Yes, it was a dreadful troll and for that I am truly sorry (stifles a giggle).
I just try to draw attention to the paper-tiger nature of US military might at every opportunity and this seemed like as good as any:)
The CIA world fact book has figures for 'fit for military service' for many nations. It used to have those figures for the USA. Those figures were, retroactively, changed to 'NA' post 9/11/2001.
Prior to that a little time on the spreadsheet revealed that the USA could not field as many troops *fit* for military service, as (eg) the United frickin Kingdom!
No other nation on Earth had as low a proportion of *fit* for service to total gross population count.
So yeah the USA has some heavily armed militia, but they can't run for fuck (especially not carrying a decent amount of ammo and equipment). They wouldn't make great 'minute men' or infantry.
You realize - if Antigua or anyone else - claims we are violating Free Trade and goes ahead with ignoring IP, we will have no choice but to assign them to the axis of evil and then invade.
Hah! The USA couldn't invade my *ass* let alone Antigua!
The Yanks don't have enough military manpower to invade anyone or anything; all they have is a strategic arsenal with which they can bomb the hell out of anyone or anywhere, but invasion is pretty much out of the question.
If you doubt me, look at Iraq; I'd hardly call that a (successful) invasion.
Ok so the US forces have taken some ground but they can hardly be said to be *holding* that ground.
And you can't invade without both taking *and* holding ground... and for that you need infantry. And the USA does not have anywhere near enough infantry.
Even if they mobilised every American who was *fit* for military service. Which, by the way, is a tiny *tiny* proportion of the US population. Less than 1%.
Oh I hope the USA does try to 'invade' Iran, North Korea *and* Syria. All at the same time. Oh please oh please oh please! Paper tiger get all burnt up and used in the latrine for wiping asses.
It'd make great TV.;)
yeah yeah troll, flamebait *whatever* but you *know* its the truth!
Hey at least it'll save on the cost of backup media;
You back your DRM movies to tape, your motherboard fails and the hard drives are now unreadable. You reinstall on a new motherboard and restore the data from tape. Only the DRM content 'knows' that its been 'copied' to 'a different machine' and won't play.
So you give up on backups altogether and save a small fortune!
See, Microsoft *does* have your best interests at heart!
Currently on the oil futures market, you can purchase a contract for a barrel of oil to be delivered in, say, the year 2010 or 2011 which is actually cheaper than a barrel of oil today
I wonder if you can pull that sort of shenanigans with tinned tuna...
It's pretty hard to predict future consumption and production patterns. The best evidence we have is historic, which has naturally formed the basis for their argument.
Indeed, even if their guesstimate is based on the current rate of *change* in oil demand (rather than a snapshot of the level of demand at some given instance in time) thats still useless because the rate of change changes over time!
The worldwide demand for oil is *accelerating*. The question is, how will that acceleration change over time.
'Chinks' is simply a phonetic abbreviation. You don't mind being referred to as an 'Enzeder', do you? Its not like 'nigger' or 'kike'.
Being bothered by words like that is the sort of thing that causes people to riot over cartoons; its just way oversensitive. If you let things like that bother you, you'll be perpetually bothered, always finding something to annoy you.
Arguing about 'terms' like that is ridiculous, almost as bad as the argument that 'master' and 'slave' are politically incorrect when used to refer to hard drives. (Personally, I think 'pimp' and 'ho' might be put forward as alternatives).
I used both terms deliberately to draw attention to the negative aspects of *both* parties; ie that both the Americans and the Chinese (governments) are (in effect) *colluding* to screw with the Korean people and to keep them under control.
Like a 'good cop/bad cop' routine where China is bad cop to South Korea, good cop to the North and vice versa for America.
You mean that you don't think that the Americans have a strong interest in maintaining a balance of terror in north east asia?
The situation on the Korean peninsula means that the yanks have a fantastic excuse to maintain both Japan and South Korea as their pet states with strong American military presence in the region.
Then theres the economic powerhouse that a unified Korea would have been (prior to the north becoming a total basket case).
The two Koreas would complement one another very well indeed.
No, I think the best thing for the DMZ is for America *and* China to stop *fucking* with the Korean people and let *them* sort things out for themselves.
Honestly, neither the Yanks nor the Chinks have *any* interest in a peaceful, unified Korean peninsular.
As you point out, its a crime to state that you belive that certain officially sanctioned versions of certain historical events might be factually incorrect in certain regards.
