I thought of that too. He would be perfect in the role. (Would be funny too as he is quite rotund. Seeing his flab sticking out from under the Darth life support suit would be a hoot.)

But modern Disney is not nearly that creative. They've been riding on Eisner's "lawyering" via continual copyright extensions for YEARS now. Most of their best recent stuff has actually been Pixar's work with Disney acting as financial backer.

Frankly, Eisner should have spun off the corporate side of Disney into a generically named holding company (Mickey Holding LLC or something like that) and allowed the creative side to remain as Disney a long time ago. It would have kept the Disney brand pure and untainted and probably have made him more money in the long run.

At any rate, I'm not really upset about this. Honestly, Disney can't do any worse than Lucas has with the Star Wars franchise, and frankly, their animated version of Star Wars has not only been more Canon faithful, but better written than the first two prequels. It was long past time for Lucas' ego to be removed from the Star Wars universe. Disney will do fine with Star Wars, although I suspect that our chance to return to the "gritty" universe version of the original trilogy is long past gone.

Also, if I remember my Canon, Don't the next 3 books (Ostensibly the most logical choices for the follow-up trilogy) follow almost immediately after ROTJ? All the OT actors are OLD now. Are they going to do a series reboot or are they going to just CG the entire thing?

And this is where the OSCE is wrong, due to the way that the US Constitution is written.

No treaty signed by the federal government can trump the Constitution. And it is in the Constitution where the states' control over election law is enshrined. Therefore, the treaty is simply invalid.

Regardless of whether OSCE polling observers is a good idea or not, it is, under Texas state law, via the Constitution of the United States, ILLEGAL.

It's worse than even that. The only "new" hardware in my house other than smartphones is my wife's netbook, which I bought for her back in 2010. My own laptop is a Lenovo T60 with a dual-core CENTRINO processor in it. Both the netbook and my T60 run Win7 32bit with all the pretties turned on without trouble. I have an old desktop running win7 32bit as well, it's an old old AMD x3200 system with 2gb of RAM.

Why haven't I bothered to upgrade? Well, most everything I need to get done I can get done on this older but still fully functional hardware. I don't game on my PC, mostly because as a busy 40+ yr old father of three I simply don't have time for that in my life anymore. When I game, I play casual games on my Android phone. Not only am I not alone in this, I'm actually fairly typical of people in my age group.

The people who would normally be gaming on Windows PCs and the target market for new OSes and new PCs would be the 20-30 demographic. This is the EXACT demographic that is hurting the most in the current recession. Many of the younger members of this group can't get jobs, or are underemployed. As such, they aren't in the market for new PCs and are sticking with what they have. if they have any money, they will spend it on a new phone first, a PC is much farther down their list.

So it's bad all around for Microsoft. I see Win8 getting about as much traction as Vista did. Enough for them to be able to SAY it was a success, while quietly excising Metro from desktop and server versions of Win9.

This is true enough. Since the 1960's much of the US Government has been infected with Leftists who don't believe in Property rights. thus they have spent 50 years slowly whittling away at it through laws passed at midnight on a weekday, various "rules" passed by unelected leftists bureaucrats, and by activist leftist judges. All with the intent of placing into law that you DON'T actually own any land or anything on or in it. this has been happening both at federal and state levels, with the more leftist controlled states being worse.

By way of example, see New York State. You own a farm? Discover oil, or coal, or some other mineral resource on it? Go ahead and TRY to sell that resource. You will find that your "Mineral Rights" don't actually exist. Oh, you still legally HAVE them, but you can't actually USE them due to all the other regulations in place.

The same goes with Archaeological finds, treasure finds, et al. If you find anything of potential archaeological, historical or intrinsic value on your property, TELL NO ONE.

- If it is archaeological, DESTROY IT or re-hide it as fast as you can. Or your entire property is forfeit to Eminent Domain as an Archaeological site.

- If it is historical, Keep it to yourself, unless you want your property declared a historical site and thus ineligible for further improvement. (IE: You won't be allowed to fix up your now historical house without a mile long ream of paperwork. Even if the roof is leaking.)

