@SpudDude: Dude, are you serious, you're complaining about US air travel protocols and you want the Israelis to take over? Israel is completely different. Your own article acknowledges that the Israelis conduct a roadside check a few roads out from the airport to begin with where they check every vehicle for signs of suspicious behavior. Israel also severly restricts the rights of Palestinians to move based on ethnic background/geography in what IMO amounts to pure racism. Also you should look into people who criticize the Israeli airport security too, because if you're Israeli/Jewish/travelling with a big tour group you get a pretty swift treatment. If you are not Israeli/Jewish/Part of a tour you get a considerably different experience. If you travel to Israel as a foreigner alone, and especially if you're Muslim it's a totally different experience. 3 to 4 hour waits to work through multiple levels of security electronics being wiped for bomb residue at multiple points in the Airport. Loudspeakers that announce that small explosions and gunfire are normal because the Israeli Security Forces have to destroy devices they find suspicious.
Secondly Israel is a totally different situation. Israel has 48 airports. USA has 15,079. You'd need 293 times more airport security, and the reality is that the Israeli's aren't any more secure than we are, in 2002 a guy snuck a gun onto a plane. It turned out to be accidental, but it could have turned into a hijacking. Point being that I'm willing to guess if you looked at overall numbers the Israelis are probably right along close to the average number of incidents of all countries per flight. But essentially their main method for keeping the airport safe is to racially restrict access to large numbers of people as a whole so that those people can't even get out of their cities and into cities with airports. It's great because it keeps the airport safe but it means thousands of Palestinians irreparably harmed every day. Anyone arguing that we should be more like Israel cannot be taken seriously.
Lastly, I'd like to point out that you didn't actually counter my point at all that as the number of security measures have gone up the number of hijackings has gone down. Before metal detectors you could bring on a handgun and there would be good odds that you could hijack a plane. Then came metal detectors, and terrorists, etc. had to start doing things with nonmetal explosives. Then came bomb sniffing dogs and terrorists had to resort to box cutters. Now with scanners and patdowns security is more of a pain in the ass but we don't see the same number of incidents that we did before we put in all those other measures do we.
Secondly Israel is a totally different situation. Israel has 48 airports. USA has 15,079. You'd need 293 times more airport security, and the reality is that the Israeli's aren't any more secure than we are, in 2002 a guy snuck a gun onto a plane. It turned out to be accidental, but it could have turned into a hijacking. Point being that I'm willing to guess if you looked at overall numbers the Israelis are probably right along close to the average number of incidents of all countries per flight. But essentially their main method for keeping the airport safe is to racially restrict access to large numbers of people as a whole so that those people can't even get out of their cities and into cities with airports. It's great because it keeps the airport safe but it means thousands of Palestinians irreparably harmed every day. Anyone arguing that we should be more like Israel cannot be taken seriously.
Lastly, I'd like to point out that you didn't actually counter my point at all that as the number of security measures have gone up the number of hijackings has gone down. Before metal detectors you could bring on a handgun and there would be good odds that you could hijack a plane. Then came metal detectors, and terrorists, etc. had to start doing things with nonmetal explosives. Then came bomb sniffing dogs and terrorists had to resort to box cutters. Now with scanners and patdowns security is more of a pain in the ass but we don't see the same number of incidents that we did before we put in all those other measures do we.
@SpudDude: These systems have definitely worked already.
We need these devices because people will think of ways to beat the old devices. Like the other day as I was reading about that guy that got "groped" by TSA, and at one point he said that he told TSA repeatedly that he would consent to going through a metal detector but not a scanner. Well I ask you, if that guy had been a terrorist what good would that approach do? Looking around my room I can find about 7 different items I could fashion into a useable killing weapon in under 10 minutes, none of which would be detectable by a metal detector. And that guy wants a National Opt Out day where it's legal to opt out of airport security to make travel times faster?!? And to do it during the busiest travel time? I'm sorry but is that guy a lobbyist for all the nutjobs that want to kill as many people as possible? Look at Wikipedia's list of notable hijackings we have less and less per decade. The technology works even if it only makes terrorists think of more difficult to detect methods of destruction because in the process it also catches people who are just crazy or terrorists that are stupid.
