*brain

Jon Krakauer has a book entitled Into Thin Air, which gives the compelling account of 8 climbers who were killed on Everest in 1996.

So much played into this tragedy that the elements of nature were playing a secondary role.

(Krakauer's newer book, btw, details the events that lead up to the friendly fire that killed Pat Tillman, and the subsequent coverup that the DoD attempted to implement in response.)

Very cool stuff... (unfortunate thumb image)

Advanced prosthetics is a difficult field; costs a lot to do this intensely interdisciplinary work. As long as the DoD continues to fund people pushing the boundaries we'll eventually produce lightweight, smart prosthetics with intuitive interfaces... at this point it appears that things are exciting at first but cumbersome for practical use, but its not hard to imaging miniaturization and commercialization these problems by V3.0 (so to speak).

>> ^oxdottir:

Did you see the soldiers carrying 200 pound loads with this thing, safely? And the money went to Berkeley, not a defence contractor. The commercialization for civilians followed later, and is encouraged by the DoD.


Berkley Bionics is not Berkley University. It is a private, for profit, company.

Did you see the soldiers carrying 200 pound loads with this thing, safely? And the money went to Berkeley, not a defence contractor. The commercialization for civilians followed later, and is encouraged by the DoD.

No, that's not the primary purpose. Nothing about this system looks remotely practical for field use.

I'd say the primary purpose of this system is to make lots of money for defence contractors so they can throw a small percentage of that back at the politicians who make military boondoggles like this possible.

>> ^oxdottir:

It all comes out of work for the DoD, MG. It's primary purpose was to keep military folks safe and help them if they werent' safe.
My university does similar work, but under a different paradigm. It's really great showing the work to new people.

>> ^MarineGunrock:

Seem to have gotten something in my eye...


It all comes out of work for the DoD, MG. It's primary purpose was to keep military folks safe and help them if they werent' safe.

My university does similar work, but under a different paradigm. It's really great showing the work to new people.

>> ^westy:

There is quite allot of lag , If you play the game on a lan it plays compelaty differently.
allso if you are used to playing games like unreal torniment , cs1.6 css , dod , quake you can instantly see how much lag there is in anny BF game before frost bite ( although bf2 and 2142 were defintly an improvment i think the netcode was still shit they just increased the power of the guns and the shooting speed and this masks lag to an extent thats primarely why Destert combat and project realty both played well as despite the laf it only took 2 shots to kill people)
Just play bf1943 which is bassicaly 1942 in frost bite engin and u can see what i mean , for example you can shoot people that are running harazontaly from you with the sniper all the way across the map , in 1942 it was pritty much imposable to head shot moving people at a long range you would allso shot people standing still and it would not register as a hit.
I just hope they do a game thats more in the spirit of 1942 for pc ( not just the 3 maps u get in 1943) since BF2 they have gone down the road of making the maps allot smaller and having the combat more in your face m where as with 1942 you would have people doign convoys and people having to use vehicals for transport which intraduces allot of game play that you dont find in anny other games on the market , where as basic ground combat is well coverd by other companies.
ALLSO NOTHING BEATS STRAFFING PEOPLE ON THE GROUND IN A PLANE OR HELICOPTER
<div><div style="margin: 10px; overflow: auto; width: 80%; float: left; position: relative;" class="convoPiece"> ant said:<img style="margin: 4px 10px 10px; float: left; width: 40px;" src="http://static1.videosift.com/avatars/a/ant-s.jpg" onerror="ph(this)"><div style="position: absolute; margin-left: 52px; padding-top: 1px; font-size: 10px;" class="commentarrow">◄</div><div style="padding: 8px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: 2px; min-height: 30px;" class="nestedComment box"> I haven't noticed these lags in BF2. I don't remember them in BC2 beta either. Hey, now Intel is doing DLC too.
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<div><div style="margin: 10px; overflow: auto; width: 80%; float: right; position: relative;" class="convoPiece"> westy said:<img style="margin: 4px 10px 10px; float: right; width: 40px;" src="http://static1.videosift.com/avatars/w/westy-s.jpg" onerror="ph(this)"><div style="position: absolute; margin-top: 1px; right: 52px; font-size: 10px;" class="commentarrow">►</div><div style="padding: 8px; margin-right: 60px; margin-top: 2px; min-height: 30px;" class="nestedComment box">this would be epic , if BF2 engin was not a laggy peace of shit.
its a shame that the new BF engin frostbite is not open for mods as they have pritty much fixed all the lag issues.
I used to play , code name egal , Bf2 , BF1942 , DC, Project realty loads . but up untill frost bite unles you were shooting at people in vehicals it was a total lag fest with anny foot combat playing out realy bad litraly shoot people for ages and nothing would happen.
although all the Bf2 ,2142 and 1942 games and mods are gr8 if you have a large lan.
as i say such a shame that frost bite is not open for maps and mods nothing to do with EA wanting to make a load of cash from chargin £4 a map with DLC, Fuck you consoles affecting what were once gr8 pc games.
the whole DLC thing is one place where consoles are realy fucking over pc games.
</div></div></div>

