taks

keep in mind part 2, most of these oil companies are profiting less than 10% of their total revenue. there are many sectors in which the profit margins are far higher, but they don't generate the same press because they also have lower revenues (nor do people necessarily buy such things every week or so), or less politically-situated products. taks

keep in mind that oil is a traded commodity, so its price is not directly driven by demand so much as it is driven by speculated demand. from an inflation standpoint, milk has suffered much worse over the past 30 years than oil. taks

hehe, if it is a "smart" missile, it is not under the control of a human operator. self-guiding missiles have been around for a loooooong time. they're just a lot "smarter" now than they used to be. of course, there are also much better technologies out there for detecting/tracking/de-commissioning such things, too. the new wave of technology, btw, is the development of ever smaller, and more complex, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). these little buggers make detection difficult for a variety of reasons. in particular, smaller size reduces radar cross section (RCS), but also allows the use of light-weight, non-metallic, components, which further reduces RCS. smaller RCS means harder to detect with conventional radar. of course, UAVs aren't carrying MOABs or anything, but they can be quite useful in other areas and carry some small arms for tactical deployment. taks

uncharted: drake's fortune on the PS3. pretty cool, though from what i'm reading, it is short. oh well. there are replay options to go back and find all the goodies. taks

hehe, my god... and i'm an atheist. it is patient, indeed. taks

i'm guessing not one of you all has a clue as to what OBE really is. testament to it's success in dumbing down the world, IMO. OBE is, in its purest form, teach people ONLY what they are good at, i.e., determining their best outcome then teaching them that, and that alone. it is socialism in its purest form. the purpose of OBE is to create masses of people that do specific things, but are not educated broadly enough to understand exactly why they are sheep. setting test scores high in graduate class is not OBE. sheesh. think for a moment, too, less than 40% of the population gets in to college, and not all graduate. only 10% of those get a master's degree and less than 1% (of the graduates) get a PhD or similar. subject difficulty alone sets the threshold on these degrees. mandatory testing is the other thing that is really damaging education, perhaps the first step towards true OBE (gee, billy just can't seem to get <insert arbitrary threshold here>, maybe we should only teach him how to cook burgers?). of course, public teaching by itself is a liberal concept, so that it even exists is pretty damaging. the only way to control the masses is to control the way they think. you guys (in general) are my proof that it is working. taks

OBE? that's a purely socialist construct. taks

outcome based education. duh. taks

9 years... i can tune out one specific pitch: from my wife's voice when she's scolding me. taks

i just had directv installed and had one of the units with a dying hard drive. most people, including my wife, can only hear the whirring sound all the HDD accesses make. i heard the high-pitch squeal that went with the whir. it was unbearable. the new unit they sent seems quiet so far. taks

i'll be 40 in july... not bitter, however, but noticing that age is catching up with me due to all my evil ways in the past. taks

oddly, my hearing is the opposite. i've always had problems with lower frequencies, and as such, i always bias my stereo systems with heavier bass and reduced treble. audiophiles that ride in my car hate it. i can hear all the electronics, for example, when i walk into department stores (which i think is from the metal detectors) in malls. it is maddening. that i'm nearly 40 makes this mysterious to me. on one of the law and order:CI episodes they mention ring-tones for cell phones that only kids can hear. i wonder if i could hear those as well? taks

yup, the ultimate mental game: push physical limits to see who has the mental stamina to remain. those with the proper level of will-power put up with the pain, those that don't quit. my brother was, btw, fairly fit (and thin), so he didn't have too much trouble. he went through MCRD in san diego and AIT just north of there in 1990, btw. made E5 in his 4 years and got out because he got "promoted" to a shop-manager when he became an E5 (he was an amtrak mechanic), which meant no more mechanic duties. he's now a diesel mechanic for cummins, and still a marine. taks

not a surprise that the pope would know that tidbit. it's times like these, btw, that i wish the stoner life-style still applied to me. it would certainly remove the need for xanax. as it is, however, that particular drug actually gives me anxiety, rather then mellow me out. alcohol is my only other substitute (and yes, it works quite well), but self-medicating with alcohol is a dangerous road to travel down (particularly if driving that road). taks

