I live a couple blocks from the HQ and when I was new to the area, I walked into their offices thinking I'd order a sandwich...the secretary pointed across the street where their closest restaurant is located...
Their operation in St. Louis is pretty tight (and called St. Louis Bread Co...we St. Louisans are rather provincial) but I was shocked a while ago when I noticed brochures for their wi-fi access and was very impressed. I almost bought a wi-fi enabled PDA (I was in the market for one at the time) hoping to frequent Bread Co...
If you go to their store near Washingtion U. in the Loop, laptop/pda usage there is high and basically, they've nailed it: it's a great way to draw in the young professional/student crowd.
Since this project should take thousands of years, couldn't we just increase the mass of mars before we warm it up? Maybe we could go to the asteroid belt and nudge them into mars?! How much more mass would mars need?
I'd call that online because eventually, the crime will be committed online. It's not like someone takes a mailed financial statement to get important passwords/usernames from it. The M.O. is definitely for online fraud.
Even if there is a smaller chance of online identity theft, I would think banks would do all they could to prevent it: for example, if you want to do Bank of America online banking: They limit you to a 7 CHARACTER PASSSWORD!! I wrote in to complain, and I'm not going to go through with signing up for it until they change it! Does anyone online bank with a financial institution that takes better care than this?
BTW, if you do online bank, don't forget to use firefox and clear that cache after logging off! I'm not paranoid, but you got to be careful nowadays!
I'll second that! The bandwidth you buy is yours! I think that's awesome!
I also had to deal with their customer support EXTENSIVELY!! One was their fault (they billed me twice, but were very, very apologetic, and helped me out quickly) and the 2nd and 3rd wasn't their fault (SBC had misdiagnosed a problem in the initial install for one-link service and I also had intermittency during bad weather). I highly recommend them!
But Speakeasy isn't your normal ISP: I would say it's a geek's ISP because they offer things that a normal dsl user wouldn't think about like 2 static IP's, one-link service (no need for a dial tone), and most importantaly, no bandwidth caps: the bandwidth you buy is yours! It's great that Speakeasy is endorsing Firefox, but I suspect that their user base has a significant Firefox adoption rate already! Which is great, but I wish a SBC or Earthling would go this route too! Here's to hope! (Disclosure: I do subscribe to speakeasy one-link, and love it. Tell them Mixmastakooz sent you!)
You've compared books' strength to gaming's weakness: narrative depth. But does that mean that games are inferior? Certainly, you might never find narrative depth in games that you find in books, but on the other hand, you don't address the passive nature of books as a limiting factor.
From the article, the educational opportunity for games is for ideas that can't be taught in a didactic/wrote memory way. You fell short in your analysis because of this: games exceed books in their ability to be emotive in real time. Let me expand on that: concepts like strategy, pressure, repetiveness, and emotional response can't be taught from someone lecturing or reading a book. A game allows someone to *safely* explore a situation while dealing with those concepts I just listed. A book just can't do that and in effect, a game stimulates a different part of your brain than a book (e.g. games require imagination, just not the kind of imagination that books require).
In terms of other types of learning, like remembering dates, vocabulary, or molecular structures, traditional means of education, such as reading, are more than adequate.
As someone who did his masters thesis on how computer games present history, I can tell you that games cannot replace books in this way, BUT at their root, games can compliment the text and give the student an emotive attachment to the subject material (it's great to read about Napoleon, and it's another to be Napoleon and make decisions he had to make in quasi-real time.)
Lastly, a game doesn't have to entertain (in the traditional sense) to be entertaining or educational. Playing war sims isn't the most exciting or epicurean venture, but they are entertaining because they are hard and deal with minutia.
But is a game an excerise in imagination? A bit is, but it's mostly an emotive and strategic experience. In a game, you utilize different parts of your brain : parts that you wouldn't necessarily use with a book (and it goes to say that you use a different part of your brain when watching a movie). Although there's a lot of overlap (especially in terms of a narrative), comparing a game to a book is apples and oranges: they're both fruit, but very different. If anything, books and games compliment each other and someone who utilizes both will probably have a well rounded experience!
I think overpopulation might be a short term problem. BUT, what if we deal with a lot of the issues facing the world given our longevity and most everyone on the planet joins the "First World?" If everyone lived for a 1000 years, what happens when everyone reaches 500? Could we still reproduce? Since we seem to be only able to reproduce from age 14-50, what happens if the population's average age is 300?? Will anybody be able to reproduce? Everyone might reach an age where a birth would be a rare occurance or it just might stop happening! Immortality could be the demise of our species because people will still die due to accidents, war, and certain pesty illnesses and we'd have no one to replace it (it happened to the Ents!!)
