Indeed... it's the world's loss. I always thought he was one of the best (if not the best) classic Draculas I'd ever seen, and he was brilliant in all his roles.

I need to find those.. I've read most of the books.

Well, I wouldn't call it doing business with them, I just wanted to be able to post on their forums and make comments on articles, but yeah, it's a pain in the arse.
I would assume it's their way of combating spambots but they're too heavy-handed with that approach.

The only problem I've run across in using your own domain for email is that some places won't accept an email address using an "unknown" domain when creating an account. Case in point, Guitar World magazine, apparently they'll only accept accounts with an email from an ISP, or from Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail. It took me a few attempts to figure that out, because they won't even tell you why they won't send a registration activation email to that address.

They suck, but for Internet, Verizon is no better. I can't even get FIOS where I am, I have DSL, and it's increasingly not cutting the mustard. I can't stream HD for one thing, but every year it just seems slower and slower.
The only other viable alternative for decent broadband then is Comcast.. between a rock and a hard place, essentially.

In regards to cable TV, Comcast service has gone down the toilet. 150 channels of crap, and while I need to time it to be sure, it seems like the commercials to program ratio is getting pretty darn close to 1:1, at least on certain channels, like SyFy. Then there's the way they screwed up OnDemand. Some of the few shows I actually like aren't on premium channels, they're free, like Vikings, Salem, or Supernatural.. but if I want to watch an episode from the last season, I'm lucky if it's there.. and if it is, it's only for a price: $3 an episode. A lot of times you can't even get episodes from earlier in the same season.
Lately, they've been airing the hell out of the first Avengers movie, but on OnDemand, it's $5.99, which is kinda funny.

I guess it depends on what they mean exactly by training. If it means the necessary core skills, then yeah, that's a violation. However if they mean to merely familiarize the workers with that specific environment, then not so much. It's 3 months for the training, which is far more than necessary for an orientation, but if it's because the HIBs are getting phased in over 3 months, dept by dept, that may not mean 3 months of training for each new employee.
But either way, that's still a huge insult to injury.

The problem is those stores tend to be quite small (at least, the ones in my area are), there's not much room for new stuff, unless they intend maybe on backing off of game and accessories a little. Conversely, the Hot Topic in my neck of the woods is at least twice the size of any of the Game Stops.

Unfortunately that seems to be an increasingly common business practice nowadays. It saves on inventory taxes, and probably keeps insurance costs down too.
Remember the Gateway Country Stores? They were nothing more than showrooms, you couldn't walk in and then walk out with a computer, you had to have it ordered. OTOH... they're all gone now, so that sales model wasn't exactly a resounding success.

to step on a virtual lego.

But if it was the US stealing tech from Russia, that'd be an outrage, right? Look, every country steals technology (or tries to) from others, and being tech, that fits the bill for newsworthy on a tech site. Not particularly exciting, no, but not "bashing" on Russia for no good reason either.

That's why you use a magnetic ramscoop, plus the hydrogen solves the fuel shortage problem.

Yes! I have never understood this modern obsession with hops. Myself, I prefer a dark malty, fruity ale with some body, something like a good Belgian Dubbel is awesome. Only that's probably even more fattening than chocolate. That said, I do prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, the former being a little less sweet.

I got about 10 years on you, imagine how I feel. Well, at least maybe my son will get to benefit from this, he's an early teenager.

That in no way absolves the driver if he's actually at fault, though no one really knows just yet (though an examination of the signals systems has revealed no anomalies or malfunctions). He is paid to drive the train safely and responsibly, and being that he's unionized, he's likely paid fairly for that. Workers can do damage no system can bypass, consider the pilot that crashed the Germanwings airlines flight into the French Alps some months back.

That was the only stuff I ever really liked at Hot Topic, I bought a Gir plush, later gave it to my son. That show rocked.
At least there's some overlap in their motif and Thinkgeek's inventory, but I'm waiting to see if emo-nerd-goth-geek becomes the new thing .