You know, you come at this with one overriding point of view - US Military is Bad. Well I got news for you. These guys are out there risking their butts for folks like you who don't have the first clue about what those people are going through, how limited they are in how they can respond to the enemy who hides behind women and children and in Mosques and shoot at the good guys from those positions. Those folks are cowardly civilian bombing animals and all you got to say is that there is something wrong with our guys. Ours guys who are us, our kids, our brothers, our sisters and our fathers and mothers.
They should arrest this clown if they can catch him and every American who helped put other Americans in danger should be sent to prison for a long long time.
Yah well, they may call the newer XBox 360's -' XBox 360's' but they aren't the same and the games being made now aren't the same either - I have an older XBox 360 and it flat out won't play the newer games. At least with computer games it gives some indication of which computers can play the game - here there is consumer fraud where the machines are represented as the same but that's not the case. The new consoles should be called XBox 365's and just freaking label the new games like Red Dead Redemption as exclusives for the 'New' XBox 365.
The guy had a classified job and a duty to perform that job. His actions jeopardized and continues to jeopardize the lives of American and Nato soldiers so there isn't a hole in the ground deep enough for him to be sent to. The videos he provided have been edited down and turned into propaganda to be used against the United States. The US Military needs to use some common sense security so that crap doesn't happen again.
The religious female slave/chattel thing doesn't even have to enter into it. Burkas should be banned for the same reason as any face hiding clothing is banned - public safety. It's harder to sneak guns and suicide vests around if you can't be wearing your Burka which somehow is allowable for the cowardly jihadist religious minded when it suits them crowd. Same as ski masks aren't allowed in the normal course of events except on ski slopes. Simple as can be.
Another Show I Never Saw an Episode Of
on
Lost Ends
·
· Score: 1
Another one of those over hyped shows that goes out with much publicity and paid for frenzy. I see this topic on the NEWS, in all the magazines, even here on Slashdot. And all for some show that people have mistaken for being full of depth when like every other show it just threw itself up there and invented itself as it went along. Good for those guys for tap dancing as long as they could and suckering suckers. That's the show I enjoy watching.
Yeah, every time I've ever tried to load my perfectly legitimate copy of Microsoft Office 2007 the Microsoft Outlook would never ever load up. Go to the Microsoft site, to all the forums and it's 'a known problem' - which never got fixed. I'm looking forward to the same degree of outstanding service with this next iteration of Microsoft Office! Something that loads up and takes up a lot of memory and still manages to provide less of a product than Open Office. Thanks Microsoft. More of the same please.
Bought the Blu-Ray and DVD Combo - Both Broken
on
Avatar Blu-Ray DRM Issues
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Yup, I happily bought the Combo pack of the Blu-Ray and the DVD. Put the Blu-Ray in and it flat out would not work. It helpfully informed me that if it didn't work it was the fault of my Blu-Ray, which I bought to oh I don't know - PLAY BLU-RAY videos! Three days later, a USB Gigstick and two tedious updates later it finally got to work. A horrible horrible experience I didn't expect to have to go through and I should not have had to go through. Insane to make it harder for me as a customer to use the product. The DVD? Oh it plays alright, but it plays with english subtitles permanently on and there is nothing I can do to turn them off and they cover the bottom third of the screen. Absurd. Thank you for creating a unusable product FOX. Of course, there was no place to complain except at Amazon - I gave a bad review of the Blu-Ray and DVD and I complained to the website of my Blu-Ray player. DRM - Broken by design.
Hey hey hey - No spouting off 'FACTS' in the middle of the 'OMG it's Unconstitutional!' hysteria by people who don't know diddly about the Constitution or the way it works in every other Nation on the planet.
Well, this isn't a rant and it provides a rational review of what is a unmitigated disaster. I'm a C&C fan and I won't be buying this one. I don't buy DRMed games, especially ones as horrible as this one. It's funny, you take the best and most loved franchises and you give us this sort of crap. Outstanding. But they are weaning me off of games, except for the old standbys I have my copies of. And of course, I'll be open to buying it when the DRM is legally stripped out of it.
That's what I do, if the game has crap DRM on it that's going to stop my computer from burning disks and other nonsense it's not going on my computer. I recently saw Civilization IV 'The Complete Edition' for sale and reading the back of the box it said in a nice yellow box "DRM Free. The Complete CIV IV experience with no Digital Rights Management limitations." - so I bought the game finally.