And God doesn't care if you saved enough to retire for 40 years when he unleashes a mudslide, tsunami, or earthquake on you. Or more than likely, when God gives you or your spouse cancer, or your family dies in an accident. And don't get me started on Mutual Funds and stock investments: You can do what you want with your money buddy, but things can happen that will take it away that are beyond your control. And when that happens, you'll want to bless the ground FDR walked on.
Which past are you talking about? Not any history that I recall (and I have a M.A. in it). Before the Great Depression (just to set a marker), few people retired because they DIED BEFORE THEY REACHED 50!! Sure families stuck together, just as much as they do now: Crazy, isn't it! Did you also know that there were people without families! Did you know there were tragedies that affected those families who thought they saved enough?! And that there were tragedies that broke the backs of private charities? You can save all you want buddy, but shit has and always will happen to drain the savings of good monetary pack rats like us.
Alas, you really think things were better before your arbitrary point of "before Communism" (which I assume is the start of the New Deal)?? That's laughable. As I and other historians say, "Those who wish for the past don't know the first thing about it."
Another reason that several people are citing as indicative of SS's future failure is the lack of population growth.
Incorrect.
The population doesn't have to grow, just the payroll base. A working age generation can support a sizable retirement generation IF the folks working are making more money relative to what the retirement generation needs to retire on.
As for me, I'm proud to pay my SS payment because I respect those who have worked hard for 40-50 years: they deserve no less. You can save all you want my friends, but disasters/tragedies/economic collapses happen and you can't guarentee that you'll have savings when you're 65-70. God Bless SS and FDR.
If it is a clear liquid like water or liquid nitrogen then I wouldn't be suprised to see several feet down through the it. Just like aerial pictures of the Bahamas or some tropical island, you can still see the corral below the water's surface.
I couldn't see it, but was this crater close to the coast and in a possibly shallow region?
from 1997...the probe was probably playing Excite Bike or Spy Hunter: what else would a probe do on a 7 year journey from '97? Listen to the Spice Girls? Ha!
(the vehicle sound effects of Excite Bike or Spy Hunter is what came to mind when I heard the clip...)
Or have no dedicated phone line!
As a possible customer of Charter here in St. Louis, I am more willing to consider them as my ISP, but unfortunately, they don't offer it here in my part of the city. But, as per my economic situation, thanks to cheap wireless phone and dsl that doesn't require a dedicated voice line, I can cut my costs!!
DOGTOWN Represent!!! I'm over by Pat's Bar and Turtle Park... Seriously, why would someone live in Fenton or by that boxed store montrosity called the Bluffs?? ha! j/j;) (My bud lives in Valley Park...I tease him all the time about his suburban lifestyle...) Anyway, my bud in VP has Charter and I have Speakeasy's one=link: It's nice not to pay sbc for a dang dial tone. I wonder if this case's precedent applies to the dsl providers here in The Lou. (I'll get around to RTFA though to see if it does...)
Siduous is the Sith Master/Lord and Maul was his student, but Maul died (about 10 years before Episode II). I forgot how old Anakin was in Episode one and two (10 and 20? or was it 12 and 22?) Siduous must have been working on Dooku before Maul died, but after Maul died, Dooku slid in and became Tyrannus. Maul and Tyrannus never existed at the same time as sith...
However, if any of them would come up to me and said they were Lords, I wouldn't argue with them or else I would have a lightsaber stuck up my arse....
You're exactly right about the duel being an audition to be an apprentice: both in 3 and 6. However, don't forget that Vader was also trying to betray the Emperor way back in Empire when he asked Luke to be his apprentice. SO, when the time comes, either the Master gets a new apprentice by killing off the old one or the apprentice becomes the master (a shade of the line from epidsode 4!!)
But, I think you're off with your balance of the force explaination. I don't think it's a numerical balance but a balance of power. A true jedi does not seek power, and when one does, it throws the balance off. Anakin DID bring balance to the force: not by dwindling the number of Jedi, but by killing the Emperor. Not only did Anakin redeem himself in this act, but he brought balance back to the Force by removing the source of the imbalance and cleansing himself of the imbalance.
I agree, he did seem to gloss over many of the low points, missed a few games, and didn't examine the design flaws: but then again, I'm left with the impression that he relied more on game reviews than personal experience: which is reasonable, and to compensate, he should have brought in collaborators. However, I think it was generous to call it "A History" when it's more of an annotated Star Wars Game Chronology.
