Oblarg

I nuke Ashley, every single game. Kaiden's voice might make me cringe (though it's not due to bad voice acting, simply bad memories of certain lines in KotOR), but he's a much better and more interesting character than Carth. Plus, he's probably the most reasonable and level-headed character in the first game (too bad they threw that out the window in the second, eh?). Ashley is a xenophobe who adds almost nothing to the crew.

I resent that comment humans have earned their place on the galaxy with the blood spilled on the battle with Sovereign. What, and the blood spilled by the aliens means **** all? The rapid shift from humanity being the underdogs to humanity being the most important species in the galaxy really hurts the setting.

Sounds pretty bad. Anyone notice how the emphasis of the series has shifted from "humans are newcomers, the galaxy is a big place" (pretty interesting, allows for some cool situations) to "**** YEAH HUMANITY, ALIENS ARE WORTHLESS!" (cliched and dumb)?

Who the **** would want multiplayer in Mass Effect? That's an awful idea.

Guard dog, you repeatedly refer to this ideal "framework" within which government should stay as if it's some well-defined thing which everyone agrees upon. The reason you often come off as an anarchist is that none of us know what your ideal framework for government is, and it always seems to be that government should be very, very, very small.

Barbecued is the only way I can eat most pork - it's far too dry otherwise. Smoking in general is just a really satisfying way of making food. A while back I made a whole, untrimmed beef brisket (~17 pounds) on my kettle grill. It actually worked pretty well; I just had to constantly monitor the temperature and refuel the fire (kettle grills aren't particularly well-suited to staying at around 250 degrees, so you have to be attentive).

I had planned to make a good bit of gold on the profession boom during the first week or two. Not going to happen, at this rate. There are no game stores within walking distance of my dorm. This is unacceptable - Steam doesn't stop working every time a new game is released, yet the battle.net store, unfailingly, does (hell, I couldn't by SCII from it for a good month after it was released).

The fact of the matter is that the only thing that matters when it comes to weight loss is calories eating/calories burned. If you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight. It's conservation of mass, if you want to look at it that way.

Still unable to buy the game, and tech support is still unable to take my call (phone queue is full). You know what? I'm not buying Cataclysm. If Blizzard is unable to operate on online store properly and to provide reasonable customer service, I'm not going to give them my money. Forget it.

No, this is, simply put, bull****. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight. More than that, we simply don't understand. The biochemistry is too complicated and has not been studied well enough. Carbohydrates and fats are ultimately calorie sources. Your body burns them. In the short-term, the only two things that matter for "health" are protein and calories. In the long term, there are certain trace amounts of various vitamins you need. Past that, we simply don't know - why do you think the status quo for "healthy eating" changes so often? Human nutrition is really ****ing complicated, and we don't fully understand it.

Really? All it did for me was reaffirm what was already obvious - if you eat 5000 Calories a day, you will get fat.

You see, here's the thing - we don't know why trans fat is "bad," or even if it is "bad." We don't understand the biochemistry. Current nutrition is based on some very shoddy science with large, poorly-controlled correlative studies. I'm quite sure that someone can get their daily limit of calories from McDonalds (let's say, 2000 kcal/day), and with a bit of vitamin supplements, be completely fine. The only real problem might be sodium.

Unable to buy the expansion; Blizzard's online shop is broken, and their phone support queue is full. **** this ****.

Indeed. I think this is a good thing. What I'm far more annoyed about is the stupidly large increase in university fees for UK students. University should be free or heavily subsidised. Find other spending cuts to make you bastards, like this ship! Of course it should. Because universites don't cost anything do they? I mean, all those professors and lab intructors and campus staff, they work for free right? Capus facilities and equioment like research labs and the money to fund them, that just grows up from the ground right? The day college is free is the day a degree becomes worthless. It shouldn't be free, no, but what would be wrong with subsidizing college? Certainly better than those ****ing ethanol subsidies which no one is ever going to get rid of because our government is completely incompetent. Seems to me that it would be quite a worthy investment to spend taxpayer money on educating more people.

Why the hate for fast food? The only "dieting" that works is controlling calorie intake and exercising regularly. We don't understand the biochemistry behind digestion and metabolism yet. To prove the point, someone should make Supersize Me-type a movie of someone surviving off of McDonalds and vitamin supplements. I'm quite sure you could do it, as long as you didn't eat too much.

Indian food again. This place really knows how to make their curries nice and hot - it's the only way to have them.

If any of you have not read Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury, you need to. Now. Also, the His Dark Materials trilogy by Pullman is great.

I am still using my 8800 gts g92. It still rocks.