In the UK its even more hilarious, for one thing its a crime to possess any information that *may* be useful to terrorists, thereby making all knowledge illegal.
Theres also the beautiful Antisocial behavior order where if you criticise and thereby undermine the authority of the government ('how much more antisocial can you get than attacking the government?' asks Tony Blair), a judge can make up a law just for you which carries a jail sentence if you break it.
You do realise that MS employs both programmers and sound engineers, right? And that devoting some time for a sound engineer to try to make sure the sound scheme is as good as possible does not detract one iota from the amount of effort that the programmers can put in to their parts of the project, right?
Wow thats really interesting.
I'd always got the impression that Microsoft would preferentially pull people off of the *security* teams to focus on getting the sound just right.
Planet Earth is, today, virtually a global desert compared to how it once was; the planet is carbon-starved.
Back in the days of the dinosaurs there was enough biomass to feed herds of thousands of, for example, hadrosaurs. These puppies could grow from hatchling to adult in about one season.
Thats a lot of dinosaur and that mass came from somewhere. These dinos were herbivores.
The bulk of that dinosaur comes from eating plants. An absolute *shirtload* of plants. Tons of vegetation down the dino-gullet making dino body mass.
Where did all that vegetation come from? Well the bulk of a plant, the carbon, comes out of thin air; CO2 from the atmosphere. Thats an absolute *shirtload* of CO2.
There is no *way* the planet Earth as we know it today could support that much dinosaur; the plant life of today is too sparse and grows too slowly.
That carbon got sequestered into the crust by natural processes and today the human race is busy un-sequestering it and putting it back where it belongs; in the environment to build plants and feed animals.
The carbon doesn't *belong* in the crust; its part of the cycle of life, its poo and babies and living stuff. It belongs where it can be eaten or inhaled by something.
Personally I think thats a bloody good thing; if things carried on as they were without human intervention perhaps one day the Earth really *would* be a global desert with massive underground carbon reserves and very little plant life.
*Sure* there are short term impacts of un-sequestering that carbon -- short term being hundreds of years -- but at the end of the day its ultimately for the benefit of life on Earth. My opinion:)
So yeah, turn the USA into a temperate rainforest. Best idea yet. Add dinosaurs later.
Basically, Americans who aren't smart enough to get out *now* will be kept at home.
Those Americans who aren't smart enough to get out now are exactly those Americans that the rest of the world doesn't want.
The only problem I would have with it would be that it wouldn't apply to US military personel, who would presumably still be able to leave America to visit foreign countries and experience their strange cultures and blow them up.
I say America for Americans, the rest of the World for rest-of-Worldians and peace on Earth!
Most of the time, yes. Have you seen the shit on TV these days?
Me, I watch neither Japanese 'endurance' shows nor 'reality TV' so I havn't seen the literal 'shit on TV these days'.
Oblivion is both shallow and deep...
on
Game Breakers
·
· Score: 1
Yup, Oblivion was a very wierd game.
Deep and shallow at the same time.
Starting to play it, you get that 'wow' effect as you see the graphics and what, at first, seems to be awesome gameplay. Then it starts to dawn on you that the graphics are pure bling and the game has nothing more to offer than bling.
For me it was sneaking through the forest and coming across a band of brigands up to no good. They hadn't noticed me and were engaged in the sort of conversation that you get... what I realised was that these goons were having *exactly* the same conversation in *exactly* the same *voices* as I'd heard a million times before in the Imperial City!
You even hear these same voice actors speaking the same lines in a dungeon full of *vampires*.
Weak, dude, very weak.
And don't even get me started on the levelling.. I specifically created a character and custom class with primary skills that I was never going to use (except to level). It felt really lame.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, it was a dreadful troll and for that I am truly sorry (stifles a giggle).
:)
I just try to draw attention to the paper-tiger nature of US military might at every opportunity and this seemed like as good as any
The CIA world fact book has figures for 'fit for military service' for many nations. It used to have those figures for the USA. Those figures were, retroactively, changed to 'NA' post 9/11/2001.
Prior to that a little time on the spreadsheet revealed that the USA could not field as many troops *fit* for military service, as (eg) the United frickin Kingdom!
No other nation on Earth had as low a proportion of *fit* for service to total gross population count.
So yeah the USA has some heavily armed militia, but they can't run for fuck (especially not carrying a decent amount of ammo and equipment). They wouldn't make great 'minute men' or infantry.