Also on a personal note: I think Rebellion was one of the most ambitious SW games that didn't get enough support from Lucas Arts. I played it and thought it was great! I connected with its strategic scope: I felt like General Ackbar commanding the rebel fleet in 3D space! The interface was it's downfall as it was very klunky...man, if they would have improved the interface, this would have been a highly rated game!!!
Accoona has created their own search engine and needed seed money. Accoona donated money to Clinton's Library. Riffing off what someone posted further up, the inclusion of "Chinese backed" could be considered unethical in terms of journalistic integrity because a) the reader assumes that Clinton's library is being financed directly by the Chinese. b) this "Chinese company" mentioned in the second sentence isn't Chinese, but actually an American company in New Jersey.
Therefore, this breaks down to the chicken and the egg--which came first? Accoona's donation or China's seed money? But does this last question matter if the core tech of their search engine is benign and will only be used for evil when the Chinese receive shipment of the final product? I would assume that it is benign technology (It seems startups might be looking at China for startup money, though!).
Finally, there are plenty of companies that made money from doing business with the Chinese government and dontated money to other presidential libraries. Should we condemn Carter, Ford, Bush Sr., and Reagan, too?
I agree, something closer to Tribes' mechs with their jump jets would be more practical than the huge marauders of Battletech...
Everyone is talking about putting guns on the biped robot...jump jets would be better and you could have another escape route! Up!!! (Or speedily skidding the surface...)
The Return of the King: Someone Bombadil Thinks he Knows -- Tom and Old Man Willow discuss philosophy and sing songs. Some strange doings down south make the sky turn dark, but then it's all light again, and that calls for some drink! And then I had a long chat with that wizard guy who changed his color scheme from grey to white. He must have went to that Versace shop in Moria. The end.
Bush's decision to halt embryonic stem cell research (as opposed to non-embryonic stem cell research) was a matter of motive. Up until this development, both multipotent stem cells (umbilicial) or undifferentiated stem cells (embryonic) had potential with the perception that embryonic cells having to most potential. Due to this ambiguity, science should/would objectively explore both options. Bush's halt was motivated by politics and not science. Ergo, to the Bush apologists, this is NOT a vindication of Bush's stance. At a minimum, it shows that he's won this round by rolling a seven in this political game of stem cell research craps. But, I think CA is going in the right direction by taking science's lead (if they actually have the money to do it) and not the religous right's lead.
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I live a couple blocks from the HQ and when I was new to the area, I walked into their offices thinking I'd order a sandwich...the secretary pointed across the street where their closest restaurant is located... Their operation in St. Louis is pretty tight (and called St. Louis Bread Co...we St. Louisans are rather provincial) but I was shocked a while ago when I noticed brochures for their wi-fi access and was very impressed. I almost bought a wi-fi enabled PDA (I was in the market for one at the time) hoping to frequent Bread Co... If you go to their store near Washingtion U. in the Loop, laptop/pda usage there is high and basically, they've nailed it: it's a great way to draw in the young professional/student crowd.
Since this project should take thousands of years, couldn't we just increase the mass of mars before we warm it up? Maybe we could go to the asteroid belt and nudge them into mars?! How much more mass would mars need?
I'd call that online because eventually, the crime will be committed online. It's not like someone takes a mailed financial statement to get important passwords/usernames from it. The M.O. is definitely for online fraud.
Even if there is a smaller chance of online identity theft, I would think banks would do all they could to prevent it: for example, if you want to do Bank of America online banking: They limit you to a 7 CHARACTER PASSSWORD!! I wrote in to complain, and I'm not going to go through with signing up for it until they change it! Does anyone online bank with a financial institution that takes better care than this? BTW, if you do online bank, don't forget to use firefox and clear that cache after logging off! I'm not paranoid, but you got to be careful nowadays!
I'll second that! The bandwidth you buy is yours! I think that's awesome! I also had to deal with their customer support EXTENSIVELY!! One was their fault (they billed me twice, but were very, very apologetic, and helped me out quickly) and the 2nd and 3rd wasn't their fault (SBC had misdiagnosed a problem in the initial install for one-link service and I also had intermittency during bad weather). I highly recommend them!
But Speakeasy isn't your normal ISP: I would say it's a geek's ISP because they offer things that a normal dsl user wouldn't think about like 2 static IP's, one-link service (no need for a dial tone), and most importantaly, no bandwidth caps: the bandwidth you buy is yours! It's great that Speakeasy is endorsing Firefox, but I suspect that their user base has a significant Firefox adoption rate already! Which is great, but I wish a SBC or Earthling would go this route too! Here's to hope! (Disclosure: I do subscribe to speakeasy one-link, and love it. Tell them Mixmastakooz sent you!)
And that's straight gospel folks! (Luckily, I stopped before popping the question).
