I believe 'Amen brother' is the proper response to this rant...especially as I am in complete agreement with you...

Since Parent didn't provide a link, I will...hopefully it will enlighten people but he is correct...as of June 2009 broadband is in only 60% of households in the U.S. (so yeah...it kinda is a big deal). http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/us-20th-in-broadband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.ars

I am also one of those who feel this way. I will not pirate it, I just won't buy it...and I've bought pretty much every game Blizzard has created since Warcraft I (except WoW...I just didn't have the time to commit to it otherwise I'd have bought it as well). There is apparently a large number of people 'pissing and moaning' about the LAN play issue, even if only half of them stated they wouldn't buy it and bought it anyway, that's still a significant number of people. I think most of the people that say they won't buy it are serious though...this is one of those times when you've got to stand up for yourself and say 'we won't take it anymore'.

This is a good question...I'd like to see how large a motivating factor money was in the recent decisions made by Blizzard. Yes, I understand a company's purpose is to make money, and I'm all for a company making money, but the impression I'm getting lately from Blizzards is 'Pay More to Get Less' which as a potential paying customer is probably not the best way to encourage me to part with my $$$ for your product.

OH NOS...SOLAR POWER = SOLAR POWERED WEAPONS!! Seriously...almost ANY technological advance can be weaponized (either directly or indirectly). Just because a technology can be weaponized doesn't mean it should be ignored and 'forgotten'. I'll provide a simple example of many...robots. Robots can be weaponized (and in fact they have been). But their benefit to society is extremely great (where would manufacturing be without continuous advances in robotic technology?). But by your argument, since I can mass produce an army of killer robots (given the necessary resources), we should abolish and forget them. I'm afraid that would be an illogical action (as would banning nuclear research).

This, of course, assumes that the average American Joe actually *cares* if we put a man on Mars. We're not in the '60s anymore, there is no 'space race' currently underway. Its sad for me to say this, being an American, but If you want Americans interested in a manned mission to Mars, you better send some football players instead of astronauts, and have a nice game of gridiron (meaning that we have become a culture that cares more about advancing the art entertainment than fundamental science). Otherwise, my thoughts are that most people won't get excited regardless if its a manned mission or not, as most people just aren't that interested (because we're selfish and there's perceivably nothing in it for us).

Where are my mod points when I need them???

If you can't duct it, f**k it!

I agree (if it's unmanned). There are a lot of other, more interesting places in our Solar System worth spending money on exploring.

That's what CGI is for ;)

Why did this get modded troll?? I wholeheartedly agree and find this to be a legitimate question. What's the point of sending humans to the moon again (seriously...what is to be gained?). I can't think of any reason to send people to the moon again. It won't woo the public like it did during the original Apollo missions and that's the only logical reason I can see for sending people there (PR stunt). A robot would be more efficient, cheaper, and could stay longer and do a lot more research than a human crew could.