- If it is intrinsic, such as gold or silver coins, jewels etc, then TELL NO ONE, buy a small jeweler's forge and melt down the coins into small bars, remove the jewels from any settings and melt down the settings, then quietly place all of it into a safe deposit box (preferably in the caymans if you can afford it). Otherwise the US Government will simply TAKE IT from you and you will then have to pay a tax on the value of the stuff you now no longer have, thus bankrupting you for having the temerity to find something valuable.

One of the first things that despots and leftists do is remove personal property rights. If not directly, then by a thousand regulations. If you want to keep your stuff, then you keep quiet.

I don't think Laxori666 was intimating that "The Market" was broken, but rather that our regulatory systems (that would include the Patent system) have shackled it to the extent that it can be more profitable to engage in legal assaults against your competitors than to actually PRODUCE something new for sale.

Now, Apple is clearly doing both, but the fact that the legal avenue is even viable for them to bother pursuing should be of great concern to anyone wishing to see greater vibrancy and energy from the marketplace.

And SOMEONE does not know their Western history! (Not surprising given the utter lack of proper history teaching in the West for the last 30 years. Thanks for that, Baby Boomers!)

By 1776 the Magna Carta had been in force in England for over 100 years. England was then, as now, a monarchic Democracy, and certainly a Western state (Actually, they were THE Western State at that point in history.) This is, of course, what led to the American revolution. The colonists felt that they were being made serfs again by lack of representation in Parliament. After years of protests and complaints and a series of political, social and police assaults by the crown on the colonies (designed to suppress dissent) the colonies banded together and revolted. The large scale presence of arms in the colonies attributed in part to the success of the revolution.

Nazi Germany was a Western Democracy prior to Nazi takeover. Hitler's election to Chancellor was by popular vote. It wasn't until after his election to Chancellor and subsequent seizing of power through political subterfuge (like having the army swear allegiance to HIM rather than to Germany or the German Constitution) that the people began to get a sense that there was a problem.

Unfortunately for them, one of the first laws that Hitler passed even BEFORE seizing full Dictatorial power was to outlaw private gun ownership. He knew that an armed populace was a dangerous and uncontrollable populace, even when doped up on the Nazi propaganda that was inescapable in Germany at the time.

So yes, Having an armed and engaged populace is antithetical to anyone that would seek to rule them by force. This includes Australia.

I have to admit, I HATED the Ribbon when it first came out, especially in Word and Excel, as I had memorized all the menus. Once I had to use it in Powerpoint though, I started to appreciate it. Still wasn't terribly happy with it in Word and Excel, but I learned to use it.

In Office 2010 the ribbon is MUCH better. Closer to the old menu system in appearance and arrangement, and more logically laid out. Also, there is the switch that lets you enable to old-school menu if you want it back, so if you still hate the Ribbon, you don't have to use it. VERY nice!

Windows 8 though, What a mess. if they would just let people CHOOSE what they want, classic or Metro interface, there wouldn't be a problem. But to FORCE people to not only use Metro on non-touchscreen systems and then to have this crazy duality where it swaps back and forth... it's just nuts.

The only problem with that is that you have to deal with TigerDirect's cut-rate shipping service. I have bought exactly three things from TigerDirect in the last 15 years. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. of the items I bought arrived damaged and looking like it had been used as a pinata at a party for Ultimate Fighters.

Good luck getting TG to send replacement items or offer refunds. They assume you are lying when you tell them the item arrived destroyed, and not only force you to send it back at your own expense, but then charge you a 20% restocking fee! They are crap. NEVER buy anything from them, they cannot be trusted.

Incidentally, I have also, once, received something damaged from Newegg. After I reported the damage, Newegg emailed me a prepaid return label to print out and shipped me another unit that very day. No questions asked, no hassle given. They were a joy to deal with. Newegg gets all my online electronics business to this day.

The best explanation I have heard yet for this is the "scope" phenomena. Simply put, the alternate parties platform scopes are almost always very narrow, (IE: Single issue platforms or focused around a particular segment of interest such as the economy, to the exclusion of other interests such as foreign policy or social issues.) whereas the major party platforms are very broad.

Also, if the alternate party platform is enough "in line" with the major party, they may "absorb" that issue into their own platform, thus rendering the alternate party irrelevant.

