Quote from Fallen Kell: "China obviously did the math and looked at the projections out 100+ years on some of these moves (75year lease is in this example)."
The United States' navy is the world's largest. Its combined battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies COMBINED. The US also has loads of naval bases scattered all over the world (thanks to WWII). With these two assets, the US completely dominates international trade. This is not a trivial fact when comparing China's potential for economic growth with the US's.
But hey, don't take my word for it. Take a look at George Friedman's book The Next 100 Years, A Forecast For The Twenty-First Century sometime. In it, he also predicts that China will crumble along cultural lines between about 2020 and 2040.
Poor combat is only one of many problems with Bethesda's recent schlock. I found a site the other day that explores the deepest problems with Oblivion (as well as Fallout 3, seeing how that's basically just a mod for Oblivion).
I'm not much of an RPG fan. I mainly like twitch combat games; shooters. The only RPGs I've enjoyed playing are Fallout 1 and 2. However, these two games are easily in my top 5 favorite games of all time. I've played them each at least 15 times, way more than any shooter.
When I got Oblivion a few years ago, I liked it at first. I thought the graphics were very impressive and I was excited that there were so many different quests to complete and areas to explore. Then, after about 20 or 40 hours of gameplay, I quickly lost all interest. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the game just wasn't satisfying to play. After reading the aforementioned protest site, I figured out why.
The biggest problem I noticed was that everything was scaled to my character level. This caught me totally off-guard because this is the complete opposite of my idea of what role-playing is. As in real-life, I expect a role-playing game to allow me to develop my abilities as I complete more and more challenging tasks and interact with more varied people the longer I "live". Oblivion (and Fallout 3, in sharp contrast with 1 and 2) does not do this. It is a single-player MMO where everything is insta-scaled to your level. You will *never* encounter a task that is so difficult you need to work hard to master it. Similarly, you will *never* encounter a task that is so easy it makes you proud of your well-developed character's abilities. You will *never* stumble upon a sudden cache of awesome weapons/armor/treasure, because all the monsters are at your level, and all the shopkeepers sell the exact same equipment. There is no incentive to struggle to defeat a really tough monster, or solve a difficult quest, because even if these things did exist in Oblivion, you wouldn't be rewarded with any more experience, money or equipment than normal.
The level-scaling disappointed me, but I kept playing a little longer in the hopes that the game's emphasis was on exploring new and varied areas, not grinding. Meh. There are a lot of quests, but they're all errands; you tick off items on a checklist and collect your reward. Quests are completed the same way regardless of whether you specialize in magic, physical combat, or social skills. There are a lot of NPCs, each with 3 humdrum dialog options. And since Bethesda blew all their voice acting budget on hiring Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean, there are about 3 voices in the entire game. There are a lot of different cities, but they're so bland and same-y that you'd only know that from looking at their names on your map. And all the dungeons are just dark holes in the ground.
To me, Oblivion is a lavish nine-course meal that's been run through a food processor on its way to your plate. There's a lot of it, and it's really well-produced, but it's the same homogenized crap from beginning to end.
Really? Can you elaborate on that? Everything I've heard about Sarah Palin up until now has disgusted me, but if what you say is true, I just might want to vote for her (in primaries or general election, whatever) in 2012.
After all, Joe Biden used to be a "Drug Czar". Any ticket with Joe Biden on it is instant fail in my book.
You're the right that the iPod wasn't the first digital music player. However, you've missed the most important detail of the iPod: it was the first digital music player that had a decent user interface.
Back in the nineties and early 2000s, I was one of the few, the proud (the Mac gamers). In 2005 I broke down and built a WinTendo box for games, but Mac gamers do exist.
Every Mac that will be able to play a Steam game came with a multi-button mouse. And Mac users have played plenty of FPSs... Marathon, Halo, Quake, the Unreal series, BF1942, Medal of Honor to name just a few. The biggest gripe was always that there was no Half-Life. Oh, wait, they fixed that...
A good portion (maybe half) of the creative, brilliant, over-achiever types I knew in high school drank on the weekends and smoked weed during lunch and free periods. I think that rebellious behavior is independent of intellect (and therefore not a good way to ferret out under-performers).
