I went to the GDC talk by SimCity's lead designer. He said that city type is equivalent to a retirement community, and is a legitimate city design. I of course think it's just a rationalization, but...

It is still a thought-crime, however. He bought no weapons, built no bombs, created no toxins. He did nothing but possess knowledge and harbor some crazy fantasies. If he had started to enact those fantasies, I would totally agree that he would have to be arrested. Until that point, however, he had committed no physical crime.

It's interesting that you can get over two years of prison time just for *thinking* about doing something bad, but if you are in the right position, you can murder 24 civilians and get away with it.

I never quite understood why it is so abhorrent (by comparison) to do things to dead bodies (which cannot feel or be affected by such acts) while the actual act of killing those people (which obviously affects those people quite a bit...) doesn't get much mention. We don't care that these men were killed, we care that they were peed on afterward. Why the differing standards?

I think the idea behind coating electronics is that you can coat them both inside *and* outside. When you are applying such a thin layer of (what is apparently) plastic, you have to worry about friction wearing off the coating on the outside. When it's also applied to the inside electronics, which are not exposed to wear and tear, those parts can stay waterproof over a long time, keeping the device safe.

A boat is different, however. Instead of applying this waterproofing to inside, non-worn parts, you'd be applying it to the outside of the hull. Those are the parts which would receive the most friction, and would likely cause the coating to wear off very quickly. Unless you plan on coating your boat before every ride, I have doubts that this would be terribly (long-term) useful.

Read the article. They aren't restricting who can buy their products. They are only restricting who can get *free samples.* No shopkeep or store will refuse to sell these pudding cakes to children, but the company can certainly refuse to give *free samples* to children (who are not their target market).

What makes you think that Obama should've immediately posted his long-form birth certificate long ago?

It's only a "red flag" to people who are already overly suspicious. No other president or presidential candidate has ever had to prove their place of birth, why should Obama simply because some people are trolling around for a reason to disqualify him as a legitimate president? I won't even get in to the racial overtones.

What's next? Demand all his college transcripts! If he doesn't release them *immediately* then it is clearly a "red flag" that he didn't actually go to college and that the CIA must be mocking up documents right now. Demand his driver's license! It may be a "red flag" that he actually doesn't know how to drive a car. Demand his vaccination records! If he doesn't it's a "red flag" that he's actually an anti-vaxxer.

It's not OK to demand unreasonable things and then say that since he didn't immediately comply with your demands, it's a "red flag" that your conspiracy theories are true. Additionally, once he *does* comply with your first demand, what's to stop you from making more and more demands until you get the "red flag" that you want?

I feel like in an ideal world, this could certainly be correct. Everyone likes a fun, social game, right?

Except this isn't always the case.

As seen in another recent posting, you tend to get pushed to the 'indie' section of gaming if you don't have the visuals that people want. People like looking at pretty screen-candy, and game makers know to indulge people in this. You can certainly have good games without amazing visuals, but they won't ever be mainstream.

Most people love their graphics, even if they'll then claim 'gameplay' is important on some survey.

I think the problem with most 'indie' games is that they don't have boatloads of cash behind them which seems necessary to have 'supercool bleeding-edge graphics.' So you automatically lose all the people who won't play anything that isn't 'pretty enough.' Fact is, it takes a bit of time and effort to explore the game and see how gameplay is. It's a ton easier to simply see the graphics and make a judgment on that. I have been playing an 'indie' MMORPG - Clanlord (www.clanlord.com) - for a good 10 years now. The population is small, and the graphics still look 10 years old, but I think it's a really fun game. It won't bring in those people who need the supreme graphics, but you get to know everyone, people are mature, and you get to play things in a different way than many other MORPG. Hey, it even has no monthly fee now, which is almost necessary when competing against all the other options. CL will be an Indie MMOG for years to come, even if it doesn't have the largest playerbase. And that's where I expect most indie games to be - niche games that do well in their niche, but that's about it.

ClanLord (www.clanlord.com) is a 'free' game for Macintosh. You pay ~$15 for the account, but there are no monthly charges past then (which is fairly new, it used to be pay by month). It's been around for 10 years (and looks it), but I love it, personally.