You are my mouse-user doppelganger.

Absolutely correct. However, I've thought for years that online games would be an easy way to launder money, whether it be by terrorists, or more conventional organized crime. There are plenty of 3rd party websites to buy and sell in-game virtual currencies which could be used to easily pass real money into and out of a game, and without any traceable in-game chat logs or voice communication, assuming they have protected communication elsewhere. There's no need to send high-paid agents into games for spying when they could quietly contact the companies running the games and ask/require them to track or provide logs of virtual currency exchanges for suspicious activities. Many game popular MMOs are probably already doing some type of currency tracking to locate gold farmers, hackers, or exploiters anyway. Don't monitor every chat-log, just follow the money [and it's debateable whether that's even necessary].

"Extrapolating from a few feet of bone..." There's certainly a place for modeling in science, but there are definitely scientists that are using these models based on very little actual data to give some semblance of authority to what is really a wild guess.

It's not a real question at all actually. There's little to no fracking anywhere in AZ because there are no viable shale/oil fields in the state. If you don't believe me see what the Arizona Geologic Survey Director has to say: http://arizonageology.blogspot.com/2012/04/is-hydraulic-fracturing-threat-in.html Besides, even if there was fracking there is no evidence of fracking causing any damage to surface structures. The widely publicized case of minor earthquakes in OH isn't directly related to fracking, but to the reinjection of frack wastewaters in wastewater injection wells, which are many, many miles from where the fracking occured. Great job getting in the first response to the first post though.

Valve probably has more money saved up for advertising than many would expect. Their own games are wildly popular already, but more importantly they've sold and continue to sell millions of games through Steam which they take a cut of every single sale. No company is even close to competing with or providing an alternative to Steam. It cannot be understated how important the steady, dependable income from Steam sales will be to support their roll-out of Steambox.

I just want to be notified when scientists create zombie yeast.

I think the evidence that John Kerry and other experts are providing is pretty compelling that Assad has used gas on his people and if so then I think we should do something to stop Assad. However, ~12 years there was pretty compelling evidence about Saddam Hussein having WMDs, which we found years later was dead wrong. So, that's my only hesitation with supporting bombing.

Amazon must think there's room in the market for more digital download services than just Steam and Origin, and I think I agree with them. If you consider the trends in gaming towards mobile devices, Amazon/Kindle are in a much better position than Steam to with the growing mobile games market, and if they can convince some people to purchase the next big PC game from them instead of Steam, then all the better.

I just moved from a townhouse (where the association took care of all the outdoor maintanance) into a house with almost an acre of yard to mow, trees and bushes to trim/remove/plant/re-plant, weeding beds, install a fence for my dog, gutters/siding to clean, roof needs to be replaced, painting shutters and door, drainage improvements, clean-up leaves, and more that I'm sure will come up. I'm already looking forward to the winter!

"...epitome of physical input and tactile response..." Funny, because I think that applies better to actual sports. Yes, yes, I'm sure someone can argue that pinball could be considered a sport, but it certainly not any sort of level of physicality with baseball, olympic gymnastics, boxing, etc. etc. etc. It's like saying competitive Star Craft players are "athletes"

Anyone else think that Kickstarter is the thing of dreams for scammers? If Steorn was trying to scam investors with their "free" energy machine hoax I guarantee they would be on Kickstarter.

You're wrong. Companies or individuals in PA who want to discharge anything other than typical sanitary waste (i.e. flushing toilets) have to: 1) get a one-time or annual permit; 2)demonstrate the waste meets the facility's requirements, which are set by PA's department of environmental protection; and 3) pay a fee for the discharge. The fees and waste requirements can vary from facility to facility depending on their capabilities. The fees are usually a one-time hook-up fee plus a per gallon rate charge or an annual fee based on estimated volumes for long-term permitted discharges. So in that way it is a tax directly on the company discharging. If the facility is accepting waste they cannot treat, discharging the waste before it is treated, or not charging enough that's not the fault of the companies who were authorized by the waste water treament facility to discharge to the public sewer system. (FYI, I've reviewed many annual discharge permits and helped arrange for temporary discharges of mildly contaminated water to public sanitary sewers for construction projects in PA and NJ, so that's how I know this.)

It's not uncommon to have temporary or ongoing discharges of contaminated waters to public sewers. Many older gas stations around the country have had "pump & treat" groundwater remediation systems, which discharge to the public sewers waters contaminated with benzene and other volatile and semi-volatile compounds like those of concern in frack waste water. Lots of factories have permitted discharges of contaminated waters to the public sewers. Construction sites where they have to dewater "clean" or contaminated groundwater will arrange to discharge it to the public sewer. The municipal fees are usually pretty minimal too. I've set up a few temporary discharges like this for my work (environmental consulting). So, what I'm getting at is that these kind of discharges are nothing new, and it's not really fair to single out an energy company if they are following the regulations that are in place. The only difference I could see is a frack water discharge is probably a really big load on the treatment system at one time, whereas other permitted discharges are spread out over a longer period of time and dilluted significantly the other waters running through the sewers. Anyway, all sewage treatment plants operate and discharge under specific permits requirements set by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP). I'm guessing that the permits the wastewater treatment plants operate under don't set specific effluent standards for some of the potential contaminants related to frack waste water. If frack water discharge to sewage treatment systems is an issue the PADEP could very quickly update the sewage treatment plants' permit requirements. The PADEP already has that authority, it wouldn't even require a partisan vote in the state legislature.