A lot of these "rebel" kids I knew got in trouble with the police at some point in their high school careers and still managed to graduate with honors and AP credits en route to the colleges of their choosing. I'm glad none of them went to your school!
Mescaline is a psychedelic stimulant with subjective effects similar to LSD, magic mushrooms, and MDMA. To wit: morphing colors, compassion and understanding, creative thoughts. Pretty much the exact opposite of belligerence.
I think you might have mescaline confused with destructive drugs, like alcohol and/or PCP.
Smoking has upsides. People who do it tend to find it pleasant, and "only people who are addicted to cigarettes find it pleasant" is an untrue bullshit DARE statement. I've smoked occasionally. Here's why it's awesome:
- It makes you look cool. - It tastes nice. - It's nice to have something in your mouth. - It's warm. - The head rush feels nice. - Nicotine is stimulating like coffee, but relaxing like a drink. It's a pretty good all-around combination, psychoactively speaking.
If it weren't so deadly, I'd be smoking a pack a day instead of a pack a year.
For fuck's sake, people, swine flu is not a problem.
It is the flu. It is annoying. It is contagious. It might kill you if you already have pneumonia, and it might kill you if you are really young. This is normal behavior for the flu. It came from pigs, and this does not make a single god damned bit of difference.
In case no one ever told you, the reason your mom told you to chew your food 20 times before you swallow is that chewing more means you can't eat as fast (and therefore can't overeat as easily).
I believe a similar situation happened with the states (or perhaps "colonies" would be a better term) in the formation of the United States of America. Basically all the states agreed to surrender some sovereignty for the common good.
Then some states got pissed off with what the federal government was doing and tried to do something about it (seceding, forming the Confederate States of America). That didn't go so well.
Well, the problem is that you tried the wrong drugs. You're a nerd, I'm a nerd, we're mostly all nerds here. Generally speaking, if a group of nerds want to get high, they should focus not on psychedelics/hypnotics (Marijuana) nor CNS depressants (alcohol).
No, if you want a high that fits with the nerd lifestyle, try speed. Or meth, or coke, or most any other stimulant. You think caffeine makes you feel like a counter-strike god? You ain't seen nothin' yet.
However, hardcore stimulants can be pretty fiendish and physically dangerous. If those put you off, there's always ecstasy (MDMA). Seriously, nerds need some love, too.
Whoa there. The predictable hardware and software base with a console may be an asset to its stability and overall ease of use, but it is by no means ironclad. Have you ever played Quake 4 on the Xbox 360, for example? Terrible frame rate. I don't have any consoles, but some of my friends do, and they're always complaining about how game X has some bug that prevents them from getting to the next level, or how their save got corrupted.
When a game is buggy on a PC, there is sometimes a community-made patch to fix it, or a modified config file you can download to solve it. If it's a hardware or software problem on your end, you have at least some chance of addressing it yourself.
With a console, you put in the disc, and it either works or it doesn't. You can't upgrade it or tweak detailed configuration settings.
The more that the urban scum on the coasts think that Iowa is devoid of anything good, the better. As an Iowan, I can safely say that the state is best left sparsely populated with nice people whose personalities reflect its tranquil beauty.
"Granted, it's a lot easier to get into a war than get out of it, so I'm willing to give him a pass on this one."
Fuck that. Getting out of a war is easy. The hardest part is arithmetic: How many troops fit on an aircraft, how many transport aircraft do we have, how long does it take for each aircraft to fly back to the US, how much downtime can we expect for maintenance? THIS is how we should be getting out of Iraq. And probably Afghanistan, since last I heard Osama was more likely in Pakistan than Afghanistan.
I thought that water's low freezing-point-depression constant wasn't high enough for that to make a difference.
That or I've already totally forgotten the general chemistry class last I had last year.
