Guard Dog

Good luck and Godspeed Ros!

I'm not pessimistic by nature but I'm finding myself in agreement with Sand on this one. It is impossible to say what Bioware's future is or how much EA will control it, but based on past performance this move is not a good thing for Bioware fans.

My thoughts exactly. Maybe now we'll start getting some information on DA.

Just finished Ella in Europe. What a funny light hearted book, an absolute joy to read. Now working on My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas.

DOH! Damn you Lyranor for getting my hopes up! Sorry Pidesco.

Damn you Pidesco for getting my hopes up like that!

So I get home from work today and there on the front porch (with dried dog pee on the side) was an Amazon.com box. Yea, new books! My Grandfather's Son by Clarence Thomas Ella in Europe by Michael Konik

And the score in this exchange is: Sand 2 Yushaa 0

After reading Taks post I did a little research and I was surprised to find there have been a number of attempts by groups within states to actually legally separate from the US. Most notably Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. In Alaska they actually tried to get it on the ballot in 2002. That ended in a big court battle that was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court of Alaska in Kohlhaas v State of Alaska. In the decision, Sect 4, paragraph B the Court emphatically states "Secession is unconstitutional". They cited Texas v White for it's interpretation of Article 4. The argument for was based on extrapolating the meaning of the 9th Amendment since the Constitution does not specifically say "Thou Shalt Not Secede". All of the efforts have either died from lack of support or were legally defeated. So it seems the only way it would ever happen is by force of arms, or act of Congress. Which means it won't happen. The US is like a jealous lover, once she has you she never...ever... lets go.

In all seriousness, the idea of the US breaking up has always seemed a little far fetched. Despite the differences in politics, culture, etc, in all the different regions of the country there is still a strong national identity, common language, and shared history. That was not true at all in 1861 where most people identified themselves by what state they lived in. However, it is not inconceivable. The country has become very polarized politically speaking and that is a phenomenon that can be tracked geographically. And it is not expected to change within the next generation or so. It is not unreasonable to suppose that a future president with the complicity of a single party dominated congress could enact something that certain states simply could not live with. Like nationalizing private businesses or property for example. That would be enough to make me fight. Since the Constitution protects the citizens from the government it would have to be a serious constitutional breach to provide the catalyst. That said I doubt that would ever happen.

Sand you could always immigrate to Awesomeland. Aram may not offer you healthcare but at least there won't be corruption.

And just think Aram, if you ever want to make improvements to Awesomeland just declare war on the US then surrender. The US will come in and build all new for you.

You are right Taks, that was not such a great example. I did not do that well in physics I'm afraid. I got a C in both classes. But I got an A in both Statics and Dynamics which are really just applied physics. Go figure. These days I'm seeing microwave paths even in my sleep.

Great link. I sent that to everyone at work... it killed!

If their claim is true then radio mechanics as I understand it would not work. Case in point. Suppose I were to place two narrow band microwave radios on a hill and shoot them to two radios on a distant hill. Assume both are on the same frequency, and modulation, and their paths are parallel, and both are transmitting from a single source. If I set one to 30 dBm (one Watt) and the other to 33 dBm (two Watts) I know they will be in phase with each other at the z end of the shot (signals will arrive at the same time irrespective of power). That is why I strongly suspect there is a observational flaw here rather than a new discovery.

Actually Gorgon and Brdavs my biggest fear is that an Iranian nuke will be given to a terroist group. Iran as a nation state would never initiate such an attack. But by using terrorists as a delivery vehicle they may think to hurt an enemy and give them deniability. Of course we know that is not the case, but that is a rational thought. And as Alexander Haig once said "I am not afraid or rational men. It's the irrational ones you need to watch out for". Ahmadinejad at his best is a demagogue. Let us hope he is not a fool. Or let us at least hope the mullahs who hold his strings are not fools. A nuclear attack on a US city will almost certainly elicit a nuclear response on the nation that gave the terrorsts the weapon to begin with. Besides, I doubt even the most hard core America haters on this board want to see 100,000 to 200,000 innocent American people vaporised. And no one wants to see what comes after.

It would not be the first time in history that a team of educated people witness an event that current physics cannot readily explain, and they assume that physiscs is wrong rather than some flaw in the observation.

Currently reading All Creatures Great and Small. I don't know how I have managed to not read it already but I'm really enjoying it.

Not quite. The iPhone is the only handheld on the market right now that is fully interent capable. It is the only one that accepts full HTML, Java, Flash, etc. And it accepts cookies. I've used one to visit this very forum.

A little "inside info" on the iPhone, here are four true sentences. They are selling a little better than the projected rate. The are not the utter POS I thought they would be. They do make effective use of EDGE (and they have been given a TON of bandwidth to use). They only real design flaw to come to light so far are cracked touch screens but so far they only account for 3% of returns. But it is a little dumb that you cannot dload direct from iTunes.

Ummm its already happened. Pakistan has them. But seriously, can you imagine what the repercussions would be if Iran were to develop nuclear weapons, then give one to a terrorist group and they detonated it in a western country? I'm staying out of the rhetoric of this discussion, but I'd like you to follow that thought to it's logical conclusion. Uranium 235 and 238 and Plutonium can be tracked to the reactor that created them by measuring isotope decay rate. If such a thing were to happen it would be a simple matter of time to determine where the material came from. Iran (or any country) would be unable to deny it's complicity in such an event. What do you think the response would be?

Aren't there sub-kiloton nukes? With yields in the 10-20 ton range. Or do you consider those "ultra small?" I don't think so. It has been a long time since I has a physics class but I believe any fission bomb requires a certain amount of mass to even sustain the explosion, but the more mass the more power. I remeber reading about the "suitcase" bombs the Soviets developed. They had only 10kg of fissable material (Plutonium 239 I would guess) and had a 20kt yield. US artillery delivered tactical nukes are in to 40-50kt range than they are considered small.

Buccaneers, Dolphins, and Jaguars all lost. And lost ugly at that. And the Gators had 4 big injuries on a throw away game against Troy. And Tennessee is looming large next week. What an all around rotten weekend.

Azarkon that was the most thoughtful and intelligent post I've read on this board in a long time. And I agree 100%. The smart thing to have done (and I've said this before) would have been to break Iraq into three separate countries such that would each encapsulate the three distinct ethnic/religious groups. Iraq was itself a construct of a post WWI mandate granting lands from the defeated Ottoman Empire to Britain. Only strong military force has kept it whole, first the British, then the Hashemites, then Saddam. As a rule, nation states with divided ethnic/language/religious/ loyalties and no real (or contrived) national identity do not survive on their own accord. Look at what happened after the USSR fell.