Every few months I forget about the Daily Kos screaming - "SUBSCRIBE! (or exclude from AdBlock)" thing that greets me if I happen to click on that site. NO, I'm not going to subscribe and give you money, NO I'm not going to turn off AdBlock so I can be assailed by your ads. Here's what I will do for you Daily KOS douchbags - I'll click away from your site altogether and find something to read somewhere else. How's about that? What a Pretentious message to put out there for someone to read, I wonder how many folks say - 'oh jeez, I'm going to immediately subscribe to this site and turn my AdBlock off cause I've been dressed down.
If you all want us to not turn on the AdBlock then don't let all those annoying ads on the site. There are plenty of sites where I don't have the AdBlock turned on. In fact, if it's a site I like I do try to turn the AdBlock off and see what happens. Any site that tries to berate me gets nothing from me.
Having both platforms I 'get around' the buy only from Amazon for the Kindle and only buy from Barnes and Noble for the Nook by the fact that the Kindle reads and displays Txt files, reading some Larry Niven right now for the tenth time on my Kindle via a txt file book. (gotta love the Moties books). I can open up the Calibre software and change txt files to epub files that work on the Nook or visa versa. It's all good, neither one is actually locked down when you have Calibre.
You know, I looked at the article and looked at the device and thought it looked very nice, not ugly, not cheap or any of the things you described. I think the iTouch is fine to look at and functions well, the Kindle looks a bit less 'cool' but darn that thing works like a charm. If it functions as described it seems pretty darn great to me and the looks are good as well. I'm reminded of the US Air Force A-10 plane, called the 'Warthog' by some, Tank Killer by others. Definitely not sleek, definitely not a corvette of a Jet but to my eyes it looked beautiful - why? Because it was good at what it does, this ereader two screen thing isn't a tank killer but it looks just fine and if it works as advertised then I'd be happy getting one - regardless of what random dude who hates everything says about how 'ugly' it is. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all.
What is your problem with some people self censoring themselves? It's called self control, it's called being polite, it's called being considerate of others. You're still in that phase of life where you think of only yourself and care nothing for the concerns and cares of others. So your inability to understand why some folks can self censor themselves and still be mad is a congenital defect of yours. For instance, I can self censor myself and not use curse words when there are small children present or nuns or even with cashiers, salespeople and strangers. This is probably not the case with yourself, but then for you nobody else matters but you.
That sounds like an amoral way of looking at things. They didn't create a device for you to steal someone's bandwidth and yet you think that it's their fault for making something that someone can break into. That's illegal and these anarchists need to be put in jail and taught the meaning of being a responsible member of society.
If you Need a PHD to understand it - its a Secret
on
The Limits To Skepticism
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The argument that you need a PH.D to understand the climate models you folks have created means you've simply created a magic language like the religions of past - Latin for example being the official language of the Church which conveniently was not understandable by the common man. By creating a complicated language and set of mysterious rituals (like the 'Trick' of the one guy everyone on the Sky is Falling Brigade uses to pump up their numbers) you don't manage to be convincing. People aren't at the point any more when some guy in a robe speaking in a indecipherable tongue is enough to be convincing. So pronouncing that you'll cease to answer critics if they don't rise to your level is counterproductive. But if you want to climb on your high horse, feel free. That's sure to convince reasonable people that you and your fellows aren't full of it.
This isn't a story, this is one cranky old guy being cranky because he 'did six hour shifts at Podunk in a small newspaper' and his opinion should count more than Joe SixPack with a Computer and a Modem (we've got cable and fiber these days dude!). Well, the point of the matter is that CNN and others who use the typed in opinions of others gets perhaps a chance to get a different perspective than that given by Cranky Chicago pundit who doesn't get to be the wise old pundit any longer. Shooting at Fort Hood? Indeed I think I would like to hear the insights of people who I don't know, - actually have been to Fort Hood or who are more familiar with the potential situation than the idiots/ex military pundits they normally bring to ponder and muse over 'how far the PX is from the baseball fields' as seen for the first time by them by looking at the Google Map. You know, especially on those breaking situations where Wolf Blitzer is trying to put the scariest and most ominous slant on every bit of information, a chance to hear the words of actual real people instead of just the usual crowd of Emotional Vampires we usually get is refreshing. And old dude who resents that the guy who is stationed at Fort Hood and who texts in an opinion, well get over yourself, it's a Brave New World after all where the old ways are being changed and remade.
