JKane

In general I agree, and I don't plan to reproduce... So fuck the world/fuck the future? Because once the changes start compounding each other it'll be too late.

I don't have to know it, the fact that a vast, overwhelming majority of scientists declare that we're at a tipping point after which catastrophic change will be uncontrollable is enough for me. Especially backed by core samples clearly showing the highest levels of carbon in the atmosphere since the dinosaurs. But hey, if there's a handful of "scientists" saying otherwise or just hemming and hawing lets all sit on our thumbs instead of doing things generally good for America anyway! And let's ignore that those scientists are bought and paid for by big energy!!

CBS is re-releasing ST:TNG soon cleaned up into HD (on Blu-Ray), the hardcore fans may want to see. But it's my experience a lot of old TV doesn't hold up nearly as well as we remember it from our youth, and the first season or two of Next Gen are included in that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7A9OisTODI

Far more importantly, she played Lady Morella on Babylon 5! "he appeared in the Babylon 5 episode "Point of No Return", as Lady Morella, the psychic widow of the Centauri emperor, a role which foreshadowed major plot elements in the series." Somehow I didn't realize it was her. *Loved* THAT show. Cap't Sheridan should've been my answer to 'best captain?'!

Yep, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, she's had some part in most Star Trek series, probably most notably (other than Chapel) known as Lwaxana Troi to us Next-Gen types. Also for digging every scrap out of Roddenberry's wastebasket and turning them into fairly long running though average at best TV towards the end of her life.

The war in Afghanistan wasn't inevitable because 9/11 was, in fact, completely "evitable". The Clinton/Gore team spent a lot of time on Bin Laden and felt he was a clear ad present danger. They told everybody and anybody about that during the transition. But it turned out that brush clearing in Crawford and that tit Ashcroft covering a statue's boob were both more important! I'd have given Gore at least 50% odds of averting 9/11, like the Clinton/Gore administration averted the LAX bombing of 2000. Many of these opinions were formed by reading Richard Clark's book, which I highly recommend.

...it is good to see stuff like this: Bank Of America Defends Executive's Pro-Equality YouTube Vid Bank of America is defending a YouTube video posted by Catherine P. Bessant, a "global technology and operations executive" with BoA, for speaking out against North Carolina's anti-marriage "Amendment One." (BoA is headquarted in Charlotte, NC.) From the Daily Herald: Nicole Nastacie, a Bank of America spokeswoman, said in an email that the video is legitimate [though] the company isn’t taking a position on Amendment One. “Employees are allowed and encouraged to be involved in their personal capacity in dialogue and debate on important public issues,” she said. In the video, Bessant apparently said: We’re in a war with other states across the country who would love to have the jobs that we have today ... Amendment One has the potential to have a disastrous effect on our ability to attract talent and keep talent in the state of North Carolina. I can't confirm that the quote is accurate, however, because Bessant's YouTube vid has now been set to "private." Still, NC Republicans claim they sympathize with Bessant's critique, and address it in the very language of the bill. Amendment One, they say, while restricting marriage to one-man- and one-woman-unions, sets no restrictions on what benefits private companies may offer their employees. From the Daily Herald: “We added that language specifically to allay unfounded assertions that this was going to hurt businesses,” [said Paul Stam, the Republican majority leader of the state’s House of Representatives.] “They can give any kind of benefit they want. Where’s the beef?” Read more: http://www.towleroad.../#ixzz1qqcDNEiy

Hmm, only really good book I remember from my childhood is, as you said, coming in December. I'd love for all the great Sci-Fi I've read since childhood to be made into low-mid budget movies instead of the *fucking dogshit* SyFy chooses to make instead though!

I think I have to go with the *thinking man's* captain as well, Picard. Though why Jean-Luc Picard of France is an Englishman...? The future is different! Though this got me thinking about a possible dark horse candidate, Benjamin Cisco! Smart, front line of the biggest war in Federation history, became a god (kinda). Wow I'm a nerd!

Test of top "reply to this topic" button... Edit: yep, that works as expected. But quotes or replying from the bottom of the thread don't...

