Now Imagine an arsenal of a GAU-8 cannon, 2, 50 cal's, rocket launchers, flame thrower. and anything else the military will attach to the damn thing. Look out Wall Street!

>> ^bareboards2:

@alien_concept.... silver tongue level 2... are you getting mouthy after all this time? Good on you!


I don't have much epic in my commenting arsenal!

I see a bright future ahead, bright like a nuclear explosion when religious fanatics get hold of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Or as my new official motto puts it: I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

>> ^NetRunner:

If you asked everyone "do you want the news to focus on bullshit, or important stuff?" do you think people would overwhelmingly respond "I want bullshit"?
If you asked everyone "do you want the news to lie to you, or do you want them to tell the truth?" do you think people would overwhelmingly respond "I want to be lied to"?
It's true that people watching Hannity like Hannity. But why does Hannity have a show in the first place? Because someone decided produce a show where ideological propaganda would get sold to people as news.
Who made that choice? Were people complaining that the news was just too truthful?
What choice do you think people tuning into Hannity think they're making? "I want to be told comforting lies?" or "I want the truth, and only Fox News has it?"
As for who should hold news corporations responsible, of course it should be the consumers of news, and people generally. But first you have to get people to stop defending the news media by saying things like "Blame the idiots who devour this garbage" or "to blame corporations is the same as blaming a snake for biting you" and generally get in the face of someone who says "that's not what they're supposed to be doing" when they cut away from Pelosi when she says she won't talk about Weiner!

"If you asked everyone...?


It's a loaded question. Of course, most people are going to respond that they don't want to be lied to. The problem is, it's not a lie if the person lying to you agrees with you. That's just affirmation.

Let's say there is a magical room that "everyone" can sit in. On the left side of this room there is serious debate being honestly reported and covered by good journalists over the fiscal solvency of social security. On the right side of the room is a Bugs Bunny cartoon (or a Jerry Springer episode, a Lady Gaga video, an Alex Jones bit .. ie. anything else). In which direction do you think most of "everyone" is looking?

Most people honestly don't give a shit, they are struggling with their own lives and a quick escape is what they're after. When it's time for news, they don't want honesty, they want the comfort of a voice that confirms their own beliefs. I don't think Hannity viewers (for example) are making a choice between "comforting lies" and "I want the truth, and only Fox News has it?", I think they are comforted by lies because it confirms the easily digestible "truths" they already hold and they're either unwilling or unable to invest more time or intelligence to understand the complexity of reality further.

McCain/Palin got around 46% of the vote in 2008. That means 46% of people were comfortable with the idea of Sarah Palin having the nuclear launch codes of the U.S. arsenal if McCain died (a real possibility considering his age). Don't overestimate people.

This is sort of a silly argument at this point, but I'd like you to understand one thing. I'm not defending the way news is handled. I've said several times that it's awful and shitty .. but it is reality. You don't want it to be reality. Neither do I. But the solution to changing it starts with the consumers, I guess that's where we disagree. The only reason they cut away was for ratings. Again! Yes! That sucks. But that is what a money making machine will do in response to ratings based revenue. Ratings. Ratings. People Watching. People. There's your problem.

@Ryjkyj

Yeah, that's a decent enough argument.

However, as for the double bladed light saber, I think the functionality falls into a more impractical use then for straight fighting.

...god, I just thought of what I'm going to say and i'm gonna just have to turn my /nerd on for this one.

But if you think of the moves that gamers are used to Jedi having in their arsenal, but most movie watchers alone wouldn't think of, is the Saber Throw.

You have a single saber coming towards you, sure, it's probably tough. But you have a light saber coming at you with the "blade" on both ends, and that seems like it would inflict far more damage.

> and a good powerdrill...

yeah!! pshhhaaa how TOXIC could thallium be... come on.

Wikipedia says:

"Because of its use for murder, thallium has gained the nicknames "The Poisoner's Poison" and "Inheritance Powder" (alongside arsenic).[3]"

"Thallium and its compounds are extremely toxic, and should be handled with great care. There are numerous recorded cases of fatal thallium poisoning.[44] Contact with skin is dangerous, and adequate ventilation should be provided when melting this metal. Thallium(I) compounds have a high aqueous solubility and are readily absorbed through the skin. Exposure to them should not exceed 0.1 mg per m2 of skin in an 8-hour time-weighted average (40-hour work week). Thallium is a suspected human carcinogen.[45] For a long time thallium compounds were easily available as rat poison. This fact and that it is water soluble and nearly tasteless led to frequent intoxications caused by accident or criminal intent.[18]"

"Among the distinctive effects of thallium poisoning are loss of hair (which led to its initial use as a depilatory before its toxicity was properly appreciated) and damage to peripheral nerves (victims may experience a sensation of walking on hot coals). Thallium was once an effective murder weapon before its effects became understood, and an antidote (Prussian blue) discovered.[3]"


No more than 100 micrograms per square meter of skin per 8 hour work day !!!!

