So what you're saying is, once you sterilize a neutrino, it only weighs 1/100 as much as when it still had balls. Those aren't just big brass ones, those are big brass ones armored in the stuff they armor Ogre's with.

It's how unions work in the USA, too. GP is an idiot, and has obviously learned everything he "knows" about unions from Libertarian ideologues.

I think other authors have done a better job with postulating advances in technology. A few examples:

Charles Stross - Accelerando - One of the more believable and compelling projections of computer tech that I've read in a long time.

Linda Nagata - Vast - Similar projections for computer tech as above, plus genetic engineering. This was a recent random find in a used book store for me, and apparently the fourth book in a series called The Nanotech Succession. I will definitely be looking for more of her stuff.

Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl - Definitely the best I've seen for projection in biotech, and it hit me in a similar way as the first time I read Neuromancer a few decades ago. Definitely not for children, though. Pump Six And Other Stories is a collection of short stories set in the same world, but I don't know how well they would hold up on their own without the deeper context that TWG provides.

There's plenty of discussion about how we need more men in nursing and K-6 education, it's just happening on forums you aren't paying attention too. Perhaps you could pull your head out of your ass and google yourself up a bit of education on those topics. I can't speak to therapists, but then all of the relatively few therapists I've met are men.

Yes, they are, you just haven't been paying attention to the forums where those conversations are happening. A tiny bit of Googling would educate you.

Wrong. That might be the case in particular jurisdictions (LA and SF would not surprise me) but it certainly isn't that way in the whole state. All that's necessary is 30 days written notice naming the person(s) on the lease/rental agreement and however many John/Jane Does you think are necessary (it's recommended that number be generous). No need to get cops involved unless the tenant(s) refuse to vacate, but I suspect that's the case in every state.

.... or they could simply refuse to accept them, or any transaction that's taken place involving them. Sure, they'd still be valuable to people who don't seem to realize what they're backed by, and their actual value, is the same: absolutely nothing.

You should, perhaps, go look at some history on what happened when we were on the gold standard. Want economic growth? Forget about it. Want a loan to start a new business, buy a house, keep your current business humming along? Not a chance, unless of course you think that loan shark interest rates are just way, way, too low.

A finite money supply means a finite economy, one that can't grow, and can't handle anything significant happening. It also means the wealthy will get more wealthy, and the poor are basically screwed.... and when i say poor, i mean everyone other than those born into money. Some people have this truly ludicrous idea of how peachy and wonderful it was back on the gold standard.... those people need to learn some real history, and get over their ideology of incredible ignorance. That is a finite economy.

I like belalaikas best!

Back in the USSR!

I certainly get it. After my 6th capped toon, the next two were a little on the boring side...... but you have to admit the irony of people buying the game, paying all those months and years to play it, then paying even more not to have to play it. That's one hell of a business model.

I'd suggest color be damned, the marvelous thing about them is that their blood isn't iron based, but copper based; 1 - a clear proof of convergent evolution; 2 - just really damn neat; and, 3 - proof that Spock, having deep green blood, must not be from a species that uses copper as a blood base (a fantastic way to make diehard trekkies squirm).

Now wrap that with duct tape and we have our preferred material.

WoW didn't originate those "features."

Perhaps a better way to look at it is: UO made huge news when it broke 200k (final peak was a bit more) geeks with accounts; EQ upped that to 500k (final peak was a bit more) geeks/fantasy rpgers with accounts; WoW opened up MMO's to anyone that wanted to play, not just the geeks/rpgers/hardcore gamers... and hit what12 million? I'd suggest that instead of blaming WoW for the bad things they merely imported from their predecessors (and FYI: it was much, much, much worse in EQ, if you don't already know that first hand), you might give them a little credit for making it so that all games have a vastly larger MMO player base now days.

Don't get me wrong, i enjoyed WoW for the couple years i played larger because of a few friends playing, and because i'd come off a 6 year stint in EQ. It was nice and slow and overall somewhat entertaining. EQ (if you didn't play it) on the other hand, felt like a 17 hour a day job, with a root canal appointment during lunchtime, crammed into 3-4 hours of playtime (by the end of my playing days of it). UO, well... it's summed up with just one word: griefers.

Each of those three had it's merits, and each it's detractors, but you have to see them as the stepping stones of the industry and realize that each was designed to take time to play; that was how the companies made money. The richness of content is somewhat subjective though. If they didn't have enough content, they wouldn't have had people continue to pay to play them (see SWTOR), and while they were filled with bugs and bad juju that sometimes popped up, they had enough merits that people tolerated the few issues (see Age of Conan and Vanguard).

For the issue at hand, i think the one line pretty well sums it up:

.... and that really sums it up.

Let me fix it for you: you're fucking idiot.

It's people like you who have undermined this country out of pure tribal association. You don't give a damn about the US.

The reason Obama hasn't been impeached is because he's done nothing to rise to the level of impeachment....and anyone with a fucking living brain cell knows that. The unfortunate problem is people like you don't have any living brain cells. Even the most braindead fucking conservative asshat has to be able to understand that, given the number of terrorist teabaggers in the House, if they could impeach Obama, they would try; and only a fucking clueless moron would think that they'd stay their hand just because he's black; that hasn't stopped them from being KKK clones so far.

You're not being dismissed because you hate Obama, you're being dismissed because you are a fucking idiot that doesn't have a fucking clue what they hell your saying, using words that obviously are too big for you to understand, while lying like a little bitch to try to get people to agree with you. Hint: only other fucking idiots are going to agree with your fucking stupidity.

Actually, while most of what you're suggesting is more in line with what the Constitution framed, that one little bit isn't: the "militia" was not to "self-train."

That also brings us back to being on point with the 2nd Amendment (until the fabrication of additional rights NOT IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS by the Roberts court):

Can you imagine, though, if all these "patriots" out there each weekend running around with their beer bellies playing in the woods, screaming about government tyranny and all that bullshith were required to show up for monthly military drills.... let alone what kind of mental havoc it would create the first time they were actually called up to serve their country? Talk about a bunch of whiny little self serving shitheads pissing in their pants.