MCM - Mutually Assured Distraction This is ****ing brainmelting prog/fusion. It's supposedly ~80% improvisation, too. Then again, what else do you expect when you have Alex Masi, John Macaluso, and Randy Coven together in one band?

This, I think, is the crux of the matter.

In North America (Canada, US & Mexico) fisheries ARE regulated. Overfishing is not really a serious problem here. If the fish population begins to suffer they simply restrice the seasons or catch limits or even suspend a season entirely. Certain areas have been restricted for fishing for a season or two. It is a system that works pretty well because all three contries particiapte in it. Tell that to the Codfish. Actually, I'd say the only reason it doesn't happen is because the government regulates it. I'd love for you to give a legitimate reason why federal government is incompetent by design while state and local governments aren't. How to run a sustainable farm does not magically change when you cross a state border.

I suspect you and I will never find much common ground on this subject. I do find it curious that you do not trust people to do the right thing when they are assembled in corporations but somehow think the exact same people will do the right thing when they are assembled in governments. I will never understand that. Governments are short sighted, arrogant, ignorant, and wasteful just like business can be because all of them are run by people. How do you trust one but not the other? Yes I read your platitudes about it being the role of government to look out for the good of the people in a perfect world. Well, reality is light years from perfect and I hope you are not so naieve as to think that it isn't. Actually, no, I don't think they'll likely do the right thing in either situation, but that's simply because the government is not functioning as it ideally should. A business functioning as it ideally should could still very well do a lot of harm to the environment, while a government wouldn't. The world isn't ideal, obviously, but as both businesses and governments currently are seemingly unwilling to make sacrifices now to protect the resources we have, it's the only thing you really can base the decision on. I don't have bright hopes for the future.

Once again I cannot answer for how it is done elsewhere but in the US and Canada commercial fishing is restricted to certain seasons. It is specifically desiged to give the fish time to school, spawn and mature. In Alaska the crab season is just six weeks long. This is all done to manage the fish populations and to prevent overfishing. In Florida lobster season is just 13 weeks, Stone Crab season is short, all sport & commercial fishing seasons are finite leanths. Just down the road from me is over 10000 acres of timber land owned and managed by Georgia Pacific Co. Every seven years or so they cut down every single tree then replant the whole 10000 acres with pine saplings. Seven years later they repeat the cycle. The big commercial cotton farms south of Memphis always have a certain percentage of their fields lying fallow. Plus you do realize a good portion of the fish and all of the beef/chicken/pork consumed in North America is farm raised now. As far as freshwater fish is concerened, commercial fishing no longer exists, it far more cost effective to simply raise them. Many saltwater hatcheries are popping up, especially in the northwest. You guys seem to think there is no conservation going on. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When you find examples of evil corporations despoiling the land it is the exception, not the rule. In fact I would say far more harm is done by well meaning but ignorant government officials and enviormentalists. The regulations these companies are operatig under are a mixed bag of state and federal but the majority of it comes from state governments. Like I said, that is all together appropriate and it not an overreach, until the federal governemnt steps in and screws everyone over, like all the examples I've listed. Farm raised fish is a joke, as they feed them different types of wild-caught fish. Until they get aquaculture working starting with Algae, it won't be a superior method. Yes, there are regulations in place, but they're not strict enough. They're not nearly strict enough. Don't believe me? Go read up on the subject. Left to their own devices, people will exhaust renewable resources, because people are short-sighted. This is why we need regulation. Go read Collapse - It has happened many, many times throughout history.

At this point, saving the fisheries is a lost cause. It's too hard to regulate fishing in international waters, and there aren't any governments that would be willing to do it, either, for fear of costing people their jobs and livelihoods. Look at Japan if you want an example. The problem with this is that right now we have two choices - cost many fishermen their livelihoods now, or lose the potential for anyone to make a living off of that resource in the future. It should be clear what the correct course of action is. My worry is that unless we start regulating the consumption of other resources soon (forests, for example), we may reach a similar point. Humans have a frightening capacity to destroy their own civilizations through environmental damage, and unless we make some sacrifices now there won't be anything to lose in the future. Something to think about: What was the man who cut down the last tree on Easter Island thinking when he did it?

Japan was the single biggest threat to Australia during any war we've been in (had invasion plans all lined up, bombed a few of our cities, killed a few thousand people, and Australia confronted them directly and pushed them back during the Kokoda Track Campaign). Now they're far and away our single closest trade partner. Chinese trade is about equivalent in quantity, but our political ties with China are extremely tenuous and frail, whereas with Japan they're deep and strong. Funny how things work out. If there's one way to describe Japan throughout history, it's adaptable. It's the reason they've been so successful.