Firstly, it defeats the entire purpose of the electoral system--which was carefully designed by the founders to ensure that the majority (large states) could not trample the opinions of the minority (small states). The thought is the same as the dual nature of the House/Senate.
To essentially reduce the state battle to a purely popular vote will make campaigning in that state useless--as very few voters are truly undecided, the most you will gain is one EV, since the rest will vote along party lines no matter what.
If ALL states were to adopt a pure popular vote system, thus effectively eliminating the EV system for all intents and purposes, we would be in precisely the situation the founders worked to prevent--candidates need only garner the votes of people in a few large population centers, and the votes of those in less sparesly populated areas become completely irrelevant.
For those who argue about voting power, division of the vote into progressively smaller arenas in actuality increases your voting power. In a close election, if the tally were tied in a state, one vote in one district could switch the outcome of the election. Whereas a non-EV system would require a NATIONAL TIE for one vote to make the difference.
The point being, voting power grows in direct proportion to the likeliness of a tie. The more you divide the election arena, the more likely your one vote will break a tie and directly affect the election's outcome.
This is exactly the sort of system the founders indended, and if we are getting near-ties then it is working correctly!
When Bush is in town, your counterparts on the other side aren't allowed within 1/2 mile of the route or 3 miles of the actual appearance location. This has been enforced even in such liberal right-to-free-speech towns as Portland, OR. In fact, we had a very neat comparison of the two out here a few weeks ago. Bush traveled in secret, his route unknown until a few minutes before, tying up traffic wherever he went, and Sunset High in Beaverton was swept by Secret Service Agents before he arrived for anybody who didn't sign a loyalty oath, who were sent down to Evelyn Schiffler Park, across from my house.
Now consider this. Bush is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, Kerry is just a senator.
If everyone knew where Bush was where he was going to be, and anyone were allowed to be as close as they wanted, assassination would become much easier. Obiously, whatever your political stance, like him or not, Bush is the President and as such his safety is pretty damn important.
Kerry is a senator who is running for President. He hasn't got so much ultra-polarized opposition, and is thus much less likely to be assassinated in the first place. If he were, as far as the campaign goes he'd simply be replaced. A new candidate might in fact do better in the polls, as he'd not be affected by all the attacks on Kerry, yet still satisfies the "not Bush" requirement.
Not saying that Kerry is any less deserving of life and security--just that it is much less likely that he would be done in than Bush, and if he were it would be much less damaging to the nation than if Bush were (though surely his opponents would argue to the contrary... but then they need to consider if they'd rather Cheney were President...).
Take a look at any of the alien visitation movies we make. Aliens come to Earth. Aliens attack humans. Humans unite (that's the truly unbelieveable part of these movies). Humans destroy all Aliens.
The bigger thing to consider is this: if aliens exist and are advanced enough to interpret our broadcasts, how are they to know that they aren't documentaries and we really have destroyed every alien species that has come near us in the past? And if they do see these as being documentaries, they may just stay away so they don't end up as the next dead alien species on our list!
The Sith were a race, but died out/intermingled with exiled dark Jedi thousands of years ago. At this point in the story though, the last remnants Sith bloodlines have been long since terminated--the "sith" are now just dark Jedi who follow of the Sith ideals. Sepcies-wise, Darth Maul was a Zabrak, not a Sith.
That's it. A subsciprion to Drengin/TG.net *buys* all the games they have now, and everything they release/publish within the next year.
Whether or not you resubscribe after that, you retain rights to all of those games that came out before or during your subscription, and can download them at any time through Stardock Central if you lose them.
Green hit the nail on it's head. Though there are several games under development (GalCiv2, Political Machine, and possibly a Master of Magic sequel), the majority of the games on TG.net will be third party re-releases.
It's the same engine. Hell, the config files for DX:IW still had all of the config data for the Thief 3 Alpha/Beta/whichever version it was (not to mention the info for the xbox version of DX:IW).
Must just be local policy. I buy used games from gamestop and EB all the time, and if you trade in the box and manual, they always keep them.