It's not all about terrorism folks. It's also about the crazies, and the people with grudges, the suicidal, the homocidal, the psychotic.
I mean, why bother having airport security at all if you're going to allow people to opt out of scans and patdowns? The fact that it's nearly impossible to bring a gun on board a plane because of metal detectors has significantly cut down on hijacking incidents. Since all the rest pretty much involve some sort of blade weapon the mm-wave machines pretty much take care of those. It's virtually impossible to sneak weapons on planes. The fact that people know that alone has curbed probably dozens of incidents comparing to say the 1970s when air travel protocols weren't as stringent.
We need these devices because people will think of ways to beat the old devices. Like the other day as I was reading about that guy that got "groped" by TSA, and at one point he said that he told TSA repeatedly that he would consent to going through a metal detector but not a scanner. Well I ask you, if that guy had been a terrorist what good would that approach do? Looking around my room I can find about 7 different items I could fashion into a useable killing weapon in under 10 minutes, none of which would be detectable by a metal detector. And that guy wants a National Opt Out day where it's legal to opt out of airport security to make travel times faster?!? And to do it during the busiest travel time? I'm sorry but is that guy a lobbyist for all the nutjobs that want to kill as many people as possible? Look at Wikipedia's list of notable hijackings we have less and less per decade. The technology works even if it only makes terrorists think of more difficult to detect methods of destruction because in the process it also catches people who are just crazy or terrorists that are stupid.
It's not all about terrorism folks. It's also about the crazies, and the people with grudges, the suicidal, the homocidal, the psychotic.
I mean, why bother having airport security at all if you're going to allow people to opt out of scans and patdowns? The fact that it's nearly impossible to bring a gun on board a plane because of metal detectors has significantly cut down on hijacking incidents. Since all the rest pretty much involve some sort of blade weapon the mm-wave machines pretty much take care of those. It's virtually impossible to sneak weapons on planes. The fact that people know that alone has curbed probably dozens of incidents comparing to say the 1970s when air travel protocols weren't as stringent.
@Elhigh: True, true. I used poor word choice I should have said freedom of movement, that's what I meant when I said travel, but you're dead right the means of conveyance are by no means something a person has an inherent right to use and I'm aware of that.
Sorry buddy, but I've got NO sympathy for this guy. If you get a commercial flight you have to go through security screenings like everyone else.
The bottomline is you have a right to travel in this country but you don't have a right to fly. If an airline or airport forces you to a backscatter x-ray machine you have to go through it to fly.
I mean what good is only going through a metal detector. I can buy a fully ceramic butcher knife with an 8" blade at my grocery store.
I hate the intrusion on my liberty that's why I only fly to things that are completely unavoidable like funerals.
Think of it this way, wouldn't it be a HUGE security breach to allow only 1 passenger to skip the x-ray machines and what not, just because the person threatened to sue? This is a person who has told the TSA agent that they specifically chose to fly out of said airport because it only had metal detectors. To me that's a red flag, because you could sneak on thousands of non-metal but dangerous weapons. Ceramic knives, jars of poison, snakes on a plane. So as traumatic as having to deal with TSA can be I'd say the safety outweighs the personal dignity argument.
The bottomline is you have a right to travel in this country but you don't have a right to fly. If an airline or airport forces you to a backscatter x-ray machine you have to go through it to fly.
I mean what good is only going through a metal detector. I can buy a fully ceramic butcher knife with an 8" blade at my grocery store.
I hate the intrusion on my liberty that's why I only fly to things that are completely unavoidable like funerals.
Think of it this way, wouldn't it be a HUGE security breach to allow only 1 passenger to skip the x-ray machines and what not, just because the person threatened to sue? This is a person who has told the TSA agent that they specifically chose to fly out of said airport because it only had metal detectors. To me that's a red flag, because you could sneak on thousands of non-metal but dangerous weapons. Ceramic knives, jars of poison, snakes on a plane. So as traumatic as having to deal with TSA can be I'd say the safety outweighs the personal dignity argument.
This guy I knew in college was the all time worst. He was my friend Jason's roommate. This guy was weird. No ONE in the dorm liked this kid. When The absolute worst thing about living with this guy is that his step dad tried to give Jason and I $100 each to get his son laid with some street whore. Talk about akward. Conversation was literally:
Me: High nice to meet you, my name is Dan.
