Gorgon

Its funny, after I woke up after falling asleep and the page with the test was still open, I could actually hear the last tone, very faint, but definately there.

Andrew clearly failed in the crucial customer smalltalk department, which is what keeps them comming back.

I never had that on any of my mp3 players. It's an option when I rip mp3s but I have no notion what settings are appropriate.

It should not be too difficult to create software that will not allow say, an MP3 player, to output levels that will result in damage to your ears. That could solve the problems of leves of mp3 files as well. I hate the way some of mine are just barely audible, and when the next track comes on its so loud I have to rip off my headphones.

Remember you have to turn it down so you can just barely hear the test tone first.

I went to the ear doctor today because I had a blockage in my right ear, which was taken care of in a minuite. So then he decides to give me a test to see if everything was ok, and it turns out I have moderate hearing loss. :S Not in the spectrum of speech but in the high frequencies, which is why I never noticed it. Apparently all it takes is one concert played too loud and standing in the wrong place. Remember your earplugs kids. http://www.freehearingtest.com/core.shtml You can test yourself here. I can't hear a damn thing in the final 8 hrz category. Almost wish I didn't find out because now i'm all depressed about growing old and the various inevitable system's failures.

Sounds expensive but kinda fun. Beats climbing Everest or buying a porshe anyway.

I just jumped to season 3 and so far it's jam packed with Iraq alegories, suicide bombings, a kind of Vichi police state and a policeforce hiding behind masks. Interesting.

We put a 25% sales tax on everything.

The war with Spain was the beginning of American colonialsim, no more 'purchases', it's right on topic. Anyway, Mark Twain puts it much better than I ever could.

Heres one more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine-American_War Despite the fondness for berating european nations for colonial brutality, the US had its own phase no less violent .

"I'm an idealist. Gorgon is a conspiracy theorist. Please don't interchange the two." I think you need something a little more spectacular than accusing the CIA of misleading the American people to be called a conspiracy theorist. Besides, it's not paranoya if they're really after you.

" The disposal of the vanquished is the right of the conqueror. That is just how the world works. It sucks sometimes but the whining and hand wringing of old men in Belgium will not change that." Would it not be a step forward to pretend that justice was the right of everyone then. ?

All you have to do to avoid that is not to perpetrate any crimes agains humanity

"given that the UN is not elected, nor have i heard of any plans to make it so, it probably will never (nor should it) trump individual nations' own sovereignty." Thats not what the tribunal is about though, its asking countries to accept international juristicton of war crimes perpetrators. Its not the 'UN tribunal'

There is nothing to support that the tribunal should be either corrupt or incompetent, but for some people the mere fact that it was a european idea from its inception is enough. There is an obvious problem with international juristiction, Neurenburg was clearly victor's justice, appart from also providing justice to the victims of Nazism, which is why the notion can only really work if it is supported by everyone. Nevertheless, where else would you try the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing. Are we to just accept that whatever atrocities are perpetrated on a nation state level are free from justice. The US for obvious reasons didn't want to have another authority decide what it should do with its 'enemy combatants'. This has nothing to do with either Henry Kissinger or american GIs.

That would be the first den of government spies anywhere subject to international law.

Do you have any proff to back up the contention that intelligence analysis eats up the dissenting views in order to come up with a conclusion ?, I would imagine it would work more like academic writing where the opposing view is always adequately represented especially if the conclusion runs contrary to it. At a minimum Bush and Rice should have been presented with this view in some other form, not doing so ammounts to creating policy, directly influencing the decisionmaking process by controling information, not exactly what the CIA was intended for.

The hot asian american pilot, is she all cylon or is the one with the fleet real and the one in the warzone a replicant ? Is it possible to become 'un-posessed' by the cyborg upload magic ? I have watched around 4 episodes in non chronological order, and it seems like the premise of the show has yet to be explained. What is the motivation for the cylons, how exactly does their possesion work.

"You may not have heard, but I've got a lung infection at present, so I'd be grateful if you would refrain from making me laugh so much. Dissent in the intelligence community is like bitchiness in the movie industry. Intel is the art of drawing conclusions from imperfect data." The formulation of a report which categorically states that the probability is extremely high that Sadam has WMD AND an active neculear weapons programme all the while there are a significan portion within the organisation who vehemently disagree, who's position is never brough to the attemtion of the administration, that is misinterpretation of the facts, mr. interlligence analyst. The intelligence to back up these claims, defectors trained by aforementioned Achmed Chalaby to bolster his chances of becoming president of Iraq, mind you this was all before the corruption scandal and his complete isolation from Iraqi politics. And recently, a senate comitee on Iraq settle the issue by stating unequivocally that Sadam did not have WMD in the leadup to invasion, and therefore, that the premise of the war was false, at best a mistake, at worst ... A CIA report concludes the same http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/06/iraq.wmd.report/ I have to say your callous dismissal would be much more believable if you actually knew facts surrounding it.

Running around at full tilt for 90 mins does.

"actually, no you idiot" You need to learn to make people look like fools without actually calling them idiots, you know, like I have been doing to you the last few days. 'a sattelite saw something' is hardly compelling evidence of anything at all. Firstly we are clearly in wishful thinking territory here, secondly, since the mobile weapons facility theory is highly suspect considering the sources, what is left that could have been moved to Syria, a few chemical grenades... honestly, who cares. Syria could cook up some anthrax on its own without too much trouble.

LOL is this round two ? - The phantom weapons are now in Syria, quick, invade, send the secretary of state to the UN with a bull**** story. Might I point out the source that Sadam had mobile weapons facilities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi

" actually you can't use the words "proven fact" as there is strong evidence he had something (they don't know what), and shipped it out during the dead period before the war, probably to syria. taks " What a sad little fig leaf, but sure, it's not completely proven.

" In any event it's interesting that you bring up the comparison with WMD. Do you not think that a brutal dictator unsupervised by ANYONE who has previously built WMD, wants WMD, and retains the industrial capabilities to produce WMD wil probably have them? " What are you talking about ? Bush and Rice use the national securtiy estimate of 2002 to bolster the contention that they did the right thing with the information they had at the time, only there were plenty of dissenting views within the intelligence community that were never presented. It's called plausible deniablilty, tell us what we want to hear and don't tell us anything it might be better we be seen not to know. It's a proven fact that Sadam didn't have any WMD but was engaging in a game of high stakes bluff, so I take it you mean Iran ?