During episodes 4-6, there are exactly 5 jedi's in the entire universe: Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Vader, and Palpatine, so they are the only players who could be involved in a ghost thing. Luke obviously wouldn't be a ghost, and Luke can easily recognise the forms of Yoda and Obi-Wan. We can figure that Palpatine is majorly pissed at Luke and doesn't want to appear in any kind of vision to Luke; he's off keying Vader's ghostmobile anyway. So that leaves just one jedi unaccounted for, Vader/Aniken, which is who the third ghost would have to be. The ghost could have looked like a female wookie, but the logical assumption would have to be that it is Aniken.
Dungeon Master: You enter a dark room. You hear breathing coming from the far corner. The cleric lights a torch. You encounter - A BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!! You have initiative, what do you do??
Warrior - I bash the screen with my fist.
Rogue - I sneak around back and unplug it.
Wizard - I cast Bigby's Typing Hands to press Ctrl-Alt-Del
I would like for previews to be the full length of the song, because I frequently want music that I've not heard before. It's one thing to say "I definately want the latest song by Eminem" and just buy it because you know you'll like the artist, but I have more offbeat tastes, and I'd like to know that I like all of a song I want to buy. So if I'm crusing through the store and I see something like "The Boston Pops plays a medley from The Simpsons", I'd be interested in hearing that, but the first thirty seconds of a 5 minute song that could either be very good or very bad isn't enough time to make a decision. It wouldn't even matter if they made me jump through all sorts of hoops and password logins and stuff to protect their material from being pirated from these previews.
Doc, all we need is some plutonium...
on
Nuclear Batteries
·
· Score: 5, Funny
I'm sure in 1985, plutonium is available at every corner drugstore, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by!
They probably will release a complete box set with all three movies, but I'm not all that inclined to buy it unless it has more movie. I for one don't particularly care for 8 hours of behind the scenes footage. Occasionally I may watch the movie with commentary, but that's really it. If this combined set is just the three extended edition bundled together with an aditional DVD of interviews with the 3rd Unit Producer and the assistant to the executive editor, then I think I'll pass on it.
Meh, it's still more interesting than the "OMG!! This guy totally rules at Street Fighter 3. It's so sweet, I totally peed my pants" story that was posted a few weeks ago.
First off, when did being old automatically mean you're senile? There are a variety of neurological diseases that can cause senility, but not everyone gets them. Having the values, beliefs, and interests of a different generation from before your time doesn't mean Grandpa is crazy.
Anyways, on to my main point. I don't think it's been enough time to decide whether people will like video games when they reach retirement. Home consoles have really only been popular for about 20 years. And in the beginning, they were primarily kids toys. You didn't really have guys in their 30's and 40's buying nintendos for themselves; rather it was something you got for your young kids or nephews and such. So now, those kids are in their 20's and 30's and are adults. It's also only recently that the people in their 30's and 40's are getting into video games without having any childhood experience with them, since the release of the current next-gen systems (PS2, XBox, and the Cube). So I don't think that home consoles have been around long enough to see if video games can be popular with retirement aged people. So the question is why isn't it popular with retired people now? Well, it's because it's not what they're used too. Grandpa never played video games except for that one time he popped a quarter into pac-man at the pizzeria. He has no experience and thus no interest. However, I'll bet he does like going to baseball games or jazz concerts or whatever else that he's had a lifetime appreciating. So it's not so unrealistic that if you're played video games all your life, that you would continue to do so after you retired.
The difference is the government can step in and offer help and protections when you're dealing with a product. If foreign steel is cheaper, the government places import fees on it so that american steel becomes cheaper. The problem is how do you do that with labor? The government can't go to a private company and say "You can only hire american citizens or contract out to american companies". IT personel provide services, not products. You'd be hard pressed to get legislation passed which actually limited a company's ability to do business with other companies outside the US.
The thing about this is that you get your training, do the flight, and go home in one day. Becoming qualified to do a solo jump in skydiving, you have to go through a lot of training and practice jumps and become proficient in packing your chute. It's definately a committment to get to the point where you get to do a solo jump. If I wanted to do a jump this saturday with no prior experience, the best I would be able to get is to do a tandem jump strapped to some guy's crotch in an oversized baby carrier. Also, this program gives you moon and martian gravity, which is awesome.
