Randox

I think we are on the same page now (or at least in the same book). I thought you were opposed to regulation, not just in favor of a different method. Cartels are inherently unstable, but that doesn't meant can't work for significant amounts of time if the conditions are right. Leverage is probably the most sure way to keep them in line (blackmail), but logic will work as well. For as long as the long term loss of breaking the cartel is greater than the short term gain, the motivation is to abide the cartel. Most of them will last for several years (average is someplace north of 5), which is longer than anyone really wants to put up with them. Also, once a cartel is broken and everyone uses the dominated strategy, there is motivation to reform the cartel as it will allow everyone to make more money, so it is not unheard of for a cartel to reform some time after breaking.

If you really study the cold war, there was more than one case where people actually did give the order to launch nuclear ordanence, or authorized other people to do so. There was an american spy plane that got lost over Russia, and was escorted back by american fighters armed with nuclear missiles who had full authorization to use them at their discretion. Their was a Russian submarine that almost launched nuclear missiles from near Cuba (something about the american blockade finding them I think), but they required a unanimous decision from the top 3 officers, and the second in command refused. If you subscribe to the theory where timelines split off at every deicsion, covering each possibility, than I suspect that in most timelines, the Cold War probably did become world war 3. We are unbelieveably lucky that the right things happened, and the right people made the right calls, because nuclear war almost happened oh so many times. Oh, and that one time where a simulated Russian attack was mistaken for an actual Russian nuclear first strike, and for some reason someone delayed a very real retaliatory strike long enough to find out that it was a simulation, and not an actual strike. I expect everyone needed a fresh pair of pants that day. So yes, it's a very large deterent, but all you need is the right mistake, or circumstance, to cause enough panic for someone to hit the launch button and it's all over.

Insurance safety. Most places, especially hospitality and industry wont take on work experience people because of insurance scams and are afraid these days of people scamming money out of their stores/companies. I've even offered to write a legal documentation stating any injury caused to myself by myself whilst employed here is entirely mine to blame and excuse this industry from any insurance claim. But they'll still say no. It's probably a limitation on rights you can sign away. Even if you sign a contract that says you are not entitled to workers compensation and everything is your fault, if you get hurt, you can still sue them for compensation and say it's their fault. It would probably be a safety to prevent a company from ever being able to coerce people into giving up that legal protection.

American Airlines was caught a while ago as the leader in a cartel scheme where the other airlines mutually and unoficcialy agreed to follow AA prices. AA would set prices, and the next day everyone else would match them. They didn't need the government to do that. And obviously there are different approaches, though I would point out that a property rights violation is still massive government intervention (all laws are by definition, government intervention). Regulatiion by proxy. Your not officially legislating the pollution, but you set it up so that you can still control people in a round about way by putting up barriers to do anything else.

I would think it is a situation of quality over quantity. Depending on the situation, it may be that the market is able to arrive at the best possible setup on its own, and other times you want intervention to keep it from doing things like forming cartels and monopolies, since both are bad for the consumer. You also have have externalities where costs carry over to one side or the other without being transmitted by price (air pollution, your neighbors really awesome garden), which are often handled with special taxes and subsidies to help correct production to where it should be, and eliminate or reduce the deadweight loss. On the other hand, any tax or subsidy in a perfect competition situation will instead create a deadweight loss. Subsidies tend to come up in the production of public goods (like vaccines, where there is a benefit to people who don't get them as well as the people who do). It is a common problem that public goods will be under produced because of the discrepency between private demand and societal demand. The benefit to society is greater than the cost for some ammount of production beyond what the producer would naturally operate at, because the private demand is lower than the societal demand. A subsidy is used to get them to produce more, and eliminate the dead weight loss (this will also raise the price, but it is still more efficient up to the equilibrium point for the societal demand curve). It's related to positive externalities, which is why you will also see subsidies in environmentally friendly alternative industries (green power). EDIT: A little add on. It would be typical to not see the increased price. Generally a subsidy would cover enough production costs to allow for incresed production at a slightly lower price, because you also want people to buy it. And vaccines are a more interesting case because you can (in some countries) make them mandatory, though you actually don't want everyone to get them for certain viruses (everyone getting the flu shot is a waste. You want the people who will recover the slowest covered, and enough people in general to prevent people from passing it around, which is probably more like 1 in 7).

Barrows armour has the same stats as Bandos though. I bought it quite a while back. Not particularly pleased about that change actually, seeing as I already have some barrows sets. But that was a chance I knew going in, that they would de-awesome it.

