tnguy

  I haven't seen the voyage to comment. To my mind, the paperwhite is perfectly adequate but I'm sure there are those who notice (or claim to) the difference. I was actually pretty comfortable with the screen on the original Kindle. More contrast is always better (the paperwhite kinda cheats with that) and a plain white background would be nice (then again, the paper on some of the paperbacks I read has often been a bit less than ideal to say the least). The real big next step in my opinion would be color e-ink but given that we haven't seen anything from that so far, I'm guessing that it's "difficult".

Phased plasma rifle in the 40W range. More seriously, a Walther P99 AS in .40S&W as I really miss the one I had stolen. Waiting for a used one to pop up for the right price though.

  These people are wrong.   Getting a tablet in addition to might be reasonable but personally, I'm very meh on tablets.   Used or refurbished is definitely an option. I bought my first couple of kindles used. They were gen 1 and were not much less than the paperwhite is going new for. If you aren't totally hanging out for the features of the paperwhite, older models can be had from ebay for very reasonable prices. Personally, the paperwhite is great for me cause my wife was always complaining about me having the light on to read.   Fonts are totally resizeable. If you scroll back through this thread, somebody posted pictures. The characters can get really big. There are also some other features which are fairly nice if you use them such as word lookup and highlights. I don't use either much but it is sometimes interesting to see when a certain piece of text has been highlighted by a lot of people. The experimental browser can be nice to have once in a while. And it's nice when travelling not to have to bother picking out books to take or go to the effort of getting one beforehand. Also, Kindle Reader is available for PC and smartphones so you can move your reading around if you want to.     Edit: OK, it wasn't this thread but there's another one out there.

Meh, it's just a way to communicate with the businesses. I may not like MDA but they have every right to do what they're doing. It's private businesses as you say. The problem is when all the businesses hear from are groups like MDA. The squeaky wheel gets the grease so we have to make sure we squeak as well.   If people really want cards like these, it wouldn't be a whole lot of work to get some made up. I wouldn't worry about copyright as IMO, the cards could do with a bit of tidying up anyway. Vistaprint has 500 for under $50 including a b/w rear print.

It *is* a great looking rail. Makes me tempted to do some more spending.

  Hah, not likely. You just know the baby is going to be the whole solution to the zombie problem, right?

I couldn't figure out if it was "rotters" or "rioters" at first.

  BLOOD   IN THE   STREETS!!!!   (Gah, Mike beat me to it).

I think it's been stated that in the Walking Dead universe, there are no zombie references in the culture. No movies, books and possibly no voodoo version either. So really nothing to reference to that would mean that they'd use that word.   As to why that choice was made, that's another discussion.   It might be an interesting discussion what people think *their* group would refer to them as if they were in that situation. "Walmart shoppers" perhaps?

The good news (according to what I heard) is that they're taking the chickens so young these days that splintering is not really an issue. With that said, I wouldn't give them to my dog and you probably need to get it sorted in any case. I'd probably just talk directly to the neighbors with a "I'm not sure where they're coming from" and throw in some "I though maybe someone was just trying to be nice but didn't realize the risks". More than likely it's a kid doing it anyway. Might also be worth mentioning that he's a rescue dog and it interferes with his training (even if that means stretching the truth a little). This all depends on the neighbor in question giving a damn, of course.

It seemed like there was some intimation that Beth had been being raped too but in a "let's not look at this too closely" kind-of way.

Yes, that's certainly the way to rescue someone, perform a futile gesture in the middle of a bunch of jumpy and highly armed people. Certainly biding your time and coming back later with a plan would be too much like work. That's the Twitter generation I guess.

  Yeah, but this is supposed to be a story so it's supposed to have a narrative. I get the feeling that there was supposed to be more that I was supposed to have picked up on but that they had (in my opinion) failed to express clearly. "Now I get it"? Well, I certainly don't.   I'm willing to accept it's just me but I'm usually good at this kind of thing. That's what I'm saying.

It didn't make much sense to me. Not that I'm attached to the character or anything, it just seemed random.

Offer 1.3 an acre and tell him to think about it maybe since that is what *you* think it is worth. If you have the money ready and he is a motivated buyer, you might be able to make a deal. If not, move on or raise your bid. Sounds to me like closer to 2k is where a deal could be made though.

We use Amazon's AWS and have had trouble obtaining new instances for what we do from time to time. Seems to be worse this time of year (probably for what should be obvious reasons). Anyone relying on just one cloud service is taking a gamble IMO.

You can buy a big box of them for next to nothing at home improvement stores. I got turned on to the damage that could be caused by motorcycle riding back when I started riding again so I put a bunch of pairs into individual zip-lock bags and always try to keep some around. They come in handy for other things surprisingly often. I prefer muffs for shooting though. Make sure you learn how to insert them properly also if you don't already know. Many people just stuff them in and that doesn't provide full protection.

Group buy? :D

Yeah, when the employer mandate kicks in, it won't be pretty.

I think the not-so-secret secret is that the ones who will most benefit have already signed up and the ones who are supposed to pay for it have not.

Exactly. That's really all that needs to be known (other than if there is some authentic claim of malfeasance by the court. Which there isn't)   Yes. And many of those who don't will drag you along into a train wreck of an argument with their woolly thinking. An example I saw on facebook was one person saying they were angry that there was no indictment. Someone more sensible states "facts on the ground" then another person chimes in with a list of things that probably *were* white on black bad shoots. They will try and maneuver you into defending something you're not claiming because they do not have a good case for the discussion at hand. Wilson is not up before the courts for the history of white on black oppression, he was there for a fairly straightforward case of justified (or not) self defense. End of story. The race or criminal record of the alleged attacker is irrelevant in the extreme. I wouldn't care if it was Mr Rogers* against Wilson that day, if the facts are what they appear to be (and I readily confess that I don't know for sure. That is what a grand jury if for), then the shoot would appear justified. I guess an interesting aside is that those I've seen upset at the verdict have all been white. The few black friends I have have all been basically supportive of the verdict. No doubt because they have genuinely had to struggle against the racism out there and have been successful in their lives by doing the right things. People like Brown and the Ferguson rioters (not protesters) just make it harder for them. (*If he were 6'4 and 290 lbs for sure but maybe even still)

But it's a good excuse not to eat cake. I'm not saying there's not some great cake out there but most of it is really not that good.

  Yeah, It's been spoiled for me too now, little germ breeders that kids are.   I'll eat almost anything. Not a big fan of soft organs or black pudding but will eat a steak & kidney pie (though there seem to be better alternatives more often now).

  Historic cases, Brown's criminal record, all red herrings. What's important are the facts on the ground: Was Brown behaving in a way that justified Wilson shooting in self defense? As soon as you go off on that other shit, you have the left-wingers pulling "So it's OK to shoot someone just because they had a record?" shit. And they're right and you fell for their trap.

The ads aren't too bad. Some of the early ones were supposed to offer some really good deals but I think that was more just to sweeten the pot. Found out they were doing the fire phone unlocked for 199 from one so that's what the wife is getting for Christmas.