I don't think that having a half hour ending for this movie is bad, because it's not the conclusion to just ROTK, it is the resolution to the entire Lord of the Rings series. 30 minutes of character and plot resolution in a 10 hour movie is the same as having 5 minutes of resolution in a typical 90 minute movie. We've spent 3 years getting to know these characters, and I know I'd feel disapointed if all I got after the ring was destroyed was a "Good Job Frodo" and they cut to credits. Plus, the ending gave us a glimpse into how Frodo was still affected by the Ring, how he never really recovered from it. I think what everyone is complaining about is the departure for the gray havens scene, where they schmaltzed it up a little, but honestly, it's just a sign of the time of how short of an attention span people really have if they can't take 5 minutes of artistic liberty after 3 hours of butt-kicking action.
Of the other extended editions, Fellowship of the Ring was released on November 12, and The Two Towers was released on November 18. I wonder what's pushing this release back almost a month?
That's a great way of presenting all the steps in the process. Whenever I cook, I always assume that the long step is always the last one (Bake for 90 minutes, simmer for 30 minutes, etc). I've had to order out for chineese many times when trying new receipies because step 4 of 12 is something like "Marinate for 29 hours", and you know, I didn't really bother to read past the list of ingredients. I just figure that if I don't have to shop for it, I can cook it that day.
An MMORPG where everyone insists on being a captain or admiral, where no story can take place
I don't think everyone would insist on being a captain. There are so many different classes that I think people would like to play in the star trek universe. For example, you could be a science officer with abilities in analyzing planets or stellar bodies or unknown signals. There's the engineer with abilities to repair battle damage on ships, or to upgrade equipment. Tactical officer with abilities in ship to ship battle and fleet deployment. Security officer with hand to hand combat capabilities. Doctor to heal your party members. Naviagtor to pilot ships efficiently, with sub-specialities in combat piloting or shuttlecraft piloting. A councilor who can keep up the morale of the 300 NPC characters you'll have on running you ship. And that's just if you want to be starfleet (which would likely be a special guild in this game). You could be a ferengi trader trying to make huge profits by running weapons to the maqui. Or even cooler, be a borg and run around assimilating other people forcibly changing their race to borg. (I guess that wouldn't be THAT cool, but still). In any case, I think there'll be more than a million captains running around in this game.
Of course, college students today are mostly on the public dole in the form of grants, government-insured loans (many of which are defaulted upon, passing cost to the taxpayer)
Everyone who gets federal loans has to go through entrance councling about what they're getting themselves into. So here's why federal loans are hardly a "go to college for free deal". First, there are only two ways to get out of a federal loan without paying - either die, or become so severely disabled that you're no longer able to function and hold a job. Bancrupcy does not absolve you of federal loans. If you're in default, the government can garnish your wages and your tax return until you're paid off. Additionally, your school will withhold your records if you're in default of your loans, so if you're applying for a new job or a professional license or something, your school will not release your transcript. Schools have a vested interest in making sure their students pay back their federal loans, because if the percecentage of their students who are in default gets too high, the government will stop giving that school's students federal loans. So if you're planning to live off the grid after you graduate, then yes, federal loans are free money.
Wouldn't that money be better off putting up scholarships for peeple who can't afford college? Or are these "freeebies" just a start of the new College Marketeering? Not even colleges seem to be immune to the ubercapitalist drumbeat these days...
Most schools are actually not-for-profit organizations, however they do need to be capitalistic, not for money, but for students. Schools always want to get students with the best qualifications, so they'll dangle things for them to come to their school over another. Duke for example, is competining with Harvard and Yale and other similar schools for the cream of the freshman crop. Thus it's in their interest to say "Come to Duke, we'll give you a free IPod", and all other things being equal, this could be enough to sway a guy who has to pay $30000 a year to go to Harvard, or to pay $30000 a year to go to Duke, but gets a cool toy out of it. The school figures that spending a few hundred bucks per student will improve the quality of the student body more than giving one guy a full scholarship.