Well, I wouldn't get too hung up on the combat side of the game right now since it's going to have a total overhaul in 12 days. Unfortunately, I can't really give you a good run down of changes, since I can't remember what they are, but I can give you some reading to do on some of the stuff that I am pretty sure was added or significantly changed since you last played, in no particular order. Daily Challenges Daily-Weekly Activities Clan Citadels Festival of the Dead Solomons General Store Squeal of Fortune Botany Bay There is also the Evolution of Combat, which is a total overhaul of the combat system. You can read a bit about it here. There is some information there about abilities and effects and all that good stuff that is on its way.

I did my preparation a while back. Basically I bought bandos and called it a day, under the assumption that it would still be pretty awesome by beta. That was really about it. Past that, I figure I'll pick it up as I go along.

I'm not sure if the original trilogy will ever be replicated. That said, I think episode 3 at least is proof that George Lucas shouldn't be trying anymore. Disney makes good movies, so even if they can't replicate the feeling of the original trilogy, they can at least give us 3 more great movies, set in the star wars universe, and that's just as good as far as I'm concerned. Obviously final judgement held until I see what they do with it, but Disney is probably the best up for the job, judging by what they have done with the marvel comics.

I feel like I actually forgot to post... I am a bit uneasy with the timeline because, whether you like what you see in the beta or not, the EOC is objectively not yet finished. There are things in it that I sincerely hope are not working correctly, and I am not exactly confident that what will be released will be in full working order (I fully expect something will need to be patched within hours). After release, I fight in dungeons, for quests, and for my own enjoyment. I don't have any more combat goals past the next two range levels.

Agreed on the usage. The way most people use the word, it seems to rely on the premise that any girl will sleep with you if you follow some set of steps, and ignores that fact that you might never have had any potential to be a valid candidate with this person. The way I see it, to be considered friend zoned, you had to have had a shot to begin with, and then done something to remove yourself from the pool. I would not consider it to be the same thing as unrequited feelings, it is a bit more than that. I'll concede that there are game either gender can play that can increase your chances with certain types of people (everyone has buttons, but we don't all have the same ones), but you can't get everyone.

There is no clear cut regulation is good/bad. It is all about cost-benefit to society, and it is also a situational issue. Sometimes the best market setup occurs through co-operation, sometimes you need to levy a tax or give out a subsidy to prevent one side or the other from carrying the other sides costs (called an external benefit or external cost depending on who get's screwed). There is also such a thing as a cartel, with OPEC probably being the most famous, which is very illegal in Canada and the United States because of how unfair it is for the consumer (it prevents actual competition). As a general point, a recession is not prime time for paying off your debt. Everyone has less money, and the government costs are higher than normal (social insurance and health care costs go up). Add to that, your also actively at war, which costs mind boggling amounts of money both to pay for the war itself, and all the R&D that has been going on during the wars. Pulling your troops back and not being at war anymore is a great way help counter the debt, because it's piles of money that can be used to help. If the government had never done anything to help counter the economic collapse you were facing, it is possible that you might never have recovered. If things get bad enough, you create a feedback system where everyone just has less and less money. Your probably in a state now where you'll recover with or without help, though as I understand it, it's still very bad for a lot of people, and it could be that way for a lot longer, which means you risk creating life style of social insurance (where people get used to it, and grow up in that environment, and stop trying to do better, which is a lifestyle that can get passed on to your children). The lodge system is certainly interesting, though I am not seeing exactly how that would work. Assuming you still want hospitals to be a thing, this would actually be the epitome of public health care (I just want to make sure we all see the irony here), with the government collecting last years medical bill evenly from every person in the country, and using it to pay all the hospitals. This would make things mildly cheaper by removing all the health insurance companies, but that's about it. To lower the prices even more, you need to reverse the change from the original system, which will require massive amounts of regulation, because this way is more profitable. You have to force the hospitals to run at cost, and you have to pay the doctors less (this would seem to be where the savings from a lodge system actually come from, is lower doctors wages). Now remember that job security for doctors is awesome, because everyone needs them, and realize that everyone else would be paying them more than you. You also have to deal with the pharmaceutical companies, which have also changed dramatically. Anything that can be done to make their process cheaper can lower the price of their dugs, and you also need to stop them from lobbying docotrs so that doctors stop pushing medications people don't need. Also realize that because western doctors make so much, medical school is set up to cost about the same as a medium quality house, so you need to reconfigure the education system as well or you wont be able to create any new doctors.

