SoCalDem
SoCalDem's JournalDamn it to hell. New website off to a bumpy start.. bad planning?
GOTCHA !!!
'Grand Theft Auto Online' off to a bumpy start
NBCNews.com - ?41 minutes ago?
Two weeks after "Grand Theft Auto V" was released to critical acclaim and record-breaking sales, its highly anticipated online counterpart, "GTA Online" arrived Tuesday morning. But some gamers were not able to easily start their engines.
Last week, GTA creator and developer Rockstar Games warned players that "GTA Online's" launch would be chaotic because of a greater-than-expected demand for "GTA V," which sold more than 13 million copies its first day, and created "unanticipated" pressure on the multiplayer game, the company said. Less than a day into "GTA Online," and it looks like Rockstar was right: countless gamers have taken to Twitter and "GTA" forums online to complain while they wait for the new game to get up and running.
"7 hours later still haven't managed to get GTA online working," one disgruntled fan wrote on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. Rockstar took to Twitter Tuesday morning warning about "day one tech issues" and asked fans to "please bear w/ us." Launch-day issues are nothing new for the video game industry, which has long supported massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming environments in one form or another, many of which host more simultaneous players than the 16 that Rockstar allotted for in a given game of "GTA Online."
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"Hello Ladies"?? Really, HBO?
Wow, what a disappointment.. When I saw it was a half-hour comedy, I wondered about it..and when I watched it, I found I was right..
Characters are icky..plot..nonexistent..It looks like an old BBC show that PBS used to foist on us with regularity when they could not get good shows..
Pick a law...any law .. (R's not wanting to fund a "program")
They call it a "bill"...a "program"...a "policy".., andf they seem to think they can avoid paying for it by holding everything else hostage..
Let's take it a step further..
MOST Americans are against the excessive military and all its wars & fancy killing toys.. why not threaten to not fund THAT?
or
Why not go whole-hog and not fund the IRS?
or
Laws are laws..they are not up for debate.. That time has passed..
When you do not agree with a law, you are pretty much stuck with grumbling, but little else..(try arguing with a cop who's arresting you for breaking a LAW)
The Republican party HAS the capacity & mechanism to "off-load" the teabag people
All that has to happen is for the GOP officials to declare that teabag people will no longer be able to claim the "R" when they choose to run.. They CALL themselves "Tea Party", so make them BE a party...
They already, effectively, run AGAINST fellow-republicans..
These "wackobirds" are not acquiescent team players like the religious right, or the anti-abortion folks, or even the xenophobic right.
These people are "bomb-throwers", who loathe government, even while they campaign their hearts out to BE government. They are saboteurs, eager and able to hobble even the republican aspirations of their fellow congresspeople/senators.
The GOP has been shrinking for decades, and a split would surely hurt their chances of winning nationally for a while, but that's happening already, and it only makes the radical, reactionary teabag people MORE dangerous.
If republicans EVER want to have ANY redemption, they MUST jettison these wackobirds, and make them run as what they truly are... They are hired guns, lobby-puppets, and are just "in it" for self-aggrandizement, future lobby jobs, fox news shows, and to hobble government at the expense of fellow citizens.
They are unworthy of "belonging" to any establishment party.
The GOP is already a regional/fringe party to some degree, and the invasion of the teabag people is only making them more toxic.
Post-massacre analysis of shooters is useless
because we cannot/will not, as a nation, make any changes that could prevent future massacres.
There will always be unhinged people, unhappy people, vengeful people, mentally ill people, and just plain evil people.
We can NEVER fully "protect" ourselves from someone going off the deep-end and causing mayhem.
We are not willing to remove their weapons, or to commit them (they can get out on their own recognizance after 72 hours, usually).
Media goes apeshit every time one of these happens and they talk & talk & wring their hands, and trot out all their experts, and in the end, we just wait until the next one and it starts all over again.
Chris Matthews just called it "the dark side of freedom"..
It's money..
(lack of) Money prevents many people from getting the real mental health care they need
Money is generated (for media) from the additional coverage
Money is made by politicians who always get a transfusion from the NRA immediately following these massacres
Ad agencies rake in the dough creating ads for each "side" (killers v non-killers? )
Money gets spent big time on overtime for emergency people in each event
Money gets spent afterwards on extra, new-fangled security plans , devices & training..
and then we wait for the next one.
Impotent Rage
In MY opinion,this is what is at the heart of so many of the incidents we have come to know as "tragedies".
Is it the impotent feelings of helplessness/hopelessness that may be driving so many people to crack under the pressure? The pressure may be self-imposed or could be triggered by an unjustified (in their eyes) job-loss, failed love life, loss of family, etc.