Endothelial stem cells from the intestines are the stems cells which have the most potential of differentiating into different tissue types; they are the least differentiated/most undifferentiated stem cells that are found in adults. Follicular stem cells are already partially differentiated in that they can form the different kinds of cells found in follicles, but aren't very capable for turning into nerve tissue or whatever. That's why embrionic stem cells are so important, since they're capable of turning into every tissue found in a human.
SKINNER
Now, this morning we're going to be mapping a small square of sky that's thought to be empty. It's my hope that it's not.
BART
So what am I supposed to do exactly?
SKINNER
Just write down my findings as I give them to you. Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, twenty-two minutes declination... no sighting.
BART
Mm-hm.
SKINNER
Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, twenty-three minutes declination... no sighting.
BART
Mm-hm.
The scene fades to later.
SKINNER
(excitedly) Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, fifty-eight minutes declination!...no sighting. Did you get that one Bart?
Is sandbox really a good term to use for video games? Maybe it's just me, but when I think of sandboxes, I think of something that's gritty and irritating to my eyes, usually full of crap, and that after you're done playing in it you haven't accomplished anything.
Obligatory Critic Quote
on
Word Up
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Duke- "Quyzbuk"
Marty-"That's not a word"
Duke - "(dials phone) Get Webster on the phone. Noah, how ya doing? It's Duke. How much would it cost to make Quyzbuk a word? (pause) I don't what means, uh, how about a big problem? Great! How about that other word I invented, Dukelicious? No ones using it? What a Duketastrophe."
Slashdot Mirror
So how the hell did Luke recognize him?
Process of elimination??
During episodes 4-6, there are exactly 5 jedi's in the entire universe: Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Vader, and Palpatine, so they are the only players who could be involved in a ghost thing. Luke obviously wouldn't be a ghost, and Luke can easily recognise the forms of Yoda and Obi-Wan. We can figure that Palpatine is majorly pissed at Luke and doesn't want to appear in any kind of vision to Luke; he's off keying Vader's ghostmobile anyway. So that leaves just one jedi unaccounted for, Vader/Aniken, which is who the third ghost would have to be. The ghost could have looked like a female wookie, but the logical assumption would have to be that it is Aniken.
Dungeon Master: You enter a dark room. You hear breathing coming from the far corner. The cleric lights a torch. You encounter - A BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!! You have initiative, what do you do??
Warrior - I bash the screen with my fist.
Rogue - I sneak around back and unplug it.
Wizard - I cast Bigby's Typing Hands to press Ctrl-Alt-Del
Cleric - I cast a curse on Bill Gates
Sorceress - I summon Tech Support
I would like for previews to be the full length of the song, because I frequently want music that I've not heard before. It's one thing to say "I definately want the latest song by Eminem" and just buy it because you know you'll like the artist, but I have more offbeat tastes, and I'd like to know that I like all of a song I want to buy. So if I'm crusing through the store and I see something like "The Boston Pops plays a medley from The Simpsons", I'd be interested in hearing that, but the first thirty seconds of a 5 minute song that could either be very good or very bad isn't enough time to make a decision. It wouldn't even matter if they made me jump through all sorts of hoops and password logins and stuff to protect their material from being pirated from these previews.
I'm sure in 1985, plutonium is available at every corner drugstore, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by!
Oh my God!! My dog sniffed my crotch this morning!!! I have to go see a doctor right away!
They probably will release a complete box set with all three movies, but I'm not all that inclined to buy it unless it has more movie. I for one don't particularly care for 8 hours of behind the scenes footage. Occasionally I may watch the movie with commentary, but that's really it. If this combined set is just the three extended edition bundled together with an aditional DVD of interviews with the 3rd Unit Producer and the assistant to the executive editor, then I think I'll pass on it.
Meh, it's still more interesting than the "OMG!! This guy totally rules at Street Fighter 3. It's so sweet, I totally peed my pants" story that was posted a few weeks ago.
Bah, who needs another iteration of the Battle of Hoth?
Actually, I really do want this game, I'm just miffed that it's on every system but the Cube.