I don't remember any bad lags when I played. Um, I don't think BF1943 came out for PC/Windows.

>> ^ant:

>> ^westy:
this would be epic , if BF2 engin was not a laggy peace of shit.
its a shame that the new BF engin frostbite is not open for mods as they have pritty much fixed all the lag issues.
I used to play , code name egal , Bf2 , BF1942 , DC, Project realty loads . but up untill frost bite unles you were shooting at people in vehicals it was a total lag fest with anny foot combat playing out realy bad litraly shoot people for ages and nothing would happen.
although all the Bf2 ,2142 and 1942 games and mods are gr8 if you have a large lan.
as i say such a shame that frost bite is not open for maps and mods nothing to do with EA wanting to make a load of cash from chargin £4 a map with DLC, Fuck you consoles affecting what were once gr8 pc games.
the whole DLC thing is one place where consoles are realy fucking over pc games.

I haven't noticed these lags in BF2. I don't remember them in BC2 beta either. Hey, now Intel is doing DLC too.


There is quite allot of lag , If you play the game on a lan it plays compelaty differently.

allso if you are used to playing games like unreal torniment , cs1.6 css , dod , quake you can instantly see how much lag there is in anny BF game before frost bite ( although bf2 and 2142 were defintly an improvment i think the netcode was still shit they just increased the power of the guns and the shooting speed and this masks lag to an extent thats primarely why Destert combat and project realty both played well as despite the laf it only took 2 shots to kill people)

Just play bf1943 which is bassicaly 1942 in frost bite engin and u can see what i mean , for example you can shoot people that are running harazontaly from you with the sniper all the way across the map , in 1942 it was pritty much imposable to head shot moving people at a long range you would allso shot people standing still and it would not register as a hit.

I just hope they do a game thats more in the spirit of 1942 for pc ( not just the 3 maps u get in 1943) since BF2 they have gone down the road of making the maps allot smaller and having the combat more in your face m where as with 1942 you would have people doign convoys and people having to use vehicals for transport which intraduces allot of game play that you dont find in anny other games on the market , where as basic ground combat is well coverd by other companies.

ALLSO NOTHING BEATS STRAFFING PEOPLE ON THE GROUND IN A PLANE OR HELICOPTER

>> ^lavoll:

isnt there an AFV clip of a dod doing that, even if they only hold a teaspoon of water under him or something


When they held it over a cup of water.

isnt there an AFV clip of a dod doing that, even if they only hold a teaspoon of water under him or something

Only beef I have with Steam is that you can't 'resell' old games. I bought Bioshock, played it, realized it stunk, and wanted to sell it but I couldn't because all I had was the Steam download. Bleh. Now I will forever have that stupid reminder of my purchase on my 'games I can download' list (along with CounterStrike, DoD, and all the other games that are dead to me on Steam). Small price to pay though. All in all Steam does what it is supposed to do. No more and no less. It is no more onerous than Windows Live on the 360 or other GUI menu systems you have to slog through.

The price of AAA games on steam that are not vlave are a total joke , i dont see how you can defend it.

last game i bought bad company 2 , steam price £29.99 amazon with free 3 day delivery £15 , play.com allso had it for free 3 day delivery for £15 , games satay at full retail price for longer on steam , and u dont have the advantage of trading it in if you stop playing the game + as you say no manual.

If you preorder on amazon its poasted out so it arives on relase day , and often arives day before.

