I follow some district and appellate court decisions, and they're usually fairly readable, too. Motions made by attorneys can be opaque, but often follow a pretty strict form and are fairly easy to read once you figure out which boilerplate phrases basically mean simpler things.

The difference is very real on the diplomatic playing field. Those who fight don't much care; they just do their job. But there are additional consequences to a declared war because it tends to become a drive to win unlike those of undeclared wars which can wind down more quietly. A declared war on North Korea may well have brought the Soviets in on a scale greater than actually happened. A declared war in Vietnam might have opened up the bombing of any ship in Hanoi Harbor, many of which were Soviet supply vessels. Either of those could have opened fighting in a wider area of the West Pacific, and Europe would have been a lot more tense than it was.

We say North Korea is developing nuclear weapons in violation of the Nonproliferation treaty.

No, we don't, because North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003. Since that time, it has not been under the restraints required by the treaty.

That doesn't make the world any happier about them developing nuclear weapons, but no one is saying they're violating a treaty they're no longer part of.

South Korea is at war with North Korea. The US never declared war on North Korea. It took part in a UN-sanctioned action to defend South Korea.

The convention in the United States for decades has been to places periods inside the quotation marks. All others are based on the actual quote. The Chicago Manual of Style, as one of many, recommends this, but most guides point out that the British style placing anything not part of the quote outside of the quotation marks is acceptable but may be seen as unusual to American readers--of all ages.

I wrote several of the old V&V adventures. I have many fond memories of dropping by FGUs offices and seeing guys like Jeff Dee & Bill Willingham toiling in the art hole . . . sometimes working on art for my RPG adventures!

For several years dealing with FGU was a good enough gig, but the publisher just sort of disappeared after the late 90s.

I had given up hearing from him ever again when Jeff pointed out that the company was still in business, sort of, and selling my stuff.

I eventually got back royalties, and even had a trunk manuscript (for another game system) published, but it is an uncomfortable situation. V&V aside, what other rights are up in the air?

I hope the appeal gets processed quickly so Monkey House can start work on V&V e3 and I can work on new editions of my old stuff for them!

. . . Mar 12 11:57:03 hedvig kernel:WILL I DREAM?

We have a late 2008 Xserve-- the thing won't support Mountain Lion! Have you ever heard of Windows or Linux not working on 4 or 5 year-old hardware?! We'd put ESX on there but that's not supported either! Truly depressing.

Mac mini isn't support by vmware. You have to fuss around with broadcom drivers to get ethernet to work. . .

China isn't a federal government. Don't confuse "federal" with "national."

Cesar Chavez Day is not a Mexican holiday, and is observed in Arizona and Texas as well as California. He was born in Arizona and is remembered for improving life for migrant workers while generally opposing illegal immigration (though this latter part seems to be lost in the current debate).

I dont know that that would work. People on the fringes like Ralph Nader and Rush Limbaugh would be pushed rapidly up to very high levels. If you added negative points to balance this, it would quickly become a political war where technically correct but unpopular people could get buried as untrustworthy while a politician who says all the right things could become the most trusted person.

I clicked "Fixed-lens digicam" because it is the closest choice to what I use most often. It has a optical zoom, but is nowhere near being a DSLR or even a faux-DSLR.

I have better cameras than my Nikon E5600. Better resolution, better zoom, more features. But the E5600 is "good enough" in all categories, uses AA batteries (I pack spares), can fit in my shirt pockets, and since it only cost me $10 I wouldn't feel broken up about losing it.

Here it is!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/6946063784/in/photostream

Scanning through my photostream, a solid majority of my photos were taken with it.

I use a refurbished Fuji FinePix "faux DSLR" to take pictures of stuff I'm building, stuff I'm auctioning off, etc.

He's the target of many more jokes than those about his name. That's what he gets for being part of the PaulDotCom cast.

But I should have made clear that I was speaking of the infosec guy, not the whiskey brand. I see his name often enough that it doesn't even occur to me to consider the crossover anymore.

Crime? Smog? I don't know which part of California you're describing, but levels of both are down dramatically. At least in Southern California, crime is a shadow of its former self and as for smog... I remember spending a lot of days indoors due to smog alerts, something that most students have little knowledge of these days.

You have good points besides those, and crime and smog can still certainly be reduced, but it's nothing like it used to be.