Re:Better DVD menu support?
on
VLC 1.0.0 Released
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· Score: 2, Insightful
This plan would work well with:
1. Lawyers.
2. Completely perfect individuals.
This plan would not work well with:
1. Everyone else.
Most people have to take what they can get when it comes to friends. They've got some good points and some bad points. One thing friends start to do after a while is depend on each other somewhat for expertise. I'll fix your computer virus problem if you'll help me figure out what's making this weird noise in my car, etc. Involving money unnecessarily in a friendship like that is a good way to make it fade away.
If you're really not willing to help your friend when he asks you, the problem is that the friend is either too needy or you're too stingy, or both. But adding money to the picture (especially such petty amounts... $5? You wouldn't just let a friend HAVE five dollars?) doesn't do anything about the root problem.
Actually, the driver's handbook my state publishes specifically says you should only use the left lane to pass. So when some asshole in a Winnebago camps the passing lane at (speed limit minus 10), he really is breaking the law, or at least driving improperly. Like jaywalking and littering, it's something cops don't really care about, so everyone does it, and most people don't even know it's wrong. And then everyone's surprised when they hear the Germans actually enforce rules like that. Sigh...
Mod parent down. Recycled paper is worse in every way than "virgin" paper. "Virgin" paper does not come from beautiful protected forests, it comes from tree farms. These tree farms have only young trees (which are more effective at fixing carbon from the air than older trees). Recycling paper also requires tremendous amounts of energy and the use of harmful chemicals to de-ink and bleach the paper again.
Recycled paper is not "green". It results in us wasting resources in order to get shitty, rough, opaque recycled paper.
You're thinking of patents. No one has ever died because the drug they needed was copy-righted.
Yes, I do believe he was. He didn't say that copyright was responsible for deaths from scarce drugs, he said the philosophy that leads to BOTH copyright and patents is flawed.
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Quote from Fallen Kell: "China obviously did the math and looked at the projections out 100+ years on some of these moves (75year lease is in this example)."
The United States' navy is the world's largest. Its combined battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies COMBINED. The US also has loads of naval bases scattered all over the world (thanks to WWII). With these two assets, the US completely dominates international trade. This is not a trivial fact when comparing China's potential for economic growth with the US's.
But hey, don't take my word for it. Take a look at George Friedman's book The Next 100 Years, A Forecast For The Twenty-First Century sometime. In it, he also predicts that China will crumble along cultural lines between about 2020 and 2040.
Poor combat is only one of many problems with Bethesda's recent schlock. I found a site the other day that explores the deepest problems with Oblivion (as well as Fallout 3, seeing how that's basically just a mod for Oblivion).
I'm not much of an RPG fan. I mainly like twitch combat games; shooters. The only RPGs I've enjoyed playing are Fallout 1 and 2. However, these two games are easily in my top 5 favorite games of all time. I've played them each at least 15 times, way more than any shooter.
When I got Oblivion a few years ago, I liked it at first. I thought the graphics were very impressive and I was excited that there were so many different quests to complete and areas to explore. Then, after about 20 or 40 hours of gameplay, I quickly lost all interest. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the game just wasn't satisfying to play. After reading the aforementioned protest site, I figured out why.
The biggest problem I noticed was that everything was scaled to my character level. This caught me totally off-guard because this is the complete opposite of my idea of what role-playing is. As in real-life, I expect a role-playing game to allow me to develop my abilities as I complete more and more challenging tasks and interact with more varied people the longer I "live". Oblivion (and Fallout 3, in sharp contrast with 1 and 2) does not do this. It is a single-player MMO where everything is insta-scaled to your level. You will *never* encounter a task that is so difficult you need to work hard to master it. Similarly, you will *never* encounter a task that is so easy it makes you proud of your well-developed character's abilities. You will *never* stumble upon a sudden cache of awesome weapons/armor/treasure, because all the monsters are at your level, and all the shopkeepers sell the exact same equipment. There is no incentive to struggle to defeat a really tough monster, or solve a difficult quest, because even if these things did exist in Oblivion, you wouldn't be rewarded with any more experience, money or equipment than normal.