First off, when did being old automatically mean you're senile? There are a variety of neurological diseases that can cause senility, but not everyone gets them. Having the values, beliefs, and interests of a different generation from before your time doesn't mean Grandpa is crazy.
Anyways, on to my main point. I don't think it's been enough time to decide whether people will like video games when they reach retirement. Home consoles have really only been popular for about 20 years. And in the beginning, they were primarily kids toys. You didn't really have guys in their 30's and 40's buying nintendos for themselves; rather it was something you got for your young kids or nephews and such. So now, those kids are in their 20's and 30's and are adults. It's also only recently that the people in their 30's and 40's are getting into video games without having any childhood experience with them, since the release of the current next-gen systems (PS2, XBox, and the Cube). So I don't think that home consoles have been around long enough to see if video games can be popular with retirement aged people. So the question is why isn't it popular with retired people now? Well, it's because it's not what they're used too. Grandpa never played video games except for that one time he popped a quarter into pac-man at the pizzeria. He has no experience and thus no interest. However, I'll bet he does like going to baseball games or jazz concerts or whatever else that he's had a lifetime appreciating. So it's not so unrealistic that if you're played video games all your life, that you would continue to do so after you retired.
Somewhere, Duke Nukem is cheering, now that he's no longer the standard of perpetually pushed back release dates.
Yuntian Zhu and his colleagues used a process called 'catalytic chemical vapor deposition' from ethanol (alcohol) vapor.
So in other words, they're having a few beers in the lab one night, and one of them spills it into the testing appratus.
Scientist #1:"Dude? What have you done?"
Scientist #2: (Frenzied running in circles) "Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!! Oh my God!!"
Scientist #3: "Uhhh, guys, something's happening..."
The difference is the government can step in and offer help and protections when you're dealing with a product. If foreign steel is cheaper, the government places import fees on it so that american steel becomes cheaper. The problem is how do you do that with labor? The government can't go to a private company and say "You can only hire american citizens or contract out to american companies". IT personel provide services, not products. You'd be hard pressed to get legislation passed which actually limited a company's ability to do business with other companies outside the US.
The thing about this is that you get your training, do the flight, and go home in one day. Becoming qualified to do a solo jump in skydiving, you have to go through a lot of training and practice jumps and become proficient in packing your chute. It's definately a committment to get to the point where you get to do a solo jump. If I wanted to do a jump this saturday with no prior experience, the best I would be able to get is to do a tandem jump strapped to some guy's crotch in an oversized baby carrier. Also, this program gives you moon and martian gravity, which is awesome.
I don't think that having a half hour ending for this movie is bad, because it's not the conclusion to just ROTK, it is the resolution to the entire Lord of the Rings series. 30 minutes of character and plot resolution in a 10 hour movie is the same as having 5 minutes of resolution in a typical 90 minute movie. We've spent 3 years getting to know these characters, and I know I'd feel disapointed if all I got after the ring was destroyed was a "Good Job Frodo" and they cut to credits. Plus, the ending gave us a glimpse into how Frodo was still affected by the Ring, how he never really recovered from it. I think what everyone is complaining about is the departure for the gray havens scene, where they schmaltzed it up a little, but honestly, it's just a sign of the time of how short of an attention span people really have if they can't take 5 minutes of artistic liberty after 3 hours of butt-kicking action.
Of the other extended editions, Fellowship of the Ring was released on November 12, and The Two Towers was released on November 18. I wonder what's pushing this release back almost a month?
That's a great way of presenting all the steps in the process. Whenever I cook, I always assume that the long step is always the last one (Bake for 90 minutes, simmer for 30 minutes, etc). I've had to order out for chineese many times when trying new receipies because step 4 of 12 is something like "Marinate for 29 hours", and you know, I didn't really bother to read past the list of ingredients. I just figure that if I don't have to shop for it, I can cook it that day.
