If you believe in the WHO rankings and I'm sure you do then a cheap ticket to Canada will afford you better care. I encourage you to embrace the UN rankings and try them out. Or, if you prefer you can take a bit of a longer trip to Columbia, according to the UN they are fantastic. Sure, you're taking a pretty big leap of faith when indexing your preferences based on the disability mortality rates via the UN from a report nearly 10 years ago. And sure, you're kind of taking a chance on using the widely publisized Overall Performance (OP) rannkings for your trip instead of the Overall Attainment (OA). And sure, it's kind of strange that WHO could do a study in 2000 but now they won't because it's too complicated. So, my advice is NOT to pay your $510 a month. Emergency rooms will take anyone regardless of medical coverage (some might call it forced National Health Care as you were actually paying for that guaranteed coverage with part of your $510...but I digress). When you're stable, get a flight to your highest rank WHO country and breath a sigh of relief.
So... CO2 causes global warming, apparently on Mars and Jupiter too. Yet when sunspot activity decreases, this whole global warming trend slows down (to the tune of no increase of global temperature in over 8 years). And in the 1990s when sunspot activity was some of the highest ever recorded, global temperatures rose. I wonder if this is a coincidence.... or is it?
So really... are you all still addicted to that theory? That it's all about the CO2?
Hey man, everyone knows you don't get the grants with headlines that read, "looks like everything is as unpredictable as ever". If you can speculate that the sea levels will rise by 20 feet and get your universities name in the NY Times then that's a different story. Are YOU going to dedicate four years of your life to reasearch just to say you didn't find anything? Hell no.
Honestly, I don't care as much as the ACLU that's for certain. I think most Americans support tapping suspect calls on the fly out of Iran but happen to route through a US switch to another end receiver in Iran. To the ACLU that's a domestic wire tap, probably is to some courts as well I'm sure. I also have no problem with them filtering email that might originate from overseas or travel overseas. To the ACLU, an email between suspect foreign entities becomes a US "wiretap" when they carbon copy a citizen in the US (even if they don't know said person and use a cc as a spam mechanism to muddy the legal waters).
I think the US shouldn't intentionally target phone calls between my wife and I. I know it's a complete waste of their time and I don't think that's what they are doing. I think some special interest groups like the ACLU and political partisans are making mountains out of mole-hills on this. If the intentions of the US are to root out the bad guys then my call to the Pizza Hut is collateral damage as far as I'm concerned. Am I naive, ignorant and possibly even a danger to the whole US foundation of freedom because of my beliefs? No, I'm blissfully naive and ignorant about these possible dangers. I think like most Americans, I don't worry too much about it and I sleep well at night.
Well, It's totally anecdotal evidence but I've played enough mind-numbing hours of Q3A and counterstrike to know for certain there are VERY good FPS PC gamers out there that use a trackball. You can talk about spin for trackballs but mice also suffer limitations. Many mouse users have to compromise the "lift and move" tactic in order to reorient their mice, especially those that lower their sensitivity get accurate. I'm no trackball fan but I know that trackball users can be really accurate which is a world of difference between an analog stick.
Once a console maker figures out how to put a tackball in the controller for the right thumb this claim will no longer be in the win column for PC gamers IMO. I think the analog stick for movement is a better scheme but obviously aiming is not a real analog function. Your eyes move too fast. And if you want to scoff at trackball users, I'd join you because I can't stand trackballs. But, I do know there are some really competitive trackball users in the PC/FPS community. If I could get used to it, I'd welcome it.
The 360 is my first console. I was such a PC gaming elitist that I never swallowed the PS2 crack. Anyway, I've played a ton of PC shooters competitively. I will agree that the mouse is much more precise and effective in a first person environment. However, analog movement with the stick is much better than the on/off movement of keyboard keys. I never could stand it (or never had the patience to get used to it) but I know PC gamers that are very good, if not some of the best with a trackball. I don't think it's too hard to foresee a future where the PC gaming mantra of keyboard+mouse is better than anything on a console will be a tired cliche. I don't know if it will be a touch pad (ala your laptop) or a trackball type device or some other implementation but I think consoles will evolve on that front.
I personally don't miss downloading Gamespy or other front ends for getting servers, getting teamspeak servers going, arguing over servers for competitive play or any of those things I did on the PC. Xbox live seems to take all those headaches away. I've really resisted the console platform for long time but I think the dynamic has changed a lot since it was PC vs PS1 and even PS2. I realize now that I don't have to buy $400 video cards every two years or wonder if I got a lag spike or 50 fps lower than my opponent. Everyone is basically on the same level and it's refreshing to have that peace of mind.
