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My health is fine as long as I have the medicine to keep my body from eating itself. Based on seeing the economic trends, how small forces that appear insignificant on their own add up to become more than the sum of their parts. Like how unemployment is much higher than the statistics. They only include people receiving an unemployment check, which means you have to qualify for it and they only last so long. If you're jobless by the time they run out, you're not going into that statistic anymore, if you even did in the first place. Add that to people working jobs that aren't a constant 9-5 grind, such as general contractors or business consultants who have short term contracts. And don't forget underemployment, all the local retail stores are currently staffed by outsourced professionals now making minimum wage. Alot of it isn't that its not economically feasable, its that nobody has the will to spend a little bit more to ensure long term sustainability. Everyone wants to squeeze out the highest possible profit margins for the next quarter. Now the whole Y2K computer craze turned out to be nothing, but everyone was running around like a chicken with their head cut off to solve it. We're in a similar boat with petroleum, with the exception of there's no specific day any uncertainty about the problem will disappear until we run out of oil. But nobody is in such a rush to make sure its not going to be the end of civilization. Look around you, what isn't made of petroleum products? What do you do when you can't make it all anymore? Or even before its gone, if Saudi Arabia goes islamic fundamentalist and turns off the spigot? I saw a presentation at the TED talks about carbon fiber. Just a little effort being put into its implementation would cut our use of petroleum to almost nil, and grow our economy at the same time, they worked out all the math.

Following those lessons pretty well. I'm treating this like my race to the white house class last fall, as opposed to yelling on facebook groups Thats what I'm saying, both sides routinely call the other fascist/communist. Sadly most people only have a vague idea of what any of it means. That sounds pretty dumb, knowing his usual intelligence, I'd guess states was a slip up counting going to places like Puerto Rico and other islands, or counting revisiting states. Otherwise, thats about par for a politician. Herman? who's this guy? Energy is everything. The really sad thing is with only a little effort and less corruption, we'd really have no trouble at all. The other year I was taking this economics class on globalization and was predicting a huge depression. Needless to say a psychology/political science major wasn't listened to in a room full of finance and accounting students. Anyone else heard of the Tata? An Indian car that runs entirely on compressed air. Goes up to 70mph and 120 miles before refilling, which only costs about $3 at stations and takes a few minutes, or can be refilled over a longer period of time with an air pump similar to some power tools. It's a box with wheels, but so is the smartcar. They're looking to sell it in China and India so their booming economies and populations won't add so much to pollution (Global warming or not, emissions is a problem when you have towns in China where you can't see the sun!) They also hope to find investors in europe and the americas. And this is the first of its kind, given a few years, we can keep having our giant 400hp urban assault vehicles to pick up groceries without using gas! I'll put up with the taxes for a UK/Canada/France/Scandanavian healthcare system. Taxes are such a pittance compared to the cost of healthcare, gas and food. And I'm in one of the most heavily taxed areas of the country. Technically, I graduated two weeks ago, but I'm still going to school because I need to be a full time student to keep coverage under my parents insurance. Without it, I'd either be in more debt than a carefree gambler in vegas, or dead because of chronic conditions, nobody would insure me. They've already tried to kick me out of the hospital when I was seriously ill, if it wasn't for my...shall we say "charm" I wouldn't have survived more than a week or two.

Yeah, not like crashes at the worst times, or unfairly difficult things that got you mad. Those spine tingling moments in games. Yup, but if I said agnus dei, 90% of people would have no idea what that was. Some others: Battlezone 2: Forgotten enemies mod, "Two Minute Warning" mission, when a hopelessly overpowering alien fleet has made a jump through a wormhole into Earth's Solar System. The feeling of impending doom for the human race was greater than any other game. Mechwarrior 4 defending the resistance base in the desert when you get the radio call that all Steiner forces are pulling back or destroyed. The only thing that could have made that moment better was if they had the top gun theme play just at that moment. Tons more from that game, The beginning of the intro video, The beginning of the mission to take the satellite control in the arctic just after your leader was killed. Unbelievable feeling of solemn determination. Defending civilians being evacuated from a coastal town and having a newscaster on one of the boats come on as you succeed. Just the right radio call at the propper moment will get me every time. Like in Black Hawk Down(movie) and the first chopper crashes.