And what nation can invade three nations and wage war against them currently ?
What nation *thinks* it can? The USA of course! Go USA!
Watching those militia men run (or, rather, waddle) across a battlefield would be quite a sight.
Thats why I said it'd be great TV.
You realize - if Antigua or anyone else - claims we are violating Free Trade and goes ahead with ignoring IP, we will have no choice but to assign them to the axis of evil and then invade.
;)
Hah! The USA couldn't invade my *ass* let alone Antigua!
The Yanks don't have enough military manpower to invade anyone or anything; all they have is a strategic arsenal with which they can bomb the hell out of anyone or anywhere, but invasion is pretty much out of the question.
If you doubt me, look at Iraq; I'd hardly call that a (successful) invasion.
Ok so the US forces have taken some ground but they can hardly be said to be *holding* that ground.
And you can't invade without both taking *and* holding ground... and for that you need infantry. And the USA does not have anywhere near enough infantry.
Even if they mobilised every American who was *fit* for military service. Which, by the way, is a tiny *tiny* proportion of the US population. Less than 1%.
Oh I hope the USA does try to 'invade' Iran, North Korea *and* Syria. All at the same time. Oh please oh please oh please! Paper tiger get all burnt up and used in the latrine for wiping asses.
It'd make great TV.
yeah yeah troll, flamebait *whatever* but you *know* its the truth!
Hey at least it'll save on the cost of backup media;
You back your DRM movies to tape, your motherboard fails and the hard drives are now unreadable. You reinstall on a new motherboard and restore the data from tape. Only the DRM content 'knows' that its been 'copied' to 'a different machine' and won't play.
So you give up on backups altogether and save a small fortune!
See, Microsoft *does* have your best interests at heart!
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
Shit. That sounds like the premise of Firefly!!
Currently on the oil futures market, you can purchase a contract for a barrel of oil to be delivered in, say, the year 2010 or 2011 which is actually cheaper than a barrel of oil today
I wonder if you can pull that sort of shenanigans with tinned tuna...
It's pretty hard to predict future consumption and production patterns. The best evidence we have is historic, which has naturally formed the basis for their argument.
Indeed, even if their guesstimate is based on the current rate of *change* in oil demand (rather than a snapshot of the level of demand at some given instance in time) thats still useless because the rate of change changes over time!
The worldwide demand for oil is *accelerating*. The question is, how will that acceleration change over time.
Its just as bad as words from N to K that you *also* used. Im leaving it at that
In quotes.
If you consider the quoted use of such words bad, well what *can* I say? 'Lamer'? Is that ok? I sure hope not...
Oh come *on*!
'Chinks' is simply a phonetic abbreviation. You don't mind being referred to as an 'Enzeder', do you? Its not like 'nigger' or 'kike'.
Being bothered by words like that is the sort of thing that causes people to riot over cartoons; its just way oversensitive. If you let things like that bother you, you'll be perpetually bothered, always finding something to annoy you.
Arguing about 'terms' like that is ridiculous, almost as bad as the argument that 'master' and 'slave' are politically incorrect when used to refer to hard drives.
(Personally, I think 'pimp' and 'ho' might be put forward as alternatives).
I used both terms deliberately to draw attention to the negative aspects of *both* parties; ie that both the Americans and the Chinese (governments) are (in effect) *colluding* to screw with the Korean people and to keep them under control.
Like a 'good cop/bad cop' routine where China is bad cop to South Korea, good cop to the North and vice versa for America.
You mean that you don't think that the Americans have a strong interest in maintaining a balance of terror in north east asia?
The situation on the Korean peninsula means that the yanks have a fantastic excuse to maintain both Japan and South Korea as their pet states with strong American military presence in the region.
Then theres the economic powerhouse that a unified Korea would have been (prior to the north becoming a total basket case).
The two Koreas would complement one another very well indeed.
I dont like the term for Chinese people you used
Me neither, but I used the term yanks so I thought I should balance it up.
No, I think the best thing for the DMZ is for America *and* China to stop *fucking* with the Korean people and let *them* sort things out for themselves.
Honestly, neither the Yanks nor the Chinks have *any* interest in a peaceful, unified Korean peninsular.
There never was free speech in Europe.
As you point out, its a crime to state that you belive that certain officially sanctioned versions of certain historical events might be factually incorrect in certain regards.
In the UK its even more hilarious, for one thing its a crime to possess any information that *may* be useful to terrorists, thereby making all knowledge illegal.
