You mean how Bush stuck to his guns and vetoed the bill creating the Department of Homeland Security? Oh, wait, he didn't, he changed his mind about that as soon as the polls came in that said that the American people wanted it done.
Oh, but Bush did stick by his guns and refuse to allow them to create a commission to investigate 9/11...oh, wait, he didn't. He caved to the pressure.
There's something to be said about comparing the blacksploitation films of the 70s to the gaysploitation films/TV of today. In both cases, they take a culture that has been generally overlooked by mainstream America and stereotype the hell out of it; not to say that the stereotypes aren't true to an extent. Once people have gotten their fill of that, there tends to be more calls to portray the minority as more than stereotypical, one dimensional characters. But before you can be seen as an individual, people have to recognize the group you identify with.
Lesbians have a higher degree of acceptance as long as you're talking about straight male porn, but that's about it. I can count the number of lesbians on network TV on, what, one finger? No fingers? Expand to cable, and you have a couple more, but not many. Compare this to "Will and Grace", where the gay male characters on that show make fun of lesbians, or "Queer Eye" where the gay males on that show make fun of lesbians. Now, I'm not offended by the good-natured ribbing given us by our brothers in the Community, but where's the equal time?
[i]Anybody remember Ellen DeGeneres' old self-titled sitcom? It was actually pretty funny until Ellen came out of the closet, then every episode became centered around how gay she was. All of the humor was gone and the show got canceled pretty quickly after.[/i]
Actually the show was going to get cancelled before that, and she figured that if she was going to go out, she was going to go out at least being honest about herself. The coming out episode, aka "The Puppy Episode" was actually her highest-rated, and caused Disney/Touchstone to extend her series a bit longer than they had planned.
I've gotten as far as Act II with a Dark Elf Shadowknight, and I've seen a few of the bugs the article refers to:
1) Lockup bug on loading screen: This has happened to me a couple times, and ejecting the CD and putting it back in seems to "jump start" the game into working again.
2) Graphics bug: Occassionally when the maps feature a lot of textures, I'll get the "black screen" on the edges. Seems to fix itself after awhile, or if I exit the game and reload.
3) Sound bug: Background sounds and music intermittently stop and start, cut off in the middle, etc. Yeah, it does. It's annoying, but not game-stopping.
Other than that, I find the game pretty fun. It's a console RPG, little thinking required. The Shadowknight has some cool abilities, like disease DoTs and Lifetap, but most of the strategy devolves to a hit-and-run.
I believe Alton addresses this in his Duck episode... Running water defrosts meat even faster than sticking it in the oven would, however, you want to make sure that the water and the meat never get above 40 degrees. Once it gets above 40 degrees, bacteria starts to reproduce exponentially.
Food should be thawed in the refrigerator, or in the microwave (and then cooked immediately afterward). If you try thawing on the counter, or under warm running water, then (as Alton would say), sooner or later you're going to get that all-expense paid trip to the hospital.
You can blame McDonalds all you want - the fact is that the majority of the population does not eat there. The studies showed most of peoples calories were coming from carbs, NOT fat - which makes sense, since the food pyramid, which is a sham, has high carb foods as it's base.
So what you're saying is that more people are scrupulous about following the food guide pyramid and getting their 3-5 helpings of veggies, 2-4 servings of fruits, etc. than there are people who pick up their Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Supersize combo meal at their local McDonald's drive-thru?
Ask most people, and they don't even know what that food pyramid thingy *is*. They just see "low-fat/no-fat" at the store (or on TV...) and think they have to have it. (Mmmm, Snackwells... only one gram of fat! And 150 grams of sugar!)
Radical low-carb diets may work for *some* people under extremely closely supervised conditions, but they're dangerous to do on your own. High fat, high protein diets may make some people drop weight, but they lead to increased chance of kidney and liver failure, and radically increased chances of colon and prostate cancer, not to mention diabetes and hypertension. Diets that focus on "low-fat/no-fat" risk turning people into Coke/No Fat candy bar eaters, causing their sugar intake to spike.