So that would make Obama what? A communist? Read Juhlmhelm's comment how our farthest left politicians are farther right than Europes right wing extremists. By that standard, all of western democracy besides the US is actually communism. And how many people truly understand what communism is compared to other forms of governance and economics before calling someone a communist or fascist?

So what are some of the most powerful moments you've encountered in a game? You know, the kind when it transcended that "just a game" mentality and struck an emotion in you, or you really cared about what happened or a character. Like when a game really scared you or enraged you, not because of difficulty or a bug, but by the story or a characters action. I'd have to say 1. Homeworld , rescuing the survivors of your race in cryo pods above your burning planet to a bone chilling choir version of Adagio for Strings. Never been so choked up by a game. 2. Jedi Knight 2 when first meeting the reptilian dark jedi, when his apprentice 3. Nearly all of World in Conflict, particularly being beaten back to fort teller and And at the very end when 4. Morrowind, at the end of Tribunal in Sotha Sil And the end of Bloodmoon when

Racist? Don't equate what another person (who's utterly insane to begin with) says and media hype to someone's own beliefs. Same goes with McCain, its gotten far less attention, but Hagey has said things that make Wright look well adjusted and reasonable. Yet nobody seriously thinks McCain believes what Hagey does. I highly recommend reading "The Way to Win" by Mark Halperin and John Harris for a look at the kind of environment our elections have been in.

That's why I like him, he has the attitude to work and solve problems with and for everybody. McCain is probably closest to that as well. Billary has become nothing but an anual Cher farewell tour, just keeps going and going like the energizer bunny, even thought she's been dead for a while. Unfortunately the freak show media sees fit to make elections nothing more than who gets ripped into the least wins. Actually, he's been very supportive on veterans programs.

Wonderful! Thank You!

And if you have plenty of hard drive space, doing a dual boot is a good move. You keep your XP and everything working and you have the future compatability of vista. It's what I'll eventually have to do. I love and play too many old games and have older versions of photoshop and 3dsmax that presumably won't work in vista, and I'm not risking losing all my old stuff to find out.

Nobody is without their issues, and I'm well aware of mine. Trust is easily lost and slow to be gained. WarlordATF is right, not everyone is evil or corrupt, but if the opportunity is there, there are always people who will take advantage of it. Those safeguards have to be in place to protect the people from the government, even if 99% of the time its not needed. It's what seperates us(as in modern democracy) from the communists, kings and dictators of the past who had free reign to do whatever they chose. And I would disagree, both McCain and Obama look like a huge step up.

Nope, I'm just more scared of getting tossed in gitmo because I got into an arguement with an airport worker over a lost bag or something and never heard from again, than I am of some bearded psycho trying to kill me. Which honestly doesn't scare me the slightest bit more than a common criminal. And I don't like people watching me take a piss. Don't know about you, but I simply can't trust people with authority, never have, never will.

At the moment, no its not terribly intrusive. I don't care if I've done nothing wrong and have nothing to worry about. I simply do not want some faceless agent reading my email, hearing my phone conversations and looking at my bank and medical records. I don't like people watching me when I take a piss, plain and simple I heard a story about an Italian man who customs detained because traveling back and forth so frequently between Italy and the US appeared suspicious. They resisted releasing him until the media got involved even though they knew he was no threat. When released he said there were other people there detained that had been there for a year and didn't even know why. Why was he traveling back and forth so frequently? He was engaged to an American woman and was making the necessary arrangements to move to the US. If it wasn't for media pressure and good lawyers a perfectly innocent man would be hidden away somewhere for doing nothing wrong. It doesn't matter if you have no reason to hide "Don't worry, they'll find one!" I'll see if I can find the story again. Here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/us/14vis...article_popular The only people I trust or want anything to do with keeping me safe is myself, my family and my close friends. Anyone else is a threat regardless of who they are. I can understand certain measures like the warrantless wiretaps sometimes, for example when there simply isn't enough time to go through the propper channels (like in a 24 type situation) But to hold people without due process is too dangerous to ever allow under any circumstance. There's no action they can take without these restrictions to prevent an attack that they can't take with them. Without these civil rights there's nothing to protect people from the abuse of power by the government. Ultimately, they they are that determined, they'll carry out a successful attack no matter what. It's bad enough with cops pulling people over and making up offenses for the sake of the town gaining some revenue. Ever seen A Man for All Seasons? Watch it and pay particular attention to the scene and the lines about giving the devil the benefit of law.

