natininja

Third place! That's a prize position...let's keep it up!

Glad you enjoyed yourselves! :)

Your straight card has been revoked. MTS will soon be over to issue your temporary queer pass and begin your "initiation" process.

Indeed. They learned their lesson, like a well-trained lap dog.

Looks like Cbus did better, based on these data.

Chiquita Helped Put More Than Bananas in Pockets of Terrorists by Ramon Lewis Monday, June 6, 2011 Investors that failed to do their homework might be going bananas because of the money they have lost since late last week. Shares of Chiquita Brands International (NYSE: CQB) are being shot down again after suffering a hit Friday when a judge ruled against the company. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra on Friday rejected a request by the company to throw out claims by thousands of Colombians for damages against Chiquita for helping to fund paramilitary groups that engaged in torture and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. The judge said the paramilitary groups targeted trade unionists and leftist activists. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/06/benzinga1141527.DTL#ixzz1Ot1j7824

Very nice. Glad to hear RTA is responsive.

People have been doing stuff with brain controls. I don't know of any videogames, though the so-called vitality sensor could have done something kinda like that. Here's a video about a brain controlled game you can find on Amazon:

I think the biggest problem we face in Ohio regarding quality development is that the ratio of the cost of buildings to the cost of the land they sit on is too high. When land is really expensive, putting a quality building on that land doesn't raise the cost of a development project by all that much. But when you can get the land for next to nothing, the difference between a cheap and quality building can increase the bottom line manyfold. Obviously, there is also a mentality which accepts crap by believing all development is good development. But there is also a practical side of building crap, which is amplified where land is cheap.

Also, JR Ewing got shot.

If they do build all that stuff, I hope they keep to the high standard of aesthetics set by the train station. I would be pretty furious if they put up some crap that distracts from the beauty of UT.

You win the understatement award! ;)

Carew Tower observation deck and Graeter's, for sure. If the kids can handle a short building tour, look around the Hilton hotel in the Carew Tower before or after you go to the top. There is a brochure employees there should be able to give you with a map of the floors/areas to look at. It's more over-the-top amazing art deco. Between Carew Tower and Union Terninal, Cincy's art deco is mind-blowing.

All the lifestyle subsidies for suburbanites have a major effect on the environments people choose to live in. Make all the infrastructure costs more use-based and transparent, and patterns will shift. It's a matter of expressing the case against suburban lifestyle subsidies in language suburbanites themselves use and are responsive to (such as the language reasonable but ignorant suburbanites use against the streetcar). But you can't blame people for wanting to take advantage of lifestyle subsidies when they are part of the culture. If someone can get by with paying for only new infrastructure and avoiding maintenance costs on the older infrastructure that supports their lifestyle, who can blame them for doing that? If they can get by with paying a fraction of the actual cost of their commute, while the rest is absorbed into the community, who can blame them for taking advantage? If they can get away with paying only for the educations of the cheapest, easiest kids to educate in the community, if they can get away with paying to police only the most law-abiding members of their region, who can blame them for taking these handouts? While this system is not best for the community, the region, the state, the country, in the long run, it is easy to see why people take advantage of the opportunity they are presented with. Why would they pay to deal with problems inherent to the city, when they can use all the city's amenities by living nearby instead of inside the limits?

I'm not sure what to tell you to do with kids. The bike riding is a good idea, you may even want to rent one of their pedal-powered cars so you can all ride in it and save money. There is a splash playground, or whatever that's called, right near the bike rental place. You might consider going to Union Terminal (famous art deco train station -- really an incredible building). There is a museum there with kid-friendly exhibits, as well as an Omnimax theater (like IMax except the screen is a quarter sphere). The zoo is another option. Or Krohn Conservatory (I think there is a very cool butterfly show there now).

A few months ago, I was at a party and made the mistake of saying the word 'fags' to a friend of a friend who didn't know me (or that I am gay). I could tell it made her pretty uncomfortable. (I think she is straight, not sure.) Later that night, I think it came up that I'm into men, but I didn't blurt it out at the time. I don't like getting unnecessarily uptight about language. Again: it's all in the intention.

It is slang, but it also developed from the notion that homosexuality is bad. I understand it no longer has that connection for many people. So I agree it is not a big deal, but I would feel uncomfortable saying it myself, because to me its utterance reminds me of the term's etymology.

Some of my friends use the word that way and I just give it a pass. It seems unnecessary, and potentially harmful depending on the audience, but the intention behind the words is what counts to me. For them, this usage is totally divorced from the concept of homosexuality. Insensitivity and homophobia are not the same thing. On a related note: the "depending on the audience" part is why I support, e.g., the NBA fining players for using the word 'faggot' in a public context, regardless of their intended meaning. On the one hand, it could be damaging to some gay people (like closeted kids), but more importantly it helps justify homophobia in the minds of homophobes. I wouldn't get bent out of shape if there were an incident without a fine, though. Unless it were clear from the context that the statement was intended to be a slur on gays, then I would take issue.

^ Don't forget the Nomad.

My examples were meant to show how absurd the claim is that "the Wii U is merely advancing a controller that has been around since the Atari days." Of course Natal is a quantum leap over Hey You, Pikachu and the Sega Activator. Not merely advancing, but actually making something original. The Wii U is likewise original.

I think Sherman meant the Saturn, not Sega CD.

Why is a controller which senses motion innovative, but not one which displays game content? The main thing I see about Natal which is innovative is the voice recognition; the gesture stuff seems like "wow, Nintendo is on to something...how do we do the same thing without doing the same thing?" In reality, motion control has been done before: Gesture control has been done before: On-controller screens and dual screens have been done before: Voice recognition has been done before: Touch screens, too: Even 3D: You guys are just being picky and not giving Nintendo its due for doing something cool and new.

Considering you can't actually use an iPad as a PS360 controller, it's innovative. Even if you could, I don't think they would easily synchronize in the same way. Price point is probably the variable in how successful it will be. If Nintendo subsidizes the console/controller in order to bank on the sale of games, the way Sony and MS do, they should be able to make it affordable. Overall, very impressive. I think it will lend itself to easier third party innovation than the various current motion controllers have. The Wii's controller has still yet to be used to its full potential, which can be seen by games that actually do use it in creative and non-gimmicky ways. I would also consider MS's focus on voice recognition in games as innovative, regardless of the technology not being new (and actually Nintendo did it with a Pikachu game for N64, years ago). It will be interesting to see where that goes, as it's the only thing with a legitimate chance to one-up Nintendo in creativity since XBox Live started (or I guess since Steam started, really).

I think you should write the bus agency about it. Let them know you're a choice rider, and their schedule change has forced your hand against using their services. It's good information for them to have, regardless of what they do with it.

Actually it's not that paradoxical, since it introduces degrees of truth (or, more accurately, wrongfulness). The first sentence might be wrong, but not blindingly wrong. So it's at least partially, if not mostly, right. This is allowed by the system, so it solves the paradox. The Liar's Paradox relies on the Law of the Excluded Middle, which is blown apart by the second sentence. At least, that's what John Kasich told me.