I read the first book my freshman year in college (1990). Now, I'm 37 years old with a wife and kid and it's hard to believe this whole thing still has legs. I've seen epic MUDs established from it's lore, video games and a catalyst of epic fantasy series since it's release. I imagine you're on board to finish Jordan's story, not to reinterpret it through your own vision. All I can say, as a past fan who lost his way so badly in the series that I don't know know which way is up... I would certainly enjoy a volume that captured the flavor of Eye of the World. Something descriptive on the narrative of the story, not descriptive for descriptions sake.
Even before Black / Sigma you could redirect the camera in Ninja Gaiden to the direction you were facing. You just couldn't rotate the camera (freestyle as it were). That said, the camera use in Ninja Gaiden was really bad. Even when you could freely rotate the camera it wasn't a panacea for improving the issue. You still had to block while you rotated the camera. Then, when you faced something like those three God Damn Black Ninjas you never had time to adjust the camera at all, you had to actually go back to the old system of pushing the button to face the camera in the direction of your character because the free rotating camera wasn't fast enough. Cameras seem to be HUGE issues for 3rd person (is that even the damn term?) games. Ninja Gaiden, as fantastic as it was (and still is) never did perfect this.
I don't know about the rest of you but I didn't see an option to buy Portal on it's own. Instead, it was part of a larger collection of games including the fantastic Half-life series and TF2. On that scale, the Orange box is as close to a 10 as you can get. There's more content in Orange box than I thought could fit on a single DVD. Giving portal a lower score because of length is like giving films in Halo 3 a low score because you only get four uploads. Instert Forest/tree analgoy here.
I agree, the library of movies you can stream at Netflix is horrible. There's a reason that Happy Gilmore in the top 50 movies. That's because there's nothing else to watch. I was relieved and excited that I found Red October, only later to find it was yanked and no longer available. I think the movie studios aren't letting Netflix increase their library with popular titles or Netflix has no understanding of what people want to watch. The whole library reminds me of an old VHS collection.
Results don't matter, it's the intentions of the legislation that matter. As long as you "care" as a politician then you've done your job. Go ahead, outlaw incandescent light bulbs and institute hate crime legislation. At least you've done something. And the best part? As a politician you've done it because you had good intentions. As long as you have good intentions in the politically correct climate then you've done your job. Who cares if it really does anything, what matters is you meant well.
The article doesn't mention the required monthly charge to use the features on the iphone. A quick internet search doesn't reveal the cost either. Why is this such a big secret? People keep comparing the ipod to the iphone but because one of the devices requires a regular monthly payment to make it function I think they are two completely different markets. Ipods didn't take any initial investment to use or maintain use if you ripped your own CD collection. The iphone is a paperweight without the service plan that is offered through only one provider. So why hasn't the monthly service cost been given yet? AT&T doesn't even have a iphone website yet, even though one of the first Google paid ads shown are for AT&T wireless services.
Sounds like a sequel to me. You have the same identity, equipment/attributes or whatever but in a brand new story right? Sure, you could have server resets but knowing the MMO mobs like most do, I can never imagine a world where players would be OK starting over again from scratch (ie the farm boy with nothing turned to RPG hero).
Furthermore, how do you end this story arc? When the super guild destroys the super villain? How do you appease players in the "massive" multiplayer environment? I can see how this works in smaller MUD environments but we're talking specifically about MMOs here. How are hundreds if not thousands of players supposed to coordinate their play to achieve a story arc? What you're suggesting is great, I'm just not sure how plausible it is. One thing I do know is that it doesn't yet exist.
The one thing the RPG can do that a MMO can never do is have an ending. Therefore, they can tell a story. After a while, even a well done MMO feels like a Lethal Weapon marathon.
Also, in an RPG you can really be the hero and effect your world. In an MMO you're just one of a gazillion heros/villians and can never truely effect your world.
A 40 day suspension for making fun of a teacher? Christ almighty. Am I totally out of touch with current school policies? In my day kids got one week suspensions for smoking pot and getting in to fights.
It looked cropped to me. Perhaps there's more to that picture? Or as the story seems to indicate, the University is completely clueless. I'd bet there are two sides to that story.
But then I remember the intro to Quake 2 and the Boss introductions for Ninja Gaiden and I realize that it can be done right and can add to the immersion of the game. However, that "done right" part seems exceedingly easy to "do wrong" as proven by so many other games.
