Mark of the Ninja is worth that price.

It's worth its full price, that is a steal for an amazing game.

Bought it last night. Pretty good so far.

I switched over to Feedly today with 11 days to spare. Google Reader was a useful tool for years. I hope Feedly holds up.

[putting images of people never arrested in what amount to perpetual digital lineups]

There are a lot of things that I wish we didn't have to do in order to maintain some semblance of safety or order, but I also understand that many of those things are necessary and not the product of ill design.   I guess we'll have to agree to disagree as our thresholds of acceptability on this matter are obviously not the same.

What about your drivers license photo?

The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver’s-license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders in a wide range of criminal investigations.

...

But law enforcement use of such facial searches is blurring the traditional boundaries between criminal and non-criminal databases, putting images of people never arrested in what amount to perpetual digital lineups. The most advanced systems allow police to run searches from laptop computers in their patrol cars and offer access to the FBI and other federal authorities.

Well, it's a good thing he won't be running for re-election, then. 

As if a Constitutional restriction ever stopped this foreign born President. 

[Spoiler]

Almost $200 million worldwide its first weekend.

Spoiler for Hiden:

I saw only one brief Lex Luther reference when a couple of gas tanker trunks were destroyed during one of the fight scenes. Were there more? I would guess that Lex is going to use the body armor discarded by Zod when he went with the full body leotard.

I've been wanting to quit playing Max Payne 3 for the last 4 or 5 chapters, but I am such a completionist and now I have only the final chapter left. Once that is done I will start on Batman Arkham City or continue with Alan Wake.

Tell me again why we should help al-Qaeda overthrow Syria? It seems like the various rebel factions will be just as bad as Assad. Once they no longer have the common enemy it's going to be a mess of civil war and infighting for years to come.

Trailer

March 2014 

This, by the way, is why I'm not inclined to sit down and pen multi-paragraph deconstructions of why nearly unlimited data mining is so troubling.  Moliere is more interested in *pretending* not to understand the significance of a judicial warrant.  He wants someone to explain to him the difference between a presidential administration that simply decides it has the power to secretly spy on anyone they like, and one that adheres to a 2008 law that allows sweeping surveillance with layers of oversight.

Are FISA warrants an example of layers of oversight? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is about as rubber stamped as you can get so what is the point of pretending they provide any kind of oversight?

Or is Congress another example of layers of oversight?

Stephanopoulos then asked Ellison how much Congress knew about the program. His response? "Almost nothing."

"I'm allowed to see certain things, and they tell us it's available if you make time at certain times and places to go see it, but the fact is, no, I'm not aware of the program that was revealed [this week]," Ellison said. "I had no notice. It's a fiction that everybody in Congress knew."

Spiro Agnew?

Close, but it was two different guys. One went to Harvard and one went to Yale.

They're trying to justify these warrantless wiretaps by saying "Oh, it's al Qaida!" One guy is saying it's just al Qaida -- the Hayden guy, and then on the other hand, you hear from the FBI that they were inundated with referrals on all kinds of stuff with these calls, so much so that they couldn't get to their real work, and that none of the referrals led anywhere.

I think it's a Rove-ian strategy: "We win on national security; we'll scare people, and then we'll just win."

I can assure you, this is not about spying on the American people...

I have a high level of confidence that this is used to protect us, and I know that it has been successful in preventing terrorism.

There are certain things that are appropriate for me to know that is not appropriate for the bad guys to know.

Guess who was President when Al Franken made these statements?

Besides their annoying bells in front of the store they are not so keen on the geys:

Salvation Army says “Gays Need to Be Put to Death”

“ Ryan: According to the Salvation Army gay parents deserve death. How do you respond to that, as part of your doctrine?”

“Craibe: Well, that’s a part of our belief system.”

Ryan: So they should die.”

“Craibe: You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief.”

“Ryan: You’re proposing in your doctrine that because these parents are gay, that they must die.”

“Craibe: Well, well, because that is part of our Christian doctrine “

Opinions do change depending on if our guy is in the White House. 

More survey results here.

Max Payne 3
Alan Wake
Dungeon Siege 3

I am trying to work through my backlog as much as possible before Steam's summer sale.

Skipped the first two games and finished DS3 instead. I was lucky to never die in the final boss fights. Not sure how many times I could have repeated those fights given their length.

Max Payne 3
Alan Wake
Dungeon Siege 3

I am trying to work through my backlog as much as possible before Steam's summer sale.

The world is scary under an electron microscope.

George R.R. Martin Responds to "Game of Thrones" Backlash

I like the end when he threatens to die before finishing the books.

of course it is, but at least they went back and attempted to avoid becoming Fox News-like in their reporting.