I'm not noticing a whole lot of people here (or the guy who wrote the article) making distinctions between simple and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates (white bread, white rice, sugar) are to be avoided, while complex carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits, brown rice, legumes, whole wheat) are actually good for you. Similarly, saturated fats are generally to be avoided if you have any genetic predisposition to high cholesterol or hypertension (like I do), but monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fats (like what is found in nuts, fish, shellfish, olive oil) will improve your cholesterol levels.
And you've got to drink lots of water and exercise regularly, cardio *and* weight lifting. Cardio won't do a whole lot to burn fat, but it will increase your body's metabolism, and strengthen your heart (it *is* a muscle, after all).
...if your spouse or S.O. is unaware of it, or does not approve. If they are both aware and approving, then there is no cheating involved, just as in real life relationships.
It's one thing to be prohibited from talking about the details of the case (which is not at all unusual), but it's another thing entirely to be prohibited from talking about the existence of the case.
Can you imagine? One minute everything is up and running, the next minute, gone, with no explanation or warning.
That's just one virtual step before becoming one of the "Disappeared."
Actually, one of the best things she could do would be to buy up all the MP3 stock she could get her hands on. Right now, it's selling cheap (as of this writing, $5.50/share), and as a huge stockholder she could be in a position to influence TPTB to turn MP3.com into the artist's portal that she wants it to be. She'd leverage her cred into MP3.com, and in return she'd have more control over internet-based music distribution. Lawsuits aside, MP3.com is in a great position now for digital music distribution.
Plus, it would be amusing to see Universal suing one of its artists while trying to "protect" its artists' best interests.
>>Mp3.com's business plan appears to be something akin to setting up a cd store which buys discs in in bulk and then gives them out for free.
MP3.com has more revenue streams than just ad revenue from my.mp3.com. Hundreds of radio stations nationwide are paying mp3.com to come up with "local music" shows (which they are required to provide due to FCC licensing); they've launched a Muzac competitor to provide digital music for stores and restaurants; and they're expanding their pay-to-listen music channels, which are composed of music that they've bought the rights to. My.mp3.com is and always was just a small part of their business plan.
With all due respect to Michael, I found the X-men movie to be both fun and entertaining. It was light on plot, but heavy on fun, between watching Magneto handily deal with several dozen policemen, Sabertooth and Wolverine's memorable fighting scenes, and Mystique's very impressive control over her own body (illustrated in not only her morphing ability, but also her fight scenes).
I certainly found it more enjoyable than Gladiator, which was far too contrived, poorly written, and historically inaccurate to be taken as seriously as it was intended.
But The X-Men was exactly what it was made to be, and nothing more: a fun, satisfying first movie for a franchise which (hopefully) is only beginning a long run on the big screen.
The United States is not a democracy. Its government contains democratic principles, but to be more accurate it would have to be labeled as a democratic republic. A true democracy for a country the size of the United States would be far too unwieldy to manage for even the most insignificant laws and decisions.
As far as the Electoral College goes, just because a body was given a power does not mean that it will ever be exercised, or has ever been exercised. The EC is a functional figurehead, an excuse to give party supporters something cool to put on their letterhead. Try to name the last time that the EC actually overturned a popular vote for President. Considering that less than 1% of electors have ever misrepresented their community, the Electoral College is one of the least important problems facing the US government.
And as Winston Churchill once said, "the electoral college system is probably the worst possible method of choosing a president-except for all the others."
Well, The Offspring did say that they were selling Napster merchandise in part to see how cool Napster would be about it. Guess they have their answer.
I'm still waiting for a more official word, but I have to say this seeming hypocracy is not at all encouraging.
The problem being that it's difficult to find a study you can trust (almost all studies are paid for by one side or the other, c.f. Mindcraft). I've seen studies which "proved" that even relatively minor crimes have a greatly increased chance of turning lethal in states which have concealed weapons laws.
And of course, that's why the "Old West" was so peaceful and law-abiding, because everyone carried weapons, right?:)
The fact is, the problem is not so simple to solve as both the pro-gun and anti-gun forces would have everyone believe. I can think of few scarier things than either a) a completely vulnerable populace or b) a mugging turning into a huge shoot-out with a bunch of hot-headed, semi-trained people firing wildly at each other.