I only buy games that have all the packaging unless I'm really desperate for them, and the guys at gamestop are happy to oblige me. They'll even pair up a used box/manual with whichever used disc is in the best condition--not necessarily the one it was traded in with.
In America, of course, we all pay for PBS whether we want to or not
Since you don't have a TV then you probably never see all the donation drives and intro/outro screens saying that "this show was paid for by contributions from [such-and-such company or organization] and viewers like you".
AFAIK, local PBS stations are entirely supported by viewers. They then use the money viewers give them to purchase programming from other PBS stations or from BBC, etc. To my knowledge, there is not and never has been a national PBS network that receives funding from the federal government.
All you need to do is put the book up on Amazon. It doesn't matter what edition it is, somebody will buy it and you'll get a lot more than the $5-$10 that campus bookstores pay for used books (even the ones they need!).
Conversely, if you need books, get them on Amazon. I haven't RTFA but I'm betting the morons haven't considered just buying the books online (as opposed to importing them, that's insane) instead of on campus.
I've been getting my books used/new on Amazon for over a year now, at a savings of 30-60% each quarter, which results in hundreds more in my pocket than I would otherwise have. Plus I can put them right back up for sale when I'm done, getting all my money back (less shipping, which runs up to $12 for coast-to-coast priority mail--Amazon's shipping allowances are a farce so don't expect any real help there).
Just to give the uninformed an idea of how much concrete makes up a single reactor dome, I was once told during a tour of Seabrook Nuclear Plant in New England that the reactor dome was made with enough concrete to have paved a sidewalk 3 ft. wide from the plant all the way to Chicago (or something like that... it was a long time ago, so I'm not entirely sure if it was Chicago, but I think that's what it was)!
Either cut down the trees directly in the signal's path, or put up a tower. A friend of mine had to put up a 40 ft. one just to boost his antenna over the trees in the ravine by his house.
And to those suggesting satellite broadband, the latency sucks. At least with fixed wireless, you can play games.
I don't know where you've been looking, but I don't think I've ever seen a drive *without* CD controls and a headphone jack. From my original 1x drive all the way to now, every one of them has had them.
The truth lies in that there is no boundary on the sphere. The boundary is the sphere--the only way to leave is up.
Similarly, even a finite universe has no boundaries because it would wrap around--such that no matter where you go, you will end up back where you started eventually without ever turning around. The only way out is through higher-dimensional movement... who knows what you'd find then? Probably that the universe is shaped differently, but still finitely infinite in the exact same way....
Same thing happened to me, but since my TV was shit and I got it for free I just wound up buying a new (bigger) one to use with the DVD player.
Of course, the MPAA is too damned stupid to realize that if I wanted to copy DVDs to tape I would just hook up my computer to the VCR and do it that way. My Geforce3 just happens to be one of the few that got a non-Macrovision encoder in them--all I need to do is use drivers from before nVidia noticed this (and purposely disabled DVD video on noncompliant cards)...
An ion engine can keep going indefinitely - exactly how much fuel would it take to continually accelerate a conventional rocket to the end of the galaxy, and what would the cost be?
The key word is *can* continually accelerate. Unfortunately, once a solar powered ion engine gets too far from the sun it's going to be stuck drifting until it comes into range of another star...
As long as any copy protected CD can be played on any player, you'll be able to copy it via good ol' analog loopback. It's that simple, and it's totally unpreventable--if you can hear the music, so can the line-in on your sound card or stereo recorder.
In the US the game does indeed carry a "Mature" rating, and on the back it further declares that the game features "blood, violence, and strong language".
It is not mandated by law, but to my knowledge all of the videogame stores in my area, hell even depatment stores, will check for an ID if you aren't obviously over 17. If you are under 17, then they will not sell it to you without a parent present.
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This is a very "Bad Idea(TM)".
Firstly, it defeats the entire purpose of the electoral system--which was carefully designed by the founders to ensure that the majority (large states) could not trample the opinions of the minority (small states). The thought is the same as the dual nature of the House/Senate.