The crime and murder rate have always been low in Japan. I'd submit this is a social/cultural phenomena, rather than a gun control one.
Japan isn't immune from shootings and is in fact in the middle of some shooting/gang issues at the moment. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/200 7/02/09/2003348298 As the gangs in Tokyo have proven, just because it's illegal to have firearms doesn't mean they aren't there.
No wonder game magazines are all going under. Even if you get an exclusive it's scanned and copied freely. I don't think it's a suprise but it's an unfortunately reality for magazines like gameinformer.
I'm not sure about anyone else but that sounds like one of the worst "vacations" possible to me. Perhaps his type of work lends itself to productivity in such an environment. I wouldn't be as productive and more importantly I wouldn't enjoy my vacation all that much. I see the appeal and relative productivity of sitting in a cafe or park and getting work done but to really travel and sight-see?
I still don't understand what that has to do with anything. My breathing effects the warming of the air around me. The question is the relative importance of that effect in relation to the whole.
Water Vapor, solar cycles and other means also have a role. The issue at hand and you sir are guilty of this yourself in other postings is that instead of debating the science of various "skeptics", the "believers" instead use ad hominem questions of perceived qualifications of said skeptics to attack their conclusions.
Peer reviewed papers offering evidence of natural climate behaviors contrary to the climate warming vein are thoroughly ignored. The man in question shouldn't be chastised for his qualifications or resume of work but for what he claims. Are skeptics being black-balled? I don't think that's too far fetched of a hypothesis do you?
I think the reasons people attack the messenger rather than the message is as old as time itself. The topic has become extremely emotional. I think it's also pretty obvious why big media headlines the most flamboyant of catastrophic predictions. It doesn't matter how many scientific papers dispute the claim that climate change has made hurricanes more severe, it sells more papers to predict the worst. I'm straying off topic quite a bit here I admit. In any case, instead of doing searches of credentials, why don't we dispute their findings?
Slashdot Mirror
If you believe in the WHO rankings and I'm sure you do then a cheap ticket to Canada will afford you better care. I encourage you to embrace the UN rankings and try them out. Or, if you prefer you can take a bit of a longer trip to Columbia, according to the UN they are fantastic. Sure, you're taking a pretty big leap of faith when indexing your preferences based on the disability mortality rates via the UN from a report nearly 10 years ago. And sure, you're kind of taking a chance on using the widely publisized Overall Performance (OP) rannkings for your trip instead of the Overall Attainment (OA). And sure, it's kind of strange that WHO could do a study in 2000 but now they won't because it's too complicated. So, my advice is NOT to pay your $510 a month. Emergency rooms will take anyone regardless of medical coverage (some might call it forced National Health Care as you were actually paying for that guaranteed coverage with part of your $510...but I digress). When you're stable, get a flight to your highest rank WHO country and breath a sigh of relief.
OH MY
So... CO2 causes global warming, apparently on Mars and Jupiter too. Yet when sunspot activity decreases, this whole global warming trend slows down (to the tune of no increase of global temperature in over 8 years). And in the 1990s when sunspot activity was some of the highest ever recorded, global temperatures rose. I wonder if this is a coincidence.... or is it?
So really... are you all still addicted to that theory? That it's all about the CO2?
Hey man, everyone knows you don't get the grants with headlines that read, "looks like everything is as unpredictable as ever". If you can speculate that the sea levels will rise by 20 feet and get your universities name in the NY Times then that's a different story. Are YOU going to dedicate four years of your life to reasearch just to say you didn't find anything? Hell no.
Honestly, I don't care as much as the ACLU that's for certain. I think most Americans support tapping suspect calls on the fly out of Iran but happen to route through a US switch to another end receiver in Iran. To the ACLU that's a domestic wire tap, probably is to some courts as well I'm sure. I also have no problem with them filtering email that might originate from overseas or travel overseas. To the ACLU, an email between suspect foreign entities becomes a US "wiretap" when they carbon copy a citizen in the US (even if they don't know said person and use a cc as a spam mechanism to muddy the legal waters).
I think the US shouldn't intentionally target phone calls between my wife and I. I know it's a complete waste of their time and I don't think that's what they are doing. I think some special interest groups like the ACLU and political partisans are making mountains out of mole-hills on this. If the intentions of the US are to root out the bad guys then my call to the Pizza Hut is collateral damage as far as I'm concerned. Am I naive, ignorant and possibly even a danger to the whole US foundation of freedom because of my beliefs? No, I'm blissfully naive and ignorant about these possible dangers. I think like most Americans, I don't worry too much about it and I sleep well at night.