Let us not forget the first rule of Tech Support: Most people are stupid. I'd rather not be around a bunch of stupid people with lethal weapons (moreso).
Of course, it also means that Joe Crackhead will be a little quicker to shoot once he knows that his victim may be armed.
Unfortunately, the criminals will almost always have the advantage, because *they* know that they're about to victimize you, but you may not.
Not that I believe in disarming the population, by any means, just pointing out that having everyone over the age of 16 "packing" is really no panacea.
One of the coolest things about my.mp3.com was that you could buy a CD from one of their online CD sales partners, and listen to the album right away in mp3 format, while you waited for it to be shipped to you. Pretty damn cool. I would have considered that to be "value added" to the consumer.
Does anyone know how MP3.com would have had to change the music or add value to the consumer in order to make it under fair use?
/. should interview Michael Robertson and find out what the hell they plan to do now.
Parents teach kids responsibility. Guns are just an object lesson. If the parents aren't willing to teach kids to act responsibly, no amount of guns (or the absence of same) is going to do it. Similarly, if the parents are willing to teach kids to act responsibly, a kid can play all the video games and own all the guns he wants, he isn't going to do anything violent.
Trading MP3s on Napster is a non-profit pastime too -- the RIAA knows more than anyone that they're not profiting from it, and they're not too happy about that! I imagine it's little comfort for these corporations that their copyrights are being violated by amateurs rather than professionals.
Your analogy is flawed. In no way does fanfiction reduce the market for the original work. In fact, it encourages it.
They're "interesting questions" because universally, fanfic is a non-profit pasttime. No one is trying to produce a movie, sell a book, or sell a video game using copyrighted characters.
Now, what the article should have delved more deeply into is the "Uber-fiction" of the Xena fanfic community. Those use original characters based closely upon Xena and Gabrielle in a completely original setting. Some people have even published for-sale books using their Uber-Xena characters. I'd like to see a breakdown on the legality (or illegality) of that.
Are they going to come after you with a team of lawyers if you write something using the characters? Maybe, maybe not. I'd hope so.
It never pays to alientate your fans.
When you release something for public consumption, you invite others to view your creations; their ideas and specific points-of-view change your characters for themselves, even if they did not write down a single word of it on paper. If you don't want "the unwashed masses" to interfere with the pristine nature of your characters, then maybe you should pull a Dominique from Rand's The Fountainhead, and burn the manuscript before a single pair of eyes other than your own sees it.
It's really not that big a step between saying, "I really would like to see more of the relationship between Louis and Lestat," and writing it yourself, particularly for an already creatively-minded person.
I cannot imagine what type of Scrooge would want to see Fan fic writers punished for what they love to do. If there's an aspect of fandom out there that helps extend the influence of the subject and perpetuate enthusiasm moreso than fan fiction, I don't know what it is.
I've been writing fan fic for several months now (f/f slash, mostly), and I've never seen a writer who fails to put the "Disclaimer" at the beginning of their fics. I've seen some cuss-out the producers while doing so, but they all seem to do it.:)
Also, most producers and writers of TV shows refuse, for legal reasons, to read fan fiction. Steven Sears, ex-writer and Co-Producer of Xena, was asked consistently at conventions whether he read fan fic, and his answer was always that he wouldn't, because he wanted to play things completely above-board.
Sony/Verant seem to be quite intent on alienating their player base with this sort of attitude - Origin, although they can be harsh, at least have the smarts not to play "Big Brother" too often.
This conveniently overlooks the fact that it was a majority of their player base that wanted the e-Bay auctions banned in the first place. It was only a few farmers and campers who protested, the majority of players didn't want to get stuck in a farming/camping/kill-stealing cycle, they just wanted to play the game.
BTW: I was one of those charter members in UO too, before I left in disgust a year later or so, but that is probably neither here nor there.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean how Bush stuck to his guns and vetoed the bill creating the Department of Homeland Security? Oh, wait, he didn't, he changed his mind about that as soon as the polls came in that said that the American people wanted it done.