I don't usually scroll back to the top of the thread to hit reply, but I notice it definitely is missing the options if I hit quote too. The report button is there (faded but working) but edit isn't, until I at least re-load the page. Also when it's in this mode I can't see some of my details around my avatar, like number of posts. I'll remember to try the top reply one of these days and see if it works better.

It's currently still working for me, FF11, same Win7 64.

Yeah, the "quest" google maps view is good too.

That's awesome, can't wait to download it. Sucks that their servers are too overloaded to get it today!

I love the idea of Burn Notice, but there's something about the smarmy-ness of that actor (especially in voice-over) that gets on my last nerve. **ESPECIALLY** when his voice over is actually a typical USA/NBC infomercial for Hyundai/Toyota/whomever! But Sam, the mother... like them. Fiona needs a sammich though!

My old bank was one of the first to have the insert than pull back out style for all their ATMs. Conditioned me--walked away leaving my card in old-style ATMs a couple times after that. In general I agree it's better to use credit--especially with some kind of reward attached (miles, cash back, etc.) and you get a little better security that way too. But I also use my debit card a lot. Have had fraud once or twice, no big deal and quickly corrected. That may have been because I was *not* with BofA though! Have heard *nothing* good about them. Pretty sure it actually stands for Bunch of Arseholes!

I had a doctor pull something similar on me several years ago. Got a vague letter about her closing up shop, referrals, etc. Though I do think she gave more notice than yours! Never knew the reason or any details. But we have to remember they're people with lives. Could've been anything. Family moving, wanted to volunteer oversees, had to care for a sick relative, etc... Odd thing was she was back in town about a year or so later, so I just started going again like nothing happened. Good luck though. So far my preference is to find a place that functions as a group--the HMO BS where it would take a week or more to see the gatekeeper then a couple weeks to see the referred specialist really pissed me off! But paying extra for PPO and going to a medical group of co-operating doctors where I could walk in anytime worked *a lot better*. And with PPO no gatekeeping general practitioner, need a specialist you make a appt. and go!

Everybody will be required to buy into the same level of crappy for-profit HMO-type BS insurance many/most have now. Other than simple scarcity I don't see how it changes much... Except that I will finally be able to get decent non-cobra individual insurance. And that if I get badly sick the insurance company won't be able to cap me or find some reason to drop me. It *will be nice* to have an alternative to being driven into medical bankruptcy, anyway. Forcing the insurance companies to re-invest at least 80% into patient care may help a little, but at heart it's still going to be the same BS where the "death panels" *do exist* and are a panel of the insurance companies' MBAs and actuaries--exactly as now. But *somehow* that's better than doctors, scientists, civilian and gov't representatives making those same decisions in a *transparent* manner... at least according to the expert opinion of Sarah Palin and the like... Sounds like we agree wholeheartedly that it doesn't do nearly enough! Medicare devotes something like 95% of it's money to patient care (even with much over-hyped fraud), my solution is to make it available to everybody at 20% over cost (over a certain percentage above poverty, reduced below that), allowing private industry a huge margin to *do it better* in! And it's funny, for almost every single person who disparages Medicare somehow it's still good enough for their own parents!

There's something about mugshots, I could stare at a site like this for hours...

I drifted away from the show after seeing a couple episodes this season. Everybody mentions the blood and gore, but I just laugh as I see the "wound" move around on the body as the victim moves (bad VFX). Has there been any steamy gay content?

What's gaydom's considered opinion on Pitbull? He's cute, and it seems like shtick but when he flashes his eyes it gets me every time. But he's usually stuck with crappy auto-tuned rappers and manages to make their shit even less musical by seemingly only being there to say weird things...

Reminds me of this one, always loved it:

I really miss the old Hooboy dinners, but haven't found anything I particularly enjoy doing in WeHo since they stopped. I kind of like the atmosphere at MJ's in Silverlake, but I also miss Spotlight a bit.

The way photos are handled seems a bit problematic... I didn't spend much time trying, but could *not* link to a photo in a thread (used to be able to 'copy image location' than paste in into image popup) nor could I save the picture that opened up in slideshow...

It looks like it'll be pretty amusing and I'm looking forward to it, though it feels like Depp is just playing the same character again and again and again lately. I mean, how many of his movies could the second one have been a poster for? Including Helena Bohnam Carter as co-star?