It only anoys me because i would rather use steam , i allso know its largely due to publishers forcing that price on steam. another thing thats shit is that you buy a game on steam thinking steam will auto update it and all the bullshit coppy protection will be handled by steam but often thats not the case and u still have to manual patch or sign up to exsternal websites and make acvcounts for games. the New IL2 game was a compleat farce and arma 2 took a good 4 months before you could patch it with steam.

I think Valve are now in a positoin to say to publishers , "u need to have it at x price or we wont host it " and allso force them to acomidate the steam network if they want there game on it.

I have used steam since first beta came out and its gr8 for all the valve and hl stuff , patching HL1 to play dod and cs1.4 was a total ball pain and steam fixed that (lol patch 501015-50102 then patch 50192-2304).






>> ^Mcboinkens:

>> ^westy:
evan if this game is good ,
steem is still flawed
Im the typ of person that would buy all my games on steam , I have maby 20 steam games as it is , mostly valve games but maby 5 non valve games. The big problem with steam are the prices for this reasoin i have bought my last 4 games from amazon , play.com game and game station. There is something realy wrong if you can pick up a game cheeper from bricks and morter . (steam prices r only good for old games or valve games when they promote them)
Another seperate issue i have with steem and valve is that the games seem to be more and more like console games , in game play and design , I have nothing against console games but i have a 360 to play console games on , with my pc i prefer games that are more saphisticated.
In some ways steem is gr8 id much rather have a company like valve do Digital distrabutoin than say EA or some random allso there promoting and pushing indi games is nice. I just think with some small changes it could be super amazing rather than just another way to get games.

Steam is not really flawed. Just because you might be able to get a slightly better price on Amazon does not take into account the full situation. With Amazon, you have to pay for the shipping. Not to mention waiting. It isn't so bad if you have an Amazon Prime account, but then you are paying more anyway so it doesn't matter. Plus, you can pre-load most games on Steam when they are first released, meaning the day before you can have it installed and ready to go, then the next morning just start up Steam and have at it.
Plus, with game stores like Gamestop and such, you have to drive their, find the game, check out, and drive back, probably for the same price as it was on Steam.

The only thing I don't like about the Steam digital distribution is lack of manuals are other box content that comes with retail store purchases.
As for games becoming more "consolized", that is the developer's fault, not Steam's. Besides, there are plenty of sophisticated PC games on Steam, you just have to weed out the bad ones.
In fact, the deals Steam hosts almost 24/7/365 are incredible. They gave out Portal for free, this for free. 600 games under $10. 180 under $5. I mean, the THQ pack alone is about 5 years worth of games for like $20.

Edit: Unfortunately the THQ pack is no longer on sale, it is back to $99. That was a steal while it was cheap, though.

I was listening to NPR a couple of days ago. There was a reporter who had reported on the DOD for a while talking about this issue. You can basically read Skeeve's response to get the gist of what the reporter said. He talked about the main reason this happened is that the guy from the Rolling Stones was there for one story. The Rolling Stones reporter didn't care if he burned all his sources because he didn't need any information beyond the one story. I can almost guarantee that the same Rolling Stones reporter treats groups that he frequently reports on different. The reporter on NPR also talked about the trust that is built up that allowed him to be at off-the-record meetings where he was really able to gain some perspective on situations beyond the scenes.

Being "embedded" with an organization will always call for some give and take. Or you can act like the Rolling Stones reporter - get in, report on some improper comments and be forever shut out of that organization forever.

>> ^Yogi:
Cloverfield 2 viral?


They have confirmed a cloverfield 2 btw

Though they said back in the day they didn't plan on it being shaky cam. And to keep the cloverfield trivia going...did you know at the very close of the movie when they are on the faris wheel and it pans to the ocean you can see a very small meteor hit the water? I never noticed it before, but I guess that is the real part of the video the DoD was interesting in...neato!

Its actually illegal for the DOD to of purchased them.

Religious displays on government property breaks the establishment clause of the first amendment of the constitution of the united states.

The clause details any actions that are impermissible by the government on the grounds of establishing or supporting any one religion over another by the state....one of which being religious displays on government property.

Case citation to prove my point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassroth_v._Moore

A judge installed a monument to the 10 commandments outside his court house.
He was ordered to have it removed.
He lost his case, and refused to have it removed.
The district court stepped in, removed him from the bench, and had the statue torn down.

If someone files civil litigation, the DOD wont win.