They have an extensive drug testing program in place already. Riders are tested constantly throughout the world, even in the off season. Also the punishment for getting caught is quite severe. The problem is the doctors and athletes involved are too good at what they do.

And the organizers hate it. It makes the sport look bad and teams have been having an increasingly hard time finding sponsors.

Not sure what more could be done, a more accurate test, if that is possible?

F1 is all about money. Rich teams win.

I am not defending cycling, it's a corrupt sport, but these guys are great athletes that do what even an amateur couldn't do with drugs. While I dislike doping in the sport, it's been at the point (for decades now) where doping is part of the sport to get the edge. Lance is worse than most because of is bitter denial, but that is only because he got away with it for so long and actually won. For me, as silly as it may be, I will still watch because of the spectacle, doping or not.

My point, in the end, is F1 isn't really a good comparison.

Same could be said about all top level motorsport really.  F1 is all about it.  It's part of the game.

Then again these are mechanical devices we are talking about and not human beings.

I could dope, even in my cycling prime, and still struggle to do one mountain stage of the Tour.

This morning it was saying on the news that Lance Armstrong had come clean in the interview he did with Oprah Winfrey,however the ticker bar is now saying that he "did not come clean in the manner she expected"

I am guessing he is going to never say he did it exactly, just that everyone in cycling dopes implying that he did as well.

As a huge Tour de France fan, I really don't care anymore. I just assume they all dope, and I am ok with that, I guess.

Yikes, only band I know that you mentioned is Sigh. I am getting old.

it's a bit like having a group of people over to watch tv.

That's what I use Twitter for, especially for sports, but shows like Top Chef as well.

Do you mean teppanyaki (like Benihana) or something else?

I believe "hibachi" is widely used to described teppanyaki in the US. That's what I think of one I hear the word at least.

Anyway, they use a ton of oil (and butter I guess?) so I would bet that's it. Never had that issue myself though.

Worked for illegal drugs!  

New gun laws won't stop guns from being illegally acquired which is the case in both the shootings.  

I hate this argument. Guns and drugs are illegal in most of Europe, but they don't have the shootings we do. Why?

(I am not for banning guns, I own one, just don't think this is a legitimate argument.)

Dude, a little less Fox News maybe? I feel like I am reading Hannity sound bites in your posts.

Army? I didn't realize you crossed over.

Anyway congrats again, got to be an odd feeling.

A frying pan. A really nice one.

Ha! Ricky Gervais just posted the same picture on Twitter, and people are getting upset with him. Of course he doesn't care.

Awesome, thanks for the info guys.

Decided I want Borderlands 2, anyone notice if it has gone on sale for less than the $45 it's currently going for? Have I missed a better deal? Not sure if I should buy at this price so I can play now or wait and see.

Until recently, I owned some McDs stock, so I was reading anything and everything about the company. IIRC, the McRib doesn't sell that great, but its a good PR piece that gets people talking about the restaurant. There is a cult following for the sandwich, but not a big enough one to make it a huge seller, they get more people who want to try it because they heard about it, or for nostalgic reasons.

McD's hasn't been doing so hot this year, so they were desperate to drum up business, hence the BCO burger (which did well is the rumor) and now the McRib. Reading this thread it sounds like the McRib always comes out this time of year though.

Congrats Kato! Looking forward to hearing how you do in retirement. Hopefully you are well prepared for this day. I hit 22 years next month and I am kicking myself for not setting myself up to get out now.

Anyone pick up Baldur's Gate yet? Waiting to hear how the touch controls are before I bother.

Try FL, most of the population wants to go at least 10 over the limit at all times. Then throw in seniors doing the opposite, people looking for fishing spots any time water is near, or the random U turns. Lots of accidents here.

I am a pretty agressive driver, but even I drive defensively here.

Son of a bitch.  Now I have to wait until February?  I hate mid-season breaks.   

Yeah. The show has so many slow episodes, but they always leave it on a high note. Next season looks good though.

I can't see that last one Ck

Someone at work actually said "Wednesday, Thursday, Friday" to me last week for a WTF moment. It took a few minutes to figure it out. I'm slow I guess.

From what I know, a lot of Christians favored Romney because he was a republican and "anything being better than Obama." That was my whole point, I have heard a lot of Christians talk crap about Mormons, insulting them even, but they supported Romney over Obama. I don't understand how a Christian can despise Mormons as a cult yet still want one to be president, so on that very narrow point I give ATB credit.

I don't claim to have any great insight, but I tend to work with very conservative/Christians and reflect on how I see them.

ATB expressed the same thoughts every Christian I have ever heard talk about Mormonism express. Maybe my experience is wrong, which it very well could be, but he basically said what I have always heard as the argument against the religion was.  As was Gratch's response. Nothing against either of them or their views, but this argument has been stereotypical so far.

I don't have a horse in this race either. Just have had he pleasure of seeing this argument play out between coworkers. Both sides are going to claim the higher ground. To say ATB is being ignorant might be true, but you are basically claiming the whole Protestant/Christian side of the story to be ignorant because of what one ex-Mormon said here (which it may be, but I doubt the Mormon church has any higher ground on this). My point is that it isn't that easy, there is more to it than what has been said here and how these two individuals see it.

Gratch's first hand knowledge is hearsay?