Oh, but Bush did stick by his guns and refuse to allow them to create a commission to investigate 9/11...oh, wait, he didn't. He caved to the pressure.
Some "leader".
There's something to be said about comparing the blacksploitation films of the 70s to the gaysploitation films/TV of today. In both cases, they take a culture that has been generally overlooked by mainstream America and stereotype the hell out of it; not to say that the stereotypes aren't true to an extent. Once people have gotten their fill of that, there tends to be more calls to portray the minority as more than stereotypical, one dimensional characters. But before you can be seen as an individual, people have to recognize the group you identify with.
Lesbians have a higher degree of acceptance as long as you're talking about straight male porn, but that's about it. I can count the number of lesbians on network TV on, what, one finger? No fingers? Expand to cable, and you have a couple more, but not many. Compare this to "Will and Grace", where the gay male characters on that show make fun of lesbians, or "Queer Eye" where the gay males on that show make fun of lesbians. Now, I'm not offended by the good-natured ribbing given us by our brothers in the Community, but where's the equal time?
Willow, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She was pretty much the same as Oz-dating Willow, only she was sleeping with Tara.
Although, I never will forget Joss for falling in to the whole "Lesbian tragedy/Lesbian turns into murderer" cliche.
[i]Anybody remember Ellen DeGeneres' old self-titled sitcom? It was actually pretty funny until Ellen came out of the closet, then every episode became centered around how gay she was. All of the humor was gone and the show got canceled pretty quickly after.[/i]
Actually the show was going to get cancelled before that, and she figured that if she was going to go out, she was going to go out at least being honest about herself. The coming out episode, aka "The Puppy Episode" was actually her highest-rated, and caused Disney/Touchstone to extend her series a bit longer than they had planned.
I've gotten as far as Act II with a Dark Elf Shadowknight, and I've seen a few of the bugs the article refers to:
1) Lockup bug on loading screen: This has happened to me a couple times, and ejecting the CD and putting it back in seems to "jump start" the game into working again.
2) Graphics bug: Occassionally when the maps feature a lot of textures, I'll get the "black screen" on the edges. Seems to fix itself after awhile, or if I exit the game and reload.
3) Sound bug: Background sounds and music intermittently stop and start, cut off in the middle, etc. Yeah, it does. It's annoying, but not game-stopping.
Other than that, I find the game pretty fun. It's a console RPG, little thinking required. The Shadowknight has some cool abilities, like disease DoTs and Lifetap, but most of the strategy devolves to a hit-and-run.
I believe Alton addresses this in his Duck episode... Running water defrosts meat even faster than sticking it in the oven would, however, you want to make sure that the water and the meat never get above 40 degrees. Once it gets above 40 degrees, bacteria starts to reproduce exponentially.
Food should be thawed in the refrigerator, or in the microwave (and then cooked immediately afterward). If you try thawing on the counter, or under warm running water, then (as Alton would say), sooner or later you're going to get that all-expense paid trip to the hospital.
You can blame McDonalds all you want - the fact is that the majority of the population does not eat there. The studies showed most of peoples calories were coming from carbs, NOT fat - which makes sense, since the food pyramid, which is a sham, has high carb foods as it's base.
So what you're saying is that more people are scrupulous about following the food guide pyramid and getting their 3-5 helpings of veggies, 2-4 servings of fruits, etc. than there are people who pick up their Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Supersize combo meal at their local McDonald's drive-thru?
Ask most people, and they don't even know what that food pyramid thingy *is*. They just see "low-fat/no-fat" at the store (or on TV...) and think they have to have it. (Mmmm, Snackwells... only one gram of fat! And 150 grams of sugar!)
Radical low-carb diets may work for *some* people under extremely closely supervised conditions, but they're dangerous to do on your own. High fat, high protein diets may make some people drop weight, but they lead to increased chance of kidney and liver failure, and radically increased chances of colon and prostate cancer, not to mention diabetes and hypertension. Diets that focus on "low-fat/no-fat" risk turning people into Coke/No Fat candy bar eaters, causing their sugar intake to spike.
