"Suck it consoles!"

???

I never understood this "PC master race" BS.

Console software big releases like GTA 5 rake in probably about 10x the revenue that a similar release does on PC. That's because PC gaming is really for hobbyists--people who have the technical skill, time, and disposable income to tweak drivers, overclock processors and video cards, and get a 12k monitor setup working correctly.

Consoles meanwhile work right out of the box with a TV you probably already own. Plus these days you can get almost exactly the same selection of games on either PC or console (with a few "exclusives" on one or the other). So most people are clearly going to go the console route.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with console gaming. There's probably something wrong with you, though, if you somehow feel threatened enough by consoles to diss them.

@RedSky

The need to be kept afloat by European funds is pretty high on the list of things Syriza is keen to do away with. Varoufakis was clear on this pretty early on, at least 2009 as far as I know. They treated it as a problem of liquidity instead of a problem of insolvency, and therefore any funds funnelled into Greece were basically disappearing down a black hole. They are bleeding cash left, right and center, and the continuous flow of credit from Europe doesn't help a bit in its current form.

As of now, they can't pay shit. Any additional credit has to be used to pay back interest on previous credit. Their meagre primary surplus is less than their interest payments. With that in mind, some of the ideas floating around sound rather intriguing, especially given the horrendous failure all the previous agreements have produced. These ideas include: cap interest payment (1.5% of primary surplus), use the rest for investment or humanitarian relief; no payments on debt below 3% growth, 50% of agreed upon payments at 3-6% growth, full payments at 6+% growth.

Yet even those ideas are purely theoretical, because there is no growth in Greece. The celebrated growth in Q3 2014 of 0.7% might very well be a fluke, as Bill Mitchell described here (prices falling faster than incomes). For Greece to be able to have any meaningful growth, they'd require not just a complete reconstruction of its institutions (structural reforms), but also massive investment.

And there's where it breaks down again, since you rightfully pointed out that the Germans in particular won't spend a dime on Greece, especially not with investment in Germany in equally dire shape (shortfall of about a trillion € since 2000).


Which brings me to another point: Germany vs France.

Productivity in both countries was en par in 1999, and productivity in France in 2014 was only slightly below German numbers. "Living within your means" is a very popular phrase in the current discussion, which basically means living in accordance with your productivity.

Subsequently, there should be a similar development of unit labour costs within a monetary union, with growth targets set by the central bank. In our case, that would be just below 2%. Like I've previously said, Greece lived beyond its means in this regard, and significantly so.

But what about France and Germany? The black line marks the target, blue is France, red is Germany. That's beggar-thy-neighbour. That's gaining competetiveness at the cost of your fellow Euro pals. That's suppressing domestic demand in order to push exports.

German reforms killed its domestic market (retail sales stagnant since early '90s) and created an aggregate trade surplus to the tune of 2 trillion Euros. That's 2 trillion Euros of deficit in other countries. And we're looking at an additional 200-210 billion Euros this year. If running trade deficits is bad, so is running trade surpluses.

Ironically, there's even been legislation in Germany since 1967, instructing the government to balance its books in matters of trade (and other areas). They've been in violation of it for 15 years.

With this in mind, everytime a German politician calls for the other countries to run trade surpluses just like Germany, I get furious. Some of them, on the European level, even have the audacity to say that everyone should run trade surpluses, and all it takes to get there is massive wage cuts. That's open lunacy and a failure of basic math. No surplus without deficits, no savings without debt.

And while we're at it, it's not the savings rate in Germany that bothers me. It's the moral superiority that is being ascribed to running surpluses in every way imaginable. Every part of society is expected to have a positive savings rate, because debt is bad. Well, if everyone's saving and nobody's accruing the corresponding debt, you get the current situation where there is no investment whatsoever, a gargantuan shortfall in demand given the national productivity, and a cool 200 billion Euros of debt a year that foreign actors have to rake up so that Germany can have its massive growth of 0.5-1.5% annually.

Finding borrowers for all that cash is getting more difficult by the day. The ECB's QE is basically one big search for new borrowers, since everyone either doesn't want to borrow or cannot borrow anymore.

If Germany wanted to help the Eurozone, they'd start by increasing their ULC vis-á-vis the rest of the countries. Competitiveness should be regulated through the foreign exchange rate, not this parasitic race to the bottom within the zone. Ten years of 4% increase in wages, annually. That ought to be a start.

Additionally, allow the ECB to fund the European Investment Bank directly, instead of this black hole of QE.

Or go one step further and seriously consider Varoufakis' ideas, including the old Keynesian concept of a global surplus recycling mechanism.

But all that is pure fantasy. I don't think a majority of Germans would support either of these measures, not with the overwhelming fear of inflation this society has. Add the continuous demonisation of debt and you get a guarantee that very few countries might be compatible to be in a longtime monetary union with Germany.