I bought it pre order, the game has already had it's first Patch for the PC and it's still buggy. All that but the game itself is awesome, completely awesome. Now the DLC - Downloadable Content stuff is not making me happy. I've bought it all but apparently it's not actually mine if my internet connection goes down. WTF? That's not acceptable, I bought it, give it to me, don't make me a prisoner of my internet connection. That particular aspect of the game is a true 'bend over and prepare for your surprise' moment. I don't know why they felt it necessary to do this either. I'm reading also that you need your 360 connected to the internet to be able to play the downloadable content and not just to download it. Another slap in the face of the fans. So I'm torn, love the game, hate the crap surrounding it.
Yah well, that's you. I've read and reread that first book six or seven times as well as reading through the series over and over again and each time I marvel at the depth and richness of the world created by Robert Jordan. Probably the best writer in the genre, in my opinion he is the best. I've met and talked with the man and he was a well read, brilliant author whose vision was ultimately bigger than one lifetime worth of work.
But of course, if it's a big non story for you then why bother even writing how much 'you' think it sucks? There are always Hannah Montana picture books for you.
He was just trying to not hurt your feelings by directly challenging your fantasy/invisible man in the sky beliefs. He was saying that 'adherence' to atheism as if it were a belief structure where unicorns, zeus, or jesus and belief in them is a tenet of said belief is nonsensical. You don't 'adhere' to atheism, you function in the real world and not the fantasy world. You don't rely on primitive belief structures handed down from primitive ancestors whose imagined explanations for the real world substituted for knowledge and understanding. In the past when knowledge was not discovered yet and the world was in darkness and fear it was understandable that the blind could lead (religion) but now there is knowledge and light so it makes no sense to let the blind lead any longer since the blind can only lead you further back into the darkness. Atheist means that you don't need or want to be led into the darkness by ignorant afraid people whose only answer is more fear and more ignorance.
Waste of resources to actually own a copy of the thing in question? Well ok if that's the way your mind works but I'm not drinking that Koolaid anytime soon. Personally I get actual, sit on the shelf copies of things. Computers come and go but if I've the actual copy of the game I can actually reload it and use it as I see fit.
Basically the advertisement and apology for DRM is that we will treat you like thieves since there are some thieves out there. Sorry - it's all your fault. Bull - I see those locked down games for XBox and such sitting there in their big piles of unsold games at the locked in prices of 69 bucks or 59 bucks - just sitting there, nobody is buying them at those prices. XBox games are nicely locked down aren't they? Where's the price savings? Nowhere cause when you bastards have the thing locked up there are no sales, there is no price deal and no sales. 70 bucks for an XBox or PS3 game that may or may not be good? NO thanks. 60 bucks for a PC game that probably won't work on my computer cause who knows why (Could it be the DRM?). Small game developers have been able to see distribution advantages because of sales through Impulse and Steam and other companies that are online as well as from the online communities from the non PC entities. It's not the DRM or lack thereof. Typical false logic.
Fox News is to News what Professional Wrestling is to Sports so good luck with that Rupert. Hopefully the next owner of foxnews will have a nice site dealing with news about Foxes.
The PC Brigade, the FAT/Transfat Police, the Smoking Police, the Drinking Police, they all need to go take flying leaps. It's bad enough in the fiction area most of the novels involve female hero types but whatever, someone must be buying them cause they're all over the place, I'm not buying them. If all the games have burly women with swords/maces/wands as the hero you can play well count me out. But it seems to me that most of the games I play have the choice of male or female characters to play so what's the big deal? I know, it's the PC Brigade trying to make all your choices for you.
Sarcasm, humor, hyperbole. Actually punching people is bad news - not like the movies. Saw one guy one time hit another guy on the chin and knocked him out with the one punch - saw same guy being arrested by the military police for his 'Hollywood punching.'
I still don' t like the guy - he was very much the smirking face of the changing status of Pluto and a 'smirking scientist' who is trying to be a popular scientist is not one I spend any time watching. If I'm watching popular science on NOVA or on the rare occasions I can actually find Science related shows on some of the other 'Science and Nature' channels I don't want someone smirking at me. I like David Attenbourough because he loves what he's doing and his enthusiasm is engaging. The guy who did the show on Time the other day, a young physicist whose name escapes me, was enthusiastic and engaged and engaging. Neil smirking while telling everyone how stupid they are for objecting to a bunch of politically fighting scientists who have defined Pluto out of it's status and thereby making all our Solar System maps from the 1st grade on up obsolete is not a scientist I'm watching or supporting. Still got my Carl Sagan books, still have my David Attenbourgh books but I wouldn't take one from Neil if it was given to me. If that makes me a 'Troll' well go ahead and bite me.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, you come at this with one overriding point of view - US Military is Bad. Well I got news for you. These guys are out there risking their butts for folks like you who don't have the first clue about what those people are going through, how limited they are in how they can respond to the enemy who hides behind women and children and in Mosques and shoot at the good guys from those positions. Those folks are cowardly civilian bombing animals and all you got to say is that there is something wrong with our guys. Ours guys who are us, our kids, our brothers, our sisters and our fathers and mothers. They should arrest this clown if they can catch him and every American who helped put other Americans in danger should be sent to prison for a long long time.
