Soul of Wit

I definitely agree on the replay value. Avadon is now my second favorite SW game. One tip is to note who gives out quests in each area. Basically, each will give you a quest for each trip to the area. More accurately, you'll be able to complete a quest for each trip to an area (new zones opening up.)

Originally Posted By: Artemis~ I'm usually the very last one to shout "conspiracy!"... Well, you can't say that anymore.

Originally Posted By: FnordCola Of wine, I saw, I conquered? Sounds good to me [raises glass]

As I recall, there is one on either side of the "back door". I never found a way to access either of those. Jeff sometimes likes to play with the players.

More details... Per MSNBC, the compound where OBL was found was in an "affluent suburb" of Islamabad. MSNBC is showing video of young people having a "patriotic moment" across from the White House.

Originally Posted By: Excalibur Considering how there are millions of people on the internet at any given time, I don't find it surprising that someone would update Wikipedia after a big news story. Yeah, that one JSOC geek.

Wikipedia never ceases to amaze me. The page on JSOC (essentially, that is what "US special forces" are officially called) has ALREADY been updated with the OBL news!! Joint Special Operations Command

US special forces, acting on a Pakistani tip from August, finally found Bin Laden. He was killed in a firefight, and his body was recovered. I'm hearing no US casualties.

Originally Posted By: Dantius I can hazard a guess at a few of them. Shrub = Bush = President George W. Bush. POTUS= President of the United States. OADSI Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, part of Social Security HI= Hospital Insurance, part of Medicare Big Oil- Subsidies to oil companies Big Ag- Agricultural subsidies. I admit it; Google pays me to drive traffic to them. A shrub is a little bush. George W's father, George H. W., was also POTUS.

Based on the subject, I'm guessing that he's looking for favorite quotes of any kind. If so, mine change frequently. Currently, they are: Serious category Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you. --Sartre Humorous category Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. --Groucho Marx

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES Originally Posted By: Dantius if you are going to prosecute wars, YOU HAVE TO RAISE TAXES. This isn't SimCity, you know. Somehow, I doubt it's really that simple. You may not have to raise taxes, but you certainly can't LOWER them. That is why Shrub is among the worst leaders in US history. No other POTUS would even entertain such a lame idea. Until our representatives implement significant cuts to military spending, they can keep their hands off my OASDI & HI. Same goes for cuts to big oil & big ag subsidies.

Trump is not going to run. The poor sheep who represents the GOP will lose--horribly--to Obama. This is 1996 all over again, except the Republicans are putting themselves even deeper in a hole. Seniors vote reliably and do not take kindly to intimations that Medicare is going bye-bye. Even the smallest improvement in the economy will assist Obama greatly. The Dems won't regain the House, but the White House is theirs until at least 2016. The US press is in dire shape. The US financial press even more so. You'd be better off watching The Daily Show than perusing most of the US press.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES If the same medical, transportation, and food options are still available to you, then your standard of living hasn't changed. If they cost more but are still within your reach, that's inflation, not a shift in what counts as a certain class. Comparing the increases in costs of medical care, transportation and food to inflation is ridiculous. They increase much faster than the inflation rate. We can throw higher education in there, too. I have medical insurance that I can't afford to use, so my standard of living has changed--for the worse.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES *nod* I know you're not just talking about the middle class, but what you're saying about that class specifically really confuses me: Originally Posted By: Synergy The middle class is disappearing. On what basis do you make this claim? Because it sure doesn't _look_ like it's disappearing, no matter what definition of it you use. The middle class is disappearing, because wealth is ever more concentrated with the wealthy. We just keep redefining middle class. Standard of living is dropping and that is easy to perceive. I pay more for medical costs, transportation and food. That is the basic stuff of life.

Defining middle class is valid. I know people in the 98th percentile of family income who think that they are middle class. They don't live in a mansion, so they are middle class. It's laughable.

Not much to go on here. Can you connect to the internet using ethernet? That's always a good first step before trying wireless. Is the PB fully updated, using Software Update? I realize that it's been years since 10.4 was updated, but make sure. Is the Airport card Airport Extreme? That is required for WPA2. You can check in System Profiler (or by looking at the card.)

Originally Posted By: MissSea Bringing the pendulum back to poverty: My father-in-law is a wealthy dude. He tried to buy a house in California. Wanted to put down 80%(!) of the multi-million value IN CASH. Needed a loan for the remainder. He was a "don't buy it unless you've got the cash" guy. The last credit-type purchase he had made prior to the current house was his previous house in 1975 (which was paid off in the late 1980s)! Every car, vacation, kids' college tuition was paid for with cash or a check. Therefore, he didn't have a credit score. The bank refused to give him a loan. Meanwhile, though I am currently a stay-at-home mom and lack a pot to pee in, I have a score in the high sevens. What to take away, kid at home wanting a better computer? When you get those offers for a credit card on a college campus in the next few years, go ahead and get one. But don't use it. Wait, save up your money, use the card and pay it off right away. Then you won't lose your dream home in Newport Coast because you were seen as a financial liability. A "wealthy dude" can afford to hire a financial advisor to assist him in creating a credit score. Using and paying off a credit card every month is one way. It has the side benefit of paying you cash for using it (or other perks). Another option for a "wealthy dude" is to put up non-cash assets as collateral for the loan. Surely, a "wealthy dude" has non-cash assets?

