geekmarine

Having watched the video, I have a hard time imagining the officer even had time to give three commands, much less that the kid had time to obey them. The car pulls up right next to the kid, the officer gets out of the car and basically draws his gun as he's getting out, and fires as soon as he's out of the car. Yeah, it's possible the officer was shouting "DROP IT DROP IT DROP IT" as he was getting out, but even then, the officer was in position to shoot the kid before the kid would've even had time to react. And that's best case scenario, ignoring the fact that reaction time would probably be slowed by having a cop car appear out of nowhere and having cops suddenly shouting at you - factor in that, the kid probably hadn't even processed what the cop had said by the time he hit the ground.

What forensic science is needed to know whether the cop was responding to the convenience store robbery? Surely that's simply a matter of asking him why he stopped the kid. "The officer didn't know about the robbery." "Wait never mind, the officer did know about the robbery." What forensic science, exactly, is involved in determining whether the officer knew about the robbery? Everything else, I can understand - yeah, maybe new evidence came to light after a thorough investigation, but what's going on where you can't even establish the most basic of facts about the case? I mean look at it this way - either the information was available or it wasn't. If it wasn't available, he should have said "We cannot make a determination about that at this time." And if it was available, why change the story? And either way, that was incredibly unprofessional of him to state something as fact if the facts weren't available.

Oh, I suppose I should've mentioned, this is based on the fact that they released video of the shooting - I didn't feel comfortable linking to the video myself, given its nature, but it's out there if you want to find it. Basically, the cop car pulls up to the kid, the cop jumps out of the car and shoots the kid at pretty close range without ever even giving him a chance to surrender or anything. I just find it interesting that here we were talking about the proper way to deal with the police, and this whole time, it didn't even matter. It's still good to remember how to deal with the police, but let's not forget sometimes they just shoot without asking questions or even making demands.

Okay, so apparently it wasn't even a case of the police yelling "Freeze!" or anything like that, they just shot the kid before he even had a chance to react. There's basically no way the kid could've avoided getting shot, they had already made up their minds how to handle the situation before even getting there. I mean, at first I was like, "Okay, it sucks, but I can kind of understand if the kid wasn't cooperating," but now the story seems to be that the kid wasn't given a chance to cooperate.

So let me get this straight... The final conclusions blatantly contradict what the chief of police had already told us, and you find absolutely nothing suspicious about any of that? That doesn't raise any red flags? Because that's a pretty friggin' big detail to change your story about.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/us/missouri-teen-shooting/ I'm sorry, the chief of police specifically said he wasn't stopped because of the robbery. If the chief of police was lying, well that's another matter, but I've got my facts as straight as I can get them. Just saying - got the chief of police on record saying the robbery was unrelated, so even if they changed the story, they still said it. Also, I don't see what your point has to do with anything, miano. None of that has to do with the cop thinking he was a robbery suspect.

He was not investigating a suspect in a robbery. He had no clue about the theft. Why do people not pay attention to the basic facts? The cops put that info about the robbery out there to distract people, but even they admitted the robbery had nothing to do with the kid being stopped, because the officer was unaware of the robbery.

Am I the only one getting a real "Alien Resurrection" vibe from the movie? I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but yeah, not a pleasant feeling at all.

And Zimmerman got beat because he thought he was friggin' Wyatt Earp, there to bring this young hoodlum to justice. And I still say the beating was absolutely called for, because you never know when the maniac trying to detain you for no reason might be some sicko pervert looking to throw you in the trunk of his car.

Heh, my parents didn't even allow toy guns in my house - didn't stop me from going over to my friend's house, who had a ton of realistic-looking toy guns, none of which had the orange tips. I mean, we'd run around the neighborhood playing Doom Deathmatch (actually, this was pre-Doom, but the rules were basically the same). And of course I was never taught how to deal with toy guns around adults/cops/whatever because my parents didn't believe in toy guns and forbade me from playing with them, not counting on me playing with them at my friend's house behind their backs. And I can't blame my parents or whatever, because Rule #1 was never play with toy guns in the first place, and so I was already ignoring what they told me in the first place. Not that I was a bad kid or anything, I just thought the fuss over toy guns was way overblown. And even if they had told me how to responsibly handle a toy gun, I probably would have ignored that advice, because again, from my perspective, they were freaking out over nothing, so why would I follow any safety advice? It never occurred to me as a kid that you might get shot by a cop thinking you had a real gun - any thoughts along those lines would've been, "I'm a friggin' kid, no way a cop's gonna see a kid and think he has a weapon."