Yah well, they may call the newer XBox 360's -' XBox 360's' but they aren't the same and the games being made now aren't the same either - I have an older XBox 360 and it flat out won't play the newer games. At least with computer games it gives some indication of which computers can play the game - here there is consumer fraud where the machines are represented as the same but that's not the case. The new consoles should be called XBox 365's and just freaking label the new games like Red Dead Redemption as exclusives for the 'New' XBox 365.
The guy had a classified job and a duty to perform that job. His actions jeopardized and continues to jeopardize the lives of American and Nato soldiers so there isn't a hole in the ground deep enough for him to be sent to. The videos he provided have been edited down and turned into propaganda to be used against the United States. The US Military needs to use some common sense security so that crap doesn't happen again.
The religious female slave/chattel thing doesn't even have to enter into it. Burkas should be banned for the same reason as any face hiding clothing is banned - public safety. It's harder to sneak guns and suicide vests around if you can't be wearing your Burka which somehow is allowable for the cowardly jihadist religious minded when it suits them crowd. Same as ski masks aren't allowed in the normal course of events except on ski slopes. Simple as can be.
Another one of those over hyped shows that goes out with much publicity and paid for frenzy. I see this topic on the NEWS, in all the magazines, even here on Slashdot. And all for some show that people have mistaken for being full of depth when like every other show it just threw itself up there and invented itself as it went along. Good for those guys for tap dancing as long as they could and suckering suckers. That's the show I enjoy watching.
Yeah, every time I've ever tried to load my perfectly legitimate copy of Microsoft Office 2007 the Microsoft Outlook would never ever load up. Go to the Microsoft site, to all the forums and it's 'a known problem' - which never got fixed. I'm looking forward to the same degree of outstanding service with this next iteration of Microsoft Office! Something that loads up and takes up a lot of memory and still manages to provide less of a product than Open Office. Thanks Microsoft. More of the same please.
Yup, I happily bought the Combo pack of the Blu-Ray and the DVD. Put the Blu-Ray in and it flat out would not work. It helpfully informed me that if it didn't work it was the fault of my Blu-Ray, which I bought to oh I don't know - PLAY BLU-RAY videos! Three days later, a USB Gigstick and two tedious updates later it finally got to work. A horrible horrible experience I didn't expect to have to go through and I should not have had to go through. Insane to make it harder for me as a customer to use the product. The DVD? Oh it plays alright, but it plays with english subtitles permanently on and there is nothing I can do to turn them off and they cover the bottom third of the screen. Absurd. Thank you for creating a unusable product FOX. Of course, there was no place to complain except at Amazon - I gave a bad review of the Blu-Ray and DVD and I complained to the website of my Blu-Ray player. DRM - Broken by design.
Hey hey hey - No spouting off 'FACTS' in the middle of the 'OMG it's Unconstitutional!' hysteria by people who don't know diddly about the Constitution or the way it works in every other Nation on the planet.
Well, this isn't a rant and it provides a rational review of what is a unmitigated disaster. I'm a C&C fan and I won't be buying this one. I don't buy DRMed games, especially ones as horrible as this one. It's funny, you take the best and most loved franchises and you give us this sort of crap. Outstanding. But they are weaning me off of games, except for the old standbys I have my copies of. And of course, I'll be open to buying it when the DRM is legally stripped out of it.
That's what I do, if the game has crap DRM on it that's going to stop my computer from burning disks and other nonsense it's not going on my computer. I recently saw Civilization IV 'The Complete Edition' for sale and reading the back of the box it said in a nice yellow box "DRM Free. The Complete CIV IV experience with no Digital Rights Management limitations." - so I bought the game finally.
