It seems to me that they went out of their way to kill the album. You can select almost any album from the Big Four[Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, Warner] these days and pick out which 2-3 songs they will release on radio and make videos for, and which 10 are utter crap just there to fill the CD.
How can this be modded to +5 when the exact methodology used is described in the article? You may not agree with their assumptions, but it is certainly not "random".
My experience concurs with this observation. The US murder rate is the lowest it has been since 1965, violent crime rate lowest since 1974, rate of rape lowest since 1978. Yet most people seem to think that crime is at some astronomical historical high. If I wanted a bottle of pop when I was a kid I got on my bike and rode nearly two miles to the gas station. How did we ever survive?
The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts - from dropping litter to late-night brawls - to send out a verbal warning: 'We are watching you'.
According to iSuppli's most recent analysis, the premium version of the Xbox 360 game machine equipped with hard disk drive has a manufacturing and materials total of $323.30, based on an updated estimate using costs in the fourth quarter of 2006. This total is $75.70 less than the $399 suggested retail price of the Xbox 360. Even though it is obvious that Microsoft still has to subtract freight, toll, retail partner's profit and other possible charges, it is highly likely that Microsoft has either managed to reduce its loss to minimal, or is making a tiny profit selling the $399 flavour of the Xbox 360.
As Cars Collide, Belgian Motorists Refuse to Yield A Shortage of Stop Signs And Quirky Driving Rules Create Culture of Crashes By MARY JACOBY September 25, 2006; Page A1
BRUSSELS -- The intersection outside Isabelle de Bruyn's row house in a quiet residential neighborhood here is a typical Belgian crossroads. It has no stop signs. Now and then, cars collide outside her front door.
"The air bags explode. One car flipped over in the street. Part of one car ended up here," says Ms. de Bruyn, a real-estate agent, pointing to her front steps. Her brother-in-law, Christophe de Bruyn, adds: "In America, they have stop signs. I think that's a good idea for Belgium, too."
The suggestion isn't popular at the Belgian transport ministry. "We'd have to put signs at every crossroads," says spokeswoman Els Bruggeman. "We have lots of intersections."
But insurance companies seeking an easier way to sort out who's at fault in Belgium's frequent fender benders have lobbied for a solution. And so now the government is in the process of making changes to a traffic rule at the heart of Belgium's problems. It is known as priorité de droite, or "priority from the right."
The law evolved from a rule adopted nearly a century ago in neighboring France, intended to offer drivers a simple rule of thumb: Always yield to any vehicle coming from one's right unless a sign or other road marking instructs otherwise.
That was meant to modernize an even more unwieldy rule of the time: Right of way went to the driver of the highest social rank. Horse-drawn carriages were still in common use, and, after accidents, "it wasn't unusual for the passengers to get out of their carriages and compare their titles and ranks in the nobility," says Benoit Godart, a spokesman for the government-financed Belgian Road Safety Institute.
Even more confusing, a driver in Belgium who stops to look both ways at an intersection loses the legal right to proceed first. Such caution might seem prudent, given the lack of stop signs. But a driver who merely taps his brakes can find that his pause has sent a dangerous signal to other drivers: Any sign of hesitation often spurs other drivers to hit the gas in a race to get through the crossing first.
The result is a game of chicken at crossings, where to slow down is to "show weakness," says Belgian traffic court lawyer Virginie Delannoy. Neither driver wants to lose this traffic game, she says, adding: "And then, bam!"
To make matters worse, cars on many of the smallest side streets still qualify for priority over those on major thoroughfares -- so long as they are coming from the right. That forces drivers on many boulevards to slam on their brakes without warning, and some get rear-ended as a result. On certain roads, the rule is suspended, but the only indication of that is a small yield sign drivers often overlook.
Today, failing to yield is the cause of more than two-thirds of the accidents at unmarked Belgian intersections that result in bodily injury.
It contributes to Belgium's relatively high traffic fatality rate, analysts say. Last year, deaths in Belgium from driving accidents were 11.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in Paris.
Other countries have more stop signs and traffic lights. By comparison, deaths in the Netherlands were 4.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, 6.1 in Germany and 8.7 in France -- countries that border Belgium.
Although the U.S. has a higher number of fatalities in absolute numbers -- 14.5 per 100,000 inhabitants -- there are more cars on the street in the U.S., as a percentage of the population, than in Belgium. Americans also spend on average more time in their cars, traveling longer distances.
When the difference in the number of cars is accounted for, Belgium has
"there might be a new hot toy on everyone's Christmas list here in the states."
Is there anyone who ever doubted that the PS3 would be sold out until Spring? I assumed that with all of the stories about people planning to sell it for $3,000 on eBay that this was common knowledge by now.
"Now, we have bastardized Republicans (Neocons) who are out to create National IDs, document any passage in and out of the country..."