An MMORPG where everyone insists on being a captain or admiral, where no story can take place
I don't think everyone would insist on being a captain. There are so many different classes that I think people would like to play in the star trek universe. For example, you could be a science officer with abilities in analyzing planets or stellar bodies or unknown signals. There's the engineer with abilities to repair battle damage on ships, or to upgrade equipment. Tactical officer with abilities in ship to ship battle and fleet deployment. Security officer with hand to hand combat capabilities. Doctor to heal your party members. Naviagtor to pilot ships efficiently, with sub-specialities in combat piloting or shuttlecraft piloting. A councilor who can keep up the morale of the 300 NPC characters you'll have on running you ship. And that's just if you want to be starfleet (which would likely be a special guild in this game). You could be a ferengi trader trying to make huge profits by running weapons to the maqui. Or even cooler, be a borg and run around assimilating other people forcibly changing their race to borg. (I guess that wouldn't be THAT cool, but still). In any case, I think there'll be more than a million captains running around in this game.
Of course, college students today are mostly on the public dole in the form of grants, government-insured loans (many of which are defaulted upon, passing cost to the taxpayer)
Everyone who gets federal loans has to go through entrance councling about what they're getting themselves into. So here's why federal loans are hardly a "go to college for free deal". First, there are only two ways to get out of a federal loan without paying - either die, or become so severely disabled that you're no longer able to function and hold a job. Bancrupcy does not absolve you of federal loans. If you're in default, the government can garnish your wages and your tax return until you're paid off. Additionally, your school will withhold your records if you're in default of your loans, so if you're applying for a new job or a professional license or something, your school will not release your transcript. Schools have a vested interest in making sure their students pay back their federal loans, because if the percecentage of their students who are in default gets too high, the government will stop giving that school's students federal loans. So if you're planning to live off the grid after you graduate, then yes, federal loans are free money.
Wouldn't that money be better off putting up scholarships for peeple who can't afford college? Or are these "freeebies" just a start of the new College Marketeering? Not even colleges seem to be immune to the ubercapitalist drumbeat these days...
Most schools are actually not-for-profit organizations, however they do need to be capitalistic, not for money, but for students. Schools always want to get students with the best qualifications, so they'll dangle things for them to come to their school over another. Duke for example, is competining with Harvard and Yale and other similar schools for the cream of the freshman crop. Thus it's in their interest to say "Come to Duke, we'll give you a free IPod", and all other things being equal, this could be enough to sway a guy who has to pay $30000 a year to go to Harvard, or to pay $30000 a year to go to Duke, but gets a cool toy out of it. The school figures that spending a few hundred bucks per student will improve the quality of the student body more than giving one guy a full scholarship.
To Vermila - Stop
LOL - Stop
WTF? - Stop
OMG - Stop
Endothelial stem cells from the intestines are the stems cells which have the most potential of differentiating into different tissue types; they are the least differentiated/most undifferentiated stem cells that are found in adults. Follicular stem cells are already partially differentiated in that they can form the different kinds of cells found in follicles, but aren't very capable for turning into nerve tissue or whatever. That's why embrionic stem cells are so important, since they're capable of turning into every tissue found in a human.
Cliches are irrelevent.
We seek only the integration of intellegent thought into the collective discussion.
SKINNER
...no sighting. Did you get that one Bart?
Now, this morning we're going to be mapping a small square of sky that's thought to be empty. It's my hope that it's not.
BART
So what am I supposed to do exactly?
SKINNER
Just write down my findings as I give them to you. Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, twenty-two minutes declination... no sighting.
BART
Mm-hm.
SKINNER
Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, twenty-three minutes declination... no sighting.
BART
Mm-hm.
The scene fades to later.
SKINNER
(excitedly) Six hours, nineteen minutes, right ascension, fourteen degrees, fifty-eight minutes declination!
BART
Hell no.
SKINNER
Good.
Is sandbox really a good term to use for video games? Maybe it's just me, but when I think of sandboxes, I think of something that's gritty and irritating to my eyes, usually full of crap, and that after you're done playing in it you haven't accomplished anything.
Duke- "Quyzbuk"
Marty-"That's not a word"
Duke - "(dials phone) Get Webster on the phone. Noah, how ya doing? It's Duke. How much would it cost to make Quyzbuk a word? (pause) I don't what means, uh, how about a big problem? Great! How about that other word I invented, Dukelicious? No ones using it? What a Duketastrophe."