I'm not noticing a whole lot of people here (or the guy who wrote the article) making distinctions between simple and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates (white bread, white rice, sugar) are to be avoided, while complex carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits, brown rice, legumes, whole wheat) are actually good for you. Similarly, saturated fats are generally to be avoided if you have any genetic predisposition to high cholesterol or hypertension (like I do), but monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fats (like what is found in nuts, fish, shellfish, olive oil) will improve your cholesterol levels.
And you've got to drink lots of water and exercise regularly, cardio *and* weight lifting. Cardio won't do a whole lot to burn fat, but it will increase your body's metabolism, and strengthen your heart (it *is* a muscle, after all).
...if your spouse or S.O. is unaware of it, or does not approve. If they are both aware and approving, then there is no cheating involved, just as in real life relationships.
It's one thing to be prohibited from talking about the details of the case (which is not at all unusual), but it's another thing entirely to be prohibited from talking about the existence of the case.
Can you imagine? One minute everything is up and running, the next minute, gone, with no explanation or warning.
That's just one virtual step before becoming one of the "Disappeared."
Actually, one of the best things she could do would be to buy up all the MP3 stock she could get her hands on. Right now, it's selling cheap (as of this writing, $5.50/share), and as a huge stockholder she could be in a position to influence TPTB to turn MP3.com into the artist's portal that she wants it to be. She'd leverage her cred into MP3.com, and in return she'd have more control over internet-based music distribution. Lawsuits aside, MP3.com is in a great position now for digital music distribution.
Plus, it would be amusing to see Universal suing one of its artists while trying to "protect" its artists' best interests.
>>Mp3.com's business plan appears to be something akin to setting up a cd store which buys discs in in bulk and then gives them out for free.
MP3.com has more revenue streams than just ad revenue from my.mp3.com. Hundreds of radio stations nationwide are paying mp3.com to come up with "local music" shows (which they are required to provide due to FCC licensing); they've launched a Muzac competitor to provide digital music for stores and restaurants; and they're expanding their pay-to-listen music channels, which are composed of music that they've bought the rights to. My.mp3.com is and always was just a small part of their business plan.
With all due respect to Michael, I found the X-men movie to be both fun and entertaining. It was light on plot, but heavy on fun, between watching Magneto handily deal with several dozen policemen, Sabertooth and Wolverine's memorable fighting scenes, and Mystique's very impressive control over her own body (illustrated in not only her morphing ability, but also her fight scenes).
I certainly found it more enjoyable than Gladiator, which was far too contrived, poorly written, and historically inaccurate to be taken as seriously as it was intended.
But The X-Men was exactly what it was made to be, and nothing more: a fun, satisfying first movie for a franchise which (hopefully) is only beginning a long run on the big screen.
The United States is not a democracy. Its government contains democratic principles, but to be more accurate it would have to be labeled as a democratic republic. A true democracy for a country the size of the United States would be far too unwieldy to manage for even the most insignificant laws and decisions.
As far as the Electoral College goes, just because a body was given a power does not mean that it will ever be exercised, or has ever been exercised. The EC is a functional figurehead, an excuse to give party supporters something cool to put on their letterhead. Try to name the last time that the EC actually overturned a popular vote for President. Considering that less than 1% of electors have ever misrepresented their community, the Electoral College is one of the least important problems facing the US government.
And as Winston Churchill once said, "the electoral college system is probably the worst possible method of choosing a president-except for all the others."
Well, The Offspring did say that they were selling Napster merchandise in part to see how cool Napster would be about it. Guess they have their answer.
I'm still waiting for a more official word, but I have to say this seeming hypocracy is not at all encouraging.
The problem being that it's difficult to find a study you can trust (almost all studies are paid for by one side or the other, c.f. Mindcraft). I've seen studies which "proved" that even relatively minor crimes have a greatly increased chance of turning lethal in states which have concealed weapons laws.
:)
And of course, that's why the "Old West" was so peaceful and law-abiding, because everyone carried weapons, right?
The fact is, the problem is not so simple to solve as both the pro-gun and anti-gun forces would have everyone believe. I can think of few scarier things than either a) a completely vulnerable populace or b) a mugging turning into a huge shoot-out with a bunch of hot-headed, semi-trained people firing wildly at each other.