By trying to surreptitiously change the wording of their editorial to seem less harsh against Obama?
Or do you mean that "becoming Fox News-like" is anyone that is critical of Obama?

Verizon isn't enough.

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.

Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: “Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”

Has the NY Times been bought by the Koch brothers too?!

President Obama’s Dragnet

Within hours of the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights.

Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability. The administration has now lost all credibility. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

And the NY Times realized they were being too harsh on their guy. 

you might want to put a spoiler warning on that for those who haven't seen the 9th episode of season 3 yet.

What the hell are you doing in this thread if you haven't seen the episode? Going into a TV show thread when you're not up to date is at your own risk. No spoiler tag is needed or wanted.

I have been asking for years that people stop using spoiler tags in TV show threads. If you haven't seen that week's episode you shouldn't be in the thread.

Has the NY Times been bought by the Koch brothers too?!

President Obama’s Dragnet

Within hours of the disclosure that the federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights.

Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability. The administration has now lost all credibility. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

Sen. Paul Introduces Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act of 2013

"In today's high-tech world, we must ensure that all forms of communication are protected. Yet government has eroded protecting the Fourth Amendment over the past few decades, especially when applied to electronic communications and third party providers," Sen. Paul said. "Congress has passed a variety of laws that decimate our Fourth Amendment protections. In effect, it means that Americans can only count on Fourth Amendment protections if they don't use e-mail, cell phones, the Internet, credit cards, libraries, banks, or other forms of modern finance and communications."

Too bad it will never pass.

And it's dead.

 

I missed the bond question. The rest were easy.

The accompanying article from WSJ.

Although many respondents were short on financial education, they didn’t lack confidence about managing their books. Researchers said they found “a disconnect between self-perceptions and actions in day-to-day financial matters.” Many people who gave themselves high marks for managing their finances also were using non-bank borrowing methods, such as payday loans, or had overdrawn their checking accounts.

Classic American attitude to be confident without know wtf we're talking about.

ROGER EBERT: On kindness

On “Geek” Versus “Nerd”

Based on this I fall in the nerd category.

they weren't allowed to use any alien firearms because they can't legally own any.  

Fraking Democrats. Ruining world invasions since November 30, 1993.

One of the funniest movie parodies of all time.

"Tom, I'll need a ride home." 

why the aliens are able to walk around at all, considering all of the water vapor in the air?

Yes, exactly my point. I have high expectations for any species capable of interstellar travel. Wouldn't they do some research about a planet before invading? I can't imagine we would make all the effort to explore a planet without finding out if it rains acid. Water is not a secret substance only found on Earth.

with the possible exception of Signs which is at least interesting at times.

Signs was good until the moment they showed the aliens, followed by the fact that aliens capable of interplanetary travel came naked to a planet filled with water. That's like humans invading a planet that has acid for oceans and it rains acid, but we bring no protection against said acid.

Dragonlance Chronicles

This was my first thought, actually.  I discovered them in 7th grade and read them voraciously. I had never heard of Tolkien or LOTR or any of that stuff so I was completely mesmerized by the 'originality' and scope.

The reason I didn't put it, though, was that I tried to re-read them as an adult  just found the writing appallingly bad.

This was my exact experience.

My contribution to this thread: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

Tarantino speaks about Unbreakable
and I agree with him.

It doesn't matter whether his last 3 movies have been "good". All that matters is that they make money. "Lady in the Water" broke even. "After Earth" might do that or a little worse depending on the international ticket sales. All of his other movies have been extremely profitable, making hundreds of millions of dollars.

What's your dream?

Weekend Deals


90% off all Alan Wake titles.

Always wanted to check these out.   $4 is a pretty good motivator. 

I played the first episode last night. Spooky atmosphere that has you jumping at every shadow. Unfortunately the game is played on some pretty narrow rails with a narrator telling you exactly what to do.

Figure out the city using Google images.

How to save Obama’s second term

Republicans berate his administration for a “cover-up” after terrorists murdered diplomats in Benghazi; for snooping on journalists; and for letting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hound conservatives.

Not all these scandals are real. In Libya the administration failed to anticipate an attack or to protect its staff: a tragic failure, but not a crime. Spin-doctors tied themselves in knots to avoid saying anything that might hurt the president’s re-election campaign, but that is what spin-doctors do. The snooping scandal is murkier, and seems to have involved an abuse of power. But the IRS scandal is unambiguously outrageous.

Tax officials singled out the president’s opponents for extra scrutiny. Conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status were subjected to long delays and intimidating questionnaires; liberal groups, less so. Mr Obama did not order this, but it still damages him. How can he persuade Americans of the virtues of bigger government if even the IRS is politically biased?