To be fair, there was a lot about death I didn't understand in 6th grade. I logically got the permanence of death, but it never seemed like it was something that could happen to me - at that age I had some subconscious belief that somehow I would be exempt from that. Moreover, I didn't understand police in 6th grade, and I probably would've been shot as well in that situation. I mean especially when you've seen a lot of movies - the good guys never just shoot without trying to figure out the situation, so it wouldn't occur to me to just shut up and put my hands in the air. I'd be thinking, "Oh I'll just walk over to him and explain this is a bb gun, and then he'll understand." You know, the idea that the cops would just shoot simply because you didn't immediately do what they told you to wouldn't have crossed my mind - I'd be thinking, "Okay, as long as I don't point the gun at him, I'll be okay." Granted, I'd never had any run-ins with the cops at age 12, but no one ever said, "Cops won't listen, just do what you're told," so at that age I assumed cops were just like anyone else, that all you have to do is tell them what's going on and they'll stop bothering you. I dunno, maybe that made me a really dumb kid, but that's where I was at that age, having never dealt with cops, only angry teachers and parents.

My God, that's brilliant. Never even occurred to me. Not that I do much spelling with sectors, but it's neat to know.

I, too, am largely apathetic, but I will remain staunchly a purist, regardless of what the community does. I mean, I'm absolutely not when it comes to what I'll play, I'll play anything, but when it comes down to actual mapping, I've never embraced the extra features that source ports provide. I mean, I love the freedom limit-removing provides, but other than that, I feel overwhelmed by too many choices, so I generally just try to keep things simple.

I always find it kind of odd that in the case of a celebrity, a cash payout is expected... I mean, don't get me wrong, I can certainly understand that if I was the victim of a crime committed by someone of wealth and fame, and they used that wealth and fame to help shield themselves from my accusations, I'd probably want a piece of that, too, but on the other hand, if my neighbor did something horrible, there'd be no expectation of any compensation beyond knowing that he was going to jail. Incidentally, found out this morning that Lou Ferrigno's wife is one of the accusers now - the alleged incident occurred before they were married just to clarify, but I'd imagine she wouldn't be throwing her hat in the ring just looking for a payout. Yeah, I still realize it's innocent until proven guilty, it's just that because of who she is, I can't imagine her risking going out in the limelight like that just for a quick cash grab. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong about that, but that's just my feeling about the matter.

I mean, in comparison, for example, the average concentration for CO2 in 1960 was somewhere around 300 ppm whereas today it's closer to 400 ppm. And before the industrial revolution, it was around 280 ppm... It's still a drastic change, though I would agree it's kind of unfair to attempt to show change over such a short span of time, because the fluctuations are minor compared to the larger fluctuations which have happened over recent decades. I'm sorry to go on like this, but following the whole global warming thing is kind of a hobby of mine. But yeah... the biggest issue I've seen in the whole business has always been that in seemingly every aspect, we're talking in terms that the average person has a hard time processing. What do those changes in ppm mean? How do you understand changes over decades when day-to-day changes seem so minimal? And even when there is a large shift over decades, it's not readily apparent on any given day that a change has taken place. To me, it's always seemed like trying to explain global warming in terms people can understand and relate to is like trying to explain a tesseract (4-dimensional hypercube). Mathematically, we can easily describe what it is, but it's just not something that easily translates to human perception.

Rumors have been around for decades, but his PR team is excellent at damage control so they've never really gone beyond rumors. That and there's the fact that because of who he is, and because it's only people saying he acted this way without proof (not saying they're liars, I'm saying it's hard to have anything substantial in a case like this, so what's the point of even saying anything in the first place, when it'll only draw attention to the fact that you have no proof and thus will be accused of making it all up), means that it's only now that anyone is taking it seriously. I mean, look at Michael Jackson - the people who came forward and said he was a kiddie-diddler had no real proof other than their testimony, and they were quickly mocked and ridiculed and no one took them seriously. It wasn't until years later, with all his bizarre behavior, that anyone started to reconsider that and everyone started labeling him a pedophile, but by that point it was too late to actually do anything about it, and it didn't help the people who came forward in the first place. So people have a vested interest in not making accusations, even if they're true, and in the case of Cosby, I think it has been a similar situation, that anyone who has come forward over the decades has been immediately mocked and ridiculed to the point where no one else would want to come forward to back them up. Eh, but of course, he could be completely innocent - who knows? Though it really wouldn't surprise me if he were guilty. But the point is, there are plenty of reasons this is only coming out now, or that people are only taking it seriously now.

Ooh, ooh, I know this one, pick me, pick me! I know exactly what your problem is with the video. It's in the bottom right corner. The scale of CO2 goes from 377 to 395 ppmv. In other words, there's actually very little difference between the low end of the spectrum and the high end. Although that in itself can be somewhat misleading. While the difference between the low and the high may seem very small, you also have to keep in mind that really when you scale it up to the scale of the planet, what may seem like very small changes can have very large impacts. Overall, our minds just aren't well-equipped to even process numbers on that kind of scale. Either way, it's hard to bring it down to something relatable.