Ed: High Dan, I'm Ed, Steve's dad. And I've got a proposition for you, I'll give you $100 cash if you can get my stepson a hooker and prove he's not gay.
Needless to say after meeting his stepdad I had a bit more sympathy for the guy. But this guy tried to stab me with a plastic fork once because I asked if he had the $10 bucks I lent him, and he felt like I shouldn't have even lent it if I was going to need it in 2 weeks. This guy was so weird that one evening out of the blue when everyone was sharing stories of their sexual exploits this guy proceeds to tell us all the very graphic story of how he masturbated all over his grandmothers fur coat at a family reunion in a closet with his whole extended family right out side. And it turned him on thinking that he was violating his grandmother in a way because he thought she was a bitch. Definitely the worst roommate I've ever seen. Neat guy, quite and kept to himself, but between his random outbursts and odd sexual fixations no doubt brought about by his clearly caring step father he was the worst I've seen.
I would contend it was worse than the murderous gnomes story only because my friend Jason and I still wait for the day when we see a newscast about his being a serial killer. When I talk to people who knew him that's how some of them will describe him. "That serial killer kind of guy". Also as an odd aside he once went on a "cheese diet" where every seventh day was "cheese day" and he could eat all the cheese he wanted and could get his hands on. Very weird fellow.
Apologies for being long, I could go on an on about this guy, cause literally everything he did was strange, even looked like Grimace. Like he'd play sports video games where he'd start a 2 player game and then have one team score every play, because he wanted to get his created character "Frank Assbasher" (True name) as many points as possible. As I said I could go on and on...
Me: High nice to meet you, my name is Dan.
Ed: High Dan, I'm Ed, Steve's dad. And I've got a proposition for you, I'll give you $100 cash if you can get my stepson a hooker and prove he's not gay.
Needless to say after meeting his stepdad I had a bit more sympathy for the guy. But this guy tried to stab me with a plastic fork once because I asked if he had the $10 bucks I lent him, and he felt like I shouldn't have even lent it if I was going to need it in 2 weeks. This guy was so weird that one evening out of the blue when everyone was sharing stories of their sexual exploits this guy proceeds to tell us all the very graphic story of how he masturbated all over his grandmothers fur coat at a family reunion in a closet with his whole extended family right out side. And it turned him on thinking that he was violating his grandmother in a way because he thought she was a bitch. Definitely the worst roommate I've ever seen. Neat guy, quite and kept to himself, but between his random outbursts and odd sexual fixations no doubt brought about by his clearly caring step father he was the worst I've seen.
I would contend it was worse than the murderous gnomes story only because my friend Jason and I still wait for the day when we see a newscast about his being a serial killer. When I talk to people who knew him that's how some of them will describe him. "That serial killer kind of guy". Also as an odd aside he once went on a "cheese diet" where every seventh day was "cheese day" and he could eat all the cheese he wanted and could get his hands on. Very weird fellow.
Apologies for being long, I could go on an on about this guy, cause literally everything he did was strange, even looked like Grimace. Like he'd play sports video games where he'd start a 2 player game and then have one team score every play, because he wanted to get his created character "Frank Assbasher" (True name) as many points as possible. As I said I could go on and on...
To confess I'm usually the one doing this to my neighbors.
I have done work plenty of times as an audio engineer and I've listened to the same song on repeat more than a 100 times in a row before, I'm sure of it. I try to keep the volume reasonable and other than my roommates no one has been bothered by my audio except this one girl I used to live next to. She got all bent out of shape one night because I was "too loud" only thing was that I knew I wasn't. I had an acoustic guitar and a casio keyboard my friend was playing, and we knew it wasn't that loud because my microphone wasn't even picking up the keyboard, so imagine my shock when she started banging on the wall at 6pm. I figured surely she's hanging a poster, keep playing, 5 minutes later banging, much louder and more emphatic pauses between bangs, and now I know she's trying to tell me the music is too loud. The problem with that is that my friend and I were really trying to make a recording, so we pressed on, moving to the otherside of the room away from the common wall. About 5 minutes later there's a knock on my door, she's all pissed cause she's gotta work a night shift in a few hours and I woke her up early. I point out to her that the only reason I am playing at that hour is because normally everyone else is sleeping later and since she's the only one trying to sleep right now it sucks to be her, because after all I'm only playing an acoustic guitar and a keyboard without any additional amplification, and I'm trying to keep it quiet. She tells me I have to play quieter or she's going to call the cops on a noise complain. I tell her to fuck off and that when we watch TV it's usually louder than we are on guitar and keys. She tells me, and this is the best part, that she "hates" music because everyone in Austin (where I live) plays music and she can't stand it, and her ex was a musician and she thinks we're all dogshit. I tell her to enjoy the tunes and have a great day of work, and that if she wants to call the cops on us my friend and I are more than willing to play again for them so that they can decide if we're too loud. She stormed off in a bitch-fit and that was the last time we dealt with anything like that.