You've compared books' strength to gaming's weakness: narrative depth. But does that mean that games are inferior? Certainly, you might never find narrative depth in games that you find in books, but on the other hand, you don't address the passive nature of books as a limiting factor.
From the article, the educational opportunity for games is for ideas that can't be taught in a didactic/wrote memory way. You fell short in your analysis because of this: games exceed books in their ability to be emotive in real time. Let me expand on that: concepts like strategy, pressure, repetiveness, and emotional response can't be taught from someone lecturing or reading a book. A game allows someone to *safely* explore a situation while dealing with those concepts I just listed. A book just can't do that and in effect, a game stimulates a different part of your brain than a book (e.g. games require imagination, just not the kind of imagination that books require).
In terms of other types of learning, like remembering dates, vocabulary, or molecular structures, traditional means of education, such as reading, are more than adequate.
As someone who did his masters thesis on how computer games present history, I can tell you that games cannot replace books in this way, BUT at their root, games can compliment the text and give the student an emotive attachment to the subject material (it's great to read about Napoleon, and it's another to be Napoleon and make decisions he had to make in quasi-real time.)
Lastly, a game doesn't have to entertain (in the traditional sense) to be entertaining or educational. Playing war sims isn't the most exciting or epicurean venture, but they are entertaining because they are hard and deal with minutia.
But is a game an excerise in imagination? A bit is, but it's mostly an emotive and strategic experience. In a game, you utilize different parts of your brain : parts that you wouldn't necessarily use with a book (and it goes to say that you use a different part of your brain when watching a movie). Although there's a lot of overlap (especially in terms of a narrative), comparing a game to a book is apples and oranges: they're both fruit, but very different. If anything, books and games compliment each other and someone who utilizes both will probably have a well rounded experience!
It happened to the Númenóreans!!!
I think overpopulation might be a short term problem. BUT, what if we deal with a lot of the issues facing the world given our longevity and most everyone on the planet joins the "First World?" If everyone lived for a 1000 years, what happens when everyone reaches 500? Could we still reproduce? Since we seem to be only able to reproduce from age 14-50, what happens if the population's average age is 300?? Will anybody be able to reproduce? Everyone might reach an age where a birth would be a rare occurance or it just might stop happening! Immortality could be the demise of our species because people will still die due to accidents, war, and certain pesty illnesses and we'd have no one to replace it (it happened to the Ents!!)
And God doesn't care if you saved enough to retire for 40 years when he unleashes a mudslide, tsunami, or earthquake on you. Or more than likely, when God gives you or your spouse cancer, or your family dies in an accident. And don't get me started on Mutual Funds and stock investments: You can do what you want with your money buddy, but things can happen that will take it away that are beyond your control. And when that happens, you'll want to bless the ground FDR walked on.
Which past are you talking about? Not any history that I recall (and I have a M.A. in it). Before the Great Depression (just to set a marker), few people retired because they DIED BEFORE THEY REACHED 50!! Sure families stuck together, just as much as they do now: Crazy, isn't it! Did you also know that there were people without families! Did you know there were tragedies that affected those families who thought they saved enough?! And that there were tragedies that broke the backs of private charities? You can save all you want buddy, but shit has and always will happen to drain the savings of good monetary pack rats like us.
Alas, you really think things were better before your arbitrary point of "before Communism" (which I assume is the start of the New Deal)?? That's laughable. As I and other historians say, "Those who wish for the past don't know the first thing about it."
Another reason that several people are citing as indicative of SS's future failure is the lack of population growth.
Incorrect.
The population doesn't have to grow, just the payroll base. A working age generation can support a sizable retirement generation IF the folks working are making more money relative to what the retirement generation needs to retire on.
As for me, I'm proud to pay my SS payment because I respect those who have worked hard for 40-50 years: they deserve no less. You can save all you want my friends, but disasters/tragedies/economic collapses happen and you can't guarentee that you'll have savings when you're 65-70. God Bless SS and FDR.
If it is a clear liquid like water or liquid nitrogen then I wouldn't be suprised to see several feet down through the it. Just like aerial pictures of the Bahamas or some tropical island, you can still see the corral below the water's surface. I couldn't see it, but was this crater close to the coast and in a possibly shallow region?
from 1997...the probe was probably playing Excite Bike or Spy Hunter: what else would a probe do on a 7 year journey from '97? Listen to the Spice Girls? Ha!
(the vehicle sound effects of Excite Bike or Spy Hunter is what came to mind when I heard the clip...)