Yep, what makes him an expert? You could argue every point he made as opinion. As with any religion there is how they present it, and then the truth which may vary with sects or who you are talking about.

For instance, no Joseph Smith is not worshipped as the son of god. True, but as a prophet they base their religion on his beliefs. Their whole religion is based off his claims, they don't worship him, but he is right up there. It's ATB vs Gratch's word on how he is truly viewed.

ATB is pretty much just repeating the party line, as is Gratch. Neither is stating anything but hearsay. As an atheist, I think both belief systems are horrible, it's more fun to watch them argue it then to take sides, but I do think you are being a bit unfair to ATB.

Also, I wonder if his proven ignorance of Mormonism can be attributed to them or just poor research on his part?

That's completely unfair because this is a classic religion argument, in that both sides claim something but the truth lies somewhere inbetween. Christians are going to claim Mormons are out there, Mormons are going to paint the picture they aren't. Neither side proved anything in this exchange that you could plead ignorance of ATB. No offense to Gratch, but his argument was pretty much out of the book denial arguments. The fact is they do hold Joseph Smith to great esteem (and his reputation is questionable at best), they do baptize famous dead people against their family's protests, they do wear magic underwear, they do treat the Book of Mormon as an equal to the Bible, they were openly racist until recently, etc.

Pffftttt. 

Probably worth noting Firefox or Chrome only.

Worked in IE for me.

And in Safari.

It brought a smile to my face.

I was going to say Hepcat, try telling a Christian that Mormons are Christians also, but ATB took care of that. Gets certain Christians quite worked up. :-)

If you think a canadite is a member of a cult with beliefs that are extreme, how can you respect them enough to want them to run the country? Religion, and how the person uses it, says a lot about them. I, for the most part, agree with President Obama, but if he was constantly saying he made decisions based on what God told him and the Bible says, I wouldn't vote for him.

Many of the Christians I know do nothing but talk crap about how horrible the Mormon religion is and then still backed Romney. It's nice to hear that ATB stuck to his beliefs on this at least. I disagree with almost everything ATB said in his post, but I find it difficult to understand how Mormon bashing Christians ever could vote for one.

Bought the Jambox earlier this year from Amazon. There was a constant hissing/static coming from th speakers. Instead of returning them I contacted Jambox to see if they would fix them. They refused since Amazon supplied them from a third party. The receipt says Amazon, etc. but still a no go. Luckily Amazon refunded the price. After the bad customer service, and what looked like a history of such from the company I won't buy their products again.

That said, the sound was decent, and the speakers look great. The regular size version is a bit underwhelming for music though. I ended up with a Logitech UE Boombox, and while the bass is too heavy, it's a much better product from a company I trust.

The Bluetooth/wifi speaker selection is still far from perfect unfortunately. Much too expensive for the quality. I would love simple, out of the box, rich sound quality, but that doesn't seem to be available for a good price. Bose maybe?

I am a big fan of Planet Money, but that wasn't a very thorough report. They act like doping is on the decline, but there is no reason to believe it is. I unfortunately missed this years Tour, but it seems quite normal for riders to get caught still. We really have no idea what is going on in cycling today as far as drug use, let's not pretend that the corruption left the sport with Lance.

Doping or not, I can't wait for 2013's Tour.

Oh yeah, good show. Can be hit and miss for me, but over all, I like it. Never met anyone else who likes it, everyone seems to think it's stupid.

Looks like you made a very wise choice corruptrelic. I should have listened to you.

It drives me nuts that the monk animation doesn't use the weapons he has equipped. I know it's silly, but it seems lame to be using a 2 handed monk staff and as soon as you swing it it appears as if it's strapped to his back.

Major gripe time:

Itemization is just beyond screwed up.  I had an Orange (Legendary) level 10 two-handed Monk weapon drop (Daibo) and I equipped it...briefly. After a minute I went back to my two blue fist weapons. What a frigging waste.  So I looked at the AH and at some posts online and it seems to be screwed across the board.

A lot of the magic in the Diablo series was having that new Green/Gold item turn up that you generally knew was going to be an upgrade over the blue you were holding. Opening your inventory to look at it was like opening a Christmas present. Occasionally you got socks, but other times you got the new awesome GI Joe with the Kung-Fu Grip. Looking for that next special color to flip up kept a lot of people playing just a little bit more (or a lot more). With itemization this screwed, that magic is lost and the game is really diminished.
 
I'm still having fun, having polished off Act III, but I hope they get some of this stuff sorted out soon.  Of course, knowing Blizzard, it'll take forever and a day to get fixed.

Generally the yellow and oranges just have more bonus effects, which doesn't always make something better. I can live with that. I get what you are saying, but I don't agree with the severity of it.

A couple of questions:

Anyone use the mobile phone authenticator? It asks me to authenticate every time I log on, and I do NOT have that option selected. The option box is unchecked meaning I am only supposed to have to authenticate once a week.

Joining a game etiquette? Do you ask in chat before you join a friends game? Is there something someone can set so people know you don't want anyone to join in?

Missed this before. Runs great on a mid 2010 27" iMac at everything full but shadows. It does get very hot as expected. Not enough to get the fans really going though.

Getting an "unexpected error' on a Mac, crashes out.

Leeabe51#2458