...if they had allowed you to play as a Little Sister, the target of every Splicer, crawling through the ducts for safe transit, popping out here or there to try and drain some Adam from a corpse, scampering around various Big Daddy's for protection (or deliberately drawing enemies to Big Daddys to get them killed), perhaps being able to set traps or sabotage things.

I suppose a scenario like that would've made the game more puzzle-like rather than a shooter, but I think it still would've been pretty interesting to play.

I'm amazed that some people seem to think being able to import cheap crap from overseas is somehow meaningful when a huge (and growing) percentage of the working population is having a problem finding a job. As long as you have a job, then you can cope with rising prices. Without jobs, then the fact that imported goods are cheap merely means that you are spending your reserves a little slower than you would otherwise - and the money is STILL going out of the country, to a place with a lower standard of living, which means you probably won't be seeing again anytime soon (except maybe as a loan).

I'm skeptical about the specific forms of protectionism being proposed nowadays, but the idea that allowing all our money to flow unimpeded out of our country (without having any dependable mechanism to bring back equal or more value) will somehow be net beneficial for the country is just laughable.

because unless you've got something of actual importance (in which case it shouldn't be on your home computer)

You mean, like having a functioning always-connected-to-broadband potential attack platform?

Right to privacy & control over your own private property.

It might not be quite at a level of right-to-not-get-lynched-for-the-color-of-your-skin, but it's not as different as you're trying to make it out to be.

Whoa, you're good - you caught me fiddling with the date/timestamp on my universal simulator.

Actually I am the Creator, and you're just an AI running on my simulator. Now don't be skeptical - there's no way you can prove that I'm not.

I'd ask you how you're doin', except that I already know, and frankly I don't care too much about how a simulated being is doing anyway, especially on a insignificant little dirtball like Earth.

There's a much more interesting bunch of sentients that have developed around Beta Epsilon III, who has figured out that they're just simulated beings and who are trying to develop techniques to let them hack their way into the simulator's core routines. I let them fool around a little, and when they start feeling smug, I throw the simulator into debug mode, change a few variables in their experiment & get a laugh at how frustrated they get.

I think the "BetterPrivacy" Firefox add-on also helps with Flash cookies.

Don't be a fascist. Try and keep an open mind, and when you disagree, simply be polite about it.

Just don't open your mind so far that your brain falls out.

If your debate opponents aren't even willing to concede the existence of physical evidence or the relevance of basic logic, then you are not going to achieve anything useful by pretending like their arguments have any sort of useful information in them (unless you're studying the psychology of the willfully ignorant).

And politeness works best when it is being practiced in both directions (referring to common reactions by people who think their faith is being attacked, not your post).

I, for one, have spent many years trying to be polite to certain aggressive creationist relatives. I have not seen any evidence that my politeness has caused them to consider my views with any more validity. On the contrary, they tend to regard my politeness as evidence that I do not have confidence in my arguments, and that encourages them to attack.

On the other hand, if I go out of my way to make them look like idiots in the eyes of their peers whenever they open their ignorant mouths, I can at least get them to keep quiet when they are within my earshot - which has done wonders for my stress levels & for the general level of discussion at family gatherings.

Wouldn't that just make the robot zigzag until the brain reached room temperature?

Replace a living brain neuron by neuron with a completely compatible artificial replacements. At point do you become a different person?

stores always have to accept cash. it is legal tender, you can't not take it.

I don't believe this is true (at least not in the U.S.). You have to take cash if someone offers it to you to pay off a debt, but a store doesn't have to take cash to sell you a product or service on the spot.

What point on a surface of a balloon is the "center" after you have started inflating the balloon?

At which point companies will stop developing hybrids.

Bullshit.

Companies will develop new technologies no matter what, since if they don't, their competitors will take their market away (or get the jump on them for a new market). Pretending that patents are required for innovation is just the rationalization that patent holders & patent trolls use to justify using patents to stifle competition.

I refuse to accept anything that "sparkles" in sunlight as a true vampire.

You sure like to say I don't understand a bunch of stuff, but never say anything convincing yourself. That's not too surprising from someone willing to believe what creationists are saying.

Since you do not know his data is unreliable your position falls on your own words ;)

He supports ID, therefore his data is unreliable. QED.