The level-scaling disappointed me, but I kept playing a little longer in the hopes that the game's emphasis was on exploring new and varied areas, not grinding. Meh. There are a lot of quests, but they're all errands; you tick off items on a checklist and collect your reward. Quests are completed the same way regardless of whether you specialize in magic, physical combat, or social skills. There are a lot of NPCs, each with 3 humdrum dialog options. And since Bethesda blew all their voice acting budget on hiring Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean, there are about 3 voices in the entire game. There are a lot of different cities, but they're so bland and same-y that you'd only know that from looking at their names on your map. And all the dungeons are just dark holes in the ground.
To me, Oblivion is a lavish nine-course meal that's been run through a food processor on its way to your plate. There's a lot of it, and it's really well-produced, but it's the same homogenized crap from beginning to end.
Really? Can you elaborate on that? Everything I've heard about Sarah Palin up until now has disgusted me, but if what you say is true, I just might want to vote for her (in primaries or general election, whatever) in 2012.
After all, Joe Biden used to be a "Drug Czar". Any ticket with Joe Biden on it is instant fail in my book.
You're the right that the iPod wasn't the first digital music player. However, you've missed the most important detail of the iPod: it was the first digital music player that had a decent user interface.
Back in the nineties and early 2000s, I was one of the few, the proud (the Mac gamers). In 2005 I broke down and built a WinTendo box for games, but Mac gamers do exist.
Every Mac that will be able to play a Steam game came with a multi-button mouse. And Mac users have played plenty of FPSs... Marathon, Halo, Quake, the Unreal series, BF1942, Medal of Honor to name just a few. The biggest gripe was always that there was no Half-Life. Oh, wait, they fixed that...
Re: The expulsion policies...
A good portion (maybe half) of the creative, brilliant, over-achiever types I knew in high school drank on the weekends and smoked weed during lunch and free periods. I think that rebellious behavior is independent of intellect (and therefore not a good way to ferret out under-performers).
A lot of these "rebel" kids I knew got in trouble with the police at some point in their high school careers and still managed to graduate with honors and AP credits en route to the colleges of their choosing. I'm glad none of them went to your school!
No, the reason to legalize marijuana is because free people have a right to put whatever they want into their own bodies.
Care to elaborate on how this phenomenon exists on talk radio? I'm not disagreeing, I'm just interested in hearing more.
Mescaline is a psychedelic stimulant with subjective effects similar to LSD, magic mushrooms, and MDMA. To wit: morphing colors, compassion and understanding, creative thoughts. Pretty much the exact opposite of belligerence.
I think you might have mescaline confused with destructive drugs, like alcohol and/or PCP.
Smoking has upsides. People who do it tend to find it pleasant, and "only people who are addicted to cigarettes find it pleasant" is an untrue bullshit DARE statement. I've smoked occasionally. Here's why it's awesome:
- It makes you look cool.
- It tastes nice.
- It's nice to have something in your mouth.
- It's warm.
- The head rush feels nice.
- Nicotine is stimulating like coffee, but relaxing like a drink. It's a pretty good all-around combination, psychoactively speaking.
If it weren't so deadly, I'd be smoking a pack a day instead of a pack a year.
For fuck's sake, people, swine flu is not a problem.
It is the flu. It is annoying. It is contagious. It might kill you if you already have pneumonia, and it might kill you if you are really young. This is normal behavior for the flu. It came from pigs, and this does not make a single god damned bit of difference.
How you chew your food matters? Seriously?
In case no one ever told you, the reason your mom told you to chew your food 20 times before you swallow is that chewing more means you can't eat as fast (and therefore can't overeat as easily).
Food is food no matter how you chew it.
No mind-altering drugs? Ever? Really?
You've never drunk coffee? You've never taken a prescription or OTC sleep aid? Never taken an antihistamine allergy medication?
What are you, amish?
I believe a similar situation happened with the states (or perhaps "colonies" would be a better term) in the formation of the United States of America. Basically all the states agreed to surrender some sovereignty for the common good.
Then some states got pissed off with what the federal government was doing and tried to do something about it (seceding, forming the Confederate States of America). That didn't go so well.