Every few months I forget about the Daily Kos screaming - "SUBSCRIBE! (or exclude from AdBlock)" thing that greets me if I happen to click on that site. NO, I'm not going to subscribe and give you money, NO I'm not going to turn off AdBlock so I can be assailed by your ads. Here's what I will do for you Daily KOS douchbags - I'll click away from your site altogether and find something to read somewhere else. How's about that? What a Pretentious message to put out there for someone to read, I wonder how many folks say - 'oh jeez, I'm going to immediately subscribe to this site and turn my AdBlock off cause I've been dressed down. If you all want us to not turn on the AdBlock then don't let all those annoying ads on the site. There are plenty of sites where I don't have the AdBlock turned on. In fact, if it's a site I like I do try to turn the AdBlock off and see what happens. Any site that tries to berate me gets nothing from me.
Having both platforms I 'get around' the buy only from Amazon for the Kindle and only buy from Barnes and Noble for the Nook by the fact that the Kindle reads and displays Txt files, reading some Larry Niven right now for the tenth time on my Kindle via a txt file book. (gotta love the Moties books). I can open up the Calibre software and change txt files to epub files that work on the Nook or visa versa. It's all good, neither one is actually locked down when you have Calibre.
You know, I looked at the article and looked at the device and thought it looked very nice, not ugly, not cheap or any of the things you described. I think the iTouch is fine to look at and functions well, the Kindle looks a bit less 'cool' but darn that thing works like a charm. If it functions as described it seems pretty darn great to me and the looks are good as well. I'm reminded of the US Air Force A-10 plane, called the 'Warthog' by some, Tank Killer by others. Definitely not sleek, definitely not a corvette of a Jet but to my eyes it looked beautiful - why? Because it was good at what it does, this ereader two screen thing isn't a tank killer but it looks just fine and if it works as advertised then I'd be happy getting one - regardless of what random dude who hates everything says about how 'ugly' it is. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all.
What is your problem with some people self censoring themselves? It's called self control, it's called being polite, it's called being considerate of others. You're still in that phase of life where you think of only yourself and care nothing for the concerns and cares of others. So your inability to understand why some folks can self censor themselves and still be mad is a congenital defect of yours. For instance, I can self censor myself and not use curse words when there are small children present or nuns or even with cashiers, salespeople and strangers. This is probably not the case with yourself, but then for you nobody else matters but you.
That sounds like an amoral way of looking at things. They didn't create a device for you to steal someone's bandwidth and yet you think that it's their fault for making something that someone can break into. That's illegal and these anarchists need to be put in jail and taught the meaning of being a responsible member of society.
The argument that you need a PH.D to understand the climate models you folks have created means you've simply created a magic language like the religions of past - Latin for example being the official language of the Church which conveniently was not understandable by the common man. By creating a complicated language and set of mysterious rituals (like the 'Trick' of the one guy everyone on the Sky is Falling Brigade uses to pump up their numbers) you don't manage to be convincing. People aren't at the point any more when some guy in a robe speaking in a indecipherable tongue is enough to be convincing. So pronouncing that you'll cease to answer critics if they don't rise to your level is counterproductive. But if you want to climb on your high horse, feel free. That's sure to convince reasonable people that you and your fellows aren't full of it.
This isn't a story, this is one cranky old guy being cranky because he 'did six hour shifts at Podunk in a small newspaper' and his opinion should count more than Joe SixPack with a Computer and a Modem (we've got cable and fiber these days dude!). Well, the point of the matter is that CNN and others who use the typed in opinions of others gets perhaps a chance to get a different perspective than that given by Cranky Chicago pundit who doesn't get to be the wise old pundit any longer. Shooting at Fort Hood? Indeed I think I would like to hear the insights of people who I don't know, - actually have been to Fort Hood or who are more familiar with the potential situation than the idiots/ex military pundits they normally bring to ponder and muse over 'how far the PX is from the baseball fields' as seen for the first time by them by looking at the Google Map. You know, especially on those breaking situations where Wolf Blitzer is trying to put the scariest and most ominous slant on every bit of information, a chance to hear the words of actual real people instead of just the usual crowd of Emotional Vampires we usually get is refreshing. And old dude who resents that the guy who is stationed at Fort Hood and who texts in an opinion, well get over yourself, it's a Brave New World after all where the old ways are being changed and remade.