You must have a short memory. National ID cards were part of the Democratic health care initiative (aka 'Hillarycare') in 1993, and it was Hillary again in 2003 that proposed the introduction of a national ID card to monitor immigration.
It looks like the republicrats have both sides convinced that these ID cards are a conspiracy of the "other guys".
The first charge alleges that she possessed information on her computer hard drive likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism... Possession of items such as these is an offence under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
The second charge claims Malik possessed "miscellaneous jottings" which may have been held for a purpose connected with terrorism, contrary to Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
The third charge alleges that Malik selected the information, manuals and handbooks and they would be useful to a terrorist contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
The fourth charge alleges that Malik possessed "miscellaneous jottings" likely to be useful to a terrorist, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
"Secondly : Bush is abnormal in that he has singularly refused to veto ANYTHING (ok, with ONE exception). Look at the numbers : Clinton issued 37 in two terms. GHWB issued 44 in ONE term. Reagan issued 78 in his two terms."
You are missing the key differentiator. All of those Presidents were vetoing bills sent by a Congress controlled by the opposite party. In fact 100% of those veotes were for bills submitted by the opposing party. 0% of those vetoed bills were submitted by the President's own party. During the two years that Clinton presided over a Democratic controlled Congress he vetoed ZERO bills.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that they went out of their way to kill the album. You can select almost any album from the Big Four[Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, Warner] these days and pick out which 2-3 songs they will release on radio and make videos for, and which 10 are utter crap just there to fill the CD.
Best
HD-DVD: 6
Blu-Ray: 1
Both: 3
Worst
HD-DVD: 1
Blu-Ray: 3
Both: 1
It appears that most in the 'Best' category use VC-1 while most in the 'Worst' category use MPEG-2.
Zelda:TP sold 139,011 units the first two days in Japan.
p s.html
http://blog.wired.com/games/2006/12/wii_sports_to
"kids fear BlackBerrys and Treos can put their lives in jeopardy as Mom and Dad type away while driving."
BlackBerry tapping causes car-crunching chain reaction on I-5
"If you can't beat the game, change the rules of the game."
-- James Tiberius Kirk re: Kobayashi Maru
Paraphrased of course.
.. and it was great.
e nture/review.html
http://www.gamespot.com/dreamcast/action/sonicadv
Why they haven't been able to replicate that success is puzzling.
Many people are pointing out the very good Sonic Rush for the DS. The developer deserves credit for that game, not SEGA: http://www.dimps.co.jp/pro/list-hard.html
"random number an analyst pulled out of his ass"
How can this be modded to +5 when the exact methodology used is described in the article?
You may not agree with their assumptions, but it is certainly not "random".
My experience concurs with this observation. The US murder rate is the lowest it has been since 1965, violent crime rate lowest since 1974, rate of rape lowest since 1978. Yet most people seem to think that crime is at some astronomical historical high. If I wanted a bottle of pop when I was a kid I got on my bike and rode nearly two miles to the gas station. How did we ever survive?
Crime Rates in U.S. Remain at 30-Year Lows
There's a headline you rarely[never] see on cable news.
Nintendo's site lists Dance Factory as an upcoming title for the Wii.
1
http://wii.nintendo.com/software_index.jsp
Hopefully it is more than just a port of the poor PS2 title: http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3153434&did=
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/ne
In the US it takes up to six years to fire a government teacher.
Union bosses get in the way of common sense
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect
Here is the type of incident they have been blogging about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2SGamUeMec
The 360 may already be making a profit on hardware.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/2
The Wii is also already profitable on hardware alone.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.as
Sony is losing $241(60GB) and $307(20GB) per unit.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?
As soon as the PS3 is actually available sitting on store shelves (i.e. Spring) I would expect to see a price cut from MS and hopefully a 100GB HDD.
As Cars Collide, Belgian Motorists Refuse to Yield(Subscription Required).
-------
As Cars Collide, Belgian Motorists Refuse to Yield
A Shortage of Stop Signs And Quirky Driving Rules Create Culture of Crashes
By MARY JACOBY
September 25, 2006; Page A1
BRUSSELS -- The intersection outside Isabelle de Bruyn's row house in a quiet residential neighborhood here is a typical Belgian crossroads. It has no stop signs. Now and then, cars collide outside her front door.
"The air bags explode. One car flipped over in the street. Part of one car ended up here," says Ms. de Bruyn, a real-estate agent, pointing to her front steps. Her brother-in-law, Christophe de Bruyn, adds: "In America, they have stop signs. I think that's a good idea for Belgium, too."
The suggestion isn't popular at the Belgian transport ministry. "We'd have to put signs at every crossroads," says spokeswoman Els Bruggeman. "We have lots of intersections."