Well, the problem is that you tried the wrong drugs. You're a nerd, I'm a nerd, we're mostly all nerds here. Generally speaking, if a group of nerds want to get high, they should focus not on psychedelics/hypnotics (Marijuana) nor CNS depressants (alcohol).
No, if you want a high that fits with the nerd lifestyle, try speed. Or meth, or coke, or most any other stimulant. You think caffeine makes you feel like a counter-strike god? You ain't seen nothin' yet.
However, hardcore stimulants can be pretty fiendish and physically dangerous. If those put you off, there's always ecstasy (MDMA). Seriously, nerds need some love, too.
Whoa there. The predictable hardware and software base with a console may be an asset to its stability and overall ease of use, but it is by no means ironclad. Have you ever played Quake 4 on the Xbox 360, for example? Terrible frame rate. I don't have any consoles, but some of my friends do, and they're always complaining about how game X has some bug that prevents them from getting to the next level, or how their save got corrupted.
When a game is buggy on a PC, there is sometimes a community-made patch to fix it, or a modified config file you can download to solve it. If it's a hardware or software problem on your end, you have at least some chance of addressing it yourself.
With a console, you put in the disc, and it either works or it doesn't. You can't upgrade it or tweak detailed configuration settings.
Shhh!
The more that the urban scum on the coasts think that Iowa is devoid of anything good, the better. As an Iowan, I can safely say that the state is best left sparsely populated with nice people whose personalities reflect its tranquil beauty.
"Granted, it's a lot easier to get into a war than get out of it, so I'm willing to give him a pass on this one."
Fuck that. Getting out of a war is easy. The hardest part is arithmetic: How many troops fit on an aircraft, how many transport aircraft do we have, how long does it take for each aircraft to fly back to the US, how much downtime can we expect for maintenance? THIS is how we should be getting out of Iraq. And probably Afghanistan, since last I heard Osama was more likely in Pakistan than Afghanistan.
I thought that water's low freezing-point-depression constant wasn't high enough for that to make a difference.
That or I've already totally forgotten the general chemistry class last I had last year.
This plan would work well with:
1. Lawyers.
2. Completely perfect individuals.
This plan would not work well with:
1. Everyone else.
Most people have to take what they can get when it comes to friends. They've got some good points and some bad points. One thing friends start to do after a while is depend on each other somewhat for expertise. I'll fix your computer virus problem if you'll help me figure out what's making this weird noise in my car, etc. Involving money unnecessarily in a friendship like that is a good way to make it fade away.
If you're really not willing to help your friend when he asks you, the problem is that the friend is either too needy or you're too stingy, or both. But adding money to the picture (especially such petty amounts... $5? You wouldn't just let a friend HAVE five dollars?) doesn't do anything about the root problem.
Actually, the driver's handbook my state publishes specifically says you should only use the left lane to pass. So when some asshole in a Winnebago camps the passing lane at (speed limit minus 10), he really is breaking the law, or at least driving improperly. Like jaywalking and littering, it's something cops don't really care about, so everyone does it, and most people don't even know it's wrong. And then everyone's surprised when they hear the Germans actually enforce rules like that. Sigh...
Your car's ICE explodes? Sounds like it's running a little lean.
Next you're going to tell me that your guns explode. If that's true, I'm surprised to see you posting here!
You're right. I'd never go to a place that was weed-tolerant. Places like Amsterdam, BC, and Portugal are like warzones.
Mod parent down. Recycled paper is worse in every way than "virgin" paper. "Virgin" paper does not come from beautiful protected forests, it comes from tree farms. These tree farms have only young trees (which are more effective at fixing carbon from the air than older trees). Recycling paper also requires tremendous amounts of energy and the use of harmful chemicals to de-ink and bleach the paper again.
Recycled paper is not "green". It results in us wasting resources in order to get shitty, rough, opaque recycled paper.
Source: google.com
You're thinking of patents. No one has ever died because the drug they needed was copy-righted.
Yes, I do believe he was. He didn't say that copyright was responsible for deaths from scarce drugs, he said the philosophy that leads to BOTH copyright and patents is flawed.