I played from launch up until just after BC came out and returned shortly just before CATA was released and left shortly after never to return.

The game I loved is long dead, the soul was sucked out of it. You once knew all the people on your realm and could make 'friends' and contacts. Once they introduced the cross realm instancing it all stopped.

The 40 mans were great fun and it was a sad day when they announced they were being removed from game. There were just things here and there that they streamlined the game for but it just well... didn't feel right.

Purples used to mean 'epic' then part way through BC and most of WotLK it became the new green.

Sorry Blizzard, you won't get me back.

While their experience store is a dig at apple I don't think they've gone as far as branding it an apple store.

NASA is a shadow of its former self through no fault of its own. The political climate in the US of the last decade has been increasingly against funding things for the benefit of all. We've just ended up with an agency that has been dicking around in LEO for the better part of four decades with not that much to show for it. The russians aren't that much better for their own set of reasons.

Private companies and China are the ones who are going to make the giant strides in the coming decades. The side benefit of China progressing in space is that it might arouse some half patriotic half paranoid 'reds under your beds' movement within the US to beat them at whatever they aim for that the US hasn't done.

If after a decade, China said they were establishing a base on the moon would the US public have a renewal in the interest in progression in space or is it too far gone?

Maybe. When I mean 'maybe' I mean maybe when I'm pissing off random thieves on the street by shoving my phone in their face repeatedly until I get a reaction.

Maybe then.

Of course the terrorists haven't won.

Why doesn't the average American see that the freedoms they hold so dearly and supposedly separates them from the "terrorists!" have been eroded and continue to be? I thought the whole 'war on terrorism' thing was defending the American way of life and upholding freedoms. Doesn't seem to me that it was a 'mission accomplished'.

Seems standard practice with a lot of stores. Someone takes something back because they don't want or need it for whatever reason, the shop will just shrinkwrap it up again and the next buyer is none the wiser. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened sooner.

On another note, so how exactly can a video file (pirated movie or not) be 'malware infested'?

If the space race had continued with the vigour that it did instead of petering out after barely a decade, what could have been achieved and what would have already been achieved by now? Instead we reached the moon, gave a high five then twiddled our thumbs in LEO for the next few decades.

It seems to me like it was a lost opportunity not to maintain the speed of exploration.

"And Congress won't act unless big stakeholders (read: big companies) make a stink"

(read: downsize or withold donations)

It's a minority government with Labor depending on a couple of independents and a green to have the numbers in the lower house. When things like this come up, Labor and the Coalition (Liberals + Nationals) hold hands like old chums to make sure what they want gets through. Australia has pretty much the same problem as the US in the political system. Team Blue and Team Red. Anyone else that is voted for is just a token effort.

Labor and the Coalition might have different ideals but they're both members of the same "old boys" club and be damned if anyone is going to threaten that.

How about making a decent game without stupid gimmicks or one that doesn't play a cutscene every two steps.

So why don't google / amazon just start breaking up the recording industry so they don't face these "challenges" by those trying to hold onto their old business models while continually getting rich off of others work?

That there will be a bit of noise from the rabble about this but after a week, this will be gone and nothing would be done about it.

Such is the way the system works, throw enough money at something and it will go away.

Actually, Duke Nukem 3D was censored when it originally came out. When the Atomic edition came out, it was uncensored. See the logic?

You don't have to be particularly bright to produce a lens flare. Just use it in moderation.

Duke Nukem 3D back in the early 90s was refused classification and had been re-released as a censored version.

There is next to no consistency with the classification board, no logic. The only consistent thing is that most of their reasoning makes little to no sense when they've previously waved through worse games than the one they are classifying at the time.

Not long after the "Atomic" edition of Duke-3D was released in all its glory. No censorship, same game just with 'more'. Makes sense doesnt it?