Emperor's lock of hair anyone?

Well I bought the game and played till 4.40 this morning. I can just about deal with the crafting to get all the other stuff.

Contrary to my expectations naming stars, planets and animals is rather fun; I found one ugly big misshapen beast on my home planet and named it Imperious Leader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f5t-xjKwjM

Thanks for answering Worsham.
Maine? Interesting. Would have been Massachusetts then. They did go far away (almost Canada, like Marc suggested).

@Flashman:

Return to Oz was seriously disturbing.

Oh my God… I forgot about that one. Yeah, I have some vague memories of seeing that at my aunt’s house late one night… made absolutely no sense to me. I just recall monkeys on unicycles.

@Jermofoot:

@frimmel:

Water is the third most important substance for human survival.

After internet porn and beer?

Wait…you need water for beer.

Beer is mostly water.  :-)

But based on the survival tips Rule of 3. You get thirty seconds if you’re bleeding, making blood number one. 3 minutes without air making it number two. 3 hours without shelter in a harsh environment no one thing counts as shelter and this is highly dependent on the environment. 3 days without water and depending on the environment that could shorten considerably making water the third most important substance.

I thought that “Quantum of Solace” was remarkably prescient in having the villains trying to control the water supply.

@ncscswitch:

@Jennifer:

Why were you stuck in the Army’s camp for misguided little boys so long, NCSC?

Well, originally I was there for Infantry Training for the PA National Guard (11C, my local guard unit was Combat Support, to had to learn to fire 4-deuces).  But, my knees that had been patched  back together after I tore them up at USAFA failed again…

But, rather than let a perfectly good former Academy puke go to waste, and since they were shorthanded in my Bat, they turned me into a Unit Supply NCO and Unit Armorer.  Went from Trainee to Trainer overnight.  Went from Barracks to BEQ.  And spent a year wearing a “Follow Me” patch instead of my “Bloddy Bucket” until my med board finally was processed.

Yep… it SUCKED!  But I loved it :-D

Ugh, yea the med-board process SUCKS for trainees!  They tried to make me go that route, I told em unless they could guarentee me a 30% or more disability they could shove it up their rosey red buttocks!  Then they tried to Chapter 5-1-2 me (medboard without a voluntary subject) and I called my congresswoman (who, since I’m in IL is a democrat) and she stopped that cold.

Now I’m assigned to the IL Nat’l Guard as in their IT dept.  But hey, at least I don’t have to move!

As for my AC being “broken” in Georgia, it was not Rune.  There just wasn’t an AC there!  Silly army…like we all want to camp or something…sheesh!

I think most of the backing came due to two facts:
(1) the USSR needed reforms, that was obvious.
Still, they probably wanted a long term leader that could be influenced => a younger one, after the two short reigns of Andropov and what-was-his-name… Probably, the influentials wanted some change, but surely not that much that it would threaten their power-base, one of the reasons for the coup that failed due to Jelzins help for Gorbachev.
(2) The general secretary and all the other positions he fills made him the most powerful man in the USSR. Probably, whoever put Gorbachev into place, underestimated him. Pretty much the same underestimation that Hitler faced when he was appointed Chancellor, but luckily Gorbachev used that to reform positively, and i consider the new freedom of information, the right to ask wether the party is right and that the crucial reform.

So, I don’t think that there was “real” backing, i believe Gorbachev was kind of a compromise candidate, kind of a makeshift. Of course, once he was into power, you ccouldn’t remove instantly, that would have meant that the party made a mistake (which was not “allowed” before Gorbachev). And he was clever enough to stay into power, and use his popularity at the beginning (which soon, after the economy started to collapse openly, was reduced to more or less nothing) to enforece the reforms.

Ok, I admit, your right on the arrogant superiority complex.

The 2003 will be of about the record size as it seems, and the predictions are quite reliable. So, the answer is “yes, it can fluctuate that much”.
Something that usually is used against environmentalists, as some (other) fluctuations are normal, then the effect could be “just fluctuations”. The other side of the medal is never heard (not even by environmentalists): the same fluctuations could be “favoring” us, and the real man-made effect is much worse….