You see, if you want to fly in the Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor, if you want to train Archaeology, you have to upgrade to Cataclysm.
I expected the level 80 cap to remain in place without an upgrade; I expected the new areas to be locked until-and-unless. But I was under the impression that whether you upgraded or not, you could fly over EK and Kalimdor.
So I've got to upgrade before I get to do that. Oh well.
* * *
The Fungus is, generally speaking, pro-Wal-Mart. That policy may change. I don't need DHS propaganda blathering in my ears when I'm trying to get my RX refilled, damn it.
* * *
Vox Day discusses Sarah Palin as GOP nominee for President in 2012. And he says, of Newt Gingrich, "Newt Gingrich? Trig Palin has a better chance of being elected president in 2012 than that fat little troll does."
Gingrich is, as I've said before, a non-starter:
Like Gingrich, Huckabee will lose if nominated.
Sarah Palin, or Chris Christie, or Palin-Christie (or Christie-Palin). Yeah.
...the GOP will never let that happen.
* * *
Japan's got a probe set to orbit Venus. It's the first time Japan's space agency has put a satellite in orbit around another planet.
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The FBI obviously has plenty of time on its hands. And is run by people who don't have children.
I mean, come on--what kid will be given a doll and never turn it around? There's a freakin LCD screen embedded in Barbie's back; how would any kid old enough to play with dolls not know there's a camera in Barbie's body?
Does the FBI issue emergency bulletins whenever a small camera comes on the market? Because that's all they're really doing here: "ZOMG someone could take an illegal picture with this!"
* * *
Joe Lieberman continues to be the only Democrat with a brain: He calls for the NYT to be prosecuted for espionage after it uncritically prints WikiLeaks stuff. The same NYT, by the way, which refused to have anything to do with the "Climategate" e-mails, which were obtained much the same way the WikiLeaks stuff was.
We don't need new laws or classifications to deal with this issue. All we need to do is determine what existing laws were broken, and whom by; and then arrest those people and send 'em to trial. Just enforce the laws that are on the books.
A lot of the problems our society faces right now could be alleviated simply by enforcing existing law: environmental pollution, illegal immigration, violent crime, road rage--all of these would go away if the laws were simply enforced the way they're supposed to be.
* * *
Unless you find a planet made of antimatter, antimatter is not an energy source. Why?
If you can just bop over to the other side of the sun and grab yourself a scoop of anti-Earth, then you have an energy source. Hell, we could set up an exchange with anti-Earth: one cup of matter for one cup of antimatter. No problem.
...but absent finding a mass of antimatter floating around in space, we have to make it; one of the enduring conundra of the Big Bang theory is that there should have been equal proportions of matter and antimatter, and there aren't: there's almost no antimatter occurring naturally, and of course there's a shitton of matter lying around.
And if you have to make antimatter, it's not an energy source; it's a storage medium. It therefore cannot be either "boundless" or "almost cost-free", because it'll take some awful big machines--using a lot of power--to make and store the stuff.
This is why corn ethanol is not an energy source: we have to grow the corn, harvest it, haul it to a plant which ferments and distills the stuff; it ends up using a sizable fraction of a gallon of petroleum fuel to make a gallon of ethanol, and the energy content of ethanol is low enough that--watt-for-watt--ethanol produces no net energy.
* * *
The only comment this Ace of Spades post needs is a quote from the post itself: "Poor Obama...this being President thing is hard. It might have been helpful to have some real experience before running for the job."
It's commentary on how Obama's policies towards Israel with regards to the Israel-Palestine conflict have failed.
* * *
Mark Alger at Eternity Road talks about "moderates" and their politics.
The last paragraph tells it all:
Years ago, the late science fiction author Jack Chalker, whom I would type as a tendentious left-progressive, tried to sell me on his moderatism. He claimed he was a guy camped out in the middle of the road with a pair of Uzis, taking shots at the traffic in both the left and right lanes. I thought it was precious then, and find it tiresome now. I allowed as how, as far as I could see, all you find in the middle of the road is yellow stripes and dead skunks.A lot of people who are, in fact, flaming lefty liberal types consider themselves "moderate".
"But," you say, "everyone considers his own opinions moderate!"
Not me. I know I'm a right-winger. I'm proud of it. I'd rather be a right-winger than a squishy-ass "moderate" any damn day of the week.
"Moderates" need to cloak thei politics in some mythical mantle of "independent thought" which is really just camoflage to make them feel better about the fact that they're parroting nothing but pure Democrat talking points. They may have one or two minor opinions which align with the right; these tokens let them get away, intellectually, with calling themselves "moderates".
I've never met a "moderate" who actually was.
* * *
I don't even remember how long I played WoW yesterday. It was a lot--enough for Calandra to go from level 39 to 45. (Or 46?) I did all the quests in Eastern Plaguelands, which is now geared for about that level range. It makes me wonder where I'll be going next.
* * *
I watched Hancock Sunday night, and...well, it was different.
I think it suffered from not knowing what it wanted to be: did it want to be a serious superhero movie, a comedy about a superhero, or what?
"Suffered" might not be the right verb, there. The result was a couple of hours of wry humor. It's not the kind of humor you laugh out loud at, but it's still damn funny, and it's one kind of humor I really enjoy.
The story poked a lot of fun at the ridiculousness of the everyday, which was a plus.
I guess it gets a solid B-. It wasn't as entertaining as a serious superhero movie can be (see also Iron Man) but it wasn't as entertaining as other Will Smith efforts, either (Men in Black). It gets a B- because I added several points for almost obeying the laws of physics--breaking them only when the result is extra-cool--and keeping the angsty stuff to a bare minimum.
* * *
In guild chat last night, I said:
And then I laughed.
Calandra: Well, there's only about 7.5 hours until cara
Calandra: cata
Calandra: no, IRENE CARA! "FAME!! I'M GONNA LIVE FOREVER?>>>>"
Calandra: maybe not
Calandra: :(
Yeah, I'm weird.