The latest Obama scandal!



Obama was clearly trying to move in on his best friend's girlfriend!

FWIW, I've been listening to the new The National album on Grooveshark and it's pretty darn good.

ARGH! To wait for reviews or to get on launch!?

Launch on this one.   I'd stake my rep on it, even only spending 2 hours with it.  Naughty Dog has outdone themselves.   We've not seen multiplayer, but I don't even need that for this game.  The only thing that might sting is if they (uncharacteristically) made a very short game. 

Would it be that uncharacteristic for the game to be short? I seem to recall Uncharted 3 being shorter than 10 or so hours long, right? And I don't recall Uncharted 2 wasn't much longer. I would consider both of them fairly short games.

Only for Android. 

I know they didn't announce it, but thoughts on the price? With all the stuff they have (8 Gig RAM, 500 Gig HD, Kinect included, etc), it's got to be at least $400, right?

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/407912/microsoft-confirms-pre-owned-fee-for-xbox-one/

Microsoft has confirmed that all Xbox One games will require mandatory installation onto the system's hard drive and, to install the same disc onto another user's drive, a fee must be paid.

Individual games will be tied to Xbox Live accounts, Microsoft said, meaning that the software giant can detect whether a game has been sold to a retailer and repurchased, or handed from one friend to another. In such instances, the second user must pay a fee.

"On the new Xbox, all game discs are installed to the HDD to play," a Microsoft representative told Wired.

The company added that, once discs are installed on the hard drive, games can be played without a disc being in the tray.

The Wired article then elaborates: "What follows naturally from this is that each disc would have to be tied to a unique Xbox Live account, else you could take a single disc and pass it between everyone you know and copy the game over and over. Since this is clearly not going to happen, each disc must then only install for a single owner."

It added: "Microsoft did say that if a disc was used with a second account, that owner would be given the option to pay a fee and install the game from the disc, which would then mean that the new account would also own the game and could play it without the disc."

Microsoft did not disclose what the second-user fee would amount too, and did not clarify further on the matter.

The article claims that there is no sweeping 'always-online' requirement for future Xbox One games.

I think i may very well be out just because of that first line

If this is the case and you can pass a disc on to another person to install, I'm guessing that second fee is going to be mighty high.

It may be that these last two have been $7.99 because they are just released (as in, that day) albums from some pretty big name groups. I wouldn't be surprised if the $5 album of the week returns eventually.

Hey everyone,
    A couple of friends in my department are in the running for an NSF "Public Choice Award" for a video they made about their research. They are competing with groups all across the country for the award (which I think is mainly just some recognition but also includes a little bit of research $$$). At the moment, they are in second place. Not surprisingly, they are losing to a cat video. If you guys could visit this site and click the "like" button, it would be much appreciated! Voting ends tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 10:00, I think. Thanks for the help!

Now this has gone from a small annoyance to a big one, mainly because it's such a constant issue. I visit these forums regularly and every few times I load a page, it gets timed almost perfectly that the banner loads right before I click. That happening multiple times a day, every day wears thin.

It always jumps right before I click as well, causing me to always click on the "GAMINGTREND" logo. At the main page is getting more hits!

[Spoiler]

Spoiler for Hiden:

Agreed.  The trailer doesn't indicate that Ender knows he's killing the Formics.  In the book he saw a realistic simulation and for all he knows that shot of the explosion is just what he thought was part of the simulation.  I can't imagine them changing that aspect of the book.  That would be a MAJOR change and a MAJOR mistake IMO.

Spoiler for Hiden:

And more or less ruin the coolest part of the story.

[Spoiler]

Spoiler for Hiden:

I thought the main point of the book was that Ender didn't know that they were actually fighting the aliens, that they were all just training/simulations? I guess it seems like they all know what they are doing.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Nothing I got from the trailer necessarily suggested to me that Ender knew he was actually directing the fleet. That scene with the planet blowing up, even if that is what I think it is, doesn't mean that Ender is seeing that's what's happening.

[SPOILERS]

New trailer released today. 

Did that trailer (SPOILERS for the book):

Spoiler for Hiden:

just show the ending???

Tried to youtube that jimmy connors clip. Only version I found was in french...

You're not missing much. I checked out the video and it's not the commentators from the match, but rather just a highlight clip from a news show describing exactly what you see in the video. Not terribly exciting.

The facial modeling looks great, better than L.A. Noire even. Very impressive. But yeah, none of those characters look very sympathetic.

Btw, Armageddon was a hell alot better than Deep Impact

I'm completely the opposite. Liked Deep Impact and hated Armageddon. I would've walked out on Armageddon if my friend hadn't been my ride.

A video by my friends who are looking for someone to adopt their duck. It's gotten 170,000+ views in three days!

The older I get, the more "my type" gravitates toward any non-obese female under 50 who has a pulse.

Coincidentally, those were the exact requirements CK put on his eharmony application.

Except for the pulse part.

I heard part of an interview on Fresh Air yesterday with some professor who studies North/South Korea relations. There is apparently a large industrial complex in North Korea that sends goods to South Korea and employs many South Korean workers. It makes up an important part of the North Korean economy. The professor stated that you didn't need to start worrying as long as that complex continued to work as usual. Well, today North Korea stopped the South Korean workers from entering that complex.

North Korea on Wednesday stirred up fresh unease in Northeast Asia, blocking hundreds of South Koreans from entering a joint industrial complex that serves as an important symbol of cooperation between the two countries.

North Korea's decision Wednesday to prevent South Korean workers and managers from entering the Kaesong Industrial Complex, which sits on the North's side of the border but houses operations of scores of South Korean companies, is a tangible sign of the tensions between the two sides.