the sword coast probably because the devs have a lot of material to draw from (through the many games based there). it's familiar, almost like brand recognition for marketing purposes, too. taks

that a republican would in any way be interested in a party based on a socialist economic agenda baffles me more than the other crap. taks

which is part of the reason the marines treat the navy guys like dirt. their boot camp is ridiculously hard (also the longest at 13 weeks and requiring another 4 weeks of advanced infantry training after boot camp but before MOS school). my brother went through hell (and did well, btw). taks edit: i should add, my brother ended up stationed in okinawa for his mandatory year of overseas duty, but his official station was camp legeune in one of the carolinas.

unfortunately, this is the only way to ship them to stores without them going bad. apparently this is particularly more important for avocados (tomatoes, too) since the ripe/bad line is very thin. i agree, just about anything vine-ripened tastes better, though i've never had a vine-ripened banana. i think they also artificially "ripen" certain fruits/veggies (tomatoes in particular) using ethylene glycol immediately prior to delivery to get the outer color right, but that doesn't do anything for the inner goodness. taks

a crying infant... but alarms are probably designed to hit that "special" sound. taks

hehe, i was trying to get in to our "satellite" office once (when i worked for the startup in FL) and wasn't sure about the PIN for the alarm. sure enough, i set the damn thing off. it was not silent. not even close. so, with all the racket going on and no cell phone*, i had to call the security company to cancel the alarm. of course, they put me on hold immediately while summoning the police. so there i am sitting with the phone while the police show up with their hands on their guns right when the security company answers my call. they waited, i'm sure. i had to offer the phone to the lead officer (the one that really, really wanted to shoot me) to convince him i wasn't a burglar. of course, i'm just sitting there with my hands out (other than holding the phone), as well as my freaking badge and DL displayed openly on the table, all the while the alarm is screeching. i was not shot nor arrested, btw. i hate alarms. taks *interestingly, i did not get my first cell phone till i moved to CO, and only then because my wife was pregnant. the startup that i worked for, even more interestingly, was a wireless internet company.

i saw something the other night that claimed 70% of all email is spam, but not all 'net traffic. my memory is getting worse i think, because i no longer remember where all these tidbits come from. taks

even if the 'net BW did not keep up with demand there would never be "busy" signals. it doesn't work that way. it's multiplexed so all "calls" go through, it's just a matter of how long they take to get answered and how rapidly the data gets back to the user (though such an increase may require increasing the amount of time before your connection declares a timeout). the next generation of the 'net is not far off and will be more than capable of handling increased demand for BW. i'll have to dig up the article i was reading recently (not publicly available) about what is in the works. there's something other than the internet2 out there, but i can't place my finger on what it was called. either way, once fiber becomes the norm and terabit routers (heck, petabit routers) are much more common, it will open up the floodgates. taks

i agree, he's not really that good of an actor. fortunately, he picks parts that don't require a lot of range. he's stiff, sort of one-dimensional. i always likened his acting ability to that of kevin costner, but more likable. i tend to like keanu's movies, so i generally like him. i can't stand costner. not in anything. taks

there's a new one on the horizon. i've seen a few verts on the tube but i cannot recall what it is called. the first was as stupid as any B-movie i've ever seen, but hilarious nonetheless. no plot, but no need for a plot, either. taks

i think the biggest thing an IWD follow-up would require, at least in order to remain true to the original "spirit" of the game, would simply be a dungeon hack without a huge amount of party interaction. i.e., you don't pick up NPCs (which simplifies game design) and you're simply off to loot the various dungeons and eliminate whatever evil is currently plaguing the land. cast this idea into the latest crop of 3D engines and it is no less viable than any other D&D product that's been released recently (or planned for future release). personally, in this respect, i found IWD to be MUCH more simple than most of the other IE games (or D&D games in general). more focus was put into what was going on, rather than how your party is dealing with it. the BGs had some stand-alone aspects that involved a rather complex back-story as well, not unlike the whole severed hand thing in IWD. IWD just happened to have some sort of cool, perhaps even complex, back-story for each of the separate areas, even though they were all ultimately tied together into one big story. taks