roads get made?
Automobile taxes; gas taxes; license fees for vehicles.
Police get paid?
Property taxes. Income taxes.
Firefighters get paid?
Again, local property taxes.
Public Transportation get made?
Now you're getting into the realm of fantasy spending; I live in a city where "public transportation" is more than 80% subsidized, and while occasionally rush-hour buses are full, *most* buses you see trundling around the streets are EMPTY. Oh, and did I mention how the city switched to buses when a shady city government ripped up the perfectly-efficient streetcar track and BURNED the cars to replace them with "modern" mass transit buses (the 3 men making the decision were later found to hold silent partnerships in bus dealerships...)?
But again, city, state, property taxes, state income tax too I suppose.
Laws get made for the purpose of proecting your own private property?
The US GNP is $11.75 trillion. For the point of argument, let's say the average tax on those transactions is 10%. It costs $1.75 trillion to make laws? I'd say we need to hire cheaper congressmen.
Nice effort, but the functions of government are paid for by their specific taxes, at the appropriate governmental level (municipal, state, federal). There is NO justification (aside from government revenue generation) for a sales tax.
Not to sound like a complete radical, but why don't we ask ourselves why the government is entitled to step in and get 'a piece' of a private transaction between two people to begin with? The medium is irrelevant.
If I trade you two chickens for a goat, are they entitled to take for themselves the drumsticks off one chicken and one udder from the goat? That's stupid.
Almost as stupid as everyone taking it for granted that if I pay you $10 to mow my lawn (or $100,000 to build my house), somehow, the government is entitled to a cut of that payment.
The moment they start taxing my 'virtual gold' I'm paying my IRS bill in WoW silvers.
As just another symptom of how lax and sloppy this reporting is, IF this weren't a complete load of bollocks, wouldn't it have been nice if the the internet-posted story would offer WEB LINKS (or at least long/lat) of the coordinates, so those of us with google earth (ie everyone) could look at the satellite pics for ourselves?
No, of course they aren't available.
More interesting would be a psychological paper on the strange compulsion of the Slavic peoples to keep trying to 'validate' themselves, frequently pointing to dubious claims of some superlative or another: the first, the last, the biggest, the tallest, the oldest, etc. etc. They have plenty to be proud about, but it never seems...enough?
"The preview images and the trailer point to a more Charlies Angels 2 type fluff than a serious action movie."
+1, obvious.
From the trailer, it starts with:
"They know what they like..."
"They get what they want..."
Hard to believe that's going to be superficial.
I was expecting the boom-shaka-boom porn music to start any moment. I'll have to review it again a few times frame-by-frame to make sure, though.
So now it's not that NONE were found (as quoted).
It's that "not enough" were found.
Do I think what was found was militarily significant? No, I don't.
But that's moving the goalposts, dude.
The quote was NONE.
The fact is SOME.
Ergo: quote was factually wrong.
Always a good idea: if you can't attack the facts, attack the messenger, right?
If you can't attack the messenger, attack his friends (or in this case, attack books which have absolutely no connection with his, yet were purchased by people who also bought his book)...no, that's not stretching at all, is it?
According to Richard Miniter's book, Disinformation, there has been found:
Found: 1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium
Found: 1,500 gallons of chemical weapons
Found: Roadside bomb loaded with sarin gas
Found: 1,000 radioactive materials--ideal for radioactive dirty bombs
Found: 17 chemical warheads--some containing cyclosarin, a nerve agent five times more powerful than sarin
So you're right to ask: considering 60% of Faux News viewers thought WMDs had been found, and only 20% of NPR listeners thought they had been found, which agency is informing, and which is pursuing an agenda?
Rather good question, that. What's your answer, actually?
in the first case
5) remain immune/invisible to litigation and persecution by the MPAA and RIAA for piracy
in the second case
5) be declared an international pariah contributing to the wholesale destruction of the entertainment industries because of your mp3/movie player, be sued by xxAA shills in every civilized state, and eventually have the black helicopters hunt you and your family down as "pirates".
...and live at 10, the sun comes up in the east!
Seriously, though - they're 'diiscovering' that record companies are using predatory pricing, collusive behavior, and generally refusing to recognize that the 'costs of distribution' in the digital age doesn't really explain their bajillion-percent markup?
Teh?
Well, yeah.
SPOILER WARNING
It's probably too late for you to ever see this reply, but I have to point out:
(from TFA)
Twenty-five, transsexual, swinging long shifts as a showgirl at a gay nightclub in Nashville, and self-described as "usually quiet and reserved until [she gets] to know you,"
Not that there's anything wrong with that, you just might have missed a point that may be significant later.
It doesn't help that the role-playing game industry is in a slump and going through a transitional phase.
.4a - Men will get an erection. No, I don't know when, exactly. I really didn't feel like calling up the local mortuary and asking this. And there's people on my mailing list I could have asked, I bet, but it's kind of weird popping up and asking that. No pun intended. I'm not sure my parents know what erections are, so I can't ask them. I did read that this was one of the reasons hangings were so well attended by women, back in the old.days. Big Laffs, seeing the Hung, hung.
Hmm, 'transitional phase'?
* Moment of Death:
1} The heart stops
2} The skin gets tight and grey in color
3} All the muscles relax
4} The bladder and bowels empty
. . .