Moral: Just because someone complains about someone else's music doesn't mean that person played it too loud or they are an asshole. There are equally good odds that the person who posted the letter is an insane shit-bat.
I have done work plenty of times as an audio engineer and I've listened to the same song on repeat more than a 100 times in a row before, I'm sure of it. I try to keep the volume reasonable and other than my roommates no one has been bothered by my audio except this one girl I used to live next to. She got all bent out of shape one night because I was "too loud" only thing was that I knew I wasn't. I had an acoustic guitar and a casio keyboard my friend was playing, and we knew it wasn't that loud because my microphone wasn't even picking up the keyboard, so imagine my shock when she started banging on the wall at 6pm. I figured surely she's hanging a poster, keep playing, 5 minutes later banging, much louder and more emphatic pauses between bangs, and now I know she's trying to tell me the music is too loud. The problem with that is that my friend and I were really trying to make a recording, so we pressed on, moving to the otherside of the room away from the common wall. About 5 minutes later there's a knock on my door, she's all pissed cause she's gotta work a night shift in a few hours and I woke her up early. I point out to her that the only reason I am playing at that hour is because normally everyone else is sleeping later and since she's the only one trying to sleep right now it sucks to be her, because after all I'm only playing an acoustic guitar and a keyboard without any additional amplification, and I'm trying to keep it quiet. She tells me I have to play quieter or she's going to call the cops on a noise complain. I tell her to fuck off and that when we watch TV it's usually louder than we are on guitar and keys. She tells me, and this is the best part, that she "hates" music because everyone in Austin (where I live) plays music and she can't stand it, and her ex was a musician and she thinks we're all dogshit. I tell her to enjoy the tunes and have a great day of work, and that if she wants to call the cops on us my friend and I are more than willing to play again for them so that they can decide if we're too loud. She stormed off in a bitch-fit and that was the last time we dealt with anything like that.
Moral: Just because someone complains about someone else's music doesn't mean that person played it too loud or they are an asshole. There are equally good odds that the person who posted the letter is an insane shit-bat.
1. Give me a break, it's so loud... but you can't tell where it's coming from?!? How does that make any kind of sense whatsoever.
2. It's playing at midday, that should theoretically be the best time to play loud annoying music.
3. People who post letters like this are faggots. Not gay, but faggots in the true pre-gay sense, of a person you could use as firewood and that it wouldn't make a lick of difference. If the music was really that loud this person would have known where it was coming from (sound waves in the midrange frequencies and higher are increasingly directional and therefore easy to pinpoint, bass is harder). This is a person who wrote a note rather than have a confrontation. And since the person they were choosing not to confront is a Katy Perry fan I've got to think that they aren't all that intimidating.
2. It's playing at midday, that should theoretically be the best time to play loud annoying music.
3. People who post letters like this are faggots. Not gay, but faggots in the true pre-gay sense, of a person you could use as firewood and that it wouldn't make a lick of difference. If the music was really that loud this person would have known where it was coming from (sound waves in the midrange frequencies and higher are increasingly directional and therefore easy to pinpoint, bass is harder). This is a person who wrote a note rather than have a confrontation. And since the person they were choosing not to confront is a Katy Perry fan I've got to think that they aren't all that intimidating.
@willyt9: Actually if the dude wears a GLAAD sticker the refs should tell them to take it off cause that would be a uniform violation ;)
@nauticalland: So am I reading right that you don't think that Shakespeare is an artist, because he was interested in entertainment? There are two types of artists, IMO, those that create art for others (Shakespeare) and those that do it as some sort of catharsis for themselves like GB Shaw.
