Commissar

Well, I just finished up the first season DVD set, and I've got it all figured out.

but he's going too far in claiming that terrorism has been redefined. it has not, and to suppose as such is ludicrous. certainly there are real "freedom fighters," however disillusioned they may be, trying to get the US out. and yes, they do target the military primarily (though their tactics are not nearly as defensible as true military operations). just because it seems bush's view is as such does not matter. and we aren't talking solely about iraq, either. al qaeda is only a part-time player over there anyway, but iraq is a notorious source of funding and channeling of terrorists. stability in that country will go a long way to improving the odds of at least putting the overall terrorist picture in check (i'm not so foolish to think they will ever go away). taks <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I don't recall any Iraqi terrorists hitting American targets, to tell you the truth. And it's fairly well-documented that Hussein rewarded the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, but once again, that's not really our turf war, is it?

you mean like all those zoo dolphins that escaped? Even after they were supposedly moved to saftey? While I agree that sound like the safe move, I can see them leaving the "packs" on so the dolphins get used to them. I would highly doubt the "packs" are armed tho. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Zoo dolphin's a zoo dolphin. Pretty much a normal dolphin. Something that the military has invested time and money in isn't going to be overlooked. That's assuming we believe this, of course. I think it's crap, simply because it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Someone loaned me their Lost - Season 1 DVD set the other day, since I've never seen the show, and I figured I'd give it a whirl. Haven't read this thread, obviously, and I don't know any of the characters' names aside from Jack, our wonder doctor - I'm midway through the first pilot episode as I write this - but I do need to know two things: Does the guy who played a hobbit get killed off? Soon, hopefully? And do they ever explain how so many people managed to survive, virtually unharmed, a crash that completely totaled a plane?

"When an Egyptian opposition leader inquired why Mr Bush mentions God in his speeches, Hughes asked him whether he was aware that "previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our constitution cites 'one nation under God'." http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1581335,00.html The inmates are truly running the asylum these days.

Anyone who wasn't is perfectly entitled to say it, too. I'm not one to get riled up about such things - I don't say oohrah enough to qualify - but it's not a particularly accurate comment.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

The Navy's probably been running experimental projects with dolphins for a while, but for one thing I rather doubt they'd have been in any position to "escape" during the hurricane, and for another, I doubt it has anything to do with attaching laser beams to their frickin' heads - sorry, with attaching toxic dart launchers to their heads and having them seek out terrorists. Even if, for a moment, we pretended we were in Bizarro World where that was in fact the case, I doubt they'd leave the dolphins armed, so to speak, on any given day. Actual live ammunition and ordnance are only used in operational and certain training capacities, such as qualification. You don't ruck through the Carolina woods with one in the chamber and the safety off, you don't do carrier quals loaded down with bombs and missiles, and you don't leave dolphins swimming around in their pens with their toxic darts attached just for the hell of it.

I think Azarkon was making the point that not everyone involved with the insurgency in Iraq is a terrorist, which certainly seems to be the Bush administration's take on things at times. There are plenty of people on the ground over there who are hitting or trying to hit exclusively American military targets. That's guerilla warfare, not terrorism. And it sucks far more, in my opinion, because they're the ones more likely to gain support from the discontented portions of the populace, rather than the guys hitting anything that moves, including Iraqi civilians of a different political or religious persuasion.

Yeah, and it makes one wonder where my tax money goes to? Killer dolphins?! WTF?! But it doesn't matter that the US economy is deep sh*t when you have stuff like this, now does it? And don't you just feel safer when you know that 'General Sardine' and his troops protect your shores? General Sardine <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It'd be Admiral, actually, since this is alleged to be the Navy's project. And this particular dolphin obviously has nothing to do with it, since he seems to be a Marine pilot - a premise which I find utterly ridiculous, since he doesn't have a tan. And, for all concerned, I wouldn't put too much faith in this story.

Here's the problem with this particular horse, as I see it: Every professional review I've read on the movie (all two!) suggest that it's very good, but also very helpful to have a background in the show to know what's going on. Now, every "user" review I've read (since I don't know anyone who's actually seen the movie or seen the show) rave about how great it is, and then go on into how it ties up all the loose ends from the show, how Joss Whedon's the straight-up man, how awesome the show itself was, et cetera. The problem there is that it's being defined as a cult film right out of the gate. The only people who seem to be saying it's a great film already followed the show in the first place; I've yet to see anyone who never saw Firefly absolutely rave about the movie. Sorry to say it, guys, but I don't think this one's going to do nearly the business required to put it in the running for a sequel.

No they don't. In fact, this is the only one I've ever seen do it. Stop with your lies. Your LIES!