Theres also the beautiful Antisocial behavior order where if you criticise and thereby undermine the authority of the government ('how much more antisocial can you get than attacking the government?' asks Tony Blair), a judge can make up a law just for you which carries a jail sentence if you break it.
Free speech only covers the *media*.
You do realise that MS employs both programmers and sound engineers, right? And that devoting some time for a sound engineer to try to make sure the sound scheme is as good as possible does not detract one iota from the amount of effort that the programmers can put in to their parts of the project, right?
Wow thats really interesting.
I'd always got the impression that Microsoft would preferentially pull people off of the *security* teams to focus on getting the sound just right.
Appearances sure can be deceiving eh!
Retroviruses are amazing.
Evolution is *not* a directed, acyclic graph.
It has cross-edges.
Hey, some guys just like larger women.
Back then, spotting them was easy; just look for the guy with the crushed thighs.
What does bigger brain really mean anyway?
Cooling?
Seriously.
these people can't be superior because were having sex with sub-humans.
Thats easy. Neanderthals were super-humans.
Those guys were huge, tough, strong. Big people, heavily muscled. Would make great ice hocky players.
They hunted big game, not with throwing spears nor with tricks like herding them off of a cliff.
Oh no, the Neanderthals hunted (eg) woolly rhino by running up to them and sticking them with short stabbing spears.
That takes balls. Superhuman balls.
Planet Earth is, today, virtually a global desert compared to how it once was; the planet is carbon-starved.
:)
Back in the days of the dinosaurs there was enough biomass to feed herds of thousands of, for example, hadrosaurs. These puppies could grow from hatchling to adult in about one season.
Thats a lot of dinosaur and that mass came from somewhere. These dinos were herbivores.
The bulk of that dinosaur comes from eating plants. An absolute *shirtload* of plants. Tons of vegetation down the dino-gullet making dino body mass.
Where did all that vegetation come from? Well the bulk of a plant, the carbon, comes out of thin air; CO2 from the atmosphere. Thats an absolute *shirtload* of CO2.
There is no *way* the planet Earth as we know it today could support that much dinosaur; the plant life of today is too sparse and grows too slowly.
That carbon got sequestered into the crust by natural processes and today the human race is busy un-sequestering it and putting it back where it belongs; in the environment to build plants and feed animals.
The carbon doesn't *belong* in the crust; its part of the cycle of life, its poo and babies and living stuff. It belongs where it can be eaten or inhaled by something.
Personally I think thats a bloody good thing; if things carried on as they were without human intervention perhaps one day the Earth really *would* be a global desert with massive underground carbon reserves and very little plant life.
*Sure* there are short term impacts of un-sequestering that carbon -- short term being hundreds of years -- but at the end of the day its ultimately for the benefit of life on Earth. My opinion
So yeah, turn the USA into a temperate rainforest. Best idea yet. Add dinosaurs later.
ABL should work whereas the patriot system never really had a chance.
Hey, give patriot a break; it did have a chance. A chance to make someone a shitload of money!
I think its a brilliant idea.
Basically, Americans who aren't smart enough to get out *now* will be kept at home.
Those Americans who aren't smart enough to get out now are exactly those Americans that the rest of the world doesn't want.
The only problem I would have with it would be that it wouldn't apply to US military personel, who would presumably still be able to leave America to visit foreign countries and experience their strange cultures and blow them up.
I say America for Americans, the rest of the World for rest-of-Worldians and peace on Earth!
Most of the time, yes. Have you seen the shit on TV these days?
Me, I watch neither Japanese 'endurance' shows nor 'reality TV' so I havn't seen the literal 'shit on TV these days'.
Yup, Oblivion was a very wierd game.
Deep and shallow at the same time.
Starting to play it, you get that 'wow' effect as you see the graphics and what, at first, seems to be awesome gameplay. Then it starts to dawn on you that the graphics are pure bling and the game has nothing more to offer than bling.
For me it was sneaking through the forest and coming across a band of brigands up to no good.
They hadn't noticed me and were engaged in the sort of conversation that you get... what I realised
was that these goons were having *exactly* the same conversation in *exactly* the same *voices*
as I'd heard a million times before in the Imperial City!
You even hear these same voice actors speaking the same lines in a dungeon full of *vampires*.
Weak, dude, very weak.
And don't even get me started on the levelling.. I specifically created a character and custom class with primary skills that I was never going to use (except to level). It felt really lame.