That is most likely the case. Cameras don't particularly bother me, in a crowded place, its merely another eyewitness. And a more reliable one at that. 10 people see the same event, you'll get 10 different descriptions. They aren't terribly helpful though without expensive high end equipment. The best we got from a camera on a guy apparently nabbing a kid was enough of an image to safely say that was the same guy walking out of the hotel with the girl that I saw upstairs. The problem is alot of this stuff can be used correctly for safety, but it is so easily abused and the safeguards just aren't in place to prevent it. I'd be more comfortable if they specifically wrote out that these roving wiretaps cannot be used as permittable evidence for any crime or for justification of a warrant for any crime other than terrorism (which also needs its own clear meaning so you can't call angry protestors who trash a police car or something terrorists and lock them away without due process) The sad thing is, scoring political points does more to get you elected than reasonably working to solve problems. It's easier to rally conservatives over banning guns than to actually disect the issue and agree on what safeguards to put in place to prevent impropper use without getting in the way of gun ownership. I like a law from one of the southwest states( I think Arizona) my father learned of when he was down there on business. Where he was, anyone was allowed to carry a gun, it just had to be plainly visible. Any criminal use of a gun can easily be met with propper use of a dozen more at any given time. Wouldn't work in NYC though, people would be offing each other for subway seats and traffic jams too often. I've never heard of any actual evidence backing up McCarthy. Might there have been a few communists and soviet spies, of course, they wanted to gather intelligence as much as we did. Paranoia, Salem witch hunts and blacklisting aren't the way to handle such things. Likewise J. Edgar Hoover had this fetish with the Soviets commanding and supporting the American communist party and had agents following the leaders around to find they were under nobody's influence and that they had themselves neither any influence or money. We learned after the fact that much of the feared soviet capability simply wasn't there to begin with. And some of the things I've read or seen on the history channel are funny how easily duped and how bad they actually were.

So how long will it be to get me one of these?

Don't even get me started........ That arguement reminds me of a line from Half-Life 2. When the combine are raiding a building two guys are saying "They've got no reason to come to our place." the other replies "Don't worry, they'll find one." I'd rather be allowed to carry a handgun anywhere and protect my own damn self. See! I'm not far out in left field.

Damn! Why hadn't we heard of that before?

Very nice! Sorry about jumping on you 'bout the mesh.

You know, it was probably the exact same air traffic controller on duty for that crash.

I wouldn't be surprised if he had a good trick or two up our sleeves, but thats a little much.

Some technology advanced faster than others. Computers are such a far cry from what they were 20 years ago, assuming we're not back in the stone age. I did see a video of the US Army testing a robotic suit (it showed up after one of the BBC videos linked here) that they'd be fielding sooner than I'd have expected. I wouldn't doubt a 767 sized plane carrying an ABL, but I think it'll be a while before we can compact that into a fighter, or be having dogfights in space. Though the retiring head of the Lockheed-Martin Skunkworks has been quoted on a dozen shows about stealth, future weapons and ufos as saying ' anything you've seen on star trek or scifi, we've been there, done that.'

Yeah, I noticed that too. They're selling them everywhere, I would imagine alot of allied (or simply neutral) nations would be using them by then.

then comes eons of updating flight models and adding ground radar to all the avionics70 planes. for the improved AI, FM and seasons it'll be worth it.

Stick with Nvidia. I swore never to buy an ATI card again after the way their customer service treated me. Updates to their drivers removed a rendering pass to gain performance, which killed specular shine in another sim. They ignored the issue entirely and wouldn't even acknowledge it in their "known issues" but managed the time to fix much more minor issues with even more obscure games. Meanwhile on multiple occaisions I've learned an Nvidia card has had trouble with a particular game, they release a driver update fixing the problem before the game is on store shelves.

any word from AmokFloo? If not, what needs to be done still?

Eh? So you think we'll live to see Lockheed-Martin paying royalties to the Lucas estate to build USAF X-Wings? Until either aliens show up, or manned craft in Earth orbit becomes more common than government and research for that to be the slightest bit useful.