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Comment Re:Exponential rate (Score 0) 799

Ahh. So the new strategy for daily edging the estimated leakage towards the truth is to offer a panic-inducing guess, and then quickly follow up with a much lower estimate - yet one which is still far worse than the previous official estimate.

I figure that strategy will work for the 250k - 500k barrels/day range, but what strat is in place for the final stretch towards one million?

I have some suggestions:

500 - 750k barrels/day: All Atlantic coastlines will be ruined. Wait! Only the Gulf of Mexico's coasts will be ruined.
750k - 1000k barrels/day: The entire world's population will endure starvation. No, actually, only half, and generally limited to the poorest, so relax.
1000k+: We didn't cause Greenland to melt! That was somebody else!!

Comment Re:It wasn't the vaccine, it was the mercury (Score 0) 590

Chief, let's counter your points one by one.

First, you assert that there are safe mercury compounds. All sources I have read indicate that it is only "safe in the allowable doses." You may as well try to say that secondhand smoke is safe in allowable doses. Meanwhile, heart attacks halve in cities where public smoking is banned. My jaw unavoidably drops whenever I encounter somebody whose mindset forces them to argue a ludicrous point. The battle against antivax could be argued as just, but to fight it with non-facts would make Carl Sagan frown.

Second, autism's rise. This is not an argument, for the reason which you comprehend as well as I. Autism's diagnosis is nebulous, and the rise in cases is almost certainly due in large part to its status as a catch-all. Much like how hospital patients in the US and Japan are given antibiotics for almost any ailment. It's bad health care. Lazy.

The removal of mercury, regardless of its ultimate validity, was clearly something that could be achieved without having to bend over backwards.

Finally, your last point, in which you place me on a pedestal next to murderers. Friend, go to hell. Do I sound like I am part of a hysteria? You call me ignorant. I counter that you are downplaying hazards in order to adhere to a generalized attitude about vaccination. This generalization does not apply to anyone who has educated himself (or been educated) about his options. I and my family still took vaccinations. We also immediately underwent brief detoxification efforts by way of chlorella (Google it). Problem solved. Then mercury was removed from vaccines, essentially eliminating the need for such steps. Problem rectified. I'd ask for an apology, but I judge you ill-capable of such courtesy.

Comment It wasn't the vaccine, it was the mercury (Score 0) 590

The famous vaccine / autism link was based on the fact that vaccine preservatives were mercury-based. And there is much validity in this link. Consider: Mercury is known to be bad, especially for the brain, and, it can be assumed, especially for developing brains. Mercury is known to have been a component of vaccines. To expect no side effects would be criminally negligent. And to deny a possible link between mercury-laden vaccinations and brain deficiencies, similarly so. It's like trying to deny a link between a known mass extinction 65mil years ago, and a known impact of extinction-assured magnitude, also 65mil years ago.

Comment Now the domestic naysayers can only feel ashamed (Score 0) 344

The folks in the US who lambasted the movie for its alleged denunciation of the authoritarian Bush administration must be placing foot soundly in mouth right about now. It's bad when the only ones who agree with you are the Chinese government, because it also means that the alleged denunciation in question was very much deserved.

Comment Infinity Ward understands the need for 60fps (Score 0) 521

This article is no news at all to the likes of Infinity Ward. The difference here is that Insomnia are now chiefly PS3 developers, and as the PS3 is famously difficult to develop for, even after you have a tried and solid engine going on it (it's often said that it takes twice as long and costs twice as much money to get a game completed on PS3 as it does for 360), the decision to switch to 30fps is almost certainly STRICTLY thanks to the difficulties associated with PS3 development.

Insomnia choose poorly. To make money, they should have gone multiplatform. Instead they decided to cut back on the quality of their products. It's a choice that smacks of motives they must regard as stronger than profit, and I have to trust they're content with the consequences of their decision. It also puts to rest the famous myth, now three years old, that the PS3 will eventually real some sort of unlocked potential.

Comment One again, Republicans make it easy to understand (Score 1, Funny) 297

Thanks, Republicans, for helping me figure out whether "Net Neutrality" is a good thing or a bad thing, without even having to find a definition. All one needs to do is figure out which side of the argument the Republicans are supporting. The opposite side is the one which is best for consumers. It's so easy!

Comment Re:The latency issue with the Wii. (Score 0) 160

I, for one, cannot wait until these guys tackle the Wii. Heck, I thought at first that that was the whole point behind the exercise. I've done my own tests, for what it's worth, though not using quite so idealized a setup. The Wiimote's motion control has tremendous input lag.. I gauged it to be at least 120ms greater than the buttons on the same controller. The kicker? The Wii Motion Plus did NOTHING to reduce this. And this is the reason why games which rely upon the motion component of the controller quite simply suffer for it. It's really only the games which minimize said control which remain playable. Natal and Sony's wand have essentially the same lag.

Comment No $200 Arcade box? (Score 0) 169

I like how the article (and its link to the article pushing the PS3) both ignore the continued existence of the $200 "Arcade" unit. Tell you what. I'll use the same approach:

---
Attention! Microsoft introduces bare-bones Xbox 360 with smaller internal storage and a pricetag $100 lower than the recently announced PS3 Slim! With this entry, Microsoft seeks to one-up the competition - both from Sony and their mutual rival, Nintendo - by offering the most affordable current-generation gaming console in the market. Combined with what is widely regarded as the most robust library of AAA titles, this new Xbox 360 package may prove irresistible to financially weary consumers this holiday season.
---

I also stifle a chuckle at the various folks who have implied that the PS3's price has been the only thing keeping it from being a success. Developers would beg to differ, since it takes a great deal more time and money to eke a 360-like performance out of the PS3, and generally involves sacrifices, such as anti-aliasing or reduced texture detail. Someone already said it earlier: The PS3 had three years to prove its hardware superiority. The only argument a person can still make is a deliberately vague one: To say that the PS3 has a "hardware advantage" (Blu-ray, Wifi) without specifically admitting that its visual capabilities are in fact inferior, as Konami themselves demonstrated with their three-year, 720p, 24fps masterpiece.

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