Spend billions on a stealth bomber, launch spy satellites into space==> defense of the county, necessary
Give some money researching climate change or space exploration, which could one day save all mankind==> waste of money, leave it to the private sector
The goal of any government should be to do what is best for it's people. Private organisations haven't got that policy, and sadly it seems that there is the perverse assumption within these that it is their duty to seek maximum profit and gain, whilst avoiding any moral responsibilities in doing so. If the population feels that research into valuable science needs to be funded by the government, why shouldn't a democratically elected government do so?
If you want to know what progress would be like without governmental research funding? Look at the amount of scientific progress up until about 250 years ago, and you'll know.
SOTN was certainly one of the best CV games, but I try to avoid directly comparing different games. For me, it comes down to the newer DS games, Aria of Sorrow, and SOTN, all offering superb gameplay. But I guess there hasn't been much change since Symphony, so maybe that's the reason. The PS2 games were absolute shit though. (by Castlevania standards)
The problem is that OO will screw the formatting for anything that's a little more complex. If whenever you open something, everything is out of place, or you can't be sure that somebody will be able to open the document how you saved it, it's best just to use MS Office.
It means that now, I will be able to send ODT's to people who seem to think OO is somehow inferior to the "real" MS Office.
That's one thing to watch out for, especially on cheap (below 20 or so) items. I can't believe eBay puts up with all this crap that goes on at their stores. Instead of doing something useful, they go after things like "adult" material, or MMORPG items. They're just a bunch of evil fuckers.
The market works by supply and demand, not by the "how much are you willing to pay" crap eBay keeps spluttering out. By creating a false impression of demand, the bidder is deceived into thinking he has to compete with other people. It's fraud every sense of the word, and it's probably illegal in most countries. If the seller doesn't want the bids to be too low, that's what the "starting price" is for.
the eBay system is broken, and that's what I thought when I first heard of it. It just encourages this kind of behaviour, although there's nothing really wrong with sniping.
People that say "just put in the price you're willing to pay" are absolutely right, but the best time to put in your bid is simply at the end of the auction. That way you can avoid bidding wars and the far more evil tactic of shilling.
To me, it just seems stupid to put in a bid at any other time. I have no idea what the other person has bid, unless I keep raising my bid until I'm the to bidder, and if I do win I only pay like fifty cents more than the other guy was willing to pay. That's just stupid.
Shilling on the other hand abuses people's willingness to bid, and creates a totally false impression of demand. That's illegal everywhere else, why not on eBay?
Think about this: you want to buy a house that's for sale, and you tell the guy your price. He agrees, and decides to do the deeds next week. You really like the house, and have talked to him about how perfect it will be for you. A few days later, he gives you a phone call and says another buyer is willing to pay 50 000 more, and you only have a few days to decide.
Of course this other guy doesn't exist, and when you ask the owner for his number, he gives you the number of a friend, who's in on the game too.
This article hasn't gone by sales, so I don't think the commercial success of Sims should be counted either.
BTW, I think the fact that a lot of Sims games are in the chart is more of a sign of the decline of PC gaming, rather than the success of a good game mechanic.
Depends, but the stratosphere certainly does (Spaceship one climbs relatively slowly up to about 15km, when the spacecraft is released. After that the flight only takes a couple of minutes)
While the current state of the U.S. Dollar isn't all desirable, the Pound sterling is one of the most notorious currencies for inflation and fluctuation in modern times. It's only in recent years that it's been able to stabilize, even compared to the dollar.
Anyone who convinces the stupid to sterilize themselves or remove themselves from the gene pool through other means certainly deserves our hearty congratulations
Perhaps, if they're clever, they could sterilize themselves with their microwave.
Excuse me for asking, but how the fuck does it get that fucked up? I mean seriously, how? Four times the price is ridiculous, what happens? How's it like with other computer systems?
It did have a following in Japan for quite some time after Sega quit the hardware business. What is the utopia bootloader anyway? Why would you have predicted it's death in 99? From what I've heard, it wasn't really inferior to the PS2, it just failed to get 3rd party support, for no good reason.
Yeah, right, any subject in which there may be controversy over a paper is so dumb it doesn't deserve to be called science. After all, as you say it's just high school stuff. And BTW, so far, there haven't been ten's of trillions of dollars on the line, the reactions to even the most alarming of reports have been remarkably mild. Also, there certainly haven't been lives at stake when investing in ways to reduce global warming, but many lives stand to be ruined if things go on at current rates.