To essentially reduce the state battle to a purely popular vote will make campaigning in that state useless--as very few voters are truly undecided, the most you will gain is one EV, since the rest will vote along party lines no matter what.
If ALL states were to adopt a pure popular vote system, thus effectively eliminating the EV system for all intents and purposes, we would be in precisely the situation the founders worked to prevent--candidates need only garner the votes of people in a few large population centers, and the votes of those in less sparesly populated areas become completely irrelevant.
For those who argue about voting power, division of the vote into progressively smaller arenas in actuality increases your voting power. In a close election, if the tally were tied in a state, one vote in one district could switch the outcome of the election. Whereas a non-EV system would require a NATIONAL TIE for one vote to make the difference.
The point being, voting power grows in direct proportion to the likeliness of a tie. The more you divide the election arena, the more likely your one vote will break a tie and directly affect the election's outcome.
This is exactly the sort of system the founders indended, and if we are getting near-ties then it is working correctly!
When Bush is in town, your counterparts on the other side aren't allowed within 1/2 mile of the route or 3 miles of the actual appearance location. This has been enforced even in such liberal right-to-free-speech towns as Portland, OR. In fact, we had a very neat comparison of the two out here a few weeks ago. Bush traveled in secret, his route unknown until a few minutes before, tying up traffic wherever he went, and Sunset High in Beaverton was swept by Secret Service Agents before he arrived for anybody who didn't sign a loyalty oath, who were sent down to Evelyn Schiffler Park, across from my house.
Now consider this. Bush is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, Kerry is just a senator.
If everyone knew where Bush was where he was going to be, and anyone were allowed to be as close as they wanted, assassination would become much easier. Obiously, whatever your political stance, like him or not, Bush is the President and as such his safety is pretty damn important.
Kerry is a senator who is running for President. He hasn't got so much ultra-polarized opposition, and is thus much less likely to be assassinated in the first place. If he were, as far as the campaign goes he'd simply be replaced. A new candidate might in fact do better in the polls, as he'd not be affected by all the attacks on Kerry, yet still satisfies the "not Bush" requirement.
Not saying that Kerry is any less deserving of life and security--just that it is much less likely that he would be done in than Bush, and if he were it would be much less damaging to the nation than if Bush were (though surely his opponents would argue to the contrary... but then they need to consider if they'd rather Cheney were President...).
I would, but I haven't been blessed by Bob.
Take a look at any of the alien visitation movies we make. Aliens come to Earth. Aliens attack humans. Humans unite (that's the truly unbelieveable part of these movies). Humans destroy all Aliens.
The bigger thing to consider is this: if aliens exist and are advanced enough to interpret our broadcasts, how are they to know that they aren't documentaries and we really have destroyed every alien species that has come near us in the past? And if they do see these as being documentaries, they may just stay away so they don't end up as the next dead alien species on our list!
The Sith were a race, but died out/intermingled with exiled dark Jedi thousands of years ago. At this point in the story though, the last remnants Sith bloodlines have been long since terminated--the "sith" are now just dark Jedi who follow of the Sith ideals. Sepcies-wise, Darth Maul was a Zabrak, not a Sith.
That's it. A subsciprion to Drengin/TG.net *buys* all the games they have now, and everything they release/publish within the next year.
Whether or not you resubscribe after that, you retain rights to all of those games that came out before or during your subscription, and can download them at any time through Stardock Central if you lose them.
Green hit the nail on it's head. Though there are several games under development (GalCiv2, Political Machine, and possibly a Master of Magic sequel), the majority of the games on TG.net will be third party re-releases.
"Not again..."
It's the same engine. Hell, the config files for DX:IW still had all of the config data for the Thief 3 Alpha/Beta/whichever version it was (not to mention the info for the xbox version of DX:IW).
Talk about sloppy diesign...
Must just be local policy. I buy used games from gamestop and EB all the time, and if you trade in the box and manual, they always keep them.
I only buy games that have all the packaging unless I'm really desperate for them, and the guys at gamestop are happy to oblige me. They'll even pair up a used box/manual with whichever used disc is in the best condition--not necessarily the one it was traded in with.
