Mr. GOH!

A fact I've always found deliciously ironic considering that, as an amendment, it's mere existence confirms the fallibility of the law in the first place. The Constitutional rights are rights that restrict government action. The Bill of Rights was built around the idea that laws could be bad and restrict hard-won freedoms. Legislative laws, on the other hand, all represent burdens upon freedom and liberty. In order to be valid, they need to not conflict with the liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights and subsequent Amendments. If the Constitution is found to be insufferably fallible, it is amendable, by the people or the legislature, but it is very difficult, so the problems but be clear and almost universally agreed upon. I mean, we could repeal or change the First Amendment. Ain't gonna happen, but other Amendments and clauses have been repealed and altered.

No, even a more focused law likely couldn't get through. SCOTUS ruled that any law restricting the sale of video games (or otherwise regulating them based on content) must pass the strict scrutiny standard. That may sound like a loophole, but it's essentially lawyer-speak that means that there may be, in some Platonic universe, a set of evidence so iron-clad as to be irrefutable that's also coupled with language that is astoundingly specific that may allow a law regulating games based on content to pass muster. But the reality is that a ruling that a law must pass strict scrutiny is essentially saying that no similar law would ever be found constitutional. The Court has only very rarely applied strict scrutiny to a law and found that it passes muster. Maybe twice i can think of off-hand, and those rulings are usually later overruled by a new Court. This is as big a win as we could have hoped for; it's a home run, or a goal kicked from midfield for you Euro-types. Video games are speech. They essentially cannot be regulating based on content.

What do you mean that servers will be discriminating against recent users? Folks will ban newbies?

I plan on giving this game a whirl this weekend no that I've nothing to lose.

Oh, the credulousness of Kotaku always astounds me. On a related note, I wonder if both Sony requires its online MP to be segragated from MS. I *know* MS does for the reason you outline (to make Live Gold worth something). I wonder if Sony believes that groups of friends buying copies for the same console is a big enough revenue boost to make the segregation worthwhile.

I don't think there's an Emmy for most out of place accent in a series. Sean Bean's getting it, if any of the actors are.

Some parts are very beautiful. But the CGI is crazy uneven. Some of the effects seem like they belong in a TV show from 1998. The movie itself is just kinda dumb, at least to this GL neophyte.

I'm not talking about mining; that's fairly harmless. I'm talking about full participation in the Bitcoin economy. That is, what people actually *buy* with the damned things tends to be either illicit goods and services or, I suppose, esoteric IT services. IIRC, one of the biggest marketplaces for the actual exchange of bitcoins for goods and services is silk road; a great deal of activity on that marketplace is for drugs and other illicit products. Thursday Next is 100% correct; there's nothing backing the bitcoin except market exuberance. Take that away, either via a collapse in actual goods and services that can be bought with the things, or through a speculation bubble, and there's no recovery mechanism. Indeed, the supply of bitcoins will continue to grow because miners will still be able to get the devalued currency for free. Rule of thumb: if you can't invest in legitimate businesses with a currency, it's a fake currency and should be avoided. To those asking what bitcoins are: ever been to an amusement park where you can buy "Disney Dollars" or "Fun Buxx?" Bitcoins are like those, except their values can rise or fall based on their market value (read: exchange rate with real currencies). The 'draw' is that they can be treated like digital cash; rather than having to go through banking institutions to pay for stuff online (so much red tape! Who cares about fraud protection or anti-money laundering laws, anyway?).

It's not so much hate as exasperation. First of all, mining bitcoins is fine, I guess, if you' really a miner. If you have Amy real vested interest in the bitcoin currency, though, it's disturbing that wealth is initially distributed on a completely arbitrary basis. Second, it's not that I care about illicit products per se, I mean I'm pro legalization. It's just that the value of bitcoins is largely supported by the market for illicit goods. The momentlaw enforcement plugs that hole, the value of bitcoins will crash hard. FSF may take charitable donations in bitcoins, but I'm sure it cashes them the fuck out ASAP. Third, fake currencies are prone to crazy speculation and wildly variable values Indeed, the value of a bitcoin is dependent entirely on exchange rates with that fiat currency so loathed by internet libertarians and anarchists. There's no basket of staple products to provide a baseline measurement; you don't buy bread or pay rent in bitcoins. You buy drugs or services from fellow internet loons, is all. in the world of fake currency everyone's either a grifter or a mark, and most won't know which they are until too late. I guess MT venom stems from my general distaste for mass hallucinations andthe subsequent whining from peop to the cleaners for engaging in mass stupidity.

As opposed to just printing it out on bits of paper? @Kovach: If anything it's around may that it seems to be kicking off n hitting the public eye more. edit: oh the crash, that was the other week iirc. Bitcoins have no rational monetary policy behind them and the bitcoin market is based on their use to buy illicit goods. Unlike fiat currency, which is back by faith in governing institutions (which are generally backed by economic and military power). Indeed, people have to ask how much a Bitcoin is based in USD; they have no intrinsic value as a currency, just as a means of spending money online without being traced.

They recovered from that crash, though they are doomed to failure.

A currency that people get for free for donating CPU cycles? What a sane way to deal with money supply. Making fake money doing fake work.

I loved xsbs for his continued proclamations that he only posted from work. What a winner.

How can you forget naked and feral Rosario Dawson?

Super 8. It was a straight-up homage to Spielberg films from the late 70's and early 80's. It felt very contrived and predictable. Maybe that was the point, but it wasn't great. Competent is the best word for it.

What about foilers? Like when in book 3 you discover they're all really lizard people and dragons are giant humanoids with wings they enslaved?

Woo! A slick-ass trailer! Gameplay's gonna rock! alt post: Is it really an original IP when nothing about it seems original?

Intellectual property rights are just a series of loopholes that keep information from being free, as is its right.

I thought it was already confirmed.

Last time I pulled a beefy I woke up confused and feeling hungover in a county jailhouse in in Mississippi with a sore asshole and wearing somebody else's clothes. Funny thing was, none of the troopers could figure out how or why I was there.