Your going to have to confront the Duke.

With eating vs. eatin', this is just softening the G until it disappears. If I'm speaking quickly (or lazily) you won't even hear the G. Thus, you might spell it without the (now) silent letter. "I'm walkin' here!" --Ratso Rizzo in MIdnight Cowboy (1969)

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith Is this even legal? Almost certainly not. The US constitution requires full faith and credit to other state's laws. The Arizona law essentially says that Hawaii's way to document a live birth is not good enough for Arizona. That will only fly if the SCOTUS is even more screwed up than I think that they are.

Originally Posted By: Lilith corporate personhood isn't exactly the problem: being a legal person just means that a corporation is an entity that can be dealt with by the law, which is important if it does something bad and you need to sue it. the actual problem is that for some reason the supreme court thinks that donating vast sums of money to a politician's campaign fund counts as "speech" Recognizing corporations as a legal entity and giving corporations the rights of people are very different things. The SCOTUS was wrong and will eventually overturn itself (if people quit voting for corporatists.)

Originally Posted By: othersean All joking aside... Clocknova -- It seems like Avernum 3 and Geneforge 2 would be right up your alley. Both have a short, linear warm-up followed by extended combat tourism. In both, you can attack just about anyone you want, in any way you want, and live with the consequences. You can do anything from pleasing almost everyone to being treacherous to them all and ending up the last, gore-spattered one standing. I often prefer this kind of wide-open game (if Jeff remade A1 with modern controls, I would buy it), but sometimes it's nice to have more of an "interactive story." Agreed. My favorites of both series, for the reasons stated.

The usefulness of the SO is primary mid-game damage dealer and yet-another-damge-dealer for the final battle. The SO is quite useful in the mid-game. She can deal out massive damage. I gave her every magic damage boosting item that I found. I also gave her the heal yourself scarab. In the late-game, she can use abilities almost continuously. The glass cannon is functional, but arguably the weakest class.

Originally Posted By: Lilith Originally Posted By: TheBadAgent Also, the mentality of restraint needs to be said, this isn't a dictatorship in the making, it is meant to be a true leader with non-politician characteristics in a way. The man who can rally people by showing them he is worth following. this is pretty much why people voted for obama, and look how that worked out it turns out platitudes are easy but policies are hard Obama showed some backbone with his recent speech on the deficit. The problem is that his word can't be trusted. He's reneged on multiple campaign promises. Mind you, I still support Obama. The alternatives are worse. Unfortunately, he and his handlers know how the progressives feel. I expect more moving to the middle (read: moving well right of center) from this administration. Our nation is becoming an oligarchy. Corporations are people now; the SCOTUS said so. Lincoln spoke of government of, for and by the people. There was no mention of corporations in that speech. Obama could lead, but it requires flipping the bird at corporations. Cutting the deficit, in my mind, requires several things: Revive the economy before you start (deficits are necessary during economic downturns) Cut defense spending (it's soaring upward, even when the cost of multiple wars is ignored) Severely limit corporate welfare (subsidies for oil companies and corn growers is waste, pure and simple) Restore the Clinton-era tax rates (this is not class warfare--tax breaks for the rich simply do not help the economy) Do all of these and then we'll see if "entitlements" need to be tweaked.

There's quite a disparity between your hard-wired numbers and your w-fi numbers. That's a wi-fi problem. Do repeated speed tests to confirm. Try another computer when you get a chance. That leads me to suspect either interference or competing routers. Interference could be a running microwave nearby or a cordless landline in use. All three things can use the same part of the wireless frequency. Another possibility, with the same symptoms as interference, is someone else using your wi-fi. Obviously, make sure that no one else is using the wi-fi in the house--at least when you're doing speed tests. Also, make sure that you are using a password on the wi-fi and that you're not using the WEP protocol (it's too easy to hack.) You can check on the wi-fi setup using the airport (or other router) utility. If it's an airport router, the utility is found in the utilities subfolder of the applications folder. Competing routers is another possibility. This is the likely culprit if nothing has changed in your house, your wi-fi security is good and the problem is new. Routers (including airport) operate on 11 channels. If you and a close neighbor are on the same channel (or close) then that can significantly degrade your wi-fi signal. You can try randomly changing your channel and then checking the bars/running speed tests. For the airport utility, the channel is changed on the wireless tab. Changing the channel is transparent to a user's computer, so you change only the router and don't have to worry about any matching tweaks on the computer(s). I use a utility called iStumbler that let's me see wi-fi channels in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it's Snow Leopard (10.6.x) only. If you can see the channels, try to be as far as possible from other channels in use. There are also utilities to let you see what devices are using your home network's wi-fi signal. I have two on my Mac. One is an ancient java app called host_monitor. The other is from the Mac App Store (again, Snow Leopard) and is called IP Scanner. If you try one of these scanners, be aware that lots of things can use wi-fi these days--game consoles, hand-held game systems, mobile phones, iPod Touches, even some TVs.