Utah and Nicaragua are both on the same continent (North America)... Central America is not a continent if that is what you were thinking...
"Bender, were you jacking on?"
In America, of course, we all pay for PBS whether we want to or not
Since you don't have a TV then you probably never see all the donation drives and intro/outro screens saying that "this show was paid for by contributions from [such-and-such company or organization] and viewers like you".
AFAIK, local PBS stations are entirely supported by viewers. They then use the money viewers give them to purchase programming from other PBS stations or from BBC, etc. To my knowledge, there is not and never has been a national PBS network that receives funding from the federal government.
All you need to do is put the book up on Amazon. It doesn't matter what edition it is, somebody will buy it and you'll get a lot more than the $5-$10 that campus bookstores pay for used books (even the ones they need!).
Conversely, if you need books, get them on Amazon. I haven't RTFA but I'm betting the morons haven't considered just buying the books online (as opposed to importing them, that's insane) instead of on campus.
I've been getting my books used/new on Amazon for over a year now, at a savings of 30-60% each quarter, which results in hundreds more in my pocket than I would otherwise have. Plus I can put them right back up for sale when I'm done, getting all my money back (less shipping, which runs up to $12 for coast-to-coast priority mail--Amazon's shipping allowances are a farce so don't expect any real help there).
Just to give the uninformed an idea of how much concrete makes up a single reactor dome, I was once told during a tour of Seabrook Nuclear Plant in New England that the reactor dome was made with enough concrete to have paved a sidewalk 3 ft. wide from the plant all the way to Chicago (or something like that... it was a long time ago, so I'm not entirely sure if it was Chicago, but I think that's what it was)!
Either cut down the trees directly in the signal's path, or put up a tower. A friend of mine had to put up a 40 ft. one just to boost his antenna over the trees in the ravine by his house.
And to those suggesting satellite broadband, the latency sucks. At least with fixed wireless, you can play games.
I don't know where you've been looking, but I don't think I've ever seen a drive *without* CD controls and a headphone jack. From my original 1x drive all the way to now, every one of them has had them.
The truth lies in that there is no boundary on the sphere. The boundary is the sphere--the only way to leave is up.
Similarly, even a finite universe has no boundaries because it would wrap around--such that no matter where you go, you will end up back where you started eventually without ever turning around. The only way out is through higher-dimensional movement... who knows what you'd find then? Probably that the universe is shaped differently, but still finitely infinite in the exact same way....
Same thing happened to me, but since my TV was shit and I got it for free I just wound up buying a new (bigger) one to use with the DVD player.
Of course, the MPAA is too damned stupid to realize that if I wanted to copy DVDs to tape I would just hook up my computer to the VCR and do it that way. My Geforce3 just happens to be one of the few that got a non-Macrovision encoder in them--all I need to do is use drivers from before nVidia noticed this (and purposely disabled DVD video on noncompliant cards)...
Just hope HHGTTG doesnt get the Battlefield Earth treatment. That is definately a movie adaptation that could never be described as 'mediocre'.
"In Soviet Russia, Uranus moons you!"
;)
That might be just a bit funniert
An ion engine can keep going indefinitely - exactly how much fuel would it take to continually accelerate a conventional rocket to the end of the galaxy, and what would the cost be?
The key word is *can* continually accelerate. Unfortunately, once a solar powered ion engine gets too far from the sun it's going to be stuck drifting until it comes into range of another star...
And a close runner-up:
"Daikatana will be the best game ever!"
As long as any copy protected CD can be played on any player, you'll be able to copy it via good ol' analog loopback. It's that simple, and it's totally unpreventable--if you can hear the music, so can the line-in on your sound card or stereo recorder.
In the US the game does indeed carry a "Mature" rating, and on the back it further declares that the game features "blood, violence, and strong language".
It is not mandated by law, but to my knowledge all of the videogame stores in my area, hell even depatment stores, will check for an ID if you aren't obviously over 17. If you are under 17, then they will not sell it to you without a parent present.