Well, It's totally anecdotal evidence but I've played enough mind-numbing hours of Q3A and counterstrike to know for certain there are VERY good FPS PC gamers out there that use a trackball. You can talk about spin for trackballs but mice also suffer limitations. Many mouse users have to compromise the "lift and move" tactic in order to reorient their mice, especially those that lower their sensitivity get accurate. I'm no trackball fan but I know that trackball users can be really accurate which is a world of difference between an analog stick.
Once a console maker figures out how to put a tackball in the controller for the right thumb this claim will no longer be in the win column for PC gamers IMO. I think the analog stick for movement is a better scheme but obviously aiming is not a real analog function. Your eyes move too fast. And if you want to scoff at trackball users, I'd join you because I can't stand trackballs. But, I do know there are some really competitive trackball users in the PC/FPS community. If I could get used to it, I'd welcome it.
The 360 is my first console. I was such a PC gaming elitist that I never swallowed the PS2 crack. Anyway, I've played a ton of PC shooters competitively. I will agree that the mouse is much more precise and effective in a first person environment. However, analog movement with the stick is much better than the on/off movement of keyboard keys. I never could stand it (or never had the patience to get used to it) but I know PC gamers that are very good, if not some of the best with a trackball. I don't think it's too hard to foresee a future where the PC gaming mantra of keyboard+mouse is better than anything on a console will be a tired cliche. I don't know if it will be a touch pad (ala your laptop) or a trackball type device or some other implementation but I think consoles will evolve on that front.
I personally don't miss downloading Gamespy or other front ends for getting servers, getting teamspeak servers going, arguing over servers for competitive play or any of those things I did on the PC. Xbox live seems to take all those headaches away. I've really resisted the console platform for long time but I think the dynamic has changed a lot since it was PC vs PS1 and even PS2. I realize now that I don't have to buy $400 video cards every two years or wonder if I got a lag spike or 50 fps lower than my opponent. Everyone is basically on the same level and it's refreshing to have that peace of mind.
I read the first book my freshman year in college (1990). Now, I'm 37 years old with a wife and kid and it's hard to believe this whole thing still has legs. I've seen epic MUDs established from it's lore, video games and a catalyst of epic fantasy series since it's release. I imagine you're on board to finish Jordan's story, not to reinterpret it through your own vision. All I can say, as a past fan who lost his way so badly in the series that I don't know know which way is up... I would certainly enjoy a volume that captured the flavor of Eye of the World. Something descriptive on the narrative of the story, not descriptive for descriptions sake.
Even before Black / Sigma you could redirect the camera in Ninja Gaiden to the direction you were facing. You just couldn't rotate the camera (freestyle as it were). That said, the camera use in Ninja Gaiden was really bad. Even when you could freely rotate the camera it wasn't a panacea for improving the issue. You still had to block while you rotated the camera. Then, when you faced something like those three God Damn Black Ninjas you never had time to adjust the camera at all, you had to actually go back to the old system of pushing the button to face the camera in the direction of your character because the free rotating camera wasn't fast enough. Cameras seem to be HUGE issues for 3rd person (is that even the damn term?) games. Ninja Gaiden, as fantastic as it was (and still is) never did perfect this.
Orange Box came to the Xbox 360 on one DVD.
I had no idea you could buy Portal seperately on Steam. Thanks for the tip!
I don't know about the rest of you but I didn't see an option to buy Portal on it's own. Instead, it was part of a larger collection of games including the fantastic Half-life series and TF2. On that scale, the Orange box is as close to a 10 as you can get. There's more content in Orange box than I thought could fit on a single DVD. Giving portal a lower score because of length is like giving films in Halo 3 a low score because you only get four uploads. Instert Forest/tree analgoy here.
I agree, the library of movies you can stream at Netflix is horrible. There's a reason that Happy Gilmore in the top 50 movies. That's because there's nothing else to watch. I was relieved and excited that I found Red October, only later to find it was yanked and no longer available. I think the movie studios aren't letting Netflix increase their library with popular titles or Netflix has no understanding of what people want to watch. The whole library reminds me of an old VHS collection.
Results don't matter, it's the intentions of the legislation that matter. As long as you "care" as a politician then you've done your job. Go ahead, outlaw incandescent light bulbs and institute hate crime legislation. At least you've done something. And the best part? As a politician you've done it because you had good intentions. As long as you have good intentions in the politically correct climate then you've done your job. Who cares if it really does anything, what matters is you meant well.