And it's not that I crave it as a gamer. It's just what makes logical sense. If books, and paintings, and movies, and tv shows, and even advertising can be considered different forms of art there is no valid reason not to consider video games as art.
To me what makes something art is whether the person making it considers it to be art. If I schlock together some level in a game I'm working on and I'm just throwing something out there then it's probably not art, but if I'm investing time and consider it art when I'm creating it then I think it's got to be considered art. my two cents
@fearing: I don't know if you can say that. Without getting to esoteric (and playing Devil's advocate) if there is a divine creator couldn't it be considered that trees ARE works of art?
@Daniel Taylor: I thought about this before, but take for example a musical band. Do you consider that the band makes art or that each individual band member makes their own individual piece of art within the music? And that the song isn't art but each voice is? Similarly if you consider movies art isn't that really just a combination of different artistic endeavors? And while it's true that you can appreciate different contributions in a video game can't you appreciate it if it all goes together nicely as it's own artistic vessel? For example I would say IMO GTA IV is more artistic than say PONG, even though I enjoy both because GTA IV condenses many forms of art into a cohesive presentation which is an art in and of itself.
Dude that guy totally blocked the other kid intentionally on the game winning point! What BS!I'd have hit him with my racket if he illegally blocked me and then yelled at me like he was the shit, seriously.
Okay, am I the only person who thinks we've gotten completely stupid lately. The reason that people bite down on GOLD medals is because you should be able to see your teeth marks on the soft gold. Biting into a SILVER medal, a metal not as maleable as gold that doesn't show teeth marks serves absolutely no purpose except to highlight how stupid the photographers were for requesting it and how dumb he was for doing it... and also keeping his dentist employed.
Okay so he got kicked out and then got a moment to coach the kids after that?!? Does anyone see the logical conundrum there? Does this school district normally allow male teachers to assault female athletes?
@BStu: Very valid points. However, does not the exclusivity clause MLBPA has with EA (et al.) impinge on the Non-union players fundamental right to capitalize on the branding of their own name and likeness?
As a matter of logic the players should be denied union representation instead of being denied the opportunity to earn income from their likeness. They should be free to negotiate side offers with EA, etc. Limiting their right to earn money with a third party is criminal. I'm not even sure if it's legal for them to be barred from baseball's only labor union! But MLBPA can't possibly through contracts or intimidation prevent these guys from earning income from the game.
@TotallyRuckedUp: You forgot the yelling. And the McPoyle's.
@TotallyRuckedUp: I know what you mean, I'm in Austin, and it was like 31 degrees at my house this morning. Which I know, cause I used to live for a while in Canada, that doesn't sound cold. But when your wardrobe consists of Hawaiian Shirts and basketball shorts, and when you went to bed the night before it was 64 it's cold. So I thought it played well even here. And of course having a chick on Deadspin gives us all a good reason to thaw our balls.
@Troy McClure: You have one? Cause I felt like mine was definetely hot, although I was stumbling around pretty good. Also they don't really make those for dudes in the 6'3" 265 lbs. range. But the biggest crippling problem is there is no mouth hole, which is a major impediment to quaffing alcki-hol, so I'm probably never going to wear it again. Beer needs access to my mouth 24/7/365. Which is why you only want to bring out the Green Man when you're tripping acid. They also feel breathable because you've pretty much got to get into them naked or nearly so, three piece suits and greenman costumes do not go well together.
@kung fu lola: So your friend stumbled upon child porn after INTENTIONALLY looking it up for grins. Care to explain the logic to the rest of us.
@Botswana Meat Commission FC: Let's face it had he not been Pete Townshend he'd have done time for buying access to a child porn site with a CC. If he wasn't uber-famous he'd be in jail for that. And I don't care that police dismissed the charges against him because he wasn't found to have pics on his hard drive. He admitted to having accessed child porn in violation of the law. You could be trying to cure cancer, but you can't make crack to do it. To act like there was no evidence because nothing was permanently saved to his hard drive is ridiculous.
Okay lemme explain. Tires, like boobs are round. I'd say the calendar works. Also, all of these get me thinking of grip.
