They released that damned "John Carter" trailer. And now it's perfectly obviously that there won't be ANY naked slave girls [sniff].

Adios, Barsoom! Alas, we'll never see those wondrous canals, the city ruins, the four-armed barbarians, Dejah Thoris in all her buxom fleshy glory ..

http://www.cartermovie.com/borisjc10.jpg

Sigh ...

Send the helmet, not the patient.

I question someone criticizing the amount of time a player spends on games, or the value of that time. I'm not a young gamer, and I too well remember how I used (or rather, wasted) my leisure time back before computers. Anyone remember game arcades? Slot machines? Stripper bars? Car races? Hunting? All totally and completely useless (unless you actually made it with Vickie, that gorgeous blonde down at the 7 D's).

Of course how he managed to bring other "social media" such as Facebooks into the discussion totally escapes me.

Nope, another 15 minutes of my life wasted. Along with perhaps 90% of the rest of my life, but no matter.

Agreed. I have never considered a game on a disk non-transferable. If I opt to give away or sell the media, that's my business. If the game publisher refuses to give me this license, make it VERY clear on the box and media: "NONTRANSFERABLE". Then I can opt not to buy the damned thing in the first place.

"The absence of a timely brake application, the cellular provider records indicating frequent texting while driving, the temporal proximity of the last incoming text message to the collision, and the witness statement regarding the driver's actions indicate that the GMC pickup driver was most likely distracted from the driving task by a text messaging conversation at or near the time of the accident."

What part of "the stupid son of a b*tch in the pickup was texting" did you not understand? He was the first one to hit ANYONE, and everything else followed from that.

Unless she didn't speak Italian, of course.

"Stiamo ottenendo l'inferno fuori di Dodge, signora! Alcuni merda brutto accadrà presto!"

Is that so hard to understand?

World's deepest flooded mine?

http://www.damninteresting.com/lake-peigneur-the-swirling-vortex-of-doom/

And probably some of the flooded mines in South Africa.

Nope, digging down very far into Mexico City's foundations is not a very good idea. Admittedly it was a very shallow lake, but it was a lake ne'er the less.

I don't know if Tokyo or Japan has rental stores. If so, you might suggest to the nearest one that they buy a good surplus military detector or two (with batteries) and rent them out. I'll bet there are LOTS of people concerned enough to rent one for a day or two just to reassure themselves. Someone could make a TON of money!

There are simple radiacmeters, modern ones, oldfashioned ones that work as well as they ever did. (My US Army NBC Training was back in '62, and I stayed active in it through '65 or so, but I'm definitely out of date. But we had old

Here's a simple gamma dose radiacmeter, very easy to use, simple, bulletproof, $160 US:

http://www.majorsurplus.com/Radiacmeter-IM-179U-Military-Gamma-Dose-Rate-Meter-Issued-Certified-P14342.aspx

Here's the big old IM-174A we used back in The Day for gamma radiation surveys. Some of them might still be around in surplus sales:

http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/southrad/im174apd-1.html

And the old AN/PDR-27. This one's US Navy, but just like the Army one I trained on. Measures alpha, beta, gamma:

http://www.ecrater.com/p/11844783/cr071-geiger-counter-radiacmeter-navy

The problem with the military stuff is finding the appropriate batteries, or some sort of conversion kit to use modern batteries.

There are civilian meters, of course, that you or your rental shop could buy new. It makes far more sense for a rental shop to do this sort of investment though. Not every civilian needs constant or regular monitoring: just the occasional sampling for peace of mind as you describe.

One thing: if you decide to clean out that drain, use rubber gloves, don't raise dust you might breath (or use a dust mask), wash everything outside (so potentially contaminated mud doesn't collect in your inside drains, etc. It's the alpha particle emitters that can really cause problems if they get inside your body.

"Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers" ???

The linked page pops up (with picture and article), and then disappears beneath an Xconomy page. Nice hijack, you Xconomy pukes.