I'm not an expert on the mechanisms of global warming. But there are just a few things that I heard which might convince you otherwise.
Most time there is any serious scientific conference on the matter, it seems that the concern is getting larger and larger. Most climatologists believe that anthropogenic global warming is a huge threat to society and which needs to be acted on urgently. All evidence seems to be pointing clearly in one direction.
There have been a few changes in regional climate patterns in the past thousand years, but it seems that CO2 levels are higher than ever, and we already seem to be experiencing some of the effects, which are only the tip of the iceberg. If you look at the numbers and predictions, we are headed for one heck of climate change.
And it is true that the climate changes naturally, although very slowly, and there have been large climate changes in the past. What we also know is that it sucks to be alive when it happens. Mass extinctions and huge land desertification may be comfortable when it happened to dinosaurs millions of years ago, but I would like to prevent it if I can.
Obviously there are a lot of groups who stand to lose out if the government were to enforce controls on emissions, so there is much resistance, and the article you cited is from an unqualified organisation with the specific goal of "debunking" global warming. There is a huge industry based around this denialism, and it would be very dangerous to simply believe anything called a "paper" by an organisation with a name like "global warming research" or similar, that is meant to give people with little knowledge of the academic world a belief of authority or qualification. Have a quick look at this and do a text search for "Seitz", the man on the front page of the site you linked to. Read the next few paragraphs after that, it should be a little revealing. Basically, anybody with a degree, it didn't matter if they had anything to to with climatology, was invited to sign a petition, which he then presented as proof that the scientific community didn't see global warming as a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you been on the moon these last few years?
How about this:
Spend billions on a stealth bomber, launch spy satellites into space==> defense of the county, necessary
Give some money researching climate change or space exploration, which could one day save all mankind==> waste of money, leave it to the private sector
The goal of any government should be to do what is best for it's people. Private organisations haven't got that policy, and sadly it seems that there is the perverse assumption within these that it is their duty to seek maximum profit and gain, whilst avoiding any moral responsibilities in doing so.
If the population feels that research into valuable science needs to be funded by the government, why shouldn't a democratically elected government do so?
If you want to know what progress would be like without governmental research funding? Look at the amount of scientific progress up until about 250 years ago, and you'll know.
In design and scheduled for launch in 2015
I share your relief.
SOTN was certainly one of the best CV games, but I try to avoid directly comparing different games. For me, it comes down to the newer DS games, Aria of Sorrow, and SOTN, all offering superb gameplay. But I guess there hasn't been much change since Symphony, so maybe that's the reason.
The PS2 games were absolute shit though. (by Castlevania standards)
Same thing happened to me with hotmail. Guess which email service I won't be using anymore.
The problem is that OO will screw the formatting for anything that's a little more complex. If whenever you open something, everything is out of place, or you can't be sure that somebody will be able to open the document how you saved it, it's best just to use MS Office.
It means that now, I will be able to send ODT's to people who seem to think OO is somehow inferior to the "real" MS Office.
I would say so. Particularly this part:
Economically speaking, this is flourishing because you are minimizing deadweight loss by matching willingness to pay with maximizing profit.
Of course, the sellers are going to be rubbing their hands, but if they didn't teach you the danger of price fixing, I seriously pity you.
Since Quiktime 7 you have been able to watch fullscreen.
That's one thing to watch out for, especially on cheap (below 20 or so) items. I can't believe eBay puts up with all this crap that goes on at their stores. Instead of doing something useful, they go after things like "adult" material, or MMORPG items.
They're just a bunch of evil fuckers.
The market works by supply and demand, not by the "how much are you willing to pay" crap eBay keeps spluttering out. By creating a false impression of demand, the bidder is deceived into thinking he has to compete with other people. It's fraud every sense of the word, and it's probably illegal in most countries.