>> ^Opus_Moderandi:

I love Pink Floyd's music but, watching people try to dance to this was really funny.
I know what you mean about it being a different band, I would've loved to have seen them from Syd Barrett up to The Wall but, not now. No offense to the loyal fans of the name Pink Floyd but, the band Pink Floyd ended (for me) with Roger Waters leaving. Mostly because that's when I came into it, when Roger Waters was the main force. Some might argue that the Syd Barrett era was the best Pink Floyd and while I like the music from that particular line-up, the 1st Pink Floyd album I heard and loved was post Syd Barrett. I didn't even know Syd Barrett's name until well after Animals came out.


Syd Barrett wasn't what made the band famous or even good for that matter. When Roger Waters was the creative leader of the band, that's when they made their best music. I'm not saying that it was Waters alone—in fact I'm not a fan of his solo stuff—but the stuff they came out with when he was at the helm was and is Pink Floyd. Anybody who says it was Syd Barrett is just being a hipster-esque Floyd fan. Anybody that says their best work came in the 80s, needs arsenic.

>> ^luxury_pie:

But nonetheless he IS drawing a very intimidating picture there. I for one never realized so clearly the "place" we as a human race have in the universe. Besides the fact that he uses outdated or non-accurate scientific references as it seems. Please keep in my mind that this man is a historian and as I see it he doesn't base his whole argument on the laws of thermodynamics rather then his own abstraction of complexity and development.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't many if not all of the facts he mentions about the first "steps" of the universe currently accepted facts/ assumptions of astrophysics, if one could say so?
His train of thought seems pretty straight to the point and his conclusion is absolutely true. We are indeed destroying the "goldi-locks-conditions" that led to our existence.


I agree. Yet I wish he would also point out that in the last ten years we've found extreme life in places you'd NEVER expect. This might throw the "goldi-locks-conditions" partially out the window. This year we found life not based on carbon, but phosphorous (this is by rote memory, it may have been sulfur) and even arsenic! We may actually have quite a bit of extra-terrestrial life in our own solar system. Just not sentient (or lacking ways to create incredible machinations of the mind), yet.

What humans need to learn is that we will kill ourselves as WE need that, "goldi-locks-conditions", to live. Almost all current life except the kind I mentioned would be devastated by our actions. We WILL die, and be replaced for a good 4-5 billion years. If we get to one million I'd be surprised.

If you're talking grey-goo stuff though, then I'll give you that...as the most hilarious way to screw ourselves over... I'm just thinking of alien telescopes looking at our planet and wondering WTF is that!?!

/The last bit is my sarcastic bastard side showing through.

>> ^bamdrew:

>> ^westy:
I much prefer worlds that are ultra clean like mirrors edge or portal but whats fantastic is if u have a world that is for the most part clean but then have small cracks in it or aspects that are of contrast to that , that way u get the best of both worlds and the game dosent just feal like everything is coated in mud. with any luck portal 2 might have got this right.

Cool point; reminds me of the secret area behind the walls in Portal 1,... 'the cake is a lie!'


yah to me Portal 1 is the only grate FPS since Half life 1 in terms of subtaly delivering a plot thats not insulting to the players inteligence and works with the current techncal limitations Mirrors edge could have easily have done it but the story was retarded and pushed into the game in a really unnatural and lazy way.

>> ^westy:

I much prefer worlds that are ultra clean like mirrors edge or portal but whats fantastic is if u have a world that is for the most part clean but then have small cracks in it or aspects that are of contrast to that , that way u get the best of both worlds and the game dosent just feal like everything is coated in mud. with any luck portal 2 might have got this right.


Cool point; reminds me of the secret area behind the walls in Portal 1,... 'the cake is a lie!'

>> ^westy:

Game play looks really dull to me , also animation looks really smooth but in a really artaficail way allot of these modern shooters just dont make sense. personally I ether want something like serous sam where its basically gemotray wars but in first person , or i want something thats like HL1 a mixture of shooting but within the context of level based puzzles and a subtly delivered story.
the other thing is that although technically i'm sure the engine is fantastic but visually the art direction is tired. kind of how u have allot of cinema where it all just looks the same. Im board of post apocalyptic stuff in games especially in action games where there is so much noise on the screen in the form of pipes bushes random crap that it just make splaying the game a strain. (fallout , Gears of war , Unreal 3 , Bulit storm , borderlands) ( although borderlands is not as bad as they did a more cartoony thing with it so it stands out more)
I much prefer worlds that are ultra clean like mirrors edge or portal but whats fantastic is if u have a world that is for the most part clean but then have small cracks in it or aspects that are of contrast to that , that way u get the best of both worlds and the game dosent just feal like everything is coated in mud. with any luck portal 2 might have got this right.


Yeah, I am not attached to this game. I hope they release a playable demo/beta to sample it.

>> ^shuac:

<fart sound>


[fart sound too]

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/12/07/arsenic-and-post-haste-another-example-of-the-broken-peer-review-process/

I don't really have much opinion on this, but thought the article was relevant.

Don't worry about us. God said he wouldn't destroy the earth again. I'm sure our nukes are just for show.
>> ^Drachen_Jager:

We're not laughing. If it was Zimbabwe or Peru we might be laughing. But the country with the greatest economic and military influence in the world, not to mention the largest nuclear arsenal. Not very funny.