You misunderstand the placebo effect. No objective measures of health are affected by placebos, only subjective measures.

For example, no placebo will change your blood sugar level like insulin, nor will it kill the bacteria in a bladder infection. It can, however, change your perception of fatigue or pain. Placebos can make a person feel better, but it won't make them better.

The power of positive thinking has very little real-world effect on objective outcomes. You can't wish a broken bone back together or believe a clogged artery into opening.

The placebo effect is nothing more than what happens when a parent kisses a child's bruise and it feels better. Kind attention results in patients feeling better. Most diseases are self-limiting. When the patient feels better and the disease follows its natural course and resolves itself, it seems like placebos healed the patient. Note that feeling better is not the same as actually being healthier. You can forget your pain for a while, but if the underlying issue isn't resolved, it'll come back.

For more information: http://www.sciencebasedmedicin...

I'm too old school, I guess. I can't aim for shit with an analog stick on a controller. When I started playing XBox 360 with my son, I finally understood the previously mystifying option of "Aim Assist". It's hard as hell to hit things in an action FPS with that little stick. There's a very good reason why you almost never see PC and console versions of the same game allow multiplayer with each other. The PC versions would own the console versions due to the sucktastic aiming of the analog sticks.

While you are correct in that you cannot install games without teh intert00bs, you can certainly play them without connectivity. Steam's offline mode is quite good. It also keeps the games patched, which is nice. Valve still has some work to do in smoothing out their "cloud[1]" feature, used to sync your saved games between computers, but it's a step in the right direction. Particularly for someone like me who travels a lot for work. Play at home on desktop -> saves go into "cloud" -> continue where I left off on laptop. Mike [1] Hate that word, cloud. "New media" marketing BS for "It's on servers outside of your premises." Bah.

You're touching on my big issue with console gaming, portability. I travel a lot for work. 5 out of 7 nights are spent in hotels, on average. I am not hauling a xbox 360 or ps3 with me when I travel. I game a lot, have longer than a lot of y'all have been around. So, either some half-assed gaming on a DS or PSP or laptop gaming are my options. While the DS is great for games while waiting at the airport or whatever, it isn't satisfying for a good 1-2 hour game fest. I'll look at consoles when I can pack 'em small and light for travel, not lugging around an entire backpack just for the game system in addition to my laptop bag. Long live the PC game! Guru