I torched myself on my calculus midterm, which isn't exactly a new thing for me (I've never been good at calculus tests), though I do now have some serious motivation since I can't exactly pretend the exam will go better if I don't change something about how I prepare. My other midterms were all in the 80's though (80-89.4), which is certainly not something I will complain about, but not what I was looking for either. I find to really learn something, you need to apply the knowledge to help cement it in your mind, and also to allow you to make sure you understand things as well as you think. After that, you need to sleep on it before that knowledge really becomes part of you. I never study the day of an exam, and only ever light review the day before (a last browse through my notes or book to make sure I'm not forgetting things).

I was extremely surprised when I saw the price on those cosmetic item boxes. I never expected it to be so reasonable (and I never expected you would get the box back when I was assuming that). I no joke thought it would be 250 each, with no bulk discount. This might happen.

At least you didn't laugh (I'm assuming). I get like that when people tell me to eat more, except less dramatic (I laugh. Now.).

So in related news, since Cracked was right about that random stuff actually being able to predict the elections (apparently), I'd like to go ahead right now and say the Republicans are winning the next presidential election. Now the wait to see if it pans out again. Also, the joke about republicans getting off work would be a lot funnier if I didn't think you were sincere. I feel like a more appropriate emotion than happiness and sadness would be relief and dread. The people who voted for the president get can rest easy knowing that the person who best represents them is in office for another 4 years. The people who voted for anyone else on the other hand get to look forward to another 4 years of complaining to anyone who will listen about the president, and not having their chosen one calling the shots for them.

I wouldn't have mined a slight modification. Specifically it seems there is a chance of them instantly doubling back to their same spot (which is conveniently timed so that it will occur the moment you reflexively click). However, the new xp, with that nice new bowl, would seem to make it worth putting up with once a week. I still wouldn't mind a bit of a curve on xp at higher levels, but whatever. It works for me at least for now. Very happy to see this relevant to my life again. Also, Juna no longer looks like something I could flick off the ledge with my sword, and more like something a God might actually have chosen to guard something.

Trolls are people to be pittied. It's a way to get attention. At some point, any attention, good or bad, becomes better than apathy. If you can't get people to like you, at least you can make people remember you, and for many people infamy is better than being another in a faceless crowd. In the real world, society would eventually shun you as a whole for your 'look at me! look at me!' behavior But out here, where it is much more difficult (but not entirely impossible) for the protectors of society to take physical retribution, these people can finally think they mean something. People know who they are now, and that must mean that they themselves mean something. So I say again. These are the people who need our pity, because they are people who are wholly incapable of generating any level of self worth on their own. Like the class clown, they need other people to acknowledge and validate them. You actually get people like this in real life sometimes, though much less commonly, because trolling in real life does result in getting your ass kicked. This is that kid who is always trying to start a fight, but can never finish one. No one helps him, because no one likes him, and no one cares. For internet trolls, some of the blame rests on the shoulder's of pretty much everyone though. Anyone who has ever talked about a troll after they left, or welcomed a troll back, or responded to their trolling is making the word a little bit worse, because all of that behavior validates everything they have done. Just like a temper tantrum (the quintessential 'look at me' move), the best way to make it stop is apathy. Eventually they will try something constructive, at which point they should be welcomed back into the world.

I think that personal beliefs are a perfectly valid consideration for voting, and by extension religion can certainly come into play. You are attempting to elect the person who will best represent the interests of the largest portion of the country, and having someone with similar values would seem to be a good thing. By no means does every member of any religion or denomination have the same values, but many people do see it that way. I also prefer not to have any religious considerations in the same room where the laws are made as a point of general principle.

105$ is what a new ps3 game costs in norway, without any packs :( Yikes! Is it the same for computers, or just consoles (or that particular one).

A really really big DLC might be worth that much. I feel obligated to point out that this would bring the total pricetag of the game up to $105 if you buy everything. The way I see it, the only thing that would justify this kind of price tag would be massive world building. GTA IV already proved that you can add a ridiculous amount into an existing world for a lot less, which includes game mechanic additions.

Yeah, auto injectors for epinephrine are common in first aid courses. Mine works quite similar to those, except it requires a different type of target site.

I would be the lucky person who injects themselves :lol: I've gotten pretty used to it though. An auto injector isn't that bad (especially since it doesn't go into muscle tissue, which would kind of suck a lot).

Guys, American election. Save it for after the vote eh?

Well, it's nice to know that humans have managed major government reform at least once without a war. It's also encouraging that it was a republic that did it. I can't say I have had many chances to observe how democratic nations handle that sort of thing (doesn't seem to come up much). And history has never been my strong suit.