Hello Chaos Engine.
It's not 'either or...'
It's not inevitable either.
Nor is it too useful or too profitable. (quite the opposite. Non GMO supermarkets are raking it in on both sides of the Atlantic)
It's an agenda than has been allowed to flourish, or massively sponsored by corporate interest (the huge campaign against GMO labels for example).

It can also be stopped.

Yet another example of capitalist raking in hoards of money and not sharing it. Stiffing bill collectors. Just plane evil.

Why cant we just stop this nonsense and dive right into socialist and let the government take care of everyone?

Is it really dying though? I really don't follow any music. but something tells me they're still raking in the dough in massive amounts though.

Like someone else said. People keep buying this stuff. The demand is there and they are just supplying it.

I have to agree, both versions are horrible, but I don't like pop in the first place, so I am biased.

Too many people actually give a damn about what celebrities do when they're not making movies or singing songs. Many of the celebrities themselves are sick of the frenzy. Some give it up, but some stay for the paycheck. How many times do people refer to a celebrity by their character's name instead of their actual name. "Oh shit, I just saw Captain Kirk!", vs "Oh shit, I just saw William Shatner!"

When people don't like the drudgery of their own lives, they start thinking about other peoples' lives.

[Hook]
Hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover-over-over (bend over)
Hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover-over-over (bend over)
Party’s over, it ain’t over
Try to make a bad memory over and over
Hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover-over-over (bend over)
Hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover-over-over (bend over)
Party’s over, it ain’t over
Care to find a single piece of me, game over
Hangover
Hangover
Hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover-over-over
Hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover-over-over (bend over)
Hangover, hangover, hangover, hangover-over-over
Care to find a single piece of me, game over

[Verse 1: Snoop Dogg]
Drink ‘till you’re drunk
Smoke like a broke stove
Don’t quit, take flight
I can’t remember last night
It’s aight, this the life of a superstar
Sci-fi with that boy trooping hard, couping cars
Snoop be hard in the paint
Drink another cup until I fall flat
All lead and then some
1-5-1, done dilly
Really for sure that
I’m throw back intoxicated
Change over, game over, hangover, faded
Body shed, miss

[Verse 2: PSY]
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe catch a lady by the toe

[Pre-hook]
(Take a shot!)
Drink it up and get sick
Bottom’s up, get wasted
Pour it up, drink it up, live it up, give it up
Oh my God, dammit, there’s the fucking limit
Pour it up, drink it up, live it up, give it up

But I can’t stop
Making bottles pop until the wheels fall off

And I can't quit
I wake up in the morning do the same shit
Wake up in the morning do the same shit

[Hook]

[Bridge: Snoop Dogg]
Waking and baking, shaking the flees
Caking and baking, raking the cheese
Early in the morning in the bathroom on my knees
Tipping and dripping, flipping the flow
Whipping and dripping a drink on the floor
This is the only way that I was taught a long time ago
Seoul, Korea, you’ll see a G-a like me-a
Never would there ever be another like he-a
G-A-N-G-S-T-A, nothing left to say
I done smoked my whole day

[Verse 3: Psy]

[Pre-hook] + [Hook]

[Bridge]

[Hook] + [Pre-hook] + [Hook]

To be fair, cutting a lock or smashing it with a hammer is a fair bit more conspicuous than a quick rake on a cheapo lock.

Oy, NSA: why are you saving all those encrypted data streams, it's just gibberish anyway...

:crickets:

And of course it had to be a German bloke working for T-Systems who committed this shabby piece of code...

But hey, at least the OpenSSL Software Foundation raked in a record-breaking sum of donations this week: almost $850.

But that isn't going to work with a hairpin, you need an actual set of rakes to do that reliably. I saw this amazing instructional years ago and was lockpicking as a hobby for a while. With the first pick I made I broke into my house in under two minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auQbi_fkdGE

WTF is the point. In 2.33 we have seen the plot, premise, best action and had the chance of any surprises ruined.
As for this franchise - sorry film - it's all been seen before but hey, if they can rake in a few bucks why not?

I worked with a locksmith for about 18 months as part of a senior highschool job study thing. The way he taught to pick a lock wasn't so complicated. You just apply rotational force just like in the video except instead of going at the pins one-by-one you "rake" the pins quickly a few times and it eventually open. Raking is moving the tool from back to forward while keeping a slight upward pressure. I think this is how the electronic ones work as well.

OMFG... the threads... First Bob calls liberals two faced, but Conservatives were upset at the Dixie Chicks when they spoke out against Bush and his wars. Many conservatives demanded the Dixie Chips sponsors drop them and had large CD burning events, all over the fact they spoke their mind and their beliefs. Now these same people are upset at A&E for suspending a guy (a rather worthless suspension since the upcoming season is already filmed and he's already in it, and it is making free publicity for a stupid show about rich people).