5} The body's temperature will typically drop 1.5 degrees F. per hour unless outside environment is a factor. The liver is the organ that stays warmest the longest, and this temperature is used to establish time of death if the body is found within that time frame.
* After 30 minutes:
6} The skin gets purple and waxy
7} The lips, finger- and toe nails fade to a pale color or turn white as the blood leaves.
8} Blood pools at the lowest parts of the body leaving a dark purple-black stain called lividity
9} The hands and feet turn blue
10} The eyes start to sink into the skull
* After 4 hours:
11} Rigor mortis starts to set in
12} The purpling of the skin and pooling of blood continue
13} Rigor Mortis begins to tighten the muscles for about another 24 hours, then will reverse and the body will return to a limp state.
* After 12 hours:
14} The body is in full rigor mortis.
* After 24 hours:
15} The body is now the temperature of the surrounding environment
16} In males, the semen dies
17} The head and neck are now a greenish-blue color
18} The greenish-blue color continues to spread to the rest of the body
19} There is the strong smell of rotting meat
20} The face of the person is essentially no longer recognizable
* After 3 days:
21} The gases in the body tissues form large blisters on the skin
22} The whole body begins to bloat and swell grotesquely. This process is speeded up if victim is in a hot environment, or in water
23} Fluids leak from the mouth, nose, eyes, ears and rectum and urinary opening
* After 3 weeks:
24} The skin, hair, and nails are so loose they can be easily pulled off the corpse
25} The skin cracks and bursts open in many places because of the pressure of Internal gases and the breakdown of the skin itself
26} Decomposition will continue until body is nothing b
I'm a definite target-demographic for HD DVD.
I don't watch TV, I watch DVDs instead - probably 20+ movies per month via Netflix. I don't have cable/satellite.
I have a HD tv that I've been dying to see HD output on, and have an income level such that I could buy an HD DVD player without really batting an eye financially.
But you know what? Until it seems to be resolved which HD format is going to finally be THE ONE that the market settles on, I'm not buying any hardware. Furthermore, since I'm not buying hardware, I'm not signing up for the Netflix HD-DVD service so I'm (microscopically) reducing immediate demand for HD DVD.
Congratulations you bunch of selfish, greedy, dumbasses. Your pissing match over 'whose format is better' is no doubt causing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of otherwise early-adopters like myself to wait to spend our cash on your equipment.
BRILLIANT.
I'd disagree with you. I hve precisely the same time issues as the original submitter, and Oblivion is great. Yes, there are probably HUNDREDS of hours of content there, but if you only have a half hour you can jump in, find a wilderness dungeon, and have a great time doing it.
IMO this is one thing that the MMO games haven't yet come to grips with.
I played WW2OL for 4 years straight, and loved it (still do, actually) but as the realism and fidelity to the actual military experience increased, it became less and less possible to accomplish anything alone (ala Rambo). This, to me, was a good thing but it meant that not onl couldn't you accomplish anything alone, capturing a hard-fought town became a 4-hour+ event. I simply don't have blocks of time like that.
So I drifted to the other MMOs, and WoW suited me for quite a while because 1-59 and even level 60 content can be solo'd (no spending precious minutes trying to get a group together that might disintegrate at any moment), and 'progressed' in fits and starts according to my schedule. But now I've HAD to start alts because my main is nearly UNPLAYABLE, because the only thing for long-time, accomplished, geared 60s to do is massive, 20- or 40-player instances that take 3+ hours at a sitting.
So having bought Oblivion, I'm delighted that I can fill a spare 30-45 minutes having fun, not spamming Ogrimaar or IF "LFG".
Read TFA - the guy dropped out of school at EIGHT. Not eighth grade - EIGHT YEARS OLD.
Rather surprised he can write, actually.
I feel his pain, but I'm not sure I buy his message.
/. audience, other games from 1998:
"Innvoative" does not necessarily mean good.
I agree with him that a lot of cool indie games (Nethergate might be an example, King of Dragon Pass another similar one) get 'missed' because they simply don't have the exposure to the market stream - for this I largely blame the gaming press, who'd apparently rather review the umpteenth incarnation of the Sims or Civ or Generic First-Person Shooter X, than to invest their precious reviewers' time in exploring some of the indy games.
In Nethergate's particular case it DID get good press - but not very wide coverage.
* 4 Stars - Computer Games Online
* Computer Games Magazine RPG of the Year - Honorable Mention
* Vault Network Shareware RPG of the Year
so it's a damn shame that it didn't do better. It WAS a decent, if not stellar-quality game. You had one media outlet (CGO=CGM) giving it rave reviews and that's it. Where's PC Gamer? Where's Byte? It was a while ago: was Gamespot around? Gamespy?
In the end, I'd have to answer his questoin "Why didn't Nethergate do better?" with "You DID get pwned by the competition. Not for your excessive innovation, just that you were swamped by other great titles. 1998 was a good year for gamers, suckage for Indy developers."
For the
Thief:Dark Project,
RRTycoon2
Grim Fandango
Unreal
Baldur's Gate
Tribes
Starcraft
Half Life
Rainbow 6
Fallout 2
(holy crap was that a bad year to intro a new game)