But insurance companies seeking an easier way to sort out who's at fault in Belgium's frequent fender benders have lobbied for a solution. And so now the government is in the process of making changes to a traffic rule at the heart of Belgium's problems. It is known as priorité de droite, or "priority from the right."
The law evolved from a rule adopted nearly a century ago in neighboring France, intended to offer drivers a simple rule of thumb: Always yield to any vehicle coming from one's right unless a sign or other road marking instructs otherwise.
That was meant to modernize an even more unwieldy rule of the time: Right of way went to the driver of the highest social rank. Horse-drawn carriages were still in common use, and, after accidents, "it wasn't unusual for the passengers to get out of their carriages and compare their titles and ranks in the nobility," says Benoit Godart, a spokesman for the government-financed Belgian Road Safety Institute.
Even more confusing, a driver in Belgium who stops to look both ways at an intersection loses the legal right to proceed first. Such caution might seem prudent, given the lack of stop signs. But a driver who merely taps his brakes can find that his pause has sent a dangerous signal to other drivers: Any sign of hesitation often spurs other drivers to hit the gas in a race to get through the crossing first.
The result is a game of chicken at crossings, where to slow down is to "show weakness," says Belgian traffic court lawyer Virginie Delannoy. Neither driver wants to lose this traffic game, she says, adding: "And then, bam!"
To make matters worse, cars on many of the smallest side streets still qualify for priority over those on major thoroughfares -- so long as they are coming from the right. That forces drivers on many boulevards to slam on their brakes without warning, and some get rear-ended as a result. On certain roads, the rule is suspended, but the only indication of that is a small yield sign drivers often overlook.
Today, failing to yield is the cause of more than two-thirds of the accidents at unmarked Belgian intersections that result in bodily injury.
It contributes to Belgium's relatively high traffic fatality rate, analysts say. Last year, deaths in Belgium from driving accidents were 11.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in Paris.
Other countries have more stop signs and traffic lights. By comparison, deaths in the Netherlands were 4.6 per 100,000 inhabitants, 6.1 in Germany and 8.7 in France -- countries that border Belgium.
Although the U.S. has a higher number of fatalities in absolute numbers -- 14.5 per 100,000 inhabitants -- there are more cars on the street in the U.S., as a percentage of the population, than in Belgium. Americans also spend on average more time in their cars, traveling longer distances.
When the difference in the number of cars is accounted for, Belgium has
"Assault Suits Leynos 2 is absolutely the best 2D side scrolling mech game ever made by the hands of man."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxpLi7k0FVQ
Here are more figures:
9 969
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=6
"Enterbrain, publisher of Famitsu, has revealed the the tie-in ratio of software to PlayStation 3 sales is 0.98 - less than one game per console."
"there might be a new hot toy on everyone's Christmas list here in the states."
Is there anyone who ever doubted that the PS3 would be sold out until Spring? I assumed that with all of the stories about people planning to sell it for $3,000 on eBay that this was common knowledge by now.
"Now, we have bastardized Republicans (Neocons) who are out to create National IDs, document any passage in and out of the country..."
You must have a short memory. National ID cards were part of the Democratic health care initiative (aka 'Hillarycare') in 1993, and it was Hillary again in 2003 that proposed the introduction of a national ID card to monitor immigration.
It looks like the republicrats have both sides convinced that these ID cards are a conspiracy of the "other guys".
http://www.lp.org/
... I want to see the look on the faces of the last 3 when they find out the store only has 4 units.
"Someone went to Best Buy this morning and saw about 7 people waiting outside."
"The team tested the mice's vision by observing how their pupils responded to different light intensities (Nature, vol 444, p 203)."
0 -cell-transplant-may-restore-lost-sight.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225775.10
Here are the prices of most consoles, adjusted for inflation.
s ole-prices-or-500-aint.html
http://curmudgeongamer.com/2006/05/history-of-con
"Secondly : Bush is abnormal in that he has singularly refused to veto ANYTHING (ok, with ONE exception). Look at the numbers :
Clinton issued 37 in two terms.
GHWB issued 44 in ONE term.
Reagan issued 78 in his two terms."
You are missing the key differentiator. All of those Presidents were vetoing bills sent by a Congress controlled by the opposite party. In fact 100% of those veotes were for bills submitted by the opposing party. 0% of those vetoed bills were submitted by the President's own party. During the two years that Clinton presided over a Democratic controlled Congress he vetoed ZERO bills.
Here are a list of Clinton vetoes: http://rules.house.gov/archives/98-147.pdf
Notice that none occur until after January 1995, two years after he took office, when Republicans gained a majority in congress.
You are either ignorant of these facts or purposely omitting them in an attempt to mislead people.
Lawyers take much too long. There is already a Comedy Central clip in today's top 10 most viewed.
http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=mp
direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT3nIi0gH20