This isn't a free speech issue. He isn't in jail for espousing anti-gay and racist remarks. He was suspended for saying something that made his part time employer look bad. Food Network fired Paula Dean. There was a PR lady who was going to Africa on a business trip that got fired after she tweeted she hopes she doesn't get AIDS, but no problem since she's white. You represent your company, officially or not, and make them look bad, your employer can fire you. You can say what you want, but sometimes that speech has consequences. A&E created the Duck Dynasty image, he made their network look bad, they have the right to suspend him... suspend, they didn't even fully fire him. Were they really outraged they would have pulled the show or edited him out of the upcoming season, but they didn't do any of that. They made a publicity grabbing move to suspend him.

This video also highlights the one key point I've been saying the whole time. That Jesus Himself said it is impossible for a rich man to get into heaven, doesn't matter if they want to or do follow Him, they have their reward here, and won't have one in Heaven. So Phil goes off on how gays are "full of murder" and how they won't inherit the Kingdom of God, but ignores that part where Jesus Himself said that people like Phil won't go to Heaven.

Then high, blaming it on some Atheist agenda. The same thing would have happened regardless of what religion or lack there of he had. This has nothing to do with Atheist wanting to make Christians look bad, as there is plenty of outrage over what he said in many Christian circles... you do know most liberals are Christian as well. Yes, most Atheist tend to be liberal, but the largest voting block of Democrats and Greens are Christian. People who take the Bible as the literal word of God, and believe Jesus was serious when He said to help the needy and poor, that the rich won't go to Heaven, that blessed are the peacemaker and not the warmongering Republicans, that when you pray, to pray in secret and not make a show of it the way modern Conservatives do, that know the reason for the destruction of Sodom according to the Bible was that "she was a land of plenty and did nothing to help the needy and poor", basically full of modern Conservatives, that the thing with the Angels happened after the city was condemned to be destroyed and they were there to rescue Lot's family, before Lot pulled the father of the year by offering his young daughters (think Olson Twins) over the angelic warriors of God (think Conan the Barbarian and Rambo) with magical powers, rather than just a simple "no". Anyhow, plenty of Christians are upset at what Phil said, because it makes Christians look bad, he not only bashed gays, but thought blacks were fine under the old Jim Crow era laws, thought Nazis were Jesus free, though Jesus and the Bible was their main defense for all they did... He basically made the Conservative Christians look like they ignore the main teaching of Jesus which was to Love one another. Jesus hung out with the sinners and tax collectors and told them of the love of God, not how God is going to condemn them all to Hell. If Jesus was alive in modern day America, he'd be hanging out in San Francisco talking about the love of God, not fighting to deny them equal rights under the law.

And of course Shiny... The controversy with Chick-fil-a isn't so much what some stupid old rich man says, he also made it clear that was the position of the company as a whole. And that anti-gay money was going to organizations that actively campaign not only to make being gay illegal in the US, in other countries where it is gay and punishable by death, they campaign to keep the death penalty attached to it. That said, at least Siny agrees that A&E had no choice... though, based on past posts, I don't think Shiny sees that the whole modern day Conservative movement is driven by the greed factor, that modern Christian Conservatives are willing to toss out every government program to help the needy and the poor so that they can give tax breaks to the rich...

It's all a free publicity stunt. I'm sure A&E will cave in, or Phil will issue some semi apology, "like I still believe it is a sin, but I'm sorry I likened them to murderers and I'm sorry about offending any blacks, I was just noting my personal observations growing up" type thing and he'll continue to rake in millions, going against the very Jesus he claims to follow... and he'll be right back on.

It isn't only a profit issue. It's a price point issue.
In retail, there is a set price that people are willing to pay, so the retailers want product to hit those price point plateaus. (Say, $15, $20 and 29.99) The manufacturers then cut corners to meet those price points.

Next time you're shopping, for anything, have a look, they will have virtually the same product at several different price points. The lower price points lack quality but it also works in their favor because when you cheap out, you end up coming back sooner for the better product once the cheap on craps out.

Example. I went to Wal-mart for a garden rake. They had one at $14 and one at $35. so naturally, I picked the cheap one. as I was using it, the tines gut caught on roots and stuff, and got all bent out of shape. I ended up having to go back and get the $35 rake - My rake then ended up costing me $49 total.

Um, so ya, a profit issue in the end, yes, it's just move convoluted than the obvious.

Hey, isn't part of this "economic freedom" all about increasing profits for the wealthiest and driving down wages of the poorest in our own country by exploiting the cheap labor in those countries at the bottom of the charts?
Where do I sign up?! Oh wait, the Koch brothers already signed me up. Hmm...not feeling the positive benefits of this plan. Maybe once I find a permanent job after being played off last year when my job was outsourced. Yeah. Then I'm going to rake it in!

No it's like this:
In Russia, they fish with rake.