You sure there wasn't a big ass flood when that asteroid hit?

It could be that their timing is just off. That would be far less stupid.

I'm just sayin'.

It would be weird, would it not? I would hope most news outlets would run that story.

Congress would mandate search results? Hm.

And if an act inspires terror in a populace, then it would be a terrorist's act, no?

In any case, how you see a correlation worthy of note in a tale about the inevitable corrupting influence of power; well it makes me worry about you. :)

Maybe that's because no real scientist (all of us are scientists) would ever google "What really happened to the dinosaurs". (I guess starting tonight we have)

The question itself is intended to solicit creationist answers. So the query results are accurate.

when I think of all the mod points I let expire...

Heh.

"but offer varying rate plans and terms"

Really? What is the point of that? I need 240V @ 60Hz, 24/7, about 200 amps worth at any given time. Exactly that; nothing else.

Whatever the lowest price is for that; that's the plan. There's only one set of wires coming to my house. The name on the bill is quite irrelevant to me.

It's a completely made up, bullshit, 'market', and there's no getting around that.

"broadband infrastructure development"

Is that still actually going on? I thought we sort of standardized on gigabit fiber. That should hold everyone for a long time, no? Sort of like the 240V 60Hz thing has held us for quite a while.

If we're not there yet, and there's new kinds pipes on the way to my house within a decade, then I'm wrong..

Yes, two birds with but one stone.

There really is a movement in Russia to do something about the rampant corruption.

There really have been 2 big rocket mistakes recently, that a non-corrupt agency (Go NASA; seriously, you rock) would likely have caught.

To really end corruption, in any agency; he's going to have to take direct control of it. This is going to be a double win for Putin in Russia. The man can do no wrong. I think I'm becoming a fan.

And btw, doesn't NASA report to the President? Doesn't congress directly allocate, oversee, all that? He probably should have done this a long time ago.

I'd like to add that this is the reason to bring whatever service down to as local level politics as possible.

The elected officials are still accountable, and can be fired in the next election.

"separate ..."

Well who does that? I believe it is the government. It is still the government coming down from on high and telling people what to do.

Here's the thing about free market competition: When a market has a natural monopoly built into it, like power, water, natural gas, roads, fiber connections, government, ... You can't just magically legislate a free market into existence. Of course they do it all the time, just badly.

So a suggestion is, that the local government owns the fiber, and you have 'competition' between multiple ISPs. What the hell do I need an ISP for anyway? I need a DHCP when I log on, and then my packets routed. I have a WRT54g that does that; I assume the city network has one of those too.

It's a made up bullshit 'market'. We need to wrap our heads around a) Internet access is a utility, not a consumer good, and b) Good enough is good enough.

Now, perhaps we are not quite there yet. I'm glad we didn't standardize on ISDN. But I think gigabit fiber is good enough. If I'm wrong, then it's close.

Yeah, but I don't want to pay for that. You're using a computer and printer to replace a pen.

What's the point of that? To be sure some idiot that can't mark a circle gets to vote? Or maybe you're all paralyzed and parkinsons and really can't mark the circle.

That's why all those old people are hanging around the polling place; they are there to help you. Or you can bring your own help.

There's no good reason to have a computer anywhere near voting. The digital adding machine in a scantron is all we need. (And we're not even dependent on that, but it's nice to have your results by morning.)

Well, it was a darned good question about heavier trucks and using the electric system to power accessories.

Her answer to that was the worst of them all, and that is saying something. It may be the case that they have a 2500 Farm Volt close to ready, and they're worried Dodge is going to steal it out from under them. But unlikely.

She should not have agreed to answer any questions, if she was not allowed to in the first place.

Man, communism is eating your brain.

Do you really believe the rich get 80% of the use of the road? I, the working man, wanted to go to McDonalds. I used the road for myself, to get where I wanted to go. Am I free to go to McDonalds when I feel like it, or not?

The rich get 70-90% of the money, so of course they get more economic benefit out of everything that we have, including the road.

You talk about each person's partial share, but then forgot what the word 'share' means. In everything the rich do, they make more money than me, including using the road. Yes, even when I use the road for my own benefit, some rich person somewhere is likely making money off of me. They call that, 'the economy'.

You do realize there is only one logical end conclusion to your line of thinking; the rich should not be allowed to exist in the first place. They are always going to 'get more benefit' from everything than the non-rich. Maybe you can do away with them even though everyone else in the past 100 generations tha has tried, has failed.

That's enough reason right there to make the idea a non-starter.

But also, I don't like charging citizens for little bits of government, at least the basic bits like roads, and the ability to travel. The road is one of the most basic bits; if a group of people came out of the wilderness to form a government, the first thing they would do is build a road. Maybe before they hired a cop.

I understand that semis tear up the roads more than cars, so yes, an extra road tax for them is not unreasonable. But the basic existence of roads should be funded from the general tax fund, the same one that pays for cops and other essential parts of government.

But charging people a direct travel tax is most unreasonable. The people (our government) tracking everyone through GPS is lunacy, well beyond unreasonable

Yeah. Warcraft just copied them on that.

That is pushing it though. The good thing about having to buy time is weeding out the riff-raff.

Yeah it worked; here we are reading and posting on it...

But MMOs aren't dying. Well, the games are, but I don't think the genre is done. The most fun I've ever had in my whole life, while sitting down and looking at a screen, was rated battlegrounds in Warcraft. Whitewater rafting, helicopter rides; sailing a Hobie cat; those are things that are more fun than an MMO at its best.

I think its just a stagnating thing, not a dying thing. Blizzard's success has hurt the industry, and then they hurt themselves. Warcraft becoming stagnant makes the whole industry stagnant. It's not like Warcraft could be copied, improved, and sold; the law doesn't allow it. But Warcraft did blaze the way.

Soon, hopefully, a game will come out that eliminates WoWs weaknesses and allows the genre to grow again. Off the top of my head:

Do away with leveling.
Do away with Xpacs.
Never allow real money into the game economy.
Make your money only through subscription / buying time.
(Fees for server moves and the anniversary glowy mount are OK)
Never change a player's powers from PVP to PVE or zone to zone.
Never change the existing game world. (Additions are obviously OK)

An MMO is the virtual world that the internet promised us. It could be bigger than Facebook. Everything Facebook has, plus you can do battle in the middle of the street if you want. And fly on a dragon. Or be one. It's coming. How long is what I don't know.

I know right. Where's Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?

He dares them to shoot him, and when they finally do, he's not done with his fuckin' speech yet. 'I'll go to the hospital when I damn well feel like it...'

Dang. We could use him.