I can't say I really do anything that stands out. Turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole... Actually I guess the green bean casserole itself is at least somewhat unique, in that I know a lot of people don't do it. Oh, and regarding stuffing, I like to add a bunch of vegetables and bake it, when usually all I ever see is people doing it on the stovetop (and I don't think anyone actually cooks the stuffing in the turkey anymore, because of concerns over food poisoning).

You know, the NES is a hardy little machine. The problem, as I understand it, is mostly due to the spring-loaded mechanism that sometimes interferes with the games connecting correctly. That and dust and whatnot getting on the leads. But I will say, even given their age, I've never had an NES outright fail on me - or any games, for that matter. It may take a little fiddling with the system, cleaning the leads, or whatever, but I've never had a game just not work altogether.

I love collecting old games, but I'm kinda pragmatic about it, in that I collect them so I can play them. It's conceivable I might pick up a game for a console I don't currently own, but that's only going to lead me to later set out to acquire said console. Right now, though, I'm kinda focused on rebuilding my NES collection, so I tend to ignore old games unless they're NES... though I mean, if I happened to see something for another console at a Goodwill, I might consider it, but then again, the Goodwills around here are total crap and never have anything interesting. But yeah, like I said, I collect the games to actually play them - downside is it means I'm okay with adding games to my collection even if they're not in perfect condition (got a couple with scratched labels and whatnot). But hey, I just beat Double Dragon II on medium today, so that's pretty sweet (even if technically speaking, it doesn't really count because you can't even get to the final boss unless you play on hard).

If Atari owns the IP, I don't understand why they wouldn't want to exploit it by releasing the source code - they're selling it on Steam and GOG, I'd think releasing the source code to allow a modern port to be created would be a great way to bolster sales. I mean yeah, it's not a direct thing, but I just can't see any way releasing the source code wouldn't lead people to be like, "Hey, someone's working on a modern port of Blood, maybe I should check it out!"

There's nothing wrong with a Fall holiday. I'm not ignoring the slaughter of Native Americans, I'm saying let's have a holiday separated from that. What's wrong with that?

I have reconciled my views on Thanksgiving with the historical revisionism etc. Just observe it as a thing on its own right, without acknowledging or celebrated its historical roots. I guess that's a little historical revisionism of my own, but it's not like I'm lying or denying what happened. Just saying that I do believe a fall feast/festival is appropriate, and this time slot is already allotted. Maybe take some time out to remember where it originally came from, because the atrocities shouldn't be forgotten, but I think it's better to reclaim the holiday rather than abolish it altogether. Heck, and to be fair, many of the holidays we celebrate represent some horrible things like the re-appropriation of other cultures. Take Halloween, or Easter, or Christmas - all of them represent some form of hijacking of other holidays by Christians in an effort to convert the heathens (or you can go with the softer take and say that other cultural customs were simply gradually absorbed into Christianity, but either way, those holidays have origins going back way before the Christians ever got involved).

One of the problems I've seen with the American school system is simply the fact that it's compulsory. Meaning, a lot of kids who don't want to be there or have issues with schooling are still expected to continue their education, even when that's the last thing they want or need. My understanding is that in other places, if you're clearly not cut out for education, you go off to a technical school or something rather than completing a traditional high school education. I certainly think we need something like that here in the US. I mean first off, because you're forcing so many students to be there who aren't even interested in an education, you've got behavioral problems up the wazoo. And of course it appears that our schools are failing when they're full of students who have neither the interest nor the skills to really succeed there. I'm not saying they're failures, but they may have schools better suited to a technical trade, rather than having them study advanced English or math. Yet we have this ass-backwards system where they're not cut out for those classes, and yet the schools are held accountable when those students fail to live up to unrealistic expectations. And what's more, those behavioral problems disrupt the learning process for students who are actually successful - to say nothing of the drain on resources dealing with those problem students. I've worked several years as a teaching assistant, and while I've occasionally run into a bad teacher, 9 times out of 10, or even more, if there's a problem, it's a problem with the students, not that they're not being taught properly or what have you. It's not like "Oh, the teacher just didn't bother teaching algebra, or the Civil War, or whatever," it's that the students failing that stuff aren't cut out for those classes, and there's nothing teachers can really do about that.

Kratt's Creatures was a little beyond my time, as I was in my teens when it came out, but I recall it being a darn good kid's show. Being the oldest of 8, of course I was exposed to kid's shows whether I sought them out or not. Though when it turned into Zoboomafoo, it kinda went downhill in my opinion. That said, I honestly had figured the lemur must've died a long time ago. I didn't even realize it had still been alive when I found out it had died, if that makes any sense. Still though, gonna miss that lemur (not the puppet, though, never liked the puppet).