I bought it pre order, the game has already had it's first Patch for the PC and it's still buggy. All that but the game itself is awesome, completely awesome. Now the DLC - Downloadable Content stuff is not making me happy. I've bought it all but apparently it's not actually mine if my internet connection goes down. WTF? That's not acceptable, I bought it, give it to me, don't make me a prisoner of my internet connection. That particular aspect of the game is a true 'bend over and prepare for your surprise' moment. I don't know why they felt it necessary to do this either. I'm reading also that you need your 360 connected to the internet to be able to play the downloadable content and not just to download it. Another slap in the face of the fans. So I'm torn, love the game, hate the crap surrounding it.
Yah well, that's you. I've read and reread that first book six or seven times as well as reading through the series over and over again and each time I marvel at the depth and richness of the world created by Robert Jordan. Probably the best writer in the genre, in my opinion he is the best. I've met and talked with the man and he was a well read, brilliant author whose vision was ultimately bigger than one lifetime worth of work. But of course, if it's a big non story for you then why bother even writing how much 'you' think it sucks? There are always Hannah Montana picture books for you.
He was just trying to not hurt your feelings by directly challenging your fantasy/invisible man in the sky beliefs. He was saying that 'adherence' to atheism as if it were a belief structure where unicorns, zeus, or jesus and belief in them is a tenet of said belief is nonsensical. You don't 'adhere' to atheism, you function in the real world and not the fantasy world. You don't rely on primitive belief structures handed down from primitive ancestors whose imagined explanations for the real world substituted for knowledge and understanding. In the past when knowledge was not discovered yet and the world was in darkness and fear it was understandable that the blind could lead (religion) but now there is knowledge and light so it makes no sense to let the blind lead any longer since the blind can only lead you further back into the darkness. Atheist means that you don't need or want to be led into the darkness by ignorant afraid people whose only answer is more fear and more ignorance.
Waste of resources to actually own a copy of the thing in question? Well ok if that's the way your mind works but I'm not drinking that Koolaid anytime soon. Personally I get actual, sit on the shelf copies of things. Computers come and go but if I've the actual copy of the game I can actually reload it and use it as I see fit.
Basically the advertisement and apology for DRM is that we will treat you like thieves since there are some thieves out there. Sorry - it's all your fault. Bull - I see those locked down games for XBox and such sitting there in their big piles of unsold games at the locked in prices of 69 bucks or 59 bucks - just sitting there, nobody is buying them at those prices. XBox games are nicely locked down aren't they? Where's the price savings? Nowhere cause when you bastards have the thing locked up there are no sales, there is no price deal and no sales. 70 bucks for an XBox or PS3 game that may or may not be good? NO thanks. 60 bucks for a PC game that probably won't work on my computer cause who knows why (Could it be the DRM?). Small game developers have been able to see distribution advantages because of sales through Impulse and Steam and other companies that are online as well as from the online communities from the non PC entities. It's not the DRM or lack thereof. Typical false logic.
Fox News is to News what Professional Wrestling is to Sports so good luck with that Rupert. Hopefully the next owner of foxnews will have a nice site dealing with news about Foxes.
The PC Brigade, the FAT/Transfat Police, the Smoking Police, the Drinking Police, they all need to go take flying leaps. It's bad enough in the fiction area most of the novels involve female hero types but whatever, someone must be buying them cause they're all over the place, I'm not buying them. If all the games have burly women with swords/maces/wands as the hero you can play well count me out. But it seems to me that most of the games I play have the choice of male or female characters to play so what's the big deal? I know, it's the PC Brigade trying to make all your choices for you.
Sarcasm, humor, hyperbole. Actually punching people is bad news - not like the movies. Saw one guy one time hit another guy on the chin and knocked him out with the one punch - saw same guy being arrested by the military police for his 'Hollywood punching.' I still don' t like the guy - he was very much the smirking face of the changing status of Pluto and a 'smirking scientist' who is trying to be a popular scientist is not one I spend any time watching. If I'm watching popular science on NOVA or on the rare occasions I can actually find Science related shows on some of the other 'Science and Nature' channels I don't want someone smirking at me. I like David Attenbourough because he loves what he's doing and his enthusiasm is engaging. The guy who did the show on Time the other day, a young physicist whose name escapes me, was enthusiastic and engaged and engaging. Neil smirking while telling everyone how stupid they are for objecting to a bunch of politically fighting scientists who have defined Pluto out of it's status and thereby making all our Solar System maps from the 1st grade on up obsolete is not a scientist I'm watching or supporting. Still got my Carl Sagan books, still have my David Attenbourgh books but I wouldn't take one from Neil if it was given to me. If that makes me a 'Troll' well go ahead and bite me.