Ultimately, politics in America is very much a game of "Not letting the good become the enemy of the perfect." Thus we get candidates like Mitt Romney, who is viewed by the base as somewhat "soft" on the real hard conservative values, but was easily the most likable and "electable" of the available choices and is ideologically "right" enough to be deemed acceptable. So while Romney is not the "perfect" conservative candidate, he is considered "Good Enough" and thus gets the party nod.

It goes the same way with party politics. People have very diverse interests and very few are willing to vote on a single issue only. So the parties with the broadest appeal within a range attract the most votes. Bell curve, baby. Bell curve.

More than their engines. If you remember the Final Episode ("Unending") the Asgard in the Milky Way committed suicide to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the Priors of the Ori. Just before that they outfitted an Earth ship (The Odyssey) with a massive computer system that contained all their knowledge.

So Earth got the sum total of all Asgard knowledge in a single computer system.

On a more submission-related note, I just want to have my own warp-capable ship. It doesn't even have to be a very big one. Just enough to be able to travel with me and my family to other stars and planets. Given the choice between a life of work here on Earth or a life wandering among the stars and exploring other worlds, I'd choose space. of course, I'd still come home from time to time, but there's just so much to see out there, and if we can actually travel to other planets within a reasonable time frame, then count me in!

I would say probably none. But then, I would count the number of Americans in general that believe that as ALSO none.

I WOULD count the number of Americans that falsely believe that some their fellow Americans are crazed religious nutbags that want to slaughter people who theologically disagree with them as AT LEAST one, and probably more as I know that there is a strain of anti-religious (Really, Anti-Christian) fervor that has infected some people in America that has no grounding in reality and is instead held up by anti-religiously bigoted propaganda by people with political and financial hay to make.

Congratulations on buying into the lie, BTW.

There is a reason why you DO NOT see Christians rioting over the many many many assaults on their religion in the press and the world at large.

Beyond it being against their religious beliefs to do so, it is exactly this argument. They know they believe in an Omnipotent God. They have no need to defend Him. The most you are likely to get from Christians is a somewhat strongly worded letter or a product boycott.

That tells me all I need to know about the "equivalence" between Islam and Christianity.

So, you propose we cover every building, parking lot and road with solar panel arrays? What about the safety lighting that will have to be on 24/7 to provide adequate light under all that construction? What about the massive costs to build what would eventually become a single nationwide structure?

You seem to be missing the point that solar panel arrays large enough to provide adequate power would be prohibitively large and would necessitate the destruction of vast swathes of habitat. Hardly a "green" solution.

Coal is NOT a dirty power source. You seem to be under the impression that coal power is a bunch of guys shoveling coal into a furnace with black sooty smoke pouring out the the top.

In reality, coal firing is fairly clean. Not as clean as other methods, to be sure, but acceptably clean. We have a coal-fired plant here in my area. It sits right along the Niagara River and I see it every day as I drive to work. I've also been inside it. It is a marvel of technology. Using powdered blown coal dust, hot gas recirculation and stack scrubbers it burns very thoroughly and puts out very little pollution. It is hardly the most advanced plant out there, either. Your idea that "nothing can be done about it" is not only highly misinformed, it is simply wrong.

As far as Nuclear goes, The costs of construction are DIRECTLY related to legal and regulatory costs. A modern nuclear power plant is not that expensive to build. Just look at France to see how well they have done in building modern plants and keeping costs down. Hell, Koran companies have developed small sealed nuclear power generation stations that will run for 50 years and cost only a couple million dollars a unit. Now, those are only for small towns, but you could power a city with a few hundred of these scattered around and it wouldn't even cost all that much.

Modern Nuclear power is CHEAP. it's regulation and legal issues that cost so much.

Defanging the EPA will NOT lead to more "Love Canals". Love Canal was a result of ignorance and greed on the part of both Hooker Chemical AND the local Niagara County government. The EPA would not have prevented it. If the presence of the EPA prevented environmental disasters, then every environmental accident since the EPA's creation wouldn't have happened.

Defanging the EPA WOULD, however, lead to less regulatory adventurism and less government waste though. They have gone FAR beyond their original mission of being an environmental watchdog and have become one of the prime examples of government power abuse. The EPA needs to be returned to its original size and scope, and be actively policed to prevent activists from regaining the near absolute control they currently wield in the EPA.

I am actually quite well informed. I think I've proven that with some of the information I've provided.