I'd pay money to read a 13 year old's Geiger essay written while he's sleep deprived and his nervous system is being bombarded by a novel stimulant. It's probably gonna be more disturbing that Geiger could have ever hoped to have been. I think it's also funny that this 13 year old has been told to eat a bottle of ephedrine+caffeine pills, drink unfiltered coffee, take crystal meth, and plagiarize. The internet is like a rotting trash monster with a mouthful of hypodermic needles for teeth. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, I gave that advice when I figured he was high school. It's still unconfirmed that he's thirteen; if he is, in fact, then my advice would be to go to sleep and deal with the consequences of turning it in a day late. And, as I said at the beginning, if it's not an undergraduate-level essay, then it'd only take about an hour, max, to knock out, using internet resources. Fact remains, though, if you want to pull an all-night work stint and you're not used to doing it, caffeine's the way to go. Of course, it's also not what I'd advise, since his heart rate's going to be doubled up for a sustained period of time once he's taking enough to keep himself awake, and that's no good.

From my experience 8 hours is just a right amount of time for a solid A+ grade 10 page term paper with 6 solid sources. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm going to stick with my assessment of him probably being a high-schooler, since he has yet to express any interest whatsoever in a variety of sources. Also, I was a history major, so my bibliographies were usually half as long as the paper itself. Six sources would've been some kind of pleasant dream. /Pretension.

Ah, last minute term paper blues. Been there and done that. I won't help you write the paper but here is a few things I have learned. Coffee isn't going to cut it. You need a bottle of no doze and a severeal 20 ounce bottles of Jolt. If you do not have Jolt in your area you need Mountain Dew. If you get Mountain Dew get about 3 2 liters. Take 4 no doze and down your beverage. :D Once that is done go to the library or Internet and look up your subject and have at least different 3 to 4 sources. At least 2 of them need to be off net. Now take your premise of what you want to discuss about and make your thesis. It doesn't really matter what it is. Then skim through the sources you have for material to support your thesis. You want to use quotes. Bullshat and lots of quotes can earn you a decent grade. For long quotes block it off as its own single space paragraph. The take up more room than you think. Hope this helps. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm telling you, it's not undergraduate work. Eight hours is either far too much or far too little time for an undergraduate-level paper, so your average student wouldn't worry about it one way or the other.

What I heard was either a 40-50 million domestic gross, or a 70-80 million international gross will get us a sequel. So if it only gets 20 million domestic, but another 60 worldwide, we'll get our sequel. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If it isn't in the 8-9 million range next weekend, fogetaboutit <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Most definitely. Critical reviews have been good; word of mouth seems to have been good. If it can't muster a similar showing to opening weekend, it doesn't have a chance of hitting $40 million domestic, and I get the impression it's not really an international phenomenon.

If you're used to caffeine, then no, it most likely will not, unless you're drinking a cup every ten minutes for all eight hours, and that has some inherent problems. You're much better off getting some of those little stay-awake pills if that really is your goal, but how hard can a biography on HR Geiger be? I'm assuming this isn't undergraduate-level work, so it couldn't be more than five pages. You could knock that out in an hour, no problem.

Ahahahaha. I tell you what, though, watch that movie at 3AM in a dark, empty apartment while your wife's out of town and it seems a hell of a lot more consequential than it actually is. That pig mask? Man. I slept with my utility knife under my pillow that night. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I suppose it is pretty scary, in the sense that the psycho guy could come after you someday. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Eh. The premise itself isn't all that scary, but some of the atmospherics definitely are.

Well, I'm assuming you're using a coffee maker. Just get some ground coffee beans (think Folger's or Maxwell House) and a filter. Put the filter in the little filter basket, toss the grounds into the filter, and turn the machine on.

That's right, X is the experimental designator. Y, however, is the prototype designator. Since the F/A-22 is currently deployed and operational, it's no longer a prototype. The designator was changed in 2002. So, no, I promise you, it's not still the YF-22. It's the F/A-22, and has been for three years.

That's ridiculously incorrect. The F-35 is the designator for the JSF, expected to enter service in two and a half years. Also, the F/A-22 no longer carries the Y designator, as it's moved beyond the prototype phase. The Air Farce, if memory serves, has at least twenty (though I'm pretty sure it's more like fifty) active right now, and they're doing alright.

Ahahahaha. I tell you what, though, watch that movie at 3AM in a dark, empty apartment while your wife's out of town and it seems a hell of a lot more consequential than it actually is. That pig mask? Man. I slept with my utility knife under my pillow that night.

I'm the whiney pilot. Oh yeah, so badass. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well, most pilots are pretty whiney, anyway, but they get all the girls. And I told you I don't know anything about the show.

I think you guys specifically tried for badass characters. Or at least, I'm assuming someone with the name of The Operative is fairly badass, since I know absolutely nothing about this show/movie, and I'll assume that meant answering a lot of the hardcase questions with stuff like, "Hell yeah, I wiped out a platoon of League Marines single-handed and naked," or whatever. I, on the other hand, somehow ended up as the whore.

Only a $10 million opening weekend box-office? And you guys are hoping for a sequel? Maybe a direct-to-DVD Part 2, but that's about it.