We do not cope well lately.
Too many people seem to be looking for vengeance. Does that make us much different from the people we love to fight against in another part of the globe?
Many unhappy people are too ready to lash out, and of course if they are armed, we all know what happens next.
America is seen to have the unique experience of gun-murder rates, whether one-on-one or on groups,
What is also unique about us is this:
Lose a job?..lose your health care for the family,,maybe lose your home...
Poor?..good luck, you're on your own
Want to go to college?..be ready to mortgage your whole life to rich bankers who may be deducting those inexcusable debts from your Social Security
Hungry?..Good luck, you loser..you should have saved more money, or maybe you are not worthy of food assistance..
WE HAVE NO SOCIAL SAFETY NET here that is automatic ...a given..something you have as a citizen.
When there is no "commons", society reverts to anti-social behaviors.
Any person (the day after an "incident"
who has had a family member gunned down in a workplace/school/random massacre, would probably be in favor of paying any amount of extra tax required to put a safety net in place, so that even some person somewhere might feel less impotent rage..and the need to lash out at innocents..
Better Call Saul Is Happening
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/09/11/better_call_saul_breaking_bad_spinoff_with_saul_goodman_is_probably_happening.html?wpisrc=most_viralThe PR department at AMC just sent out the following brief statement:
AMC and Sony Pictures Television confirmed today that they have reached a licensing agreement for a spinoff of Vince Gilligan’s landmark AMC/SPT series Breaking Bad. As conceived, the new series is based on the show’s popular Saul Goodman character with the working title Better Call Saul. Plans call for Saul to be a one-hour prequel that will focus on the evolution of the popular Saul Goodman character before he ever became Walter White’s lawyer.
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Creationists ... Threaten to Make a Mockery of Texas Science Education
Creationists Once Again Threaten to Make a Mockery of Texas Science Education
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/09/12/texas_creationists_textbook_reviewers_want_more_religion_in_their_science.html
By Phil Plait
|
Posted Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013, at 8:00 AM
Let me get this out of the way immediately: The Earth is more than 4 billion years old. Evolution is real and is the basis for all modern understanding of biology. Climate change is happening, and humans are causing it. These fundamental scientific truths are agreed upon by the vast, overwhelming majority of scientists who study those particular fields, because of the vast, overwhelming evidence in those particular fields supporting them. It’s important that we teach this to young students, as well as how to understand what constitutes real evidence as opposed to ideological zealotry.
If you live in Texas, however, that necessity is under a real threat.
It has been for a long time; in 2007 Gov. Rick Perry appointed Don McLeroy, a young-Earth creationist, to head the state Board of Education (BoE), setting up a situation where education in Texas suffered mightily. In 2009 the state science standards were weakened, with clearly Biblically based beliefs behind the effort. In 2010 the BoE approved revisionist history in the textbooks (including apologetics for Joseph McCarthy, in case you were wondering just how ridiculous this stuff gets). In 2011 Texas creationists tried to get religious supplemental materials inserted into classes but lost. It goes on and on, and all the while they’ve been picking away at science and reality.
And now we’re entering a new round. Earlier this year, the BoE sent out letters to “experts” asking to help them evaluate the high school biology textbooks being considered for use.
You can guess where this is going.
Several of the “experts” were creationists, and they met recently to give their opinions. Several statements given by them have been made public, and well, wow:
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College Acceptance for this school is 100%
The article is from August but the story is a good one that I had missed.
Several things jumped out at me:
uniforms
discipline
elimination of "sports " as a focus
elimination of "electives"
local companies supporting/hiring/training kids in school
pride
community involvement
concentrating on kids who previously had few if any choices
While it;s a religious school, it seems to have found the sweet-spot, and is turning lives around, and giving many boys a future
http://www.leadertelegram.com/features/religion/article_b983c580-f2d5-5094-9f09-373c01ba5cec.html
Posted: Saturday, August 24, 2013 12:00 am
By Angel Jennings Los Angeles Times | 0 comments
LOS ANGELES - The young man with braces and close-cropped hair as precise as a geometry lesson steps onto the stage at Verbum Dei High School, grabs the microphone from the lectern and introduces himself.
"My name is Ricardo Placensia," he says, then lets out a nervous laugh. "I interned at Locke Lord law firm, and this fall I will be attending UC Riverside."
The crowd at the all-male Catholic school in Watts erupts in applause.
Later in the ceremony, another teenager with precision-cut hair - but no braces - takes his moment in the spotlight.
"Hi. I'm Roberto Placensia," he says. "I've been interning for four years at Keenan & Associates, and this fall, I will be attending the University of California, Riverside."
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