Or have no dedicated phone line! As a possible customer of Charter here in St. Louis, I am more willing to consider them as my ISP, but unfortunately, they don't offer it here in my part of the city. But, as per my economic situation, thanks to cheap wireless phone and dsl that doesn't require a dedicated voice line, I can cut my costs!!
DOGTOWN Represent!!! ;) (My bud lives in Valley Park...I tease him all the time about his suburban lifestyle...)
I'm over by Pat's Bar and Turtle Park...
Seriously, why would someone live in Fenton or by that boxed store montrosity called the Bluffs?? ha! j/j
Anyway, my bud in VP has Charter and I have Speakeasy's one=link: It's nice not to pay sbc for a dang dial tone. I wonder if this case's precedent applies to the dsl providers here in The Lou.
(I'll get around to RTFA though to see if it does...)
Siduous is the Sith Master/Lord and Maul was his student, but Maul died (about 10 years before Episode II). I forgot how old Anakin was in Episode one and two (10 and 20? or was it 12 and 22?) Siduous must have been working on Dooku before Maul died, but after Maul died, Dooku slid in and became Tyrannus. Maul and Tyrannus never existed at the same time as sith... However, if any of them would come up to me and said they were Lords, I wouldn't argue with them or else I would have a lightsaber stuck up my arse....
You're exactly right about the duel being an audition to be an apprentice: both in 3 and 6. However, don't forget that Vader was also trying to betray the Emperor way back in Empire when he asked Luke to be his apprentice. SO, when the time comes, either the Master gets a new apprentice by killing off the old one or the apprentice becomes the master (a shade of the line from epidsode 4!!)
But, I think you're off with your balance of the force explaination. I don't think it's a numerical balance but a balance of power. A true jedi does not seek power, and when one does, it throws the balance off. Anakin DID bring balance to the force: not by dwindling the number of Jedi, but by killing the Emperor. Not only did Anakin redeem himself in this act, but he brought balance back to the Force by removing the source of the imbalance and cleansing himself of the imbalance.
I agree, he did seem to gloss over many of the low points, missed a few games, and didn't examine the design flaws: but then again, I'm left with the impression that he relied more on game reviews than personal experience: which is reasonable, and to compensate, he should have brought in collaborators. However, I think it was generous to call it "A History" when it's more of an annotated Star Wars Game Chronology.
Also on a personal note: I think Rebellion was one of the most ambitious SW games that didn't get enough support from Lucas Arts. I played it and thought it was great! I connected with its strategic scope: I felt like General Ackbar commanding the rebel fleet in 3D space! The interface was it's downfall as it was very klunky...man, if they would have improved the interface, this would have been a highly rated game!!!
Accoona has created their own search engine and needed seed money. Accoona donated money to Clinton's Library. Riffing off what someone posted further up, the inclusion of "Chinese backed" could be considered unethical in terms of journalistic integrity because
a) the reader assumes that Clinton's library is being financed directly by the Chinese.
b) this "Chinese company" mentioned in the second sentence isn't Chinese, but actually an American company in New Jersey.
Therefore, this breaks down to the chicken and the egg--which came first? Accoona's donation or China's seed money? But does this last question matter if the core tech of their search engine is benign and will only be used for evil when the Chinese receive shipment of the final product? I would assume that it is benign technology (It seems startups might be looking at China for startup money, though!).
Finally, there are plenty of companies that made money from doing business with the Chinese government and dontated money to other presidential libraries. Should we condemn Carter, Ford, Bush Sr., and Reagan, too?
I agree, something closer to Tribes' mechs with their jump jets would be more practical than the huge marauders of Battletech...
Everyone is talking about putting guns on the biped robot...jump jets would be better and you could have another escape route! Up!!! (Or speedily skidding the surface...)
You forgot:
The Return of the King: Someone Bombadil Thinks he Knows -- Tom and Old Man Willow discuss philosophy and sing songs. Some strange doings down south make the sky turn dark, but then it's all light again, and that calls for some drink! And then I had a long chat with that wizard guy who changed his color scheme from grey to white. He must have went to that Versace shop in Moria. The end.
Bush's decision to halt embryonic stem cell research (as opposed to non-embryonic stem cell research) was a matter of motive. Up until this development, both multipotent stem cells (umbilicial) or undifferentiated stem cells (embryonic) had potential with the perception that embryonic cells having to most potential. Due to this ambiguity, science should/would objectively explore both options. Bush's halt was motivated by politics and not science. Ergo, to the Bush apologists, this is NOT a vindication of Bush's stance. At a minimum, it shows that he's won this round by rolling a seven in this political game of stem cell research craps. But, I think CA is going in the right direction by taking science's lead (if they actually have the money to do it) and not the religous right's lead.