Let us not forget the first rule of Tech Support: Most people are stupid. I'd rather not be around a bunch of stupid people with lethal weapons (moreso).
...only the outlaws have guns.
Of course, it also means that Joe Crackhead will be a little quicker to shoot once he knows that his victim may be armed.
Unfortunately, the criminals will almost always have the advantage, because *they* know that they're about to victimize you, but you may not.
Not that I believe in disarming the population, by any means, just pointing out that having everyone over the age of 16 "packing" is really no panacea.
She's 5'11", 140 lbs, and a 32DD?! Not without considerably more silicone than any three of my computers.
She is considerably underweight for her height, there's no way she'd be able to keep her chest like that without "enhancement".
One of the coolest things about my.mp3.com was that you could buy a CD from one of their online CD sales partners, and listen to the album right away in mp3 format, while you waited for it to be shipped to you. Pretty damn cool. I would have considered that to be "value added" to the consumer.
Does anyone know how MP3.com would have had to change the music or add value to the consumer in order to make it under fair use?
/. should interview Michael Robertson and find out what the hell they plan to do now.
guns teach kids responsibility.
Parents teach kids responsibility. Guns are just an object lesson. If the parents aren't willing to teach kids to act responsibly, no amount of guns (or the absence of same) is going to do it. Similarly, if the parents are willing to teach kids to act responsibly, a kid can play all the video games and own all the guns he wants, he isn't going to do anything violent.
Trading MP3s on Napster is a non-profit pastime too -- the RIAA knows more than anyone that they're not profiting from it, and they're not too happy about that! I imagine it's little comfort for these corporations that their copyrights are being violated by amateurs rather than professionals.
Your analogy is flawed. In no way does fanfiction reduce the market for the original work. In fact, it encourages it.
They're "interesting questions" because universally, fanfic is a non-profit pasttime. No one is trying to produce a movie, sell a book, or sell a video game using copyrighted characters.
Now, what the article should have delved more deeply into is the "Uber-fiction" of the Xena fanfic community. Those use original characters based closely upon Xena and Gabrielle in a completely original setting. Some people have even published for-sale books using their Uber-Xena characters. I'd like to see a breakdown on the legality (or illegality) of that.
Are they going to come after you with a team of lawyers if you write something using the characters? Maybe, maybe not. I'd hope so.
It never pays to alientate your fans.
When you release something for public consumption, you invite others to view your creations; their ideas and specific points-of-view change your characters for themselves, even if they did not write down a single word of it on paper. If you don't want "the unwashed masses" to interfere with the pristine nature of your characters, then maybe you should pull a Dominique from Rand's The Fountainhead, and burn the manuscript before a single pair of eyes other than your own sees it.
It's really not that big a step between saying, "I really would like to see more of the relationship between Louis and Lestat," and writing it yourself, particularly for an already creatively-minded person.
I cannot imagine what type of Scrooge would want to see Fan fic writers punished for what they love to do. If there's an aspect of fandom out there that helps extend the influence of the subject and perpetuate enthusiasm moreso than fan fiction, I don't know what it is.
I've been writing fan fic for several months now (f/f slash, mostly), and I've never seen a writer who fails to put the "Disclaimer" at the beginning of their fics. I've seen some cuss-out the producers while doing so, but they all seem to do it. :)
Also, most producers and writers of TV shows refuse, for legal reasons, to read fan fiction. Steven Sears, ex-writer and Co-Producer of Xena, was asked consistently at conventions whether he read fan fic, and his answer was always that he wouldn't, because he wanted to play things completely above-board.
Sony/Verant seem to be quite intent on alienating their player base with this sort of attitude - Origin, although they can be harsh, at least have the smarts not to play "Big Brother" too often.
This conveniently overlooks the fact that it was a majority of their player base that wanted the e-Bay auctions banned in the first place. It was only a few farmers and campers who protested, the majority of players didn't want to get stuck in a farming/camping/kill-stealing cycle, they just wanted to play the game.
BTW: I was one of those charter members in UO too, before I left in disgust a year later or so, but that is probably neither here nor there.