It's also a move that could end up hurting Pyongyang financially, since Kaesong is considered to be an important source of hard currency for Kim's regime.

More than 50,000 North Koreans work in the zone, producing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods each year. Those workers earn on average $134 a month, of which North Korean authorities take about 45% in various taxes.

The North had threatened at the weekend to shut down the industrial complex.

I'm a grad student in Biology at the University of Florida studying animal behavior. I'm pretty close to graduating, though, and so am in the process of applying to postdoctoral positions.

[Spoiler]

I'm still playing when I get the chance. I think I've put in something like 28 hours or so into the game; I'm not sure how close I am to the end (

Spoiler for Hiden:

I just got the dragon.

). It's been a fun game, although I think I'm no longer into JRPGs so much. At least the battles are generally avoidable.

That soldier looks like he's about 14 years old.

That's sad. And yes, if you can't control your dog you need either 1) to have someone else to walk it, 2) a better leash that allows more control (gentle leader?), or 3) a muzzle.

For future reference,  one way to make sure a dog release its grip on something is to stick your finger up its ass. Gross but effective. Or so I've heard... 

The world did really need one more match 3 game.  

At some point someone somewhere is going to make a match 4 game and blow these guys out of the water.

I think Cox or ESPN has caught on that people with just cable internet and no cable TV have been able to watch ESPN3 for free. When I tried watching a game last week, they made me sign into my cable provider and then told me access was denied. 

The escalations continue.

North Korea says it is scrapping all non-aggression pacts with South Korea, closing its hotline with Seoul and shutting their shared border point.

Wow - today's escalations seem exactly like the escalations from 4 days ago!

North Korea says it is scrapping all non-aggression pacts with South Korea, closing its hotline with Seoul and shutting their shared border point.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21709917

 

When I was a kid I found a large quartz crystal with a pine needle (I think) inside it which now that I think about it seems pretty amazing.

Yeah, I've been reading news and watching videos all morning, too.  

Someone clarify this for me: the reports I read all talk about this thing "shooting across the sky" but no mention is made of its making impact.  The meteorite just skimmed the atmosphere, basically?

Sounds like it exploded in the atmosphere.

Despite what they've said so far, I'm still skeptical that this meteorite is not in some way connected with the asteroid passing by. Maybe it's coming close enough for chunks to break off?

 

To get back to the list and away from the silly squabbling, I don't know that you'll find too many Democrats who aren't seriously dismayed by some of the things Obama has done or failed to do (e.g. the drone strikes, the memo about killing Americans without due process, not shutting down Guantanamo).

Once you level up the Paladin, he's hard to beat. The resurrection skill alone guarantees at least an extra 10 levels. And if you manage him carefully, you can do really well. For instance, if there's a monster with more HP than your attack power, the prudent thing to do is fight an undead creature first. Often times the bonus attack power that you get for that will be enough to take down the harder monster in one hit.

I'm not sure if it's a fluke and I just got lucky or if previously rare drops are more common than before, but I attribute my success in my last game to getting 3 resurrection stones. Without those I would probably have finished somewhere around level 40.

With the caveat that I haven't tried the new addition, I've also found that the Paladin is the strongest character. A bit odd that the starting character is the most powerful.

Dungelot has an update today that adds in a whole bunch of things (new monsters, a new class, some new game mechanics such as certain items (the map, the compass, the lantern) that don't take up an inventory slot). It also seems to have been balanced a bit better. At first I thought it would make the game harder, but in the one game I played I managed to go almost twice as far as any previous game; I think I got to level 70 or so. It's worth checking out if you haven't for awhile.

Assuming I survive and am not immediately stricken with cancer, Nuclear war seems to be the way to go. As long as you could get to an area that was free of radiation, you should be able to live a fairly normal life. In all the other cases, you're either going to be constantly looking over your shoulder (for zombies or machines  or some infected dude) or have to deal with crazy new elements (waterworld, the years of darkness accompanying am asteroid strike,, etc.).

I've sneaked up on monsters (or at least it gives me the "surprise" exclamation mark) and when I first get to the battle screen, their backs are turned. But it seems that as soon as I click "attack", no matter how fast I am, the monsters turn around and the battle begins like normal. I don't seem to be getting in any extra hits or doing any additional damage.

Do familiars gain experience after battle whether you've used them or not? Or do you have to actively fight with them from them to level up? It seems that the first familiar gets experience even when I don't deploy him.

Has Microsoft just given up on the rest of the world? While I would guess that the majority of people with X-Boxes here in the US have broadband internet connections, I doubt that's the case in many other countries. I have no idea how accurate or up-to-date (maybe 2011?) the numbers are, but according to this site, only 34% of the world has broadband. Requiring the internet to be always on will cut off a big chunk of their potential market.

I got this yesterday and played until getting into the city. So far, so good but I'm not sure I understand completely how combat works (and the manual didn't help).

1) When I select "attack", for instance, do I need to keep pushing the button or does pushing it once cause my guy to continually attack?

2) What is the clock like thing on the left side of the screen? I assume it's a timer but I can't quite figure out what it's trying to tell me.

3) I'm also not clear on how to get the "Nice" bonus; do you just need to attack at certain times depending on the monster? Or is it positional (i.e. getting behind the monster helps)?

4) Speaking of getting behind monsters, I've surprised a few but they still seem to turn around before I can attack them. Is that supposed to happen?

5) Finally, what's the benefit of using the familiar if my main guy has a higher attack power, since the HPs and MPs are shared?

Ok, I think that's about all the questions I had.


For now....

Thanks.

So people buy new gear.

Unfortunately they must have forgotten that the Jaguars have no fans.

If they had called it, the 49ers would've gotten 4 more plays. Defensive holding or a pass interference is an automatic first down.