The article doesn't mention the required monthly charge to use the features on the iphone. A quick internet search doesn't reveal the cost either. Why is this such a big secret? People keep comparing the ipod to the iphone but because one of the devices requires a regular monthly payment to make it function I think they are two completely different markets. Ipods didn't take any initial investment to use or maintain use if you ripped your own CD collection. The iphone is a paperweight without the service plan that is offered through only one provider. So why hasn't the monthly service cost been given yet? AT&T doesn't even have a iphone website yet, even though one of the first Google paid ads shown are for AT&T wireless services.
Sounds like a sequel to me. You have the same identity, equipment/attributes or whatever but in a brand new story right? Sure, you could have server resets but knowing the MMO mobs like most do, I can never imagine a world where players would be OK starting over again from scratch (ie the farm boy with nothing turned to RPG hero).
Furthermore, how do you end this story arc? When the super guild destroys the super villain? How do you appease players in the "massive" multiplayer environment? I can see how this works in smaller MUD environments but we're talking specifically about MMOs here. How are hundreds if not thousands of players supposed to coordinate their play to achieve a story arc? What you're suggesting is great, I'm just not sure how plausible it is. One thing I do know is that it doesn't yet exist.
The one thing the RPG can do that a MMO can never do is have an ending. Therefore, they can tell a story. After a while, even a well done MMO feels like a Lethal Weapon marathon.
Also, in an RPG you can really be the hero and effect your world. In an MMO you're just one of a gazillion heros/villians and can never truely effect your world.
A 40 day suspension for making fun of a teacher? Christ almighty. Am I totally out of touch with current school policies? In my day kids got one week suspensions for smoking pot and getting in to fights.
Ok, no one else has said it yet...
"You must be new here."
It looked cropped to me. Perhaps there's more to that picture? Or as the story seems to indicate, the University is completely clueless. I'd bet there are two sides to that story.
That's my same knee jerk reaction as well.
But then I remember the intro to Quake 2 and the Boss introductions for Ninja Gaiden and I realize that it can be done right and can add to the immersion of the game. However, that "done right" part seems exceedingly easy to "do wrong" as proven by so many other games.
The crime and murder rate have always been low in Japan. I'd submit this is a social/cultural phenomena, rather than a gun control one.
0 7/02/09/2003348298 As the gangs in Tokyo have proven, just because it's illegal to have firearms doesn't mean they aren't there.
Japan isn't immune from shootings and is in fact in the middle of some shooting/gang issues at the moment. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/20
I loved Black Crypt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Crypt
No wonder game magazines are all going under. Even if you get an exclusive it's scanned and copied freely. I don't think it's a suprise but it's an unfortunately reality for magazines like gameinformer.
I'm not sure about anyone else but that sounds like one of the worst "vacations" possible to me. Perhaps his type of work lends itself to productivity in such an environment. I wouldn't be as productive and more importantly I wouldn't enjoy my vacation all that much. I see the appeal and relative productivity of sitting in a cafe or park and getting work done but to really travel and sight-see?
I still don't understand what that has to do with anything. My breathing effects the warming of the air around me. The question is the relative importance of that effect in relation to the whole .
5 977.shtml or even more importantly, http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2006.../2006GL027 033.shtml. Items like http://scitizen.com/screens/blogPage/viewBlog/sw_v iewBlog.php?idTheme=13&idContribution=444&PHPSESSI D=7b6415c4d679d6df5c28f395d03c416e just don't seem to grab the front page of the NY Times do they?
Water Vapor, solar cycles and other means also have a role. The issue at hand and you sir are guilty of this yourself in other postings is that instead of debating the science of various "skeptics", the "believers" instead use ad hominem questions of perceived qualifications of said skeptics to attack their conclusions.
Peer reviewed papers offering evidence of natural climate behaviors contrary to the climate warming vein are thoroughly ignored. The man in question shouldn't be chastised for his qualifications or resume of work but for what he claims. Are skeptics being black-balled? I don't think that's too far fetched of a hypothesis do you?
You can do all kinds of internet searches but they always seem to miss protected research papers such as this; http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2006.../2006GL02
I think the reasons people attack the messenger rather than the message is as old as time itself. The topic has become extremely emotional. I think it's also pretty obvious why big media headlines the most flamboyant of catastrophic predictions. It doesn't matter how many scientific papers dispute the claim that climate change has made hurricanes more severe, it sells more papers to predict the worst. I'm straying off topic quite a bit here I admit. In any case, instead of doing searches of credentials, why don't we dispute their findings?