If the seller doesn't want the bids to be too low, that's what the "starting price" is for.
the eBay system is broken, and that's what I thought when I first heard of it. It just encourages this kind of behaviour, although there's nothing really wrong with sniping. People that say "just put in the price you're willing to pay" are absolutely right, but the best time to put in your bid is simply at the end of the auction. That way you can avoid bidding wars and the far more evil tactic of shilling. To me, it just seems stupid to put in a bid at any other time. I have no idea what the other person has bid, unless I keep raising my bid until I'm the to bidder, and if I do win I only pay like fifty cents more than the other guy was willing to pay. That's just stupid. Shilling on the other hand abuses people's willingness to bid, and creates a totally false impression of demand. That's illegal everywhere else, why not on eBay? Think about this: you want to buy a house that's for sale, and you tell the guy your price. He agrees, and decides to do the deeds next week. You really like the house, and have talked to him about how perfect it will be for you. A few days later, he gives you a phone call and says another buyer is willing to pay 50 000 more, and you only have a few days to decide. Of course this other guy doesn't exist, and when you ask the owner for his number, he gives you the number of a friend, who's in on the game too.
This article hasn't gone by sales, so I don't think the commercial success of Sims should be counted either. BTW, I think the fact that a lot of Sims games are in the chart is more of a sign of the decline of PC gaming, rather than the success of a good game mechanic.
You're maybe in for a shock. Look at the list. It says there have bee over a hundred games, quite a shocking number.
Mario Kart DS automatically upgraded older DS firmware to give it Internet over WiFi connection.
Depends, but the stratosphere certainly does (Spaceship one climbs relatively slowly up to about 15km, when the spacecraft is released. After that the flight only takes a couple of minutes)
While the current state of the U.S. Dollar isn't all desirable, the Pound sterling is one of the most notorious currencies for inflation and fluctuation in modern times. It's only in recent years that it's been able to stabilize, even compared to the dollar.
Anyone who convinces the stupid to sterilize themselves or remove themselves from the gene pool through other means certainly deserves our hearty congratulations
Perhaps, if they're clever, they could sterilize themselves with their microwave.
Wow, that's how much I paid for my Wii in Europe.
If you RTFA, you would have found out that Heidi Cullen is a woman.
Excuse me for asking, but how the fuck does it get that fucked up? I mean seriously, how? Four times the price is ridiculous, what happens? How's it like with other computer systems?
It did have a following in Japan for quite some time after Sega quit the hardware business. What is the utopia bootloader anyway?
Why would you have predicted it's death in 99? From what I've heard, it wasn't really inferior to the PS2, it just failed to get 3rd party support, for no good reason.
Yeah, right, any subject in which there may be controversy over a paper is so dumb it doesn't deserve to be called science. After all, as you say it's just high school stuff.
And BTW, so far, there haven't been ten's of trillions of dollars on the line, the reactions to even the most alarming of reports have been remarkably mild. Also, there certainly haven't been lives at stake when investing in ways to reduce global warming, but many lives stand to be ruined if things go on at current rates.
Especially this country
Wow, look at the irony in this mod. (see parent modded troll)
I'm not an expert on the mechanisms of global warming. But there are just a few things that I heard which might convince you otherwise.
Most time there is any serious scientific conference on the matter, it seems that the concern is getting larger and larger. Most climatologists believe that anthropogenic global warming is a huge threat to society and which needs to be acted on urgently. All evidence seems to be pointing clearly in one direction.
There have been a few changes in regional climate patterns in the past thousand years, but it seems that CO2 levels are higher than ever, and we already seem to be experiencing some of the effects, which are only the tip of the iceberg. If you look at the numbers and predictions, we are headed for one heck of climate change.
And it is true that the climate changes naturally, although very slowly, and there have been large climate changes in the past. What we also know is that it sucks to be alive when it happens. Mass extinctions and huge land desertification may be comfortable when it happened to dinosaurs millions of years ago, but I would like to prevent it if I can.
Obviously there are a lot of groups who stand to lose out if the government were to enforce controls on emissions, so there is much resistance, and the article you cited is from an unqualified organisation with the specific goal of "debunking" global warming. There is a huge industry based around this denialism, and it would be very dangerous to simply believe anything called a "paper" by an organisation with a name like "global warming research" or similar, that is meant to give people with little knowledge of the academic world a belief of authority or qualification.
Have a quick look at this and do a text search for "Seitz", the man on the front page of the site you linked to. Read the next few paragraphs after that, it should be a little revealing.
Basically, anybody with a degree, it didn't matter if they had anything to to with climatology, was invited to sign a petition, which he then presented as proof that the scientific community didn't see global warming as a problem.